IT'S THE DAY BEFORE HUMP DAY WHADIJA BUUUUY

[TakingBackSunday]

Never read it, going to sometime in the next week.

[EvilBoris]

 toothfloss $3.45
 

[Bloodwake]

If I can scrounge up the money:

[Mupepe]

bought it yesterday, but fuck you guys...

[Eric P]

From Publishers Weekly
In this expertly paced debut thriller from Irish author Black (the pseudonym of Booker Prize–winner John Banville), pathologist Garret Quirke uncovers a web of corruption in 1950s Dublin surrounding the death in childbirth of a young maid, Christine Falls. Quirke is pulled into the case when he confronts his stepbrother, physician Malachy Griffin, who's altering Christine's file at the city morgue. Soon it appears the entire establishment is in denial over Christine's mysterious demise and in a conspiracy that recalls the classic film Chinatown. And the deeper Quirke delves into the mystery, the more it seems to implicate his own family and the Catholic church. At the start, the novel has the spare melancholy of early James Joyce, describing a Dublin of private clubs, Merrion Square townhouses and the occasional horse-drawn cart; as the plot heats up and the action shifts to Boston, Mass., it becomes more of a standard detective story. Though Black makes an occasional American cultural blooper, he keeps divulging surprises to the last page so that the reader is simultaneously shocked and satisfied. Author tour. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Eel O'Brian]

[bud]

a bottle of water

[TVC15]

No There Will Be Blood on BD?  It's like since they won the format war, Sony's said "okay studios, you can stop supporting this format now."

[Mr. Gundam]

That, or Paramount is just being a little bitch and refusing to release Blu-rays after siding with HD-DVD.

[Eric P]

i was just reading this list

http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/50socialist/full/

and came across this and i HAD TO HAVE IT

     
Holding a spot in science fiction/fantasy legend as 'the book that was meant to be bad', Norman Spinrad's "The Iron Dream" is a thought provoking look humanity's violent impulses and the dark side of bad pulp writing. The concept is simple enough: Adolf Hitler, dismissing the nascent Nazi Party as a bunch of beer hall debaters, leaves Munich for The United States in 1919. He scrapes by as an illustrator and fanzine editor for several years before switching to science fiction novels. "The Iron Dream" purports to be his last work, dashed off in a mere six weeks before he died in 1953.

As an exercise in tedious, repetitive action and sledgehammer philosophy, "The Iron Dream" makes its point in bold strokes. We follow protagonist Feric Jagger as he travels to his homeland of Heldon, the only genetically untainted homeland in a world otherwise overrun with foul mutants. Musing on the importance of genetic purity in almost every paragraph, Feric forms a motorcycle gang into 'the Knights of the Swastika' and marches off to dominate first Heldon, then the world. The second half of the book unfolds as an orgy of violence, as Feric's forces slash, smash, and blast their way through massive armies of mutants under the sway of the mind-controlling Dominators of Zind.

Through this exaggerated take on pulp SF, Spinrad makes us look the aspects of our genre that many may wish to deny. For sure, a lot of crap science fiction and fantasy has featured unbridled bloodlust and unsublte promotion of a philosophy not far from fascism. For all that, though, one might be tempted to say that Spinrad went too far, and that surely not even the dumbest fan would be tricked by something so absurd. This would be wrong. Not only did much pulp nonsense from the 50's and 60's actually reflect such idealogy, but so does some stuff getting published today. Anyone who's had the misfortune to come across books by Terry Goodkind or Robert Newcomb, for instance, knows how those authors hew uncomfortably close to the faux Hitler's celebration of fascism, genocide, and ultraviolent misogyny. (Interestingly Goodkind and Newcomb also duplicate the lesser details of "The Iron Dream", such as the hilarious abuse of phallic symbols and the creepy obsession with boots and skin-tight black leather for both genders. Perhaps Spinrad should consider a plagarism lawsuit.)

The book's crown jewel is an afterword by a stuffy academic. Homer Whipple of New York University offers biographical details (Hitler suffered from syhpilis late in life), saucy gossip (he was known as something of a Don Juan at science fiction conventions), fan reactions (the fanciful costumes he described in the book are now favorites at costume parties), historical background (the fall of Germany to the communists in 1939 remained a sore point throughout Hitler's life), and much more. Having decided to write the book, Spinrad milked the concept for everything it was worth. For instance, the inside cover urges us to enjoy another list of fine SF classics by Adolf Hitler. It starts with inoccuous titles like "Emperor of the Asteroids", but then moves to more sinister titles such as "The Master Race" and "The Thousand Year Rule". How many SF authors have begun their careers with harmless pulp adventure, but swamped their later works with barrels of dsitrubing personal philosophy?

"The Iron Dream" is not perfect. As Ursula K. Leguin remarked in a review, it could have been quite a bit shorter. But though not a great novel, it is an important novel. Regrettably it is out of print now, but if you spot a copy floaitng around in your local used book store or at a garage sale, snap it up.

[TVC15]

Man, There Will Be Blood has the worst packaging ever.

[Eric P]

how so?

