What is it with film versions of musicals in the seventies? First "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and now "1776." All the actors are covered in gross-looking sweat and the directors are taking the subject matter far too seriously. They're both comedies. Using dramatic camera angles and timing ruins the jokes. And what's with showing off the fancy scenery? So many of the song sequences seem to be about the detailed backgrounds and pretty camera tricks ...except the songs were written for the stage and not freakin' designed for that. Sure, it's possible to work it on the big screen, but these guys haven't done it.

I saw "1776" on Broadway and "Forum" in my high school auditorium. They both kicked their respective film versions' overcooked rump roasts.

Holy crud Sarah Palin just resigned as Governor of Alaska. Is this a David Caruso? Her stated reason for leaving—she turns over the reins July 25—is that she doesn't want Alaskans to have a lame duck governor when she can step down and give them an active one.

The Vatican is investigating nuns in the U.S. One sister puts it this way:

They think of us as an ecclesiastical work force. Whereas we are religious, we’re living the life of total dedication to Christ, and out of that flows a profound concern for the good of all humanity. So our vision of our lives, and their vision of us as a work force, are just not on the same planet.

The inquiries seem to focus only on nuns engaged in outer world activities, such as academia and advocacy, rather than contemplative orders. This type of inquiry, called an apostolic visitation, is usually called in only after things have gone seriously wrong. The article takes the tack that the Vatican is reining in active, outgoing orders, particularly those who advocate for such matters as the ordination of women and permitting priests to marry.

Today, TierneyLab posted a follow-up to an article from last September. The study, out of Bradley and the Universities of Vienna and Tartu asserted that men and women in Western societies have more of a gender gap in personality than people in stricter agrarian societies, ( What it lacked in coherency... )

They had Fox News on in the gym today. Now, it's no secret that Fox News has a conservative bias; most media organizations have biases, but I figured, "Oh well, maybe their political stuff is biased, but the general 'what's happening' stuff should be fine." And indeed, there was some fine reporting on the plane crash that killed 123 people, sparing only one small child. ( But then... )

Once again holding out for the late-night showing so that I can watch this pervy periodical in peace. Yep, family BBQ by day, liveblogging HBO mini-series by night!

In the meantime, they're showing The Women, the 1939 one, not the crummy one. One thing that I like about this movie is that they show Crystal as the shameless homewrecker and Miriam as reasonably decent even though they're both technically doing the same thing. But the kid, is the kid ever annoying.

And now for True Blood, "Scratches" in Ithilvision: ( The Very Southern Vampire Show also has an annoying kid, but at least she's funny. )

Having a skank for a mom does not improve childhood outcomes, says Nature magazine. Despite the long-held hypothesis that copulating with multiple male partners allows the female's body to select the most fittest, most masculine sperm. Considering that most female bodies don't come with a biometric scanners like in Gattaca, I guess we were all thinking that the sperm would be duking it out amongst themselves with tiny little maces and tridents like in I, Claudius.

Before I do any more pop culture references, let it be known that the study was conducted on beetles. ( BEETLES, people! )

The good thing about writing new, fluffy and stupid fanfic is that one unearths old, less fluffy and stupid stuff.

This is from the prompted round robin game on Bloodfeud last November, instigation courtesy of last_archangel.


( The rain dripped a never-ending rattle against the old car's roof. )



So that's my Friday night right there.

HUMAN WOMAN: (drives like maniac)

MICK ST. JOHN: (holds on for dear life) (mumbles to self) You can't die. Remember, you can't die.

HUMAN WOMAN: What was that?

MICK ST. JOHN: Nothing.

God, is Moonlight the Very Adorable Vampire Show or what? I like the way they dealt with technology. It's going to seem dated in a few years, but possibly in a good way. Lois and Clark is the classic dated '90's show because they were deliberately trying to be flashy about it. They named the criminal organization "Intergang," and treated the net like it was magic. On Moonlight, they just use what's around. Beth works for an online news station because those things were cropping up for real. Jozef (the most adorable thing on that show) talks about his Blackberry because that's exactly what he'd have around.

The New York Times just did a bit on yet another crazy parent who's got a problem with cupcakes served in school. The article states, quite explicitly, that the woman does not have a problem with the school's everyday lunch menus, just with the celebratory cupcakes.

Assuming a class size of thirty students and an equal distribution of birthdays, that comes to three or four cupcakes a month. Add one in for random non-birthday events, and that's five, so each kid would eat about one cupcake a week, max.

Yeah, that is why we have an obesity problem in the U.S. Because of single-serving, portion-controlled pastries that kids bring into school on special occasions, which, by the way, serves to reinforce the idea that such pastries are for special occasions rather than for every day. (For the record, my mom sent us to school with a cookie or two or sometimes even (gasp!) a whole cupcake as part of our lunch and none of us had childhood weight problems. But that was before schools started banning sports at recess.)

