Where pop culture meets geek culture and they make out a little.
Posts tagged World News
Skelebunnies and My Next Novel
Apr 6th
Has anyone read Skelebunnies? And if so, is it as awesome as it sounds? And if so, how is it possible for anything to be so damn awesome?
And I know that gilgrim is shaking his head as he reads this, no doubt, since Skelebunnies is published by the same good people who published his own Cemeterians, but damnit, I barely pay attention to anything at the best of times.
So, I’m thinking of a novel to write. It has this lost tribe of Egypt who, after the Babylonians invade Jerusalem, take off with the Ark of the Covenant (the first, wooden ark, not the second golden one) to Africa. The tribe eventually interbreeds with the natives and, after a few centuries, the tribe loses track of the Ark, though the story of its escape into Africa remains a part of the tribe’s history. Then, in modern times, a British archeologist who has been searching for the Ark is able (based on the tribe’s story and DNA evidence that suggests they are descended from the Israelites) to track down the wooden ark to a museum in Africa. But after he publishes his find (to international acclaim) the ark disappears. He then embarks on a quest to re-discover the ark, only to realize that an African warlord has stolen the ark and plans to use its power (plus a stock pile of nuclear weaponry) to declare war on the world.
So most of that…except for the stuff about “nuclear weapons” and “declaring war on the world” is all pretty much true…
You know what they say about truth and fiction, right? Well, that’s a best seller ripe for the taking.
Muse — Muscle Museum
One Day Later
Nov 5th
There are plans (GREAT PLANS!) in the works for a more visually stimulating response to yesterday’s historic day of history making historicity. We shall see if said plans come to fruition.
What I will say, at this point, is that I’m still digesting it. I mean, it’s a little weird to think that we (well, those of us who voted) were a part of a truly monumental moment in American history. More than that, though, what Obama emphasized during his speech last night was true…we’ve (the country) only taken the first few steps on a long and (probably) difficult road.
Today in “The Slow Demise of All Media Not Digital” Google Books
Oct 29th
See, the thing is, when you have more money than almost anybody (or any company) you can decide to blatantly disregard existing laws and do what you want.
So, remember when Google said it would start scanning books into an online digital database that anyone could access for free? Well, even though most of what’s in there can’t be seen completely (mostly you get “previews” of books, unless a particular work is out of copyright, then the whole thing is there) the Association of American Publishers and the Author’s Guild both decided to sue Google. It was announced today that Google has reached an agreement with both parties.
A Brief Moment to Say Goodbye
Sep 9th
It is entirely possible that when you read this, the universe will have ended…or been sucked into a black hole…or something. Right now it’s almost 11 PM on the West Coast which means that they should be turning on the Large Hadron Collider over there in Europe soon.
If you’re interested, this Wired article gives a good account of some the stuff they are hoping the LHC might help to make more clear.
Of course, since we’re all going to die in a slow, agonizing way, it’s probably of little account.
Either this guy is stupid or…no, he’s just stupid.
Jul 11th
So a dude walks into a library in D.C. with a copy of Shakespeare’s first folio and asks if the staff there can authenticate it.
It just so happens that exact folio was stolen from Durham University Library (in Jolly ol’ England!) 10 years ago.
The guy claims to have bought the folio in Cuba.
I’m not positive…but is the Supreme Court displaying some sort of multiple personality disorder?
Jun 25th
It’s been a while since I’ve gone off on a politically minded rant…a variety of reasons having contributed to this; disgust with the democrats nomination process, nothing to say about McCain that hasn’t been said before, generally trying not to pay a whole lot of attention for a while.
In any event, the supreme court had a couple rulings today.
I’m waiting for the next piece of bad news.
Jun 23rd
Today started out well enough. I’m only working through Thursday this week as Friday starts a 10 day vacation, so I was in reasonably good spirits this morning until…
I heard on the radio that George Carlin had died.
For a long time I’ve considered Carlin a hero of sorts. I’ve never had a real big desire to be a stand-up comedian. But George Carlin was one of those few performers who could accurately be described as a “wordsmith,” and as a person who also fancies himself pretty handy with the…what do you call it when you make with the words in a certain order, sentences…I’ve always greatly admired his skill with language.
I am trying not to fall asleep…and failing.
May 7th
I woke up at 4 am. Well, the alarm went off at 3:30 and I got out of bed at 4:30 so I’m splitting the difference by claiming 4. This quad venti iced latte ain’t doing it yet…
So today marks the final day of the semester for me. I have an abundant amount of reading to do for my workshop since 1) A crapload of people brought in pages last week and, 2) I fell asleep during the Dodger game last night and didn’t finish. I still have five submissions to read, but I’ll space them out over the course of the day so that should be fine.
