Suddenly...

Pictured, center-frame: Young woman, cosplaying as "Bayonetta."

Pictured, bottom-left: Young boy, in the midst of what will be a defining moment of his adolescence.



(photo by Shiraz Malik, seen on Kotaku.)

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Anne Rice comes back to the dark side

"Liberace was gay" has finally been knocked the #1 spot of all-time celebrity "duh!" revelations, as Catholic-turned-atheist-turned-Christian-turned-whothehellknows author Anne Rice has evidently discovered that organized Christianity is - shockingly! - NOT all that welcoming to left-leaning feminists best known for sexually-explicit romance novels about bisexual vampires and BDSM-reworkings of fairytales. Wicked shock'a, as we say here in Boston.

Says Rice on her Facebook:
"As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I'm out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of ...Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen."

All of which places me in the unusual (for me) position of genuinely enjoying something written by Anne Rice ;)

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A Strange proposal...

In the midst of some "Intermission" comment reading/responding, it dawns on me that since physicality isn't so much a concern when it comes to the potential casting for a "Doctor Strange" movie; one of the key questions would probably end up being VOICE - i.e., whom do you most want to hear speak dialogue like "By the Crimson Bands of Cytorak!!!"

With that in mind, perhaps a radical suggestion:

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Escape to the Movies: Comic-Con 2010 overview

hard link

The week's Intermission: "Film These Heroes."

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"Thor" Comic-Con trailer!

Who knows how long this will stay up, but The Pursuitist has a (non-embed) copy of the Thor reel that was shown at Comic-Con up.  So go watch it already HERE: http://pursuitist.com/arts/thor-comic-con-trailer-watch/

Looks pretty damn good if you ask me. The way it's cut looks a lot like what the first "real" trailers will probably look like: A "story" trailer with lots of fanservice in the margins. It's not quite the "holy shit!" of the first Iron Man trailer, but we do get to see how everyone "looks" under proper lighting and post-production, all the main guys in full armor and helmets, how the hammer fighting/throwing is being staged, what the basic story is (Thor depowered and busted-down to Earth, has to prove himself as a hero so he can get his hammer and powers back), how/where it "fits together" with Iron Man 2 and how Destroyer looks in motion. With a few moments snipped for time, this could (and SHOULD) be playing in theaters now.

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This is a real thing

via Yahoo!

Classic Animation buffs will, of course, note the irony of a Golden Age Hannah-Barbera character being presented in 33333DDDDD ;)

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re: Oliver Stone steps in it

(intended for posting as a response in the Oliver Stone thread, posted on-page instead because it's long-ish)

Anti-semitism is the original sin of Western Civilization. Scratch the surface of ANY extremism and you'll find it down there somewhere. I'm told it's more pronounced in Europe, where it has a longer and more socially-ingrained history, but it bubbles up here in the U.S. on either "side."


By and large, Religious Conservatives seem to "support" Israel because of some sort of End Times fixation. POLITICAL Conservatives, on the other hand, seem to "support" Israel less out of pro-Jewish leanings than anti-Arab leanings. Generalizations, of course, but not unreasonably so.

ACTUAL American Jews, meanwhile, remain a largely liberal/Democrat voting base; though many American liberals (IMO) tend to be foolish and reactionary when it comes to appraisals of Israel/Palestine, as though they're ideology won't let them "process" the idea of a conflict where the rich nation is the "good guys" (re: democratic, primarily fighting on defense) and the poorer nation is full of "bad guys" (re: terrorism, civilian targets, religious bigotry); reflexively "siding" with Palestine without much regard for history. Though I hasten to add, it MUST be noted (by both sides) that The Palestinians are basically being "used" to wage a proxy war by outside-funded agitators at this point in the story.

One death is not "worse" than another in the broad sense, but the Holocaust IS a special case because of it's circumstances and what it symbolizes: The Industrial Age - which was supposed to civilize the world - used to committ THE fundamentally uncivilized act. It was the first genocide-by-assembly-line. That's important. Yes, Hitler DID kill more Russians - but that was a war with both sides taking casualties, something that's been with us since the beginning. Horrible, but not unique.

That people still need the singular uniqueness of The Holocaust "explained" to them, and why so many can shrug it off as some kind of "overrated" atrocity kept alive for sympathy by the omnipresent "Israel Lobby" is why Stone is WRONG, and we DO need to keep focusing on it. Because some of us still just don't get it.

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