So yes, there’s links below, some old, some new and some just things I felt like sharing. Come back Monday for a real post. In the meantime, things you might like to see:

Links:

• If you’re like me, you’re probably worried about the things that have been leaking out about the remake of Conan (Even if it does have a line from “Queen of the Black Coast” in the trailer, and a lot of Jason Momoa’s abs). If so, remind yourself of the original film with a Musical Adaptation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBGOQ7SsJrw
• Smart Bitches, Trashy Books wins my heart (at the cost of my already damaged liver) by linking us all to the incredibly awesome Jane Austen Drinking Game, complete with live video. http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/index.php/weblog/comments/friday-videos-love-womanly-skillz/
• If you’re the book buying sort, and you don’t know this already, there’s a movement to boycott Dorchester. I’m not normally into telling folks what to think, but this is the exception. I’ve had friends that got screwed in this and had to fight to get their rights back. If it helps sway your mind RWA uninvited them from the National Convention last year for “unfulfilled contractual obligations “. Brian Keene began it all here: http://www.briankeene.com/?p=6140 and for another author’s take you can go here: http://www.stacydittrich.com/blog/2011/03/guess-what-dorchester-its-on/
• A bit of good news for fans of the Glastonberry Thorn – despite last year’s horrific vandalism, there is new growth on the tree: http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/New-life-holy-tree-welcomed-great-news/article-3363186-detail/article.html
• And while we’re talking about religion, there’s few things make me smile as much as the Saga of Biorn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV5w262XvCU

I remember it distinctly, even the relative deliciousness of the burger. It was a high point in my young life. Followed by one of the lows. About 3-4 hours later, both my Uncle and I were laid low by savage food poisoning. We spent our Christmas Eve in Quarrantine in his room, and we watched “Wonderful Life” on a scratchy black and white tv, through a haze of retching and anti-nausea drugs. I still claim  that’s why I’ve such affection for that movie, and Jimmy Stewart in general.

And now, a few links -

• First, It made the rounds last week, but I didn’t get it linked in time, so if you’ve not seen it, now’s your chance to catch up – I love parrots, and I love Heavy Metal, but maybe you need to play a different song once in a while.
• No discussion of Birds and Metal would be complete without the original, the unstoppable Death Metal Rooster.
• Earlier in the week, I discussed Rare Exports. The feature length film got its start as an equally dark Finnish short film, which you can still find on  YouTube. Warning – Features a fair bit of naked Father Christmas.

And with that, for those that celebrate them – Happy Holidays, whatever your holiday of choice may be, and to All a Good Night.

• First, as I pointed out, it’s the holiday season. Still not sure what to get your loved ones? How about some awesome Sci-Fi Romance? Impulse Power (featuring moi) is out in Print, just in time for the Feast of Alvis.
• So it turns out Fruit Flies show a biological type of Free Will (as opposed to philosophical Free Will, or Freewill off Rush’s seminal album Permanent Waves). Given identical sets of stimuli they tend  to respond in predictable, but different, patterns.
• Pregnancy blog Pregnant Chicken did an entry on Awkward pregnancy photos – it’s… awkward actually sums it up pretty well. Let us say that the WTF is fast and furious. (Warning – one artsy NSFW photo at the bottom of the page)
• (With thanks to writing partner C.A. Young) I learned this week that, once again, the Glastonbury Thorn has been vandalized. People who do this sort of thing sadden me beyond words.
• While speaking to epic legends, the first real trailer for Thor is out. I’m guardedly optimistic about this one. Certainly, if you want to capture the Shakespearean melodrama of the old Thor comics, you could get a worse director than Brannagh. And certainly, our norse hero looks suitably impressive in the armor. And out. Rowr.

• With the success of The Walking Dead on AMC, and a great feast occurring in the recent past, I thought it only appropriate to link to an important chart to remember in case of the apocalypse: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4516185869_0b46a8a016_b.jpg
• I have only recently discovered this concert footage of Hatsune Miku. As a fan of J-Pop in general and Idol singers specifically, the concept of a completely artificial singer performing live reminds me once again that we are living in the future. (Yes, I know she’s been around a few years, but I’d only just seen this.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2egumdBwsg
• On the topic of things I’ve only recently learned about – the Ghost Bikes. These memorials to cyclists killed by automobile drivers started in St. Louis and have begun showing up all over the world. http://ghostbikes.org keeps a database of them.

