Category: Arts & Entertainment
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Literacy 2008: Book 4: Baltimore
Book Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden Synopsis On a battlefield late in World War I, allied soldier Lord Baltimore is attacked by a strange bat-like creature. Now, the war is over, but a mysterious plague has spread through all of Europe. Three of Baltimore’s friends…
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The Orchid
As I mentioned, I was confused for most of last year’s ComicCon, so I missed the “Lost” panel. I wasn’t aware until reading about it on a message board just now, that during that panel they showed another Dharma Initiative orientation film, that was later repeated on ABC’s website. This one is for station 6,…
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The Sayid Ultimatum
This week’s “Lost” was called “The Economist,” and the series is continuing on its trajectory of pure awesomeness. I genuinely feel bad for the people who’ve given up on the show, because I feel like my patience has paid off. They’re doing exactly what I was hoping they’d do, but better than I imagined they’d…
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Literacy 2008: Book 3: Jingo
Book Jingo by Terry Pratchett In a series 21st in the series of Discworld books. Synopsis The lost island of Leshp suddenly rises in the middle of the ocean, sparking a war between the nations of Ankh-Morpork and Klatch over ownership of the new land. Sam Vimes and the rest of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch…
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You have 21 years to comply
I couldn’t tell you exactly why I never got around to seeing RoboCop until tonight. I vaguely remember at the time being scared off by stories of how ultra-violent it was. Later, I just dismissed it as being another 80s action movie. After that, I put it in the same category as Total Recall —…
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Confirmed Awesome
Thursday’s episode of “Lost” was called “Confirmed Dead” and correct me if I’m wrong, but by my count it had (spoilers!): Four new characters with immediate flashbacks An irritable Asian ghostbuster who uses a dustbuster The sunken, decaying corpse of Greg Grunberg A through-the-body bullet wound with a tie-in to Locke’s continuity Three cases of…
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Literacy 2008: Book 2: Old Man’s War
Book Old Man’s War by John Scalzi Recommended by Wil Wheaton, plus dozens of commenters on half the blogs I read (including John Scalzi’s own blog). Disclaimer I have read very little science fiction (Douglas Adams and Star Wars novelizations don’t count). I’ve read none of Robert Heinlein, who is mentioned in almost every review…
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Earnest Goes to Dublin
The way I see it, there’s two different groups of people who wouldn’t be completely bowled over by the movie Once: Musicians living in Dublin, who wouldn’t see what the big deal is, and Unholy creatures cursed to walk the earth for eternity after having their souls ripped from their rotting corpses. I’d been hearing…
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Literacy 2008: Book 1: The Road
Book The Road by Cormac McCarthy Selling Points Oprah liked it! (And it won a Pulitzer Prize, too.) But look! Oprah! Disclaimer I tried to be open-minded and objective while I was reading this book, but I was definitely prejudiced against it from the start, because of all the hype and because of how much…
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Suspenders of the Lost Disbelief
Last night I went to see Cloverfield again. Surprisingly, it’s still as good the second time, and I highly recommend seeing it in Digital Projection if possible, because the clear picture and better sound system make it awesome. (Incidentally, if you’re interested in all the backstory and alternate-reality game stuff surrounding Cloverfield, there’s a wiki…
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Candid Gamera
I hope nobody else has used that title to talk about Cloverfield, because I’m inordinately proud of it. This movie is definitely one that benefits from knowing as little as possible about it going in, so if you’re interested in it, I recommend seeing it soon and avoiding trailers and reviews. I’ll just say that…
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Literacy 2008: Exhibition Round 1: Fox Bunny Funny
I’m not including comic books in my meager 26-book challenge for the year — not because they’re not art or they’re not as worthy, but simply because I already read 26 comic books a year. But I still like spouting off my opinions about things, so they’ll go into the exhibition rounds. Book Fox Bunny…