Yesterday at 10 AM I got an e-mail saying that a copy of The Lost Symbol would be arriving momentarily, by messenger. Yesterday at 3:30 PM I finally trudged over to the Random House building, flagged down a publicity assistant, and actually got a copy. (The messenger copy eventually did show up, at 5:00.) At 9:30 last night, I filed my …
Apps & Web
Terms of Warner Bros./Tolkien Lawsuit Settlement Leaked
From The New York Times, September 8, 2009:
Harper Collins and the heirs to the author J.R.R. Tolkien reached a settlement with Warner Brothers in their suit against the studio over payments from films based on “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, according to statement from Warner, the publisher and the heirs today. The statement did
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Fall Movie Preview. I’m Going to Tell the Truth
I was going to do a rundown of all the fantasy and science fiction movies I’m looking forward to this fall, cribbed from io9′s admirably thorough fall preview.
Only too late did I spot the flaw in this otherwise near-perfect scheme: there aren’t any.
Tuesday Morning Nerd News Top 5
Let’s all kill time before the Apple event …
1. I Am a Dark Elf. Sometimes readers e-mail me random links to things they’ve written. They are sometimes good and sometimes bad. But I don’t often get sent something as interesting as this essay by a Muslim immigrant, born in Pakistan, about how Drizzt Do’Urden, from R.A. …
True Tales of Conversational Vengeance
A few years ago, after a long day spent thinking of new nouns for Homer to say after “Mmm…”, my wife dragged me to the screening of a film directed by a friend. The film was fine. The rough part was the reception.
A room full of strangers is not my favorite social scenario. I prefer a room full of people who already think I’m great. …
The Prisoner
AMC is streaming all the old episodes of The Prisoner. (First episode here.) It’s an excellent day for paranoids. They’re doing this to promote their remake of same, which debuts in November.
Obligatory Marvel-Disney Mash-ups!!!
FINDING NAMOR
HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIFTED YOUNSTERS MUSICAL
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MARY POPPINS
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (HANK McCOY)
THE AVENGER DUMPLING GANG
SKRULL GOOFY
THE INCREDIBLES (already a FANTASTIC FOUR rip-off)
SLEEPING MUTIE
SNOW WHITE AND THE SINISTER SIX
POWER MAN AND LION …
John Granger, Dean of Harry Potter Scholars: The Nerd World Interview
John Granger writes rigorous but accessible literary criticism about Harry Potter. He’s written four books on the subject so far, most recently Harry Potter’s Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures, and he blogs at HogwartsProfessor.com. He is, basically, the scholar that I set out to become but never did.
When I …
Legend of Neil, Etc.: A Housekeeping Post
OK, I totally need to do a new post, because the last one is growing comments in this weird, tumorous way that made me think it might become sentient shortly.
So I will merely call out for you the birth of two new stars that have brightened the firmament of nerd culture. The first is a new episode of The Legend of Neil, which if you …
Dead Screenwriters Quiz
Three important screenwriters died recently. Which writer’s work will have the greatest impact on the future of movie-making?
A) Budd Schulberg (On the Waterfront)
B) John Hughes (Ferris Beuller’s Day Off)
C) Blake Snyder (Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot)
The answer, in the pattern of how these things always go, is C) Blake …
Friday Morning Non-Post: The Gentlemen Broncos Trailer
I blog this morning from Cambridge, Mass., where I am sitting in the living room of my parents’ apartment. Something about being here automatically regresses me to the emotional age of about 13. A time when there were no blogs.
As a consequence of this — and of the fact that I have to go and rock a local radio interview in about 15 …
Fun With Dopamine! Part 2
If this Slate piece is true, it’s the best explanation yet for why old media is dying—and it’s not that you dead beats don’t want to pay for it.
It turns out that our brains are wired in such a way that it’s better to look for stuff than to actually find it. Dopamine, again!
Newspapers and magazines used to provide a …
