La Bloga hits a million!
Last night or early this morning, the counter at the bottom of this homepage reached 1,000,000. You, our readers, did that. In our 10th year, we're not only proud to say we endured, but also that we believe we produced some great things in that time. This week, other La Bloga contributors might add to this.
Please add your comments below or to the posts of La Bloga contributors throughout the week. And have a traguito on us.
NYRB's colorless list for U.S. kids
Of approximately 70 books that New York Review of Books listed in its most recent Children's Collection, none are by latinos. Maybe none with latino characters, even. Unfamiliar with the books, I can't assume that NYRB even thought a book about any minority group was worth mentioning.
What attitudes do U.S. Anglo children learn from a whitewashed list? How narrow can Anglo childen's tolerance be if, literally, nothing of minority lit is presented to them as being literary worthy? Should we be surprised if a list that omits half the darker Other population of U.S. children reinforces, not only privilege-mentality, but racism, for that matter? Maybe they should rename themselves--New York's Racially Biased. Or determine your own answer.
NYRB forces us to create our suggestions that will reach narrower audiences than theirs. Otherwise, White Americana uber alles, que no?
Throwing writers under the train!
Amtrack is offering 24 writer’s residencies consisting of one (1) round trip, a 2-5 day excursion on an Amtrak train to a destination of your choice, including private sleeper car, desk and window-view. Value: $900. Sounds great, huh?
BUT wait! Clause #6 of their rules requires writers who apply to assign irrevocable, World rights to their work, even writing samples submitted with the application. If you submit, be certain you want to give this away in exchange for a ride. Or you might end up like this photo. Read more about it.
Intensive workshop for aspiring spec writers
The 6-week, summer Odyssey Writing Workshop is one of the most highly respected workshops for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror in the world. April 8th is the deadline to apply for the workshop to be held at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 9 – July 18, 2014.
"Challenge yourself and pack two years of learning into six weeks of intense work: Four-hour classes five days a week, an advanced curriculum, daily writing and critiquing assignments, weekly stories/chapters due, in-depth feedback on your work, personal guidance. Writers in residence will be Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem. Four scholarships and one work/study position are available. I don't know how many latinos have won these, but somebody out there deserves to. Read more about it.
MFA scholarship in Writing for Children & Young Adults?
The Angela Johnson Scholarship for New Students of Color or Ethnic Minority info is available at the Vermont College of Fine Arts for incoming students. That includes latinos.
Ah my little soldier boy. . . .
If you think you should encourage your kid to join the Army, check out a regular soldier's account of what your kid could face. Penguin Press just released Redeployment by Phil Klay. It's a collection of short stories about soldier life on the front lines and the home front. "Klay's alarming but eloquent short stories should be required reading for all of us — civilians and soldiers — as we grapple with the last decade of war."
To give you a taste of it, this is one of the lighter moments from the book: "We shot dogs. Not by accident." Beyond that, it becomes worse than imaginable. Something you should know. Read one chapter of it for free and decide if you would ever want your kid to experience this, whether he's latino or not. Or read more about the book.
What's wrong with the 300 movie?
Mucho. Demasiado mucho. The best analysis I've read is by spec author David Brin. Read how Hollywood got into the business of praising mercenary brutality over civilized Athenian society. It says more about our times, and army, than what the CGI portrayed as "heroes."
Hazing in our army? The Spartans invented it. A professional army to spread our control to other countries? The Spartans tried it and failed, like Iraq and Afghanistan are ending up. Distorting history was the only way to glamorize the Spartans. Read how it was done.
Feel a little shaky? Thank the fracking supporters.
From Dallas to San Antonio and beyond, if you like fracking, you may get rewarded with more earthquakes. "Texas has seen the number of recorded earthquakes increase tenfold since the drilling boom began several years ago. Studies have linked the quakes to oil and gas drilling activities."
