Iran can sure use this icon right now:
We are so ready for 2010, yes?
Courtesy of scarred pretty. Grab the icon if you’re feeling it, but please credit her.
Or else she’ll make a GET THE FUCK OFF MY ICON icon just for you, yes sir, and it won’t be pretty.
I wonder if certain local politicians talk about what’s going on in Iran to their friends, their families, and say, That’s horrible. If certain powerful people read this and go, How awful.
Or do they read this –
Candidates naturally have more support in some provinces than in others, like their hometown for example. It’s impossible that a candidate could win by a same margin in every single province as Ahmadinejad, allegedly, has.
– and go, IDIOTS! If you’re going to cheat, make it believable!
But then I remember this –
COTABATO CITY — Defying dominant voting patterns in many parts of the country, administration loyalists are delivering the vaunted 12-0 sweep in Maguindanao province for Team Unity (TU) candidates — with Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson as the topnotcher, based on early returns.
and go, Well.
Just wondering.
Here be a couple of books that I should have read years and years ago.
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Mrs. Dalloway
Must I add to the noise? What else can be said when so many papers have been written about this Woolf masterpiece, the novel dissected, turned inside-out like a corpse. But a corpse this is not; it is a living, throbbing wound, it is a commentary on an age summed up in an incredible account of a day, it is London filled with imagery and memories. Clarissa decides to choose the flowers herself and steps out, and we follow.
(The version I read had an introduction, and according to this, Virginia Woolf thought James Joyce was “flashy” and a “show-off”. See that? That made me love her more! Gurl tells it like it is!)
(You want to see a map of the walks of the Mrs. Dalloway characters? Check this out.)
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A Clockwork Orange
Finally! The final chapter that Stanley Kubrick did not film, the portion removed from the US version of this novel (thank goodness I was able to borrow the English version), Alex’s “moral growth”, the picture of the baby in his pocket. I am cured all right, says our bezoomny narrator, and Kubrick’s film ends there, the US version ends there. But Alex turns eighteen, becomes restless, feels an emptiness. He enters a coffee shop and meets his old droog, Peter, and something hits home. Not every young man with Alex’s criminal history lives long enough to have this realization. He is very lucky. He walks away from the shop and does not invite us to come with him, but he promises a new life. I wish him all the best.
(In the film version, he is Alexander DeLarge, but in the book Alex’s family name is never given. However the introduction offers an interesting reading into his first name: A-lex, “without law, outside of the law”.)
“Earthset” is in the June 15 issue of the Philippines Graphic.
I just wanted to mention that.
Thanks to Sir Kenneth for the head’s-up, and Charles for checking. Will link once the website’s updated. Okay, okay? :)
So Gladdys shared this link. Upcoming films for ’09 – bring it on!
The guy practically did everything: uploaded the posters, described the films, linked to the trailers, but I just want to say:
Julie & Julia
Another film with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams (Doubt), and a comedy! WITH FOOD! Can’t wait to see this.
(Click on the posters to view the trailers.)
Nine
I couldn’t even remember the last musical I’ve seen. It couldn’t be Chicago – that can’t be right. In any case, I’m seeing this one.
Moon
I’m very, very interested in character-driven sci-fi, sci-fi devoid of explosions and spectacles, and probably the kind of sci-fi that will bore my brothers to tears. Anyway. I first saw Moon‘s trailer on ANC, and I wanted to see it already. It’s Sam Rockwell, bitches.
Antichrist
Lars von Trier at the helm of a thriller. Bring it!
Funny People
Another Apatow. I’m excited. In the trailer: Now they’re thinking I broke up with you. I cracked up.
Coraline
Is this already showing here? Are they ever going to show it? Grr. Anyway, I’m completely in love with the soundtrack. Listen to “End Credits” here. “Exploration” is also a favorite. Bruno Coulais is full of win, yes.
Where The Wild Things Are
The darn trailer made me cry. ‘Nuff said.
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Or wait, I just want to say that the Arcade Fire song, “Wake Up” is exquisite. GOOD SONG CHOICE, FILMMAKERS!
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Something filled up
My heart with nothing
Someone told me not to cry
But now that I’m older
My heart’s colder
And I can see that it’s a lie
Children, wake up
Hold your mistake up
Before they turn the summer into dust
If the children don’t grow up
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up
We’re just a million little gods causing rainstorms
Turning every good thing to rust
I guess we’ll just have to adjust
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GAH. Gets me every time.
Philippine Genre Stories and A Time for Dragons contributor Paolo Chikiamco (did I get that spelling right) on June 11 posted a call for six-word speculative fiction stories to celebrate this year’s Independence Day. What better way to celebrate freedom than with stories, right.
I sent him four, and here’s my personal favorite:
I’m now seriously thinking of turning this into a story. :)
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Read more of these short short short stories here. Maybe next year you’ll have more entries, eh, Mr. Chikiamco? And maybe a book? And and prizes?
Kidding.
* * *
Here’s an article about Independence Day from the National Historical Institute. Makes you wonder how things would have turned out if Aguinaldo did different.
* * *
So I’ve been reading Issue 8 of Expanded Horizons, and I have to say that Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s “King of Sand and Stormy Seas” is my favorite story there.
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Here’s a cool announcement about the EH issue from the World SF blog.
There’s a story behind the film Adaptation: scriptwriter Charlie Kaufman had a hard time adapting The Orchid Thief, so what did he do? He wrote a film about him having a hard time adapting The Orchid Thief, writing himself into the script, creating for himself a twin brother, dedicating the finished piece to the sibling who didn’t exist. Author Bret Easton Ellis, creator of American Psycho and other “transgressive” novels, wrote himself into his novel Lunar Park, conjuring for himself a family, a film actress wife, a quiet neighborhood in the suburbs, a son. A series of brutal murders, a haunting, a loss. I write stories but I could never imagine writing myself into one of them, even as an exercise. Of course every writer writes himself into his stories, his fears, his joys, but how terrifying to see your own name on a page, to see yourself as a fictional character running away from fictional horrors. Honesty can be very frightening, so with Lunar Park Ellis was being very brave. Ian McEwan asks, How can a novelist find atonement when, in his novels, he is God? But Ellis found atonement. There was one long passage in the novel that ends with From those of us who are left behind: you will be remembered, you were the one I needed, I loved you in my dreams. Writing these words, would it be too much to say that Ellis found freedom? Perhaps, upon finishing the novel, he had forgiven everyone and everything that had to be forgiven, and in the process also found absolution.
I think this is a remarkable book.
Eliza Victoria 