This week’s Unshelved Book Club has hooked me. “A novel in verse about werewolves.” I need to check this out.

I’ve added to my blogroll on the left a list of comics I read in my feed reader

* Indexed
* My Life in a Cube
* Penny Arcade
* Questionable Content
* This Modern World
* Unshelved
* Wondermark
* XKCD

Any recommendations for other comics with available feeds I might enjoy reading? I’m particularly interested in those comics that don’t appear in newspapers, though I realize This Modern World does.

Lincoln may or may not have written the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope.

I’ve written poems on pieces of scratch paper - anything I can get my hands on when the muse strikes.

Shane Johnson, who draws the cartoon My Life in a Cube similarly uses whatever is lying around. And this tends to reflect the theme of his cartoon (post it notes, lined paper, envelopes). You can also occasionally spot liquid paper applied artistically.

Hopefully he gets work done - whatever his work may be.

“A Roman Glass Gaming Die - Circa 2nd Century A.D. Deep blue-green in color, the large twenty-sided die incised with a distinct symbol on each of its faces.”

I’d love to throw this D20 - if it weren’t valued at $18,000.

View it at Christie’s

(Who knew there were ancient Roman geeks?”

For those who don’t know Latin and are freaking out with the subject header…
1) Think of the English word “incarceration”
2) You should be able to find the English translation of Draco in any good Harry Potter lexicon, or on Wikipedia
3) Once you’ve figured that out, the meaning of Quod should be obvious.

I know there is a question on the minds of at least one or two readers:

Did a time traveler show up at the Time Travel BBQ that was thrown on Saturday? (see previous entry)

That’s a problematic question. You see, if I answer that question, it could create a paradox.

• If a time traveler did show up, and I proclaimed “Hey a time traveler showed up! Here’s a photograph of him! (or her, or it)” Then, 100, 200, 1000 years from now when that Time Traveler is born, they’ll learn they are destined to make the trip to our bbq. They might decide, ‘heck no, I won’t go!” And then they won’t go. Oops! Paradox!

So I can’t say. However, I can say that all appearances indicated that those in attendance, of all species, and of all time periods, had fun.

And at 9:10:11 pm, the moment where a message of some sort was supposed to be delivered by those in the future, at a specific set of GPS coordinate, those in attendance were watching those coordinates.

Copied from the host’s blog

Coordinates are as follows:

38.727110, -90.410170

584.11 FEET elevation, or 178.036728 meters

Planet Earth, Sol system

Starting at the time and date of 3 PM (15:00 hours) Central time (GMT -6) Saturday, June 7th 2008 there will be a barbeque (an outdoor cooking and dining event) in celebration and honor of Time Travelers. Vegetarian dishes will be the primary food grilled, if there is anyone who wishes to consume a dead animal, please bring said dead animal to be grilled, and some to share with others.

If time travel is ever proved to be possible, we wish that a time traveler would please send proof to mankind at the coordinates listed above on June 7, 2008 (06/07/08) at 9:10:11 pm Central Time. (GMT -6) Please send this message in such a way that no one will be harmed in its receipt. We here on earth will be waiting for your signal, and will welcome it with open arms.

Time travelers themselves are welcome to join the feast any time after 3 PM and before 11:59 PM. However, there is a STRICT NO PARADOX POLICY ENFORCED. Ok, only minor paradoxes. Little pet paradoxes. Travelers from other planets, alternate dimensions or alternate universes also welcome - bring a dish.

Events to be had are:
The great sport of Frisbee
Cooking and eating traditional “turn-of-the-century” delights
Automobile Show of traditional “turn-of-the-century” modes of transport
The consumption of fermented beverages
Games of chance and skill

*All events subject to weather and time constraints

No particular dress code enforced, other than please wear clothing. Those from our current time should RSVP before attending. Please spread the word now and for the next several years.

Original idea for the party.

69 years ago today, in Detective Comics #27, a hero was introduced to the world.

Happy Birthday, Batman!

To honor his birthday, you should make an effort to endanger the life of a young child today. Either that, or take the law into your own hands and capture a criminal for the police. Your choice.

My cousin is appearing in the upcoming movie Iron Man. Released this coming weekend, I will be attending a sneak preview tonight courtesy of a co-worker who was unable to use a ticket he received.

