cleolinda | Early 'spam, then I'm calling it a day (Reply)

So I finally caught up and watched the two episodes of True Blood and I kind of loved it. Like, not even ironically--genuinely loved it ~~although there was kind of some snarky love in there as well. Put on some pants, Anna Paquin~~. Part of me wants to write up an in-depth thing about it, and part of me, mostly the part centered around my sinuses, still feels like hell. (Bill the Mysteriously Hot, Hotly Mysterious Vampire tried to ~~dazzle~~ "glamour" Sookie, y'all! And then it didn't even work! I nearly died.) And tomorrow is a Very Special Day, so I'm saving up my posting strength for that.

Linkspam!

New Mozart piece found in French library (also: what it would sound like as a story on The Onion).

Dewey the library cat is back on the shelves.

Freaky, fleshy concept toy that you can pierce. Uh.

New 'Sex and the City' and 'Hitchhiker's Guide' books: Which sounds worse?

Do You Really Want Science Fiction Books To Be More Literary? Which pretty much sums up my problems with "literary" fiction and why I don't read much of it. Key point: "MFA programs are exploding with people who have been drilled to create prose bonsai." YES. I HAVE BEEN THERE. Workshops, God bless them, are (or were, five years ago) to the point where I shopped the first two chapters of Black Ribbon and people actually said, "Wow, this has a plot, but it's actually pretty good."

I'll just let that soak in for a moment.

Also:

5) Tell us more about the teacup. It's chipped on one side, but somehow the friction from all those fingernails holding it steady has worn it down. So the chipped area feels almost polished, as if the cup-maker chipped it herself, and then glazed it. There's a stain on its base that no amount of scrubbing with the wiry brush is ever equal to removing. It has a pattern of flowers and baby's breath, which you haven't noticed in years.

YES, THIS. It's good to include piercingly specific, unexpected details to make your reader feel like s/he's there inside the story. But you know what? A little of that goes a long, long way, and I've spent the last several years trying to train myself to stop writing like that.

Vanity Fair: Literature Wields No Power Today (MAYBE IT WOULD IF PEOPLE WOULD STOP DESCRIBING TEACUPS TO DEATH); Book Publishing Is SO Dying, Insists Reader!; It’s Only The End of Rose-Colored Glasses.

Who Should Be Slashed? "If 33 percent of all publishing activity on the Internets revolves around fan fiction, why should we fight it?" Perhaps more to the point, as John Scalzi (somewhere... I'm pretty sure?) once noted, fan fiction is a sign of a healthy fanbase, and pretty much how you know you've hit the big time, or at least the comfortably medium time. I mean, I think there does need to be some fandom etiquette involved (don't send your Brokeback Mountain porn to Annie Proulx), but as long as the creator doesn't have to see it (thereby protecting herself legally) and no one's making a profit, why not let people express their enthusiasm and generate more?

Anyway.

What are the all-time best fake-band names?

HBO Renews 'True Blood.' Woohoo! Now renew Anna Paquin some pants. Or at least renew her skirts a bit.

We Finally Realize Where We've Seen 'Fringe' Before [Find The Pattern Of Plagarism]. Or "plagiarism," even.

Mirren Returns To Stage.

Julianne Moore Talks About Partnership with Burt’s Bees.

Diablo Cody: "I Am Better At This Than You." I have to say, I understand where the Diablo Cody backlash is coming from, but I will always give props to a well-executed burn, and this one may be up there with Roger Ebert's "Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks":

I know my name is fake and that it annoys you. What, do you hate Queen Latifah and Rip Torn, too? Writers and entertainers have been using pseudonyms for years. Chances are, you're spewing bile under an assumed screen name yourself. I'm sorry if you think I'm like some inked-up quasi-Suicide Girl derby cunt from 2002, but I like my fake name. It's engraved on an Oscar. Yours isn't.

Images: Check This Out: Sam Mendes' 'Revolutionary Road' Poster; 'Quarantine'; New Photos: Frank Miller’s 'The Spirit' (Sorry, There Can Only Be One Doctor Octopus).

Trailers: 'Synecdoche, New York' Trailer: You'll Love It; Extended 'How to Lose Friends & Alienate People' Clip.