Friday Hangovers (updated)

9 Comments / Hangovers / By /

Hey all, once again here I am with the Friday apology for sparse, crappy content this past week. And once again, I pledge to do better next week. There will be tumbleweeds here over the weekend, likely; it looks to be busy. Tonight we’re off to a sold out Loretta Lynn show, for which I’m told we have awesome seats. Tomorrow night, the refurbished, limping, zombie-like write club meets. The gym must be gone to, as my limbs feel like they are filled with sand from a week(ish) of gym avoidance. And somewhere in between I have to finish the book and write a new story to turn in at Christopher’s class on Wednesday night. (Did I mention I have no idea whatsoever for the story? Lemurs, anyone?) And I really will answer all that email I’m so offensively behind on this weekend. So, yeah, busy. I’m sure y’all are too. (Oh, and I’m starting to get very excited about the big Thanksgiving this year.)

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How to Get a Lemur Named After You

Science Project / By /

Who knew?

Most people know him as the Minister for Silly Walks on "Monty Python" or as Q in James Bond films. But John Cleese will also go down in history for another reason: lemurs.

Researchers from the University of Zurich have named a newly discovered species of lemur – one of the most primitive and endangered primates in the world – after the British comedian in honor of his work with the animal.

The avahi cleesei, which weights less than two pounds and eats leaves, was discovered in Western Madagascar in 1990 by a team led by anthropologist Urs Thalmann and his colleague Thomas Geissman of Zurich University.

The name is a tribute to Cleese’s promotion of the plight of lemurs in the movie "Fierce Creatures" and documentary "Operation Lemur with John Cleese," the university said in a statement. A lemur even appears next to Cleese on his Web site.

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Spook Stiff Colbert

TV Goodness / By /

Writer Mary Roach will be on tonight’s Colbert Report.

Oh, and don’t miss the fanfic section of the Report’s website. I heart "Betwixt Lorien and Rivendell":

Stephen was nonplussed. "Don’t hide behind your precious political double-talk, Gandalf. Let’s call a spade a spade: I know about the Ringwraiths — who will soon become the Nazgul – not to mention Gollum, Saruman, and Shelob. Just saying ‘dangers’ and ‘dark powers’ doesn’t accomplish anything; you can’t fight a war against abstract nouns."

Also excellent: Excerpts from the host’s unpublished novel.

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VeronicaMarsTalk

3 Comments / TV Goodness / By /

This week looks like a good one, especially in terms of cameolove:

Rat Saw God. With Aaron Echolls facing trial for Lilly’s murder, the previously accused Abel Koontz appears to enlist Veronica’s help in finding his missing daughter Amelia. Joss Whedon and Harry Hamlin guest star.

See you later. (I’m now forced to associate Abel Koontz and Dean Koontz, thinking "Mr Teriyak!" whenever I see their names. Very disturbing.)

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This is About to Get Meta

4 Comments / Books / By /

Jenny Davidson recently reviewed Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid, notes a possible inconsistency and is left with a q:

In my review I mention the fact that a Denver Starbucks features–impossibly–in an inset tale set in 1980; after writing the review the first weekend in September and sending it off, I then saw a similar criticism at The Complete Review. They subsequently offered the following update (I’ve taken some liberties with the formatting, for clarification of what’s quoted from where):

Update: The official Stephen King site offers a Continuity Clarification from Stephen (scroll down to 7 October entry):

"The review of The Colorado Kid in today’s issue of today’s USA Today mentions that there was no Starbucks in Denver in 1980. Don’t assume that’s a mistake on my part. The constant readers of the Dark Tower series may realize that that is not necessarily a continuity error, but a clue."

If it is a clue, we still can’t figure out for what.

I can’t figure it out either (and haven’t read the Dark Tower at all, let alone being a constant reader).

Surely someone out there knows the answer? (If you don’t, I’ll have to stop thinking of you as All Knowing and All Powerful.

 

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GilmoreGossipCircle

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The triumphant return after a week off:

Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out. Rory (Alexis Bledel) is pleasantly surprised when her old flame Jess (guest star Milo Ventimiglia) appears at her grandparents’ house and reveals an amazing development in his life. Rory agrees to go to dinner with Jess, and when Logan (Matt Czuchry) unexpectedly joins them, an ugly confrontation develops, leaving both Rory and Logan to face the choices they have made. Emily (Kelly Bishop) is concerned about Rory’s sudden evasiveness and tries to exert some parental discipline. Meanwhile, Luke (Scott Patterson) agrees to sponsor a local girls’ soccer team and Lorelai (Lauren Graham) channels all her concerns about Rory into caring for her dog, Paul Anka. Keiko Agena also stars. Kenny Ortega directed the episode written by Dan Palladino.

