Lord of the Rings / Hobbit 11 | ***Dave Does the Blog

Unblogged Bits for Friday, 13 March 2009

Links that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries …

Gibbous Europa
Gorgeous. Or terrifying. Or both. Vaguely Lovecraftean, both in look and in post title.
LotRO Book 7: Leaves of Lorien arrives in North America Tuesday March 17
Ooooh … purty … While I didn’t find the gameplay “enough fun,” the LotRO folks have created a beautiful instantiation of Tolkien’s Middle Earth, and it keeps getting better.
Queryfail! – kt literary
The money quote: “If you are under the impression that once a book is out, all you get is an unceasing volley of praise… unthink this thought, because it is a wrong thought.” Preach it, sister. Amen.
Only portrait of Shakespeare found
Cool.
Grown-up Calvin and Hobbes
Interesting conceptually, though nothing can replace the Real Thing.
Harry Beck Paris Metro map
I love the London Underground maps — but reading the reasons behind (until recently) failed attempts to implement a similar scheme for Paris is a fascinating dive into user interface issues.
The Kindness of Strangers
Pragmatism, altruism, and security, all wrapped up in one package/post. Cool.
Infection Spreads in Indiana
I suspect that most people will (foolishly) choose cheaper bacon until they know someone who’s been affected by this. Tragically enough.
Perverse Security Incentives
People suck at risk analysis, but risk (and reward) analysis is at the heart of most policy decisions that are made.
Going John Galt: The Video!
I certainly encourage people to act out their convictions — but, honestly, this “Going Galt” thing smacks (as being implemented) of a lot more posturing than substance.

Retreat notes

So, as previously noted, I spent Friday evening and pretty much all day today at the parish men’s retreat. I nattered at length about the whole “men’s group” thing…

So, as previously noted, I spent Friday evening and pretty much all day today at the parish men’s retreat. I nattered at length about the whole “men’s group” thing last time out, and my feelings haven’t much changed (short story: no women were harmed in the forming of this retreat).

A few random items that I didn’t manage to Twitter while up there.

The retreat was intentionally set up to be “Friday night at the church, Saturday up in the mountains” — no overnight (to save costs and inconvenience), but the Friday session kind of gave everyone a chance to get acquainted with each other. It was nice to be able to come home last night and hang with Margie — and to be home this evening (we broke up at 4) to do the same.
The “mountains” session was up in Genesee, at “The Pines at Genesee” — which is all of about 30 minutes from the house, and about 7 minutes max up the grade on I-70 into the mountains (for those who need more info, it’s just downhill from the Chart House restaurant, and down the mountain more or less from the Sleeper House). The Pines is a conference / meeting / event center and it has a nice setting, nice facilities (inside and out), very friendly service, and excellent food. If I were doing an event (large meeting or reception) that could make use of the place, I’d certainly have it high on my list of places to consider. Recommended
Despite being a church retreat, the discussions were not all Bible-bound, nor was there chanting in tongues or casting out of demons (just in case you wondered). While faith elements wove themselves into the conversation, the overall theme for the meeting was on Past, Present and Future, and our personal (and spiritual) journey through same — but was still as much on more philosophical and personal contemplations on the subject than on what the Bible says about it. Indeed, with the exception of one discussion on Friday, there were more non-Biblical culture references and discussion than Scriptural citations (including but not limited to Talladega Nights, Bob Seger, Big Trouble in Little China, and passing references to The Time Machine, Time Tunnel, and Back to the Future). All in all, good conversations, even if the presentations were a bit unfocused at times.
Basic format was to start a section with some churchy music, followed by a 10-15 minute presentation, followed by a 40-45 minute small group discussion (folks self-selecting random around the building). Interspersed by some very good food. We also closed last evening with Compline and did a Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer to start the session this morning this morning (these sorts of bits of liturgical treasure are one reason I like the Episcopal Church so much).
On a different note: why are sports analogies and metaphors and anecdotes so pervasive? I mena, why, instead of baseball or football or hockey stories used to illustrate a point, more people don’t use Babylon 5 references, or Star Trek memes, or Lord of the Rings similes to illuminate their discussions? I’d be so there …
Along those lines, though it wasn’t a reference directly made during the discussion, I fear now that whenever folks are talking about God saying “and He has a Plan” … I think about Cylons.
I like Constant Comment tea, but the decaf version sucks. Pomegranate tea is also not as good as it sounds like it should be.
I find music transcendent, and deeply moving in a spiritual fashion, particularly when participating in it, raising voices with others in unity and harmony and purpose. Joining in a “Hallelujah Chorus” (which we didn’t, but as an example) is such an ecstatic experience, I can understand why some people think joining on a heavenly chorus for eternity singing Glory to God (which, on the face of it, sounds a bit boring after a millennium or two) would actually be kind of cool.
While there was a lot of good discussion to digest about past, present, and future, it occurs to me, as just one thought, that the problem is not that some people live in the past, but that they live in a past that never really happened.
The weather was fabulous up there, given that in January we could have been having a blizzard (I’m glad we did it today and not tomorrow, as the forecast is a bit less clement).
Each of us did a “one minute intro” to the group on Friday night, including “something people don’t know about you.” I mentioned that I collect quotations and put them online — and had a dozen people ask me for the URL. Hmmm. Welcome to any new parishioners who have found their way here.

