(1) GOOD NEWS. The Guardian reports — “Good Omens: Neil Gaiman to adapt Terry Pratchett collaboration for TV”.
Neil Gaiman, the author and longtime friend of Sir Terry Pratchett, has announced he will be writing the adaptation of their co-authored novel Good Omens for the screen.
Gaiman had previously said he would not adapt their 1990 fantasy novel about the end of the world without Pratchett, who died in March 2015 from a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease. Before his death, Gaiman wrote a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Good Omens, which broadcast in 2014 and included a cameo from Pratchett; at the time, Gaiman said he had agreed to adapt it because: “I want Terry to be able to enjoy this while he’s still able to.”
But Gaiman, who flew into London on Thursday night for a memorial event for Pratchett at the Barbican, announced to whistles and cheers that he would be personally adapting the book for television. He said he had been spurred to change his mind when he was presented with a letter from Pratchett, intended to be read after his death….
But Wilkins revealed to the audience that Pratchett had left a letter posthumously for Gaiman. In the letter, Pratchett requested that the author write an adaptation by himself, with his blessing. “At that point, I think I said, ‘You bastard, yes,’” Gaiman recalled, to cheers.
“How much are we allowed to tell them?” Gaiman teased, before he was hushed by Wilkins. “Are we allowed to tell them it is a six-part television series?”
(2) GOOD VIEWS. Andrew Liptak explains how “The View from the Cheap Seats Offers a Revealing Look into the Corners of Neil Gaiman’s Mind” at B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog.
…I’ve done all of these things, and yet somehow, it took the release of his new collection, The View from the Cheap Seats, to realize [Neil Gaiman’s] nonfiction is as compelling as the stories that have bewitched our imaginations.
The book assembles the best of Gaiman’s essays, introductions, speeches, and other musings. They’re generally brief—a couple of pages—but each speaks to his unique worldview so exactly, you can’t help but hear his distinctive voice in your head as you read. Each offers an enlightening peek into his unusual life and his passion for books and writing, from his close friendship with Tori Amos, to the genius of Gene Wolf and Harlan Ellison, to the value of libraries.
(3) HE HAS TWO LITTLE LISTS. Nick Mamatas points out that he made both Vox Day’s “Rampaging Puppies” slate of Locus Awards recommendations (for Hanzai Japan: Fantastical, Futuristic Stories of Crime From and About Japan, Nick Mamatas & Masumi Washington, eds.) and more recently, The Complete List of SJWs.
(4) THEY LIKE LEATHER. Well, Chauncey, there’s something I never expected to see. What’s that, Edgar? A leather-bound edition of Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. From the Easton Press.
(5) THE POWER OF FIVE. Samantha Mabry discusses “Five Books That Carry Curses” at Tor.com.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (2007)
“Because no matter what you believe, fukú believes in you.” The opening pages of Díaz’s novel are dedicated to explaining the curse that perpetually plagues the Wao family. This particular curse, otherwise known as fukú, apparently originated in Africa and traveled across the Atlantic to sink its fangs into the modern-day Dominican Republic. It’s tied to ancient history and a more recent bad man, and it’s carried through generations (sorry, Oscar). It’s inescapable, rears its head during all stages of Oscar’s short life, causing him all manner of personal turmoil, and can certainly be tied to his eventual demise.
(6) FANTASTIC BEASTS. Missed this one over the weekend — “Wizards Take Manhattan in New ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Trailer”.
But in the new trailer, revealed during the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday night, we get the full story of his coming to America and 1920s New York, including a stop at Ellis Island, where he uses some crafty magic to hide a title Beast from customs. (Watch the clip above.)
A voiceover notes “just like your suitcase, there’s much more than meets the eye” and then reveals Scamander’s backstory: Kicked out of Hogwarts for his beastly experiments, he still has the support of none other than future headmaster Albus Dumbledore himself.
(7) ACCORDING TO CUSTOM. Lawyer Lawrence M. Friedman perked right up when the litigation hit the screen — “Batman v. Superman and Import Licenses” at Law and the Multiverse.