• I grew up on two things – DC Comics and ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ – I can’t begin to express the awesomeness that is Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo’s tribute to Watterson’s classic characters, and two of DC’s iconic villains. http://www.thehighdefinite.com/2010/08/joker-lex/
• On The Road, To Infinity and Beyond – Cormac McCarthy’s Toy Story 3: http://gocomics.typepad.com/tomthedancingbugblog/2010/06/cormac-mccarthys-toy-story-3.html
• Everybody has something to hide, and this video of Yi-Ting Cheng’s “Secret Stash” project is full of awesome for people who love secret compartments: http://vimeo.com/12850662
• Doctors Venkman, Stantz and Spengler trap a particularly dangerous spirit in this lovely bit of wall art: http://evrd.net/post/5759/
• And finally, since every villain needs an awesome lair, I have to link to this older (but still awesome) subterranean house in Bowden: http://www.neatorama.com/2010/05/06/ultimate-super-villains-lair/

• It’s well known that I love the Old Spice Guy (despite assorted problems with the ideology that I try not to think about much) – that said, BYU’s riff on the commercial for their library? Borders on genius: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ArIj236UHs
• If you’ve seen Scott Pilgrim, you should see it again. If you haven’t, you need to go. Most importantly, you need to give the box office money for Scott Pilgrim, so we can continue to have nice things: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/08/go-and-pay-to-see-scott-pilgrim-right-now.html
• I’m sharing this because, despite my love of Rush, I generally dislike Randian Objectivists: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2010/8/12hague.html
• From our “Unexpected Genre Mashups” department – adorable Star Wars art in the style of A. A. Milne.  http://blastr.com/2010/08/wookie-the-pooh-is-the-st.php
• Finally, let me say that the too-young death of Satoshi Kon this week hit me terribly hard. I have always enjoyed his work, and think his non-conventional ideas and storytelling style made him a unique, luminary voice in Anime and the world in general. If you’ve not seen “Millennium Actress” do yourself a favor and watch it. I could sum it up as ‘Sunset Boulevard as a love song’ but that genuinely doesn’t do it justice. In his final days, he wrote a letter to his friends, fans and family, which has been translated into English (for those of us who don’t read Japanese). It is tragic, sad and touching. Take tissues with you. You’ll want them: http://www.makikoitoh.com/journal/satoshi-kons-last-words

• If you’re in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, beware of velociraptors. (Yeah, that fence will totally hold them, Mr. Hammond) http://www.inquisitr.com/81595/velociraptors-brooklyn/velociraptors-prospect-park/
• In what I can only hope is the beginning of an new series, Frank Robnik has presented us with an informative video about the curious biology of Perfection Valley’s most dangerous animal: http://vimeo.com/13621353
• Want to know who to follow on Twitter? Start with everyone on the #womeninpublishing hashtag. Brilliant people, all of them. http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23womeninpublishing
• Members of the Yakuza review the video game Yakuza 3: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/10/yakuza-3-review.html
• Cat Safety Propoganda – an important reminder from Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYM-B9jAflM
• For writers of historical and speculative fiction, Angela Slatter (Guest blogging for Jeff VanderMeer) writes about the Magpie Mind and the perils of Research: http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2010/08/12/on-the-magpie-mind-and-the-misuses-of-research/
• And from the world of Science Fiction to your backyard – a ‘tea bag’ that can purify water for drinking. http://www.scidev.net/en/news/nano-tea-bag-purifies-water.html

So without further ado, here’s your available viewing for Friday the 13^th:

