movies

“Are you aware of an impending attack on the planet Earth?”

A quiet Sunday. I finished reading all of the stories still sitting in the Kaleidotrope slush pile, which is something of a minor miracle. I haven’t sent out acceptances or rejection letters to everybody just yet, but that should be finished by tomorrow. I started putting together a spreadsheet of future issues, and I’m easily into April 2012. So let’s hope Roland Emmerich and John Cusack were wrong, for everybody’s sake.

Meanwhile, I watched The Day the Earth Stood Still. It was okay, more impressive in its special effects than its story. I’ve never seen the original, though generally I hear it’s better.

Other than that? Thoroughly failed to finish this week’s New York Times crossword puzzle. Though the night’s not over just yet, so we’ll see.

“Lousy times make lousy people.”

A little reading, a little writing, not enough of either, but a decent Saturday all around.

I capped it by watching Survival of the Dead, George Romero’s latest zombie movie, which was…well, disappointing. There are some good moments, though they come mostly in the beginning, and I don’t think Romero should ever be encouraged to use CGI again. Ultimately, I think I liked it less than Diary of the Dead, which I didn’t like all that much. This probably hangs together better as a story, but it’s not exactly a good or believable story, and it does feel like Romero going through the motions.

Wednesday various

Tuesday various

Thursday various

  • John Scalzi on finding the time to write:

    So: Do you want to write or don’t you? If your answer is “yes, but,” then here’s a small editing tip: what you’re doing is using six letters and two words to say “no.” And that’s fine. Just don’t kid yourself as to what “yes, but” means.

  • Janet Potter on the work of Stieg Laarson:

    Which is why, in the end, my problem with the Millennium trilogy is not its genre, or its plot, or its characters. It’s the fact that the bestselling books in the world are poorly written, erotic fan fiction that a man wrote about himself. [via]

  • Roger Ebert on the state of the nation:

    The time is here for responsible Americans to put up or shut up. I refer specifically to those who have credibility among the guileless and credulous citizens who have been infected with notions so carefully nurtured. We cannot afford to allow the next election to proceed under a cloud of falsehood and delusion.

  • Nancy Kress on bad movies:

    When you fall asleep at a movie and begin to snore, that constitutes a review. When no one around you goes “shhhh,” that constitutes another.

  • And finally, the CERN Choir on particle physics [via]: