There’s a new service debuting this week called bandwagon that provides music storage via Amazon’s S3 service for a flat fee. By posting this link I should be able to get a free year of service.
You are currently browsing the archive for the Entertainment category.
Waiters Who Are Nauseated By Food [via] The Dana Carvey show had a lot of later-big name comedic names.
Tags: dana-carvey, stephen-colbert, steve-carell
This video is well worth the watch. With no editing he creates a complete song on his own. At 3:18 he even slows the whole thing down into slo-mo. [via- now with permalinks!]
I win not one but two UK lotteries!
UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS:
28 TAN FIELD ROAD,
CROYDON, LONDON.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
(24hours)
Ref: UK/9420X2/68
Batch: 074/05/ZY36WINNING NOTIFICATION
We happily announce to you the draw (#1019) of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY,online Sweepstakes International program held on the 27th January,2007, Your e-mail address was attached to ticket number:56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers :21-32-41-42-43-46, and a bonus number of (17) which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category.You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £251,420 (two hundred and fifty-one thousand,four hundred and twenty pounds) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03. This is from a total cash prize of £1,005,680 shared amongst the (4) lucky winners in this category that is Match 5 plus bonus.
All participants for the online version were selected randomly from World Wide Web sites through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 unions,associations, and corporate bodies that are listed
online.Please note that your lucky number falls within our European booklet representative office in Europe as indicated in your playcoupon. In view of this, your £251,420 (two hundred and fifty-one thousand, four hundred and twenty pounds ) would be released to you by any of our payment offices in Europe.
fiduciary Agent: MR: MICHAEL MARTINS
Email address: claimsagent0607@sify.com(Form HLP)
REFERENCE NUMBER: UK/9420X2/68
FULL NAME……………………..…………………
FULL ADDRESS:…………………………………….
SEX:……………………………
AGE……………………………..
OCCUPATION………………………..
TEL…………………..FAX…………….. (If any)
COUNTRY…………………………..
E-MAIL…………………………….
WINNING NUMBER………………….Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program.Yours Truly,
Richard K Lloyd.
Well I do consider myself lucky but that’s because of Marcy and the baby. I don’t need fake lottery wins to feel special.
I got this email this morning so I figured the rest of my life is set:
UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS:
P O Box 1010 Liverpool, L70 1NL UNITED KINGDOM
FROM: UK NATIONAL LOTTERY:
WINNING NOTICE(CATEGORY “A”)
Dear Winner
This is to inform you that you have been selected for a cash prize of
£250,000.00 ( Pounds) held on the 16th of January 2007 in London
Uk. The selection process was carried out through random selection in
our computerized email selection system(ess) from a database of over
250,000 email addresses drawn from which you were selected.
processing of your prize you are to contact our fiduciary claims
more infomation as regards the procedures to claim your prize.
fudiciary agent:
Mr Jim Wat
Email:agentjanwhite@yahoo.co.uk
Mrs Jan White
(Zonal Coordinator)
I can’t wait to claim my prize. It’s my way to beat the system(ess).
Via jkottke this video for Uniqlo. Watch it with sound if possible. It’s an amazing job.
Via Waxy I found this page that has hunted down the myspace profiles of some of the contestants that have been on American Idol so far this season. Some of the contestants have already edited their profiles and such to remove incriminating and potentially disqualifying evidence. I have to say that this season has been quite boring so far. I’ve actually gotten up and left the room because it just felt like they were rehashing the same tricks and poor performances that we’ve seen countless times before.
Update: Round #2!
Tags: american-idol, myspace
I saw this sign near the McDonald’s near work today advertising their Monopoly contest:
Want to win some cash*?
*Payable by cheque.
I found that to be quite humourous.
Rick Mercer usually has great blog posts (along with his television show) and if you seen his television rants you probably know what to expect. This week’s post is about Michael Fortier and he offers us a choice: should he run or should he stay? You decide! So far running is beating staying.
Tags: CBC, Humour, michael-fortier, Politics, rick-mercer
No, I’m not podcasting myself. That would be quite ridiculous and I don’t think anyone wants to listen to me talk about something unless they’re around me in real life (or do they?).
For me podcasting is all about listening to others’ podcasts. I have quite a few that I listen to on my Nano (1G). Among them are:
- Toronto This Week – Since I take the bus most days now I don’t get a chance to listen to much radio so this keeps me up-to-date on the local CBC shows (Metro Morning, Here & Now and Ontario Today).
- The Best of Ideas – This is one of the best podcasts that I listen to; hour-long documentaries on intellectual subjects such as organic food, religion and philosophy and the culture of sleep.
- The Best of The Current – Anna Maria Tremonti has some really great interviews on topical themes plus The Voice makes an appearance on each podcast.
- The Best of As It Happens – You can’t go wrong with this show. They deliver some hard-hitting interviews and some rather goofy ones too so it’s bound to keep you entertained and informed.
- The Best of DNTO – Definitely Not The Opera is a very fun show (hosted by Sook-Yin Lee) that gives me my pop culture fix for the week.
- The Movie Blog: Audio Edition – I started reading The Movie Blog a few months ago and it gives me my movie news but it’s nice to hear some discussion on movies too and these guys know how to deliver: almost an hour-long talk about movie news of the week plus a mailbag edition most weeks as well. It’s all of the movie news you’d ever want to hear! It’s also one of the most popular podcasts around.
- CBC Radio Editor’s Choice – each day they take their favourite segment and bundle it up in podcast form. Some of the segments are repeated in the other podcasts that I listen to but it gives you a good sampling of what’s available (and great) on CBC radio.
- The Bloggers Hotstove – Canadian politics discussion in podcast form. I recently started downloading these but I haven’t listened to any yet but knowing that James Bow is involved means that it’s bound to be high quality.
- Money Blogger Podcast – a personal finance podcast where Scott interviews different personal finance bloggers about their blog, their philosophy about saving and what they think about the world of personal finance these days. I’ve found some very great personal finance blogs through this podcast. It’s worth it for the links alone.
So that’s what I’ve been listening to and it’s kept me in a fairly good mood traveling back and forth to work. The other day I forgot my iPod at work so I had to go home and back without anything but the people on the bus to entertain me. If you have any podcasts of your own that you listen to or think that I might be interested in, please let me know!
Tags: as-it-happens, blogs, CBC, definitely-not-the-opera, dnto, ideas, ipod, nano, personal-finance, podcasting, radio, Toronto
Marcy and I went to see Death of a President yesterday. It won one of the awards at the Toronto International Film Festival last month. It has generated quite a bit of controversy as a couple of the movie theatre chains in the United States have refused to screen the film.
After seeing the film though, it’s hard to understand why they would have those major objections. It’s not really as controversial as you might expect. If anything it’s fairly neutral to the policies of Bush and it’s actually more harsh on the media and protesters than anyone else. It felt to me like I was watching a documentary about the Kennedy assassination. I’m not going to give any of the plot away but there were quite a few parallels in this film to what Lee Harvey Oswald went through before getting gunned down. The atmosphere was also quite similar.
I’d recommend the film because it’s a pretty interesting piece of film work but don’t go in expecting it be an anti-Bush/war/oil/terrorism propaganda movie because it’s not. It presents a more simple plot and asks you to think about what kind of questions would you ask and what would you do if you were in a position of power and had to deal with the assassination of a president.
Tags: bush, death-of-a-president, jfk, kennedy, lee-harvey-oswald, Movies, tiff, toronto-international-film-festival
I have it. I’ve listened to a couple of the tracks and it seems to be what I expected. I’ve put it on my iPod for listening tomorrow at work and on the ride home. I’ll post a review once I’m done listening to the whole thing.
Stephen Colbert decided to put Jon Stewart On Notice. Here’s the video from Monday’s Colbert Report about the aftermath of that statement. Very funny.
Tags: colbert-report, jon-stewart, on-notice, stephen-colbert, video
Via Waxy for this particular link I’ve been watching the pilot episode for Aaron Sorkin’s new show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (more Wikiality information can be found here). He’s the creator of The West Wing (I posted about it here). I’m not sure how long the video will stay online and there’s even a rumour that it’s been intentionally leaked on YouTube to garner attention and buzz leading up to the fall season (YouTube and NBC have a joint agreement). It looks to be a show worth watching if the pilot is any indication. It has quite the cast – Timothy Busfield, Matthew Perry, Judd Hirsch, Amanda Peet, Bradley Whitford. Mondays at 10 it’s scheduled to air. That would conflict with CSI: Miami here but it’s rare that I’ll watch that show unless I’m playing the drinking game. Also from the Wikipedia article it says that it will cost $2.5 to $3 million per episode to make. That’s probably close to what it cost to create The West Wing.
Anyway, check out the video if you have the chance. I’ll be looking forward to Mondays at 10 starting in September.
Tags: aaron-sorkin, amanda-peet, bradley-whitford, csi-miami, judd-hirsch, matthew-perry, nbc, studio-60-on-the-sunset-strip, Television, the-west-wing, timothy-busfield, youtube
I think I mentioned somewhere before that they’re making a movie version of Fast Food Nation, the book written by Eric Schlosser. Perhaps not. In any case it’s a fantastic book that I read a couple of years ago. The movie version is directed by Richard Linklater and comes out this October (the 6th to be precise). I just watched the trailer for the film and it looks pretty interesting. I would have never thought that the book could be made into a movie and particularly not a fictional one but from the trailer it looks like they may have pulled it off. We’ll see for sure once October rolls around and it’ll be interesting to see what the fast food companies do in terms of a reaction to the film because it’s pretty damning of their practices and offerings. They won’t be getting much positive praise in the media come October that’s for sure.
During my university days fast food made up an unhealthy amount of our diet. However since graduation and particularly after getting married the amount of fast food that I eat is down near the zero range. That’s definitely thanks to Marcy; she keeps me alive in more ways than one and if I didn’t have her I’m sure my diet would consist of little “good” food. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t eat healthily but I’m more healthy because Marcy is with me. I can thank my stars for that.