My cousin, apparently, will be Press Reporter #4. At the current moment, I know nothing more than that.

This gives him a Stan Lee Number of 1, since Stan Lee is of course making his usual cameo in Marvel Universe movies.

He already had a Kevin Bacon Number of 1 (if you count television appearances, since he apepared on the same episode of Will and Grace as KB…the final episode)

Now the time is here
for Iron Man to spread fear
Vengeance from the grave
Kills the people he once saved

[Movie Trivia Note: Gwyneth Paltrow is the godsister of Drew Barrymore. I’m not sure that term is used very often, but they apparently share the same godfather - Steven Spielberg]

When Pi day falls on Friday, all the geek poets go even more crazy.

Of course, this should have been posted at 1:59 am this morning. And according to the timestamp, it was.

The best part of reading Ansible, a UK Science Fiction newsletter, is their quotes from critics and others who go through amazing contortions to explain how writers that they enjoy aren’t really science fiction writers., even though they may walk and quack like a duck.

“For many readers, Ballard is the author of the controversial novel Crash (1973), a surreal exploration of sexuality and the motor car. But before Crash, and before his wife’s death, Ballard’s novels had begun to shape a unique suburban dystopia. In its time, this vision was categorised as science fiction. Now we can see it more clearly as deeper, darker and more prophetic.” — (Robert McCrum, Observer review, 10 February)”

Because Science Fiction can’t be dark, or prophetic, apparently.

Ansible 248

But [Philip K] Dick himself really wasn’t a “sci-fi author”. He was essentially a serious writer, who used the genre of science fiction as a disguised delivery system.’ (Paul M. Sammon, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, revised edition)

Because writing science fiction doesn’t make you a science fiction author.

Ansible 247

Stolen from a fan-mailing-list I am on:

DEPENDS: Now with Inertial Dampeners and increased Structural Integrity!

Count your geeks (How many different types of geek are you? Out of 56 possible, I found ten that I might qualify for.)

And of course, the classic Geek Hierarchy (The highest level I can claim is fifth)

I was looking at my statistics for the month of October, and the number one search term that drove people to my site?

Anakin Skywalker

I looked at that, and started racking my brains trying to recall when I last blogged about Star Wars. I am a geek. I have seen all of the films multiple times, but I know I haven’t blogged much about them. I did a google search, and my website didn’t turn up in the first 100 results.

On a hunch, I tried a Google Images search. Fifth picture. From a meme-quiz I took which identified me as most like Anakin out of all the Revenge of the Sith characters. I took the quiz back in 2005. Two years ago!

So there are only 4 other pictures on the entire interweebs of Anakin that are ranked higher than mine. (And the image isn’t even on my site - it’s hotlinked from the quiz site. But the search results link to my site.)

So…Welcome Star Wars Fans!

In case you hadn’t heard, JK Rowling has already finished writing the “8th” Harry Potter book. Some might argue it’s actually the tenth, since it seems along the same lines as “Quidditch Through the Ages” and “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”. This one is entitled “The Tales of Beedle the Bard.” Readers of the 7th book will recall that that is the title of a book given to Hermione.

Obtaining this book will be difficult though. Only seven copies are being printed. Six of them are being given away to Friends of Rowling. The seventh is being auctioned off in December, starting at $62,000.

The key question: How long before the full text is available on the internet?

To the delight of millions of slash fan fiction writers everywhere, JK Rowling has outed one of her characters. (The character’s name begins with the letter, ‘D’)

Apparently she did it at Carnegie Hall Friday night. Of course, since it’s not stated explicitly in any of the novels, one could question the canonicity. Are the author’s spoken words a valid source of canon? Will the canonicity change if she puts the fact on her website? (I don’t believe she has, yet.) These are questions fans must answer.

This morning’s SpeedBump comic. (Link will expire in 30 days.)

hmmm…what could this be about?
What popular website values verifiability over accuracy?
Could it be…..Satan?

Here’s a funny webcomic about a kid with a funny name. You probably don’t need to understand SQL programming language to get the humor, as the context should explain it.

Bonus Material: This webcomic is extra-geeky, and you should be aware that if you scroll your cursor over the panels, more stuff might appear. You know, Easter Eggs or Passover Matzah, depending upon your religion.

