updated
Nov 19 @ 11am CST
by Laurel Krahn
laurel@windowseat.org
Minneapolis, MN
AIM: lakrahn
ICQ: 509473

Weblogging since November 1998
Media . Tech . Science Fiction . Art . Humor . Books . Music . Film . TV . Toys . Net . MN . Culture

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X-Review

I knew what jason was talking about when he said:

I got into a car accident with Ariana. No one was hurt, but it was a bummer.

'cuz I'd already visited nubbin today and I know that jason knows Ariana in real life as well as online. But for a split-second, I still had the image of webloggers literally running into each other.

I'm imagining that I'd be, for whatever reason, in a car travelling with Raphael and perhaps Bruce when we'd have a fender bender with Jason and Ariana. Perhaps caused by Lileks zipping by in The Defiant. Ahem. Small world? You're soaking in it.

Not that I wish such accidents on anyone and I'm glad jason and ariana are okay and think it sucks that they were in an accident no matter how rockstar (ahem) it might be.

Charles Taylor reviews the new Bond flick and makes some astute comments re the problems with recent Bond films:

Somewhere along the way the people behind the series stopped thinking of Bond movies as comic books for adults and began thinking of them as action movies. The sex and luxury quotient started taking a nosedive as the destructo quotient headed through the roof.

It's true. I've enjoyed Pierce Brosnan as Bond immensely, but I've a soft spot for Brosnan. I've enjoyed the films, but they really have been more action films than . . . Bond films. I'm sure I'll like The World Is Not Enough, but how much will I like it? Will be interesting to see how it compares to something as lush as the recent remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. It had the luxury and a woman who held her own with the male lead (and then some).

Ah well, I'm not expecting On Her Majesty's Secret Service when I see this film. 'Tis a pity. But I'm glad I enjoy some gaudy action flicks or I'd be as disappointed as Charles Taylor.

I like this comment, too:

I think I counted one vodka martini going down Bond's gullet in this movie, and he downs it fast, as if he's racing to catch a bus.

(Oh yeah, if you check out this review, it's worth checking out the related links from Charles Taylor. At least two of 'em appeared in my weblog when they were originally published his review of The Thomas Crowne Affair and his review of On Her Majesty's Secret Service).

With new episodes of The X-Files to see, it's time to check back in with X-Review-- home of fab reviews of episodes written by fans, of course.

Who Would You Kill . . . on a given TV show?

Cool! There's a new album out by Luka Bloom (via Looka!). Further investigation is required. Goodness, it's his first album in 5 years if my math is right (and there wasn't a non-major label release in there someplace). Fine folk-rock stuff from Christy Moore's brother.

Wow, folks with (IMHO) good taste have been buying the new Luka Bloom album. From amazon's page for the album:

Customers who bought titles by Luka Bloom also bought titles by these artists:
- Christy Moore
- Billy Bragg
- Greg Brown
- Richard Shindell

Peter Krause ("Casey" from Sports Night -- he was also born and raised in Minnesota in case any Midwesterners care) is on Celebrity Jeopardy on Friday, November 19th. Check your local listings. (I'm kicking myself for not watching the other episodes this week-- they had an interesting lineup of celebs including Andy Richter and S. Epatha Merkerson and Jon Stewart).

"For a guy who's read The Hobbit fourteen times, you're not so dumb." - Dana to Jeremy, "Thespis" episode of Sports Night

Upset that ABC has pulled Sports Night for the month of November (sweeps)? Don't just sit there. Write to ABC:

netaudr@abc.com

Stu Bloomberg
Chairman
ABC Entertainment
2040 Avenue of the Stars
Los Angeles, CA 90067-4785

SPORTS NIGHT
c/o Touchstone Television
500 S. Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521

Experiencing Sports Night withdrawal? Read some scripts and transcripts, listen to the amazing Neil Finn album that includes the song "She Will Have Her Way," write to ABC, watch some tapes of old episodes (if you have any), watch Peter Krause on Celebrity Jeopardy, read some fanfic . . .

One of the things I miss most about working @ startribune.com in downtown Minneapolis? Frequent lunches @ Sawatdee.

