Writing and Stuff by Anthony Chatfield

Whoever said robots don’t have hearts…or lungs:

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I understand that Harry Potter is essentially the biggest literary event since the first Bible rolled of Guteburg’s press in 1430, but I have yet to understand or come to terms with the shear amount of energy some people put into caring about their favorite little wizard. I understand that some books can be compelling, but the ravenous enegy with which millions have devoured every little detail is impressive if nothing else.

So, when J.K. Rowling announced that Dumbledore was gay, I was slightly amused at how much of a big deal it seems to have become. First off, it’s a book. Since when do authors come out and explain to their readers the motivations and sexual orientations of their characters. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s awesome that Dumbledore was gay – it adds yet another layer of flippancy to the Christian right that has so thoroughly denounced the books because they promoted witchcraft and the like. What better way to preach tolerance than make one of the most likable and interesting characters in the series gay.

I just thought it was amusing how many people have taken up detailed conversations about the gay old wizard. Yes, Dumbledore is gay, but how does that have any effect on how you read the book (unless, of course you’re Pat Robertson…then, well, who knows what horrible plots his repressed mind is cooking up already).

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I am a huge fan of Kelly’s surrealistically twisted Donnie Darko. The theatrical cut was a trippy revelation in High School and he uncut edition a brilliant addition to my collection in college. It looks like Kelly’s new film, Southland Tales, is finally about to be released. It looks incredibly odd, complete with The Rock, Sean William Scott, and Sarah Michelle Gellar….the whole early 2000′s, B-movie crowd in one film – it looks interestingly trippy though and quite possibly as though the casting was a great big joke…which could be fun all by itself. November 9 looks to be the date on which we’ll all find out if this stunningly weird hodgepodge actually works. I hope so.  Here’s a link to the trailer.

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A lot of people have done this, but I watched gave a little bit of help as my friend at Librocrat made a t-shirt commemorating the tasing of Andrew Meyer, the erstwhile prankster from the University of Flordia.  You can find them here.

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This is a cool story, not only because I believe Barry Bonds is the worst thing to happen to baseball since Pete Rose and the 1996 strike. That 756th homerun baseball he hit last month was put up for auction by the lucky bastard who caught it. Apparently, the appraisal on the ball would have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax bills for the owner, a 21 year old who clearly can’t pay that much money. So, he auctioned it off and brought it over $700,000 – not bad for a $15 ticket to the ball game.

The winner of the Barry Bonds baseball was Mark Ecko, the clothing designer and cultural prankster. Most people who pay that much money for a piece of Americana would probably keep the ball or donate it to the Hall of Fame, right? Well, Ecko had a better idea. He’s putting the fate of the ball in the hands of everyone who feels like voting, giving them three choices.

First, they can choose to have the ball donated to the hall of fame – that being the boring, obvious answer.

Second, they can choose to have the ball branded with a giant astrix, marking the big fat cheater that is Barry Bonds and the drain on baseball that he’s created with his false record.

Third, voters can have the ball blasted into outerspace on a rocket (I’m not making this up) and obliterated from Earth forever.

I chose the second one, if only because I’m of the opinion that a shameful reminder of his cheating is better than simply destroying it – though that rocket launch would probably be damn fun to watch.

My own opinions of Barry Bonds and his quasi-historic home run blast aside, it is kind of funny that Ecko would pay over $700,000 for a baseball just to ruin or destroy it. More than likely it will end up in the hall of fame, but I can dream at least. You can vote on your own at Vote756.com.

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This isn’t partiuclarly related to the world of freelance writing, but as an avid technophile, it interests me nonetheless. It’s no real shock that the tech world has a mild orgasm every year when September and October roll around and the new products are announced, released and drooled over by anyone with dreams of great  big Christmas credit card bills in their future.

Apple announced this week that an entirely new line of iPods is being released by Christmas. It’s not a surprise as Apple tends to upgrade the iPod line annually, just in time for technophiles everywhere to throw out their old “last year’s” model and get the bigger, stronger, faster model. It’s an annual tradition in many households and has served to make Apple billions of dollars. This year is slightly different though, as this is also the year in which Apple released its much touted iPhone, essentially a half-baked telephone installed on an incredibly cool iPod for $499.

