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Gregory Maguire (author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, among other things) has a new book out. It's called Mirror, Mirror and riffs on the Snow White story-- the poisoned apple is Lucrezia Borgia's handiwork. Maguire is going to be doing a reading at the Concord Bookshop on Saturday, November 1st at 3:00 p.m. Chris and I went to a reading last year at the Maynard Public Library (Lost: A Novel had just been published) and he was quite entertaining.
Just finished reading Carl Hiaasen's Sick Puppy, a strange little fable set in present-day Florida. Dirty politics, back-door dealings, rhino horns, litterbugs, Labradors and more…Palmer Stoat was feeling better. He rubbed a hand across the rhino's bristly plated hide and said, "What a magnificent creature."
Durgess thought: If only I had ten bucks for every time I've heard that line.
Stoat produced two thick cigars and offered one to his faithful guide. "Cohibas," Stoat said, "the genuine article." Theatrically he fired up.
Durgess declined. He grimaced at the acrid comingling of fumes, stogie and rhino piss.
Stoat said, "Tell me something, little bwana."
Oh blow me, Durgess almost said.
"How old you figure this animal to be?"
"I ain't too sure."
Stoat said, "She looks to be in her prime."
"Yeah, she does," said Durgess, thinking: Blind, tame, fat and half-senile— a regular killing machine, all right.
Da Vinci's Notebook is playing at Capo's on Friday, November 11th! I love these guys. Check out their video "Title of the Song" on Comedy Central. You know it's geek-rock when a single album covers Bill Gates, Internet porn, and Heather Graham.from
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A much-needed dose of Bruce Campbell is coming soon to Kendall Square Cinema: Bubba Ho-tep. Director/ co-writer Don Coscarelli sums it up thusly:"[…] Bubba Ho-tep, based on the short story by acclaimed cult-author Joe R. Lansdale. Bubba Ho-tep tells the "true" story of a seventy year-old "Elvis" (still alive after trading places with an Elvis impersonator years before his "death") who finds himself stuck in a rest home in East Texas. Elvis teams up with another elderly resident, played by the legendary Ossie Davis (who believes himself to be President John F. Kennedy, dyed black!), to challenge a soul-sucking Egyptian mummy which has targeted their long-term care facility as his happy hunting grounds. […]"(I loved the closing sentence of his essay: "If you plan on seeing one Elvis vs. Mummy movie this year I hope that Bubba Ho-tep is it."). Tangentially related: I just read on bruce-campbell.com that Bruce is working on a new book— Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way.
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As of last night, I am no longer the only person in North America who hasn't seen The Two Towers. At long last, we went to Sean's place and watched the DVD-- great stuff. My only complaint: the Legolas/ Aragorn shower scene must be included on the 4-Disc Platinum Series™ Special Extended DVD Edition, because I still haven't seen it. Bummer. I guess I'll have to console myself by reading The Very Secret Diary of Legolas.
Went to see Kill Bill on Friday night. Hadn't paid much attention to the previews, but it seemed to be getting a good reception on Rotten Tomatoes (holding at 80%, right now). Plus, I'd enjoyed the clip that ran when Vivica Fox was a guest on The Daily Show and I was in the mood for violent escapist fantasy.Fortunately, I'd read the headline from the Boston Globe's review: Sure it's gory, but Quentin Tarantino's `Kill Bill' is gripping pop art. It's bloody for a Tarantino film, which is saying something. But in some ways, it's actually less disturbing than Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction. It's completely over the top, with amazing fight choreography by Yuen Woo-Ping (of Matrix and Crouching Tiger fame). If you're a Tarantino fan, go see it. Go now.
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So, for a while now I've been thinking about moving into the 21st century. Jenn uses Blogger and loves it. I've been looking at what Poz did with The Svelte Programmer and thinking that Moveable Type looked good. So, here's my first foray: check out this preview of what popplers may look like in the not-so-distant future. Right now, I have little clue about how to change the look of the thing (still trying to grok stylesheets (see, I told you I was 17th century)), but hope to have it spiffed up pretty soon. My goal is to get everything moved over before the end of the year. We'll see how well that works.
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Tom Baker, the fourth man to play the Time Lord, told BBC Radio Five Live that the "mysterious and strange" Izzard had landed the part.
But the corporation says no final decision has been made on who will star in the TV show when it returns in 2005.
Jonathan Creek star Alan Davies and Richard E. Grant are the bookies' favourites to take the role.
In the interview on Thursday morning, Baker told presenter Julian Worricker that Izzard would bring an "alien quality" to the part. […]
Watched The Daily Show with John Stewart the other night (it's the only news show I trust). Jack Black was the guest, touting his new movie School of Rock. Imagine my surprise when he told John Stewart that he plays Literati (a Scrabble-type word game) and recommended Stefan Fatsis's Word Freak! I just tried playing Literati, and it's pretty good. The interface is easy to figure out (although I flailed for a bit trying to use the "blanks"). I apparently ticked off some grandmother from middle America (I was winning, 300+ to her 100) and she booted me from her table. So much for being a good sport…show
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It was rainy and gross this weekend, so Maynard Fest was mostly a washout. No Oktoberfest, no fireworks, no warm and sunny. Sigh. So, I watched three movies instead. In descending order of goodness: The Day the Earth Stood Still, High Fidelity, The Big Brawl. I really enjoyed the first two, but The Big Brawl was pretty weak for a Jackie Chan movie. I read that he had little to do with the fight choreography, and that seemed quite apparent. I should have known better than to break the cardinal rule: don't watch Jackie Chan movies that weren't made in Hong Kong and/or directed by Jackie Chan.
High Fidelity was entertaining. It's been quite a while since I read the book, so any dissonance between the two was mostly glossed over for me. I don't remember it being set in the U.S. (the movie takes place in Chicago), but they probably did that to make it more palatable to the American movie-going audience (or I've just completely forgotten the novel). John Cusack (and Joan!) were good as always, and I actually liked Jack Black's character. Quite the cast-- lots of appearances by name-brand actors.The Day the Earth Stood Still was classic. I expected it to be very dated (which it was), but on the whole it seemed to have aged better than many sci-fi movies of that era. Good solid performances by Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal, a surprisingly futuristic-looking spaceship and robot, and a really scary little kid. Plus, I have a whole new appreciation for the theremin now. (Download your own Desktop Theremin from the BBC (Windows only).)
Jack Harvey, John Culvenor, Warren Payne, Steve Cowley, Michael Lawrance, David Stuart, and Robyn Williams of Australia, for their irresistible report "An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces."Other Ignitaries are listed on the Winners of the Ig® Nobel Prize page.
[PUBLISHED IN: Applied Ergonomics, vol. 33, no. 6, November 2002, pp. 523-31. A copy is available at http://www.culvenor.com/]
In other diner news, drove by the Boulevard Diner and noticed that they've restored the neon DINER sign. I was thrilled (but bummed that I didn't have my camera with me). Happily, roadsidenut has already got a pic of the "new" sign. She has a page of pix that includes the Boulevard and other Massachusetts diners. (Scroll down-- Boulevard Diner is the third from the bottom.)
BOSTON - An Internet worm that disabled networks across the U.S. Monday and Tuesday temporarily thrust the nation into its most severe maelstrom of productivity since 1992.
