First of all, have I got a TREASURE TROVE for all of you people with high speed connections. It's the Internet Film Archive, located at http://www.archive.org/movies/. It has an immense library of downloadable short films-- mostly those educational films they showed you in high school, or propaganda films from corporations, and even the Charles Keating-produced "Perversion for Profit" which is a fuckin' SCREAM.
Okay, now to reply to Chris re going to Mars versus the Moon. Frankly, I cannot agree. For one thing, most of the objections you've made to a Moon colony aren't deal-killers, and things like the construction of greenhouses and the like are a lot more feasible than they'd be on Mars.
A manned Mars trip would require fitting out a mission for more than _two years_ in space, there and back-- with no real assurance that the meager resources on Mars would enable anything like a return trip. Consider that a trip to the Moon takes only a few days-- and launching from the Moon requires even _less_ energy than launching from the Earth.
And consider how much energy is expended in simply escaping the gravity wells of the Earth and Mars
Lynn,
Thanks for the tip.
Xanadu,
All is well here, as far as I can tell, but thanks very much for your concern. Alejandro? Ray? You guys lurking? I have co-workers in the area, but they all appear to be accounted for, thank god. For those who are wondering just how bad falling scaffolding can be, here's the Chicago Tribune news story, with photo:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-020309hancock.story?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed
Just goes to show you - always have a will set up.
Regards,
Joseph
Alex Jay, Brian, et al: There are a number of people who are advocating a return to the moon. It seems logical, as one article in Astronomy magazine (I think) said, "it's about time to get more out of our investment in Apollo and return to the moon".
However, I vote for Mars first. There are several reasons. It may be very difficult, and right now impossible, to set up a permanent colony on the Moon. Although there appears to be water at the poles, it would be very difficult to manufacture rocket propellant from the lunar soil, which means that rocket fuel would have to be imported. The lunar environment would make the growing of crops very risky. The crops would need sunlight, which would have to be filtered due to the lack of atmosphere on the lunar surface. The moon has a two-week day-night cyle, and crop plants would need extensive genetic engineering to survive a 14 day long night. The amount of power needed to provide enough artificial light to grow crops would be astronomical. Almost all the food on the Moon would have to be imported. That is, at present, VERY expensive. Then there are solar flares. The radiation from the flares will kill every exposed organism, including crops. You can protect people, but you blot out the sun. It just isn't possible to protect plants from the sun without killing them.
The Moon is better suited for a smaller base for astronomy. The far side of the Moon is the ideal place to position both optical and radio telesopes. The optical scopes would make Hubbell look like a dime store toy.
Mars, on the other hand, has an atmosphere. The carbon dioxide can be combined with a tank full of hydrogen to manufacture methane and liquid oxygen propellant. When an expedition is launched to Mars, there will be a fully fuelled return vehicle waiting for them. The amount of mass launced to Mars is drastically reduced. Also, the atmosphere on Mars will protect crops from solar flares. The water is more plentiful, and the natural resources for sustaining a large, permanent colony are there in abundance.
It takes less DeltaV to accelerate to Mars than to the Moon. Seems strange. But, the spacecraft would be accelerating to Mars even before launch. The boost a vehicle gets from Earth's orbital velocity is considerable. You don't need to decelerate that much, either, since your speed of (I think) 70,000 mph is absolute solar system speed, but much less relative to Mars -- closer to 25,000 mph. Also, the Martian atmosphere allows the use of aerobraking, which saves a lot of fuel. Earth and the Moon are stationary relative to each other, so the rocket engines will have to do all the work to get there.
The infrastructure built to send people to Mars could be scaled down slightly to send humans to the Moon. A larger infrastructure would also make a seemingly pie-in-the sky plan more economical and possible: mining the lunar soil for Helium 3.
Where would the technology come from? Project Apollo and the space shuttle. We'd get that return on investment mentioned earlier.
Chuck
Joseph~ If you scroll to the bottom of the Snopes page, that URL is also listed.
Just an FYI,
L.
Just read about the scaffolding collapse in Chicago - I hope all the Webderlanders and their families are OK...
Xanadu,
I checked, and that URL works just fine in Mac Explorer 5 as well. Thanks!
Joseph
Xanadu,
I checked, and that URL works just fine in Mac Explorer 5 as well. Thanks!
Joseph
Joseph Finn: I split out the frame as a seperate URL - but at least in my browser (mac Navigator 6.2), the new page displays slightly incorrect coloring - here's the URL:
http://www.snopes2.com/toxins/dhmo.htm
Chuck: I am a proud creation of Momma and Papa Xanadu. $1.32, not including tax. ;)
Cindy: Upstate, NY - Livingston Co., south of Rochester. While I'm willing to look at your script - don't expect too much gold. Standing at roughly the same level of experience as you (I have no pro sales - no contest wins), I'm not sure I could provide any valuable feedback. So, given that caveat and if you still wish, feel free to send it along via email.
My Yahoo is stalling on mail-sending, so I came to browse. Saves me getting behind on this board.
P.A.: Good comeback for Lurkie-poo. *laugh* (I was guessing Eric or someone else I know who'd had flame trouble.) Though, I LIKE the name King Lurk. Call me crazy.
Alex J.: I just notepadded your list of comics. Will head for the two local comic places tomorrow to see what's what. Thanks.
and you said:
>Who'da thunk that the one person best suited to chronicle the life of the ultimate woman would have been a gay man?
I don't find that surprising, at all. (I'm naive, remember.) In terms of being male AND being emotional/creative, I think gay men (from what I've observed--hell, look at Olivier) have got the best ride of man, woman or gay.
I was in a store today, noticing beefcake. (The new Superman is a supermodel, did you know that? Yeesh. Heh.) It occurs to me: We're not getting beefcake in the media for the ladies, HELL, we're now getting beefcake..for the gay men. What say you?
Heather
Just for the hell of it, I decided to see if Snopes.com (the Urban Legends Reference Pages) had anything on the original authorship of dihydrogen monoxide, and was amused to see that a junior-high student won an Idaho science-far prize by testing people's gullibility, using a variation of that essay. I can't give you a direct link, as Snopes uses an annoying frame setup, but go to the site and search for monoxide and it'll pop right up.
Regards,
Joseph
Little Washu: The "dihydrogen monoxide" routine was a piece of humor that's circulated on the Web for a long time. Basically, all of the dangers of H2O are, in fact, accurate-- its gaseous state can burn you, if you inhale it you can die, etc. But it's just _water_. Just do a Google search on the term.
Alex: Thanks for the comment on the Penn housing program. I, for one, think it's a terrific idea, but that is _heavily_ biased by the fact that I could, and did, take advantage of it. If I wasn't able to take advantage, I'd be pretty resentful... but I was, so THERE.
But as you said, Penn's plans haven't always been terrific-- they've tended to try to buy up as much business real estate around the area, and then charge exhorbitant rates for rentals. This has tended to ensure that the only businesses that can thrive are the chain stores that can afford the rents. It'd make much better sense, overall, if Penn provided a local business-development plan to encourage others to start up in the neighborhoods, rather than trying to corner the markets. Happily, there are a lot of good local businesses (like Koch's Deli, long may it thrive), and Center City is within walking distance. Still, when people complain about the "mallification," they do have a point.
re: THE GODFATHER
Let's see, ZALUCHI,BARZINI,FORLENZA,TATTAGLIA--
Little Washu: It's just water. But if you substitute "water" for "DHO", you'll see that every statement made in the "alert", while completely accurate, is incredibly biased.
Alex J. Berman: I've read the first two SANDWALK ADVENTURES, and they're every bit as fun as you think. I look forward to the rest of them.
RICK WYATT: I knew you were making a joke, and I was yanking your chain in response. I'm glad that you are familiar with anime and it's positive creations as well as the negative.
As for 'decent stories in anime being adaptations of non-animated material', I'd agree with you there. THE TALE OF GENJI, based on the Murasaki Shikibu novel, is my favourite experience delivered in a two-dimensional format, bar none. And misogyny being common, heck yeah, you've got that right. For every GHOST IN THE SHELL there's a pile of doggie turd like LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND. Eeeeeyuuuuuuhhhhh....
Little Washu
Washu: Don't assume because I make a joke about anime that I am clueless of the medium. I didn't call it japanimation, did I? However, with notable exceptions (such as GHOST IN THE SHELL or about 6 of the episodes of COWBOY BEBOP) it's in general filled with gaping plot holes, poorly-written dialogue, and the worst sort of cheescake (if not outright misogyny) imaginable. It is undoubtedly a beautiful art form, and full of wonderful and developed characterization, but it's fundamentally flawed in my opinion.
I'm the sort that thinks that how well a story is told is the one criteria that crosses all media. In addition, most of the decent stories told in anime are adaptations of non-animated material (even if it's one of the better mangas being adapted).
I'd be happy to discuss this further in another forum; I think the topic has been already beaten to death here. This post was made purely to indicate I do have an INFORMED opinion on the subject. I felt that was necessary given the place.
Alex,
You're exactly right on the commingling on Italian and Jewish mobs, but it just seems odd that the Fifth Family is never mentioned by name in "The Godfather." Especially since the Five Families all appear to be classic Mafia, which would make it impossible for Moe Greene to actually be head (rep, sure - head, no).
Hell, hold on. I'm going to pop the DVD in right now and chcek out the boardroom scene (did you guys know that was filmed at the Federal Reserve in New York?)
Well, that wasn't very helpful. Unless Solozzo was one of the Five Families, I'm stumped.
But, I'm reminded. There's a fine book on the Jewish mob that came out a few years back, titled "Tough Jews." Really good look at the history.
Regards,
Joseph
Hello, everyone.
For the first time in a long time I had a completely sleepless night, thanks to a particularly nasty flu. I think I managed to get two and a 1/2 hours of sleep after 7:00, so I'm still feeling a little woozy.
Having a flu is hell on earth. Your entire body is shaking from cold chills, and I was curled up in an embryonic position in my bed in a desperate attempt to get warm. My head was pounding, and everything ached terribly. Even worse, on more than one occasion I had to use the bathroom...but I didn't want to get out of the bed. I was immoblizied with aches and cold spells, and the slightest movement would be sheer agony.
I took some Tylenol nighttime relief, and that DID lighten the pain a little bit...still couldn't sleep a wink. Right now I have these horrible coughs that seem to be tearing out my lungs and throat. The best cure for the flu, I've found, is a long, VERY long time in a hot shower. Makes you feel like a god.
BRAIN SIANO and XANADU: Not to be the monkey in the middle here, but I'm just discovering this 'dihydrogen monoxide' conroversy myself, thanks to your posts. Colourless, odourless, dangerous chemical? Or just water? I've checked up several sources already, and they seem to strangely conflict with one another. Will someone clear me up on this? I'd be grateful.
ALEX JAY BERMAN: Well, I guess THAT post killed the thread on female superheroes begun by Heather. Yowzers.
RICK WYATT: "The subsequent posts were fine, tongue firmly planted in cheek, with the exception that they generated further discussion of anime as an art form -- for which you should be tarred, feathered, and possibly set on fire."
Oh, you poor man. I'm so sorry that you are entirely clueless of a medium that excels in the art form more than anything ever broadcasted on Western television. It's okay. It's not your fault. I don't blame you.
Little Washu
Thank you Brian, for commenting on the "DHO" story, I was hoping someone would. I agree with most of your points, (except the "lying" part – DiHydrogen Oxide IS the chemical name for water – no one needed to "invent" it for the purposes of the story.)
But my purpose for choosing that particular anecdote at this particular time is to make a slightly different point.
And that point is this: "Don't trust 'metasources' for your facts". It is pathetically easy to use completely truthful data, carefully presented, to arrive at any pre-determined conclusion. (Re: The "dangers" of "DHO". Nobody can dispute the facts as presented – they are the truth.)
By using confusing or unclear technical terms – using language the already carries a significant bias in common usage, or even by completely ignoring data that conflicts with the theory being proposed – writers can make any point they wish – even if it's completely at odds with "reality".
It's fine for a politically motivated publication/personage to sound the clarion call – to awaken their readers to a potential danger. But I suggest, rather than using their facts, or accepting their conclusion without question – the reader should actively seek out other sources – especially those which are at odds with your position. It is only after you can satisfactorily answer all the points the opposition brings up that you can be confident in your POV on the subject. (By satisfactorily – I mean your personal satisfaction – not necessarily the world's.)
It's great to use Chomsky, or The Nation, or Limbaugh, or The National Review as a starting point for your thinking, but please – use it as a springboard only – come to your own conclusions. Once you're there – you can defend your conclusions against all comers.
This is Frank's primary failing. He spouts "the party line", but when objections are brought up that he can't answer, he flounders – he's done no independent research, and thus is blindsided by factual rebuttle. (Personally, I think Frank enjoys stirring up the hornet's nest for it's own sake - independent of his politics.)
Frank: Don't worry about NASA's plutonium giving you glow-in-the-dark zits – Radon is the radioactive substance that's gonna get you. It's far more abundant, and it occurs naturally everywhere.
JAY: Though I understand your trepidation, I offer my congratulations and wish you all the very best.
GODFADDA: As for the Fifth Family being repped by a Jewish guy--well, there was a lot of Jewish and Italian commingling in the Thirties: Lepke Buchalter, Meyer Lansky, and Bugsy Siegel DID run with Lucky Luciano and Al Anastasia, after all.
BRIAN: I hear a lot of Penn students complaining about "McPenntrification", and while the University has a lot to answer for where its handling of real estate is concerned (especially whoring out the school's coffers to Whartonites at the expense of the other disciplines and its screwing of many of the businesses around campus), the employee housing program was perhaps the best idea they've ever had, in my opinion.
College has become a place where bitching about Those in Power--as you're studying so that you can soon BECOME one of of Those in Power--is de rigeur.
Actually, Alex, I think I'm more on the leftish end of things than "liberal." But we're definitely both space fans, and that's one of the reasons why I decided to get back into SF in a big way. I'd spent a lot of time paying attention to politics, and while it's all very important, it does tend to make one see things in a Frank Churchish way-- technology's always tarnished by power interests, new breakthroughs are tragedies because the resources weren't used for equality or justice, even simple joys are merely means of "distraction" encouraged by the seemingly omnipotent corporate power structure. (Just so we're clear-- the right wing is _far_ worse on these things. They always are.)
Lemme give y'all an example from my own life. I may have mentioned this before, so forgive me if this is redundant. When I was working at the University of Pennsylvania, they started a program to get employees to buy houses in West Philadelphia. Low financing, big cash incentives, greater police presence, the whole lot. This was part of a massive improvement-gentrification program, which has included building a new elemantary school to be co-run by Penn, new supermarkets, new lighting, etc. I wasted no time in taking advantage of this, and now I'm a homeowner.
But West Philly is basically an academic suburb, so the politics tend to be liberal-left, with a largeish slacker-anarchist contigent. There's been a few odd groups here and there as well; there wa sa bunch of white people calling itself the Uhuru Solidarity Committee, which busied itself posting flyers about how the FBI's COINTELPRO program was waging war on the black community. (This was in 1989.) Not exactly typical, but it was there.
Well, the Penn program came under a LOT of fire from a few quarters here and there. It was suddenly cultural imperialism, "designed" to run the activist element out of town, and to impose "surburban white values on the community." (Never mind that a LOT of the community consisted of white Penn, Drexel and Temple students, and the rest were academics.) Someone worked up the broken-backed phrase "McPenntrification" to characterize the program, which gives you an idea of how imaginative the opposition was.
Now, property values have nearly doubled in the last four years. This is bad because a lot of people can't afford the rents any more. (Many are migrating further westward, which means that the _real_ black community out there will soon be complaining about all these slacker fuckheads moving in.) While this is bad even for friends of mine, it's been great for me, because my house has doubled in value, and the neighborhood's become nicer.
But the complaints from the "McPenntrification" crowd were extremely familiar to me, and they rang even more hollowly than before. I knew most of the people; I knew that their idea of authentic urban culture was rotting floorboards, bongwater spills, and crack dealers conveniently nearby. (And most of'em smoked cigs like crazy-- affected politics spouted between puffs of Helms Campaign Contributions kind of made them look even more ridiculous.)
What did these people want the world to be like? After all, wouldn't we all like to live in a neighborhood with decent housing and schooling? It's one thing to understand the injustice of NAFTA and GATT... but it's another to demand that others live in squalor in order to satisfy some half-conceived idea of urban authenticity and "the community." Christ, if we were talking about the Mississippi Delta in the 1960s, these people'd probably argue that dysentry, illiteracy, hard sharecropping labor and racial prejudice were elements of an "authentic" lifestyle that shouldn't be disrupted by the arrogance of Civil Rights activists.
It's a very cheerless outlook, overall. (Not as bad as the right-wing's paranoia over gays, blacks, women, Political Correctness, and doubts about the wonders of capitalism, however.)
You know, when I made my comments about the NEA and NASA, I kinda _knew_ that Frank'd miss the point.
Just so everyone's clear, what I wrote was:
"Personally, if I was told to cut a federal program, and the only choices I had were NASA and the National Endowment for the Arts, I'd cut the NEA in a heartbeat. But, since the choice is more wide-ranging, I'd fund'em both and a LOT more at the expense of the Pentagon."
I _thought_ this was pretty clear.
So, you want further proof that our Attorney General is the real nutcase in the government? Take a look here:
http://www.cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html
Seriously, it's worth the download time. He wrote it all himself!
Alex,
A fine list, my friend. I just have one point of contention: as far as I can tell (and I'm a monthly reader), "Strangers in Paradise" has not gone through a reboot. Rather, it's been a "what-if" story. Future issues may prove me wrong - and hey, there's a new issue coming up on Wednesday that may solve the confusion.
Oh, and I'd add to your list "Birds of Prey." But I've blathered on enough about that comic lately.
And personally, I like that Jessica Jones doesn't have the baggafe of being the previous Spider-Woman. Leaves Bendis with more room to work.
Regards,
Joseph
Let me just second what Brian said about addressing FACTS rather than any perceived political bias.
I mean, I'm as liberal as they come, and I'm an absolute spacehound. I raged when they detected polar ice caps on the Moon and then water on Mars, because that opens up the possibility of potable water, which opens up the possibility of permanent stations, colonies, resorts--you name it. It angers me no end that we have not been back to the Moon for almost my entire thirty-year lifetime. We made it to the Moon--the friggin' MOON!--and then abandoned her like a drunken sorority girl at four a.m. after a frat party.
Brian is a liberal (it would appear). I am a liberal. We are no Frank Churches, thank you.
Playing catchup like a one-legged marathoner ...
LYNN: I didn't see David's query to Harlan as being overly personal. Rather, I saw it as one professional to another, asking after a market which the first professional, still something of a tyro, has heretofore not yet explored. Remember, David DOES record books on tape and has done radio voicing for pay ... For all we know, he may be having trouble finding out what royalties he should be getting--and this forum is a relatively quick way to get answers without the hassle of an unsolicited phone call.
I see it as something akin to if I were to ask, say, Ernest Hogan--an infrequent visitor to these climes--how much F&SF (or was it ASIMOV's?) paid for the book review columns he was (is still?) doing for them, my asking based on the fact that I might be sending that magazine or a similar one a proposal for a column. "Pay it forward," goes the saying--sappy, crappy movies aside--and the writers I know hold tightly to this maxim.
Also, I should point out that I actually prefer Scottstyle to Meatstyle: The person who now emerges from Scott's posts seems less forced; less conscious of being onstage. The Scott we now know is a more rounded, human fellow--and the love he holds in his heart for Melissa and the Meatlings just shines through. It's a better Bag of Scott we're now left holding.
P.A.: I do not now, nor have I ever, nor WILL I ever use a fake name, manufactured persona, or anonymous handle. I'd just not me. I don't know if this is because I'm a open kind of guy, or if it's feedback from my junior high days, when I was a mildly pathological liar (Oh, nothing which had consequences; I just told big, if convincing stories--"bubbe meises"--about myself to garner more attention. One day, I just asked myself if I hated myself so much that I needed to invent another Alex Berman out of whole cloth, and I came to the realization that I didn't; that I actually liked myself a lot.). Thing is, what I put out is me. My words are my own (well, except for the two "the"s and the "ergo" I borrowed from Brian Siano), and I would have no other take credit for them. Just the same, I would have no other take lumps for them, either.
Granted, I'm a man. I wholly understand why a woman might want to cloak herself in a veil of anonymity here on the Web--after all, I'm much less likely to be stalked (I have been, but that's immaterial). Then there are some embarassed by their names who use handles as a first step toward making lasting changes in what they are called; that's a little less normal to me, but hey ...
But pseudonyms just aren't me, and they just aren't for me.
(And they're not just for breakfast anymore!)
FRANK CHURCH: NASA and the NEA? Apples and pomegranates. BOTH programs should be funded to the utmost, but funding one in now way takes away from the other. There are many, many, MANY instances of porkbarrelling in the federal budget you would do far better to rail against than one which gives us discoveries, which gives us the basis for new and better consumer products, and, most importantly, which gives us KNOWLEDGE.
In addition, it should be pointed out that art by its very nature costs a lot LESS: You can do art alone in a quiet room; traversing space is somewhat more complicated. Bear in mind, I say this as both a lover of the arts as well as a lover of sciences.
And Pollit's contention, in the article you cited, that she knows no one who cares about the composition of rocks on Mars, saddens me immensely. I simply cannot imagine there being people who have no desire to find out new things, to seek after answers, to LEARN.
(Granted, my own propensity toward knowing as much as I can and my aversion to uncertainty, my inability to leave things at "I don't know"; is why my girlfriend just moved out--I am told--but I can imagine no other way to be.)
And to learn about the Moon, or Mars, or the Crab Nebula, is to learn about the Earth; to learn about our origins and our very selves. Who in their right mind would not, as was noted over the temple of Apollo at Delphi, "Know Thyself"?
HEATHER: You asked for comics with good female characters? Okay; here comes the laundry list. and this list is gonna be LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGG.
(Granted, half my comics reading is superheroics, but most of these are drawn (sorry) from the other half)
To start off, there's WONDER WOMAN. Currently, the series is better than perhaps it's ever been--even better than the Wm. Messner-Loebs-Mike Deodato run; even better than the George Perez run. Never before has Diana been so well-defined; so much a HUMAN person as well as an immortal. Blame for the series' current excellence can be laid squarely at the feet of writer/artist Phil Jimenez, who draws in a realistic, detail-crammed style much like Perez', but whose writing about who people are deep down is what is really driving the book. There has been terror, war, death (of a character who's been around for sixty years!), love, frivolousness, betrayal--and it all smacks of REALITY. Worth a look, as a slide out of pure sooperheroes toward the land of story for story's sake.
Who'da thunk that the one person best suited to chronicle the life of the ultimate woman would have been a gay man?
(And Diana's supposed to lose her virginity in an upcoming issue, for you perverts out there ...)
****************************************************************
ALIAS by current wunderkind Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos is a book about someone who used to be a hero. No, really. Served with the Avengers and everything. Strong. Real strong. Hung with Captain America and all that. Gave it up. Became a private detective. Jessica Jones (it was originally supposed to be Jessica Drew, the Seventies Spider-Woman, but that was nixed by higher-ups) doesn't care about the superhero lifestyle--then why does every case she's been taking lately have to deal with people who wear their underwear outside their clothes? Written in Bendis' trademark staccato, Mamet-like style--and the first of Marvel Comics' adult-themed MAX line--this is a good departure from the norm while still in Capeland.
***************************************************************
(A similar book from Marvel is the upcoming DEADLINE, by Marvel exec-turned-writer Bill Rosemann and artist Guy Davis. It's about a reporter in New York, home of more superheroes than you could shake the Wand of Watoomb at. Still a young reporter, this woman keeps getting stuck covering the "capes." Whom she hates, thinking them elitist little children, using the world as their sandbox. Looks good, but the similarities may hurt it.)
***************************************************************
Similar but different is Bendis' (and Michael Avon Oeming's) POWERS, about two cops who have to work in a precinct (and a world) where superheroes and superheroics are an accepted norm. One is, of course, a spunky woman. At turns funny, exciting, and touching, it's just a great read. And Warren Ellis (playing Warren Ellis) gets horrbly something'ed in issue seven.
****************************************************************
And the last batch of similarity rings in on Alan Moore's and Gene Ha's aforementioned TOP TEN: It's the story of a police precinct in a world where EVERYONE's a superhero. Filled with comics in-jokes yet still riveting as a police procedural, it's well worth your time.
***************************************************************
PROMETHEA is another of Moore's "America's Best Comics Line" (pencilled by artist J.H. Williams) and it's a ... hm. It's the story of ... hm. Okay. It's a reworking of the Eternal Hero(ine) With Many People Behind the Mask motif, it's a sidelong glance at a culturally-shocked culture not too far from our own, it's Wonder Woman/Mary Marvel crossed with a peek behind the magic curtain of reality, an eaxmination of mythology, Kabala, Tarot, Magick, the act of writing and its consequences, Hell, and marketing ... oh, hell; just read it and enjoy.
*****************************************************************
But that's enough superheroics for now.
I truly cannot say enough good things about Jason Lutes' BERLIN. It's a small book chronicling several intertwining characters and stories in 1928-29 Weimar-era Berlin. The reasearch--photo reference, history, et cetera--Lutes has done on this book is amazing, and the character development keeps pace. His previous book JAR OF FOOLS may have been a great study of emotional involvements and downwardly spiralling lives, but BERLIN is his masterpiece. With issue nine coming out soon, it's only a third done--and the first eight were just collected in TPB--so there's time to jump on now.
****************************************************************
Then there are woman-friendly books like Terry Moore (a guy)'s STRANGERS IN PARADISE. SiP is hard to categorize--it's the story of Francine, a woman getting over a mildly abusive relationship and still not quite sure of herself; Katchoo, her best friend, who is deeply in love with her; and David, who is also deeply in love with Francine (or, at times, Katchoo--while I think the series is great, I've never gotten caught up on it). All the main characters are heartbreakingly REAL, yet have secrets they hold deep inside. The troika (and the cast of supporting characters) have gone through a LOT of changes since the title began, and there have been a lot of twists and turns--in fact, Moore just did a controversial quasi-reboot of the series to "give the fans what they want", but it's still engrossing as all hell.
***************************************************************
Gary Spencer Millidge's STRANGEHAVEN is just that--strange. But great. Trying to get away from the doldrums and failures of his life, a British teacher takes a drive down a highway he doesn't know; his car breaks down in the quaint village of Strangehaven.
Where everyone is endearingly weird: The lovely girl with a crush on him and some odd family ties, the neighborhood hippie who maintains he's an alien, the woman who runs the odd little herb store, the outgoing priest with a different way of looking at things, the mermaid, the quasi-Illuminati-crossed-with-the-KKK Knights ... It's very British and very different--and also very absorbing; the place and its characters--and trust me; they're ALL characters--suck you in. I guess an easy precis would be THE PRISONER meets PEYTON PLACE meets TWIN PEAKS.
****************************************************************
One of the best books I've read in a while is biologist Jay Hosler's CLAN APIS. It's the story of a honey bee, from birth to death. Only slightly anthropomorphized in terms of art but very much so in terms of dialogue, it's a book that is extremely educational as well as being at times funny and at times touching: You WILL learn all about the life of a bee and a beehive. But you'll also care about the characters. This is a book that I know I will give to my child when he or she starts reading in earnest. And yet it's a book that I, a reasonably well-read thirty-year-old, loved. You can see stuff by Hosler at: http://www.jayhosler.com/Cartoonist.html
His latest book is called THE SANDWALK ADVENTURES: The first two issues are out now, but I have not been able to get a hold of them (damnit); I'll have to read it in trade paperback. It's an ... INTERESTING concept--here; let me give you Hosler's synopsis:
"The Sandwalk Adventures documents the conversation between Mr.
Charles Darwin of Down, Kent and Mara, a follicle mite living in his left eyebrow. Though there are may strange aspects of their relationship, perhaps none are stranger than Mara's belief that Mr. Darwin is a deity! It will take some convicing to shake Mara of this belief. Can Mr.Darwin convince her that he didn't create life and all the species of the world. He sure hopes so.
Fortunately, he has at his disposal a most elegant explantion for how species are formed. It is called Natural selection and Mr. Darwin is somewhat of an expert on the topic. Join this unlikely duo as they go around and around Mr. Darwin's thinking path, the Sandwalk, looking for understanding and adventure."
Now does that sound fun or what?
*************************************************************
(Damn. This post is long as hell. Apologies to those of you uninterested in comic books.
If any reading this want to hire me to do articles on comics, though, feel free ...)
****************************************************************
More stuff: Andi Watson (also a guy)'s SKELETON KEY is the story of a high schooler in ... um. Saskatchewan? Manitoba? (I forget and the book's in the other room with a sleeping ex-girlfriend [yes; that one, Heather.]) whose life is changed when she befriends a girl who is actually a Japanese fox-spirot. Adventures follow, yes; but real life also intrudes as she has to decide whether to go off to Toronto to college as her parents expect, leaving her impressionable and somewhat confus/ed/ing friend behind? And what does she do about her ex? It's a very "chick-friendly" book, but like Slinky, it's fun for a girl or a boy.
****************************************************************
A great mad humor book is Gail Simone's and Lea Hernandez' KILLER PRINCESSES. It's over-the-top humor about three schoolgirls who are covertly hitmen; their entire prep school is a front, you see. Imagine the PowerPuff Girls ten years later with lots and lots of armament and bad tempers. The book is funny as hell--and Gail and Lea are occasional visitors to Webderlander Paul T. Riddell's Healing Power of Obnoxiousness forum, so we know they're good eggs. Gail used to be the Humor columnist for comicbookresources.com, and Lea has received acclaim for her "Texas steampunk manga" books CATHEDRAL CHILD and RUMBLE GIRLS. All of those come highly recommended.
****************************************************************
Sam Kieth, creator of The Maxx (which was pretty faithfully translated into the MTV cartoon of the same name) has recently been doing books that are very psychologically in-depth and woman-oriented. The first of these, ZERO GIRL, has been collected into a trade paperback, and the second, FOUR WOMEN, just finished up, so that TPB will soon be along.
ZERO GIRL is about a misfit girl on the edge of getting out of high school--she keeps getting beat up by the clique-y girls, she has a mad crush on the school's guidance counselor, her feet exude a LOT of weird and magical sweat whenever she gets nervous or scared, she believes that squares are after her and that circles are her friend.
And she's right.
As weird as THE MAXX but more solidly rooted in the way actual characters behave, ZERO GIRL is a very good and funky read.
FOUR WOMEN, however, is strictly magic-free and very psychological in nature--in fact, it is set up by the fact that one of the four women of the book's title is relating the story to her psychologist! This framing device serves the story very well, as the narrating character is slowly forced to come to terms with what happened and to stop omitting important details. The story? Four friends of differing backgrounds, attitudes, and lifestyles, driving back from a big formal affair-type thing, break down. And the first people to stop for them are two guys who have something less than the most Samaritan of intentions. The women have to lock themselves into the car and hope. This doesn't work, and the day/night turns violent.
But the REAL story is how each woman copes with what is goiing on and how the narrator is drawn out into telling the WHOLE tale. Gripping stuff.
*****************************************************************
J. Michael Straczynski, craetor of Babylon 5, of course, has gotten into comics writing in a big way recently: He's currently writing (and doing wonders on) AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, but it's his creator-owned stuff I want to bring up.
RISING STARS, done with a rotating supply of artists, is the story of roughly 112 kids who were all granted superpowers of one form or another in the womb when a comet/energy ball thing buzzed the town of Pederson, Illinois. These kids, by virtue of being in Mommy's belly at the time of the comet, come to be called Specials--some heroic, some famous, some bad, some just ambivalent. Straczynski ably extrapolates what a real-world government would do if afced with this sort of possibility, and has jumped ahead in time a couple times in the series so that he can show what happens to these Specials from womb to tomb. Strong men; strong women; a powerful (ouch) book.
His MIDNIGHT NATION is the one you really want to read, though. David (can't think of his last name), an L.A. cop left by his wife, suddenly finds (after investigating a freaky rash of homicides by a new gang called "Walkers" who don't really even seem human) that no one notices him any longer. He, like many others, has passed over into a parallel world where the forgotten people, the nonentities no longer clinging to our reality, the Eleanor Rigbys, dwell. How'd he get there when he has an ex-wife who still loves him? Well, someone stole his soul. And now he has to walk from L.A. to New York City to get it back.
His guide is a coldly beautiful woman named Laurel. A mystery woman, who offers help but not pity. David learns that she has guided many on this path to the soul's redemption, and that none have actually succeeded in regaining their soul; they have become demonic Walkers themselves.
And each previous traveller has killed Laurel.
Every time. Just as David is fated to do.
Even as he feels his soulless self sinking, as he grows more like the Walkers who try to prey on them, David realizes something--something more important than the stubbornness that makes him believe he will be the first to succeed:
He has fallen in love with Laurel.
Both series are coming to an end soon, and are WELL worth reading.
And there's another recent Straczynski creation (with artist par excellence Michael Zulli): DELICATE CREATURES is a large hardcover comic; a fairy story with a twist. I don't really know how I might explain it except to say it's the kind of bedtime story a Charles de Lint crossed witha Neil Gaiman would tell.
****************************************************************
Let me just wrap this all up with one last book (as you all breathe fervent sighs of relief).
This is a book that may or may not return--and I hope to hell it will.
James A. Owen wrote and drew a twelve-issue series called STARCHILD which was--in a word--brilliant. Drawn in a labor-intensive pen-and-ink style resembling woodcuts and drawing on all sorts of Faerie mythology, the story was about a village at the crossroads of the world. Every hundred years, storytellers gather together here. One is chosen to wear the Mantle. He blindfolds himself, puts on the Mantle, and tells the Story. And, in doing so, remakes the world.
There's a LOT of stuff in this book. The Wild Hunt, Rip Van Winkle, Old Tom, Titania and Oberon, Neil Gaiman in a cameo role (Gaiman later supplied the introduction for one of the books as well as a story that Owen illustrated), and lots, lots more. And it's brilliantly done.
After the first twelve-issue arc, Owen restarted the series in several ways: A four-issue miniseries of self-contained stories called STARCHILD: CROSSROADS, a supposedly ongoing series called STARCHILD: MYTHOPOLIS telling the tale of what happens when books are outlawed (the fourteen-issue series only went four issues, numbered zero through three, then things fell apart), and two in a series of illustrated short stories in chapbooks with stories Owen wrote called TALES FROM THE TWOPENNY INN.
All amazingly well done.
Owen himself seems to have dropped off the edge of the world; when I exchanged several e-mails with him a year and a half ago, he said that he was doing a lot of freelance design work but that he'd be relaunching the book again. Now, however, his Coppervale Press website is no longer there--even when I checked it on web.archive.org 's Wayback Machine, it shows its last update as having been September of 2000, and the old e-mail address bounces.
Still, it's DEFINITELY worth serching out--and there ARE copies of the collections for sale on the web in various places ...
Damn, I hope he's okay.
Damn, I hope he comes out with new stuff soon..
***************************************************************
Anyway. This enough for you, Heather?
You can get more information on women IN comics and women MAKING comics at http:www.friends-lulu.org
Okay--this post is done. The sad thing is that I've only read up to Thursday, so I'll probably pollute the board with MORE of my mindrops ...
(Geez. Thirty-five hundred words. If I don't do some REAL writing after this, I'll be pissed.)
Oh, dear Christ, don't tell me that someone's trying that tired tale about "dihydrogen monoxide" again.
First of all, it began as a pretty basic geek joke; come up with a techy sounding name for water, list all of the dangers of water in a way that sounds like the dangers of a toxic chemical. It had circulated for years, and about three or four years ago, some kid in Oregon decided to use it as the lazy solution to a science project assignment. He went around his neighborhood and asked neighbors to sign a petition calling for the banning of "dihydrogan monoxide." He got something like fifty signatures, and claimed that his "experiment" demonstrated that people get scared when told about environmental dangers. Of course, people tend to circulate this story to "prove" that the environmental movement is just a bunch of hysterical Chicken Littles running around, scared of nothing.
But let's look at this story under the cold light of reason. First of all, the kid deserves no credit; he simply recycled a gag he'd read about on the Net, so there's no originality to the project. Second, all ht demonstrated is that most people don't bother with strict chemical names; after all, how many people spend their time working up arcane and scary euphemisms for "water?" (It's a bit like ridiculing people for not knowing pi to ten decimal places, or knowing metric conversiona.)
And as far as _science_ goes, well, it's not science. The experiment requires _lying_ to people-- giving water a chemical name, and providing only a list of its dangers in such a way as to _encourage_ fear. Even _dangerous_ chemicals are given more fairness-- the chemical industry is quick to explain the benefits of things like dioxin and PCBs-- but in this kid's experiment, water had no benefits or everyday uses. If that kid went around with the same list of dangers, and _called_ it water, he wouldn't have gotten a single name on the petition. All he demonstrated is the power of public relations-- if he's got a career, it's not as a scientist, but as a marketing executive.
And the most important point is this. Many of the chemicals that we receive warnings about _do_ have severe dangers attached to them. The story, as presented, tells us that environmentalists are raising alarms about safe substances-- so, we're expected to reason, the fact that people can be hoodwinked into banning water means that dioxin is vindicated as a safe chemical.
Todd Cassell writes:
"Brian, the reason I attack Frankieboy's sources as liberal is because they come from extreme left-wing 'journals' that will shade any facts to get their way, and purposely ignore the big picture. Now, before the saliva froths from your lips, let me state right now that I would make this comment about any extreme right-wing citings.....and, in both cases, I would accept the citings IF and only IF there are other citings that agree with what is being states from REPUTABLE SOURCES.....not opinionists like the God Chomsky or the other God Limbaugh."
First of all, Todd, the comment about sources that will "shade any facts to get their way" would apply to just about all of the major right-wing journals-- given their behavior during the Clinton scandals, as outlined even by insiders like David Brock. So you've pretty much ruled out anything to the right of the _Times_. (Of course, there's not a source in the world that hasn't screwed up or slanted a story.)
This may encourage you to consider what you mean by "reputable sources." The reputation of a source and its actual performance are not necessarily related; I'm sure you've heard that even reputable papers like the _Washington Post_ have been known to run fraudulent stories (usually snookered by a reporter, and NOT as a conscious decision). The _New Republic_ has a strong reputation, but it's run some genuinely awful stuff (a cover story promoting the quasi-scientific views of Charles Murray's _The Bell Curve_, for example.) And many papers can be wildly schizophrenic; the _Wall Street Journal_'s reporting is generally regarded as among the world's finest, but its editorials page is abysmal.
And frankly, there's no comparison between Chomsky and Limbaugh; Chomsky's got a very strong record of documenting his claims. You may not agree with his analyses, but as a reporter of facts, he's far more reliable than the blowhard Limbaugh.
"If The Nation says NASA is going to kill us......then I sure would like to see The New York Times confirm this before I take it as a legitimate example. Frankieboy's sources are always the same. The sky is always falling because the big bad corporations are in business only to build weapons and destroy all human rights."
Frank's analysis aside, there are stories that are well-documented, and which don't make the mainstream news sources. That's what Project Censored is about-- they try to bring attention to stories with potentially large public impact, and which have not been reported in the mainstream media.
Jim,
You are amazing, and fast! (a line that would leave you in a quandary if said to you by your bed partner....amazing? Cool. Fast? Yipes)
I'm losing it....gotta get some sleep. Going into the big city tomorrow to catch the matinee of The Crucible on Broadway and I don't want to doze.
Thanks so much! -TODD
Jay,
Congratulations on the new kid and the impending wedding. Sorry to hear about the ve-hicle. Hope it didn't hurt too much. Cars can be real money vampires. And, they're not as cuddly as a small child.
Xanadu,
Were you built by Charles Foster Kane? Is your cost so great, no one can say? Just curious.
Heather,
Concerning the moose question: It comes from the opening titles of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL. If you've seen it, rent it and watch the titles closely, at the bottom. If you haven't, then RUN, don't walk to rent it. Steal it, whatever you have to do. The opening titles will have you on the floor. You'll be experiencing it for the first time, you lucky lady. Then, rent EXCALIBUR, and wonder how the Monty Python people came out with the parody years BEFORE the movie being parodied. Believe it, or not!
Chuck
Popping in VERY briefly...
TODD: That is the final line from DOUBLE INDEMNITY, by James M. Cain. (And I submit that Cain was Hemingway's equal in every area save literary reputation--though with the recent downgrading of Hemingway's legacy, that opinion is changing. The posthumous appearance of crappy novels that Hemingway shelved when he was alive can't be helping matters...)
XANADU-
Your words are golden.
Yes, I gave Greenlight a shot.
No biscuit.
You lighting suggestion sounds inspired! Cost is EVERYTHING. Whether you have a few thousand bucks or millions-- that's what it boils down to.
I learned that from watching PGL on HBO... the part about the millions I mean.
The best thing about making our own films is that we don't have to have anyone who doesn't have any ability to write-- to create, telling us what we have to do in our films.
We get the blame when we fuck up-- but then wouldn't we if we were being dictated to by some upper echelon suit?
Living in the middle of nowhere presents a special sort of challenge when it comes to casting. I comfort/delude myself recalling what Alfred Hitchcock said about his actors-- something like, " I like my actors to have two eyes and a nose-- preferably one on either side."
I thank GOD for cheap film and patient (if uninitiated) actors. I'm still learning-- it makes me work harder. I shoot lots and lots of film and work it until I get precisely what I'm looking for.
Where are you, Xanadu-- what part of the country?
I have a Sony VX-2000. It is my favorite possession. For editing I use Premiere 6.0 on a Sony Vaio computer.
What you said,
"Good filmmaking is like lean writing, less is more – 1 line is better than a monologue, and a look is better than 1 line. Trust your actors to improvise or reword, but always make them read the line as written at least once"
Well SAID! BRILLIANTLY and PERFECTLY PUT!
I also identify exactly with your sentiment regarding falling in love with a moment or scene that you can't cut it-- I had to become ruthless with my writing so I'm pretty inured to the pain of self amputation.
I'm going to send a screenplay off to the Austin Film Festival. Right now I'm giving it one last tweaking before I ship it out.
I wish you were inclined to take a look at it and tell me what you think. Outside opinions can be worth their weight in gold.
Did you ever take any courses through the UCLA extension program?
I went to see BLACKHAWK DOWN tonight-- that Ridley Scott is so amazing. What I wouldn't give to be able to follow him around to watch and listen for a couple of hundred years. The LOOK of that film was such a marvel. The horror of combat was right in your face, undiluted.
What a movie that is. Who else has been nominated???