The Sun is…what’s better then awesomely outrageous?
May 2nd
You know The Sun, right? The British “paper” that’s a mishmash of news, sports, soft-core porn and just plain weird ass shit. Today, I read this story, about a man, wearing a blood stained night gown and slippers, who walked into a kebab shop, informed the workers that he killed someone, and then sat in the eatery with his head in his hands until the police arrived. But wait! It gets better. The man, it turns out, is Anthony Morley, the first winner of Mr Gay UK. Hold on…we’re not done yet. When the police go into the Morley’s apartment, they find that he had cut a chunk of leg “meat” off of the victim, and
They found flesh on the kitchen worktop. Tests proved it was human. A police source said: “It appears it was being prepared for cooking.”
Disturbingly well done Sun. Well done, indeed.
Beating a Dead Horse – One More Post About Rowling/Vander Ark/Fair Use
Apr 21st
Well, the trial is “over” in that, no more evidence will be submitted or arguments made. Although, both sides will continue to file briefs, and the actual verdict isn’t expected for several weeks. So at least the crying on the stand parts of this story are done with.
Now I’m going to excerpt a bit of Neil Gaiman’s most recent journal post:
Lots of emails from people asking me to comment on the JK Rowling/ Steve Vander Ark copyright case. My main reaction is, having read as much as I can about it, given the copyright grey zone it seems to exist in, is a “Well, if it was me, I’d probably be flattered”, but that obviously isn’t how J.K. Rowling feels. I can’t imagine myself trying to stop any of the unauthorised books that have come out about me or about things I’ve created over the years, and where possible I’ve tried to help, and even when I haven’t liked them I’ve shrugged and let it go.
Given the messy area that “fair use” exists in in copyright law I can understand the judge not wanting to rule, and assume that whatever he says the case will head off to the court of appeal.
It goes on for a bit…I suggest that you read the whole thing.
Anyway, in a little while we’ll know which way the judge has ruled…and then whichever side loses will appeal, then we’ll wait a while for the appellate case, then that decision, then another appeal, then (I’m betting) the Supreme Court. My guess is that this will turn out to be one of the formative cases for Copyright law for the next 100 years.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – The Longest Time
Anthony Minghella has died.
Mar 18th
No, this isn’t a joke. He has, in fact, died.
Not sure who he is?
He directed, among other films, The English Patient, for which he won an Oscar, Cold Mountain, one of my all time favorite movies, and The Talented Mr. Ripley, one of the few films I’ve actually walked out of even though everyone else seemed to love it.
It is, I think, a big loss for Hollywood.
![]()
Indeed…it appears that oddness abounds this fine, nearly spring morn…
Mar 17th
Is an entire e-mail I just sent to exsulis which, I thought, sounded rather nice and I would share with all you Normalinauts out there…
Take, for instance, this incoming referrer link…
http://doctorwho.xooit.fr/t412-Dossier-Doctor-Who-et-les-USA.htm
from a French Doctor Who forum. I say thank you random French person, whoever you are, and I know that such a thing makes exsulis all warm and fuzzy inside!
In unrelated news, Terry Pratchett, as we all know, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. But it recently came to light that he has donated a “princely sum” to Alzheimer’s research, and asked that his fans do the same…
You can, of course, donate directly, or if you’re like me, or you like T-shirts, you can do this…
![]()
Super Tuesday = Pornstars!
Feb 5th
Look, if one candidate could get the backing of the powerful porn lobby, well that’d candidate would have an easy…sticky…march to the white house…
And as an added bonus, there’s a new, special, Super Tuesday poll up for everyone to vote even more today!
Why you gotta bring me down Mojo?
Feb 1st
You know, it’s Friday afternoon. I have the very real possibility of sleeping more than four hours tonight. My books is done and sent off. I’m feeling pretty good.
Until, that is, I head over to The Newswire and find this….
I don’t know if I should cry or laugh?
I said to my wife, last night, if it comes down to McCain and Hillary, then McCain will destroy her. I base this on McCain’s (real or perceived) history as an independent thinking Republican. He can get away with military Hawkishness because of his military history much more than Hillary can in a general election. And given the choice of McCain or Hillary, all the GOP will go McCain out of sheer hatred for the Clintons, and I think he’ll draw more from the independents then she will.
But the point Coulter makes about their positions being so similar is true…
McCain scares the GOP because he does not tow the party line…which is fine, but does the GOP hierarchy even know what the party line is anymore? I mean after Bush jr who the f can tell.
If given the choice of McCain or Hillary, right now, I’d probably lean toward McCain. Even though I hate that after the 2000 election he felt the need to take a hard right, to set up this run at the white house, I can understand it. What I don’t understand is how someone with Hillary’s rhetoric can be the leading candidate for the “liberal” party.
