I wonder how many LiveJournal posts will contain this XKCD cartoon today?
I received confirmation today from editor Danel Olson that my essay “The Genius Fallacy: The Shining’s ‘Hidden’ Meanings” will appear in The Shining: Studies in the Horror Film, which will be published by Centipede Press in late 2015. This is a somewhat more in depth and slightly less flippant take on the various conspiracy theories surrounding the movies, including but not limited to those featured in Room 237, about which I wrote an essay for FEARnet last year.
After reviewing all the royalty statements I received for the eBook of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: 8 Secondary Characters from The Dark Tower Series, I was pleased (amazed, really) to discover that we’ve sold over 1200 copies of this thing. I hadn’t been keeping track, but I’m impressed.
We saw The Other Woman this weekend. Had the urge to go to the pub near the theater for a pint and see something, and this was all the choice we had. It was actually pretty funny and only slightly raunchy. I’m generally not a big fan of Cameron Diaz, but she was okay in this one. Almost the straight woman to Leslie Mann, who I’ve never even heard of before. She plays hysterical mania as well as I’ve ever seen. Kate Upton doesn’t have a big future in acting, but she was perfect for the part she was given. I thought more of the film would be about the three women’s reprisals, but that’s all saved for the end. It’s way over the top and ludicrous, but we laughed a lot.
Saw the trailer for a forthcoming Seth MacFarlane film called A Million Ways to Die in the West, which looks absolutely hilarious.
I got my wife hooked on The Americans, so we’ve been screaming through the first season to get her caught up. It’s almost amusing the way these Cold War spies have to juggle all the problems of family life—relationship issues, kids—with their covert activities. You interrogate this dying kidnapped FBI agent. I have to go home to get supper for the kids.
Only two more episodes of The Blacklist left for the first season. I wonder how they’re going to leave it at the end—resolved or with a cliffhanger.
The Mentalist is on the ropes from a ratings point of view. People seem to be drifting away from it now that the Red John story has been wrapped up and they can use different colors in the episode titles. The story has shifted to Austin and jettisoned Grace and Rigsby (although the background shots are showing a lot more mountains than you’ll ever see near Austin), and added a love interest for Lisbon. Predictions are that the show will be canceled, but the producers are looking for another home for it if that happens.
