So. Stuff.

We all went out to New York Pizza for Valkyrie's birthday yesterday (I am slightly obsessed with their Fire Island Fajita pizza. IT COMES WITH SALSA!), and then we went to see The Lovely Emily's new house, which is awesome, although I think the first words out of my mouth were, "God, it's huge! --You got yourself a lotta pokeweed there." But it really is awesome (it has an entire Rock Band room).

Finally going to try to learn to knit. Knittinghelp.com is going to be my first stop. My first project is going to be a practice scarf with a bit of leftover yarn on which I can try out random techniques. More of a "scarf," really. I'd really like to knit Lyra a little knee-length pink cardigan, but... that's probably years away, in terms of knitting experience.

I think I have a cavity between two molars. Maybe it's just gum inflammation, but my hopes are not high. I have a dental cleaning appointment at the end of the month anyway, so... whatever.

Dying of cramps. You needed to know this, I'm sure. But at least when I say "I'm feeling really bad today," you'll know I don't mean it emotionally.

A few key linkspam items:

Ryan Reynolds Lands 'Green Lantern'! I'm going to be really interested to see how this does or does not affect his Deadpool movie. (However: congratulations, Green Lantern movie! You now get a tag.)

New Moon and Cameron!Avatar panels rescheduled to avoid riots; The Horrors of Comic-Con 2009: Saturday; GIRLS AT COMIC-CON! GET IN THE CAR.

First Look: Wes Anderson's Version of 'Fantastic Mr. Fox.'

'True Blood' gets truly great with new episode tonight.

"I am not a hero for turning you on, and neither is John Barrowman."

Fin.

Tags: cameron!avatar, conventions, dental work (sigh), fantastic mr. fox, friends, gaiety, green lantern, his dark materials, knitting, leaving the house omg, movies, om nom nom, pizza, public unrest, sparkle motion, the lovely emily, true blood, tv, twilight, valkyrie, vampires
Current Mood: nrrrrgh
Current Music: Angelfish (Shirley Manson) - Kimberly

Two things first:

1) After a few nights of feverish procrastination copypasta coding, I finally have a Secret Life of Dolls read-through for you. You can jump in anywhere you want and, by means of hitting "next" or "previous" as you wish, read the entire saga from beginning to end or end to beginning. That's all you right there.

2) Trufax:

@cleolinda: Okay, since at least six people will have my back: the best song from any Grease movie. Yes it is. YES, IT IS. http://tinyurl.com/dfu6w4
@cleolinda: Yes, that is Michelle Pfeiffer riding a ladder. I think this argument is done.

( Linkspam )

Tags: clash of the titans, crime, deaths, dolls, dracula, gaiety, harry potter, iron man, music, scifi, shakespeare, sparkle motion, the secret life of dolls, twilight, twitter, watchmen, x-men
Current Mood: hilarity
Current Music: Grease 2 - Cool Rider

Well, I'm having a bit of block (at the word-by-word sentence level) on the new Secret Life (and once we get to the entry after that one, you will understand why I've been trying to plow through), so let's discuss the big hot-button topic today: Amazon making an ass of itself (aka "#amazonfail" on Twitter, where much of the protest has been fomenting).

Amazon de-ranks so-called adult books, including National Book Award winner.

"American Psycho" is Bret Easton Ellis' story of a sadistic murderer. "Unfriendly Fire" is a well-reviewed empirical analysis of military policy. But it's "Unfriendly Fire" that does not have a sales rank -- which means it would not show up in Amazon's bestseller lists, even if it sold more copies than the Twilight series. In some cases, being de-ranked also means being removed from Amazon's search results.

Amazon's policy of removing "adult" content from its rankings seems to be both new and unevenly implemented. On Saturday, self-published author Mark R. Probst [markprobst] noticed that his book had lost its ranking, and made inquiries. The response he got from Amazon's customer service explained:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude “adult” material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Probst is the author of a novel for young adults with gay characters set in the old West; he was concerned that gay-friendly books were being unfairly targeted. Amazon has not responded to the LA Times request for clarification.

