From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V11 #236 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Wednesday, July 24 2002 Volume 11 : Number 236 Today's Subjects: ----------------- RE: Lathe of Heaven ["Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" ] another reap [Marcy Tanter ] like two lovers in kemmer ["Natalie Jane" ] Re: reap ["Mike Wells" ] Re: like two lovers in kemmer ["Jason R. Thornton" ] the minority report of heaven (no spoilers to speak of) ["drew" ] Re: Lathe of Heaven [steve ] Books, we got books... ["Michael Wells" ] Re: Horselover Fat goes to the Gap [Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey ] Re: fegmaniax-digest V11 #235 [grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan)] RE: Quiz | First dotcom [Jason Miller ] Re[2]: Quiz (fwd) [noe shalev ] Re: Books, we got books... [Sebastian Hagedorn ] Re: Books, we got books... [Stewart Russell ] Toronto [Mike Swedene ] Re: Toronto [Stewart Russell ] In defense of Minority Report [The Great Quail ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 12:09:02 -0700 From: "Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" Subject: RE: Lathe of Heaven I think it said something about airing in septemeber but I cant find any confirmation on the web. - -----Original Message----- From: Jonathan Fetter [mailto:hydra@voicenet.com] On Tue, 23 Jul 2002 09:37:23 -0700, "Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc)" wrote : > I just saw a promo for a new version of Lathe of Heaven on A&E. > Stariing Lucas Hass, Lisa Bonet, James Caan, and David Strathrain. Any indication of broadcast time? Jon, who will probably never see the PBS version of "Lathe." ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 15:26:52 -0400 From: Stewart Russell Subject: reap Leo McKern, 82 Be Seeing You, Former Number 2 ... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 14:29:03 -0500 From: Marcy Tanter Subject: another reap Chaim Potok ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 12:50:39 -0700 From: "Natalie Jane" Subject: like two lovers in kemmer >Even thou the plot was very different than the book I think of "Blade >Runner" as a Dick movie. Because the feeling was right. Yeah, that's true. And Dick even approved of the film before he died, though he never got to see the final product. Incidentally, I found Dick listed as an "actor" on IMDB, followed the link, and saw he was actually in a documentary about "Blade Runner" - I would LOVE to see that!! Someone who reviewed the documentary said he was a raving maniac. >I just saw a promo for a new version of Lathe of Heaven on A&E. >Stariing Lucas Hass, Lisa Bonet, James Caan, and David Strathrain. Lisa Bonet would make a lousy Heather Lelache, if that's who she's being cast as (being the only black woman in the listed cast, I just assume...) - Heather is supposed to be a real tough cookie, and Lisa Bonet, well... > >Who would play Mr. Tagomi? > >Koji Yakusho Who? >I'm reading 'Planet of Exile' right now. Not sure what kind of movie >that >would make, but it would at least have amber-eyed native chicks >in tight >leather tunics. Yeah, that'd make a great goofy sword-and-sorcery film. "Rocannon's World," also. "City of Illusions" has too much travelling through the forest - they'd have to spice it up with some more chicks in tight outfits. And of course, "The Dispossessed" would have anarchist chicks in tight outfits. No chicks in "The Left Hand of Darkness," though. >Some things about Minority Report TOTALLY reminded me of Brazil, >especially when Cruise ends up with the halo and put into the thing >with the other "prisoners", but gets out. I was really annoyed about that - I was hoping for a super-duper dark ending. I must've forgotten who the director was. >A film version of "Left Hand" would probably require a ton of >styrofoam pellets/soap flakes. I agree that it would make a fine >film. I'm wondering who would play the Gethenians. It would be interesting to have them played by both men and women. Who are some very androgynous, kind of heavy-set actors or actresses? Estraven would be a plum role for any actor to get his/her teeth into - a truly tragic figure. To change the subject - I got to see John Zorn's improvisatory Cobra game last night, performed by a bunch of local musicians including Quasi's Sam Coomes and accordionist gal Miss Murgatroid. I've seen the "real" Cobra, with Zorn himself as the game-master, but this was much more chaotic and more fun to watch, because people weren't quite sure what they were doing. The group included a thereminist, two bassists (one upright and one regular), a turntablist, two drummers, a guitarist, two keyboardists (Coomes and a guy who also played flute), Miss Murgatroid's accordion, a girl singer, and a guy who played a weird electronic saxophone of some sort (not a zanzithophone, alas). The game-master wore an army helmet and flashed cards and numbers at the musicians to tell them what to do. It was really insane, but some great music came out of the chaos. At the end, the musicians were instructed to go full blast. Coomes played his keyboard with his head and elbows, the singer screamed, and the thereminist rocked out on the theremin like it was a