Doc Searls makes a really good point (original) about the nature of weblogs, and I think it’s relevant to why I chose to move my daily meanderings off of LiveJournal. (Yes, I know some of you are reading them there. Don’t distract me.) He says, inspired by this comment by Clay Shirky, that weblogs are like radio. Webloggers are broadcasting to the world, rather than having a conversation with their readers. And you know, that’s pretty much true. ...
I want to see this movie rather badly. Bollywood remakes Reservoir Dogs? Yeah.
Having trouble with Joyce’s Ulysses? There’s hope.
It’s up! Adventure Strips went live today with Mike Barr’s Sorcerer of Fortune — set, of course, in the city of Fortune. What a great title. Also debuting is Ted Stampyak’s Jazz Age. Comics are always free on the day they go up (but subscribe anyhow, cause it’s cheap). Check it out. Athena Voltaire debuts tomorrow. Seriously cool looking stuff.
A California company has been authorized to make the first private moon landing. I have to admit I’m a bit puzzled by this, since the last time I looked it wasn’t illegal to land on the moon. At worst it ought to be necessary to get permits for the launch; why does the U.S. government care where they’re going? And how does the rest of the world feel about the U.S. claiming the right to decide who makes Moon landings? ...
It looks like is getting made into a movie (original). (If I were on the ball I’d hit the extras casting session tomorrow, but time prevents.) The book is excellent and highly recommended; Dennis Lehane has a knack for writing the dark side of Boston while still caring about the city deeply. And I adore his characters. Mystic River departs from his earlier series work, probably (from his interviews) because he didn’t want to get typecast. I think it was a good choice. Kenzie and Genarro are compelling characters, but at some point they’ll get overused. Their relationship is core to the series; how many changes can he ring before it grows stale? ...
Dave Barry, of all people, made me tear up this morning.
Adventure Strips looks just amazingly cool; it’s a subscription-based webcomics site focusing on — well. Adventure Strips. Gotta love the straightforward branding. I wouldn’t be quite so excited except that the art samples look wonderful. Mike Barr is doing one of the titles, too.
The Hugo vote breakdown (original) is now online. Bujold fans like Gaiman, no surprise. You can always get so much out of poring over Australian Rules voting results. Perhaps a better use of time would be reading the Hugo nominated stories. You won’t find the novels there, but almost all of the other fiction is online. Nice. I remember when Clarinet did a CD containing all the stories (and some of the novels), and that was a big deal.
Somehow I missed the news that John Malkovich was playing Ripley in an upcoming adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels. Excellent casting choice; I have to remember to keep an eye out for this.