The issue isn't that "adult" content is being deranked; it's that Amazon is pulling gay and lesbian content (and then feminist/general sexuality) that was not explicit (E.M. Forster's Maurice!) from sales ranks, greatly decreasing its visibility and sales potential, while letting explicit heterosexual content remain. (Moreover, Dear Author reports that, due to the derankings, "if you search 'homosexual' on Amazon.com, your first search result is 'A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality.' ")

Among the targeted works:

For example, books that are about Lesbian parenting have been identified as “adult content” and deranked. Patti O’Shea’s book that is listed “erotic horror” despite having only one sex scene has been deranked and removed from front page search results. Amazon has deranked Annie Proulx [Brokeback Mountain], E.M. Forster, but not American Psycho. Mein Kampf and books about dog fighting are ranked and can be searched from the front page, but not books about gay love or books with erotic content. (Dear Author)

(More thorough listings at meta_writer.)

Furthermore, Smart Bitches explains, "Craig Seymour['s] book All I Could Bare, a memoir of his job as a stripper, was stripped of sales rank back in February 2009, despite memoirs from prominent pornography actors remaining within the ranks. So this has been creeping up insidiously, it seems, until massive delisting occurred over the last few days."

Then Smart Bitches took it to the streets with the Google bomb Amazon Rank; they add that, "As of 7:54pm EST, Amazon has given out a host of explanations, which I’ve heard from Twitterers, along the lines of 'people complained' to 'we will have more information tomorrow.' I smell a giant meeting in PR at Amazon HQ bright and early tomorrow. We’ll see what the morning brings."

Of course, Amazon Says Glitch to Blame for "New" Adult Policy. Unfortunately, Dear Author foresaw that explanation: "Craig Seymour first complained about his book being adversely treated by Amazon back in February." Plus, you know--THE EMAIL TO MARK PROBST. So tomorrow should be interesting.


ETA: Traffic killed the Publisher's Weekly "glitch" article, but I managed to grab it here.

ETA 2: On Amazon Failure, Meta-Trolls, and Bantown. I don't know how that would take February and the Probst email into account, though.

Tags: books, epic fail, gaiety, oh hell no, publishing

Linkspam:

Remembering Natasha Richardson, 1963-2009; Natasha Richardson, 45, Stage and Film Star, Dies (New York Times); Natasha Richardson: A critical appreciation; Richardson Died of ‘Blunt Impact,’ Medical Examiner Says; U.S. Release Plans Uncertain for Natasha Richardson Film, 'Wild Child'; Natasha Richardson: 17 key roles; Lindsay Lohan and Alan Cumming Comment on Natasha Richardson's Death; Rivers recalls Richardson as 'amazing and darling'; Natasha Richardson: Stars and friends remember her. Among the many:

Ralph Fiennes (Richardson's costar in Maid in Manhattan and The White Countess)
"For everyone who knew and loved her, Natasha's death is a terrible, devastating loss. She was a star. A great actress, a beautiful woman, a fiercely loyal friend, a brilliant and generous companion. She was an adoring and loving wife and mother. She was unique. My thoughts and prayers go out to Liam and her beautiful sons, Micheál and Danny and to all her family. I cannot imagine a world without her wit, her love, her mischief, her great, great talent and her gift for living. I loved her very much. She was a supreme friend. I shall miss her deeply."

Helen Mirren (Richardson's costar in The Comfort of Strangers)
"Natasha was a great actress, a fantastic mother, a loving wife and a whirlwind of energy, with an infectious love of life expressed firstly by her wonderful deep laugh. Anyone who knew her will be in mourning today. I hope that Liam and her sons are helped in their pain by the great love and sympathy that is coming to them from people all over the world."

Meryl Streep (Richardson's costar in Evening)
"Tash was the warm sun in the center of a large constellation of family, friends, all of those lucky enough to know her. She is irreplaceable in our lives; she gave us so much, so generously. Her legacy is the love that connects us all."

