recommendations from Ms Kim

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales, by Stephen King. Ah, Stephen King; you were one of the first authors I really got into reading, way back in that middle school library, and you still have me hooked. I think I'm actually going to write a letter to the guy, for true. In this anthology King approaches, as he notes in his notes, many of the stories that are horror staples, such as the idea of premature burial (I'll note that one in particular has a snicker-worthy ending, interestingly). Actually, many of the stories are not even so much horror as exactly what the title purports - they're dark tales. Not so much scary as rather what King seems to love to go for: unsettling. All that, and a couple stories that are Dark Tower tie-ins, one directly about Roland, and another explaining the origin of one of the side characters, Dinky Earnshaw. Anyway. Go read Stephen King! Like David Brin and the Rock, he's an author who writes for the people.

Swimming with Sharks, with Kevin Spacey and Michelle Forbes. Entertaining! And, it's odd to see Admiral Cain from BSG in another role. Especially a somewhat smoochy role. I can only imagine what kind of lovin' her character had on the Pegasus. Anyway, I thought this movie was very interesting, in terms of it being a character study with an emphasis on progression, but man the ending still just does not click for me at all. I get the logic of it, after having it explained to me, and that makes sense, but on a more intuitive level something is just not right. I don't know, someone watch it and tell me whether I'm just being dense.

-and, a great column on using aikido in a social sense