Freeloading Off Of Other Bloggers

NPH has been dragging his blogo-feet for nearly a month now. A Bradley Whitford post here, a Boondocks quip there, but largely emptiness on the great grey screen that readers (especially our Hollywood production assistant faithful) have come to depend on. We are sorry.

There may be some light at the end of the tunnel. But this is still the tunnel. So here are some quick notes and references that NPH readers are sure to, if not enjoy, benefit from.

First, our beloved comic strip "Boondocks" has decided to call it quits. This is sad news indeed, although it is made less sad by the continuation of the Boondocks animated series. The end of the strip marks the quickest cessation of a comic that was syndicated by as many papers as Aaron McGruder's was. Here's how it went down, compliments of Wikipedia: "In late February 2006, McGruder announced that his strip would go on a
six-month hiatus, starting March 27, 2006, with new installments
resuming in October. Repeats of earlier strips were offered by
Universal Press Syndicate in the interim.According to Editor & Publisher, two-thirds of The Boondocks'
client list substituted different features rather than publish reruns.
Universal Press Syndicate president Lee Salem announced on Sept. 25,
2006, that the comic would remain on hiatus indefinitely, saying, 'Although Aaron McGruder has made no statement about retiring or
resuming The Boondocks for print newspapers ... newspapers should not count on it coming back in the foreseeable future'.McGruder's editor at the syndicate, Greg Melvin, met with McGruder in
Los Angeles over the course of at least two days unsuccessfully
attemping to have the cartoonist abide by his agreement to return in
six months." Happy [paper] trails Huey Freeman.
Second, NPH's friend and colleague, Kairos, has been writing an important series of posts on torture. Kairos is a PhD candidate in Christian Ethics, and so speaks of the issue with a clear understanding of what is at stake, especially for the church, in the legislature's current debate over what is and what is not legal treatment of human beings. I recommend this post, this post, and this post especially.
Finally, NPH's annual October Scary Movie Blitz is about to begin. Many NPH readers will no doubt recall last year's collection of reflections on the werewolf genre, which extended from "The Werewolf of London" and "The Wolf Man" to Neil Jordan's "In The Company of Wolves." Well, after much thought, NPH has decided that this year's theme will be haunted houses. Thanks to Netflix, we have a number of films qeued up, from the classics, "Cat and the Canary" and "13 Ghosts" to the very contemporary "The Amityville Horror." We are open to suggestions. What we're aiming at here is more than a glut of scares; gory orchestral hits need not apply. We're actually interersted in tracking the evolution of a genre of scary film, with special attention to the mythology employed and the literary and cinematic devices brought to bear on the story. We try hard to avoid lots of violence and gore, which is kind of like a bungee jumper saying he tries to avoid that stomach-in-the-throat feeling, I know. But NPH's experience has been that the best scary films tend to be those that rely only minimally on blood. We look forward to your participation, whatever it may be.