The Man Who Can’t Miss

Came across this article about James Patterson’s odyssey to success:

One of the things that’s fascinating about Patterson is his total lack of interest in received wisdom; another is his complete confidence in his own judgment.

With 1992’s Along Came a Spider, the first novel in his Alex Cross series, Patterson knew he’d written a best seller–so he took control of the way it was designed and marketed.

When his publisher told him it wasn’t interested in running a TV campaign, he called in a few favors at J. Walter Thompson and shot the ad with his own money.

He wasn’t jazzed about Spider’s cover, so he redesigned it.

“They’d done a cover that had a kid’s sneaker on it, with a little blood on it, and I went, I don’t know, it didn’t do anything for me. I want the reaction to be, ‘I want this!’”

He blew up the title into huge letters that practically shouted across the bookstore that this book was going to give thriller readers exactly what they were looking for.

Spider became Patterson’s first best seller.

He still designs all his own covers.

Harvard Business School now teaches a case study on his marketing techniques.

Love him or hate him, you gotta give the guy points for his take-charge attitude.

America’s Most Wanted

He wanted to be famous; now he is infamous.

Read Nai Yin Xue’s criminal profile here.

Asian values?

This peculiar case has stirred the public imagination.

A three-year-old Asian toddler from New Zealand was apparently abandoned by her father at a Melbourne train station on Saturday; he then went on to board a flight to the United States.

The people who rescued the toddler dubbed her “Pumpkin”, as she was wearing a Pumpkin Patch top.

Pumpkin has now been placed with a foster family, while authorities work to track down her relatives. No luck so far.

Dark City 2 due

Xeus confirms that DARK CITY 2 will be released in the 2nd week of October.

For real.

Without giving too much away, my own contribution is a first-person story that can only be described as dark suspense. Yes, there are hints of horror, but no, there is nothing supernatural.

I will be writing more about the creative process behind it when the anthology is out.

Cheers.

HARDtalk with Malaysia’s foreign minister

BBC’s HARDtalk has done an interview with Malaysia’s foreign minister Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar about the country’s racial/religious issues.

You can watch it here.

My thoughts are much too vulgar, so I will let the interview speak for itself.

Spanish ‘granny’ dissects past and present

Her readers call her “the little granny,” and for eight months she has engrossed them with her ruminations on the present and her recollections of the past.

Since her debut in cyberspace in December, María Amelia López, 95, has drawn thousands of readers from across the globe with an incisive blog.

This Internet journal (amis95.blogspot.com) is a meandering chronicle of old age sprinkled with vivid reminiscence and her take on contemporary life, from fashion and workers’ rights to Basque terrorism and Iran’s nuclear pretensions.

Since her grandson, Daniel, 35, set it up as a birthday present in December, López’s blog has received 350,000 hits and drawn responses and, increasingly, media attention from as far afield as Chile, Venezuela, Russia and Japan.

“It’s a whole new universe,” said López, an elegant woman with high, arched brows and a keen stare. She dictates her entries to Daniel. “It’s like having a conversation, and those who read what I say become my friends.”

Read the full story here.

Unsteadicam Chronicles

 

Critic David Bordwell delves into the controversy over The Bourne Ultimatum’s wobbly camerawork:

First, what exactly are we talking about?

Some viewers and critics think the jarring quality of the movie proceeds from rapid editing. The cutting in Bourne Ultimatum is indeed very fast; there are about 3200 shots in 105 minutes, yielding an average of about 2 seconds per shot.

But there are other fast-cut films that don’t yield the same dizzy effects, such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (1.6 seconds average), Batman Begins (1.9 seconds), Idiocracy (1.9 seconds), and the Transporter movies (less than 2 seconds).

As for the series itself, The Bourne Identity, directed by Doug Liman, was edited a tad slower, averaging 3 seconds per shot.

The second entry, The Bourne Supremacy, also signed by Greengrass, was as fast-cut as this, coming in at 1.9 seconds.

People noticed the rough texture of the second one, but it didn’t arouse the protests that this last installment does.

Something else is up.

James Bond gets some Jason Bourne magic

The Hollywood Reporter declares:

Ever since the “Bourne” movies have come on the scene, the makers of James Bond have been in the line of fire for having a dusty, lethargic spy on their hands — “Casino Royale” notwithstanding.

But it looks like EON Prods., Columbia Pictures and MGM might be kicking it up a notch for the next Bond film.

Taking a page from the “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” handbook, the production has hired “Bourne Supremacy” and “Bourne Ultimatum” action designer Dan Bradley as the film’s second unit director.

Bradley plotted out and directed the acclaimed fight sequences and car chases as the stunt coordinator and second unit director of the two Paul Greengrass-helmed “Bourne” sequels and will service the working-titled “Bond 22″ in much the same capacity. The producers want him to continue and build on the more realistic and gritty approach to the veteran British spy begun in last year’s “Casino Royale.”

While no date has been set, “Bond 22″ is eyeing a start date in the winter.

They Have Taken Our Malaysia From Us

Dr. Farish A. Noor bemoans the loss of the Malaysian Dream:

Lest we forget – and we should not – this is our homeland, our nation, our country. It belongs to all of us, all Malaysians, on the basis of a shared common universal citizenship that makes us equal.

The concessions that were made to the ethno-nationalists in the past have borne fruit and we now see the disastrous impact on nation-building:

After decades of promoting an exclusive communitarian approach to the national language issue, we have finally come to realise that our national language is Bahasa Malaysia, and not Bahasa Melayu after all.

How much more damage can this young nation take, before the Malaysian project unravels before our eyes?

Already reports indicate that the liberal sector of the country is abandoning ship in droves, seeking other lands where the freedom to think and speak is granted without fear of a racist backlash in turn.

Yet the soap-box orators and jaguh kampungs we count as our leaders in this country continue to speak a language of blood and belonging that is essentialist, divisive and ultimately detrimental to the idea of Malaysia itself.

With all this in mind, I cannot for the life of me find reason to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Malaysia, for in all honestly I do not even recognise my Malaysia any longer.

Worst still, I cannot even answer the question of whether Malaysia will still exist in 50 years time.

They, the politicians, have robbed our country from us, and they continue to do so, still.

Damn them, all.

Read the full article here.

Malaysia and the Myth of ‘Tanah Melayu’

Political scientist Dr. Farish A. Noor dissects the twin myths of being Malay and being Malaysian:

And as the virulent voices in the vernacular editorials of the local press call for vengeance against Meng Chee, perhaps they should ask themselves this simple and honest question:

For half a century now the so-called ‘non-Malays’ of Malaysia have been asked to attest their loyalty and commitment to the Malaysian idea and ideal; to relegate their cultural history to the background; to adopt the national language, culture and even dress in an attempt to assimilate to the reality of life in Malaysia.

But tell me, dear reader, how many Malays in Malaysia are truly Malaysian; and how many Malays think of themselves as Malaysian and are committed to that very same ideal of a Malaysian Malaysia?

Are the Malays Malaysians who live in Malaysia?

Or are the Malays still living in the mythological land of ‘Tanah Melayu’, an idea dreamt of by Orientalist scholars and administrators during the colonial era, as a worthless compensation to a people who had been colonised and whose pride was reduced to the worth of a copper coin?

Read Part One here.

Read Part Two here.