Overall, a good experience once again, and I’ll most likely sign up again next year.

There’s no place like home

Though you might be forgiven if you don’t confess to living in some of these unfortunately named places in the UK, like Crapstone, East Breast, Penistone, Crotch Crescent, the Tolkienesque…

Though you might be forgiven if you don’t confess to living in some of these unfortunately named places in the UK, like Crapstone, East Breast, Penistone, Crotch Crescent, the Tolkienesque Wet Wang, and (my fave) Titty Ho.

“It’s pronounced ‘PENNIS-tun,’ ” Fiona Moran, manager of the Old Vicarage Hotel in Penistone, said over the telephone, rather sharply. When forced to spell her address for outsiders, she uses misdirection, separating the tricky section into two blameless parts: “p-e-n” — pause — “i-s-t-o-n-e.”

Ah, Britain …

(via GeekPress)

The Last Airbender and its casting

So lots of brouhaha over the casting for the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie (the actual movie is dropping the “Avatar” part of the name), largely because it’s all…

So lots of brouhaha over the casting for the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie (the actual movie is dropping the “Avatar” part of the name), largely because it’s all a bunch of white kids.

I am so mixed on this. My first reaction is some dismay, but reading some of the comments shows some wild hyperbole, to wit, The movie is ruined! Ruined, I tell you! (Which reaction would have been heard regardless of the casting.)

The argument boils down to The Four Nations are all Asian. Well, yeah, they’re actually different Asian groups. No, that’s never stated, but here are my guesses. No, wait, the Water Tribe are Inuit. Are they Asian? Anyway, the movie is ruined by the racist choosing of a bunch of shallow non-martial-artisty non-Asians. Which is a bit racist of an evaluation itself.

The main young characters in the cartoon do not strike me as being distinctively ethnic in their design, and it is all set in an odd fantasy world after all. On the other hand, many/most of the supporting characters, not to mention the costumes, architecture, cultures, and magic / martial arts styles, are clearly Asian-flavored — which, if the leads are all white, will feel more than a bit off, even at best.

So on the one hand, I don’t know that I feel like the movie needed to be cast all with Asians actors or Inuit actors or whatever to maintain some sort of artistic ethnic integrity — but, on the other hand, casting all the leads with guelos is … goofy.

That said — unless this is designed to be a series of movies (which it’s not), I’m not sure how M Night Shyamalan is going to possibly do justice to the multi-seasoned, multi-faceted saga of Avatar. I mean, it would sort of be like trying to distill down Lord of the Rings into a single 2-hour film. That, I think, is going to be a bigger problem than this (yes, problematic) set of casting decisions.

I’m looking more forward to watch the 3rd Season DVDs with Katherine after I give them to her for Christmas.

Movie Review: The Matrix Trilogy

Taken as a whole, and watched on a single flight back from India. The Matrix, The Matrix Releaded, The Matrix Revolutions (1999, 2003, 2003) Overall Story Production Acting …

Taken as a whole, and watched on a single flight back from India.

