Month: December 2007

The 20 Ugliest Colleges in the USA, via Cynical-C. Of these, I’ve only ever visited the University of Maryland, College Park, and two of the SUNY schools (Albany and Binghamton). Maryland actually offered me a couple of small scholarships to attend, but, as the fates would have it, I opted for Penn State. I’m actually a little surprised not to see my alma mater on the list. I’ve joked, on more than one occasion, that Penn State has a really good architectural school…but apparently none of its alum ever come back to design the university’s buildings. Which, gazing at some of the alternatives, is probably unfair. I actually grew to quite like the University Park campus — as an English major, lord knows you see just about every corner of it — and it could certainly be uglier.

In the weeks before the Tin Man miniseries premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel, I kept seeing these stories on their news service about how the cast members all praised their co-stars. “A joy to work with.” “Really committed to the part.” That sort of thing.

Now I see that that’s because there’s little else to praise about it. I’m not surprised to learn that some of the same people (and sets) were used in Flash Gordon. They both carry around the same quality of suck.

I think it might have been better if it had adhered a little more (or less) closely to the original Wizard of Oz story. Its best moments are those that play like a twisted spin on L. Frank Baum’s story…or, alternately, those moments that strike out completely and wholly on their own.

Unfortunately, most of what I’ve seen so far has been more along the lines of bad puns and too-cutesy references. (Like “the O.Z.” for Oz. Or “D.G.” instead of Dorothy.) What should have been a remake or sequel ends up as some weird, misbegotten pastiche.

In all fairness, I’ve only seen the first part so far. And some of the acting isn’t half bad, actually — even if Zooey Deschanel does seem a little miscast. (I usually like her, but what her IMDB profile calls “her distinctive acting style” is a little grating here.) I’m just not sure I can bring myself to watch the rest.

Update — 12/9/07: I just finished watching Part II. Here it actually got a little interesting, albeit only near the very end. There’s an intriguing story lurking somewhere in there for Kathleen Robertson’s character, Azkadellia. Alas, it’s hidden beneath a lot of bad writing and weak, pointless references to The Wizard of Oz. (“Toto” is actually “tutor”? Uh huh.) I guess I’m committed to finishing this now, and I do have the last part sitting on the DVR, but my earlier opinion stands.

Hopefully you won’t notice too many problems as I switch this weblog over to WordPress. I think most of the heavy lifting has been accomplished, and now it’s largely just a matter of tinkering with the design and layout until I get something that I like. Hopefully this will help resolve your (and my) increasing issues with Blogger, but please let me know if something looks funny, doesn’t work, or needs to be fixed.

It’s still Friday somewhere, right?

This evening, I attended a live performance of A Prairie Home Companion, which was a lot of fun, but also really long. Tonight was just the dress rehearsal for tomorrow evening’s radio performance, but it was still the full three-hour show. And it came at the tail end of a pretty busy day, with a lot of work squeezed into a few less hours than usual because of our company holiday party. Which is where I was for the three hours before I walked over and met my parents for the show. I might have more to say about it when I’m not so tired, but here’s the basics: it really was a lot of fun. It is, however, designed as a radio show and maybe works better that way. That said, Odetta was pretty phenomenal.

Anyway, for now, the Friday Random Guess 10, because this blog exists mainly as weak excuse to post this every week. And so, if I didn’t, the world could very well end.

  1. I serenade the walls
  2. Don’t give me songs
  3. And you were not a dot dot dot
  4. I will not be afraid of women
  5. There were twenty-seven companies of female Marines
  6. Kalico, Kahlia, come tell me the news
  7. You have slipped from beneath me like a false and nervous squid
  8. There’s an army on the dance floor
  9. Why sing a melody as a soliloquy
  10. My rehearsals last for hours and hours

Guess the lyric, win no prize! And, as always, good luck!

Here’s why I don’t think I’ll be attending World Fantasy next year after all: basically, it’s the money.

It’s $125 to register, plus $50 if I want to attend the awards banquet. Then the hotel is $165 a night, which for three nights translates into roughly $500. Assuming I can even get into the convention hotel at this point. Just getting a passport would cost me $97. And the flight…well, I may be able to score a break here, if I can make use of my father’s Delta Sky Miles. I don’t know what sort of discount, exactly, I could swing…but even if somehow my flight is effectively, miraculously, $0…I’m still out of pocket close to $800. Plus transportation to and from the airport, incidentals, and anything I buy while in Calgary. I can fiddle with that number a little — stay only two nights, skip the banquet, etc. — but not enough to really bring it down to something I can easily afford. Especially not if I plan to attend this year’s Readercon in July and schedule that trip to Los Angeles I’ve been planning in September.

So while I’ve been seriously tempted by the idea, I just don’t see how I can afford it.