The link to the trailer comes courtesy of the fantastic The Movie Blog. I started reading John’s site a few months back and it brings me my movie-related news each and everyday. It rarely disappoints.
Tags: eric-schlosser, fast-food-nation, Food, greg-kinnear, Movies, richard-linklater
Stephen Colbert did a very amusing “The Word” segment on Tuesday about Wikipedia. You can see it here on YouTube while it’s still online. He discusses how with Wikipedia you can build truth and reality through consensus as opposed to facts. He edited his own page and encouraged people to edit the page on elephants saying how the population has tripled in Africa over the last six months. It was a very humourous discussion which prompted quite a few pages to be locked down and protected because the SysOps on Wikipedia didn’t want vandalism. I believe the pages are still protected because if there’s one thing that The Nation can do it’s follow their leader.
Anil had a great article on Wikipedia entitled “Antipedia” the other day and it provided some excellent reference links for further reading on what the future of Wikipedia could be and a discussion on what it has become. I’ve bookmarked them for later reading when I get some free time (should happen any day now right?).
I think Wikipedia is a great community achievement. Considering how frequently I link to it from here I use it quite frequently but I would not use it as a definitive reference. I’ve had this discussion with Marcy too because a lot of her students tend to use Wikipedia in their research, usually as the sole source for their research. That’s not a good practice; high school students need to know how to do proper research – visiting an actual library, reading the books, taking notes. Using Google alone to do your research is not really researching. There’s a lot of skill involved in researching and I hope that that is a skill that doesn’t get lost in the coming years.
Tags: colbert-nation, colbert-report, elephants, research, stephen-colbert, wikiality, wikipedia
What better person to offer advice on Jeopardy! than the man who dominated it for such a long period of time (remember all of the posts), Ken Jennings? His blog is very interesting to read by-the-by though domain names with a dash in them tend to be rather awkward.
Tags: advice, Jeopardy!, ken-jennings
Did you ever wonder about the history of Count Chocula the man? If you’re like me you’ve probably wasted many sleepless nights figuring this and other things out. Well wonder no more! Some kind soul added the Count’s biography to his Wikipedia page. Well actually it was there but someone decided that it was fictional and thus not worthy of inclusion. Someone else tried to lobby for its reinclusion (”It is my opinion that the previous “fanfic” is an important contribution to the lore of Chocula, and as well to the emotional and psychological contexts persons have come to associate with the brand.”) but alas the powers that be did not approve. I’ll include what the biography below:
Ernst Choukula was born the third child to Estonian landowers in the late autumn of 1873. His parents, Ivan and Brushken Choukula, were well-established traders of Baltic grain who– by the early twentieth century–had established a monopolistic hold on the export markets of Lithuania, Latvia and southern Finland. A clever child, Ernst advanced quickly through secondary schooling and, at the age of nineteen, was managing one of six Talinn-area farms, along with his father, and older brother, Grinsh. By twenty-four, he appeared in his first “barrelled cereal” endorsement, as the Choukula family debuted “Ernst Choukula’s Golden Wheat Muesli”, a packaged mix that was intended for horses, mules, and the hospital ridden. Belarussian immigrant silo-tenders started cutting the product with vodka, creating a crude mush-paste they called “gruhll” or “gruell,” and would eat the concoction each morning before work. The trend unwittingly spread, with alcohol being replaced by sheep–and then cow’s–milk, and the demand for the Choukula’s “cereal” reached as far south as Poland and as far west as the northern Jutland province of Denmark. It wasn’t long before the unmistakable image (the original packaging, a three gallon wooden vat which featured a burnt etching of a jubilant, overalled Ernst holding a large dog and grinning broadly) made a pop-cultural splash throughout the entirety of Europe and northern Africa. In fact, Tunisia’s “Carthagian Sand Crunch” was seen as the first imitation of the Choukula form; the aforementioned product was presented in broad leathern bags with the woven insignia of a nude tribesman holding a sword and a bunched stalk of oats. Sadly, this would neither be the first nor the tamest appropriation of Ernst’s iconic visage. Meanwhile, in the “textile paradise”-region of Schenectady / Elmira New York, General Peter Mills–a celebrated turret gunner in McKinley’s navy–was first beginning to mine America’s seemingly insatiable desire to consume food before high noon. The trend, initially known in the United States as “brekkfest” had first appeared in 1903, with Dominic Eggo’s invention of “wassled” or “waffled” bread, and really picked up steam throughout the teens and twenties, when eating in the morning was no longer deemed a sin by the Anglo-Catholic church. News of Choukula’s economic domination across the Atlantic fascinated and troubled Mills, who was eager for similar success. In 1927, while vacationing the Iberian peninsula, he first encountered three discarded barrels of “Duke Choukula’s Animal Supplement” (the name and design of the product had undergone several makeovers throughout the previous seven years, the most recent of which featured Ernst dressed in a cape and tiara, reflecting his family’s oft-disputed ties to Eurasian royalty). Immediately intrigued, Mills brought one with him on his boat ride back to the States, and spent the twenty-three day trip obsessively studying the packaging. In the spring of 1929, General Mills’ “Prince Chocula’s Morning Digestive” was picked up for distribution in three dozen pharmacies, grocery stands and agrarian carts throughout New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and northern Maryland. The public response was confused and angered at the recipe’s savory, clove-like sting; apparently a confusion over the name led many to believe the breakfast was made from chocolate, and by 1931 the formula had been updated to reflect the nation’s collective sweet tooth. In 1932, boxes were labeled simply “Count Chocula’s Chocolate Food” and Peter Mills was named Life Magazine’s “Humanitarian of the Year, 1933″. Ernst Chocula died in a Ukrainian cabin, penniless and alone, having descended into a type of brain-madness.
This information provided [via].
Tags: count-chocula, ernst-chocula, wikipedia
Discussion in the office yesterday centered around whether this video [via] of a guy playing Super Mario Brothers (the original) without using the B button at all (which makes you run) was even possible. Apparently it took over 32000 recordings to make the video. That’s a lot of save states.
Tags: controversy, nintendo, super-mario-brothers
We went to see You, Me and Dupree last night. It was ok; there were some funny parts in the movie but in quite a few of the scenes I felt like I was left waiting for the purpose of the scene to be revealed. I guess I was just expecting it to be funnier and not so awkward in some parts.
Tags: kate-hudson, matt-dillon, Movies, mr-cranky, owen-wilson, reviews, you-me-and-dupree
Tomorrow we’re having a company outing at the Richmond Hill Golf Club. Meetings during the morning and then a golf tournament of sorts in the afternoon. I’m not really looking forward to the golfing part; I’ve never golfed before and I’m not sure that I’ll have much fun. I’ll certainly give it a try though. Who knows, some fun may come out of it yet. The timing is unfortunate; it’s a busy time for my projects though when I look at things, all of the time is a busy time for my projects. There is no down time to speak of.
For an introduction to the subject of this post, see this site or here.
Tags: company-outing, dorf, golf, projects, richmond-hill-golf-club, scheduling, tim-conway, time
Marcy read this book recently. It’s called Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work. I think I may have to read it at some point. You never know when the techniques discussed inside may come into play at work or in other social settings.
Tags: Career, psychopaths, snakes-in-suits, techniques, Work
Last Monday Marcy and I were victims of a crime.
We went up to Pacific Mall (Wikipedia) to purchase some “items”. Most of the purveyors of said “items” only accept cash, offer no receipt or bags. You can probably guess what I’m talking about.
Anyway, I had to go to the bank machine to get some cash. There was a TD branch in the parking lot so I walked over and used their bank machine. I got out $60. I walked back to the mall and purchased our “items”. We then walked around, looking at the other shops. We stopped at a Vietnamese bakery shop and wanted to purchase some buns. I took a $20 bill and handed it to the cashier. She looked at it and then handed it back and asked if I had another one. Fortunately I did and we bought our pastries. They were pretty terrible but that’s not the point.
The point is that the $20 bill that I originally gave to the cashier was a counterfeit. We looked at the bill and though it looked extremely similar to a real $20 bill, there were some oddities that would give it away. The paper wasn’t the same texture. The bill was slightly shorter in length than it should have been. The really fine print was not visible. Things like this but really there wasn’t much that we could do.
I figured even if I did go to the bank when it opened (Monday was a bank holiday), I had no way of proving that the $20 counterfeit bill was in fact one that I received from the bank machine. Even if they did believe me, I wouldn’t get a real $20 bill. They would just take the counterfeit one and that’s it.
So instead we’re keeping the bill. It makes for a good conversation piece plus Marcy can use it in one of her law classes next year.
Crime can happen anywhere. It happened to me last Monday when I was least expecting it. It could happen next Monday for all I know. Just make sure that you watch out.
Tags: counterfeit, crime, It Happened To Me, Money, pacific-mall
Pharrell Williams was on the Gilles Peterson show this past week. Even if you don’t know him by name, you certainly know him by the tracks he’s produced as part of the Neptunes. He’s one of the best producers in the industry and he’s made me appreciate the Justin Timberlake album. Think about that last statement for a second. Justin Timberlake.
It’s really an amazing interview with him on the Worldwide show. He spends two hours talking with Gilles about all kinds of different things and they play some really awesome music and not just music that Pharrell produced but some Roy Ayers, Minnie Riperton and Gil Scott Heron.
Listening to the show puts me in such a good mood. I was so productive yesterday at work as a result. Gilles said on the show that listening to Pharrell’s music is like meeting a girl for the first time; the butterflies and the general euphoria that you feel. Heck, I was even in a N*E*R*D* phase when I met Marcy 3 years ago. Remember? That was definitely a period in my life with a surplus of euphoria.
So I’m going to keep listening to this show while I’m at work this week. If it keeps me in a good mood, I can’t mess with that.
Tags: bbc, gil-scott-heron, gilles-peterson, minnie-riperton, Music, nerd, pharrell-williams, radio, roy-ayers, the-neptunes, Work
It seems that there’s a new DJ Shadow album out this fall called Outsider. Interesting. DJ Shadow’s music played a seminal role in my university days. I’ll have to check out the new tracks on the audio player. DJ Shadow deserves its own post but I’m too tired right now to write any more. Perhaps some other time.