Heading into Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, I had some trepidation mixed with anticipation. You’ll have to judge the movie for yourself. My short review is that it is filled with great fan service and universe building, but continues to mistreat Superman as a character. To make up for that, Wonder Woman is great and Ben Affleck is perfectly good in the cowl and cape. That’s all I will say on the quality of the movie. What about the legal issues?
Very early in the movie, it becomes clear that Lex Luther and Lexcorp could use my professional help. Explaining why requires at least a minor spoiler. Consider yourself warned.
Following the events of Man of Steel, it becomes obvious to Lex Luther that kryptonite might be a useful tool to combat Superman and potentially other Kryptonians. One of his scientific henchmen, listed in the credits as Emmet Vale, finds a sizeable chunk in the Indian Ocean. As a side note, the existence of a potential “Professor Vale” in this universe is not good news for Superman. As a plot device, Luther realizes that he needs an import license and begins lobbying a Senator played by Holly Hunter for permission to import the kryptonite.
As a customs and trade lawyer, I may have been the only person in the theater to sit up just a little when I heard that. I lost the next couple minutes wondering to myself whether that would, in fact be true. Would Lexcorp, or any other legally compliant importer, need any kind of license to import a chunk of Kryptonite?…
(8) DAVID PROWSE GUESTS. SFFANZ spotted the new episode of web series Mission Backup Earth:
The series follows the struggle of humanity to colonize a habitable exoplanet.
In the near future, a cosmic catastrophe hits the Earth without warning. Unforeseen by any scientist, the Sun transits rapidly into a red giant. Having no choice, mankind must escape the solar system. The survivors become space nomads, seeking a viable replacement for Earth.
David Prowse has given a guest appearance in the new Episode and plays the scientist who develops the mission to save human kind from extinction.
(9) TEACHING WRITING. SF Site News has the story: “Julia Elliott Wins Shared World Residency”.
Julia Elliott has won the Shared World 2016 Amazon Writers-in-Residence. She will attend the Shared World Writers Workshop for teens at Wofford College in South Carolina, where she will meet with the aspiring authors and help teach and guide them in conjunction with the workshop’s other authors.
(10) TUNE CARRIER. John Scalzi sounds like the “stone soup” of vocalists – add a few ingredients and what a singer he’ll be!
Man I would be a great singer If I only Had tonal control, breath control and the ability to sing.
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) April 14, 2016
(11) COURT SAYS DEITY IS NOT. The Register has the verdict: “Flying Spaghetti Monster is not God, rules mortal judge”.
A United States District Court judge has ruled that Pastafarianism, the cult of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), is not a religion.
Stephen Cavanaugh, a prisoner in the Nebraska State Penitentiary, brought the case after being denied access to Pastafarian literature and religious items while behind bars. Cavanaugh argued that he is an avid Pastafarian, has the FSM tattoos to prove it, and should therefore be allowed “the ability to order and wear religious clothing and pendants, the right to meet for weekly worship services and classes and the right to receive communion” while on the inside.
Prison officers denied his requests on grounds that Pastafarianism is a parody religion.
Judge John M. Gerrard agreed with the prison officers’ argument, noting that Pastafarianism was cooked up as a response to Intelligent Design being taught in the State of Kansas. The decision to teach Intelligent Design was justified as it being one of many widely-held religious beliefs about the origins of the Earth. Activist Bobby Henderson devised Pastafarianism Flying Spaghetti Monster as a riposte, claiming that it, too, was a widely-held belief and that it should also be taught in Kansas’ schools….
Judge Gerrard was not impressed by those offshore cases, quickly deciding that FSMism is a parody, not an actual religion. Nor was he impressed by Cavanaugh, who had a rather poor grasp on Pastafarianism’s key texts, which the judge took the trouble to read….
(12) GARETH THOMAS OBIT. Star of a TV series that gained a cult following, Gareth Thomas (1945-2016), who played Roj Blake on Blake’s 7 died Wednesday reports the BBC.
