Have you seen the stars tonite?

So, I guess "Mars Needs Moms" is now one of the biggest bombs in Hollywood history. $175 million budget, $6.8 million opening weekend.

I hated this movie based on teaser trailers a year ago -- and I was predisposed to love it, seeing how it's based on a book by Berke Breathed, of "Bloom County" fame.

However, I'm pretty sure Breathed's book isn't wall-to-wall fart jokes, which was what the trailer was selling.

The best fallout is the shuttering or Bob Zemeckis's motion-capture studio, ImageMovers Digital. Or, rather that, with, the closing of Zemeckis's studio, his motion-capture remake of "Yellow Submarine" has also been killed.

There IS a god!

I posted my massive 2010 reading list in January. I'm splitting it up this year, I'll prolly post every couple of months or so.

01/10/2011    Fuzzy Bones by William Tuning
01/15/2011    Dune (audiobook) by Frank Herbert
01/17/2011    The Inheritor by Marion Zimmer Bradley
01/19/2011    Moonfire (ss) by Marion Zimmer Bradley
                    Dark Satanic by Marion Zimmer Bradley
01/20/2011    Goblin Market (ss) by Marion Zimmer Bradley
01/22/2011    Witch Hill by Marion Zimmer Bradley
01/24/2011    Ghostlight by Marion Zimmer Bradley (& Rosemary Edghill)
01/25/2011    The Bloom County Library Volume Two by Berkeley Breathed
01/28/2011    Dune Messiah (audiobook) by Frank Herbert
01/29/2011    Alone (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    The Maze (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    A Matter of Taste (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    The Magic, Magic Carpet (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    The Unharmonious Word (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    Hot Squat (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    Can Do (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    Boomerang (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    Hard Luck Story (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    The Bureaucrat (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    Homing Tantalus (na) by A. Bertram Chandler
01/30/2011    The Left-Handed Way (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    Moon of Madness (na) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    Mother of Invention (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
01/31/2011    Witchlight by Marion Zimmer Bradley (& Rosemary Edghill)
02/01/2011    No More Sea (nv) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    The Pool (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    Next in Line (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    Why? (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/02/2011    The Trouble With Them (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    The Successors (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
                    The Ship From Nowhere (na) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/04/2011    The Window (ss) by A. Bertram Chandler
02/19/2011    Gravelight by Marion Zimmer Bradley (& Rosemary Edghill)
02/23/2011    Exploring Space: 1999 by by John Kenneth Muir
                    Destination: Moonbase Alpha by
02/27/2011    Children of Dune (audiobook) by Frank Herbert
03/03/2011    Heartlight by Marion Zimmer Bradley (& Rosemary Edghill)

Currently reading:
The Fall of Atlantis by Marion Zimmer Bradley (and David R. Bradley)
 God Emperor of Dune (audiobook) by Frank Herbert

I read a bunch of A. Bertram Chandler stories out of old pulps at the end of January/beginning of February. These were requested by an internet correspondent and fellow Chandler fan who doesn't have the pulps they appear in. I was helping him determine if any of thees stories were part of Chandler's "Rim Worlds Universe." Mostly they aren't

I also read the 7 books in MZB's interconnected "Colin/Claire" and 'Shadow's Gate" seria. I really enjoyed most of the books. The Shadow's Gate books were ghostwritten by Rosemary Edghill (Marion was quite ill for most of the '90's and, as best I can determine, didn't complete any novels on her own after 1989 or so.) After reading Heartlight, I jumped back to read The Fall of Atlantis, which apparently takes place in the same universe (just several thousand years earlier.) I expect I'll tackle The Mists of Avalon and its various sequels after that -- they also takes place in that same universe. The sequels, which were ghostwritten by/continued by Diana L. Paxson, have been declining in sales, and the publisher hasn't asked for another one, so that series looks done.

There are still about a half-dozen Darkover titles in "to be read" pile. They'll come next.

