Category: Not-politics

Fireproof?

Come, I will hide nothing from you: my basic criterion for a decent film is whether or not an exploding starship is in it at any point (although a sufficient number of explosions, preferably involving techno music, will make up for it). So the movie Fireproof neither pinged on my radar, nor am I particularly planning to see it when it comes out on DVD tomorrow.

But I have noticed that it’s being ordered through links to my site, and that made me curious enough to look it up.  That led me to Big Hollywood’s article about how the directors have been quietly making successful Christian-friendly independent films for the last few years was very interesting: so was the fact that it managed to score positive reviews from The New York Times and Variety on Rotten Tomatoes. Fireproof has apparently grossed 33.4 million on a 500K budget; I understand that a certain contingent of my readership may roll their eyes at this particular part of the counterculture, but that’s one heck of an ROI. There are indy filmmakers who would hyperventilate at the thought of making half that. Continue reading Fireproof?

A five year anniversary.

I have been reminded by fellow RedState Contributor bs that today is the fifth anniversary of a whale explosion in Taiwan.  This is not the same as the Great Exploding Whale Fiasco of 1970:

…this one was merely due to the prosaic methods of natural decay. Nonetheless, it happened five years ago today, so remember it in whatever way pleases you.

Save for the use of high explosives.

Air Pirates!

It’s a webcomic called Kitty Hawk, and it looks nicely pulpy. It’s also just getting started, so there’s not the usual “five million pages of backstory to get through first” to worry about. Although that may not be a selling point.

Moe Lane

PS: I should note that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is probably the best pulp-evocative movie that we’ve had recently, and that Adventure! still does the best job at recreating pulp-era adventures for roleplaying games.  I welcome arguments otherwise.

Two signs of the Times.

(Whoops! Via AoSHQ)

Yes, I should be forgiven for the pun.

The first “sign” is a bit of a stretch for the pun: it’s a reference to “No Snickering: That Road Sign Means Something Else,” which is a pretty good filler article about some of the now-embarrassing place and road names that you can find in England (or, probably, any country that has a past*). I am far too refined to mention any of those names; suffice it to say that a good deal of the article revolves around slightly mortified people saying things like “It’s pronounced ‘PENNIS-tun,’ actually.” Not precisely news, but it’s not like they put it on the front page.

The second “sign” is something that I noticed in the online version: they linked the two books mentioned (Rude Britain and Rude UK) in the article to their Amazon.uk listings – presumably using either the author’s or their their Amazon Associates ID in order to get their cut.  At least, that’s what I’d do; in fact, that’s what I just did.  So obviously I’m not complaining about that.  It’s a courtesy service.

You know what else is a courtesy service?  Linking to websites and blogs that you mention in the online version of your newspapers and magazines.  It’s easier than adding an Amazon listing to your article, and Amazon makes it pretty darn easy to do that these days.

Moe Lane Continue reading Two signs of the Times.