misc catch-up

Some quick notes from Google+ Red State: Not bad. I particularly liked the right turn that the movie takes halfway through. And yes, I can see it happening quite easily. Much Ado About Nothing: Nathan Fillion's tweet about the secret Joss Whedon project that has just wrapped seems to be causing a bit of a stir. Especially since it appears to have been kept extremely secret from everybody. It is an adaption of Much Ado About Nothing, apparently with Amy Acker as Beatrice and Alexis Denisof as Benedick. And yes, I wemt <blink> at the casting too. Anyway the announcement poster can be found at [http://www.muchadothemovie.com/]. Definitely something I want to see as Much Ado is my favourite of the Bard's plays. And it's already drawing invidious comparisons with the 1993 Rennaisance Films (Branagh) production. Steampunk: Pegasia Music has a free collection of steampunk music available at [http://pegasiamusic.com/2011/10/13/pegasiamusic008-the-lost-journals-volume-i/]. And what exactly is steampunk music you may ask? Well Janus Zarate of Vernian Process did a nice article at [http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/10/defining-and-defying-genre-the-dilemma-of-steampunk-music] about the nature of steampunk music. Speaking of which must get around to reading my copy of the Abney Park RPG at some time. Interestingly picked up a couple of albums from new steampunk artists I hadn't heard before due to the collection. Admittedly they were all Bandcamp artists, where it is easy (and cheap) to grab their albums (and where I tend to pay more than they actually ask). [The one artist who uses iTunes and Amazon MP3 will have to wait (because iTunes won't sell to any of my OS, despite the fact that they are not using DRM on this music), and Amazon MP3 won't sell to anyone outside the US), since I'll need to grab them on circular bits of plastic.] The Bazura Project: An excellent comedic show on Auntie [the Australian ABC] (and still available on iView in Oz) on "sin" in cinema. Although be warned, sometimes the humour is a touch ... privileged. Twenty Palaces didn't sell. Apparently author Harry Connolly didn't sell enough books and the 20 Palaces series was cancelled in the light of declining sales (even after producing a film clip and everything). A lot of readers, including myself, loved the books and were rather unhappy about this. Whilst it got excellent reviews, it never really escaped from a certain ghetto, despite being flogged to death by the likes of Jim Butcher. Stuff had just managed to get interesting, too. The first book is Chiold of Fire. Urban fantasy/magic with a unique feel. Sorcerors summon entities from Outside to make use of their special abilities, whilst other sorcerors seek to stop them, because if one of these "demons" ever got out of control it would wipe out all life on Earth. Interesting protagonist.