Sunday night, sadfacing at a gnat in my drink

[cleolinda]

Oh my God. So sick. So very, very sick. Actually, I think I'm through the worst of it now, but I spent the last three or four days hacking continuously. Lots of cold sweats and hot flashes as well. I'm probably not as hydrated as I should be, but water and iced tea taste so harsh to me--probably because I can't smell, and therefore taste, much of anything. So I've been drinking ginger ale instead, which is better than nothing, but isn't great. I've also been having a hard time eating because it's like I can't eat and breathe at the same time, for some reason. I definitely can't laugh at all, and anything the least bit amusing usually involves a near-death experience. Also, I ended up with legendary bedhead, which I just now managed to untangle after an hour and half a bottle of conditioner. I ended up washing everything--clothes, sheets, pillowcases--after I got to the point where I wanted to just burn everything I'd been touching for the last week and cut all my hair off with a pair of kitchen scissors while I was at it. As of tomorrow, it'll have been two solid weeks of the Death Flu-Cold, which my sister had for five before the rest of us came down with it. WHEE.

All right, I've weeded through my backlog and can now present the best of the links that weren't hopelessly outdated. The defining quality of this batch of linkspam: fantastic headlines.

Bush White House fires back at Jimmy Carter. Long story short: Carter says Bush is worst president in history of ever, White House says, "Oh yeah, well--well--YOU'RE IRRELEVANT!," pouts.

Linkin Park's mysterious cyberstalker. "As Dimitrelos worked the case from Alabama, the Benningtons continued to be harassed by the cyberstalker they sometimes referred to as Crazypants." Crazypants, by the way, "had Q-level security clearance, which allows nonmilitary personnel to access atomic or nuclear materials."

If you haven't heard about FanLib--a for-profit archive site that wants "to bring fan fiction to the masses"--yet, this won't be the last time you do. As telesilla points out, "You say that your mission is to bring fan fiction into the mainstream. Never mind that I don't think you ever asked the fan fiction community if they wanted to be brought into the mainstream and I certainly haven't seen any great demand from the community for something like this. What I really want to know is, do you honestly think that the mainstream is ready for fan fiction?" Her rundown/commentary on the FanLib FAQ is definitely worth reading, if only for 1) the breezy, occasionally misleading, and often self-contradictory nature of the FAQ itself, 2) copy-pasted YOU R SO MEEN spamming from the head of FanLib, 3) plus the comeback "Reading this, I find it hard to believe you could manage an orgy in a brothel, let alone manage a business."

Writer Lloyd Alexander dies at 83, two weeks after his wife's death. "Alexander began his writing career as a humorist, cartoonist, and advertising writer, but is most known for his extensive oeuvre of children’s novels. Based on Welsh mythology, the Chronicles of Prydain became favorites of children all over the world. The Black Cauldron received a Newbery Honor in 1966 and The High King, the finale of the Chronicles of Prydain, was the Newbery winner in 1969. In a 1970 article on humor, written for The Horn Book Magazine, Alexander wrote: 'Humor can help us accept our transiency, our mortality — in which all men are truly equal — and give us the courage, and the grace, to live reasonably and compassionately.' By all accounts, he did so."

Simon & Schuster has decided that they're going to hold onto the rights to their books for the life of copyright. Not as good a deal for authors as it might sound: "The ability to take back a book, to say to the publisher 'Sell it or lose it,' is one of the few bits of leverage that authors have."

Period-blocking pill nears approval.

Woman survives 'internal decapitation.'

'Scotty's' 'beamed up' ashes found in New Mexico.

Somalia's rent-a-tree disaster.

Barbie Bandit: 'Stuff we did was pretty ignorant.'

Cops hoping to look fearsome on Segways.

Will new book end JFK conspiracy theories? Short answer: no.

New ugly dog champion crowned at Do Dah Day here in town.