• Session 9 – One of my most frequently recommended films, I cannot say enough good about Session 9. It’s a suspenseful potboiler, rather than an over-the-top gore fest, and it gets extra points for being shot in the profoundly creepy and all-too-real Danvers State Mental Hospital. Even with David Caruso in it (pre-CSI:Miami, even), this film’s a winner.
• The Host – One of a small number of films that take the Giant Monster movie to artistic levels, South Korea’s Gwoemul manages to mix drama, satire and political commentary into a brilliant depiction of inept bureaucracy and America’s all-too-big footprint on the world. As a sidenote, the #1 giant monster-as-art film is also available for instant download, and if you haven’t seen the unedited, emotionally powerful 1954 Gojira, you owe it to yourself to watch it. There’s no Raymond Burr, and no flinching from the real impact of nature gone mad.
• Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary – With Fang-fever gripping the country, I’d be remiss without including a vampire film. I freely admit that this one’s a bit of an odd inclusion though, in that it’s as arthaus as it gets. A 21^st century film, shot as a silent, complete with title cards. Modern effects are mixed in alongside some of the most classic effects from the dawn of filmmaking. Further, almost the entire cast are members of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and ballet plays an enormous part in the depiction of the film. I adore this film for several reasons – one, it’s the first time a film really explores the underlying Racism of Dracula – fear of the mysterious easterner whose ways are not British ways. It also plays with the conventions of the story, knowing that we are all familiar with it already. It jumps around, and makes us look at the relationships in new and surprising ways.

One notable exclusion – even though it’s on Instant View, I can’t recommend the version of “Let the Right One In” that’s currently on Netflix. The American subtitling is terrible, and loses much of the understatement and nuance of that haunting, gorgeous film. If you can find the European subtitled version, by all means, you should see it, but until the change the version on Netflix, I can’t recommend it.

• How I maintained my (obsessive) love for Power / Symphonic Metal this long without hearing of the band Van Canto, I have no idea. They’re an A Cappella power metal group out of Germany – 5 singers, 1 drummer – and I found them for their covers of other songs. There’s something oddly awesome about hearing a guy replicate a shredding guitar solo with Strong Bad-esque ‘weedlie-deedlie’ sounds. Have a listen:
• Van Canto covers Iron Maiden’s Fear of the Dark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyHcIHssdHA
• Van Canto covers Nightwish’s Wishmaster: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCGQiGEYl4Y
• I can’t decide if this is funny or makes me cry. The Morning News has collected a cream-of-the-crop set of 1-star Amazon Reviews for books that appear on the Time’s Top 100 list of novels. Laugh or cry, it certainly puts the occasional bad review in perspective: http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/reviews/lone_star_statements.php
• I make very little secret of the fact that I think The Venture Brothers is one of the best shows on television. It’s constant mockery of  the ‘boy adventurer archetype’ never fails to make me smile. In September, we’re finally getting the second half of season 4 (or whatever they’re calling it), and in the wake of SDCC, we finally have a trailer. An io9 link, simply because they’ve got the best quality I’ve been able to find: http://io9.com/5604340/the-venture-bros-the-trailer-for-the-new-blissfully-insane-season
• While talking about trailers, I would e remiss if I didn’t mention the new interactive trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I’m insanely chuffed for this film, and it seems like I’m not alone in it. If this is a sign of how much detail will be included in any sort of extra features we might see: http://io9.com/5605181/scott-pilgrims-interactive-trailer-is-better-than-most-dvd-bonus-features
• And now the promise of the premise, with rock stars for everyone. I love cool papercraft, especially people who work up designs from scratch. To that end, here’s the coolest version of Freddie Mercury and the gang – scroll down through the construction images to see Queen in action. http://www.behance.net/gallery/We-Are-the-Champions/494706

As for how I’ve spent it, lets just say I’ve spent my days in workshops, and my nights socializing. The SFR Brigade had a little get together two nights ago, and tonight will be The Gathering for RWA’s Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal chapter. I’ve picked up a little sun down here, mostly during my spin through the Magic Kingdom, and I’ve met more wonderful people than I will ever be able to thank or remember.

Nora Roberts gave a phenomenal keynote speech that had us all cheering as she reminded us of how far we’ve come in the last 30 years, and about the friendships that form at Nationals that can  carry you through a lifetime.

This is an unusually rambly post for a Potpourri day, but I wanted to start a write up of the fun and hard work that has gone into this conference. Truly, having a blast.