Yet he remains best known for Blake’s 7, which ran on BBC One from 1978 to 1981.
At its peak, the series was watched by 10 million viewers and was sold to 40 countries.
Thomas claimed never to have watched a single episode of the show, which was derided by some for its shaky sets and basic special effects.
The show also had a distinctly pessimistic tone – typified by the final episode, in which all the main characters were apparently killed off.
(13) TODAY IN HISTORY
- April 14, 1561 — The sky was full of unknown moving objects in Nuremberg, Germany. See the woodcut Battle over Nuremberg by Hans Glaser.
(14) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY GIRLS
- Born April 14, 1936 – Arlene Martel
- Born April 14, 1977 — Sarah Michelle Gellar
(15) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY BOY
- Born April 14, 1954 — Bruce Sterling
(16) PLOWING SEASON ON TATTOOINE. The Hollywood Reporter says the dirt is flying — “Disney Breaks Ground on Star Wars Land in California and Florida”.
“In these all-new lands, guests will be transported to a never-before-seen planet inhabited by humanoids, droids and many others,” according to a status update post from Disney.
Disneyland has taken its first steps into a larger world.
On Thursday, the California and Florida theme parks broke ground on their highly anticipated attraction: Star Wars Land.
“In these all-new lands, guests will be transported to a never-before-seen planet inhabited by humanoids, droids and many others,” according to a status update post from Disney. “Star Wars-themed lands will be the largest-ever single-themed land expansions at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort.”
Along with the update, Disney posted a 360-degree photo from the 14-acre construction site at Disneyland.
The opening date for the attractions has yet to be announced.
(17) NOT A BILL THE GALACTIC HERO REFERENCE. A comic book has the answer to this question.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens left us with a lot of burning questions, but one of the more peculiar ones is about C-3PO: Why did he have a red arm? Today in Star Wars Special: C-3PO #1 from Marvel Comics, written by James Robinson with art by Tony Harris, we got the answer in a story that takes place before the events of Force Awakens.
Warning: beware of full spoilers for Star Wars Special: C-3PO #1!
(18) WITH EXTRA ADDED AVATAR. “James Cameron Announces Four ‘Avatar’ Sequels” says a Hollywood Reporter article. Too bad it isn’t five – then it would be okay to laugh…
Fox ended its Thursday CinemaCon presentation with a surprise guest: James Cameron.
He announced that there will be four Avatar sequels, not the three previously planned. “We have decided to embark on a truly massive cinematic process,” he said.
Cameron said as he was planning the three sequels, he found it limiting. “We began to bump up against the limitations for our art form,” he said, explaining that he decided he would need more sequels to tell the whole story.
He said each of the four sequels will be able to stand alone, but will together create a saga. His goal is to release Avatar 2 at Christmas 2018 and the a new film in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
“I’ve been working the last couple of years with a team of four top screenwriters,” he said, “to design the world of Avatar going forward: The characters, the creatures, the environment, the new cultures.”
(19) X BERATED. Not everyone is sanguine about the company’s chance of handling Star Wars with kid gloves – consider the faux“Disney/Pixar’s X-WINGS Movie Trailer” from Big Bee Studio.
What happens when the people who made Cars & Planes get their hands on Star Wars? X-Wings. That’s what happens.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Steven H Silver, David K.M. Klaus, Chip Hitchcock, and JJ for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
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@Jenora Feuer
What can and can’t be a religion in American law is quite broad. As far as free exercise goes, a law of general applicability that is broadly enforced for a public purpose has long been recognized as allowing the government to infringe on your practice, the idea being that it’s a law that is incidentally burdening it. Hobby Lobby changes this – but we’re not quite sure how, and long term whether it will stick. But in general, it’s about practice – how the meat is moving, not the niceties of intention or doctrine.
