Monthly Archives: April 2005

Video Short

I have written many times about my fascination with numerology. How words and numbers inter-relate mystically.

In my writer’s group, which meets weekly, and I’ve been attending consistently for eight years…once a member gave everyone a challenge to write a poem containing the words: Shooting Blanks. This is what I wrote:

Scrabble

Shooting blanks
Onto the board
He formed words
Simultaneously
Meaning everything
And nothing

With this in mind, you may understand why I love this short video. Unlike most videos at VidLit, this doesn’t appear to be a ‘trailer’ for a book. This is a complete-in-itself video short story. It will only use up 8 minutes and six seconds of your day. (Though the concept of book trailers is an ingenious one….and I’d love it if VidLit had the money to put their trailers before actual movies. Just think about this concept…go to a movie and see trailers for books. The mind reels.)

(And just look at everything this post gives you besides the link to the video. Yesterday there would have been a 90% chance or higher all you would have gotten was the link, with perhaps a short msg about how it speaks to my numerological obsession.)

I am going to challenge myself…

I am creating a blogging challenge for myself.

I am going to cease linking to anything except in two instances:

1) If I am linking to something else that I wrote
2) I am linking to something that I have read which has had an influence on what I am saying. (So readers know what thoughts are original to me, and what thoughts I get from elsewhere.)

This will eliminate posts that say only “Hey, here’s a neat article I just read” Or “here’s a wonderfully sick and twisted site I just discovered.”

We’ll see how long it takes before I come up with more exceptions, or decide the challenge is over.

I am going to challenge myself…

I am creating a blogging challenge for myself.

I am going to cease linking to anything except in two instances:

1) If I am linking to something else that I wrote
2) I am linking to something that I have read which has had an influence on what I am saying. (So readers know what thoughts are original to me, and what thoughts I get from elsewhere.)

This will eliminate posts that say only “Hey, here’s a neat article I just read” Or “here’s a wonderfully sick and twisted site I just discovered.”

We’ll see how long it takes before I come up with more exceptions, or decide the challenge is over.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I have read all six books of the Trilogy (HHGG; Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, The Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; Mostly Harmless; and Salmon of a Doubt). I have read the radio scripts. I have seen the BBC TV production. I have been a researcher for the official Guide since September 1999.

Before seeing the movie tonight, I had read Peter David’s review. I partially agree with him that there is no such thing as a purist when it comes to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Every version has its differences. There’s only a question of which version you prefer.

However, I’d like to make an exception to that — characterization. I’m not talking about new characters or missing characters. I’m talking about whether the characters respond and act the same to similar events. Whether they physically look ‘right’. I have no problem with a Black Ford Prefect. (For the record, I am using that term because I have no clue whatsoever what country the actor comes from, and it doesn’t matter to me, so I haven’t looked it up.) I’m not sure if Douglas Adams even specifies color in the books or radio play. I’m talking about Zaphod Beeblebrox.

I am not going to give anything away for those who haven’t seen the movie yet. But there are changes made to Zaphod’s character. The ‘revisualization’ of his physical characteristics I am fine with — and I think the f/x are cool. But the rationalizations they create, and what happens as the movie progresses I am not happy with, as a purist.

Alan Rickman as Marvin is great — but I dislike Marvin’s visual appearance.

I also don’t like how the movie is wrapped up so Hollywood style.

Now that I have gotten the dislikes out of the way, I had a lot of fun. I had warm smiles at all the lines I loved from the earlier sources. It’s hard to laugh when they are so familiar. I laughed at many of the added lines. An ‘ultimate weapon’ has been added to the script, and its several uses are progressively humorous.

I wasn’t sure at first, but I like the theme song that was written for the movie. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, is the title. And I am going to have to find an MP3 of it somewhere.

Rating (out of 5 stars) ***

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

I have read all six books of the Trilogy (HHGG; Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, The Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; Mostly Harmless; and Salmon of a Doubt). I have read the radio scripts. I have seen the BBC TV production. I have been a researcher for the official Guide since September 1999.

Before seeing the movie tonight, I had read Peter David’s review. I partially agree with him that there is no such thing as a purist when it comes to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Every version has its differences. There’s only a question of which version you prefer.

