Think the DVD set is bad with no extras and incorrect widescreen framing?

It gets worse.

In a stunning screw-up by a usually top-notch tech services department, the telecine department inadvertently 'corrected' all the filtered day-for-night photography.

So, any of the exterior scenes of Barnabas outside Vicki's window or wooing Daphne, or Daphne attacking David all take place DURING THE DAY in broad, sunny daylight!

I just got a copy of the first disc of the set this week from Netflix. The end of the first episode is rather maddening. There's Vicki, back in her room after dinner at the Old House, looking out on the grounds before she closes her window and goes to bed. She fails to see Barnabas standing right in her line of sight in the daylight. Then Barn goes off chasing Sarah through the woods, passing through direct rays of sunlight streaming down through the treetops.

I thought the screwed up aspect ratio would bother me, but this takes the cake.

I think the Shift key is for disabling her popup blocker.

My last message was worded poorly. In Firefox 1.5 (don't know about earlier versions), shift+left click is a shortcut to open a link in a new window. If you use that with the more smileys link, it doesn't work. You have to omit the shift key.

AOL's placeholder page for In2TV has been changed over the past week to indicate that the service will launch in "Early 2006" instead of January 2006. 

Her hair looks great!

On at least two separate occasions during recent Dark Shadows Festivals or Weekends (or whatever the term du jour was), David Selby commented on how beautiful Virginia Vestoff's hair was. From these screen grabs, I can see why. 

I liked Hawkes Harbour well enough, but it could have been much better. I wish I could read the version she wrote that would have been a Dark Shadows book.

I picked up a copy of Hawkes Harbor over the holidays at a local used bookstore and finally finished reading it last night. What Misa wrote here pretty much sums up what was going through my mind as I read it.

I would love to know how close this is to what she initially envisioned and to what extent she "revised" events from the original series to suit her own purposes before any tinkering had to take place to avoid any legal issues. Some of the changes were rather interesting.

[spoiler]The connection between Jason and Liz is a departure from what DS used from Art Wallace's The House. Though it's not as dramatic, I thought it worked.[/spoiler]

The book starts off pretty well, and I like the background we're given on the relationship between Jason and Willie, but the final chapters put characters in environments that are a bit far from what one would expect from the original series.

[spoiler]Barnabas and Willie on a cruise ship?[/spoiler]

The book seems to fall apart and become far less interesting once Barnabas and Willie are on their way toward some sort of "normal" life, and

[spoiler]I really wish she hadn't chosen to end the book with Willie's death and a heavenly reunion with Jason. I thought it was a bit cheesy. Something more open-ended probably wouldn't have been nearly as corny.[/spoiler]

Despite its flaws, though, I'm glad I read it. It's an interesting exercise in "what if?".

Some of this may have been mentioned in separate threads, so apologies for repeated information. I've updated my David Selby site to include the following:

• Information about the DVD release of the first season of Police Woman. David Selby appears as Nate Fesler in the episode "No Place to Hide." Screen captures are available on the site. (Lara Parker also appears in an episode in this collection.)
  
• Information about the first Region 1 (U.S./Canada) DVD release of Raise the Titanic, the 1980 film based on the Clive Cussler novel starring Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer, and Alec Guinness. Screen captures and production stills are available on the site.
• Information about the DVD release of the third season of The Waltons. David Selby appears as art teacher Joshua Williams in the episode "The Romance." A link to screen captures from this episode is included. (Kathy Cody appeared in the following week's episode.)
• A link to the official Spin web site. David Selby appears in this film as record company owner Rob Polan. Filming wrapped in December, and the final product should be ready by the spring. The site features images and a preliminary version of a trailer. David can be seen in both the images and the trailer.

All new material is accessible via the "What's New" page of the site:

http://www.ldrweb.com/davidselby

I've heard good things about gmail (via google).  I decided to set up an account myself this week, but discovered that you have to have a mobile phone in order to set up an account.  They will then send you some sort of code over the phone that you must use in order to get the gmail account.

Yes, that is one way to do it, but, if you know anyone with a Gmail account, they can email you an invitation to set up an account and you don't need a mobile phone. Each member gets something like 100 invitations they can send out.

If you PM me your current email address, I'd be happy to send you a Gmail invite. 

Clearly, radio theatre is not victoriawinters' cup of tea, but I thought it might be worthwhile to point out a couple of things.

Regarding the sound artist who participated in this summer's performance of Vengeance at Collinwood in Hollywood -- the Festival was very lucky to acquire Tony Palermo's services. His work is highly regarded in this field, and he has provided sound services for various groups including L.A. Theatre Works and the Pasadena Playhouse. He has also made it his mission to share what he knows about audio theatre via his own web site, which is located here. You may not like the way he looks as he performs, but Palermo is one of the best at what he does.

Regarding the cost of LATW tickets -- it's very true that they don't use the ticket money for sets or costumes or elaborate lighting. It is, after all, radio theatre. That's not what it's supposed to be about.

Back in the mid-80's, when LATW first began performing radio theatre, Robert Osborne reported on them for CBS This Morning. I've got the clip on video somewhere. In it, the actors clearly state that the purpose of forming the company was to allow them to experiment with material without the long rehearsal periods and other time commitments that would normally be required for a stage production. Sets, lighting, and costumes are simply not what they're about. Throw that into the mix, and you wouldn't see a lot of the actors who have full schedules with television and film commitments.

So where does the money go? LATW has always been very involved in outreach programs. They provide copies of a selection of their recordings for free to school libraries, and they provide the educational materials to accompany them -- lesson plans, classroom activities, etc. They also provide copies of their programs to public libraries in rural and underserved areas as well as to libraries with programs for the visually impaired. They also run the Arts and Children Project, which provides arts education opportunities for incarcerated juveniles in Los Angeles. (If I recall correctly, this was their original sole purpose.)

True, LATW does receive grant money from programs such as the National Endowment from the Arts, and they also request donations, but the revenue from ticket sales for their performances is very important for their community programs.

If you'd prefer to see a performance with full sets, elaborate lighting, costumes, and actors who know all their lines, then you definitely shouldn't waste time attending a radio theatre performance because that's not what you're going to get.