Douglas Adams Dirk Gently series is being serialized for the radio by BBC Radio.
And you can listen online. Regardless of where you live.
The episodes began on Wednesday Oct 3…and are weekly…and I’m not sure they’re giong to remain accessible in archives…so you may have only 2 days to catch the first episode online.

It says it airs at 6:30pm on Wednesdays. But I suspect that’s GMT. Which means 12:30pm in St. Louis.

Darkness, Darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to read your words again
Because a vision softly creepy
left its seeds while I was sleepy.

The link is to a novel written by a friend and fellow writer’s group member, and recently published by SamsDotPublishing (which publishes a lot of great SF and Horror). My altered Simon and Garfunkel lyrics above are somewhat true since at the time she read the work in group, I was still regularly attending the Monday night open mic at The Venice Cafe which went into the wee hours of the morning. Then a full day of work on Tuesday. And by the time of the meeting on Tuesday night I was often ready to fall asleep.

But she gave me a copy to read and critique outside of the meeting, and I was able to read it at a more heightened state of mind.

I am also told that I am mentioned in some manner in the bio. (I’m a bit scared about that.) I’ve ordered a copy, but it hasn’t arrived.

All of the above pretty much puts a huge ‘biased’ disclaimer on what follows, but it’s good. Damn good.

To quote the book blurb, the novella “takes you into a maelstrom of madness where, just as the singer becomes the song, so too does the writer become the story . . . and the story of madness becomes the writer. Heavy with the flavor of Poe, this tale is a must-read on a dark night.”

I’d say more, but you should read it, and it’s been awhile since I read it, and my copy hasn’t arrived. So this review sucks. But the novella doesn’t. Not by a longshot.

From the recent issue of The Ansible

Jeanette Winterson [author of The Stone Gods] regards her novel as ‘more than speculative’: ‘I’m not a Luddite; I’m fascinated by technology. There’s not a single thing in The Stone Gods that’s not plausible; it’s not flights of fantasy or science fiction, but completely within our reach.’ (Metro, 25 September) [SK]

In [her] far future, genetic fixing has eliminated ageing, an advanced AI robot can be one’s soulmate, and mankind is starting anew on a fresh ‘Planet Blue’. But apart from that, what has science fiction ever done for us?

So Jeanette Winterson isn’t a science fiction writer. She just writes fiction about a future based upon plausible scientific advances. Gotcha.

It is to say that I have an idea for a blog post that I will write later. So this just introduces that blog post. It’s not a blog post itself.

Oh, yeah, Filk Singer Blind Lemming Chiffon has fallen behind on his Song-A-Day project, but his most recent endeavor, I feel, is a work of genius. And I may actually sing it at the next open mic I attend.

Oh, crap, I think I just made this into a blog post.

Yes, I know it was yesterday, but here’s something either a day late, or 365 days early.

Talk Like a Pirate Day Homesick Blues

Songs for today

Hey, it’s Can(n)on - Tom Smith
Talk Like A Pirate Day - Tom Smith (both can be downloaded for free)
I Want to Sing and Dance - Ray Stevens
The Wendy Saga - SJ Tucker

The Pirate Song - George Harrison

A Pirate Looks at 40 - Jimmy Buffett

You Don’t Know Jack - Luke Ski

Author of A Wrinkle in Time, and more than 60 other books, passes away at age 88 source

I actually didn’t know she had written poetry, and will have to find a collection. I loved her Wrinkle in Time trilogy as a child, though I haven’t read the later sequels.

A joke told at a book festival is mistaken for the truth, and even the Washington Post falls for it.

Click on the below thumbnail and you can read a bio for Victor Hugo which appeared in the Classics Illustrated comic edition of his novel, The Man Who Laughs. There is a significant biographical error made within the text. See if you can spot it.

It’s time for the Aug 15th Carnival of Genealogy. I was sure I wouldn’t be contributing to this one. The topic is Genealogy conferences and seminars, and I’ve never been to one. If I’m going to blog about something, it should be something with which I’m familiar. So I was content that I was going to sit this one out, and see what others had to say.

Then Janice at CowHampshire, admitting she had never attended a conference, posted her “Genealogy seminars I’d like to see” The list was humorous, I was listed as a host of one of the seminars, and I realized I could come up with a humorous list, too, but now it would be redundant, or worse, copying, unless I came up with my own unique twist.