Many of these cases are much more sad. Muslim inmates who are almost always not white are asking to keep a short beard. They are already keeping a shorter beard than they would otherwise, they just want that last vestige of who they are. And the prisons come down on them, alleging that the inmate could keep a small arsenal in a one inch beard.
Oddly enough, people are often quite silent about those cases – or even saying the state is doing a good thing there.
True, since Pastafarians don’t use an instrument of torture as their predominant icon.
OTOH, they both practice ritual cannibalism, especially during Pastafarian Ramendan…
You prompt me to explore the internal circuitry of my own reaction. I think first of the military — I am conditioned to expecting that people under authority must adhere to restrictions on haircut/mustache/beard. It seems no stretch to accept that people under government authority for another reason, with even more restricted rights, might have to conform their appearance to a set of rules.
I have read about cases where people are trying to get a court to expand their rights in both the military and prison (to wear a beard, for example). I suppose I leave it to the courts, because I am already expected to let the courts govern public expression of my own faith in certain places and contexts. Whether I agree with the court decision or not (spoiler: I don’t always disagree), that’s how the system is set up — the courts adjudicate these collisions of rights and interests.
1) Good Omens
Neil actually wrote a script but it couldn’t be called Good Omens for some odd legal reason. I reviewed The Script as it was called which the now long defunct Hill House Press sent me when they published it in ’04, the same time as the Authors Preferred Text Edition of American Gods that they did.
I think it was around a hundred pages and might’ve made ninety minutes of video, but not six EPs as the BBC might be thinking of. I can’t imagine it being any longer than that.
Ok, just looked at the review. Neil says he wrote it around ’90 or maybe a bit earlier. It, he says, has not a word, line or idea from the novel. I remember it was funny but very little beyond that.
@Sean: the back-and-forth of Good Omens was not due to time zones; it was written before Gaiman moved to the US. The difference came from Gaiman being a night person while Pratchett was a day person.
wrt who wrote what: Gaiman recently said that they originally split character responsibilities, but deliberately swapped partway through (near the end IIRC) so that each character would have both sets of fingerprints on them. I can believe the argument splitting according to style (cf the argument that Kornbluth wrote the more violent parts of the collaborations with Pohl, such as the needle-wielding psycho in The Space Merchants) — except that Gaiman has shown himself to be a master parodist (e.g., a Lafferty pastiche that is neither over- nor underdone), so he could also have come up with absurdist bits.
OTOH, I didn’t think much of the radio adaptation — too many gags, not enough good non-short bits — so the TV may or may not work.
@Mike Glyer
The courts do. Often, the do it quite well. The situations I am referring to are ones where the accommodation being asked is small, similar to the ones that are made for other groups. But it is being asked for by someone who has no line on majority status – neither the majority faith, nor skin color that makes them part of the dominant group. That the rules suddenly become even more strict for them is troubling to me.
Re (1)
This will be great, if it can get to tv in a form like the novel. Big if.
@Mike Glyer
FWIW: military restrictions on facial hair are at least partially derived from safety issues. The Navy experimented with allowing beards again in the 70’s. They found issues with getting consistently good face seals on OBA’s (Oxygen Breathing Apparatus – a type of firefighting breathing system. Different for various reasons from the Scott packs civilian firefighters use). I don’t recall it coming up but I would expect similar issues with gas masks.
Bonus trivia: The Navy is also down on synthetic underwear and require cotton undies for ship crew. Another safety concern. In the USS Stark incident some folks found out what happens when synthetic cloth gets exposed to moderately high heat. The Navy made the rules shortly after.
Whereas my first reaction was that the female equivalent would be not allowing female Muslim inmates to wear hijab or female Orthodox Jewish inmates to wear headcoverings. And one might say “So?” but I confess, I get a bit nervy about “you will conform to the modesty standards we set, even if you consider them immodest.”
Sexual abuse of female inmates is rampant and awful and nowhere even remotely close to being addressed in a reasonable fashion. I can easily see those two facts colliding to create situations where certain female inmates aren’t allowed, oh, bras, say, because supposedly they’re at risk of concealing weapons, or whatever, but primarily because the guards are power-tripping. (And I don’t think that’s getting into total absurdity–I’m not suggesting that prisons are gonna swap miniskirts for orange jumpsuits or anything.)
