Mat Bowles

Things that make Mat happy part mcmxvii. Via just about everyone (including an email), HBO, the US TV channel that made The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Oz, Carnivàle, The Larry Sanders Show, Deadwood, Band of Brothers, Rome... (and snipping out shows I didn't like/haven't seen still leaves an impressive list there) have announced that they will be making grrm's A Song of Ice and Fire into a very long TV show. It gets better:

The author will co-exec produce the series

and each book will be an entire season, so while they'll need to cut out some detail, they won't need to cut out all the detail. In a different article on the same story I also found:

This comes on the heels of HBO announcing they would do a series based on Preacher

Lemme hear you say an amen. Game of Thrones and Preacher? Yowsers.

And, in US news, Senator Barack Obama:

I'll be filing papers today to create a presidential exploratory committee. For the next several weeks, I am going to talk with people from around the country, listening and learning more about the challenges we face as a nation, the opportunities that lie before us, and the role that a presidential campaign might play in bringing our country together.

I first heard about this guy when Evan linked to a video of his address to the DNC at the time Kerry/Edwards won the nomination, and I was actually impressed. It's not often these days that public speaking and speeches impress me, but this guy did. I've only heard good things since. I'm thinking he won't win the nomination, but will make a great VP candidate behind either Edwards or Clinton.

Right, I'm off into town for the protest I mentioned, see you all on the flip side...