This is kind of neat:
The theater where “The Merchant of Venice” and “Romeo and Juliet” likely debuted and where William Shakespeare himself may have trodden the boards has likely been discovered in east London, archaeologists at the Museum of London said Wednesday.
The boys love summer afternoons, because we get so much more direct sunlight in the living room this time of year.
Can’t believe it’s already August. Where is the time going?
Registration finally opened for WordCamp 2008 in SF, and I’m all signed up.
Are you going to be there? Let me know!
Ezra Klein recently took a look at the resurgent genre of superhero movies and made a very interesting and IMO very accurate point: If you look at some of the better superhero movies out there (like “Batman Begins” or “Iron Man”), it’s pretty clearly the case that superior storytelling and character development, not the number or quality of their action sequences, are what sets them apart.
Or as he put it:
The climactic battle in Iron Man wasn’t half as gripping as watching Tony Stark fly for the first time.
Klein goes on to look at how the superhero genre allows us to look at issues of power and inequality in the world:
What superheroes allow you to do is personalize questions of power: We live in a world of massive countries with incredible militaries, where sociopaths can conceivably detonate cities and the rich inhabit lives so different from the poor that they may as well be genetically separate. It’s a hard world to face up to, frankly. And so, sometimes it’s easier to give it a supernatural gloss, to pretend it couldn’t happen here, even as it allows us to explore what is happening here.
He has a point, but he also might be giving Hollywood a little too much credit. This is also the industry that gives us an unending stream of crappy lowbrow comedy and slasher flicks.
San Francisco is a deeply flawed city in many ways (not to mention the whole voter initiative process, for that matter), but it also manages to come up with little gems like this. What started out as a joke is now going to be on the ballot this November:
San Francisco voters will be asked to decide whether to name a city sewage plant in honor of President Bush, after a satiric measure qualified for the November ballot Thursday.
[snip]
The measure, if passed, would rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.
It almost makes me wish I still lived in SF.
Over at “The Big Picture”, Barry Ritholtz has been doing terrific work reporting on the shenanigans in the markets and the economy. Today he let rip a rant that’s worth sharing. Here’s a taste:
When this era of excess and absurdity is treated by historians in the future, the question I expect to be asked most is not why many of these people weren’t jailed for their financial felonies. Rather, I expect them to wonder why so many of these folk weren’t placed in protective custody, and heavily medicated, for the only rational explanation for their statements and behaviors is that they have gone so far beyond the bend as to be completely and totally insane.