God help us if Obama isn’t the Dems candidate.
A Post with a Variety of Random Topics as is Befitting for This, a Very Random Week
Feb 1st
First off…let me just say to Spookymuffin that I would dance around like a freak to that Feist song if that were the type of thing I did…which it totally is NOT…seriously, there is no incriminating video of my attempts to recreate that video in my backyard while wearing nothing but a snorkel mask…so don’t even try to find it…
Here’s a version of the song that is, I think, even better than the one on the album…
And to c, I’m not sure where you live, but here in Southern California, as you might imagine, the WGA strike is a pretty big deal since most of the WGA members live and work here (yeah, yeah, New York, calm down). I suppose you could live here and have totally ignored it, but I get the sense that is not the case…In any event, here’s the basics:
The writer’s are looking for two things, essentially. First, an increase in the residuals that they receive on the sell of DVD’s, and some sort of agreement on getting compensation for work produced for “new media.” Let’s take each of those points separately…
Under the current (or I should say, expired) contract whenever a DVD is sold, the writer of that DVD is given .04 dollars. That wasn’t a mistake, on a 20 dollar DVD, the writer gets 4 cents. The WGA would like this increased to the whopping amount of…wait for it…8 cents. A few points on WGA union history…That 4 cents deal was originally “sealed” in the early 80’s. At the time the studios were claiming that is was not possible to know how profitable (or, if at all…PALEASE!) the video market might be, so they convinced the WGA to take 4 cents a video. The WGA consented on the basis that they would take it as an interim deal, and after the video market had a few years to further establish itself, then the video residuals would be re-negotiated. This, of course, never happened. So the WGA took a deal, 20 years ago, they knew was a little bogus, in an effort to help stabilize the video market but never got the deal they wanted, and had been promised would come at some point. I think all sane and rational people can agree that the 4 cents to 8 cents jump is reasonable.
The “new media” thing refers, specifically to the internet. The studios are claiming that (just like with the original video deal) that there is no way to know how successful the internet will be in generating revenue for video content produced or distributed there. Several studio executives, however, have touted (on video, man are they dumb) how much money they have made/will make from internet revenue. Probably the most well known case of this crap came from The Office. A couple of years ago the show produced some 5 minute webisodes during the summer. These were written by the show’s writing staff, acted in by the actors, etc. The writer’s got paid 0 dollars for their work…that’s right, not a single penny, because the studio claimed it was some sort of promotional material, and therefore, they weren’t required to pay the writers for it. Of course, that didn’t stop NBC from force streaming a commercial to anyone who wanted to watch the webisodes in question….
Basically, the WGA is saying, money is being made on internet stuff and we deserve our share as the people WHO WROTE THE SHIT!
And the fact of the matter is we are going to see that, over the next couple of decades, more and more people are going to “consume” their entertainment online. So that, essentially, is the more important issue of the two.
Here’s something that tells it much better than me, and it’s got a great soundtrack (one point, the video states that a song writer gets paid anytime his song is performed…that is not, actually, true…any one can perform any song live, without having to pay a usage fee because congress, in a rare act of sanity, thought it sensible that if you wanted to hear a Barbara Streisand song at your wedding you didn’t need to hire HER to sing it, or pay an exorbitant fee, but could just hire the nearest cover band, but I digress…)
And here’s one on the more specific details surrounding the writers of The Office…
One last point, lest you think WGA members are all money grubbing, as the first video points out, about 1/2 of all guild members are usually unemployed (thus is the nature of the entertainment industry). One point it doesn’t make, however, is that the average salary of a WGA member is in the 35,000 dollar range (that’s including the residuals). There are some who are ridiculously wealthy, yes, but the overwhelming majority are solidly in the middle class.
As my previous post suggested, the book is done, the deadline has been met and I have a very real sense of…nothing. My wife asked how I felt and I couldn’t really respond. Not empty, per say, but not triumphant either. In reality, the book still needs some minor tweaking before it starts going off to agents and publishers all over, but for where it was going, it’s probably all right. That final 20 pages, that I’ve been meaning to get to for 2 1/2 years (hey, get off my back I’ve been in grad school) actually turned out to be 150, but what’re you gonna do? The ending certainly works better, I think, having gone in the direction it did…and I guess, as much as I hate to admit it, deep down…like, REALLY deep down…I’m an optimist…who knew?
And wouldn’t you know it, in this week where I was already sleeping about 2 or 3 hours a night, the kid runs off and develops an allergic reaction to penicillin. Currently, her face resembles a half squished melon, and this morning she could open her eyes about half way. According to the doctor, it can take up to three months for hives to disappear completely…damn does it suck to be 1 1/2! See what you have to look forward to gilgrim and april? Aren’t you so totally psyched!