Check what fracking's bringing to your neighborhood. It's not more jobs, except maybe for disaster clean-up. Allowing fracking is opening the way for this (sampling based only on one part of Texas):
 |
| Coming soon to your part of fracked Aztlán |
8 days ago 2.8 magnitude, 5 km depth, Victoria, Texas
18 days ago 2.8 magnitude, 5 km depth, Snyder, Texas
about a month ago 2.8 magnitude, 3 km depth, Snyder, Texas
about a month ago 2.6 magnitude, 5 km depth, Snyder, Texas
about a month ago 2.3 magnitude, 4 km depth, Benbrook, Texas
about a month ago 3.0 magnitude, 5 km depth, Azle, Texas
2 months ago 2.9 magnitude, 4 km depth, Snyder, Texas
2 months ago 2.7 magnitude, 3 km depth, Snyder, Texas
2 months ago 3.1 magnitude, 5 km depth, Azle, Texas
2 months ago 2.2 magnitude, 5 km depth, Azle, Texas
2 months ago 3.5 magnitude, 5 km depth, Hereford, Texas
3 months ago 3.3 magnitude, 6 km depth, Azle, Texas
3 months ago 3.3 magnitude, 5 km depth, Azle, Texas
3 months ago 2.1 magnitude, 8 km depth, Azle, Texas
3 months ago 2.8 magnitude, 4 km depth, Azle, Texas
3 months ago 2.6 magnitude, 4 km depth, Sherman, Texas
3 months ago 2.6 magnitude, 5 km depth, Sherman, Texas
3 months ago 2.5 magnitude, 5 km depth, Sherman, Texas
3 months ago 2.7 magnitude, 5 km depth, Azle, Texas
Es todo, hoy,
RudyG
Well, it’s official, JOHN CARTER is being labeled a disaster, a flop, an “Ishtar” and anything else that signifies profit-and-loss ratio infamy. The media decided a while ago that this movie was going to be a disaster for Disney, and after finishing #2 for the weekend with barely $30 million—despite making over $100 million worldwide—every ill omen has been seen as sagacious.
And the hate is baffling. Although it has only 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, if you read the reviews, the good ones read about the same as the bad ones. Critics weren’t wildly enthusiastic about the movie, but it didn’t suck.
In fact, the word of mouth is good. People who went in with an open mind seem to have been entertained.
I saw JOHN CARTER Thursday at an IMAX 3D and I loved it. It was no THE DESCENDANTS, but it was a well-made yarn, filled with wonder. Yeah I said it. WONDER. The John Carter books are hardly the Lord of the Rings — I didn’t need every klunky archaic line used. And screenwriter Michael Chabon and Andrew Stanton knew that. So they weren’t afraid to tinker and modernize many things.
What they did keep intact was the unbridled imagination of the original, a vision unencumbered by anything that reeks of marketing or focus groups. Here is a passage from the second book, THE GODS OF MARS, that sums up everything I like about Barsoom:
Its hairless body was a strange and ghoulish blue, except for a broad band of white which encircled its protruding, single eye: an eye that was all dead white–pupil, iris, and ball.
Its nose was a ragged, inflamed, circular hole in the centre of its blank face; a hole that resembled more closely nothing that I could think of other than a fresh bullet wound which has not yet commenced to bleed.
Below this repulsive orifice the face was quite blank to the chin, for the thing had no mouth that I could discover.
The head, with the exception of the face, was covered by a tangled mass of jet-black hair some eight or ten inches in length. Each hair was about the bigness of a large angleworm, and as the thing moved the muscles of its scalp this awful head-covering seemed to writhe and wriggle and crawl about the fearsome face as though indeed each separate hair was endowed with independent life.
I mean COME ON, how can you not want to see that brought to life? The Carter books were so original when written…now, having been ripped off for a hundred years, they seem like pale imitations.
But then, this has been a story that people have been trying—and failing— to bring to the screen since at least 1936. Nearly 80 years. In that year, animator Bob Clampett worked on a proposed animated version for…Walt Disney.
As others have written here, had this film actually been made—instead of SNOW WHITE—what a different world we would live in. John Carter would have had to be an animated movie. What has stymied people for years was the technology to make it.
The more recent attempts at making a movie — from Robert Rodriguez, to Kerry Conlan to Jon Favreau and so on—all faltered for probably the same reasons the movie that did get made has been vilified: too weird and yet too
Ever since they roared onto the scene with inspiring patriotic zeal, tight loincloths and abs that ripple like a field of Athenian barley, the Spartans of 300 have taken hold in the popular imagination. The original movie catapulted both director Zack Snyder and star Gerard Butler into a higher league when it grossed a surprising $456 million worldwide. It also made “comic book movie” an even more popular term among Hollywood studios—300 showed that a film didn’t have to be based on Batman to make a mint—and made Frank Miller a movie icon.
