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Some interesting lists from listsofnote.com

26/7/2012

 
  • Henry Miller's 11 Commandments for Writers
  • Fumblerules of Grammar
  • Hemingway's Favourite Books*
  • The Eight Kinds of Drunkenness
  • For Characters Who Don't Dig Jive Talk

And one other:
  • Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge's Taxonomy

* I've read three of them.

My favourite episodes of Red Dwarf*

24/7/2012

 
_Series One
  • Future Echoes (4)**
  • Waiting for God (37)
Series Two
  • Thanks for the Memory (3)
  • Queeg (8)
  • Parallel Universe (35)***
Series Three
  • Marooned (5)
  • The Last Day (23)
Series Four
  • White Hole (7)
Series Five****
  • Quarantine (11)
  • Demons & Angels (24)
Series Six
  • Psirens (22)
  • Gunmen of the Apocalypse (12)
Series Seven and Eight and Back to Earth*****

* In broadcast order, with Ganymede.tv's rating out of 52 episodes (Series 1-8) in parentheses.
** This is classic Red Dwarf in that it is a sublime mix of comedy and science fiction, with a human heart at its core. It also has amazing special effects, which contrast to the slicker, but soulless and unimaginative CGI of later episodes.
*** My guilty pleasure episode, but still I think the ideas are sound - not of parallel universes as such, but of gender politics. OK, they're not great, but they're interesting. Plus I always love episodes of shows where characters get drunk together!
**** That's right, no Back to Reality. It's a great episode and I like it a lot but had never taped it from the TV therefore it hasn't grown on me like the others have.
***** There are no good episodes after Series Six.

Things that people in Hong Kong will stand and watch #6

17/7/2012

 
Picture
Karaoke competitions in shopping malls.

SF novels and stories that follow the title format "The [something] Man"

14/7/2012

 
Picture
  • The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov [s+c]
  • The Clockwork Man by William Jablonsky [n]
  • The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester [n]
  • The Female Man by Joanna Russ [n]
  • The Golden Man by Philip K Dick [s+c]
  • The Illuminated Man by JG Ballard [s]
  • The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury [c]
  • The Imitation Man by John Hargrave [n]
  • The Impossible Man by JG Ballard [s+c]
  • The Invisible Man by HG Wells [n]
  • The Last Man by Mary Shelley [n]
  • The Modular Man by Roger Macbride Allen [n]
  • The Overloaded Man by JG Ballard [s+c]
  • The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson* [n]
  • The Subliminal Man by JG Ballard [s]
  • The Unteleported Man by Philip K Dick [n+s]
  • The Variable Man by Philip K Dick** [s+c]

n = novel
s = story
c = collection

* The film version was retitled "The Incredible Shrinking Man" - and it is an excellent film.
** Philip K Dick also wrote the novels The Man in the High Castle, The Man Who Japed and The Man Whose Teeth Were All Exactly Alike, which almost fit the format, but not quite.

Things that I like about Johnny Depp

12/7/2012

 
Picture
  • He is a great actor, with a very high ratio of hits to misses.
  • He was friends with Hunter S Thompson* and Marlon Brando. He is also acquainted with Bob Dylan.
  • He takes salary cuts for excellent (but under-funded) directors**.
  • He chooses excellent roles.

  • He is an excellent painter***.
  • He is a guitarist****.
  • He not only shrugged off Ricky Gervais' attempts to embarrass him at the Golden Globes, he totally buried him with the single line: "Oh boy, he's fun."
  • He has been in some of my favourite ever films, including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Edward Scissorhands.
  • His production company, Infinitum Nihil, not only funds cool films that would otherwise struggle to get distributed, but it also has a imprint which does the same thing with books - including Woody Guthrie's "lost" novel, House of Earth.
  • His "Inside the Actor's Studio" interview was amazing.
* Who was also friends with Jack Nicholson.
** Like Terry Gilliam.
*** See the Alice in Wonderland bluray, for example.
**** And I heard he actually made Keith Richard's guitar for his pirates cameo.

Films set in the future that we have caught up with*

5/7/2012

 
  • 12 Monkeys (1996/2035)
  • Escape from New York (1997)
  • Predator 2 (1997)
  • Terminator II: Judgment Day (1997)**
  • 2001: A Space Odyssey
  • Transformers: The Movie (2005)***
  • Death Race (2012)

Also, some films we've not quite caught up with yet:
Escape from L.A. (takes place in 2013)
Back to the Future Part II (in which they go forward to 2015)
Blade Runner (November, 2019)
2046 (2046)
Minority Report (2054)

And one episode of Ren & Stimpy that we're unlikely to catch up with:
'Space Madness' - takes place in "the amazing year 400 billion!"

* Or "...with which we have caught up", not actually preferable as it still ends with a preposition, and every good writer knows that's not something you should end a sentence with.
** Judgment Day was, according to Sarah Connor's opening voiceover, going to happen on 29 August, 1997; at least, that was going to be Judgment Day before we're told that it didn't actually happen then in Terminator 3 (which we've also caught up with, as it takes place in 2004). Also, a lot seem to happen in 1997 for some reason.
*** "It is the year 2005, and the Decepticons are now in control of Cybertron..." How far in the future that seemed in 1986!

Some Quiet Verse, Loud Chorus Songs

1/7/2012

 
  • Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
  • Song 2 by Blur
  • Bullet With Butterfly Wings by Smashing Pumpkins
  • Tame by The Pixies
  • My Own Summer (Shove It) by Deftones

And some other good ones that don't quite make the cut, having not-so-quiet verses or not-so-loud chorsuses:
Rape Me by Nirvana (only the final chorus is truly "loud")
Creep by Radiohead (the singing in the choruses is too gentle)
Whish Fulfilment by Sonic Youth (they're not that kind of band)
Self Esteem by Offspring (the verses are too loud, plus no words in the choruses)
Hitchin' A Ride by Green Day (not enough distinction between verses and choruses musically - having the same chords - and most choruses have no words)

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