Some can almost be called news! All things I’ve found interesting in the past week.
– Impressive, disturbing, and a dark sort of tribute to American capitalism: we present the Wal-Mart virus.
– By this point, I think most of you have seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. (And if not, it’s still available on iTunes; DVD to come out sometime soon.) Shockingly, Pug and I thought it was fantastic, and still go about humming about freeze rays and Bad Horse. Goodness knows it got a ton of media coverage, but I offer a couple of my favorites: The Dr. Horrible oral history, because it amuses me, and the NPR piece, because I’m impressed that they picked it up.
– The fourth book in the Twilight series, which has been enjoying popularity among those inclined towards YA vampire-romances, came out this weekend to Potter-like midnight release parties. I know that at least a couple of you have read the books and enjoyed them — and that at least a couple of you have read the books and offered your critiques on them. I haven’t read any of them, but I thought this Salon article offered what seems to me like some particularly insightful commentary on them. (And while we’re at Salon, the same writer had some worthwhile notes on Harry Potter 7. Naturally, it’s an article from a year ago, but I just finished re-reading Deathly Hallows, so I enjoyed that one as well. I think she’s pretty fair about Rowling’s strengths and weaknesses.)
– And Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (remember A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich ?) passed away this weekend.
Later: Woah! They’re making a Gatchaman movie? Carmen, did we know about this? I don’t really expect this to be what you would call… good, but Cartoon Network ran a dubbed version called G-Force that my brothers and I enjoyed when I was nine or ten, so it might get a few nostalgia points.
Well, now that’s six unrelated topics. Or five. Oh well; the title sounds better as it is.
Donna Noble! Brainy specs! Ancient Rome! Giant bees! Robotic claw! The Ood! Martha in green slime! SO excited!
Season 4 of Doctor Who comes to the SciFi Channel on April 18 at 8:30 p.m. EST. They’re starting (as usual) with the hour and a half Christmas special from this year, and in subsequent weeks it’ll be one hour at 9:00 p.m.
I literally saw something like this on a science fiction showtwo weeks ago and though, “Hmm, pretty clever! That seems feasible in the near future.” I mean, not special goggles or bionic eyes or anything, just contact lenses.
Apparently that’s true for all values of “near future.”
Either that or someone at Torchwood is leaking alien technology into mainstream research firms again.
This was awesome.
I went to the encore showing of the remastered version of “The Menagerie” on Thursday. The theater was about two-thirds full; certainly there were no lines or costumes, although one audience member was handing out DVDs of his fan film! I took one, but I haven’t watched it yet — am planning to save it for Pug’s visit over Thanksgiving. There was lots of laughter for the best lines (often from McCoy), and the digital update of the special effects shots looked really good — but was also unobtrusive. Certainly nothing like the make-over that Star Wars got when it was re-released in theaters about ten years ago.
(Yeah, it really was ten years. Elf, didn’t we go see at least one of them together? I could be mis-remembering, but it sounds plausible for ten years ago.)
Next item, let’s look forward to the next opportunity to see Star Trek on the big screen! I’m talking about the potentially spoiler-icious link posted on Nodwick yesterday. Yes, ladies and gents, behind the cut is Spoiler City…assuming, of course, that the source is actually in the know. Which we don’t know. But just in case, you’ve been warned.
Not usually recommended for those of us who identify as non-goth. However here’s an addition to my small collection of unusual bookcase designs (which includes the Sticklebook and the Sapien Bookshelf, both previously mentioned last February.) Watching the second episode of Moonlight, what particularly caught my eye was a detail of the main character’s apartment.
Ignore the brooding vampire in the foreground for a minute and check out the crosshatch-y bookcases at the left.
Here’s a closer look.
I imagine this wouldn’t hold as many books as a conventional bookcase of the same dimensions, but it is visually appealing and seems like a good way to group books into small-ish categories.
Even though Heroes has killed off George Takei’s character, tonight’s episode introduced Nichelle Nichols as Micah’s grandmother. Squee! And Dominic Keating (Enterprise, Malcolm Reid) has started to show up as a minor character in Peter Petrelli’s Irish adventure. Bonus: John Billingsley (Enterprise, Doctor Phlox) is guest-starring on Journeyman.
Well, when last heard from, I was with the family, nose deep in Harry Potter. Since then, I’m back in the city, back in school, and on the hunt for the elusive full-time job.
In the last month, I’ve interviewed for four positions, and the first two have already given me the “thanks, but no thanks.” The other two were both last week, so I’m waiting to hear back from those. One is a company that publishes books on religion (especially Buddhism and Hinduism), Eastern philosophies and also some fiction, poetry, and history. I certainly wouldn’t turn my nose up at the other one (a very well-respected medical journal), but I’m especially excited about the first one.