I might try and catch up on some Star Trek titles after that. I'm a couple years behind, but nothing has COMPELLED me to read it over the last few years, so who knows. I want to read the "Typhon Pact" books, but the reviews on the first couple were less-than-stellar, so I might skip them and only read the last 2.

Saw the final chapter of the Millennium Trilogy today. It was good. Kinda long, and it was pretty much all talk talk talk, but all in all, not a bad trio of films.

I'll be interested to see how the Hollywood Re-Imagining pans out.

OK, so when Jason fogbear posted that the forthcoming IBR would be the final one, I finally realized why I've been procrastinating getting signed up for Fiesta de los osos.

Because we're not going to Fiesta next month; we're going to IBR 17 (Close Encounters of the Ultimate Kind) in February.

Memberships bought, hotel booked, flights purchased online. What else do I need to shop for, but the condoms 'n' lube...?

H/T to albadger :

The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets/playwrights included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

1. Tim Powers
2. Marion Zimmer Bradley
3. Harlan Ellison
4. A. Bertram Chandler
5. H. Beam Piper
6. J. Michael Straczynski
7. Matthew Hughes
8. Jaime Hernandez
9. Jack Vance
10. Gene Roddenberry
11. J.R.R. Tolkien
12. Julian May
13. Robert E. Howard
14. Ian Fleming
15. David Bastian (I was in a writing group with him back in the '80's and he was the best writer in the group -- but he could never seem to finish a story, so I don't think he ever published anything.) (This writing group included published writers M. Shayne Bell and Dave Wolverton - who became well known writing an endless fantasy quest series as David Farland, to give you an idea of how good Bastian was. He was better than anyone else in the group.)

Everything by H. Beam Piper that was published before his death in 1964 is now in the public domain, so his most famous novel, Little Fuzzy, is now available from Project Gutenberg (and a bunch of other places, including iBooks) for free.

I originally read it in 1976 -- I still have the first printing of the Ace edition with the awesome Michael Whelan cover art that I bought (new, mind you, not used like so many of my other books in those days) when I was 16. I really liked it, and bought everything from Piper as soon as Ace reprinted it over the next 7 or 8 years.

I thought I'd see how it holds up 34 years later.

Surprisingly well. Not perfect -- Piper has some annoying habits. I agree with John W. Campbell, who turned it down for Astounding stating there were too many characters. Indeed there are, and they sometimes stumble over each other in a book that might - might - have 60,000 words tops.

But Piper's storytelling gifts were prodigious, and this is a fine book. I dug out my copies of Piper's 2 sequels (neither of which were published before his death - and the second didn't get into print until 1984!) and I'm going to jump into them immediately. Wish Fuzzy Sapiens and Fuzzies and Other People were available as legal e-books, but they're not. Too bad!

I'd love to see some talented fans make a Fan Film of THIS book. Hell, I'd love to see a real movie made of this book. The rights are available cheap, I would imagine.

Oh, apparently John Scalzi has written an authorized-by-the-Piper-estate  "reboot" of the Fuzzy universe with the working title Fuzzy Nation. Tor has bought it and it's coming out some time next year. I suppose I'll have to buy & read that when it comes out.

[whiny bitch mode] Fiftysomething rockers need to be more careful. Two of my three big concerts this summer canceled because a band member fucked him or herself up, requiring surgery. First, Bono. Now, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's. If Macca falls and breaks a hip, that's three for three. [/whiny bitch mode]

In non-whiny bitch news, I wish Bono and Jane a speedy recovery and hope they're able to reschedule their tour dates soon.

Paul, please be careful coming down the stairs!

The end.

Ok, so I was already in my 20's when Tron was released. I thought it had some cool graphix, but sucked as, you know, a narrative. I haven't thought about it in decades. Those were pretty good decades.

Now the belated sequel is coming, and the entirety of Beardom seems to be squeeing in unison. I couldn't possibly be more "meh" about the prospect of a Tron sequel.

Is it an age thing? What am I missing here? Why is Tron Legacy the bear equivalent of a new Twilight movie?

Maybe I need to start watchin' me some 'lympics.