Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Support the Goldstone Report!

Published on October 31, 2009 in Thoughts. 2 Comments

This newsletter-type-thing just came in from Jewish Voice for Peace:

Dear Jonas,

Frankly, I’ve had enough of the lies and distortions surrounding the UN Goldstone Report. I’ve had enough of the maneuvering by Israel, the US, and other countries in order to dismiss the report and its authors and bury it altogether.

If you are as dismayed as I am, sign at SupportGoldstone.org, and we’ll let key Israeli officials, members of Congress, and Goldstone himself know how many of you support the report.

What we need, instead of the smear campaigns, is discussion of the report’s substance: the use of phosphorus that literally burned people alive (I saw the terrible impact with my own eyes on a recent trip to Gaza); or the use of metal darts called flechettes that twist when they enter the body; or the long term impacts of contaminated land and water.

Early next week the report heads to the floor of the US Congress and the UN General Assembly, and we’re expecting continued pressure to have this important document roundly dismissed.

The continued attacks on the Goldstone Report prevent accountability for the civilian victims before, during and after the attack on Gaza — both Palestinians and Israelis — and shred the rule of law.

That’s why we are asking you to say: I support the Goldstone Report. Once you sign, we’ll tell you how to easily and quickly lobby Congress and your UN Ambassador in the next few days.

The truth is that the Goldstone Report is a well-researched, fair-minded report. It accuses both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the attack on Gaza, and it calls on Israel and Hamas to conduct credible, independent investigations or face the International Criminal Court.

Israel decided not to cooperate with the investigation and now claims that the report and its results are biased. Worse yet, Israel claims that the report negates its right to defend its population, when in reality, all the report does is insist that such a defense take place within the bounds of international law.

The United States and other countries are repeating the same lines, and have exerted great diplomatic pressure to kill the report.

The US Congress is getting ready to pass a resolution next week calling on President Obama to do everything he can to bury the Goldstone Report. The UN General Assembly will vote on it. Israel might launch its own investigation, if it is pressured enough to do so. And if it does, our task will be to ensure that the investigation is comprehensive, impartial, and aimed towards addressing, punishing and preventing future human rights abused – and not at changing the laws of war such that another blatant assault on civilian life and property as the Gaza war will ever become acceptable under international law.

Please join us in supporting the Goldstone Report now.

Thanks,
Cecilie Surasky
Jewish Voice for Peace

I’d like to ask my readers to take the time and show some support for the Goldstone Report. The situation in Israel is an ongoing travesty of international law and human rights, and every little thing we can do to improve that situation is worth doing. (And yes, before someone starts commenting about the evil anti-Semites criticizing Israel, this comes from a Jewish organization. Because there are good people on all sides.)

Tell me what you love… (Part Four: TV Series)

Published on October 30, 2009 in Film. 3 Comments

This one should be easier. I love TV as a medium, but there’s not that much excellent work floating around.

  1. Babylon 5 (1994-1998)
  2. Firefly (2002-2003)
  3. Rome (2005-2007)
  4. Futurama (1999-????)
  5. Friends (1994-2004)
  6. Star Trek (1966-1969)
  7. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
  8. The Prisoner (1967-1968)
  9. The Twilight Zone (1959-1964)
  10. The Education of Max Bickford (2001-2002)

Some day I hope to add a series of my own to that list…

Search Engine Term of the [Insert Time Period]

Published on October 30, 2009 in Literature and Misc. 1 Comment

I love it when I get hits from really cool search engine terms. It’s rare, but it happens, and I felt I had to share this one:

harold bloom is full of shit

Amen!

Tell me what you love… (Part Three: Films)

Published on October 30, 2009 in Film. 3 Comments

This is almost impossible to do. I have seen a lot of films (there were times when I’d watch two new movies a day), and I have loved many of them. This is even worse than with books. Which is why I will cheat and make the list longer than usual.

This list is not in order of preference.

  1. Moonlight Mile (2002)
  2. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
  3. Last Night (1998)
  4. Almost Famous (2000)
  5. Unbreakable (2000)
  6. Land and Freedom (1995)
  7. The Matrix Reloaded & The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
  8. Dark City (1998)
  9. Sunshine (2007)
  10. Powwow Highway (1989)
  11. Terra (2007)
  12. La Hora Fria (2006)
  13. The Village (2004)
  14. Vanilla Sky (2001)
  15. Apocalypse Now (1979)
  16. Pitch Black (2000)
  17. Fool’s Gold (2008)
  18. Dead Man (1995)
  19. V for Vendetta (2005)
  20. They Live (1998)
  21. Bedazzled (2000)
  22. Donnie Darko (2001)
  23. The Boat That Rocked (2009)
  24. Black Dynamite (2009)
  25. Duck, You Sucker (1971)
  26. The Man Who Sued God (2001)
  27. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) & Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
  28. Wit (2001)
  29. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
  30. Bloody Sunday (2002)
  31. The Mummy Returns (2001)
  32. K-Pax (2001)
  33. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
  34. Mad City (1997)
  35. The Big Kahuna (1999)

Is this list representative? Perhaps. Is it complete? No, absolutely not. I will write a better, more detailed post on this subject when I find the time. But for now, if you haven’t watched any of these films, please do. You’re missing out.

Good news, everyone!

