A Game of Thrones

Like most people, I use the same restroom at work every day. It becomes a refuge where you are safe from the demands of middle management, or that guy in the cube next to you who’s been talking loudly to his realtor for the last hour and yet your supervisor doesn’t seem to notice, but let you try and make one personal call and—

But I digress. Getting back to the point, you tend to get pretty familiar with that restroom. Sometimes you get so familiar with it, you can actually track the appearance of new graffiti.

There’s a graffito (that’s the singular of “graffiti,” apparently) in my restroom that I’ve watched grow over the last couple of weeks. It’s an interesting process. Stephen King has already written a short story about restroom graffiti—I can’t remember the title off the top of my head—so rather than fictionalize it, I thought I’d chronicle its epic story (because I know that you, dear reader, would like nothing better than to read a lengthy account of restroom vandalism).
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Astonishing stories

I finally got around to reading McSweeney’s Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories last week. I’d read the first volume, McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasure of Thrilling Tales. Both books begin with a well-written defense of genre fiction by Michael Chabon (of Kavalier & Clay fame). Chabon argues that the “revelatory short story” and literary fiction as a whole constitute a genre as much as science fiction, fantasy, or horror. The essays are well-argued and both enjoyable and satisfying to read.
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Singer answers the Lois pregnancy question

Newsarama managed to ask Bryan Singer the $10K question: since Clark erased Lois’s memory of sleeping together in Superman II, does she not know how she got pregnant? Here’s Singer’s response:

NRAMA: After he gave up his powers in Superman II, Lois and Superman slept together. I’m going to assume that that’s when he got her pregnant…

BS: Possibly.

NRAMA: Then he gives her the kiss, which made her forget that they even slept together. Was the pregnancy a mystery for her?

BS: I ignored that part. I just assumed she remembered sleeping with him.

So there you go. Just ignore that part! But wait—does that mean Lois knows Clark is Superman? I guess you should ignore that too.

The rest of the interview is primarily Singer stating his opinion that poor marketing is the reason for Superman Returns‘s relatively unimpressive box office numbers.

Hellboy Qees

On the subject of Hellboy, I picked up the adorable new Hellboy Qee figures this week. There’s one of Hellboy (with a wee pistol) and his aquatic pal Abe Sapien. Very cute. They come with optional keychains, but I’ve just got mine standing on my desk at work.

Hellboy 2 lives

Even the most casual reader of this blog probably knows I’m a big fan of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. The comic is one of the best out there, and the film, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, is my favorite comic book film.

So it was with great pleasure that I read that Hellboy 2, whose future had been in doubt after Revolution Studios announced it would be closing its doors in October 2007, has been picked up by Universal Studios—the company that passed on the first film years ago.
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Heath Ledger IS the Joker

From Batman Sequel Title & Casting Confirmed!:

As a follow up to last year’s blockbuster Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan is set to direct Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Dark Knight, written by Jonathan Nolan, based on a story by Christopher Nolan and David Goyer. The film will be produced by Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan. Additionally, Christian Bale will resume his role as Bruce Wayne and Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger has been cast as The Joker. The announcements were made today by Jeff Robinov, President of Production, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Countdown to Batman/Joker Brokeback jokes: 10…9…8…

Digital telepathy

I’ve started to follow the news recently (after staying away from much of the news media, for my mental health) and came across this article about the development of hardware that will allow us to control mechanical devices with our minds. According to the article, scientists have already managed to implant a chip in a quadriplegic man’s brain that allowed him to use his mind as a controller. The article goes on to claim that eventually people will be able to interact not only with the Internet via their minds, but with the thoughts of other people, going way beyond Snow Crash and even The Matrix.
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RSS feeds

Sean pointed out to me that I didn’t have feeds to my various RSS capabilities available (for instance, you couldn’t add a Live Bookmark in Firefox). I’ve now rectified the situation, or appear to have. If you have any trouble with the RSS feeds, let me know.

Keep in touch

It’s interesting how, when you end an email with the expression “Keep in touch,” what you’re really saying is, “I’m ending this particular round of correspondence and hope I don’t have to write to you again for quite some time.” And in some instances it could arguably mean “Never email me again.”

It doesn’t have quite the same connotation in a meatspace letter, but in an email, “Keep in touch” is definitely a suggestion that the person not do so in the near future.

Director in the Mud

What with all the M. Night Shyamalan bashing going on over his latest dopus (as in opposite of opus) Lady in the Water, I thought I might remind you that Mr. Shyamalan’s been on a slide for some time and direct your attention to The Journal of the Alien from “Signs”, which I wrote back in 2002.

I also added two other old fake-news articles from a previous BBn incarnation, Mr. Owl is a Lying A-Hole and Economics Study Claims “Free Parking Prize” Destabilizes Monopoly. All were published in May 2002 in the old BBn.

I’d post “Warcraft Orcs Stray into Sims City,” which I also wrote for BBn, but an updated version of that piece will be published next month in ToyFare #110.

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