Two friends have received packages of great awesomitude in the post in the last couple days:
Draw, who blogged the arrival of the international compilation Abstract Comics: The Anthology by Fantagraphics, which features his work.
And Jarratt, who on Twitter announced the arrival of the board game he created with Qarl, Endeavor, released by Z-Man Games (and hitting just in time for Gen Con)!
I can only imagine the buzz you must both be feeling right now. HUGE congratulations!
Month: August 2009
Call me Neo-Malthus
Greenpeace campaign fronted by noted Kiwi scientist Jim Salinger: “NZ needs to achieve 40% reduction in carbon emissions”
NZ govt, Monday 10 August: “Our target is between 10%-20%”
NZ govt, Tuesday 11 August: “but all you other countries better do 30%-40%”
Climate Action Network, Tuesday 11 August: “Will New Zealand name the countries it expects to do its share of the effort in its place?”
Don Nicolson, President of Federated Farmers, Tuesday 11 August: “Back in the early 19th century, Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population… The world was producing as much food as it ever could. The Greens would call it ‘Peak Food’… Neo-Malthusians can be seen in the anti-globalisation and green movements. Peak oil, peak food, peak carbon.”
Hot Topic, Weds 12 August: *cough*
Global climate system: “Taiwan suffers worst floods in 50 years”
Marie Antoinette on the Radio
Yesterday there was a great interview with Eric Dorfman, producer/director of The Affair of the Diamond Necklace, on National Radio Classic with Eva Radich.
You can hear all about the show here for another seven days. Listen closely and you will hear me getting mad props.
Tonight = dress rehearsal. Wigs and stockings ahoy!
Smashed plates and diamonds
Thoroughly caught up in the world of Marie Antoinette for The Affair of the Diamond Necklace, which is on Saturday evening.
Today, I smashed a plate by letting it fall from my head. That’s a new one. But the dances are going rather well I think.
There are still tickets to be had, if anyone is feeling keen. It will be a spectacular evening in every way.
But while the spectacle is being prepared, blogging will be light.
Big Bad Linky
Video in which a quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog:
Funny or Die has stand-up in Jabba’s palace…
Competition-winning Star Wars fan-film: hot chicks fight with lightsabers. How could it not win? Made by the featured women; interview with them here.
Cute things falling asleep
45 notable statues – how many have you seen?
15 secret service buildings – how many have you seen?
Writers! Submit to Modern Drunkard Magazine! “We’re looking for stories with a positive view of drinking — if we wanted boo-hoo ballyhoo we’d go to an AA meeting.”
100 things your kids won’t know about. Apart from a weird reference to the nanny state, this is quite astute.
Open Parachute explains how you tell a genuine scientific controversy from a media work-up.
Reading the Maps visits Samoa – well worth the read for every citizen of the Pacific.
A Slovenian Choir does Toto’s Africa a capella, in Africa:
And finally… Why must I cry. It’s been around a few years but I’ve only just seen this. And… man. I actually started really caring about the guy. man what
When Sick, Observe Who
Despite having a long list of things to do, I just couldn’t clear my head yesterday enough to do any of them. So I went to the DVD rack and watched a Doctor Who story I’ve never seen before: “The Sea Devils” starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor. It was exactly the right sort of thing to be watching when home sick, because it didn’t make the slightest bit of sense but had lots of running around and some amusing stunts.
This, after all, is the reason why I’ve been slowly building up a collection of Doctor Who videos and DVDs – for sick days. Ahhh, lovely.
Anyway. Feeling much better today so going to try and do things. THINGS.
Voting Yes
I’ve got a cold. It is stupid.
Voted today on the citizen’s referendum about the parental right to smack children.
To the question “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand”, I voted Yes. I won’t explain my rationale, because the estimable BK Drinkwater has already given his and he puts it better than I could.
Final Flim Fevistal
Rounded off our NZ Flim Fevistal experience with two more flicks:
Rachel (France/Belgium, 2009)
A doco investigating the death of American protester Rachel Corrie in Palestine, “from an Israeli point of view”. Made by Simone Britton, a Moroccan-French Jew who spent years in Israel. Corrie was a member of the International Solidarity Movement protesting the Israeli occupation in Palestine, and died under a bulldozer. The Israeli Defence Force has claimed that it was an accidental death; the protesters claim it was deliberate. Britton’s investigation doesn’t establish clearly one or the other, but does seriously undermine the IDF position. Mostly, however, the film works to contextualize Corrie’s actions, and make sense of the ISM. Corrie comes out looking both pragmatic and compassionate; Britton juxtaposes Corrie’s written description of her empathy for the young members of the IDF with a former soldier reflecting on his experiences, clearly haunted by the things he did. It’s a good film; everyone gets to speak for themselves. I recommend this excellent interview with Britton, by Andrew O’Hehir at Salon.
Everlasting Moments (Sweden, 2008)
Based-on-true-story account tracking a Swedish family from 1907-1917, centred on the formidable wife and mother Maria Larsson, who wins a camera in a lottery and slowly works out what it can offer her. It steers clear of expectation, avoiding easy resolutions to emotional or narrative dilemmas; it is imagined more gently and more responsibly than that. It’s a great film, frequently funny, more often touching, and above all beautiful – the cinematography has been getting a lot of attention and deservedly so, it all looks incredible. (Like all the best films, it made me think – in particular about the transformational power of the camera, what it means for our experience of life that images can be captured and kept; and how transformational this last century has been, that such images are now so omnipresent.)