( I think we all need a laughing puppy now )

Tags: awards, conventions, dark shadows, death, dvd, facebook, gaiety, harry potter, howl, iron man, mission impossible, monsters, pixar, publishing, south park, sparkle motion, stephen colbert, terminator, twilight, twitter, vampires, watchmen, x-men

Trufax: I was talking to my sister's boyfriend--we really need to come up with a code name for him, Sister Girl and I decided, but we don't know what yet--on Sunday and he mentioned the Twilight Tonner dolls. Apparently when I was all like YOU GUYS GO TO THE TONNER NYCC BOOTH AND JUST, LIKE... LOOK AT THEM OR SOMETHING FOR ME earlier this month, he did, and he was like, "Who's in charge here? Can we buy 400 of those for our stores?" And the Tonner people were like, "Uh... YES." Apparently it had never occurred to anyone to sell actual dolls at bookstores, even though their rival Borders has been selling the action figures and all the Hot Topic crap. So, uh... if you happen to be at a Books-a-Million and you see the Tonners there as an in-store exclusive, that's... kind of because one of their buyers has a not-quite sister-in-law who's a Crazy Doll Lady. *cough* I mean, I asked Sister Girl, and she said, "No, it totally would have been because of you, that's how he would have heard about the dolls in the first place," although of course he was the one smart enough to actually come up with the idea and get them for the stores.

And the other thing is... I don't have anything solid enough to repeat on this, but they might give Books-a-Million some kind of holiday exclusive, I don't know. It might simply be that Tonner's going to put out more stuff for the holidays, as they do, and Books-a-Million will be the only bookstore selling it, who knows.

Meanwhile, I am TIRED of this head cold. It's just bad enough to make me feel groggy and snerfy, but not bad enough to GET ON WITH IT.

Also: Remind me to tell you about the Bowl of Galadriel. Again. Uh... tomorrow. Like I said: I'm a bit behind.

( Linkspam! )

Tags: agora, american idol, awards, batman, conventions, crazy, dolls, dracula, gaiety, harry potter, iron man, movies, narnia, nine, oscar, sherlock holmes, sparkle motion, star trek, star wars, the duchess, the imaginarium of dr. parnassus, tour of terror, twilight, twitter, wtf, young victoria
Current Mood: Is it better than being a Crazy Cat Lady?

Omg, I am so tired in such a stupid pointless way. Mostly because I have that cold and I'm snerfly and argh I am so over this. And I was away from the computer most of the day so I'm also behind on everything. Otherwise, you would also have a new Secret Life entry, because we have developments on that front. So look for that in the morning, I guess. Maybe? When are the televised inaugural festivities starting? Because even if three hours of leadup bore me to tears, I feel like I should be there, you know? A historic first is, by definition, a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Anyway. Linkspam. I've decided not to post generic Sundance links, or at least very few of them, because there's dozens of them on my feeds and I have neither the time nor the fortitude to deal with that right now. If it's a specific news item, sure, it'll go in, but as mentioned previously, several movie sites are doing exhaustive coverage (off the top of my head: EW; MTV; Defamer), so, you know: enjoy.

( Linkspam )

Tags: awards, books, britney spears, city of ember, conventions, coraline, crazy, dolls, film festivals, flight of the conchords, gaiety, harry potter, iron man, lord of the rings, lost, margaret atwood, movies, music, narnia, neil gaiman, sick, sparkle motion, spider-man, terry pratchett, the curious case of benjamin button, the princess and the frog, toys, tv, twilight, u2, vampires, veronica mars, watchmen, wtf, x-men
Current Mood: exhausted

Sick today. Not badly, just enough to feel dizzy and crummy and not make a lot of sense when I tried to talk to people. And it was only a little congestion at that--possibly I didn't notice it because (sorry, mild TMI) the crud was oozing down my throat, which was then sore, rather than staying in my head.

(Heather C.--thank you so much! The packing slip referred to two packages? The one today had books in it?)

(Also: omg.)

