On HU
Featured Archive Post: Ng Suat Tong on original comics art and a nostalgia for racism.
I talk about Irish music and authenticity.
Voices from the Archive: Matt Thorn on Kirby and the world outside his skull.
Bert Stabler on the new free Chicago comics issue of Lumpen.
Emma Vossen kicks off a short Twilight roundtable by explaining why you should hate Twilight hate memes.
I argue that Edward is a male variation on the manic pixie dream girl.
Peter Sattler wonders what reading influenced Kirby (Charles Hatfield, Jeet Heer, and James Romberger weigh in, among many.)
Mette Ivie Harrison on Bella as a Mormon Goddess.
Charles Reece ends our twilight roundtable with a whimper, as he explains why he hated the series too much to write about it.
We had the first of what may be a regular music sharing post…so let us know what you’ve been listening to if that appeals.
Utilitarians Everywhere
At the Atlantic I got to write about the great romance of Charlotte and Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice.
At the Atlantic I argue that geeks are not necessarily bullied for being geeks (but instead for reasons involving class and gender.)
At the Loyola Center for Digital Ethics I write about the ethics of scanlation.
At Splice Today I argue that US employers are crippled by their hatred of workers.
Also at Splice I talk about the great gospel duo The Consolers.
Other Links
Eleanor Barkhorn on not overselling marriage.
Amanda Marcotte argues that my feminist argument against women in combat is wrong.
The American Conservative on right-wing copyleft.
Miss Universe national costumes.
This story about being out with HIV made me cry.
This Week’s Reading
I finished Sense and Sensibility, read for review a preview copy of Alex Sayf Cummings’ book about the history of music piracy, Democracy of Sound, and started Elmore Leonard’s Get Shorty…which is mediocre, but plugs along quickly. Also started Storms, Carol Ann Harris’ memoir of dating Lindsey Buckingham…which I may or may not finish….
I can’t remember the last time I posted here so some of these might be redundant but: The Silent Twins (Marjorie Wallace – excellent), Lord of Light (Zelazny), Treasure Island, Cabal (Clive Barker – kind of dull), A Devil is Waiting (Jack Higgins – worst novel I’ve read in a couple years, someone left it behind where I was vacationing). I’ve got a couple longer things that I’ve been reading for a while. Will mention them when they’re finished.
Comics-wise I’ve only read the new Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes collection of Carl Barks comics, which I wasn’t too excited about, but has some brilliant flashes.
I’ve seen too many movies lately to mention them all, but here are the highlights:
Exiled (Johnny To), When the Wind Blows, Blue (Kieslowski), Dumbo (DISNEY), Dead of Night (1945), God of Cookery (Stephen Chow), Funny Face (the one with Audrey Hepburn), Son of Paleface (Frank Tashlin), The Flim-Flam Man (w. George C. Scott and Slim Pickens), The White Hell of Pitz Palu, Arizona Dream (Kusturica), The Seven Year Itch (Wilder), Cluny Brown (Lubitsch), and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Parajanov).
A few others that were less good but worth noting: Darwin (Greenaway), Black Magic (the one with Orson Welles), Violence at High Noon (Oshima), Wild Geese (Toyoda), and No Regrets for Our Youth (Kurosawa).
Also a bunch of Looney Tunes cartoons of widely varying quality. (The highlight was easily The Great Piggy Bank Robbery but Roman Legion Hare was alright too.)
Still reading The Savage Detectives. Bought Rivers of London on a friend’s recommendation.
Happy to have been of service as the dissenting voice on your article about scanlation ethics. *twirls mustache*
Well twirled!
I watched the Hunger Games movie, and found it lacking, having read the book first. Not that the book was a mind-blowing, life-changing experience or anything, but most all of the stuff I really liked in it either got left out or quickly passed over in the movie. And really, the movie seemed rushed, as if it was trying to make sure to cram in all the important stuff, but not spending enough time on anything to make it seem important.
So I decided to go ahead and read the other books in the series; I would rather get what I can out of them, since I don’t trust the movies to get them right. I’m a few pages from finishing Catching Fire, which means I’ll go on to Mockingjay right away, I suspect. I’ve found the second one decent enough, although I saw the big twist that got Katniss back in the arena coming pretty early on (whoops, spoilers). I think what I’m finding most interesting about the series right now is the slowly growing awareness of social justice in its teenage heroine, and considering the target audience, I like that message and hope it gives kids a lot to think about. A lot of what it’s trying to say might seem trite and simplistic to adults, but I bet it’s a good series to get kids thinking about the world, and that’s cool.
I’m still working on Buffy, and enjoying it well enough, and I started watching the new David Fincher/Kevin Spacey series House of Cards, which was just released on Netflix.
Ave: You saw some good movies there. I really dig Exiled, and I keep meaning to watch more Johnnie To movies. There are two or three of them in my Netflix queue right now. And God of Cookery is pretty fun, if not as good as most of the other Stephen Chow movies I’ve seen.
Yeah, likewise, I keep meaning to watch more Johnny To movies. Did you see Mad Detective or Triangle (w. co-directors Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam). Thought those were pretty good.
God of Cookery had me from the awesome Tampopo parody, but my favorite’s still probably King of Beggars.
Is Exiled the one with the shoot out in the hallway/landing with some stairs in the background? A lot of Peckinpah influence in that movie. That shoot out seems very similar to the one found in Django Unchained.
Speaking about Leone influenced films, Wong Kar Wai homaged De Niro’s opium haze (from Once Upon a Time in America) in his recent film, The Grandmaster (about Ip Man). Even had Zhang Ziyi do De Niro’s drug addled smile.
You’re probably thinking of Exiled, Suat. It’s the most Peckinpah-like Johnny To film I’ve seen so far. Didn’t see Django Unchained.
How did you like The Grandmaster?
Wong Kar Wai made a hash of the editing as far as the overall narrative is concerned. The film is over 2 hours and clearly needed an extra hour or two to cohere. I understand there’s a four hour cut out there (?) There’s a pretty good film trying to crawl out of Wong’s labored working process.
I think it’s going to be like Ashes of Time – you won’t see the right/best version for a decade or more.
The moment I saw the shootout in Django, I thought of that Johnny To movie (and John Woo etc.).