And I’m only about half joking when I say that denying someone (at least of my build) a bra counts as cruel and unusual punishment.
(For the record, inmates in most facilities are currently allowed non-underwire bras.)
I don’t actually think that anything like this is currently going on, but I can see cases that aren’t terribly far off that get a bit squickier.
@Mike Glyer:
True, although many armies have loosened their restrictions over time (e.g. in Switzerland, where I served). I remember the pictures that went around of Harjit Sajjan, Canada’s minister of defense, demonstrating that in his active service days, the Canadian military was apparently willing to make rather significant accommodations on headgear and facial hair:
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/3632298/thumbs/r-HARJIT-SAJJAN-403xFBcredit.jpg
@StephenfromOttawa
Despite not being a believer anymore, I find that many Mormon founding myths grate harder on my sense of plausibility than mainline Christian myths do. I wonder whether it’s just the passage of time that adds some respectability to religious beliefs.
But even if a religion is commonly accepted as “genuine”, does that mean all of its beliefs are “genuine”? Christianity would certainly qualify as a “genuine religion” by any definition, but when an institution that has covered contraception for years suddenly discovers that doing so is incompatible with its religious beliefs (as happened over the last few years), is that a “genuine belief”? For that matter, is eating fish on Friday a “genuine Christian belief”, despite there being no biblical support for it whatsoever?
Re: Good Omens. I’ve been hearing rumors of it being made into something for so long that at this point, I’m simply not going to believe it till I see it. Still, this does sound fairly promising.
Re: Pastafarianism. There have been several cases in several states where Pastafarians have sued for and won the right to wear colanders on their heads in official photographs (drivers licenses and such), where the general rule is that no headgear is allowed, but there were existing exceptions for religion (Sikhs and such). This ruling seems like a confusing contradiction to those precedents.
That said, I don’t think that Pastafarianism is actually the best test for the boundaries of religious freedom. It is indeed, at its heart, a parody religion. A better test would be Discordianism or the Church of the Subgenius. Both of which leave room for both sincere belief and can serve as parody (without offending true believers, since the religion has room for that).
When I meet a self-proclaimed Pastafarian, I feel safe in assuming that I’m dealing with an atheist trying to make a point. When I meet a self-proclaimed Discordian or Subgenius, I have no idea whether I’m dealing with sincere belief or parody. In fact, I consider myself a Discordian, and I’m not even sure if I’m sincere or not. (Mostly I am, I think, but I’m not convinced it matters.)
Well, that’s a very Discordian attitude to take on it, at least.
Discordianism, as I see it, is pretty much set up to poke at things as much as possible. I mean, really, one of the primary rules is set up to blaspheme several religions in one simple act, including blaspheming against Discordianism itself. That said, you can actually build a moral framework from it. (It would be a rather troll-ish moral framework, and such people are likely to be highly unpopular by people who prefer comfortable delusions, but it could be done.)
@stoic cynic
The Royal Navy allows beards, though you must obtain permission and then show you can grow a respectable set. If things don’t join up you can be told to shave again.
Moustaches are still allowed in in the other arms though, except for certain non-commissioned ranks in some units where full beards are permitted or even expected due to tradition. Pipe or drum major in Scottish infantry regiments for example. Sikhs and Moslems wearing beards have never been an issue either.
In the event of a conflict likely to require NBC kit you might be required to shave a strip to allow a good seal on a breather.
Heather Rose Jones wrote
This. So Much This.
TheYoungPretender wrote
So the argument is that you don’t need a pasta strainer to practice Pastafarianism, therefore the prisoner can’t have one? Wouldn’t the same apply to Christianity, then? You don’t need to wear a crucifix to practice Christianity. Are Christians held to this standard–not allowed crucifixes in prison because they don’t actually need them to practice their religion–or is it just Pastafarians?
