Wednesday Odds and Ends: "Alien" prequel, "Star Wars" games, "Better Off Ted" and sci-fi chicks

Have I got a boatload of tasty little nuggets for you this morning! Here they are, in no particular order:

+ Thank God, Hollywood is finally making an original movie based on an a totally original story. Hahahahaha, no, I'm just kidding. But they are making an "Alien" prequel with Ridley Scott apparently involved as producer and some guy who makes cool TV commercials about cars as director. I hope there's at least one scene of young Ripley at prom. It is a prequel, right?

+ Holy cow, have you seen this preview of the upcoming "Star Wars: The Old Republic" MMO/RPG game? I want to go to there NOW. Pretty, pretty lightsabers...



+ There are new episodes of "Better of Ted" coming our way on ABC this summer. Any show that features cryogenics as a punchline is a-ok in my book, so bring it on. The new episodes start airing on June 23.

+ Topless Robot has got their list of "Pop Culture's 10 Greatest Nerds." Apparently, none of us made the list, which is a complete and total crime.

+ Hey, look -- another list! This time, it's Total Sci-Fi's list of "25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi." To me, the inclusion of "The Fifth Element"'s Leeloo and the absence of "BSG"'s Laura Roslin is a cosmic wrong of the highest order, but I'm just picky that way. Also, have I told you I hate "The Fifth Element?"

+ Speaking of chicks, Spin has a nifty little music-based interview with Mindy Kaling from "The Office." Yes, if you've been wondering what this very funny woman has on her iPod, your days of waiting are over!

+ And finally, I discovered this little nugget of gold over at The Onion's AV Club. This person is blogging about their experience watching "The West Wing" for the first time. If you were a fan of the show, it's really fascinating to see it new for the first time through someone else's eyes. I definitely plan on following this blog as he makes his way through the series.

If all goes well later this afternoon, I'll be live blogging my first-ever experience watching that "Twilight" movie all the kids are talking about. (Or were talking about. Now they're talking about that other "Twilight" movie. I'm so old!)

Odds and Ends

+ What better way to start the morning than with Robert Downey Jr. eye candy? New photos have been released from Guy Ritchie's upcoming Sherlock Holmes flick and well, I'd say female viewership will be very high:

+ The "Twilight" sequel has a release date already: November 2009. Just in time to exsanguinate some holiday poultry! Vampires love that.

+ I've never been a big Stargate fan, but I might have to tune in for the latest incarnation -- Stargate: Universe. Why? Because it's going to star the wonderful Robert Carlyle. Plus, the plot sounds kind of intriguing:

(The show) follows a group of soldiers, scientists and civilians left to fend for themselves when forced through a stargate after their hidden base comes under attack.

Letting the "Twilight" train pass me by

"How can I bend my knees in jeans this tight? I am magical."

Sometimes I cultivate very large blind spots in my pop culture vision just to be difficult. My most recent blind spot is called "Twilight" and after months of willfully neglecting the phenomenon, I find myself wondering, "What's it all about, Vampy?*"

I know the basic premise of the books, and it sounds pretty good and angsty. As for the author, I heartily applaud anyone who can make their mark writing about adolescent vampires (yes, you Whedon). And I will admit that all the hullabaloo over the movie release today has piqued my interest -- so much so that I visited "Twilight" Central on the Entertainment Weekly website. (I scored a 40 on the interactive quiz. So apparently my understanding of "Twilight" is pretty much equivalent to my understanding of every calculus quiz I ever took.) Usually if the cultural clamor is loud enough, I'll acquiesce and investigate but I just can't bring myself to pick up one of Stephenie Meyer's books.

And mostly, I feel fine about that. Whereas the Harry Potter series seemed to easily straddle the adult and youth literary worlds much as Shel Silverstein does or C.S. Lewis or Lewis Carroll, the "Twilight" books seem nestled exclusively in the teen landscape. I'm sure that has to do with marketing or just my own skewed perceptions, but honestly, I feel like I'd be intruding if I picked up one of these novels. (That reluctance isn't there with the film so much. The only thing holding me back from seeing the movie is the fact that I can't stand paying $10 to sit in a theatre surrounded by 12-year-old girls texting "OMG" through the whole thing. Seriously, there should be a cellular dampening field installed in each and every cineplex.)

Just to be clear, I'm not saying adults shouldn't read and enjoy these novels. They're obviously intended to cross-over. I just can't get into it -- and the oversaturation in the media at the moment makes me even more obstinate.

So I'm just going to let this phenom go along without me, and tip my jaunty hat to the next generation of book-loving nerds who love vampires. They've got their Edwards. I had my Spikes. Our repressed, xenophobic Victorian grandmothers had their Draculas. To each generation, their own bloodsucking fascinations, as I always say. It's the circle of undead life...with exsanguination!

* That was a shout-out for all one of the "Alfie" fans out there. Woo, represent!!