Target Centermass

Category: Entertainment

  • For the Harry Potter Fans

    It looks like the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, will be a publishing event worthy of the “mega” prefix.

    You already know a new Harry Potter book is coming this summer. Here are some bells and whistles.

    First, expect enough books out there to fill all of Hogwarts. Scholastic, Inc., the U.S. publisher of J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series, has announced a first printing of 10.8 million copies of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the largest such printing for a hardcover release in this country.

    The previous record holder was “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which came out in 2003 with a first run of 8.5 million.

    “We have worked very closely with all of our accounts to anticipate the level of demand for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,”‘ Scholastic Children’s Books president Barbara Marcus said Wednesday in a statement. “Once again, we are hearing from our accounts that the pre-orders are phenomenal.”

    “Half-Blood Prince” has topped the best seller lists of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com ever since its release was announced in December.

    To make sure that nobody could miss the book’s arrival, Scholastic also announced Wednesday a range of marketing gimmicks, including a Harry Potter crossword puzzle in The New York Times in July, promotional spots on the Times Square billboard, Google ads and video commercials on domestic flights of Continental Airlines and American Airlines.

    Bookstores already are planning their traditional parties to mark the midnight, July 16 publication of “Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth of seven planned books. Worldwide sales have topped 250 million for the fantasy series, which has been translated into 62 languages.

    As silly as it is, the girlfriend and I will probably find ourselves in a Barnes & Noble at midnight again. The HP5 release was a good wrap for us to an evening at the movies watching X2. Hey, she’s been a geek-in-the-making since I dragged her to The Fellowship of the Ring. Besides, she started reading the HP series before me. It’s not my fault.

  • Iraq TV Helps Break Holy Warrior Mystique

    I must say that the headline and leading paragraph had me intrigued.

    Say the word mujahid– or holy warrior – these days and many inhabitants of Baghdad are likely to snigger.

    I had my doubts quickly, however, with the second paragraph.

    An appellation once worn as a badge of pride by anti-American insurgents has now become street slang for homosexuals, after men claiming to be captured Islamist guerrillas confessed that they were holding gay orgies in the popular Iraqi TV programme Terror in the Hands of Justice.

    I think the terrorists are scum, a bunch of cowardly bastards. While this article is worth a read and it’s nice to know that the Iraqis are seeing something besides pro-terrorist propaganda (e.g. al-Jazeera, CNN), I still feel a need to apologize for the worst side effect of the Iraqi campaign — the export of the horror of “reality” TV. It was obviously another shortcoming in the planning of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld axis.

    It started innocently enough.

    When the programme first aired two months ago, it mostly featured non-Iraqi Arabs who claimed to have entered the country to aid the insurgency, reinforcing many Iraqis’ belief that the insurgency is driven by foreign extremists such as al-Qaeda.

    In time, however, the programme began to feature men who said they were petty criminals, killing “collaborators” for a few hundred dollars’ bounty.

    In fact, the US and Iraqi security forces have for some time claimed to have ample evidence that many insurgent attacks were launched by out-of-work soldiers desperate for money. Some well-known insurgent captains had former lives under the old regime as gang leaders.

    In recent weeks, however, the insurgents’ confessions have become increasingly at odds with the movement’s reputation for stringent Islamic austerity.

    One long-bearded preacher known as Abu Tabarek recently confessed that guerrillas had usually held orgies in his mosques, secure in the knowledge that their status as holy warriors would win them forgiveness of their sins.

    Hopefully for the Iraqi people, sanity will soon reign.

    Sabah Khadim, spokesman for Iraq’s interior minister, says that the programme may have run its course, and should be reviewed.

    He denies that the confessions were extracted by torture but has his doubts as to whether those confessing are being truthful or simply saying whatever they think their captors want to hear. He also has reservations over whether the display of prisoners on television violates the Geneva Convention.

    But, Mr Khadem says, the programme has been immensely effective in getting Iraqis to come forward with information about guerrillas, leading to a surge in the number of insurgents captured.

    “If this were not an emergency situation, we would not have run this,” he says. “But it is an emergency situation, and this produces results.”

    Now, if only we could get rid of some of this crap on our own airwaves , I would really believe that civilization is progressing.

  • Here There Be Dragons

    Just a quick heads up — Dragons airs tonight on Animal Planet. This looks like it’s going to be an interesting and fun show, treating the mythical beast in an animated manner, much in the spirit of the excellent “Walking with …” documentaries.

  • Reciprocity XIII

    I’d like to take a moment to thank those who’ve recently blogrolled or linked to Target Centermass.

    First, thanks to the following for adding TCm to their blogrolls:

    Second, I want the thank the Unofficial Battlestar Galactica Blog for the recent link and for pointing me to this rather simple Battlestar Galactica drinking game.

    Third, I wanted once again to pimp for two sites intended for Texas bloggers:

    TexasBlogfest 2005

    As always, if you’ve linked or blogrolled Target Centermass and I haven’t found you, please send an email or post a comment. No good deed should go unrewarded.

