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What did you do over the holidays? Whatever it was, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t quite as cool as this: Tolkien’s Battle of Pelennor Fields recreated … in candy. Choice quips from the post include: “For two days the evil host, under the brutal licorice fist of the Witch King of Angmar has bombarded the ancient city with stone and fire.” Continue reading
The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association announced the winners of their 2008 awards today; six titles were chosen from the almost 200 nominees: Continue reading
The world is flat, right, we all know that. The world is also very small. The latest example of that is this: I have a good friend in Brooklyn who has a pretty expert grasp on my taste in, well, most things, or at the very least books, movies and music. Continue reading
I’m sorry. I just had to create sympathizers. See, I watched this video the other week, and it got stuck in my head. Really stuck. Then I went to see Enchanted on New Year’s Eve, and the song got really, REALLY stuck in my head. I just finished my review of the film (it’s charming and sweet but still suffers from some Disneyesque flaws), and I wasn’t kidding when I wrote that I go to bed with the damn song in my head and I wake up with it still there. I can’t. Get it. Out. Continue reading
This is totally awesome. Totally wicked awesome, even. It’s a massive spreadsheet of critics’ top picks for movies this year. I don’t yet understand why some names are in purple and some in blue, but I don’t really care. It’s still fascinating. Out here in the relative boonies, of course, half these movies have yet to arrive, even ones that have already opened elsewhere — and in regular ol’ chain theaters, no less! Continue reading
What with the one-two punch of Winter Reading and the Procrastinators’ Gift Guide — which, naturally, I procrastinated working on — my inbox has been slowly and steadily filling itself up with interesting yet uncommented-upon things. Thursday late morning is as good a time as any to post a rundown of a few Items of Note I’ve been unintentionally ignoring until now: Continue reading
Should you feel inclined to peruse a more tangible version of our annual Winter Reading issue, you might stop in at the UO Bookstore (yes, I’m still refusing to call it the Duck Store), where this nice little display awaits your browsing fingers and purchasing dollars. Continue reading
So just yesterday I posted a little thing that mentioned The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the handmade book by Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling that was sold at auction for nearly $4 million. (For those not keeping up, Tales is referenced in — is in fact quite important to — Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows.) All yesterday’s news said was that an agent purchased it. Turns out the real buyer was Amazon. What does this mean? Continue reading
It amuses me that on the same day we all learned that J. K. Continue reading
Look, I love bad, LOLcat-inspired grammar and spelling as much as the next dork — but in the right time and place. This? Is not the time nor place: “w00t,” an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was crowned word of the year on Tuesday by the publisher of a leading U.S. dictionary. Continue reading