How do ebook readers choose which books to buy?
The results, while not necessarily reliable, fall pretty much in line with what we know about print books: “Others said it was great” and “I’ve enjoyed this author’s work before.” That’s why reviews are so important for writers when they’re just starting out.
1) A die to cure writer’s block. It jingles when you roll it, so that has to be worth $45.
2) How many continents are there? Video.
3) Joe Lansdale beats the hell out of his son-in-law (in a martial arts exhibition). Video. As always, I’m a little dubious about this stuff, but it’s still cool to watch.
4) This is odd. via @mizkit on Twitter
5) Beautiful, anonymous paper sculptures being left at Scottish Museums.
6) Soon-to-be Father of the Year photoshops Ewoks into family photos to convince kids they are real.
1) A visual compendium of notable haircuts in popular music.
2) The origins of Superman’s villains, done in the style of Little Nemo In Slumberland>.
3) Amazing manhole covers in Japan.
4) Lord of the Rings in Lego (via Rose Fox)
5) The Silmarillion, bound and illustrated by hand.
6) The many difficult decisions around crossing a street in Los Angeles.
7) “There is widespread belief in a warm and comforting story which states the horse is a gentle herbivore.” From the description of Deadly Equines: The Shocking True Story of Meat-Eating and Murderous Horses by CuChullaine O’Reilly (seen via Ray Radlein)
So, I watched FRIGHT NIGHT in the first week of its release, and I’m a little stymied that it’s not doing so well. Maybe I shouldn’t be; it was dumped at the ass end of August when theaters are filled with crap and crowded with successful movies still pulling in ticket sales. There were literally two theaters where I could see it.
Thing is, it’s actually a good movie. Scary, kinda gory but not too bad (I can’t stand really gory gross movies) and filled with terrific performances. Farrell plays the vampire Jerry Dandridge as an odd, alarming guy with a number of weird tics. And why not? This is a dude who spends a whole, whole lot of time alone.
The other actors do a great job, too: David Tennant gets the flashy, wacky Peter Vincent sidekick role which almost overshadows the great performances from the two leads. The story loses something when it turns away from the fading TV show host, but at least it dropped the god-awful “true love reborn.” They should have held it until October when horror movies traditionally do well.
Anyway, it’s a terrific movie with some fantastic tension; I recommend it. One of the reasons I wanted to talk about it, though, is that I’ve seen a number of people talking about the vampire as a monster. Vampires should not, they assert, be emo love kittens, nor should they sparkle, nor should they be anything but skilled, violent killers.
That’s even made explicit in the film, which I suppose is necessary since sympathetic vampires have been so popular that they needed to draw a line between those other stories and this one. The vampire is compared to the shark in JAWS early on. It’s a predator.
None of which is new. Some of this is contempt for the feminine and things perceived to be meant for women (“Alpha male romantic lead? Cooties!”). Some of this is simply because people love vampire-as-monster and have no interest in other interpretations.
Me, I’m glad to see it. I think vampires are flexible enough to carry all sorts of different stories, and people’s willingness to portray them not as an invading evil (Stoker’s Dracula was portrayed as an ugly Slavic immigrant come to steal wholesome Victorian women) but in any number of ways: Lover, friend, oddball neighbor, steadfast ally… Kevin Hearne’s books have a vampire lawyer in them. It’s the process of turning outsiders and monsters in to fully-rounded individuals, of acknowledging they have real humanity.
I’m for it.
1) Interview of a One-Year-Old Child. Video. Way funnier than it sounds.
2) Moebius did concept art for the movie WILLOW. Check out the art design that could have been.
3) Astonishing bike stunts in abandoned industrial facility. Video. Music’s nice, too.
5) Everything you need to know about the video game industry in one graphic.
6) The 10 Most Brutal Moments in ‘The Savage Sword of Conan’!
Some filmmaker friends are tearing into the quotes from a Disney exec in this article. Essentially, he’s saying that Disney is going to pull back and focus on big, expensive tent-pole movies. It’s the only kind of film that makes sense with the marketing budget they need to bring in really huge numbers of people. (Added later: this particular exec doesn’t actually greenlight films, so here’s a grain of salt.)
He’s also saying that, for this kind of movie, audiences don’t care that much about the story. They like the big budget spectacle, and if the story doesn’t hold together, well, that’s a secondary consideration.
