• Our thanks again to master capture dude Will who’s got the high quality MP3 audio for just about all of the program captured in each segment (no commercials, of course). The first 10 minutes are missing, other than that, it’s all here. Enjoy, and thanks as always to Will for doing his great work.
  Segment 1, 64Kbps, 11.45MB
  Segment 2, 64Kbps, 7.19MB
  Segment 3, 64Kbps, 9.92MB
  Segment 4, 64Kbps, 5.44MB
  Segment 5, 64Kbps, 6.06MB

• CHUD calls Mallrats #40 in their list of 50 cinematic “guilty pleasures” with a fairly extensive write-up. Here’s a few tidbits:
  Instead of pushing off from the critical success of Clerks, Kevin Smith made a film that proved he might actually be the voice of a generation, if Generation X was the lazy, unmotivated bunch of bums some claimed it to be. The characters in Mallrats occupy some neutral zone between junior high and college, and instead of the relatively accurate, if exaggerated dialogue of his debut, they all spew the verbose fantasties and monologues which would later be proven as Smith’s de facto m.o. The only time the dialogue works this time is during the game show finale, where I have to admit it’s actually funny as hell, even if Jason Lee’s jabs at Brian O’Halloran amount to shooting fish in a barrel. “I should know — we can smell our own,” gets me every time.

• How ’bout some more Rats news? Mallrats hit HD-DVD on June 26th, and High Def Digest has the first review that we’ve seen (we don’t have the high def equipment setup to review these puppies just yet). In short, the reviewer does give high marks to the film and the disc, which contains everything in the Mallrats 10th Anniversary package from a couple years back. Sounds like the picture and sound both offer some small step ups in quality.
• Shock Till You Drop and Cinematical have more San Diego ComicCon details realeased today. As we mentioned, Kevin will be speaking on Friday July 27th - STYD calls it a Q&A, while Cinematical just refers to it as a talk. Expect the usual format there, we’re betting on some new stories, too — A preamble to the big August 2nd event in Red Bank!
• Check out a new View Askew themed podcast called Salsashark. Looks like he’s got some more episodes on the way, too.

• We appreciate the feedback we’ve heard form you all on the new design and site so far. First up, we want you all to know we’re glad that you like what you’re seeing, and also appreciate what we’re doing. The site that you’re looking at is, really, in our eyes, still very much a “beta” site. We didn’t want to miss our 10th birthday, and had the site at least in good working order, for the most part, so we decided to go ahead with the rollout, figuring more eyes on it would mean more testing, and more feedback. So, we thank you for all you’re doing so far.

  The first round of bugs we plan to tackle are visual ones. We can see that a lot of you (almost 50% of the site visitors) are using Internet Explorer 7 or 6. This will definitely result in some display issues, especially in IE6. Once we get the bug fixed, you’ll see all the pretty pictures much better. We also have some toolbar overlap with the top dropdown menus that’s only happening in IE, not Firefox or Safari. So, visually fixing up the site is our top task at the moment.

  For those of you with smaller screens or resolutions, we hear you. The right sidebar is a bit larger than necessary and we’re working to take that down a bit to assist you. The site looks awesome in widescreen settings and higher resolutions, and takes full advantage, it just doesn’t scale down as nice as we’d like. We’re working on it, and we’ll ensure that you have as pleasant an experience as the rest of us. We have already started removing the sidebar from pages such as a the Drinking Games splash screen, where the large image was causing issues for smaller screens.

  Header graphics will return, either the one you know and love or a brand new design. We’re doing all the design off-site right now, so our changes don’t interfere with the site you’re viewing. When we get it looking pretty, we’ll roll out design fixes, as available. The site’s look will evolve over the next few weeks and months, all for the better.

  Iphone users: We hear the site looked pretty good on the phone’s safari browser, though with all the extra header and sidebar fluff, we worried it was a bit much. So, for now, you’ll get a special version of the page automatically when you connect via your iphone, that will just give you a plain version of the news. We’re hoping to soon add in an option that will allow you to switch between the bare bones version and back to the full colorful version, if you choose.

  Our live archive is something we love and will continue to improve over the next few weeks. It involves going back to every story and categorizing it to allow more specific searching through old posts. Soon, we’ll have an advanced search that will give you category based control, as well. But not until we have everything in its place. Categories are brand new for News Askew this time around, so it involves a lot of time and effort in reading each old post, and deciding where to put it. Even creating new categories as we see fit. The live archive is up and running but is beta software using javascript. It may not work for you. If not, please try a more recent browser and ensure your javascript is running.

  We sincerely hope you are enjoying the new News Askew, and that you’ll stick with us as the new site continues to evolve into its new form. Thanks as always for your patience and support.

• Just to let you fine folks who employ our handy RSS syndication feed, when the new site went live, the feed address CHANGED. We temporarily still have the old RSS file up to allow folks and sites time to switch over, however, that will soon go bye-bye. So, if you have any subscriptions, please update them. Also, if you make use of any RSS syndication sites out there (Feedburner and the like), please drop them a line and let them know that our address has changed. We assume this eventually happens automagically, but if there’s a quicker way to help that along, cool. We notice a ton of RSS traffic in our new hitlogs, so we know a lot of folks have been using it. Most modern browsers will pick this up on their own, however, outside websites and external RSS applications won’t, so please update your devices and software.

