Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

31 October 2003

Mamet Predicts Death of Theaters

Today's Guardian includes an article by David Mamet, who I mentioned just yesterday, about the movies. Or is it about politics?

In the article, Mamet predicts the death of the theater. The movie theater, that is. You need only follow American politics to arrive at this conclusion, he says (but with bigger and better words). Releasing movies in theaters leaves far too much power in the hands of the public:

[The wise captain of the studio] who will scrupulously observe and boldly reason will perceive that he need not take defeat from the recalcitrant droves, any more than the wise politician need fear an obstreperous electorate. The studios will note that — as in politics — vertical integration is the clear, essential, and sole answer to audience control. For the Droves have a choice at the box office, but they have no choice at home on the couch.

Studios will, therefore, opt for beaming things into your home where they have more control over packaging. Curious.

(Note that yesterday I uncharacteristically posted three items in a single day — about 1) David Mamet, 2) kids being raised on TV, and 3) the unexamined issues of the California recall election — in this blog that is mostly about 4) the movies. Then today, on Halloween, The Guardian manages to combine all four in a single article. I'm trying hard to consider this a coincidence, but I keep leaning toward the other possibility: that I alone control the universe. Fear me.)

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