I thought Moulin Rouge was a root canal gone awry.
Again, thank you so much for your advice I knew you'd know something I needed to learn. There is so much I don't know and I want to learn EVERYTHING!
>
Cindy
<
OK, I've got a brain twister for you guys....those of you who have shown great literary powers for classic novels and movies. Our local paper has an annual movie trivia contest.....an extremely difficult contest. They base the difficulty on the fact that in this day and age of internet research, most trivia contests are very easy to complete. Thus, hellishly difficult questions.
I'm having trouble on a couple (out of 74...I'm doing great, though it's taken long periods of net time to do so), but this one is right up the alley of you well-read folks. What do you think:
"The closing line of this classic American novel, filmed once as a feature and once as a TV movie, reads simply 'The moon." Name the book."
I'll give you a hint....it ain't Hemingway.
HELP!!!!
-TODD
First of all, has anyone else here seen _Monster's Ball_? I thought it was incredible. Every performance was flawless, including Puffy Combs'. If you can manage to, go see it. How did Moulin Rouge get nominated for Best Picture and not this?
Rick: Duh, of course you're right. I guess by 'impunity' I meant, no one could hold you accountable for your words. My feeling is this place don't need nobody startin' no flame wars on purpose, ya know? If you assume an alias with the express intention of using it to start trouble, no doubt trouble will start. That's all I'm saying and I'm ready to shut up about it now.
'Cause I guess in _Godfather_,I'd be Sonny, all het up and crazy to defend some illusory point of honor, rushing off to get my ass shot to bits in the toll booth. So, since this is a fantasy board, I'll just take a minute and say, yeah, maybe a truce is better than Buonasera making me look nice for my mother.
Eric: Peace, man, and, uh, welcome back. Can I call you Eric? "King Lurk" just gives me a pain in the ass. I promise if I need to insult you, I'll use your pseudonym.
Bermanator
re: Wonder Woman
I have seen a few episodes of the JLA recently, and she is played a little woodenly as far as character development, but they all seem sort of overly-serious in a sort of Marvel-ish air. The last episode I saw had Queen H. kick her off the island for good, which left me wondering exactly how many times poor WW has been booted off her homeland for forever?
I did, however, think it was a distinct improvement over the last cartoon incarnation of the JLA, in which she was constantly being kidnapped by some outer-space villian that wanted her as his bride, causing the rest of the team to perpetually hurtle out into space to rescue her.
As for the dearth of other heroines, I remember one Marvel book I had called something like "Here Come the Superheroines!" which was a collection of a bunch of different ones--Sue Storm, the Cat, the Black Widow, the Canary, Sheena, etc. They certainly weren't as popular as the guy's heroes, but on the other hand, they didn't have any good role models like "Millie the Model" to emulate...
It's regrettable to hear Harlan's name mentioned in Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen's, AOL/Time Warner's revisionist Time Machine. A lurid condoning of the nuking of Hiroshima & Nagasaki in fantasy dress.
I said: I don't think the thought ever occured to me. (David, as well.)
You went: Whaddafuck? (or words to that effect.)
It would NEVER have occured to me (nor you) to hide behind an alias.
Does that help?
H
David: Tell me about West Africa.
Why did you pick that place, for starters? Did you stay with anyone you knew? (And I take it, you went by yourself, right?) And did you set your own pace or have some tour guide company racing you from city to city? I've always liked the idea of just moving some place and visiting it, like a tourist, while I was there. Vacations sound so frenetic. You end up needing a vacation from the vacation.
Do they speak French there or am I thinking of somewhere else?
Did you make any friends you still make contact with, at times? Did you write about your experiences for the paper? And.. while I think of it, would you ever get INTO travel writing?
Answer any or all of these questions. This will NOT be part of your final grade.
Turn your paper over NOW.
Oh come on, Jay, yer making that up.
You've got the mechanic's engine parts and the your baby mixed up, don't you?
Congrats to you.
I have a younger brother--eleven months; Xanadu, I'm 45--who is a mechanic. He's somehow managed to be an anomaly from the stories I've been told about mechanics. He's upfront, honest and would sometimes fix a neighbour's car for nothing more than a case of beer. Now, HE found his muse early. I envy that, in a way.
I think about him, sometimes, not often. His world is so much different from mine. But at least he, and my older brother (I'll give him that, not much more--we were sibling rivals.) all come from the same stock.
I guess that's ANOTHER reason why I have such a wide-eyed view of men. I grew up with three very honest ones. No bullshit, at least not in the woman department.
H
le Xanadu (masculin):
Let us agree to disagree. I don't think ANY question is naive. I don't think any question is dumb. (Believe me, when it comes to some jobs I've had, my use of naive/dumb questions have saved someone's bacon/stress level. I've seemed to lead the life of a problem solver/negotiator. Not sure why that happened--probably because there was no women's pro league, at the time. Oh well.)
I'm trying to break that cycle. Become more SELF-focused rather than OTHER/problem solving focused. The writing will be my ticket out of this, I think.
Sometimes, it just depends on one's experiences as to the questions one asks. (Or, in this case, the mere interest in starting SOMEWHERE with a conversation.)
(I also assume you are a bunch of know-it-alls. No question is beyond your ken.)
I can ask vague questions, in the hope it sparks a more agreeable, functional one.
And... something tells me you, as some others I've encountered, worry about what questions you ask.
It might be a guy thing. I don't know. Males, perhaps, have been inculcated with the impression that every time they open their mouths, complete wholly formed ideas -- NOT questions, note -- must come out of them. Otherwise, be the dark, silent male.
Or, perhaps, I'm still recalling that guy I knew. He wasn't a quiet sort, by any stretch--we had ONE of those in our software developer's office; he was painfully quiet and once, when I said to him, "Just be YOURSELF." He said, "I don't know what that is."
I think he was serious.
I think, perhaps, this is another reason why guys don't see other guys as close friends--citing "having a wife" as being a more intimate experience. Which confuses me.
Lane change...
I've wandered the halls of this university lately and wondered what it would have been like to go to school for four years: to be wonderfully sequestered and focused on one subject matter. (I've obviously pondering taking creative writing or film but right now I feel--especially with all the horror stories you all have been giving me--that going to school, for me, would be simply another annoying life experience.)
I've had enough of those, thank you; I hope not to peruse any more ACTIVELY. *grin*
But still, to be wonderfully sequestered, coddled even, while one focuses on one's mindfood..what a wonderful taste sensation.
Can't say I recall HAVING such a one.
Heather
Oooooh. That almost hurt to watch, sorry Heather.
"Xanadu" comes from the poem by Coleridge:
"In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan,
a stately pleasure dome decree.
Where Alph, the sacred river ran,
in caverns measureless to man,
down to a sunless sea..."
There's more, but my memory fails. You can look it up.
It also helped that at the time, many of the codes and protections on the software were exactly six bytes long - thus, I could easily sign my cracks "Xanadu". On three initial High Score board for video games, I was Xan. (No relation to Hanoi)
The ONJ picture came later - in 1980.
Finder: Forgive me.
I read a post of Xanadu's (Let's never MIND that every time I see that word I think of Olivia Newton John *laugh*) and for some reason Xanadu's mention of wives and daughters and whatnot got me screwed up for some reason..
Oh, hell, I think it still has more to do with the fact that I see the moniker 'Xanadu' and think of that stupid Gene Kelly movie.
I wasn't around or paying much attention to sexes when I read the early postings. I knew Xanadu had been here a while.
And..WHEN I read that most recent mention of Xanadu's family..I went off on a "gay" line of thinking.
Sorry, about that, Finder. Sorry about that, Xanadu.
What does Xanadu mean, in reference to your hacking days? (That was my RECENT tipoff. I read Xanadu's post about creating 95% of the computer rules at school and thought, "How odd. A woman doing computer stuff, to that extent, in 1980."
Gawd, aren't there ANY women on this forum? (Yes, yes, yes.. I know there's Lynn and Cindy and few others...)
Well then: A Toast to Jay!
(Empties drink, steps up to the chalk line drawn on the floor by Lynn, and tosses the glass into the virtual fireplace. - Because it's virtual, the glass flys through and lands somewhere in the Ralph Ellison forum next door.)
(Belatedly) Fore!
Lynn -
Unexpected? Yes. Startling? oh you betcha. Horrifying? Second only to when my first son made himself known to my ex and me. This is the second time precautions failed, but...
DAMN I'M EXCITED. We're both very happy, stressed and exhausted. All this in 48 hours... I just dropped $1300 into a van worth $2000 blue book after the brakes, master cylander, transmission seal and a blown tire. Paid with a smile so I can keep going to work, taking my girlf...er, fiance to work and her kids to school. My second, her third...we've got a nice brood here.
We're in the process of working out the details prior to making the big announcement. So, this is a WEBDERLAND EXCLUSIVE.
Sorry, Lynn, my brain lenses seemed to be a little fuzzy. I reread your post and YOU were suggesting a connection between the advent of Melissa and the absence of Meatty goodness. My bad.
Also -- Hm...brain doing very strange things; must be this sour cream and onion potato chip I'm inhaling -- XANADU used the word "forthright" and she was referring to HERSELF.
Oh, never mind. I'm on crack or something. Sorry.
H
Lynn: I hadn't read your comment on Meat's voice yet but it's curious, I was THINKING that--his voice DID change somewhat with the advent of a name change...
or.. was that with the advent of Melissa?
This suddenly suggests the USUAL thinking behind spouses on the same line/forum as each other. I remember how we goaded Rob to get his girlfriend online. Suddenly.. I'm considering how, in a subtle way, it could have changed the 'scene' for Rob.
Also, how interesting.. you used the word 'forthright' to describe Scott. So did I. (And I hadn't read your post yet.) Hm.
What are YOUR thoughts on how having YOUR spouse on this forum would affect your tone? (I ask that of anyone, actually...)
---------
New subject: Would having your spouse follow you online (after a fair period of time), change the way you communicate/express yourself on the forum?
P.S. David:
Someone found it amazing you said something funny. (It was in reference to mooses biting your sister, of which I have no clue what is going on--but that's okay!)
Does that surprise you? I guess it surprised ME a little. Do you see yourself as capable of being funny?
JAY! CONGRATULATIONS!!!
I totally missed your post earlier! And this is a good thing, yes?
L.
Speaking of Harlan on teevee: This Sunday night, 9pm EST, TNN network, Harlan's appearance on The Conspiracy Zone where he debates Roswell.
Roswell. Frank Church, may we please have your take on Roswell? I need to know how a REAL conspiracy rings your chimes!
-TODD
Cindy: Greenlight – No. HBO – No, Basic Cable only.
Tech is building slowly – I have a small, cheap, 1CCD Sony TRV-8 miniDVcamera, (with access to a 3CCD TRV-900 when Finder is visiting.) Audio is camera only – but that is a spring/early summer upgrade. Lighting – gotta love the Wal-mart Double 500 watt halogen worklight.
Editing equipment – iMac DV SE 500mhz G3, with Final Cut Pro. (Lusting after FCP 3, but I cannot afford the upgrade yet). Output is miniDV, VHS, and (hopefully) VideoCD.
Things I've learned about Filmaking with DV (Filmaking in a Paragraph): Control the environment, especially sound. Record plenty of ambient sound during quiet times, (to correct the times you didn't control the sound). Lighting, lighting, lighting. MiniDV tape is cheap – shoot plenty of extra footage – scene leaders and footers should be twice as long as you think you might need. Good filmmaking is like lean writing, less is more – 1 line is better than a monologue, and a look is better than 1 line. Trust your actors to improvise or reword, but always make them read the line as written at least once. Using your friends and family as actors is fun – but for the good stuff, hire, or at least use people dedicated to to project, and willing to sacrifice personal comforts for it. After the script, editing is the most important function in filmaking. You can always take out 5 more seconds from a scene you think is cut perfectly. Those 5 seconds lost will make the scene even better. Never fall so in love with a moment or scene that you can't cut it when you need to. Enjoy – most of the fun of amateur filmmaking is the process, not neccesarily the product.
Your mileage may vary.
And yourself?
The following is what I received when I inquired as to why the John Shirley audio book "Demons" as read by Harlan wasn't appearing under Fantastic Audio at the Audio Universe web site:
"Demons" is at the duplicator now. It should be available by the end of
March.
Christopher Reed
Director, Fulfillment Ops.
Audio Literature
WWW.AudioUniverse.Com
Yes, I guess we have to live with the Moe Greene theory, although he was supposedly a tribute to Bugsy Siegel.
Moe was Jewish, and I thought the Five Families were all Italian. I think this was one of those editing errors: Puzo was basing his phrase on the existing "five families" of New York, but he never bothered to name the fifth. Coppolla didn't either in his adaptation.
I was a geek enough to go to some of the Godfather fan sites, and the problem has been discussed, and seems to be unresolved.
Lurk,
The Fifth Family, as far as I can tell, is the one headed (or represented by) Moe Greene. It's a little vague to me too, unless Moe Greene somehow became a Sicilian name (hah), but that was the impression I had, especially since he is killed along with all the others in the Baptism Massacre.
Regards,
Joseph
Xanadu,
Did you enter anything in Project Greenlight? Did you watch the series on HBO?
You mentioned that you're also making films. What sort of camera are you using and what type of audio and editing equipment? I always like to ask these questions as I also belong to the school you mentioned earlier. I believe that if we can talk to others and determine what works and what should be avoided it will take us all less time and wasted effort.
:)
Cindy
Saw "The Time Machine" this afternoon and although there isn't
a cameo proper, there is one Harlan Ellison moment, that I
won't spoil.
Mr. Finn, maybe you can answer the question that no-one else can answer. It was always "the five families" and the Corleones (they being separate: Hagen once said "the five families will rise against us, etc)
Who's the fifth? Barzini, Tattaglia, Cuneo, Stracci, and....?Yes, I've watched it way too many times myself
--King Lurk
Well, obviously Rick has to be Don Emilio Barzini. After all, who else would be the head of the Five Families. I just hope he's careful when a cop tickets his car. Personally, I'll be Tom Hagen, the guy with all the info and the measured responses. Also, he doesn't get offed.
Yes, I did get the box set for Christmas and have been watching more "Godfather" than is healthy. Why do you ask?
Regards,
Joseph
Leaning back into her sun chair, Lynn pulls her shades down and watches Lurk's solid volley fly, unfettered and free over the net, into Berman's court.
The crowd waits, breathless with anticipation.
...
Guys, we are like the Middle East. Let's go for a complete truce on this whole flame war-alias business. In other words, let's just forget about who said what to whom, let's start again, and let's talk about important things, like nasty chemical shit in the water, or if Dick Cheney is really Noam Chomsky in a bodysuit, or when HE is showing up on TV again (would someone get on him about that?), etc.
Vito Corleone impersonation starting here: placing my hand on my chest, I say on the souls of my grandchildren, I will not be the one to break the peace we make here today.
So, who's going to play Barzini and who gets to be Tattaglia? (I know, they all got wasted later by the Corleone Jr., but my son is only fourteen, and he doesn't read sci-fi).
King Lurk, who's real name is Eric Martin, but who prefers to go by King Lurk, because of reasons stated before, and because this is a fantasy board, and it helps the gestalt of the whole experience to assume an alias.
I guess I don't understand the notion of "starting flame wars with impunity." What, if you do it using your real name people will call you up? Ruin your credit? Firebomb your house? Martinize your den?
One of the beauties of anonymity is you CAN give yourself a blank slate - and the implication this is due to cowardice is an unwarrented one. If your supposition is that someone here is posting "reasonable" posts under a real name, then switching to a pseudonym whenever they want to attack someone -- well, I don't really care as long as the pseudonym follows the rules. There's really no stopping it if someone wants to do it.
As for Lurk, my comments go to your post of Monday, March 4 2002 10:56:12 where you suggested Washu's name was indicative of a lack of maturity, and your followup response to Washu on Monday, March 4 2002 13:0:32 implying he was naďve and/or thin-skinned for taking offense. If this was, indeed, purely a joke, then it was a poor one, and suggestive of the same qualities it decries.
The subsequent posts were fine, tongue firmly planted in cheek, with the exception that they generated further discussion of anime as an art form -- for which you should be tarred, feathered, and possibly set on fire.
Funny thing, names. I have a very distinct memory of my grandparents taking me to eat breakfast at Sambo's after church on Sundays. I can remember the pancakes, and sipping coffee milk out of thick chipped mugs. I remember sitting on my grandfather's lap, his arms around me, reading the story of Sambo off the back of the menu. This was in Galveston, and I remember going down to the water's edge after eating breakfast, getting yelled at not to mess up my patent leather shoes. To this day, I loathe and despise patent leather anything.
Strange the way memories resurface at the oddest times.
L.
XANADU: Your last post was scary as hell. Just when I thought I could at last drink water in Canada with a clear mind...
Is there any resources on the net or otherwise where I can check this dirty little secret out?
Little Washu
All right, everybody, I just looked up 'sambo'. Yeah. Oops.
Is my face red?
Little Washu
Hey, Rick. Thanks a lot, but, uh...
...who's Little Black Sambo?
Little Washu
>Prolonged exposure to it's solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance.<
Are you sure you're not talking about Miller Lite?
Speaking of Harlan's audio work(as David did yesterday), I came across an interview by Kimberly Hundley for "Today's Librarian" at http://www.todayslibrarian.com/articles/1a1feat1.html
Not trying to argue with you, Rick, but just wish to clarify: it is not the use of a pseudonym with which I have issue. Not at all. It is the blatant switch from real name to pseudonym for the stated purpose of starting flame wars with impunity that I think is cowardly. I thought that admission might trouble you as well, considering.
Ah, whatever.
I think I'll go take a breath now.
Bermanator
>The same goes for you, Lurk - it's déclassé to needle someone merely because their choice of handle isn't as hip as yours. <
Well, my handle is hardly hip. And Little Washu got the joke, even though others didn't.
BERMAN: Commenting on someone's anonymity with regards to a discussion is okay, but attacking them purely for using a pseudonym here is not. People are allowed to use pseudonyms here. If they weren't I would put more validation in.
The same goes for you, Lurk - it's déclassé to needle someone merely because their choice of handle isn't as hip as yours. As long as Little Washu doesn't start calling himself Little Black Sambo, I don't have a problem.
Finally, the rancor between the three aforementioned is tiring and unecessary. Please take a deep breath, release, and try to let it go.
As far as topics go, I could give a good goddamn what is discussed here as long as you maintain a modicum of courtesy. Often it's the stuff that starts out amazingly stupid that generates the more interesting discussions, since people have a tendency to be stuffed shirts when talking about "important" matters.
That's not to say all topics are to be followed up, all questions to be answered. No one here is entitled to demand a response - this is an open forum and your comments will be addressed only if people take an interest in doing so. Consider it evolution in action.
Todd: Sources? On a story this wide ranging? I suspect, because of the world-wide global conspiracy involved, that any scientist would simply start laughing out loud at the proposal, simply to avoid any further direct questioning...
Xanadu:
Cite your souces! One from the left, one from the right and two from the middle.
I'll print up the t-shirts.
-TODD
I'm with ya, Frank, about the whole NASA-disaster-waiting-to-happen thread, but I was just alerted to an even scarier danger. And what terrifies me is the complete disregard most major news medias have shown in reaction to the story.
-----------------------------------
Subject: Warning -- Dihydrogen Oxide !
Dihydrogen Oxide (DHO) is colourless, odourless, tasteless, and kills uncounted thousands of people each year. Most of these deaths are caused by accidental inhalation of DHO, but the dangers of Dihydrogen Oxide do not end there.
Prolonged exposure to it's solid form causes severe tissue damage. Symptoms of DHO ingestion can include excessive sweating and urination, and possibly a bloated feeling, nausea, vomiting and body electrolyte imbalance.
Not only is DHO dangerous to humans it is also extremely hazardous to the environment. It is a major component of acid rain, it contributes to the greenhouse effect, and is a common cause of erosion of our natural landscape.
Worldwide contamination by DHO is reaching epidemic proportions. Quantities of the chemical have been found in almost every stream, lake and reservoir in the U.S. today. But the pollution is global, and the contaminant has even been found in the Antarctic. So far governments and environmental watchdogs have been indifferent to the problem.
Despite the danger DHO is widely used as an industrial solvent and coolant, in nuclear power stations, as a fire retardant, as an additive in certain junk foods and other food products, and in a wide variety of other uses. Companies routinely dump DHO into rivers and oceans, and nothing can be done to stop them because this practice is still legal.
The U.S. government (In fact no government) has refused to ban the production, distribution or use of this damaging chemical due to its 'importance to the economic life of the nation'.
In fact the U.S. Navy and other military organizations are conducting experiments with DHO, and designing multi-billion-dollar devices to control and use it during warfare situations. Hundreds of military research facilities receive tons of it through a highly complicated underground distribution network. Many store huge quantities for
later use.
Act now to prevent further contamination. Find out more about this dangerous chemical.
-------
This is an outrage! We must warn the world! WHo's with me, people?!!
David made a very interesting point about the 'freedom' he has not being tied to maintaining the big bucks salary. As someone who makes in the range of double what he reported, he makes a good point.....but only up to a point.
The point being, if you want to travel a lot or do things that would prevent you from holding a steady 9-5er, than his freedom is a plus.....but I'm not like that. My 'freedom' comes from the comfort of being able to combine my salary with my wife's, and know that if I really really really want something bad, and I can probably get it and be a well-satisfied person. Of course, I don't want the kind of things that I could never afford, so that makes it easier......but my happiness....my freedom....comes from enjoying my life with the little lady, having a wonderful home, buying her what she wants and throwing away money on the crap I want, going to whatever movies or plays or vacations we want, enjoying myself in Atlantic City without having to worry that I lost a sawbuck. Though this 'freedom' has it's enemies, such as the evil company that is dumping me in 7 weeks....it also has it's heroes, such as the 45 weeks of pay I get to decide how to change my life bigtime.
Freedom is in the eye of the beholder. David's is a very good point, but I enjoy mine just as well.
-TODD
I meant 162,836.
Oh, I'm pulling your leg. I don't make that much, I work in schools. Who cares how much I make.
--King Lurk
>Your turn, KL.<
$62,386
Good morning, all! And a little mention that we now have the nominees in the Harvey awards for excellence in comics:
http://news.wizardworld.com/Comics/CB030802-Harveys.asp
In particular, I was pleased to see that the team on "100 Bullets" is being recognized for their fabulous work (oh, those covers...). Also, and this ties in to the discussion of contemporary heroines, the cover artist for the fine "Birds of Prey" has been nominated.
Did you folks know, by the way, that Terry Moore (Strangers in Paradise) is taking over "Birds" this summer? Seeing as he already writes some of the best female characters in comics, I'm fascinated to see what he can do with the title (which is already one of my favorites).
Regards,
Joseph
P.S. Oh, if you haven't tried a comic titled "Slow News Day," give it a look. Really good non-superpower book.
Brian, the reason I attack Frankieboy's sources as liberal is because they come from extreme left-wing 'journals' that will shade any facts to get their way, and purposely ignore the big picture. Now, before the saliva froths from your lips, let me state right now that I would make this comment about any extreme right-wing citings.....and, in both cases, I would accept the citings IF and only IF there are other citings that agree with what is being states from REPUTABLE SOURCES.....not opinionists like the God Chomsky or the other God Limbaugh.
Of course, this answer could lead to our popular "but the news media leans this way or that way anyway" and thus my argument would be refuted over the fact that nothing is 100% reputable if you want to dig and dig and dig and the wound, but that's not my point.
If The Nation says NASA is going to kill us......then I sure would like to see The New York Times confirm this before I take it as a legitimate example. Frankieboy's sources are always the same. The sky is always falling because the big bad corporations are in business only to build weapons and destroy all human rights.
-TODD
Konnichi wa, folks!
HEATHER: "I realize you are reading _some_ books that are for school, so I understand your delineation here."
Could you explain your statement a little more? I'm confused whether you're suggesting that school-assigned books are usually not of good qaulity, or that school-assigned books only offer what I said about 'gray areas', or...well, just be more specific on what you were trying to say.
Now, superheroines. This has already been addressed to death, but the first lady who naturally springs to mind is, of course, Wonder Woman. And then there's...um...there's...ah...
You have a good point.
There's definately more solo superheroines out there, but the fact that you have to SEARCH for them is more than enough evidence to show that colourful costumes and superpowers are a mostly male gig, yesterday AND today.
I ran through Marvel with a fine tooth comb, and almost every other 'superpowered' woman is either a villian, a spin-off (Spider-Girl) or a part of a team (X-Men, Avengers). DC's line-up isn't much better, with ONE solo superheroine who ranks alongside Superman and Batman in popularity, but the rest are kind of unmemorable. How many people still recall who 'Power-Girl' was?
The less said about Image Comics the better.
So, I'd have to agree with you that any beyond-the-ordinary woman in comics is well capable of punching several holes through titanium steel, but in the intellectual department they can't comprehend the concept of turning a doorknob.
Heck, even the men sometimes have it just as bad. That's another dilemma in mainstream comics: everyone has to look so puuuuuuuuuurrrrtyyyyyyyyy that you'd think you were in a humongous store of mannequins. I'm not saying that everyone in comic books should look like President Nixon on a bad day, it's just that my eyes are beginning to be burned out of their sockets with all the gleaming pearl-white teeth and sparkling hair.
As for Simon Templar, I'll try to check him out, thanks for the recommendation. He sounds like an intriguing fellow.
JAY SMITH: Have to disagree with you there on Ultimate Spider-Man. I don't have much to add on what others have already said. IMHO, the entire series has been excruciating, with it's oh-so-hip attitude and mentality. If I hear one more 'like' or 'whatevah', I will firebomb every last nest where these cocky, arrogant teenage cockroaches gather to breed. I can't exactly put a finger on what I find wrong with ULTIMATE, except the word...obnoxious. And so far, NO ONE has offered a decent explanation on what that just plain stupid 'Hulk Goblin' was all about.
That's it on comics from...
Little Washu
Brian,
You said:
"Address the FACTS, children."
That's exactly what we've been trying to do. Frank's sources (only one of which actually worked) presented no hard facts. Just a point of view. I personally don't care where the information comes from, so long as hard evidence to support the claim is presented. Right or left (personally, I'm a centrist) makes no difference in this regard.
-Andrew
P.S. Would you mind turning off the snide tone? It grates a bit. -AR
Heather:
I've read your post four times, at least, and I still can't figure out what it is you think never occurred to either of us before.
When I was in college, I made it my goal to be as honest and open with other people as I possibly could be. I even handed over my journal to a young woman of slight acqaintance -- not someone I was particularly desirous of bedding, I might add; just a friend who expressed curiousity -- for her to read at her leisure.
But it was a project doomed to failure. Very instructive, though. I am a bit wiser now. Still more honest and open than the average person, but aware of the sheer impossibility of communicating with others sans masks -- even face to face and in the flesh -- and conscious of secrets that are better kept safe.
Your turn, KL.
King Lurk wrote:
> Ok, Dave, lay it on us. Your adjusted gross for 2001 would
> be fine. If you'd like, you could post your 1040 on your
> site (I'd recommend blocking out the SS number).
My adjusted gross for 2001 is somewhere around $35,000 or $36,000. I can get the exact figure from home, if you like. Uh, actually, $45,000 if you add in the $10,000 advance for my book. That was a big anomaly on the radar this year. Full-time employment as a news reporter aside (and THAT was a low paying position!), I've never made more than $600 in a year for my writing before.
Much more interesting, I think, is that this is quite a bit more than I've ever made in any previous year of my life: I did not gross more than $20,000 before the age of 30, I believe, and have been drawing more than $30,000 for no more than the past four years. (I turn 43 in a couple weeks.)
Despite the obsession of many Americans with the supposed "freedom" that lots of money brings, I found I was able to be a lot more flexible and autonomous on a much smaller income than my peers from high school and college. When I decided to take off to West Africa for three months at the age of 30, several people remarked "oh, I wish I could do that," as if I had won the lottery or something -- as if it were some wonderful thing that had happened to me, rather than something I planned for and caused to occur.
But a number of people said the same thing when I told them, up to the age of 28, that I did not drive. As if they hadn't been making choices all along.
As for my 1040, I don't believe that is something very many people would be interested in studying -- not like film reviews, or essays about Greece and West Africa, or an account of my experiences on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" -- so there's not much point in putting it on my Web site. And it's not been filled out yet, anyway.
One thing's really striking about the reaction to Frank Church's comments re NASA. He's posted a few links to support his claims-- and several people have denounced the sites as "left-wing paranoia" and the like.
Now, if you're going to rebut Frank's claims, then you're bound to address the actual _evidence_. Simply dismissing his sources because of a perceived political bias just isn't intellectually defensible-- it's exactly the same thing Frank does when he dismisses "mainstream" or "elite opinion." You have to address the facts.
Let me provide two wonderful examples of what _not_ to do. There's this book out titled _The Skeptical Environmentalist_ by Bjorn Lundborg, and it purports to demonstrate through serious research that the environmentalist movement is promoting hysterical lies. It's received a lot of promotion, ranging from appearances on _Politically Incorrect_ to seminars of the American Enterprise institute, and needless to say, it's found an appreciative audience among those who dislike the environmentalist movement.
Now, several reviews of the book have faulted it for sloppy science, mischaracterization of environmentalist claims, poor use of statistics, and the like. Some have appeared in the green press, while others have appeared in such prestigious journals as _Nature_ and _Science_. But the book's loyalists have no trouble addressing these problems-- they simply dismiss the sources as being politically biased, examples of "political correctness," promoting hidden left-wing agendas, and the like.
Or, speaking from personal experience. I did a piece for _Skeptic_ about how science journalism and publication is compromised by public relations and corporate interests. It was a pretty big article, drawing from a wide range of sources. One of the letters I got was from some crank who said the he "couldn't help noticing" that some of the sources I'd cited were from the left-wing, like _The Nation_. Therefore, he announced, he did not have to read anything of mine because it was all left-wing propaganda. He'd apparently missed the fact that most of my sources were from places like _The New England Journal of Medicine_ and _JAMA_, as well as mainstream news sources like the AP wire and the _New York Times_.
So while Frank can be an embarassment to us lefties when he denounces mainstream journalism and "elite opinion," in that robotic prose of his, a lot of the rest of you (yes, I AM looking at you, Mr. Cassell) are just as robotic and brainless when you dismiss the source for whatever bias you think it has.
Address the FACTS, children.
David - Thanks for the link to Ellison's voicework. Wow. That's quite a bit.
I quite admire the passion and talent that goes into his readings. Books for the Blind are important stock for me. I like to pick up good work and give them as gifts.
Yesterday... picked up a nail crossing the Harvey Taylor bridge. Blew out rear driver tire. Mechanic who left some parts laying inside my engine compartment set up a brakes failure last night coming home from work. The shop is treating me very, very well this morning. Oh, yeah... my girlfriend is going to have my baby. We're shocked, frightened and very, very excited.
What a day.
Comics:
Heather: Compliation volumes of *Love and Rockets* by Los Bros. Hernandez might supply some well-written female comix characters; the work of Peter Bagge and Dan Clowes (he of *Ghost World*, the movie version of which has been oft referenced around here of late) is also often very nourishing.
Jon
>Lurk: I'll take that as an admission. A cowardly one, but enough said.<
P.A., what is your deal? I use an alias so that when people like you call me names, like you just did, it's less painful.
I don't really care who knows my "real name." Secrecy is not the issue here. Dealing with people like you is.
Got it? Good. Now go find something else to talk about.
Lurk: I'll take that as an admission. A cowardly one, but enough said.
Bermanator
Yup... Heather might enjoy Transmet more than the others. The JLA lasso thing is just another lame gimmick, but I HAVE heard better-than-usual riffs off the new writer on WW. If you're digging it, I'll have to check it out.
As for revisions - you're absolutely right. I WAS referring to the X-Men alternate universe/Heroes Reborn/Heroes Return/Ultimates line/Marvel Knights relaunches. How many Nick Furys are there floating around in the MU right now?
So I pose the question - what's better, revising a character or replacing them? Recreate Hal Jordan or bring in Kyle Rayner?
Jay
>Well, personally, I find all the slinking around the topic of one's income absurd. It's not as if it involves some sort of social disease. I never had any problem talking about mine, <
Ok, Dave, lay it on us. Your adjusted gross for 2001 would be fine. If you'd like, you could post your 1040 on your site (I'd recommend blocking out the SS number).
King Lurk
>NASA is mainly in the business of being a front for missle defense. <
Frankie, you had me, then you lost me. Even if this was true, so what? The USA does need a missile defense, sad but true. That's the price we pay for history. We ain't that fun little agrarian colony we were back when Jefferson was banging his slaves.
If you don't want to live in the empire, move to Sweden. They have tons of fun there, living on the edge, as it were...
>I don't want to put words in your mouth, but are you saying that you've ditched your real name so that you can be unpleasant here with impunity?<
P.A., just let it go. Next topic.
Jay,
I'd add in Warren Ellis' "Transmetropolitan" (Easily available i trade paperback, the 1st of which is "Back on the Street") for seriously messed up heroes.
As for universe revisions, you're slightly overboard on Marvel. Their last reboot was about four years ago, and one of the nice things about the Joe Quesada editorship so far is the lack of needless revisions (the ultimate line, for instance, is sort of an Elseworlds concept - meant to have it's own continuity).
I agree with you on the whole Wonder Woman thing, except to say that the current writer, Phil Jimenez is starting to do some nice stuff with the character (the broken lasso, by the way, is in the JLA comic).
Regards,
Joseph
Heather: I've been writing for as long as I can remember. I just didn't realize it until college, when I cleaned my room at home and collected the small hill (I was going to say mountain, but that would've been hyperbole) of material for filing.
Screenwriting arrived in college. Filmmaking started, officially, 5/27/00, with the filming of "Waiting for the Pizza Guy" - a short made to suport one visual gag, but has since blossomed into a trilogy to be filmed this year. No schooling was involved, except the school of hard knocks. Which also means I never get the shiny diploma or an official degree - I am strictly amateur.
You didn't miss my announcement of being gay. I'm not. With the serious amount of gender bending fun that occured on the board, I simply never corrected you (or anyone else) concerning my gender. My apologies if this causes a major paradigm shift in your head, but I am completely secure in the (man)'hood.
Re: "naive questions" - By way of explanation of my position, let me start by saying - I don't really subscribe to the philosophy that there is no such thing as a dumb question. Which means, that yes, I do evaluate questions placed before me for their merits. Age of the questioner is also a factor. Eg: A four year old can get away with "why do we eat?", a forteen year old cannot. It also helps if I have some measure of the questioner - so I can formulate a response that is appropriate.
As I stated previously - I have no handle on you. I seem to remember you mentioning an age in the 40's. Yet you sometimes ask questions that are SO simplistic, for which the answers are discovered early in life, and are the same to every person (except perhaps, sociopaths), that I wonder.
Again, as I stated earlier - you bewilder me.
This is not judgment, or an attempt to constrain your questing spirit, or anything other than a report from my POV. An explanation of why I don't answer many of your queries.
You and I clearly are not at the same point in our life's journey, nor do I think we are on the same road. This is a good thing. It creates a diversity of opinion and thought that is welcome. But, (and it is a big but), I'm not sure I'll EVER be able to answer many of your questions. And I'm not sure my answers would even work for you.
Feel free to keep trying, but I reserve the right to remain quiet.
Heather - Actually, there's a file with a law enforcement agency in an unnamed Northeastern state that would beg to differ with you in regards to "The Finder" not being my alias... In any event, for me, it's both: yeah, it's a nickname I picked up in college. But to an extent, it has become an alias, a persona I slip in to when I'm on the trail of something or someone. I'm me when I'm in polite society. I'm The Finder when I'm tapping my network of shadowy operatives, electronic back alleys, law enforcement connections and 'Information Sources Not For The General Public'. It's a Lamont Cranston/Kent Allard/Shadow kind of thing.
And though it wasn't directed at me, because I DO know Xanadu fairly well: I must have missed a turn and am now watching the Road Runner speed off at Mach 2 as I plummet towards the desert cacti below - or I missed a serious leap in logic, Heather - but I know for a 110% fact that Xanadu isn't gay. I've known him for 16 years, roomed with him in college, was Best Man at his wedding, have known his wife for at least 11 years, and have been oft-amused by the antics of his child, who thought my short film "Multiversal" was the best live-action cartoon of 2001 (and was the first person to ever point out that "Unca Doug" was that guy acting funny on the TV). Gay? Ah - no. Complete other side of the pendulum swing, in fact. Some days, he and the wife are so sickly sweet with each other that you'd want to fall on the floor convulsing in the syrup.
And just how you came up with your deduction from ANYTHING he posted here is befuddling. Especially when he mentions the missus.
Unless by 'gay' you mean 'insidiously gleeful and carefree', which he can sometimes be to an aggravating extent, but that's a bunch of stories for another time...
Xan - you've been outed, and you were never even in! It's like that time in Des Moines all over again, I tells ya!
Re: Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman has not been handled very well in modern times. Diana's portrayal in "Crisis" was about the same as the rest of her handling - big icon drawn pretty, killed for effect, and brought back in some other manifestation. I don't follow the book much. I know it has an awesome Adam Hughes cover every month that calls attention to it. But from the gimmicks I've seen used recently - she lost the title of Wonder Woman, fought Artemis to get it back, shortly after she died, was resurrected, died again, came back again, went on a journey to the afterword (died?), lost her crown again, then her magic lasso broke causing "Truth" to break down throughout the DC Universe...etc. - Yeah, sounds like a title I want to follow. I don't know if you've seen her in the Cartoon Network "Justice League" cartoon, but she's Superman with breasts, bracelets and catchphrases. She flies, she has super strength, she is pure and has no character flaw. Kinda dull.
The big universes - Marvel and DC - suffer from a shelf life about the same as a loaf of bread. After so long and so many writers, they lose a sense of continuity. Heroes can't grow and mature beyond five years realistically, so it becomes progressively harder to work stories into the history. After five years, all the old stories are told (how many times have we been treated to a revision of Spiderman's origin and his first meeting with the Green Goblin?) so the comic book universe is only viable for so long before it's time to bring in a new crew and start it over for the new reader base.
Marvel has revamped its universe at LEAST four times in the last four years. DC does it like every five. After "Crisis" and "Zero Hour" there was this "Hypertime" explanation that all alternative dimensions existed in the DC Universe, giving writers access to all the characters and timelines created in the "Elseworlds" label.
On the subject of flawless Superheroes - not all heroes are perfect. In fact, the best ones aren't. Spiderman and Green Lantern, for example, struggle with doing what's right for everyone. Sometimes he fails and screws up. Daredevil has relgious issues. Green Arrow is a womanizer and a selfish blowhard. Batman is obsessive-compulsive. They HAVE to have self conflict, or they don't work. Sure, punching out badguys in brightly-colored tights is great, but it wouldn't support an industry fed mostly by adult males. Good example - Hal Jordan goes nuts after his hometown is destroyed and wipes out the Green Lantern Corps. His story of madness, self-destruction, genocide and ultimate redemption is a great DC story that took YEARS to tell. "Knightfall" which examines what truly makes Batman a hero rather than a violent vigilante, is another. Ultimate Spiderman is probably the best version of Spiderman barring Lee and Kirby's first run. Any of those stories, Heather, are good examples.
For seriously screwed up heroes - try "The Authority". Alan Moore's "Top Ten" is a wildly inventive series about superheroes as is Warren Ellis' "Planetary"
Strangely enough, I was recently reminded of my childhood idolization of Wonder Woman--the Golden Age version, not the TV version. I remember reading everything about her as a kid, and then realized that I didn't know anything about what happened to her since then. I read a new comic of hers.
It was barely identifiable as the same character.
Same outfit, same dark hair, but all the background and characterization had changed. So I asked around and was told that everything was different since the DC "Crisis on Infinite Earths" series, when she died and was later revitalized in her own series. I read the "Crisis" series but she had virtually no part in it, outside of her vaporization.
The whole thing was rather unsatisfying, like coming back to your old neighborhood to visit a friend, only to find that not only were they were nothing like what you had remembered, but that they had reinvented themselves to the point of negating everything you had thought you knew about them.
So on the issue of females in comics, I think the old WW was pretty good as far as women in comics could be expected, but I have no idea what she's about now.
Excelsior.
Heather - Heroines I have read...
"Birds of Prey" is a great book. It follows Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance as a pair of heroes on cloak and dagger missions with some great wit, sex appeal and action. It guest stars many of the major second-tier heroines in the DC Universe like Huntress, Spoiler, Catwoman, etc. as well-draughted characters. Marvel's Black Widow has a good book, too. "Ghost" was a good book by Dark Horse in its first series. Back issues are available.
Goodnight Frank!
Oh, and the Titan IV is a product of Lockheed-Martin, with a 95% success rate (quite good, considering how many have been launched).
Oh, and Frank, there is such a thing as ground control in interplanetary exploration. Overrides, thrusters, safety measures, you know - what scientists and engineers use. Something your sources fail to take into account.
As for ridiculing your sources, three of the links were dead. The one I did look at hardly qualified as reputable. You know how we mention here on the board that people are entitled to a qualified opinion? Same goes for sources - we're quite open to reasonable sources. Doesn't mean we're going to listen to a source that doesn't understand the basic concepts on space navigation.
As for Project Censored, my personal opinion is that while they bring attention to many ignored (not supressed) news stories, they occassionally give too much credence to one-sided stories. Censored is especially bad with hard science stories, not giving the stories a proper vetting by people with the background to check the merits of the stories. A fine example is their Cassini-Hyugens story, where they repeat the old (and false) canard that solar energy is a viable power source for the mission:
http://www.projectcensored.org/stories/c1997.htm#1
You know what? It's five years later, and such solar panels don't exist - and probably won't for quite a while.
Well, it's been a pleasure having you as a guest on Science Jeopardy, Frank. Sorry you didn't win anything, but here's an Endeavour patch for your take-home prize.
Joseph
P.S. Space exploration a small part, indeed. That old chestnut's been prowling around since 1969.
Scott: I have a question for you.
What brought you to this site, in the first place? Have you been on other forums before?
This is more an observation, as I've listened to some people comment on your style -- someone found it immature. I find it charming; I think their opinion has changed since that time, but it never occured to me to think of your style as 'immature'..
I call it forthright; "Little Princish" if you need a label. Call me foolish.
I wonder (as I assume you had real-life friends BEFORE you got here and will continue to do so) if it has more to do with a sense of control for you. I mean that in a very MINOR sense, as I think Xanadu is right: we are limited on this forum by how well we can put ourselves across, in writing, yet I can't take your view on this.
