Sad news about more regurgitated retreads. A four ‘page’ store from ABC News on sequelitis in Hollywood, throwing in the opening tidbit that Sylvester Stallone’s last three movies all were Direct to DVD dreck like Avenging Angelo, Shade and D-Tox (originally titled Eye On You). A far cry from inspiring Henry Winkler’s Fonzie in The Lords of Flatbush, and the original “Rocky” and “Rambo” movies. Old Sly is far from alone, as in the bottom-line corner, weighing in at there-must-be-profits-here-somewhere, we find planned sequels to Die Hard, Terminator, Basic Instinct and Indiana Jones. Now three of these are “IV,” and Basic Instinct only looks ahead to number two, but come on. Hasn’t the story in each case been told enough? Move on to something new. There’s still great original unfilmed books out there, but we see are sequels and re-makes. How about Probability Broach, the movie? Or The Stress of Her Regard? Two very different yet quite worthy ideas, and the latter even has vampires! As always, the lure of money trumps any statement by former stars to never appear in sequels. And enough people will rent or buy the DVDs to make them profitable, so get ready for a whole host of remakes and sequels for a very long time.

Wendy McElroy shuts down one forum and launches another, broader forum. Some of the topics of interest include “Entertainment,” which is sure to bring up books and movies related to liberty.

Via Liberty and Power.
An enticing obituary of Ba Jin, dead at the age of 100, who once wrote “Never for a moment will I put down my pen. It is kindling a fire within me.” Taking his name from Bakunin and Kropotkin, Ba Jin fell victim to the Cultural Revolution, of which he said, “Where else have authors in the world throughout history gone through something so terrifying and ridiculous, so bizarre and agonizing?” There’s a ripe history barely hinted at in this article, that I hope some modern Chinese anarchists will pick up and publish.

J. Neil Schulman Thomas M. Sipos have started blog based on the log-running Karl Hess Club dinner discussions (see link to the right on this page). So far the most interesting post (in my opinion) dealt with copyright.

Under the premise of finding something good to say about the worst movies ever made, Brad Linaweaver penned 17 entries under the column name “Der Krapp.” Now online at Big Lizards, this is sure to feed some Netflix queues. Or not.

Scott Bieser posts hot news about L. Neil Smith and Rex F. May’s new novel, Roswell, Texas, to be published as a graphic novel as web-installments, and possibly a print version if there’s enough market demand. The premise certainly is enticing…

Imagine a world in which Texas never joined the United States, NAZI Germany conquered England but was held in check by a nuclear-armed Irish Republican Army, the Catholic Church has moved its headquarters to Brownsville, Texas, and Mexico is ruled by a neo-Aztec emperor in partnership with French colonial bureaucrats-in-exile.

In this Texas-that-might-have-been, residents are required to have permits not to carry firearms. The Federated States of Texas includes most of what we know as New Mexico and Colorado, as well as Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Missouri. Not to mention Alaska, Cuba, Venezuela, most of Central America, and the Phillippines. Its currency is based on petroleum, and its limited government is financed entirely by a monopoly on garbage collection.

And in 1947, Texican President Charles A. Lindbergh was faced with a most amazing, and potentially world-changing, situation — reports of a flying saucer crash in far west Texas, near the town of Roswell.

NY Times reports on the effort to “recalibrate” comic book heroes like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman for “a grittier century.” Damn, and I thought the last century was gritty. What do they know that we don’t?

Wally Conger mentioned recently at his blog, out of step, news about Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars novels coming to the big screen. I grew up reading ERB’s books on Tarzan, Venus, Mars, and Pellucidar, lending credence to the statement that the Golden Age of science fiction is twelve. (Personally, the Pellucidar novels were my favorites, under the Ace imprint from the 1970s.) I am somewhat leery of this cinematic effort, though. One fascinating tidbit I take away from director Jon Favreau’s interview linked at out of step is the fact it’s taken 75 years to get this close, and the script isn’t even ready yet! Much easier for Tarzan, which arrived in cinemas almost before the print dried.

An interesting choice for this year’s Nobel Prize. I was not aware of Harold Pinter’s poetry as much as his plays, nor his recent political stance against the Iraq Invasion. Julian Sanchez over at Reason Hit and Run seems more amused by the fact that Pinter was born in Hackney, although this bio mentions Pinter’s recent anti-war book of poetry, as well as this interesting quote: “Pinter’s early fascination with politics was also evident in The Hothouse (1980), a bilious black comedy set in a state-run hospital in which nonconformists are classified as mental patients. Written in 1958, it was never publicly performed till 1980.” In a subsequent sentence, however, it just seems like Pinter copies Henrik Ibsen’s play, The Wild Duck, in discussing The Caretaker, which is “about power and pipe dreams: about the desire for domination and about the human need for illusions.” The Nobel Price tends to result in an upsurge of sales for the winner, and often puzzlement at the selection by critics. Earlier this week the Nobel Prize for literature received another type of attention when a judge denounced last year’s selection and quit the panel.

UPDATE: Just read a comment over at Libertarian Samizdata calling Pinter an apologist for Slobodan Milosevic, “Europe’s most prolific socialist mass murderer since Joseph Stalin.” Pinter else has been ridiculed as a “Champagne Socialist” and hypocrite for declining a knighthood by a conservative government and accepting state honors from a social democractic one. Perhaps this award is a good thing after all, as it will shine the light of truth on its recipients.

Can’t help myself. This is too damn funny. (But don’t click unless you’ve seen the movie.)