[MrAngryFace]

[Mr. Gundam]

Took the piggy bank over to Coinstar and got $32 on a Circuit City giftcard. UGG was only $12, so I've got $20 left to blow on something else.

Gurumin showed up in the mail today.

[Smooth Groove]

(Image removed from quote.)

This could be a cover for this year's Presidential electoin. 

[Mupepe]

I decided on picking this up after work...

[Flannel Boy]

(Image removed from quote.)

This could be a cover for this year's Presidential electoin. 

But Matlock isn't old enough, the black guy isn't white enough, and the woman isn't haggard looking enough.

[AdmiralViscen]

Walk Hard.

[Bloodwake]

No There Will Be Blood on BD?  It's like since they won the format war, Sony's said "okay studios, you can stop supporting this format now."

You have no idea how pissed I am to see the film with unquestionably the best cinematography of 2007 in standard definition because there's no Blu-Ray or HD DVD release.

[Mr. Gundam]

No There Will Be Blood on BD?  It's like since they won the format war, Sony's said "okay studios, you can stop supporting this format now."

You have no idea how pissed I am to see the film with unquestionably the best cinematography of 2007 in standard definition because there's no Blu-Ray or HD DVD release.

Blu-ray is coming supposedly in June or July...

[Bloodwake]

No There Will Be Blood on BD?  It's like since they won the format war, Sony's said "okay studios, you can stop supporting this format now."

You have no idea how pissed I am to see the film with unquestionably the best cinematography of 2007 in standard definition because there's no Blu-Ray or HD DVD release.

Blu-ray is coming supposedly in June or July...

Damn, I might wait then. I don't know.

[MrAngryFace]

WELCOME TO LAZY HD

[TVC15]

how so?

The standard edition is like a piece of thin cardboard folded in half.  The deluxe edition is made of several sheets of cheap cardboard.  The packaging quality is worse than those paper and plastic cases you see on cheapie releases.

[CurseoftheGods]

I decided on picking this up after work...

http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/03/vf5_xbox_360.jpg

BEST FIGHTING GAME EVER.

[drew]

BEST FIGHTING GAME EVER.

Except it takes so much effort to do it right, what with the sticks and all.  The days of kicking back with your friends and SFII are long gone.   :'(

[Eric P]

how so?

The standard edition is like a piece of thin cardboard folded in half.  The deluxe edition is made of several sheets of cheap cardboard.  The packaging quality is worse than those paper and plastic cases you see on cheapie releases.

oh

could be worse

have you seen the "green" packaging for The 11th Hour?



it looks really flimsy

[CajoleJuice]

No There Will Be Blood on BD?  It's like since they won the format war, Sony's said "okay studios, you can stop supporting this format now."

You have no idea how pissed I am to see the film with unquestionably the best cinematography of 2007 in standard definition because there's no Blu-Ray or HD DVD release.

I thought The Assassination of Jesse James was released on BD?

[TVC15]

how so?

The standard edition is like a piece of thin cardboard folded in half.  The deluxe edition is made of several sheets of cheap cardboard.  The packaging quality is worse than those paper and plastic cases you see on cheapie releases.

oh

could be worse

have you seen the "green" packaging for The 11th Hour?

(Image removed from quote.)

it looks really flimsy

Is that the same packaging as Al Gore's propaganda film?  If so, it probably actually is worse.

[Madrun Badrun]

The government surprised me today with a gift of $70, so I'ma going to buy something. 

[drohne]

u g+g

best portable game ever...though bangaioh spirits is eyeing its throne

my dual cock 3 came in the mail today. i'll probably play some gt5 prologue to test it out.

WOW

MY CONTROLLER IS VIBRATING LIKE A PAGER

IN SOME CRUDE CORRESPONDENCE TO THE ONSCREEN ACTION

FUTURE AM NOW

[Smooth Groove]

u g+g

best portable game ever...though bangaioh spirits is eyeing its throne

my dual cock 3 came in the mail today. i'll probably play some gt5 prologue to test it out.

WOW

MY CONTROLLER IS VIBRATING LIKE A PAGER

IN SOME CRUDE CORRESPONDENCE TO THE ONSCREEN ACTION

FUTURE AM NOW

You bought the Euro version of GT5:P?

[drohne]

japanese version, back in november i think

[Mr. Gundam]

u g+g

best portable game ever...though bangaioh spirits is eyeing its throne

It's only $12.99 at Circuit City this week, so I had to get it.

Pink Godzilla has Bangaioh Spirits in stock, I've been eyeing it. How similar is it to the Dreamcast version?

[drohne]

it's pretty different from the dreamcast version -- it has 160 levels, most of them tiny, that are often about solving a kind of puzzle or executing some weird strategy. there's some of the dc version's explosive twitch madness too. it actually might be better than the dc version -- the level design is brilliant

[Mupepe]

BEST FIGHTING GAME EVER.

Except it takes so much effort to do it right, what with the sticks and all.  The days of kicking back with your friends and SFII are long gone.   :'(

So I noticed.  Goddamn, I am terrible.  I'm using the dojo to learn the shit but I always fuck up the ones with pluses.  Does that mean you do them at the same time?  right?  because it's kicking my ass and won't do the thing to tell me I did it right