It is Labor Day, and (as every year) I had to go to work. So I shall pour forth my frustration on the Communists, whom I hold ultimately responsible for the holiday, and who have done me no good at all.
Grim at Grim’s Hall embedded this, the original recording of the South African song (“Mbube”) that became “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
Continue reading Labor Day counterrevolutionary post
Big Hollywood links up a couple videos of an interesting interview with Rod Serling talking about TV fiction, television in general, and science fiction. He calls himself “the least adebt of science fiction writers” and that TV fiction is irrelevant overall. Near the end, he says Star Trek was a pretty inconsistent show, sometimes sparkling with ingenuity, sometimes “the carnival that television was.”
Today’s Word of Wisdom from Walker:
As I look back over my lifetime, I find that I have only two regrets.
The things I’ve done, and the things I haven’t done.
I’m pretty much OK with the rest.
Michael Medved reviewed George Clooney’s new movie, The American, today. He said it’s a beautiful film in which nothing much actually happens.
This reminded me of one of the most surprisingly bad movies I ever saw. My brother and I were in St. Paul one evening a while back with time on our hands, and decided to see a movie. We went to the nearest cinemaplex, and saw it was playing Robert Duvall’s newest film, Assassination Tango. We’re both big admirers of Robert Duvall, so we immediately bought tickets.
It was horrible. Continue reading Labors of misplaced love
Great Vocab Didn’t Save The Thesaurus From Extinction. No. No, it didn’t.
J. Mark Bertrand gives this bit of advice early in his article on post-apocalyptic literature: “He who stockpiles the ammunition can help himself to the rest of the stockpiles.” He says he isn’t worried about a zombie uprising, which of course is ludicrous. They are coming. Everyone knows it. And here Mr. Bertrand is reading a book called Far North
Here’s a heart-warming documentary from March 1968 with J.R.R. Tolkien and some Oxford students talking about his epic fantasy. Our friend Bill at Thinklings is rejoicing in part due to his recent to Oxford.
Donna Farley, author of Bearing the Saint, which I reviewed below, forwarded a link to a site called Hobbit Meals, which definitely looks worthy of a mention at Brandywine Books.
From their Mission Statement:
Hobbit Meals is dedicated to feeding the hungry in our local communities by hosting “Hobbit Meals,” in which a group gathers to enjoy a hobbit feast, share hobbit recipes, and enjoy all things Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, as well as bring donated food to supply local food banks. Monetary donations are also encouraged to provide local food banks with overhead costs and additional monies for food.
They seem to have a Christian orientation too. God bless ’em. May the hair on their feet never fall out.
Megan Basham reviews an upcoming documentary Waiting for “Superman,” which she calls “a scathing look at the U.S. public-school system and those who stand in the way of reforming it.”
This reminds me a bit of the LifeHacks guy (if that’s the right label for him) who was offered a book contract and spend the whole time designing the cover.
As a tie-in post to Lars’ review of Heat Wave and as a benefit to some of our readers, without whom we could not do, here is a photo of Nathan Fillion. (link defunct)
And here is a photo of Rainn Wilson beating Mr. Fillion up at Comic-Con this year. (link defunct)