Then Jasia, at Creative Gene, posted her suggestions for conferences from the perspective of one who had attended…and I realized there were some vague familiarities, and I had my topic.

What to expect when your favorite genealogical conference merges with a local SF convention.

1) Possible panel/seminar topics:
a. Homer Simpson’s Family Tree
b. Genealogy references in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: from Nature’s Nobility to graveyard visits.
c. Did your great grandparents read science fiction? An introduction to First Fandom for Young Adults.
d. Did your ancestors get eaten by Grendel? Where would they be buried if they were?
e. Making whoopee in the 17th century, were there any differences? (midnight panel)
f. Podcasting for the Genea-blogger.
g. Heraldry – What your local branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism has to offer your local genealogy society – and vice versa.
h. The 1891 and 1901 England Census are online? Is HG Wells listed? (Yes - ancestry.co.uk, image)

2) Genealogy Guest of Honor: Alex Haley. (live via time machine) Huge line for autographs, but a smaller subset of attendees will turn their nose up, claim the writer was a hack, and refuse to get in line, even if they’ve read all his books.

3) There will be a masquerade. A chance to dress up like your ancestors – or your future descendents! Prizes will be awarded.

4) Art Show will have new categories for Coats of Arms and family photographs.

5) Free alcohol in the room parties after hours will lead to genealogists logging on to OneWorldTree and adding entries to prove they are descended from Isaac Newton or Beowulf.

Note: I’ve started to post genealogy stuff here, so that those interested in just genealogy don’t have to wade through my other mishmash, and those interested in the mishmash, don’t have to wade through my growing interest in genealogy. But this post definitely belongs in both places.

I’ve added a few filker-blogs to my links on the left (under artists, authors and musicians). To remind those who need reminding, filk is sf/fantasy themed music, often song parodies, often folk melodies, but not necessarily either.

FilkerTom is the livejournal of the filker Tom Smith. Some in my writer’s group will need to be told that this is a different Tom Smith, with equal amounts of funny, but with less horror. The member of my writer’s group with this name tells a story of being called up and being offered a plane ride to Santa Fe, NM to talk with someone who liked his work. He was gracious enough to inform the caller that they had contacted the wrong Tom Smith. Lots of fiction by the St. Louis Tom Smith can be read here. He’s also written song lyrics, but the songs haven’t appeared on the Dr. Demento Show, like FilkerTom’s has. Nor has he recorded cds (to my knowledge.) This paragraph really should have been more about FilkerTom, but you can follow the link and read more about him. He’s also had several posts in the past couple days about a dispute between LiveJournal owners and Livejournal users over their definition of Harmful Content.

MoFilker is the livejournal of Missouri Filker, Gary Hanak. He’s attended over twenty Archons and is a fixture at St. Louis conventions. He ran the Filking track at NASFiC. He can play the accordion, and has 2 cds.

Porcupine Burrito is the Livejournal of Blind Lemming Chiffon. His name, and his blog’s name, pretty much tells you everything you need to know, doesn’t it? Met him for the first time at NASFiC. Enjoyed his music. After returning from NASFiC he’s begun a song-a-day project on his livejournal.

the great Luke Ski’s livejournal isn’t new to the list, but he also is a filker, and he likes to tell audiences that he is the most requested artist on the Dr. Demento show for the 21st century. He is actually quite well-known for his promotional skills, starting with the name he chose for himself. He does have a talent for good lyrics, which in filk/dementia music is important. A lot of his selection is Rap parodies, but he parodies non-Rap music as well.

Are you going to be in Collinsville, IL this weekend at the North American Science Fiction Convention, hosted by Archon? (NASFiC doesn’t occur every year…it only occurs when the WorldCon isn’t in North America, and WorldCon is in Japan this year. Archon won the bid to host NASFiC. Should be huge. Should be fun.)

I am.

If you’re there, and are wondering…hey, where’s TransylvanianDutch? (or if you know me offblog, where’s John?) Here’s a list of where I am likely to be. Of course, my schedule is open to change. I’m not a panelist or anything, this is just a list of the activities from the program guide (on the website linked above) that jumped out at me and said: Hey..I’m interesting.