What this means though is that those individuals who have been seeking the next best technology but without the bloated service contracts and poor telephone service can now buy a new iPod Touch (as they’re cleverly calling it) for only $299. Additionally, you can purchase a larger 16GB model for a $100 more.

The classic models are stretching their wings a little as well and now come in sizes up to a whopping 160GB, more portable capacity than any “legally” buying music connoisseur could ever need. If enough space for 40,000 songs isn’t enough, throw a few hundred videos on there and you’ll be set for as long a trip as you could possibly take.

You’ve got to love the folks over at Apple. Even as I sit here knowing that they’re manipulating the dollars out of my wallet carefully, I look at these slick new pictures and start counting how many projects I need to finish to buy one.

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Good Riddens

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After digging up the pseudo Creed blog from The Office – a nice little peek into twisted mind of the weird guy with the raw potato, I’ve been on the lookout for some great new Office mashups with reality. It’s not quite the same thing, but Mindy Kaling, the incredible actress who plays Kelly and oft times writer on the show, has a blog of her own at http://mindyephron.blogspot.com that is something worth checking out. Look for her posts in particular (she has a few contributors). Drop me the links if you find any other good Office blogs.

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I’m not one to take issue with anyone else’s religion, but when a science fiction author floats around the ocean on his boat and pens some random jibber jabber about space aliens, ghosts, and thetans, on a bet, and decides much later in his life that actually believes the BS he just wrote, I can’t help but be a bit cynical (along with nearly everyone else in the world) about the horridly humerous seriousness of Crusie and Co.

Anyways, here’s the deal. Cracked has a little write up about the top 10 scientologists you might not know are scientologists. It leaves out all of the major ones, the Cruises and Travoltas. A couple surprises, a couple of duhs, and one funny revelation.

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I saw this post over at Scarecrow yesterday, talking about how little money they make off of their obscure films that so obsessively collect. This is one of the reasons I spend so much of my time there and love the place so much. Granted, the employees can be a bit off at times, but they have almost 100,000 movies and hundreds of obscure random stuff if I’m ever in the mood to be particularly goofy on a movie night.  Check out below for a short review of Scarecrow I wrote for a local hotel blog a few weeks back.

Even if you’re just stopping by the city for a couple of days, one of the most interesting, diverse places you can visit is Scarecrow Video in the University District, on Roosevelt off of 52nd. The “world’s largest video store” is a testament to all things film lovers.

Upon first entering you’ll find the outside windows littered with posters and advertisements for the upcoming films and festivals in the area (of which there are many). The inside wall is lined with films for sale and if you turn around an entire alcove is devoted to old movies being sold. The counter is as long as the store and in glass cases you’ll find old rare films, Criterion DVDs and behind them all shelves full of imports and rarities.

Now it’s time to look at the collection. The bottom floor consists of three things. You’ve got a wall that wraps around the entire bottom floor filled with world cinema offerings separated alphabetically by country. From Algeria to Korea, Britain to South Africa, if a country’s made a film, it’s probably on that wall. On the other side of that wall is a zig zag labyrinth of director’s alphabetically separated and given their own space if they’ve become eponymous enough to deserve it. The greats of world cinema, shock cinema, and just plain Hollywood gold line these shelves with every offering a given director has ever made (if it’s possible to own it).

The corners are filled with new releases, thousands of new releases which include the actual new releases out hollywood as well as any new film they’ve just imported from another country, television shows fresh to DVD or an old film just now being released. The possibilities are endless and I’ve spent more than a couple hours just looking through the new releases, which are shuffled out and reset weekly as every week sees a huge chunk of new films coming in.

Upstairs is your genre rooms. Adventure, Action, Comedy – the usuals are there. But you’ll also find literary adaptations for all you Shakespeare buffs, an entire alcove of music on film, with rock operas, actual operas and video collections. There’s an animation room, mostly filled with anime, as well as some world wide offerings from other master animators. There’s a science fiction and horror section chock full of the old films you never thought you’d find on dvd, and in the far corner even a fairly well stocked adults only section.

Scarecrow boasts almost 100,000 titles in their catalog, and I wonder if it’s much bigger than that, though there’s absolutely no room left in that building to house any more movies. It’s literally bursting at the seams, and if you’re even a casual movie fan, you owe it to yourself to stop in and see a collection that world famous directors have stood in awe of.

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