Published on October 28, 2009 in Projects. 8 Comments

Good news, everyone!Today has been a day of excellent progress in Phenomenon 32. I still occasionally build levels that are too big (i.e. that won’t be playable on normal hardware and have to be altered), but I’m very happy with this strange post-apocalyptic world that is coming together. Will I finish the game before the end of October? We’ll see… I do unfortunately have to work today and tomorrow, which will eat some of my time, but it’s not entirely impossible that in two or three days, with the help of the all-powerful Atheismo, the game will be finished. Of course there will still be playtesting and polishing to do, but I’m not too worried about that. Right now I’m quite excited – I’m approaching the last areas of the game, and I’ve been looking forward to those for a while.

And now I have to go teach some people about academic writing. Blargh. At least the company is good.

Oozy Rat in a Sanitary Zoo

Published on October 25, 2009 in Music. 0 Comments

Some things never get old. Especially things of genius.

Back to level-building. We’re getting there.

Tell me what you love… (Part Two: Nonfiction)

Published on October 21, 2009 in Literature. 2 Comments

(You can read part one here.)

The real world is a fascinating place, and a good work of nonfiction can draw me in as much as any novel – if it’s beautifully written and true to the human spirit, that is.

(I have decided to include autobiographies here, though some would argue that they belong with fiction, or in their own category. But I don’t really care, so there.)

So here are ten nonfiction works that have deeply influenced me:

  1. Cosmos, by Carl Sagan
  2. Moab is my Washpot, by Stephen Fry
  3. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
  4. Heretics and Orthodoxy, by G. K. Chesterton
  5. On Fairy-Stories, by J. R. R. Tolkien
  6. Why Socialism?, by Albert Einstein
  7. Malcolm & Martin & America: A Dream or a Nightmare?, by James H. Cone
  8. The Stranger from Paradise: A Biography of William Blake, by G. E. Bentley, Jr.
  9. On Writing, by Stephen King
  10. The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E. B. White

Each and every one of those I heartily recommend. Some of them might change your life.

stross, to (v.)

Published on October 18, 2009 in Film, Literature, Misc and Thoughts. 10 Comments

Everybody has opinions: I have them, you have them. And we are all told from the moment we open our eyes, that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Well, that’s horsepuckey, of course. We are not entitled to our opinions; we are entitled to our informed opinions. Without research, without background, without understanding, it’s nothing. It’s just bibble-babble. It’s like a fart in a wind tunnel, folks.

– Harlan Ellison

Every now and then I realize we don’t have good words for certain concepts or behaviours – but rarely does the chance present itself for the creation of a new word to fit that gap in the language.  But today is such a day! And so I proudly present several new words which you can start using immediately:

to stross (verb)

Etymology: From Charles Stross, writer, who dismissed the entirety of science fiction on television without ever having seen any of it.

  1. To make sweeping judgements about a matter of which one has no knowledge whatsoever.
  2. To defend said judgements by overgeneralizations and arguments that are either untrue or unrelated.
  3. To dismiss works of fiction based on their use of poetic license in matters of physics or other aspects of science, esp. when said works are greatly admired by groups or individuals with considerably greater knowledge of physics or science than the strosser.

Examples:

  1. “It was clear that Bloom had never read one of King’s novels, so he was just strossing.”
  2. “His arguments were so unrelated to actual fact that after a while we came to the conclusion that he hadn’t even bothered to read the Wikipedia entry on the subject, and was actually strossing.”
  3. “He strossed Babylon 5, but the people at NASA were huge fans.”

strossian (adjective)

Etymology: see stross (v.)

  1. Having properties that indicate strossing behaviour.

Example:

  1. “This kind of strossian dismissal of an entire artform can only lead to a suffocation of art and creativity.”

strosser (noun)

Etymology: see stross (v.)

  1. One who strosses regularly.
  2. One currently engaged in strossing behaviour.

Example:

  1. “He says he hates it with a passion and then it turns out he’s never even seen a single episode of it. And he thinks all those other shows are exactly the same, too. He’s a real strosser, I’m telling you.”

I hope you can see the wonderful potential of these words. And the beauty of language is that it can always be expanded: strossful, strosslike, unstrossing, etc. The possibilities are limitless!

Update: It has been pointed out that “to stross” is potentially more elegant if it can also be used with an object, so the third example has been modified. Do feel free to use the word in other forms as well, though: we do not subscribe to a prescriptive understanding of grammar (or dictionaries).

Terry Gilliam, we love you!

Published on October 17, 2009 in Film. 5 Comments

I just saw the trailer for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, one of my most-anticipated films ever, and it’s stunning. This film is going to be awesome, in the literal sense of the word.

Want. See.

(Un)Dead Art

Published on October 16, 2009 in Thoughts. 3 Comments

I’ve been looking through literary magazines lately.

Why, an intelligent reader might ask, would you want to do that? Why would you want to burden your already tired brain with the idiotic pretension and self-congratulatory pseudo-originality, the Lacan-worship and intellectual stagnation of these warty outgrowths of an artistic elite that has lost all vision and direction?

Well, mostly because I sometimes forget just how true the above paragraph is. And because I have a short story that I wrote quite some time ago and would kind of like to get published. And because the “genre” (how I hate that term) magazines would never publish it. Because it would be good for me and good for the story.

But Lord, if I have to look at another incoherent sentence disguised as a poem, or another rambling Frankenstein of self-referential clichés, I think I am going to vomit.