The media grief barrage continues WRT John-John's death, although it's tapering away for lack of story. Check this for the excellent Norman Solomon's take on this scene. I'm amazed that people are allowing this tragedy to preoccupy them so - are their lives that devoid of interest, that they care to follow these details? The answer is - no, this is just media yammering. I suspect they carry on so because a lot of the media-politico players knew the guy personally. (If you're intrigued by Norman Solomon's wisdom see the FAIR archives of his Media Beat columns.

Those following these entries closely will have perceived that I've developed some hostility towards "The Blair Witch Project." Perhaps it's skepticism because I'm from Maryland -- this article details reactions in the specific locations where it's supposed to have occurred. (Were the location in Ohio or somewhere, perhaps I wouldn't be so irritated.) Anyway, Salon reports skepticism of a different aspect of the film - its marketing:

Before it even opened, the indie had inspired over twenty fan sites, a mailing list, a Web ring, a Usenet group -- and more than its fair share of glowing reports on the influential aint-it-cool-news.com movie site. But was all the excitement genuine?

Was up to the library in Los Altos today to see a Japanese animation presentation by the author of The Anime Companion - before his program started I was idly inspecting the big rack of videotapes and noticed they had the Beatles "Anthology," all eight tapes (well, #7 was missing) - my opportunity to view the complete program rather than the edited version we all saw in November 1995. So, now I'm watching the first one - just came across that quote of John's I like:

Y'know, you went to see those movies with Elvis or somebody in it, when we were still in Liverpool, and you'd see everybody waitin' to see 'im, right - and I'd be waitin' there too - and they'd all scream when he came on the screen. So we thought - that's a good job.

I am now an E-trader: my account with E*Trade has been established, and yesterday I made my first tentative on-line stock purchases (of Walgreen's Drug and First Data Corp.) Made another online order also, for an old British science fiction video. A long time ago we'd watch the peculiar old black&white monster movies featured on a weekly program called "The World Beyond." One of the first I ever saw (and one of the weirdest) was this British film called "Enemy From Space." Later I learned how this was actually the second (of four) "Quatermass" movies, the best and most well-known being "Quatermass and the Pit," which was called "Five Million Years to Earth" upon release in this country. Turns out the story, with its blob creature in the dome and alien food factory, was first serialized on BBC television in 1955, and this description is most intriguing. Not sure what relation the film has to the original series, but I've wanted to see it again for the longest time. Because it's probably way too obscure to ever show up in the Videoscope (my local off-brand video store), and (unlike The Pit) since it hasn't even been available on video until earlier this year, and since it was only $15 (with shipping!) I clicked the "submit order" button. Today's image shows Professor Quatermass as he appeared in the original serial.

John Robinson as Professor Bernard Quatermass