movies

Nomaggedon

I edited a few stories for Kaleidotrope‘s next issue today, thankfully none requiring too many rewrites. As a general rule, I don’t accept stories that need extensive revisions — if it feels like a first draft, I’ll let the author know, politely reject the story, and hope they’ll submit again when it’s rewritten. But even the best story can use a good copyedit and proofreading. Otherwise, I’m not doing my job, and then why am I even bothering? I’m actually pretty booked with material for the next few issues, with some stories accepted a while ago that may be pushed back until October. If I had the time, money, and resources, I might consider putting out a third issue a year.

Beyond that, it was a pretty uneventful day. Really cold, though the so-called Snowmageddon passed us by almost entirely, except for a very light dusting before noon. You almost wouldn’t know it had snowed at all, looking out the window now. It’s amazing to see just how much snow landed only a few miles away. My sister in Maryland got about two feet, so it’s probably good we picked last week, despite the bad weather then, to visit for her birthday.

This evening, I watched The Hurt Locker. I don’t know that it was the best movie of 2009, but I enjoyed it so much more than Avatar, the other top favorite for this year’s Oscar. It’s a pretty intense movie (something I don’t think Avatar ever really is), and a dark character study. I’d definitely recommend it.

And that, as they say, is that.

Wednesday various

  • This could be interesting: apparently Redbox is looking to install DVD rental kiosks at libraries. As a librarian at the link above writes:

    Unfortunately I think Redbox will only target libraries in large cities and wouldn’t bother with a small town like mine. It would be a great service to the community, but probably not enough profit to make it interesting for them.

    Where it could do some good — that is, by generating foot traffic and providing DVDs to libraries that couldn’t otherwise afford them — Redbox likely won’t be interested, but will instead focus on locations where they might actually do some harm — by charging for what are now free rentals, and by sharing only a tiny percentage of that charge with the libraries. If nothing else, though, I think it suggests that Redbox understands the precariousness of its existence; as online streaming becomes the dominant industry model, it will need to seek out more and new rental locations to survive.

  • There are two ways to look at this: the first, “Obama cancels moon mission,” makes for a quick and easy soundbite. But the second, “Obama scraps Bush’s wildly empty promise and redirects funding to more important areas” is probably more accurate. Still, it’s a shame we’re not going back to the moon any time in the near future.
  • I’m not sure all of the titles on the Oddest Book Title of the Year award longlist are really that odd, but what library would be complete without Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes, Map-based Comparative Genomics in Legumes, or Planet Asthma: Art and Acitivty Book?
  • An interesting article by A.O. Scott on Smoking in ‘Avatar’ and the Limits of Boundaries on Ratings.
  • And finally, there have got to be easier ways to get around New York [via]:

Tuesday various

  • Anybody wanna chip in together and buy Miramax?

  • I mean, I’d be happy to write Errol Morris another letter like this if you think it would help. (I love how Weinstein asks Morris for casting suggestions to play himself.)

  • Well that’s just weird: Barack Obama and Scott Brown are cousins. [via]

  • Texas bans a children’s book because they thought it was written by a Marxist. Not only is that pretty dumb, they were also wrong. [via]

  • And finally, are there aliens already among us? Inside us?

    Frank Drake, who conducted the first organized search for alien radio signals in 1960, said that the Earth — which used to pump out a loud tangle of radio waves, television signals and other radiation — has been steadily getting quieter as its communications technology improves.

    Drake cited the switch from analogue to digital television — which uses a far weaker signal — and the fact that much more communications traffic is now relayed by satellites and fiber optic cables, limiting its leakage into outer space.

    “Very soon we will become very undetectable,” he said. If similar changes are taking place in other technologically advanced societies, then the search for them “will be much more difficult than we imagined.” [via]

Monday various

  • Sad to learn that author Kage Baker passed away from cancer over the weekend.
  • Not terribly surprised to learn that Sarah Palin’s political action committee spent more money buying her book than on, well, political action.
  • Very surprised to learn that packs of wild beagles are terrorizing the east end of Long Island.
  • Impressed by James Cameron’s letter to H.R. Giger’s agent about why Cameron didn’t involve Giger in the design and filming of Aliens. Where’s this kind of honest humility gone in the James Cameron of today?
  • And finally, very impressed by Chameleon Circuit, who put out some of the best Doctor Who-themed music I’ve ever heard. That might sound like I’m damning them with faint praise, to some of you, but I think these are really neat songs. One of them easily wound up on my January music mix. [via]

Thursday various

  • I was sad to see that J.D. Salinger had passed away. I think John Hodgman said it best: “I prefer to think JD Salinger has just decided to become extra reclusive.”
  • I’m much more sad to hear the terrible news about Kage Baker, who has apparently lost her battle with cancer and has only a few weeks to live. I haven’t read a lot of Baker’s books — just the first two in her Company series — but she’s a real gifted talent taken much too soon.
  • Today in banning: first, a Wisconsin jail bans Dungeons & Dragons:

    Singer was told by prison officials that he could not keep the materials because Dungeons & Dragons “promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling,” according to the ruling. The prison later developed a more comprehensive policy against all types of fantasy games, the court said. [via]

    And a California school district bans the dictionary. [via]

  • In much happier news, a story of a Haitian man rescued from beaneath the rubble 11 days after the earthquake — “and hours after the government declared search and rescue operations to be officially over.”
  • And finally, Zack Handlen watches the horror movie Orphan so the rest of us don’t have to:

    …just playing creepy music and panning over a room isn’t creating mood, it’s giving the production designer a clip reel…