The Matrix, The Matrix Releaded, The Matrix Revolutions (1999, 2003, 2003)

Overall		Story
Production		Acting

I’ve watched the first film multiple times, but never caught (due to bad press) the second two. Matrix I was great and self-contained. Matrix II-III (really a single movie) suffers most from an indecision of vision. Is this movie:

A big-concept SF action-adventure?
A showing-place for new and spiffy CG fx?
An examination of the last human refuge, Sion, how an endless war has shaped it, and the final battle between humanity and its mechanized creations?
A scientific high-fantasy full of strange conceptual creatures and Neo’s Alice-like encounters with same?
Neo’s continued voyage of self-discovery for the meaning of life?
The deadly ongoing man-vs-machine duel between Smith and Neo?
A religous-philosophical tract on the nature of reality, and the dependence of its parts? Or about what is life and what’s the difference between humans and machines?

There’s multiple movies in there; by trying to make them all into one (well, two), the Wachowski Bros. end up with something that’s too diffuse to make much sense, and dilute most of the characters they bring in to fill in the multitude of roles. We get bits of Terminator movies, Alien movies, Lord of the Rings, Blade Runner, Tron, and Star Wars, and end up with something that doesn’t match any of them (even Tron).

Actingwise, the mysteriously wooden actors of the first installment are replaced by clearly wooden actors in the second two (and, yet, actors that manage to change the direction of their woodenness at various and random intervals). The production values, at least, are up to par through the whole thing — but, honestly, they super-duper-matrixy kung-fu melees of the first movie aren’t improved upon later on, only repeated to increasing tedium.

The second two-thirds of the Matrix Trilogy aren’t awful. They just aren’t very good, esp. compared to the promise and freshness of the first. Watch just The Matrix, and save yourself some time.

Bottom line: A great way to kill about half of a flight from India to the US.

Potpourri for a Conventional Monday

POLITICAL McCain Features Moron In Ad – Well, not really. But I do think any Clinton supporter who is so ticked off that they are going to vote for John McCain…

POLITICAL

McCain Features Moron In Ad – Well, not really. But I do think any Clinton supporter who is so ticked off that they are going to vote for John McCain is showing … profound lack of reasoning. (I’d feel the same about a Huckabee supporter who decided to shift his vote to Obama.)
Warren Vs. Dobson: The Difference is Tone – And that’s a quote from Rick Warren himself. Though he comes off as a lot more warm and fuzzy and cheerful than James Dobson, on fundamental Religious Right items he’s still rock-solid in the conservative side of things.
New Poll shows slight majority favors keeping religion… – The Pew Poll actually indicates that a slight majority favors keeping churches out of politics, as well as less bragging by candidates about how religious they are.
The Right (Over)Reacts to Biden – See, you don’t need to worry about Democratic religious themes because, see, Obama is a “fake Christian” and Biden is a “fake Catholic.”
Get Excited Again – There are a couple of articles linked here I need to read more closely, but it’s nice to see something about Obama that’s not an attack from McCain or coverage about the convention.
Even More Political Chutzpah [Dispatches from the… – “Celebrities don’t have to worry about family budgets. But we sure do.” Says the campaign of Mr. “Let My Staff Get Back To You On How Many Houses We Own.” I also love this line from the comments: “The Republicans have Obama portrayed as a Muslim member of a crazy Christian church; a marxist celebrity who wants to raise their taxes and doesn’t care about their problems; an unqualified elitist” — without any consideration about how contradictory those items all are.
McCain Flip-Flops On Women’s Lives – In yet another position shift from only 8 years ago, McCain will not fight against the GOP platform against abortion even in cases of rape, incest, or risk of death to the mother. This one clearly falls into the “political expediency” category.
And so goeth the Eisenhower wing of the party… – Literally the Eisenhower wing.

NON-POLITICAL

Writer who photographed HP Lovecraft’s headstone ordered… – If you can’t baton-stroke people for anything they’re doing, you can always win Security Guard Points by accusing them of ~~stealing~~ taking a picture.
Memo to Windows Vista [Uncertain Principles] – Programs that change configuration settings I have explicitly made, and without warning, bug the living hell out of me. In addition to this case, I hate it when MS applications (esp. Office) change settings I have personally and intentionally made about programs not seizing focus from other programs.
Oh, this looks like it has a ton of potential – Adding Virtuality to my list of shows to watch when they start.
IESB.net – Movie News, Reviews, Interviews and More!… – What The Hobbit by Hellboy director Del Toro probably won’t include (but it’s still cool).

