sign of the apocalypse: I’m not dreading a Michael Bay flick

I saw the trailer for Transformers on a big screen for the first time this weekend, at a showing of Pirates of the Caribbean, and the groaning/ giggling reaction of the pumped crowd seemed to agree with me that this looks like the biggest-dumbest-movie-that’s-gonna-be-a-whole-lotta-fun ever made. And a geeky friend who was with me started … more…

slow commenting problem fixed!

Yea! It was an issue related to the anti-spam magic Movable Type has in play. Details and the fix are here, for those of you interested. I stumbled across this only accidentally, so other users of MT facing the same problem may be interested. Anyway, commenting should zip right along now. Let me know if … more…

I love my new widescreen HDTV

I spent a bit of time over the holiday weekend fiddling around with my new widescreen HDTV — it’s this one, if you’re really interested — and now I’m officially in high-def heaven. See, I’ve got supergenerous readers. David C. sent me a box of cables good for hooking up HD goodies, and my friend … more…

please answer my BlogAds reader survey

BlogAds is running a reader-survey program, and it would be immensely helpful if you’d answer the survey questions. I run BlogAds in the top of the the column to your left, and in the center of the column to your right. I love the service for its narrowly targeted ads — these are ads that, … more…

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (review)

If you can stand a devastating indictment of how the Native Americans were thoroughly fucked over by the European settlers on their land, and you can’t bother yourself with Dee Brown’s book of the same name, then this is an excellent, searingly unsentimental second best.

predicting the summer’s sleeper hits

The calendar may think it’s still spring, but the summer movie season got underway with Spider-Man 3 a few weeks ago, and it revs up this weekend with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. And no one needs a crystal ball to predict that those two flicks — as well as Harry Potter 5, … more…

30 years of ‘Star Wars,’ and I feel old, and young

It’s the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. I feel old. I was eight that summer, so I’ll be 38 this summer. Which is better than the alternative (not getting any older at all), but still. Millions of parsecs of virtual ink are being expended on the milestone, and there is much celebrating: tens of thousands … more…