Anti-Comics-Feminist Bingo: The Callers Enclue You.

trailer_spot: We Own the Night, My Blueberry Nights, Transformers, Persepolis, A Mighty Heart, Pirates 3.

Photoshop Phriday: Grindhouse Movies.

Depp says Keith Richards is 'Cool'. Which is one of those "Sky is blue" headlines, but the opening sentence made me laugh: "Johnny Depp has a man crush on Keith Richards, who has a small role in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie." (Also: Johnny and Keef on the cover of the new Rolling Stone.)

Pics from the POTC3 premiere. I mention this because Geoffrey Rush's date was apparently the monkey.

Orlando Bloom Latest Casualty Of Bloody Cupcake War, Iffy On ‘Hobbit’ Role Unless Peter Jackson Returns.

Audrey Tautou will play Coco Chanel.

Jackson is The Octopus in Miller's Spirit.

Bill Pullman Is Kind Of, But Not Really, Philip K. Dick.

Scarlett Johansson is still Mary Queen of Scots.

Elijah Wood to Play Iggy Pop.

Naomie Harris Joins Keanu Reeves In 'Night Watch.'

Daniel Craig Reportedly Signs for Ed Zwick's War Film 'Defiance.'

The CW cancels cult hit Veronica Mars. This is more publicity than the show ever got while it was on.

Meanwhile, Kristen Bell moves on to... Gossip Girl Official Teaser.

'Fanboys' Pushed to 2008; Director is "Devastated" and "So Excited" at the Same Time.

Warner Bros. Releases First Photo of The Joker; Nestor Carbonell Joins The Dark Knight. Carbonell is probably best known to readers of this journal as That Really Hot Other on Lost Who Kind of Always Looks Like He's Wearing Eyeliner and Used to Be on Suddenly Susan, But We Won't Hold That Against Him.

New stills: Tales from Earthsea - Gedo senki.

Robert Downey Compares Working with David Fincher to a Gulag.

Official Denial: Olsen Twins Not in Next James Bond Movie.

Dark Rises Differently, or the reason I was pretty sure the movie would upset people.

Tina Fey Talks 'Mean Girls' Musical.

Orlando Bloom and Scarlett Johansson in Pompeii? Please God, let this movie happen. I can actually feel the parody writing itself right now.

Comments

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I did! I just replied (thank you!)!

(Actually, I used to disable comment emails on those entries, but now that they're pretty quiet, I just leave them on.)

[thunderphoenix.livejournal.com]

That Joker looks genuinely terrifying.

And I am f'in STOKED to see AWE this weekend.

trying to make actual sense this time

[telesilla.livejournal.com]

*blushes* Thanks for the mention! I'd actually be more even alarmed about this whole thing if these clowns weren't so unbelievably unprofessional.

Hope you feel better sooner rather than later.

Also, if you remember the whole thing about how Dom and Elijah MUST be together because the only person anyone takes to a Hollywood premier is their One True Love, you've gotta wonder what's up with Geoffrey and the monkey.

Re: trying to make actual sense this time

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

And I heard he and the monkey didn't even get along that well on the first movie!

I don't know--the whole FanLib thing is just so icky to me because the people running it so clearly do not know the people they're trying to sell it to. I mean, one of the points you made was that this is a service that fanfic writers may not actually WANT.

[emisi.livejournal.com]

Aww, I'm so sad that Lloyd Alexander died! I'm even sadder about The Dark Is Rising. Everything I hear about it makes the flames of hate in my heart grow hotter. Unbelievable.

[vampirepig13.livejournal.com]

That picture of the Joker reminds me of the painting in The Black Dahlia a bit too much for me to be comfortable.

Lloyd Alexander got me into fantasy and I never left it. :(

[rorqual.livejournal.com]

Ah, Lloyd, how sad....though to be fair, I wasn't entirely sure he was alive before now, anyway.

The Dark is Rising thing is making me depressed. I want to read the books again (though I tend to pull them out in the winter, for some reason).