A certain friend of mine (whose initials may or may not be H.K.^*) is nagging me to visit Austin, Texas for the Butt-Numb-A-Thon. Ahem. (Actually, he's nagging me to move to Austin, but That Ain't Gonna Happen, my friend). I've never been to Austin and December seems like as good of time as any. Assuming I can save up some $ and find a cheap flight. If anyone has advice on places to go, places to stay, things to do, etc or will be in Austin and wants to meet-- do email me. If I can't manage it in December, I hope to make SXSW or otherwise get there Someday . . .

* it's not name-dropping, it's initial-dropping. I guess.

Harry Knowles writes about the 25 new additions to the National Film Registry. I'm most thrilled about Duck Amuck being preserved, but then that's me. Many fine choices. Still so many other movies that need to be preserved. Sigh. But I agree with Harry re most of 'em. Well, I'm less excited about zombie movies than he is.

I haven't had a chance to try out any of the spiff-looking products from esgear, but they look . . . um . . . spiff. Ahem. Alas, no Mac version (I'm a neo-MacGeek all of a sudden). Little programs to make your browsing experience more enjoyable if you're using IE or Netscape on a Windoze machine. (But does it work with Opera? I miss Opera so much when I'm using a Mac, though iCab is pretty cool. And Netscape 4.51 is alright.

My fine friend Sean McGuire works at esgear (that's how I heard of it).

Jon Singer is now keeping a sorta-journal-thing. You either know Jon Singer or you know someone who knows him. This is most certainly true.

My two favorite Mac utilities thus far are LiteSwitch and Look Mom, No Hands!. A couple of readers suggested LiteSwitch . . . I don't have the emails handy so can't thank them by name (yet). Love it. I found Look Mom myself and I'm sure glad I did. No more having to hit ye olde control key when I click with the mouse. I've stopped missing the right mouse button, for the most part.

Filming has started on the Homicide: Life on the Street reunion movie. Oh, to be in Baltimore . . .

If you're a fan of the series, you should really check out The Links site every day or so. Lotsa news these days. Go there to see recent interviews with Andre Braugher and Jon Polito re Homicide. Also the latest articles about the move of Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit from Mondays to Friday nights at 9pm CST (i.e. Homicide's old slot). Munch is back where he belongs. Well, sorta. Pity SVU isn't a better show, though it sounds like things are improving bit by bit.

And, of course, things are jumpin' in alt.tv.homicide. I've not read the group for a month or more, now I'm struggling to catch up. Enjoying it, though.

If you want a taste of what the newsgroup is like, you should visit Dave Locke's cool HLotS: The Deja Files. And also these taste of ATH pages from Jason Lempka's Homicide site.

And, of course, the Links Site has many FAQs and everything else Homicide related you could ever want.

The deadline for early (i.e. cheap) registration for Minicon 35 was November 15th. If you haven't yet mailed your registration form and check, do it NOW. Or, if you're in the Mpls area, you can still register at the Minicon meeting this Saturday at 1pm at Dreamhaven Books (912 West Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN) or at the Minn-stf meeting/party Saturday afternoon and evening-- location still TBA (?). Check the Minn-stf Hotline for details (assuming it's updated sometime soon) at 612-824-5559.

Also-- kinda related since Gaiman has been known to attend Minicon and we hold our Minicon meetings at Dreamhaven . . .
Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano will be autographing the new Sandman book @ Dreamhaven Books on Saturday, November 20th at 4pm. If you can't be there (or want to avoid the lines/crowd), you can order autographed copies of the book from Dreamhaven.

Oh yeah . . . in case y'all are wondering what Minicon is and why you should care . . . it's a large science fiction convention held each Easter weekend in Minneapolis. This year will be the 35th Minicon (and my 11th Minicon). It's April 21-23 at the Minneapolis Hilton and Towers. Details on the aforementioned webpage. If you've got more questions, feel free to email me, too. It is, basically, a weekend-long party with friends (some you haven't met yet) who enjoy science fiction of some kind or another. Music! Parties! Games! Programming! Discussion! Huckster's Room! Art Show! etc. etc. etc.

Our guests this year are all really cool. Maureen McHugh writes great novels and short stories, she also has a fabulous webpage. Lenny Bailes is a longtime fan, a fine musician, a writer of computer books, and he's been active on The Well for ages. And John Berkey is an amazing artist who has done cover art for books, has done movie posters for such things as (ahem) Star Wars, and has been in the biz for 30+ years. I'm still amazed that we're the first convention to honor Lenny Bailes and John Berkey as Fan GoH and Artist GoH respectively as they've each been contributing to sf fandom for so many years.

