Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Jonathan and Martha Kent in Man of Steel. You can’t cast Kevin Costner in your movie, put him on a farm, and not expect your audiences to think of Field of Dreams. You can’t put him next to a box of Green Giant frozen niblets without that happening. First time he walks by a cornfield every other adult in the theater’s hearing in their heads “If you build it, he will come.” The question is how aware was Zack Snyder that that's the case? I can’t tell from Man of Steel or Snyder's filmography... Continue reading

Some of you may have received email from "me" that wasn't from me. The subject heading is Re: Lance Mannion. Dont open it! If you do, don't click on the link inside! My email account was hacked. I'm sorry about that. It's under control now. By the way, if you're ever wondering about any messages from me. I'm usually more creative in my subject headings, I don't send blind links, and I never end a note by giving people my "best regards", although all of you really do have my best regards. Continue reading

The “real” Lois wouldn’t need the villains to make a stupid, illogical, and entirely unnecessary decision that amounts to their saying to each other, “Hey, let’s drag along this character we’ve got zero interest in just so she’ll be in a position to fuck up our evil plans when the time comes.” The “real” Lois would just stow away. Continue reading

Superupdate below. Director Zack Snyder has apparently only just spotted the Jesus parallels in the Superman myth. I’d have thought he’d have had this all figured out by the time he was done filming Watchmen. At any rate, he’s very excited by it, which is fine and it’s nice of him to want to share. But… While a few eight year olds might not have had this dawn on them yet, to most everybody else in America this is very old news and besides, Superman was created by a couple of teenage science fiction and action-adventure fans who also happened... Continue reading

Christopher Lloyd (right) as the corrupt and drunken but wise in his lunatic fashion judge Azdak, prepares to deliver one of his signature logically twisted verdicts while his dim but faithful bailiff (Tim Riis Farrell) looks on as if it all makes perfect sense in Classic Stage Company’s Chekhovian---think Star Trek not The Three Sisters---production of Bertholt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle. I wonder how much longer Soviet Era Boris and Natasha-We Inwented It First Russian accents will be funny. Long enough for Classic Stage Company’s production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle to complete its run, that’s for certain, which... Continue reading

You probably heard this story in history class in high school, how in the days of Roman conquest, Julius Caesar’s army entered a barbarian kingdom and early one morning Caesar sent one of his generals to the barbarian king’s camp to demand their surrender? The barbarian king laughed. The general warned the king not to underestimate the Romans. We are very tough, he said. How tough? said the king smiling. The general looked around. It was a chilly morning and there was a fire burning in a brazier by the king’s chair. The general strode up to the brazier and... Continue reading

Nope. Maybe, but only because of the movie. Nope. Nope. Case can be made. No one has ever finished reading this one, ever. Not even the most devout members of the cult. Nope. Pull the other one. I suppose. The way Stranger in a Strange Land used to be essential. For the first two years after it was published , at any rate, or you would have been laughed at at certain parties and not admitted to some writers workshops. As for the shortlist, only the Harry Potter books. 10 Essential Books from the Last 25 Years. Continue reading

If Happy Birthday does return to the public domain, being in a restaurant on somebody’s birthday is going to be a lot less annoying. From the New York Times: Birthday Song’s Copyright Leads to a Lawsuit for the Ages Continue reading

It says something about how deeply into my head Daniel Day-Lewis’ portrayal of Lincoln has lodged itself that I hear this actual quote from a letter Lincoln wrote trying to explain an unpopular decision in the voice Day-Lewis used in the movie: “Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wiley agitator who induces him to desert?” But I think it also says something yet again about the beauty and magic of Day-Lewis’ performance in that he managed to capture the cadences of the voice behind that letter and the... Continue reading

“ I've said this before but conservatives often perceive liberal attachment to diversity as a kind of "everyone's a winner" cuddle party, where we sit around exchanging rice-cakes and hating on the military. But the great strength of diversity is it forces you into a room with people who have experiences very different from your own. It's all fine and good to laugh at Sherrod Brown dancing to Jay-Z. But dude is outside his lane and he's learning something. M.C. Rove should be so lucky. If you are not around people who will look at you like you are crazy... Continue reading

Thriving Microbe Community Lives Beneath Seafloor “ Beneath the seafloor lives a vast and diverse array of microbes, chomping on carbon that constantly rains down from above and is continually buried by a never-ending downpour of debris — some whale dung here, some dea… ” Read the rest of Douglas Main’s story here. Photo via Yahoo News courtesy of Joseph Russell of the University of Delaware. “The Joides Resolution heads to sea from the Azores to drill sediments on IODP Expedition 339 offshore Peru. Most of the Earth's organic carbon is stored in seafloor sediments.” Continue reading

Some road trip: Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), Lt Uhura (Zoe Saldana), and First Officer Spock (Zachary Quinto) are reminded that life aboard a Federation starship isn’t all skittles and Romulan ale when they chase an intergalactic terrorist to a supposedly uninhabited Klingon moon in one of the exciting chapters in J.J. Abrams’ Saturday morning movie serial-like Star Trek Into Darkness. J.J.Abrams, the director of Star Trek Into Darkness and Hollywood’s new go-to guy for re-booting Gen Xer’s childhoods now that he has in his hands both the Trek and the Star Wars franchises, has notoriously admitted to never... Continue reading

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Iron Man beside himself: Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark feels less than invincible as he contemplates what else he is without his suit of armor besides a genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist, and wonders if he’s up to that job in Iron Man 3. Maybe it’s the painkillers talking, but I’m about to write a review of Iron Man 3 arguing it’s a two hour commentary on Pixar’s The Incredibles. This isn’t a joke. After all, The Incredibles is one of the best superhero movies ever made, right up there with Spider-Man 2, Batman Begins, and the original Iron... Continue reading

Save you the trouble of counting. That’s 2,131 books you’re about to watch knock each other over in the process of breaking the record for the world’s longest book domino chain. This was arranged by the Seattle Public Library to kick of their summer reading program. The whole story, by Nick Davies of Melville House Books, is here. Now…5…4…3…2…1…go! Image courtesy Melville House. Continue reading

Tuesday. June 4, 2013. Four-twenty AM and I've been up for an hour already, writing! It's almost as if this is what I do. I'm in full on Hemingway mode here. Weathered khakis. Tattered shirt. Bare feet. White beard. Bad back. If only it was closer to dawn and I was in my boat just off Havana, having come aboard after a night drinking at La Floridita or Sloppy Joe's. ___________________________ Reminds me. From last summer. Book you should read. Hemingway’s Boat. Photo courtesy John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Continue reading

Thursday night. May 23, 2013. Whenever I pass by a restaurant, I’m always jealous of the people sitting at a window table, especially when their faces are lit only by the candles on the table. Continue reading

Thursday afternoon. May 23, 2013. Flicker swooped out from a tree by the roadside as I was driving along. Thought he was aiming at my windshield, but he turned in plenty of time, flying straight on ahead of me as though we’d planned to meet up and now he was going to guide me on home. Continue reading

January 19, 2013. Rafts and rafts of Canada Geese on the river this morning. Noisy birds but when the sun strikes them and their white breasts gleam, they’re beautiful to behold. Continue reading