Monday, November 15, 2004

Jeff Jarvis: "I discovered that the latest big fine by the FCC against a TV network -- a record $1.2 million against Fox for its 'sexually suggestive' Married by America -- was brought about by a mere three people who actually composed letters of complaint. Yes, just three people." Jeff also has a tip for other bloggers: "You, too, can report on government through Freedom of Information Act requests. It is incredibly easy. And it is your right." 3:16:15 PM    comment []

Another review: Quicksilver, by Neal Stephenson. Parts were great, the rest was good, but it felt overlong, and the characters Jack and Eliza were sometimes too cartoonish for such a weighty tale. Like America Shaftoe in Stephenson's earlier book, Cryptonomicon, Eliza is more of a man's fantasy of a woman than a real woman, which as a man I found entertaining but as a reader I found tiresome in a key character in a thousand-page novel. Quicksilver is not by itself a work to equal the profound Cryptonomicon, to which it is a kind of prequel in both theme (the nature and value of information) and dramatis personae (various Waterhouses and Shaftoes), but there was much (almost too much) plot and action, and it was interesting enough to draw me into the rest of Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, of which it is the first volume, so maybe in a couple of thousand more pages I'll be satisfied. 3:12:15 PM    comment []

The Incredibles was a movie that I really liked but didn't like quite so much as I thought I might after hearing how much other people liked it. It was great. It was smart and funny and exciting. I'll enjoy watching the DVD several times with the kids. But it didn't blow me away. The first Toy Story, now, that just floored me. It was so original, both visually and in the depth of characterization attained by its animated stars. The Incredibles was great to look at, but it's a refinement, not a revolution, in Pixar magic. The story was clever, but not wildly original. I know not to believe the hype, I know not to read reviews of movies I might see, but it was unavoidable, all those headlines saying some variation of "Incredibles lives up to its name." All of which is my problem, not the movie's problem. I should just relax and eat my popcorn and be grateful for a damn good movie, especially with so many bad ones out there. But I can't. This is my curse. 2:47:00 PM    comment []

Global Guerrillas: "Fallujah is a TAZ. A temporary autonomous zone that is being used by global guerrillas for regional operations.  It isn't a central hub of the insurgency, because there isn't any central hub." 8:48:53 AM    comment []

Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser says of the ACC regular season championship under the new sked: "There will always be a question mark. There will always be that cloud." (Washington Post league preview, via ACC Hoops Blog.) 8:36:21 AM    comment []

Audio conversation with Richard Florida of Creative Class fame. 8:25:40 AM    comment []

Jay Ovittore is having problems with his new N&R subscription. I must say that the delivery folks do an incredible job of getting the paper out in all kinds of weather, and I'd guess they will get Jay squared away before too long. To me the big news isn't a few kinks in a new service -- it's that there are still readers so eager to get a newspaper in their driveway. 8:10:29 AM    comment []

I expected any negative reaction to yesterday's column -- about the battle for control of the GOP agenda by religious conservatives -- to amount to defenses of the socially-conservative position. That may still come, but so far the dissent has been in emails like this one from a reader in High Point: "No republican is saying anything about morality or religion, as you state in your column.  Only you and your democratic friends are pushing that agenda." I guess I should be gratified that some people rely on my column as their sole source of information about politics. But in case you need a little background, you might read this and this, and also this warning to his fellow Republicans from religious conservative Hugh Hewitt: "Beginning a new era with a purge is simply the worst possible politics, a self-inflicted wound, and one the consequences of which could be far reaching and awful." 8:00:53 AM    comment []