Ever since, there’s been talk of a sequel, with creator Miller on board, and Snyder saying “Wow that would be cool.” But a sequel has already seemed very unlikely because—spoilers!—not too much of the original cast survived to make one. The word “prequel” was frequently invoked—and Miller found that ide to his liking, writing and drawing a comics prequel called XERXES which is due some day from Dark Horse. The exact subject matter remains vague, although Miller has promised that the story will cover a longer span of time and include naval battles, gods, and, hopefully, lots more abs.
But against all odds, a sequel has emerged, which, last we heard, was called 300: BATTLE OF ARTEMISIA because XERXES sounds too darned weird. (Every time we hear the title, all we can think of is the controversial life of painter Artemisia Gentileschi.) And it’s inching a teeny bit closer to reality with the very first casting whisper: Sullivan Stapleton is reported to be in talks to star. Noam Murro is set to direct from a script by Kurt Johnstad and Snyder.
Stapleton is currently seen in the TV show Strike Back, and he hails from Australia which is good, because men from Australia are thought to be manly, like Spartans.
But will he be able to provide the razor-sharp ridged abdominals that every 300 movie requires?
Verdict: Potential but he’ll need a lot of time in the gym to get in Spartan shape!
Ready to become a Spartan Warrior? With some training its possible to do. This workout is a decently quick one and will push you to the extreme. There is NO required equipment needed for this workout. Just find a good spot on the floor and maybe turn on some music and begin.
The point of this workout is to complete it as quickly as possible with as few breaks as you can. Retaining perfect form is a must throughout the entire session. Complete one excercise with precision, then move on to the next immediately or with only a few seconds break. These are all simple excercises, but when they are put together, they make the ultimate workout.
An optional addition to this workout is to add a flight or two of stairs inbetween each excercise. This will make your legs steal neccessary oxygen from your arms and abs, putting them under more stress for a better workout.
Spartan 300 Workout
- 30 pushups, elbows in.
- 30 pushups, elbows out.
- 15 pushups, hands as close to your hips as possible.
- 20 pushups keeping one hand away from you, and the other near you. (alternate hands each pushup)
- 10 dip/dive pushups.
- 10 clap pushups, push off the ground and clap hands before landing.
- 10 inclined pushups, put your feet on something about a foot tall.
- 30 second ab hold, lay down on your back and lift both your feet and your shoulder blades off the ground a few inches. Do not allow your feet to go too high or touch the floor. Leave your hands to either side of you not touching the ground.
- 30 second ab cross-over sissors.
- 30 second ab hold a second time.
- 10 leg lifts, lay down to some sort of post, hold on to it with your hands and lift your legs up to a near 90 degree angle.
- 10 leg lifts, same thing, now lift your legs up further in the air after you reach 90 degrees.
- 50 V-sit ups, same thing as a normal sit up only you bring your legs up as well as your sholders.
- 1 forward plank held for 60 seconds (or longer if you can), push up position with elbows/forarms on the ground. Have your hands together like you are praying. keep back as straight as possible and don’t allow your butt to sink down too low or up too high.
- 5 normal pushups in between each plank, 15 total.
- 2 side planks held for 45 seconds (or longer if you can), one elbow/forearm on the ground with the other in the air, facing to the side, keep same position as a regular plank.
Tips
- Remember to drink lots of water afterwards, some before, and a little while doing exercise.
- You can go a little out of order if you wish too, just make sure that they are done with little breaks!
- Do this workout at least 2 times a week and keep it going.
- Try not to do 2 Spartan workouts, one the day after the first… the second day is needed for recovery so that you can build up for the next one.
- EAT, much of what you are is what you eat. So keep a heathly diet to get good performance with this workout.
- Complete in good time. 20 minutes is perfect, but don’t cheat yourself. If you are finishing in less than 10 minutes, I can tell you that you are doing something wrong. (pushups or sit ups are done too fast, slower will give you a better workout) If you are above 30 minutes, you could just be out of shape, but try to take less breaks.
