Links for the Day (July 12th, 13th, & 14th 2008)

[Editor's Note: Pardon the lack of Links the past few days. Let's just say I had a hella fun 31st birthday weekend.]

1. "World's oldest blogger signs off at age 108": From MSNBC. Her main blog, "The Life of Riley" is here (though isn't loading for me at the moment). Her temporary blog, "World's Oldest Blogger" is here. See also our Clips of the Day.

["An Australian woman renowned as the world's oldest blogger has died at the age of 108, with her last posting talking about her ailing health but also how she still sings a happy song every day. Olive Riley, of Woy Woy about 50 miles north of Sydney, began blogging in February last year, sharing stories from her life during the two world wars, raising three children on her own, and working as a station cook in the outback. The physically frail but mentally alert Riley won an international audience with her blog, The Life of Riley (www.allaboutolive.com.au), and series of videos posted on YouTube with her talking and singing."]

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2. "Sudanese president charged with genocide": From CNN.

["The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has filed genocide charges against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for a five-year campaign of violence in Darfur. They include masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in the war-torn region with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation. ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo presented his evidence against al-Bashir to the judges at the Hague in the Netherlands on Monday. The judges must now decide whether to issue the warrant, and it is widely expected that they will; the judges have approved all 11 of Moreno-Ocampo's previous submissions to the court."]

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3. "Brideshead Revisited": House contributor N.P. Thompson is not enamored of the new adaptation. Also, a plug for our own Jeremiah Kipp, whose interview with Alex Cox stalwart Sy Richardson is in the latest issue of Shock Cinema, now on newsstands.

["I endured the new Brideshead Revisited under barbaric conditions—in an un-air-conditioned screening room that reeked of sulfur and cat piss. One stifling hour later, the air-conditioning (a necessity for a July afternoon) finally kicked in; the scent of sulfur never entirely subsided, which may explain why the rest of press corps huddled in the back of the house. Not to be dissuaded from my customary spot in the third or fourth row, I soldiered on. Being taken with the director Julian Jarrold’s previous film, the underrated Becoming Jane, I’d looked forward to this. Becoming Jane, I thought, nicely captured certain realities of English life (in the marital squabbles between Julie Walters and James Cromwell, for one) and in the eternal struggle, or tension, between those who have a creative impulse versus those who don’t, the best and most emblematic example of this being the moment the young Jane Austen turns her attention away from a wealthy suitor to scribble a few lines on a scrap of paper. “What’s she doing?” bellowed an imperious matron, played by Maggie Smith. “She’s writing,” offered the suitor. Smith: “Can anything be done about it?” No such humor appears in Brideshead Revisited, a compendium of crass reductions masquerading as an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel."]

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4. ""Bush," "Colin Powell" Nabbed In Bar Fight": A true blurring of the lines.

["Just hours after shooting was completed on Oliver Stone's latest film, a biopic of President George W. Bush, actors Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright, along with crew members, were arrested during a bar fight Saturday morning, police said. Shreveport police Sgt. Willie Lewis said Brolin, Wright and five others were arrested just after 2 a.m. at a club called the Stray Cat bar. CBS affiliate KSLA correspondent Ben Wolf reported that, according to police, one crew member was "acting out," and that club workers twice asked the group to leave, before calling police. Police said Brolin, Lewis and four other crew members interfered with their making an arrest."]

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5. "Bat Out of Hell": The first not-so-enthused review of The Dark Knight that I've read, courtesy David Edelstein. Related by temperament: Nancy Franklin on Generation Kill.

["Even if the death of Heath Ledger hadn’t already draped it in a funeral shroud, The Dark Knight would be a morbid affair: It could only be darker if Batman died. (He does die a little, on the inside.) The director, Christopher Nolan, has decided to get real with the thing. Forget Gotham City—or Anton Furst’s splendid Gothic Gotham of Tim Burton’s Batman, which summoned up the freaky superhero’s inner landscape of vaulted arches and gargoyles. We’re now in a modern, untransformed Manhattan, where the Joker’s opening bank heist unfolds in a tense, realistic style with multiple point-blank shootings. It’s a shock—and very effective—to see a comic-book villain come on like a Quentin Tarantino reservoir dog. But then the novelty wears off and the lack of imagination, visual and otherwise, turns into a drag. The Dark Knight is noisy, jumbled, and sadistic. Even its most wondrous vision—Batman’s plunges from skyscrapers, bat-wings snapping open as he glides through the night like a human kite—can’t keep the movie airborne. There’s an anvil attached to that cape."]

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Quote of the Day: Daniel J. Boorstin

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): The Reverse Shot poster of the week, with commentary.



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Clip of the Day: World's oldest blogger Olive Riley explains an old iron and sings "Waltzing Matilda."



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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.