I’ve long thought that people who don’t read, or haven’t read science fiction are much more ill-prepared for the future. Well, in the near future, we have a presidential election coming up. Here are some suggestions for SF to read in preparation from some notable web pundits.
Category Archives: Popular Culture
Off To The Movies
I very rarely see a movie in a theater. I’d say it averages once or twice a year (though we did see Dark Knight a couple months ago–the last one before that was The Astronaut Farmer). But tonight Patricia and I are going out to see American Carol to boost its opening weekend ratings (plus, it looks like it should be pretty funny, and I think we can all use a good laugh right now, given current events). At this point, I’m all about promoting and encouraging alternate media/viewpoints, particularly from Hollywood. I may or may not review it tomorrow.
[Monday morning update]
Meh.
It was entertaining, and a good story, but not roll-in-the-aisles funny, at least for us. Of course, I’ve never been that big a Zucker/slapstick fan (e.g., I’ve never even seen any of the Naked Gun series). It’s not the sort of flick that I would normally want to see in a theater, but I was happy to help boost the first weekend ratings. Of course, unlike the previous ones, there are some emotionally affecting moments in this one (quickly broken up, of course, by more crude slapstick).
So if you want to support this sort of politically incorrect movie (always a noble goal, in my opinion), spend a couple hours and spend the ten bucks. You’ll have a good time, but don’t expect too much.
[Note: this post has been bumped to the top, new stuff below]
Irreproducible
It’s that time of year again, for the (Ig)nobel prizes.
Justice, At Last
O.J. Simpson is finally going to do some hard time.
[Mid-afternoon update]
No smirking at this verdict. He’s been getting away with bad behavior all of his life. He must be wondering what finally went wrong.
No Fascism Here
Nothing to see at all. Move along, move along.
As Jonah says:
All I need to know about your politics is whether you find this creepy or not.
Get out the crayolas and color me creeped out.
[Update mid afternoon]
Roger Simon (who knows his fascists) has more thoughts.
[Update a few minutes later]
Some great comments at the Hit’n’Run link.:
[Olympics flashback]
The worst part is that the original singers were all replaced by much cuter kids.
[/Olympics flashback]
[Update about 3:15 PM EDT]
Exurban League has more, as does Confederate Yankee. It turns out to be astroturf:
Here’s a partial list of those who helped produce this “grassroots” effort:
- Jeff Zucker — American television executive, and President & CEO of NBC Universal.
- Post-producer (former choreographer?) Holly Shiffer.
- Motion picture camera operator/steadicam specialist Peter Rosenfeld (appropriately enough, worked in “Yes Man,” a movie about ” a guy challenges himself to say ‘yes’ to everything for an entire year.”
- Darin Moran, another motion picture industry professional, who just finished filming — how appropriate — Land of the Lost.
- Andy Blumenthal, Hollywood film editor.
Jeff Zucker. This generation’s Leni Riefenstahl. Except without the talent.
Just A Fad
Many continue to disbelieve (with no obvious basis) that there really is a market for people who want to go into space; that it is “just a fad,” and that after a while, folks will get bored and the demand will disappear. I of course think that’s nonsense, and that word of mouth of the experience will only increase interest in it as more and more people hear about it, and want to try it themselves. Any astronaut will tell you that it was a, if not the peak experience of their lives.
Well, Space Adventures has announced today that Charles Simonyi, who flew with them previously, is going to spend millions do it again.
Man, that first time must have really sucked.
[Update mid morning]
Clark Lindsey has the press release.
Please, Get Well
And live a thousand years.
Only P.J. O’Rourke could write an hilarious column about his cancer diagnosis:
Why can’t death — if we must have it — be always glorious, as in “The Iliad”? Of course death continues to be so, sometimes, with heroes in Fallouja and Kandahar. But nowadays, death more often comes drooling on the toilet seat in the nursing home, or bleeding under the crushed roof of a teen-driven SUV, or breathless in a deluxe hotel suite filled with empty drug bottles and a minor public figure whose celebrity expiration date has passed.
I have, of all the inglorious things, a malignant hemorrhoid. What color bracelet does one wear for that? And where does one wear it? And what slogan is apropos? Perhaps that slogan can be sewn in needlepoint around the ruffle on a cover for my embarrassing little doughnut buttocks pillow.
Furthermore, I am a logical, sensible, pragmatic Republican, and my diagnosis came just weeks after Teddy Kennedy’s. That he should have cancer of the brain, and I should have cancer of the ass … well, I’ll say a rosary for him and hope he has a laugh at me. After all, what would I do, ask God for a more dignified cancer? Pancreatic? Liver? Lung?
I don’t believe in God, but it he’s there, please bless him.
What A Comeback
Wow.
I’d kind of given up on the Wolverines in the first half. Their defense was doing a great job, but they had to, because every time they stopped the Badgers, the offense gave it back to them.
But it looks like they’re going to win a big comeback, from being down 19-0 at the half, to a 27-19 win. Four straight unanswered touchdowns, and they saved a score in the last three minutes with a fumble recovery inside their own red zone. It’s going to be tough for Wisconsin to come back–they need eight points with less than two minutes remaining. Maybe there’s some hope for the season after all.
[Update after the game]
They took it down to the wire. Wisconsin scored another touchdown, but missed the two-point conversion needed to tie, and then put the on-side kick out of bounds, so Michigan squeaked it out. Regardless, it’s still the biggest comeback in school history I think (or at least in the top five) in the 500th game in the Big House, and a good way to kick off the Big Ten season with a new head coach.
Death Of A Film Legend
RIP, Paul Newman.
You can’t live a life much more full than he seemed to. And unlike many of his Hollywood colleagues, the one way that he didn’t seem to fill it up was with promiscuity and infidelity. It’s all too rare that an actor is faithful for decades. Of course, as he noted himself, it probably helps to be married to Joanne Woodward.
I hadn’t realized that he was a flier in the Navy in the Pacific. It’s always tempting to say that they don’t make them like that any more, but I suspect that they still do. A lot of them probably served in Iraq in the last few years, and we’ll be hearing from them in the future.
Beavers (Finally) Defeat Trojans
Sorry, couldn’t resist the headline. But it’s true.