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August

One Me, Simpsonized
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In honor of The Simpsons Movie (review forthcoming), try Simpsonizing yourself.
(If it says “Springfield is too crowded,” click refresh till it works. The program’s a little slow, but it’s neat!)

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Film Review: Transformers, by Michael Bay
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Dave is tricked by giant robots into enjoying a Michael Bay film.

I could happily have gone my whole life without enjoying a Michael Bay film. Bay, for those who don’t know, is the director responsible for such travesties as the Bad Boys movies, The Island, and Armageddon–a film that abandons logic and cause-and-effect to such a degree that, when viewed as surrealist comedy, it actually borders on genius in places. (It also has Liv Tyler.)
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Film Heritage Part Two: Thomas Alva Edison
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A look at Thomas Alva Edison’s contributions to the world of cinema.

Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) is perhaps the prototypical inventor, famous for the extremely wise words that “genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Part Two of a multi-part series of posts. (Part One, Part Two, Part Four)

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Meet Charles Simic, the new Poet Laureate of the United States
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Charles Simic is the new Poet Laureate. Now may be a good time to get to know his work.

(Links to poems inside)

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Film Review: Sicko, by Michael Moore
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Jeremiah watches Sicko, and likes what he sees. Moore has changed for the better.

I wrote Michael Moore off.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is what did it. I kept seeing references to scenes in the film about members of bin Laden’s family being allowed to leave the country, and connections between Bush and the Taliban, and hints at other wacko conspiracy theory stuff that really did not appeal to me. I am all about showing the human cost of a given course of action, and revealing hypocrisies, and doing all those other things that amount to one of the noblest aims of art, which is “speaking truth to power.” Moore, however, with his penultimate film, seemed to be doing anything but. Instead of cutting through the powerful smokescreen of propaganda, it seemed as though he was more than willing to create his own pack of lies, half-truths, and misdirection. Only his was “okay” because it was created to work against the bad guys. Or something.

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Book Review: Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
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Clarke clearly has a fondness for big subjects. In this case it’s a vast, cylindrical alien vessel that enters our solar system, and the story of the team that are sent out to investigate it.

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Goodbye Budd
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Jess welcomes herself to Son and Foe with a happy, lighthearted romp down memory lane.

If, like me, you’re interested in more delightfully macabre reading about unusual deaths, Wikipedia has a lovely selection.
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July

Film Review: Molière, by Laurent Tirard
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If I was a lazy writer and you were a lazy reader, we could get this one over in a sentence: Molière is the French Shakespeare in Love.

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Novel Review: Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
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Red Schuhart is a stalker–a treasure hunter in the Zone, an area of earth transformed by unexplained alien intervention and left inhospitable and incredibly dangerous but littered with extraterrestrial valuables.

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Gollancz Fantasy and SF Masterworks (an introduction)
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I recently became completely obsessed with the two Masterworks series published by Gollancz…

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