Links for the Day (November 13th, 2008)

1. "Batman launches suit against Christopher Nolan": That'd be the Turkish Batman. (Hattip: Ali Arikan) (Photo Credit: Bryce Edwards) Related: "'Dark Knight' Score Disqualified From Academy Awards Consideration" (from Cinematical).

["Hüseyin Kalkan, mayor of Batman, an ancient oil-producing town in south-eastern Turkey, is planning to sue Christopher Nolan, director of the recent box-office behemoth The Dark Knight, over the use of the name in the film. He claims Nolan and Warner Bros, which owns the film rights to the comic-book character, purloined the name without checking with him first. "There is only one Batman in the world," said Kalkan, a member of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society party. "The American producers used the name of our city without informing us.""]

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2. "More synecdoches, more f-words, more more": The latest episode of Vinyl is Podcast, featuring House contributor Ryland Walker Knight with Mark Haslam and Jennifer Stewart. Subject for discussion: Synecdoche, New York.

["RWK here. On our third podcast, Mark and I discussed his first take on Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York (as well as Jean Eustache and, briefly, Jia Zhang-Ke), with Mark saying, "I liked it enough to not have an opinion of it right away." (He then put that reaction into some written words.) What I took and take that exit-poll impulse to mean is that he didn't feel it necessary to simply say, "I liked it," or, "I didn't like it," say to make a declaration of value. Because it's undeniable: this is a grand old meditation on major themes and concerns that continue to sprout up in cinema and, yes, in life. It's bound to shake, rattle and roll some souls. It's equally bound to simply turn off a large percentage of its audience, no matter its wit, right up front with some ugly images of festering decay and disease. Literally: dis-ease. There's little comfort in this film, although there are a lot of jokes. So, what does one do with this little beast? Well, we went straight home and talked on digital tape. We tried to form our opinions live. Of course, like the film, our conversation splintered and, in a way, as is always the case with words, it failed; or, it failed to resolve. And yet—even though an hour is a lot to ask of you, our faithful listeners—I think this is our best podcast yet. The look-see: I'm torn between the two poles."]

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3. The latest issue of the great online film magazine Rouge. Featuring a special tribute section to Manny Farber with a previously unanthologized piece "Seers for the Sleepless." Some resultant discussion at Girish's site.

["The non-stop talker, so popular that night clubs dump their girlie shows for his economical act (it requires only a mike and a telephone), is not necessarily a drug on the entertainment market. He has loosened up the slick gentility of U.S. broadcasting with an informality that radio needs badly if it is ever to get close to the sounds of real life. Some of them – Bill Williams, Barry Gray, Fred Robbins – are among radio’s cleverest word jugglers. Their ‘happiness talk’ actually gives the audience, including myself, a badly needed lift. But, in doing so, it makes them imbibe more sheer trash and nonsense in the name of spoken, sung, or written truth than the citizenry of any other country this side of the Iron Curtain. If they could supply the lift without the tricks, falsehoods and silliness, the disc jockeys would be just about the biggest thing to hit American culture since Walt Whitman."]

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4. According to the Mayan calendar, The X-Files, and Roland Emmerich, the world will end in 2012 (with some familiar musical accompaniment).

["They wouldn't."]

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5. "Dennis Hopper is the same age as John McCain": From Hollywood and Fine.

["“I’ve been a Republican for a long time,” he says, “since Reagan. I thought he was a bad actor but that it was time to change Congress. I voted for this Bush – and his father. But I became very disturbed by the whole process these past eight years. So I announced, just before Colin Powell did, that I was voting for Obama. “Thomas Jefferson once said that it’s your responsibility, every 20 years, to vote in the other party. Twenty years is up. The time is ripe to go back.”"]

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Quote of the Day: Josh Billings

"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): Some concept art for John Boorman's animated adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. (Via Ain't It Cool News)






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Clip of the Day: My sentiments exactly...

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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.