Via BoingBoing I read this fantastic exchange with a Nigerian scam artist and how the anti-scam worked so well with this guy. The anti-scammer managed to get the scam artist to carve (or calve) a replica of a Commodore 64 keyboard out of wood thinking that he would win a scholarship. It’s a terrific read.
Tags: 419, antiscam, commodore-64, scam
I read The Daily WTF every single day through RSS and boy almost every single day I crack up laughing. If you’re in software development then you should laugh at the boneheaded mistakes that exist in other software systems and it usually makes your own projects seem trivial and mistake-free in comparison. Today’s post on workflows had me actually laughing out loud. The comments are usually worthwhile to read too because you invariably get someone who thinks that the daily wtf post is a valid solution and tries to defend it. There are some running jokes like the Paula “Brilliant” “Brillant” bean (I’ve since implemented this into every single package that I’ve coded). It’s a site worthy of your time.
Tags: brillant, development, humor, programming, software, Technology, the-daily-wtf
Marcy and I went to see Friends with Money today. It seems that Darren Barefoot saw it recently too. It was a rather excellent film; I really liked the pace and how the different storylines intertwined. I also liked how each couple saw the other couples (and Olivia) differently but in the end they all have their issues despite how happy any one of the couples may appear on the outside.
An odd thing happened though when we purchased our tickets. The film was playing at the Kennedy Commons AMC which has a pretty fine selection of movies in my opinion. We bought our tickets and the other man who was trying to decide what to see in the lobby asked us if it was a good film or if it was a “chick flick”. I didn’t really know what to say; we hadn’t seen the film but since we had just purchased tickets we obviously had some interest in seeing it. Marcy responded that it was supposed to be a very smart film which was true. He ended up buying a ticket to the same show and we wondered what he thought of the movie but we didn’t wonder enough to ask him. If he’s willing to risk listening to a couple of people at the theatre that he doesn’t know then so be it.
Tags: amc, friends-with-money, kennedy-commons, Marriage, Movies
We went to our local Toronto Public Library branch this afternoon because Marcy had some library fines from last year to pay. She’s looking to get some reading material once school is out and if there are outstanding fines they won’t let you borrow any more books.
We went in and gave the lady working the desk our new address information. It turns out that they don’t use the Interac machine sitting next to the computer though it clearly seemed to be on and working. We had to pay by cash instead and between Marcy and me we pulled together the required amount.
This seemed to shock the lady serving us. I’d say she was a librarian but that would be a lie as she was just “helping out this weekend”. Anyway she was shocked because after determining that we were married, she told us that her husband would never help her out in that way. He would be mad at her for even getting such a high fine. In truth the fine wasn’t even that much. You’d spend more at Chapters in an afternoon. She seemed to think that I was some prince for giving up my money to help pay a lowly library fine.
The truth is that it’s our money; we both earned it so to praise me (and indirectly condemning Marcy) in this way she was acting in a very sexist manner. I guess the old “lord of the household” mentality hasn’t really disappeared. It’s disappointing that she felt that she had to talk to us this way but we let it go and walked away. Hopefully she’s not there the next time we go to the branch. She might say that Marcy should be home instead of out in public.
Tags: Books, Cultural Criticism, fines, library, Marriage, Money, Toronto, toronto-public-library, tpl
Mr. Dressup is going off the air in September. It’s truly the end of an era in Canadian children’s television. I grew up watching Mr. Dressup. It’ll be a sad day when the last show airs although Ernie Coombs (Mr. Dressup himself) passed away in 2001 and there haven’t been any new episodes since 1996.
The gentle pace of the show is falling out of favour with Canadian children and ratings have been in decline, said Jeff Keay, CBC’s head of media relations.
The show does in fact have a gentle pace though I never thought of that phrase in association with the show until I read it in that article. I wonder if they will bring the show out on DVD; there’s so much to learn from the children’s shows from when I was growing up.
I had the theme song from Today’s Special in my head in the weekend. I always liked that show. Other favourites (in the public broadcasting scene) were 3-2-1 Contact, Square One, Mr. Wizard, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and Reading Rainbow. All of these shows played an important part in shaping who I am today.
Tags: 3-2-1-contact, casey, CBC, children's-television, ernie-coombs, finnegan, mr.-dressup, mr.-wizard, pbs, public-television, reading-rainbow, square-one, today's-special, where-in-the-world-is-carmen-sandiego?
Don’t forget it’s the Distillery Blues Festival this weekend. Now that I know where the Distillery District is it might be something worth our while to see though this weekend is already pretty busy. If we do head downtown there’s also Woofstock as competition for our attention. What to do?
Tags: blues, distillery-blues-festival, distillery-district, dogs, Music, woofstock
This is a very interesting review of Douglas Coupland’s new book, JPod. Cory says it’s the anti-Microserfs. I read Microserfs in the summer of 2002 just before I went to work for Microsoft as an intern. It was ridiculous how similar to my own life the book felt and I tore through it like a banshee. Since then I’ve read a lot of Coupland’s works but nothing captivated me as much as Microserfs. In many ways it was one of the few fiction books that I could identify with; the characters were me and that really resonated. I know a lot of other people felt the same way particularly those in the technology field
I’ve read a lot of reviews of JPod and it seems to be on the same level as Microserfs. The tone has changed somewhat and looking back on technology from this side of the tech-bubble of the late 90’s gives people a very different perspective on what it’s like to work in technology or for a company focused on technology. It’s hardly the saving grace that many hoped it would be and even when you’re working for a very hot company with state-of-the-art tools, it doesn’t mean that you will find fulfillment in your career. Fortunately for me I’m getting great enjoyment from my job but that’s more to do with the team of people that I work with than the particular technology I’m using. Peopleware is my credo on most of these issues.
In any case, JPod is definitely a book that I am going to want to read; I should probably go through my big list of “to-read” first before buying anything new (yeah right I always say that).
Tags: Books, Career, douglas-coupland, jpod, microserfs, microsoft, peopleware, reviews
This seems like a really odd way of advertising. It might be ok if the subway car isn’t very full but if it’s jammed full of people then I don’t think many people would want to lean over the people sitting down just to listen to what Pepsi thinks is a cool song. It seems to me that Pepsi has this idealistic view where everyone takes public transit and thus a lot of people see their ad yet it’s not so busy that people can’t absorb the ad (listen to the music in this case). Sadly the reality is anything but; hopefully Pepsi realizes this in the revenue generated by this string of advertising (if that can be measured).
This is a pretty funny video [via] though I would like to know more about what happened here. I can’t see Bjork flipping out like that unless there was a good reason. The video is funny because the sound effects related to Street Fighter are bang-on.
There’s a (long) previous post about Bjork here.
Tags: adon, bjork, street-fighter, temper, video
On Thursday night we had a special treat; NBC was showing The Office in marathon format. Four back-to-back-to-back-to-back episodes. Boy that show is funny. There are so many parallels to real-life office environments (though they extend it into the satirical stratosphere) that you laugh because you’ve experienced something similar to what they’re showing.
I still haven’t watched the original BBC series and I’ve heard that it’s even funnier than the American version. I should rent that on DVD sometime.
Dwight (from the American show) has his own blog though unfortunately there is no RSS feed. Boo to that. I don’t understand why big companies can’t “get it” that allowing people to read the content through feedreaders will lead to a larger audience and better brand loyalty.
This listing of ways of how to spot a bad summer movie rings quite true. I especially like #10:
10. Its main…rave…review has a…lot of…dots…in it.
You often see that and you just know that the movie ad is taking the review completely out of context.
Tags: guides, Movies, reviews, rules, summer-movies
Fox has confirmed that there will be a fourth X-Men movie with more to come after that. I guess seeing as the current one did so well at the box office despite being mediocre in my mind means that they’ve realized that they have a license to print money with the franchise.
When we buy groceries we like to buy as much unprocessed food as possible. For one it tastes a lot better when it’s unprocessed plus you get to try and create meals yourself instead of someone else doing the thinking. Over the past couple of years I’ve been more and more interested in this which you could probably track by my FoodTV hours per week watched.
Via Boing Boing I just saw a book that I should read called Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World. Linked from the Boing Boing post is another post about the dangers of high-fructose corn syrup. That’s one component of my diet that I know I consume more than I should; whenever you drink a can of pop there’s bound to be some HFCS inside. I’m trying to cut down by drinking tea instead of a Coke but it’s going to take a while to get there.
In any case the posts linked to above are definitely worth looking at.
Tags: Books, coke, fat-land, Food, foodtv, groceries, Health, high-fructose-corn-syrup
A classic movie from the 1980’s is The Wizard. It features some kids (including Fred Savage) working up to a grand championship competition with the new NES game, Super Mario Bros. 3. Essentially it’s a marketing vehicle for Nintendo but it is an entertaining movie nonetheless. Ian and I liked it though he found The Wizard’s (Savage’s little brother) saying “California” all the time to be a bit whiney. The Power Glove is also prominently featured, being used by the nemesis of the film and everyone was in awe of it.
In any case I found [via Waxy] the Wikipedia page for the film and news that they will be releasing it on DVD this summer. Also on the page is a breakdown of the many factual errors in the game scenes in the film. The disgust is almost palpable but that’s the reason fanboys exist.
Tags: nintendo, power-glove, super-mario-bros-3, the-wizard, wikipedia
It’s interesting how you find the cast of Grey’s Anatomy spread across so many other shows and movies. We were just watching You’ve Got Mail and discovered that George’s girlfriend on the show, Dr. Torres, was the cashier at the grocery store in the Thanksgiving scene. Ellen Pompeo has been in Friends and Old School among other things. Sandra Oh and Kate Walsh were both in Under the Tuscan Sun as a couple believe it or not. Also Sandra Oh had a big part in Sideways which I think is where her career really started to take off. Before the television show though you wouldn’t have thought twice about the people seen on the screen but once you’ve seen them all together you start noticing their past roles. The same thing happened for me after The Lord of the Rings came out; you’d see all of the old Viggo Mortensen roles on tv; of course the networks weren’t stupid and saw it as a chance to show these movies they’d bought the rights to but otherwise wouldn’t be able to get people to watch.