I agree with David Loftus. He once mentioned how much more authentic one could BE, online, writing, talking back and forth. Some people have issues dealing with others face to face. (I don't think I have an issue with it, nor does David, but it does help those who need it.)
I think it simply depends on what one needs at any given moment.
Your life is sounding busy. I think that's a more profound rationalization. But (and I don't point hard at you; this simply reminds me of previous people encounters)...
I've dealt very deeply with a few people on the net. At some point in time, at some conjuncture, the connection was severed.
We apply less importance to people that aren't in front of us. I find this odd. (What is the thinking in a book? Someone else's. You put a lot of stock in THAT, don't you? Why not online people?)
That amazes me, in a sense. But then, that might simply have more to do with how I deal with people. I think I'm more like David--outfront and wondering what everyone else is talking about as to hiding behind anything.
I don't think the thought ever occured to me. (David, as well.)
Just my babble.
Heather
Scott/Finder...
It's different. Both of what you called monikers are your NICKNAMES. They aren't aliases. Scott, I thought you'd said you'd picked up this nick as a kid. It simply (always) bothered me as, although cute, it had an implied self-deprecating quality.
I had this friend. His favorite phrase was, "I suck." He was referring to himself. On the one hand, it saved anyone else beating him to the "punch me" punch; on the other hand, it was an annoying male attribute that I found immature--it was HIS way of explaining/rationalizing doing/saying whatever stupid thing he wanted.
Actually, HE had a friend, who I lived with, him and his girlfriend, before moving out here, who said the same damn thing.
He was a little immature too.
(No, *laugh* I ain't talking about YOU, Scott. It just 'reminded me' of that.)
P.S. Xanadu...
Could you rewind tape a bit and explain to me just how deeply involved you've been in film and writing and whatever? Good luck with what you're working on--I'll comment more later--but I did not know this about you. Did you attend school for this?
Also, I guess I must have missed you mentioning before that you were gay. Cool! Did you have a lot of issues with it? (Again, your choice of levels of reply/mood you are in, etc.)
Also, there's a big difference between answering someone's question and simply point-scoring it. To say a question is naive or whatever suggests you're more interested in judging it, then pondering it--to whatever extent you are able.
I can't answer all the questions I ask. But I don't judge them good, bad or indifferent.
I used to get this one guy where I worked, in a print shop, who would say to me (an equivalent of your "that seems a naive question") with
What do you need to know THAT for?
Little Washu, you said:
>Y'see, in novels you can't really have such a thing as a 'hero'. She/he has got to have faults; he/she's got to have screwed up on more than one occasion; he/she has had to have made one GIGANTIC mistake in her/his lifetime that sheds a shadow over her/his'good' deeds, and which the 'villian' could bring into light and confront him/her with. The term 'gray area' can't be more true than in literature.
I realize you are reading _some_ books that are for school, so I understand your delineation here.
Could you try some Simon Templar? I wouldn't say he was an extremely COMPLEX character but he was, to an extent, a good guy. (Remember, Charteris was from the 30s, I think. You're still talking good guy/bad guy, black and white worlds, somewhat; perhaps, in the realm of your comix definition.) I think Charteris is what started me on British authors. I liked the way he wrote stories.
As for comix characters/subject matter repeating itself, I agree with you on that--at least the varieties I was reading. I was very pleased to read "The Dark Knight" when it first came out. It brought back happy memories of Batman, but...in some ways, it was more of the same old same old. (Though the graphic novel format and illustrations were FANtastic. Those new "Classics Illustrated" were yummy. What artwork!)
I plan to try some of the newer varieties of comix. Ellison's Dark Corridor people are excellent--I've enjoyed all of what I've read so far. I sense there's a little more depth to some of the new writers than "wham, pow, boom." I read Ellison's diatribes on the new writers. They sound intriguing.
I read some "Dark Horse" collections a long time back--there were some French and other European writers in the ones I perused. (In black and white--rather interesting.) Much more depth/interest (to me, anyway) than men in tights or army fatigues.
Can you suggest any good, REALISTIC comix with female characters in them? No, I don't need bimbos with breasts, kooky cool females, 'she's just a male appendage', or psycho-broads. (Though I'm not ruling them out. It's just, gimme a break--GUYS have flipping role models, where are the women's? I was into Indiana Jones/Simon Templar/James Bond because there were no real female counterparts.)
In fact, in a logical part of me, I have a kernel of thinking that suggests that women are INCAPABLE of being this, which I find a little limited.
----------------------------
NEW SUBJECT:
And I segue to a relative topic, which is:
Are there any female equivalents of interesting, complex male characters in comix today?
------------------------------
Heather
P.S. P.A. I used to have arguments with my Dad. The worst he ever called me was stupid (and once, a fuckup.) Hmm..funny, I can't ever remember calling HIM 'stupid.' I might have said his argument was stupid but I see a difference, don't you? I've always felt the minute names start being called is when the user feels he's losing ground (and, in a sense, he has, as I'm less inclined to listen to his arguments.)
When I talk about 'hot' conversations, I'm talking about the use of derogatory phrases.
Have you ever noticed me call you a stupid, fucking pustulent, snot--encrusted creep with stinky fingertips?
I understand those words. I spent five minutes thinking maybe there was a point to using them. (Hey, Harlan uses em. Must be okay, I thought.)
Then, I thought of a few 'friends' who called me worse, in the heat of argument.
I don't plan to go there, see?
It's not about the level of implied importance/sensitivity/politically correctness of the issue, it's about words-one-uses-when-one-is-mad-and-thinks-namecalling-will-win-brownie-points.
Frank,
I'm glad you've decided to drop it. I, for one, was getting tired of your failure to back up your statements with facts. Yes, you did cite three sources, one of which actually provided information on a point of view, but no factual information. Extreme, left-wing, the sky is falling paranoia is hardly a citation of fact though. NASA has admitted that there is some (minuscule) chance of a catastrophic failure that would result in a release of radioactive material. However, the chances of you or anyone else being affected are something like a billion to one against it. By the way, have you chucked out your smoke detector yet? I hear those things are loaded with radioactive material...
-Andrew
Lynn said: "Growing up, I was always taught that it was exceptionally rude to ask people about their income. Even if it is a 'yes' or 'no' question."
Ah, for me growing up, *I* was always taught that it was expectionally rude to call someone a 'fucking fuck.' Even if it was Frank Church.
Funny thing, manners.
Bermanator
PS--That was a joke. Seriously.
RE: Harlan's voice work.
He's also one of the most talented voice actors I've ever had the privilege of experiencing. Even without the writing, I think he could have made it big just doing voice work. I've heard some author's read their work and I just cringe. I keep thinking, man, why don't you get a professional to do that for you. Just because you write, doesn't mean you can read. An' dat ol' man, he gots some luscious chops, I tell yah!
And that ain't ass kissin'! That's the truthhhhhththththtpphptpth!
Edith Ann
David, I think Harlan is taking on all this recording work mainly because it's a quick buck that he can earn to pay his legal bills. I would assume he has a great reputation in the audio industry by now, so he probably gets some of the top dollar contracts.
-TODD
Well, personally, I find all the slinking around the topic of one's income absurd. It's not as if it involves some sort of social disease. I never had any problem talking about mine, and I don't see why anyone else should have any concern about theirs. To me the implication seems to be that one is ashamed of what one is doing to earn it.
If Mr. Ellison finds it rude, I'm sure he'll let me know. I'm ready to take the heat for it. But the question was more about how the business of audio recordings is handled, and how they sell, rather than his income.
Frankly, I've been a little surprised to see him take on the work of reading so many other people's writings, from Jay McInerney to John Shirley.
Frank, you can stop giving the "I gave you sources, why do you attack me" lament when you start giving sources from publications other than liberal propoganda that even make most liberals cringe.
-TODD
Ooopsie.
David~
|||Yes, there are many easily awful things that can be done to you in real life, so easily, when someone knows your name. But if you never call anybody a "fucking fuck" then you're not apt to arouse them.|||
Perhaps. It's still a naive point of view. I can show you just how naive, if you like.
|||By the way, I don't see anything particularly personal in what I asked Harlan. Did you see me ask for numbers? No. A simple yes or no would suffice.|||
Growing up, I was always taught that it was exceptionally rude to ask people about their income. Even if it is a 'yes' or 'no' question.
L.
Lynn, speaking of the "First Annual Deceased, dare I say DESSICATED, Equine Flagellation Award," are you a South Park viewer? New season began last night, and the best joke was a sight gag (before the disappointing explanation by one of the townfolk.....I would have left just the sight gag and let the dopes figure it out).
Jared, of Subway-look-at-all-the-weight-I-lost commercial fame, has been misunderstood when he admits that he lost his weight due to the assistance of aides....meaning two assistants who keep him from overeating. So, of course, throughout the show, as he admits that he lost weight due to aides, and that everyone should get aides, and he promises to help everyone in the town get aides, and he admits to his fiance that he has aides and yadd yadda yadda everyone is misunderstanding his trumpeting of AIDS as a weight-loss method and they are hunting him down like the Frankenstein monster and about 15 minutes into the show you see Jared with a baseball bat smashing something out of screen on the ground with the bat while he laments that he doesn't understand why everyone hates him because of he wants them all to get aides.....and of course, as the camera pulls out, you see he is beating a dead horse. I died laughing on that one.
Then, the cityfolk come up over a hill and one of them yells "He's over there...beating that dead horse." It didn't need that line, but what the hell.
-TODD
Lynn, speaking of the "First Annual Deceased, dare I say DESSICATED, Equine Flagellation Award," are you a South Park viewer? New season began last night, and the best joke was a sight gag (before the disappointing explanation by one of the townfolk.....I would have left just the sight gag and let the dopes figure it out).
Jared, of Subway-look-at-all-the-weight-I-lost commercial fame, has been misunderstood when he admits that he lost his weight due to the assistance of aides....meaning two assistants who keep him from overeating. So, of course, throughout the show, as he admits that he lost weight due to aides, and that everyone should get aides, and he promises to help everyone in the town get aides, and he admits to his fiance that he has aides and yadd yadda yadda everyone is misunderstanding his trumpeting of AIDS as a weight-loss method and they are hunting him down like the Frankenstein monster and about 15 minutes into the show you see Jared with a baseball bat smashing something out of screen on the ground with the bat while he laments that he doesn't understand why everyone hates him because of he wants them all to get aides.....and of course, as the camera pulls out, you see he is beating a dead horse. I died laughing on that one.
Then, the cityfolk come up over a hill and one of them yells "He's over there...beating that dead horse." It didn't need that line, but what the hell.
-TODD
Lynn, speaking of the "First Annual Deceased, dare I say DESSICATED, Equine Flagellation Award," are you a South Park viewer? New season began last night, and the best joke was a sight gag (before the disappointing explanation by one of the townfolk.....I would have left just the sight gag and let the dopes figure it out).
Jared, of Subway-look-at-all-the-weight-I-lost commercial fame, has been misunderstood when he admits that he lost his weight due to the assistance of aides....meaning two assistants who keep him from overeating. So, of course, throughout the show, as he admits that he lost weight due to aides, and that everyone should get aides, and he promises to help everyone in the town get aides, and he admits to his fiance that he has aides and yadd yadda yadda everyone is misunderstanding his trumpeting of AIDS as a weight-loss method and they are hunting him down like the Frankenstein monster and about 15 minutes into the show you see Jared with a baseball bat smashing something out of screen on the ground with the bat while he laments that he doesn't understand why everyone hates him because of he wants them all to get aides.....and of course, as the camera pulls out, you see he is beating a dead horse. I died laughing on that one.
Then, the cityfolk come up over a hill and one of them yells "He's over there...beating that dead horse." It didn't need that line, but what the hell.
-TODD
But I will say that Aerogel is kinda cool.
Lynn,
I've been using Fictionwise a bit lately. Haven't joined their BuyWise club yet, but have popped for about 40 books and will buy more soon. So far it's a nice outfit to deal with. Peanut Press ain't bad either, but I prefer Fictionwise if an item is available on both.
Something we should know about 'em or were you wanting to ask someone a question about them (not that I have any definitive answers).
---TR, who has been lurking too damned much lately & not posting
Joseph, I just reread your post: What hilarity. The titan rocket explosions were a sign that NASA makes faulty shit. Just because the probe was on a safe trajectory does not mean it cannot veer off coarse. Just as the titan rocket mishaps, the onboard computer could have fucked up too. Luckily it passed by the Earth with no mishaps, but with that much plutonium, why take any damn chances?
Lynn, in 1999 the Cassini probe did a fly-by of the Earth. Are you saying it is stupid on my part to worry about such bad judgement by NASA? Maybe you like fallout cancer, but I prefer my zits be natural.
I really do give up on my points about NASA: I give three sources and get ridiculed. Most reporters only need two sources to begin a story. There are many other sources.
Project Censored does it's homework and really digs to find these news stories. It's reputation is clear. Just email them and ask them yourself about their "proof."
Joseph, your source is good, but it is elite opinion, and not unbiased. Of coarse the space program is going to defend itself, as most powerful bodies do.
NASA is mainly in the buisiness of being a front for missle defense. Believe me, space exploration will be a small part of the overall budget. The war on terrorism proved that. The days of Neil Armstrong are over. This is a war economy now: The only purpose these right wing scumbags can fathom.
This IS a pretty cool bulletin board. Everyone can mostly spell, and has articulate world view to share. Yeah, it's hot sometimes, but at least most of us feel sheepish after we behave badly.
Alex K: I pretty much agree with your sentiments on aliases. Well spoken.
King Lurk: "It's just easier for me to light a match as King Lurk"-- I don't want to put words in your mouth, but are you saying that you've ditched your real name so that you can be unpleasant here with impunity? I mean, it's one thing if you have poor communication skills and can't help but offend; on the other hand, if you're deliberately tweaking people, and constructing a fake identity to further that hobby, what reception do you expect?
I personally don't think you're a useless creep; obstructively rude at times, but not useless. But if you are bothered by that feeling, there are ways to communicate dissent without being creepy.
By the way, I know exactly who you are. You've haven't camouflaged it too well. Why not just 'fess up and go back to your real name? I'd probably be quite salutory all around.
As for my initials being secretive, nice try. You'll have to be satisfied with P.
Bermanator
[After consulting the IMDb: ]
Oops. No Worley or Gibson, but Julie Newmar and Carol Lynley are in the cast (how can you beat that?!), and for 1960s screwball comedy fans, the memorable Mildred Natwick (show of hands, those of you who recognize that name!). And original music soundtrack by ... Nelson Riddle!!!
Anyway, I never forgot that very strange intro.
Lynn:
It hasn't been "luck," it's been skill. I was the "honorable opposition" on the Camille Paglia list for several years and got in some pretty heavy firefights circa 1994-95. Probably most of my nastiest battles on alt.feminism, a really ugly place on the 'net where I held my own for several years, can be found through Google.
Yes, there are many easily awful things that can be done to you in real life, so easily, when someone knows your name. But if you never call anybody a "fucking fuck" then you're not apt to arouse them.
By the way, I don't see anything particularly personal in what I asked Harlan. Did you see me ask for numbers? No. A simple yes or no would suffice.
As for the mystery film -- I don't know why I remember this; I can't imagine I've seen it any more than once, when it first came out about 1970 -- it is "The Maltese Bippy," starring Dan Rowan and Dick Martin. Dim memory tells me it has an Agatha Christie-esque plot that was a little scary for an 11-year-old, and that Joanne Worley and perhaps Henry Gibson were also in the cast. I should go look this one up in the IMDb....
Hello, a short one before I go watch Danny play.
Xanadu: I don't think Scotty has web burnout, he uses the computer the least in the family by far, both due to time and family restraints. He's the one who complains at me that we should be looking at the kids, not a screen.
I read him your post just now, and he said:
"Just looking at the whole thing as an experiment which has fizzled." He says there are some good people, some bad, some indifferent here. Perhaps he had too high an expectation, but that's his choice.
As for the site, well, I've enjoyed it for the most part, but agree that perhaps walking away awhile might be best for all. I do agree regarding anonymity, and your assertion that ultimately we, even with a name, remain anonymous. I guess I like it best this way, so there's no real pressure on anyone to have to talk to me or for me to respond.
So, we'll just leave it here, and maybe pick it up again sometime in the future. In any case, please have joy and happiness in yourselves, and I hope all have a good time.
Love to All, Melissa
Ok, Heather, I'll bite.
I love being married. After 11 years, I can barely remember what being single was like. It's really cool to be part of a relationship in which so much is revealed and shared. I've never really thought of walking out, I walked in with eyes wide open and knew what I was getting into -- warts and all. She knew about my warts, too. Having said that, I'll say what I always say. Your experience may be different, maybe marriage just ain't for you, if so, great. It's good for me though. I think my kind, gentle, loving wife has made me a better person. And I kinda like that.
Re: anonymous posting. I'm anonymous everywhere else on the net, except here. Darryl in the bay area, I'm known around these parts. I'd imagine there are one or two Darryls in the Bay Area. I post using the same voice and words where I am anonymous as I use here. I usually read, unless someone asks a question or make a comment I'd like to discuss.
Darryl -- who has been delurking way too much.
David,
Thanks a lot. I spent my lunchtime eating and trying to figure out your scene. Now I'm stumped. Do tell.
Regards,
Joseph
re: Intermission two minutes into the movie.
Yeah, David. You stumped me too. Give, give.
L.
David: The scene described is familiar - I'm almost certain I've seen the film, but the name escapes me. Sorry.
Alex: Your thoughts on net names are very well considered - and in general, I agree with them. I'd just like to think I'm among the exceptions that prove the rule. ;)
Bermanator:
I have been Xanadu in the cyberworld since my hacking days in the early '80s. (Technically, I was a cracker – but if I had had access to the internet, I would have been next to Kevin Mitnick and Capt'n Crunch on the wanted lists – a serious lack of social life, an unending fascination with computers, and no sense of propriety would have done it for sure. As it is, I was responsible for 95% of the rules and regs on computer use at my school. Not that I was an uber-hacker or anything, my graduating class had a whopping 89 people in it – it was easy to be the big fish in the small pond.)
Thus, I am Xanadu.
Like Finder, I realize that anyone with a passing knowledge of Google and a modicum of time could find my "real" identity in .045 secs or whatever the length of time it takes Google to run such a search. I'm not really hiding anything.
I am forthright – to my detriment sometimes, and while I try not to drop to the level of personal insult there are many people online who do. On this point, I have to agree with Lurk. It's easier to argue with folk if they're not insulting me directly. It does not change the way I post, since this is my "posting persona". And it is who I am. Warts and all.
To those who think it's hot here. Trust me – there is no moderate-to-large gathering or group of people who are genuinely engaged in discussion that does not get hot. Passions flare, noses get bent, feelings even get wounded – but there's nothing here like the flame wars on Usenet. And I think it's exactly because (as King Lurk says) "there seems to be a cyclical urge in Webderland for posters to reassure each other that this is a loving place" that this place is different.
It's kinda like a family – you may squabble – but when the chips are down, you're there for each other.
Scott (The poster Formerly Known as Bag of Meat) – fare-thee-well – I recognize web-burnout when I see it. I enjoyed your posts and hope you stop by to visit once in a while.
I've resisted weighing in on the anonymity debate, because my opinons on that have gotten me more than my share of hate mail in some quarters. This is a more civilized clime, so what the hell.
Online anonymity is, in most cases, unnecessary. I've been online for over two decades. In that time, I've pissed off some exceedingly nasty people. I spent years as CompuServe's unofficial holocaust-denier debunker. Conspiracy theoriests on Compuserve boards hated me so much I became a major topic on their boards out on the web. If you search the web carefully, you can still find pieces accusing me of being a government plant, a "Zionist agent," etc. I've been threatened online more times than I care to count. All while using my own name, all with an easily obtained phone number and address.
In 20 years, I've had one imposition on my private life due to my online activies. One. A phone call from an idiot who made threats, hung up and relied on caller-ID block to save himself from the consequences of his actions. The idiot didn't know about star-57, which does a trace on even "unobtainable" numbers and reports them not to the recipient but to the phone company. After the police contacted the idiot, he vanished from the message boards.
While this board is an exception--in many ways--my consistent experience elsewhere is that anonymity is used largely as an excuse for bad behavior online. It is the bane of the web. The more anonymous the board, the worse the behavior. A totally unregulated board, with neither registration nor enforcement is a waste of time...at best.
I prefer people who post under their own names--even if it's just a first name--because they're more likely to behave as they actually do in real life. There are exceptions --again, this board is exceptional in almost every way-- but as a general rule, I don't expect much from those who post under false names. And I am rarely surprised to find I've been unfair.
--alex
Frank,
A) Actually, you implied the space program was immoral by constantly attempting to cast it as a waste of money, coupled with your apparent belief that it is/will be a tool of the military.
B) Nice links. Sadly, only the 1st one works, and that was blathering about "Three consecutive Titan 4 rocket failures and a very active solar flare cycle" as if they had anything to do with an object already launched and safely on-course.
C) Put the space program on hold? Huh? How would putting an entire government agency that has done so much good (as well as the occassional problem, misstep, etc) do ay good? Should we divide it's budget, giving $100 to every one of the thousands or organizations devoted to helping the less fortunate?
D) Did you actually even read the Scientific American report I linked to? You seem to think that Cassini-Hyugens was a fool-hardy mission, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Really, Frank, whadda ya have against the space program? Of all the programs of the United States government that could be cut to provide much-needed money for education and the such, you pick on the space program? Really, you're starting to sound a little strained on this 'NASA is unnecessary' kick of yours.
Joseph
Frank~ You have made it readily apparent that you know not whereof you speak, nor do your "fine sources" know whereof they speak. Just as you accuse your political opponents, you yourself have been sucked into a world of one paragraph propagandist sound bites based on the *simplest* *common* *denominator's* understanding of a highly complex scientific undertaking. And seeing as Cassini launched successfully in *1997*, you are officially the winner of the First Annual Deceased, dare I say DESSICATED, Equine Flagellation Award.
::sigh::
L.
Joseph, I never said that the space program was immoral. I said that they should be more careful with how they spend their money and their use of nuclear material. I would ban the use of Plutonium and other dangerous material myself, because their danger is just too great. What bugs me is that we don't even debate these issues. I just feel that the space program should be put on hold for a while, until we can solve some of the worlds problems. Why go to other worlds if we end up blowing this one up anyway?
Most of my info about the use of nuclear material come from these fine sources.
Http://www.zmag.org/Bulletins/pncassp.htm
http://www.zmag.org/Bulletins/pctv.htm
http://www.thenation.com/cgi-bin/framizer.cgi?url=http://past.thenation.com/issues/970811/0811pollit.shtml
Brian, by the way, this is an essay by Katha Pollit about the NEA budget as apposed to the the NASA budget.
http://www.projectcensored.org/stories/c1996.htm#1
David~ re: Harlan's income. That last is a bit of a personal question, don't you think?
~~~CAUTION: Rambling nonsensical post ahead. Please feel free to skim.~~~
PAB, Lurk, Xanadu, Finder~ re: Identity vs. Anonymity
I maintain that identity and anonymity are independent of each other, at least in this forum. Each of us has a distinct voice that we use and regardless of whether or not we use a 'handle', that voice comes throught. Xanadu has an excellent point that even with a true name, here we are all anonymous. I started out using a nomme d'guerre and I ended up just dropping it. Mostly because it felt rude in these close quarters (said she, putting her feet up on the coffee table). Regardless of whether you prefer Tom, Dick or Harry, or you prefer Splitter, Malachi and
Fudge Ripple, we know you by your words.
The only counter I've seen to this was Meat, who had a very distinct voice, that was very different from Scott. I contest, Meat, that your voice changed when your lady wife Melissa began to share this forum. You became less Meat-like, which is a pity, because your style was one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I understand her feelings about the name, but sometimes the dregs really are our most comfortable garments, the ones through which we shine. (Your philosophical conundrum for the day. Why does gold look so much more shiny when caked with shit?)
As an improvisational actor and a role-player, I have been plagued by the question of character over and over again. I think being in this forum, the edges start to wear off after awhile. We all learn the voices and identities, regardless of what the handles are.
And yes, anonymity is a two-edged sword that in some cases seemingly severs us from accountability. In an increasingly technological world, anonymity may seem more available here, but in truth, there are ways to find out exactly who you are and exactly the nature of your crimes. (Refer to Harlan's current lawsuit and the lame fish living in his mother's basement.)
David~ I think you're pretty naive to think that there aren't ways that someone could hurt you from knowing your name. You've probably been pretty lucky up to this point, but Lurk is right. There are crazies, and there are ways to reach out and touch someone knowing just a name. This forum seems pretty insulated, but there are other places on the net where having a handle is a lot more than a preference, it's a pretty damned good idea.
I'll shut up now. Blood sugar dipping. Time to go find food.
L.
Funny we should be discussing Harlan's audio work this morning: Amazon just sent me a heads-up on three audio projects involving Harlan due out this month: _Best Science Fiction 2001_, _The Birthday of the World and Other Stories (by Ursula LeGuin)_, and _Demons_ (a novel by John Shirley).
No material written by Ellison, but he's a performer on all three items.
Questions for Harlan: Do you read ALL the stories on the _Best Science Fiction 2001_ collection? (You're the only reader listed on Amazon.) Does Shirley read as well as you on _Demons_, or is that an error?
Finally, I'm curious about the financial arrangements. I assume you receive a fee up front for doing the recording, but have any of these projects (readings of non-Ellison material) garnered any "residuals" for you?
Fellow Evil Dead Fans:
Some of you might recall that a few weeks ago I mentioned Bruce Campbell and the Evil Dead cast were getting together at a theater near me for a 20th anniversary reunion/premiere of Evil Dead.
Well, I finally managed to throw some pics of the event up at my site. Interested parties can see them at:
http://home.talkcity.com/BookmarkBlvd/lamp_shadey/indexdead.html
Heigh Ho all...
Well, the city, in its infinite wisdom is now splitting my shifts in order to make use of my refereeing talents. It means I go home for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, and get played both my regular salary for the rink plus a nice bonus for donning the stripes. I get to set the proviso that I will not officiate games of those over the age of twelve. The kids are easier to keep control of, than the adult-sized over-competitive children.
I guess I'm one whose leaving the subject of the sobriquet aside and coming to the thought of coming here in general, and how the auspices of anonymity play out. For me, as one starting with a moniker, then dispensing with it, I don't see that it makes any real difference. If you come with a chip on the shoulder, a false name isn't going to remove it.
For me, the larger problem is in coming here to the site in general. I'm finding myself becoming less interested in talking to people here. Not that anyone's boring or a lack of topics pervades the Webderlanders. It's just, well, it's a hell of a lot more work than, say, meeting in person or talking on the phone.
First, to the somewhat spurious. The typing. I can't stand sitting here and banging out my words on a keypad. It's like talking in slow motion to me.
Now, the more important. The sense of personal contact I get talking to people in person or on the phone. To me, this gets more real if you'll pardon the pun. I guess I like the immediacy, the sense of connection I have in a personal conversation with someone.
Moreso, within real person converations I have to recognize the person on the other side of the table or the phone. I have to see them as people and consider their existence more often. I find here that at times within discussions there seems to be more of a steamroller effect; that the verobsity and argument have to overcome the person arguing, rather than the issue. I've cringed at times when someone has put forth what appears to be an unpopular argument and in response people have taken it way too far, even to the point of personal attacks. Yes, Rick's job to enforce cessation of such instances; but that's an excuse to dismiss the irresponsibility of others; people should show control themselves long before Rick needs to intervene. Within a real conversation, this generally doesn't happen. There are more consequences for bad behaviour within a in-person coversation and usually more mature people tend to watch what they say. I don't want to come off as some form of politeness freak; how people want to say something is their business.
In complete honesty, there are folks who I just scroll past as soon as I see their names, and dismiss their spewings as puerile detrious (as surely as there are those here who probably do to me). But the sense of unreality I experience looking at the postings here, pushing against the fact that somewhere there is a real person attached to these words makes me grow less interested in showing up.
Well, I've spent a good half hour writing and editing this comment; that's about it from here. I've decided I'm not going to show up anywhere as often as I have in the past, not out of rancour, but just because I can enjoy a lot of good folks here in the real world, and they're a hell of a lot easier to reach and connect with.
Even more: those I've come into connection with in person know and like me much more for the person I really am and I always felt that's best.
Best to all, Scott
Postus Scriptus: Just letting all know that the league will be ongoing, should the folks here decide. I can leave message relevant to that at the site itself, or through email.
Konnichi wa, folks! (No, I'm not Japanese, I just think it's a cool greeting.)
My quickie take on the anonymity thread:
I don't really have much to put into the subject, other than I'm not exactly anonymous myself...the majority of you, I hope, know that I'm actually ol' Benjamin of the tribe Basset Hound. To tell you the honest truth, I would have posted with 'Little Washu' or another similar moniker right at the very beginning if I had thought more about it. I'm certain that I'll eventually return to my actual name, but for now it's just kind of a fun goofy fling than anything else.
HEATHER: Personally I think that comic books are a lot more tricky to maneauver in, character and story-wise. In the olden days, supervillians were excactly that. They want to TAKE OVER THE WORLD! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Not much juice to be gotten out of there for someone who wants to delve deeper into human conflict. That's why so many writers in the comic book industry have gone ridiculously overboard in the 'my parents beat me as a child' genre in trying to flesh out the likes of Dr. Doom and Lex Luthor. One of the very few instances when a writer managed to truly re-invent a supervillian in a terrifying new light was Alan Moore's superb THE KILLING JOKE. The loveable memories of Cesar Romero's portrayal in the television series were permanently buried with THAT one.
As for superheroes, they're the good guys. Period. At the end of the day we expect them to behave to OUR moral code, to OUR belief in justice for all, etc. In novels, it's more difficult to get away with that, as you're no longer functioning in a visual medium and you can afford to be lax. (Although there are plenty of writers out there who are pretty lax anyway, despite the consequences).
The problem is with superheros is that their stories NEVER STOP; they keep going and going and going and going and going until they inevitably become parodies of themselves after so many writers, good and bad, have mutilated them so much that when it comes to story and plot continuity, they're fucked. With a short story or a novel, you can wrap up things whichever way you want. In MOBY DICK Ahab was destroyed by his own maniacal obsession; in FRANENSTEIN the creator is confronted by the creation he so callously threw away; in A CHRISTMAS CAROL Scrooge has been rescued, as well as rescuing himself, from a life of misery and an afterlife of damnation.
Keep in mind I'm only reffering to the popular, mainstream stuff, DC and Marvel and all that. The comic book format has been utilized sometimes on a truly spectacular level. But like television, it's subject more to turkeys than classics.
SUPERMAN, SPIDER-MAN and such are more like legends, up there with Odysseus and Robin Hood. Their mythos is what attracts good writers nowadays, really, then their entire convulated universe as a whole.
Y'see, in novels you can't really have such a thing as a 'hero'. She/he has got to have faults; he/she's got to have screwed up on more than one occasion; he/she has had to have made one GIGANTIC mistake in her/his lifetime that sheds a shadow over her/his'good' deeds, and which the 'villian' could bring into light and confront him/her with. The term 'gray area' can't be more true than in literature.
Regardless, I firmly believe in the possibility of a 'hero' who whumps the scumbag's butt at the conclusion, both in reality AND fiction. There's the people who have fumbled along the way, and at the complete OTHER end of the spectrum of the people who are, for a lack of a better word, sewer-slime; getting their kicks hurting others, physically or spiritually. I'm a romantic in that way too, I guess.
As for THE SAINT, sorry to say I'm not familiar with the character much farther than the Val Kilmer movie. I'm more of an INCREDIBLE HULK guy myself, with THE SHADOW not far behind.
That wraps it up for now, I guess. Thanks for asking, Heather.
Lilttle Washu
Re: Alias
To each his own, I guess. I use a few handles where I don't want to be bothered by shitheads (Ebay, Amazon) but I guess it depends on how serious you want to be taken when you're discussing life, the universe and everything.
Of course the name is secondary to the post. You spit out gibberish, you could be Harlan Ellison and the post isn't worth the bandwidth it uses. Now, I'm not talking about opinions you happen to disagree with. That's the heart of debate. Given that it IS a debate or exchange of ideas, emotions and stuff like that, I prefer to be myself.
But that's just me. I understand why others choose to remain anonymous.
Heather and Jay both expressed interest in locating HE's recorded work. If you haven't been to Mike Zuzel's "Islets of Langerhans" Web site, GO! There's a wing of it furnished by me, devoted to Ellison audio works.
The "audiography" (a mere listing of recordings) is reasonably complete and up to date, although HE has laid down a couple more projects -- not his own writing, but reading other people's work -- in the past year that are not yet on the market, I believe. That's at
http://www.islets.net/audiolist.html
My detailed critiques of Ellison's recordings have lagged way behind, because that's a lot more work, but the earliest, rarest stuff is covered, starting at
http://www.islets.net/audiorevs.html
and I'll doubtless write a few more for Mike eventually, when I get around to it.
Regarding the names and pseudonyms issue, PAB asked whether those of us who use our legal birth names here ever wished we had not, so we could "let loose." My answer: Never. It's just not in my nature, for one thing; and I suppose knowing I have to stand by whatever I say necessarily makes me take greater care in saying it. Which may be one of the primary reasons my number-of-postings-to-flames (sent OR received) ratio is probably the lowest on this board, despite the fact that people often disagree with my positions. (That, and I'm just a very good writer, to paraphrase something my Dad always used to crack about card playing.)
King Lurk said I'd have to be either very brave or very nuts to post regularly under my own name, but as courageous acts go, this one doesn't strike me as a biggie. It's nowhere near printing op-ed pieces in the paper with not only your name but your PHOTO at the head of them, which I've also done. (When you do that, strangers stop you at the supermarket or fast food joints to talk about something you wrote.)
I lived for three years in a small, redneck timber logging town where I said, in print, things like recreational drugs should be relegalized, and Reagan was the dumbest president of the century except maybe for Harding, and I supported gun control and gay rights, and opposed legislation that controlled abortion. People phoned me up -- at work and at home -- to tell me I was a communiss, more angry letters to the editor came in about my work than all the other staff combined, and someone once sprayed pink foam all over my doorstep. And lots of people told me I was courageous, that they could never do what I did. I didn't think it was such a big deal. I enjoyed it.
The other night I did something I found much scarier: I was out walking my dog, saw some kids tagging a building next to ours, and called the police. I found that much harder to do -- at least it got my heart pounding a lot faster, and kept my mind wondering about what might happen if I run into those kids again, especially with my little rat terrier. (They exchanged some friendly words from me, so it wouldn't be hard for them to figure out I was the one who narked on them -- the only other suspect would be the homeless and drunken nut who was also hanging out in the nearby brush.)
It doesn't take talent to do something like that; anyone could do it. But it takes a lot of courage. I've never been mugged, I've never been beaten up, but I've been knifed for nothing, so my imagination is in fine working order.
Mouthing off, whether intelligently or like so many of the asses we encounter on the Internet, is small potatoes by comparison. And makes much less of a difference.
Okay, enough Holy Grail. Who can name the movie which begins with a disquisition on Ivan the Terrible, admits "This has nothing to do with Ivan, we just thought you'd be interested," moves to a cemetery in upstate New York where a woman screams, and then you see "INTERMISSION" ... only about 2 minutes into the film?
(Wonder if this one's available on video ... hmmmm....)
Joseph --
Marco, for Marco Aurelius, hired muscle in Marvel Team-up Annual#7, "Pawns of the Purple Man."
Jon
Just kicking the can around, as I missed a night of posts and pretty much my particular views have already been put forward by others with fewer marbles in their mouths.
But...
Lurk,
Was it a matter of personal taste that the dog was named Marco instead of Marcus?
Regards,
Joseph
GRAND MASTA': Sir, I, for one, sincerely appreciate your down-home, ethnic wit. Kick it, homey. Or, as your people are wont to say, "You be the bomb." One of the things that has made our nation so great is its diversity. That same diversity extends to the farthest reaches of the internet. Even here in Webderland. And as the HWINC (Head Wasp In Charge), I am darned proud to stand up for your right to say whatever the heck you want...darn it. So you keep on trucking. Keep fighting back when someone tries to oppress you (Oprah certainly didn't let oppression hold her back; I could hold up other great examples of your people fighting back against oppression -- Arsenio Hall, etc. -- but I can tell you are full of spunk already). (Now, I certainly don't mean THAT in the wrong way, so don't let anybody persuade you that I do). It's been a pleasure conversing with you on this bulletin board. Remain hip. Stay as cool as you are. And keep jamming, homey.
Cordially,
W. Hite-Kracker
King Lurk: "Bingo" is a regional nickname for the city of Binghamton, NY.
I have to say that I find the whole thread about handles quite funny. I guess I find it so amusing because I don't use my real name even in real life. I don't care what you call yourself. What matters to me is what you're sayin'. It has to be interesting enough to pull my eyes out of "skim mode."
That said, I would be MOST upset if people started "stealing" identities. I've seen that happen on other bbs's and it ain't pretty. Then folks aren't simply posin'; they're putting words in the mouths of someone else.
When I was in grad school, we got a golden retriever, and I wanted to name him Chomsky, since I was all in a sweat about Chomsky and his theories.
But my wife thought it was a silly name, so we named him Marco. After Aurelius, not Polo.
And that's all I have to say about that.
Well, at least I found a nice quotation today:
"How impoverished must a country be before it is *not* a threat to the U.S. government?" -- Gunter Grass, 1982, re: Nicaragua
Jon
Dearest Frank,
Try something refreshingly different for a change…thinking for yourself, instead of viewing everything via the Chomsky carnival mirrors. As, for getting some facts this is laughable coming from someone who is constantly quoting Chomsky’s so called "facts".
P.A., an interesting topic, but it could get a bit too "meta-forum;" as in, a forum about the forum. While you say you use your own name, initials are slightly secretive, and I've been unable to find Bingo, NY in Yahoo maps.
I use an alias for most online forums (not always the same one) as a security issue. There's a lot of crazies out there, and Ellison fans probably have more than the average per capita. I think people like David Loftus are quite brave, or maybe nuts, to be so open about who they are and where they live in a forum that has absolutely no controls or restricted access.
I have used my real name here in the past, but because I often have unlovely or minority opinions, it became painful to be continuously bashed with the same name my wife and friends use. It's a lot easier to be told I'm a useless creep as King Lurk.
There are several people on this forum who I've contacted privately, for one reason or another, and they know my name and e-mail address. To be honest, P.A., while there seems to be a cyclical urge in Webderland for posters to reassure each other that this is a loving place, it's actually pretty hot in here. Go back through the archives, all the way back, and you'll see many a raging argument and many a torched poster.
But, as Wyatt once said, you can't come in here and scream "my god, the flames!" while pouring on the gasoline. It's just easier for me to light a match as King Lurk. That way, if any of you ever meet me in real life, you'll think I'm the nice guy I really am, and not the venal bastard who hangs in Webderland...
King Lurk
P.A. - Although I've offered up my real name in the past in the Internet world - even in this here webspace - I use "The Finder" simply because I always have, since I first got on-line. At that point, it was a toss-up for me - a lot of people used their real names, a lot didn't, and I'd never had a handle before. I was "The Finder" in college. I find things. It's what I do. It seemed like the way to go. And now people on-line know me as "Finder", so - much as happens in the real world, where half of my friends know me as "Doug" and the other half as "DJ" - it's just easier to go with the name people already know my personality by.
Does it allow me to be more open? There's a positive psychological aspect to being able to share things from the File Of Things I Normally Don't Talk About behind a pseudonym. But I don't feel it affords me a license to be a butthead to other people - and since a little Raymond Chandler action could wipe away my anonymity ANYWAY, it's not like I'm eternally faceless and able to run rampant because that's not my given name on the posting line. I've always figured that innate nastiness was inherent in the person/poster regardless of whether they used a handle or not, and suspect that people who go by a pseudonym who act like jerks - as well as people who go by their real names and act like jerks - are just that in the real world. The old rule, methinks, applies: if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
As far as hiding behind it - I don't necessarily feel I'm hiding behind mine. Like I said, Marlowe could pin me down in about two Gimlets. Besides, I'm pretty much the same person in the real world as what you read here - except more squishy.
Multiple names? Yeah, I'll cop to that in the past. Gave it up. It was aggravating my schizophrenia...
Heather - When I was but a wee one back in the old country, I walked into the living room on Christmas morning and found our cat, Cloudy (named for her shadowy gray coat), flopped over dead in the middle of the floor, in front of the Christmas tree. I have no idea why a squashed mouse story would remind me of that, because it appears that Cloudy just 'stopped', but it did never the less. Of course, I suspected for some time after that Santa Claus had committed some kind of unspeakable act of pet brutality. I would have perferred coal...
Grand Masta' - Yo, 'sup G to the M to the H to the S to the E - peep this - you 'bout put me down wit da Rand Institute bit - sheeit, you got a lot more goin on behind those keystrokes than just mad cussin, H. Salt; and props for upholdin the ideal of free speech - but where's the love, you know what I'm sayin? You a playuh, you a down boy, but when you bring the negativity, it's like hornets in the bonnets, aiyyeeeee? 'sall good, dawg, and I guarantee you da Grand Masta' of chillin' too, but bring on some of the mellow wit you, 'cause dis board is where I go to spark one and float on the cross talk, and all that anger an' shit don't just rob you of your power and make you look ghetto, it kills my magnificent buzz too...peace out...
Xanadu - Because I know the inner workings of thine creative camp (and take no offense, please), I would have to suspect that coming around the far turn and into the home stretch, it's "Crestview Jewelers", followed by "Pieces of Joe" and "Nervous Breakdown" by a nose to Show. Oh, no - trust me on this. Expect rewrites early next week (I'm behind - so sue me). First Call is 9 am on 5/25, expect a twelve hour day, wear comfy shoes.
Two cents on Cassini: Eh. We're already irradiated with fallout. It's just a question of when the CDC and NCI will get their report (kind of overdue) peer reviewed, so they can release what they've learned about the extent of fallout from years of nuclear testing - which may be responsible for around 11,000 excess cancer deaths between 1951 and 2000 (and could perhaps be responsible for as many as 80,000 cancer cases in the same time frame).
Two cents on AICN: I had to stop going to AICN - while I liked the dish, I couldn't stomach a lot of the people that were there simply to snipe. But I think Harry and Moriarity have good heads for film on their shoulders - they come across as people who genuinely love film, and are severely offended when it's lazy or stupid.
Xanadu:
" "our true feelings" are relatively unpleasant or non-redeeming, or that we would all suddenly become screaming monkeys, flinging our feces at passers-by, then yeah..."
