Nov 30, 2009
Nov 26, 2009
Clint Dempsey Scores Two
Happy Thanksgiving, Clint--the first one's a tap-in but man, the turn on the second was something else. Watch this:
Nov 25, 2009
In Case You Need to Feel Bad About Yourself Today
Here's William Burroughs, filmed by Gus Van Sant, offering a prayer about Thanksgiving...
Nov 24, 2009
The One Word That Checkmates Intelligent Design
Is...
Before I get to that (you probably already know what it is), some random notes of literary and/or scientific interest:
Flannery O'Connor's Complete Stories wins the National Book Award of National Book Awards (sort of the way Rushdie's Midnight's Children won the Booker of Bookers a few years back).
In a development whose irony he himself would have appreciated, profanity filters screen out the surname of a certain Philip K.
Evidence mounts for the existence of a large ocean in Mars' past.
Scrotum. That's the word...or is it? Maybe not, suggests an article in Scientific American. Does this mean we have to take ID seriously, now that the scrotum makes sense?
Nah.
Before I get to that (you probably already know what it is), some random notes of literary and/or scientific interest:
Flannery O'Connor's Complete Stories wins the National Book Award of National Book Awards (sort of the way Rushdie's Midnight's Children won the Booker of Bookers a few years back).
In a development whose irony he himself would have appreciated, profanity filters screen out the surname of a certain Philip K.
Evidence mounts for the existence of a large ocean in Mars' past.
Scrotum. That's the word...or is it? Maybe not, suggests an article in Scientific American. Does this mean we have to take ID seriously, now that the scrotum makes sense?
Nah.
Nov 23, 2009
Untold Adventures!
io9 has a cool rundown of the history of the tie-in novel, marred only by the fact that it doesn't mention me.
Nov 22, 2009
Daredevil Noir Premiere Hardcover
Amazon still says it's not out yet, but well-informed sources indicate otherwise.
That Dennis Calero cover is purty, isn't it? And Tomm Coker's interior art (of which you can see samples here, among other places) is beautiful. Hie ye to your Local Comic Shop and check it out.
That Dennis Calero cover is purty, isn't it? And Tomm Coker's interior art (of which you can see samples here, among other places) is beautiful. Hie ye to your Local Comic Shop and check it out.
Nov 18, 2009
If France Plays Algeria in the World Cup...
Because of this abominable series of actions (on Thierry Henry's part) and inactions (on the part of the officiating crew who missed two handballs and a clear offsides), France is in the World Cup.
Because of their gutty playoff win against Egypt in Egypt's favored neutral site in the Sudan, Algeria is in the World Cup too.
What if they play each other? Wars, massacres, the legacy of colonialism, repression, current racial tensions in France's larger cities, the ghosts of Algerian-born French players from Zidane all the way back to Villaplane...all of it adds up to what would be maybe the most politically fraught World Cup matchup in the history of the tournament. Other contenders would be West Germany's 1-0 loss to East Germany in 1974, Argentina-England in '86...I'm sure there are plenty of others from the Cold War era that I'm not coming up with off the top of my head. For homerish reasons I should probably also mention US-Iran in 1998, but the memories of that one still rankle. So pretend I didn't mention it.
Part of me hopes that FIFA, which is commonly assumed to rig its World Cup group assignments, makes this match happen. Mostly because I want France to go down in flaming humiliation after the way they got to the Cup.
Because of their gutty playoff win against Egypt in Egypt's favored neutral site in the Sudan, Algeria is in the World Cup too.
What if they play each other? Wars, massacres, the legacy of colonialism, repression, current racial tensions in France's larger cities, the ghosts of Algerian-born French players from Zidane all the way back to Villaplane...all of it adds up to what would be maybe the most politically fraught World Cup matchup in the history of the tournament. Other contenders would be West Germany's 1-0 loss to East Germany in 1974, Argentina-England in '86...I'm sure there are plenty of others from the Cold War era that I'm not coming up with off the top of my head. For homerish reasons I should probably also mention US-Iran in 1998, but the memories of that one still rankle. So pretend I didn't mention it.
Part of me hopes that FIFA, which is commonly assumed to rig its World Cup group assignments, makes this match happen. Mostly because I want France to go down in flaming humiliation after the way they got to the Cup.
2010: Anno Iron Man (For Me, Anyway)
In this upcoming World Cup year, I have (in addition to a bunch of other stuff including D&D and Transformers novels, as well as original stories) three Iron Man projects coming out. First comes Iron Man: Virus, coming at the end of January:
After that, there's the novelization of Iron Man 2, which will appear around the time the movie comes out (which is supposed to be May 7; it's going to be cool, and you can see various clips and trailers here). I'm just putting the finishing touches on that now.
Also, beginning (I think) in the fall, comes a third project--this one a comic that I'm not supposed to say much about yet. But it's going to be sweet. I just started seeing some art. More as I can tell it...
In the clear blue skies above Long Island, two airplanes collide. Tony Stark watches the scene in horror and wishes he had the technology that is almost within his reach—a new hyperintelligent instant control system that could have given the aircraft advance warning. But Stark, an obsessive, increasingly troubled recluse, doesn’t know that his invention has been compromised.
In fact, the collision was a carefully crafted hit on Madame Hydra, the final stage in Arnim Zola’s plan to seize control of HYDRA and get rid of Iron Man once and for all. The cunning adversary has already infiltrated Stark Industries security to develop a version of the instant control mechanism that will take over the armored suit and turn it against Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. While Tony races to track down the source of the intrusion, Zola unleashes direly ingenious computer viruses and the ultimate secret weapon: a murderous clone army based on Stark’s most trusted friend. A puppet master of self-replicating terror, Zola is plunging a city into a war that threatens to consume all in its wake.
After that, there's the novelization of Iron Man 2, which will appear around the time the movie comes out (which is supposed to be May 7; it's going to be cool, and you can see various clips and trailers here). I'm just putting the finishing touches on that now.
Also, beginning (I think) in the fall, comes a third project--this one a comic that I'm not supposed to say much about yet. But it's going to be sweet. I just started seeing some art. More as I can tell it...
Nov 17, 2009
Soccer Players and Totalitarianism
For a while I was convinced that the story of Joe Gaetjens, who scored the only goal in the US' famous 1-0 victory over England at the 1950 World Cup and then later died at the hands of Papa Doc Duvalier and/or the Tonton Macoutes, was just about the most interesting soccer biography around.But this Guardian remembrance of Algerian (pied noir?) French soccer pioneer-turned-savage Nazi collaborator is really something else. Meet Alex Villaplane.
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