( Minispam about recent and not-so-recent deaths )

( Regular linkspam )

Tags: alan moore, awards, books, candy, coraline, deaths, film festivals, gaiety, heath ledger, hoaxes, knitting, lost, oscars, perfume, poe, scifi, shakespeare, sick, sparkle motion, stephen colbert, terminator, the man who killed don quixote, the prisoner, tv, twilight, underworld, valentine's day, watchmen, writers, x-men, zombies
Current Mood: phlegmish, like the people of Phlagnders
Current Music: Kate Bush - Never Be Mine

Tired, so without further ado: ( Read more... )

Tags: awards, cute, deaths, epic fail, gaiety, golden globes, harry potter, heath ledger, inkheart, iron man, lord of the rings, movies, music, narnia, omgwtfpolarbear, sin city, star trek, the curious case of benjamin button, the day the earth stood still, the last airbender, the spirit, the wolfman, tv, twilight, valkyrie, watchmen
Current Mood: melancholy

Whoa. I lay down and closed my eyes for a few moments after dinner, and suddenly it was 10 pm.

Okay--I don't want to name names, but one of the movie sites I use for news items keeps saying things like, "GOD, I am so not interested in this movie AT ALL, it looks so boring and not good and it won't make any money anyway. Here is a trailer, two video clips and a gallery of three dozen pictures." For every other movie. Do you like doing this job or not? Be catty, even, but don't just piss and moan about how you don't care about anything on the market right as you deign to give us the promotional material. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the fact that I do this for fun and I don't have to talk about something if I don't want to--I don't give damn #1 about the Transformers franchise, for example, but I can just include "New Transformers clips" in a list and move on with my life with a minimum of moanage and pissation. Or maybe it's just that--well, I think "enthusiasm" might be counted as one of my most vivid personality traits, so I just don't understand how you can post about movie after movie with "God, this is so stupid and I don't care." At least put your back into some snark, man!

Anyway. ( Linkspam )

Tags: alabama is the center of the universe, awards, batman, books, captain blood, comics, dark shadows, deaths, facebook, film festivals, gaiety, harry potter, lost, macros, movies, music, narnia, sparkle motion, star wars, stephen colbert, sundance, the day the earth stood still, the spirit, tour of terror, true blood, tv, twilight, twitter, vampires, watchmen, x-men
Current Mood: sleepy

God, my jaw is killing me (left side). Tension, I guess. Anyway, Sister Girl came home from the podiatrist and now she has a "flayed Achilles tendon," so I'm pretty much just waiting for the other shoe to drop and fall on my head (so to speak). Mom's foot's doing reasonably okay, though.

Alabama Mayor Charged With Fraud; Mayor arrested on bribery, other charges; Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford enters not-guilty plea, is released. Given that this is the same mayor who wanted to spend a shitload of money nominating Birmingham FOR THE OLYMPICS (as if we even had enough hotels to deal with that) and moved a downtown dome-building project OUT TO THE DOG TRACK to benefit his cronies, I am pleased by these developments.

( More linkspam )

Tags: agora, alabama is the center of the universe, asshaberdashery, australia, awards, batman, bond, books, cleopatra, crime, fame, forbidden planet, fraud, gaiety, harry potter, heath ledger, holidays, iron man, justice league, knitting, lolcats, megan meier, movies, music, my mother, myspace, nanowrimo, narnia, neil gaiman, oscars, pirates (arrrr), politics, robin hood, rome, schadenfreude, shenanigans, sister girl, sparkle motion, star trek, star wars, superman, the curious case of benjamin button, the day the earth stood still, the reader, the spirit, tv, twilight, underworld, valkyrie, vampires, vanity fair, werewolves, writers, x-men
Current Mood: hungry

I feel kind of... weirdly relaxed. Would you know what I meant if I said I didn't have any good tension? Like--you know how you can't play a violin unless the strings are taut? That kind of tension. Right now I just feel kind of... boneless. I mean, it's nice. It's just not helping me get anything done.

(No I did not take any drugs.)

(No, not even legal ones.)

(NOT EVEN A DRINK, I AM SERIOUS.)