I've been thinking about this a bit lately, and I'm glad I can use my real name here. However, there are times when being the cranky but kindly schoolmaster is a bit constraining for me. I have gotten to the point on this BB where I actually sort of care about what you guys think, so I have had to censor myself on many occasions so as not to make a ruckus even when I feel a ruckus should be made...
OK, I'm curious now, so let's take a survey: those of you with pseudonyms, why don't you use your real name? Do you feel it frees you to be nasty or open or honest in a way that your real name does not? Do you ever feel that you're hiding behind that pseudonym in some ways?
For those who used to have a pseudonym but now do not, why did you drop it? Do you find your posting style has changed? Do you think you are more or less careful about your posts now that we know your name?
For those of us with our real names: do you ever wish you had used a pseudonym? Would you ever make one up so you could say some shit that was on your mind without getting censured for it personally?
How many people on here post under several different names? And am I totally naive for not realizing that might be happening here?
How's this for a convo-starter?
Bermanator
Heather sez:
"I don't like hot ones--especially if it leads to me feeling
like I have to "return fire," which _I_ find weird. If I wanted you dead, I'd simply rip out your throat and have done
with it. Why would I talk to you if all I wanted was to kill you? (You may not get that.) "
Really, Heather, I think you do like "hot ones," and returning fire, or why else would you want to be discussing issues like race and gender stereotypes, which are hot issues no matter what you do? What's wrong with heat, anyway? I think two people can have a heated discussion about a topic without getting angry at each other, as long as things stay on topic and don't veer into the ad hominem.
Also, you're correct in assuming that I don't understand when you say if you wanted me dead, you'd just rip out my throat. You might TRY to rip out my throat, but don't think it would be as easy as you make it sound. Then things would get ugly. We all know what *that* looks like, don't we? And there are many degrees of pissiness between a jugular severing and a cool reaction...
Bermanator
Fanboy jumps in to comment on METROPOLIS:
The link from this recent METROPOLIS to Lang's METROPOLIS can be explained thusly:
The man who originally created the new cartoon METROPOLIS, Dr. Osamu Tezuka, saw a single publicity photo from the 1927 Lang film in 1947. It stuck with him. So a year later, he launched his OWN version of the story in comics form, based solely on his impressions of the photo.
That's the comics. They've never been translated into English, and the film's story is not identical. It's close. But oh lord, is the film still worth seeing. It's visially unbelievable-- sharp, detailed, realistic cityscapes, crawling with characters modeled after Tezuka's original character designs, which resemble Max Fleischer and Otto Messmer playing poker. (Remember ASTROBOY? Same guy.) A solid story, great visuals, and a pulsing dixieland soundtrack, for that stylish 30s feel.
I will admit, though, that the subtitles are awful. This has nothing to do with the translation-- it's fine-- but with the fact that the subtitles were laser-etched to the film prints in a manner that simply didn't work quite right. They're readable, but obtrusive.
The movie is still trickling through arthouse venues. It's been held over for 5 weeks in Boston, which no anime film has EVER done. They tend to last a week in this town, if that. I suggest you go and see it. If it's no longer in your area, the DVD will be released in April, and will include both the dub (woodenly-acted, IMO) and the Japanese version with subtitles.
Oh, and you luddites will be able to rent or buy a subtitled VHS version, too!
Just... see it. Best movie I've seen in months. There's a review at my website, the URL of which can be divined by carefully studying my email address. If that doesn't convince you, it ain't your kind of movie.
Yo, Yo, Yo, 'sup 'sup 'sup?!?!!! Check dis shit out, motha fuckas, aiyyeeeee?!?!?!
Da SALT is back for another ass smackin' at da Web-DA-Land!!!
So Heather think that we all gotta talk about meaningful shit on da BOARD...Sheeeit...What are we?? DA motha-fuckin RAND Institute?!?! We gonna talk 'bout what we WANNA talk about - not what YOU want us to talk 'bout! Shit. This ain't Crossfire, yo.
Secondly, I's gonna go apey-sheeit on yo ass when you say I gotta shut up unless I say somethin worthwhile in yo conversation? BITCH I'll say somethin "worthwhile" in yo goddamn conversation when yo convosation IS worthwhile!
What's wif a few people in dis place tell da others how to post?? Yo, ya HAFTA use your REAL name. Yo, ya gotta talk 'bout dis shit. Yo, ya's gotta SPELL right. Yo, don't talk cruel like Ellison (who don't talk cruel half da time anyway). Yo, he said she said BULLSHIT.
Someone takin' themselves WAY to seriously - which is why Da Grand Masta H takes y'all wif a grain 'o da SALT.
Now...Da masta sees dat his post is all flamey-like...And da masta hates being all mean and shit, 'cause then folks end up dead -- so he gonna cool down and say da following:
Da Esquire agree wif lil washu -- anime is cool, tho' there ain't no Brotha's in da house. Comics is cool and Al Simmons kicks whitey ASS.
And space-travel is impo'tant, yo. Sheeit -- G masta travels to other galaxies every motha fuckin' day when he lights one up. And he takes his ladies along fo' da ride...
Peace OUT.
Warmest Regards,
Grand Masta' H. Salt, Esq.
Heather: I am working on - "Chasing Rainbows" - a short story. "Pieces of Joe" - an emotionally draining documentary of my best friend from college, who is dead. "Crestview Jewelers" - the business I now own, from which my father retired at Christmas. Marriage of nearly nine years to my lovely wife. Raising of 15 year step-daughter and 4 1/2 year old daughter.
Coming up: "Newton's Battlefield" - short story. "Pizza Guy 2", & "3" - short films. "Fuzzy Cthulu" - short film(s). "Blue Harvest" & "Smoke" - feature length screenplays.
Eventually: A nervous breakdown, An Oscar, winning the New York State Lottery, and, of course, walking either or both of my daughters down the aisle. (not neccessarily in that order.)
---
We apologise for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible have been sacked.
Jay~ Your item has been relisted.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1081177491
And as for a bibliography (voxography?) of HE's voice work, Loftus could probably help you. Or the Islets of Langerhans.
http://www.islets.net/islets.html
L.
Large mřřse on the left hand side of the screen in the third scene from the end, given a thorough grounding in Latin, French and "O" Level Geography by BO BENN
Heather,
No idea... I apparently know very little about the extent of Ellison's voice work. This sounded very interesting. Anyone have a resume of the HE's voicework?
Susan: Will do.
What a flipping waste... no bids for this item. Thought I'd have to bid on this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1078643090&r=0&t=0&showTutorial=0&ed=1015438924&indexURL=0&rd=1
Sorry I missed it. Miss John. Would LOVE to have Bill's signature. To have both on one of my favorite movies...wow.
Little Washu:
I have not read J.M. Coatzee’s DISGRACE but am interested in hearing more about your attitude toward comics and novels.
I read comics as a kid but I don't recall expecting them to be ONE thing, while novels were another.
For example, I read a lot of Leslie Characteris' "The Saint." (I DID once collect books. I had about 35 of his novels.)
Simon Templar was a rogue and a romantic--not that I'd have been analyzing it that way; I just enjoyed the stories. I got 'symbolic' values of good and bad from novels as well.
Course, maybe my tastes didn't run too deep then. I don't know.
What say you, Washu?
Heather, running a few threads together as (duh) I only access the computer between 7 p.m and 10:30. Don't have a computer at the job, like many of you do.
Does your boss, where any of you work, mind you using the computer for conversation?
Jay, how the hell does one find all the works by Ellison in that medium? I've never seen that piece on Amazon.com. Doesn't anyone, ANYWHERE categorize these audio productions by the major players?
That Forsyth one, if it's real, sounds like an interesting object. I've read enough Ellison (and will read more) but I must admit, I am very intrigued by his spoken works.
H
Oh, and P.S. Frank, I noticed how you said "Peace." at the end of that ancient horn-rimmed reply of which you were stuffed down a drainpipe. That amazed me. In a good way.
Okay, I can see there were a few replies to Heather's Query. Thanks.
Xanadu: For instance, what are you 'working on'? See, now, that's unrelated (probably) to any topics we are currently discussing; you can take it as superficially or deeply as your mood requires and we're talking about something else. (And it's of presumed interest to you, as well.)
I don't need head pats. We don't have to "talk about what _I_ wanna talk about." That ain't it. I'm fine in a corner. Always have been. Always will be. Life is too short.
If it wasn't clear to you before, I'll repeat: Most of my babble was to provoke conversation. I've dealt with a few people who work that way--we'd start with how best to eat an artichoke and end up talking about cannibalism; one topic leading to the next. We don't worry about creating essays every time we step up to the podium. No one is marking you. This will NOT be on the final exam. LIFE is an essay. [essayer--to try]
Re: Old questions and skipped by skimming: Sure, I know that's a reality. I've commented many times on how I'm popping a new topical question and you need not answer..
but hey..doesn't the new question (or my babbling "stream of consciousness-like conversation) ever jar your brain and make you say, "hey, that reminds me of" and you can start a discussion based on something you are doing.
I'm not convinced you all spend your days contemplating Harlan Ellison, comic books and politics. Lord, Rick mentioned a dog--he probably even walks it.. see where I'm going? I'm not bloody interested in only what I THINK of, for topics, I'm trying to expand the range of conversation..
and if it comes across as babbling (because you are unknowledgeable or whatever) do some free association.
Harlan Ellison intrigued me by his manner of thinking and speaking. It wasn't any one topic. Sure he mentioned comic books; he also mentioned politics; but he also mentioned a hell of a lot of other stuff--the way most interested and interesting people do.
King Kong is fine but what about his lost baby brother? Why haven't we discussed him? (I'm being silly.)
If you say I'm in a room of interested and interesting people, could we try throwing out a few more topics for conversation? And no one has to be a EXPERT on it--even if you WERE, I couldn't tell--and no one has to get uppity about it and..whatever..
Could we try?
Pulling yet another name out of the hat: Darryl, tell me something about being married. (Have you ever just contemplated packing up and leaving her some days? Why?)
BROAD SUBJECT. Pick something. (And if your name ain't Darryl, feel free, as well.)
Heather
P.S P.A. I've already mentioned hot and cold conversations. I don't like hot ones--especially if it leads to me feeling like I have to "return fire," which _I_ find weird. If I wanted you dead, I'd simply rip out your throat and have done with it. Why would I talk to you if all I wanted was to kill you? (You may not get that.) Warm, passionate conversations are simply cool to me. I've been having them all my life and would tie my fingers in a knot before I would hurt someone. That's all the rules you need know.
And I also commented on people's paranoia. I realize it exists here. I'm cool with that but I won't pander to it.
I've come too far in my thinking to start backpedalling to appease.
P.S.S. Of course I worship Harlan Ellison. He's helped open a part of my brain and my head is expanding. Good reason, don't you think?
Also, he eats gerbils. I am deathly afraid of gerbil eaters. So, I WORSHIP Harlan Ellison out of fear for my well being (and my gerbils--I run a gerbil circus; did you know that?)
New topic. (Pick one you like or almost like and yap back): I once had a doberman pinscher (sp?) and about six cats. Long story. I remember one day returning to where they were kept and saw a squished object on the floor. It was a mouse. I couldn't decide if the doberman had stepped on him--the dog's name was King. He was a wuz--or if the cats had tormented the mouse to death. The cats were puppies. They acted very strangely. Are you familiar with the sound of cat stampedes?
I opted for King having stepped on him. You hadda be there. It made complete sense.
Evening all. Just a little post; I want to read, and get some sleep. It's been a great week for me, but it does take a lot out of a body.
Rick: I bet Mac's a right proper little sweetie already. Please give my best to the little lady, and based on what Scotty told me about your post, she's already got a good start in the quality of her parents.
Just finished "Again, Dangerous Visions". Based on it and its predecessor, it's a pity there isn't a third.
I'm not reading any of the posts, due to being so busy. Scotty's been working a lot more too. With the children's leagues soon to be starting up their playoffs schedules, and that means Danny's team goes into their league championship, don't expect to hear much from he or I for the next while. Scotty's even dusted off his referee's certificate and jerseys, due to a shortage of refs for the games for the little ones.
On the subject of the baseball league, Scotty asked me to ask Washu and P.A. Berman if they've decided to join. There's no rush yet, but Scotty was curious.
To all others, don't be surprised if you don't hear much from us. It's not for a lack of interest; we just don't have the time.
Love to all, Melissa
What stops anarchy from reigning here? That's simple. Rick does his job. When people step out of line--it's a generously expansive line, but it does exist-- he steps in and says, "If necessary, I will block all access from your ISP." In short, he enforces the rules, and we, in appreciation for his good offices, don't behave like mules in heat.
Harlan attracts a good variety of intelligent people, but we have had the occasional mule stroll in. Rick handles it. Rick's an excellent web manager. Raise a glass, folks. He deserves it.
-alex
Bermanator: A return to your intriguing post of this morning.
"So what's stopping any one of us from doing the same? Just forming a pseudonym and posting our true feelings, free from the burdens of propriety imposed by our identities? Wouldn't it then be anarchy here? Would it compromise the atmosphere that we so enjoy? Or would it be perfectly acceptable?"
Nothing is stopping us from doing exactly that. Actually, I think several people do it fairly regularly. It's an easy way to make a pointed comment without "repercussions". But the gist of your thinking is intriguing. If you are suggesting that without "the burdens of propriety imposed by our identities", that "our true feelings" are relatively unpleasant or non-redeeming, or that we would all suddenly become screaming monkeys, flinging our feces at passers-by, then yeah, I can see that compromising the feeling of this board. But if the adopted "personas" were reasonable - then why wouldn't it be acceptable? For all I know - I am communicating with one extraordinary individual, capable of multiple, distinct written "voices" - possessing a fantastic level of knowledge about all manner of human endeavour. Or I'm dealing with a large group of rugged individuals, each bearing their own, unique perspective. Or more likely - something in between.
The point is, from my perspective, there is NO WAY OF KNOWING. Hell, Rick Wyatt may have created the first AI, and this is just an extended Turing test.
Reality is all about perception anyway. If YOU believe everyone who posts is a distinct person, then nothing else matters. It's all about the paradigm. If they seem like seperate people, then they may as well be.
David Loftus: From Lynn I expected it - but holy hell, man - your closing line was the funniest damn thing I've ever seen by you. I fell down laughing. Thank you.
---
Mřřse trained to mix concrete and sign complicated insurance forms by JURGEN WIGG
On AIN'T IT COOL NEWS:
I actually used to visit that website quite a bit until recently. What attracted me was the enthusiastic, childlike wonder of Harry Knowles and his cohorts, as well as the often unrefined but heartfelt reviews and reports. What put me off, though, were the movie reports that soon degraded rapidly in quality until ANYONE could recognize any kindergarten brat could deliver such a report.
Now the website has become strictly 'flame war' territory, and that's just plain depressing.
Coincidentally, Harlan met ol' Harry in DragonCon '98 (for those that haven't already seen the photos.) Seeing this big, chunky, goofy red-head sitting next to the masters of literature uplifted MY spirits...
Little Washu
TODD: Hey Toddster, I heard somewhere that Harlan himself is going to do a 'Hitchcock' and make a cameo in THE TIME MACHINE. Is this true, and if it is any idea wher he might be appearing?
Thanks,
Little Washu
Frank ~ Open mouth, extract foot...
I'm not sure where you're coming from on this, JPL/NASA = missile defense, rant. Most (if not all) aerospace defense development is done by contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed/Martin (among others). Sure, NASA does get sub contracted out for research purposes (some of which winds up being defense related) but for the most part they do not do defense research per se. I believe the truth is in the budget. There's not much money left over for missile defense research after the big bills are paid. Also, correct me if I'm wrong (and I very well may be) but I believe that NASA's charter keeps them out of the weapons development business.
BTW, did you actually do any research regarding NASA's use of radioactive material in spacecraft or are you just blowing conspiracy-nut bullshit up my ass? As our patron is quick to point out, everyone's entitled to an *informed* opinion...
Joseph ~ Thanks for the backup regarding NASA/JPL. Well said my friend...
-Andrew
Frank,
Who said the JPL was right about everything? I certainly didn't. As for their views on missile defense, doesn't seem horibly important to the issue. They are working on processors and navigational chips for possible interceptors, but so are half the chip companies on the continent. Still seems like a blind alley that you threw up to attempt a distraction from people noticing that your original point (that NASA is somehow a huge & immoral waste of money) if thin at best, just plain wrong at worst. So far, you've brought up no actual argument to bolster your point.
Joseph
Joseph, I admire JPL and what they do, but it doesn't mean they are right about everything. I would be curious about what they think concerning missle defense.
Dwayne, get a life! Get some "facts" before invective ranting from the mood ranch. I do not "worship" Chomsky, any more than anyone here, worships Ellison. Well, not counting Heather. Snicker.
King Lurk....note, the country. Always in my postings. Though a subject line is a nice thought, it's way too much like work. Besides, many notes ramble from topic to topic, which is perfectly fine. Heck, imagine Heather attempting to create a subject to her missives!
Anyone interested in The Time Machine movie, here's a link to the review from Ain't It Cool News from ole Famous-God-Knows-How Harry Knowles hisself: http://161.58.94.181/display.cgi?id=11685
Watch out for spoilers....skim plot points....sounds like a whoopsie on this one since he was salivating with anticipation over this movie.
-TODD
Todd,
That's what I thought, but the phrasing seemed odd. Thanks for letting me know more about the context.
Does this mean I have to pick up a copy of this magazine for a complete Ellison collection? *ducks*
Regards,
Joseph
Joseph, no, you would have to read that sentence in context to the entire column. The author wasn't advocating plagarism....he was advocating lifting the style and thought process of HE, in regard to following one person over another.
-TODD
Lynn,
*bows* Ah, I love bringing fact and well-reasoned argument into a debate. So refreshing.
Frank,
"JPL has it's own agenda." Yes, and it's easy to remember:
"The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by the California Institute of Technology, is NASA's lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system. Our spacecraft have visited all the planets in our solar system except Pluto. JPL telescopes are observing distant galaxies in the universe to study how our solar system was formed. We also manage the worldwide Deep Space Network, which communicates with spacecraft and conducts scientific investigations from its complexes in California's Mojave Desert near Goldstone; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. JPL cameras and sensors are aboard satellites circling Earth to study the ozone, oceans and other Earth sciences. To support our continued exploration, JPL is making advances in technology with new instruments and computer programs to help our spaceships travel further and our telescopes see farther than ever before." (JPL website)
Sounds about right to me.
Regards,
Joseph
Noam Chomsky My Ass:
I can’t friggin take it anymore! What’s up with this obsessive idol (idle?) worship of Noam Chomsky? Jeezus, I really don’t get it. The man may have his heart in the right place but his head is clearly up his ass. Paranoid doesn’t begin to describe it. However, loony-tune sounds about just right.
Certain "risks" are not worth taking, Joseph. JPL has it's own agenda.
Joseph~ ::throwing roses:: Bravo! Excellently done, sir!
L.
>Most of my data does not come from Chomsky, but I do admire the man, because of his courage, and heroism in the face of the long standing backlash against dissident opinion.
Chomsky will be remembered for his science. His Syntactic Structures was in its own way "The Origin of Species" for linguistics.
With the exception of about 2-3 individuals a century, politics is not eternal. The daily grinds and misconducts of post-20th century Western powers are even less enduring. Albert Einstein wrote droves about his political opinions, most on current topics of his day, and very few of us know or care about them anymore.
Ideally we all should try to focus on the eternal (and it's why most of us here, really...for the art of an artist). As Mick Jagger once said "who reads yesterday's papers?" We can scream all we want about NASA, or steel embargos, or Gary Condit, but in the end, it's all part of the daily dross. Chomsky's numerous (and they ARE a bit frequent) pamphlets on this, that, or the other imperialist iniquities are fun to read, good if you want to get all inflamed and pissed off at the "damn guvment", but in the end, it's all marginalist history.
The grammar theories, however, will last for a long time, and are much more rewarding to read, in the end.
King Lurk,
MA Linguistics
Damn it. The sentence starting with "And Andrew" should have been set off to indicate that it was from Frank's post, not mine. Must learn to use the preview button....
Frank, I love you. Let's look at things with an eye toward science, shall we?
>The Cassini probe could have been powered by a safe solar >powered source, but NASA had to use nuclear because of the way >defense contractors own our system.
From the Jet Propulsion Laboratory website (which is a scientific organization, not affiliated with the military):
"Because of Saturn's distance from the Sun, solar arrays, as stated above, were not feasible power sources for the spacecraft. To generate enough power, such arrays would have been too large and heavy. Thus, the Cassini orbiter gets its power from three radioisotope thermoelectric generators or RTGs, which use heat from the natural decay of plutonium to generate direct current electricity. These RTGs are of the same design as those flying on the Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft and are designed to have a long operational lifetime. At the end of the 11-year Cassini mission, they will still be capable of producing at least 628 watts of power. "
As another example, both of the Voyager probes have lasted so long only because they operated on a similar system, using hydrazine instead of plutonium. However, Cassini-Hyugens is a significantly larger and much more complex probe, and needs a better power source, especially since the probe will orbit Saturn for as long as possible.
And, Andrew, if you think that taking chances with nuclear fallout is worth a snapshot of some distant void, than you and I need a talk about moral relativism.
Frank, here's an article from Scientific American that notes that even though there was (as always) a risk, the JPL made every effort to make sure that nothign would happen. As it didn't. Also note the section from scientists about launch risks, and that they are working on smaller and more efficient RTG replacements:
http://cndyorks.gn.apc.org/yspace/articles/flyby2.htm
Basically, it was a small risk, like any space mission is, but well worth it to help advance the species. I suggest you go back and take a look at Harlan's essay in "Stalking the Nightmare" ("Saturn, November 11th" & "Somehow, I Don't Think We're in Kansas") as he explains the reasoning for exploration better than I can.
Regards,
Joseph
Andrew, I am far from paranoid, my friend; my issue about NASA is based on facts that you have driven holes through: The Cassini probe could have been powered by a safe solar powered source, but NASA had to use nuclear because of the way defense contractors own our system. And, Andrew, if you think that taking chances with nuclear fallout is worth a snapshot of some distant void, than you and I need a talk about moral relativism.
Most of my data does not come from Chomsky, but I do admire the man, because of his courage, and heroism in the face of the long standing backlash against dissident opinion.
King Lurk~ Using the country field is a great idea. Now all we have to do is to remember to put in the subject line.
Anyone else here subscribe to Fictionwise?
L.
Harlan:
I just started reading my first Gerald Kersh book this morning. Although there are 34 titles listed inside, the central library in Portland has only 5 or 6, and the suburban library near where I work has ZERO . . . so the one I picked up is titled _The Angel and the Cuckoo_. (I started _A Long Cool Day in Hell_, I think, last year, but it did not grab me right off and I got distracted by something else.) But this makes me wonder, since I don't remember reading this anywhere:
Did you ever meet Mr. Kersh, yourself? And do you remember how and when you first discovered his writing?
King Lurk said no one seems to use Country on this board. I beg your pardon, sir, but I do. You'll find it entered on every single post I ever sent to this board. (Yes, I'm anal retentive; it's one of my most annoying and endearing qualities -- but it's what got me work with Mr. Ellison, among others.)
Justin, I'll bet you big bucks that this ain't going to be a "two-minute shooting war," But I could have called that one months ago. As Sister Helen Prejean said in a lecture I saw last night, it's beginning to look a lot like Vietnam ... and I wonder how long it'll take the U.S. to figure out what it took the Soviets years and roughly 15,000 deaths to realize?
A mřřse once bit my sister....
Todd,
A) That's weird. Almost as weird as the time I was browsing through an office supply catalog and ran across an ad for those little nameplate holders - the kind you put on faculty office doors. The example in the ad was "Harlan Ellison - English."
B) Is it just me, or was that editor slightly misphrasing it? Sounds like he's advocating plagarism.
Regards,
Joseph
Gotta share this one with you: I'm reading an extremely dry industry magazine here at work, Project Management Network. A woman I work with yells over the wall "Hey Todd, what's the name of that author you love so much and you run off to Long Island every other year to see him for a weekend?" and I remind her it's Harlan Ellison. So she sez, "turn to the editorial column at the end of the magazine".
Mind you, folks, Project Management Network magazine is, well, dullllllllllllllll. The articles are written by Project Management nerds, and any controversy is as flatly boring as you can imagine....yet this column is about a recent (I won't get into the details) controversy over someone's theories and why you should or shouldn't ignore him. Written by Michael Hatfield, PMP, Contributing Editor.
As Michael eloquently explains why he "will not rest until (the naysayers) collective necks are under the PMPs' heels, gasping out pitiful pleas for mercy." (the most artistic prose I've ever seen here) he goes on for two columns and suddenly, out of the blue, states the following in discussing a person whose writings are considered profound while he finds them crap:
"In contrast (to the person in question, and debating why people lift this person's theories and hold them up to the light of Godliness), even though I don't believe he ever wrote about management, Harlan Ellison's prose is so turbocharged, you should feel free to lift from him, often."
Yow. HE's name in my dry, industry magazine. My day has been made. His followers are legion!
-TODD
A possible suggestion to help skimmers: maybe the webmaster could put in a "Subject" line on the message form, or re-label Country, which no-one seems to use.
That, or we make it a habit to include the subject in our Name space.
King Lurk
I do bigtime skimming.....I may often miss out on something interesting because it's buried in electronic reams of screens with topics that do not interest me in the least. If the music of the day is child pornography or detailed analysis of "this movie is genius, this movie is pure shit, you're wrong, you're an ass, Ahem....let me tell you the only answer you need to know about your opinion on said movie", I might read a few notes and then grow bored with the same old same old. If someone types out a 5000 word essay on why men shouldn't molest children, and then tosses out a one-liner that would engross me, I will most likely miss that one-liner.
It's a world of babble....no time to digest it all.
Of course, when I see the name Frank Church, that's a guaranteed read for me. I need that cozy security blanket that says to me "I may be nuts, but boyoboy I ain't near as nuts as some folk out there".
((just teasing, Frankie, you know I love you. And I know your skin is thicker than uni-cell layered Li'l Washu's))
-TODD
-TODD
I'm partly ashamed to admit this, but I have taken to skimming the posts these days, because if I took the time to catch up on all the posts that are left on this board every five minutes, I wouldn't have time for the finer things in life . . . like breathing. I wonder if a lot of people don't do the same thing, looking for particular conversation threads to pay close attention to. If this is the case, then new topics may occasionally get lost in the sea of words.
---Peter
Heather: What you've described, the phenomenon of trying to start a conversation about something and being ignore, I sympathize with it. It's happened to me innumerable times on here. Last week I mentioned seeing George Clinton, no comments. Asked if anyone was a vegetarian a few times, no comment. I figured it wasn't interesting to people, so they didn't want to talk about it. Happens all the time, and I try to assume it's not personal.
Now, by the same token, sometimes people DO answer and conversations don't go the way you hoped they would. People give advice you don't want to hear (admit it honey, that has happened to you AND to me) and you get angry. Or other people on the board get annoyed by a topic (The Shining, the child abuse thread, for example) and try to shut it down with their disapproval. Maybe if you have a really pressing question, you could repost it. But if people ain't interested, they ain't. Sometimes people just read our anecdotes and think, "Huh!" and that's it.
It's not the same medium as talking; this is writing, and since none of us is James Joyce, some focus is required if you desire a cogent response. Even then, you might not get it. On any given day there are dozens of messages to read and ponder.
Lastly, and this isn't meant as a flame, but I have shied away from replying to your posts since I was accused of lynching you in the recent past. I'm never sure what exactly you want people to say, or how you want them to say it, and I am a bit gunshy of saying what you don't want to hear now. Essentially, a more open attitude towards the myriad responses could help this situation. Not even directed just at you...everyone on here is pretty defensive, and flame wars have oft been bred of an airy word.
Sorry if again, this isn't what you want to hear.
Bermanator
Heather: Ok, I was actually waiting for you to bring this point up – it seemed inevitable given your experiences here.
It's a very valid point.
But the nature of the medium limits the methods of communication available. In a physical bar, there are a number of non-verbal cues to help us. A slightly uncomfortable smile and a shrug of the shoulders would let you know we heard you but that we have no real persepective on the question. There is no equivalent of a shrug in cyberspace.
When one doesn't have something valuable to offer a discussion, in cyberspace, you simply say nothing. It IS impersonal, it IS "rude" in the real world. But this isn't the real world. We would all fill this space with "I don't know"s, and "Me neither"s, if we needed to respond as we would in "reality".
Now, a point from my perspective, and mine alone. (It is observation, not judgment)
To be completely honest, you bewilder me.
There are moments when you fill the bandwith a seemingly endless series of stream-of-conciousness babble – there is nothing in there for me to respond to – it's just you chronicling your day. Then you ask questions that are staggering in their naivete – I can only shake my head in wonder. But then, and this is the topper, you follow them up with questions so sophisticated that no one has successfully answered them in the whole of human history – another kind of naivete, but a challenging one – and I STILL can't answer.
I watch the train of thought go by and I don't know where to hop on.
I don't have a handle on the "Heather" of Webderland. I have few points of reference or experience in common, and it appears that I'm not traveling a road that's even similar to yours.
This is but one person's view, and it is distorted.
In reality, when I don't know much about a subject, I shut up and listen to those who do. The quiet you sense is not necessarily indifference – it may be an inablility to answer.
Jon,
Best part of that Tonight Show appearance (which I flipped to and left on because I had just watched Memento again the night before), was watching that twit Leno try to do a joking British accent to Guy Pearce.
MEMO TO LENO:
Guy Pearce is AUSTRALIAN.
Regards,
Joseph
Time Machine, Blunt Programming Tips, Heather's Query:
Forrester/Joseph: I saw the clip on the Tonight Show, which I had on simply because they announced that Guy Pierce would be on and that a clip would thus probably be accompanying him. Yes, it is intriguing. The clip and the ads that seem to suggest a good use of CGI technology for once (in this case, the passage of time outside the time machine described in Wells's novel) have me guardedly hopeful.
Fox Presents: So does the Lost in Space etc. announcement mean that Fox owns the Irwin Allen stable? All the productions announced were just that.
I say, what about Sid and Marty Croft productions? A new H.R. Pufnstuf with 10X the potency of the previous Pufnstuf because of ---ahem--- advances in technology would be a fine addition to our culture. The new Pufnstuf would only make me paranoid and sleepy, but that's a burden I'll bear if it makes other people happy, giggly, hungry, and prone to listening to "Tom Sawyer" and "Astronomy Domine" on their headphones.
Heather: Aside from the attempt to get discussion stirring based on the Loftus men/women and paranoid conspiracy pieces, which questions have been ignored? God knows we all drop thread-starters into the abyss here and probably feel grumpy when they're missed, but that's par for the course at bars as well as here.
Jon
Well, it’s a new day.
Some of youse guys might have already have read my somewhat - er - IMPASSIONED previous post. I don’t regret submitting it - I merely wanted to deliver my first genuine emotional reaction. Coatzee’s DISGRACE got to me, and that was exactly the author’s intent.
I had a very long discussion with my English professor about DISGRACE, and I found out a few things: one, the deliberate refusal to supply any justice to the men who forever scarred David and Lucy. I was enraged by the disgusting ease and utter shamelessness of these people in violating father and daughter, and how their victims must now live by THEIR terms, by THEIR rules. But the lack of justice is exactly what triggers the CRAVING for justice, as it did in me.
Two: I’m still a teenager, and being a teenager I have a code stuck in my mind where I expect characters in literature to behave in a certain way. Lucy did NOT behave the way I desperately wanted her to - to have an abortion, remove the child that’s been forcefully implanted inside her, among other things - but that is the point. In a realistic book, I CANNOT expect the characters to act the way I want them to.
This is exactly why most teenagers thrive on comic books. The superheroes confirm and adhere to our code, but in the end they can only be seen as symbols of virtues and values. In DISGRACE, Coatzee makes every effort to NOT adhere to that code. I am not abandoning my morals; I’ve merely learned from DISGRACE to be more willing to bend them in the face of the depths of human depravity and indifference.
So there it is…my 2 cents on J.M. Coatzee’s DISGRACE.
Little Washu
Forrester,
I did see the extended Time Machine trailer of which you speak (weeks agao, actually, which makes me annoyed that I forgot it during the movie I was watching (Lord of the Rings) and forgot to mention it). I was also amused to see that, according to Jones, Andrew Lloyd Webber will apparently be writing a musical verion ("Would you like to hear some selections from the score?")
For some reason, I'm highly intrigued by the Orlando Jones hologram character...
Regards,
Joseph
Interesting lot on Ebay I found...
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1519940922
For those link-impared, "The Phantom of Manhattan" by Frederick Forsyth - Dove Audio, 4 cassettes, 6 hours, abridged, 25.00 list price. The Phantom of the Opera has escaped to America...Full cast production featuring Harlan Ellison, William Windom, Susan Anspach, Arte Johnson, and others.
Dear Charlie:
If you can manage it, six copies of the magazine would be appreciated. Thanks!
Lynn: Way to go. Ordered our webderland t-shirts.
THANKS! Susan
Since I don't do rude, it seems to limit me here, so I'll just say this:
Most of you, are correct, 'to the extent of your knowledge.' I read Xanadus's recent post about "all being well in Webderland" and had to comment.
I'd like to see a wider range of topics discussed--ah!.. I've offered plenty, don't give me that. I'd like to see a few more replies to some of my simpler inquires, as well--especially when I'm asking someone a direct question. Some of these are pretty idle questions. That's the weird part. I didn't figure they were too self-revealing or anything. Maybe I'm wrong about that.
Right now, I visualize this place as a bar of people I seem to know who I turn to and ask a question, and they just sit there--no reply.
I've never encountered that, in real life, so don't try suggesting THIS place is particularly real.
That's only one example of what I see a bit odd here, but it's a good one, relative to how frequently I've seen it happen.
You can run people off with your mockery, and verbal abuse; you can also run people off with your indifference.
If you don't think this applies to you, well, then, my friend, don't sweat it, right?
But I went in 'search of'..this was one stop..
Seems I still want more. And haven't found quite enough of it yet.
I feel like a Torontonian talking to a person who has lived in Sasktoon all their life and we've both just moved to Winnipeg.
He's saying to me, "OOO.. what a big and vibrant city."
I'm looking around and saying, "Huh? Here? Ah, not quite."
Heather
Just curious to know if any have seen the clip from "Time Machine" which includes the information "persona" Vox (Orlando Jones) referencing time travel in science fiction, listing the names Welles, Asimov and Ellison.
Frank, I know I've harped on this before......but being that you rub elbows with Mr. Chomsky everyday; please please please ask him for some basic tips on how to properly contract two words:
It's not "would of."
It's "would have" or "would've".
As God is my witness, I will cure you of this habit before I leave these boards.
-TODD
Xanadu: You're right, of course. And I do understand the temptation to post under a pseudonym, believe me. It's funny, no matter where you are, real or virtual reality, you establish who you are and people develop expectations of you. Then, when you feel constrained by those expectations, you wish you could slip them. This is well-nigh impossible in real life but tantalizingly attainable on the Web. That may be what Little Washu and King Lurk were trying to do when they deliberately left their real names behind to post here again--escaping the stigma of their real name. So what's stopping any one of us from doing the same? Just forming a pseudonym and posting our true feelings, free from the burdens of propriety imposed by our identities? Wouldn't it then be anarchy here? Would it compromise the atmosphere that we so enjoy? Or would it be perfectly acceptable?
Just a thought question.
Bermanator
Frank,
Your ignorance and paranoia have begun to annoy me. Ask Mr. Chomsky if it makes you feel better, but, keep in mind anyone can take data out of context and use it to suit their own purpose. As Lynn pointed out, military contracts pay the bills, but one could hardly call them the military's little brother (more like a sixth cousin, twice removed).
As far as your comment: "Brian, don't forget about the 64 pounds of plutonium that almost got sent up on a space shuttle or the Cassani probe, that would of killed us with radiation if it would have crashed into the earth, instead of passing by."
NASA has sent up several spacecraft that used radioactive materials to generate electricity. They've been doing it for better than thirty years and so far I have yet to see any situations arise that warrant your complete overreaction. You may want to consider looking into how the material is packaged, the failure rate of the launch vehicles involved and the amount of material used. What you'll find may surprise you. Not all nuclear fuel is bad.
Mr. Chomsky may be an intelligent and caring individual but he is guilty of the same biases that haunt all of us. He is human after all. The buck does not stop at his desk. Try doing you own research for a change. Prove to me that your not a sheep (albeit a left handed one).
-Andrew
Just 'cuz yer paranoid doesn't mean that they ain't watching you.
Oh, Harlan, if you’re still checking the boards from time to time, I spoke to Dr. Soren today, and he said you called. He said he thought you were “a very nice man," and he said he enjoyed speaking with you. He's good people. He did a documentary for the BBC on Malaria and the Fall of Rome that got reviewed by the London Times yesterday. The reviewer described him as "a genial, intillectual Yogi Bear," which the class found absolutely hilarious.
J
DARRYL,
I loved your moon story.. I'll bet your boy is a writer.
He slept through the night at 5 WEEKS? Geeze how'd you do that? My kids didn't sleep through the night until they were 3 YEARS old.
Here's my tip du jour:
If the baby gets on a crying jag- switch on the vacuum cleaner in the same room for a little while. I discovered it by mistake about 24 years ago and it works. Only be careful and don't leave it running unless you are in the room at all times. I don't trust anything electrical enough to leave my babies alone for a moment.
Okay there's my tip for the new daddy.
Congratulations Rich!
:)
Cindy
Suup! Sup my peeps! My Webderland peeps.
We have t-shirts now? Woah! When I sell enough Percocets on the street corner to afford it, I’ll be able to replace all the shirts the University of Arizona has RIPPED OFF MY MUTHAFUCKIN BACK!
I kid the U of A, but you know folks, it really is a fine institution. I wish you all could take Dr. Soren’s Art History of the Cinema class with me. Y’all would love it. I can now speak intelligently on every major European art movement since the Classical Quarry, and the relationships they have with one another as well as their translation into modern media. Next time I’m out at one of the clubs, I’m going to slide up to some sweet young thing sitting half in the bag at the end of the bar, and I’m going to say, “Sup, baby. You know, I find it fascinating how the early twentieth century German Expressionist-Cubists were able to fuse the psychic anguish of Munch with the jagged geometric aesthetic and produce works that so eloquently captured the emotional intensity of an entire generation standing on the brink of war. Don’t you?”
And she’ll be like, “Take me home and ravish me, you, you sensitive, artsy fuck.”
And I’ll be like, “Okay.”
Anyhoo, midterms are behind me, and ahead of me I have a week of Spring Break to catch up on my sleeping, my writing, and most importantly: my movie watching. I could go to Puerto Penasco with my cousin, and go on a drunken south of the border rampage with my fellow Ugly Young Americans. But I really can’t afford it. Fortunately for me, I’m more inclined anyway to stay here and do some sleeping in, write by the pool, and rent sundry flicks I’ve been meaning to get around to watching (perhaps I’ll even catch my man Harlan E in a little time travel picture coming to a theater near you this Friday). Next year I’ll have all the time in the world to behave like an ass in foreign countries.
Say…speaking of foreign soil, it looks like what we have here is a good old fashioned shootin’ war. I’m sure it will be over in about two seconds, but check it out: the 101st guys have trained mostly for desert warfare these past few years, so this biting ass mountain cold is probably getting to them, and they’re running around with 100lbs of gear strapped to their backs, fighting a bunch of cats who more or less know they’re going to die. So keep ‘em in your thoughts.
J
Xanadu: Bravo on your description of our b-board. That is what many of us have been groping to say, but you really hit it. Nicely done.
Lynn: You didn't know about Ralph the Wonder Llama? I doubt that. I suppose you didn't know s/he was also a hermaphrodite? Pshaw. By the way, where DID you get the fonts for the line on the bottom?
Darryl: Once again, you were beautifully eloquent. I'm glad you de-lurk once in a while. You sound like a great dad.
Chuck
Hey Frank,
I think we all took a severe screwing due to NAFTA and I'm tickled to death that George W. is protecting the jobs of American steel workers.
Now if we could get him to go to the mat for those of us in the cattle business we'd be in tall cotton.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture JUST raised health standards for importing Mexican feeder cattle. They did it in order to protect U.S. animals from tuberculosis.
On April 1, 2002, feeder cattle (steers and spayed heifers) from Mexico will start to enter the U.S. under health regulations published MORE THAN A YEAR AGO in the Federal Code of Regulations by the USDA's Veterinary Services.
Get this!
By TWO THOUSAND THREE the USDA will tighten regulations again, when international rules will require exporting countries to fully meet US-equivalent standards for cattle TB eradication.
My question is-- why are the bastards WAITING? They KNOW it's a threat. You'd think they would have learned something from those poor farmers in Britain with the foot and mouth debacle. Just think Great Britain had been free of foot-and-mouth disease since 1967.
Another lovely little item the FDA recently passed is the authority of the Governor (Have y'all SEEN Rick Perry?) to issue a disaster declaration, after which the Texas Animal Health Commission can call in state troopers, the National Guard, or the Texas Department of Highways to do what they will with all of our livestock WITHOUT waiting for the 12 member panel of the Texas Animal Health Commission to have an emergency meeting.
Okay, okay, my point is this-- while we court the approval of foreign governments by allowing them to send their poor, their diseased, their untested masses destined to pollute OUR foodsource, we are fucking around with something we can't afford to lose.
If we keep catering to the trade demands of foreign governments- to the detriment of our own people, we'll all be fecked Frankie.
Cindy
Xanadu~ You're Ralph The Wonder Llama?! OhmiGOD. I've been a fan of your work for YEARS! I've seen all your movies! In fact, I just bought my favorite on DVD, and can I just say, those extra 24 seconds just laid me out! I'm actually trying to talk my fiance into taking our honeymoon near Paraguay, just so we can visit your old stomping grounds, Llama Fresh Farms. WOW. I can't tell you what an honor it is...
Seriously tho', I have to agree with you on the chemistry we have going here. It's a bit spartan compared to Callahan's. I'm all for a chalk line and a fire place. We can all christen it with a toast to Baby Mac. Rick, is there room in the budget for decorating? (Just a wet bar would be enough. You people talk enough to make *my* throat dry.)
Luv,
L.
Mynd you, mřřse bites Kan be pretty nasti...
Jon (and by extension, Lynn): Thanks - I missed the note and had a rude shock trying to get there via the old link.
Vampires, Inc.:
Xanadu: I think Lynn mentioned the Islets site problems a little while back. Try http://www.islets.net/islets.html -- it just came up for me.
