Culture

Is there anything you would like to tell us about the Academy Award nominations (original) this year? “It’s not the first time a Cronenberg movie has gotten a nomination.” Really? Wait — Spider didn’t get nominated. Was it M. Butterfly? “No. Movies about gender issues are in the spotlight this year; M. Butterfly was 1993.” That’s kind of unfair. Hillary Swank’s Oscar for Boys Don’t Cry was in 1999. “OK, yeah, I’m just being catty. Anyhow, it wasn’t any of those Cronenberg flicks. Nor was it Naked Lunch.” ...

The Brattle Line (original) is the Brattle Theater’s new web board. I’ll be poking around there.

This morning I recorded the first chapter of The Man of Bronze (original) onto MP3. Audacity is perfectly functional and perfectly free. My USB headphones worked fine too. So I guess that means I can podcast, huh? I want to get a couple of chapters ahead, but then I’ll start weekly Doc Savage podcasts, a chapter at a time.

Kip Manley (he’s back!) notes that Tove Jansson’s comic book work will be coming into print in the United States soon. … why, the Moomins, of course.

So far the score in the War on Christmas (original) goes something like this: Number of people who’ve told me the PC police will yell at anyone who says “Merry Christmas”: 3 Number of times I’ve been yelled at for saying Merry Christmas: 0 Number of attorneys ready to file suits against people who substitute “Happy Holidays” for “Merry Christmas”: 1550 Number of ACLU employees in the main New York office: 170 (original) (in 2002) ...

It is somewhat unlikely that I will do a best movies post this year, because I fell in love and maintaining an LDR wreaks merry havoc with the movie-going. I liked Sin City and A History of Violence; they make a nice pair of bookends, as one’s a commentary on the memes captured by the other. Roger Ebert’s list (original) looks pretty good, though. I wanted to see most of the movies he lists.

My opinion on the news I just read is sort of an incoherent haze of happiness. So, Mister Bond, would you like a six CD set (original) of Richard Thompson rarities and live performances for your birthday? “Yes please.” Gosh. What’s going to be on it? Lots of stuff. (original) An entire CD full of live performances with extended improvisations. A CD of covers! Which has that cover of “Willie and the Hand Jive/Not Fade Away” he was doing on the 1985 tour on it — pity they didn’t stick his “ Hey Joe” on there. What an insane set.

The Brattle Theatre Watch-A-Thon (original) is pretty tempting. I could see a lot of movies between November 11th and December 4th. HEY. YOU. Would you sponsor me?

Not that I’ve got a bootleg copy of Good vs. Evil or anything, but if I did it’d be medium quality video recorded from the Sci-Fi Channel (original) with the Sci-Fi logo in the upper right hand corner and all. But it’d be the whole schmear on three DVDs, both the first season on USA and the second season on Sci-Fi. So it’d be totally worth it. There might be an email address — dvd@timlarock.com — on the amateurish menu screen. Or this might all be a complex sting operation on my part. I dunno.

NBC bought the new Sorkin show. They paid a hunka hunka burning money, it’s a show about a live comedy show (c.f. SNL), and that’s most of the informational content of the article I just linked to. Anticipatory.