Paul: I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Me: Did you like it? Paul: Well, it was fairly well-written. And I’m glad a horror book won a Pulitzer. But you get to the end and — nothing happens. Me: That’s how you can tell it’s literary.Continue Reading
I’m posting this because if, like me, you’ve gotten out of the habit of watching The Simpsons in realtime, you probably missed this episode, which I found pretty delightful. It did several things that I have missed in more recent years. For one thing, it actually has a B storyContinue Reading
Really, I just wanted to make sure the "vampires" tag keeps pace with the "religion" tag. Tanya Huff ( on LiveJournal) was guest of hono(u)r at V-Con, so, after liking her on panels, I bought a book of hers in the dealers’ room (Blood Bank) and read it. It wasContinue Reading
The very first scene of The Vampire Diaries pilot showed a lot of promise, because it’s actually a horror scene. Country road! Night! Fog that comes out of nowhere! Raven! Then the boyfriend disappears out of the frame, up. When vampires can fly, I hate actually seeing them fly, becauseContinue Reading
For a while I thought I wanted to do a complete, detailed, Left-Behind-style smackdown of Twilight, but then I decided that I already read the darned thing once, I didn’t want to read it again. Anyway, I thought it would be corrosive to my soul to spend so much timeContinue Reading
So, last night I was complaining about Twilight. I reached a point in the novel (which, you ought to know, I am reading for science!), around page 300, where things started to be particularly tough going. I’m not sure why this is the part where it’s become such a choreContinue Reading
Dear Stephanie Meyer, I have finished the first seven chapters of your novel Twilight and I think it has potential but needs a lot of work. On the plus side, I find your situation intriguing, and there are glimmers of decent writing throughout. On the other hand, I find yourContinue Reading
I previously saw one episode from the middle of the first season, and found it interesting but kind of oddly B-movie-ish. That is, it had a lot of bloody, sexy energy but people said and did ridiculous things and were prone to overacting.Continue Reading
I only recently saw a link to this article from a few months ago, On Campus, Vampires Are Besting the Beats. His premise: when this one chick went to college back in 1969 (based on her memory, anyway) everybody she knew was reading stuff like Soul on Ice by EldridgeContinue Reading
In writing up "Doppelgangland," I mentioned "Something Blue" as another instance of Buffy characters saying things about themselves which they clearly want to believe are true which are not, in fact, actually true.Continue Reading
Saw Star Trek over the weekend and was pleasantly surprised. It’s simply a good time at the movies — funny, fast-moving, occasionally touching, and full of life. My expectations were not high after the dismal double-whammy of Nemesis and Enterprise managed to suck the last tiny spark of vitality outContinue Reading
April is national poetry month, so I thought I would talk about poetry. And then I didn’t finish this while it was still April. Anyway, for those of you who don’t actually want to read about poetry, my gluteal injury seems to be healing and my butt is significantly lessContinue Reading
I followed "The Wish," as I often do, with "Doppelgangland". This episode is from later in season three, and it’s a direct follow-up to "The Wish." We meet Anya the (ex) vengeance demon again, and, oh yeah, Evil Vampire Willow makes another appearance. In fact, she gets a lot moreContinue Reading