New issue of Bruce Schneier's Crypto-Gram is available from Counterpane.

(Hmm, this link is related, too. Since Bruce Schneier attends Minicon, co-wrote last year's amazing Minicon Restaurant guide, and has been on programming at Minicon).

In case anyone's wondering, these days I'm working at Colorhouse where I work with many of the folks who have personal websites at radparker.com. Including my spiff office-mate and noted Spamfighter around town-- Al Iverson.

I'm not doing web stuff for the first time in ages . . . I'm working with their archive systems, writing documentation, doing Mac support, and a bunch of other things. The usual jack of all trades type o' gig. Seems like a good place to work with a spiff group of people. And it's close to where I live which is nice.

Terry Steinbach retires. It's surely time, he was the oldest catcher playing in the majors last year. Much as I grumbled about his performance (or lack thereof) as a hitter for the Twins, he was a fine player and seems like a genuinely nice guy. And more power to him for finishing his career with his hometown ballclub-- a club desperately in need of a mature catcher to work with young players-- especially the young pitchers.

You can also listen to his retirement announcement.

The Happy Hacking Cradle lets you use any regular old PS/2 keyboard with your Palm Pilot and it has a serial port on the back so you can use your modem as you type, too. Fab.

Panic Software claims to be creating "Macintosh Software That Rocks" and I've gotta say, so far, I think they're right. As in, they aren't just bragging using a cute slogan. I adore their FTP Client called Transmit. I quite like Audion-- their app that plays CDs, MP3s, and streaming music from the good ol' internet. And LinkPad is darn handy for keeping track of, well, links like these.

Hey everybody . . . I've not forgotten about the weblog-- honest! But I've been busy adjusting to a new schedule. And I'm making plans for a redesign and restructuring.

What plans? Well, I'm going to split the TV content off into it's own weblog. Why? 'Cuz I'm tired of the non-TV related picks getting lost in the shuffle here. I'm also weary of hearing from friends who gave up on reading the weblog 'cuz they were tired of wading through the heavy-TV content. What do you think? There'll be linking between the two logs, of course. And the TV Picks will be closely tied to the TV weblog, too (or even on the same page, I'm still figuring that out).

It's hard to believe I've been doing this weblog for a year now. And the TV Picks for 8 months or more. 'Course I don't think it's that big of a deal that I've had a webpage since 1993 so why the fuss over a year of weblogging? Probably 'cuz I've managed to update fairly often. Well, except for the past month or two. Ahem. Restructuring will help me update more frequently, too. Really!

Anyway. I do this 'cuz I enjoy it, but it also means the world to me when I receive feedback from readers. Are you still out there? What do you like? What don't you like? What can I improve? Do you have any links to suggest? Any design ideas? Preferred fonts or colors? I don't promise to use all ideas, of course-- but I do read all email and I try to respond to it all. And if I use a link or an idea, I'll give you thanks and credit on the pages. Undying gratitude? Something like that.

I hope those of you reading this will stick around. And I thank you profusely for sticking with me thus far (even if this is only your first or second or third visit). I hope to draw some folks back who may have dropped me from their rounds due to sporadic updates or for other reasons. But mostly, I wanna tell you guys about the Cool Stuff I read and see and hear. And what's on my mind. I could rush off and do a bunch of epinions, but I'd prefer to post my thoughts here, I guess. Still not sure how I feel about the epinion stuff. One would think someone like myself who loves recommending and reviewing stuff would be all over it, but . . . that's kinda what this log is for. But I digress (shocking, eh?). I suspect once I get rolling again on the weblog, I'll be posting and babbling and linking a lot-- I've missed it. And I've missed you, constant reader, whoever and wherever you are.

Got suggestions? Comments? Let me know what you think would improve this page. Don't hesitate, just write. Feedback keeps me going. I read all feedback and do my best to respond with, at the very least, a thank you. If you'd like to email or snail mail me cool stuff (for this weblog or not), I'd love that.

This page created and maintained by Laurel Krahn who can be reached via email to laurel@windowseat.org.

Copyright ©1999 Laurel Krahn unless otherwise noted. May not be redistributed without permission.