Thursday

1 pm - Graphic Novels and Comics - why we love them (Depending upon how late I wake up Thursday morning and get my *ss down to Collinsville I could miss this)
2 pm - Open Blog Insert Foot (don’t want to miss this tho)
3 pm - Guide to Small Press Publishing
or Torturing Characters
4 pm - early dinner
5 pm - Barri Bumgarner’s Reading
6 pm - Gary Hanak concert
7 pm - How to write realistic violence
8 pm - More to St. Louis Fandom than Archon (not a panelist, but I know several panelists, and there is a distinct possibility I will be talking a bit during the panel, since I am active in local fandom)

Friday

10 am - Is there room for a god in a science fiction universe
1 pm - Writing YA SF/Fantasy
3 pm - Crossing genres
4 pm - Recording your stuff
5 pm - Bardic Concert
7-9pm - Break from NASFiC - drive West to Hartford Coffee Company for open mic
10 pm - Luke Ski concert

Saturday (you’ll notice this is less full. Will probably visit the dealers room, art show, etc on Saturday because the panels looked less interesting.)

10 am - Publishing short stories
11 am - HP Fan Fiction — or maybe an early lunch
12 - SF/F poetry
1 pm - Tom Smith concert
7 pm - Masquerade

Sunday

11 am - Elizabeth Moon reading
12 - Ethics of Self Promotion
2 - Heroes
3 - Preparing a manuscript for submission
4 - Closing ceremonies

Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night I will be in the Filking Room. Filking. Get your mind out of the gutter you muggles! Filk music is Folk music for narrow values of ‘o’. (Most likely etymology is that it was a typo in an early newsletter that caught on). Most filk music is song parody (popular songs with new lyrics written with SF/Fantasy themes) but there is original filk as well. Filks I’ve written.

Genogram of the main characters from the Harry Potter series of books.

(Doesn’t, yet, as I can see, include spoilers for Book 7. But I don’t know when they will update it.)

There are actually several references to genealogy made in the final book.

my lousy record on making predictions continues. (this applies for pretty much everything: elections, sports, or fantasy novels)

Five names from various census databases at ancestry.com
Some may think the names sound somewhat familiar.

Louis Malfoy
Scotland, 1871
Age: abt 12

Arthur Weasley
US, 1920
Age: abt 25

Peter Voldemior
US 1900
Age 56

Septima Snape
England 1891
Age 24

Harry Potter (father named James)
England, 1901
Age: abt 1

Update: Changed a couple of the names because I liked them better.

I’m probably about 20 years late on this joke, but, it is the first time I have heard this explanation.

The ANSI to (life, universe, everything^*) = 42

(i do still prefer the explanation I discovered a couple years ago.)

$18,000 for a 10 year old book.

Meme taken from Blair.

In bold, the ones I’ve seen. I also have put *s by all the books I’ve read. (Not all have books, of course.) I’ve seen 45%. At least parts of them, as some of them I suspect I fell asleep, and missed key scenes. The books didn’t put me over 50% as I had hoped.

Yes, I know all my SF friends will tell me, and you’re right. I need to either see or read #97. I need to read several of PKD’s books. He’s on my list.