Potpourri from Faerie

Catching up from a bit … The Good Scientific daydream – DOF waxes at length on what scientific education should be, and how to bring it about. Notes from the…

Catching up from a bit …

The Good

Scientific daydream – DOF waxes at length on what scientific education should be, and how to bring it about.
Notes from the Field | Robert X. Cringely® | InfoWorld… – Even the RIAA can’t stand before a few good mothers banding together.
What’s For Lunch? – I knew there was a reason I had my Mom make me PB&Js every day for lunch when was in school.
Star Wars photoshopping contest – Classic (and some not-so-classic) art given a Star Wars theme. Some delightful bits here.
Wherein your host removes all dobut of his royal geekiness… – What other former Companions could the Doctor turn to in times of need?

The Bad

Washington Wire – WSJ.com : Nevada GOP Cancels Convention,… – It’s a bad sign when the delegates just, um, phone it in.
Study finds AMBER Alerts are great drama, but have… – Have lives been saved? Very few. Has the general level of fear in the general populace been ratcheted up a notch? Yup. What’s the trade-off?
DRM Deja Vu: Yahoo! Music shutting down. Any music… – Once again, unless you actually own it, it can be taken away.
Michigan women must pay out of pocket for birth control… – … while Michigan men can get insurance coverage for Viagra. Bzzzzzt!

The Ugly

Ben Stein goes off the deep end. Suggests Obama is… – Ben Stein was fun on Win Ben Stein’s Money. Ben Stein as political commentator the last few years has been a rhetorical train wreck.
Tom Delay says: God made America to spread the Gospel! – It says so right in the Constitution, right?
WSJ op-ed claims “The Dark Night” is actually a homage… – … to George W. Bush? As is, evidently, Lord of the Rings. Riiiiiiight.
CIA memos say ’specific intent’ of ‘pain and suffering’… – Remember, if you weep as you torture them, not only is it not torture, but you get a full remission of your sins.
CNN reporter says bad things about the TSA, gets hassled… – I feel much safer!
Police Infiltrating, Spying on Leftist Groups – Didn’t they learn back in the, oh, 60s? It’s not about the actual useful intel or danger, it’s about justifying a big budget and feeling like J. Edgar Hoover (with or without dress).
An Interactive Guide to Bush Administration Lawbreaking – Can’t tell your players without a program.

6000ish

As I noted over there, (though it got swallowed up in the RSS feed), my WIST quotations database rolled past 6,000 entries in the past week or so. Which,…

As I noted over there, (though it got swallowed up in the RSS feed), my WIST quotations database rolled past 6,000 entries in the past week or so. Which, for something that started with a few hundred quotes, tops, scribbled in a Tolkien journal in college, is pretty remarkable. To me, at least.

Bachelor Movie Reviews

So what does a guy watch when his wife and kid are out of town? Hmmmm … well, if it’s me … Battle of the Bulge (1965) : A film…

So what does a guy watch when his wife and kid are out of town? Hmmmm … well, if it’s me …

Battle of the Bulge (1965) : A film of a bygone era of movie-making — the massive, epic war film, complete with big stars, big sound track, big battles, and a cast of zillions. Even has an Overture, Entr’Acte, and Exit Music. A ripping good tale, if pretty shoddy history. Worth watching if you’ve only ever seen the 167 minute run time dramatically cut-down for a two hour (with commercials) TV slot.

Dragonlance – Dragons of the Autumn Twilight

(2008) : Wretched animation (and a wretched mix of CG and 2D animation at that), muddled plot, clumsy storytelling … ick. Not necessarily the fault of the original, just of this production, which resembles the Rankin-Bass Return of the King in its incoherence (but is much less well put toether. Okay, as a kid I would have killed for this. But there’s so much better available now, it’s a wonder this got made. Does make me want to re-read the book, though.

Ocean’s Eleven (2001) : I wanted to like this more than I did. Slick, stylish, and a classically crafted caper flick, it felt ultimately empty, and left me wondering whether I was really interested in picking up the next installment from the bargain bin.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) : I had genuinely forgotten how faboo of a movie this is. Any time I don’t rank this on lists of my Top Ten Films, kick me upside the head. Simply incredible.

The Lion in Winter (1968) : A complex historical melodrama that is soooooo late 60s intellectual-revisionist soap opera with witty wordplay from its stage origin that it’s almost difficult to enjoy, rather than “just” be fascinated by.

