- Netflix wants to know: How often do you watch racism like Mark Twain? This may be Photoshopped — Netflix apparently thinks so — but it’s still amusing.
- Speaking of movies (in a roundabout way), Roger Ebert shares some thoughts on 3D from Oscar-winning film editor and sound designer Walter Murch. It’s an interesting read, particularly for Murch’s contention that 3D simply can’t work, from an evolutionary standpoint. Ebert gets a lot of flack for not liking 3D, or for continuing to express his dislike for the effect, but I don’t think he’s wrong. Even in the handful of recent films that I thought used 3D reasonably well, and to the max of its potential — like Avatar and Coraline — didn’t benefit enough from the process to make the overall experience worth it.
- So George Lucas doesn’t believe the world is going to end in 2012. Good to know. I’ll admit to being amused by the Lucasfilm rep’s response.
- Warren Ellis on naming characters:
I tend to look for a name, particularly with protagonists, that somehow strikes sparks off elements of the character….Or not. You can easily reverse that out.
- And finally, a planet where apes evolved from men?! A British gorilla has learned to walk upright. [via]
news
Monday various
- Man admits mailing hundreds of tarantulas. Why do I feel like this is just a weird viral marketing campaign for the new Spider-Man musical? [via]
- Gail Collins in the New York Times on why we won’t miss having Joe Lieberman to kick around anymore:
He will leave behind a long list of achievements, from helping to consolidate the nation’s intelligence gathering services in a way that appears to make it more difficult to gather intelligence, to threatening to filibuster the health care reform act until it had been watered down to suit his own high principles.
- Well this is slightly disturbing to learn about Manhattan’s restaurants:
“The data suggests that when you visit an A-rated restaurant, the odds are that it barely made the grade,” he writes.
Related: state-by-state report cards on health department response to foodborne illness.
- Al Franken makes an unlikely friend in the new Senate. This is that “strange bedfellows” business I keep hearing about, right?
- And finally, Stephen Colbert on Sarah Palin:
The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Mika Brzezinski Experiences Palin Fatigue Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive
Wednesday various
- When defending someone’s horribly poor choice of words, it’s probably a good idea to choose your own words a lot more carefully than this. I suppose we should be grateful the Washington Times didn’t suggest we look for a “Final Solution” to Sarah Palin’s recent troubles. [via]
- I have mixed feelings about writing contests in general, particularly ones with entry fees. I took part in this year’s Geist Postcard Story Contest, for instance, since there’s not a lot else to do with a story that short, and the fee a) goes towards a subscription and b) helps out a really good magazine. But, in general, I tend to think money should flow towards the writer, and any story worthy of winning a contest should also be worthy of getting paid something for. (Obviously “money” and “paid” can mean a number of different things here, from actual cash to contributor copies to your name printed somewhere. It’s the principle of the thing.)
But I absolutely think it’s writing contests like this that give the reputable ones a bad name, that leave me with my mixed feelings in the first place. Seriously, writer beware.
- Tasha Robinson and Keith Phipps have an interesting discussion about which is worse in popular culture: blind, overenthusiastic hyperbole…or bland, unengaged apathy.
- While A.O. Scott puts the lie to the notion that critics represent some kind of anti-populist elite:
Speaking personally, but also out of a deep and longstanding engagement with the history and procedures of my profession, I have to say that the goal of criticism has never been to control or reflect the public taste — neither thing is possible — but rather the simpler (but also infinitely difficult) work of analyzing and evaluating works of art as honestly and independently as possible….There is a cultural elite, in America, which tries its utmost to manipulate the habits and tastes of consumers. It consists of the corporations who sell nearly everything with the possible exception of classical music and conceptual arts, and while its methods include some of the publicity-driven hype that finds its way into newspapers, magazines and other traditional media, its main tool is not criticism but marketing.
False populism, this idea that some snobs in their ivory towers don’t want you to have any fun — or, worse, want to ram their culture, their ideals down your throat — well, that’s sort of what’s given us people like Sarah Palin, isn’t it?
- And finally, this is how rumors get started: Twitter in a panic over Oxford Circus ‘gunman’. A “gunman” invented out of whole cloth over Twitter, it should be said. See the course of the brief panic charted here. [via]
Wednesday various
- The real real Ghostbusters?
- You know what you need to do with the endearingly low-key, sleeper-hit of a musical? Turn it into a big-budget Broadway spectacle.
- “Kazran, trust me, it’s this or go to your room and design a new kind of screwdriver.” The sonic screwdriver for the Nintendo Wii. That seals it, I’m buying one.
- Remember that Udo Kier interview I linked to last week? Here’s audio of his absolute best line.
- And finally, octopuses or octopi? [via]
Thursday various
- A fascinating story about a young writer who disappeared. Although it’s arguably a story that has precious little to do with her having been a child prodigy and more the difficult circumstances of her life following her parents’ divorce. [via]
- With New York bracing for more snow tomorrow, I think it needs to be said again: Bloomberg and the rest of the city really botched it two weeks ago. [via]
- Meanwhile, New Jersey wants to seize your unused gift cards. I honestly don’t know enough about how gift cards work to know whether or not this is a terrible idea, but they’ve already been struck down in court. I’ve always been led to believe that stores view unused gift cards as essentially free money — they get the giver’s cash, but then never have to part with merchandise in exchange — but again, the bare-bones economics might be different. [via]
- Meanwhile, Virginia revokes what may be the greatest license plate ever. Won’t somebody think of not eating the children? [via]
- And finally, Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness. A fascinating article — and I think not just to folks like me who happen to work in the field of mental health publishing — about the battles being fought over the forthcoming DSM-5.This exchange is particularly revealing:
I recently asked a former president of the APA how he used the DSM in his daily work. He told me his secretary had just asked him for a diagnosis on a patient he’d been seeing for a couple of months so that she could bill the insurance company. “I hadn’t really formulated it,†he told me. He consulted the DSM-IV and concluded that the patient had obsessive-compulsive disorder.
“Did it change the way you treated her?†I asked, noting that he’d worked with her for quite a while without naming what she had.
“No.â€
“So what would you say was the value of the diagnosis?â€
“I got paid.†[via]
