- Last Thursday, I posted this image to Capper Blog, and I planned to follow up with the original source article here. Better late than never. The pictures there actually give you a better sense of these so-called infinity pools, and moreover just how high up and close to the edge they are. I think I’d be terrified to swim in one these. [via]
- Going back even further on things I forgot to follow up on: back in June I posted about a link that was going around, suggesting that every actor reads the same newspaper. Well, Slate followed up on that link and found out the story behind the ubiquitous prop. [via]
- The world really is a poorer place without Jim Henson, isn’t it? [via]
- I can’t say I’ll miss Blockbuster all that much, but Matt Zoller Seitz makes a compelling argument that we’ve lost something with the company’s (now almost certain) passing [via]:
I’m talking about the pre-Internet experience of daily life, which was more immediate, more truly interactive: in a word, real. Bland and aloof as it was, Blockbuster was a part of that — and for certain types of people, it was a big part. There was nothing special about Blockbuster as a business, but special moments did happen there, simply by virtue of the fact that the stores were everywhere, and they stocked a lot of movies, and people who wanted to see movies went there regularly, sometimes alone but more often in the company of relatives or friends. You’d go through the front door and pass the front counter — where an employee was checking in a pile of returned videos (when opened, the boxes went whuck!) and check out the new releases wall (Seventy-five copies of “Hard Target?” Seriously?). Then you’d fan out among the aisles and try your luck.
- And finally, some video game-related links:
- If Lucasarts Had Made A Lost Game…In 1987… [via]
- I Dream in Retro [via]
- Super Mario Crossover: Play the original Super Mario Bros with characters from classic Nintendo games. [via]
- Is Our Future Going to Be Like a Video Game Designed by Big Brother?
pop culture
Tuesday various
- Apparently, Megan Fox’s latest tattoo is a quote from a writer who doesn’t exist. And I am suddenly imagining tattoo parlors who inscribe quotes from books like those in the library in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, the books of dreams, whose common thread is that none of them were ever actually written.
Of course, I’m also reminded of Shelley Jackson’s Skin project, which maybe beat my brain to it.
- If this isn’t a real literary mashup novel, somebody at Quirk Books needs to get on it.
- Though they better watch out: apparently, novelty books are getting more expensive to produce. (Though, admittedly, those are more pop-up books and such than anything.)
- Meanwhile a “youth edition” of Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father is being developed. What exactly is a “youth edition” and what makes the current edition inappropriate? [via]
- And finally: British scientist uncovers ‘secret messages’ hidden in Plato’s ancient text. Of course he did. [via]
Wednesday various
- Could a 3-D printer be used to build moon bases? I don’t know, but it’s pretty cool in action. [via]
- They really love football in Texas: one of the state’s high schools is getting a $60M stadium. [via]
- The science of Pokemon [via]
- I can’t believe I haven’t shared the Most Badass Alphabet Ever yet. [via]
- And finally, you know how last week I was saying it was only a matter of time before the DMCA takedowns of those Downfall meme videos got the Downfall meme treatment? Well, here you go.
Monday various
- Did James Cameron plagiarize a series of Russian novels for Avatar? Well, just throw it on the pile with Pocahonatas and FernGully. I mean, Cameron does sort of have a track record with this sort of thing… [via]
- Will Kiefer Sutherland still be doing 24 when he’s sixty? Well, he’d like to think so.
- Meanwhile, from someone who maybe knows when it’s time to retire, David Tennant’s foreword to the Doctor Who specials. [via]
- Happy families are all alike. Presumably because they’re built that way in the robot factory. Android Karenina.
I still haven’t read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and I am sort of waiting for this trend to die out, but at least Quirk handles their own entries with some degree of humor and style. [via]
- And finally, a long post from Mark Evanier on the whole Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien situation.
I think he makes a lot of valid points, including about why Leno probably isn’t the big villain he’s being portrayed as in some circles. I still think Peter David is right, that Leno “can’t be the deposed king returning to power and court jester at the same time.” And I’m still a little saddened that NBC is pinning its hopes and future of late-night on the man who’s greatest contribution to comedy in decades has been the Dancing Itos.
But at least Evanier does a decent job of explaining how and why this all happened.
That’s one way of putting it
Zach Handlen on G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra
Sommers’ action sequences have been degrading rapidly since his remake of The Mummy, becoming so disconnected from anything even remotely resembling real-world physics and cause and effect that it’s like watching drunken balloon animals fuck.
I haven’t seen the movie, but the clips Handlen provides make me nostalgic for the comparatively gritty and realistic original cartoon.