guitar. Great stuff. n. _________________________________________________________________ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 15:45:30 -0500 From: "Mike Wells" Subject: Re: reap Stewart: > Leo McKern, 82 > > Be Seeing You, Former Number 2 ... Cripes, I forgot about him in The Prisoner...he'll always be Old Grumpole of the Bailey to me. My Mom must have watched every episode on PBS and I think I got a contact high from it growing up. Michael "my, there's a lot of people dying lately" Wells ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 13:57:02 -0700 From: "Jason R. Thornton" Subject: Re: like two lovers in kemmer At 12:50 PM 7/23/2002 -0700, Natalie Jane wrote: >> >Who would play Mr. Tagomi? >> >>Koji Yakusho > >Who? Japanese actor, star of such films as 'Unagi' and 'Shall We Dance.' >I'm wondering who would play the Gethenians. It would be interesting to >have them played by both men and women. Who are some very androgynous, >kind of heavy-set actors or actresses? That reminds me, I finally saw 'Hedwig and the Angry Inch' this weekend. Hilarious. - --Jason "Only the few know the sweetness of the twisted apples." - Sherwood Anderson ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 14:00:00 -0700 (PDT) From: "drew" Subject: the minority report of heaven (no spoilers to speak of) I'll make these comments brief because SquirrelMail keeps timing out and trashing my emails. - - Minority Report: deeply flawed as a piece of literature (the film, I mean) but very enjoyable (to me) as a movie. The art direction and cinematography alone were worth the price of admission. I cannot disprove any of the criticisms you folks have brought against it, except that I still like Tom Cruise more than most of you do. My main disappointment with the film was that it utterly failed to grapple with any of the fascinating thematic issues it brought up, and in the end was no more than what its trailer said it would be: a cop is accused of murder and goes on the run to clear his name. Ho-hum. But the visuals, the scenes, and many of the weird, implausible, yet riveting performances were wonderful. That's enough for me, to be honest; if I want literary merit I'll read a book. - - The Lathe of Heaven: I read the book based on the enthusiasm of many fegs for it, and then I borrowed the almost unwatchable PBS movie from the library. I still don't see what the big deal is; as written it's more a series of groaner jokes than a novel, and I really had a hard time suspending my disbelief in the premise. The theme is nice but deserved a different execution, I think. But then I'm not the world's biggest LeGuin fan. Drew ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 17:51:10 -0400 From: "ross taylor" Subject: science fiction double feature Sci fi films about ideas-- Uh, Solaris? And, I agree, 2001. Which may be some of the problem w/ both films. I know you weren't talking just about intelligent scifi films ... problem is IMO most movies, by their nature, are about some kind of action. Well, how about Alphaville, or does that count? Or La Jete [sp?]? (Or does that count as scifi either?) I liked Twelve Monkeys a lot, but it is also kind of action-driven. After all, The Matrix at least includes a kind of Baudrillard quote ... P.K. Dick-- Carpenter's The Thing was pretty much a monster movie, but it did a fairly good job of the "who's it?" side of Dick. Ursula LeGuin-- It occurs to me Left Hand of Darkness should be filmable w/ all the technology we have now, & I would think someone would see at as a great challenge. Though I guess while you could technically do actor as man, then actor as woman, it might inevitably seem cruder than the nuances of the book. I'd think some of her more "juvenile" works would translate easily, like Rocconan's World or The Word for World is Forest. I do think she's very careful about what happens to her works & is happy to sacrifice exposure for principle -- there were a couple of years when she kept cancelling out of Library of Congress events due to the Air Traffic Controlers' strike (she wouldn't cross piket lines). Ross Taylor only one more month to worry about how the remastered Rolling Stones albums will sound Join 18 million Eudora users by signing up for a free Eudora Web-Mail account at http://www.eudoramail.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 20:32:42 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: Lathe of Heaven On Tuesday, July 23, 2002, at 02:09 PM, Jason Brown (Echo Services Inc) wrote: > Any indication of broadcast time? Haas Re-Envisions Lathe Lukas Haas told SCI FI Wire that before signing on to star in a new TV version of Lathe of Heaven, he knew nothing about either the Ursula K. Le Guin novel or the original made-for-TV film. Haas, whose genre credits range from Mars Attacks! to Solarbabies, stars in Lathe of Heaven as George Orr, a young man whose reality-altering dreams are exploited by Dr. Haber (James Caan), a psychologist specializing in dream analysis. "I just went by the script I got," Haas said in an interview. "What's interesting to me about George, and what made it difficult to play, is that he really doesn't know reality from his dreams. He can't really make a conclusion