Little Washu: I don't think the comparison between I am Legend and Invasion of the Body Snatchers is inapt at all -- there are tons of similiarities. On a slight tangent, check out Jack Finney's original novel some time, if you haven't (It's probably available as the retitled Invasion etc., although it was originally published simply as Body Snatchers). There, the McCarthy era commentary is at least different from the original film -- the pods are weird in part because they don't keep up suburban appearances, don't mow the lawn, don't maintain their houses. They're oddly...non-conformist? In a conformist sort of way. As a tenant who made the awful mistake of having a flag as a temporary window curtain when I first moved in, I can see where the novel's coming from.
Although where I live, being non-conformist means saying 'hello' to one's fellow tenants...
Maybe I should move to the Atlantic provinces.
Jon
A few comments, then off to lurkdom again:
Lynn, you hit the nail with your comments on NASA.
rich, I'll give you my "you've just had a child" speech (don't worry, it's short). Here goes.
There are only three things you need to know about being a parent.
1. It's harder than anyone can explain to you in any language. Don't let them try.
2. It's more beautiful than anyone can explain to you in any language. I'm going to try. My son was about 10 months old. He was an early talker, and started to get that these words were actually associated with things. One early fall morning, we were leaving the house. It was one of those really clear mornings, with a nearly full moon rising or setting. It was huge. He looked up and pointed. Said, "Daddy, moon, moon!" I said, "Right, son, that's the moon." He looked at it, reaching, then looked at his hand. He said "I hold it?" I nearly dropped him I was sobbing so hard. I said, son, if I could give it to you, I would.
3. And this is the most important of the three things you need to know. Mark these words well. Here goes. You don't need NEARLY as much sleep as you think you need in order to survive. You think you need 7, 8, 9 hours. Poppycock. My first child slept through the night at 5 weeks. Sleeping through the night defined as 12 midnight to 5:30 am. I felt like Atilla the Hun, ready to take over the world.
Have fun.
Last point. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. This is a spectacular site. Easily the most civilized and pleasant to read, full of strong, well researched opinions. The knucklehead to cool person ratio extraordinarily weighted in favor of the cool folks. Rick Wyatt has my undying gratitude and respect.
That's it. Back to lurking.
it may be just me, but when did "The Islets of Langerhans" site go down?
Bermanator: I'm not sure the "supposed lack" of anonymity is the reason the board is nice. You, as P.A. Berman, are every bit as anonymous to me as Rick, David, Brian, Jon, Lynn, Jim, Jay, Alex, Heather, Justin, Michael/Alia, Scott/Melissa, rich, Chuck, Rob, Washu, Lurk and the rest. (Please, I'm not slighting anyone not mentioned, It's just really bad memory on my part.) I don't know you. It's not a slight or an insult. I know only what you choose to place here in this forum, and only as well as you place it. The same with me. Whether I am Xanadu, or BernieG or Ralph the Wonder Llama is completely irrelevant.
What matters is what I bring to the conversation. (And I'm sure a more than reasonable argument could be made that it ain't all that much.) I am "anonymous", but I am not unreachable. The email I give each time works - I receive any mail sent there. But, and this IS the fact I think is important here - I hold myself culpable for what I post here every bit as strongly as I would speaking to you directly. In fact - I will put nothing in type that I wouldn't be willing to state, to your face, in a bar or cafe.
Perhaps it is the spirit of this place, the example of our patron Author, or just the no-nonsense attitude of everyone else here. But I think, for the most part, ALL of us do the same. And there is little tolerance for those who don't. There is great tolerance for the minority opinion, especially if that opinion is well defended. We DO NOT run people off for disagreeing with us. (If that were the case, I don't think anyone would be left - we have all fought the good fight at least once on this board.) We do ignore those whose only contribution is anger, bile or unhappy karma. Only Rick has the power to ban someone - thus, our power exists only in our ability to ignore or outlast a troll.
It is the gestalt, the happy combination of all our personalities that makes Webderland every bit as real and fun to me as, say, Callahan's Place, or Cheers, or the Friends Cafe, or Seinfeld's Diner. Webderland is every bit as fictional as those locales, but here we get to participate - we get to interact with the colorful locals. We get to be somebody. Here, I can be a Cliff, or a Norm, or a Ralph von Wauwau, or a Longdrink, or a Doc. (actually, Doc is already taken, but you get the point) This is a cool place, because of the people who post. It is a remarkable place, because of the people who post. It is OUR place, because we post.
Thank you Rick, for this spot on the web.
I've just finished J.M Coatzee's DISGRACE for my Intro to Literature class. I'd just like to post my first, raw response to the novel before I intellectualize it beyond recognition:
It was a nihilistic, self-indulgent, ugly, putrid, egotistical, cynical pile of shit in which the author wastes his massive, unfathomable talent to essentially spew black bile into the reader's brain.
There. Now I will go to bed, sleep, and come back tomorrow a nicer and more rational fellow.
Little Washu
Rick: Congrats on the new kid! Did you say twenty HOURS of labor? Sheesh. Women are the most durable people on earth. Thank god. (or whoever)
Monikers: Call yourself King Lurk, Little Washu, the Mighty Quinn, or Sugar Magnolia. Just don't call me Mr. Tibbs.
And now another chapter of Draw Your Own Conclusions Theater:
Splish splash splish splash splish splash splish splash
Well, what a day. My phone service was cut off last night because my procrastination has reached pathological levels. I paid my bill by phone from work this morning. The rest of the moring, I was in a mood I can only describe as gleefuly irritable. I was genuinely nice to coworkers who needed my assistance, but it was a kind of "Go ahead, make my day" mood. I decided to dispense with fighting traffic for lunch and ate at my desk. Mistake. If you want a hassle-free lunch, don't have it at your desk. Sigh.
So, after finishing my lunch, I went for a walk. The neigborhood where I work is a damn ugly place. An industrial carbuncle on the ass of Denver, with the power plant across the Platte river and the sewage treatment plant next door. Brick yard here, prefab concrete warehouses there. Crushingly ugly. Godforsaken ugly. Cursed by the unclean spirit of Asmodeus ugly.
Damn ugly.
But, along the river is a green belt. The trees and underbrush grow thick enough to keep a truck from breaking through. Down the street is a park. There are critters that live there. Not just the ducks and geese, but other things, including beavers. I know there are beavers there because I've seen their tooth marks where they've been gnawing away at the trunks of trees, which are then wrapped in chicken wire to keep the Beaver Corps of Engineers from deforesting half the park.
The temperature was in the fifties. Sweater weather. I walked along the concrete path, canadian geese ambling out of my way, nibbling at the grass under the snow. I reached the bend in th e sidewalk which then bent to the west, crossing over the Platte river on a high, vaulting iron bridge. How deep is the Platte? You could walk across it and scarcely get your ankles wet. Looking down, the river was clear as clean glass, the rich green moss waving in the current.
When I open a liter bottle of soda pop that might erupt into a fountain, I'll twist the top until the seal just cracks, and let the pressure slowly hiss from the bottle. That's how I felt on my walk. On the other side of the Platte, there were bicyclists, not pedaling along humming 'Bicylce Built for Two', but people in spandex and helmets going for a speed record.
"On your left!" WHOOSH!
A man and woman jogged by, the man explaining the details of their business, whatever it was, clopping past me. I prefer to walk. More relaxing. I finally reached my turn-around point, and made my way back to the Hassle Castle.
That's when I heard it:
Splish splash splish splash splish splash splish splash
What the hell was that?
I peered through the branches, and saw some ducks on the water. Ducks don't splash like that. It was rythmic, as regular as the ticking of a clock. Wasn't ducks.
Splish splash splish splash splish splash splish splash
I got closer to the river bank. What could that sound be? I've seen the work of the local beavers, but I've never seen them in the furry flesh. Then again, I've never known any animals to make a rythmic, gentle spashing sound like this. Maybe it could have been someone paddling their bare feet in the water? Of course, it's winter, there's still snow all over the ground from friday, and the water temperature would only be a degree or two above freezing. Screaming, aching agony, even for a member of the Polar Bear Club. Nope not that, either.
Then I saw it.
Splish splash splish splash splish splash splish splash
It was a chunk of driftwood, about three feet long, wedged between two rocks. There was a tangle of twigs and branches wrapped around it. The driftwood log was linear to the current. Balanced across it and perpendicular to the river was a stick, a foot and a half long, and an inch across, worn smooth at the ends. One end dipped into the water, was pulled downstream, then lifted up, dipping the other end in. Over and over, rowing with metronomic regularity.
Splish splash splish splash splish splash splish splash
I stood there staring at this steady state perpetual motion machine made of wood and crystal clear, ice cold water.
We tend to get far too into the narrow focus of our daily lives, head down, shoulders hunched, racing along the rails we've laid down:
getitdonegetitdoneGETITDONEGETITDONEGETITDONEgetitdonegetitdone
We forget to look up once in a while and see the larger world around us, to see it playfully unaware of our blinkered lives.
It had just drifter together. Some river-smoothed wood floating along until it hit an obstruction. In just the right way.
Splish splash splish splash splish splash splish splash
It took me an hour to get back into what I was doing when I got back to work. Put everything back into perspective.
I wonder if it will still be there tomorrow?
Chuck
Splish splash splish splash splish splash splish splash
Shameless Plug Dept: Lately I've been offering up some bits of Ellisonia on eBay. All proceeds except postage go to KICK. Don't know if anyone 'round here has been over that way, but look for auctions under no_fake_shemps if you get the chance. More stuff going up soon.
So, on another note: I noted here I wuz working a review of "Lost in Space". No sooner is the ink dried and spilled blood clotted on the walls and floor, here comes a note from SOMEONE on this board, wanting to know if I knew ol' boy Murdoch, by way of Fox, is planning to remake "Lost In Space" as a teevee series.
Yes, ladies and gents. I knew. My moles, my eyes, my ears within the Hollywood Machine keep me up to date on same such.
Oh, yeah: And the fact I know all, see all. Stay tuned. Next week the winner of the 2002 World Series and the Powerball lottery numbers.
See? Being Ellionized has its perks.
Sheesh.
Until next time. . .
Anonymity is always an option. I myself started here under a nomme d'guerre. I get so tired of normally quite intelligent people not realizing how clearly their personalities present when cloaked.
As to being "Ellisonized", I doubt that's actually the case with any of us. We all put on the high dudgeon on occasion here, and no one had to send us to the Webderland School of Incendiary Literature to educate us on the finer points of ballistic conversation.
I just wish everyone would stop being so sensitive about people making observations about your sensitivity levels! And if you catch a conversation/discussion/argument/flamefest spiralling out of control, have the common decency to either take it off the board or take it down a notch. No troll feeding! Not even your inner troll! (That last one is a bitch, I should know.)
You guys are all very interesting people, with interesting things to say. Even differing viewpoints should be honored, within the bounds of common decency. And I agree with Xanadu, this board is the creme de la creme when it comes to wasted bandwidth. I *enjoy* the company here, when you guys aren't rattling the cages too loudly.
L.
Little Washu/Xanadu: Isn't it the lack of anonymity in this board part of why it's a great place? I don't have to use a fake name or worry about hiding who I am. There are real people on here, including Mr. Ellison, warts and all.
Lurk, what do you mean that we're "Ellisonized"? Do you think that, without HE's influence, we'd all be sweetness and light? Hardly. Maybe we all love HE so much because we are naturally inclined to express ourselves baldly, as he does. Clearly you are similarly inclined, so aren't you just as coopted by Ellisonism as the rest of us mindless drones?
Bermanator
FRANK CHURCH: I'm not overly fond of George W. either, and yet somehow he strikes me as far more human than a certain Mr. Reagan did. There's actually a site somewhere on the net accusing Mr. Bush of being the antichrist. The reason I mention this is because EVERY President that's ever been in office is inevitably accused of being the antichrist. Sure, he has the OPPURTUNITY to be the antichrist at his fingertips, but that's all part 'n' parcel of the job.
Speaking of which, I caught about five minutes of Governer Jesse Ventura's recent speech on CNN (I believe it was CNN...anyone's free to correct me on this). He referred to September 11, as well as putting down any ridiculous expectations that America would walk away from the war without a price to pay. As I usually focus on BBC World and stay clear of major american networks, I changed the channel. But he's certainly come a long way since PREDATOR, hasn't he?
Oh, and TODD: I know you were just horsing around again, but still, it's not your best gag.
I mean, anyone could just as easily say you were Heather. Or Xanadu. Or Melissa. Or Joseph. Or Rob. Or David. The fact is that in the internet, anonymity IS king despite our best efforts, and we can't express our personalities very well in this format, at least not as much as we'd love to.
Someone, for instance, could impersonate Mr. Ellison on this board with great ease...
...but that would mean instant death.
Little Washu
Frank~ What's the matter, can't think for yourself? Have to see what the party line is before you come down on one side or the other?
And as for your opinion of NASA as the little brother of the military, while the case may be thought of in those terms from inside the Beltway, NASA itself couldn't be farther from the truth. How do I know? My dad worked for NASA from the Mercury program on up to Challenger. The only reason he left is because his job on the West Coast went away after he'd built a house out here. I grew up with a bunch of astronaut's kids. You have never seen a more starry-eyed optimistic gungho group of hard core geeks. Every engineer, every test pilot, every wrench jockey, hell, every secretary is working for that one goal. And they know that the military contracts pay the bills, so they tolerate them, but the ultimate dream is the same for them as for every hard science fiction fan, every one of us that grew up watching Star Wars & Star Trek & Lost In Space. Hot tubs on Luna, off roading on Mars, a first person description of what the red eye of Jupiter look like from Europa, and beating some three-eyed Altairean greenhorn at five card stud. It's really that simple.
L.
Bush is going to raise tariffs on cheap overseas steel to help ailing corporations: What happened to the magic of the market place, Bush? Ha ha, these capitalist's are so full it they should topple over. This talk about America having a free market is bunk; Bush is bailing out his friends again. Just let steel go out of buisiness like Enron, Bushie. Shows his deceit. Corporations are lucky corporate welfare is America's religion. Bush is a shit-head. These tariffs are going to make enemies everywhere. Good going skipper.
NASA is always used as propaganda to put a smiley face on the military state. I will bet any amount of money that missle defense will be the main purpose of NASA in years to come. Do you think these Republican reptiles care about space exploration? --give me a break. Their idea of space exploration is seeing how far they can put their heads up their asses.
Brian, don't forget about the 64 pounds of plutonium that almost got sent up on a space shuttle or the Cassani probe, that would of killed us with radiation if it would have crashed into the earth, instead of passing by.
Art over world destruction any day.
I will ask Chomsky about NASA. He will answer back in a few days.
See, Scott, it didn't take long.
Lynn,
Nice work on the Elisson Webderland items. I just ordered a couple shirts. I've still got too much hair to need that hat (g).
--Alex
King Lurk:
One gets from this forum roughly what one puts into it.
If you make the effort to add constructively to the discussion, you are generally responded to in kind. If we, as individuals, cannot answer your query, or don't wish to get involved in that particular thread or a particular personality – we remain silent. If you start waving your arms wildly and spouting off, you get zapped. If you get personal – you get zapped. This is the nature of the medium. This is the nature of this forum.
Despite your observations to the contrary – this board is extraordinary. The signal to noise ratio is unparalleled. The average level of discussion is high, the topics are varied and significant and the malicious insults are few and far between. We police ourselves, and despite the certain individuals who have been known to erupt and generally make a mess of the place (the finger I point is placed firmly on my chest), we are all good people.
I don't agree with some of the opinions here, hell, I actively dislike some of 'em, but I can honestly say there is not one regular, or semi-regular that I don't think I could get along with if I met them in the "real" world. Even the ones I disagree with most passionately.
What happens here is not personal, it can't be. We don't know you – your words are the only window the rest of us have into your thoughts and ideas. I know I'm not a great writer – I'm average at best. But I can tell you this – if I was constantly being misquoted or misunderstood, I'd have to come to the conclusion that I'm not as good a writer as I think I am.
It's easy to have fun with this group, but you're gonna get chewed a new one if you mess with 'em too long – whether it's as King Lurk, or The Masked Bishop, or Xanadu, or as any of the folk using real names that frequent this board. This is the nature of the medium.
>If you ask me, King Lurk and Little Washu are one and the same<
Damn, they got us! I mean, me...
Little Lurk
If you ask me, King Lurk and Little Washu are one and the same. I often tend to tease and argue with myself....so why not do it with an audience?
-TODD
Konnichi wa, folks!
DAN THORNE: Thanks for updating us on METROPOLIS. I've found out from Matt that this METROPOLIS has zip to do with Fritz Lang's work. Go figure. And as for crappy subtitles, good grief, have you seen LAST NIGHT IN MARIENBAD? My head still hurts from that flick...
JON STOVER: Well, there I go again. Making a completely blithe statement about the 'subtext' between LEGEND and SNATCHERS without more heavy-duty backup. I actually mentioned SNATCHERS only in passing as LEGEND gave me a similar sensation of desolation and loneliness. Neville is indeed the outcast, the freak and the monster now; that was really the whole theme of majority/minority that I was talking about. The vamps may be justified in executing Neville due to his own brutal actions against their kind, but keep in mind that these creatures were indeed once human. How could they NOT sympathize with Neville's plight? Then again, if some fella put a stake through each my family's hearts in one single night, my judgement would probably be pretty clouded too...
I've been somewhat obsessed with tracking the course of the new I AM LEGEND motion picture, back to the days when Ridley Scott was attached as director and Arnold Schwarzenegger set to star as Neville. Such dreams are long gone and the project is still festering somewhere, but check out some REALLY awesome designs for the 'new' vampire-creatures I found at www.nuclearburn.com. It looks as if Scott's approach to the book was going to be very different...
KING LURK: No, your recent posts were not really nasty at all...just goofy and lightly teasing, as you probably intended.
Little Washu
I have just been roundly, soundly, and profoundly chastized by dearest Lynn, the soul of the board.
With her sage advice at heart, I offer you, Queen Covert, a hand of truce and offer an apology for offenses given, intended or not.
King Lurk
--"King" Lurk: You lament everyone else's lack of epiderma, just as you take sandpaper to it.--
Um, I don't think I was THAT nasty...could be, though...maybe I've become too Ellisonized by the board. As Washu pointed out, we all tend to go for Harlan-speak here. But Washu also knows the score, trust me...he's not hurting from any of this.
--Humor is disguised hostility--
I agree. And laughter is suppressed nauseau. It's an interesting thesis, well worth pursuing, Queen Covert.
--What are you doing to make this a more comfortable place?--
Not much more than you, apparently. Or did you think your swipes at me were sweet music and light? Do you have anything else to say, besides how much I suck?
King Lurk
Susan: The "Paraclete" arrived today with the KICK article. How many copies would you like me to send you?
"King" Lurk: You lament everyone else's lack of epiderma, just as you take sandpaper to it. What are you doing to make this a more comfortable place? Huh? Humor is disguised hostility, and I sort of thought jokes were supposed to be funny, not just mean-spirited. Clearly you are a troll and I don't know why anyone on here bothers dignifying you with a response. Including me.
Guess I'll go back to lurking.
Todd~ Yes, the design is mine, with Rick's approval. CafePress charges a base price for each item onto which they affix your logo. The seller gets to tack on any amount they want for profit. In the case of the Webderland store, $5.00USD (or 5.01 for some of the x.99 priced items) is added to the base price of each item. The checks will be cut to me and I will donate all the profits to the KICK Internet Piracy Fund.
Joseph~ Thanks for the link. The coolest thing about CafePress is that you can do "onesies", or individual items. You can create a store, upload an image, create a product, order one at base price, and never sell another one. There is no set up fee and no other costs except for S&H.
L.
Todd,
Here's a site that should explain the basic concept of CafePress for you. It's quite popular among small online companies, especially web comics, for selling log and art swag:
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/index.aspx
Regards,
Joseph
Lynn, I'm sure this has been explained in the past, but I'm asking anyway: What's the scoop with these Webderland items? Did you design them? What is CafePress? Is this some sort of website where you can design logo items for any purpose?
Just wondering where all these stuff is coming from (already ordered my baseball jersey....can never get enough of those).
-TODD
Lynn,
Very cool stuff!
ATTENTION ALL WEBDERLANDERS!
The Webderland Spring Training BASEBALL JERSEY is now available! We also have a Smoking E TILE COASTER, an elegant accoutrement to the Essential Desk Accessory Item, The Smoking E Mug. These products are only available for a limited time, so hurry quick and get yours today!
We also have T-SHIRTS (both short and long sleeves), hooded SWEATSHIRTS, BALL CAPS & TOTE BAGS. ***$5.00*** of every purchase will be donated to the KICK Internet Piracy Fund (http://harlanellison.com/KICK/).
Think of it as station swag for a good cause.
http://www.cafepress.com/webderland
PS. The Baseball Jersey and the Tile Coaster are the only "limited time only" items. All else will be available whenever you get around to buying them. Maybe. If you're lucky. If I were you, I'd buy early and often just in case.
Jay,
Hell, yeah, send me that script. I'd love to chortle at it (though, for my money, it would be hard to beat the Spider-Man prison comedy from last month's issue).
Sorry to hear about your child's pink-eye. Hope she feels better soon.
Regards,
Joseph
Joseph -
My girlfriend's little girl has pink eye, so we're at home watching Noggin and Nick shows. Well, she is. I just turned my bedroom bookshelf into a JLA/Avengers bar brawl. Worked part of the overnight last night, so I'm a bit punchy...pardon the pun.
Yes, I've seen Twisted Toyfare...funny, FUNNY stuff. Wrote a live action version (yeah I know) for Wizardworld Con that my friends and I tried to make with the help of this awesome costumer. If you're interested I can send you the script for it. :)
"Inside the Tights" or, "The Real World: Justice League" Features a catfight between Black Widow and Black Canary, a drunken Iron Man struggling to get out of his helmet in time, Aquaman pining for Wonder Woman and getting a makeover from Hal Jordan (who has "come out" in a big way)... funny stuff that was written over several beers and chicken wings one summer.
Jon and Little Washu,
I caught a screening of the animated Metropolis this past weekend. (I'm fortunate to live a block from a wonderful art house theater.) While much of the animation is stunning and well-worth seeing, I think the hype-machine has over-extended itself in this case. I found the most glaring and frustrating problem to be the sub-titles. They seem to have been taken right out of the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials. (And this does NOT seem to be intentional at all. It appears more likely the result of not understanding the English language.) It's damned frustrating because each time you start to get into the story, you groan at a ridiculous anachronistic sub-title. As I said, it's worth seeing, but lower your expectations before seeing it.
I Am Legend:
Little Washu: The conformity subtext (or maybe it's actually the thing above the sub-text...oh yeah, the text) in Legend and Snatchers certainly marks them as similar...but the pod society and the vampire society don't seem to be cut from entirely the same cloth. (Note: I'm referring to the 50s film of Snatchers -- the novel is something different). The pod society is relentlessly conformist and drone-like; the vampire society seems to be a mirror of human society with some of the parameters changed by the virus. Matheson's protagonist is, after all, killing off what turn out to be thinking, changed human beings and not drones (with the exception of the brain-destroyed vampires, and the protagonist views them almost wistfully when the fully sentient vampires put them to the torch -- I'm thinking of the mindless neighbour who keeps shouting and making a mostly non-threatening nuisance of himself). In short, he's not simply a minority -- he's a really murderous minority trying to reassert the old status quo. The humans in Snatchers are, from the pod's POV, trying to do the same thing -- but the pod society is, from a reader's POV (or maybe most readers' POVs) pretty awful, while the vampire society turns out not to be so awful, at least in the flashes we're given of it.
But maybe it's bleak in a different way than you initially suggested, as well. In 1984 the State destroys Winston by convincing him he's wrong. In Legend, the protagonist comes at least partially to that conclusion without coercion, and he may be right -- he is a monster and not a lone hero; everything he knows really was wrong. There's no place for him as anything other than Story. It's the opposite of the realization the protagonist of another of Matheson's great 50s novels *The Shrinking Man* comes to -- "I exist. I still exist." He moves out of the artifice of his life into something outside of society, beyond suburbia, beyond the Doll's House, beyond the Story or at least outside it. Or maybe below.
Thanks -- I'd never have made that connection between Shrinking and Legend without Legend being brought up.
Jon
Jay,
Nice collection. Sounds like you're getting ready to produce an episode of Twisted Toyfare Theater (which, if you haven't seen it, can be a horribly amusing feature in Toyfare magazine).
Regards,
Joseph
Marvelous. The dawning of a new day...
HEATHER: On your comment about 'beautiful people' being more trustworthy in our society; yes, sadly to some extent that's true. I wouldn't call myself ugly (who would?). More unremarkable, if anything else. On the movie screen, the heroes are always portrayed by the likes of Bruce Willis and Mel Gibson, so either conciously or subconciously we believe that exterior appearences tells us the whole story. But to tell you the honest truth, the way some of these celebrities behave outside the movie realm should give us enough clues that they are NOT perfect, that they can be stupid, they can be childish, they can be cruel, they can make mistakes. They're human, god help them. But we commonly elect to see the image and not the person.
And, yeah, I can understand you connecting with Lurkie's points on the 'Little Washu' title. As I've stated before, ALL fictional characters are the same to me, and each earn their own different kind of respect. And no, I am not going to allow Washu's personality to seep into my opinions and voice at all (unless someone REALLY starts irking me...then I might suddenly develop a convenient case of schizophrenia...bwahaha). That would be, for lack of a better word, silly. In my post to Lurk, I was only delving into the character's history to refute Lurk's claims that anything originating from anime lacks any 'gravitas', as he put it. Never did I start talking like Washu, I merely became passionate on the subject, as I'm a genuine fan of anime and all it's various forms and colours. I CAN imagine why some people would become annoyed with those gigantic eyes, however...
JON STOVER: Good point about Neville's final revelation in I AM LEGEND. Heck, it's common even NOW to see the minority as the monsters and the majority as the 'victims'. But in reality, it's quite vice-versa. The conclusion of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS always terrified and enraged me beyond words.
It's funny, when you think about it, how no one's made comparisons with I AM LEGEND with the myth of Beowulf. Neville is Grendel, the 'freak' slaughtering the 'helpless' warriors in their hall (the vampires), until Beowulf (there's no real character in I AM LEGEND that can be connected with Beowulf...Cortman, maybe? Or Ruth?) literally lops off his arm and dooms him to destruction.
>Now, how can a man with such an utterly arrogant and assinine pseudonym possibly take issue with Little Old Washu<
You know, if anyone actually READS the posts, you may find the elements of a JIBE, people. I thought the Groundpounder reference made that clear. Barring that, the riff on the King Louie theme from Jungle Book certainly was a HINT that a leg was being pulled.
While Little Washu seems to have grasped this, sort of, others have clearly not. Feathers no longer suffice, one needs large bricks.
Epidermi have been rubbed so raw on this board that no-one has one anymore. The mantra of a webderlander is fast becoming "I have no skin, so I am screaming, all the time, at everything."
King Lurk
I'm going to keep asking this until I get an answer. A yes or no will suffice, if that's all I can expect.
Harlan, I've read your stuff since high school; I'm now in my forties. I'm even a HERC member. You made a reference to Cadillac, Michigan in your story "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore". Have you ever been to Cadillac? What prompted you to make the reference? Was it a thoroughly random choice or was there a thought process involved?
Thank you in advance,
Ron
Hot off the Yahoo news wire:
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Rupert Murdoch's Fox Entertainment is traveling back in time to revive four sci-fi TV series: "Lost in Space," "The Time Tunnel," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and
"Land of the Giants."
Wow four series I grew up watching as a kid are making a comeback. I know "Voyage" is on the Sci-Fi channel now in the mornings.
The "Time Tunnel" was one of my favorites as it also sparked my intrest in "What if.." alternative history.
Heather,
(L)Yes, I did dropkick a 911; but the phone made the return all the way...right to my door.
But I AM sorry to hear about that cop.
Rich,
I know nothing about having kids; and with luck like mine I'll one day wind up with some mutation resembling that thing from the movie 'Alive!'
But congrats and enjoy the late night shifts.
Thanks, guys, for all the well wishes and congratulations. Baby Mac and I are letting the wife rest and the little one just quieted down a few minutes ago. (Though, I think the Little Washu/King Lurk "debate" gave her hiccups.)
I also wanted to say congratulations to Lorin O. on the publishings.
Ah, silence is foo. And didn't last too long. Baby Mac is telling me she's hungry, so gotta wake the wife up for feeding. Thanks again.
Note: "Queen"'s post is not mine, even in satire..just an FYI.
Rich - Congratulations and welcome to Planet Baby, Population: you and the Missus. It's an exciting adventure. I miss the early days, though not enough to go through it again. :)
Oh the places you'll go.
King Lurk...hmmm. Now, how can a man with such an utterly arrogant and assinine pseudonym possibly take issue with Little Old Washu, whose real name everyone actually knows? Maybe King Lurk is just a big bully. What a tough guy, anonymously naming regulars here the Twin Pillars of Puerility, when he himself can't even give his own name, possibly because he left in shame in the recent past, vowing never to return, but can't tear himself away from here.
So, King Lurk, maybe you could stop being such a hypocritical asshole for five minutes and look in the mirror. This is why you had to leave here last time. Do you think a pseudonym will protect you from the same fate this time? How many times do you think you can pull this nonsense?
Grow up.
A fellow lurker, disgusted
Oh it's Fanboy Heaven,
Joseph - NOW who's shadowing who? I've got my Samuri Baker looming over Bob & Doug McKenzie toward a spot where Spider Jerusalem will be standing when the shipment arrives. I've got the core members of the JLA strutting up Bourbon Street on a pub crawl with hotties frm the Marvel Universe draped over them...except for Superman who is carrying a drunken Spiderman. I have Berzerker Wolverine and Uncle Duke standing over the dismembered remains of Hugh Jackman, taunting him for hs poor portrayal in the film while Tigra tries to hold them back in terror. Peter Venkman is trying to decide if Mystique is just a hot corporal mutie or the second cousin of Gozer while Agent Scully discusses leg waxes with Sara Pezini.
Sadly, my DC Direct figures can only stare with envy at all this from their blister packaging.
Yeah, before you say anything...check out your dad's really detailed and scaled model railway in the basement or mom's more than complete collection of Amiee Semple McPherson Crystal angel figurines. :)
In spite of Lurk's anime comments -- which I can't comment on, one way or the other as I don't know a LOT of anime, he's making a couple of choice points, here (and it ain't about aliases, Joseph, it's about the KIND of alias. I must admit I thought Benny had created a moniker for himself. Instead, he nabbed an anime character. No issue.. but.. well..I see Lurk's point.)
I get a little worried about 'who' I'm talking to when stuff like this occurs. Hmm? No, Little Washu, down boy, I ain't sniping.. I'm observing. Nothing more.. nothing less. You're a young guy. Do as you wish. Keep the name, not an issue, BUT...
be YOU.. not some anime character. That's like hiding behide a Hulk or a Mickey Mouse or a whatever..
If you are gonna express opinions, go easy on mixing them in with this anime character. I think that's just as much that Lurk's getting at.
And there's nothing wrong with talking about "me-issues"--hell, we all do that.
Just be sure the guy I'm dealing with ain't ducking behide cardboard characters, to make his points.
Lurk, a question.. separate: Is there any kind of anime you like?
And somebody please, tell me what's become of Ralph Bakshi (is it?) I loved his darkness, the stuff he did. Did he fold up his tent?
Alex J.: You talking about this twenty-someone lady you were with or the ORIGINAL ex that you broke up with? What happened?
A post-script post-script:
Little Washu: I don't think the end of *Legend* needs to be read as bleak, though -- the vampire hunter has become the new figure of the vampire at the end, the terror for the new society of adjusted vampires. I think it works marvelously as a reversal of expectations, and one feels sorry for him at the end, but the vampire society isn't depicted as being the evil equal of Oceania in *1984.*
Jon
Postscripts:
Little Washu: Yes, I've read *I Am Legend.* Chalk up omitting it from my list as a case of assuming it was a given. Or me becoming forgetful. Take a look, if you can, at Alan Moore's *Swamp Thing* issues that allude to some of the scientific bases for vampirism Matheson sets up in *Legend.* Swamp Thing battles a warren (?) of underwater-dwelling punk vampires. It's part of the (now collected, I believe) *American Gothic* Swamp Thing storyline from the 1980s that also introduced John Constantine to the world in its prologue. Well, unless you count the Sting cameo in a panel in the Swamp Thing Demon three-parter as Constantine's first appearance...
*Metropolis* does bounce off the Lang film, according to the reviews I've seen, without being a remake. Ebert gave the film a rave review; I assume it will have (or has already had) limited release in major U.S. and Canadian cities. The Ebert review is on his web-site among the current releases.
Anime: Yes, I've seen *Akira* and *Mononoke*, and found both pretty good, although Akira seemed to lack about twenty minutes of explanatory material and character creation in the version I saw...is there a longer version of the film, or is this the canonical version? It still ran 140 minutes, so I've always assumed this was the normal run of things and just a function of it being condensed from the much-longer manga.
Jon
Rich:
Congratulations on the kid. Hope you THREE are doing well.
Lorin:
Congrats on the published piece. Hope there are more to come.
Little Washu:
I've been watching a lot of people as I do cash. Sometimes, when I'm in a good mood, I joke around with them. There are ones who get a bit creeped out by this but don't really "react," per se.
It got me thinking.
I don't think it's you causing trouble in the video store--especially, if, at the time, you came across as quiet or retiring. So much depends on the mood/attitude/past experiences--good or bad--of the other person who is dealing with you.
You, as a person, are something of 'blank slate' to them; to draw conclusions as to the kind of person you are--good, bad, happy, sad--ESPECIALLY, if you are quiet or shy or don't react..or, on another track.. if you look ugly or beautiful.
Think about this: we go to movies and watch the beautiful people. There they are, up the screen, for us to 'fantasize'about the kinds of people they are in real life.
We all do this. Hell, even with the people we see in real life. I've notice I do this with customers--people I really don't know. We imbue the "beautiful ones" with qualities of goodness--and are so alarmed when they cheat or lie or steal or when a starlet gets caught shoplifting--reminds of the Wynona Rider incident.
Does that make sense?
Regarding "miniscule" vs. "minuscule" ~ It was a typo. I didn't notice it even after hitting preview ::sigh::. Funny how not paying attention to what I was typing leads to a minor imbroglio. For what its worth, my "Webster's Universal Unabridged" (circa 1985) shows only the "minuscule" spelling ::shrug::.
Jon ~ With regard to anime. I'm one of those people who dislikes the cutesy-doe-eyed-girls type anime (Ranma 1/2, for example), but, I like the harder stuff. Some titles on my suggested viewing list; "Battle Angel", "Cowboy Be-Bop", "Akira", "Princess Mononoke", and "Serial Experiments: Lain". Any of these would be a good place to start, but I usually suggest "Akira" or "Princess Mononoke" as the best place to jump in. It's usually best to view the subtitled versions as opposed to the dubbed versions. The translations are usually better. I've found that most, recent, DVD releases offer both subbed and dubbed viewing.
King Lurk ~ Just because anime may not be your cup of tea does not mean you need to piss on L. Washu's parade. Please, have an opinion, that's fine, but don't be an ass about it.
Rich ~ Add my congratulations to the heap that's piling up. You're in for one helluva roller coaster ride. Enjoy it.
Alex Jay / Joseph ~ I'm glad you guys mentioned Pioneer 10. If I might anthropomorphize a bit, I've always had a soft spot for this hardy little bugger. For more info on Ole No. 10 check out:
http://spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNhome.html
-Andrew
This message was brought to you by the fine folks at Fleet, who remind you to "Just breathe deep, this might hurt a bit".
Scott,
You got three cards for an American quarter each? Rocking!
(Okay, that's a little dig at how the Canadian dollar is performing lately, But hey, you could be trying to pay bills with Aussie dollars.)
Washu,
Somewhere, Louis Armstrong is rolling over in his grave, ya goof.
Regards,
Joseph
Well, I'm a happy little bugger. Took myself out to one of my favorite haunts; a card shop. Y'all have comics, I have cards.
Well, the shopkeep was sorting out "Outer Limits" sets, and I queried him in regards to the hallowed A18, autographed by the one who would be Ellison.
I got three of the lovelies, and for a measley $10 Canadian each.
Hehehe...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, MINE, MINE, MINE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Life is good. Sorry, sportsfans; not for sale.
Any who try to invade, remember; My army of bobbleheads stands ever vigilant guard, warns Scott
P.S. JON: Oh yeah, I've been meaning to catch METROPOLIS myself as it looks like an absolutely beautiful film, but as far as I know it's not going to receive any theatrical release...as far as I know. Still uncertain if it has any connection with Fritz Lang's masterwork or not...
JON STOVER: Hey Jon, you haven't read Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND, have you? It's one of my personal undead favourites...an atmospheric gem IMHO, with one of the most depressing, bleak endings since 1984. Of course, now it's going to be filmed by Michael Bay and starring Will Smith if the rumours are indeed true, so we don't have to worry about any downbeat ending in Mr. Bay's vision, I guess.
Little Washu
More vampires:
Other vampire treatments of note...Suzy McKee Charnas's *The Vampire Tapestry*, S.P. Somtow's *Vampire Junction*, George R.R. Martin's *Fevre Dream*, Dan Simmons's previously mentioned vampire work *Children of the Night* and *Carrion Comfort*, and Tim Powers's *The Stress of Her Regard*, in which Lord Byron helps save the world, just as he should. Not a lame-o LeStat wannabe among them (well, the Martin vampire protagonist verges on such, but the crusty riverboat pilot keeps snapping him out of it).
OK, I'll shut up now.
Jon
>Speaking of which...have you seen any actual TENCHI MUYO! episodes, perchance?<
I sincerely apologize to everyone for having unwittingly primed this. But don't fret, Manga is like hives...it's starts to cover everything, then itch fiercely, but it finally goes away.
King Lurk
>Of course, someone who uses the alias "King Lurk" might not want to throw pebbles.<
Oh no? Well listen, man-cub:
I'm the King of the Lurkers, oh, a forum VIP
I've posted crap and played the sap
And that's what's been bothering me.
I want to be a manga masher, and stroll right into town
And crash your skeptical party, friend, and bring the party down.
So, oooby-do. I wanna lurk round you-hoo-hoo.
I wanna mock your posts, call you toast, it's true-woo-woo
And so you'll see-hee-hee, that someone like me-hee-hee
Should tell a fish like Washu what to do...
Old King Lurk (bob-a-doo-bang, doobie doo...that's me)
Anime/Manga:
Little Washu et al.: The new animated film *Metropolis* seems to be getting rave reviews. Anyone seen it? The odds against it coming to my city are pretty bad. 57 theatres and nothing on...
I may be the wrong age for total appreciation of anime -- the only examples when I was growing up were the excreably dubbed *Battle of the Planets* and *Star Blazers*, which never appeared on a station we could pull in with an aerial. In comics, there were Marvel's *Shogun Warriors* and *Godzilla*, part of Marvel's short-lived and soon-forgotten Toho Universe, in which Dum-Dum Dugan had to wrestle with the problem of Godzilla with Nick Fury nowhere in evidence. Not manga, obviously -- Doug Moench and Herb Trimpe on both books, I think. But that was about as Japanese as the mainstream got in the 70s.
Or it may just be a matter of taste. I do like some of the manga I've seen, *Lone Wolf and Cub* chief among them, but find myself somewhat cool towards anything with a lot of women with big eyes, child-like faces, gargantuan breasts, and wasp-size waists. Frankly, those representations creep me out wherever they appear. Giant Seizure Robots, though -- they're great!
"Why is a wolf shooting a net out of his eyes...?"
Jon
Rob: Re: Dropkicking 911s
That is the fuckingest strangest thing I've ever heard. Jeese. Glad you made out okay.
I know we had (are having) an issue with a cop that was shot, here in Winnipeg. The apartments not too far from here at the university--behind the Portage Place Mall--had emergency response types running around the other day with machine guns, fer chrissake, following a tip as to the whereabouts of the two guys who shot at the policeman. The tip suggested they were holed up one of the apartments and I believe they spent a good portion of the day with the other apartment dwellers evacuated, while they sussed out the situation.
H
Gotta catch 'em all...
JOSEPH J. FINN: I've only been lucky enough to see the english versions of POKEMON. From what I've heard, the original Japanese version is far more disturbing...such as questions raised about Jessie's actual sex, for instance. Ah well, every generation of children has it's set of heroes that the older generation could never completely understand. He-Man, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Spawn...
And what is this ANGELIC LAYER you mentioned? I haven't even remotely heard about it. Me really want to know!
Speaking of which...have you seen any actual TENCHI MUYO! episodes, perchance?
Little Washu
Life among the Technomages:
Y'know, some of the exchanges on bulletin boards (I'm thinking of Little Washu and King Lurk in particular right now) cause me to suspect that Jeanne Cavelos based her characterization of technomage interaction in her B5 books on internet culture.
Alex Jay: I really like Saberhagen's Dracula books because they're not in the Rice woo-woo post-Gothic mode. And Saberhagen's been such a pro for so many years that I wish a large group of people would suddenly latch onto the books so that he could reap the benefits of bestsellerdom. He also had a co-writing credit on the novelization of Coppola's Dracula, a co-writing credit that I always wondered about. There are some similarities between Saberhagen's Dracula and some elements of Coppola's film (Dracula's wife shows up in the Saberhagen series in the 20th century, and Dracula's legacy as a master fighter against the Turks often comes up).
Saberhagen's vampire mythos works rationally and mythically, at least -- vampires maintain a low profile and are forced to work within a code of ethics that limits their ability to kill humans; Dracula hypothesizes at points that his true source of energy comes from the sun, and not from the minimal amount of blood he requires; Dracula also hypothesizes about where the matter comes from and goes to when he changes shape; blood-sucking is so tied to the sexual act that only vampire perverts and rapists go after innocent bystanders; vampires grow more powerful as they grow older; good vampires respect duties of honour over the course of centuries, as Dracula protects the children and grandchildren and great---- of former acquaintances in *An Old Friend of the Family* and *A Sharpness at the Neck*. There are a lot of delights in these novels, especially for readers who like both historical fiction and detective fiction mixed in with their fantasy and science fiction. Vampirism allows for massive bodily regeneration, as Dracula first awakes as a vampire after recovering from being beheaded, and Mina's rebirth and rejuvenation occur after dying in her 80s. Saberhagen's vampire don't want to vampirize their lovers -- doing so ends their sexual relations, and only really perverted vampires feed off other vampires.
