Gwenda

Is It April First?

Science Project / By /

Some people need different kinds of directions:

The church tried to persuade station KRQE not to air its report last week about the aerial signposts marking a Scientology compound that includes a huge vault "built into a mountainside," the station said on its Web site. The tunnel was constructed to protect the works of L. Ron Hubbard, the late science-fiction writer who founded the church in the 1950s.

The archiving project, which the church has acknowledged, includes engraving Hubbard’s writings on stainless steel tablets and encasing them in titanium capsules. It is overseen by a Scientology corporation called the Church of Spiritual Technology. Based in Los Angeles, the corporation dispatched an official named Jane McNairn and an attorney to visit the TV station in an effort to squelch the story, KRQE news director Michelle Donaldson said.

Oh, it gets better. Read the whole thing.

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“All robots are pretty cool”

2 Comments / Uncategorized / By /

RobotsOver at Strange Horizons, I interview writer-director Greg Pak and review his wonderful movie Robot Stories alongside the new book collecting its screenplay and several other short and feature-length scripts.

Here’s my favorite answer from the interview, which will hopefully seem intriguingly mysterious out of context:

GP: I still regret never buying a Battlestar Galactica Cylon Bubble Machine.

And there’s lots of other goodness as always. Check it out.

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Monday Hangovers

Hangovers / By /

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Kneel Before Zod.

7 Comments / Real Life / By /

Zodscowl_2Thngs I Learned Over Thanksgiving 2006

  1. Superman II really is the best, primarily because of General Zod and his minions (especially the scowly one). In fact, I’d go so far as to say that almost every movie would be improved by Terence Stamp as Zod fiercing up the joint.
  2. Never play Trivial Pursuit against a science fiction writer when death is on the line.
  3. George the Dog would really like to live in a party house. He prefers it. He’s been wandering around all day looking for people to entertain him.
  4. Thai food kicks turkey and dressing’s ass, but I actually knew this already. However, I will raise things one AMAZING curried catfish.
  5. Related to four: It’s best to stay out of the professionals‘ way. Don’t mess with the notecards.
  6. The Johnny and June movie is actually really good. You should see it.
  7. Manly men can completely fix a leaky faucet. (And I’ve already adjusted to turning the cold tap the opposite direction too.)
  8. Alan can outsleep me! (Though in his favor, he did have that whole 14 hour drive thing.)
  9. Hiking is not about speed.

I find myself stalled at nine, but that’s just because I’m very, very sleepy. And anyway, we’d already established that the best thing about Thanksgiving is to be surrounded by a bunch of fantastic people. Check.

Hope yours was great too.

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Sixth Grade Reading Level

Books / By /

Oh my. On a lark, I set up the DVR to grab the Quill Awards, figuring hilarity would ensue if nothing else. (It was being broadcast during the afternoon on Sunday, obviously a posh time slot.)

Best I can tell, the only good books are the ones written by celebrities. Also, celebrities haven’t read any books since high school (Matthew "Old Man and the Sea" Modine, Catherine "To Kill a Mockingbird" Crier*). Elmo was there. And Kim Cattrall’s and Candace Bushnell’s boobs. CLASSY.

I might try to watch more; I might not.

*I didn’t say they were A list celebrities.

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GilmoreGossipCircle

3 Comments / TV Goodness / By /

And tonight:

He’s Slippin’ ‘Em Bread … Dig? After a long absence, Christopher (David Sutcliffe) reappears in Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory’s (Alexis Bledel) lives with an offer to make up for lost time. Luke (Scott Patterson) struggles with what the new person in his life will mean to him and his relationship with Lorelai. Lorelai and Rory enjoy their first Thanskgiving at the Dragonfly Inn, during which Rory receives surprising news about Logan (Matt Czuchry). Meanwhile, as the band prepares for an important showcase performance, Lane (Keiko Agena) has to deal with Zach’s (Todd Lowe) jealousy over a song Brian (John Cabrera) wrote about her. Singer/songwriter Carole King guest stars as Sophie, the owner of Stars Hollow’s music shop. Melissa McCarthy, Yanic Truesdale and Liza Weil also star. The episode was written by Daniel Palladino and directed by Kenny Ortega.

Later, crocodiles.

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Tuesday Hangovers

3 Comments / Hangovers / By /
  • Jeff Ford puts up his story "Bright Morning" about a writer cursed to be "Kafkaesque": If there’s one thing that distinguishes my books from those of others, it’s the fact that in the review blurbs that fill the back cover and the page that precedes the title inside, the name of Kafka appears no less than eight times. Kafka, Kafkaesque, Kafka-like, in the tradition of Kafka. Certainly more Kafka than one man deserves — a veritable embarrassment of Kafka riches. My novels are fantasy/adventure stories with a modicum of metaphysical whim-wham that some find to be insightful and others have termed “overcooked navel gazing.” Granted, there are no elves or dragons or knights or wizards in these books, but they are still fantasies, none the less. I mean, if you have a flying head, a town with a panopticon that floats in the clouds, a monster who sucks the essence out of hapless victims through their ears, what the hell else can you call it? At first glance, it would seem that any writer would be proud to have his work compared to that of one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers, but upon closer inspection it becomes evident that in today’s publishing world, when a novel does not fit a prescribed format, it immediately becomes labeled as Kafkaesque. The hope is, of course, that this will be interpreted as meaning exotic, when, in fact, it translates to the book buying public as obscure. Kafka has become a place, a condition, a boundary to which it is perceived only the pretentious are drawn and only total lunatics will cross. Read the whole thing.
  • Do cats cause schizophrenia?
  • Birnbaum vs. Himself.
  • Coffee and Ink lists a number of books she’s looking forward to. Me too.

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Sunday Hangovers

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