The Dark Has, er, Rose

I became a Susan Cooper fan rather later in life than most people, and I think this was a good thing as I was therefore better equipped to appreciate the pagan and Celtic references throughout her The Dark Is Rising series. I really enjoyed the series, and I recommend it to people looking for a more serious look at a magickal world than Madame Rowling's offerings.

In the wake of the success of LOTR, Harry Potter, and Eragon, of course, it seemed inevitable that some studio would dust off the 30-year old series and take a crack at it. Well, the reviews have begun trickling in, and this one (2.4mb mp3) from TripleJ's Film Guide podcast is not favorable. Ah, well.

Burma: Continuing Tragedy

Although the protests appear to be over, the news continues to be bad. First, it's hard to believe that the military junta's statement that it intends to move over 4,000 monks to prisons in the north (BBC) doesn't actually mean that it intends to move the monks north so it can murder them and bury them in mass graves out from under the watchful eyes of the Western media; let's be clear, these people have committed mass murders in the past, and 4,000 monks is less than a blip on their radar. Second, when the UN sent an envoy to talk to the leaders of the junta, they first made him attend "a seminar in the far northern Shan state on EU relations with Southeast Asia" (NPR). Third, the junta has begun abducting people (including UN staff) at night (NY Times); while some have been released, that's no guarantee of safety for anyone else.

The thing is, no one in the neighborhood seems to be concerned with doing anything about it, and the US has tied itself down in Iraq too deep to be of any real consequence. For those of you who think it might do some good, here's a link to the US Campaign for Burma website; I don't know that threatening to boycot the Beijing Olympics is going to have the effect they think it's going to have, but I understand their passion and their desire to do something about the situation.

Just please, please keep Burma in your thoughts.

The Bet, and Exceptions

World-class Internet superstars tongodeon and rwx have a bet on whether the Furry subculture will shed its "sub" culture and become mainstream by 2009. As proof of the bet being lost or not, both of these worthies occasionally post Furriies-in-the-media-related material.

As a former resident of Japan, I would argue that people in animal suits in commercial promotions no more constitute the mainstreaming of furries than, say, the use of corporate mascots to sell fast food encourages people to dress like Jack-in-the-Box and the Burger King in their bedrooms (and yes, you're welcome for that horrible, horrible image). That said, this particular commercial is cute (and features people dressed up in animal costumes).