1. “Citizen Kane,” 1941.
2. “The Godfather,” 1972.
3. “Casablanca,” 1942.
4. “Raging Bull,” 1980.
5. “Singin’ in the Rain,” 1952.
6. “Gone With the Wind,” 1939.
7. “Lawrence of Arabia,” 1962.
8. “Schindler’s List,” 1993. *
9. “Vertigo,” 1958.
10. “The Wizard of Oz,” 1939. *
11. “City Lights,” 1931.
12. “The Searchers,” 1956.
13. “Star Wars,” 1977.
14. “Psycho,” 1960. *
15. “2001: A Space Odyssey,” 1968. *
16. “Sunset Blvd.”, 1950.
17. “The Graduate,” 1967.
18. “The General,” 1927.
19. “On the Waterfront,” 1954.
20. “It’s a Wonderful Life,” 1946.
21. “Chinatown,” 1974.
22. “Some Like It Hot,” 1959.
23. “The Grapes of Wrath,” 1940. *
24. “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” 1982.
25. “To Kill a Mockingbird,” 1962. *
26. “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” 1939.
27. “High Noon,” 1952.
28. “All About Eve,” 1950.
29. “Double Indemnity,” 1944.
30. “Apocalypse Now,” 1979.
31. “The Maltese Falcon,” 1941.
32. “The Godfather Part II,” 1974.
33. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” 1975.
34. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” 1937. *
35. “Annie Hall,” 1977.
36. “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” 1957.
37. “The Best Years of Our Lives,” 1946.
38. “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” 1948.
39. “Dr. Strangelove,” 1964.
40. “The Sound of Music,” 1965.
41. “King Kong,” 1933.
42. “Bonnie and Clyde,” 1967.
43. “Midnight Cowboy,” 1969.
44. “The Philadelphia Story,” 1940.
45. “Shane,” 1953.
46. “It Happened One Night,” 1934.
47. “A Streetcar Named Desire,” 1951.
48. “Rear Window,” 1954.
49. “Intolerance,” 1916.
50. “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” 2001. *
51. “West Side Story,” 1961.
52. “Taxi Driver,” 1976.
53. “The Deer Hunter,” 1978.
54. “M-A-S-H,” 1970.
55. “North by Northwest,” 1959.
56. “Jaws,” 1975. *
57. “Rocky,” 1976.
58. “The Gold Rush,” 1925.
59. “Nashville,” 1975.
60. “Duck Soup,” 1933.
61. “Sullivan’s Travels,” 1941.
62. “American Graffiti,” 1973.
63. “Cabaret,” 1972.
64. “Network,” 1976.
65. “The African Queen,” 1951.
66. “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” 1981.
67. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, 1966.
68. “Unforgiven,” 1992.
69. “Tootsie,” 1982.
70. “A Clockwork Orange,” 1971. *
71. “Saving Private Ryan,” 1998.
72. “The Shawshank Redemption,” 1994. *
73. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” 1969.
74. “The Silence of the Lambs,” 1991.
75. “In the Heat of the Night,” 1967.
76. “Forrest Gump,” 1994.
77. “All the President’s Men,” 1976.
78. “Modern Times,” 1936.
79. “The Wild Bunch,” 1969.
80. “The Apartment, 1960.
81. “Spartacus,” 1960.
82. “Sunrise,” 1927.
83. “Titanic,” 1997.
84. “Easy Rider,” 1969.
85. “A Night at the Opera,” 1935.
86. “Platoon,” 1986.
87. “12 Angry Men,” 1957.
88. “Bringing Up Baby,” 1938.
89. “The Sixth Sense,” 1999.
90. “Swing Time,” 1936.
91. “Sophie’s Choice,” 1982.
92. “Goodfellas,” 1990.
93. “The French Connection,” 1971.
94. “Pulp Fiction,” 1994.
95. “The Last Picture Show,” 1971.
96. “Do the Right Thing,” 1989.
97. “Blade Runner,” 1982.
98. “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” 1942.
99. “Toy Story,” 1995.
100. “Ben-Hur,” 1959.

Yes, I’ve seen the headlines on the news stories regarding the supposed hacker and the supposed plot.
I haven’t read the news story.
I remember what the news did with Captain America and Spider-Man.
Of course, they spoiled those books with the headlines, and I don’t think any newspaper’s done that yet.
I’m not saying they’ve learned anything. Next major comic book event, if it’s a slow newsday, they’ll spoil it in a headline. If it’s not a slow newsday, they won’t cover it.
Harry Potter is different.
But I don’t have faith he’s that much different.
So I’m not reading the news stories.

If anyone I trust can direct me in the comments to a newspaper that has just covered the process…and has no reveal of any content…be my guest.

There’s some controversy over a recent cover to a hardcover collection of a series of Marvel Comics called Marvel Zombies. Basically people upset that Marvel took the artwork of Mary Jane Watson (Spidey’s girlfriend) from the cover of a series of Spider-man comics aimed at kids, and turned her into a somewhat alluring zombie. (Original and adapted artwork linked to above)

The original series of comics were a hit, so no one is upset over that. And MJ was turned into a zombie within the storyline, I suspect (haven’t read it) so they aren’t upset about that. They just seem upset that Marvel adapted earlier artwork. There is also some complaints about how this makes zombies ‘alluring’.

