The Return of Bits and Bobs

I haven't done a news post in a long time, so here's some stuff I wanted to share.

• The Times questions the future of British cinema post-2009 Oscars haul.
• A Times (NY variety) interview with Buzz Aldrin on the 40th anniversary of NASA's moon landing and his upcoming memoir. I met ol' Buzz once at NASA. Very nice guy.
  
• Time (magazine variety) asks if genetics can help you find love. No.
  
• Toby Stephens takes a few to discuss his latest - A Doll's House, the Doctor, and the birth of his daughter.
• The King and I West End revival, starring Maria Friedman and Lost's Daniel Dae Kim, gets a royal thumbs down.
• The Guardian's depressing look back at how the moon landing killed space exploration.
  
• Holden Caufield loses his allure. Eh, yet another book I successfully avoided in high school.
• Damn. I could have been CIA and maybe crossed paths with M1-5 per the proposed ROTC-like spy program.
• Shanghai celebrates gay pride, sort of.
• Beijing's air still sucks, and that's not the only thing.
  

The New York Asian Film Festival landed on Friday. Some of the Hong Kong movies making the cut: Donnie Yen's Ip Man, Plastic City with the 'endearingly grizzled' Anthony Wong, and a PTU spinoff in the Tactical Unit series featuring Simon Yam, Maggie Siu, and Lam Suet (of course) called Comrades in Arms. There's also a Lau Ching Wan movie called Written By, which I can't find a record for. The only completed and yet unreleased movie I know of is Overheard, which has finally been posted on the theatres' upcoming lists (release date 7.30).

Spotted a new movie called Telstar about 1960s British record producer Joe Meeks, also featuring Kevin Spacey. The buzz is low, but I'm interested as James Corden rears his cheeky head as the cardigan-wearing drummer. We'll see if this outing redeems him from his Horne and Corden debacle.