Slightly worrisome that it’s written by the Lorelai Character Assassin, but this looks like a Rory heavy episode anyway. See you later.

(p.s. Hit with a couple of deadlines, so that’s it for me today.)

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Not If You’re Chinese* (Updated)

5 Comments / Miscellany / By /

Tod Goldberg reveals: Dean Koontz = Batshit Crazy:

He then went on to read us the letters he’d sent to the Japanese chairman of the film company in question where he asked repeatedly to have his name removed from the film. The letters were about, generally, the US kicking Japanese ass in World War II, the inability of the Japanese to defend themselves against Godzilla, some more fascinating invective about the US defeating the Japanese, a touching bit about Pearl Harbor, another about the Bataan Death March, a touch more about the Japanese surrender and then, of course, a bit about Mothra, too. Each letter was addressed to "Mr. Teriyaki." (Internment camps were not mentioned in any of the letters, which I assume was a simple omission on Mr. Koontz’s part and will be rectified in the future.)

Stunningly, the audience thrilled to the stories! The laughter cascaded about the room! People dabbed tears! Do you have any stories about your hatred of the Jews, Mr. Koontz? Any good ones about the Muslim world? How about a notation on some more racial stereotypes you’ve used when negotiating your name off other shitty movies?

Read the whole thing. Some of you have heard me rant about Dean Koontz’s dog Trixie being forced to write books (and apparently make New Year’s resolutions) in the past. Free Trixie! Whatever you do, don’t tell him she’s a Japanese spy!

*This will only make sense to you if you happened to be at the ICFA banquet of 2000-aught2. Suffice to say, some of us have witnessed similiarly baffling speechery.

Updated: I missed Lee Goldberg’s post on same, which features an account of an exchange with Dean Koontz after reading his post. I particularly love the concessions he made:

I got a call today from Dean Koontz, who wasn’t pleased about the comments here. I apologized to him for using "Sambo" and "Kike" as comparisons for his use of "Mr. Teriyaki" to refer to the Asian exec. He found the use of those words pejorative and said they mischaracterized the tenor of his speech. I agreed. So I  have changed them to "Mr. Fried Chicken" and "Mr. Matzoball." I believe his speech was offensive and in bad taste — and I reiterated that belief to him in our phone conversation.

Updated: The LA Times covers the speech and resulting dust-up and Tod Goldberg reacts, once again in hilarious fashion.

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Guaranteed to Be Good Books Too

Books / By /

Chris McLaren (aka Big-Headed Canadian Whiskey Man) forwards along the news that Kelley Eskridge and Nicola Griffith are auctioning off naming rights in their next novels to benefit the African Well Fund:

Here are the links to the EBay auctions in which you can bid on the right to name a character in my next novel or in Nicola’s. Please feel free to forward these links to anyone you think might be interested.

The auction closes on Monday, November 14 at 9:00 AM PST.

Thank you for your support.

Kelley’s auction page

Nicola’s auction page

Or bid on other items in the general African Well Fund auction.

In an earlier announcement, Eskridge says:

Nicola and I are both participating in an upcoming eBay auction to benefit the African Well Fund (www.africanwellfund.org).  The AWF is a wonderful organization that funds the building of wells and springs in Africa.  They’ve brought clean water to tens of thousands of people.  The gift of a well or spring has an enormous impact on people’s lives: in many communities, women carry the weight of tens of pounds of water several miles every day in order to provide for their children, livestock, crops, cooking and washing.  Many people only have access to water that is contaminated with disease.  Two million children die each year from water-borne illnesses.  So helping build a well or spring isn’t just a matter of convenience—it saves lives.

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Space Dust!

Science Project / By /

The WaPo covers a little probe that could:

Like a hummingbird hovering over a tantalizing blossom, a small but virtuoso Japanese spacecraft is poised to touch down in the coming days on the surface of an asteroid 180 million miles away, stir up a small cloud of dust and gather in a sample.

Barring a mishap, Hayabusa, or "Falcon," is expected to make two and possibly three touch-and-goes on the asteroid Itokawa, then return to Earth with a tenth of an ounce of asteroid dust.

If it succeeds, Hayabusa will be the first spacecraft to land on a celestial body and bring something back from it since U.S. astronauts Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt collected samples from the moon during the last Apollo lunar mission, in 1972.

Someone please arrange for Shonen Knife to do a song called "Hayabusa." Thank you.

Updated: Terrible Shonen Knife news. Drummer China Nishiura killed in a car accident. So very sad.

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