sharplittleteeth

We saw Joss Whedon give the Keynote Address at the Melbourne Writers Festival last night.

He was interveiwed by Dr Sue Turnbull, an Associate Professor in Media Studies at La Trobe Uni, and apparently a respected Buffyologist.

Whedon was charming and witty and self-deprecating, as usual. But he seemed a bit jet-lagged, vagueing out half way through an answer. And Dr. Turnbull seemed a bit star-struck. Her questions were like fan questions often are: nervous, rambling statements with a question mark tacked on the end. The two never seemed to quite click.

Whedon perked up, though, for the audience Q&A.

"Audience Q&A" is a phrase that makes my bowels clench in dread. The one at Bret Easton Ellis was cringeworthy - "Which of your characters would win in a fight?" "Do you want to do drugs with me?" "Can I have your Grindr nick?".

But the Q&A at Joss Whedon was the highlight of the night. The questions were succinct and interesting. There was minimal fawning. And Whedon's answers were both funny and insightful. One thing I learnt: Whedon was in talks with Ronald D. Moore to direct an episode of Battlestar Galactica. He pulled out, he said, because he didn't want to have the plot spoiled for him.

More quotes from the night can be found in this Gizmodo article.

Overall? It was good, but it lacked depth. I would have much preferred to hear Whedon give an actual speech. He's witty and charming, and he has interesting things to say.

Look, I doubt there's a Joss Whedon fan on the internet that doesn't know about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

But in case you've been browsing Whedonesque via TCP/IP-over-carrier-pidgeon -- Joss Whedon has a new thing out. It's called Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's a musical. About an evil scientist. Who has a blog.

Whedon made it during the writer's strike. It'll be free on the website until the end of the week, then it will be an iTunes store download, and eventually a DVD.

Needless to say, it's been crashing servers all week.

Only the first two acts of three are up so far. And so far? It's fun. Kinda lightweight and throwaway. Certainly not as meaty as Buffy's "Once More With Feeling", but that was the pay off for years of character development, not a half-hour quickie thrown together to give the finger to the TV executives.

And I hope there's a big twist in Act III. Because the "two guys fighting over a girl" storyline isn't exactly the finest feminist statement ever made by Mr. Joss "Equality Now" Whedon.