Monday morning, sneak-blogging while pupses sleep

[cleolinda]

So I've been through my notes and made lists of what I want to add to Black Ribbon and done a little touch-up research, and I am now at the point where I have to actually start writing, and I have to tell you, I am gripped by cold electric fear. This may be the first time where I have realized that I do not, in fact, have writer's block. I mean, I do sometimes, but this ain't it. This is just pure cowardice. It's exactly the same feeling I get when I'm standing, let's say, on a high balcony or the roof of a building and I look down, except that I can't figure out how writing could actually kill me.

But while I was being a total coward, I was at Madame Talbot's site this weekend cruising for visual inspiration, and I stumbled across this: yet more proof that Alabama is the center of the universe.

Farris pulled out her six-shooter and shot her husband twice - with "steel nerve and deadly aim." He died on the living room floor. The neighbors heard the fighting and shots and summoned the police. Three of Louisville's finest arrived and immediately were shot dead on the spot, with the dead accuracy. A deputy sheriff then showed up after hearing the ruckus and when he entered the house, and ended up in a struggle with Hazel. He stumbled over one of the dead bodies and his gun discharged which shot off the ring finger on Hazel's right hand. Hazel broke free and grabbed her six-shooter, whereupon the sheriff became the fifth victim of the day and fell to the floor where the other four men lay dead.

Hazel fled through the back door as well as the state of Kentucky, along with a bounty of $500 on her head. She ended up in Bessemer, Alabama where she supported herself as a "soiled dove" until she fell in love with a man who also loved her. She mistakenly told him her whole story and who she was. Shortly, the man betrayed her to the local police and collected a nice tidy sum.

Also: Alabama delegation arrives in France.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have not one but two sippy cup stories: Toddler served margarita in a sippy cup; TSA video counters 'sippy cup' claim.

From bookworm: Latawyna, the Naughty Horse, Learns to Say No to Drugs.

A new comm from sorchar: ishouldasaid.

'Architect of fashion' Gianfranco Ferre dies.

Thousands of pearls found in shipwreck.

Iron Age 'Mickey Mouse' Found.

Hareport: Rabbits snarl Milan flight radar.

Bulgaria's last 3 dancing bears freed.

The world's most expensive cities (#1: ... Moscow? Really?)

Elvis Presley's pills, gun auctioned off.

Teen diabetics try 'diabulimia' to be thin.

Lost girl, 5, stumbles from woods; Girl feared drowned reappears safe.

Conservative bloggers revolt over immigration.

Litblogs vs. Print Reviews: FIGHT!

Kristy Swanson Arrested in Run-In with Partner's Ex-Wife. Keep in mind that this is the skating partner-now-boyfriend she hooked up with on Skating with Celebrities while he was, if I recall correctly, still married. Oh, Buffy.

trailer_spot: 3:10 to Yuma, No Country for Old Men, Delirious, August Rush, Wall-E, Fantastic Four 2. Speaking of which: New Christian Bale "3:10 to Yuma" pics.

Pirated versions of 'Sicko' surface on Web; Pirated 'Sicko' taken down by YouTube.

Eli Roth Talks 'Hostel II' Box-Office, Blames Rampant Piracy, Says 'Cell' Is Now On Hold. "The R-rated horror film is in serious jeopardy. Studios feel the public doesn't want them anymore, and so they are only putting PG-13 films into production. The only way to counter this perception is to get out there and support R-rated horror." Which is funny, as it's seemed to me that we've been bombarded with "R-rated horror" in the last five years or so.

Some Guy Is Blogging That He's On the Set of Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower.'

Elizabeth Kostova's Dracula Novel 'The Historian' Getting Treatment.

'Monster Squad' DVD Trailer.

Paramount Shares Some 'Sweeney Todd' Story Details.

