- I’m a little troubled by Canada’s science minister, who won’t confirm or deny if he believes in evolution on religious grounds. [via]
- Do you remember arcades? Apparently, kids these days don’t know what they were like. I feel old. [via]
- Charlie Brown as anime. This is pretty damn terrific. I also love this comics archetype times table. Ack! Zombie platypus! [via]
- You’ve no doubt heard by now that the Sci-Fi Channel is changing its name. I can’t really build up any excitement one way or another about this — much like with a lot of their programming lately — but I do think it’s worth noting that, as John Scalzi points out, their new name “Syfy” is a term used for veneral disease in Poland.
- I really like Dan Meth’s Series Of Pop-Cultural Charts, including the sitcom map of the United States and New York. (I work somewhere around 30 Rock and My Two Dads.) You know the scary thing, though? There’s not a single entry in his Sitcom Houses breakdown where I didn’t immediately have an image of the house in my head.
Month: March 2009
There’s no way of knowing
Roger Ebert loved it, but he’s apparently the only one. I have no great desire to see Knowing, but I was amused by A.O. Scott’s NY Times review:
But the odd thing about Mr. Cage in this movie is that even when he is responding to the threat of complete human extinction, you still can’t help feeling that he’s overreacting.
I miss the Nicolas Cage of movies like Matchstick Men and Adaptation.
I was also struck by Scott’s assertion that Cage’s character
is, like most movie dads these days, a widower, stricken with grief and trying to raise a cute, precocious young son…
Maybe I don’t see enough movies, but is this a significant trend?
Friday various
- Ever wonder how your city would fare in a nuclear attack? Wonder no longer. Not since the Baltimore Sun’s Homicide Map have I seen a Google Maps application quite this morbid. [via]
- Sometimes the people you assume are fake on Twitter are real. Like, say, Shaquille O’Neal. Any of my Twitter followers want to organize a meet-up? [via]
- Slave in Jefferson Davis’ home gave Union key secrets. Fascinating. [via]
- You know who these tough economic times might be good for? Board game makers. [via]
- It’s nice to see Scott Tobias take another look at The Way of the Gun, a personal favorite of mine and, I think, a really good, underrated movie.
That’s one way of putting it
Paul Ford on trends in this year’s SXSW music:
The handclap in its organic glory (or simulation thereof) should insert a hopeful note, like a brisk, playful fox-terrier jumping into the middle of the stage. But repeated often enough handclaps are hell. They are the musical equivalent to tiny lizards biting off your eyebrows.
I haven’t even had a chance to dive into any of the music yet.