The ScarJo link and the Elijah Wood link are both for ScarJo, btw.

Feel better!

[ellaafleck.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think "Mean Girls" would make a much better musical than "Legally Blonde." Probably some entertaining girl v girl duets to be had.

[conejita-diabla.livejournal.com]

"Why make Stanton American? Because it's fitting that he is more of an outsider than in the book, Hodge said. Stanton should be culturally alien to the story's setting, which compels him to question why he is there and doing what he must do, he added."

Or, perhaps, he might question why he's there and doing what he must do to save the entire world *because he's an 11-year-old boy*. Isn't that enough, ffs?

Also, it completely kills one of the other major internal points of conflict for Will, which is that he's incredibly close to his family and that's why it's so difficult for him to hide this from them (sprung from one of the most poignant moments in the book, imho - when he uses his powers in front of siblings (Gwen and James? been too long...) and they look at him like they're scared of him/horrified/whatever else.).

BAH.

Okay - sorry. Done now. *sg*

Re: trying to make actual sense this time

[telesilla.livejournal.com]

*nods* And the thing is, they're reacting like they're terribly hurt that we're not falling all over ourselves with gratitude for exposing fanfiction to the copyright holders, which is something many of us don't want for very good reasons.

*climbs off soapbox*

[catystorm.livejournal.com]

Lloyd Alexander will by sorely missed by many.

I can only hope that one day the Prydain Chronicles will receive the same sort of big-screen treatment Narnia is receiving now, and the animated Black Cauldron is swept under a rug somewhere. >_>

[bitchola.livejournal.com]

FanLib.com's layout kind of looks like the bastard child of the MySpace login page and those annoying sites where you can buy the domain name that comes up when you have a typo in the web address.

[conejita-diabla.livejournal.com]

OTOH, it might receive the same sort of big-screen treatment The Dark is Rising is apparently receiving now, and then I *would* have to go on a killing spree.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Aw, jeez, I'm sorry you're so sick. I miss seeing you around, and I hope you feel better.

The Dark Is Rising movie...I can't believe they're doing that to it. I may have to not see this just to avoid messing up my memories of the book, if that makes sense.

[roseredhoofbeat.livejournal.com]

OMG BANANAS IN PAJAMAS HAUNTED MY CHILDHOOD.

I used to watch Garfield in the morning before I went to school, and B in J came on right after it. I would nearly have a seizure trying to turn off the TV before the theme song started!!!

[catystorm.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about The Dark is Rising; but it seems more the sort of story that can be localized and updated by the article I read. On the other side of the coin, Prydain is straight sword-and-sorcery myth - that doesn't take to updating well at all.

I don't think they can do much worse than what the animation side of Disney already did (not that I'm throwing out a dare); but with Lord of the Rings and Narnia both receiving faithful adaptations, I can hold out hopes that it will someday receieve the same treatment.

[sarapada.livejournal.com]

Carbonell is probably best known to readers of this journal as That Really Hot Other on Lost Who Kind of Always Looks Like He's Wearing Eyeliner and Used to Be on Suddenly Susan, But We Won't Hold That Against Him

Personally, I cannot actually restrain myself from shouting "Batmanuel! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batmanuel)" anytime I see Nestor Carbonell.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

There is a part of me that hopes he got the Dark Knight job because of Batmanuel.

[punzerel.livejournal.com]

I haven't read your Dark is Rising link yet, but..yeah, from what I've heard, it's going to be pretty damn crappy. They're taking out all that made the books so awesome and trying to make up for it with Christopher Eccleston. And while Eccleston is pretty awesome, it just doesn't add up :(

[sapphires13.livejournal.com]

Okay, the thing with Chester Bennington's stalker is just beyond creepy. I had no idea it had gotten that bad. And reading the article was a little weird for me, because I am very efficient at being an extreme fangirl, and have even been jokingly accused of stalking Chester (and some other rockstars too) by my friends, because I seem to know so much about him (honestly, I just retain every interesting tidbit I read in interviews and such) but any good fangirl has to know where to draw the line.