Wilson One Step Closer to Nite Owl?; Patrick Wilson Basically Confirms He's Been Cast in 'Watchmen.' God, I hope they get Gerard Butler in there somewhere after all, just because I think that'd be a hilarious reunion. PLEASE FEEL NO NEED TO CAST EMMY ROSSUM AS THE SILK SPECTRE, THNX. Also: Jackie Earle Haley is Rorschach in Snyder's Watchmen? No Watchmen for Keanu Reeves.

Meanwhile, Patrick Wilson Joins Sam Jackson's 'Lakeview.'

First Pics of Batman On Set of 'The Dark Knight'; The Dark Knight 's Batcycle Revealed; The Dark Knight 's New Batman Suit; Maggie Gyllenhal and Aaron Eckhardt filming; Rumor Mill Says Anthony Michael Hall is The Riddler in 'Dark Knight.' Also: The Joker's Car in The Dark Knight, although I really don't know if this one is real.

New posters for The Bourne Ultimatum.

Jude Law and Forest Whitaker Will Lead 'Reposession Mambo.'

Atlas Shrugged Shelved.

A Vaguely Shimmering Review Of Stardust.

The Beatles played by comedy stars in new film.

Lucasfilm Promises Marketing Blitzkrieg For ‘Indiana Jones 4.’ Sigh. Maybe I'm just not excited about this because I don't view it as being of a piece with three previous movies. Didn't they all come out in the '80s? And here we are, twenty years later? And they're "promising" a "marketing blitzkrieg," 1) like Indiana Jones actually needs one and 2) like there wasn't going to be one anyway? At least this (warning: mild spoilers) sounds interesting. I'm telling you, if they didn't have Evil Cate Blanchett, I'd just write the whole thing off completely.

(Oh, now Jim Broadbent may be in it too. They're really trying to butter me up, aren't they?)

Speaking of Her Cateness, ONTD has stills from "In the Company of Actors," a documentary about the Australian production of Hedda Gabler she did recently with Hugo Weaving and The Most Unfortunate Beard Ever. Seriously. I love the man, and I will probably end up seeing Transformers for him, and if there's a less fortunate beard than that, I don't know what it is.

More Cateness: Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox script online (George Clooney and Cate Blanchett will voice Mr. and Mrs. Fox).

Is ‘Fantastic Four’ The Worst Superhero Franchise Ever? You know, having seen the first one and a review this weekend headlined "FF2 Bad, But Still Better Than Original," I'm going to have to check "yes" on this one. I'm not even sure why--reasonably good cast, everyone looks all right. It's like the movies just don't gel--like trying to make pralines on a rainy day or something. Just from the first one, I remember the tone being completely off and the pacing being bad--the big action sequence in the middle went on too long and the one at the end didn't go on long enough, there was never any real sense of urgency to anything. Actually, you know what it kind of felt like? A half-hour kid's cartoon where everything, including saving the world, was kind of light and inconsequential because they only had half an hour, after all, and at the end everyone learned a lesson and laughed at some really bad pun. I do think some summer movies are a little too Srs Bizness about things, but if the story doesn't even feel that important in the context of the movie, how am I supposed to care?

Comments

[keenai.livejournal.com]

Diabulimia? Seriously?

It's not like diabetics don't have to give up enough already. I just...do not understand. At all.

[amberdulen.livejournal.com]

Re: Latawnya: Check out the Amazon reviews (http://www.amazon.com/Latawnya-Naughty-Horse-Learns-Drugs/dp/0533091020/ref=sr_1_1/102-1199983-3692143?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1178060644&sr=8-1).

[redcoast.livejournal.com]

Bessemer, home to the restuarant with the fried livers. Forgot the name. Nice place to eat, though.

Man, I am going through the same thing re: absolute terror the white page. There must be some way around it.

[breklor.livejournal.com]

I don't know about "worst ever", but there's a lot wrong with the FF series. If you include the old FF movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109770/), which is quite possibly the worst superhero movie ever made (including some things I've seen on YouTube involving five-year-olds in Superman Underoos) then yes, collectively, the FF franchise is t3h grand suck.

