Sunday, September 07, 2003
A few things on my mind lately...
1. The White Wolf lawsuit against the producers of the upcoming film Underworld is interesting but seems to have only a tiny amount of merit. Granted, I have not read the full script of the film, but I thought the film's idea of vampire society--Underworld reimagines Vampires as a secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophisticates, says one advance review--is right out of WW's World of Darkness, though probably not exactly enough to be actionable. I went back and read the Nancy Collins story "A Love of Monsters" which is the basis of the suit. The story is angsty and tragic and completely unlike the noisy urban actioner that is Underworld, and the dissimilarities will probably be enough to get the whole thing tossed out.
2. Related to the Saudi apartheid photo linked at kdeweb’s blog:
One of the best, most hopeful things to happen in the Middle East recently took place about a week ago at the funeral of the Iraqi Shiite Ayatollah who was killed in the mosque bombing.
Needless to say, it was not reported in much of the press, who spent the entire day combing the crowd to find people who would say bad things about America, in English. The media who actually spoke Arabic heard the crowd of 500,000 (!) saying something very interesting. They were chanting "La ilaha illallah--Wahhabi adwu allah"--"There is only one God--Wahhabis are God's enemies." Wahhabism is the strict form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, whom many Iraqis blame for the blast. Al Qaeda has denied responsibility for the attack, but I think they are lying.
At any rate, resistance to Saudi and Wahhabi influence is the best thing that could happen to the Middle East, and the Islamic world in general.
3. And I love that 69% of the public believes that Iraq had something to do with 9/11, even after two years of relentless media pooh-poohing. And me? At this moment I'm actually in the 31% that doesn't believe it, though I would like it to be true. I am pretty convinced that Saddam was in on the anthrax attacks, though.
4. And the briefest possible personal update: My life sucks a lot lately. Just don't ask me how my job search is going and we will be fine.
1. The White Wolf lawsuit against the producers of the upcoming film Underworld is interesting but seems to have only a tiny amount of merit. Granted, I have not read the full script of the film, but I thought the film's idea of vampire society--Underworld reimagines Vampires as a secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophisticates, says one advance review--is right out of WW's World of Darkness, though probably not exactly enough to be actionable. I went back and read the Nancy Collins story "A Love of Monsters" which is the basis of the suit. The story is angsty and tragic and completely unlike the noisy urban actioner that is Underworld, and the dissimilarities will probably be enough to get the whole thing tossed out.
2. Related to the Saudi apartheid photo linked at kdeweb’s blog:
One of the best, most hopeful things to happen in the Middle East recently took place about a week ago at the funeral of the Iraqi Shiite Ayatollah who was killed in the mosque bombing.
Needless to say, it was not reported in much of the press, who spent the entire day combing the crowd to find people who would say bad things about America, in English. The media who actually spoke Arabic heard the crowd of 500,000 (!) saying something very interesting. They were chanting "La ilaha illallah--Wahhabi adwu allah"--"There is only one God--Wahhabis are God's enemies." Wahhabism is the strict form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia, whom many Iraqis blame for the blast. Al Qaeda has denied responsibility for the attack, but I think they are lying.
At any rate, resistance to Saudi and Wahhabi influence is the best thing that could happen to the Middle East, and the Islamic world in general.
3. And I love that 69% of the public believes that Iraq had something to do with 9/11, even after two years of relentless media pooh-poohing. And me? At this moment I'm actually in the 31% that doesn't believe it, though I would like it to be true. I am pretty convinced that Saddam was in on the anthrax attacks, though.
4. And the briefest possible personal update: My life sucks a lot lately. Just don't ask me how my job search is going and we will be fine.
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