Matters are starting to reach a crescendo:

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

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If you read either Dave Duffy’s blog or Oliver Del Signore’s, you probably already know the saga of BHM senior editor John Silveira and his oddball classified ad. The ad, which appeared in BHM in 1997, became first an Internet meme and recently the basis of a movie, Safety Not Guaranteed.

The film — a sort of sci-fi romantic comedy, I gather — premiered at Sundance last weekend to huge anticipation, sold-out houses, and critical raves. John was there and even earned himself a mention in some reviews. (Dave says John got applause from the audience, too.)

The movie was nominated for the Grand Jury prize (the big one) and though it didn’t win that, it did get a writing award and is sure to get a distribution deal. Although RottenTomatoes.com has just three reviews as of tonight (which ain’t bad for a film not officially available yet), they’re all glowingly positive.

So nice going, John Silveira. I always knew you were a star.

Now I can’t wait to see this thing!

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• Good for people who’ve suffered brain injuries that affect speech. Bad in the long run for privacy.
• National Geographic is usually pretty good. But it appears their new series, which starts next week, sets out only to portray us all as loons. So much for progress. (Tip o’ hat to H.)
• Here’s a perfect example of the long arm of the U.S. government.
• Might not agree with this guy 100%. But bless his noble heart. (Nice backgrounder on him, too.) I’ll soon be reading his book.
• And here’s another doctor with courage — though it may be too little, too late for millions of children: “Ritalin Gone Wrong.”
• Thugette. Every time I see stuff like this, I recall how, just five or six years ago, we were constantly assured that Tasers would be solely used in encounters that would otherwise call for deadly force. The term “compliance tool” was never uttered. Now it appears they’re merely “educational devices.”
• Of course the lie about inflation is even bigger than this says.
  
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• It just had to happen eventually, didn’t it? Ron Paul action figures. I like the man. But seriously, I agree with Joel. It’s getting a little nuts. Okay, maybe the superhero action figure is sorta funny. But since when do free people set up idols to worship?
• The dog: man’s best friend for more than 33,000 years.
• If this is a “minor infraction” I’d hate to see what serious violence is. But of course, if the cop loses his job over this, some other PD will consider him prime material for their wrong-house-puppykittyciding-drug-raiding SWAT team. (Tip o’ hat to C^2.)
• I am unacquainted with the art of Mr. Rhymes and know his name only because I love to read about celebrities, even if (and sometimes because) I’ve never heard of them. But he’s dead-bang right about the Megaupload bust.
• Why is it that they take our freedom in big gobbling gulps, then dole it back in such tiny, wimpy doses? Hey, Indiana: Free people have a right to resist the state and all its agents — particularly those who come storming in unannounced. Period. Without a lot of ifs, ands, and butts.
• Speaking of which …
• Oh yeah. Remember what was left of the Fifth Amendment once the NDAA got through with it? You can forget about that now.

Finally — marketing for the (very!) soon-to-be-released Hunger Games is getting fiendishly (and I mean that literally) clever. Lionsgate has now opened CapitalCouture.pn — a site that “celebrates” the style and fashion of the games.

If you don’t yet know The Hunger Games trilogy don’t be offput by the shallow, fashion-obsessed site. That’s the point of the thing. In the books (and the looks-to-be-fantastic movies being made from them), hapless teens from outlying districts are forced to fight to the death in an annual display of subjugation to the all-powerful state of Panem (thus the .pn in the URL, though in reality that belongs to Pitcairn Island). The games are orchestrated in Panem’s capital city, a vision of future decadence based on Rome of empire days.

Costumes are hugely important to the games (and become inadvertently vital to the success and survival of Our Heroine, Katniss Everdeen). So I think this is a darned clever way of showcasing them and hyping the movie. Even if it is shallow, ugly, and grotesque — just like Panem, the capital, and the games.

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• Cowboys, superheroes, and freedom.
• Intelligent dogs party down.
• Are the NDAA and the upcoming Enemy Expatriation Act two pieces of the same puzzle?
• Writers: You may want to may want to avoid self-publishing via Apple iBooks Author.
• The evolution of the U.S. dollar. (Tip o’ hat to D.)
• Yet another reason to be glad you don’t live in New York.
• You’ve heard about the long arm of the Feds reaching to New Zealand to shut down one of the biggest sites on the Web without due process — showing that the MPAA, the RIAA, and the fedgov hardly need SOPA. You heard about the first swift response (you go, Anonymous). But here’s the bigger story, longer term: “Hollywood Must Die.” As a movie fan, I hate to say it. But we’ll all be better off if Paul Graham succeeds.
• Good time to review your digital rights vs the police. (Here’s the one page version (.pdf).)

(Several tips o’ hat to MJR)

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Chapter 53 and

Chapter 54.

In the final stretch now …

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No, not happy news like about crippled orphans being rescued by blind puppies (though that’s good, too). Not glurge.

But in the biblical flood of bad news, good news does occasionally bob to the surface and I’ve been saving up bits of it to brighten your day. So here goes:

• Rhode Island may defy the NDAA. (Tip o’ hat to JS.)
• The most important secret of a prosperous economy.
• Remember the homeless man with the golden voice? Well, so far, so good. (HT to SC)
• Obama (not intentionally, of course) might bring back the Constitution.
• Gaston Glock did an amazing thing.
• Speaking of homeless-but-talented, a homeless whiz kid is a semi-finalist in a national science competition, and the attention is helping her family.
• TSA may — may — apologize to some old ladies it abused. (Okay, I grant you it’s not much; but it’s something.)
• There was once a great pirate botanist. (Tip o’ hat to PT.)
• You don’t have to be a swashbuckling young man to perpetrate Outlaw acts of courage. (HT to MJR.)

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• “Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?” That should go down in history along with “Let them eat cake.”
• Anybody familiar with this? Useful or not?
• Libertarianism and science fiction. Yeah.
• Just gets creepier.
• And creepier.
• And creepier. (But remember, not inevitable and potentially monkeywrenchable.)
• This looks interesting. (Tip o’ hat to C^2.)
• Bastards.
• But as always, always, always — ya gotta laugh at ‘em. (Tip o’ hat to Kevin in comments.)

(Kudos to The Usual Suspect.)

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