Origami Unicorn

Afterwards

Two days of filming, and away they went, leaving behind only those objects too heavy to pick up immediately: some trees in planters and a scattering of dying cuttings. I was surprised to find that the trees were encased in concrete, with the trunk rising through a hole not much larger than the trunk. Inspecting this, I looked up to see someone very like the director, watching me. No, I didn't ask: it's more fun to think it might have been.

Later, after a shower, I went back to find that the planters were wood, sprayed with slurry, and even the light rain had been enough to make them begin to fall apart at the seams. Already the passing foot-traffic was filling the bases with trash, and the stubs where the roots would have been exposed the fake ivy. In one corner, a heap of discarded pot plants withered, unwatered. Hollywood had passed and left its discards.

We do wonder what will happen to the trees...

At Last! Action!

Film making is a slow process, involving huge numbers of people, trailers, police cars, and an almost infinite amount of annoyance to those living wherever work is in progress. The Happening, which is filming today where I live, may or may not use the bit they are creating as an "news event" watched by the main characters on TV. A number of people are going to be very disappointed if this ends up on the cutting room floor.

New York Comic-Con Plans to Grow

Although major indie houses like Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly were missing at this year's Comic-Con, which is reported to have drawn close to fifty thousand people, plans are already underway to encourage the indies to have a presence at the 2008 event, April 18-20 at the Javits Convention Center in NYC. The website, with almost as much as you want to know right now, is already up in blinding color.

Borders Third Quarter Disappoints

Despite massive Hary Potter sales, a number of one-time only expenses has cut into the second-quarter profit margin of Borders. The major retailer is something of a bellwhether for the state of the book-selling business, in that it has far deeper reserves than independent shops.

Penguin in China

Penguin has launched a website in Chinese as part of its campaign to reach millions of potential readers in that rapidly expanding economy. Hit the icon at the upper right to see the site in English. Note with interest the tourist guides to India and Southeast Asia.

Diana Wynne Jones' Autobiography

Wondering what was happening to Diana Wynne Jones, I wandered over to her website, where I found her autobiography. Despite the ant-like crawling thing at the bottom of the page, I read every bit, all the way to the end, and so should you.

Diana Wynne Jones and Betty Ballantine...

...will receive Lifetime Achievement awards at World Fantasy. While Ballantine will attend, Jones will not, due to health reasons.

Too Many Awards?

Of course there is nothing like getting one or a dozen to influence an author's opinion, but a new website devoted to genre awards lists about forty—with links—in a sidebar. SF Awards Watch will no doubt perform a service to all of us tracking such things but somehow that list of forty gave me pause. One day there may be an award for a novel mentioning the color blue in the first paragraph. Then novels will routinely begin. "The sky was not blue, for it was night..." or some such thing. I wish I was sure there were forty novels worth keeping published every year. Then, of course, I would need to tackle to Bookcase Problem, at least until downloading books is technically less clunky. But that's another post for another day.

Day By Day Filming Blog

There's a blog keeping track of the adventures and misadventures of the filming of The Happening: The Happening Movie at Blogspot. More than you want to know, unless you are fascinated, obsessed, or involved. However, in one-upsmanship, I know when the rained out shooting has been rescheduled.

Lyra's Oxford As Bridge to New Works

Philip Pullman discusses Lyra's Oxford as being, not a final squeezing of the golden orange, but a transition to new works, which he has already begun.