Frankly, I find it hard to refute him. He points to ALICE IN WONDERLAND (which made a billion dollars?? Really?) and I point to TRANSFORMERS. The writer of the article brings up TRON: LEGACY, which had lots of spectacle, a crappy story, and which failed at the box office, but honestly, we can all point to the reasons any individual movies drew (or failed to draw) a big audience after the fact. Everyone thinks they can Monday morning quarterback surprise hits and flops, but no one can predict it reliably.
Personally, I’d love to know what’s driving the success of those movies, but I haven’t seen them. I watch some of them on DVD when they hit the library, but in the theater? Not so much.
However! There is an ongoing TV series that a lot of people really enjoy with plenty of spectacle (on a TV budget), a large and enthusiastic fanbase, and really awful stories. I mean, dumb stories that don’t make any sense at all, or that seem spackled together with bullshit and “Hurry past, don’t pay attention here”. And that’s DOCTOR WHO.
I quit the show when I realized that too often the “stories” were an arrangement of emotion-tugging moments with only the most spurious connection to each other. A really good story will evoke powerful emotions, but if that can’t be managed, the moments themselves can be strung together (“My friend is in danger!” “This is worse that I thought!” “You don’t scare me, Villain Of This Episode!” “Thank goodness you have been safely rescued, Friend!” “Oh, I stare stonily at the terrible cost of battling evil!”). Even without the context of a sensible, well-crafted story, those moments can force emotional responses from our well-trained brains.
Isn’t that what these big “tentpole” movies are doing? They mix spectacle with specific emotion-tugging moments (cue long-withheld hug from father), and if the story makes sense, well, that’s just a little extra gravy.
That’s how it seems to me, and as a person who creates (and tries to sell) stories, this is something I need to figure out.
1) Obscure names for 25 Everyday Things.
2) Ten things you didn’t know about the original Star Trek.
3) How Terry Gilliam did his cut out animations. Video.
4) The 16-bit Game of Thrones RPG (not really, but hilarious) Video.
5) How nightclub bouncers decide who to let in with only a glance.
6) Looking for a new status purchase to impress the gold-diggers in your life? Why not diamond-encrusted contact lenses?
Seen via Sherwood Smith: Steve Miller wrote up a list of dos and don’ts for convention attendees.
It’s not really my thing, since I don’t attend conventions, but I figured you guys might be interested.
And so… a contest! Since my favorite thing about conventions is the stories of awful misbehavior that flow out of them like water from a leaking dam, I would like to hear YOUR best (worst) story of awful convention misbehavior. It has to be something you personally witnessed, not just something you heard about second-hand or watched on video (like the Ellison boob-grab).
Also, I’d like to avoid stories of actions that could have/did earn the perpetrator prison time, because that can be upsetting to many readers (including me).
The winner will be chosen by me, based on my own personal social hangups and anxieties, will win a complete set of all three Twenty Palaces novels, mailed to the library system (or other institution) of your choice.
Post your horror story in comments.
There are a lot of things I want to talk about, but Norway is just too big right now. It overshadows all sorts of other discussions I might want to have.
My sympathies to the families who have lost loved ones, especially their children.
I’m downtown today so I can work at the central library (my local branch is closed on Fridays) and of course I dropped in to the liquidation sale at Borders.
Borders was good to me, if you know what I mean. They ordered my books and stocked them, and judging by what I could see on the shelves, they took more than B&N. So I’m grateful that they stocked my books.
But I couldn’t bring myself to buy anything from them now. Once they’re in liquidation, you KNOW that nothing spent in that store will be going to the publishers or authors. Every penny is going to secured creditors and executive bonuses, and if I’m going to live with the guilt of that, I’m going to need 50% off, at least.
Anyway, in fun human games, today I witnessed a woman astonished to discover that she would have to buy something in the cafe if she wanted to site down in there and use their wireless internet. Shocking, I know.
Finally, I need to get off the web. For some reason I can’t connect to the library wifi, and I’m forced to log on with one of the library’s computers. And! since creepy motherfuckers use these computers to look at pron videos all the time, I feel like washing my hands.
Have a great weekend you guys. If you’re at SDCC, have a greatest weekend.
Stay hydrated!
