Spreading the Link Love: 4/13/2010

I promise, more cohesive posts in the future – but I’m gonna be on the road all day tomorrow, and don’t have enough brain energy to post anything of great significance at the moment.

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1. Communal Goal Setting: 43 Things Website

The premise of this website is that everyone has a bucket list – and that someone’s bucket list might have a few commonalities with that of someone else. People are encouraged to make their list (more or less than 43 – it’s only a suggestion), cross of items they’ve completed and then share their stories. Additional information includes – how long it took the person to complete the goal, and how the final outcome made them feel. You can even track their progress by year – and see what they added when, or what wasn’t completed and for what reason.

Some people are vague in their descriptive stories, but many folks can get quite personal. One profile in particular detailed an affair with a married man, her sexual exploitations and donating an organ. This website is intensely fascinating for me. It’s not intended to replace the social networking of sites like Facebook or Twitter, but it certainly serves a purpose. Finding a community of like-minded people who embrace and are plotting the same goals as you is hugely compelling. There is also the responsibility that comes with formally announcing them. Once your intangible goals are written down somewhere on the interwebs – you feel more accountable for them. There is a realness generated by knowing other people have seen them. It’s an awesome site – anyone heard of this before (probably, it’s been around since 2005)?

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2. The Walking Dead TV Series on AMC Casts Rick and Shane

A shriek of glory passed my lips when I learned that AMC had green-lighted six episodes of The Walking Dead TV Series directed by Frank Darabont. AMC has helmed similar adult-themed programs to great success. While I always held out hope for an HBO or Showtime nod – AMC is even better, cause it’s not a subscription network, which means it will *hopefully* cull a wider audience.

The reason for posting? It looks like they’ve already cast two characters – Jon Bernthal has been cast as Rick’s partner, Shane and Andrew Lincoln, from Love Actually, has been cast as Rick Grimes – a police officer who wakes up from a coma to discover the Zombie Apocalypse has descended upon earth. He immediately sets off to locate his wife and son – and presumably the first six episodes (I say FIRST) will follow the plot-line of the first several issues. These were some of the best of the series for me – though I do have a fondness for some of the later plot-lines as well – Michonne in particular.

This news has actually caused me to pick up the books where I left off (around issue 50). Looking forward to giving a summary of how the latest developments sit with me.

OTHER TANTALIZING UPDATES: Brandon Routh has potentially joined the cast. Feeling pretty ambivalent about this news. Routh was great in Superman, but the role didn’t require much of the hard-boiled intensity or action or fear required of any good Zombie material. The only other role I’ve seen him in was a comedic turn in Zack and Miri Make a Porno. It’s great they are pulling rather big names to the series, but not sure where this guy is going to be placed in the pantheon of Walking Dead characters. Any thoughts?

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3. Apparently – the Streamys sucked badly this year and everyone is pissed. No really, they’ve even started issuing public apologies.

Gonna come right out and say it – I don’t watch a ton of WebTV. The Guild, Legend of Neil and Chad Vader are the only shows I’ve managed to devote my non-TV, movie or reading time to. But honestly, I’m not a hater.

This is an exciting medium, because it’s home to the super popular Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, which is the result of a successful TV Producer, Director and Writer spending his time and hard-earned money to create products that are entirely within his creative control. That is what excites me about how much recognition they’re getting.

The Streamys are the biggest recognition/awards event for web content that happens IRL. But as I mentioned before, it apparently sucked awfully this year – embarrassing the nominees, winners and many of those regular folk in attendance. WebTV haters are calling this “THE END OF THE MEDIUM” while everyone else is only pissed at the producers of the award show.

Now that I know this award show has the potential to be a glorious (or insulting) train wreck, much like the Oscars, I’m totally down for watching it next year. And I’d like to support the underdog medium. On that note – would love to hear of some other web series, if any – that folks are watching or interested in.

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That’s all the link love for today. I’ll probably try to throw at least one of these up a week – but will return with a review of  the first Madame Xanadu trade paperback on Wednesday. Get excited!