Archive - Dec 2009

So I gave in and saw Avatar today with the gal and my oldest brother (not the crazy one) & co. In Real-D, not IMAX 3D. Some observations:
The plot was paper thin and the story was as crippled as the protagonist. Who? What? Why? Where? all thrown out the window.
Very much the standard "Chosen One" BS we've been getting for far too long. Another stunner is the use of the "Samurai" described in Michael Moorcocks 'Starship Stormtroopers' essay: he rejects their training and education, he doesn't need it-he has superior instinct.
Real shockers from James Cameron.

[19:08] Lamont-Cranston: Houston is city that has based its transportation on the car, they must spend a billion a year on new roads and road works to keep ahead of the congestion
[19:08] PrometheanStardustQC: I don't know about Houston, but I know there's no reason roads wouldn't work just fine without rail

My new home cinema is now complete, and tonight officially opened with a showing of David Lynch's 1984 masterpiece, "Dune".

Here are some photos of the cinema.

Yeowie helped with setting everything up, here he is directing where the speaker cable should be placed.

In the last three book buying trips since mid November-ish I've picked up:
The Winter Queen - Boris Akunin
Fantasy Masterworks #32 The Broken Sword - Poul Anderson
Trouble is my Business - Raymond Chandler
Penguin Classics The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
Gather, Darkness* - Fritz Leiber
The Green Millennium*
The Wanderer*
Ship to the Stars*
Night of the Wolf*
A Spectre is Haunting Texas*
Our Lady of Darkness*
Changewar*
Interfaces, an anthology of Speculative Fiction* edited by Ursula K. Le Guin and Virginia Kidd