A Few Things for Sunday Night.

• This is a good series of primers from GreenCine for people who want to get started on a variety of genres of movies. Genres: Adult/Sex in the Movies, Anime, B-Movies, Black Cinema, Bollywood, British Comedy, Czech and Slovak Cinema, Documentary, Dogme 95, Experimental/Avant-Garde, Exploitation, Film Noir, French New Wave, German Expressionism, Godzilla, Hammer Horror, Hong Kong Action, Hong Kong Horror Comedies, Iranian New Wave, Italian Horror, Italian Neo-Realism, Japan: to 1960, Latino, Modern Romantic Comedies, Musicals, New Asian Horror, Polish Cinema, Queer Cinema, Road Movies, Rock on Film, Russia: 1896 - 1953, Samurai, Science Fiction, Screwball Comedy, Silent Comedies, Slashers, Sports, TV Box Sets, Vampires, Weepies, Westerns, Women in Film, Wuxia, Zombies.
• I had totally forgotten about the Battlestar Galactica episode that guest-starred Fred Astaire, but watching it now, the memory came flooding back of my mom being amused at his Top Hatless appearance. Here's some more about his BG guest-shot: He continued TV work with a 1979 appearance in Battlestar Galactica, a highly successful space opera which he did to please his grandchildren. Later asked what his favourite role was, the man who had appeared in so many movies with countless stars answered that his appearance in Battlestar Galactica was his favourite role because his little grandson had been so impressed with it... ...When I telephoned Fred on the eve of his eightieth birthday, May 10, 1979... He had recently played a role in "Battlestar Galactica," a space television series. It was a curious booking for Fred Astaire, but he explained, "I did it for my grandchildren." (Fred, Jr., has three children, Peter has three, and Ava has two stepsons.) He found it a tough show because of special effects that caused three days of overtime, and because of the space language, which he didn't understand. Mr. Astaire wasn't the only classic Hollywood type to appear on BG. Lew Ayres, Ray Bolger, Lloyd Bridges... Only about 8 or 9 more episodes to go, and I'll have (re-)watched the entire original series. But what about the neglected red-haired stepchild Galactica 1980? When is that coming out as a DVD set?
• SSMW talks about her trip to meet two newly published Chicago authors who got their start(s) in the blogosphere.
• Going through my stacks today, I found a Tribune article from a couple of months ago about an interesting writer named Lawrence Weschler, with whom I had not previously been familiar. Actually, one article and one not-entirely-glowing Julia Keller book review --- Keller excerpt: He [Weschler]'s a live wire, a human hypertext, and he ransacks everything in his head at any given moment to create marvelous, unforgettable literature. Also, here's a Washington Post interview, a piece from The Transom Review, something from The Design Observer, and a God Particle article. (Not too often you get to rhyme "particle" and "article" like that.) I'm going to have to check this guy out.
• Here's a good post from TBSATIOAAE about P!nk and her Stupid Girls video. Excerpt: This is going to be an interesting cultural artifact in 100 years. But why wait? Here are 5 of the assumptions in evidence. 1) that these women have dumbed themselves down. 2) that "one image" is being "forced down people’s throats." 3) that smart women and girls need "representation." 4) that representation is the artist’s job. 5) that the way to represent smart women is to mock dumb women. Interesting post (apart from spelling Jodie Foster's name wrong) but I have to wonder if the following hypothesis is really demonstrable: For every Paris Hilton, there is a Madeline Albright. For every Jessica Simpson, there is a Condoleezza Rice. For every Olsen twin, there is is an Oprah Winfrey. If I read him correctly, he's not talking about the general female population in that quote, but rather about women known in our culture. However, he has exhausted the selection of female secretaries of state, but hardly even tapped into a fraction of the supply of trashy blonde Entertainment-Tonight bimbos. (Not to mention that by definition, there are two Olsen Twins and there is one Oprah.) When they put Christina Hoff Sommers and Martha Nussbaum in their own reality show, then I'll gladly reconsider.