I’m not sure I understand this bit–are you saying that some people insincerely profess Christianity, and that is a factor in whether Pastafarians in jail should be denied privileges that Christians in jail receive? Or did some part of that sentence get left out or something?
Ryan H: Yes, the plot of Avatar has been accurately mocked as derivative and light and fluffy. But that’s really the exception for Cameron. This is the guy who brought us Terminator 1&2, Aliens, Titanic, the abyss, true lies etc. He’s not generally known for fluffy plot-less storytelling.
I’ve been trying desperately for 5 minutes now to figure out whether this is sarcasm, and I still don’t know.
I’m not sure who we ended up discussing facial hair, but I never had a problem getting a seal on my EBA (external breathing apparatus) or my SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus, also known as a Scott pack) even while supporting the MWR fund (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) by buying a no-shave chit while underway on the submarine.
More on (11): The judge said it would be equally fake for anyone to read “Stranger in a Strange Land” and create a church. Except someone did, over 50 years ago, and it’s still around. People have been born into it. So, is it fake? Judge is not as informed on the matter as he thinks.
Petrea: Thanks! Not stuff I personally will miss, so it gets the less-than-coveted lurkertype seal of approval.
Joe H: Glad you liked that. I coined it while half-asleep (check the time stamp) so I’m glad it was coherent.
@IanP
That’s where I’m qualifying with partially 🙂 They taught us the beard thing at a US Navy firefighting school. Then again some of the Damage Controlmen (specialists in firefighting, etc) swore they had proved otherwise.
History wise: post-Vietnam the US Navy had bad morale and recruiting problems. Elmo Zumwalt comes in as CNO and starts liberalizing things, including facial hair policies, to reverse the trend. (A related joke: The Navy – two hundred years of tradition, unaltered by progress). The minute he retired the status quo reactionary backlashed and started undoing his reforms.
So there’s room for doubt as to the reason for the beard policy but safety is at least the official reason.
@microtherion: of course, one key issue with Christianity is that it doesn’t actually work in quite the same way as, say, Judaism or Islam. It’s got basically two rules (“love God” and “love your neighbour as yourself”); everything else is, essentially, tradition. Which is one of the key reasons it has survived as well as it has – because it can splinter over tradition without becoming something entirely unrecognisible to the outside observer.
Because it’s tradition that’s responsible for pretty much all the bloodiest disputes there have ever been. You try proposing that e.g. we sit down before the Bible is carried out (perhaps by someone walking backwards) and see how long you last… Religions built wholly on very precise rulebooks have a different sort of struggle that’s easier to comprehend but far more difficult to challenge, especially from within.
@Alexdvl
Sounds like they might have loosened up since I was in. Back then you could only get a no-shave chit for medical reasons. Then again I think subs have always been more accepting of facial hair than surface fleet.
@Cat: You don’t need to wear a crucifix to practice Christianity. Are Christians held to this standard–not allowed crucifixes in prison because they don’t actually need them to practice their religion–or is it just Pastafarians?
So. Much. This!
@stoic cynic
The synthetic fibres point was also shown in the Falklands where the RN had started using more of them in their kit. That got changed quickly.
Does the USN use anti flash hoods and gloves these days? You never see them in media set on American ships but film of British ships at action stations looks like a ninja convention.
Muslim inmates who are almost always not white are asking to keep a short beard.
One of the Muslims I worked with had a beard that was maybe a week’s growth – no more than a quarter-inch long.
@Cat, Robinreid
Pretty much any metal or wood artifact of any kind is banned for prisoners in the United States, for understandable reasons: weapons risk. Rules of general applicability, based on hard experience with materials being turned into weapons. It’s why the clothes are often paper or rag cloth too.
No, no missing sentence at all, I was referring to the wording of the decision. Like most, it’s got a good deal more complexity than the quick article – legal and science journalism share some deplorable weaknesses. To be a religion that needs to be accommodated in that particular – and limited – situation, there need to be enough beliefs and rituals that someone could follow to claim the accommodation for. It’s not a question of sincerity, and neither the decision in (11) or the law refers to the truth or falsity of any religion.