Repeat of important note: LJ's going out tomorrow for a physical server move. Just in case, you might want to back up your journals with ljArchive. If you need to get hold of me for some kind of OMG LOOK AT THIS! reason, I'm on Twitter and Facebook (see sidebar), and you can get me at my Yahoo email (dailydigest @). I'm not going to assume that the cleolinda at livejournal.com email will work.

Hmm. "Another Way to Die" is growing on me. My policy of not listening to a Bond theme song until I actually hear it over the credits in the theater seems to be working well for me. Although I was not terribly impressed by the sandy ladies. Of course, I ran off to Vegas and quickie-married "You Know My Name" when the other movie came out, so I'm probably unpleasable at this point, in terms of Bond songs.

(What is it with me? Lately it's like I don't like anything until I've heard it four or five times, and then suddenly I'm like, I MUST NEVER STOP LISTENING TO THIS. I mean, I tend to listen to things on repeat so this works out for me okay, but it used to not take me quite so long to realize I liked something.)

(I can't think of a segue to this, so I'll simply say that Sister Girl whipped out her iPhone the other day and said, "You know that song 'Personal Jesus'?" "Um, I'm a child of the '80s?" "Well, Hilary Duff..." "OH GOD!" Fortunately, it's more of an extended sample called "Reach Out," in which one is exhorted to reach out and touch her instead of faith. The video is... interesting. Kind of like a Vogue photoshoot gone horribly wrong. We both love that huge ring she's got on in the closeups, though.)

Anyway. Another Twi-spam may go up tonight, I'm not sure. Depends on whether we get riots and/or sparkling.

(Watch The Twilight Premiere Live! HEY YOU GUYS IT'S ANOTHER WIDGET! Of course, I just like saying "widget" over and over again. It's such a fun word to say. "Iiiiiiiit's a WIDGET!")

(I personally find this to be related: DiCaprio: 'Titanic Nearly Ruined Me.')

Re: Mad Hatter pic: I'm not the only one concerned it might be a fake. Also, since a number of people sent me this link--Alice in Wonderland set pics. These are the same or similar pictures to the ones I posted a while back, though--there's Baby Bonham-Burton in her red riding hood and everything.

( Moar linkspam )

Tags: alice in wonderland, australia, awards, batman, bond, comics, coraline, cute, days of our lives, easy virtue, gaiety, livejournal, movies, music, narnia, neil gaiman, oscars, revolutionary road, saturday night live, secret of moonacre, soap operas, star trek, the curious case of benjamin button, the day the earth stood still, the spirit, the wolfman, titanic, twilight, underworld, video, watchmen, wikipedia
Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: "Another Way to Die"

So... yeah. I didn't get anything done today.

Political/entertainment news (and no, this is not going to become a regular feature): ( LJ-cut if you prefer to skip )

Twilight linkspam: ( TOUR OF TERROR '08 CONTINUES )

Regular linkspam: ( MOAR )

Tags: awards, batman, bond, books, deaths, gaiety, iron man, movies, music, oscars, poetry, politics, revolutionary road, saturday night live, science, scifi, sparkle motion, spider-man, stephen colbert, the daily show, the reader, the spirit, tour of terror, tv, twilight, wanted, watchmen, wonder woman, writers, x-men
Current Mood: eyelid-twitchy

And now I sleep.

( Linkspam! )

Tags: australia, bond, books, conversations with my sister, coraline, gaiety, halloween, harry potter, iron man, movies, music, om nom nom, paramore, pirates of the caribbean, sherlock holmes, sister girl, sparkle motion, star wars, the curious case of benjamin button, the reader, tour of terror, tv, twilight, valkyrie, video, watchmen
Current Mood: sleepy

IT IS SO COLD, YAY! I don't think I've ever pulled out Queen Susan this early in the year. Although that was partly because I forgot that my mother had put my two sweater coats into the cedar closet, and I was tearing up the house in despair looking for them (the blue one is gorgeous! and the black one has a HOOD, y'all) so I would have something to wear outside. Next up: the hot chocolate. I hope the mini-marshmallows aren't stale.