And I recalled a poem I once wrote about Marilyn Monroe fresh from her grave. And in case there were some readers who never heard that poem, or haven’t even read that poem, I thought I would make it clear that that poem will be performed Saturday night at the Regional Arts Commission on Delmar in the Poetry Showcase that begins at 8 pm.

Not appropriate for kids. This applies to the Marvel Zombies comics. This applies to the Poetry Showcase on Delmar Saturday Night. And this applies to my poem.

I found this nowhere but my own brain and research. I did write a short poem back in 1994 exploring some of this, which I recently rediscovered. My writer’s group last night told me the references were too obscure. They were probably right - and it’s somewhat dated now. But it makes for a good table.

update added fascinating Body Snatchers factoid.

1) Set time machine to early 1500s - Petite Lyon, France.
2) Don Jester outfit
3) Step into machine
4) Push button

Voila!

Oh my g-d! What happened to my beard?
I look like I looked 5 years ago!

Oh, wait, it is me 5 years ago.
This time machine is screwy.

I will work on fixing it, and maybe I can get a better picture by tonight.

What is wrong with these landlubbers?

They go to see a pirate movie, and they turn around and run, from their seats, almost literally, several minutes before the end of the movie. Stupid gits. Movies costing what they do today, leaving before the movie ends is insane, unless you didn’t like the movie…and are going to ask for a refund. These idiots, though, watched it up to the beginning of the credits. They bolted as the credits began to roll.

Completely missing out on the treasure at the end of the credits.

landlubbers, I tell ye.

TIME has an article on the Science of Star Wars

To quote from the article:

The most prominent areas of research inspired by the film are “hyper drive,” like that achieved off and on by Han Solo’s foundering Millennium Falcon, and robotics research inspired by Luke Skywalker’s ever-reliable R2D2 and somewhat neurotic C3PO.

“We physicists have been fascinated, have been inspired by the warp drive,” Kaku said. It has been so fascinating to them … that they have found an equation of Einstein’s that mimics warp drive.

Now, on paper, scientists know how “warp speed” works and what it would take for Chewbacca to get the Millennium Falcon into gear.

Sorry. You can’t credit Lucas with the Warp Drive.

Star Trek - Warp Drive - 1966
Star Wars - Hyperspace Drive - 1977

Similarly, Kaku says, some people saw the movies’ robots and started working in artificial intelligence theory to create robots of their own.

Isaac Asimov - I, Robot - 1950 (origin of the word ‘positronics’)
Alan Turing - Invented the Turing Test - 1950
John McCarthy coins the word “Artificial Intelligence” - 1956
ELIZA - 1965
Star Wars - 1977

Sorry, can’t give Lucas credit for inspiring Artificial Intelligence theory either.

I attend the St. Louis Renaissance Festival every year. Over the years I’ve been working on putting together a jester outfit. A colleague asked me if there were jesters in Renaissance Europe — he thought they were more medieval.

A little research suggests they ended in England in the 16th century, but were existent in France up to the French Revolution (late 18th). The Wentzville Faire is set in France, under the reign of Francis I, early 16th century. He ushered in the Renaissance for France, and his court Jester was perhaps one of the more famous court jesters — at least in literature. Triboulet, star of Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’Amuse (The King’s Diversion), and Verdi’s remake into an opera - Rigoletto.

Hugo took liberties with the real individual, but here’s a few illustrations for his character:

What isn’t clear from the illustrations is he’s a hunchback. Hugo liked characters with that deformity apparently. Not sure if I’ll work that into my costume, but I already have the beard.

Here’s a tshirt that spoils the ending of a dozen films, one tv show, and one book. Within a few years, the book will become a movie, unless the earth explodes before then, but for now it’s just the sixth book in a series that ends in July.

What’s spoiled:
Dallas (Who shot JR)
The Usual Suspects
Citizen Kane
Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
Planet of the Apes
Sixth Sense
The Matrix
Fight Club
The Others
Psycho
300
Soylent Green
Beautiful Mind
Crying Game
Donnie Darko
Harry Potter Book Six

And two films…one about a village, and another about a group of villagers. No clue, but they sound like horror films.

It’s a funny tshirt, but I wouldn’t wear it until after the film is released.

