May

30

Can I Borrow This?

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 30, 2007 | 1 Comment

Once upon a time a man named Walt Disney started an empire by parodying a popular film in his own cartoon. Today that empire would call such parodying of one of their own works copyright violation…
One of the toughest questions facing our culture today is the nature of copyright. How far do the rights of […]

May

28

Book ‘Em: Beyond Shrek.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Sylvester And The Magic Pebble by William Steig
(Simon & Schuster, 1969, Caldecott Award Winner)
When Everybody Wore A Hat by William Steig
(Harper Collins, 2003)
Anyone who recognizes the name William Steig probably knows him as the author of the children’s book Shrek, on which the film was loosely based. In fact the original story was darker and […]

May

26

This Explains A Few Things…

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 26, 2007 | Leave a Comment

 At the risk of undermining my comments on the films of Roger Corman and, in particular, A Bucket Of Blood, a very funny conversation took place between me and my parents one night. I’d never heard of the film until I picked it up as part of a DVD collection that included Little Shop Of […]

May

25

Bucket Of Money (Part 2)

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Art imitates death.
When I said that Roger Corman’s film A Bucket Of Blood made art history, I wasn’t joking or trying to be facetious. It is easily the best of Corman’s films, and if that seems like setting the bar low, bear in mind that Corman gave early assistance to some of Hollywood’s biggest […]

May

23

Not Everybody’s A Blogger, Either.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 23, 2007 | 5 Comments

In the April 29th issue of the Los Angeles Times, author Michael Connolly wrote a defense of book reviews. It was smart, solid, and thoughtful, and should have made many bottom-line watchers stop and think about whether cutting book reviews was really in their best financial interest.

Now, however, the same Los Angeles Times is trying […]

May

22

Sorry, Mr. Tombaugh (again).

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 22, 2007 | 1 Comment

As usual I’m a day late and a dollar short, but, as the Chicago Tribune reported, the town of Streator, Illinois, held their first ever Pluto Expo on May 18th and 19th to celebrate hometown hero Clyde Tombaugh (born February 4, 1904, died January 17, 1997) and his 1930 discovery of what was, until 2006, the […]

May

21

Book ‘Em: The Other Final Frontier.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 21, 2007 | 2 Comments

Don’t forget to enter the Just Write Summer Reading Contest!
The Deep
Edited by Claire Nouvian
(University of Chicago Press, 2007)
Only a small number of people will ever be lucky enough to travel to the very deepest parts of the ocean. Tourists to the Grand Cayman Islands can descend to as much as 1000 feet, but the ocean […]

May

17

Bucket of Money (Part 1)

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Don’t forget to enter the Just Write Summer Reading Contest!
The title of Roger Corman’s memoir, How I Made A Hundred Movies In Hollywood And Never Lost A Dime, written with Jim Jerome, would seem to say it all. Corman’s known for directing and producing cheap, exploitative films with only a desire to make money. And […]

May

14

Get Your Blood Flowing.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 14, 2007 | 2 Comments

Don’t forget to enter the Just Write Summer Reading Contest!
Get out. Get out of your house, get out of your office, get out of your car. It’s Spring, almost Summer, so take a walk, get some fresh air. I don’t know about you but I’ve been cooped up inside for most of the winter and […]

May

10

Weren’t We Just Here?

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Don’t forget to enter the Just-Write Summer Reading Contest!
Former San Francisco Chronicle book critic and NEA Literature Director David Kipen has just published an article in Salon titled Last Exit to Book Land which, while similar to Michael Connelly’s op-ed in The Los Angeles Times , takes a slightly different tack. While Connelly warned, […]

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