[leucocrystal]

Audrey Tautou will play Coco Chanel.

Okay, I have no real interest in the story of Coco Chanel (mostly because I'm ignorant to anything concrete about her), but I will watch Audrey Tautou in anything.  She's so gorgeous and talented.  So I'm on board for that!

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

A chase through a mall? A chamber full of snakes? I wonder why they're even calling it The Dark Is Rising since they're so trying so blatantly to turn it into FauxHP. Yeah, moron, "update it" and "make it more accessible" -- after all, Narnia was such a resounding failure by keeping it in post-war Britain, wasn't it?

My disgust knows no bounds.

I hope you feel better.

[manoosha.livejournal.com]

Yikes! That sounds like a scary couple of days. Get better soon, damnit!!!

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the Dark is Rising series but this:

"Susan Cooper's world is incredibly rich, and, really, the mythology is the plot in her book," Cunningham (The Path to 9/11) said (emphasis mine)

...sent off warning bells in my head. The series is in the hands of the guy who directed that piece of shit TV movie? Really, not the dude to go to if you're looking for an accurate adaptation.


Also, I didn't know you read Girls Read Comics! And I hope you feel better soon.

[sinkalicious.livejournal.com]

So I was at Disneyland on Friday (day before Pirates 3 premiere there) and my friends and I are eating lunch in the same cafe as a Johnny Depp look-alike...I mean people were getting up and taking pictures with him and everything. We were fairly convinced it was him until we realized he didn't have tattoos...it was quite surreal though. And we got pictures of them preparing for the premiere, big screens and all. Quite an experience!

[manasseh.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the books either but:

"And so we're really trying to make this ride feel not like a fantasy film, feel very today, like it's happening to someone you would know and recognize and understand."

Reeeeally, Cunningham? Really.

[draconifers.livejournal.com]

Oh gods, I hope you get better! =(

Sickness

[hulamoth.livejournal.com]

That sounds not very fun. Please get better soon.

Have you tried gatorade?

(I'm also a fan of clear, caffeine/cola-free soda during illness)

[elbales]

I'll bring the pitchforks!

Also, icon love.

[elbales]

You'd really need to read the series to understand how badly they're butchering Cooper's work. The five-book arc is so deeply interwoven with the mythology and folklore of England and (especially) Wales and Cornwall that yanking out any of that is like pulling out the backbone.

Also, they're making Will's relationship with his family negative, where in the book there was a contrast between Will's loving family—rooted in the mundane world and wonderfully decent and honest and likeable—and the otherworldly part of Will's life, in which he and the other protagonists of the series face the ugliest parts of human nature and dark magic. That tension is important; it really shines a light on what Will and the other Old Ones are in this world for.

So... updating, well, it could work, though you'd have to be careful how you incorporated modern technology and its effect on the global culture. King Arthur and the Wild Hunt haven't stopped being part of English mythology in the few decades since Cooper wrote her books. And making Will American... well, I think it's stupid, but with the right script it might (she said dubiously) work. But giving Will a bad family situation is not only a needless change from the books, it undercuts the entire reason for Will's having magic in the first place.

[edda.livejournal.com]

I'm not going to be the one to point it out to him, but I will enjoy watching the glow of the explosion from a distance when Lee Goldberg hears about FanLib and goes after them with a rusty spoon.

And I am pleased to hear the the father of your thumb-sized baby is getting a job as Iggy Pop (he's so small, maybe they'll call him the Pocket Pop) to better support his family. *giggle*

[bandersnatch42.livejournal.com]

I find out Lloyd Alexander is dead and they're destroying Dark is Rising? This is the Linkspam of childhood-smashing.

[dzurlady.livejournal.com]

"And our goal has been to try and make this story more accessible to today's audience and introduce a new generation to her work."
A new generation? There were reprints of the Dark is Rising in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007 - it's scarely a forgotten work.
(And this is setting aside the fact that if they're really so excited about *her* work why are they rewritting it so drastically?)

