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. ...

This picture (original) is reportedly a shot of the Columbia’s wing from early on her last mission. Maariv is an influential newspaper in Israel, so it would seem this is not a Photoshop job, although I wouldn’t rush to conclusions regarding dents and cracks. I don’t think there’s enough detail in the picture to be sure of what we’re seeing.

OK. I didn’t particularly want to poison the Columbia tragedy by saying something partisan, and I kind of hoped I wouldn’t find myself wanting to. For the most part, nobody in the blogosphere has gotten political about this. There’s been idiotic froth on both wings in comment sections, but you have to expect that, and for the record I find “Bush will use this to push the war!” and “This is Islam’s fault!” equally repellent. ...

I went on a mini RPG binge this weekend, and wound up with quite a bit of good stuff, but the gem of the lot was Charnel Gods (original), by Scott Knipe. It’s a PDF supplement for Sorcerer, and it’s so good it prompted me to buy that game, but it stands perfectly well on its own; at five bucks, there’s no excuse not to buy it if you’ve got any interest in — but I’m getting ahead of myself and reaching for the conclusion already. Tsk. ...