The delights of Saberhagen's dismantling of *Dracula* in *The Dracula Tapes* are also many. Lucy Westenra, condemned to death by Van Helsing's ill-advised multiple blood transfusions (this was before blood types were discovered, remember) can only be saved by Dracula turning her into a vampire, but the transfusions have already damaged her brain as well. The baby at Castle Dracula is actually a pig, and Harker is an idiot who repeatedly ignores Dracula's warnings to stay out of the dangerous parts of the castle. And, as Dracula points out, metal never hurt him before (except for Harker's shovel), and so the final 'killing' of Dracula is only a scene choreographed by Mina and Dracula to get Van Helsing off his tail for awhile. Dracula travelss with the group on the train towards the Carpathians, disguised as a water closet salesman and turns to his mist form as they stab him in the coffin he had quickly gotten back into before it reached Castle Dracula.
Dracula's revulsion at Van Helsing's use of the host and holy water in his vampire fighting is also a hoot -- Dracula isn't a practicing Catholic, but he wonders at several points where Van Helsing keeps stealing the host from, given that Van Helsing's claim that he "has an indulgence" could only be a lie.
Dracula also admits that he's not good at washing dishes, choosing to throw them into the ravine and retrieve them after Harker leaves (they're metal, after all).
Oh, well. Too much plot synopsis.
Jon
Susan,
I believe I have info on Roxanne Henkle for you. I don't want to post it here, so I will e-mail it to Rick and ask him to pass it on to you.
Regards,
Joseph
Susan here:
Thanks for the lost HERC member update.
One more to add to the list:
Roxanne Henkle, Jacksonville, Florida.
Once again, many, many thanks.--Susan
KING LURK: All right, Lurk. No more humility, no more hang-dog mentality, no more 'you're a great guy and I'm an idiot' self-confessional speeches.
I thought my last post was strictly lightweight and teasing; nothing more. But Lurk, you came at me like Grendel's mother. If you believe that I did deserve your wrath, please explain to me why and how, and no more references to Afghanistan if you will.
You're also confusing self-pity with humility. That's a pretty capital mistake.
Now, take every single last word from this post, quote it, and stick it into your next one, and tell me in this instance how I was AT ALL threatening or insulting in any way.
Little Washu
The only places Harlan will survive are the references to him in Dance Macabre by Stephen King.
RICH: Congratulations! Please give best wishes to Little Mac from the whole clan here in Albuquerque!
FANBOY JOSEPH: I have an eighteen-inch high porcelain statue of the Sandman as depicted in "Ramadan", with the globe and all. Can't tell you much about it's origins, as I bought it second-hand in the comic book shop, no box. The five-foot tall Buddy Christ figure was built for me by a friend, based on the dashboard figurines sold by Mr. Smith's company.
And the chile trade show was just great! My favorite were the jalapeno chocolate chip cookies. We also found a hot sauce called "Spontaneous Combustion" that is much more flavorful than the usual vinegar-and-capsaicin concoctions; it has garlic and spices added. Four drops are enough for a whole casserole, but the taste is truly stupendous. The best salsa, however, is still my local favorite: Sadie's Cocinita has been selling their homemade salsa for about four years now, it's just great. Picked up some recipes, too: red chile Alfredo sauce, and this sesame-ginger thing with those little black Thai peppers. Yummy.
Yours in heat,
Michael
those are tears of JOY, not pain
Lurk,
Sheesh. Which Ranma character shit in your cereal? If I want to give Washu money for my patronage, that's my bus....oh, wait, you mean patronizing! Now it makes sense.
Of course, someone who uses the alias "King Lurk" might not want to throw pebbles.
Joseph
Alex J.~ Quiet sympathies from this corner. I know it sounds trite, but every door that closes, ten more open. (Been divorced twice. I should be an expert on breakups.) Hang in there, bro.
L.
Look, Washie, you've been going on for your past few posts about how people don't like you, store security accosts you, you're the pup of the pack, etc...this little-old-meism dies very hard on this forum, LEMME TELL YA...
So what kind of response did you expect? A "don't be sad, we all love you" thread? Not on Webderland...and I should know, since I've been had for breakfast several times by Webderland's twin pillars of puerility (they know who they are). And beware the HE...there's a low tolerance for self-pity in that corner.
My suggestion that the "Little Washu" alias was a tad cute and screams for patronage stands. Why don't you try Groundpounder? It's one of them big new bombs used in Afghanistan. Sounds Thor-like, doesn't it?
No comment on all the Japanese animation silliness.
King Lurk
Jon and Alex,
The inspiration for the catsuits was indeed the Black Widow, according to the commentary track on J&SBSB, in an exchange between Kevin Smith and producer Scott Mosier.
Regards,
Joseph
Little Washu,
Don't worry about it. I'm sure I'll find something to gripe at you about sooner or later....
Hey, here's one now!
I admit to a strange admiration for "Pokemon." I don't know what it's about over in Japan, but I always have a sneaking suspicion that whoever handles it here in the States has taken the opportunity to re-dub it as a parody of some of the more blatantly ponderous pieces of television anime ("Digemon," for instance). It's a funny show, and works great as parody. Also, the writing for Jesse and James (the evil guys) make me laugh with their Wiley Coyote level ineptness (and who can resist such a conceited battle poem as those two have?)
Now if "Angelic Layer" would just show up in the States....
Regards,
Joseph
I'm catching up on a week's worth of output from you loonies due to upheavals at home, so bear with me.
JAY: A good Captain America arc was, believe it or not, in the tail end of the HEROES REBORN run. This was AFTER Jim Lee's people took over from Liefeld's, especially seeing the Bag o'Shit that Liefeld turned it into. Anyway, Joe Bennett pencilled and the excellent James Robinson wrote the books for the last six or seven issues, and they came off very well.
ON BATMAN AND NICHOLSON AND SUCH: Just turn off your mind and let yourself be taken, is my feeling. Let Elfman's score work its synergy with the weird camera angles around the late Anton Furst's vison of a demented Gotham and allow the over-the-top performances carry you along. Forget all you know about structure and cinema and enjoy the ride.
(Interestingly, I could not do the same with the two Schumacher abortions. I can't wait for the Darren Aronofsky-Frank Miller Batman soon to come.)
BRIAN: Dark Knight 2: I'm enjoying it immensely. It's made me laugh out loud in several places, and I'm seeing the fun that Miller's having doing it. See, I don't need to see it as an important deconstruction of the superheroic ideal; it's just a fun book (with a cautionary tale built-in). I'm also very well versed in the histories of the various comic book universes, so that helps--but I don't know that it's necessary. The only quibble I have is that Lex Luthor seems to have been transplanted into the body of the Kingpin, but oh, well.
JON: I'm pretty sure that "JESUS!" is still on Miller's plate.
Also, the new super-poseable Daredevil hangs three feet up and to my left as I type this. The church-wall-with-stained-glass-window backdrop looks very good, and the character is angrily pointing at whomever happens to be standing behind my chair, and it looks as if he's about to jump off into space to stop a mugging. A very good figure.
(And the Spider Jerusalem figure currently is having a faceoff with his two-headed cat and the John Belushi Samurai Baker action figure on the other side of the desk ...)
And regarding Alan Moore's ABC work: Tom Strong is fun, as is Tomorrow Stories, but Promethea is the best, closely followed by Top Ten.
I was going to list what I think of as seminal Coltrane recordings, but Scott pretty much summed it up. You might also want to pick up some of the earlier Miles Davis stuff, when Coltrane was part of the ensemble. The two masters play off each other beautifully.
I'm not going to get into the book-vs.-movie aspect of THE SHINING, save to say that the movie is one of two that have ever scared me; the scenes that play out in my head--especially just as I'm falling off to sleep--have spoiled me for any Hollywood "boo!"
SCOTT: Walken in THE DEAD ZONE, yes; one of the best-realized King characters onscreen--but come, man! How can you possibly overlook the bravura performance that is Emilio Estevez in MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE?!? Even the star turns in the first twelve MIGHTY DUCKS flicks barely HINTED at the greatness that Estevez can show, as ably proven by his Oscar-overlooked work in OVERDRIVE ...
CLERKS: The Dante and Randall short film that aired on Leno can be downloaded at: http://www.viewaskew.com/tv/leno/flyingcar.html
COOKIE: Eep. Give whatever support will be taken, as I know you'll do--but watch out for the possibility of the family dynamic rebounding on you, if they see you as "condoning" their child's behavior. It can get messy.
JAY: Apparently, Kevin Smith pointed his costume designer at some pictures of Marvel's Black Widow, and said something along the lines of, "Just like this--but moreso!" Mmm ... catsuits ...
BRIAN: Excellent review of HANNIBAL: It's exactly what I said after leaving the theater (after having been dragged to see it; *I* wanted to see CROUCHING TIGER, but my girlfriend's hangers-on had already taken her to see it one night when I was at work)--but with more wit and less vitriol than I summoned.
You forgot one important bit: Florence (and Francesca Neri) have never been shown as more beautiful onscreen. That was, to me, the movie's only saving grace, beyond the Giannini character.
P.A. BERMAN: Regarding Drac running off with Mina--that's why I want to see Alan Moore go into the backstory of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, to show exactly what DID go on with Mina Harker; why she divorced Jonathan, whether the omnipresent scarf about her neck simply covers Drac-scars or whether it covers the fact that she, too, is now a vampire.
JON: The only Saberhagen Dracula Files book I've yet read is A SHARPNESS AT THE NECK, and I thought it very well-done indeed. I should clarify: I HATE vampires--or at least how they are viewed in fiction of late. The Kim Stanley Robinson Anno Dracula books piss me off with their historical cutesies, and the Anne Rice books really aren't worth reading after the third one, and really aren't worth reading out of one's early twenties. Dan Simmons has handled the subject matter well, but he's in the minority.
Oh! One GREAT vampire book is Wm. Mark Simmons' ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE, which follows a porphyric man's descent into a heretofore-unseen vampiric culture. It's very well-researched and very well-written--and I say this NOT because Mark is a mild cyberacquaintance of mine, but because I enjoyed the book so damned much. I have to find out whatever happened to the sequel he was writing.
MINUSCULE WASHU: Yes, I'll dance at the news of ice on Mars, but mine is an angry jig, the same as when, three or four years ago, we detected polar icecaps on the Moon: Ice means potable water--or at least the possibility of same. It is just about thirty years since we last set booted foot on the Moon. Why have we left out sister satellite to rot untouched? With water there, why is there no goddamned Luna City? Space tourism for those who AREN'T billionaires? Fuck fuck fuckity-fuck-fuck. This is a point of special anger for me.
By the by: You guys DID see that we just had some communication with Pioneer 10, launched in 1972, which is now TWICE AS FAR FROM EARTH AS PLUTO IS?!? Nice construction job, that.
FRANK: Before you continue to shit on space exploration, bear in mind that the Mercury, Apollo, and Shuttle missions actually cost very little--especially when compared to our military spending at the time--and generated discoveries in the fields of aeronautics, chemistry, medicine, botany, and several other important areas which are being used--some in so omnipresent a form as to be invisible--today. Universal healthcare is one important objective. Space is another. The two do not share resources and do not contradict each other. Unless you truly FEEL the need to put up fallacious arguments, that is.
By the by: Have you written your representatives to push for a better healthcare system? Been involved in demonstrations? Theorized any plans by which we might feasibly MAKE a working full care system? No? Then what are you bitching about? Get involved, if you feel so strongly.
DAVID: "Miniscule" is an accepted variation of "minuscule", according to the dictionary at refdesk.com (a site which is a HUGELY useful resource).
RICH: CONGRATULATIONS! May the three of you enjoy good health and happiness evermore!
(Now you can start saving up for tuition bills, wedding bills, and pharmaceutical bills [for yourself, when she starts dating] ...)
AND I'M FINALLY CAUGHT UP! WOO-HOO!
(This interlude brought you by the necessity of dealing with a break-up; one my now-ex probably thinks I'm handling too well. It's weird, having the person who decided to end it message me after just a few hours of separation with, "I miss you," and having to restrain myself from saying, "Guess you shouldn't have left ...", but I burnt out my anger after the first day, so ...)
ONE OTHER THING:
JOSEPH J. FINN: Thanks, Joseph, for the support. I seriously owe you one.
You're a pal.
Lil' Washu
Hey, Lurkie:
I can understand your reasons for thinking my title a little too quirky, and to a degree you ARE correct about anime and it's 'apocalyptic' implications (a bit silly in retrospect, when you really think about it). I wish to run with the wolves as much as anyone here. But I think you mgiht be locked into the state of careless discrimination that many folks have when all they have seen of anime is POKEMON and SAILOR MOON.
For cryin' out loud, King Lurk, do you have a CLUE what you're missin'?! GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES. AKIRA. GHOST IN THE SHELL. BATTLE ANGEL ALITA. TWILIGHT OF THE COCKROACHES. ROBOT CARNIVAL, and on and on. Anime's got a lot more depth than an average episode of STATIC SHOCK.
As for my 'unfortunate moniker'...I'm keeping it, at least for a while to come. What did you prefer me to name myself, Lurk? Something more 'tasteful'? Something more classy? Captain Ahab? Vlad Dracula? Frodo Baggins? Citizen Kane? Proffessor Challenger? Doc Savage? Gregor Samsa? Son of Kong? The guy who said "We don't need no stinkin' badges!" in THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE?
They're all fictional characters, and so is Little Washu. None of them are flesh and blood; whether one person happens to think more highly of one than the other is none of my business.
Also...no gravitas? NO GRAVITAS?! Are you kidding?! Little Washu is the top scientific genius in the universe! She went through hell when her bastard of a husband ran off with her son all because of some stupid, stinkin' social status! She's cuter than blueberry pie and smarter than the intellects of you, I, the entire population of the earth combined into one big sludge! She can whip up a perpetual motion machine with her eyes closed HANGING FROM THE CEILING! With the blink of an eye she can scramble your DNA and turn you into Regis Philbin!
So, I apologize if she's too obscure and 'silly' for your tastes. But I like her mischevious, playful nature, something that should be applied to life in general.
And THIS IS A FORUM! One measly little forum on all of the internet! Why does it always need to be so SERIOUS in here? If a single name is all that takes away your respect for me,well, pooh-pooh on you, my dear fellow. I personally don't (giggle) have any (snicker) issues with (gag) your name (BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!).
Keep in mind it's all in the name of good fun.
Little Washu
P.S. Beware the mirror, King Lurk...you'll never know when you'll see Regis staring back at you...hee hee hee...
RICH: CONGRATULATIONS! Here's wishing MacKenzie a long, happy, healthy and wonderful life. Mazel-tov and many blessings.
LYNN AND CHUCK: Thanks for the kudos. They mean A LOT.
Rick: My most heartfelt felicitations to you. Having been down that road on three prior occasions (and I've yet to forget a single detail of each and every one of my children's births), I will agree heartily with Xan's assertions, but note I haven't experienced that much terror yet...
...Although it must be noted that Danny has yet to reach either adolescence or the legal driving age.
Twenty hours of labour, eh? Remind the Mrs. that this fact can be embellished to as to provide ample guilt to pressure the child into a desired behaviour. Don't overuse this bargaining chip; save it for when you want something nice.
Well that's it from here. BTW Washu: the league goes all the baseball season. You follow the directions for ranking players based on how well you think they'll do, and the draft takes care of itself.
Now, now, folks, play nice and quietly. New baby in the house, capice?
Scott
>I'll base my opinion on Little Washu based on the strength and support of his convictions, not on whether he chooses to post under an alias.<
Thanks Joe, for setting us all straight on that point. We wuz worried. Doesn't help Little Washu's nomenclature issues, however, even with the artistic heft of, uh, classic manga.
King Lurk
Lurk,
Considering how much anime comes from classic manga (fr'instance, "Akira" and "Ghost in the Shell") I think your argument is a little flaccid. I'll base my opinion on Little Washu based on the strength and support of his convictions, not on whether he chooses to post under an alias.
Regards,
Joseph
>Just being a klutz...but seriously, I'm beginning to think that I really am the pup of the pack here.<
If you wish to run with the hounds, a first step might be to change your somewhat unfortunate moniker, Little Washu. Last I looked, a Washu was some hideous anime-type creation, and most sane people would agree that the rise and success of anime is just another indication of the impending apocalypse of reading culture.
The only other association possible would be with some cute little Indian lass out of a back stanza of Hiawatha. In either case, there's no gravitas to be mined from such an alias.
King Lurk
Can I ask why everybody is acting so freakin' surprised that the US government has a contingency plan (the "shadow government") in case the government, god forbid, was taken out? Just seems like good sense to me...
Rich~ A daddy! {And there was much rejoicing! "YEAH!"} Way to go!
L.
Rich: Congratulations to you and your wife. Keep us posted on all the fun you're having.
Bermanator
Rich,
Congratulations, my friend! So, how long until little Mackenzie is posting here?
Regards,
Joseph
ALL: Infoman says, Watch ONCE AND AGAIN tonight on ABC television (10est, 9cst, 7pm. pacifictime). It's one of the ten best shows (writing, acting, everything) on the Glass Teat these days. If only the home network would leave it in one time slow and give it a chance to get an audience. Do your part for quality TV (a rare beast) -- watch it or tape it tonight -- and the next seven Mondays afterward -- before the network execs decide to cancel it.
RICH: Congratulations!
-- Infoman
Congrats, rich! Now you are truly immortal! (Cue HIGHLANDER headbanger music right here.)
Just being a klutz...but seriously, I'm beginning to think that I really am the pup of the pack here. Talk of fathers and mothers, marriage, children...and I'm trapped in first-year college.
Isn't it nice to be sometimes just plain nice on this board?
Little Washu
rich: Welcome to the daddy club - don't expect a lot of sleep - but love the little one with all your heart. Children are an amazing joy you will NEVER be able to explain to the non-childed.
You are in for the most amazing ride of your life - alternating bouts of terror and euphoria that will make your life 'til now seem extraordinarily dull.
Congratulations Mom and Dad!
P.S. For my point of view, at approximately the same moment in our relative experience of this, you can visit this link:
http://www.frontiernet.net/~gaidasz/072897.htm
Congratulations, Rich!
Jon
Rich,
Mazel tov!
Okay, everybody, you can fight now.
---Alex
To interrupt the sniping and the cop stories for a moment...
My wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl (is there any other kind?) Thursday night at 8:51pm. It was not quite twenty hours of labor and I guess they didn't want to try for a full day.
I have been telling everyone and anyone who will listen that I now have a daughter. The garbagemen from this morning didn't seem to be too interested, but I figured I had a captive audience while they dispensed with the trash.
The birth was the MOST AMAZING thing I have ever witnessed and I cried like a baby. I wish my mom could've seen her, but it wasn't to be.
Mother and daughter are doing well and Baby Mac (her name is Mackenzie) is gonna be a great addition to the human race.
You may go back to your regularly scheduled bickering.
Little Washu: Are you really wondering why random people have such a negative reaction to you? I think you may want to re-evaluate your self-image as a shy, introverted, retiring type. Do you find that you're rather defensive whenever anyone says something that you don't like, corrects you, or offends your fragile sense of ego? Or that you threaten people at the slightest provocation? Perhaps a moment of self-reflection is in order, which might clear up the reasons why people inexplicably get pissed off at you.
Also, "take a chill pill"? What are you, in second grade?
Bermanator
Police Squads & Telephone Boxes:
Rob -- And in a strange twist of fate, the number combination to deactivate 911 will be...911. And then the Kafkaesque hijinks will ensue!
From the experience of friends, I can also suggest that one shouldn't tempt fate by getting lost in Texarkana while driving an empty four-by-four with a top over the box and Canadian plates. But we'll save that, the Adventure of the Six Balcony Climb, and the Adventure of the North Portal Border Crossing for another time.
Jon
Chuck,
NIKTO, baby! NIKTO!
And maybe those three words are what I should've used on my phone.
But you seemed to be the first to appreciate the charity of my all-important message: definitely RESPECT your phone or it may wink an eye at you like the devil doll in that old Twilight Zone and admonish, "My name is Talking Tina and you better be NICE to me".
OK, my gunpoint story. Not as disturbing as Rob's but it was a rude awakening for me nonetheless.
My friend (also named Chris - half my friends are named Chris which always made it easy to choose up sides in touch football - Chrises stand off!)and I were touring some national parks in the West. We drove into Canyonlands National Park after nightfall, sometime around 10 PM. We picked a campsite and got a roaring fire going with firewood we had picked up along the drive and stayed up for a few hours talking. My friend drank wine and we just shot the breeze until we got sleepy. He had brought his dog with him, a labrador (all Colorado residents are required by law to own a lab) and she settled in with us near the fire.
When we were tired enough and the fire burned down, we flopped our sleeping bags under a tree and sacked out. A few hours later I was woken up by rain. My friend is a die-hard outdoorsman but a pasty city boy so I decided to go sleep in the truck, sitting on the passenger side with my head against the window. I fell back asleep quickly.
Sometime around 6 a.m. (I'm not sure - it was light and it was very early) I got woken up by the sound of a horn. The truck that had been parked closest to us was stopped a short ways off and the driver (who I didn't see) just kept honking the horn over and over until finally leaving. I was exhausted and went back to sleep.
A couple hours later, I hear a tapping on the window. Bleary-eyed, I look out the window, not coherent enough to form any expectations. When my vision clears, I see a park ranger. Then I see that he looks angry. He's shouting something at me but I can't figure it out. He makes a motion with his left for me to roll down the window. I reach down to do it and he shouts again and then I notice that in his other hand, he's holding a gun which he's now pointing at me. Apparently, he wants my hands in sight while I'm rolling down the window.
I manage to stumble out of the door. All I can think is "What is this guy? Sixteen years old?" The babyface heind the gun only seems more intimidating.
He orders me to turn around and put my hands on the roof of the car. I'm still too exhausted and confused to ask any questions but fortunately he has questions of his own.
"Sir, when did you get here last night?" I answer a few routine questions like this. As he's interrogating me, I look over and see my friend still in his sleeping bag. He has his own park ranger who is pointing his gun directly at my friend, held in two hands and is screaming at Chris to sslowly get out of the bag (again, he's worried about my friends hands not being in sight.)
My ranger gets my attention back with "Were you firing any weapons last night?"
What? I don't get it. Not getting it, I say "What?"
"Were you or your friend firing weapons last night?"
I don't say "What?" again because I'd already seen Pulp Fiction. I sputter, "No, what do you mean?"
"Sir, we had a complaint that you were rowdy and discharged rifles all night long, frightening the other campers. Can I search your car?"
"Yes. I mean, uh, it's his car, not mine. What weapons?"
I see my friend is now out of the sleeping bag. Both out rangers have holstered their guns by now and the situation has calmed a bit.
They search the car, still keeping us separated so we each have to tell our own story.
My ranger comes back, "We're going to search the campsite. You stay here. You had a fire last night, I see. Did you bring your own wood?"
"Yes!" I feel so relieved that I can answer that accurately.
The two of them walk around the campsite for about ten minutes, still leaving Chris and I on our own, separate from each other.
My ranger returns. "OK, I don't know what happened here. We had a couple come into the ranger station today. The wife was in tears and they said the campers next to them had fired over a hundred rounds of ammunition from rifles last night. He's a good old boy, a local and he even thought he knew what gauge you were firing. But obviously you couldn't have hidden that many casings and we can't find any evidence. And both your stories corroborate. They also complained about your dog nosing around their campsite - is that true."
I say it might have been. I was asleep but the dog wasn't on a leash.
The rangers confer briefly. My guy warns me the dog has to be kept restrained. Then he says "Sorry about the mixup but you understand, we thought you were armed."
I've only just stopped shaking so I don't argue.
"Well, sorry again and enjoy your stay in the park."
Yeah, no problem.
Later that day, we get caught in open ground by a sudden hailstorm but it seems almost comical in comparison.
We never figured out what happened. Could the campers have mistaken a crackling fire for gunshots. Or were they so infuriated by the dog, they made up this whole story just to fuck us over? Or is this a traditional Utah welcome for tourists?
Oh well, Canyonlands was beautiful and it was worth the aggravation. I think the rangers just got a little too excited about the chance of seeing some rare action and could have handled a lot better if they had wanted to.
Rob, Lorin, Jon: VERY unsettling stories about being at gunpoint. And, well written. It seems to show Fate has a nasty sense of humor that Rob's dropped phone would cause all the trouble. I'll treat mine with a little more respect from now on.
Lorin, i.e. Anthology!": WAHOO! Nice to see that happen. Gives me hope.
They Call him LITTLE Washu: You asked about the way people can react like the video store clerk to a shy, introspective person. Speaking as a somewhat shy person and recovering shut-in, there are some dumbass people out there who mistake a shy, retiring attitude as sneaky and suspicious. I've worked in retail, in a store that got ripped off several times. It can be hard to spot the more dishonest types, but we never drove someone out or banned them when they didn't actually STEAL anything. Gotta have proof. One thing, you need to know, however. When someone is going to shoplift, one thing they do is put the items their going to steal together in one place. An out of the way spot. So, that could be seen as suspicious.
One thing you might do in the future, if you're condsidering buying something but not getting it right away, is to take them to the front counter and ask if they'll hold onto them for you, explaining you'll be back shortly to tell them your decision. If they won't, well too bad for them. If they get snotty, then YOU can ban THEM.
Aliens and why they would come to this backward-ass, one-rocket planet: One of the most mature movies on this subject was one made in the 50s, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE. The aliens didn't come to save or enslave us. They were having some engine trouble, and had to pull over and look under the hood. All they wanted was to quickly borrow some tools, bang on the fucker and quickly, quietly be on their way, no harm, no foul.
BUT, NOOOOOOO! The pesky natives had to stick their fleshy noses in, get all scared, and threaten to get medieval on their asses (assuming these aliens had asses). The aliens weren't interested in us at all. They were on their way to some place FAR more interesting than this, out-of-the-way, jerkwater planet.
I've always been rather fond of this movie because of that very unusual attitude, especially since it was made during the paranoid 50s.
Chuck
"Klaatu, Barada...what the hell was that word?"
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZLLLLLLLLL!
...you're sharp as ever, Lynn. What can I say?
Yours is a premium on wisdom.
Well, I de-lurked here about a month ago, then went right back to lurking - no big reason; just haven't had anything to say.
But one of the Velvet's remarks caught my attention:
"it is telling in how jaded we have become as a society to violence and brutality of any kind, when it isn't movies like these that have people clamoring to see them, it's when the real-life stories of violence, abuse and brutality that appear routinely on any of the newsmagazine shows gather the higher ratings that we are dealing with a truly mindless population here. Why? Who knows? I can't begin to answer why people seem to find the death and destruction of other human beings, and those who commit those acts, so endlessly fascinating...."
I can.
Always with the humility, that's me.
It's kinda popular nowadays to regard the good vs. evil dichotomy as a false one. And it is. There's so many forces acting in human beings that reducing it to an either/or proposition is idiotic. But two of these forces, or attractions you might call them, are a lot like what we call good and evil.
Even people who _do_ believe everything can be broken down into good and evil don't believe in the attractiveness of good anymore; we've gotta be scared, threatened and brainwashed into goodness, because whoever said "virtue is its own reward" - well he didn't have all four wheels on the road, if you know what I'm sayin'. The fundamentalist Christians are the best recruiters for wickedness on the planet Earth - I mean, they as much as come out and _say_ that all the fun stuff is evil.
The allure of evil, now, is well-known but stupidly-defined - greed, sex, thirst for revenge, they all get slapped with the catch-all label of evil. That's bullshit; those kinds of things are, at worst, weaknesses. The only thing that really deserves the name "evil"...is exactly what you're talking about.
Death, terrible pain, and immense sufferings of other kind - they all have this in common: they take a human being, the center of all things in the universe we can possibly find meaningful and good...and they make a mockery of it. They desecrate the only temple ever built that's worth preserving.
And that has a fascination to it. To take something meaningful, and render it meaningless. To burn a painting, a book, or a man - there's certain pleasure to it. Just as, for the equally-depraved but less-courageous, there's a pleasure in watching somebody else do it. And the more you partake of this pleasure, the less you believe that that meaning ever existed in the first place - you come to believe, instead, that you are merely flaunting rules of propriety, or society's taboos, and that vandalism is the only real, solid endeavor of man. That, I think, is what the cliched "existential void" is - when you come to think that the worst of existence is what defines it, you can only conclude that the best is an illusion of children and fools, and existence is a pointless, doomed charge against the infinite army of nothingness.
Of the million forms of destruction mockery is the most popular, but torture, rape and murder are much more spectacular. And unlike mockery, they're not things that most people see every day. So there's writers and moviemakers happy to supply them to us.
"As for the movies, they may be a way to turn off the reality of the horror, to make sure that the dark shadows in the night stay where they belong"
If this destructive urge were a manageable sort of thing that could be safely released with nice little bit of catharsis, that could would. But it isn't something that goes away when you feed it; feeding it only makes it stronger.
If this fascination with destruction is completely alien to you...good. I'm convinced that this fascination is what makes monsters of human beings - the greedy, the power-hungry, and the bad-tempered are dangerous, but so's a hurricane. That doesn't make it a monster.
As for why this fascination exists...I guess I was wrong; I can't really explain. I can only say something more about its character, hoping it might give you a better idea of what the hell it is. And it is hell; I know that pretty well.
Whew, a bit goes on here. I'll bypass the tales told by Lorin and Rob, not out of a lack of interest or concern, but out of a lack of personal experience. Considering what the two of you and your families went through, I'm rather happy not to share the occurrence.
Velvet:
No offense here: I was a bit surprised by the original, and thought perhaps you'd misread the previous comment left by Heather. I read what you'd had to say and find myself to be in complete agreement, not perhaps in language, but in attitude.
You strike it entirely: the actions of the whole society is that which places the disabled into second-class citizenship; government is merely one of the facets that we can examine. I'd just mistakenly assumed that you were one of those who'd dismissed the concerns of the handicapped through a narrowed, self-interested viewpoint.
My thanks for proving me wrong.
Scott
ROB, LORIN O. and JON STOVER:
Yes, I sympathize completely with your experiences with the 'law'. Considering some of the bloodthirsty hyenas in human form they've had to take down over the years, you'd think they'd have at least a little right to be assholes, but still...
I haven't had anything nearly so traumatic as having a gun aimed at my head (yet), but I had a nasty little run-in with security officers in one particular mall that scarred me nonetheless.
The details are somewhat sketchy, but here goes: I take three or four videos from different shelves in a video store and place them in one heap on one specific shelf, so I can return to it later if I choose to actually buy them. Now, me being very young and very stupid, I didn't realize that this is a definate NO-NO in video stores, but I was clueless. So, as I dropped by a nearby bookstore, the store clerk took a look at the videos I had left behind and found that the little security lapels on those plastic cover thingies were slightly scratched off, unbeknowest to me. I love it how stupid moves and plain bad luck conspire against you. Anyway, the store clerk leapt to the conclusion that I was intending to steal the videos and called security. I was unaware of all this and returned to the store, having decided to buy the videos. I couldn't find them, and asked the store clerk about them. He lied and said he didn't have a clue either (springing the trap on me). I continued to wander about the store for a minute or two, searching for the movies I had taken out, but then was suddenly brought to the front of the store by the clerk and a broad-shouldered security gaurd. The gaurd informed me that I was banned...BANNED...from the store and I had approximately three minutes to leave or I would be arrested on the spot. Now, keep in mind that this had come completely out of the blue and my brain abruptly froze with the realization that I had dug my own grave without knowing I had PICKED UP A FUCKING SHOVEL IN THE FIRST PLACE.
I like to believe that I'm a nice person. I'm shy, I'm reclusive, and I'm introspective. And yet, I seem to be the one always picked out to be treated like a leper.
Will someone out there please tell me, calmly and rationally, what I'm doing wrong?
Little Washu
Lorin~
Anthologized! YEAH!!!! {Lynn does happy dance for fellow author friend} I'm Jealous! Andrei Codrescu is one of my FAVORITE NPR commentators. You're in good company.
*I'm so proud for you!*
L.
Rob~ Wow. Imagine how relieved you would have been had there actually been an emergency and the cops responded like that. Imagine how pathetic you would feel if you were duct-taped in a closet while the home invasion robbers told the cops, "Oh it's okay. Nothing's out of place here, officer. You can put your guns away and go on your merry way." And the cops *did* just because the guy that *apparently* lived there (he said so, so he must live there, right?) told them everything was peachy keen. I'd like to see how fast you sue if that had been the scenario.
Note To The Naive: The scenario listed above has happened. Numerous times in numerous possible permutations. Standard operating procedure SAVES FUCKING LIVES. That's why they follow their training and VERIFY that the premises are safe. Until you've been there, behind a gun, asked to protect people you've never even met before (and aren't very fucking gracious or thankful that you're there, willing to put your life on the line for them), all your pissing and moaning is just that. Wasted breath.
Sure, you had an unfortunate experience, but cut the guys some slack. Lord knows you aren't anyone worthy of personal government oppression. You might consider the fact that they were doing their job, and you didn't even have the balls to say thank you.
L.
PS. And knowing how SOP is supposed to work, I'm the first one to jump on the band wagon when cops fuck up. (Amadou Diallo, the young woman that was shot while sleeping in her car, to name just a few). This isn't just a kneejerk, The-Cops-Are-Always-Right response. This comes from knowing someone who is a law enforcement trainer (federal, state & military). There is a right way and a wrong way to do things. And if someone's feelings get hurt in the process, oh fucking well. It hurts a lot more to be dead.
Bermanator:
Take a chill pill.
Little Washu
Jon,
Yeah, I even brought up that scenario to those cops. When, for a moment, I thought they'd hit the wrong address - like they always do in 'The Simpsons'.
But, as I was saying to Lorin, and so far this one crazy detail seems to be missed, it isn't our run-ins with wild-eyed cops that "blows" my mind; I know of many tragic tales. It's my life being determined by the singular whim of a phone sending out a 911 on its own because it doesn't like being hit. I had never programmed it to do that and I have no such service.
Tomorrow I'll be calling the manufacturer to find out what feature or key combination activates the 911.
Lorin,
Well we can certainly relate to each other on the matter of cops and their guns. But at least there was another protagonist in your scenario to bring on the circumstances; there was a logic to it.
But in my scenario...the phone fell on the floor. That was IT.
Police stuff:
Rob -- You're a lucky man, based on some of the truly awful incidents that have spun off from similar accidents. The worst around this area happened about 12 years ago, when an innocent man and his dog were both shot to death by a SWAT team that had gone to the wrong address in the country. The kicker in that case was that the team had been dispatched to stop someone who had threatened to commit suicide. It led to a big inquiry into how SWAT teams should be outfitted so that civilians can tell that they're police and not simply gun-toting coverall wearers who shoot dogs on chains, but I don't think much else came of it.
I had an EMT team pound on my door at 2 a.m. once because someone else in the apartment building had placed a prank call -- that was easily sorted out, but there was a nervous pause while the leader called the switchboard to check to see where the call came from.
Jon
Little Washu:
See, this is why people get annoyed. When I referred to John Carpenter's _The Thing_, I never said it was "prejudiced against aliens," for that would be an entirely idiotic statement. As you said, such an allegation would be pointless. In fact, what I said (or meant to say) was that a movie like that articulates and perhaps intensified that sense of paranoia that people have about aliens.
I don't blame the movies for creating this feeling. Xenophobia is a part of human nature, most often directed towards other humans. Movies like _The Thing_ or V or _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_ or what have you merely express that, or serve as allegories. However, such vivid imagery as is presented in _The Thing_ gives specific and horrifying concreteness to the fears many people would experience if we ever encountered EBEs. Not that this is an issue of serious concern, since we haven't encountered aliens and are unlikely to, but I think if we did we might react very badly as a species whether the situation warranted it or not.
That's all I was saying. Myself, I've never been one to blame entertainment for the way people think. But I do highly recommend reading people's posts more carefully in the future if you can manage it, especially before embarking on inaccurate paraphrasing.
Bermanator
Seven
-----
I would have to disagree that Seven glorifies violence. In fact, just the opposite, it rubs your face in it so much that it just numbs you. The victims are all purposely disposable ciphers until the very end. Andrew Kevin Walker's script is set in a world so apathetic that it isn't surprising that it created such a killer. Seven is a twisted modern fairy tale that just takes the myth of mass murdurers and really twists with them. And for a film that seems to glorify violence, there is very little of it. In fact, the most violent action to me emotionally is when Morgan Freeman's character slaps John Doe.
To compare Seven to such fare as Copycat (good actors wasted), Just Cause (why it hurts to be a liberal), The Bone Collector (plain silly) or most other serial killer films shows its strength. Seven's main characters have either got used too or are getting drawn into a world where apathy and compromise are values essential for survival. Such a killer as John Doe probably would not exist, he is a mouthpiece, but the film does not celebrate his killings at the end as Hannibal does or write them off as does Silence of the Lambs.
FAQ
ROB: My husband, brother, sister, and I had a similar experience a few years back. We were doing computer work at a lawyer's office one evening. The front door of the offices were on a really busy street, and apparently people across the road at a Dairy Queen mistook our knocking on the door for "banging the door down" and called the cops. Unbeknownst to us, of course.
So, we were in the back room of these law offices when someone knocked on the door. Tom, my husband, went to answer, and I followed. Next thing I know Tom had got his hands in the air and--like you--had three or four cops pointing guns in his face. I'd say they were more like a FOOT away than two or three.
They swarmed in, pointing guns around, yelling at us. We all, of course, kept calm but NONE of us (except Tom, who is cut from a different genetic cloth) took kindly to this and we did make our feelings known, all the while digging out our I.D.'s, getting the cops the number for the lawyer whose offices we're in, trying to explain that we actually have a KEY to the place (and our own offices upstairs!), etc. For a while it was just chaos, but FINALLY we got the officers chilled out and everything settled.
The thing that STILL kills me to this day is the fact that not one of them said "sorry" or STOPPED treating us like criminals, even after our identities and purpose there were well-established. One officer's parting remark was, "Well, you better watch what doors you knock on. You scared a lot of people out there." To which I replied, "Well, it probably wasn't as scary as HAVING A GUN POINTED IN YOUR FACE!"
Ugh. I understand these guys (and gals) don't know what they're getting into in these situations. We COULD have been burglars (who answer the door?). We could have had guns. But the arrogance was just amazing.
Recently, too, a fifteen-year-old girl in a nearby town (Charlie from St. Pete probably heard about this, too) had an experience with a bunch of cops who came out in response to a security alarm she'd accidentally triggered. The people at the alarm company told her to go to the door and "meet the police officers." When she did, they pointed their guns at her, screamed and shouted, and made her get down on the ground. The poor kid was a wreck.
I'm just glad in all of these cases (and others) that no one was hurt. It would have taken just a fraction of a second's bad judgment to result in injury (or worse) to Tom or to you or to that girl.
-- Lorin
Chris and David,
You are correct: I should have said "mudflap" instead of "fender."
As for miniscule/minuscule, my dictionary is the Random House Dictionary, copyright 1980.
Regards,
Joseph
Konnichi wa, folks!
P.A. BERMAN: Is it the John Carpenter version of THE THING you are referring to and not the Howard Hawks version? The JC one has the gross, nightmarish shapeshifting alien. You know, when a human head sprouts six spider legs and scuttles across the room? That was lots of fun to watch...
But seriously, I pretty much stick to Harlan's belief that if there WERE alien life-forms out there, they would hardly be interested in this pathetic loser dork of a planet. If we ever DO encounter extraterrastrials (if we haven't already...thank you very much Roswell and creepy U.S. government) it should be with at least a slightly cautious hand. If we've learned anything by ourselves it's that life in general follows a very unreliable pattern.
But THE THING being prejuidiced against aliens? Well, I dunno, that's a bit pointless...if we start getting into that argument, E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL could be accused of being a propaganda machine. "LOVE US. OBEY US. LOVE US. OBEY US." I'm sorry...but even when I was a kid I hated that goddamn rainbow at the end...
Moving on...here's a pretty broad topic that might be an interesting thread: video games. Despite of what it's most dedicated haters may say, a video game -and I mean an actually (gasp) GOOD video game- is just as much a waste of time as, say, a good game of chess.
I don't deny that the video game format is easily subject to fast-food brain-dead mass-marketing; and that is exactly what the majority of video games are, no doubt. The bitch about video games is that they can't become 'classics', or timeless, such as books or movies. They are technology incarnate, always to be replaced in the next hour by something bigger, faster, better. That's why I think any effort creators put into making a genuinely GREAT game -such as MYST and SILENT HILL -are ultimately destined to be swallowed up by yet another MORTAL KOMBAT.
Little Washu
I have this quaint, old wonderous magical box in my room called a phone. It has a chord and it plugs into the wall and an adjoining message machine...
...when it rings and Fate is on the other end you'd better pick it up...
The other day I was home at my computer doing some work. It was around 4 o'clock. I grew fatigued and decided to lie down for a few minutes; I took a cup of coffee over to the bedside because I wanted to snap out of it shortly. I had a lot of work to do. I placed it near the phone and rested my head on the pillow. While lying there I decided to make a quick call. Lackadaisically, I reached over. And like a listless clutz knocked the coffee over. I dropped the receiver to catch the damn cup; which I had unknowingly placed in the middle of the cord. So the phone went crashing to the floor along with a big splash of coffee...all over a good carpet. Forget the phone, I needed to clean this shit up fast before it could absorb. I darted for rags and carpet cleaner. When I came back I angrily kicked the phone out of the way and it slid under the bed. After cleaning up and cussing myself out for being such a sloth I finally picked up the phone and placed the reciever.
Suddenly it rang. Twice. No pick up on my message machine (I'll never take a call without monitoring). Whoever this was maybe they'll try again. I laid myself back on the bed relieved there was no damage, just a dumb hassle. Suddenly the phone rang. OK, let's see who this is. No, just two rings again. So, it's probably a lame-assed telemarketer; precisely the reason I always monitor. I closed my eyes for a few minutes.
...then the sound started...
...the rattling of my door knob. I figured it was some friend of my roommate's who didn't know the apartment yet and mistook my room for hers. My deadbolt was up so I ignored it. I didn't want to have to get up again. But it went on. So, I decide, "what the fuck - I'll just spell it for him or her, 'ya got the wrong room'". I leapt up, threw the latch and briskly swung the door open...an odd unison of clicks abruptly filled the living room...
Less than two feet from me a gun is pointed in my face. "Step out of there", the command is issued me. I emerge to see 5 guns ready to blast me if I so much as twitch. 5 cops swarming in my living room looking meaner than Rottweilers. I couldn't even begin measuring how low my jaw fell; with my hands in the air I just kept repeating, "what the FUCK is going on?"