about whether he's going crazy, or if his dreams actually are changing reality. So that was interesting to play. He goes through a cycle and ends up realizing that his dreams are the truth or are changing reality. I hadn't been working that much [lately], and I'd been wanting to [try] interesting projects with challenging roles. That was my motivation for doing this." Lathe of Heaven will air as an A&E original movie on Sept. 8. But the real big news - Frakes To Helm Thunderbirds Jonathan Frakes will direct a live-action version of the SF marionette TV series Thunderbirds for Universal Pictures, Variety reported. The film will stick closely to the premise of Gerry Anderson's cult-favorite 1960s series, which followed the adventures of a clandestine rescue team made up of a retired astronaut, his five boys and several other associates. According to Variety, production company Working Title developed the project for several years, with Peter Hewitt originally on board to direct the property as an adult action film. The story has been reconceived as a family-friendly adventure, much like the British series. Frakes last directed the Nickelodeon/Paramount SF family adventure Clockstoppers. Production on Thunderbirds is slated to begin in early 2003. Universal Pictures is owned by Vivendi Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM. - - Steve __________ It's an old shibboleth of those who want to inject religion into public life that they're honoring the spirit of the nation's founders. - David Greenberg ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 21:01:01 -0500 From: "Michael Wells" Subject: Books, we got books... So what's everybody reading? I'll go first... Currently in the middle of one of Pratchett's Discworld reissues, "Reaper Man." Either Douglas Adams' "The Salmon of Doubt" or Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" will be next, they're both on the shelf waiting. I can't remember what the consensus was on "Salmon" when it came out but I'm not particularly hopeful. Recent completions include "Circles" by James Burke and two re-reads: Jeme's oft-recommended "And in the Beginning Was the Command Line" by Neal Stephenson (what an excellent book), and "Caught Inside: A Surfer's Year on the California Coast" by Daniel Duane. The latter is a subtle, deceptively elegant piece of writing...and it's totally tubular too, dude. On a feg tout I ordered a used copy Hansen's "The Chess Garden" and - for no clearly good reason - picked up "Landscape & Memory" by Simon 'you can just smell the testosterone' Schama, he of "The History of Britain" fame. I'm a little edgy about that one, though the pictures look nice. I think those will probably wait 'til cooler weather, as will my pre-order of Neil Peart's "Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road." I seem to handle subject matter like that better in the Autumn. Michael who's probably got "A Boy and his Potty" memorized at this point ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 22:08:20 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: Horselover Fat goes to the Gap On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, Jason R. Thornton wrote: > Maybe 'Vanilla Sky.' That was almost more of a Dick film than 'Minority > Report.' Okay, everyone go see the original version of this film. Granted, I haven't seen _Vanilla Sky_ - but a fairly detailed description of the changes made therein (by a member of this list, incidentally) convinced me that, even though I want to see it for the sake of forming my own opinion, it's likely I'll like _Open My Eyes_ more. Plus, that way you don't have to see Tom Cruise again. > I've always thought that in the film version of 'High Castle,' the man in > the high castle should be a film director, as opposed to an author, who > makes a movie about what the planet would have been like if the Nazis and > the Japanese had lost WWII. And the part should be played by the actual > director of 'High Castle.' And it should be Spike Lee. I like this idea! Of course, right about now any American director who'd make a film would probably get hauled off to some detention camp for even suggesting that Evil might triumph... - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::the sea is the night asleep in the daytime:: __Robert Desnos__ np: Go-Betweens _Before Hollywood_ remastered reissue w/bonus CD (a la the Elvis C. reissues) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 22:12:53 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: Horselover Fat goes to the Gap On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, Natalie Jane wrote: [me] > >But the product placement was, for once, integral to the movie: the > >invasive pinpoint-marketing is part of the same universe of freedom > >exchanged for convenience as the Pre-Crime Unit. > > The product placement was totally unnecessary - the *advertisements* were > necessary. The ads didn't have to be for real products - they could have > been for made-up products, like the funny talking cereal box. They could > have been for anything, as long as the pinpoint marketing concept was there. Well, sorta...but one thing that always bugged me about older TV shows and movies is that