This is my observation for the day.
Tags: ellen-pompeo, grey's-anatomy, kate-walsh, Movies, sandra-oh, Television, the-lord-of-the-rings, under-the-tuscan-sun, viggo-mortensen
I just bought tickets for Marcy and I to go see Etta James on the 27th of June at the Hummingbird Centre. It should make for a great concert and an early birthday/end of school year present for Marcy. I’m looking forward to it though the “convenience fees” from Ticketmaster aren’t really appreciated. At least I don’t have to win an auction to get my tickets.
Tags: concerts, etta-james, hummingbird-centre, Toronto
It seems that NBC has finally clued into how potentially lucrative it can be to have your videos online being watched and shared by fans. Remember the Natalie Portman gangsta rap? Well the original YouTube link that I had was pulled due to copyright violations. Now via A VC I discover that NBC has a set of pages to view these videos that have been so popular. The description at the top is interesting:
Now, instead of searching the web for “borrowed” NBC highlights, you can go to the source! We’ve taken your viral favorites and gathered them into one convenient location. Watch. React. Tell a friend.
I like their use of the term “borrowed NBC highlights”. This is a step in the right direction but they’re not going to stop the flood. You can’t really share the video; you can only point your friends to the same page. In this day and age that just won’t cut it sharing-wise.
Here’s the “official” video for the Natalie Portman gangsta rap. I too prefer the YouTube controls.
Tags: gangsta-rap, natalie-portman, nbc, youtube
I was looking at some of my stats this evening and noticed that my post about “Alumni in high places” has not seen any traffic since a couple of weeks ago. I went to the GoogleTalk blog post and noticed that my post is no longer in the list of sites linking to that post. Now I was a little bit critical about the Google Desktop Search in my post but I don’t really understand why the entire link would be removed. I’ve been more critical in other posts (that’s why I don’t expect to see a link from Jeff Ltd. anytime soon). I’m not sure what the point is of censoring pingbacks like this. Even so I’m not going to lose any sleep over this; I just thought it was worth mentioning.
Tags: censorship, ctv, google-talk, jeff-ltd., pingbacks
Via Jordon Cooper I came across this intriguing eBay auction:
Looking for a new challenge? Why not become leader of the Liberal Party? It is possible with the Rick Mercer Report Liberal leadership kit.
Kit includes:
- Fifteen minute consultation/conference call with the RMR writing staff to craft your campaign message. (Staff includes three high school dropouts and a U of T commerce major. Photo not to scale.)
- The use of our colour printer for photos and such. Ink cartridge is running low on magenta.
The current price is about $4800. Seems like a reasonable price to pay for something that could win you a landslide victory at next year’s leadership convention. If I had a little extra coin lying around I’d consider placing a bid.
CTV carries a lot of the shows that we watch on television each week. Every so often they put commercials on advertising one of their made-for-TV movies or special W5 investigation. This week they started hyping their new show Jeff Ltd. They had a “sneak preview” this Wednesday right after American Idol. I could tell from the commercials that I would instantly dislike the show but I decided to give it a try in any case.
I lasted not even 2 minutes. The opening monologue was so tired, so unfunny that I couldn’t stand to watch any longer. I couldn’t believe that CTV would try to air this kind of show.
When I first saw the commercials my first thought was “Hmm, this is almost identical to Curb Your Enthusiasm except with an uglier man.” They were obviously trying to copy the premise of that show except they made the main character even more egotistical and arrogant than Larry David can be. I guess CTV figured that the percentage of Canadians (because this is strictly a Canadian show as far as I can tell) that have seen Curb Your Enthusiasm is rather low since it’s only on DVD or The Movie Network in which case they can copy all they like.
It really seems like they’ve tried too hard in this case. They’ve filmed 13 episodes but I really hope that they don’t bother picking up the show for a full season. I don’t think I could stand to watch the commercials for it.
Tags: canadian-shows, ctv, curb-your-enthusiasm, jeff-ltd., larry-david, Television
Via Ross’ blog I find this story of evolution between men and women:
That seems pretty accurate to me. Bananas aplenty for me.
As yesterday was Mardi Gras we celebrated at our house by eating some tasty sausages and pancakes. Oh and some scrambled eggs too but that was mainly because we had to eat them up. On top of the pancakes? Some maple syrup. Real maple syrup! I haven’t had real maple syrup since Sunday morning. Ok that was because we were at Deerhurst for the weekend and they had a big vat of maple syrup available for the breakfast buffet. I certainly did not spare any opportunity to make use of this plethora of syrup. Before this past weekend though I can’t think of the last time I had maple syrup. Let me tell you this – I really do love it (in case that wasn’t obvious before).
We also watched Walk the Line last night and it’s really quite a good movie. I’m a pretty big fan of Johnny Cash and I have to say that it’s quite remarkable how similar Joaquin Phoenix sounds like the Man in Black. Personally I enjoyed this movie more than Ray but both of them seemed to end abruptly. It’s weird saying that as the movie is over 2 hours long but I was waiting for more after June and John got married. I suppose I’ll have to read the autobiographies to learn more about that period in their lives. In any case I enjoyed the film.
Tags: deerhurst, joaquin-phoenix, johnny-cash, man-in-black, maple-syrup, mardi-gras, ray, shrove-tuesday, walk-the-line
I’ve vowed never to see another Eddie Griffin movie ever again. It’s not like I’ve seen many of his movies but after seeing this one on Sunday night I think I can safely say that he is dead to me. I’ll defer to Mr. Cranky’s review:
[E]very joke under the sun comes at the audience and almost none of them stick to the wall. All one really needs to do is a microanalysis of Grant’s last name: Funkerdoder. Is it really that much funnier than “Focker”? The answer is no, but it’s precisely the type of joke this movie pummels moviegoers with until they’re beaten into a kind of obliviousness. The jokes aren’t funny. The tone never changes. “Date Movie” is like an air raid siren of bad comedy, a film best described as “deafeningly unfunny.”
There isn’t much more that I can add to that.
Tags: date-movie, eddie-griffin, Movies, mr-cranky, reviews
These are some funny ads from Volkswagen. Deutschland represent!
Tags: advertising, Cars, commercials, deutschland, unpimp-my-ride, volkswagen
Malcolm Gladwell now has a blog. Subscribed!
Tags: blogs, malcolm-gladwell
Marcy was talking about how we’re part of the MTV Generation and how the people who grew up just after us are known as the “i” (little I) generation. We’re actually on the cusp of that generation since we were born in 1979. She wanted to be part of that but instead we’re lumped in with MTV. In fact she said that she didn’t even get MTV so we’re on the cusp of that too. We’re a cusp of a cusp.
We’re bicuspid.
There’s a grassroots campaign to get Richard Dean Anderson on the Hollywood Walk of Fame [via]. I have to say though that the “official” website linked in the article there really isn’t an official one. There’s a big disclaimer at the bottom of the page saying that no one has authorized the site.
For some reason I always like to bop my head to the Fidelity Investments commercial that’s on television these days. I can’t remember exactly which fund they’re advertising which I guess means that the ad isn’t terribly effective though I will always remember that it’s an ad for Fidelity. It has some really catchy music so I can’t help but groove to it.
Tags: advertising, commercials, dancing, fidelity, Music, Television
I was looking at my Last.fm’s RSS feed and found the description at the top to be rather humourous. You may remember my post on their service last week.
Anyway here’s what they say in the feed:
This is an RSS feed designed to be read by a computer. Which you aren’t.
What’s an RSS Feed?
RSS feeds allow you to soar above fields of data, much in the way a great eagle soars above mountain ranges, except without the endangered species designation…
It’s a nice use of XSLT.
Tags: eagle, endangered-species, last.fm, rss-feed, xslt
Almost a year ago I posted about the release of a new movie by Richard Linklater. It’s an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel A Scanner Darkly (novel info). Via Kottke’s remainder links I discovered the latest trailer for the film (Quicktime link). The movie comes out July 7th. I really want to see this.
Tags: a-scanner-darkly, quicktime, richard-linklater, trailer
It’s really interesting (to me at least) that DVDs offer a substantially better picture/sound experience than VHS tapes but yet they’re far less tolerant of errors. When there’s a scratch on a DVD it will seriously compromise the video playback to the point where you could end up with a fragmented, jolting movie that makes it very difficult to follow. Compare this with tapes where if there’s a problem with the tape it could get fuzzy (in which case auto-tracking could kick in) but you could still make out the picture. I realize the underlying technology is completely different and the laser is reading a tremendous amount of information on each spin of the disc but that doesn’t mean it isn’t annoying to watch a scratched DVD.
Tags: dvd, fault-tolerance, scratch, vhs
Last night while we were waiting in line one of the other businesses in the plaza had this posted in their window:
Wanted experienced bookepper
waitress, chief/cook. Apply within.
I wonder how many work skills chiefs share with cooks.
Tags: job-openings, Kitchener-Waterloo, stampede-corral, waiting
I’d been waiting all evening for The Daily Show’s reaction to this story. It was just too easy a target, too ripe a plum, too good a shot to pass up. It was well worth the wait.
Advice for parents: “Don’t let your children go hunting with Dick Cheney. He’ll shoot them in the face.”
A re-enactment of what happened: Duck hunt.
They then had their “Vice Presidential Firearms Mishap Expert” Rob Corddry on talking about how Dick Cheney was reacting to all of this. He stands by his decision.
Then everything went black because The Comedy Network (which airs The Daily Show up here in Canada) decided to go to commercial. I guess they have a skeleton crew on this late and don’t even bother to notice whether or not the show they’re carrying the feed for is still on-air or off. Marvelous work there at The Comedy Network.
