Quickly, because I'm going out

[cleolinda]

Okay, I checked up on this whole cream-or-no-cream, cloudy-or-not-cloudy thing. My mother's pralines are made with butter and buttermilk, and they don't always come out shiny, but (she says) it usually depends on the weather and whether you can get the pralines hot enough and then out on the wax paper fast enough (it is true, the first ones down are always the shiniest, and the last ones are the cloudiest). Something about the soft boil stage, I don't know. So it is possible to make pralines with some kind of dairy ingredient and still be shiny.

Also, Sister Girl reports that she went to Clary's Cafe and did, in fact, get an eclair as big as her head.

Preachy 'The Invasion' gets a little too heady. Eh. I hear it's terrible, and I kind of don't care. I'm going to see it tonight anyway, because: Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig for two hours. Also, I hear Jeremy Northam's in it?

GJ cuts icon space from 2000 to 100. Well, there goes my primary reason for liking that service. Vote whether you'd like them back, and what you'd prefer to see go.

Woman receives a 300-page iPhone bill.

Pentagon Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers.

Chinese couple tries to name baby '@.'

An attack on the growing pretentiousness of American literary prose, or, as Bookslut puts it, "A taxonomy of literary gimmicks." And at the beginning: "Today any accessible, fast-moving story written in unaffected prose is deemed to be 'genre fiction'—at best an excellent 'read' or a 'page turner,' but never literature with a capital L."

New Batpics with tons of Joker. YAY. If something happens to them, I have a backup here.

Dozens of stills from the Harry Potter movies. They're smallish, but for OOTP particularly they've got tons of rare shots or unusual angles. Might be excellent for icons.

Golden Compass preview in the new EW.

Angelina Jolie is 'Wanted' for Some Sexy Photos. Also starring: James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman.

Final One-Sheet for '3:10 to Yuma.'

No matter what you may have heard, Stardust's budget was $70 million, not "ballooning" to more than $200 million. I'm glad Gaiman can clear that up, because I heard that the other day and kept trying to figure out where all the money must have gone.

MTV Exclusive Clip: ‘Right At Your Door.’ "What would you do if your city was under nuclear attack and your contaminated spouse arrived begging to be let inside?"

Harold And Kumar 2 Teaser Trailer.

Gaiman Hopes To Stop Time With Zemeckis In ‘Fermata.’

John Turturro is Going to Distribute His Musical 'Romance & Cigarettes' Himself. Well, good, because it's got Kate Winslet and I've wanted to see it for a while.

Rosario Dawson to Produce and Star in Weird Sci-Fi Online Series.

Billy Dee Loves Him Some Veronica Mars.

'Death Proof' Stunt-Wonderwoman Zoë Bell Gets New Action Role.

Roland Emmerich to Helm 'Fantastic Voyage' Remake.

Hair! Must! Dry! Faster!

Comments

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

the zemeckis/gaiman version of the fermata sounds like a gigantic clusterfuck.

[theatre-angel.livejournal.com]

I am really having a hard time figuring out how The Invasion could possibly be bad with Daniel Craig. Let us know how it is -- like I even had to ask. ;-)

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

The "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" trailer showed right before we saw "Stardust," and if there HAD been a $200M budget, I would have figured that the "Elizabeth" costuming staff swiped it and blew it all on fancy dresses. Droool.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that manifesto against pretentious prose is pretty great. Screw you, Annie Proulx!

I need to read it more closely at some point to maybe figure out how not to fall into those traps.

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

I think more accurately, the Pentagon was cheated by a company exploiting their automated billing system for combat and other military related destinations. You know, rather than the Pentagon willfully paying that much to ship two screws. It's pretty disgusting what that company did, actually...

[pamc.livejournal.com]

Candy making is the most difficult culinary science/art. As your mother mentioned, there are a lot of variables. Next in dificulty is baking. A lot of chefs won't go near baking. And lastly, there's cooking, which is not to say cooking well is easy. It's just easier than the other two. ;)

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Well, good, because it's got Kate Winslet and I've wanted to see it for a while.

