Month: August 2007

The Friday Random Guess 10:

  1. “Center of the Sun” by Conjure One
    And she sings, “They say the most horrible things.”
  2. “July! July!” by the Decemberists
    And the chickens, how they rattle chicken chains
  3. “Nightswimming” by R.E.M., guessed by Bryan
    I forgot my shirt at the water’s edge
  4. “She Will Have Her Way” by Neil Finn
    I might be old but I’m someone new, she said
  5. “(Just Like) Starting Over” by John Lennon, guessed by Kim
    We have grown, we have grown
  6. “Happy Jack” by the Who, guessed by Betty
    The kids would all sing, he would take the wrong key
  7. “The Soldiering Life” by the Decemberists
    We laid on the mattress and tumbled to sleep
  8. “The Muppet Show Theme,” guessed by Betty
    It’s time to put on makeup
  9. “Sunday Train” by Cracker
    When god banished Lilith from the garden, he gave us Eve, he gave us steam
  10. “Ganja Babe” by Michael Franti & Spearhead
    Vibrate my belly like a bomb in harmony

Here’s what happened last week. This week, best of luck!

I think a lot of the posts here are hyperbole and over-reaction — essentially, “my time is most important and even the most minor inconvenience thereof will not be countenanced!” — but it is really annoying to have a technical problem and not be able to get any updates — or, worse, to be told you can get updates, if you just visit this page over here…that isn’t working. Which is what I currently have with Dreamhost.

Look, I get that stuff happens. Unexpected problems arise, and contingency plans fail. I don’t like it. I don’t like not having access to my e-mail, or my FTP, or my website. I don’t like that e-mail sent to me might be bouncing back — or, worse, might just disappear. And I don’t like that this has been going on for hours. But I get it. Sometimes it happens.

But seriously, something beyond the difficult-to-find, never-updated, uninformative, sometimes-not-there-at-all status announcements would be nice.

Update: Seems to be working now.

Seriously, Bram Stoker’s Way of the Vampire? That might have worked if Bram Stoker had written anything called “Way of the Vampire.” Or if the movie was based, however loosely, on one of his other obscure short stories (like this, or this). Or even if it was some weird direct-to-video sequel of Francis Ford Coppola’s version. But it doesn’t appear to be any of those things. The only thing it appears to be (from its NSFW trailer) is bad. Very, very bad.

It’s also listed in the IMDB as “Van Helsing’s Way of the Vampire,” which at least seems a little more accurate — Abraham Van Helsing is a character — but more like a way of cashing in on the success (such as it was) of Van Helsing.

Are Stoker’s characters all in the public domain now? Because, y’know, if people are looking for an argument against relaxing copyright, I worry that movies like this might be it…

Also of interest, Rhett Giles, who plays Abraham Van Helsing in the movie, plays Jacob Van Helsing in Dracula’s Curse (aka Bram Stoker’s Dracula’s Curse), which doesn’t appear to be at all related to Way.

Megan McArdle:

Yet in the Potter books, the costs and limits are too often arbitrary. A patronus charm, for example, is awfully difficult – until Rowling wants a stirring scene in which Harry pulls together an intrepid band of students to Fight the Power, whereupon it becomes simple enough to be taught by an inexperienced fifteen year old. Rowling can only do this because it’s thoroughly unclear how magic power is acquired. It seems hard to credit academic labour, when spells are one or two words; and anyway, if that were the determinant, Hermione Granger would be a better wizard than Harry. But if it’s something akin to athletic skill, why is it taught at rows of desks? And why aren’t students worn out after practicing spells?

{snip}

Perhaps, as some friends have argued, I am expecting too much from a children’s book. But I don’t think that is right. Children are great systemisers, which is why they watch the same shows and read the same books over and over again: they are trying to put all the details together into a coherent picture. “I could do things no one else could do!” is a great thrill; but so is “I know how this works”. You can’t say that about Harry Potter, because Rowling doesn’t seem to know herself. To the extent that there is any system at all, it is the meanest sort of Victoriana, the fantasy world of a child Herbert Spencer. There is a hereditary aristocracy of talent, and I am secretly at its apex. There is an elite school almost nobody can go to, and I am one of the chosen. People fall quite neatly into the categories of good, bad, or clueless, we are the good ones who get to run things in the end. That’s powerful fantasy stuff, which is why it’s so common.

Via Gerry Canavan.

She’s not wrong. There are considerable charms to the Harry Potter books, but as an internally consistent and fully realized world, they do fall a little short.