The real point hinges on that Pastafarianism is no more about actual belief in actual noodle past supernatural being than Jon Swift was actually saying the poor should practice cannibalism. It was (and is) a piece of advocacy against the latest dodge to infiltrate religious doctrine into science teaching. Very necessary, but not as applicable to a prison inmate.
Accommodations cases can be a broad gamut – after all, off of /r/atheism or Breitbart or freethoughtblog or the seedier parts of Pathoes, people are rarely assumed to be fakers for being less than 100% consistent to someone else’s straw man. It’s more that there needs to be a basis for that accommodation.
@IanP
I’ve been out since the early 90’s so may be off current practice. When I was in though: yep. At General Quarters (battle stations): Flash hoods, jerseys, gloves, and tuck your pants in your socks / boots. Now that you mention it never have seen that in a movie or TV. Everyone just hangs out in dungarees, coveralls (if it’s a sub movie), or the new bdu type working dress.
Random pop-in to say that the monster in KAGEWANI episode 7 is just about the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.
Original concept? Not really. It’s been done before. But daaaaamn, look at that thing!
(I don’t know if it’s viewable by non-members, but if so it’s only 7 minutes long and you can watch it cold.)
@Nick Mamatas (or anyone else who might know), speaking of Japanese sf/f/h…does anyone know if Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s novel version of Pulse ever got an English translation, and if it did, whether it’s in some meaningful sense available now? Also, any other interesting horror from Japan in English and e-book form I should check out?
@Greg H, you mean April 2016 recommendations, right, not 2015?
Thanks again to you and Eric for doing these.
@TheYoungPretender
I tried to read the decision but the link to it from the article would only show me the first three pages (of sixteen) and then it insisted that I had to download an app to read more, which–got enough apps already, thanks.
I’m still puzzled. How many beliefs and rituals are necessary–is there some cut-off number listed? Do religions of long standing, like Christianity, or Buddhism, have to demonstrate that they meet the requisite number?
Okay so I can understand why they would be worried about metal or wood implements–so does that mean that Christian prisoners aren’t allowed crucifixes? I’d really like to hear that in so many words, because in my neck of the woods prison guards are not just prejudiced but openly and vocally and proudly so, and obviously expect to be admired for it when they tell you how they invite Christian groups to prostletyze and convert in the jail but won’t even allow Muslim *literature* because the sheriff (I am told) says “Here, we work for God.”
But anyway, why couldn’t the guy have a pasta colander made of that paper stuff the rest of his clothes are made from–did anyone ask him if a paper hat with holes punched in it would fill his religious needs? I’ve seen a Pastafarian head-colander that was obviously knitted or crocheted (couldn’t make out enough detail in the photo to say which) so it apparently doesn’t have to be metal.
If they are letting Christian prisoners have religious stuff that isn’t made of wood or metal, but denying it to the Pastafarian guy then that really isn’t equal treatment, and while I wouldn’t mind being able to read the last 13 pages of that ruling, I’m having a hard time seeing how the judge is going to get around that.
I note that yesterday we kicked the crap out of that engineer guy for critiquing a book he hadn’t read.
Dawn Incognito said:
Everything on Crunchyroll is viewable by non-subscribers a week after it’s first posted, though they will have to sit through an ad or two.
Everything on Crunchyroll is viewable by non-subscribers a week after it’s first posted, though they will have to sit through an ad or two.
Or six.
A group at my church gathers used religious periodicals for our prison chaplain to hand out. All staples must be removed. Bibles must be paperbacks only no hardbacks allowed.
Re bras, there was an article last year about women visiting their incarcerated husbands being required to remove their bras before being allowed in the visitation room.
ETA tried to add link but I don’t think it worked.
Or six.
Or the same ad, six times.
