I has my dance on!

Haven't been posted in a while, so it's time for more updates.

Swing dancing is going well, and d_c_m is proving a fabulous belly-dance teacher. The class is exactly at the right level for me, and I feel like I'm making good progress. (Thanks dcm!)

I've had my first lessons on knife and stick fighting. My defense strategy needs work: right now it consists of shutting my eyes and wailing, neither of which is particularly useful when it comes to turning a weapon. Pity, though - if i was on Heroes I'd totally want 'please don't hit me" to be an effective superpower.

Speaking of which: I have become a late, late convert to "Heroes." I watched episode 2 over at swantower's place last year and it failed to grab me. But I gave it another chance, and the plot, once it gets going, has had some interesting twists. Needless to say, I really, really like Hiro and the meta-comic elements. Exposition Guy, however, needs to die now.

As for academics, I've more-or-less finished my first pass at chapter 1 of the dissertation. Desperate revisions will follow shortly, as will conversations with my committee that end with me shutting my eyes and wailing "please don't hit me!" (Note: this is no more effective in academic conversation than in stick fighting. New strategies are needed.)

Still: I've arrived at wordcount on my first chapter. I may reward myself by purchasing Kolbert and Spufford'sThe Ends of the Earth: An Anthology of the Finest Writing on the Arctic and the Antarctic. Mmmmm, juicy.

Entertainment Update

I was disturbed to hear that
New Line has decided to change the ending of The Golden Compass. Now, to be fair, they're not getting rid of the ending - they're just tacking it onto the next film. But the info that "this confirmation comes on top of rumours that New Line head Bob Shaye is apparently responsible for the push, as the book ends on a rather dark note and thought is that this could hurt the $150 million film's commercial chances" is worrying. The ending of GC is dark, and if they postpone a certain character's death until the beginning of the next movie, I'll be very upset.

(Seriously. Didn't they learn from Alien 3? Killing off characters at the end of a movie is tragic. Killing them off in the opening credits of the next movie is just stupid.)

Further horribleness exists in this rumor:

Three different producers have told Deadline Hollywood Daily that Warner Bros. Pictures president prexy Jeff Robinov has declared that the studio is "no longer doing movies with women in the lead".

Robinov has since denied making any such policy. To be quite honest, I believe him, insofar as a blanket "no female leads" policy doesn't make economic sense. But the rumor has nevertheless tapped into the sentiment that the Hollywood establishment is essentially conservative when it comes to casting and developing roles for women in film.

On the good news front, it really sounds like Paramount is taking it relaunch of the Trek franchise seriously.

Pegg, Cho & Money In "Trek"

"Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead" leading man Simon Pegg is set to play chief engineer 'Scotty' in J.J. Abrams reinvention of the "Star Trek" film franchise.

Also Asian-American comedy actor John Cho, best known as Harold in "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle", is set to play the ship's pilot Sulu. Chris Pine remains the favourite to play Kirk, leaving the roles of Kirk's parents and the Enterprise's first captain Christopher Pike to yet be cast.

Finally comes word at Moviehole that the film's budget will be on the big side - the whopping $130 million initial estimate has been expanded upwards to as high as $150-160 million - and that's before any marketing or publicity, a number that's expected to be up in the $50 million range (Paramount is going "Transformers" sized with its promotions).