However, I’d like to make an exception to that — characterization. I’m not talking about new characters or missing characters. I’m talking about whether the characters respond and act the same to similar events. Whether they physically look ‘right’. I have no problem with a Black Ford Prefect. (For the record, I am using that term because I have no clue whatsoever what country the actor comes from, and it doesn’t matter to me, so I haven’t looked it up.) I’m not sure if Douglas Adams even specifies color in the books or radio play. I’m talking about Zaphod Beeblebrox.

I am not going to give anything away for those who haven’t seen the movie yet. But there are changes made to Zaphod’s character. The ‘revisualization’ of his physical characteristics I am fine with — and I think the f/x are cool. But the rationalizations they create, and what happens as the movie progresses I am not happy with, as a purist.

Alan Rickman as Marvin is great — but I dislike Marvin’s visual appearance.

I also don’t like how the movie is wrapped up so Hollywood style.

Now that I have gotten the dislikes out of the way, I had a lot of fun. I had warm smiles at all the lines I loved from the earlier sources. It’s hard to laugh when they are so familiar. I laughed at many of the added lines. An ‘ultimate weapon’ has been added to the script, and its several uses are progressively humorous.

I wasn’t sure at first, but I like the theme song that was written for the movie. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, is the title. And I am going to have to find an MP3 of it somewhere.

Rating (out of 5 stars) ***

Spin

This is fascinating. Jackson’s Ex Wife, Debbie Rowe, took the stand yesterday and was asked questions regarding an earlier video she made praising Jackson. here are a collection of this morning’s headlines:

ABC News: Jackson’s Ex Wife Sets Back Prosecutors

CNN: Jackson’s ex: Comments on video weren’t honest

Kansas City Star: Interview Wasn’t Scripted, Jackson Ex-Wife Says

New York Times: Jackson’s Ex-Wife Says She Praised Him as Part of Deal

Reuters: Jackson’s Ex-Wife Says She Willingly Defended Him

All the headlines are correct…even those which sound mutually exclusive, it’s just interesting to see what each newspaper is focusing their attention on.

Oops, we did it again!

The Chicago Tribune is in desperate need of a fact checker. In two news stories, two days in a row, they have incorrectly identified one guy as a Mob boss, and another guy as a Mob victim.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

Published April 28, 2005

– A picture caption on Page 1 Wednesday incorrectly identified a man on a bicycle as the reputed mob boss Joey “the Clown” Lombardo. In fact, the man’s name is Stanley Swieton and he has no ties to organized crime. A story explaining the mistake is on Page 1 of today’s Metro section.

– A graphic on mob murder victims in the main news section Tuesday incorrectly identified as Nicholas D’Andrea a photo of his brother, Mario D’Andrea.

Powering up the Finite Improbability Drive

If you were searching for an assassinated man, twenty sous, or vocal mothers, where would you go? According to Amazon, your best bet would
be Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

They list “statistically improbable phrases” for books whose
publishers have allowed them to search their text.

Unsurprisingly, Notre Dame de Paris is the number one place to find a deaf creature, a gypsy girl, and her tambourine.

Before following the links, can you guess these novels (hint, none of
them are by VMH):

1) downy lip, little countess, peasant coat, and hundred roubles

2) man with the wooden leg, pecuniary liabilities, and crocodile book

3) ardent ways, enchanted days, and dear little brothers

ACLU battling for religious freedom

The ACLU on Tuesday filed a petition with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asking for a full-court review of the April 14 ruling against Cynthia Simpson.

Simpson sued Chesterfield County in 2002 after she was excluded from a list of religious leaders allowed to pray at Board of Supervisors meetings. In a letter to Simpson, the county explained the invocations “are traditionally made to a divinity that is consistent with the Judeo-Christian tradition.”

The 4th Circuit overturned a judge’s 2003 ruling based on Marsh v. Chambers, a 1983 Supreme Court decision that ruled nonsectarian legislative prayer is generally constitutional. The appeals court wrote that Chesterfield County has done a good job of including leaders from a variety of religions to offer opening prayers and therefore abided by the Constitution by not advancing any one faith.

Apparently the court felt that limiting prayers to those in the Judeo-Christian tradition was a ‘good job’. Cynthia Simpson is a Wiccan Priestess.

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