Recently...

TV - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Wikipedia

I missed the first airing of the second series on Adult Swim at Cartoon Network. Right now the repeat of the series is nearing its climax as the Japanese Prime Minister has been taken into custody and the US Empire looks like it may become involved in a big way in Japan's domestic problem. A fascinating look at the near future with lots of technology and political speculation.

Tried to finally watch Bones, a TV series that Brent liked and he had given me, (loaned me?), a tape of several shows. Except that the very bad copy converted to static half-way through the first show on the tape. What I saw of the premier episode, ignoring the bad quality of the recording, looked very good. Which reminds me that House is terrific. There are parallels between Dr. House and Sherlock Holmes. Two best shows on TV now - House and Battlestar Galactica. Most improved network MSNBC - several of their evening shows has seen what a ratings boost becoming the anti-Fox network can be.

Books -

For something completely different I am now reading Mockingbird by Sean Stewart - a New York Times notable book of the year and a World Fantasy and Nebula SF&F Award finalist. This is a somewhat comic look at two sister's efforts to cope with their Voodoo witch mother's legacy in modern day Houston. I just started the story and love the writing and love the story except for occasional jars where something doesn't quite ring true. An example - someone shows up for the wake and he is carrying four deep dish caseroles and a small roasted pig on a platter.... is that platter as big as a door? This was courtesy of Clif in the Inner Loop Houston Book Exchange group who is having a party Saturday. Tonight is another party I am going to. If you are reading this you are invited.

Other books I recommend from the Clear Lake Book Exchange Group have been Thud by Terry Pratchett and Toast by Charles Stross.

Movies and DVDs -

There are a number of things out that look good but the last I saw was the very good Bobby.

Harry Party and the Goblet of Fire - very good, keeps improving and getting more mature like the characters. The next Harry Potter, Order of the Phoenix, is schedule for July next year.

Mystery Date - OK, I liked it but it should have been better. A teenager is crazy about an attractive neighbor and his older brother sets him up on a date with her. As people start confusing him with his brother, who appears not to be a lawyer attending Stanford as he has been telling his family, the dead body in the trunk shows up....

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - so-so movie version. Neither as funny nor as exciting as it should be. They set it up for a sequel but the movie showed a lot of wasted talent.

Roger Corman's Last Women On Earth. Part of a bad movie afternoon. The DVD is a very bad copy and the photographer and/or director and/or writer should have been shot. From the linked review: "the trash-movie overlord’s misguided attempt to do The World, the Flesh, and the Devil with three actors, an empty house, and a handful of loose change."

As part of this same day I watched several Flash Gordon TV shows from the 50's. The worst might have been "Flash Gordon and the Brain Machine." Evil witch queen Zydereen puts Dr. Zarkov and Richards under her control, causing them to destroy the machine creating the breathable atmosphere on Neptune, then drains all the knowledge and memories from their minds. First broadcast on March 11, 1955. It was also a two-parter and in both of my collections they only included part one. One of the shows was interesting in that it was filmed in West Berlin which still had a great deal of ruins ten years after the end of the war. Flash and Dale and Dr. Zarkov travel back in time 1200 years to 1955 to stop a very, very, very slow fuse on a planet-destroying bomb buried in some rubble. I suppose you have to have very strange bad tastes to want to watch these.

The Librarian made for TV movies on TNT - not impressed, would be better as a young adult mini-series with a bit more money and better writing.

I would prefer this The Librarian being made into a movie.

Internet - A free short story about yard sale buying (crap hunting) with an alien by Cory Doctorow - Craphound. More stories.