June 2013
33 posts
Sazaedo →
japan-web-magazine.com
would like to go here someday
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas predict ‘massive implosion’ in film industry | The Verge →
theverge.com
“Bigger theaters, with a lot of nice things. Going to the movies is going to cost you 50 bucks, maybe 100. Maybe 150.” It will be more in line with sporting events, with films playing in these high-end cinemas for as long as a year. “And that’s going to be what we call ‘the movie business.’ But everything else is going to look more like cable television on TiVo.”
Later:
Today’s movies are in hotels two weeks after they hit theaters, he said. “There’s going to be eventually day and date with movies” — when films are available on demand at home the same day they hit theaters — “and eventually there’s going to be a price variance. You’re going to have to pay $25 to see the next Iron Man. And you’re probably only going to have to pay $7 to see Lincoln.”
Lucas jumped in: “I think eventually the Lincolns are going to go away and they’re going to be on television.”
Spielberg smiled, saying, “And mine almost was! This close. Ask HBO — this close!”
….I don’t want to pay $50 to see a movie >_> I guess they’re saying it’s going to be like going to the theater or an opera?
Reading over my old translations, I’m struck by how much they need editing for flow and smoothness. There’s quite a road ahead XD
Coetzee’s comments on the current economic crisis are not only wrongheaded but fatuous. Nothing has really happened to the world economy, he writes airily to Auster, other than a change of statistics. It is unlikely that the Bank of England, not to speak of those who have had their homes or livelihoods snatched from them by financial gangsters, would be over-impressed by this argument. Neither, judging from his circumspect reply, is Paul Auster, though he is too respectful of his renowned colleague to say so outright. Mysteriously, Coetzee goes on to suggest that putting this right requires an entirely new economic system, a piece of logic that his correspondent wisely leaves untouched. The truth is that neither man knows anything about economics, and there is no reason why being skilled in handling a metaphor should grant you such insight. Only those who have inherited a belief in the artist as sage, prophet and visionary are likely to feel discomfited by the fact that neither of these bien-pensant liberals has much that is profound or original to say about the body politic. Indeed, Coetzee’s most piercing insight into the subject is to realize that he ought to shut up. “At this point”, he announces, wryly comparing himself to the demented Ezra Pound, “I think I should quit my role as commentator on economic affairs.” Yet why then allow his absurd speculations to be published in the first place? Auster, too, finally concedes that “It is a subject I am ill qualified to talk about”, though not before talking about it rather too much.
[…] Like a good many writers, these two novelists share a predictable distaste for critics. The more eminent the author, the less accustomed he or she usually is to negative comment, and thus the more prickly and thin-skinned when it comes along. Auster remarks of a notoriously abrasive assault on his work by the critic James Wood that it felt like being mugged by a stranger, a simile which those who have been coshed over the head and robbed might well regard as a touch hyperbolic. (How many people are mugged by friends?) The critic, Coetzee grumbles, is “like the child lobbing pebbles at the gorilla in the zoo, knowing that he is protected by the bars”. Apart from being untrue – critics have actually been punched by irate writers, as Auster himself concedes, or savaged by their wrathful responses – the zoo image is unwittingly revealing. Are all critics really infantile, and all writers helpless, lumbering victims of their poisoned shafts? Auster himself isn’t averse to a spot of character assassination, deploring the “arrogance, self-importance, and single-minded, all-consuming vanity” of a deceased friend, though this, admittedly, is for private consumption only.
—Terry Eagleton on ‘Paul Auster and J. M. Coatzee, Letters 2008—2011’
I love Paul Auster, but that is a sick burn!
(read the entire article for full entertainment value, such as the opening line: “It is a Romantic delusion to suppose that writers are likely to have something of interest to say about race relations, nuclear weapons or economic crisis simply by virtue of being writers.”
“No one will be alive by the last book. In fact, they all die in the fifth. The sixth book will be just a thousand-page description of snow blowing across the graves.”
—
George R.R. Martin [when asked if he was going to let any Game of Thrones/Song of Ice and Fire characters live] (via vaginawoolf)
This man is my hero
(via rifa)
I do intend to read the series once he finishes. No idea when that will be though.
What's XIM?
It’s the messaging component of the xkit extension. See http://xkit-extension.tumblr.com/
Tetraphobia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia →
en.wikipedia.org
Fear of the #4. In Japanese, it is pronounced the same as death (although this is not the original Japanese word for four, but the Chinese numeral, imported with the kanji). In Chinese, the pronunciation is similar but not the same. (The superstition also exists in China, but I wonder if it is weaker due to this?)
