Sentential Links #136

Linkage, for the link-deprived, the link-depressed, the link-addicted, and just plain people who like themselves some links!

:: This may smack too much of a stage magician revealing his tricks, but I actually have been asked, a few times, how I find the things I do, especially with some of the obscurities I’ve uncovered for The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes (due out Spring 2009 from MonkeyBrain Books), so it occurred to me to describe my Monday afternoon for you, Dear Reader, as an example of how I find the characters I do in my research into pop culture, and why modern research is fractal in nature. (Terrific post by Jess Nevins, who cheerfully wades through literary currents long deemed to go nowhere navigable, and thus finds amazing places in the backwaters of pop culture. And wow, did I just write a crappy metaphor or what!)

:: Oh look, Dennis is walking barefoot through raw sewage.

:: Comic books shouldn't make you wish they came with a suicide pill.

:: Miss De la Bolsa Meets a Lusty Scotsman (OK, not a sentence, but the post is a series of hilarious potential book titles. I'd like to read at least a few of these!)

:: Here's my look at CGI and who I think did it well, and who didn't. (Hey! I like Jar Jar! Poor Jar Jar....)

:: Now see what you did, Juno? You turned me against indie rock! For shame, Juno. For shame. (Hmmmm. I liked Juno, too...and that reminds me, I still need to write about it.)

:: Mariah Carey now has more number one singles than Elvis Presley. (But how many records has she sold, total? Is she anywhere near Elvis on that metric?)

:: It took the human race several thousand years to come around to the idea of fiction. (Long post that becomes a Doctor Who review eventually. I skipped that stuff because I know nothing about Doctor Who these days, but the stuff leading up to that is all pretty interesting.)

:: What do you think? More to the point, what do you hear? And are there any volunteers? (I've been remiss in linking this, the Tenser's response to my post about Peter Lorre's enunciation in Casablanca from a few weeks back. I really can see the Tenser's point -- I'd forgotten that 'Weygand' would not start with an actual 'W' sound, for one thing -- but I'm still hearing 'De Gaulle', I'm afraid; while the second syllable could conceivably go either way, I still hear Lorre's initial consonant as being a fairly percussive 'D' sound, rather than a softer 'V' sound. But who knows, maybe I'm full of bird poop.)

That'll do it for this week. Tune in next week, around this time, for further exciting adventures in Blogistan!