Game of Thrones and the severed head of George W. Bush

HBO Yanks Bush Head ‘Game of Thrones’ Episode, Halts DVD Shipments:

HBO is continuing to do damage control after producers confirmed that a model of President George W. Bush’s severed head appeared in the season one finale of Game of Thrones.

The premium cable network has pulled the 10th episode of the drama from rotation on digital platforms — including HBO Go and iTunes — and halted all future shipments of its best-selling Season 1 DVD set, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

In addition, the dramatic end to the freshman season of the series adapted from George R.R. Martin’s books will be edited for all future airings both domestically and internationally, according to a new statement from HBO, which further reprimanded showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. (via Hollywood Reporter

So do what I just did and order your copy now, while you still can enjoy this politically charged easter egg-ish bit of in-movie humor:

Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season – on Amazon.com

I have to confess – I haven’t watched any of the show yet.  I suppose I was put off by my increasing discomfort with the violence, particularly the sexual violence, in the books, of which I read the first three.  I also “cut the cord” with cable, and that has drastically changed my viewing habits – shifting me from the current trends back to my first and most fundamental love, old movies.  That, plus what I can get through the library, and as you might imagine, “Game of Thrones” has a long waiting list.

If you want to start with the books before watching the TV show, and from what I have heard that’s a pretty good idea, they are available through Powells.com:

Or of course through your local library (eg, the San Francisco Public Library, which has it in both electronic and old-fashioned paper copies).

 

 

You know… It’s possible that putting in the severed head of our last president was a clever plan to boost DVD sales and/or interest in the show, ready to be leaked when needed. In which case, I’ve just been the victim of viral marketing. Oh well.  I can always give it to some Republican friend for Christmas.

Filed under: TV, fantasy, Game of Thrones, George W. Bush, HBO, Politics

Dumbledore: Alive… and on LinkedIn

Al Dumbledore | LinkedIn
Visionary leader of renowned academic institution. Proven adept at educating the young and leading the experienced.
Skilled in magic and lore.

Specialties
All types of magic, keen understanding of the opportunitites and dangers of its use

Filed under: Pop Culture, books, fantasy, Harry Potter, internet

Modern Faerie Fashion outside the Exploratorium

Bordertown is a neighborhood on the edge, in the interstices between our world and the realm of magic, the Elflands – home to the lost, the artists and runaways, queers, rebels and dreamers of two worlds. A mixture of technology and magic, of monsters both human and not, of dreams that become real and reality relaxing its hold. Of elves, home brewers, poets and nightclub owners. Sometimes you can get in and sometimes you can’t. Sometimes it is just around the corner. Sometimes you can’t get out. A bohemian enclave for the human and non-human.

San Francisco has always been a bit Bordertown, and this figure sitting on the steps in the Palace of Fine Arts and muttering to himself seemed to have drifted in from one of the stranger areas – where they have kickass hooded leather coats.

The Essential Bordertown by Terri Windling

Bordertown. Once a normal American city, now a perilous nexus between the World and returned Elfland. From the banks of the addictive Mad River to the all-night clublands where young elves and humans fight and play, all the way up to glittering dragon’s Tooth Hill, where high society seals itself away from the street–this is no city to trifle with.

Bordertown. A place of hidden magic, flamboyant artists, runaway teenagers, and pagan motorcycle gangs. The city you always knew was there.

(via Powell’s Books)

Filed under: Fashion, clothing, fantasy, San Francisco

Conversation with Sir Terry Pratchett

“I’m fascinated by the way folklore is entwined with truth in people’s lives”
— Terry Pratchett

Sir Terry Pratchett in conversation with Jacqueline Simpson:

Sir Terry Pratchett and Dr Jacqueline Simpson met many years ago at a book signing in Worthing and have since worked together as co-authors. Jacqueline is a member of the Folklore Editorial Board and is also on the Committee of The Folklore Society, of which Sir Terry is a lifetime member.

On 26th August 2010 at the Annual Discworld Convention in Birmingham, Sir Terry and Jacqueline sat down to record a discussion on the topic of folklore and its significance to them…

A three part podcast is available on the website for the journal Folklore, as well as an excerpt of the conversation and also a transcript of the discussion which contains links to related articles.

Filed under: Literature, Discworld, fantasy, science fiction, Terry Pratchett

Song of the Day: Brobdingnagian Bards, “Do Virgins Taste Better Medley”

A musical guilty pleasure…

Brobdingnagian Bards, “Do Virgins Taste Better Medley” – from A Faire To Remember (2001)

What am I saying? Didn’t we just go through this with The Jedi Path – feeling guilty about my fannish enthusiasms? So fine – not a guilty pleasure, just a pleasure. I’ll own it. Hi – my name is Nick and I’m a geek. I learned to read by reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with my father. I love fantasy (and science fiction) and I’ve attended many fan conventions and similar events (for various fantasy and science fiction things) over the years.

Filed under: Song of the Day, fandom, fantasy, filk, music

Ray Harryhausen – Monsters and Sinbad – on TCM

Update: See my discussion of Harryhausen movies showing on TCM August through October 2011 here.

Ray Harryhausen is a special effects artist who created some of the most compelling stop-motion animation in fantasy and adventure films of the 1960s and 1970s. He got his start working with Willis O’Brien, who pioneered the use of this kind of stop-motion animation in live action films in his work on the classic 1933 King Kong.

During the 1950s, Harryhausen developed his craft on some of the science fiction monster movies of that decade, including two favorites of mine: The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) and It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955). In Beast, an atomic bomb test thaws out a giant dinosaur who proceeds to attack New York City. (Why is it that these monsters never attack Montreal, say, or Bar Harbor, Maine?)

Beast came out a year before Godzilla and isn’t given enough credit for more or less initiating the whole contemporary cycle of “giant monster attacks” movies, of which Godzilla is the most famous exemplar. King Kong is of course the ur-instance of this genre, but Beast and Godzilla share the focus on the atomic bomb as their cause.

Filed under: Movies, adventure, Classic Films, fantasy, Film, science fiction, TCM