    EDIT: Correcting when the TexasBlogfest 2005 is happening. Hey, I lost track of dates.

  • Paul Newman Ready to Retire

    And he’s hoping for just one more flick.

    The movie legend, whose piercing blue eyes have lit up screens for five decades, says he’ll give up the activities he once described as his two great passions — acting and motor racing.

    “I think both are winding down,” Newman told The Associated Press during an interview Friday. “I’ll probably race for another year.”

    Fans need not despair just yet. The iconic star of “The Hustler” and “Cool Hand Luke” says he plans to make one last film — “for good luck.”

    He won’t say what it is, but hints that a long-rumored reunion with Robert Redford, his co-star in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Sting,” may yet happen.

    The man has obviously had an incredible career. To honor him, I’d like to list my top favorite Paul Newman movies.

    5. The Verdict — Very underrated, with Newman’s finest acting, in my opinion.

    I changed my life today. What did you do?

    4. Slap Shot — One of the funniest sports movies ever.

    She underlines the fuck scenes for ya? Jesus, if she underlines the fuck scenes for ya, she must worship the ground you walk on.

    3. The Sting — Intelligent story with great performances by Newman, Robert Redford and Robert Shaw.

    Tough luck, Lonnehan. But that’s what you get for playing with your head up your ass!

    2. Cool Hand Luke — Easily his coolest character.

    I can eat fifty eggs.

    1. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid — Just an absolute classic.

    If he’d just pay me what he’s paying them to stop me robbing him, I’d stop robbing him.

    Here’s hoping he and Redford do ride together once again on the silver screen.

  • Stop the Imperialist Colonial War!

    From the description of tonight’s episode of SciFi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica:

    When fuel supplies dwindle, the fleet must make a daring attack on a Cylon-controlled tylium mine.

    No War for Tylium!!!

    Adama Lied, Colonials Died!!!

  • Now That’s Entertainment!

    Freakin’ hilarious reality TV, Iraqi-style, courtesy of Jeff at Beautiful Atrocities.

  • Thank You, Johnny!

    Johnny Carson, 1925-2005Johnny Carson, the legendary host of the Tonight Show, has passed away at the age of 79. Precious were the nights in my childhood when I was allowed to stay up to watch, if only for his opening monologues.

    As is the way with people of such stature, practically everyone can find something of the man to hold onto and treasure. With Mr. Carson, it may be his character Carnac or his receiving the Medal of Freedom, our highest civilian honor. It could be his life-long love of the sport of tennis or the dry, often self-depracating humor he used to entertain millions for decades. For most of his fans, it will probably just be the years and years of smiles and accumulated memories with which we were blessed by the man.

    “And so it has come to this. I am one of the lucky people in the world. I found something that I always wanted to do and I have enjoyed every single minute of it,” Carson said to close his final show. “I bid you a very heartfelt goodnight.”

  • Reciprocity VIII

    Just want to thank the latest to add Target Centermass to his blogroll:

    TexasBestGrok

    I’m just guessing, but I suspect John at TexasBestGrok might be a fan of Robert A. Heinlein, one of the greats of science fiction. TBG is worth the regular look, if only for the Heinlein Quote of the Month, the weekly aircraft cheesecake post (check out the Blohm und Voss BV 141; I’d never seen it), and especially the regularly-featured Sci-Fi Babe Poll.

    TBG has his links classified by Heinlein-related titles and Target Centermass is now listed under the “The Green Hills of Earth.” As a tribute to that, I send back this:

    The arching sky is calling
    Spacemen back to their trade.
    All hands! Stand by! Free falling!
    And the lights below us fade.
    Out ride the sons of Terra,
    Far drives the thundering jet,
    Up leaps the race of Earthmen,
    Out, far, and onward yet —

    We pray for one last landing
    On the globe that gave us birth;
    Let us rest our eyes on fleecy skies
    And the cool, green hills of Earth.

    Thanks for the link, sir.

    As always, if you’ve linked or blogrolled Target Centermass and I haven’t found you, please send an email or post a comment. No good deed should go unrewarded.

  • Book Meme: Tell Me Your Authors

    From the Llama Butchers (though not originally), here’s the idea:

    You copy the list from the last person in the chain, delete the names of the authors you don’t have on your home library shelves and replace them with names of authors you do have. Bold the replacements.

    Here is their list, followed by mine with replacements.

    1. Evelyn Waugh
    2. Thomas Hardy
    3. Tom Clancy
    4. Jane Austen
    5. CS Lewis
    6. JRR Tolkien
    7. Robert Graves
    8. P.G. Wodehouse
    9. Patrick O’Brian
    10. William Shakespeare

    Gunner’s Contribution
    1. Ken Follett
    2. Mario Puzo
    3. Tom Clancy
    4. Robert Heinlein
    5. CS Lewis
    6. JRR Tolkien
    7. Ernest Hemingway
    8. George Orwell
    9. Joseph Heller
    10. William Shakespeare

    Now it’s your turn.