The Middle of the Dark

Tomorrow is Irish Fest in Waterloo. Neil Gaiman is writing a 2 part Batman story for the comic series next year. Apparently it will bridge the gap between the current R.I.P. storyline, which I'm lost with, and the future of the character, which seems destined to be different than the status quo. The only thing cooler than this is if they found water on Mars. Oh, yeah. Water exists on Mars. Also, liquid (not water) is flowing freely on Titan , Saturn's enigmatic moon.

Season 5 of Project Runway just got WAY less interesting for me. Okay, so the dress didn't really work. But why must they always cut the cute ones? Sigh. I think I liked her so much because she reminds of two friends who have somehow been genetically spliced together in a seamless, beautiful fashion. Auf wiedersehen Emily.

So given the Dark Knight's insane run at the box office (the 'will it beat Titanic?' murmurs have begun) it's inevitable there will be a third. The big question is who the big bad will be. It seems from the film they intended for Heath Ledger to reprise the Joker in some capacity next time around, but as we all know, that will (probably) not be the case. Geoff Boucher writes an open letter in the LA Times today to Chris Nolan offering some advice. Some of it is good. By process of elimination, he id's Catwoman as the only logical choice. I agree with this. Harley Quinn might make some sense if they attempt to follow the Joker thread (recasting just doesn't seem proper), but of all the Batman's rogues, she is the most sensible in Nolan's realistic concept of the character. However, Boucher's choice of actress (I'll let you click the link to see) doesn't do anything for me. Not that she's a bad actress, but what Catwoman needs, lik...

SPOILERS follow for 'The Dark Knight' Right now there are a lot of hyperbolic reviews and commentary swirling around The Dark Knight, and specifically Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker, to the extent that you wonder how any film could possibly live up those kind of expectations. This movie does. You're never left wondering how, or why; it is grand cinema, from artists in their prime, and in one tragic case, the final furious statement of a gifted actor. TDK is not the Citizen Kane of comic book movies; to call it a comic book movie, or place it in that context is diminishing it. The film actually operates primarily in the crime movie genre, and has more in common with films like The Godfather, in its bredth and scope (a staggering cast of characters, multiple plot arcs, the city as a character - and Chicago - I mean, um, Gotham - has never been so interesting) and also Heat, which it actually has the most in common with. TDK is also not the Empire Strikes Bac...

In all the excitement of June, with the floods and other distractions, I never got around to sharing some photos of the trip my brother Aaron took to Kansas City early in the month, to see my aunt Charlene. We were there a very busy 3 days, the highlight of which had to be the World War I musuem downtown. The dominant feature of the memorial is this 30 story monolithic statue that stands on a high hill overlooking downtown. You can go up in a very antiquated elevator (it dates from 1926) to the top and see an extraordinary view of KC. This image in particular inspired me to relocate my next novel from Iowa to Kansas. It also inspired me to research the memorial, which led me to the only-interesting-to-me bit of trivia that the nuclear holocaust film 1983, The Day After, featured the memorial in its coda. What was left of it anyway. That movie made a huge impression on me as it did most people who saw it, and I found myself remembering all sorts of 80's Cold War trivia - '...

I had the strangest dream last night; it went on forever (no doubt a few seconds), the longest sustained I recall having recently. I was in Germany, on vacation or something, with my mother - or my father, I wasn't sure; they seemed to be in between parents and would change with the course of the dream. At the end they were old and unrecognizable. Germany, I can't explain. We were visiting some sort of musuem or gallery. We walked around and someone told us we had spent 162 days inside. A beautiful woman with green eyes said something to me on the way out. She may have been the one to mention the 162 days, but I'm not sure. She spoke with an accent and seemed intent on getting a lot of words in as we left. We went outside, into a cobblestone street draped with banners for some festival, and that was it. The dream has stayed with me all day, mostly because it makes no sense. I used to have very vivid dreams; there is one from when I was 15 that I remember to this ...

Good friend Kat's novel The Alchemy of Stone is due soon, so you should go pick up a copy here at Amazon, where she also has a blog. The book is fantastic; it's strange, disconcerting and features weird robot sex. But don't take it from me. Publisher's Weekly gave it a starred review . Scroll down a bit to see it. Congrats Kat! Update: Justine Larbalestier has a fun post on her blog about the art of blurbing as it specifically relates to Kat's new book, which Justine really likes.