Tag Archive for 'books'

Heroes

Dec 26, '10 · Closed Tags: books, lawrence of arabia, quote.

We have become used to thinking of heroism as something that simply happens to people; indeed the word has been in a sense cheapened by the modern habit of calling everybody exposed to any kind of danger, whether voluntarily or not, a “hero.” Soldiers — indeed all those in uniform — are now commonly referred to as “our heroes,” as if heroism were a universal quality shared by everyone who bears arms, or as if it were an accident, not a vocation. Even those who die in terrorist attacks, and have thus had the bad luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, are described as “heroes,” though given the choice most of them would no doubt have preferred to be somewhere else when the blow was struck.

From Hero – The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda.

The Censors Strike Back

Oct 20, '10 · Closed Tags: books, culture, denmark, star wars, us.

I’m finishing The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, Jonathan W Rinzler’s recenty released document on everyone’s favorite sequel – it’s everything a nerd could hope for, by the way – and I came across this quote, which seems to pretty well describe the mentality gap between the US and Denmark:

The sequel was also number one in Tokyo, Japan, for at least four weeks, but in Denmark, Empire was ruled off-limits to children under 12 (as was Star Wars, Close Encounters, and several other films).
“Children are not allowed to see a film that desenitizes them to violence, to suffering,” says Dr. Jørgen Bruun Petersen. “They must not see a film if we feel they will get [from it] less ability to feel pity.” On the other hand, children were allowed by the Danmark censors to see sex on screen. “I don’t think children will be harmed if they see two adults going to bed with each other. But only if they express love for each other, do what they do with feeling.”
The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, p336.

That’s not to say I agree with him on the violence (much to my moms dismay, I raised myself on RoboCop and Alien), but this schism is inherent in our culture – we released porn before any other country – which makes it so absurd to us when a nip-slip causes most of the US to dive into a frenzy, while happily enganging in wars across the world.

Bring me Your Firstborn!

Sep 11, '10 · Closed Tags: books, mythology, religion.

Factoid time!

Human sacrifice was common in the pagan world. It was cruel but had a logic and rationale. The first child was often believed to be the offspring of a god, who had impregnated the mother in an act of droit de seigneur. In begetting the child, the god’s energy had been depleted, so to replenish this and to ensure the circulation of all the available mana, the first-born was returned to its divine parent.
Source: Karen Armstrong, A History of God, softcover edn, Vintage, 1999, p. 27.

And allow me, on that note, to pitch A Short History of Myth by same, one of the best, if shortest, books I’ve read in years. Insightful and inspiring. And short. It also comes in a beautiful mythology boxset, which is the edition I have — a present — though I haven’t read the other two books yet, so I can’t vouch for them.

RPG PDF’s on the iPad

Jun 20, '10 · Closed Tags: books, ebooks, ipad, roleplaying games.

Todays random post, GoodReader with some RPG PDF’s. And yes, I’m totally using the video tag on an XHTML page, sue me.

The Tortured Indecision

Apr 15, '10 · 3 Comments Tags: books, ego, games, movies, Neal Stephenson, quotes.

Having the entire day laid bare before me, my biggest problem seems to be where to begin? Talk about a luxury problem, huh?

It’s honestly not an easy thing to come to terms with.

On the one hand it makes sense to start working full time with something as soon as possible, to secure some funding for the lean times.

On the other hand, since I’ve got a handful of months funded, what better way to burn through them than on the things I’ve been daydreaming while I’ve been stuck in a 9 to 5?

And I’ve had a lot of those day dreams. I mean, a lot.

Continue reading ‘The Tortured Indecision’

Despair, Oh Frail Human

Aug 24, '09 · 4 Comments Tags: alastair reynolds, books, ego, Neal Stephenson, roadtrip09, travel.

Spielberg, Hemmingway, Einstein, any number of presidents not named Bush, that guy at the gas station, the gal at the drive-in, you and of course, me. We’re all connected in that great human struggle: Our inability to chose books for travels.

Or so I like to believe.

It’s one of those things I spend the most time on when going traveling, and I often find myself skimming through and reading passages of about 10 – 15 books, stacking them this way; that. Trying to insure myself against that harshest of human realizations; the 80-page-in realization of “shit dude, this book sucks”.

