Unfettered Brilliance: Walter White Wednesday 110

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Walter White Wednesday 110

Well, Breaking Bad did just fine with last week's Emmy nominations and is in the running for thirteen of the golden girls. In addition to seven nominations in more technical categories (such as sound editing and makeup), Bryan Cranston (who's having an amazing year!), Anna Gunn, and Aaron Paul are all nominated in the acting categories, the show is in the Outstanding Drama category, Moira Walley-Beckett is nominated for Outstanding Writing for the absolutely blow-your-socks-off episode "Ozymandias," and Vince Gilligan his own bad self is nominated for Outstanding Directing for the final episode "Felina." A special shout-out to Michael Slovis, who is nominated in the Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series category for the episode "Granite State" - Mr. Slovis kindly agreed to be interviewed for Wanna Cook? and we were so pleased with how that interview turned out - it's a gem in the book, seriously. (That's him checking light levels for the episode "Peekaboo" [2.06] at the top of the post, by the way.)

Ensley mentioned the upcoming book signing over on his blog (you read both of our blogs, right?), so I'll just briefly remind you - we'll be at the Gastonia, NC location of Books-A-Million on Saturday, July 26 beginning at 2 pm (that's a change from the original 5 pm start time, so make a note!) to discuss Breaking Bad, sign copies of Wanna Cook? and generally pontificate and speculate on all things Gilligan-related. The store is located at 3710 East Franklin Blvd. in Gastonia and you can call them at (704) 824-0221 for more information - hope to see you there!

In other exciting news, a group of dedicated BrBa fans decided that Duke City needed its own convention to celebrate Breaking Bad and they're making it happen! On November 8, the Albuquerque Convention Center will be home to the first annual Breaking Bad Fest and it's looking sweet! While we won't be able to attend this year, we certainly hope you will if you're nearby. Check out their site here, buy tickets here, and remember that you can also follow the latest con news on Twitter or Facebook.

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Points of Interest

Lurker's Guide - Excellent fan-run resource guide for Babylon 5

Breaking Bad - The official AMC site for news and recaps about the best show on television

Mockingbird's Nest - What I do outside of my day job

Ensley Guffey's Blog - Musings and links worth noticing

Nik At Night's Blog - Most things TV, including the 2011 Rewatch

TV Tropes - What you've seen, over and over and why it matters

Slayage - Whedon given the scholarly treatment

Whedonesque - Clearinghouse of all things Whedon

BuffyWorld - Shooting scripts, screenshots, and more

Who?

K. Dale Koontz may have watched too much television as a child. She learned to count via Sesame Street and first learned that genres could cross-pollinate through M*A*S*H. When she discovered Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the die was cast. In 2008, McFarland published her book Faith and Choice in the Work of Joss Whedon which focused on themes such as redemption, choice, and consequences in Whedon's work up to that point. (She's fairly sure Volume 2 could be written to include Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse, and The Avengers.) She is a founding member of the Whedon Studies Association (a great group of people, but don't mention Twilight. Just sayin'). She has presented original work on the Rossum Corporation in Dollhouse, Kitty Pryde, and Japanese anime. In 2014, she and co-author Ensley F. Guffey worked with ECW Press to publish the critically-acclaimed Wanna Cook? The Complete, Unofficial Companion to Breaking Bad. Her most recent project was to team again with Ensley and ECW to publish A Dream Given Form, which is the only guide to all the canonical works in the Babylon 5 universe. That book is currently available for preorder and will be released in September of 2017. Dale is available for speaking engagements and only occasionally uses puppets in her presentations.

What?

I have long been interested in storytelling - how we do it, why we do it, and what happens when we mix things up. This interest might be the result of being born and raised in the American South, a region that has long celebrated the involved story over the quick answer. Television - the good stuff, anyway - does this brilliantly. Far from being film's red-headed tacky cousin, good TV lets characters and relationships build slowly and often mixes up genres, so horror is next door to humor and fantasy rubs shoulders with procedurals. This blog focuses on both the "good stuff" being broadcast that catches my fancy (with a special emphasis on Babylon 5, since that's the book that's in the process of being written right now) as well as film. The films are usually new releases being watched for TV19's weekly Meet Me at the Movies, although I reserve the right to veer off into classics and under-appreciated gems as well. Older posts cover what my introduction to film class was up to - currently, I'm not teaching that course, but who knows what the future may hold.

Notable Whedon Work