Updates

movies movies moviiiieees

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

julie-and-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

nine-1-big

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

moon-ver2

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

antichrist

Lars von Trier at the helm of a thriller. Bring it!

Funny People

funny-people

Another Apatow. I’m excited. In the trailer: Now they’re thinking I broke up with you. I cracked up.

Coraline

coraline_movie

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

where-the-wild-things-are-ver2

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.

fiction for 6/12

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:

blissery

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.

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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.

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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.

http://bahaytalinhaga.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/rp612fic-celebrate-independence-day-with-six-word-stories/

lunar park

lunar park

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.

oh, to be sure

That resolution will be tested in the Courts, and perhaps maybe even struck out of the record one day. Forgotten, perhaps, but it should stand – and it will stand – as a testament to shame.

No to Conass!

Click on the badge to read the full statement.

a first

So this morning I opened my e-mail, and lo and behold:

Dear Eliza,

Thank you for your submission to Expanded Horizons.  I have read your
story, “Night Out,” and have decided to include it in our upcoming June
issue.  Congratulations!

If this works out, “Night Out” – a short, sci-fi piece I wrote back in college and which I had revised and re-revised for years – yes, years, because it actually started out as a novelette, until I realized that half of the damn thing is clutter – will be my first publication in an international market.

Yay.