It's a song about the loss of innocence... and we've all lost a little today.

Good night, Mary.

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Walter Cronkite, Dead at 92

The man they called The Most Trusted Man in America -- and really, has anyone else come along worthy of the title come along since he retired? -- died today, in the middle of the the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that he covered so memorably.

He was a journalist, by God, and there are damned few of them left today, in the mainstream media or on the net.

The nation whose population depends on the explosively compressed headline service of television news can expect to be exploited by the demagogues and dictators who prey upon the semi-informed. -- Walter Cronkite, 1996

Good night, Uncle Walter.

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"Billy Jean"? "Thriller"? "Smooth Criminal"?

This is the Michael Jackson that I'd prefer to remember.



He spent his whole life trying to recapture a childhood lost to celebrity.
I think this is the Michael he'd have preferred to remember, too.

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Dreamworks is Really Tyrell Corporation: Kung Fu Panda More China Than China

Excerpt:

Chinese animated films tend to be more educational in nature and heavy with significance, but short on entertaining detail, "Kung Fu Panda" viewers say. Local directors would not have had the imagination to make Po's father a duck. Nor would they dare to portray a panda -- a cultural icon in China -- as lazy and fat as Po when "Kung Fu Panda" begins.
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Foreigners who make cultural missteps are often accused of hurting the feelings of the Chinese people.

"If you asked a Chinese to make this movie, the panda needs to be lovable but in a perfect sense," said Sun Lijun, a professor of animation at the Beijing Movie Institute, in the July 10 issue of Oriental Outlook magazine. "In the end, he would be so perfect he would be unlovable."

This intritgues me. I was wondering how the movie would play in China -- if it would be dismissed as just a big ball of stereotypes. The best-case response I foresaw was amused tolerance.

I did not expect waves of enthusiasm combined with a shocked awareness that barbarian outsiders had made a better movie about China than China could.

This is, incidentally, one of those movies that could only work because it's furry. Yes, the Cute Talking Animals genre has been overplayed in CGI -- but that doesn't mean it's anywhere near tapped.

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Whilst looking for an old post, I found one from about three years ago that might do with revisiting:

When they make an animated movie of FurryMUCK / Second Life / The Internet / Your Favorite Tabletop RPG, who should voice your character?

Think of this as one of those "Writer's Block" questions they put up on the LJ Home Page.

I may make it part of the character creation process in my future tabletop games.

I'm still sticking with Kelsey Grammer for Athelind.

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thebitterguy asked his readers, "Tell me a story that involves dropping a celebrity's name.  Even a minor one; like, award winning fanfic writer counts."

( Here's mine. )