They ordered me over to the couch...their guns being held on me. I was told to sit, even as I continued my demand for the explanation. They poked through all the rooms and pulled my roommate out, who'd been sleeping. My immediate thought, of course, was that given my roommate's prior history taking drugs, she'd finally done it and drawn half the force down on us all; I must have walked in on the middle of a drug bust. But one of them finally began to prove himself capable of vocal communication. He said they'd received a 911 call. From MY phone number.
After cooperating with them but reassuring them this did nothing to endear me to cops (never having had a gun pointed at me, I'm still rattled by the incident, AND the swift intrusion), and taking apart this whole mystery, we finally figured out my damn phone, either when it hit the floor or when I kicked it, automatically sent out a 911. I never programmed it to do that and I have no such service so the possibility of this happening never occurred to me. It seems this phone I've had for many years was programmed with this function by the manufacturers and I never knew it. And I don't have the original manuel. Unless it's a cell phone who keeps a manuel for a phone, anyway? Whatever key or combination they set it up with it had been sequenced. When I called the police department they told me that this isn't rare; that cell phones in particular have sent out accidental 911 alerts. Yet they've done nothing to deal with this problem. Anyway, my phone rang because they were checking the call. No one picked up, so they came to the place. And the front door was left unlocked by my roommate's friend who'd been visiting. According to them if that door had been locked they'd have turned around and left. He claimed they announced themselves at the door but from my bedroom I didn't hear a damn thing. And there they were flocking in my living room like roaches and still I'd never heard a thing...until my doorknob started rattling.
When my roommate and I were being shuffled about (I finally even told them to stop acting like this was a 'Magnum PI' episode; there isn't a single weapon in this place. And I'd been sitting on the couch for some time while they still had fire sticks aimed at me. Their training is too rigid, man: they don't think, they just follow simple procedual instinct and that's why innocent lives are taken sometimes in this kind of scenario. Not every citizen knows how to react to this sort of thing, and I told them so. I just know how much it creeps me out realizing that with one wrong twitch my life could have been taken. And it does piss me off. It would be the irony in the whole purpose of 911) I felt like I was in the Soviet Union. I mean how easily this could happen. And I tend to use profanity a lot: one of those guys warned me to "watch my language". I was so busy at that moment trying to figure out how my phone sent the call I didn't realize what he'd said till later; that he was telling me to watch the profanity in MY place. Had I thought of it then I'd have said, "my actions are completely cooperative but this is STILL my apartment and I'll use what language I decide to use". Particularly since it was relatively innocuous; he'd directed that at me when I said to my roommate, "what the fuck is this all about?" When I was convinced SHE'D sent the 911 call.
At any rate, after my roommate gave the cop who dragged her out of her room a lot of shit, after I finally told her to lay low and let me take it from here, after guns dropped and I said I'll be looking into lawsuits about this, after the lead officer and I shared our feelings about this incident frankly and came to some shape of mutual understanding...the fuckers finally got the hell out of my place.
So, if ever you drop a phone think twice before you kick it... because it can come back with a vengeance.
And if it rings after you drop it, pick up the receiver fast. That could be Fate on the end.
Weeehooo, a Preview button! Lemme try it out here...okay, that's enough Sunday afternoon madness from me. I am about to commit Weberlanderness, and post a single post, attempting to reply to several posts that are now ancient history, about topics long gone by the wayside, and attempt to provoke a little more discussion with a new topic in addition. And, for my death-defying finale, I shall eat two pickled eggs, screw up my face into a rictus of disgust, and use the tightness of my facial muscles to propel a rubber band into the back of the head of one book reviewer late of the Seattle Weekly Arts column. You still with me? Good, hang on tight, I hope it will be a mercifully short (if bumpy) ride.
First of all, Scott, in reply to one rather old message of yours (my apologies, it has nothing to do with baseball, of which I know nothing), re: serial killers and the culture's fascination with them, I submit for your approval, the film "Seven". A runaway hit, with everyone drooling over its inventiveness and daring at the time, when all it did for me was basically appear to glorify violence, and gave the filmmakers an excuse to try and push my gross-out factor buttons to the ultimate limits. *However*, it is telling in how jaded we have become as a society to violence and brutality of any kind, when it isn't movies like these that have people clamoring to see them, it's when the real-life stories of violence, abuse and brutality that appear routinely on any of the newsmagazine shows gather the higher ratings that we are dealing with a truly mindless population here. Why? Who knows? I can't begin to answer why people seem to find the death and destruction of other human beings, and those who commit those acts, so endlessly fascinating....As for the movies, they may be a way to turn off the reality of the horror, to make sure that the dark shadows in the night stay where they belong. Not that *that* kind of desensitization is good for one's mental health and clarity, either, in my opinion. That's my shiny two bucks' worth on the matter.
Now, to an even older message of yours, of course, I was wrong on the party Jane Stewart belongs(ed?) to. She just acted like an NDP...heh. I'm only kidding! Put away that machete! As for the rest of my remarks, I admit they were very on-the-fly, not well-thought-out or even planned...as I said when I posted, they were completely a knee-jerk reaction. Please forgive any insult caused or far-reaching stupidity displayed by myself, and allow me to explain my views on this with a little more clarity and a lot less intellect suppressant-swilling on my part. *g*
Regarding the programs and services that the government (federal, provincial or municipal) sees fit or not fit to put into place to help "the disabled", Heather's main point in her original post was that, despite all this supposed "help" being offered, the disabled, by and large (albeit using this one student she knew as a single example of this), still do not participate as widely in mainstream society as equally as they, and any other person, is entitled to. I submit to you, and the board at large, that it is precisely BECAUSE of the way those programs and services are set up, maintained, and continue to thrive, not because of lack of funding to these programs by any political body, that the disabled are second-class citizens in our country today.
Yes, the cuts to funding are bad. What's even worse is that the consumers these programs are supposed to help aren't being helped, if they can't even stand on their own two feet once the program goes away. Or if they never leave the sanctity of the program, or the governmental payroll, at all.
I have seen good, decent, hardworking souls who have absolutely nothing in the world wrong with them, shunted into "alternative education", "workshop programs" or other programs or services that try to barely imitate what passes for a real life, all for some unfortunate quirk of their physical or mental appearances. There still remain only a few options to those severely "disabled" enough by that definition, at least by the system's, and society's standards. Either you spend the rest of your life on welfare, as is expected of you, or you spend the rest of your life as a full-time student, which is viewed as "improving yourself", especially if you're taking "disability studies" to better understand "yourself" and "your kind", leading one to a job as a social worker, civil servant or bureaucrat of some kind.
Or, you buck the system entirely, which is where the crux of the homeless problem comes in. The disabled homeless don't lack for dignity; rather, they would prefer sleeping on heating grates than having what tattered shreds of dignity they have managed to hang onto ripped from them by the sickly-sweet-smiling advocates and social workers who lead them down the rose-lined path.
Problem is, all roses have thorns, and once you are in the system of "programs" provided to you by the government, it is next to impossible to get out, no matter what they may say about wanting to help the disabled, or what statistics they may spout ad nauseam about their success rates. (Successes which, if measured against normal standards, don't even come close to being real successes at all.)
The charities, which live and die at the behest and funding of the programs funded by the government, help this process along immensely by insisting to the disabled that they really are second-class citizens, that "everyone can see as soon as they first meet you, how disabled you really are", and fostering in their "consumers" the brainwashed belief that they are downtrodden and treated badly by normal society because normal society doesn't understand and cannot comprehend the broad scope and overarching reach of their disability. Thus, the charities have their hordes of "I am disabled, hear me gimp!" activists who spend more time taking circuitous and meandering routes towards what should be very straightforward goals, which in turn provides consumers for the programs and services funded by the government, which in turn, gets to look good for its "mandate on the disabled".
And they say I'm not a conspiracy theorist.
Anyway. This is what I believe, not from reading the National Post (ghods help me, even I'm not that bad), but from seeing these simple truths firsthand. There are many GOOD organizations for the disabled in this country who have been felled by the lack of funding, or bureaucratized into subsistence with endless ribbons of red tape. There are many more organizations for the disabled who keep on going, and will continue to keep going strong, because they don't do one solitary disabled person one damned bit of good, and that's the way the game is played.
I don't put my email address in the net-addy line anymore, because my spam reaches exponential growth whenever I do. It should still be in the archives, if you want to keep this going, although, having said my piece, I don't really want to. Again, if I offended you, I apologize. It's my opinion, only my opinion, does not reflect the opinion of anyone else in this or any other universe, your mileage may vary, not to be taken on an empty stomach, read all instructions before using, etcetera.
Now, for the rest of you:
LYNN! My bank account will never forgive you! My rent check came out on Friday! CafePress TAKES CHECKS?! Do you *know* what you've *done* to me??
Ah, well. That overtime on Saturday had to go towards *something*...baby needs a new webderland mug...hehehehehe.
CANADA IN SALT LAKE: Quite a good game, yes. So good, CBC aired it again yesterday. Did I watch it again? Do you really have to ask that question?
RICK: Your essay's open in the next window. If it's got the recommends of the crew here, I'm looking forward to the read.
Now, the broaching of a new topic:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0022/arts-gunn.shtml
Yes, it's an ancient review of a Rudy Rucker book. But the quote I refer you to is as follows:
"...or the Harlan Ellison-like "Soft Death." (Rucker
invokes The Ellison in other ways, too: Many of
Rucker's female characters have all the depth of
two-dimensional space, a problem he acknowledges
with some embarrassment.)"
Discuss, debate, dissect. Obviously I think this person is so far off the mark she should be nominated for the Literary Review Darwin Awards, wherein you stick your foot so far down your throat in an attempt to appear erudite and well-read in a review that you choke to death. So, let's play, gang: Which story or stories of the man HimsElf do you think absolutely refutes this totally uncalled-for, inappropriate potshot that has no basis in reality?
Whew, now that the death-defying finale is over, I think I shall scare myself up some dinner.
Which reminds me: The last movie to scare the living shit out of me was Altered States, which I watched when I was fourteen. At 3am. Not a good combination. I couldn't sleep for two nights after. Read the screenplay by Chayefsky (no, I *know* that's not spelled right) a couple years later, and was more creeped out from the memory of the film than the actual content of the script. Other than that, I can't recall anything offhand that's scared me like that in recent history.
Velvet
David: Actually, the lunar rover's fender had been accidentally damaged, and the map cover was used as an improvized repair.
As for minisule/minuscule, my Merriam Webster's 10th Collegiate Dictionary (tenth edition) says this:
miniscule\(pronuciation guide containing characters unavailable in this venue)\var. of MINUSCULE
Minuscule is defined as "one of several ancient and medieval writing styles developed from cursive and having simplified and small forms".
Learn something new every day. Especially here.
Brian: Everybody's a critic. Even cats.
Chuck
Joseph:
I remember that map incident, but it wasn't being used as a bumper; it was a jerry-rigged "mudguard" or "dustflap." What the designers had not foreseen was how much lunar dust the rover would kick up while the astronauts motored around -- specifically, kick it up on the passengers. So the astronauts clipped the map where it would cut down on flying lunar dust.
If memory serves, the flight was Apollo 15, and the mechanics involved were Mission commander David Scott and Lunar Module pilot James Irwin. If I've called the right one, my family was driving across the US from east to west that summer (1971) after two years in Europe, and I collected newspapers from towns all across the nation about the flight and jammed them in the space between the hard roof of our VW bus and the hard plastic raisable roof above it, where I slept in a hammock when we camped.
What dictionary are you using? I've never heard of "miniscule" being a proper usage!
And now for something completely different:
My weird pet story: This is not as cool as the feathered cat or the levitating basset hound, but is still inexplicable to me.
For gift a couple of years ago, I was given a book of cartoons by B. Kliban called "Cat." Some of the cartoons mock cats, as you can imagine. Well, I came home from work one day soon after receiving it to find this book removed from my bookshelf and sitting in the middle of the living room floor, covered in cat pee.
OK, a coincidence, you might say. But, a month or so later, I borrowed a book from a friend called "Women Who Love Cats Too Much" by Nicole Hollander to photocopy a cartoon. The book was safely stowed in my desk drawer... but I came home to find that book, also in the middle of the living room floor, also saturated in cat urine.
None of my cats urinates in inappropriate places. No pee was found anywhere else in the house or on any other books. The books were quite blatantly positioned in the middle of the floor as if to say, "We do not approve of cat-deriding humor in this house, bucko." As I had 5 cats at the time, I still do not know which of my cats can read nor how they managed to get the books from their unreachable locations.
*cue Twilight Zone theme music*
Bermanator
To P.A. Berman, re extraterrestrials. Personally, I don't mind films like _The Thing_ teaching us to mistrust aliens. After all, we haven't had much reason to mistrust other human beings, and they have the benefit of being the very same species. So I figure, we're bound to mistrust alien species-- and with good reason. After all, why should they trust _us_?
As for migrating from Earth to alleviate overpopulation, I just don't think it's feasible. Too many people, too expensive to lift'em.
Brian: The reason the aliens in V came to Earth had nothing to do with water, if you recall. What they really wanted was fast food.
Seems like most of the aliens in TV and movies want to eat us. I just saw _The Thing_. Very scary and interesting, but I found myself thinking that movies like this would make it very hard for the human race to trust an alien species that came to Earth. I think we would always be suspicious that secretly they're looking at us as cuts of beef. And to be fair, would aliens from other planets have any reason to trust us?
Do I think we should go off-planet? My first instince it to say "yes" because I feel our sweet little blue and green home can't handle any more of us. But that may be a reprieve we don't deserve. What the human race needs is not more lebensraum; what we need is to learn how to control our urge to cover the planet in our spawn. Until we figure out a reasonable method of population control, we don't deserve a nice new planet to fuck up, do we?
Bermanator
David,
One more thing: I have a desktop around here somewhere that is a picture of one of the lunar rovers on the moon, with a jury-rigged bumper made out of topographical maps.
Joseph (not Joeph)
David,
Actually,
"miniscule" and "minuscule," according to my dictionary, are two separate words. Minuscule means very small or a lower case letter, while miniscule is simply an adjective for minuscule. Interestingly, according to the dictionary, minuscule can be pronounced either with a u sound in the middle, or with an i sound like miniscule. Weird, eh?
Regards,
Joeph
My favorite piece of NASA equipment trivia concerns the wheels of the Lunar Rover. What are ya gonna use for tires in that extreme environment? Rubber certainly isn't going to stand up to the daytime heat. So what did they make the tires out of? If memory serves: woven piano wire!
By the way, folks, no matter how it sounds when people pronounce (or mispronounce) it, "minuscule" is spelled with one "i" and two "u"s, not the other way around.
My favorite piece of NASA equipment trivia concerns the wheels of the Lunar Rover. What are ya gonna use for tires in that extreme environment? Rubber certainly isn't going to stand up to the daytime heat. So what did they make the tires out of? If memory serves: woven piano wire!
By the way, folks, no matter how it sounds when people pronounce (or mispronounce) it, "minuscule" is spelled with one "i" and two "u"s, not the other way around.
Ah yes, floating basset hounds and feathered cats...only here, only here.
CINDY: Thought your close encounter of the bizarre kind was very memorable. I always love it how life sometimes throw these utterly inexplicable things out you right out of the blue just to watch you go, "What the FUCK was that?!" Keeps you on your toes.
I desperately wish to catch a glimpse of Harlan's thoughts on LORD OF THE RINGS when his review comes out, but unfortunetly I cannot buy a copy of Fantasy and Science Fiction anywhere in my neighberhood. AM I looking in the wrong places?
Personally I adore FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. I'm aware of Harlan's own feelings towards the saga (I've GOT to remember to bring my copy of GORMENGHAST from home and finally get down to reading it) but nevertheless I really believe it does deserve most of it's endless, almost mindless praise. One could easily find narrative flaws or character hiccups in Peter Jackson's vision of Tolkien's work...but there's a definate PASSION and LOVE that the director has for the project, and it comes off the screen in tsunamis. I'ts as if Peter Jackson and everyone else involved were going on a rollercoaster ride: "WHEE! HOO HOO! HA HA! WHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" Mr. Jackson is one of the few directors out there who successfully combine passion and discipline to make an exceptional motion picture in an age where anything bleched out from a major studio has a distinct, inevitable stink to it.
By the way (never liked those silly abbreviations...BTW) another good introduction to the Petester is his first feature film, BAD TASTE. It's a delightfully warped, sick, and hilarious tale of an aliens invading New Zealand, seeking to transform Mankind into an intergalactic fast food product and the attempts of the Astro Investigation and Defense Service (don't ask) to stop them. The kind of movie, like AIRPLANE!, that MUST NOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY AT ALL COSTS.
Lil' Ol' Washu
Charlie, the new HE Watching column coming up soon in F&SF is probably going to be Harlan's take on Lord Of The Rings. Should be interesting. When the movie came out, HE mentioned that he had seen it and had plenty to say....but not for free on the internet. He said he would be writing up a review for print. This must be it.
-TODD
There's a review of the 50 Yr. Ess. Ell. in April, F&SF. Also, ed. promises a new HE's Watching column for the May issue.
And for those of you not overloaded on sci-tech nuggets, here is proof that scientists only need to see something on Star Trek to begin making prototypes. Ever expanding the ability of mankind to share information and porn, I give you - The Holodeck.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-848614.html
Hey folks, checking the posts here from Echo Base on the northern frontier of the Martian ice fields. Wanted to let you know that, yes there is ice here...lots of it. Yes, it supports small sea monkey-type life. Yes, they communicate through song. Yes, we've already sold patches of land to McDonalds, Target and Starbucks.
So get yer tickets now, folks. Once the minimalls get built and I sign the contract for a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR apartment complex to go up here, we'll be swimming in the Iron Shavings and Terraforming business it brings.
Echo Base - 127
Borough of Ellisonia, Bradbury County
The Commonwealth of Wells.
Mars
Little Washu,
I'll see your floating Bassett and I'll raise you a flyin' Siamese.
Here's my tale for what it's worth. I tell it for the Gospel truth and being an heretical Lutheran you can take it at face value.
I grew up in Austin. I lived on the other side of Robert Mueller Airport from I-35 (for any of ya'll who know the town). I went to St. Paul Lutheran School on Red River. I was in the second grade and I missed the city bus that I was supposed to take home. Thinking of no better solution I headed for home. My mom worked in South Austin and I didn't think about calling her. I walked and walked 'til the world looked level then I walked some more. When I saw the airport I remembered feeling like I was almost home (2401 Rogge Lane).
Here's the strange part. As I walked the long road that lay beside the airport I spotted something under a small, low-slung tree. It appeared to be a large housecat. He seemed so still that I thought he must be either sleeping or injured by one of the cars speeding past. So I trudged off the road and over the grass toward him to see if he needed help. Lying on his side was the biggest cat I had ever seen. He was white and gray like a Siamese... but as the wind blew against the lay of his coat I realized that he didn't have cat fur-- he had FEATHERS. I thought at first that maybe he'd killed a bird or something but in the blowing wind I could see the individual quills of attached feathers. I wanted to pick him up and carry him home with me. I thought about it very hard because I knew ( even though I couldn't have been more than seven) that nobody would believe it.
My legs were so tired and my feet were stinging so I gave up the notion of carrying something so obviously heavy (not to mention dead). I made a mental note of the tree and where it was and I took off again for home.
I can't remember if my mom took me back that night,but for years after I would crane my neck as we'd go by and look for that tree and the feathered cat below it.
I never saw it again and the older I got the more unlikely it seems. Maybe I was exhausted and my imagination took the wheel for awhile.
Still, I remember the feathered cat and the recollection seems real.
Cindy
Speaking of NASA going to the stars with paper clips and chewing gum: Two of NASA's most famous spacecraft were made out of spare parts. One was Magellan, the probe that took those wonderful radar photos of the surface of Venus. The radar dish was spare high-gain antenna from the Voyager program, the main body or bus, was cobbled together from spare Viking and Mariner parts. The radio antenna was turned into a radar with software.
The other famous spacecraft was the shuttle orbiter Challenger. Yeah, I know it was the one that was blown up, but that was due to faulty booster design and criminal negligence on the part of management at Thiokol and NASA. Challenger was built out of spare parts and a static test airframe, STA99. This collection of spare parts was the most reliable of the orbiters, and had the shortest turnaround time. Challenger was the best of the original orbiter fleet.
As an aside, I may be giving the impression that my family is kinda creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky, and altogether ooky. Actually, I come from a normal family, two parents, 2.0 kids, no abusers, alcolholism, etc. - at least not until we kids went to college. My dad could be a real pain in the ass sometimes, a real stickler. A tightass. Of course, he was a rock-ribbed, yellow-dog republican. (snicker) He has now settled into a post-retirement, comfortable curmudgeonhood. I told my nephew the other day that when dad got me up in the morning, he'd be rather jolly, laughing and joking as I was blinking back to the waking world. David looked at me rather funny, and said, "Grandpa? Jolly? In the MORNING?!!!" Hey he wasn't always a GOFA (Grouchy Old Fart). Even with this Old Grouch image to live up to, he actually is still a caring loving father and grandfather.
My mother is quite a lady. She's at least as well read and well traveled as anyone in this here group. She didn't give herself too much credit for intelligence, but that was the sixties and seventies, and it took a while for her to realize who she really is. We had fun, laughs, sturm and drang, we kid grew up, our parents divorced, and eventually married people that were better suited for each of them. (I didn't say it was Father Knows Best!) Ellie is my stepmother, who we kids affectionately call our Wicked Stepmother. She brought with her my stepsister Brenda, and my stepbrother Brian. Both are neat people.
Mom married a really nice man named Mel. They live in a trailer park in the Tulalip Indian Reservation in the state of Washington. It's a beautiful place. Mel looks like a human Bassett Hound.
So, there you go. Pretty okay folks. Well, except for Second Cousin Bill, the Nazi, but he's related by accident of marriage. My oldest cousin, Tim, is a little kooky. I call him Super Mormon. I love him to pieces, but he's kinda weird.
Chuck
Re Frank Church mentioning Chomsky. Gee Whiz, doesn't anyone remember that _I_ was the one defending Chomsky at length? Chances are, I've mentioned the guy far more often than Frank has.
Oh, and to Frank, re complaining about the NASA budget: Frank, as people have pointed out, the NASA budget is extremely small next to some genuine boondoggles-- like the military budget in general. If you're going to call yourself a progressive, you may want to focus on the _big_ picture, instead of indulging in these knee-jerk reactions.
Personally, if I was told to cut a federal program, and the only choices I had were NASA and the National Endowment for the Arts, I'd cut the NEA in a heartbeat. But, since the choice is more wide-ranging, I'd fund'em both and a LOT more at the expense of the Pentagon.
Re Little Washu's account of the Amazing Paranormal Bassett Hound: Are you posting this here as a challenge to CSICOP's Distinguished Skeptic Award Winner?
Andrew,
Thank you for clarifying my point on how NASA does more with a minscule budget than any other agency. Hell, we're STILL receiveing data from the Voyager and Pioneer probes, as they approach the heliosphere and the true darkness of interstellar space.
Money might not be the answer, but you have to respect the NASA folks, who have produced such brilliant science with what they have.
Regards,
Joseph
TODD: Well, it's good to know that Little Washu isn't the only mischevious creature in this forum. My sense of humour needs some serious loosening up. In any case, I do agree about innocent comments being completely misinterpreted on the net. Someone could read the two words, 'oh yeah' as either, "Oh yeah?" or "Oh YEAH?!?!" I misinterpreted your post as having a tinge of malice to it, which was in reality goofy antics all the time. So, I’m sorry about that.
On a different subject...there is one unique problem strikes this forum sometimes, and that is Harlan-Talk. I mean that kind of scrappy, prankster-like attitude we see from ALL of us on more than one occasion. Not that it’s a bad thing, but it inevitably leads into some VERY weird situations here. We may not even know we’re doing it. There’s something very contagious about Harlan’s mannerisms and style of speech and it carries over incredibly quickly. It’s like hanging around the Incredible Hulk for too long. Before long you start sounding like, “(insert name here) will SMASH puny humans!!!!”
And on the space exploration/NASA/Mars thread...say what you will of going out into the infinite blackness...but I think there is something genuinely good and pure about focusing on getting out THERE into the cosmos instead of screwing each other up on one emasly little planet for all time. Who knows, Kubrick's vision of 2001 may have been a reality by now if we weren't so caught up in Monica Lewinsky. (ENOUGH sarcasm! You're tired, Little Washu! Relax!)
Speaking of which, there's a very eerie story of mine I'd like to tell all of you. I personally think it’s a little more disturbing than even Chris L’s experience with Grandad Alfred, but make of it what you will.
This was a good six or seven years ago. Elvis, my basset, is left alone in me and my brother’s bedroom. Me and my bro shared a bunk bed that is pretty high, as in dangerously close to the ceiling fan. Anyhoo, I leave Elvis in there as I go to steal some pickles from the fridge or something like that…and when I come back, Elvis is on the top bunk. Snoozing peacefully. There was no ladder. Absolutely no remote physical possibility he could have gotten up there…but he was right there on the top bunk. More than a little off-balance, I run to tell my bro first, and then my parents. None of them could make out what on earth happened here, but we were all shaken to our souls.
So there you have it. Basset hounds CAN be terrifying.
By the way....IT'S LITTLE WASHU!!!!! IT'S LITTLE WASHU!!!!!! NOT WASHU!!!!!!!!! LITTLE!!!!!!!!!!! BECAUSE I WANT TO BE ADDRESSED AS THE INNOCENT CHILD I TRULY AM INSTEAD OF A BIG,DUMB,UGLY GROWN-UP!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!
(Sorry, had to do that. It's my code. Check out www.manyfacesofwashu.com for details. Yes yes, I'm promoting shamelessly, but it IS a cool site.)
Little Washu, turning off the lights in the laboratory…
"Pathfinder's budget was something like $120 million or some such (feel free to correct that figure) compared to the $2 billion (in 1976) spent on Viking."
I meant to add this:
Pathfinder managed to do more than either Viking spacecraft/lander, while costing considerably less money. Even with Global Surveyor and Odyssey thrown into the pot, the current program has done much, much more, with a lot less.
Frank,
Universal healthcare is pie-in-the-sky, ain't never gonna happen in my lifetime, dreaming. Plus, where is that money gonna come from?
NASA's budget, like Joseph was quick to point out, is miniscule compared to things such as defense spending. As a matter of fact, NASA is expected to do more, with less, every year, come budget time. Granted there were two failures (mostly due to reduced budget) on the way to Mars, but look at what they've done with essentially nothing. Pathfinder's budget was something like $120 million or some such (feel free to correct that figure) compared to the $2 billion (in 1976) spent on Viking. Keep in mind Mr. Church, that some of the technologies that NASA pioneers winds up in your house, your place of business, in your doctor's office, and even in your grocery store.
-Andrew
Space Cadet 1st Class
Xanadu suggested we ought to work as hard as we can to jump off the planet. I agree, but I think we should also have as our working assumption that we are never going to make it off this planet alive as a species.
Running off to foul some other nest is a mug's game. And in this case it probably won't work. The New Yorker had a fascinating article on the rigors of space travel a year or more ago, and I wish I had saved it. It talked about all the bad stuff living in a weightless environment does to your body physiologically -- and that one of the biggest secrets of the space program is how many of these top physical astronaut specimens get bad, lasting motion sickness from space travel.
Never mind the incredible logistics of constructing an environment in which we could survive and prosper elsewhere in the galaxy. Much better to try to solve our problems right here on Mother Gaia and die trying.
Some of you will recall how I mentioned several months ago that I hadn't seen most of the Star Trek feature films. Well, I've finally viewed all nine of them and written about them on AllWatchers.com -- next up, Gojira! Saw the original (doctored American) movie last night and have several more on deck. Who was it -- Frank? -- who championed Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla" over "(Don't Fear) the Reaper"? I'll go along with that, although there are so many OTHER Cult tunes that outshine that single ... "Dominance and Submission," "Astronomy," "Cities on Flame," "ME 262," etc.
Thanks for the raves, Heather. Maybe I'll write another poem sometime.
Scott: Shoeless Joe the best hairball-puker: A friend of mine has a cat named Neptune, who is one of the WORST hairball-pukers on the planet. Without human assistance (medical) I don't know what would happen. Poor Neptune just stands there going "HURR, HURR, HURR, HURRRR" like he's trying to bark. My friend gives him some stuff that helps him with the process. Hard to imagine, eh?
Nice to know Melissa is doing well with her sale. You sound like quite a creative family up there.
Jim: So, you'll be trashing Lost in Space? My GOD, man! don't go too near the screen. The sucking will draw you into a powerful singularity that will crush you into a microscopic speck. Even the gang at Mystery Science Theater 3000 wouldn't go near that thing. Make sure you've had all your shots.
ICE ON MARS: Oh, yeah. Now we're talkin'. Sure beats the hell out of spending a lot more moolah on a technological scarecrow like a space-based missile defense that even the engineers and physicists who work on the stuff say won't work. This is something creative, something that actually doesn't involve blowing people up. Ad Astra!
Chuck
Big Ole Washu: Yow, mellow out big guy.....it looks like you didn't get what I was saying. It was no insult to you....it was...ahem....my attempt at a fucking joke. Just a humorous aside. Just a little chuckle that bubbled up into my brain as I read your note. Since you took such offense, I will now try to explain my thought process:
Hmmm, Little Washu here is bitching about serial killers and saying that they really piss him off and he does not worship them or somesuch thing. Ahhh, I know what he's getting at, in regard to people who study them intensely, but on it's own his post kind of makes me chuckle. Serial Killer, bad. Ice cream, good. Heh heh heh.
What can I write in response that humorously, but hopefully not sarcastically, expresses my enjoyment of my little thought. Hmmmm, oh yeah, how about some candidate coming out and saying "I'm against crime" as if his opponent would say "Oh yeah, well I'm FOR crime"....yeah, that's worth a chuckle.
Yeeps....now Li'l Washu thinks I'm not only mocking his hatred of serial killers, but that I'm saying he sounds like a Presidential candidate. no no no no no. He missed the whole not-so-humorous-apparently metaphor of someone pronouncing themselves for or against something as if there is much debate to what they pronounce.
Oh well, that's what the internet is for: misinterpretation of the most innocent of comments. I bow my head in shame and promise no more clever responses that make me chuckle......today.
-TODD
"Yes, yes, yes, let's keep it simple, shall we? Unspoiled. Untouched. Unremarked on."
Undreamed of..."
Oh, but I DO love you.... _Don't_ TOUCH me. It'll leave a mark."
...Uncluttered. Unpooped on. Yes."
Ah, yes, I LOVE the feel of cool, cold technology, don't you."
Gets me RIGHT here."
Ahhh.. so much easier. SOO much easier."
Heather
"Life is a decision. Make one."
Frank:
I've just looked at your last post, and analyzed it five ways from Sunday, and I cannot find the name "Chomsky" anywhere within it.
RUN!!!!!!!!!!RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!IT'S THE APOCALYPSE, I TELLS YA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Scott, rushing his children down to their Doomsday shelter
Oh, I see..
This is the kind of thing that interests you. Okay, Here:
http://www.x10.com/home/offer.cgi?!LND64,../yahoo468e21.htm?>M=215002.1824904.3336005.804023/D=mail/P=f1ovvcaa11000a/S=150500006:N/A=881660/R=0
Wouldn't wanna bend your brain or anything. Heh.
H
Oh, one more thing...
You want an example of a piddling amount? Try 290 million--that's what the US has earmarked for post-war reconstruction of Afghanistan. We're willing to spend tens of BILLIONS of dollars to oust the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but we can't scrounge up more than a bare pittance to rebuild the country? (Hell, let's be honest. We're talking about BUILDING a country, really. Afghanistan has rarely been more than a loose confederation of disparate tribes even at the best of times.)
LYNN: Just checked my hotmail account. Am embarrassed. Had no idea that you e-mailed me. Will send you a reply within a couple of days, if you still want it. Also caught your earlier plea for knowledge of my whereabouts. You're a sweetie. In future: Ask the wind, my dear, ask the wind.
Got to go. Will post later. May even have time to include personal prounouns.
Jim "Judge Crater" Davis
Hey, Frank, c'mon over here.
*THWAP*
Here's a copy of the United States Budget. Look at that little number: 14 billion. That's less than one percent of the United States budget in 2001 (1.835 trillion dollars). Considering the defense budget for 2001 was officially 279 billion, griping about NASA seems kind of pissy. Especially considering how necessary and uplifting to the species space exploration is.
Joseph
Ok, ice on Mars is just so wonderful. Our billions of dollars sure were spent well. Boy, to hell with universal healthcare; if they next find some exotic martian chicken bone buried in the sand then hell, let's privatize Social Security and get that manned spacecraft out of mothballs and on the launching pad. Mars awaits. Viva Americana.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Brian: Yes, I was referring to the Dracula/Lecter premise, and by the way, thanks for the comment. Well, keep it around should the big break bounce your way. Might be one hell of an idea. As for the bit of tough life has seen fit to give you, sadly I have no verbal panacea that can remove it, but I do have a past that has shown me the same places you're seeing now. Stay with it, mon ami, it does pass, although passing occasionally feels like a kidney stone.
Rick: I haven't read "Leaving Okay" yet, but I shall. With Mel being busy, I'm left to the care of three children. Yes, they're my life and joy, but it's full time to keep them going. I promise: I'll read, and comment.
Well, it appears a small bout of Clarkeian "2060" seems to have broken out. Myself, I've always been one to play the game of what happens once we decide to fully commit to a future beyond this small, overcrowed and rather messed up little rock we ride on.
An aside; Can't wait for the Supreme Being, in whatever incarnation he/she deems fashionable to wear this year to finally wise up and make living here a pay-per-use experience. Maybe we'll give more of a damn.
Well, Europa appears to be the best possibility for extra-terrestrial life, if there is sub-surface volcanic activity. The venting done into the water below the ice crust would allow sufficient heat to get the micro-organisms working to form into larger beings.
I am left to consider how much they would bear semblance to those forms of life we find near the bottom of our own oceans, even more to think about the possibility of sentience, should they exist, and how it could, or even might have already evolved. I'm not one to think we're alone; there's too much of the chance of existence elsewhere based on the fact of our existence here.
How will we treat them? I can't believe that we would return to the old mentality that makes that which is different to us perceived as inferior, but humanity has a funny way of exceeding my expectations when it comes to behaving badly. Can't help but think of the tale "The Day The Martians Came".
Well, got to go. The girls are now calling each other "Stupid-Heads". I'd give anything if they'd read some Noel Coward or Oscar Wilde: the quality of the insults would be a great improvement.
Scott, Peacekeeping Force of the Reeston household
Life on Mars! Are you people crazy!?! Don't you remember Species II! Well, their might be people here who wouldn't mind being fucked to death by Natasha Henstridge but I am not one of them.
FAQ
Brian,
While we disagree on V (personally, I think it has a certain inescapable charm, bolstered by some surprisingly effective secondary performances), just wanted to give you a hi-give on the tropy wife line. Cinnammon and Strawberry, indeed.....
Regards,
Joseph
Brian,
While we disagree on V (personally, I think it has a certain inescapable charm, bolstered by some surprisingly effective secondary performances), just wanted to give you a hi-give on the tropy wife line. Cinnammon and Strawberry, indeed.....
Regards,
Joseph
Actually, we wouldn't have to haul water from Earth: there's more than enough ice on asteroids to harvest. And there's also the ice and dust orbiting Jupiter. (This was one reason why I couldn't watch that dopey miniseries V-- why the hell would aliens come to Earth to take _water_?) Also, consider that if we were technically advanced enough to get space stations and manned deep-space probes going, we'd probably have really good water reclaimation systems as well.
Still, one can easily imagine the next century's equivalent of dot.com millionaires spending billions of dollars for two scoops of Martian Water Ice (strawberry, cherry or cinnamon flavored) for themselves and their trophy wives (also named Strawberry, Cherry and Cinnamon).
As for what we'd do if we do encounter alien life... well, call me a cockeyed optimist, but I figure that no matter what ethical guidelines we devise, there will always be rapacious fucks among us who'll exploit alien life, and possibly destroy it, for immediate material gain.
BTW, you're right about Europa. I was _thinking_ Europa, but the only name that came to kind was Io-- which, if I recall, is a volcanic hellhole.
Actually, we wouldn't have to haul water from Earth: there's more than enough ice on asteroids to harvest. And there's also the ice and dust orbiting Jupiter. (This was one reason why I couldn't watch that dopey miniseries V-- why the hell would aliens come to Earth to take _water_?) Also, consider that if we were technically advanced enough to get space stations and manned deep-space probes going, we'd probably have really good water reclaimation systems as well.
Still, one can easily imagine the next century's equivalent of dot.com millionaires spending billions of dollars for two scoops of Martian Water Ice (strawberry, cherry or cinnamon flavored) for themselves and their trophy wives (also named Strawberry, Cherry and Cinnamon).
As for what we'd do if we do encounter alien life... well, call me a cockeyed optimist, but I figure that no matter what ethical guidelines we devise, there will always be rapacious fucks among us who'll exploit alien life, and possibly destroy it, for immediate material gain.
BTW, you're right about Europa. I was _thinking_ Europa, but the only name that came to kind was Io-- which, if I recall, is a volcanic hellhole.
Actually – Brian's comment sparked an interesting thought.
If we never find life elsewhere in the Solar System – should we, as a species actually move out and exploit the various planets and planetoids for our benefit? If not, who or what are we saving them for? And if so, what should we do if we DO find life? (I expect it'll be little more than complicated sludge – but what if it isn't? What if it's a simple, multi-cellular creatures? Do we create an over-arching "Prime Directive" type response, leaving them alone completely? Do we treat them like we do terrestrial organisms and exploit them to the max (the image of mats of alien, viagra-producing seaweed does amuse me for some inexplicable reason...(thank you, Brian))
I think we should work as hard as we can to jump off the planet, to remove humanity's dependence on this single, small world – both for our benefit, and for the benefit of other life here – at least if we're off mucking up the universe we aren't trashing the only place we KNOW has life.
What do you think?
Actually, there's a far more pragmatic reason we should be excited about ice on Mars – because, frankly, finding life there is still on par with finding leprechans at the end of a rainbow. (Europa being much more likely incubator for life-as-we-know-it.)
If there's ice there – we don't have to haul water out of the hideously deep gravity well that is Earth (ooh, that's a bad pun). Right now it costs several thousands of dollars to haul but a single gallon of water to Mars. If it's already there – colonization is much, much cheaper, and thus much, much more likely..
THAT is why water/ice on Mars is so cool.
(Yes – I know water can be found in comets and asteroids and the like – but that's still expensive to haul in – having a ready supply on-site is the deal-maker.)
Xan
"Mars Needs Women!"
To Frank Church, re ice on Mars. This _is_ big news. It means there's a whole new ecosystem we can exploit for material comfort here on Earth.
Personally, I can't wait until we set up refining satellites in a beautiful daisy-chain around the moons of Jupiter to process all of that lovely methane, hydrogen, oxygen, gold, and titanium. Or, genetically engineering a bacteria to live in the frozen oceans of Io so it can secrete all the Prozac and Viagra we'll ever need.
My God, It Will Be Beautiful.
To Scott, re the wonderful comment "Just when I think I'm a bit on the the leading edge, I find myself being placed back a bit behind the curve. Your premise was an very interesting read; ever thought of expanding it?"
I'm assuming you're talking about the Dracula-Hannibal thing, right? Thanks for the compliment, but I wouldn't feel right about it. I came up with that to illustrate why _Hannibal_ was more of a gothic fantasy than anything else. I don't think rewriting _Hannibal_ for the 1890s is such a terrific cretaive idea.
I'm sure someone could work up a Dracula novel (or, God forbid, a screenplay) around the idea. And frankly, if someone offered me solid money _up front_, I'd jump at it, for all kinds of reasons-- I have a mortgage, and these I'm depressed enough to know that I'm not talented enough to come up with anything better, so the money'd be the salve for the pain.
Thank you, thank you, one and all, who had at hand the answer I needed. Said essay (now that I recall it) is in "Edgeworks 2: Stalking The Nightmare".
As to the review I am doing, actually. . . it is an updated review of "Lost in Space".
But more current bloodletting is forthcoming.
Until next time. . .
Heigh ho all, about to take the children to meet their mom, who's been absolutely knocked out by the response she's received at ther bi-annual sale. For any who may care, she sends her best, and hopes all if well for all.
Now, if I can get her to get over the phobia she's developed about selling through the mail (she's had some really hairy experiences with mail order customers), I can finally build the website, and let her become the Bill Gates of pottery.
Chuck: Good Christ Almighty, brother, your family seems to attract these human pieces of offal like magnets. Still, the comfort of the pet (and yes, I know they're animals) and the unconditional love they generate towards their owners does work wonders. I find myself enjoying both Arrow's and Shoeless Joe's (our cat: there's never been a better hair-ball puker built) company more after a stressful day. A wonderfully relaxing thing to share a bit a emotional warmth with a pet.
Brian: Just when I think I'm a bit on the the leading edge, I find myself being placed back a bit behind the curve. Your premise was an very interesting read; ever thought of expanding it?
Ice on Mars: Whaddya think Marvin puts in his drinks? Geez, people, think!
Well, going to take a few days, and crawl back into "The Waste Lands". Not King: Eliot.
Wandering about to seek the Hollow Men is Scott
RICK: Thanks for posting your wonderful essay. I have certainly spent time in that place you describe, felt those feelings of utter delicacy and emotional attenuation. It strikes me as a lot healthier than depression, where all of one's feelings are blunted (been there, too). More to the point, you express those feelings beautifully and with great skill. Deeply appreciated!
TO ALL: Part of the problem with posting here so infrequently is that I miss the opportunity to extend timely sympathies to those who have had emotional and physical difficulties of late. Lynn - I'm glad your mom is coming home. Best of health to her. David - I'm sorry about your father's struggles. Michael and Alia - I hope you're healing from your terrible experience. It sounds as though you are. And, generally, just good thoughts to all of you.
RE: SCARY MOVIE -- I don't know if being FREAKED OUT is the same as being scared, but if so, my top two choices for scary movie are THE EXORCIST and EVIL DEAD (which I saw for the first time in high school and which creeped my friends and I out SO thoroughly that we got up and fled enmasse). DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK is another one that scared the bejesus out of me as a kid, even though I fully recognize its cheesiness.
SCARY BOOKS: SALEM'S LOT and ON THE BEACH. Which, by the way, rates a mention here: http://www.cnn.com/2000/books/reviews/10/26/scary.books/?related, an article that may be of interest.
