This Bridge Is Bloody CURSED!

I guess you’re all already burning to hear about my trip to Edinburgh. I’m not the one to leave you hanging, so here we go! [Unfortunately I forgot my camera and didn't get the photos from the rest of the group yet, so pictures will be stolen from other people on the internet.]

I went with uni – we made a deal with our English teacher that we wouldn’t have any English lessons this semester (and no exam, either), but instead go to an English-speaking country, hold a presentation and write a 500 words essay. Which I personally think was an AWESOME deal.

Links

Books

Woman publishes books with text messages she send to her dead husband.

New Kurt Vonnegut short stories to be published.

Seth Grahame-Smith of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies fame gets two book deal. Next project: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

XKCD book to be published!

Politics

Some anti-anti-gay marriage ads. Here and here.

TV

BBC releases the first Creative Commons TV show. YAY!

Completely Different Things

Uncomfortable plot summaries like (more at the link):

300: Gays kill blacks.
BATMAN: Wealthy man assaults the mentally ill.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: Peasant girl develops Stockholm Syndrome.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: Teenage serial killer destroys town in fit of semi-religious fervor.
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY: Deranged pedophile big-business industrialist tortures and mutilates young children.
CUJO: Family neglects to give family pet rabies shots, pays price.
DARK KNIGHT RETURNS: Aging sadist corrupts, endangers minor, facilitates murder, destroys superhero comic books for 30 years.
DOCTOR WHO: Elderly man serially abducts young women.
E.T.: Out-of-control pet causes mayhem, sadness.
FIGHT CLUB: Deranged sociopath guides yuppies to their deaths.
FIREFLY: In an analogue of the post-Civil War west, a white man on the losing side bosses around a black woman.
SERENITY: Men fight for possession of scantily clad mentally ill teenage girl.
GHOSTBUSTERS: Unemployed college professors destroy hotel with nuclear weapons.
GROUNDHOG DAY: Misanthropic creep exploits space/time anomaly to stalk coworker.
HAIR: Hippie dodges draft, dies ironically.
HARRY POTTER: Celebrity Jock thinks rules don’t apply to him, is right.
IRON MAN: Alcoholic rich white man with technology fetish goes vigilante.
JURASSIC PARK: Theme park’s grand opening pushed back.
KING KONG: Endangered animal stolen, shot.
LORD OF THE RINGS: Midget destroys stolen property.
LOVE ACTUALLY: Prime Minister risks war with United States over a sexy secretary.
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL: British comedy troupe inadvertently creates language lab for nerds.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: Woman with gold-digging mother nags wealthy man into marriage.
SCHINDLER’S LIST: Wealthy industrialist expands not-for-profit ventures.
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS: Incompetent manipulated by several murderers, stumbles upon suspect completely by accident. Creates situation that allows serial killer to escape.
THE EXORCIST: Jesus trumps science.
THE FIRM: White lawyer learns hard work is irrelevant.
THE MATRIX: Hacker is given perfect justification for mass slaughter.
THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: Dangerous insurgent invades neighboring country.
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST: Mel Gibson fulfills fantasy of showing a Jew beaten to a bloody pulp and killed on-screen.
TITANIC: Crazy old widow disregards lifelong memories of husband, children, and grandchildren in favor of that one time she fucked a bum.
TRAINSPOTTING: Statutory rapist and junkie sifts through human waste, gets enormous sum of money.
TWILIGHT: Girl gives up college for stalker.
BREAKING DAWN: Native American guy is romantically obsessed with ex-girlfriend’s baby.
WALL-E: Obsolete robot disrupts big business, disrupts lives of millions of innocent civilians.
WATCHMEN: Homosexual destroys New York, blames God.

Stuff Geeks Love.

Check out io9′s Spring Mating Season to know everything about sex and science fiction.

Book Meme – Meme Monday

Got this from Ruhi.

I’m Off…

… to Edinburgh for the weekend. Will be back Monday evening (late), so don’t expect any communication till then. [Though the Monday Meme is prescheduled, no worries there. :)]

Video Vriday

Today, we turn to one of my favourite bands ever. Seriously, if somebody told me that I could only take the music of one band with me to listen to for all eternity, it would probably be the Turin Brakes. Consequently, I really couldn’t decide for one video. Choosing only two was hard enough, but there you go, I could do it. And now I’m going to hate myself for not putting the other songs on here…

Turin Brakes – Long Distance and Last Chance

Long Distance:

Long Distance was the first song I ever heard by them and I fell in love. The lyrics, the music, the voices, it all fits. And the video is no exception to this. It doesn’t look like much, the concept is rather simple and still it’s very powerful.