Don't get me wrong; a mom caring too much about what her kids eat is far, far better than a mom caring too little, but her time and energy would be better served elsewhere.

It seems that this woman has a history:

Her extreme methods have earned her attention before: The police were called to a Y.M.C.A. in 2007 when she absconded with the sprinkles and syrups on a table where members were being served ice cream. That was Ms. Roth who called Santa Claus fat on television that Christmas, and she has a continuing campaign against the humble Girl Scout cookies, on the premise that no community activity should promote unhealthy eating.

She STOLE the SPRINKLES?! Thank you New York Times. Thank you for making stupid people look stupid.

First, Concord is overrun with ravenous beavers, and now Nova Scotia's University of Victoria is hitting the record for most rabbits on campus. According to Dot Earth's Andrew C. Revkin—I am not making this up—there is some concern that this many rabbits, "could attract the cougars."

Fortunately, someone posted a recipe for pesky rabbit, complete with butchering and skinning instructions. It kicked up a lot of controversy on campus. Editors later claimed that the recipe was a modest proposal, but it looks pretty straightforward to me. They're probably just backing out.

The concerns that the rabbits are killed humanely make sense, but other than that, how is killing them and eating them—or donating the meat—worse than killing them and not eating them?

Long ago, there were not as many beavers, but now there are beavers everywhere. There are beavers on the lawn, beavers in the water. There are even beavers hanging out in the open.

( Picture of the beaver rampage. )

Separate from all other things, I must raise a lighter to Mr. David Eddings. I'm no longer a fan of his works, but I was for years. I got Pawn of Prophecy as a gift for my tenth birthday and read Belgariad and Mallorean twice a year for quite some time.

Props, Mr. Eddings, props to a modest man.

Okay, I'm about to watch the second episode of Mental. I didn't like the pilot but hey lots of good shows have iffy pilots, right? Usually, the second episode is just a little better than the pilot because they're not trying to beat their premise over people's heads quite so hard.

( Oh my GOD, have these people even been to a hospital?! )

At least New Amsterdam had some redeeming traits. Sorry, guys, hand over the trophy. Mental is officially the dumbest show on television.

Aside from the "I" that should be "me" in the first line, these lyrics are really great. The singing sounds professional, the puppets all look great and while there's lots of craziness, it's all craziness that supports the message rather than distracting from it. It's just really, really balanced.



( The amazing thing about this... )

The only remaining question is what that goopy stuff in the lightbulb section is.

We return to my frequently interrupted re-watch of the Twilight movie.

(Bella Googles Quileute legends.)

...did that say "Legend of Slapping Beaver"? (Checks) Holy crud, it did. What the heck?

( The restaurant's called what now? )

It turns out that the security agents at Newark Liberty were right: knitting needles are dangerous weapons. Attacks of what is now called "yarn bombing" have taken place all over the world.

No, it doesn't involve detonating C4 in the middle of a polyester fiber factory. Yarnbombing is the act of covering a bus, tree, wall or even other artworks with colorful knitted or crocheted sleeves and cozies.

While technically graffiti, for some reason, yarn bombing has failed to invoke the badass street image of other types of environmental modification. This may be because participants often describe their motives as more geared toward beautification and creativity than territoriality or social commentary.


Oh my #$%@ing God, that poor bus!

Here is what's probably Banksy's Bombing Middle England ...with a few modifications.

And here's the one I sent to kino. Her own style is a bit on the crackfic side, so I played that up.

( Final Copy Cookies 'n' Cream )

I finally let myself break out my TwiDVD and I've rewatched the first couple of minutes. This movie is better than I realized at first. When Billy joshes Charlie about how excited he was that Bella was coming, Charlie rolls his eyes exactly the way Bella does later. When Bella first talks to Mike "MiniJack" Newton, Jessica Stanley runs up next to him, and just the position she took and that half-second left-flash with the eyes suddenly scream to me, "MINE MINE MINE!!"

Okay, so I did Support Stacie a while back and my services were purchased by my sole bidder, the comedienne kinolaughs. She asked me to write a story about Edward from Twilight and Darcy from Pride and Prejudice working at a charity kissing booth and having a collective hissy fit.

I knew I'd have to put at least one other person in there with them to balance out all the prissy. At first, I picked two. But the more I wrote, the more I realized that while this story was pretty interesting, it was almost certainly not what kino wanted. So I scrapped it and wrote her something else. I sent it to her the day before the deadline.

So here they both are, in all their frivolous glory. I just finished the first version today in my probably-not-haunted Palace of Excess.

( First Version Fudge Ripple )