Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, March 3, 2024
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14 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Late leap day humor: the Leap Light Year
Going through a household purge and my wife came across a poster she has of Leningrad from when she visited in 1982. It no longer goes by that name and is once again St Petersburgs. She commented that she also visited East Germany, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, none of which even exist anymore
Slow day here at OTB.
We bounced through Washington yesterday, my wife had a reading at the Kennedy Center. The signing line was roughly 60/40 between current books, and Animorphs people. One couple (grown-up attorneys) flew in from Chicago just to meet us and have their favorite Ani books signed. Our first thoughts are always, ‘the reality must be a letdown for you.’
But here’s how cool the AniFans are. The line was quite long, and without it being suggested, the AniFans, all adults, stood back and let the kids go first. We have much better fans than we deserve. A genuinely toxin-free fandom.
We started watching the new Avatar series. We’d never been read-in really on the original, but it has interesting commonalities with Animorphs, we were doing a lot of the same things thematically. Liked it a lot. Props to the original creators.
@Michael Reynolds: Aww, man, too bad I didn’t know, I’d have come to meet you both (“hey, great to meet you, I’m Mikey from OTB” lol). Maybe next time.
My wife started watching the new Avatar, she likes it too.
@Michael Reynolds:
Writers, in general, have far more well-behaved fans that do actors and musicians.
@CSK:
I imagine that is true. Readers are generally more likely to be stable.
@Michael Reynolds: unless they are reading manifestos.
@Gustopher:
People who read manifestos don’t read Margaret Atwood. They’ve never heard of her. Nor of MR, Nor even, ffs, me.
ETA: The MAGAs are too busy getting informed from semi-literate crackpot Trump-worshiping blogs to read actual books.
19 delegates
@Mister Bluster:
Of course, this gives her all the momentum for Super Tuesday 😀
On other things, I ordered an ice cream maker. I should be able to test it next weekend.
From BA 0216 high above the Atlantic., drinking scotch.
Tried watching Mission Impossible: Whatever Part 1. Bailed at about the halfway point because it’s nothing but set piece, set piece, set piece, bang bang, stab stab, run run, punch punch, WGAF? So now I’m watching Friends, the one where Ross tries to hurry everyone to get dressed for a speech he’s giving. Seen it at least three times.
The MI movie is fantastically well-done. Really great set pieces. Bit it’s empty, no ideas, no characters, no story, no heart. I sympathize. I wrote a trilogy called BZRK. Really cool premise, really cool set pieces, and it had more ‘idea’ than MI, but it did not sell. Why? No heart. I was so into the concept, so taken by my own cleverness, but it had no heart. Even I DGAF about the characters. Much the same with Maverick Part Dos. And everything late Marvel. And way too much of what Hollywood puts out.
I live in Vegas, go into casinos to drink and eat, and as you walk through a place like the gorgeous new Fontainebleau (pretty much next door), it’s all sleek and bright and flashy, but I actually prefer the Westgate, which is old and tired and kind of sweet and friendly and working class.
Fontainebleau is beautiful, stunning. Westgate has a story. It’s where Elvis ended his career, in his fat glittery onesie singing Suspicious Minds and In the Ghetto.* Fontainebleau is beautiful.
Back when I was writing restaurant reviews I had a (deserved) rep as an absolute prick, so everyone was surprised when I wrote a nice review of this crappy old paddle wheel restaurant boat called the Annabelle Lee, with a cheesy floor show and godawful food. But it had heart. There were stories there.
Advice to writers: don’t forget heart. Friends had heart. MI Part Who Gives a Fuck? Nothing but skill.
*And my Momma cried.
If I’m reading the webs successfully, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top has died.
More of my formative years passing into the great beyond…
@DrDaveT: I’m not finding any indication via Google News or Twitter of his passing.