Last Chance:

Last Chance is from their last album, Dark On Fire. The video screws with your head, but ever so gently… You don’t really notice till you think about it… How could she get so fast to his hotel room? Did it happen, or did it not? Who called room service? Maybe it’s all a dream from the blond one?

Top 10: Actresses I’d Watch In Anything

Here’s another of deadra’s suggestions. I don’t think I will surprise anybody with my choices, but let’s revel in the acting glory for a bit. Next week, I’ll do the follow-up with actors.

I think the title is self-explanatory about the topic of this list, so let’s get right to it. Here are the Top 10 Actresses whose names in the credits of any movie makes me buy tickets.

[Btw, I apologise in advance for not including anybody of colour in this list. There are a hundred thousand reasons for this, most of which are not especially good. I know that. And I'm sorry.]

Uhm… Sigmund, what do you have to say?

So, I had this dream tonight. Usually, I don’t remember much about my dreams, but this one was kind of interesting, so it stuck.

I was a married man*. I don’t know exactly what my job was but it revolved around making feminist analysis**  of various things. Among them was a cartoon for kids drawn in the style of Kim Possible***. The cartoon was about a husband and wife going on some sorts of missions and always ended with them in bed, where the camera angle was such that it came from behind the guy’s shoulder (showing only his hair and ear) and focussed completely on the woman’s face. Anyway, all they ever did in the end was the woman refusing to have sex with the man****.

I think it’s kind of weird that I would be a man doing a feminist analysis of a TV show I invented myself. But, people, interpret away! I’d like some insight here…

—

*That happens rather frequently, I mean that I dream about being a man. No, that’s not right. I don’t dream about it, it usually really isn’t a big deal, I just am a man. I think this interesting in and of itself because I’m really sure about being a woman, both through my body and through my mind, but it’s not the point.

**What the hell is the plural of analysis?

***Or, as I refer to it, the pretty ugly modern style.

****Yes, I know it was supposed to be a kids’ show. Tell my subconscious.

Looking for Alaska (John Green)

I’ve been following John Green‘s blog and vlog (which he shares with his brother) for a while and been greatly entertained by it. But until now I’ve never gotten around to reading any of his books. Looking for Alaska is his first novel. He writes for young adults.

Plot:
Miles starts the new school year at a boarding school in Alabama. He didn’t leave much behind – except his parents – and now he’s out to search “the Great Perhaps”. He finds new friends at Boarding School – The Colonel, Takumi, Lara and the enigmatic Alaska – but also new problems. He falls in love for the first time. And he has some tough choices to make.

I liked Looking for Alaska, though not as much as I expected to. I think that’s the ending’s fault. It’s a nice book but there were some things that made me cringe. In any case, it’s a quick read, it entertains and has some starting points for discussion, which might possibly make it the ideal young adult book.

[SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS]

Links

Books

AmazonFail and why the explanation for it is not an explanation at all.

Comics

Marvel Divas. Le sigh.

Movies

Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes in Louis Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans remake. I smell disaster. Hilarious disaster.

Disney rips off Disney.

The Water: Short film with Cillian Murphy and Feist.

Music

A David Lynch-Moby cooperation.

Politics

On domestic abuse and the different kind of feminisms.

Science

Now this is seriously cool: Scientists change viruses until they can function as batteries (or at least parts thereof).

Completely Different Things

Things You Never Noticed in Famous Pictures.

Take a trip.

Answering Questions Asked Through Google XXXII

See, one needs only complain about the lack of questions and BAM! The questions are back in my blog stats! Or at least one question.

“what song does the blind kid sing in slu[mdog millionaire]“?

First thing - read the comment by Shefaly here, she answers some of the questions you might have about the song.

Second, the name of the song is “Darshan Do Ghanshyam Nath Mori” and it may or may not have been actually written by Surdas.

So, there you go.

kalafudra [making the internet better one post at a time (est. 2004)]