- Roar when necessary to get that last pushup or sit up done.
Warnings
- Be sure you are physically fit to do this workout.
- Stretch.
In a totally Global-Warming-related way, you can check for local activities to Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline that Obama will be tempted to sign this year. We need to slap his hand before he lifts the pen.
“The media isn’t some organized collective working together; it’s a generic name for a large assortment of people trying to find interesting angles in any story.”
And as previously referred to, that large assortment is frequently caught up in a groupthink that dictates the sort of media coverage given to any event or occurance.
Mike
Man, I think the sell-line could have been as easy as emphasizing “from the director that brought you Finding Nemo and Wall-E.” I think an audience can trust that the man who slam-dunked those two unusual premises could deliver on an old pulp adventure format.
And I agree with Simon– this is a film you can take your whole family to. Barely one iota of cursing, low gore (not counting the blue stuff), and aside from Dejah’s “too vulgar for my tastes” wedding gown, not even that much to worry about in the way of sex. Sons can learn to reject apathy and embrace a cause, and daughters can learn that being smart, tough, beautiful, and vulnerable can all be part of the same package.
Honestly, it’s a Pixar movie with real skin on it. I think it’s this year’s “Scott Pilgrim” in terms of under-ratedness. And that said, I’m hoping Bill’s prediction proves correct.
I saw it Friday in 3-D and enjoyed it enough that I’ll probably go see it somewhere else in 2-D.
I think Disney shot itself in the foot by naming it simply “John Carter” — which gives the casual filmgoer absolutely no idea what the film is about. I understand that after the debacle “Mars Needs Moms,” Disney executives were scared of any title with the word “Mars” in it — but that was a silly, irrational fear. I’d have titled it “Warlord of Mars” or somesuch.
As far as the dismissal by some here that the news media was not at all complicit in the weak opening of the film, all I can say is you’re kidding yourself. The media sharks were in a veritable feeding frenzy about “John Carter,” and if one was paying attention at all to film news and industry-related social media during the past three weeks, one could not help being tainted by all of the “warnings” — warnings which were almost entirely the fuel for the film’s strong negative buzz.
But some at Disney were also at fault here — leaking out “concerns” regarding the film’s appeal to certain demographics, and leaking out concerns about the film’s ability to generate enough revenue to cover its costs. Here’s an idea for Disney and any other studio: If you’re worried that a film may not make X dollars in the box office, how about lowering the budget so that it has a reasonable chance at meeting expectations? “Green Lantern” is a great example. If that film about a second-tier (and arguable third-tier) DC character had only cost, say, $80 million to make, no one would have been grousing about a “poor box office showing.” Its $219 million world-wide box-office take would have been considered a hit.
About the merits of “John Carter,” the film, there’s a lot of truth to the tweet above stating that the film was better than the last four Star Wars films.
The good news for “John Carter” is that it took in a strong $70 million overseas, so it will not be the bomb so many in the media warned us of.
Agree with MBunge!!
And as previously referred to, that large assortment is frequently caught up in a groupthink that dictates the sort of media coverage given to any event or occurance.
>>
A few years ago Bill Moyers had a PBS program where the producers of Oprah admitted, on camera, that they had stacked the show with experts claiming that Saddam had WOMD — because, as the Oprah producers stated, on camera, they believed if they did otherwise they might loose their jobs.
That is not “groupthink.”
Like I said last week, we need a Nerdtrevention on this one…!
-B
I woke up Friday and told the family we were going to see John Carter. My wife and five kids had no idea what the movie was. (Bad marketing – okay one of them is only four months old and couldn’t be expected to know). But we went anyway and had a great time. (Fun movie). Nobody, even my wife who isn’t into the geeky stuff like me, left disappointed.
Add mine to the voices saying that this is a fun, enjoyable film with some great ideas on display.
I’ve no love for Disney, but I hate to see this film fail due to bad press and, as more than one person said above, “groupthink” on the part of journalists and reviewers.
The media does not need to be a cohesive, organized group to suffer from that. And it frequently does … I’m amazed at times how it almost seems like someone has set the “big story” for the week, and all the outlets follow along. The latest was the gas price “pain at the pump” story. Sure, it was a story, but it seems like coverage of it was out of control (until the next “big story of the week” came along).