Tags: dick-cheney, duck-hunt, harry-whittington, jon-stewart, quails, shot, the-comedy-network, the-daily-show
I know it’s old news but the facts compiled at Chuck Norris Facts are awesome. Ninja awesome. Now you can get any fact put on your own t-shirt.
Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
Tags: chuck-norris, chuck-norris-facts, divide-by-zero, ninja, t-shirt, Television
I disapprove of this use of my charitable dollars. How many people really think that they’re picking up “Canadian Red Cross” health packs when they’re playing a video game? I really don’t understand how this harms their image. Does that symbol ever mean anything but health? Likely not. And yet they feel justified in suing. Litigation certainly does seem to be out of control sometimes.
Tags: canadian-red-cross, health-packs, litigation, video-games
Darren wrote about his Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness yesterday in reference to some of the images being in the IT Crowd show mentioned on Boing Boing among other places (which I must download and watch). I’d been to the Hall before and so I passed the link around at work and someone found this entry entitled “Feline Abuse”. I’m really not sure what they’re advocating in there. One of the frames has the person explicitly stepping on the cat’s tail in order to pour powder on them (hopefully it’s not the same can of poison in the previous frame). Also I don’t think that vacuuming a cat would work. They don’t tend to like the vacuum and holding a cat down is next-to-impossible. I guess if you happen to be able to accomplish this then your cat will be all pretty and sitting nicely at the end. That sounds pretty reasonable. Our cats would definitely put up with that kind of treatment.
Tags: Cats, feline-abuse, hall-of-technical-documentation-weirdness, it-crowd, vacuum
Do you remember my trip companion from last week? Well yesterday made two Mondays in a row that we shared our trip home.
Let me tell you – she’s one angry, impatient lady. I stood near her on the bus and each stop we went to she muttered under the breath urging the bus to hurry up. Then when we were waiting at Warden station she was swearing and cursing and carrying on about how late she was and how that bus had better hurry up. This was also under her breath. When we got off the bus she practically ran towards the movie rental store to return her movies (I believe The Legend of Zorro was one of them) while I walked down the street towards home.
She has the same attitude towards commuting that I had when I was 16. I was so impatient whenever other people got on or off of the bus; I too would mutter under my breath cursing each and every person who delayed my arrival. It’s like that when you’re used to driving and you have to rely on the bus driver to get you to your destination. I haven’t seen her other days so maybe on Mondays she has to commute to wherever she’s going.
We’ll see if we get a third strike next Monday.
Tags: Commuting, companion, impatience, It Happened To Me, legend-of-zorro, monday, Movies, Toronto, ttc
Via AKMA I learned that The Onion has opened up their archives. You can now link to any old article. This is fantastic news. Building a firewall around your archives will only isolate yourself in this interdependent, interconnected world. Information needs to be free.
Tags: archives, firewall, Humour, information, the-onion
MacGyver (praised here) is going to be in a Super Bowl ad this Sunday [via]. You can watch it here. Since we can’t watch the ads here in Canada (Global’s licensing of the feed means that they put in their own ads) our only option is to watch them online or catch them on tv when they eventually make it to massmarket which for some of the one-off ones will be never. I’ll have to look at the other ads on that site later. In the meantime go Mac!
Tags: ads, canada, commercials, football, global, macgyver, nfl, richard-dean-anderson, super-bowl, Television, tv
According to this CBC News story they are producting a sequel to Harry Potter (no surprise) and The Chronicles of Narnia. For Harry Potter it will be “The Order of the Phoenix” and for Narnia it’ll be “Prince Caspian“. The principle actors for each of the series are returning which is a good thing. They’re both scheduled for release in 2007. I’m looking forward to them.
Tags: CBC, chronicles-of-narnia, harry-potter, Movies, prince-caspian, sequels, the-order-of-the-phoenix
There are a couple of shows that Global carries that we watch. They’ve been advertising the fact that their main evening news program (in Ontario at least) is moving from 5:30 to 6. The commercial shows how hard-hitting their news can be and how it’ll bring some really useful information to its viewers. The thing that I remember most about Global’s evening news is that they were so proud of how early they carried it. It used to start at 5 and bring you the news first compared to the other networks. “You’ll hear it here first” is what they used to say. Now with even their national broadcast pushed back to 6:30 in Ontario, how much of a lead are they really going to have anymore over the other networks? Also with the prevalence of news sources on cable and online, does it really matter which news program is first? If I have timeshifting I could watch the National very early in the evening from the East Coast. There is rarely any news that is that pressing that I can’t wait until later in the evening or the next morning to learn about. I just don’t understand the emphasis on being the first. I’d be more concerned about being the best newscast.
Update (Sunday February 5th @ 10:10 PM): I just read James Koole’s post about the new Global redesign and he mentions that First National will now be on at 5:30 instead of 6:30. I think my point still stands about the fact that no matter when your newscast is airing, we live in a news world that offers new information on a constant basis. You have to move beyond just being the first to bring the news in the evening to being the best newscast period.
Tags: CBC, first, global, globaltv, kevin-newman, leslie-roberts, news, Television, the-national
On Tuesday night Marcy and I went to see Capote which as I mentioned earlier that day was the only film out of the ones nominated for Best Picture that we had yet to see. It’s a fantastic movie. I didn’t really know much about Truman Capote except for a few handfuls of facts but it was incredible how well Philip Seymour Hoffman transformed himself into his character. Capote was certainly a conflicted man. If I were a wagering man then I would bet that Hoffman will win for Best Actor and as Drew says “And many years of Oscar wrongs will be righted.” Hopefully it comes to pass.
Tags: academy-awards, capote, Movies, oscars, philip-seymour-hoffman, truman-capote
We must band together and stop the terrible human-animal hybrids. I support the Bush plan of attack against these blasphemous creatures.
Tags: animal, bush, human, human-animal-hybrids, hybrids, sotu, state-of-the-union
Titanium Mountie
Canadarm face slapper
Ballistic beavernauts
120 mm maple-syrup mortar
Peacekeeping robot that attacks you by surprise
Bioengineered crazy lumberjack choppers
I’d like to see some of those robots.
Tags: beavernauts, canada, mcsweeneys, superweapons
I saw these Law & Order: SVU valentines via Boing Boing just now. They’re pretty funny and if they shipped to Canada I might consider purchasing some. They’re $10 plus $5 shipping.
The “I ‘Huang’ to be with you” one is kind of lame-sounding but I like the “Guilty! of being my valentine” and “In the criminal justice system, you’re especially gorgeous.” It’s too bad they use Stephanie March instead of Diane Neal for that last one.
Tags: boing-boing, diane-neal, law-and-order, stephanie-march, svu, svutines, valentines-day
So they’ve announced the Academy Awards nominees:
- Best Picture: “Brokeback Mountain”, “Capote”, “Crash”, “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “Munich”
- Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffmann, Heath Ledger, Joaquin Phoenix, David Straithairn and Terrence Howard
- Best Actress: Felicity Huffmann, Reese Witherspoon, Charlize Theron, Judi Dench, Keira Knightley
- Best Supporting Actor: Paul Giamatti, George Clooney, Matt Dillon, Jake Gyllenhaal, William Hurt
- Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz, Amy Adams, Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand, Michelle Williams
- Best Director: Paul Haggis, Ang Lee, Bennett Miller, George Clooney, Steven Spielberg
- Best Original Screenplay: “Crash”, “Good Night, and Good Luck”, “Match Point”, “The Squid And The Whale”, “Syriana”
- Best Adapted Screenplay: “Brokeback Mountain”, “Capote”, “The Constant Gardener”, “A History of Violence”, “Munich”
You can see the full list of nominees here. With Jon Stewart hosting it should make for an entertaining evening. It’s strange how generic the page names are on the Oscars site. host.html, list.html. That’s pretty creative. I guess it makes it easy year-to-year to change.
It’s nice to see The Constant Gardener get some nominations; that was a fantastic movie. We’re hoping to go see Capote sometime this week which would mean that we’ve seen all of the Best Picture nominations.
Tags: academy-awards, brokeback-mountain, capote, crash, good-night-and-good-luck, munich, nominations, oscar, the-constant-gardener
Who needs an iPod or MP3 player when you can just ride the bus in Toronto? There you can get a multitude of radio stations that you can clearly hear without too much trouble. If your ears have the ability to filter out other devices then you could potentially listen to one radio station from the guy sitting at the back of the bus? I use the word “radio station” loosely here to mean personal radio station in that the person is broadcasting what they are listening to for the entire bus to hear. I really enjoy your hip hop or your John Tesh or your pop. Really I do. I wish they could broadcast it on the bus’ PA system so that we could be a moving dance club like some of those alcohol commercials I’ve seen on tv.
Commuting by bus is fun!
Tags: broadcast, Commuting, ipod, mp3, Music, radio-station, Toronto, ttc
We just finished watching The Life and Death of Peter Sellers starring Geoffrey Rush. It’s a great film though it can be difficult to watch people self-destruct in the way that Peter Sellers seems to have done. I first heard about this movie when we were watching the Emmys this past fall and this movie kept on winning all of the awards for television film. It’s an HBO film and that network impresses me each time I see some of their work. They do some of the finest productions on television, bar none.
Anyway so we’ve been meaning to watch this film and our local videostore had it in tonight so I rented it. It’s easy to see why Geoffrey Rush won the Emmy; he’s superb in the main role and on top of that he plays all of the other roles at some point in the film as well. I found the writing to be really quite good and the attention to detail was extraordinary.
It’s highly recommended by me.
Tags: emmys, film, geoffrey-rush, hbo, life-and-death-of-peter-sellers, Movies, peter-sellers, Television
I just read this great article on how the marketing campaign for Brokeback Mountain (previously discussed here and here) has succeeded in turning it into one of most successful presumed-Oscar contenders this year. They targeted very specific neighbourhoods in New York and Los Angeles to start the momentum going and then broke out from there. They had different posters and different messages for different parts of the country. It’s a great strategy that has certainly paid off for the production companies. It reminds me of The Tipping Point. [via]
Tags: academy-awards, brokeback-mountain, los-angeles, marketing, Movies, new-york, oscar, tipping-point
More Colbert news. He’s claiming victory in Monday’s election. From here [via]:
TORONTO (CP) – Disheartened about the Conservative win in Monday’s election, or delighted? Either way, American comedian Stephen Colbert says he’s behind Canada’s step to the right.