The Andromeda Strain (1971) : It had been several years since I watched the “original” adaptation of Crichton’s novel. And, yes, though the technology has changed a bit in the last 35 years, it’s still a taut scientific thriller. Worth watching.

Die Hard (1988) : The original and still — even with Bruce Willis sporting a full(ish) head of hair, a kick-ass action flick — great good guys, great bad guys, a great Michael Kamen (and James Horner and Ludwig van Beethoven) score, guns, explosions, and a good time to be had for all.

Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms (2006) : Not bad. Not great, but not bad. The animation is serviceable to the decent story, and there’s some fun Japanese mythos bits. Certainly made me want to rewatch the movie (or re-read some of the trades).

Hellboy (2004) : So I did (the former). Still a good, fun flick, a bit too violent and dark to share with Katherine (yet), but a remarkably faithful adaptation of Mignola’s work. Good stuff.

Superman Returns (2006) : No, I’d not seen it yet. And I’m glad ow I have. It does a remarkable job of tying to the original couple of Donner Superman flicks of … ye gods, how long ago? Great cast, well-done special effects, good use of the classic Williams music, and a fine story with a 00s polish and edge. Good flick.

Yet another Booky Meme

To go with several others I’ve done. Quoth De: The Big Read, an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts, has estimated that the average adult has only read 6…

To go with several others I’ve done. Quoth De:

The Big Read, an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts, has estimated that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed. How do you do?
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman — Well, the first one (so far), anyway.
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott — I acted in a stage adaptation of it, if that counts.
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare — Well, several of them.
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger — Tried it, hated it.
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis — Um, isn’t that one of #33?
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince- Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare — Isn’t that part of #14?
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo — No, but I’ve seen the show in London and listened to several soundtracks eleventy-dozen times …

What a very odd list. Famous, obscure, series, novellas … Not many that I intend to read that I haven’t already. I’ll note that LOVE is probably a bit of hyperbole here. How about, “liked enough to read multiple times”?

Returning to Middle-Earth

Transcript of a chat session with Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro about The Hobbit and the as-yet-unnamed “Second Movie” (Penny Arcade’s impression of the whole Second Movie thing…

Transcript of a chat session with Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro about The Hobbit and the as-yet-unnamed “Second Movie” (Penny Arcade’s impression of the whole Second Movie thing …) Some good stuff — especially about the differences between The Hobbit and LotR, and about Smaug …

The Andromeda Strain

I actually enjoyed Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain, both as the book and the 1971 Robert Wise (very faithful) movie adaptation (which I actually saw in the theater). Though more than a…

I actually enjoyed Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain, both as the book and the 1971 Robert Wise (very faithful) movie adaptation (which I actually saw in the theater). Though more than a bit cerebral and talky, it’s also tense in stripped-down man-vs-man Fail-Safe sort of way.

When we went to Iron Man, we saw a trailer for the A&E 2-night mini-series, coming up Memorial Day weekend. And my reaction to Margie was, “Hey, it’s like The Andromeda Strain, only with car crashes.” And it seems that was pretty close to the mark.

Andre Braugher, who plays the nefarious Gen. George Mancheck in A&E’s upcoming SF miniseries The Andromeda Strain, told SCI FI Wire that the show goes well beyond the original Michael Crichton book and 1971 movie version.”It’s very anticlimactic, the book and the film,” Braugher (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) said in an interview at the miniseries’ Hollywood premiere on May 7. He added: “You’ve got the Andromeda; it’s suddenly somehow benign, but then you’ve got a reactor thing, you know? … But that movie wouldn’t have held up today, you know what I mean? So it had to be re-imagined.”
The premise remains the same: A satellite falls from the sky, and most of the townspeople of a small Utah hamlet die suddenly. A group of top scientists, led by Dr. Jeremy Stone (Benjamin Bratt), race time in the top-secret underground lab called Wildfire to uncover the mystery of the deaths before the cause–a contagious agent called Andromeda–can spread.
Writer Robert Shenkkan has updated and expanded the story well beyond the parameters of the original 1969 book and Robert Wise’s movie, taking a lot of the story outside Wildfire and boosting the action elements. “I think our screenwriter and [director] Mikael [Salomon] together have done a really wonderful job bringing that together,” Braugher said.

