- White Castle aromatherapy candles? I’ve never eaten there, but this doesn’t sound like a good thing at all. [via]
- Stephen Hawking says: don’t talk to aliens. But what if they offer us candy? Space candy! [via]
- Digital Domesday book unlocked, underlining the dangers inherent in digital archiving. [via]
- By now you’ve seen Jon Stewart’s interview with Ken Blackwell, right? If not, you really should. Mostly, Stewart just has to let Blackwell talk.
- And finally, I got a kick out of this Super Mario Bros. clone: Enough Plumbers. [via]
news
Thursday various
- Looks like I fall on the “trustworthy” end of this Trustworthiness of Beards scale. How to use that to my advantage? Muhahahaha! [via]
- When I first read this story, about another Ring movie in the works — this time in 3-D and reinvented for a teen audience, whatever that means — I thought it was about another Lord of the Rings movie. As ridiculous as that remake sounds, I wouldn’t put it past Hollywood. Give in another couple of years.
- Some stories just to great not to be true: surfer rides shark after it bites his surfboard. [via]
- You can take Freudian concepts too far.
- And finally, here’s New York two ways you’ve probably never seen it before. First, made out of staples. And second, pixelated [via]:
Tuesday various
- It goes without saying that “Arizona’s draconian new immigration law is an abomination,” right? [via]
- In semi-related news: Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black. [via]
- The Canadian Science Fiction Review is an interesting idea, though I’m not sure I like their chances for getting fully funded by May 15, I’m sad to say. I was also surprised to discover that On Spec, “the Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic,” isn’t an SFWA qualifying market. [via]
- I’m an editor, and even I don’t think we should get book royalties. [via]
- And finally, Neil Gaiman on the path not taken:
The nearest to a real job I ever came actually, is when I was starting out as a young journalist, my father informed me—he knew that I’d starve as a journalist—he had this great idea, I could show off show homes and I could write while I wasn’t showing people around, and I sort of really didn’t want to say no because it was such a kind thing to do, and I was starving.
So I got on a bus and I went all the way across London by bus and went to this place where I was going to meet this guy for an interview and I sat in the reception for an hour, then they said “we’re really sorry, he’s had to go home, it’s too late” and I said oh okay, and I went back across London by bus. And then I thought, well that was that. I didn’t plan on going back across London by bus, it was a ridiculous bus journey, so I never went back, and that was the nearest I ever got to having a real job.
Imagine if that guy had shown up!
Tuesday various
- Can video games be art? Roger Ebert sure doesn’t think so.
- Support for keeping marijuana illegal in California may be coming from an unlikely source: pot growers. [via]
- Meanwhile, why am I not at all surprised by revelations that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay? [via]
- Brian K. Vaughan’s “post-apocalyptic heist movie” does sound very cool. [via]
- And finally, xkcd: “Stop spoiling my future with your slightly more distant one.”
Monday various
- I’m not afraid of clowns — sometimes I think I’m maybe in the minority on this — but how can an evil clown who stalks children possibly be a good idea for a birthday present? [via]
- Doctor Who regeneration was ‘modelled on LSD trips’ [via]
- Meanwhile, I think I like Stephen Moffat’s definition of the show:
It’s about a man who can travel in time. It’s a television show set at every point in history at every place in the universe. It’s not bound by logic or genre.
How could that not be fun?
- Don’t you forget about me. A.O. Scott on The Breakfast Club.
- And finally, David Simon on Treme [via]:
Well, Pablo Picasso famously said that art is the lie that shows us the truth. Such might be the case of a celebrated artist claiming more for himself and his work than he ought, or perhaps, this Picasso fella was on to something.
By referencing what is real, or historical, a fictional narrative can speak in a powerful, full-throated way to the problems and issues of our time. And a wholly imagined tale, set amid the intricate and accurate details of a real place and time, can resonate with readers in profound ways. In short, drama is its own argument.