“I fixed Canada!” Colbert exclaimed Wednesday night on his show, The Colbert Report (pronounced RAY-pore), which airs Monday to Thursday. Colbert noted that his show debuted in Canada on Nov. 7, and featured a message, replayed on Wednesday’s show, to Canadians: “I am Stephen Colbert. I have balls. If you’re lucky, they might just rub off on you.”
“Well, it looks like my balls rubbed all over Canada,” Colbert noted triumphantly as a photo of Prime Minister-designate Stephen Harper and a Canadian flag appeared behind him. “Because they just elected a new prime minister, Stephen Harper, an American-loving, health-care-dismantling Bush wannabe.”
“I fixed Canada in 77 days!” he exclaimed as balloons fell from above and a band played a jaunty tune.
The Colbert Report, a satire of personality-driven pundit shows like The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, is a spinoff from the award-winning Daily Show, considered one of the hippest shows on the airwaves.
Colbert portrays a right-wing host prone to fits of utter and hilarious buffoonery on the Colbert Report.
Hilarious buffoonery. That’s one way to put it. The Onion AV Club interview is quite revealing. I’m glad we have people like him on tv. Now the problem is staying up late enough to watch the show.
Tags: canada, colbert-report, daily-show, election, news, satire, stephen-colbert, Television, tv
This weekend is the Lunar New Year which means that it’ll be the year 4704 in the Chinese calendar. There’s a big celebration (largest Lunar New Year festival in Canada apparently) at the Exhibition Centre this weekend. Tickets are $10 or $8.50 if you buy them online. It would be interesting to go.
Tags: 4704, lunar, new-year, Toronto, year-of-the-dog
Music apathy. It’s a subject that I’ve discussed before in this space and it’s definitely something that I’ve felt for quite a while. I can’t even remember the last time that I downloaded music. I’ve gone back to actually purchasing CDs. From here.
The University of Leicster in the UK reports something that I’ve believed for some time now – music downloading creates listener apathy. It can’t be any surprise that the ease with which people can constantly access and download new music without any real effort has devalued, at least for many, music. If something doesn’t cost you anything, be it money or energy, why should you ascribe any real value to it? Combine that with the fact that we’re mainly now talking about something without any tangible, physical form and you’ve got a recipe for who gives a fuck. This isn’t to suggest that the advent of digital music has been a negative thing – no, it’s hard to argue that the great decline of the major labels is anything but a plus, but nothing comes without a price, and in this case that price is the
commoditizationcommodification of music. There’s a generation of kids growing up now who have no concept of ever paying for music, and I have to wonder what it will mean when they become the primary consumer demographic. Will artists still find a way to get paid? One of The Big Takeover’s blog-columnists offers his thoughts.I’ve rounded up a few more links of late that address some facet or consequences of the increasing insubstantiation of music. PopMatters ponders what it means to completists now that pretty much everything – rarities, demos, live shows – is essentially available to everyone, everywhere. I for one have basically stopped caring about live show recordings, unless it’s one that I was actually at. In the distant early days of the internet, I remember hunting down and treasuring every live recording, no matter how poor, as precious and rare. Now I could care less, to be honest. Though I can’t really explain why, even though every live Wilco show is seemingly available on bit torrent 24 hours after the curtains come down, I still felt compelled to buy the live album…
And more – Angry Robot wonders if the increasing popularity of downloads might somehow spark a reaction/revolution in interesting packaging to renew interest in the physical product, while Canada.com wonders the same thing, but in regards to album artwork. Sterophile eulogizes the independent record store (done in by the internet, natch), and you may recall my own personal reaction to today’s download culture – vinyl.
I’ve considered looking for new music but there just isn’t much time to devote to that. It can be a cumbersome process and right now I’d rather spend time doing other things and spending it with other people. The advantages to the digital lifestyle are numerous but it so happens that we don’t always have time to capitalize on them. I’ve just recently moved back into taking more pictures. There was a period of time when I was spending most of my day commuting and the last thing that I would want to do is take more pictures. That has changed somewhat again with my interest in Flickr. Perhaps someday (soon) my interest in digital music will come back again. Maybe I’ll buy some headphones so that I can listen to some music at work. That might move things along.
Tags: Music
I couldn’t help but laugh at this entry on BlogTO (Wrong Way on a One-Way Track):
I have an addiction to reading the Missed Connections on Craigslist. Some stories are actually quite touching, some creepy (to the extent of restraining order), some are awful pick-up lines and others fake and sarcastic.
This posting today made me laugh out loud:
Dundas DWA 11:30 am – m4w – 30
Reply to: pers-127816898@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-01-23, 3:56PM ESTYou were the hot, but really rude TTC worker opening and closing the doors on the southbound train this morning. I was the guy wearing overalls that missed the train and ended up giving you the finger as you left the station.
I was so mad at you that I ended up voting NDP.
Lunch?Brilliant! Completely brilliant.
(And, by the way, yes, I referenced Soul Asylum in the title)
That’s a funny posting. I’ve never looked at the Missed Connections group before and if the RSS feed for the group had more details I might consider subscribing because there are some interesting posts in there. As it does not I probably don’t have time to read it. I’ll bookmark it though.
It’s not something I’m particularly proud of but I actually own two (2!) Soul Asylum albums. These were back in my heady Columbia House days and I forgot to send back the card and wound up with these two albums: Grave Dancer’s Union and Let Your Dim Light Shine. At least I think I still have them. It’s entirely possible that I managed to “lose” them over the years. I’ll have to check when I get home tonight.
Tags: craigslist, soul-asylum, Toronto
BlogTO | Karla: Worst. Movie. Ever.
It heartens me to read the audience response to this film. It’s definitely not a movie that I will be seeing and I’m glad that it’s a poorly-made film that will hopefully go direct-to-video as soon as the initial hype is over with. This is one film that I hope the Long Tail is quite short. I’m looking forward to that book.
CBC Arts: ‘West Wing’ cancelled by network
This is the last season for the West Wing. Marcy and I have been watching each week this season and we were really enjoying it. The writing seemed to be really great and it was definitely topical to current affairs. I guess we’ll have to go back to the “glory seasons” and watch them at some point to get caught up on the backstory. It’s not really a surprising move on NBC’s part. The show hasn’t done well in the ratings and traditionally a Sunday night slot is death to most shows. Exceptions are obviously Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and The Simpsons.
Tags: nbc, Television, the-west-wing, tv
Tags: hypnotic, Links, paris-hilton
I’m so happy Brokeback Mountain won so many awards at the Golden Globes last night. The more I think about this movie the more I realize that I love it. The reasons for loving it are obvious I think and I agree with Ebert that it really is a universal movie even though it’s about a specific dramatic arc. However I think the aspect that really brings it all together for me is the music. That simple guitar line that threads its way throughout the movie just tugs at my heart. It’s amazingly minimalist but yet it captures the soul of the movie – the heartache, the sadness, the love and the beauty. I would really like to get the soundtrack but I’m not sure that I would be able to listen to it without falling into tears.
I’m not sure that the studios really know how to advertise this movie. None of the clips in the award show showed any of the love scenes. They showed the fighting ones instead. Also Dennis Quaid made a rather tasteless comment saying the movie was controversial and rhymed with “chick flick”. The look of awkwardness at the table for the movie made me feel uncomfortable.
Tags: brokeback-mountain, golden-globes, Movies
Today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to talk like a pirate here in the office but I’m going to try and write like a pirate. That’s nearly as good. Here’s my one and only pirate joke (stolen from Ed):
A pirate walks into a bar:
Bartender: You have a steering wheel down your pants!
Pirate: Arr, it be driving me nuts.
Yuk yuk yuk.
Tags: ed, jokes, talk-like-a-pirate-day
Following Joey’s lead, I heartily endorse this movie.
Let me tell you a funny story about how we saw the movie on Friday. Friday was the day of the big storm (more later) and we wanted to go see a movie. We first tried the Colossus up at Highway 7 and the 400 but when we got there the lights were out and the employees were ushering the cars away. Strangely enough it was the only part of the plaza that seemed to have lost its power. We went to Yorkdale instead.
It was the late show (10:20) which we rarely seem to be able to stay up for. It was about 9:50 and there were few seats left for the showing. We figured that with the lines around us that we wouldn’t be able to get tickets and even if we did then we would be sitting up at the very front and we’ve had enough of those viewing this summer to last us for quite a while. We bought tickets to Red Eye instead.
We went into the theatre and picked our seats and then I went out and got us a drink. When I came back into the “restricted” area I looked at the theatre designations and noticed that we weren’t seated in the theatre for Red Eye but instead we were in the theatre showing The 40-year-old Virgin. We snuck into the movie without anyone being the wiser. How crafty and sneaky of us! Actually it was completely unintended but it was well worth the risk.
Now I’ve seen funny movies before and I’ve even seen some funny ones this summer (bingo). But after seeing this movie I’d have to say that there’s no funnier movie right now than this one. I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard or for that long. I’m still laughing at it. I’d gladly see this movie again which is a rare statement for me to make in this day and age. There are too many good jokes to mention here and every scene has something worthwhile in it. I’ve always liked Steve Carell from his Daily Show days and now he has a real chance to shine in a starring role. It’s been interesting watching Jon Stewart’s take on the whole thing because he seems as happy as a father who’s seeing his son succeed in life. Truly heartwarming.
In short you should see this movie if only for the David Caruso references.
Tags: david-caruso, Movies, red-eye, reviews, steve-carell, the-40-year-old-virgin, the-daily-show, Toronto, yorkdale
This deal surprised me. This may not be good for moviegoers because that means that there are really only two competing theatres (at least in Toronto): Cineplex/Famous and AMC. Sure there are a few Rainbow Cinemas scattered around the area but those two will dominate. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of impact this will have.