Because, of course, the idea of a mysterious space contagion that might wipe out humanity if not identified and contained is simply too … passé for modern audiences, too conventional. We have to do something to “boost the action elements.” Like car crashes. And we definitely need a “nefarious general,” and all those other “environmental, political and military storylines.”

See, that’s what was missing from Lord of the Rings — a cabal of Elven, Dwarvish, and Human military juntists that were out to take over the One Ring to further their own purposes. Similarly, a remake of Casablanca wouldn’t be complete without an examination of the European-Islamic relationships in Morocco and the imposition of French hegemony over North Africa. And let’s not forget the animal abuse subtext that was woefully under-represented in Gone with the Wind, but will clearly need to be added into the next version filmed. And don’t get me started on Bambi and the need to “punch up” the impact of strip-mining upon the denizens of the forest …

*sigh* I’ll still record it, though …

Go, Gandalf, go!

Ian McKellen has confirmed he’s back on board for The Hobbit. Huzzah! Here’s hoping he’s up for the filming through 2009-10. (via Ginny)…

Ian McKellen has confirmed he’s back on board for The Hobbit. Huzzah!

Here’s hoping he’s up for the filming through 2009-10.

(via Ginny)

Mine! Mine! My Precious!

The Lord of the Rings as Property Law: Stewart v. Gustafson sets out four factors to further help determine if property has been abandoned: Passage of Time: As the years…

The Lord of the Rings as Property Law:

Stewart v. Gustafson sets out four factors to further help determine if property has been abandoned:
Passage of Time: As the years go by, the likelihood of abandonment increases. In this case 3000 years passed, which is a not insignificant lapse of time.
Nature of Transaction: Certain transactions lend themselves more to assuming abandonment, having objects cut off your hand does not appear to be one of them.
Property Holder’s Conduct: Abandonment can be inferred if a property holder does not try to require possession a reasonable time after receiving notice. After finding that the Ring still existed, not only is Sauron trying to retake possession but he is described as “seeking it, seeking it, and all his thoughts [are] bent on it.”
Nature of the Thing: As the value of a chattel increases, the likelihood of inferring abandonment decreases. The extreme value of the Ring (it could be used to conquer all Middle Earth) cuts against an abandonment. The specific nature of the Ring also cuts against abandonment. Gandalf specifically states that “[the Ring’s] keeper never abandons it”.
It appears to be that the evidence points to no abandonment having occurred.
However, it seems likely that 3,000 years well exceeded the limitations period.

(via GeekPress)

Fanboy Hates Lawsuits

Hrm. The Tolkien Trust is suing New Line Cinema, claiming a 1969 contract gives them 7.5% of the gross of any Tolkien movies, and where’s the extra $150MM that New…

Hrm.

The Tolkien Trust is suing New Line Cinema, claiming a 1969 contract gives them 7.5% of the gross of any Tolkien movies, and where’s the extra $150MM that New Line owes them for the LotR trilogy thankyouverymuch?. No comment one way or the other, except the suit threatens to stop pre-production on The Hobbit dead in its tracks.

Meanwhile, Twentieth Century Fox is suing Warners, claiming it has exclusive rights to make a movie based on The Watchmen, which Warners is already well under way producing. The suit seeks to halt the production.

*sigh*

Fresh Potpourri

MT Open Source 4.1 is now available. I still have no idea whether to stick with the free MT or the free MTOS. Need to ponder this some time I…

MT Open Source 4.1 is now available. I still have no idea whether to stick with the free MT or the free MTOS. Need to ponder this some time I have some spare cycles.
Old valentines.
The TSA has confirmed that some locations were asking for people to pull all their cables out of their bags, and that this was not official policy — and that it won’t happen again.
Keeping your home Wi-Fi strong and clear.
We played some more Galactic last weekend, which was great fun. Whether it’s playing Latin romantic pilot Tomas, dreadfully earnest and presently mind-controlled Brad, shrewish and clever Sonja, or even my own Captain Alyssande, it’s always a hoot. Never any wandering attention at that table.
Online tools to help you prepare for death, including obit/tribute sites, “last e-mail message” sites, wills, perpetual site licenses, etc.
While I am deeply suspicious of any pricing scheme that the music labels come up with, the idea behind Total Music sounds good (it’s a parallel to the movie industry getting a slice of VCR sales): an incremental charge for music playing devices, in return for a lot less DRM. We’ll see where the catch is.
I enjoy the new Backward Compatible webcomic by Aaron Williams (Nodwick, FFN, PS238), but what does the man have against RSS feeds? If I can’t get it in my reader (or at least a reminder that a new one is up), the chances I’ll remember to go back and read it drop close to nil.
Guillermo Del Toro will be directing The Hobbit under Peter Jackson’s executive producership.