Currently I’m leaning towards bringing a single previously unread book, which is currently Alastair Reynolds Absolution Gap, though Cryptonomicon has been drawing me for some time, it having been 8 years or so since I last read it. Also, I’ve got World War Z just sitting there, staring at me, begging me to prepare for the coming Zombie apocalypse…

Now, had I owned a Kindle, this wouldn’t be a problem, but this is Denmark, a country so small and cozy that Amazon wouldn’t touch it with a stick tied to another stick.

Ugh.

More Droidmaker

Jul 20, '09 · Closed Tags: binary bonsai, books, droidmaker, ego, john williams, pixar, skywalker ranch.

I know, I know, it’s starting to look more and more as if Binary Bonsai was reborn as a Star Wars and Droidmaker-reblog site after its hiatus, but if I merely updated the older entries with this information, it wouldn’t propagate, and dammit, when I have something to take credit for I’ll damn well use every excuse in the book to take it!

Then there happened to be an unusual series of events at the end of June, 2009, when a couple interesting Lucas stories were emerging. An old home movie from ILM in 1977. An older interview with young George Lucas from the BBC in 1972. My book gives some context to these items.

On June 30 I got a wild hare and generated a PDF of the entire book. I posted it on my blog and I made two public-ish announcements: I posted it on my Facebook page, and I emailed a note about it to a blogger in Europe who had just written something nice about Droidmaker a few days earlier. So I emailed “Binary Bonsai” – he posted it. And that was it.

The word spread globally in a few moments, and in 24 hours there were around 2,000 downloads of the book. A few weeks later there was another spike of interst, bringing the total downloads to about 13,000. In 14 days, more people have read my book than in the prior 4 years. And I finally feel like my work with this is done. #

Exciting for me, as I’ve been a fan of Droidmaker since it came out. I plowed through it in a few days, which is honestly rather rare for me. I hope to have the chance to meet Michael when we’re in California; a fitting encounter on a trip which is already taking us to see Pixar, Skywalker Ranch and a John Williams concert.

I honestly don’t know how all of this could get much better…

Download Droidmaker for Free!

Jun 30, '09 · Closed Tags: books, droidmaker, games, george lucas, ilm, lucasfilm, michael rubin, pixar, star wars.

Woke up to this scoop:

Hi Michael,
Thought you might want the first notice – because of your posting, i’ve received a fair amount of email, and i’ve decided to post my book for FREE on my blog…

Its more important to me that the story of Lucasfilm be shared and circulated than for me to profit directly. So if you wanted to add that to your blog – you’d be the first!

Thanks for your kind words and support.

Michael (Rubin)

I don’t know what you’re still doing here, when you should be over there, downloading the hell out of that thing! It’s gorgeous; the full 518-page book, complete with photosRare photos I might add, plugged in many cases straight out of the Lucasfilm vault or even personal collections from the people who were there., index and whatever else you’ll find in the printed version, covering everything from Lucas’ earliest years up through the creation of ILM and its struggle to put Star Wars up on the silver screen, down through Coppola’s experiements with mobile film making, the creation of Pixar, non-linear editing, digital sound editing, the creation of the Games Group and much much more. It is in actual fact, a book about the creation of modern filmmaking (and to some extent games even) as we know it. Don’t let the technical foundation scare you off though; it’s not only accessible, but centered on the people, not the tech. It was easily one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve had in years.

As he does, I obviously suggest you just go ahead and buy the real thing, should you like what you see.

PS: In case you missed it yesterday, Michael Rubin appeared on Pirillo back when he was promoting the book. There’s also an interview up over at Unidentified Sound Object.

Update: Downloads have passed 10.000, and Michael has posted a breakdown of where the traffic has come from so far. There’s also a FAQ.

Plz I Can Haz Kindle?

Apr 9, '09 · 1 Comment Tags: books, comics, kindle.

Facing the worst nightmare for any man — a worm under the skin, according to H.R. Giger; figuring out what reading material to bring along for our trip home over Easter according to me — is all the more reason to creave a Kindle. It is of course still not available outside the US, and given the adoption rate of the non-rythmic parts of the iTunes Store in the EU, it’s unlikely to see the light of day until just before the Event Horizon eats us all up. And then what’s the point really? Well, I guess it’s better late than never.