::crosses fingers:: Did I first hear of this flick two years ago? Maybe. I was afraid it was unfinished and never to be available.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Ooo! Thanks for the zip file of Batpics. As you guessed in advance, the post is not available now.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Well, even a similar entry on AICN was all like, "Right click save! Hurry!" I figured they'd go down; it was just a matter of when. This is, by the way, why I save almost everything of interest that I come across.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

This is, by the way, why I save almost everything of interest that I come across.

Me, too. I've still got memory space, so why not?!

[editornia.livejournal.com]

I've still got memory space, so why not?!

ExACTly! I'm so glad to find out I'm not the only one who does this! ;D

[ter369.livejournal.com]

ExACTly! I'm so glad to find out I'm not the only one who does this!

And someone you know might need that info!

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

I like unique prose- Natasha Mostert and Elizabeth Hand come to mind- but I am beyond sick of pretentious crap getting praise for being, well, prententious crap. It's even worse with poetry. I can't make sense of half of what wins my school's writing contest- it's just random words thrown down on a page- no meaning, but teachers will rave about how deep and metaphorical it is. Gah. And I hate how critics looks down on genre fiction.

Oh, and remember that thing about Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart getting called to testify in a case involving YouTube? At the end of the Daily Show, they got into a mock-argument, and Colbert suggested that they put it up on YouTube. I love those guys.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It's not even so much the prose stylings that drive me nuts as it is the constant stream of books that aren't really about anything except The Soul-Deadening Nature of Modern Life in Consumerland, to steal a word from the article. Like, seriously: I get it. We're all consumer whores. That was kind of trite by 1990, much less twenty years later. We've gotten to the point where there's two kinds of "genre" books: books that literally follow various genre moods and conventions (perhaps in a trite way, perhaps not), and books in which things actually happen. And lumping the second in with the first isn't fair; writers shouldn't be afraid to touch fantasy or sci-fi or horror, no matter how lightly, just because they'll get banished to the genre ghetto.

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

And why can't genre be thought-provoking? Admittedly, cliches are getting worse in the fantasy genre at the moment, what with people trying to capitalize on the success of Harry Potter- I'm sporking a book like that on my journal right now- but there's also completely original ideas out there. His Dark Materials was an original idea. Harry Potter was an original idea. And isn't "we're all consumer whores" a cliche by now?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah--actually, the really exciting movement in the fantasy genre right now is in the genre hybrids, like "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell," which is a fantasy/historical hybrid, and not in a Generic Medieval Setting way--an actual historical setting. His Dark Materials includes some alternate universe/steampunk elements (or, if not steampunk precisely, alternative technology), and so on. And then there's work from Literary Giants like "Never Let Me Go" and "Oryx and Crake" that are dipping into sci-fi. Genre is only as thought-provoking as the amount of thought that the writer puts into it, and people who believe genre can't deliver are doing a number of good writers a huge disservice.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

(I started reading that essay last night -- I saw it on del.ic.ious -- and it took me all of lunch to finish it. I copy and pasted into Word, and it's over 13,000 words. Jeezus.)

books that aren't really about anything except The Soul-Deadening Nature of Modern Life in Consumerland, to steal a word from the article.

Not only is it clichéd, it's not even true anymore, given the huge amount of user-generated content on the net. We haven't been passive consumers for at least a decade, if we even were before then.
--

I agree with the essay on the silliness of reviewers, the pretentiousness-without-content in lots of "literary" novels, and the importance of having something actually happen in the darn book. I disagree with some of his stylistic complaints, except that I wish Annie Proulx and her fellows would save the special effects for the scenes that need it, and not write the whole book that way. When the writing constantly calls attention to itself, there's problems.
--

On another note: Get thee to an Ebertry. Dude's gone back and written a review of Casino Royale, and he's going to be reviewing other stuff he missed in his illness too.