Sunday night I saw two movies. The first movie I saw was at the home of Dog Girl (she used to be Toy Lady, but she reminded me recently she hasn’t sold any toys for over a year. She works at a vet’s, and often there are more canines than humans in her home. So she has a new nickname. And maybe she’ll learn not to complain.)

The movie was 28 Days Later. I was the only one in the room who hadn’t seen it. (Well, the only non-canine in the room) It’s a zombie horror flick. The zombies weren’t classic undead, but instead the creatures were the result of an escaped virus that turned humans into raging monsters almost instantaneously. The movie followed predictable zombie paths, with a mixture of science fiction thrown in due to the virus. It was entertaining, though. Anyone who likes horror/zombie flicks is likely to enjoy it, if they haven’t already, since it’s been out for over a year. It’s setting in London made me think of Shaun of the Dead. However, there was nothing intentionally comedic about 28 Days Later. Good horror plotting. OK characterization. I know I was happy when it was finished, but I’ve already forgotten most of the characters. Since some of the scenes were vivid, I was able to call the characters to mind by going over the plot in my mind, but otherwise, they’d be gone.

After that, as some may have guessed already, we made a trip to the theater to see 28 Weeks Later. The sequel was disappointing. In the opening scenes, a character made a comment about the virus, which any viewer of the first film would know was untrue. I made the assumption that wasn’t a mistake, and the character would live to regret their misinformation. However, I was wrong, and it played no role in later events, leading me to believe it was a disappointing mistake on the part of the writers. The ending felt a little contrived and tacked. I’d have liked a couple minutes of additional explanation – it wouldn’t have taken much, and the movie was pretty short as it was. There were certainly some horrific scenes. The plotting wasn’t as good as the first film. I wasn’t satisfied. I remember a couple of the characters more vividly, though.

If I were going to rewatch either of the movies. I’d rewatch the first.

Inspired by GoGo, I decided to find my daemon. (I answered the questions as ‘John’ and as ‘Gavroche’ and got the same results.)

In 12 days, my Daemon will become ‘permanent’, but until that time, input from you can change it.

Sideshow Collectibles has a new toy figure of Mary Jane from the Spider-man comics. It’s an impressive pose. MJ bent over a washtub, washing Spidey’s costume, showing a little thong.

I guess the good news is that only 900 were made, and they’re all sold out. Bad news: I didn’t get one.

Honestly…I may have fantasies about MJ, but if I do, they don’t involve washtubs.

Tip of the hat to the culturegeek, and DevilDoll.

Related news: here are a few pages from a recent spider-man comic showing a possible alternate universe Mary Jane who appears to be interested in actually helping Spidey out with the crimefighting. Sure…you can talk about how she’s dressed, but at least she’s doing something other than laundry.

If the film I saw Friday night had been based on this script, it might have been better:

(click to enlarge):

OK…Spider-Man III was not *that* bad. I actually enjoyed it a bit. A fellow movie-goer complained that all the male characters cried at some point in the film. I’m OK with that. It was a highly emotional film, though.

I do feel villains should be permitted to be villains, though. They can be evil. They don’t need to be misunderstood, or abused, or whathaveyou. So I was a little upset that with the Valjean-ifying of Sandman.

I think I may be the only one in the universe who will make the comparison between the Sandman character in Spider-Man III and Jean Valjean from Les Miserables. But Valjean steals a loaf of bread to feed his sister and his sister’s family. (We never learn of their fate after Valjean’s imprisonment) Sandman, apparently, steals money to help his dying daughter. (And performs a more serious crime in the process.)

[Sandman in the comics always had an ailing mother he protected from learning his identity, making his morality slightly complex, but his crimes were committed out of self-interest, not out of concern for others. According to some bios online, he did ’switch sides’ briefly, but there was some suggestion it was a ruse, and he always returned to his evil ways.]

Of course, I also realize that Sandman is being made a more likeable character in the real comics currently. By one of my favorite comic book authors, no less. Peter David. (Who not so coincidentally has written the novelization for all three Spider-Man movies.)

(The comic above appeared in a 2002 issue of the Portland Mercury)

Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

SEOUL, South Korea - They came from all over the world, poles in hand, and feet ready to inch more than half a mile across a high wire strung over the Han River in a spine-tingling battle of balance, speed and high anxiety.

I can never resist a punny headline…and this is one of the best I’ve ever seen.