Synova

So. I'm watching the second season of Highlander, an episode creatively titled "Warmonger", and the reporter who is trying to get the story of an evil immortal who has played the power behind the throne, tosses off this explanation of why she is taking the opportunity to interview this very dangerous man: "Stalin is dead. Mao is dead. And Saddam Hussein hasn't been giving interviews lately." That's from memory so I'm sure it's not exact, but close enough. I just thought it was interesting that in 1994-ish Saddam Hussein rated an offhand popular cultural reference that paired him, as the then living member, of a very elite company. George Bush decides to do something about it ten years later and suddenly Saddam is just another guy, no worse than anyone else.

I am really enjoying watching the Highlander TV series on hulu.com. Not that there isn't an occasional annoying episode but... don't care. The best, of course, is when MacLeod does the flashbacks that involve barbarian outfits. *sigh*

I love The Mummy. I love Jet Li. I was sorry to miss The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor when it was in the theater. So I bought it on DVD. On the front it says, "The BEST in the SERIES!" - Roger Ebert. Cool beans, says I. But now I have to ask, what was the man smoking? It was horrible! Firstly, and I apologize to Maria Bello, but Evie was badly cast, badly written, and pathetically directed. Gone, gone, gone was the combination of vulnerability and stubbornness that made Evie so wonderful. The only thing Evie did well in this movie was the fight scenes. The Evie who gloriously proclaimed "I am a librarian!" was replaced by a woman who wrote sexy stories about their mummy adventures and wanted to write another one to read to adoring fans. It was so wrong. Evie was into serious inquiry. She'd be writing esoteric, fabulously intricate, scholarly works while not fitting into society much better than her husband Rick. She might have writ...

As the result of a discussion about web-publishing and the fact that few people have time to read what they aren't sure they'll enjoy, I've been thinking about what sort of web-publishing would actually work. Anyone can put a novel or story on a web-page. We might think that this will result in that novel finding an audience, but I don't think there is any reason to think anyone will find it at all. The web actually multiplies the problem of sorting through and finding that novel that is sure to satisfy. In the end I think that we will be able to do without a great deal of what traditional publishing relies on, even paper and ink, but I don't think we'll be able to do without the Gate Keepers. I tend to be a dreamer without follow through, and to be honest this isn't an idea without a pretty steep up-front price tag, but these are some of the elements I'm thinking might really work if given a chance: -First, assume for kicks and giggles that I know ...