Do two posts make you a blogger?

"I hear that guy's ass has its own congressman!"

The following are some escaped thoughts on random things/movie news. You might call them musings, much like Tracy Jordan's column in Ebony.

What I’m Watching

I have a pile of things I’ve been meaning to watch (“MST3K” Gamera box set, I’ve neglected you so!), but I’ve spent a lot of time this week watching random episodes of my NBC  favorites (“Parks and Recreation,” “30 Rock,” “The Office”) on Netflix. Don’t worry. There will definitely be a “Parks and Recreation” post before the fourth season premieres September 22, which is still much too far away for my liking.

I also broke out season seven of “The Simpsons”, easily one of its best seasons. There’s not an unfunny episode in the bunch and it’s chock full of some true classics (“King Size Homer,” “Bart Sells His Soul,” “The Day the Violence Died”).

What I’m Not Watching

I know this is said so much every year that it has lost all meaning, but it’s really been a crappy year at the movies. Unfortunately, judging by what’s coming out in the next few weeks, it doesn’t look like that’s going to change. Aside from this weekend’s Guillermo del Toro produced remake of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark,” there’s all of one wide release that I have the slightest interest in seeing until early October. Only Nicholas Winding Refn’s Cannes darling “Drive” (September 16), a stylish action drama with Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan and Christina Hendricks, looks promising. I was interested in Steven Soderbergh’s ensemble viral plague drama “Contagion” (September 9) until I saw its trailer.

George Lucas screws with something in “Phantom Menace,” world remains indifferent

The six “Star Wars” adventures (the three good ones and the rest) make their Blu-ray debuts in late September with some new bonus features, including previously unseen deleted scenes. As George Lucas is wont to do, he’s “improved” the films for release on a new format, ditching puppetry in favor of more beautiful CGI. This time around, the Yoda puppet featured in some scenes of 1999’s “The Phantom Menace” has been replaced by a digital creation matching the character’s look in the later prequel episodes. It’s certainly an effort, but no amount of CG “fixes” can make “The Phantom Menace” a decent movie. Never one to be deterred, I’m sure Lucas is already planning how Industrial Light and Magic will replace Ian McDiarmid for the next home media release in 2025 (when movies will be released via clouds of hallucination-inducing vapors).

New Pixar films announced at D23

The biggest news of Disney’s recent D23 expo was the announcement of two new, currently untitled Pixar releases: “The Untitled Pixar Movie About Dinosaurs” (November 27, 2013) and “The Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside the Mind” (May 30, 2014).

Bob Peterson, who co-directed 2009’s “Up,” and Peter Sohn, director of the short “Partly Cloudy,” will direct the dinosaur project. Peterson’s fellow “Up” codirector Pete Docter and “Dug’s Special Mission” short director Ronnie del Carmen will handle the film about the mind. Little information about these projects was announced, but the tremendous talents behind them make me extremely hopeful.

While I’m sure these projects were greenlighted before this summer’s “Cars 2” proved sequelitis affects even Pixar, it’s great to see the studio make a return to original storytelling.