[xander77.livejournal.com]

I don't disagree... but the original link asserts that critical standards were different in the past.... which seems a bit iffy to me (in other news, words recognizes iffy as an actual word. Hey, it doesn't recognized google or lj, so...). I'm fairly certain that pretentious crap was always given a priority.

[kvschwartz.livejournal.com]

Thank goodness someone finally schooled Paul Auster! I'm so sick of his hogging the front page headlines and the bestseller lists of "The New York Times." Where are Steven King and Ann Rice when you need them? Why aren't THEIR books selling?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh.

[lauramcvey.livejournal.com]

*hands you a copy of Blood Canticle* That's why Anne Rice isn't selling. Shame, really. I loved the first three VCs, and the fourth was okay. And I loved The Witching Hour. But the others range from "meh" to "Brain bleach. Now."

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes. I had high hopes for Blood Canticle after Blackwood Farm (which wasn't perfect, but was pretty decent). She crushed those hopes like Gallagher with a watermelon. And then she whined on the net about her Dickensian prose.

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

I am totally going to see The Invasion for the sole reason that Jeremy Northam is in it. He is my absolute favorite British actor that no one I know has heard of. And the main reason I'm still watching The Tudors.

[dives.livejournal.com]

hwhat! I love Jeremy Northam! He's brilliant! I was waffling back and forth between my natural disinclination for any sort of scary movie whatsoever, and Northam.

He is my absolute favorite British actor that no one I know has heard of.

You need better people to know. ;-)

[ciara-belle.livejournal.com]

I look at it as an opportunity to win converts to the awesomeness that is Northam. ^^

I do have one friend who has also seen almost all of his movies as well, so we squee together.

Pralines!

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

Mmmm.... I'll eat any kind, cloudy, shiny, it doesn't matter to me. Just shove them all across the table.

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

Eh. I'm not surprised that The Golden Compass movie will use "Magisterium" instead of "Church," but hopefully people will still get the point.

[jennnk.livejournal.com]

And in the "Reuters needs better copy editors (and should therefore hire me)" department, from the Chinese @ kid story: "While the "@" simple is familiar to Chinese e-mail users..." (emphasis mine)

[theendofallthat.livejournal.com]

that article's a little calmer than the Dale Peck hatchet job on Moody, but not nearly as fun.

I am extremely tired of modern literary prose, though I wish the author had actually gone after The Sacred Pretentious Cow herself, Toni Morrison, instead of referencing her quote. If one more person compares her to Faulkner I will lose my damn fool mind.

...also. I was interested in getting my MFA from CalArts but the packet they sent me included prose samples from their candidates and MIGHT I JUST SAY THAT WRITING FOUR PAGES IN WHICH NOTHING HAPPENS EXCEPT THE CHARACTER BREATHES IS NOT A GOOD STORY. I blame Dubliners. (though I also love dubliners, but STUFF HAPPENS IN THAT BOOK.)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU, CHRIST. I am so sick of "literary" writing (which I got more than my share of over the course of a dozen writing workshop classes) in which NOTHING ACTUALLY HAPPENS. I DON'T CARE about The Modern Condition. I LIVE IN the Modern Condition. I'm AWARE OF IT. I DON'T CARE about your characters if they don't DO ANYTHING. GOD.

[theendofallthat.livejournal.com]

what's funny is that someone in literary quotes just posted the opening paragraphs to "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," and I was reminded of why I liked Chabon's writing, even if the man himself drives me a little nuts--he uses all those techniques to tell a goddamn good story. you should check out Kav & Clay and Yiddish Policeman's Union if you're at all a fan--he marries "literary" and "genre" together in a way that actually holds your attention.

