Columnize your Randomness

One of the "Pictures of the Day" on the WSJ on June 29 is of a Greek police man hitting a woman in the face with his fist. On Tuesday, there were violent protests in Athens as a reaction to the strict austerity measures proposed by the government.
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A wacky woman who is miraculously also a doctor has developed a drug that is meant to prevent "lesbian and masculine daughters". What, and if it doesn't work you get a refund? Or would your child have been even gayer? "The study, with just 26 participants, was too small to be definitive". One way to make sure that your kids aren't gay would be not having kids. Just saying.

The A.V. Club has a series of conversations on Philip K. Dick's "A Scanner Darkly". This one is about the film adaptation by Richard Linklater that I still find amazingly well-done considering that the source material seems impossible for the movie screen.

There's an interview with playwright and scriptwriter Jack Thorne on afterellen. He's responsible for some of the best episodes of "Skins" ("Chris", "Effy", "Sketch" and the second finale from the first generation, "Naomi" from the second). He's also writing the script for the "Skins"-movie scheduled to come out in 2011 (presumably only in British cinemas?), but he can't talk about it yet. His answers are short, but "it's a love story about a girl who doesn't want to be in love." is the shortest, most eloquent and beautiful way to sum up Naomi's path in "Skins".

Since there's barely any tv shows on at the moment (the phenomenal fifth season of "Doctor Who" is done), I gave "Leverage" a second shot, and it surprised me by turning into one of those small, really loveable shows that have such an amazing cast that it's irrelevant whether there is a greater mystery and if the stories make any sense. I've had troubles getting into "Chuck" or "White Collar" because something was missing - and apparently, the thing that is missing from both of these shows, to make them as dear to me as "The Middleman", was a complicated, flawed female character. Beth Riesgraf's Parker is like a different version of Anya from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": she's socially awkward, obsessed with money, and a brilliant thief.  

SHARKER!

Also, remember a couple of weeks ago when I talked about how Andrew Garfield had developed into a serious actor since "Sugar Rush"? He was just cast as the new Spider-Man (in another re-boot because it's already been, what, four years since the last one?) If this means that more people will watch "Red Riding", "Boy A" and "Never Let Me Go" I'm all for it.