I actually kinda liked the dance floor sequence. I enjoy the bits in superhero movies where you get to see their powers in everyday situations. There were a few other clever bits where the team was interacting with their powers. And there is no question that this movie was head and shoulders above the first one: the acting wasn't nearly as painful, the Surfer's effects were cool, and we weren't subjected to the sight of Ben Grimm keeping a fire truck from falling off a bridge by pulling down on the bumper.

My number one complaint, though: if they don't put Doom back in his armour soon - and leave him there, and give him a properly James Earl Jones-esque voice, I think the writers should be taken out and beaten. Doom was Darth Vader before Vader was a twinkle in Lucas' eye; he's the original world-class bad guy. Doom in the movies is a whiny little wuss despite the fact that he can casually chuck lightning bolts.

Sigh.

[speakerwiggin.livejournal.com]

living in Bessemer, that weirds me out.

Something else that weirds me out - meeting Glenn Shadix (http://imdb.com/name/nm0787187/) at Dragon*Con and finding out that not only is he from Bessemer, but his mother currently lives down the street from me.

[the-lone-jen.livejournal.com]

You mean I'm NOT the only one who watched the Monster Squad obsessively as a kid?

Wow.

How lame am I, that this excites me?

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

This may be the first time where I have realized that I do not, in fact, have writer's block. I mean, I do sometimes, but this ain't it. This is just pure cowardice.

Oh I hear you. What I'm working on to overcome this is to continually tell myself that I write for no one but myself. It's not a magic cure-all, but it's been enough to free my mind up to start generating story ideas again.

Also, I just found out about the remake of 3:10 to Yuma this morning and just about DIED.

Re: the mummified murderess

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

This original poster was a gift from the late and great Captain Harvey Lee Boswell.

OK, that's just creepy. My grandfather's name is Harvey Lee Bosell and he went by the stage name Lee Boswell for many years...but he's not dead yet, so I guess it's not the same guy o.O

[msilverstar]

I gotta say, those horror-torture movies squick me out terribly. They should be NC-17, I don't want kids watching those!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Seriously. At least the R-rated horror of the '80s generally was R-rated for real--simple Camp Death slash-em-ups. You know, if you want to make NC-17 horror, that's great, but just *call it that.*

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

A half-hour kid's cartoon where everything, including saving the world, was kind of light and inconsequential because they only had half an hour, after all, and at the end everyone learned a lesson and laughed at some really bad pun.

I lived for the really bad pun. Seriously. (This is why Scooby Doo is my favorite cartoon of all time. First they had ghosts, and then there was the Logical Explanation, and then a bad pun. The formula could have been designed for me.)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

And you know, as a half-hour format, it ain't bad. It's just when you have half an hour of content in a two-hour bag and nothing more exciting that that--I mean, at least cartoon series often had story arcs, which at least rewarded continuous viewing.

[morgan-c-hoax.livejournal.com]

D:

Even if that blog is fake, the idea of a Dark Tower movie (HOW? HOW DO YOU TAKE 7 BOOKS AND MAKE ONE MOVIE?) makes me weep fangirl tears of horror.

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

I mean...it wouldn't be physically possible. Too much happens. Surely they mean that there will be seven movies...but even so. I don't need movies, the books are just fine. There is no way to improve on them...so make the movies go away?

[thyroyalmajesty.livejournal.com]

I call absolute bullshit on the Dark Tower blogger. Ain't no way JJ's on that yet, or that it's going to start shooting at Paramount anytime soon.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

And isn't JJ actually wrapped up in Star Trek right now? Or is he even still doing that, I can't remember.

[gwynevere1.livejournal.com]

God, I hope they get Gerard Butler in there somewhere after all, just because I think that'd be a hilarious reunion.

If they are both in it, I DEMAND a Movie in Fifteen Minutes. You just *cannot* let all that potential cape action go by.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, previous Alan Moore properties have worked out well for me...