I wonder if people are still using LJ. I still read a few comms via RSS or directly.
In other news I joined XIM under one of my other tumblrs. (Ask if you want the screenname)
doing the meme for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Gyahhhhh this is unfair. Actually IMO Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure should count as EIGHT DIFFERENT SERIES. (in fact feel free to ask separate parts XD)
Put in the name of a book/anime/movie/manga/tv show/game etc that I’ve seen/read in an Ask and I’ll tell you:
- Favorite Male Character: This is like pulling teeth, honestly. Hold a gun to my head and I guess I will go with Joseph, but Jotaro and Johnny are also up there, as is Rohan.
- Favorite Female Character: Jolyne
- Least Favorite Character: I don’t really have one? Honestly I feel most of the time in a good series I won’t dislike characters enough to feel that I can make a designation. Maybe I should change this in the meme to “best antagonist/villain” If it’s that then it’s obviously Dio, but I also feel that Pucci should be highly rated as well.
- Favorite Ship: TBH, I don’t have one.
- Favorite Friendship: I would have to go with Johnny and Gyro in SBR, and the friendships between Passione in part 5.
- Favorite Book/Season/Part: Tie between SBR and Part 3, with 3rd place going to part 5
- Worst Character Death (if any): ALL OF THEM. Ok, I realize this is cheating (BUT THERE ARE SO MANY, SERIOUSLY THIS QUESTION IS UNFAIR), so I will put this under cut by parts. -_-
- Favorite Location/Setting: TBH after part 2 the settings are all pretty awesome and often road-trip like, I will say that Italy is pretty cool.
- Would I want to live in this world?: The world of Jojo is much like ours, except more dangerous, so no.
- What I would recommend to people who liked it: I don’t know, honestly. Jojo is at once conventional battle shounen in its plots, yet also not. I guess if you want battle shounen I’d say maybe Houshin Engi, but not really at all (just mentioning a shounen series that is cleverer than most and also resolves neatly in a reasonable amount of time). Help me out here, people.
doing the meme for ravages of time
(You can still ask more!)
Put in the name of a book/anime/movie/manga/tv show/game etc that I’ve seen/read in an Ask (go ahead and consult notesonleaves if you like) and I’ll tell you:
- Favorite Male Character: TBH this is hard because the cast is mostly male, and I like most of the major characters. No seriously, I do. I guess I’d say Sima Yi, but also Xun Yu, Jia Xu, and Guo Jia. I am probably doing the meme wrong because that was five people.
- Favorite Female Character: Shan Wuling
- Least Favorite Character: I uh…. don’t really have one. (EDIT: Per my last post, I will change this to best antagonist/villain. Wait, that doesn’t really clarify matters because arguably everyone opposed to Liu Bei is a villain since he does seem to be more virtuous than the others so it might not end up being very different from favorite male character’s result XD However I will just define it as purely people who are opposed to Sima Yi (wait, most people are at one time or another so that doesn’t help much either): No, the only answer is LU BU and also Pang Tong.
- Favorite Ship: Sima Yi/Shan Wuling
- Favorite Friendship: Guo Jia and Jia Xu’s friendship
- Favorite Book/Season/Part: The Xuzhou arc, but the arc where Sun Ce was introduced, the part where it inexplicably became a romance story, the first five volumes, and Pang Tong’s intro also rank highly!
- Worst Character Death (if any): Ahahaha, this is SUCH SPOILERS that I need to put it under a cut.
- Favorite Location/Setting: Well… there’s only one setting, really, China. Early ancient China (pre-Zhou, Zhou, Warring States, Han, Three Kingdoms) is one of my favorite settings.
- Would I want to live in this world?: Absolutely not. Just how many people died during this period?
- What I would recommend to people who liked it: This is a hard question. Obvious Romance of the Three Kingdoms itself, and the better historical fiction about that period. If what you like about it is the maybe… characterization and attitude, I’d say in some ways Shiba Ryoutarou’s Sekigahara is sort of like that (I’m talking about how the author takes each character seriously, sort of). But on the whole… if you know, tell me, actually!
no one will probably do this, so feel free to submit multiple things
Put in the name of a book/anime/movie/manga/tv show/game etc that I’ve seen/read in an Ask and I’ll tell you:
- Favorite Male Character
- Favorite Female Character
- Least Favorite Character
- Favorite Ship
- Favorite Friendship
- Favorite Book/Season/Part
- Worst Character Death (if any)
- Favorite Location/Setting
- Would I want to live in this world?
- What I would recommend to people who liked it.
