Books – Geeking Out About.com

Trisha’s Short Video of the Day: A Wrinkle in Time in 90 Seconds

Posted on 18 January 2011 by admin 2 Comments

Back when I was in elementary school, the one book I had a love/hate relationship with was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. We read it in our GATE class because it was a Newbery Award winner and one of the first science fiction books aimed at children.

I thought the plot of the book was rather cool, but I wasn’t great at sticking to the same chapters as the rest of the class or turning in the vocabulary homework. As a result, the D- I got that semester was the lowest I ever received and I got into trouble with my parents.

If I’d made a video like this when I was a kid, I wonder if my teacher would have raised my grade?

Created by children’s book author James Kennedy (The Order of Odd-Fish), this hilarious video was made in order to promote the 90 Second Newbery contest which he is holding jointly with the New York Public Library.

The challenge is to take either an award winner or a Newbery Honor winner and to recap the story in 90 seconds. Submissions in link form are due on September 15, 2011 and even fanfic crossover videos could even be considered, according to Kennedy who added:

If the film is sufficiently ingenious, we might even bend the rules. Okay, I admit it: for years I’ve wanted to see the rodents of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (1972) fight their counterparts in The Tale of Despereaux (2004). Rat-fights make for gripping cinema!

I really can’t argue with the man on that point. So, round up your kids, the neighbor’s kids, your nieces and/or nephews, cousins… basically grab as many child actors as you can, and you too could have your video screened at the film festival this fall.

Digital Manga to “hire” scanlators to translate manga

Posted on 18 June 2010 by admin 1 Comment

rsz_manga_scan_image — One hopes the results will be better than this (Source: K-Rotaku)

Erica Friedman, your questions have been answered.

Earlier this week, the founder of ALC Publishing (a GLBT-themed manga publisher) posted her musings about how the problem of fighting manga scanlation piracy could be solved. In short and apparently after two months of thinking about it, Friedman concluded that that someone with more money and more brainpower than she does needs to come up with a publishing model which allows the community to have its say in what gets translated, how it gets translated, how it gets published (digital only or also in print) and still be able to pay the creator (or his/her original publishing house) for the rights to translate the original Japanese into whichever language they want.

Apparently, over in the man-on-man side of the manga world, Jennifer LeBlanc at The Yaoi Review.com dug around a little and discovered that a Japanese manga publisher is doing exactly that:

[Digital Manga Publishing] is working on a new ‘secret’ project for publishing more manga faster and cheaper than it is now. It would be via a digital format and they are looking to hire scanlators to help with this. Essentially, scanlators would be doing what they do now except there is the possibility of getting paid based on the sales of said manga titles they worked on. They also get to have their name on everything they translate and retain certain rights to the work they do. What rights I do not know. There is also the possibility of becoming a paid translator ‘if qualified’ and you’d be ahead of the pack when it comes to any other candidates that applied for the position.

Today, Anime News Network confirmed the details in LeBlanc’s blogpost, adding that DMP would start this program off with the “boys love” genre and gauging its viability before moving into other genres and novels.

Personally speaking, I think part of this is brilliant because crowdsourcing does seem to be the “new” way of getting things done and giving consumers a say in what they purchase. By giving the scanlator circles a bit of legitimacy, it takes away the “cool” factor in choosing the pirated works and also would make the scanlators want to work on the official material because, hey, they’re finally getting paid and recognized for their work!

Of course, if I were part of one of these manga scanlator circles, I’d demand to see a contract first and to have it vetted by a lawyer who’s familiar with international law because there’s nothing that would suck more than being screwed over by a work-for-hire contract.

I hope that the folks at DMP will be able to say more at the summer anime/manga convention panels.

Trisha's Take: When one 'tube feeds another

Posted on 17 November 2009 by admin Leave a Comment

Shatnerquake If you’re a Wil Wheaton fan like I am, then you probably have already read his blog entry about how you can get a free book download today only.

The book in question is called Shatnerquake by Jeff Burk and Wheaton’s description makes it sound like it’s as much of fun read as Free Enterprise was to watch:

It’s like Lloyd Kaufman and Sam Rami’s mutant offspring wrote a book. It’s very funny, and doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is: The William Shatner locked in surreal and hyperreal mortal combat with every character he’s ever played, from the Priceline guy to Kirk.

I just downloaded the book and am throwing a little tip money into Burk’s jar, and I’ll tell you why: It’s all because of movies like Clerks and Paranormal Activity.

I love that Kevin Smith maxed out his credit cards to make a little black and white movie about my generation and most of that money went to securing the music rights. I love that Oren Peli’s casting notice was so unconventional that no regular agency would have ever considered sending any actors to the auditions.

I love how people like Smith and Peli and now Burk took a chance with their art and how that with interaction via Twitter and the blogosphere, us “normal” non-Hollywood types can have a way to give back and help them succeed. The “cost” of the free download is to write a review on Amazon or GoodReads and you bet I’ll be doing that tonight after I leave the office.

I wish more filmmakers interacted with the public this way.

Tag: Books