AV Club Blames Eastwood for Connelly’s to-Screen Failure

The AV Club blames Clint Eastwood for making such a terrible mess of Michael Connelly’s Blood Word that poor Mike has never had another flick made from his pulps.

That seems fair. That movie was awfully un-good.

Eastwood (along with screenwriter Brian Helgeland) also bears responsibility for strangling the movie prospects of modern pulp novelist extraordinaire Michael Connelly in its infancy. The Eastwood-directed 2002 adaptation of Connelly’s Blood Work—about a detective trying to track down the person who killed his heart donor—is so corny and dramatically inert that no one has made films from Connelly’s books since.

If it’s any concellation, Publisher’s Weekly wrote (correctly) of the book:

Fans of Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels will feel right at home with this beautifully constructed, powerfully resonating thriller, and newcomers will see right away what all the fuss has been about.

Police Commissioner How-To

Mr. Kelly was a young boy when his father, James, a milkman, first taught him how to fold the fabric of a necktie into the thick, triangular form of a Windsor knot. And as he went through Roman Catholic schools, Manhattan College and the Marine Corps — institutions synonymous with formal dress — Mr. Kelly’s tie knots were dutiful studies in sturdiness and sharp angles.

S&M vs. Pay to Play

I’m not so concerned if Police Women of Broward County is S&M exploitation as whether they get paid to be on the show. (Yes, I watch this show, as well as Lockup.)

The most obvious criticism of these shows is their exploitation and general tackiness. Police work is reduced to clownish pranks, adrenalin-inducing raids, and telegenic lady cops edited to invoke S&M fantasies for the shlubs watching at home. No one expects much dignity from cable networks, but you’d think, for example, that the Broward County Sheriff’s Department might object to the sexualization of its female officers, or to a national ad campaign insinuating that they’re sporting itchy Taser fingers.

From a War Photographer: How Not to Get Shot

Get In Shape Before Deploying

If you’re going to hang out with the war jocks, get in shape. No one expects you qualify for Special Forces school, but if you’re an overweight chain-smoker, you’re not going to inspire a lot of confidence in the infantry unit you want to tag along with, and you’re likely to get left back at base (for your own good, and theirs). I’m 5’6″, 140 lbs, and 38 years old, which means I should probably be behind a desk somewhere, but somehow ended up living in mountains and deserts with soldiers and marines who are literally twice my size, and half my age—while I’m hauling a backpack that’s more than 50% of my body weight. Those are unsympathetic mathematics that destroy knees, spines and ankles. Do whatever you can to rebuild your most basic equipment—running, lifting, swimming, wall-climbing, yoga, whatever—just do it, and don’t wait till the week before you ship out.

Should Teachers Tweet?

The Chronicle of Higher Education asks: “Does anyone out there Tweet with their students? If so, how have you found it to be useful?”

It’s nice to see so many correctly spelled words in a comments field. They’re not all perfect, but at least they’re trying — they can still be snotty, though:

In other news, air has been declared good to breathe. As a trained instructional technology professional, I’m highly skeptical about Twitter. The fact is, appropriate uses of new technology are always challenging to faculty and — more often than not — technology is misused rather than properly used in the classroom.

Retirement Savings by Age Range — We’re All Broke

Is this really how much people have saved up? The quote below is from Bargaineering but the data is from Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The EBRI’s report has a ton of detailed information on almost everything you might want to know about retirement savings and participation, from defined contribution plans to IRAs. For the purposes of our comparisons, I’ll just look at the age breakdown (2007 figures adjusted to 2009):

< 35: $6,306
35 – 44: $22,460
45 – 54: $43,797
55 – 64: $69,127
65 – 75: $56,212
75+: (sample size insufficient)

Interview with Whit Stillman

Whit Stillman’s 1998 film, The Last Days of Disco, has been restored and re-released on Criterion this week. Its ensemble cast includes Chloë Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale, Chris Eigeman and Mackenzie Astin. Tomorrow night, Stillman will appear at the Walter Reade Theater for a screening of the film, and a real life disco party will follow in tribute.

via Gothamist.

42 Dissertations on “Bruno” Coming Right Up

An opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution asks, Why does college cost so much?

Tuition, room and board at Sarah Lawrence College just hit $53,166 per year. That’s like buying a C-Class Mercedes every year … except you never get the car. Other colleges are comparable, with even state school tuition rising to levels some parents find impossible. Why hasn’t reality had its revenge?
. . .
Meanwhile, the research these professors are turning out is increasingly obscure and often politicized. If they’re dealing with well-studied writers, they must pursue ever more oddball interpretations of the works in order to produce something original. Here’s Bauerlain again, explaining why: In the year 2007, literary scholars and critics published 85 studies of the life and writings of William Faulkner. Nearly all of them appeared in U.S. publications, and the total included 11 books and eight dissertations. The previous year saw 78 entries on Faulkner, and the one before that 80 of them.

In fact, from 1980 to 2006, Faulkner attracted fully 3,584 books, chapters, dissertations, articles, notes, reviews and editions. During the same years, Charles Dickens garnered 3,437 studies, while Emily Dickinson tallied 1,776. Towering at the top was William Shakespeare with 21,674 separate pieces of scholarship and criticism.

Gangs of New York

Did you know that you wanted to go “inside Brooklyn’s moped gang“? You do.

Most recently, he rode with some Orphans from Brooklyn to Chicago for a rally. On longer trips Orphans all make sure to ride the same bike (a Puch Maxi) so repairs are easier on the road.

Social Networking + IRS = :(

Another reason to be careful what you’re posting on MySpace and Facebook.

State revenue agents have begun nabbing scofflaws by mining information posted on social-networking Web sites, from relocation announcements to professional profiles to financial boasts.

… [A]gents in Nebraska collected $2,000 from a deejay after he advertised on his MySpace page that he would be working at a big public party.

(WSJ)