[riverchild.livejournal.com]

I've been staring at the WeavingBeard for a solid five minutes now and still can't decide whether it's so unfortunate because he stole it from Sigmund Freud, or because it makes him look like a chipmunk with mumps.

But oh my, how awesome is that documentary going to be?

And also, Jack Black as Macca? That's...unexpected. The other three I can sort of see (aw, Paul Rudd, bless), but that one is a little far out.

[theendofallthat.livejournal.com]

am I the only one who feels like the diabulimia thing is bullshit? like, okay, even IF teenage diabetics are doing it-- how much of the population is composed of fragile teenage type one diabetics? why is this news?

I get the "oddly enough" factor, but it just seems like the fucking jelly bracelet thing all over again. urban legend!

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I'm sure someone somewhere is doing it, which is probably enough for a Scandalous Things the Kids Today Are Doing! article.

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of into Hugo Weaving with the beard.

[elirrina.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for more Black Ribbon!

I'm not sure about The Historian as a movie. It's one of my favorite books, but the excitement stems more from the feeling of general menace than from action, and the descriptions are part of what makes the book so superb...

[beckyh2112.livejournal.com]

Could you please post about this (http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2) in your next linkspam? I think it's important, and I would like them to reach their goal. (I know you've already got the little breast cancer site button at the bottom of every post, but I think this would help.)

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

Someone posted about that Latawyna book on one of the forums I visit. If it's not a parody, I fear for humanity, not to mention literature.
Well, Atlas Shrugged is pretty much propaganda anyway, so . . . *shrug*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It seems to really be on Amazon.com, as well as other works by the author. And... they don't seem to be parody. I mean, I would hope a name like "Latawnya" would indicate parody, but...

[theatre-angel.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Eli Roth's a nice guy and all (well, actually, no, I'm not), but I swear, sometimes he comes off as the dumbest person alive.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I prefer "disingenuous." Heh.

[juniper-75.livejournal.com]

Thought you might enjoy this...
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mods/multimedia/2007/06/gallery_steampunk

[chrryblssmninja.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh when I saw that in Wired I thought of Cleo.

[last-archangel.livejournal.com]

Fantastic Four is pretty bland, I'll admit. But it is still better by leaps, bounds, and light years than the whole Spiderman fiasco. If I wanted to watch a supposed superhero weep and moan like a 2-year old girl, I would have stayed home and watched Smallville reruns on ABC Family.

[melayka.livejournal.com]

This is totally irrelevant and all, but:

Oh, Buffy.

*twitch* You have no idea how much it hurts my soul to hear Kristy Swanson referred to as "Buffy." I'm aware that she was, technically, in the ultra-painful and better-to-be-forgotten birthing process of BtVS... but gah. It's just so very, very wrong.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

See, I actually really like the movie. I'm not saying it's high art, and the tone is vastly different from the series (obviously), but I liked the way it turned out. It's like what an actual Valley Girl-stereotype vampire hunter would be like.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

FF would be helped if their dialogue didn't seem to be written by Mrs. Johnson's third grade class. I saw every single joke coming a mile away (except for the "rockslide" joke which I thought was rather funny) and most of the jokes were just every concievable pun you can make about someone being made of rock, fire, rubber or invisibility. And it's not the fault of the cast. I even think Jessica Alba would be pretty competent in the role if they'd give her something to work with and Ioan Gruffudd looks embarassed by some of the lines he's spouting.

Then there were all the plot problems, ranging from the nonexplaination of why von Doom was even there, what was about to eat the Earth and why the Silver Surfer didn't really do anything until the very end.

[rorqual.livejournal.com]

I know that the hares in Milan are *not* flying around the fields at 50 feet up, flapping their big furry ears, but I can't imagine what they're doing while on the ground that screws with the radar that much. So, I'll stick with my mental image....

[mysticowl.livejournal.com]

Yes, Moscow. It's insanely expensive and has been for a while. My parents, who are more than well off by any North American standard, have said "fuck this" to taking a taxi from one airport terminal to another because it was just that outrageous.