Anyhow, I don’t recall if I ever read a John Carter book and I’ve never read the comics, so I didn’t go see it for that reason (even though I fall into the “old fart” group, i.e. “over 25″). But I like Flash Gordon- and Buck Rogers-type adventure, so I figured it might be fun. I did catch in in 2D. I sure enjoyed this one more than the preachier “Avatar!” And yeah, the last few Star Wars movies blew chunks compared with this!
As a result of seeing this, I now want to read the books, and I’ve got the Jesse Marsh comics compilation coming in the mail.
This is Iron Giant on much larger scale — if your own studio isn’t behind you, how can your film succeed?
As with Iron Giant, the idiots at the studio didn’t know a classic when it was right in their hands.
As someone who’s published a volume of ERB’s works, I have to say right off that a) I am a fan of his work, and b) this was not the movie to launch a John Carter franchise…
While the press made up their mind long before actual screenings took place, this was due to the abysmal marketing job Disney attempted with this movie. This was their attempt to try and make something they didn’t quite understand into something they thought would appeal to a modern audience. They failed.
But beyond that, JOHN CARTER is a movie with characters we care very little about. Yes, there were moments, but I felt no connection to JC or Dejah the same way someone might have felt for the characters in the first HARRY POTTER movie (to use the novel series to movie analogy).
I also didn’t have the same sense of wonder and awe that is so present in the JC books. My feeling is the production design and the direction kept undercutting the visual stimulation we were supposed to feel. Many angles looking down just doesn’t give the actors, the scene and the set the importance they deserve. It actually minimized their importance…
A PRINCESS OF MARS was a novel of action, adventure and visual excitement woven together with characters we cared about. JOHN CARTER isn’t that – not by a long shot. It should have been at least as good as the first STAR WARS – I don’t think anyone can honestly say this movie reached anywhere near that height of excitement.
I enjoyed it fairly well and reviewed it here:
http://nummtheory.blogspot.com/2012/03/john-carter-2012.html
I agree with Bill. Saw the movie Sunday in Imax 3D. The 3D added nothing to the film. Not a bad movie, but not a great movie either. As some others have stated, it did sort of remind me of the “Flash Gordon” movie from the 80’s only not as campy. I guess my biggest complaint is that the movie had no style. It looked like every other sci-fi movie of the past decade. I think everyone involved needs to go back and take another look at “Citizen Kane” for a refresher course in how to make a film.
@horatio weisfeld and @mbunge
If you guys honestly think reporters are getting together and conspiring to create stories to make people believe false things…you have been reading too many comic books. ^_^
The media has only one bias: laziness. Most reporters are just like people at any job. They’ll copy anything that seems to be working and no one’s going to risk looking foolish by saying the emperor has no clothes. Further, it was the White House that was the source of the store Iraq had WMDs. The White House…*the* primary source for news. You can hardly fault people covering international news for believing the White House. What were the reporters going to do? Fly to Iraq and look around for themselves? Up until that point, the idea of the White House open face lying to justify a unilateral attack on a country wasn’t conceivable.
The media doesn’t have a horse in the race with what movie makes money and which doesn’t. Quite frankly, the story of an extremely expensive movie looking to bomb is as old as movies. Titanic had similar stories written about it before it opened and look how that turned out.
You guys crack me up – The big, bad media wants to destroy this movie!
BTW – Isn’t it possible, just maybe, that most people didn’t want to see John Carter or Scott Pilgrim or whatever?
No one has any interest in very accurate 70’s spy movies based on acclaimed books, so why would they want to run out and see a sci-fi movie about a guy fighting on Mars?
And I say this as someone who wants to see the movie. But stop blaming everyone in sight when movies you like don’t rock the world. Niche genre stories are niche for a reason.
“The big, bad media wants to destroy this movie!”
It’s easy to always be right when you just make up both sides of the argument in your head. Nobody is saying there was some conspiracy out to destroy John Carter. We’re really just expanding on your point of media laziness. They looked at the huge budget and Disney’s poor marketing and decided the movie was going to bomb long before it came out, which became the lazy template for every single story about the film.
Mike