In which I feel bad for not telling more people to watch "Dollhouse"

Warning: some Nerd Rage ahead.
Tonight marks the end of Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse", a series that flew under the radar of nearly anyone who'd like it best. We've had a lot of excellent speculative fiction television series the past few years and this could have easily turned into a classic. Admittedly, the first five episodes or so were slow, slow, slow and it took several months for the show to find it's voice, but once it did (round about Episode ten I'd say), it did what only the ballsiest speculative fiction does: It explored every last disturbing implication of it's fantastic premise. Sadly, Whedon only had a few episodes, mostly in the second season, to fully explore that premise without having to keep the advertisers and network happy.
The history of this series has been... interesting to say the least. Executive Meddling (take a shot) plagued the first half of the first season, but then Joss was allowed to do his own thing for the second half. Certainly, all the while the traumatic experience of Fox's treatment of "Firefly" was hanging over his head. So he came up with an episode called "Epitaph 1" that could act as an ending for the series as a whole *or* a good cliffhanger for the first season if the series miraculously didn't get canceled. Sure enough, the series miraculously did not get canceled -- but Fox decided not to air "Epitaph 1", opting to end the season on a comparatively cheerier note. So the second season went ahead business as usual as if that episode never existed.
And then Fox decided to cancel "Dollhouse" anyway. That's hubris for you.
So in the past month's worth of episodes or so, Joss Whedon has been doing an excellent job of building towards the events portrayed in "Epitaph 1" so that he can use it as the first half of a two-part final episode arc. 
Which would be awesome, except Fox *still* isn't going to air it, so good luck understanding what's going on in the series finale.


By the way, "Dollhouse" gets canceled and yet Seth MacFarlane is apparently getting a fourth Illustrated Radio series. Oh yeah, I went there.
Dammit, is it February 2nd yet?

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In happier news, it is Draw a Dinosaur Day! I am probably drawing one right now and will post it here when I'm finished! Until then, here's the Singing Tyrannosaurus:

EDIT: The Singing Tyrannosaurus stays but here is the link to my entry in the Draw A Dinosaur Day pool. I submitted today's Sketchbook page.

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Feederwatch Friday!
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 (Just hung out in the neighbor's lilacs. Chickadees were not one bit happy about this.)
Rock Pigeon 4
Mourning Dove 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
House Sparrow 25

Another scary storm on Monday, this time of the soggier variety thanks to unseasonable warmth. I could hardly see the birds, much less count them.
But count them I did. For the science!

Weird Disney Things - Halloween Version!

Last year's Pesky Squirrel Pumpkin. Here's the pattern; it was a big hit with the neighborhood. I recommend a big pumpkin, a melon baller, and a vegetable peeler for effects.
Tomorrow night, the good little children shall be getting Snickers, KitKats, and M&Ms. Children who don't bother to wear costumes shall get Smarties. Mwahahahaha!!!
This year, I am also giving you some nightmare fuel. Click to read:

Continuing the tradition of finding weird Disney things, how about some weird Disney Halloween-ish things?
Here's "The Skeleton Dance" from 1929 (NOTE: 20's era cartoons = creepytown) set to Taco's version of "Puttin' On the Ritz". I'd give you the original version with the original music, but I couldn't find it, and this AMV is pretty good and actually makes this song listenable:

I LOVE "Trick or Treat" from 1954! Donald Duck and June Foray as a nice witch both = Instant win. And dig the song's compellingly confusing lyrics ("Your little white house turns green!"):

And speaking of Donald Duck (my brother under the skin; we're both horror story sissies) here is a spooky cartoon from 1945 that is not only the eeriest Donald Duck cartoon, but one of the strangest Disney cartoons ever made (though not the weirdest*):

Now having just watched "Duck Pimples" again, I noticed that it's certainly stranger than I remember. It is incredibly dark for Disney; you'd never expect this kind of unnerving surreality from them.
Everyone have a happy and safe Halloween!

* - "Duck Pimples" is simply darker than expected, and it might even freak you out if you watch it late at night. But the weirdest Disney cartoon, for those of you just joining this blog, is "Plutopia", the usual reaction to which is, "what the hell did I just watch?"
Shortly followed by, "I just watched a Mickey Mouse cartoon that started out completely normal, but ended shortly after Pluto was being overfed by a self-loathing, suicidal, sadomasochistic cat who constantly begs Pluto to bite him. And I cannot UNsee it."

Note: I can guarantee that by the time some of you read this, most of these old cartoons will have been taken down. Tell you what, Disney. If you want to keep people from watching your cartoons online, how about you f***ing air them on television once in a while?
I remember when Toon Disney first arrived and the people in charge of it had the balls to say, "We're BETTER than Cartoon Network! They just acquired the rights to the MGM and Warner Bros. libraries. But we have an almost 100 year old tradition behind us!"
Guess what's on Toon Disney tonight?
"Power Rangers" reruns.