- I know Terry Gilliam’s been having trouble getting films made, but has it come to this: he’s directing webcasts?
But I kid. It looks like an interesting if unusual idea for a concert series, pairing directors and bands, and I might just check next Thursday’s webcast out if I have a chance.
- E-books article drinking game. [via]
- It’s actually been months since I’ve played Plants vs. Zombies, but I thought this was interesting: Michael Jackson Estate Forces ‘Plants vs. Zombies’ Update. Yeah, I can see how an undead Jackson might not sit so well with them. [via]
- Speaking of zombies, Night of the Living Wonks [via]
Looking at the state of international relations theory, one quickly realizes the absence of consensus about the best way to think about global politics. There are multiple paradigms that attempt to explain international relations, and each has a different take on how political actors can be expected to respond to the living dead.
- And finally, baby moose in a sprinkler. Honestly, too cute for words. [via]
legal
Thursday various
- I’ve always thought that competitive eating contests were, at best, disgusting and dumb, and, at worst, encouragers of some really awful and unhealthy behavior. Turns out, it’s much worse than I ever imagined. [via]
- Who could have guessed that an H.G. Wells story contest that banned science fiction and required manuscripts be handwritten would get no entries?
- The Searcher has been on something of a zombie kick recently: Zombie Journal: Of Conscience and Appetites and The Tragedy of Zombie Clown.
- Inside the digital preservation process at the Library of Congress. [via]
- And finally, the Real People Behind Famous Fictional Characters. [via]
Wednesday various
- It’s as I always suspected: Twilight will kill you.
- Heaven knows Kaleidotrope contributor Genevieve Valentine isn’t a fan:
The good news is that if you are seeing a Twilight movie to mock it, you’ll feast every time.
- The Fab Faux’s live cover of Abbey Road raises a really interesting question: what is the difference between a really great cover band and a classical orchestra? [via]
- Meanwhile, Janis Ian covers herself (with a few tweaks) for this year’s Nebula Awards. [via]
- And finally, also meanwhile, all those covers on Glee would probably get the school in a lot of trouble [via]:
These worlds don’t match. Both Glee and the RIAA can’t be right. It’s hard to imagine glee club coach Will Schuester giving his students a tough speech on how they can’t do mash-ups anymore because of copyright law (but if he did, it might make people rethink the law). Instead, copyright violations are rewarded in Glee — after Sue’s Physical video goes viral, Olivia Newton-John contacts Sue so they can film a new, improved video together.
Monday various
- The Amityville Horror house is up for sale. Anybody wanna go halfsies? [via]
- Well, there goes my dream of paying for the house by wearing a costume on Hollywood Boulevard. Are sights like this now really a thing of the past?
- And I guess I also won’t be able to afford a spot aboard this $1.1 billion “sea castle”. (In all seriousness, though, divorced from the politics and ridiculous price of the thing, a part of me does think the whole thing looks very cool.) [via]
- Maybe I can get a job pretending to be a foreign investor in Japan. [via]
- And finally, if I do, maybe I’ll be able to count myself among the luckiest people on Earth:
Well, maybe not. [via]
Thursday various
- Yesterday, when I was posting links to stories about babies, I neglected to mention Ardi Rizal a two-year-old Sumatran baby who smokes some forty cigarettes a day. I think, mostly, because I wanted to pretend he doesn’t. [via]
- Meanwhile, this is just heartbreaking [via]:
A German biologist says that efforts to clean oil-drenched birds in the Gulf of Mexico are in vain. For the birds’ sake, it would be faster and less painful if animal-rescue workers put them under, she says. Studies and other experts back her up.
- Whereas this is just…fingerprinting to take out a library book? Seriously? The huge privacy issues aside, how does this improve the system for the library or the patron? [via]
- A couple of periodic tables:
- The Periodic Table of Superpowers — I shall henceforth refer to Superman always as OAFSISpVxVhSn. [via]
- And Periodic Table of Women in SF — There is, of course, a meme going around for this, where you bold the names you’ve read and star the ones you’ve never heard of, but if I were to do it, I think it would just reflect how unread I am. If nothing else, this is a good place to start a reading list. [via]
- But finally, speaking of women I don’t want to spend any more time with, A.O. Scott’s review of Sex and the City 2:
Yes, it’s supposed to be fun. And over the years audiences have had the kind of fun that comes from easy immersion in someone else’s career, someone else’s sex life, someone else’s clothes. But “Sex and the City 2†is about someone else’s boredom, someone else’s vacation and ultimately someone else’s desire to exploit that vicarious pleasure for profit. Which isn’t much fun at all.