[queenthesixth.livejournal.com]

Agreed! The story is plenty accessible because it has great characters, an exciting plot and lots of suspense. I re-read the books earlier this year after not picking them up for years and they had lost none of their appeal. I absolutely hate this notion that something has to be so drastically changed to appeal to a modern audience. This whole dumbing things down notion makes me fume. A smart intelligent family film will do the business - just because you see kids with iPods and computers and PS3's doesn't mean they're all a bunch of automatons who need everything spelt out for them onscreen and can't go with a story that was first published in the 1970's and has layers.

And if anything, it makes me suspicious that the filmmakers are taking out so much of the story because they're ill-equipped to handle anything more complex and we have to suffer because they don't know what they're doing. Bah humbug!

And here I go again into crazy fan territory. :-)

[dramedy.livejournal.com]

http://whedonesque.com/comments/13271 <-- PLZ add to linkspam and list of reasons I love Joss Whedon.

I hope you feel better.

Also, I am going to pretend that the Dark is Rising movie doesn't exist. for my own sanity.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Pompeii the movie?

I can see the LJ comments right now.

"THE VOLCANO EXPLODES? THaNKS FOR RUINIT IT 4 ME U JERK."

[eris-amazing.livejournal.com]

Much along the lines of, "Oh my god, what do you mean the boat sinks at the end?!", I'd imagine.

The lines for Titanic ruined my faith in humanity.

[despairfaery.livejournal.com]

Have you sought medical attention, gurlfrend? You sound like you gots teh pneumonia or something. Hope you get better soon!

[yarha.livejournal.com]

Sorry you're under the weather. Think healing thoughts! Or something. Mind meld with a well person but try not to, you know, get too close. Mind meld using a spoon, maybe. Or perhaps there is no spoon.

I was disturbed by the use of the adjective 'trippy' to describe 'Dark' stuff in the 'Dark Rises Differently' article. Not sure why.

Jimmy Carter calling W the worst president evah is a sort of pot-kettle-black thing. Perhaps he's forgotten to drink his daily mug of STFU.

Yarha, We'll Be Standing in That Line

[anonymisty.livejournal.com]

I think we should all go to the nearest theater when it comes out, sit outside and reread our copies of the books instead.

Fanlib

[stardustshine.livejournal.com]

I've been out of fandom for kind of a long time, but - it seems to me that the single most persuasive bit of evidence for the idea that Fanlib doesn't understand fandom is the fact that they are either surprised or offended that they have gotten a negative reaction to their endeavor. Fandom is like the personification of drama. I'm truly convinced that if they actually understood fandom, they would just shrug and say "We know this is different. Give us a chance and see what happens. Only time will change your minds." Because nothing in fandom happens without drama - to fight against it is pointless. Anybody experienced in fandom would have just said "It's our site, we can do what we want, and if you don't like it, we don't need you." ;oP

[chrryblssmninja.livejournal.com]

-sends healing soup-

Pompeii was a fun book. But who would they play?

[it-grrl.livejournal.com]

I have the same reaction. Every thing I see him in, I punch my boyfriend in the arm(we're both Tick fans) and practically shout OMGBATMANUEL!

[evilbearhunter.livejournal.com]

I swear to you, he IS wearing eyeliner on Lost! In Ben's flashbacks, he didn't look like he was wearing eyeliner at all!

[polly-moopers.livejournal.com]

It's nice to see that the philosophy behind the Dark Is Rising movies seems to be "if it ain't broke, BREAK IT!!"

My childhood hurts. D:

[zombiequeen.livejournal.com]

Don't know if you've seen this yet: Fanlib Fanfic (http://lizbee.livejournal.com/640762.html). (!)

[jennnk.livejournal.com]

Elijah Wood as Iggy Pop? How the HELL is that going to work?