Continue reading ‘Plz I Can Haz Kindle?’

Anathem

Jan 4, '09 · 5 Comments Tags: Anathem, books, Neal Stephenson, science fiction.

I fell head over heels in love with Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon when I read the first chapter online. And I ordered it right then and there and tore through it when it finally arrived a few days after from Amazon. It remains one of my all-time favorite books to this day.

Continue reading ‘Anathem’

Fascination Burnout

Jan 3, '09 · Closed Tags: Anathem, books, Neal Stephenson, quote.

“I am fascinated,” I insisted, “That’s the problem. I am suffering from fascination burnout. Of all the things that are fascinating, I have to choose just one or two.”

- Neal Stephenson, Anathem, hardcover edn, Atlantic Books, 2008, p. 733.

To Those Wonderful Books

Aug 24, '08 · Closed Tags: books, ego, george lucas, philip k dick, star wars, steve jobs, steven spielberg.

I love books. And I amass books. So much so, that between the two of us — Rikke and I — there is no doubt who is in charge of the appropriation and storage of dead trees, which might not have been so paradoxical, had Rikke not been a librarian…

Continue reading ‘To Those Wonderful Books’

“No, no, no, no, no, Angelo”

Aug 4, '08 · Closed Tags: angelo badalamenti, books, david lynch, movies, music.

I met Angelo Badalamenti on Blue Velvet and since then he has composed music for all my films. He’s like my brother.

The way we work is: I like to sit next to him on the piano bench. I talk and Angelo plays. He plays my words. But sometimes he doesn’t understand my words, so he plays very badly. then I say, “No, no, no, no, Angelo.” And I change my words a little bit and he plays differently. And then I say, “No, no, no, no, Angelo,” and I change my words. And somehow through this process he will catch something, and I’ll say, “That’s it!” And then he starts going with his magic, down that correct path. It’s so much fun. If Angelo liveed next door to me, I’d like to do this every day. But he lives in New Jersey, and I live in Los Angeles.

- David Lynch, Catching the Big Fish, Hardcover ed., Tarcher/Penguin, 2006, p. 65

Pixar’s ‘John Carter of Mars’

Jun 8, '08 · Closed Tags: andrew stanton, books, edgar rice burroughs, john carter of mars, movies, pixar, science fiction.

This is awesome!

The disclosure came at the end of the short, but extremely enjoyable, discussion (excerpts of which will be published here soon), when a writer from Suite101.com asked about Stanton’s next project, to which Stanton mentioned (not too loudly) ‘John Carter of Mars’.

Doubting what I’m hearing, I interject, “What is that?” “John Carter of Mars, Stanton replies.” “You’re confirming John Carter? Are you serious?” At this point, I turn my tape recorder back on, “…say that on tape!”, I tell him. Stanton: “I am writing John Carter of Mars right now.” “Oh man, you just doubled my page views!”, I say. Everybody laughs. #

It’s long been rumored, but that’s word straight from the fish’s mouth.

Continue reading ‘Pixar’s ‘John Carter of Mars’’

CPH.LITT.08 — Feat. Paul Auster & Siri Hustvedt

Jun 6, '08 · Closed Tags: books, copenhagen, cph.litt.08, ib michael, paul auster, siri hustvedt, writing.

Rikke and I took off early from work on this glorious summers day, to attend the Copenhagen Litterature Festival ’08, where we had one-day passes and a couple of tickets for the pay-for talks. One was with Henning Carlsen and Paul Auster on the book and film ‘Hunger’, and how it affected Paul Auster’s authorship, and the other was with Naja Marie Aidt and Siri Hustvedt, on their latest books and their shared fascination with the concept and idea of ‘evil’.

In-between the two, we caught a talk between a norwegian author, Espen Haavardsholm and Ib Michael, the latter of whom is a well-known Danish author, the subject being inadvertent similarities between the two people and their latest respective books, both of which were fictionalized autobiographies.

Now I regret to admit that I am in fact a horrible reader. I have all of the best intents and joys of reading, but with all the other things I seem to constantly get myself involved in, I never seem to have the time to take. And when I do take the time, I regrettably often find myself disappointed with the books I pick.

