Culture

Mike has a lovely rememberance of June Carter Cash.

Oh, sure, you can talk about your Asian dictator Live Journals and so on. But I don’t think that sort of thing even comes close to Julius Caesar’s weblog. Hee hee hee. (Via Brad De Long.)

Mr. Sterling, titan of the Friday night prime time landscape, will not be returning next fall (original). Total cliffhanger: now I’ll never know if he was gonna get reelected! I imagine I will assuage my grief with badly written fanfic… No, no, I won’t do that. It is more or less being replaced by this (original): Kate Fox (Silverstone) works as an associate in her father’s Los Angeles law office. In addition to being a sharp divorce attorney, Kate has a knack for matchmaking. She considers her gift a hobby until a socialite bride credits Kate and word of her talent spreads. Soon Kate is juggling the conflicting worlds of divorce and true love. Her father Jerry would rather she focused on work — and her reluctant law partner Nick couldn’t agree more. However, Kate is determined to “spread the love.” Plus, a chance meeting with a handsome stranger (David Conrad, Relativity) may help her find true love in the process. ...

Hey, it’s nearly time for a new Neal Stephenson book! (It was nearly time for a Neal Stephenson book a couple of years ago, but since he’s been working on going to space I think the wait is pretty forgivable.) Quicksilver is a historical novel, and is volume one of a … of a cycle. 944 pages. Booyah! The publishing monolith has provided us with an excerpt.

Yep, Richard Thompson really does cover “Kiss” on the bonus CD included in his latest album. It’s actually not that mindbending; it makes me want to hear him play guitar on Prince albums (Prince being a not that bad guitarist himself) but I don’t think he improved on the fundamental riff in any way. Which, come to think of it, speaks to Prince’s guitar skills. Psychedelic Republicans scores far higher on the wrongness meter. I kind of want these, but only kind of. My covetous instincts are sufficiently slaked by looking at the pictures on the Internet. I would, however, pay real cash money for a neocon Tarot deck.

Hey, Richard Thompson made the front page of CNN.com. Trival little interview, but cool anyhow. “I prefer to work autobiographical elements into the fiction so that you can’t see the join, like a well-made toupee.”

Do not fear the giant robots, for El Santo is here! Santo Street is in the business of selling Mexican movie posters. To me, that can mean only one thing: masked wrestlers (original)! These are just so very cool.

The Great Sasuke continues to get all the good press (original), although CNN failed to post a picture of the new mask. No worries; as the premier provider of masked politician news on the Internet, I tracked one down. Very sleek, and I think the coat of arms on the side is an especially nice touch.

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.