when products intruded, they used to be these fake-o generic products, and that detracted from the pseudo-reality of the experience. > And speaking of unnecessary, how about Cruise's shopping trip to the Gap? > I think that's the most blatant product placement I've ever seen. Boy, > Morton looked hot in those groovy Gap pants. Would the Gap even exist in > 2054? (A subtler form of advertising there - we are being told that these > companies are so wonderful and popular that they'll still be around in 50 > years.) That assumes we read the movie as being about a putative 2054 rather than a metaphoric story about now. W/o bogus products and corporations, the anti-ad theme (which is admittedly quite cake-and-eat-it) would seem to apply to some neverneverland rather than to us, here, now, w/the rather recognizable as variation on current Lexus sports convertible cars, etc. All I'm saying is for me, the ads worked more as anti-ads - making it less likely that I, say, frequent The Gap. Not that I'm likely to anyway, and not that I'm not aware that anti-ads, so long as they brand the mind, function exactly as well as yr regular variety ads. Like, I remember Lexus, The Gap, etc. - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::As long as I don't sleep, he decided, I won't shave. ::That must mean...as soon as I fall asleep, I'll start shaving! __Thomas Pynchon, VINELAND__ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 23:33:23 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: like two lovers in kemmer On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, Natalie Jane wrote: > To change the subject - I got to see John Zorn's improvisatory Cobra game > last night, performed by a bunch of local musicians including Quasi's Sam > Coomes and accordionist gal Miss Murgatroid. And what are the "rules" of the Cobra game? I vaguely recall reading about it...but only vaguely. Never really "got" Zorn - mostly because while I can get the spastic, confrontational vibe, it always seems pointless after about thirty seconds. Not to mention that I just can't stand his tone. - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::To be the center of the universe, don't orbit things:: __Scott Miller__ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 23:49:19 -0500 (CDT) From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: Re: science fiction double feature On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, ross taylor wrote: > films ... problem is IMO most movies, by their > nature, are about some kind of action. Well, I don't mean *inaction* - I just mean not being primarily about explosions, or car chases, or gunplay, or fistfights, or the motion of breasts and buttocks. It is, according to rare and ancient mystic texts, possible to make a movie in which nothing explodes. Oh - and I thought I'd read that, far from being filmed on a stage set, the "city" scenes in _Minority Report_ were largely digital overlays atop the real city, in which those scenes were, apparently, actually filmed. - --Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ADS.html ::I feel that all movies should have things that happen in them:: __TV's Frank__ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 00:38:21 -0500 From: steve Subject: Re: Books, we got books... On Tuesday, July 23, 2002, at 09:01 PM, Michael Wells wrote: > So what's everybody reading? War Without End by Robert Shogan, and - http://talkingpointsmemo.com/ - - Steve __________ The Bush/Nixon bond is a most peculiar union, given the immense class gap between the Man from Whittier and the would-be dynasty in Kennebunkport. And yet there's an important similarity between them after all. Despite the Bush clan's vast advantage, that crew is, oddly, just as thin-skinned and resentful as the Trickster. Like him, they never forget a slight, and always feel themselves impaired; and so-like Nixon-they tend to favor The Attack. - Mark Crispin Miller ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 18:34:39 +1200 From: grutness@surf4nix.com (James Dignan) Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V11 #235 >> > Odd that no directors have tackled Ursula Le Guin, besides that >clumsy >> >> > version of "The Lathe of Heaven." given the response that certain movie trilogies have got lately, I reckon a film version of the earthsea books is long overdue. James PS: another RIP - Leo McKern. James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand. =-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= .-=-.-=-.-=-.- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-. -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= You talk to me as if from a distance =-.