So, note the NEW address, http://www.newsaskew.com/feed. And tell your pals. Thanks for shopping with us at the new News Askew today. We’ll have a news update for ya later — Just been spending the day categorizing for our new Live Archive. Have you checked them out yet?

• Not only is the world going 7/7/07 crazy today, but we are too, celebrating exactly TEN YEARS of News Askew on the web — Wow, that’s a LONG TIME. Ten years. In porting over the redesign and news database for the new site you’re now viewing, we had the chance to look back on our travels and experiences since we started posting on the web back in 1997. What a long, fun ride it’s been. We’re very happy to continue to provide your almost daily dose of View Askew news, and thankful for those of you that have been with us, whether it’s for 10 years, 1 year, or 1 week. It’s readers and scoopers like yourselves that keep this site alive, and have made it the success that it is. Today’s new site represents a fresh beginning for the next ten years, and presents the most advanced base for News Askew that we’ve ever had.

Let’s learn more about the new site, including what’s done, what’s NOT done, what’s on the horizon, and more. We’ve also got your weekend edition of News Askew, so let’s not forget about that (the show must go on, after all, despite our lack of sleep squashing site bugs). And of course, let’s again say THANK YOU to each and every one of you for keeping the site alive, and of course to Mr. Kevin Smith, who pays the bills and keeps this site coming your way.

• So, here we are! News Askew X. The site you’re now viewing represents almost a half a year of preparation, layout, and database design. And we’re still not done. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you use a modern browser, the latest version of Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari. We’re still finding heaps of Internet Explorer 6 bugs, so if you’re under that browser, please upgrade or be patient with us as we work to figure them all out. Also, enable Javascript if you know how. That will ensure that some of the extra features will function as we intended.

You may notice an options console in the upper-right corner. This currently functions under all browsers except for IE (a fix is coming for that). With it, you can switch News Askew from a fluid, widescreen design to a more static, slimmer design. You can also change the main color scheme to your liking. These features may stick around, or we may force a color on you down the line. For now, the choice is yours. We have some design left to do as far as graphics go, so things are going to evolve from this point, especially in the site header.

We’re still in the process of categorizing the almost 7,000 stories here at News Askew. When we’re done, you’ll be able to use a new extended live search to interactively pull up stories by month, year, or even catgegory. For now, the general archives page will get you where you need to be.

Image handling is much nicer at the new site. If you’re using a fairly new browser, say goodbye to those images that show up in new windows. Try clicking this thumbnail image below and see how the new image expansion feature looks. Niiiice.

We’re pleased to say that our polls archive is 80% re-established, and live polling has now returned to the site. Be sure to cast your vote on the current poll question, and submit your own ideas for future News Askew polls. Yes, we’ll be asking at some point what you think of the new site, but want to get the major bug fixes before we start getting some feedback.

That’s about all we want to say about the new design, for now. As we put the finishing touches on features, we’ll let you know here at the front page. Commenting on stories is encouraged and live, though you’ll have to re-register yourself. Reserve that user name that you’ve been looking for now. As always, we have the rights to refuse any user name or comment post. So behave yourselves. Poke around a bit, try a search, and see what you think. We realize it’s a big change. We know you’re going to grow to love it, if you don’t already. Welcome to News Askew X, the new News Askew!

• Kevin’s “Live Free or Die Hard” exchange with film critic Ty Burr made the New York Post’s famous Page Six column again this week:

• Just three weeks to go until the world famous San Diego Comic-Con, who have now posted the official schedule. This is probably the biggest and best comics and entertainment event of the year. Kevin is once again a featured guest this year, and without a major film release to get in the way, we’re betting he’ll be there EARLY and willing to do the Q&A thing as long as he can have the room.

This year, you can catch Kevin doing the Q&A panel from 6:15 to 7:45 PM in Hall H, on Friday, July 27th. No word yet on if Kevin will be holding a signing, though we’re guessing that the famous View Askew swag booth will be on the floor, full of bargains on some of the fantastic stuff sold exlusively through Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.

As always, we URGE you to get to the con early, as Kevin’s appearances always fill to capacity. If they’re handing out tickets, get in line and get one, to ensure you’ll get a seat in the room.

• Leo Quinones interviews Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier tonight, live on 97.1 KLSX Free FM. You can listen and watch it as it happens via their website. Click the banner above to head over to the site. Ten random winners who visit Leo’s myspace page, add Leo as a friend, and message back “ASKEW ME” will have a chance at winning some prizes from the show (the guys are hoping to get signed scripts to offer up to fans). Also, if you login and ask a question in the chat room tonight that’s used on-air, you’ll ALSO win a script. Nice eh?

Tune in tonight, from 7 PM to 9 PM PST (10 PM to midnight EST). Exclusively on 97.1 and online!

• Malcolm Ingram’s award-winning documentary “Small Town, Gay Bar”, produced by View Askew, will be available on a packed DVD August 7th, 2007. You can bet that we’ll have a fantastic pre-order price on SIGNED copies of this film through the Stash, so stay tuned for those details as soon as we can get ‘em. Those of you lucky enough to see the film at a Vulgarthon or another film festival over the past year or two can attest to what a good job that Malc did to capture this walk of life. Read Kevin’s reveal over at the board.

By the way, sneak into Kev’s post and you’ll also notice that he’s made a MAJOR casting for “Zack & Miri” — Judging by the secrecy, we’re betting this may be for the “Zack” role, too — As we’re still figuring Rosario for “Miri”. We can’t wait to find out who’s coming into the family.