In re tradition, I like to say that, as a Southerner, I love tradition so much that I’ll take and axe and a chainsaw to it to keep it healthy. My favorite Southern rock band’s Mike Cooley has this to say on a record coming out in September, just before the election:
John, I love that! Going to check out Mike Cooley now.
I have some great folding silicone colanders. Would this be something a Pastafarian would wear? It wouldn’t make a very good weapon. Just a thought.
@Petréa Mitchell, @Amoxtli, @James Moar:
I brought it up because I know they’ve changed permissions for Canadians so that most content is only watchable in full for subscribers 🙁
I was fine with their ads at first, and watched all of Fate/Zero (content warning: …all of them I think) with them. I remember commercial breaks, so it wasn’t so bad, as long as they were placed properly.
But I had to make a decision when I started watching Poyopoyo, which has two-minute long episodes. Ads before and after each mini-ep? Sure! Inserting two blocks of 30-second ads in the middle of the mini-eps? Nooooooooo.
I perhaps should not have rewarded this with a Premium membership, but I had already discovered Polar Bear Cafe and was kinda hooked.
Well. The american prison system is a failure on an enormous magnitude. Absolutely everything is wrong. I mean the incarceration rate is ridiculous, more than 10 times as high as that of Sweden. The treatment of the prisoners is ridiculous. Turning everything into a industrial complex of cheap labour is ridiculous.
This is just a small thing. It has nothing to do with religion. It is just part of the system of suppression, of dehumanizing, where prisoners are denied personal items, of keeping their identity. It is part and parcel part of the reason why american prisons are more violent than others. It is part of the system of torture that is epidemic in american prisons.
P.S. Ooops, I got really political. Sorry for that.
Hampus Eckerman: If my Glyer ancestors had known Sweden was going to become heaven on earth, I’m sure they’d have stayed instead of emigrating to that nasty evil United States. Or maybe that’s why it became heaven on earth.
@Mike Glyer: There is a theory out there that emigration to America selected for the most obnoxious and violent sorts, leaving Europe comparatively nicer. One of my friends has entertained this theory. I think the theory falls apart given that enough genuinely terrible people were left behind to perpetrate the worst mass slaughters in history between 1914 and 1945, though.
Still, what Hampus says about American prisons is true enough.
Mike:
Well, Sweden used to be more of hell on earth, there is a reason people emigrated. About one fifth(!) of the population moved to the US and this without a war. Says something about how horrible a place Swede must have been. Hard to fault anyone from wanting to move away.
Jim Henley: One-third of the population of Sweden emigrated in the first part of the 19th century — and that doesn’t include my ancestor who moved here just before the Civil War, or the others who followed after. Like many Swedes they became farmers in Minnesota. Your choice whether their cultural legacy is better represented by the stories of Garrison Keillor or John Sandford…
Hampus sez:
Seems to me the general ideas that prison’s primary purpose should be punishment (with rehabilitation secondary at best), and that “bad” people deserve whatever they get, are quite possibly religious in origin.
Mr. Glyer sez:
Since Minnesota farms are not exactly hotbeds of iniquity, I think this might not help your argument. (On the other hand, I’m descended from Finns, so I’m cool with blaming the Swedes for everything.)
They have written about swedish immigrants?
Hampus Eckerman: It was already a dreary day here, so of course you needed to sealion my joke.
You can actually feel it. I really liked it in Minneapolis. There is actually a town not that far away called “Eckerman”. It is on my todo-list to visit it some time.
I don’t get it?
Garrison Keillor is a noted storyteller whose radio show A Prairie Home Companion ran for a number of years on Minnesota Public Radio and included a famous segment about news from Lake Wobegon, a series of gentle and humorous anecdotes set in “a quintessential but fictional Minnesotan small town ‘where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.'”
John Sandford, on the other hand, has written dozens of crime novels. One series follows a detective on the Minneapolis Police Department. A more recent series follows an investigator on the Minnesota state police, whose work takes him to every dark and dangerous corner of the countryside.
Thank you! Both were totally unknown for me before this.