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Friday, July 22, 2005

In Other News... 

Taylor called me tonight from where he lives in D.C. He asked if I knew the Jambo was going on right now, and I said that I did not. (Taylor and I were both Boy Scouts - the Jambo (Jamboree) is the huge National Scouting Event. It takes place in both D.C. for the start and then at Fort A.P. Hill for the end and is the premier camping international scouting experience. I went in '97. Basically, it's 33,000 scouts in one place.) Well, I laughed and said he must feel invaded. He said he encountered two scouts today from Santa Clara, CA. One of them was wearing a patrol patch that looked like a wedge of cheese, and the other bore a patrol patch emblazoned with an iPod. We both decided we'd rather be in the Cheese patrol. I said, my, how the times have changed and we recalled the days when the coolest patrol patch was either the Sharks or the Dragons. He said he felt the need to share that story with me, one scouter to another.

Watched Hellboy tonight and was surprised by how much I liked it. A strange mix of comic book (anti-)hero action, occult stuff, and the catholic faith defending against demons. It was kinda fun! Unlike most of the other superhero movies we've had a rash of lately, this one was appropriately dark.

I finished Dan Simmons' Fall of Hyperion this afternoon. I really liked this story (including the previous book) and thought it was quite original. I can see, retrospectively, how a lot of sci-fi/fantasy authors/filmmakers have borrowed from some of Simmons' ideas. Lots of cool time travel stuff, so if you're in to that, this is your story. Instead of going right on to read the next one, Endymion, which apparently takes place 247 years into the future of where Fall left off, and seems to me to be an entirely different story, I've decided to re-read The Trilogy. It is time. That's all there is to it.

-R

posted by Ryan @ 10:57 PM   Permanent Link for this Entry

1 Comments:

Think some of the ideas Simmons uses were ripped from other people, but Hyperion and its sequel are both on my 'best of sci-fi' list. Amazingly well done, I thought. And, frankly, the Shrike is one of the absolute best villians/implacable monsters in sci-fi.

Endymion and its sequel aren't quite as good on the first read...but I got a lot more out of them the second go-round. And you're right...Hyperion/Fall are one story, Endymion/Rise is a different one (but related). All four kinda had a Terminator vibe to them, but much better done.

Just thought I'd chime in on that.

And I'll also add that maybe you privaledged campers got to hang out in DC, but us staffers had to work for our Jamboree. And I'd go with the cheese patrol too.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:35 AM  

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