Lady of the Ring

So on a whim (i.e., without proper prior consultation with the other parental unit), Katherine and I sat down to watch Fellowship of the Ring Saturday morning. Margie and…

So on a whim (i.e., without proper prior consultation with the other parental unit), Katherine and I sat down to watch Fellowship of the Ring Saturday morning. Margie and I had talked about pre-screening first, to see where our memories judged properly the intensity of the whole PG-13-vs-7.5-year-old thing. But I thought I’d give it a first brush to see if there was interest — which there was.

After Margie came down, we restarted again (we’d not gotten very far), and we watched it through pretty much to where Frodo wakes up in Rivendell. Katherine did pretty well — except for struggling with some accents. She got a bit scared at the Black Riders Chasing Down the Hobbits in the Forest scene, and again some on Weathertop, but we took frequent pauses in the DVD (for Daddy to explain what was going on and fill in backstory and the like). She was disturbed by Gandalf & Saruman duking it out, too.

Later in the afternoon, after Christmas was put away, we watched another chunk, through the Council at Rivendell, the early jaunts of the Fellowship, turning back on Caradhras, and finally up to the Mines of Moria.

After dinner out, we came back and started to watch a bit more — but (a) she was getting tired, (b) it was dark outside, and (c) the movie started getting scary (Moria! Dead dwarves! Watcher in the Water! Dark Caverns!). The final straw was when they spotted Gollum following them, at which point she opined she didn’t want to watch any more until it was daylight.

So that’s where we left it, probably (maybe) to pick up next weekend. I’m a bit worried about her reaction to Gandalf falling (though we can tell her right then and there he’ll be back, if need be). I’m more worried about Boromir — not so much his betrayal (since she’s figured out how the Ring is affecting folks) but his final pincushion status. Margie’s concerned over how she’ll feel over the end of the movie — the Fellowship split, Merry and Pippin kidnapped, Sam and Frodo off on their own — but that’s all to make her want to see the next film.

I think Gollum’s going to continue to weird her out, more than some of the other upcoming bits. He’s both a creepy character (even to an adult), and the interaction between him and Sam and Frodo is very personal.

It was amazing, though, all she picked up. She’s figured out the whole plot mechanisms around the One Ring (it’s affect on others, why Gandalf can’t carry it, how it attracts the Black Riders), and she’s picking up other bits of Middle-earth lore, too.

In retrospect, I should have held off until Margie and I previewed it — and I suspect we would have held off another year or two. But I’m content, at this point, to let Katherine be the judge (in this film) of how she feels about it, if she wants to see more, etc.

But I’m glad she’s enjoyed the bits that she has. 🙂

LotR Music

Playing Lord of the Rings Online of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about the movies (and trying to decide if Kitten is ready for them). Thoughts from listening to…

Playing Lord of the Rings Online of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about the movies (and trying to decide if Kitten is ready for them). Thoughts from listening to some of the soundtracks this afternoon.

It is unfortunate that far too many movies feel obliged to include a non-orchestral, usually “pop” track in their end titles, so as to provide a “hit single” that will add additional sales revenue and perhaps even ticket sales (“Hey, that’s that song from that movie — we should go see it!”).

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was no exception to this — but was exceptional in coming up with some pieces that (a) weren’t jarring pop music Top Ten hit sorts of bushwa, and (b) actually worked well with each of the films.

Fellowship of the Ring has Enya lilting “May It Be.” Enya may be an acquired taste for some, but her celtic, etherial style fits in quite well with the world of magic and elves and the like that Frodo’s found himself thrust into. The lyrics are a bit pedestrian, but Enya’s voice is as much an instrument as the Howard Shore-conducted orchestra in the background.

I’d probably have been satisfied with more Enya in The Two Towers, but instead we get Emiliana Torrini with a near-gasping “Gollum’s Song.” It’s not a singing style I’m fond of — but here it works. It’s a plaintive, nearly painful ode to the whole Gollum/Smeagol tragedy, written by Shore and Fran Walsh. It added to my movie experience, rather than distracting from it. Or, at least, listening to it now it does.

