Midnight Ramblings

First thing's first. Latest column's up! This week's offering is Corporate Interests:

"I had an interesting discussion with one of my instructors the other day. It was one of those difficult classes and, during the break, she pulled me aside. She said to me, “You know, Mark, I’m starting to get the impression that you’re, well, not anti-establishment, but anti-corporate. And seeing as to how every radio station is owned by a corporation, I’m starting to fear that you’re limiting yourself in your job prospects.” Naturally, I’m wondering how I’ve been projecting the anti-corporate image. I mean, I’m not like Mr. Anderson, who has the big bold list on the front page of his website: “These are the companies I boycott!” I’m of a much milder vein of anti-corporatism. I think she got the impression from the fact that, as we were filling out a course evaluation last semester, I said this about one of her classes:

“Really, though, you should look into dropping this one particular lesson. It’s fairly obvious that it’s just a recycled corporate workshop, and I really, really, really hate corporate workshops. I was subjected to far too many in my last job.”"

Read it all!

Oh, and here's some movie news I've got to share. Are you ready for a remake of Snow White? Are you ready to see it remade as a kung fu action film? Well, it's happening. It's called Snow and the Seven. It's set in China in the 1880; when England was trying to colonize the place. The seven dwarves are now seven Shaolin warrior monks. The screenplay will be written by Michael Chabon. Chabon is a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, who wrote Wonder Boys and The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. He's also a huge comic book fan, as he wrote Spider-Man 2. The film will be directed by Yeun Wo Ping. Wo Ping is a highly acclaimed Hong Kong action film director and fight choreographer. Here in North America, he's best known as the fight choreographer on the Matrix films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the Kill Bill films. This'll be his first English-language film as director.

And one last news story I've got to report. I'll have to e-mail Mr. Anderson about this for the local perspective. Vancouver is hosting the 2010 winter Olympics, so the Vancouver Olympic Committee is starting to protect their copyrights. They're getting ready to sue the pants off a little pizzaria with the name "Olympic Pizza." Olympic Pizza does use an Olympic ring knock-off and a torch for it's logos. Thing is, Olympic Pizza had had its name for 15 years, so the owner's wondering why he's getting all this trouble now. A city councellor has even stepped in to try to resolve the situation.

next Issue...Pizza!