Four or five episodes in, and by my reckoning, Mister Sterling has pretty much jumped the shark. Wasn’t much of a shark, at that. There was a lot of promise in the premise of a Senator appointed to fill out a term who turned out to be an independent, but it’s squandered by making him a Democrat in independent clothing. So far, other than a quick list of issues in the first episode, there’s really nothing about him that doesn’t follow the liberal line. Which isn’t a bad thing per se, but don’t tell me he’s an independent thinker. Heck, his true blue Democratic staff anointed him as “the guy we always wanted to work for” last episode. ...

You gotta love these little self-fulfilling prophecies. The New York Sun tells us, in the course of arguing that anti-war protests should be forbidden, that “His [Thomas Friedman’s] point was that if terrorists strike again at America and kill large numbers of Americans, the pressure to curb civil liberties and civil rights will be ‘enormous and unstoppable.’ What we took from that was that the more successful the protesters are in making their case in New York, the less chance they’ll have the precious constitutional freedom to protest here the next time around.” ...

Weird gaming idea of the day: You hand out character sheets that are folded up like origami, and instruct the players not to unfold them. They start out with the stats and skills and self-knowledge that are visible on the outside. At various points in play, you instruct them to make certain unfolds. New information is thus revealed, and put into play. If you wanted to randomize things a little, you could use a cootie catcher, but I’m not sure the associations are right. ...

OK. This is the movie trilogy game. It’s really simple. Pick three movies that form a trilogy, but weren’t meant to. My personal favorite is this group: Henry V (the Branagh version), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and Henry and June. The Henry Trilogy. See? It’s easy. You can go thematic, too. Heavenly Creatures, The Young Poisoners Handbook, and The Butcher Boy. The Children of the British Empire Behaving Badly Trilogy. It’s best if it’s a trilogy with a weird angle, which is why the Henrys beat the Children all hollow, but the Children are an OK entry because who’d ever imagine three movies like that? Also, they don’t share many other elements, although Ireland (where The Butcher Boy is set) is a bit close to England (where Young Poisoners Handbook is set). You want as little in common between the movies as possible other than the linking theme… no, that’s not quite right. Elements have to either be the same (the linking theme, the location, etc.) or different. You can’t have two movies set in swamps and one set in mountains, but if all three are in swamps, that’d be OK. ...

HKFlix.com has a new edition of Battle Royale in stock, which may be of interest to — well, it’s of interest to me. I’ve wanted to see this for a while. The plot is simple; a few dozen Japanese teenagers, all from the same high school class, are put on an island. Each one gets a weapon. Last one off wins. Refuse to fight and you die. ...

This picture is probably the coolest picture I have seen in years. No kidding. It’s a no kidding high tech not yet perfected invisibility cloak. Go look. Now. It’s a guy standing in the middle of a park and you can see right through him. It is incredibly science fictional. It’s not Photoshopped.

Reportedly, CafePress was showing their print on demand book offerings at the Alternative Press Expo (original). I’ve heard one second-hand description of the quality as very good. If anyone reading this happens to have been there, I’m exceedingly curious and would welcome a report.

Anyone wanna form a pool on when stuff like [SMS flirting services](http://web.archive.org/web/20210614020153/http://web.archive.org/web/20210614020153/http://www.smartmobs.com/archives/000244.html (original) “Smart Mobs -”) (original) is gonna appear in a major Hollywood movie? I’m thinking summer 2005. Won’t happen this year, and 2004 is just a little too early. Hollywood’s conservative about youth culture.

I was intending to have a busy movie weekend, but after City of God I really didn’t want to see anything else. I actually went down to the Copley Place to see Intacto, but it was sold out twenty minutes before showtime, so I punted to City of God. The Copley is a lousy excuse for an art house theater, but it was the only place in town showing Intacto; thus, I wound up in a cramped little bandbox with a floor that sloped up to the tiny little screen. Pathetic. ...

Hey, it’s about time for Richard Thompson to release a new album (original). There’s a sample song (in WMA format, boo hiss) here (original). (Thanks to Jim Henley.) The album looks pretty stripped down, just him and Danny Thompson and Michael Jerome, who was the drummer on his last tour. I saw one of those shows, and I thought Jerome was really good. The first track is titled “Gethsemane” — I can’t wait. ...