Tags: amc, business, cineplex-odeon, famous-players, Movies, rainbow-cinemas, Toronto
Maybe it’s the fact that I’m practically done my 2.5 month-long project or maybe it’s because the weather has been nicer and summer is almost here. Maybe it’s because I’m fantastically in love. Maybe it’s a lot of other things. But I know I’m in a good mood today.
Next week I’m going to a senior prom. Tonight we’re going to see a movie. Tomorrow we might be getting a new kitten.
I’m all over the map.
Seacrest gets Hollywood star for radio work (I Love Radio .org)
Sometimes I read things and just can’t help but gasp in amazement and astonishment. Ryan Seacrest deserves a Hollywood star? Under what criteria does he apply? His lifetime achievements are deserving of a star? I wonder if his American Idol groupies will come to cheer him on.
Nestle’s Coffeemate
My rating: 0 out of 5
One of the oddest commercials on television these days (as far as I’m concerned) is one for Nestle’s Coffeemate. It features Josee Chouinard, former figure skater (and frequent tumbler in competition), interviewing these two guys about this product. I’m sure people have seen this product before – it’s a nondairy creamer for coffee. I’ve never tried it. But the way these guys carry on they make it seem like it’s a lifesaver. And who are they? They show their names each time but I’ve never remembered them for long enough to actually see if they’re people I should know. My impression is that they’re advertising/marketing guys for Nestle’s and if that’s the case why should I believe you? Are you going to say that the product is not worth using?
They have one shot of the two guys drinking their coffee (including some Coffeemate I’m sure) and they’re laughing it up. We have coffee here at the office and I’ve never seen anyone act that way. It’s all too contrived but the worst part is that at the end they have a disclaimer “this is an unscripted commercial”. It seems ridiculous because the whole thing seems staged/contrived if not scripted and what’s the difference in the end?
I think this is a really terrible set of commercials and I’m hoping (but not believing) that this will be the end of them.
Operation Petticoat (1959)
My rating: 4 out of 5
I’m trying out the Structured Blogging plugin so forgive the fanboyishness…
On Tuesday Marcy and I watched “Operation Petticoat”. Well actually we finished watching it since we started it on Monday night. Anyway, I’ll consider it Tuesday that we actually “watched” the movie. It was the latest offering from Zip which I’ve been meaning to review.
The movie starts Cary Grant and Tony Curtis. Grant plays the straight-man to Curtis’ joker personality. It was quite the change from the last Cary Grant movie we watched a couple of weeks back – Father Goose (an enjoyable film!). He’s a submarine captain who likes to play by the rules and Tony Curtis likes to break all of the rules he can get away with. I really liked this film and if you like watching the adventures of a pink submarine, a male submarine crew and some stranded nurses then this is the film for you!
Last night we went to see Hitch. It looked like something that I would like and I was right. I really enjoyed this movie. You may too.
Yahoo! Movies – A Scanner Darkly
I don’t care what people say about the cast, this trailer looks very neat (full IMDB info on A Scanner Darkly). Also as an avid fan of Linklater’s work (Waking Life is one of my favourite films) I can’t wait to see the film in full when it comes out September 16th. I love a good Philip K. Dick novel turned movie!
Linklater’s remake of The Bad News Bears? Well I’m not sure how well that will fly. The original was a pretty saucy film.
CBC News: Man gets frostbite in love-driven trek
This is funny in a sad way. Would you hike across the desert without water? Then why would you think you could walk for at least 100 km in the winter in the midwest? Man what some people will do for love. Hopefully he recovers ok though it seems like he’ll lose some of his fingers due to the damage.
Update: They’ve changed the headline to “Cold hands, warm heart”. They also have a picture of the guy and his fingers look pretty bad.
This is so funny and so true. I especially like the “obsession with imaginary insects” and “inexorable fear of vacuum cleaners”.
Also somewhat related is this post – “Women prefer cats to men“.
I never have weekends this crazy and that’s a good thing.
My Hotmail account gets a lot of spam and I’m pretty sure it’s because it’s just my name (last name first) @ hotmail.com. It wouldn’t be too difficult to come across that in the standard spambot script.
Today’s spam is interesting.
From : You Can Be A Cop
Sent : February 22, 2005 6:17:34 AM
Subject : Homeland Security Is Everyone’s Job!Help Protect Our Country!
Homeland security is creating more jobs…
get educated and take advantage.Insert cheesy-looking picture here.
29% increase
The U.S. Department of Labor predicted that by 2010 there will be more than a 29% increase in the demand for criminal justice professionals.Fake unsubscribe link.
Surprisingly actual address.This advertisement was brought to you by Bonus Bonez. Visit the Bonus Bonez mailing list manager to unsubscribe.
I’m considering leaving this job because the potential of being a criminal justice professional with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is just too great. And Bonus Bonez? How poor a name is that? That’s almost as bad as chortling on Joker’s boners. I think chortle is a word that should come back in fashion but that’s just an aside.
So goodbye Toronto, hello criminal justice professionalism!
Paris made me change my number
This is pretty funny. As someone said: “from meme to t-shirt in 24 hours”.
Author Hunter S. Thompson dies
This wasn’t the good news I was hoping for when I came into work. I really enjoyed reading Thompson’s work and Fear and Loathing… is one of the more enjoyable movies I’ve seen. Thompson also wrote some really great articles for ESPN’s Page 2. His most recent one is about shotgun golf with Bill Murray. Appropriate perhaps. His wit and humour will be sorely missed.
A parent’s primer to computer slang [via]
A very funny attempt to de-mystify the magical language of “leetspeak” or “!337$p34k” as they spell it on the page.
One sentence struck me:
The first series is of particular concern, as their use could be an indicator that your teenager is involved in the theft of intellectual property, particularly licensed software.
The words are “warez”, “h4x” and “sploitz”. Of course seeing your teenager use these words would probably be an invasion of their privacy unless they speak like this in conversation with you. I doubt there are many tests or essays written at school that include “warez” as discussion material.
I love the idea of this site [via]. There are a lot of people who I’d like to put these stickers on. Maybe I’m someone who would get such a sticker from someone else. You have to wonder if some of the pictures on the sticker site are real, particularly this one:
Parking
That seems pretty staged to me. The others seem like your average everyday horrible parking jobs.
I carried flowers into work this morning.
As I mentioned previously we stayed in a hotel last night. The hot water in our building was being “improved” and so we decided to stay closer to our work. We stayed at the Radisson Toronto East Hotel. It was pretty nice though the sounds of the 401 were very noticeable from our room. We had a bit more time to get ready this morning and we actually had a more normal breakfast. That was nice.
I took the Victoria Park bus south and Marcy had a much shorter drive (I hope). Now the Victoria Park bus (#24) is one route away from the one I usually take (Don Mills #25). But let me tell you – there’s a world of difference between the people who take the two buses. The people on the bus this morning seemed very angry and surly and wouldn’t really accomodate you if you wanted to actually get off the bus. I had to practically force my way through this one guy who was standing right in front of the door. Fun times had by all I’m sure. I got to work at approximately the same time I usually do but it took far less time over all.
Anyway, so for Valentine’s Day I got a whole bunch of lovely things from Marcy (aka My Love). She got me a lovely card, some heavenly chocolates from Laura Secord, two tickets to Rain: The Beatles Experience in 10 days and some beautiful flowers. Since they wouldn’t last too long in the car all day until we got home tonight I took them with me to work.
I bet that most people who saw me carrying those flowers would think that I was giving them to someone else and not that I was the recipient of said flowers. I like my flowers – they brighten up my desk and remind me of Marcy during the day.
We had a lovely evening last night at the hotel. We went out to a pub for dinner and some really amazing wings. We were a little hesitant at first because on the first drive-by the pub was advertising Budweiser and Labatt’s Blue in the window. There aren’t many English/Irish pubs that will make those their featured window beers. We were pleasantly surprised though so we’ll be going back again for wings soon. We also watched Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason in the room which was pretty funny. The price point wasn’t too terrible – $12.64 including tax which is right in-between renting and going out to see a movie in the theatre. Seeing as it’s a fairly recent movie it’s a decent price.
So yes I carried flowers to work today and have them sitting proudly on my desk. I’ve even received some nice comments about them!
I haven’t listened to Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide radio show in a while. In fact my music listening at work has stumbled to an all-time low recently. I noticed though that the online player for BBC Radio 1 has vastly improved. It takes up a whole browser window instead of being an annoying popup. This looked pretty ridiculous in Firefox. The Javascript is way more functional and by that I mean it actually works. It’s fantastic!
I have enough time to link to Mr. Cranky’s fantastic review of Alone in the Dark (already #10 in the bottom 100!). This is a movie that I hope to never ever see.
Last night we were driving home from dinner (finally a good Winterlicious meal!) and the radio was tuned to CHFI, a “soft-rock” station here in Toronto. I was surprised to hear Zero 7’s “Home” come on. It was the last place I would have expected to hear them but yet it was played. I haven’t heard the song in a while so I was confused when I thought that I recognized it (the radio was down low). I had no idea that a station that I had dismissed so decisively was so “with it” and “hip”. I wonder if they’ll play the Thievery Corporation next. Or maybe the Gotan Project. One can hope!
I haven’t been able to watch The Daily Show that much but fortunately I can often find the funnier clips online. Usually Boing Boing will point to On Lisa Rein’s Radar and this has taken place today. Last night Jon attacked Wal-Mart for their new policy of compassion and caring about the American (and likely Canadian) workers. It’s a pretty funny segment. I’m no big fan of Wal-Mart’s corporate practices so it’s nice to see them taken to task for their shameful policies in the workplace.
I only wish I could stay up late enough to watch the show on tv.
Famous Players is dropping the price of admission at their theatres by $4 in the Toronto area. That’s a huge decrease – from $13.95 to $9.95. That might make it slightly more affordable to go see a movie there now. We don’t go out to see a lot of movies anymore primarily because they’re so expensive and we can rent them for so much cheaper. I’m still not sure this will persuade me to go to a Famous Players over an AMC for example but it’s a step in the right direction.
