Greedy cow didn't make enough money

Yet another reason why I won't be reading books by JK Rowling.
From Yahoo News:

Rowling, Warner Bros. sue over Potter book

By Christine Kearney Wed Oct 31, 6:23 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A book billed as an unofficial encyclopedic companion to the "Harry Potter" series infringes copyright and attempts to cash in on the successful brand, author J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. said when they filed a lawsuit on Wednesday.

The 400-page book -- "The Harry Potter Lexicon" due to be released by RDR Books on November 28 in the United States -- had inappropriately referenced Rowling's fictional characters and universe, Rowling and Warner Bros. said.

RDR Books said the author of the reference book, Steve Vander Ark, based it on his fan Web site, www.hp-lexicon.org, that was used by 25 million visitors and had been called "a great site" by Rowling herself.

In a statement on Wednesday, Rowling said even though she loved fan sites, she hoped to write "the definitive Harry Potter encyclopedia, which will include all the material that never made it into the novels" and donate the proceeds to charity.

"I cannot, therefore, approve of 'companion books' or 'encyclopedias' that seek to pre-empt my definitive Potter reference book for their authors' own personal gain," she said. "The losers in such a situation would be the charities that I hope, eventually, to benefit."

The lawsuit names RDR Books, an independent publisher based in Michigan, and unidentified persons as defendants. It seeks damages for copyright and federal trademark infringement and any profits to be gained from the book.

"The infringing book is particularly troubling as it is in direct contravention to Ms. Rowling's repeatedly stated intention to publish her own companion books to the series," said the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan.

Roger Rapoport, the publisher and owner of RDR Books, said Vander Ark, a librarian, had spoken at Harry Potter academic conferences in Britain, Canada and the United States and that a timeline he created was used by Warner Bros. in DVD releases of the Harry Potter films.

The forthcoming book "only promotes the sale of J.K. Rowling's work and we intend to publish on schedule as planned," said Rapoport.

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc. that owns the copyright and trademark rights to the seven "Harry Potter" books, said in a statement it was seeking to protect Rowling's right to produce a future companion book.

I never liked the cow, she struck me as greedy and fake, in other words, very much like myself. And apparently I was right.

Sicko

Sicko © Dog eat dog films.

I was so eager to go see the new Michael Moore film that I got tired of looking for someone to go with me. I went alone. It's been a while since I went to the cinema on my own, but frankly it comes with several benefits:

1) I actually get to go while the film is still running, instead of missing it while waiting for someone to find the time to go with me.
2) I get to go to the cinema with a moment's notice, whenever it's good for me/the family.
3) I don't have to worry that I lured someone to a bad movie and have to defend my terrible taste afterwards.
4) My concentration on the movie is 100%.

The only minus is that I attract some looks. I mean, what kind of weird person goes to the cinema on her own?! "Better not sit next to her, she might carry a knife."

Oh, the film? First of all, it's not really a documentary. Unless a documentation of what happens when Moore with camera crew turns up in different places counts as a documentary? It's more like a directed and staged show. Sure the heart is in the right place, everybody wants the best care possible when they're ill. But the images and narration is designed with the opinion already in place. There's very little room for the viewer to add their own knowledge and experience to form their own interpretation.

I miss "Bowling for Columbine" (2002) for the thoughtfulness, sadness and important questions raised. "Sicko" was nowhere near.

Kiwis did the haka

I guess they had to compensate for their pathetic loses at the Rugby World Cup. They also screamed a lot and got very drunk. But that was to be expected. They were happy, and they were proud, and I guess there aren't that many reasons to be proud Kiwis these days.
They were at a Crowded House concert.

Yes, it finally happened. October 12th at Nalen in Stockholm.
And how was it?

Well, you know you’re in trouble when you wake up the morning after the show singing a song by a totally different artist. I woke up humming “Cheek to Cheek” by Sahara Hotnights.

So much for Crowded House…

Or maybe I am being unnecessarily harsh. To be honest, it was a solid show. I enjoyed it. They played all my favorite songs from the good ole days. And a few new ones, too. The audience sang along. Only the spirit of Crowded House was missing.

Don’t get me wrong. The band played fine. There was nothing wrong with the music. There was nothing wrong with Neil’s singing, nothing wrong with Nick’s and Mark’s and Matt’s playing. Every sound had its place, and everything sounded just right. Only the heart of the songs wasn’t there.

And that made me sad. Things sounded different when Paul was alive.

I'm way too lazy to list all the songs they played, so here's the setlist.


I was thinking what about this show bothered me the most. And finally, as I was landing back in Umeå, it came to me. It was sad to see my childhood idols old and wrinkled. I wanted to remember them young and full of life.

Neil Finn on the Wurlitzer. Crowded House concert, Nalen in Stockholm, October 12th, 2007.


PS. The opening act was Cherry Ghost, some almost boring band from Manchester, UK. It would be a good band if the songs had more oompf, if the singer took some singing lessons, and the drummer learned to drum without counting under his breath. Honey, I see you want to be Dave Grohl, but you ain’t, so please stop trying so hard to look like him. All in all, a decent provincial guitar rock band.

Some old lady from the UK won

The Nobel Prize in Literature, that is. Which only proves once again, that only extremely boring writers of extremely boring books, which are read by other extremely boring people, win. Year after year.

The grumpy old lady in question is Doris Lessing, and this is what she had to say about winning:

"They can't give a Nobel to someone who's dead so I think they were probably thinking they had better give it to me now before I popped off,"

You can read the rest of the article here.

As for me, I vaguely remember reading her "Sirian Experiments", which were so sleep inducing, I had to give it up. Because I don't suffer from insomnia, and besides, sci-fi can be a very laborious reading.

But apparently, the old lady likes cats, and because cats are her favorite animals, it's a good enough reason for me to give her a second try.

The Kite Runner controversy

It's sad that in 2007, there are still places in the world where people could confuse film with reality. As it apparently is happening with the movie version of "The Kite Runner" in Afghanistan right now. Here is what BBC says about it.

I want to laugh that someone, anyone can be so monumentally stupid, ridiculously uneducated, and so terrifyingly narrow-minded. And then I remember those are the same people who brought us Taliban, and smashed the Buddhas of Bamyan, a World Heritage Site. And I stop laughing. And instead, I feel sorry for the young stars of "The Kite Runner".