Revving up for ReaderCon July 6, 2005 – Posted in: Aberrant Normalcy

Hi everyone! Hope everyone in the US had a good 4th of July. We spent it on top of my friend’s roof watching the Manhattan fireworks. I convinced everyone that, yes, there were smiley faces in the fireworks. No one believed me until they saw this. (Okay, so that’s not really my photo, but it illustrates the point well, doesn’t it.)

So we got to see Lauren McLaughlin last night at our writers’ group and everyone was glad to see her back (even for a little while). Can’t wait to see what’s next from her. And we’re gearing up to go to ReaderCon this weekend for a little schmoozing and boozing. I’ve never been to a Con before, but I expect it will be lots of fun. And I’m sure everyone has already seen it, but I may go see Batman this afternoon. Yes, I’m a little behind on the curve.

We were talking about War of the Worlds last night, and though I haven’t seen that either, the people who had thought that Spielberg essentially abused the memory of 9/11 by continually beating viewers over the head with terrible, panicking imagery. I read this review from the Village Voice and it had this to say: “Spielberg explicitly alludes to the WTC attacks in dozens of ways: missing-persons postings, fallen airliners, reflexive questions like “Did you lose anybody?” etc. The references are merciless, and firsthand veterans of ground zero should approach the movie with tongs.” Even better, I plan not to see it. I liked his early films, but his last few have descended into big budget drivel, and now this exploitation of human fears has permanently changed my opinion of him and his films. Go do something better with your time like eat at this Restaurant in the Sky.