An almost obligatory post, but I’ll keep it short. Ledger’s Joker is a brilliant gene-splicing of Alex from A Clockwork Orange and Forrest Gump - all that energy with an complete child-like lack of impulse control. He’s that kid who sets your dog on fire, finds it hilarious, and quickly moves on to [...]
There’s a comedy coming out called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead, about a guy directing a Hamlet adaptation to the horror genre, written by a vampire. Just in case you thought that the Gary Oldman movie and Shadow of the Vampire weren’t meta enough.
Here’s the trailer.
So what have I been up to? Working. A lot. Getting a regular dose of Wii with Vero. And reading. A lot.
One of the books I’ve recently gone through is The Medici Effect, also available as free PDF from the author’s site.
I’m glad I managed to fight the impulse [...]
I’m reading Matt Mason’s The Pirate’s Dilemma, one of those hip this-changes-everything books, this time detailing how remix culture and digital technology is forcing the market to either adapt and compete with those it labels as pirates for modifying their intellecutual property, or die attempting to fight a distributed, faceless enemy that in many cases [...]
I’ve fallen off the wagon and ordered the last four volumes of Death Note.
As for Y: The Last Man, I’m waiting for the series to play out before continuing to get the books. They read too quickly, and I keep having the distinct feeling that Vaughan is pretty much guessing as he goes. [...]
Michael Abrash once pointed out that the really brilliant science fiction authors don’t just imagine the gadget - they foresee how the gadget will change society. I’ve found this ability to envision society-sweeping changes appears in visionary writers even when they might get the exact technology wrong.
For example on The Accomplice, one [...]
It just has to be seen to be believed.
A bloody sequel to the excellent Danny Boyle film, this time with too many helicopters and explosions, and apparently focusing more on shoot-the-crazies than character drama. Why the hell can’t they leave well enough alone?
Politics.
That’s the only possible reason why Children of Men, Alfonso Cuarón’s careful examination of where current politics are leading us, is being passed on for any relevant Academy awards while Babel, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s tepid brew of facile conflicts and contrived connections is receiving nominations left and right.
Its characters’ problems do not stem from the [...]
Vero and I recently finished the latest chapter in the comic series Y: The Last Man - Kimono Dragons. I’d spoken of the series before, and kindly referred to it as literary crack. This latest episode doesn’t change that perspective.
I’m now convinced that Vaughan is going nowhere fast, or at least [...]