Culture

So it’s not like I’ve been on the edge of my seat awaiting the next Crow movie. However, if you tell me that Lance Mungia is directing, and that the cast includes Dennis “Time To Make The Rent” Hopper and Danny “Badass For Hire” Trejo? Sure, I’m there. We also get Edward “I Had A Career” Furlong, Tara “Eye Candy” Reid, and David “Looking For That Film Breakthrough” Boreanaz. And, as a special bonus, Tito “I’m Actually A No Holds Barred Fighter” Ortiz. (No kidding. Expect bad acting.) But still! Mungia last directed Six-String Samurai and that earns him some trust in my book. ...

Pro wrestling’s seen a lot of unusual venues — Pyongyang comes to mind. But I never thought I’d hear about a lucha libre match held at the Tate Gallery. That’s surreal above and beyond the call of duty. The wrestlers are the real deal, too; could be a fun little match. The artist, Carlos Amorales, apparently uses a lot of lucha libre in his work. I found a few scraps (original) of info (Quicktime video) on him (original). Pomopro wrestling.

Here and there, I’ve seen some snide commentary about Madonna and copyright, thanks to this article (original). Madonna’s been putting out decoy MP3s on the filesharing systems lately. Wendy Seltzer argues that since trademarks are intended to “protect consumers by defending a source’s association with quality goods and services,” Madonna may be diluting her own trademark by associating “Madonna” with the decoy files. Um, yeah. So if the next Matrix flick really sucks, Joel Silver will lose the trademark on “Matrix” as it applies to movies? Does Garth Brooks know that putting out crap albums will make it impossible for him to keep his name trademarked? ...

The Hugo nominations are out. Pretty classy field this year. I’d have to choose The Scar for best novel, but it’s a close call over Bones of the Earth, and I kind of think the latter will win. Michael Swanwick has three other nominations — could be a very good year for him. Oddly, the Sci Fi Wire list (original) is different. They have “Liking What You See: A Documentary” (by Ted Chiang) in the Best Novelette category instead of “Madonna of the Maquiladora”, by Gregory Frost. Normally I’d believe Locus, but Ted Chiang not getting nominated seems so unlikely.

I didn’t think much about the Johnny Cash cover of “Hurt” (Quicktime video) when I heard about it. I figured it’d be a kind of novelty thing, like most of the aging star covering once-edgy alternative music songs are. OK, I was wrong. It’s amazing. Go watch the video. Wow.

My brother’s tres hip internationally acclaimed (really!) design group, Release1 (warning: Flash site, but it’s cool, and it’s my family, so don’t complain), opened the McDonald’s Project tonight. I just got back. Awesome opening — the place was packed, quite literally. There was a line of people outside waiting for people to leave, cause the gallery was over capacity. It’s down at the Berwick Research Project, in Boston, and runs through next weekend. It’ll be in New York in August. ...

Camelot: The Very Secret Diaries (original), in the fine tradition of those other Very Secret Diaries, takes the piss out of Arthur. Not really as good as Cassie Clare’s work, but amusing nonetheless. I’m sure the Very Secret Diaries of Sherlock Holmes will show up next. Watson will kill him if he tries anything.

Landmark Theaters is rolling out digital projectors in all their theaters. In Boston, this means the Kendall Square Cinema; in San Francisco, it means the Embarcadero, the Bridge, the Lumiere, and the Aquarius in Palo Alto. Biggest indie cinema chain ever. This has huge implications for independent film (good ones), which John Tynes explains better than I (original).

So, how are those wacky Bush-hating Dixie Chicks weathering the storm of controversy surrounding their recent comments about our fine President? Sales plummeting? Losing money? Well. Actually, no, not in any sense. Their newest album is still #1 on the March 22 Billboard Country charts (original). That album, Home, is #3 on the Amazon popular music sales chart — and rising, up 11% from yesterday according to JungleScan. Wide Open Spaces is #39 on the Amazon charts, and Fly is #49. ...

A while back I noted the Pattern Recognition annotation effort. t.rev pointed out that it sucked so far. It continues to be more criticism than annotation, but you know, it’s the kind of thing obsessives like me read. And it’s done, except for the Themes section.