BooklornTelevision/Movies | Booklorn

Vanity Fair Displaying Pirated Content?

Booklorn — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:56:36 +0000

[February 14, 2010: It appears that the video has now been removed from the Vanity Fair article. Too bad they didn't have a clear enough ethical policy to avoid the issue in the first place.]

I’ve been swamped this week so I haven’t had a chance to do any blog posts, but I came across the latest Wallace & Gromit movie on the Vanity Fair web site and thought I’d share it with you. I love Nick Park’s storytelling and I’m not the only one–once again, a Wallace & Gromit short is up for an Oscar in the short film category.

But then I looked at the source of the video on the Vanity Fair site.

Surely, Vanity Fair would have an official source for the movie they’re displaying, right? I mean traditional media outlets get very cranky when you pirate their writing and such, so surely they would respect the copyright of other professionals.

Right?

It turns out that the source of the video is a MySpace profile for some 19-year-old in the UK who is NOT Nick Parks or the official MySpace page for Wallace & Gromit. And the official web site for Wallace & Gromit only lets you look at clips of the new movie Loaf and Death, presumably because the money is made on the DVDs or iTunes downloads.

Looks like a pirated movie. Smells like a pirated movie. Walks like a pirated movie.

What am I to think?

Bookish news links

Booklorn — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:48:30 +0000

No review today as I’ve been plotting and writing (and reading interferes with my world building), but I’m reinstituting an irregular feature here at Booklorn where I round up some interesting links of what is going on in publishing. At most it will be weekly, but if I don’t find anything of general interest it will be less often:

#1: Currently there is a lot of discussion about Amazon’s move to become a publisher by picking up self-published books sold on Amazon that it thinks it could sell more of by issuing hard cover editions and doing marketing.

#2: A Russian book reviewer was sued over their review by a writer: Neither one is happy with the outcome.

#3: Not publishing specific, but related to story telling and pop culture: An analysis of the new Star Trek movie with a perspective you’ll read nowhere else (hilarious I thought, but then I’m a little twisted I’ve been told ).

That’s all for this week’s links.

Oprah’s New Favourite Thing Is A Kindle

Booklorn — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:05:31 +0000

At least, that’s my guess after I went to amazon.com and saw their little promo video on the front page. They don’t show it, but I can’t think of anything else that would get amazon running that video. And if you think about it, it’s just the kind of thing Oprah would go nuts over. The new “favourite thing” isn’t announced until Friday’s show so I’m crystal ball gazing.

Any bets as to whether I’m right?

Are You Watching Dr. Horrible?

Booklorn — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:26:47 +0000

If someone pimps something long and hard enough (sounds dirty, huh?) I’ll eventually break down and take a look at it. And so it is with Dr. Horrible which Dead Things on Sticks and other blogs have been going on about lately. I finally watched it today and all I can say is “Wow.” Well, actually I can say more than that (“Wow” isn’t very useful, is it?).

Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is a treat. It is an old-time comic book brought to life complete with villains (Dr. Horrible), his nemesis (Dr. Hammer), the League of Supervillains, the pretty girl, and the witty lyrics.

There are songs (which normally puts me off) but the lyrics are hilarious and the interaction between the different characters songs is extremely well done. The writing is incredible, add to that the professional actors (Neil Patrick Harris is Dr. Horrible–trust me, it works), and the professional production values and the whole is even greater than its parts. Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly is the mastermind behind all this.

You MUST see it. With lines like this, how can you resist?
“It’s curtains for you, Dr. Horrible. Lacy, gently wafting curtains.” Captain Hammer

Check it out for yourself (amazingly Hulu works outside the US for this one–Whedon trying to prove something to the Show Biz Big Wigs?).

What do you think? Did you watch since the beginning? (sadly, I didn’t but I’m caught up now). Read the why of Dr. Horrible (hint: the recent writer’s strike had something to do with it).

Dexter Season 3 Preview

Booklorn — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:52:39 +0000

When I started Booklorn.com, I knew that it would go further than books because books are only one endpoint for writing, and it’s really the act and product of writing that I’m fascinated by. And so this post is about one of my favourite television shows, Dexter. When I first saw Jeff Lindsay‘s Dexter booksDexter books at the bookstore, I was annoyed–which, to be perfectly honest, means I was jealous. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to put a truly new spin on an established genre? Pretty hard. All I could think of was “Damn, why didn’t I think of that!”

Jeff Lindsay’s protagonist is Dexter Morgan: A blood spatter analyst for the Miami PD with a strict moral code, who just happens to be a serial killer … of other serial killers. You can cheer him on as he does his deeds! So of course I read all the books. But that wasn’t enough because I knew there was a television series based on the books. So I did what I always do when there is an American show that I can’t get because it would cost me $60/month to get the cable package: I read the recaps on Television Without Pity. And then I whined some more about the cable prices.

About 3 months after I got the Season 1 DVDs (thanks Mom!), a Canadian network started showing it (I’m too lazy to look up which one). I’m now anxiously awaiting Season 2 (for which I’ve already read the recaps), and look forward to Season 3 showing in the US this fall. I found this Dexter season 3 preview through Dennis McGrath‘s Dead Things On Sticks blog (thanks!). Enjoy!

If you’re in the US, you can download individual Dexter episodes on Amazon. Canadians and those in the UK have to be happy with the books and DVDs.