Excellent little video for an excellent little song by an excellent songwriter my friend Mike Hartman has somehow, via Facebook, gotten me into. I know, I know, I’m way behind the curve. Shut up and enjoy the video while I go throw around some furniture.
Category: REVIEWS
Twilight, But Better, or, Even a Crappy Vampire Film Can Be Improved by Ripping off White Wolf Games’s World of Darkness
Okay, so, I’d already been expecting crap. (I mean CRAP.) My SF-reading friends warned me. Reviews and discussions online warned me. I mean, even non-SF people had told me that Twilight was a bad movie, but when it hit theaters in Korea this December, I decided I would go and see it. It took me until a day or two ago to follow through with that. And of course, it was crap. (I mean CRAP.)
A Few Words About What?
I had my students read and respond to an essay of Nora Ephron’s titled “A Few Words about Breasts” at some point early in semester. Well, now the semester is over and I’m finalizing grades, which means checking my gradesheets against the homework just to make sure everything’s right. I stumbled once again upon a really funny little error that totally changed the meaning of the title of one essay. It should have read: A Few Words About Nora Ephron’s “A Few Words About Breasts” … except the student seemed to have felt as if the repetition was objectionable (good …
OVER~~!
I find myself wondering why overacting — vast, wailing reactions of protestation, incredibly fake outrage, and the like — is the norm in comedic “acting” in Korea. (EDIT: Actually, it also seems the norm in movies, but in a different way: long brooding shots, action scenes five minutes too long, and hyperemotional crying is something we see both on TV melodrama and in films, but I’m particularly thinking of comedy at the moment.) Or, rather, not “why” but “how it became the case that…” One example is the various gag TV shows like Uchassa and Gag Concert. These are, roughly …
Books I Should Have Reviewed Already!
Well, I’m supposed to have reviewed these books, having received them free from Librarything, but it’s hard for me, because I always feel leery giving less than positive reviews of books. (Everything else, I am more comfortable panning, but books, well…) Anyway, I’m way late, but I’m going to say what I have to say, and then crosspost these to Librarything. At least I’m not panning all of them! The Book from the Sky by Robert Kelly is one of those books that made me think about genre. It’s become quite common among authors of speculative fiction (SF, fantasy, horror, …
Our Beanbag Chairs
When we were downstairs, in our old place, we found ourself saddled with what I think of as the “furnished Korean apartment couch.” That is, it’s the last sort of couch anybody would ever actually buy for his or her own home, but since it’s the cheapest couch around that isn’t embarrassingly horrible, it’s also the couch you see in every “furnished” apartment. That is to say, the couch you see in almost every foreign English teacher’s apartment in Korea. Which is to say, if you’ve lived here, you’ve found yourself upon this couch at some point. It’s upholstered in …
Purty Good Day…
Why? Some much-needed documents are on their way here. I received my copy of Interzone 219, with some very fine art illustrating it., and a cheque for my story, too. My students in one class — the graphic novel class — volunteered to work during the first week or so of post-semester break, in order to do a good job finishing up their project, rather than rush through and do a so-so job before exams. I was quite stunned. They jokingly asked for extra credit, but the best I can do is give them a pizza party or take them …
Depression, Recession, and Other Kid Stuff
In what seems to be Economic Depression Week here on my blog, another interesting thinglet via Critique de Mr. Chompchomp: What happens to kids’ lit during times of economic collapse, hardship, and woe? If you’re like me, you’re thinking about Ramona Quimby (one of the characters I grew up reading about, bless Beverly Cleary) and Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Well, the former comes up in this excellent slide show by Erica S. Perl detailing the intersections between economic poverty and kidlit. And by the way, there’s a great interview with Beverly Cleary here. Cleary seems exactly like the kind of person …
No Depression in Heaven
I don’t usually use soundtracks for posts, but hey, it’s always worth doing something a little different sometimes, right? My friend Jack was, when I first met him, a devoted inhabitant of that space where black and white and poor and crazy meet in early American music. He introduced me to musicians like Ralph Stanley and the Blue Sky Boys, and showed me how they connected to people like Howlin’ Wolf and Mississippi Fred McDowell. It was with Jack that I first heard McDowell, and Robert Johnson, and so much other music, and was initiated into the secret history of …
Time After Time
Music for when everything’s feeling difficult: Time After Time, sung by Cassandra Wilson, from the album Traveling Miles. Here are the lyrics. Yes, a Cyndi Lauper song, on my blog. The song won’t be here too long, for copyright reasons. But someone needs a copy, so… Here’s a video with the lyrics synched up: