Culture

The answer to the question “how does filmed entertainment reach the eyes of the viewer” continues to change, as per this article on direct to video movies. This isn’t anything new, of course; Disney has been doing this for years and years. Just ask any parent. Still and all, it’s significant that the direct to video market in the US is gaining… aha. Legitimacy is the word. Direct to video Disney releases is one thing; a direct to video sequel to Carlito’s Way is more interesting. ...

The Complete New Yorker is pretty cool. Kind of easy to describe, too: it’s every single New Yorker scanned and archived on 8 DVDs. You can get a tour of the interface here (original). Yep, I bought it more or less instantly. Come on — $65 on Amazon (or Barnes and Noble)? Sure thing. It’s cool. The interface is a tad clunky on the Mac, but it’s easy to flip through an issue and it’s very very readable. The search is slowish. I’m not sure how well it’s indexed; a search on Red Sox for the last five years or so returned nothing. On the other hand, a search on Cronenberg was quite successful. I imagine each article is tagged with key words. ...

I should be checking the eTree live music archive (original) more often. Cowboy Junkies, 94 shows. Drive-By Truckers, 138 shows. Hayseed Dixie, 13. Mike Doughty, 42. Three Decemberists shows. Warren Zevon, 53 shows. Mmm, tasty.

For my birthday, I got the amazing Kino Buster Keaton boxed set. 11 DVDs, 11 movies, 20 short features, and a ton of archival material. Much of yesterday was spent in front of the television basking in it. And lemme tell you, Keaton was one ironic fellow. The Playhouse has him playing every single role in a stage company, plus the audience, with as many as nine Keatons on screen at once. Being Buster Keaton, indeed.

The ways in which this is not perfect are very few, very few indeed. P’raps my favorite thing is the comment back in the original post. “When I was really into Buffy I remember thinking everything in The Waste Land secretly applied — it’s good to know it can shift fandoms so well.” “Well, I was thinking that, more to the point, the poem doesn’t apply — the essence of the parody is in mapping possibly the most influential poem of the 20th century, with its World War themes and excessive literary references and multiple phrases in foreign languages, onto a children’s book series written by a woman who can’t even conjugate her pseudo-Latin…” ...

TiVo will be providing video on demand (original) soon. That’s cool; it’s another step in the process that leads to the question, “Why do we care about scheduled TV programs at all?” Doesn’t look like it’ll cost more than the usual subscription. That probably won’t last, though; the free stuff is from IFC, which needs to promote its programs. Someone like (say) HBO doesn’t need the same publicity — we already all know about The Sopranos. ...

And the Hugo envelope please… (original) Best Novel: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke Best Novella: “The Concrete Jungle” by Charles Stross Best Novelette: “The Faery Handbag” by Kelly Link Best Short Story: “Travels with My Cats” by Mike Resnick Best Related Book: The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, edited by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: The Incredibles, written & directed by Brad Bird ...

If you happened to read Global Frequency this week, you might be interested to hear that Le Parkour is not something Warren Ellis made up — it’s a real little urban subculture, originating in France but spreading to England, Russia (original), and no doubt other places. If you didn’t read Global Frequency, Le Parkour is a sort of extreme athletic activity that involves doing incredibly foolhardy things on rooftops without a net. If you’ve seen those Nike commercials (original), that’s Le Parkour. And of course Luc Besson’s gotten his hands into it. Cool looking stuff.

Charlie Stross’ new novel slash collection of short stories is about to be out in stores in the US. It’s also available as a free download (original). Why wait? But do buy as well if you like it.

Mark Cuban isn’t the only guy experimenting with releasing DVDs on the day the movie hits theaters (original). I betcha none of the exhibitors are going to threaten not to show this movie, though.