Shore and Walsh teamed up for Return of the King‘s closing tune, along with Annie Lennox (who co-wrote and sang it), “Into the West.” Lennox’s voice isn’t as polished as one might initially hope — but it lends a bit of human (or hobbit) heart to this song — mostly drawing from Tolkien’s own words — about the passing into the Uttermost West. (It also, I discovered, made a great lullabye for Katherine, once upon a time.)

Three very different tunes, three different singers, in a single movie trilogy. And they all work (YMMV, of course). Pretty nice.

The Hobbit is on

The good news is, it looks like Peter Jackson will be making a screen adaptation of The Hobbit, New Line having evidently figured out that it was killing a goose…

The good news is, it looks like Peter Jackson will be making a screen adaptation of The Hobbit, New Line having evidently figured out that it was killing a goose laying golden eggs in a salary dispute with Jackson.

Jackson and New Line said in the announcement that they had settled all legal action. “I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line,” Jackson said. “We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle-earth.”
[…] New Line co-chairman Bob Shaye said the studio was pleased to have resolved its differences with Jackson and Walsh. “We know they will bring the same passion, care and talent to these films that they so ably accomplished with The Lord of the Rings.”

The bad news is that Jackson’s too busy to direct it in any sort of realistic time frame, so he (and LotR producer Fran Walsh) will be on board as executive producers with creative control, but someone else will be directing.

MGM Chairman Harry Sloan, who was credited by all parties for bringing about the deal, said Jackson found it “impossible” to direct the film and meet proposed release dates in 2010 and 2011 due to other projects on which he is now working. “He can’t get it scheduled and he doesn’t want the fans to have to wait for the next two movies,” Sloan said. He said the studios might postpone the films if Jackson changed his mind.
Jackson, Walsh and the studios share approval “on all major creative elements” and will start considering screenwriters and directors in January, Shaye said.
The movies will be made simultaneously in New Zealand, starting in 2009. Industry experts estimated the films would each cost $150 million to $200 million to make, based in part on the $400 million cost of the first three and inflation.

Yeah, that’s movies-plural, as there’s still a “prequel” on the table.

Jackson and Walsh envisioned the first film covering the events of The Hobbit and the second bridging the 80-year gap between that novel and the first Lord of the Rings book.
It was that vision that led MGM, which holds the film rights to the book and is looking for new movie franchises, to insist that Jackson and Walsh make the films. “Once (they) played out their vision for The Hobbit as two movies … MGM just took the position that we wanted to deal with Peter and it was not an option to do it with anybody else,” Sloan said.

MGM owns the rights to a movie of The Hobbit, so it seems to have been the party that brokered Jackson and New Line making up.

I’m still not sanguine about the “prequel” thang, and there’s still the matter of assembling a few key cast members … but I’ve got a decent measure of glee in my heart over this.

No Hummels Need Apply

Ran across a comment by Steve that: It is a undisputed fact that you can tell a lot about geeks by their desktop action figures. Do their tastes run to…

Ran across a comment by Steve that:

It is a undisputed fact that you can tell a lot about geeks by their desktop action figures. Do their tastes run to anime, Lord of the Rings, McFarlane-crafted monstrosities (both by design and in concept), superheroes (realisted vs. cartoony vs. 80s classic), video game characters, fantasy figurines (lead, pewter, prepainted plastic, etc.), soldiers (Yo Joe!), Star Trek, Star Wars (again, 80s classic or modern or modern-retro-80s classic) or replica props.

For the record, I have a shelf of photographs and toys in my office, which currently include:

Figures:

Mickey Mouse (business card holder)
Hellboy
Babar
The Flash (Jay Garrick)
Space Ghost
The Tick
Yakko
Belle
Goofy
Eeyore
Hawkgirl
Swiper
A couple of generic lizards
A good luck white Japanese cat

Vehicles:

Serenity
A Centauri shuttle
A Minbari cruiser
A Starfury
An Imperial AT-ST
An SR-71
The Mach 5

I have a few others tucked away in a cabinet, but that will do for the moment.

Not everything sits on this shelf. Every couple of weeks I rotate a few of them into my window.