15 in 15

This is something I got tagged for on Facebook. Since I’m feeling lazy, I figured I would just port it over here for today’s post. I’m not tagging anybody here but feel free to leave a comment about any particular album or song that sticks with you.

Review: “The Brothers Bloom”

So this weekend I saw “The Brothers Bloom”, a caper movie along the lines of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, only with a little more jaundice. I say “I” saw it because my wife was not around for it, which means I can’t say how long it took her to fall asleep, so I’ll just have to estimate it instead.

Random Acceptance: The Edge, “Singletrack”

So of course writing isn’t ALL rejection letters. At least, one hopes it isn’t. Case in point: One of my favorite short stories, “Singletrack”, which appeared in Greg Gifune’s magazine “The Edge”. And as a special yummy treat for those who have been knocking around the Internet as long as I have, please note the Geocities URL in the letter.

The Early Years: Jim Thinks The President Gives A Crap That He Likes School

From the “I’m Chevy Chase And You’re Not” Department:

Scene-Of-The-Month: “Father’s Books”

The results are in and we have a new winner for Scene of the Month: Father’s Books, another of my unpublished horror novels. Although (unlike perennial winner The Wolf) this one is finished, I’ve decided to stick with doing the scenes in order; and because the first scene is so short, I’ve decided to include two of them.

Review: “Inception”

So this weekend we went to see “Inception”, the new trippy mind-bender from trippy-mind-bender-specializing director Christopher Nolan. If you think “Dark City” meets “Matrix” meets “What Dreams May Come” meets “The Spy Who Loved Me”, you won’t be far off. (But don’t think “Dreamscape”. Aside from involving dreams, the films are nothing alike.)

Crosspost: stuf frum japan wot isnt elektroniks!!!

Because I’m feeling lazy, and because Planet Ross is a frequent reader/commenter here, I thought I would cross-post Dennis the Vizsla‘s article about the book Ross sent him from Japan. As you can see, Dennis is a great connoisseur of literature, and also has friends in high places.

The Early Years: Jim Shares Too Much Information

When I was a kid we took regular trips to nearby attractions, “nearby” meaning “The Northeast and Atlantic Seaboard”. One of our favorite destinations was Washington, D.C., home of (at the time) very clean subways, some parks, the Smithsonian, and an unusual concentration of memorial sites. Oh also there are a lot of lobbyists there. But when I wrote this letter to my grandmother, I had bigger things on my mind than stuff like that.

Scene-Of-The-Month: “The Wolf”

The votes are in and the winner for the next Scene of the Month is (surprise!) The Wolf. Now I know I’ve been teasing everyone with promises of more werewolf mayhem; there isn’t any in this particular scene, but in the very next one after this, the fun really begins. I’m not sayin’ you have to vote for The Wolf; I’m just sayin’.

Review: “Thank You For Smoking”, AKA “The Insider’s Evil Twin, Skippy”

So last week I finally got around to watching “Thank You For Smoking“, the satirical 2005 film about the tobacco industry and its efforts to lobby Congress and the public about its products. Not being familiar with the source material, I at first didn’t realize that it was set before the massive settlements between cigarette companies and the government; once that became apparent, I kept waiting for Russell Crowe to appear in the background to leak secret industry documents to intrepid reporters. Instead Aaron Eckhart (in a great performance that manages to make his smooth lobbyist character, Nick Naylor, not come across as smarmy) sleeps with an intrepid reporter, but that’s okay, too.