But I studied for the event by reading Auster’s City of Glass (which was good I might add), watching Sult and afterwards reading Auster’s essay, The Art of Hunger, and luckily doing so gave me enough of an anchor to feel less like an intruder.

Of what we saw of it, CPH.LITT.08 was a most welcome event here in Copenhagen, which often feels as if the introvert has lived for far too long in the shadow of the obnoxiously extrovert. If nothing else, it was a most enjoyable event; as any event where intelligent articulate people articulate intelligent things usually are.

‘Their’s not to reason why’

May 29, '08 · Closed Tags: bill bryson, books, quotes.

I normally keep quotations to my tumblr account, but this one I came upon while idly flipping through Troublesome Words, and it felt like deserving of more prominence:

‘Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die’ is often heard, but is wrong. The lines from Tennyson’s ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ are ‘Their’s not to reason why,/ Their’s but to do and die’. Note that the closing words ‘do and die’ give the lines an entirely different sense. Finally, it should be noted that Tennyson’s punctuation of ‘theirs’ is irregular.

- Bill Bryson, Troublesome Words, 3rd ed. paperback, Penguin Books, 2001, p. 149.

The Library

May 26, '08 · Closed Tags: books, delicious library, movies.

I took a few hours and scanned all our movies and english books into Delicious Library 2. The new export function is sweet; check it out.

(Except for Mars Attacks of course, sorry Rassi :)

Blader Runner at 25

Jun 25, '07 · 6 Comments Tags: blade runner, books, movies.

Happy 25th anniversary Blade Runner. You remain unsurpassed.

And for all of you out there at your radio sets, I highly recommend getting yourself a copy of Future Noir.

What I’m Reading

May 12, '07 · 16 Comments Tags: books, ego.

I’m one of those people who is always reading at least 5 – 6 books at any given time. Right now I’m up to about twice that. Here’s what’s on the horizon (with notes on flickr):

The Making of Star Wars

Apr 24, '07 · Closed Tags: apocalypse now, books, droidmaker, movies, ralph mcquarrie, star wars, the making of star wars.

I mentioned The Making of Star Wars book by J.W. Rinzler, who also did The Making of Episode III, yesterday. Well I dug up both an Interview with J.W. Rinzler as well as the making of The Making of Star Wars, from which I took this quote:

[…] Rinzler opens The Making of Star Wars in 1971 with the disastrous screening of THX 1138 for Warner Bros executives. According to the book, Warner executives essentially took the film away from Lucas after viewing the film’s first cut. “It starts there because, even though it could’ve been the end of Lucas’s career, it led to his meeting a series of people who helped get Star Wars made,” says Rinzler. “And in a circuitous route, the THX debacle forced Lucas’s friend Francis Ford Coppola to make The Godfather, which later enabled Lucas to make American Graffiti. George was also trying to get Apocalypse Now made during this time, and his failure to do so had a huge impact on Star Wars.”

That whole era of film making is my well of inspiration, which makes me even more giddy to get my hands on this book. In fact, I just finished reading The Apocalypse Now Book and went through all the extras on the Apocalypse Now Complete Dossier DVD (which isn’t quite as complete as it sounds, since Hearts of Darkness isn’t included, and that surely is an essential component in the Apocalypse Now puzzle!).

Anyway, with that, the upcoming Star Wars anniversary, the Ralph McQuarrie book on the cusp of release and me going to watch Apocalypse Now Redux in the cinema with my brother on thursday, my head is securely immersed in the 70’s era of film.

Be aware though, if you’re interested in picking up this little treasure trove, that there is a 50 page difference between the paperback and the hardcover editions!

“Thankfully, Del Rey allowed us to up the page count from around 250 to 324 pages. And the deluxe hard cover has 372 pages, featuring all the early storyboards — and George Lucas’s first recorded thoughts on the Expanded Universe. I didn’t know if he’d want us to print those, as they differ from what came after, but he said it was okay!”

PS: J.W. Rinzler by the way, has his own blog at StarWars.com.

PPS: And of course, if you’re interested in the history of Lucas, Star Wars and the technology that followed both, you simply have to check out the amazing Droidmaker. One of the best books I read last year.