-=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time -=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 08:37:58 +0000 (GMT) From: Jason Miller Subject: RE: Quiz | First dotcom The modern DNS system was first laid out in RFC882 and RFC883, both published in November 1983. Both were later obsoleted by RFC1034 and RFC1035 in November 1987. According to Hobbes' Internet Timeline, the first registered domain was symbolics.com. A snippet of the whois record: (07/24 8:31) uranium:~> wh symbolics.com Registrant: Symbolics Technology, Inc (SYMBOLICS-DOM) c/o Ropes & Gray C.I. Armistead 1 International Place Boston, MA 02110-2624 US Record expires on 16-Mar-2007. Record created on 15-Mar-1985. References: http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/Orig/rfc882.txt http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/Orig/rfc883.txt http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/Orig/rfc1034.txt http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/Orig/rfc1035.txt http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/ Jason - --------------- Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 18:35:38 +0100 (BST) From: Michael R Godwin Subject: RE: Quiz (fwd) I just queried a BBC quiz, in which said that the first dot com business preceded the first laptop computer. They sent back this list of dates giving first registered dot com as 1985 and laptops as 1986. I suppose the answers are correct, but how can you have a dot com business without a browser (listed as 1991)? - - - Mike Godwin ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 16:32:28 -0800 From: noe shalev Subject: Re[2]: Quiz (fwd) unce upon a time, Tuesday, July 23, 2002, Michael typed this: Michael R Godwin> I just queried a BBC quiz, in which said that the first dot com business Michael R Godwin> preceded the first laptop computer. They sent back this list of dates Michael R Godwin> giving first registered dot Michael R Godwin> com as 1985 and laptops as 1986. I suppose the answers are correct, but Michael R Godwin> how can you have a dot com business without a browser (listed as 1991)? bzzzzz well it's not true or at least not exactly. DNS was invented at 1981 the dns as we know it was created in 1985, back than the first .com names were registered. what happaned in 1986 was that the need for more and more names led to transforming the managment of the DNS to I don't realy remember what foundation and what company. you can read all about it here http://www.whmag.com/content/0601/dns/ as for your question the dns was of course way before the web, - i.e. html, http and browsers. the www wasn't there but there where all sorts of name to usenet. blabla.com, alt.bla.com and ftp.bla.com IRC.bla.com I'm sure I'm not the only one to rememeber the pre web internet :-) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 16:12:59 +0200 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: Re: Books, we got books... - --On Tuesday, July 23, 2002 21:01:01 -0500 Michael Wells wrote: > So what's everybody reading? I'm back from my too-short vacation in Sardinia. I've read Candide by Voltaire (funny, but not as enlightening as I thought it might be), Plowing The Dark by Richard Powers (pretty good, although the ending was a bit lame) and Atonement by Ian McEwan (highly recommended, I enjoyed it very much). Now I just started Fool On The Hill by Matt Ruff. - -- Sebastian Hagedorn Ehrenfeldg|rtel 156 50823 Kvln http://www.spinfo.uni-koeln.de/~hgd/ Being just contaminates the void - Robyn Hitchcock ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 11:09:25 -0700 From: glen uber Subject: Re: Books, we got books... Michael earnestly scribbled: >So what's everybody reading? I'll go first... I'm reading three extremely disparate works at the moment. ****** First is _Baby Boon: How Family Friendly America Cheats the Childless_ by Elinor Burkett. Not very popular subject matter, to be sure, but it's something about which I feel very strongly and that I'm really interested in. Enough said about this one. Don't want to offend anyone's sensibilities. If you feel the need to flame me, please do it off-list. ****** Second is something far lighter and more "airy". _Who Cut The Cheese: A Cultural History of the Fart_ by Jim Dawson explores the underside of flatuence and blows the lid off thetopic of farting. I'm not pulling your leg (or your finger!). This book is cut above anything else on the subject, this book gets to the bottom of the subject of flatulence with in which the author lets slip hundreds of facts and anecdotes with silent-but-deadly humor that will leave you gasping for breath. Dawson pokes his nose where it doesn't belong and sniffs out the facts in a potent and lingering sociological thesis about farts. In the process, he has written the most comprehensive book on fartlore, containing chapters on historical events (such as the fart in Jerusalem that led to the deaths of 10,000 people in 44 A.D.), recordings (including the history of "The Crepitation Contest"), literary flatulence (from Chaucer, Shakespeare, Swift, Blake, Twain, Zola and many others), Hollywood farts, Internet flatulence, fart humor, fart urban legends, Le Petomane (the famous French fartiste), Howard Stern's Fartman, religious farting, the history of fart words, the anatomy of a fart, and so much more. Nearly everything you'd want to know about farting is in this book. ****** The final book I'm reading is _The Soy Zone_ by dietician Barry Sears. Although I'm a vegetarian, I still am somewhat overweight (mainly because of my love of cheese. Mmmm, cheese!) I am trying a new system that will help me plan and prepare balanced meals rather than loading up on carbs, sugars and fats while neglecting my proteins. My goal is to lose 20 lbs by my b-day in November. I'm hoping this book will help me achieve that goal. - -- Cheers! - -g- "When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." - --Henny Youngman glen uber =+= blint (at) mac dot com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 14:32:11 -0400 From: Stewart Russell Subject: Re: Books, we got books... Michael wrote: > > > So what's everybody reading? Steinbeck: Travels with Charley in Search of America ITU Lessons in Printing, Volume 1 The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy script book (I'd forgotten how endearingly paranoid and open-ended Fit The Twelfth was) Ivor Cutler: Glasgow Dreamer (no, I'm *not* homesick...) Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 11:41:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Mike Swedene Subject: Toronto Heading up to the Toronto show now (2:43 PM) a few hours of driving ahead. Hope to see some of the fellow FEGS up there. I will be bringing my MD recorder. If anyone wants to look for me, I'll be bespectacled (glasses) and jeans with a blue plaid shirt (long sleeve I think). Later! Herbie ===== - --------------------------------------------- View my Websight & CDR Trade page at: http://midy.topcities.com/ _____________________________________________ Yahoo! Autos - Get free new car price quotes http://autos.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 14:51:05 -0400 From: Stewart Russell Subject: Re: Toronto Mike Swedene wrote: > > If anyone wants to look for me ... I'm tallish, beardyish, birkenstocked and wearing probably the only "The Revolution Will Not Be Motorised" t-shirt in Canada. The accent's a dead giveaway, too. Stewart ps: I have it on good authority that Karol W will be bringing his DAT. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 16:00:41 -0400 From: The Great Quail Subject: In defense of Minority Report I have a feeling that I liked MR better than most Fegs on the List, though I agree with Drew that the biggest disappointment was with the lack of vision regarding the plot. Blade Runner transcended itself because it strove for something higher than SF, action or adventure: MR makes a few gestures in this direction, but fails to follow through. Also, I happen to like Spielberg a lot, and I also like Tom Cruise, so I don9t have the two major biases working against me that Natalie did. In fact, I think Spielberg is an excellent filmmaker, and I much prefer his sense of vision, pacing, and storytelling than most indie darlings enamored by their own cleverness. A few things: 1. The product placement was fantastic. It was totally believable, and served to offer an all-too realistic glimpse of the future. (I dislike fake products -- you really think the GAP, Coke, MacDonald's *won't* be around in a few decades?) Yes, the product pinpointing was horrible but I think Spielberg is quite aware of the subversive element in his use of it. One of the strengths of the film was that Spielberg shows us a possible future, but places no judgment on it himself: he merely shows a spectrum of human reactions to the constant invasion of privacy, whether its the ubiquitous ads, or the retina-scanning spiders. Oh, and: Personally, I like the GAP. Their clothing is fairly cheap, plain-looking, and utilitarian. In fact, I shop at the GAP a lot for casual work-wear -- it looks simple and unpretentious, which I like. And there's a GAP store right next to me, so for under $20 I can buy a plain black shirt. 2. I did not like the "happy" ending, and I wanted it to be darker. I also think that Seqor Spielbergo went overboard by showing his wife pregnant. And yes, I think that one of Spielberg's biggest flaws is with his mawkish touches. But still -- this *is* the man who gave us Jaws, Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan -- while they may all have sentimental touches, they are certainly not "happy" movies! And even in MR, let's recall that this man has a new set of eyes, lost his son, was separated from his wife, and had his entire career trashed by the government, who shut down the program. It's not exactly a life I would trade for. 3. I think the grace notes in MR were amazing: the weird cast of characters, the sexual tension between Cruise and the old woman, the cohesive vision of a future, the scene where Cruise kicks the shit out of the guy while the precog screams her head off.... Some great stuff here, much better than most movies I've seen out in a while. 4. Jeff's idea of an updated remake of "Man in the High Castle" rocks!!!!! 5. I think that Terry Gilliam or Jenuet would be unwise choices to direct PKD. Both are too idiosyncratic and in love with whimsical touches, and unless they planned to do Ubik or Clans of the Alphane Moon, I would rather they avoided Dick's world of insecurity and paranoia, which I feel they would contaminate with their own. I am not sure who I'd like to direct a PKD story -- it would depend on the adaptation chosen, I suppose. 6. SF movies that make you think? I think "Dune" should count, despite it's flaws. "A Clockwork Orange," of course.... - --The Great "I am Spielberg's bitch" Quail ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V11 #236 ********************************