Lastly, I wanted to share some good news with y'all:
I recently found out that one of my stories, BLUE ELEPHANT, has been selected for inclusion in an upcoming literary anthology titled FRENCH QUARTER FICTION (I'm sure you can all puzzle out the general contents from the title). I'm PARTICULARLY psyched about this one because it means having my work appear alongside some heavy-hitters like Ellen Gilchrist, Poppy Z. Brite, Robert Olen Butler, Andrei Codrescu and others.
AND, to further inflate my writer's ego, my poem, "Born" is being featured on the website for The Montserrat Review, a really nice literary mag. out of CA. You can check it out at www.themontserratreview.com. I'm under Issue Five/Excerpts.
Over and out for now. Best wishes to all of you. -- Lorin
Frank,
Do you ever post anything that isn't antagonistic? Geez...
As for your query regarding Mars and ice. Ice means water. Water means that there is a possibility (however slight) that there may be life (microorganisms) somewhere other than Earth. This seems like pretty fabulous news to me.
You know, there's more to life than Chomsky...
-Andrew
Who's dancin' along with Little Washu and Joseph.
Ice on Mars? Is this that much of a revelation? So there is ice on Mars--big deal!
Rick, you are deleting all my postings since Wendsday, why? Did I do something wrong?
*starts dancing the dance of joy with Washu*
Oh, and everyone should take a look at the highly interesting Odyssey page (the section "Looking For Water" has a great description on the use of gamma rays to detect ice):
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/
On a more positive note...
All right now, everybody start chanting:
ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS!
The spacecraft Odyssey has just detected high amounts of hydrogen near the south pole of the Red Planet, which indicates ice, which indicates water, which indicates...badda-BING...life, or the possibility of life in the distant past of Mars.
ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS! ICE ON MARS!
Little Washu
Okay, I've slept, and I'm feeling much more easy-going now.
CHUCK: Thanks for the advice. Yes, it's frustrating being able to unleash one's own hostility only through a written medium from different locations all over the world; but it's better than the alternative. And yes, sadly, I don't have much invulnerability to mocking monkeys who enjoy throwing their poop around. I'm working on that flaw.
Thought your yarn was touching, too...my dog Elvis has borne with me through my own hellish periods. When I entered boarding school for the first time, my father suddenly turned into a grotesque parody of himself and ran off with a german playmate, and I was stranded in barren New Hampshire, trapped with the evil monkeys I mentioned above. If anything prevented me from going utterly looney tunes it was the efforts of my brother, mother, sister, but most of all a basset hound called Elvis.
CINDY: Yeah, that was pretty immature of me and I'm sorry I dragged you into the whole mess. I saw a mob mentality going on that wasn't even there. I do admire basset hounds, and right now I look a lot like one. I've GOT to stop those stupid P.S. notes...
TODD: 'Presidential candidate'. Ow.
Little Washu
Dracula II:
Mina and Dracula share a long, happy life together in the course of Fred Saberhagen's Dracula series, which begins with Dracula's version of the events of the novel as told to a couple while Dracula waits for Mina to rise from the dead circa 1978. The first novel's called *The Dracula Tapes* and came out in the mid-1970s. Saberhagen's follow-ups include *An Old Friend of the Family*, *Thorn*, *The Holmes-Dracula File* (in which only Dracula and his distant relative Holmes can save Jubilee-year London from Jack Seward and the Giant Rat of Sumatra), *Dominion*, *A Sharpness at the Neck*, and several others. *Tape* and, I think, *Old Friend* were re-packaged in a double-volume paperback a couple of years ago as *Vlad Tapes.* Otherwise, they're available used somewhere, I imagine.
Recommended for anyone who like vampires but detests the Rice school -- Saberhagen makes Dracula the hero, spends long sections on history lessons, and tries to rationalize the various mechanisms of Dracula's powers and limits.
Jon
Little Washu: as I'm sure you well know, it's rather easy for anybody, and I mean ANYBODY to go off on a comment made by someone on the net. I'm sure you've heard many a KABOOM over a comment or joke that seemed perfectly innocuous to you. I had someone on another (inferior) b-board hint that he was about to eviscerate me with his keyboard, and my reply was, "What are you gonna do, pal, TYPE me to death?" Shut him down cold. No one can hurt you unless you let them.
My quoted comment has become my mantra whenever it seems someone is trying to get personal with me. You seem like a good addition to the gestalt of this here group, but you just need to back off a little and maybe ask, with a silkily menacing voice, "Beg your pardon? What did you mean by that?" Like Cindy's comment, it may have had nothing at all to do with you. Hang in there, buddy. I like what you add to the board.
Mr. Harlan Ellison, Slayer of Dumbass Myths: CSICOP award, eh? It's about time someone took up Dr. Azimov's mantle, and who better than you? Congratulations.
Jim Hess i.e. the spacecraft question: What cinematic suppository are you going to trounce? Anything recent? Sounds like fun. I like a good trouncing.
Brian: Bravo on the Lecter/Dracula parallel. It actually would make a diverting, if not very deep, Dracula movie. I especially agree with how HANNIBAL pretty much blew it. Wrong writer, wrong director. Too bad.
Rick: Just because Hopkins gets top billing doesn't necessarily mean lots of screen time. Marlon Brando got top billing for SUPERMAN, didn't he? I also think remaking MANHUNTER would be a waste. Ah, that Hollywood. That. Crazy. Bally. Hooey.
Finally, my main subject: Doggies. Mainly a Bassett hound named Max. He's my sister's dog and been with her through good times and bad. REALLY bad.
As I may have mentioned, my sister attempted suicide five times. All of them while married to my worthless, waste-of-protoplasm ex-brother-in-law. They both agreed to get Max, an adorable Basset, who Mr. Shithead liked at first. The whole situation with my sister's marriage seemed okay for a while. Then, I found out that he's being rotten to my nephew, David, and doing the Mental Cruelty Tango with my sister. I found out about the suicide attempts after the third time she tried it. Everybody in the family knew about this, except me. As if Shithead wasn't enough of a chicken shit, he started kicking the dog, saying, "Got to kick it!" His way of playing with my sister's head.
Julie asked me if I'd consider moving in with her and David if she moved out and divorced Shithead. I said "Okay". She didn't go through with it. She stayed through two more attempts. Finally, she had had enough, and started divorce proceedings. Until then, all I could do was be a shoulder to cry on, and provide a place for David to go to when things got too bad. And be nice to Max.
One day, after attempt number five, I got a call from Julie, who was in tears, telling me that Shithead kept threatening to have Max put to sleep if she didn't behave herself. So, knowing where the hidden key was (previous times house, nephew and dog sitting) I took off from work, broke and entered, and got Max. I took him to a friend, who temporarily adopted the cuddly little guy, while David, who was already out of that rotten household, stayed with my dad. Julie was in the FUCKING HOSPITAL, after FUCKING SLASHING HER WRISTS AND TAKING FUCKING TOO MANY FUCKING SLEEPING PILLS, AND SHITHEAD COULDN'T RESIST ONE LAST MIND FUCK!
At midnight that night, I got a drunken phone call from Shithead asking me why I took poor old Max away. His little boy came home with him only to find the dog missing. Kid started to cry. (Shithead had three sons of his own. None of them will live with him now.) I was too groggy to do anything but grunt. What the hell did he think? It wasn't the first time he threatened to have the dog killed. I just wish I had taken them all out of there earlier. I had no idea until too late just how bad it was.
Long story short: Julie is married to a great guy now. Broke the cycle of marrying Shitheads. Julie's first hubby, David's dad, is affectionately know as The Sperm Donor. Nuff said about him. David, after a VERY shaky period seems to be finding an even keel. We can breathe now. And Max? He and I just love each other. I call him my funny-looking adopted nephew. He likes his Uncle Chuck. Uncle Chuck plays with Max, and gives him belly rubs. I love basset hounds, especially this one. The only problem is that if anyone tries to nudge or belly-rub him with their feet, he gets VERY defensive. (Got to kick it) I don't think he'd actually bite anyone, he's just saying: "Don't. Use. The. FOOT!" I don't have any pets, living in my little apartment. So, Max is my surrogate.
Bassets rule. As do bulldogs and Saint Bernards. As a kid, I had a bulldog mix-mutt named Duchess - funny looking as hell. A neigbor lady once asked me "What kind of animal IS that? Is that a pig?" "No. She's my dog." The Saint Bernard was named - now get this - Hannibal. Even after seeing the serial killer movie, when I hear the name Hannibal, I still think of a big, slobbery, baby Huey who wuv'ed evwy body.
I could never bring myself to read CUJO. It would hurt too much.
We had a cat named Sirdar. I like cats too. Just thought I'd throw that in.
Yours in the joys of pet dander,
Chuck
Brian: I really enjoyed your treatment of Dracula II. It was far better than Hannibal; I think you ought to copyright it NOW before some bastard steals it and writes the script out from under you. After seeing Coppola's extravagant disaster, I have always wanted Dracula to run off with Mina. He deserved to win and was only defeated because the bad guy is supposed to lose. Fuck that. Sometimes the bad guy is the better man.
Little Washu: What makes serial killers so interesting, kiddo, is not simply the fact that they kill people, nor that they kill them in horrible ways (though that *is* pretty interesting). It's that they can get away with it for so long. That they can function amongst us and not be known, that they walk the streets in broad daylight for years undetected while secretly committing nefarious acts right next door to you. It's the horrifying way that they flout all of society's rules with impunity, sometimes forever (the Green River Killer, for instance, was never caught). Of course people romanticize that, just as they romanticize other horrors, like war. This is not meant as an endorsement of their lifestyle, nor to glorify their existence. Evil has always been fascinating. Why is that so hard to understand?
If you read _Base Instinct_, though, they seem a lot less cool and a lot more pathetic.
Todd & Cindy: Watch out. You're on Little Washu's List now, and he's a vengeful little cartoon character.
Bermanator
OK, I know this doesn't narrow down the field a lot, but can someone point me to a good Ellison rant about the dumbing down of modern culture? I can't find the exact one I want and I'm involved in a discussion elsewhere where I'm getting the "Who the hell do you think you are to be so stuck up? Britney and Mariah are sweet and cute and everyone loves them."
I am unable to offer the right words in return apparently and I know HE has done it many times better than I have.
Dachsunds are the only real dogs.
End of story.
Washuuuuuuuuuu!
Sorry pal, you've lost me here. What I was saying was in reference to Todd giving me the green light to use his
personal story about his sister in the basement for one of
my little projects.
He asked for a particular credit if I use it for a short film or script. My response to his generousity was the one you remarked on.
As for y'all arguing about serial killers-- have at.
Cindy
ps If I am wrong regarding your comment-- go ahead and straighten me out. I'm used to that.
When _Hannibal_ came out, I posted the following comments on a newsgroup. I figured they might be of interest.
I'll tell you the title, but here's what it's like, sort of.
It's kind of a sequel to _Dracula_, or at least, the various play/movie versions of it.
Dracula has escaped at the end of the first book.
It's ten years after the horrible events at Carfax Abbey. Van Helsing has passed away. Mina Harker is married to Jonathan Harker, and frankly, she's miserable. Jonathan's turned into a really overbearing, priggish, reactionary jerk over the years. And on top of this, the people in the Harkers' social circle regard Mina with a high degree of suspicion and contempt, mainly because she's been ravaged by an evil foreigner, and may carry the kind of "taint" that they'd see in, say, a white girl who'd slept with a black man. So she's miserable.
In the meantime, Renfield-- also alive-- is still active. Only he is now psychologically and physically twisted from his encounters with Dracula in the past, and he has also inherited his family's fortune. (He's also purchased Carfax Abbey.) He has been applying some of this fortune to hunt down Dracula, to capture the vampire, and possibly to torture and eliminate him. Renfield is well aware that Dracula regarded Mina as the reincarnation of his centuries-dead beloved, so Renfield decides to put the psychological screws to Mina-- sabotaging her reputation, pressuring Jonathan, etc.
However, in the British Museum, a new curator for the Carpathian
collections has been appointed. He is a semi-mysterious figure, holding lectures only at night, leaving instructions to his underlings on handwritten notes found in the morning, etc. But he knows his Carpathian antiquities. Someone in the area-- a police detective, a young priest, a young museum employee-- realizes that the curator is, in fact, Count Dracula. So he decides to try to kill the vampire, or at least, snare him in exchange for Renfield's bounty. But the young adventurer falls victim to the wily Count.
Dracula, sensing his own danger, decides to try to claim Mina as his own. There's some chasing-about and espionage, with Dracula stalking Mina with mash notes, Jonathan trying to keep Mina under control, Mina realizing her importance to Dracula and how he'd touched her soul, and Renfield and his employees keeping things bouncing. Eventually, Renfield makes his grandest attempt yet--a nd just when he thinks he's got the better of the Count, Dracula unleashes his powers to a degree we've never seen before-- leaving heaps of bodies and pools of blood in the Renfield estate. And he gets away with Mina.
Finally, in a crypt, Dracula initiates Mina into eternal life, by having her willingly take the unholy communion... of Jonathan Harker's blood.
Not a bad sequel to _Dracula_, right? Only update it to the 20th
century, throw in a few cell phones, cast Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore, and you've got _Hannibal_.
This is really not a terribly good movie. It's not _awful_. But the reason it got made is the same reason Elvis made so many movies-- people wanted to see more of him, no matter what. Sure, it has a great cast, and Ridley Scott could shoot a brick wall and make it interesting (given enough smoke), but really, if the first movie hadn't done so well, this movie wouldn't be half as interesting. This is one of those movies that makes sense _only_ if you've seen the first one-- otherwise, it looks like someone tried to update a Jacobean revenge tragedy and added the architecture and gore to cover up the flimsy plotline.
They managed to compress the book down pretty well. They jettisoned a subplot involving Mason Verger's weightlifting sister, and they tied the Florence policeman's story into Starling's a bit more effectively than in the book. (It involves a perfume, and it's a smart plot device.) There's a nice bit where they combine Lecter's shopping for cookware, and his securing of surgical tools, into one sequence that equates the two activities. And thankfully, they put a few bits in to remind us that Lecter is a disturbed, horrifying figure. (There's a scene Starling
watches on videotape-- only described in the first film-- that's
gut-wrenching to see.) Even the notorious ending, which was gruesomely funny in print, manages to be horrifying as well as funny here, and they've changed it to something a little more, well, palatable.
But... well, there's so much of this movie that just seems _tired_. The pointless title sequence looks like a ripoff of _Seven_ and _Enemy of the State_. One murder is almost forgotten within seconds of its happening-- even though it's excessively bloody, and happens in the middle of a crowded shopping area, in the arms of a policeman. Hopkins looks his age, and you know he could have phoned in his part. Speaking of which, there's one of those stalking-by-cell-phone sequences as well, set in Washington's Union Station. Julianne Moore does well with what
she's given, but nothing happens here that shows Clarice Starling to be a _human being_-- at least, not in the same way the first film did. (Like I said; if you haven't seen the first film, and seen what Clarice Starling is like, she seems pretty one-dimensional here.) Gary Oldman plays the twisted Mason Verger, and he's fun, but he's done grotesques like this before.
There's only one good performance in this movie. Giancarlo Giannini plays a cop in Florence who tries to take Lecter on his own. The movie treats him well; with admirable economy, we see that he doesn't have the respect of his men, that his wife is way too beautiful for him to hang onto her for much longer, that her tastes are too expensive for him to maintain, and getting Lecter is his _last chance_. I'm glad that the only other major actor Giannini actually interacts with is Hopkins-- otherwise, he'd make the rest of the movie seem as shallow as it really is.
Comments on romanticized serial killers. I'm with Washu on regarding serial killers as utterly repulsive scumbags. But I have to acknowledge that the portrayals of certain murderers as sophisticated, cat-and-mouse geniuses has a definite pull on the culture. I don't regard it as being very different from the way vampires are dramatized-- Dracula, in his Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee incarnations, was a European sophisticate who could draw upon centuries of refinement and taste when he wasn't tearing the throats out of young girls. But then again, most burglars are NOT Cary Grant skimming around the Riviera seducing Grace Kelly.
Still, there is that appeal of living in some other moral universe, where the usual constraints of society just don't apply. It's not a matter of superiority, for reasons which should be obvious.
To Jim Hess, as to why spaceships don't need to be streamlined. Jim, you don't need to reference any authority on this. The reason why spaceships do not have to be streamlined-- shaped like bedpans, flying saucers, elongated ovoids with fins-- is because there is no _air_ in space. Here on Earth, aerodynamics are required for fast-moving vehicles for lots of reasons (reducing wind resistance for speed, increasing it to slow down, and the aerodynamics of a plane's wings to control flight). But in space, there's no air, and so there was no need to shield equipment from wind. (From micrometeors, yes, but not wind.)
I'd also like to mention that Hugo-Award-shaped spaceships were pretty much killed off by Kubrick's _2001_. So your comments may be a little out of date.
AND WHILE I'M AT IT:
I sound like a presidential candidate? For pete's sake, Todd, check out your own posts at least once in a while. If anything you've only proven yourself to be the other dopey candidate you mentioned in your own little rant.
Oh, shit, David, this good. I like the last line:
http://www.david-loftus.com/Poems/knots.html
David: I like this:
http://www.david-loftus.com/Poems/discarded.html
Show me more.
H
Scott said:
>This is where the art forms come in, and where we can sit with a Hannibal Lecter in relative safety; we can vicariously think we come to touch that sense of primacy that seems to fuel the killer's mind, without the real terror of the violence and mayhem these creatures create.
You always know you'll leave the theatre (or the book) alive. Yeah.
I was reading something recently, unrelated, on this. Don't know why I never thought about it but then, I didn't used to read a lot of horror. I agree with Scott. Viewing movies or reading books, from an obviously safe distance, is part of the charm of these stories and ideas. Partly, it's the fascination of the author's willingness to extrapolate on a behavior or being of this sort. ("Silence of the Lambs" blew me away. I've never been so chilled, yet so fascinated by a story. GOD, I remember watching that movie. Uhh...) Partly, _I_ think, anyway, it's somewhat cathartic to watch.
Hell, it's the same reason you guys go nuts for chili dishes that burns your mouth. It's a damn interesting thing to try, sometimes. Makes having sense organs worthwhile.
THEN, you can go back, safely to the Care Bear cartoons.
Heather
TODD: "Little Washu: Your rant against serial killers is like a presidential candidate coming out against crime and challenging the other candidate to cross him.
In other words......you don't like serial killers. Um....uhhhh....ok, you win that debate. Serial killers suck!"
You can call me many things, Todd. But never call me a presidential candidate. That is serious 'OUCH' territory right there, bub, and I've really taken it to heart.
And honestly, I think you completely missed the point of what I was trying to say. I was speaking more about the bizarre praise that various people heap on these individuals than the rather boorish and blunt statement that 'SERIAL KILLERS SUCK!'
As for getting into a more 'challenging' debate than serial killers...I'm game. Wanna try me, buddy?
Little Washu
P.S. CINDY: Thanks for backing this fella up. I'll remember that about you.
This is a topic for conversation. Note my finger is not pointed at you. David Loftus wrote this essay:
http://www.david-loftus.com/Hellraising/manipulators.html
You'll have to read it to get in on this chat -- that's what we women do -- to some extent...
I agree with what he's said here. The main reason women are labelled as being the manipulators is they are pulling the all important (hmm..more important) males away from whatever (or whomever--'breaking up that ole gang of mine' as the letter writer in his piece mentioned) they are dealing with.
Whereas, hell, manipulating the woman away from her 'girlfriends'.. so the hell what? They're ONLY women.
Ah, but MALES.. ah.. males.. so much more important stuff happening there.
I can't say the lights are just going ON, for me, here. I'm simply starting to conjure them..
in type. That's all.
(My message is vague. It's meant that way. To let you roll around on the floor with it. Any way your mind or mood prefers.)
I agree with David, is my point.
David? You would cry to win an argument? You little manipulator you. *grin*
H
Rick:
English Mastiff? God, they're beautiful animals. That was one of the breeds I considered when I was looking for a pooch, along with Dobermans, Rottweillers, Sheperds, and Akitas, (well, honestly, what I really wanted was a cross between a Irish Wolfhound and a Greyhound Bus) but Mel said no. She didn't want to have the dog out on a leash, only to have him bolt and drag her around like a cowboy who'd been knocked from the saddle in some western.
Just a question, or two, if you don't mind. How's he/she's dispostion? Are they good with children? And, how hard to housebreak?
Scott
Well, Mr. E., my congrats, for the Skeptics award. I had no idea that not believing in anything could actually get one a reward.
Of course, I was the one that said the Big Bang would never fly: proclaiming it the Pathetic Sizzle...
Anyhow, musing of the subject of cereal killers...it's those dammed granola bars!
No, seriously, I've often taken a comparative to the fascination that society has for these perverse individuals as being akin to the cultural interest in the vampire and the mystique that pervades that piece of myth.
Okay, granted, the vampire does have a sense of sensuality, of passion that the serial killer doesn't share. But, as the vampire seems to represent breaking the acceptance of death, through immortality gained by devouring blood, the serial killer seems to have a connection to lawless power in my opinion; that primal sense of self-rule allowing one to think they stand above the laws or morality of a society, and do not have to place themselves at the will of the people that make up society.
As much as anything else, it would go part way to how these individuals can come to be accepted by fringe sections of our population who wish some form of connection to these people. The ones who buy the artifacts of their actions, say, the art of a John Wayne Gacy, or the disgusting remnants of a Dahmer's perversity. They sense a power, over life and death, that the killer would appear to possess, and seem to want it too, at some level.
Now, to the wider society, wanting the sense of self-propriety that makes ownership of such items disgusting (trust me, I stand in this group, and, I would be very surprised to find anyone else who frequents this site would be any different), still, the lure is there. This is where the art forms come in, and where we can sit with a Hannibal Lecter in relative safety; we can vicariously think we come to touch that sense of primacy that seems to fuel the killer's mind, without the real terror of the violence and mayhem these creatures create.
Just an opinion guys, and am rather curious to see what others might think. I'm not looking for any moral judgment on those who choose to read or see these films (hell, I'm one of them).
Scott
You got it Todd.
You're a peach!
:)
Cindy
Jim Hess – The piece is SOMEHOW, I DON’T THINK WE’RE IN KANSAS, TOTO. It talks of Harlan’s trial’s with The Starlost television series.
Actually, that’s weird, as I just this moment finished watching THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Basset Hound Stories – So I’m a kid living at home and hear these strange noises coming from the front veranda. I walk out into the heat and there are 2 Basset Hounds sprawled out under the shade, panting, and seemingly saying to me – so here we are, what else did you expect, water please as we will be staying for a while.
About 30 minutes later there owners turn up. They had been walking the blocks looking into peoples yards for there dogs. They explained to us that no matter what they did the dogs always got out, and then would adopt some other family to look after them until there original owners turned up. The dogs were obviously well cared for and loved; it was just in there nature.
Since then I’ve always thought they were “cool”.
Cheers,
Kerry
Todd~ Suck, yes, but they're so *interesting*. If other folks read inspirational stories so they know (said with a glowing radio announcer voice) "just how far and how high we can reach!" well, then I read about serial killers and people with fucked up minds to know just how low we can go. The human animal has an amazing spectrum between goodie goodie and E*V*I*L.
L.
Little Washu: Your rant against serial killers is like a presidential candidate coming out against crime and challenging the other candidate to cross him.
In other words......you don't like serial killers. Um....uhhhh....ok, you win that debate. Serial killers suck!
-TODD
**Mr. Ellison has been named the winner of the Distinguished Skeptic Award from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal**
Fuck you, Ellison, you greedy bastard.
Like you didn't already have all the cool awards, now you get the one that be the coolest.
You stink on ice, pal.
Manhunter/Red Dragon:
Isn't Edward Norton a little young to play Will Graham? Or at least young-looking? Do we really want to see a digitally altered Anthony Hopkins, as the rumours now have it, because Lecter needs to look younger than he did in SotL and Hannibal?
A remake of a perfectly good film that's only 16 years old is a little wonky, but God knows the videocassette revolution never panned out the way some people thought it would -- that is, with hordes of people suddenly renting old movies. Old movies are now anything before 1996. Independence Day? D.W. Griffith directed that, didn't he?
Arglebargle,
Jon
For those who are not comic geeks like myself, a PSA:
Mr. Ellison has been named the winner of the Distinguished Skeptic Award from the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Right on! That's an award I'd love to have...
Mr. Ellison, my congratulations. It's a well-deserved honor.
Regards,
Joseph
With great efforts he attempts to drag the general conversation back to Harlan Ellison, with question in hand:
All right, folks: I'm being lazy, I know, but I am writing this bloodletting, disemboweling review of a certain really bad movie and I want to reference the bit about how space ships do NOT have to be shaped like a bedpan and how shape has almost nothing whatsoever to do with the actual spaceship and I KNOW Harlan wrote and published a review (essay?) about this particular moronic fact the Hollywood Machine cannot get over and, well, I cannot, for the life of me remember what the name of the piece HE wrote is.
So. I DO remember this: Ben Bova was Harlan's source on why this fact ain't true.
Does that help?
I would wander my fingers through my collection of Harlan's books, but don't you know--I ain't home and ain't even close to being within arm's reach of my library.
Until next time. . .
Hello, Webderlanders!
On the Basset Hound thread:
RICK WYATT: "I think Bassets have tremendous personality. They don't take crap from ANYBODY."
Have you got that right. My basset is 9 1/2 years old, and all through that time he's trodden over every attempt we've made to stop him wandering outside of the property. Training lessons, in the house AND at a dog school; ordinary fences and electric fences; scarecrows, elephants, ebola, nuclear warheads; and he just keeps tanking right on through. One time, when we got REALLY desperate, we strapped on an entire harness made up of friggin' ten electric collars, and all that happened as he passed through that fence was a slight jiggling of the leg. All the lights in Bermuda dimmed as he walked through that barrier of energy. His body could take fifty thousand volts AT LEAST. I firmly believe that.
(By the way, I checked out Homer's website. I want to meet that crazy pooch already.)
SCOTT: "Basset Hound? Try, as a stranger, to get within 100 feet of any of my kids with Arrow around. He'll eat you and yer little dog too. Purebred German Sheperd he is; big and fast."
Yeah, basset hounds aren't exactly the most terrifying breed in the world, but what they lack in intimidation they make up for in charm. In any case, did you ever wonder why they never had a basset hound as the dog in CUJO? Can you imagine? "Oh my god, no! He's...slowly...coming this way..."
On now, on to other shtuff:
FAISAL: "Both Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal seem to follow the myth that serial killing leads to a truth that is denied everyone else. Lecter kills people and somehow he transcends ordinary mortals..."
I'm going to be blunt about this, Faisal, if that's all right:
BULL. SHIT.
I'm really getting sick and tired of how these people are worshipped as the next stage in human evolution. (I'm not referring to you, Faisal, or anyone here, but rather the folks who think Charles Manson was the second Christ.) They kill human beings, and they do it horribly. They lack conscience and morales. They are free from piddling society and it's pathetic rules. They are gods. Um...no.
ANYBODY can kill anyone else in despicable ways; all it takes is a little imagination. How does killing people over and over somehow makes these creatures special? How does their 'unique' view on the world justify inflicting it on others who have no INTEREST in what they think or believe?
This is exactly why I want to puke at films such as SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, SEVEN, and especially THE CELL. These bastards are treated with a kind of awe and respect that they DO NOT deserve. One of them could easily slice off my face and wear it; hoo-ha, good for you, numbnuts. I hope it suffocates you.
If you can't already tell, I don't think much of serial killers.
Little Washu
Rick: "Leaving Okay" was brilliant. You've described many emotional phenomena that I too have experienced. I agree, OK is a platitude, a non-sentiment. It seems an absurd condition to seek in this crazy world. I hope you do find peace. At least you're seeking it, which people who are OK rarely bother to do.
Funny thing, I was just thinking about the idiocy of "OK." Last night there was a girl at the show who was clearly drunk out of her mind. When she stumbled into me, I asked her, "Are you OK?" Of course she said yes, even when I looked into her glazed eyes and asked again and the answer was plainly "no". When she reeled off into the crowd, I was stricken. I should have done more that ask her that trite, dismissable question. Poor kid. I hope she made it home last night in one piece.
Bermanator
Hey, saw George Clinton and several members of P-Funk last night at the Haunt in Ithaca. In spite of the fact that most of the audience was stoned 20 year olds falling all over each other and clapping on the 2 instead of the 1 (when they even managed to clap in time at all), it was a great show. George still has it, man. He looked like a funky black Santa Claus. He sang "Dr. Funkenstein" and "Up on the Downstroke" and all the classics. I highly recommend you see him if you get a chance, because he's not gonna be around forever.
Bermanator
"It's ludicrous to think that we are doing this.
We do this. This is what we do."
Manhunter
---------
I like Manhunter, for a start it doesn't celebrate the cult of serial killers as the later sequels did. Michael Mann adaptation did not celebrate what a great genius Hannibal Lecter is, but is a boring vain entity who thinks nothing of putting families in danger to satisfy his own emotional needs. Brian Cox performance is not of a scarey genius but a calm mindfucker.
Francis Dollarhyde is not a faceless killer but a man whose so emotionally damaged that killing is the only way he can find some degree of exceptance. But when it comes close with his affair with Joan Allen, it is his twisted interpretation of the world that destroys even that small hope. William Peterson's interpretation of Will Graham is one of the greatest cop characters in movies, a man who has lived so long with these sociopaths that he has been mentally contaminated by them.
I think the end result is that Michael Mann did a film where he wasn't afraid to show that the victims were humans. We hardly see what has happened to the victims of the Tooth Fairy but are instead shown photos of smiling families and super 8 movies of birthday celebrations. It is for this and more, that I really do like Manhunter, it takes time to show that people in the film are human. Not knife fodder.
Both Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal seem to follow the myth that serial killing leads to a truth that is denied everyone else. Lecter kills people and somehow he transcends ordinary mortals and what a polite serial killer he is. He is fluent in Latin and can talk about rennasiance art but at the end of the day, you be mean to him, he'll wear your face.
(Also Lecter kills on screen and is described in the books, abusive and corrupt policemen, pig breeding thugs and a child molester... everyone else is killed off screen or the killing is mentioned in a paragraph so the viewer/reader is spared the description of Hannibal actually killing someone who was not asking for it i.e. tourists or latin professors ).
When writing about those two movies, I am reminded of HE's story 'Prowler in the City at the edge of the world' where Jack the Ripper wanders around committing atrocities to show how superior his 'evil' was to the future citizens, not realising that he was nothing more than a pathetic man tricked into being a toy for a select group of voyuers who enjoy a mental journey into the spirtual depravity that Jack inhabits.
Rant over.
FAQ
Joseph,
I'm beginning to feel we oughtta be putting you on some sort of payroll as our regular obit announcer.
FAQ~
I definitely got a sense of sympathy for the *man* who lives under and behind the *monster* in the novel, Red Dragon. And yes, Manhunter was okay, in the truest sense of the word. It was nothing spectacular. But just the idea of Ralph Fiennes and Edward Norton in the same movie. Wow.
L.
SCOTT: If your shepherd eats my 190lb English Mastiff, he's going to give himself a hell of a stomach ache.
Why on EARTH would someone want to remake MANHUNTER, which was to me a perfectly serviceable movie and not at all a bad adaptation of Harris's RED DRAGON? It also troubles me to see Hopkins given top billing since Hannibal Lechter is and should remain a marginal character.
I also have little hopes for the series continuation. HANNIBAL was a disjointed mess. So many plot elements were removed from the book that the characters' actions (which in the book where difficult enough to swallow, but just barely believable) just seemed insensible and idiotic. Additionally, Hannibal Lechter is to me only truly interesting as a superman-in-chains. I only kept watching to see Anthony Hopkins chew the scenery, and perhaps the producers are banking that same attraction will bring people into the theaters for RED DRAGON.
Heigh ho, all. In for a few before I take the family out to dinner.
Washu: Permit my opinion on what to call the Ellison: I don't think "George" works, and I don't believe he would take a shine to "Lil Ole Snookypants" either.
Washu & Rick: Basset Hound? Try, as a stranger, to get within 100 feet of any of my kids with Arrow around. He'll eat you and yer little dog too. Purebred German Sheperd he is; big and fast. The only folks he'll answer to are Mel and I, and usually only when he wants to.
Michael: The word on Alia is great, I'll pass it along to Mel. As for chili, you're talking to the cast iron stomach. Sat back and munched some Jamaican peppers a few times, only registered a few belches. No cow juice needed for this boy.
Now, if y'all will excuse me, I'm off to spend some of my hard earned money on the family and myself. Have fun all.
Scott
Lynn,
I think the guy behind the Rush Hour movies, Brett Ratner (I hope I haven't confused him with the person who directed the Lawnmower Man movie) is directing from a Ted Tally script.
Yeah the cast sounds great on paper. You know David Lynch was once attached to direct Red Dragon for DDLC but he got freaked out by the subject matter.
I have mixed feelings about the venture as I really do like Manhunter. It does create empathy for Francis Dollarhyde which isn't apparent in the book. From what I have heard about the script (and I have not read it), it apparently has the Red Dragon talking to Dollarhyde.
I presume then it will also contain the ridiculous scenes where an entire William Blake painting is eaten, a flying dragon straight out of Disney and an ending that has been seen in too many films of that particular genre.
Brian Masters once wrote an essay on 'Silence of the Lambs' where he completely tore into it. The man should know, he wrote an excellent biography of Dennis Neilsen 'Killing for Company' and has now been pigeon holed in writing serial killer books, something he regrets. You can find it in his essays 'On Murder'.
PS. The Mike Hodges, Paul Mayersberg film credit appears at the start of Croupier. I forgot to add that last time.
FAQ
Well, this sucks. Lawrence Tierney has passed away.
Lynn, sounds like you're a big Phillip Seymour Hoffman fan....so I thought I would make you jealous:
You may have heard that last year, on Broadway, Hoffman and John C. Reilly performed True West in a very intimate setting (circular stage, every seat wonderful. They traded roles throughout the limited run of the play.
The wife and I skeedaddled right on over to see this. We love them both, and love those P.T. Anderson films (I can watch Magnolia over and over and never get bored). I don't remember the character (brothers) names, but the version we saw had Hoffman as the writer brother, and Reilly as the ne'er do well. If you know the play, you can envision how exquisite this was.
We looooved it. Got right home, and I called the theater and asked if they are able to tell us what day they trade roles. We got a date, and I bought another set of tickets, and we went back two weeks later. Fantastic. After seeing how they performed the first show, I could not imagine them switching roles.....but they did so wonderfully, and their interpretations gave the play an entirely different attitude.
This is the best theater experience we have ever had (we don't do much, but we get into NYC for shows maybe 3-4 times a year). The next closest was our 4th row seats Death Of A Salesman starring Brian Dennehy.
I wish to God I had a filmed version of those two True West performances. My memory often sags, and I don't ever want to forget them.
-TODD
And upon further investigation, I have no idea how the guy who's directing got this peach of a film in the first place...
::sigh:: Still holding out high hopes,
L.
Thanks for all the comments about the rant - these things are always difficult to put out there and the feedback makes a huge difference. On the subject of putting stuff out there, my project for Sunday is going to be to get the ugly baby stories (which are all FAR from "okay") and a few other contributions up on the Webderland Contributions Page.
Washu - my dog weighs 190 lbs, but if I had to get a medium-small dog probably the only two breeds I could stand would be a small bulldog or a basset. I think Bassets have tremendous personality. They don't take crap from ANYBODY.
So I go look up Phillip Seymour Hoffman at IMDB, cause I don't know the name. Turns out I know the face. Turns out he's gonna be in Red Dragon. HOLY SHIT, have you seen who they've cast for Red Dragon!? Of the three novels by Thomas Harris, this is my favorite. Back when he was a nobody and had done his research. I can't even begin to fathom how fantastic this movie will be if they pull it off.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0289765
Anthony Hopkins .... Dr. Hannibal Lecter
Edward Norton .... FBI Agent Will Graham
Ralph Fiennes .... Francis Dolarhyde *** ?!?!?!!!??? ***
Harvey Keitel .... Jack Crawford
L.
Rob,
For a modern-day Charles Laughton, I'd have to go with Philip Seymour Hoffman. A personal taste, but I think a sadly underappreciated actor.
Regards,
Joseph
Washu,
Yeah, Frankenheimer was scoring homeruns in the 60's: Manchurian Candidate, Seconds, Seven Days in May and Birdman of Alcatraz (Burt Lancaster). Classics with almost an art house sensibility. He split for Europe for a time, came back and transmogrified into the grotesque form of a payroll action director come the 70's. The only film I looked at between 1970 and now is 'Black Sunday', which I liked though in no way like those earlier outings.
What can you say? There ARE directors whose careers were marked by decline. In Frankenheimer's case it's definitely a shame and it would be great to see him make a comeback.
...and 'Moreau' has as yet to receive a decent treatment; 'Island of Lost Souls' is still the only legitimate filmed version. And I don't know if there's an actor alive today who could rival Charles Laughton.
Uh oh.
Washu of the Clan Little~ Just a friendly suggestion, take it or leave it. Call him Harlan, call him Mr. Ellison, call him anything but "Harl".
And if you'd like to see Mr. Wyatt's puppy beast, http://homerdog.com/ is the place to be.
L.
Cindy, feel free to use my Sister Who Attacked From The Basement story, just as long as I get an "Acknowledgment to the life of Todd Cassel" credit at the end like Harlan did with The Terminator.
Oh, and also an autographed copy.
-TODD
Konnichi wa, folks!
HARLAN ELLISON: Hi, Harl. Good to see you again. I mean, real good.
MICHAEL: While TREKKIES can be called a very terrifying film, I think it really is the kind of flick a lot of jerkwads point to to prove that ALL Star Trek fans are twisted creeps. It ranks up there with BIRTH OF A NATION as one of the most shamelessly offensive cinematic offerings in a long time (GODZILLA (1998) and BATTLEFIELD EARTH aside). As Harlan explained in his XENOGENESIS, not ALL fans are malevolent. The worse ones are so hideous and loathsome, however, you're drawn to their sickening behaviour with morbid fascination. Kind of like Jerry Springer, sadly.
ROB: Yes, caught SECONDS on American Movie Classics myself...John Frankenheimer is sure one heck of an oddball..to think, this is the same man who made ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. Still, SECONDS is a wonderful nightmarish trip, and it connected with me personally on an even deeper level...as you get older, you begin to hate or despise yourself for whatever reason, the way you look, the way you sound...who you pretty much ARE. So, you bail out and become reborn. That didn't solve Rock's problems, though, as we all know...
MR. WYATT: Yes, there's nothing more hideous than when someone might describe a story you laboured on for days, weeks, moths, YEARS on end as 'okay'. Tell me you love it, tell me you hate it, JUST CALL IT ANYTHING BUT OKAY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!! This applies to everything else in life; for heaven's sake have SOME sort of reaction instead of NO reaction!
Speaking of which...what is your own favourite kind of dog? I've always had a deep adoration for basset hounds. I have one at home, and I can safely say the very first time he arrived was the happiest day of my life. I really do think basset hounds were put on the face of this earth to take away some of our misery and despair. I mean, LOOK at them! Just LOOK at them! From that low body to those clumpy paws to that gravity-sensitive face to those impossibly long ears. They're not sexy, they're not handsome, but they're kind and gentle as well as humility personified. Basset hounds are my own personal gaurdian angels.
Stubborn as all hell, though...
Well, that wraps it up.
Little Washu
Michael,
There was a full size Ramadan figure? It thought that only came in the small version (full disclosure: I have the 10th anniversary Sandman statue, and a fine piece of work it is, sitting on a bookshelf (which also has a bronze Robert E. Lee on the top, with Mardi Gras beads strung on it, but that's another story)). Where'd you score the Ramadan at?
Regards,
Joseph
Michael~ I'm not the cook at our house, so all I can do is pin the recipes to the fridge and turn on the puppy dog eyes once in awhile. (That, and Bill knows I don't do spicy.) But I'm dying to try the taco recipe. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. I'll remind the chef again of your contributions. He also has a recipe for French Onion soup courtesy Alton Brown that has been languishing for awhile.
My mom is coming home from the hospital on Saturday! (And there was much rejoicing!)
::oh so glad for the return to status quo::
L.
Heigh-ho, all...glad to see the general tone of this board has become more friendly. Thought I'd toss in a couple of pennies.
Lia is doing great in her new job -- she has been assigned a client in her 20's who is graduating high school in spite of her disabilities, and has the added burden of diabetes...something Lia knows a lot about, as I have been diabetic for almost a decade now. She comes home at 5 every day smiling. Maybe coffee-boy was a blessing in a horribly ugly disguise, I dunno. All I really know is that I'm happier now that she is happier. I guess that's the definition of a good marriage.
The Quesada Daredevil action figure? Feh. Try the full-size Sandman Ramadan figure. Beautiful. Or come over to my house and gaze with envy on my signed Dick Sprang painting. Or my giant Buddy Christ action figure (just for you, Kevin).
Scariest movie ever? "Trekkies." No contest.
Scariest book? "The Iron Dream," by Norman Spinrad.
AND, this weekend only, Alia and I will be attending the Annual Fiery Foods convention right here in downtown Albuquerque. Not for the faint of tongue! Thousand of lunatics all sweating and grinning. Can't wait to see what new treats they have for the spice-lovers. I'll report on the best salsas/sauces next week. Hey Lynn, didja try that green chile recipe yet? Can you get the Big Jim peppers out there?
Best to all,
Michael
habanero in one hand, milk in the other
Susan,
Here is some information about Robert Brabham in Columbia, SC. I hope this helps.
STATE HEAD INJURY RESOURCE
Office of the Governor
Edgar Brown Building
1205 Pendleton Street, Third Floor
Columbia , SC 29201
803-734-0465
Fax: 803-737-6323
Director: Robert Brabham
STATE HEAD INJURY RESOURCE
Head and Spinal Cord Injury Division
3440 Harden Street Extension
PO Box 4706
Columbia , SC 29240
803-737-6474
Fax: 803-737-6323
Director: Robert Brabham
This is old news to the world at large, but if it might be new to anyone in here, it's worth repeating... the Criterion Collection DVD of my favorite Cronenberg picture, "Dead Ringers," is now out of print -- BUT unlike most of their out-of-print discs it can still be had from some regular channels at regular prices, though probably not for much longer. The disc features a nice transfer and an extraordinarily informative commentary track with Cronenberg, Irons and others. Highly recommended.
I now return me to my regularly scheduled lurking.