[scarletsherlock.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU THANK YOU for saying that about Toni Morrison...I live in Ohio where she is originally from and work for an organization which promotes awareness of Ohio authors/literature and they act like she is just a goddess descended from on high...we give out awards every year including a career award. The stipulation is that in order to receive the career award, you must show up in person to get it. They changed the rules for ONE YEAR ONLY just to give Toni Morrison the award--even though lots of other major authors have done it--simply because she's TONI MORRISON. I enjoyed a couple of her books, but I just think she's soooo overrated and I get sick of every young black woman author from our state having to have her name mentioned in an article about them. Faulkner, in her effing dreams.

[despairfaery.livejournal.com]

Lookie!!

http://lol.ianloic.com/lj/cleolinda

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

That is FANTASTIC.

[elsajeni.livejournal.com]

You know, there's a lot I agree with in that "Reader's Manifesto", but I swear, if there's one particular slant on intellectual elitism that I hate, it is the attitude of "I only read OLD books, they are full of literary merit and everything written in the past 50 years sucks." I'm sure all of the older books that essay-writer pointed out are lovely, but there's nothing written since 1959 that s/he doesn't hate?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that did chafe a bit. I think the reason people tend to rely on that line of logic is that at least people will generally agree that the older examples are good, whereas if they say, "I think these new books are pretentious, but these other new books aren't," it comes off more as a matter of taste.

[dramedy.livejournal.com]

I started to read that "Reader's Manifesto," but I'm tired so my brain kept substituting all the actual words with "Blah blah I think people are way too pretentious, so let me be pretentious and annoying so that you know that EVERYTHING WRITTEN NOW IS CRAP. " I just have trouble listening to anyone who would paint Phillip Pullman, Jasper Fforde and Susan Cooper with the same brush as Danielle Steele and Anne Rice. I mean, really. Has she read every book ever? I dunno. I'm probably mean or off. I need sleep.

On the other hand, I hate books with no plot. I like characters, but I like them in motion. I learn best about people through what they do, their actions and reactions, their choices. I find that more telling than if the author spends 5 pages telling me about the bleak setting and dreary soul or whatever.

Danielle Steele and Anne Rice.

[xander77.livejournal.com]

I don't think they were even mentioned.

[agatha-mandrake.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever had a praline.

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

I like to fancy myself as an avid reader, but I'm not overly picky about what I read. I try to read more "heavy" stuff, but more often then not, a lot of it gets so convoluted that I lose interest. I like books that use simple language and relatable characters. I read all these magazines that sometimes say who's reading what, and for once I'd lie to see someone say their reading a regular book instead of all this hip pretentious crap because it sounds impressive. Whatever. Gimme my scifi and fantasy any day.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Great title award goes to:
(click this link first to set the Salon magic cookie: magic (http://www.salon.com/news/cookie756.html))
Subprime menace endangers hobbits and James Bond (http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/08/15/subprime_hobbit/index.html)



(via dduane)

[h4yleyg.livejournal.com]

That's odd. I've seen both Romance and Cigarettes, and Right at Your Door, in the cinema already. But hey, I am English.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

So how was R&C?

[bigeyedrabbit.livejournal.com]

"Today any accessible, fast-moving story written in unaffected prose is deemed to be 'genre fiction'—at best an excellent 'read' or a 'page turner,' but never literature with a capital L."

HA! I've been saying that for YEARS!

It's also why, at thirty, I'm a huge fan of novels intended for fifteen-year-old girls -- the lack of pretentious bullshittiness is so refreshing.

[celtic-songster.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh, thank you! I love reading YA books because they don't bother with trying so hard, they just write. Here are your characters, here is the plot, let's go. My friends always make fun of me because I'll have Horror at the Haunted House sitting right next to Sons and Lovers with absolutely no problem.

[bigeyedrabbit.livejournal.com]

Right on, sister! I've got Dorothy L. Sayers' The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club in my messenger bag right next to Rachel Cohn's Cupcake even as we speak. :)

[irishmastermind.livejournal.com]

I'm reading the book version of the Reader's Manifesto right now! The author makes a lot of great points.

[blackdiamants.livejournal.com]

QUESTION.
As a fellow southern girl, do you pronounce it prawleens or prayleens?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

The latter, decidedly.