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[jducoeur]

Thanks to tangerinpenguin for a pointer to the trailer for Fahrenheit 9/11. This trailer has been described as a brilliant anti-Bush advertisement, and I have to agree: I can only wish that the Democrats could write an ad half as effective as this. It manages to be disturbingly funny and downright creepy at the same time. Haven't decided whether to see the film when it's finally released -- I suspect that it will raise my blood pressure to the boiling point, which is not entirely good -- but I'm a lot more intrigued now.

On the "fun toys" front, check out Edward of Effingham's Heraldic Avatars. Nothing fancy, just your device, nicely rendered in pixels for a very reasonable price. I may have to invest in one of these.

Recent eBooks from Project Gutenberg:

Dewey Decimal Classification (from the 1976 reprint of the 1876 original). Tables. Lots and lots of tables. But it's tables about books! (Did you know that category 678 is just "Cotton"? Some classifications made a lot more sense a century ago.)

Selected English Letters (XV - XIX Centuries). Mostly out of period, but a modest number from the 16th and 17th centuries that are potentially interesting.

Ravenna, A Study (1913). Mostly *pre*-period, but has several chapters on the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Probably of interest only to I Sebastiani...

Comments

Well

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I'm already voting against the bastard. I'm not for anyone - but I know what I'm against.

Mind you, I rented Bowling for Columbine and fell asleep. Twice. Caught it the third time before I returned it.

Re: Well

[jducoeur]

The thing I really like in this particular case is that the *trailer* is a brilliant ad, and may well have more effect than the movie itself. I mean, the only people who will go see the film about the folks who are already anti-Bush -- it's preaching to the choir. But the trailer potentially gets to a wider audience, and it's impressively powerful, IMO.

(Moreso because so much of the trailer is simply clips of Bush in his less guarded moments. Indeed, perhaps the most disturbing thing about the trailer is that it drives home just how much of a free ride Bush is still getting from the media -- some of the things he says there would get most politicians roasted alive, but I've never even heard of most of these clips before.)

I don't much care how the movie itself does. But I really hope the trailer gets some airplay, because it has more potential to actually change a few minds than any ad I've seen to date...

Dewey!

[madamruppy.livejournal.com]

I've told my husband for years that I wanted something like that. We have an extensive personal library and have talked about cataloging it. I want to do Dewey and he wants to do his own database (not that he could program sucha beast anyway). One step closer to victory for me!

Fahrenheit 9/11

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I really liked Bush saying:

"Some people call you 'the elite.' I call you my [power] base."

When I have time, I'll try to track down who he was speaking to.

[hungrytiger]

As you probably know, Disney tried to squelch the release of Fahrenheit 9/11. Eventually, they allowed Miramax to give the film to group of small studios which had banded together to get the film out. When asked to comment on this, Moore said how much he wanted to "thank the coalition of the willing."

Made me laugh out loud.

It is almost like pity

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I actually feel a bit sorry for Disney on this - because (at least according to the relatively neutral press I read on this), Disney made it very clear, early on, that they were against the film being made, and that they had no intention of distributing it - and had the right to prevent distribution.

Once Michael Moore and the Weinstein's forced their hand, they were in a very pretty pickle, indeed. Given their business situation (where their CEO, Eisner, is having trouble maintaining the confidence of the shareholders and the board), this sort of controversy neatly buggers them.

Moore is a brilliant man, and I love his work, but what a supremely talented manipulative bastard he is. By announcing what he did and when he did, he cornered Disney and put his finger in their eye, primed the pump for votes at Cannes, and made it very hard indeed for Disney to get passive-aggressive on distribution rights.

He's a canny bastard, is Mister Moore. I salute his talent, but if *I* were in the movie industry, I'd shun him. He clearly will take down whomever he has to in order to accomplish his goals.