Friday stuff

[yendi]

1. They've cast the big-screen version of The Spirit, which means the movie will happen! Alas, the least subtle man on the planet is still the director and writer; yes, Frank Miller is the Goddamn writer.

2. David Pogue blogs about the CableCard, a technology you might never have heard of, but which you might very well be able to take advantage of.

3. For emilytheslayer and anyone else heading to Worldcon next month: A gorgeous, pannable panorama view of Yokohama (ganked from pnh).

4. Charles Simic is the new US Poet Laureate. He's the fourth from the folks I read back in Georgia Christopher's wonderful Poetry: The Generation 2000 course back in my freshman year at Emory (Rita Dove, Robert Hass, and Louise Glück, all of whom I like much better than Simic, actually, preceded him). I hope that Thomas Lux and Sharon Olds will join that list someday.

5. The LA Weekly, the world's most useless "alternative" paper (where "alternative" is, presumably, in opposition to "things that don't suck"), has, over the years, played home to Harlan Ellison's moronic "offended" rant on the Omen, and to the moronic Nikki Finke's rant against releasing Christmas-themed horror flicks. Their latest idiot move is to provide a forum for hack film critic Scott Foundas writing the most sycophantic article about Brett Ratner ever produced. I can only assume that Foundas is in for 1% of the gross on Rush Hour 3 for this one.

6. Elton John: Grouchy, ignorant moron. The fact that he hasn't produced any good art in ages isn't a sign that others haven't, or that the interwebs are to blame.

7. The Kansas Republicans have demanded a loyalty oath. Yeah, that's not a sign of unflinching evil or anything.

8. Lis Riba notes that Strikethrough '07 is basically continuing right now. Only that LJ is doing a better job of covering up the actual strikingthrough part.

9. Want to watch the first episode of Californication (the new Duchovny show), or the season premiere of Weeds? Go here. The password is "Mondays".

10. Finally, Rome, Season 2 hits DVD on Tuesday! And Amazon's got it for 50% off! Woohoo! Of course, 50% off of an HBO show still puts it at $49.99. Get with the times, HBO!

Comments

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that looks cool! We got our tickets and all the information packets and maps and stuff in the mail yesterday from the travel agency, and I am fully freaking out. :)

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

1. This doesn't bother me much. Miller is a hack, but his visual style owes a lot to Eisner, so we can expect it to be a pretty faithful interpretation. It's not like the Golden Age Spirit was terribly subtle its own self; you may recall that in the very first Spirit story, the Spirit held up Ebony's cab at gunpoint when he needed a ride.

The fellow cast as Spirit is also in the upcoming Whiteout, an adaptation of the Greg Rucka/Steve Lieber miniseries set in Antarctica. I own a page of Steve's art from it.

[themaskmaker.livejournal.com]

Hey! I want a loyalty oath. Can I demand a loyalty oath?

Kansas Loyalty Oaths

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

Kansas is, in modern parlance, a "Red State". The people are midwest conservatives, which is a very big tent. But the fundamentalists (in several senses of the word) have wormed their way into most positions of state Republican party leadership.

The results of this have been the periodic anti-evolution (and, for that matter, anti-science) policies from the Kansas State Board of Education, and the mind-bending notion of a Red State with a Democrat governor. But even the lower-level offices, such as the aforementioned State Board of Education, get purged of Republicans whenever they do something rat-stupid (such as approve textbooks which claim that life on earth is so young, cavemen and dinosaurs co-existed).

Obviously, when the electorate is overwhelmingly of one party, and they elect office-holders from the opposite party, the fundamentalist leaders start looking for traitors.

The fact that they look past their own selves dooms them to failure.

[ydnic.livejournal.com]

Oh, Sir Elton, how could you? I'll try not to think about it when I upload one of my all time favorite albums, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, to iTunes....:P

[fiddledragon]

Re. #9: Hee - I hope they use the Red Hot Chili Pepper's song somewhere in there

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

From what I read on Elton's position, the reasons why did make some sense.

He feels that the internet is removing the creative contact that two or more people sitting together in a room can have, and it is, unquestionably.

Of course, trying to get rid of the internet isn't the solution. As a tool for initially getting those two or more people together, or for promoting what ever they produce, it's unsurpassed.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

the internet is removing the creative contact that two or more people sitting together in a room can have

Nonsense. The Internet has created opportunities I would otherwise never have had to sit in the same room with people I would otherwise never have met in places I would otherwise never have gone.

E.g., London, Dublin, Aberdeen, Amsterdam... Kansas City.

I know for a fact that millions of other people have also established face-to-face relationships that would be impossible without the Internet. It's a communication device, like a telephone. Have you ever heard anyone argue that telephones keep people apart by allowing them to converse in different locations?

I'm pretty sure that what we have here with Sir Elton is sour grapes. He can't possibly be that stupid.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

The Internet has created opportunities I would otherwise never have had to sit in the same room with people I would otherwise never have met in places I would otherwise never have gone.

That was my point, and that's why I don't completely agree with Elton's anti-internet stance.

The "creative contact" I was referring to was referring to that time sitting in the same room for all hours of the night working out a tune.

As I said, the internet is unsurpassed as introducing like-minded folks and for promoting finished works; the part of Elton's argument I agree with is that the best creative collaborations happen when face-to-face.

You can do long-distance creation, but I think some time needs to be spent sitting in the same room, and the more of that the better. There's more of a give-and-take when that happens, more of a sense of equal creation than of a session player mentallity.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

I'm being unclear again. I have gotten on airplanes and flown to each of the locations I mentioned and sat in the same room with other people in those locations.

That is, I would never have traveled to Kansas City if not to meet the pagans I first encountered online, and sleep on their couch.

I would not be preparing to spend my third consecutive birthday in London if I hadn't met some wonderful people there through a LJ RPG.

I'm not talking about virtual meetings or long-distance anything, I'm talking meatspace.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Yep - understood that. That sharing of meatspace is the important part.

I think Elton's getting that side of things - that getting together in person is important; he is, however, missing the whole entire concept that those relationships can be fostered via the internet.

For instance, if we were having this conversation in person, we'd already have agreed that we both agree on the key points. =)

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

Loyalty Oaths

[zarq.livejournal.com]

From 2004:

The GOP attempted to require attendees of their National Convention in NYC to sign loyalty oaths. (http://www.political-news.org/breaking/26499/arrested-bush-dissenters-eye-courts.html)

Some Democrats who signed up to hear Vice President Dick Cheney speak (http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/07/30/news/wyoming/63b4fcb928fe8e6987256ee10054e715.txt) were refused tickets unless they signed a pledge to endorse President Bush. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31019-2004Jul31.html)

The South Carolina Democrat Party had a failed attempt with one (http://www.command-post.org/2004/2_archives/010079.html).

The Green Party tried it, too (http://www.sf-frontlines.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=807).

This isn't new. It's very Waffen-SS-esque, but it isn't new.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

I loved Willis' take on the Spirit thing (http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20070319.html)

I'm the goddamned Phillip Marlowe!!

[stevietee.livejournal.com]

I assume you heard that Miller's also helming the adaptation of Chandler's Trouble Is My Business (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117967247.html?categoryid=13&cs=1)?

[bassfingers.livejournal.com]

Yesterday my wife ran into someone she knew who's house in Venice, CA often gets the attention of location scouts. Turns out they're doing Californication there. When the couple that owns the house got to watch the first set of dailies, and saw three naked people in their bedroom, they wondered just what kind of film was being shot there... :)