Entertaining Rants and Raves

[The Cid]

Is it in any way accessible to someone who knows next to nothing about baseball?

Yes. The book, however, is very thick with baseball (and math) stuff that would confuse the newcomer. I'd imagine that the basic concepts behind it--more advanced data, a focus on youth, and an on-field philosophy of exploiting weaknesses in the way the game is played at the time--will eventually surface in some way over there.

Or you could resurrect Brian Clough and set him loose wherever. That could always work. (Yeah, that's right, I know a barely passable amount about this sport now. This is almost entirely so I can despise Liverpool and Manchester United properly.)

[FireAza]

'Aza, how long do you think the introductory content of Wall-E could have stood up for? I thought it was an interesting notion, but I doubt you could have made a feature-length movie of him collecting garbage.
I suppose at the end of the day, even the best filmmakers have to kowtow to audience expectation. Your more sophisticated palate is in the minority.

Well, the concept I was thinking of would probably be best suited to a short film (sorta like the film 9), but you could pad it out by still introducing Eve or having Wall-E slowly finding various objects to help him piece together the fact that humanity is gone.

This is kinda where I like the production model often used in Japan, where a film/TV series is largely funded out of pocket by the studio making it, which means they're going to make what they want to see, goddammit (I really couldn't see a film like Mind Game being made under the American system)! Of course, some studios would prefer money, so they shamelessly create something tailored to the hardcore fans who are willing to pay $400 for a boxset. Tsundere character, preferably played by Rie Kugimiya? Check! Loli character? Check! Goth-loli character? Check! Moé elements? Check! Frequent nudity that's heavily censored in the TV airing so you have to pay the absurd price of the boxset in order to see it uncensored? Check!

Yeah, I'm a bitter bastard.

He should be glad, I think, that it was just wacky adventure and cartoony villains. The most popular book currently is a poorly written, incredibly smutty Twilight fan fiction spread out over three so-called "novels", all released within the span of 9 months or so.

I was following you up until you said "Twilight fanfiction", I thought you were talking about the Twilight books themselves Also, there's books that are heavily inspired by Twilight? That sounds positively horrifying!

[collegestudent22]

He should be glad, I think, that it was just wacky adventure and cartoony villains. The most popular book currently is a poorly written, incredibly smutty Twilight fan fiction spread out over three so-called "novels", all released within the span of 9 months or so.

I was following you up until you said "Twilight fanfiction", I thought you were talking about the Twilight books themselves Also, there's books that are heavily inspired by Twilight? That sounds positively horrifying!

The Fifty Shades trilogy was developed from a Twilight fan fiction originally titled Master of the Universe and published episodically on fan-fiction websites. It's basically if you took Twilight, made the writing even worse, added in gratuitous sex for no reason, and then shit these things out a few months apart. It's just sad.

[FireAza]

That's where the Fifty Shades books came from? Judging from the original title, I assume He-Man is in it?

[Rorschach]

I'll check it out, Cid. Although it's going to be tough sell. "Honey, you know you don't like movies about sport? What about an American sport...?".

'Aza, that's where you and I are going to have to disagree. Japanese studios making what they themselves would want to see just results in them making the kind of thing I don't want to watch. Shouty nonsense about giant robots or slutty schoolgirls. Although I have no specific problem with the latter.

[The Cid]

I'll check it out, Cid. Although it's going to be tough sell

Sell it as an Aaron Sorkin thing. Bunch of people in professional attire walking down hallways and speaking at an accelerated pace. Hardly really matters what they're talking about.

[spikegirl7]

Rave: The Once and Future King. BEST BOOK EVER!!! So awesome!!! It's about King Arthur, and it follows him from the time he was 10 or so to his death. It has moments where it is funny, and times when it made me cry, and times when it just kind of rambled (but this is forgivable, since it was supposed to come off as rambling). I think this has taken spot number two on my list of favorite books.

Rant: We the Living. Uck. Just, uck. I'm really trying to get through this, I am. And for me to be having trouble when my favorite book is Fountainhead says something about this. Ms Rand was never a great writer, and this just sort of plods along. Perhaps it's because the setting and people are so foreign to me that I can't appreciate it. Perhaps it's because I find the setting repugnant. Perhaps it's because ms Rand and I have had a falling out. I don't know. But this book.... I wouldn't recomend it.

[FireAza]

'Aza, that's where you and I are going to have to disagree. Japanese studios making what they themselves would want to see just results in them making the kind of thing I don't want to watch. Shouty nonsense about giant robots or slutty schoolgirls. Although I have no specific problem with the latter.

That would be the "shameless tailoring" I mentioned. I'm talking about something with less appeal, something risky, something like Ergo Proxy:
[youtube]oAXrRWLKzko[/youtube]
Granted, that may have been an excuse to post that kick-ass opening theme.

[Deacon]

I'll check it out, Cid. Although it's going to be tough sell. "Honey, you know you don't like movies about sport? What about an American sport...?".

Brad Pitt. What more do you need? Plus, it's not a movie about the sport itself so much as the people themselves trying to make it work, facing the firing squad. It's actually pretty good.

[ampersand]

If Fifty Shades of Grey were some adventure about a girl and her Pantone swatch set, I'd read it. Be much more enjoyable than some male version of The Story of Beauty books by Anne "Rampling" Rice.

[Arres]

Rave: The Once and Future King. BEST BOOK EVER!!! So awesome!!! It's about King Arthur...

It IS a particularly good fantasy book I don't know if you noticed Spike, but this book is where Disney got most of The Sword in the Stone.

[Deacon]

Rant? I've never see The Sword in the Stone.

Based on the title I would expect it to be a direct retelling of the Arthurian legend.

[bagheadinc]

Rant: Steam be stealin mah moneis.

[FireAza]

Of all the times when I stop getting work, it had to be in the last few weeks, when there's the Steam Summer Sale and I'm also toying with how to make SNES reproduction cartridges.

Rant? I've never see The Sword in the Stone.

I have fond memories of watching that movie on a particularly shitty VHS tape (the movie would cut out at a certain point).

[spikegirl7]

Rant? I've never see The Sword in the Stone.

Based on the title I would expect it to be a direct retelling of the Arthurian legend.

It's the first part of the story, about his education by Merlin and pulling the sword out of the stone (although it shows him a bit young at the sword-pulling scene). Really, just read the sword in the stone book in The once and future king and you'll get a good idea of it. Plus the book is more fun than the movie.