Today's journal flashback: since I'm running out of days and substantial entries, let's do some more weird dreams. How about the time Dream!Jennifer Connelly and I ran into... someone; the one where Tyler Durden and I fled the yippy dogs; and then I nearly dated a vampire but I had to catch a shuttle to the moon.

Llinkspam! ( I think we need some kittens now )

Tags: awards, batman, bond, books, crazy, crime, cute, deaths, dreams, fandom, gaiety, halloween, harry potter, hitchcock, iron man, lolcats, movies, mst3k, music, neil gaiman, omgwtfpolarbear, oscars, phantom of the opera, salvador dali, sparkle motion, star trek, the da vinci code, the duchess, the road, tour of terror, tv, twilight, underworld, vampires, video, watchmen, werewolves, wtf, zombies
Current Mood: cold

Today, I am full of French onion soup and accomplishment. Really full. I have a few screencaps to make (I want to link to visual evidence of some of this weirdness), but other than that, I'm putting the Van Helsing footnotes to bed. Exciting. Which means I get to plow on through the list chronologically and keep going until I hit another unfootnoted patch, and hopefully work through the entire set UNTIL THEY ARE DONE, OMG.

A weird little sidenote: I've been trying out different old BPAL favorites as room scents, and even though Fae is a pretty bubbly scent (bergamot, heliotrope and peach, I think?), I haven't been all that productive this week. Then I put out Siren (ginger, jasmine, vanilla and apricot), and suddenly I'm getting a lot more done. Could be a coincidence, I don't know.

OH OH OH I KNEW I WAS FORGETTING SOMETHING: Today's flashback is (the oddly prescient... kind of) MyScene Lindsay Lohan entry. I even went through and freshened up all the picture links (well, except for one, and I have no idea what it originally was).

Linkspam! ( The Hair touches down in Mexico, is assaulted with sombrero )

Tags: annotations, awards, bond, books, bpal, changeling, crazy, crime, gaiety, halloween, harry potter, internet, jewelry, lost, m15m, movies, music, om nom nom, oscars, scifi, shopping, sparkle motion, star trek, terminator, the spirit, tour of terror, tv, twilight, ufo, underworld, van helsing, video, wank, watchmen, writers, youtube
Current Mood: happy

HEY YOU GUYS THEY ARE NOW SELLING BPAL AT THE WHOLE FOODS IN BIRMINGHAM!

This is the most exciting thing that has happened all day.

Linkspam! ( Prissy diamonds, Blackbeard, Alice in Wonderland )

Tags: alabama is the center of the universe, alice in wonderland, american idol, awards, batman, blackbeard, bond, books, bpal, changeling, disney, eagle eye, film festivals, gaiety, halloween, harry potter, iron man, lexicongate, lost, movies, music, oscars, revolutionary road, scifi, the da vinci code, the day the earth stood still, the last station, toys, true blood, tv, twilight, vampires, watchmen
Current Mood: working

Allegedly there is someone downstairs fixing the fridge (the wrong part came in last time), which sounds promising. But meanwhile! Famous people are out there being GAY and it is SO OUR BUSINESS, the media will have you know:

Clay Aiken: 'Yes, I'm Gay.' World: 'Yes, We Knew'; Clay Aiken is gay? Really? NO KIDDING (EPIC ONTD POST IS EPIC). And somewhere, the collective Claymate breakdown is in progress, I'm sure.

Lindsay Lohan FINALLY Confirms Relationship With Samantha Ronson. "Finally" kind of bugs me here--you know, because she so totally owes us an explanation of her life and needs to get right on that. But, you know. Apparently it's a good day to be gay, so good on them.

More linkspam! ( Movie musicals, Cookie Monster Slayer, Emmett takes candy from strangers )

Tags: american idol, awards, batman, books, crime, eagle eye, eragon, gaiety, harry potter, internet, megan meier, movies, music, oscars, scifi, shutter island, sparkle motion, star trek, the beautiful and the damned, the reader, the spirit, tv, twilight, wanted, writers
Current Mood: sarcastic

( My day at the hospital: loopy ramblings )

Tags: family, gaiety, health, lost, my mother, politics, tv, wisdom teeth