In honour of today’s extreme cold (see I keep on mentioning it) I’m listening to what for me is a quintessentially winter-sounding song. It’s Boards of Canada’s “Kid for Today” from their awesome EP, “A Beautiful Place Out In The Country”. I love this song and the EP. I like it so much that I have two different versions of it (physically). It’s not often that that happens. Boards of Canada songs describe life absurdly well. It’s a shame they don’t put out more music. Quality over quantity is best though so I’m not really complaining.
It seems that the Back to the Future movies (one, two and three) have played a subtle yet observable role in my life over the past couple of weeks.
First, TBS played the trilogy (never in order and never complete at a time) last weekend. Being a sucker for the films I watched most of the third film and most of the first film. Even though I’ve seen them countless times they’re still enjoyable to me and I’ll watch them.
I was watching an episode of The Family Guy last week sometime and it was the episode “I’m Dyin’ If I’m Lyin’“. Peter mentions how his cousin was exploited by making the film “Black to the Future”. It was a pretty funny scene.
On the weekend Joey posted about Crispin Hellion Glover. This is the actor who played George McFly in the first film. He has an official website. I had no idea he was such a bizarre man.
In the late 1980’s, Glover published his home phone number in a number of offbeat publications, promising callers some interesting taped messages. In 1989, having a morbid curiosity and the phone number from Keyboard World magazine, I called the number and was treated a rant about rats that was both creepy and hilarious.
There have been rumours about a magnum opus film project on which he’s been working for years. It looks like we’ll finally get our chance to see it: the film, titled What Is It? will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 29 and 30.
According to Movie City News’ Indie section: “Most of the actors in the film have Down’s Syndrome, but the film is not about Down’s Syndrome. Mr. Glover explains the plot thus: ‘Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are snails, salt, a pipe, and how to get home, as tormented by an hubristic racist inner psyche.’”
Sounds like an interesting film. I watched the trailer and I have to say that I have no idea what is going on in there. I think Joey is right – it’s perfect for a “Bad Art Night” party. I also watched the David Letter interview (I’d never seen it before) and he seems a little paranoid. I hope he finds peace soon.
So as you can see (maybe), Back to the Future keeps popping up into my life. I wonder what will happen next. Will I see a DeLorean? Get invited to an “Enchantment Under The Sea” dance? I’m waiting!
Edit: Joey posts more about Mr. Glover – a music video he made called “Clowny Clown Clown”. It’s from his 1989 album “Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution. The Solution = Let It Be”. It rivals the infamous “chicken” video that Ian and I watched one Friday night. Definitely strange. The Allmusic biography has a tempting tidbit of information:
This wild-eyed actor (Back to the Future, River’s Edge) stepped out with one of the more bizarre musical styles ever to emerge from Hollywood. He does a lot of recitations, a lot of atonal rambling, and a version of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” that must be heard to be believed.
I wonder how difficult it would be to find his version of that song. Probably not too difficult if I look in the right places. Here’s the review of the above-mentioned album:
Most actors who want to become rock musicians tend to take traditional routes. Kevin Bacon tried his hand at blues-rock, Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves took on alternative, and even Russell Crowe played in a pub rock band. But Crispin Glover took a much different approach to making music. Sounding like a cross between King Missile and circus music, The Big Problem is one crazy slab of sound. Glover’s voice (which has an thin, endearing tremble) serves as the narrator to the world of nonsense he’s documented on this album. Occasionally he takes the listener by surprise with a melody. Both the hypnotic “The New Clean Song” and the soothing “Never Say Never to Always” are actually pretty good songs hidden among the madness. But mostly he rants and raves in a stream-of-conscious manner over the genre-hopping music. Most of the time this works in his favor; in fact, his Residents-esque cover of “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” is a nervy delight. The original songs, like the hilarious “Clowny Clown Clown,” can be equally entertaining. But sometimes he runs headfirst into his own limitations, like on his disturbing attempt at rap, “Auto Manipulator,” a harsh tribute to masturbation that lacks any subtlety at all. A good portion of the material is taken from his books of poetry, which are definitely crazy but not always engaging. But Glover is a very original entertainer, making his musical mark with this weird collection of songs. Fans of edgy, bizarre music will probably enjoy this one immensely.
“One crazy slab of sound”. That’s my kind of music!
Via the boys at Tagliners (nice to see some more regular posting there again) I read about Clint Eastwood’s verbal jab at Michael Moore.
“Michael Moore and I actually have a lot in common – we both appreciate living in a country where there’s free expression.
“But, Michael, if you ever show up at my front door with a camera – I’ll kill you. I mean it.”
Very interesting indeed. I guess Michael will have to reconsider his project focusing exclusively on the life of Clint Eastwood. I saw Moore at the People’s Choice Awards on Sunday. Marcy said he looked like a metrosexual. He looked much more professional than other times that I’ve seen him.
I want to see this movie. The soundtrack looks good too. It’s getting fairly good ratings but I have a feeling that the movie isn’t exactly what they show in the trailers (I’ve seen two wildly different trailers for the same film). I have to say though that I think the director is better known as the director/producer of the American Pie series. I guess they want to emphasize the connection with About a Boy which was a better movie cinematically.
An affordable Mac? It’s pretty neat looking and incredibly small. Maybe this will be my next computer. Speaking of tiny, the iPod shuffle is ridiculously small – one ounce, smaller than most packs of chewing gum. The downside? No screen. The upside? $99 for 512 MB, $149 for 1 GB. I need something to listen to on my TTC ride to/from work. Perhaps this will fill the gap?
Well I love movies so I figured that I’d continue what Ms. Saltwatersound has started (post not linked to because of security restrictions). I’ll cut it so that it doesn’t take up the whole front page. Read the rest of this entry »
I like it when Foxtrot (en Español) does techy (re: geeky/nerdy) jokes (click for full-sized version).
Following Augie’s example, here are the movies I’ve seen from the 100 Essential Films as put out by the National Society of Film Critics.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
5. Annie Hall (1977)
15. Casablanca (1942)
18. Chinatown (1974)
19. Citizen Kane (1941)
20. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
28. La Dolce Vita (1959)
32. Enter the Dragon (1973)
36. Fargo (1996)
39. The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974)
40. Gone With The Wind (1939)
42. The Graduate (1967)
46. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
50. L.A. Confidential (1997)
52. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
54. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
57. Metropolis (1927)
59. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
62. The Night of the Living Dead (1968)
71. The Piano (1993)
72. Psycho (1960)
74. Pulp Fiction (1994)
75. Raging Bull (1980)
76. Rashomon (1950)
79. Schindler’s List (1993)
84. Star Wars (1977)
94. Unforgiven (1992)
96. Vertigo (1958)
99. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Not too bad I suppose – 29/100. A lot of the movies on the list I’ve been meaning to see (I actually own the DVD of The Seven Samurai but haven’t watched it yet). I’ll endeavour to watch more of the classics.
When I first clicked on this story I thought it was a contestant on Fear Factor, not a viewer. Reading it more carefully I find it a bit ridiculous that they’re trying to get compensation for enduring an episode and becoming ill. It just sounds worse than the fast food lawsuits that were attempted in the U.S. If this goes anywhere I’ll be very surprised.
I haven’t seen Alexander but I did read some reviews. It has a score of 39 on Metacritic which means that most of the reviews are negative. I was a bit surprised but not really that Oliver Stone (the director of the film) blamed the failure at the box office on the “moral fundamentalism” in the Southern U.S. as opposed to the movie being generally not that good. I guess he has every right to defend his film but my feeling is that most people could care less if Alexander is bisexual in the film or not. I turn to the venerable Mr. Cranky:
Watching “Alexander” is like going on a first date, noticing in the first five minutes that your date hums to herself and suffers from bouts of involuntary drooling, then realizing that perhaps those tickets to the unabridged reading of War and Peace weren’t such a hot idea.
and
Most bad movies eventually provide some relief by ending, but “Alexander” stubbornly refuses to give up the ghost. At one point, Alexander takes an arrow to the chest and we dare to hope the final credits will roll. However, he emerges bandaged but alive – at which point in my screening a perceptible wave of nausea flowed through the audience. It continues: People die. Emotive speeches are made. Then Old Ptolemy reappears (uh oh) to drone on incessantly about What It All Means. At this point, that nausea I mentioned became materially measurable.
Whenever the result of a movie involves broad-jumping puddles of vomit on your way out of the theater, one can say confidently that a failure has been had.
That doesn’t exactly have me beating a path to my local movie theatre. It’s not even a movie that I’d consider renting at this point.
So according to this story, revenue in the movie industry was up from last year but attendance was down for the second year in a row. The increase is due to the rising ticket prices. The average ticket in the U.S. is now $6.22, up from $6.03. Read that sentence again. $6.22. I haven’t paid that since living in Kitchener and that was only at the theatre downtown that no one would go to. If I go see a movie at Famous Players it’s up to $13.95. That’s per ticket! It’s only marginally cheaper during the day or on weekends. It’s almost beyond reasonable to go see a movie there. That’s why we rent so often – it’s much more affordable. I can’t imagine that we’d ever go out to a movie theatre if we had a family. There has to be a breaking point somewhere for this industry.
What would happen if you called every possible 867-5309? Well this guy found out. Most of the numbers aren’t valid. [via]
So it seems that the next Harry Potter book will be released July 16th. You can already pre-order it on Amazon (currently sitting at #51) for $19.99. The title? Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I’m sure it’ll be the highest-selling one yet. I’ve heard that booksellers bemoaned the fact that there wasn’t a Harry Potter release this year. It’s interesting that they’ve become so dependent on the high-selling books. It’s also sad that the industry is so blockbuster-driven. Dan Brown has a new book out early next year and I’m sure the publishers are licking their lips in anticipation.
That said, I’m sure that I’ll be one of the first to buy the new book come July.
I can sympathize with this post (or more accurately the author of said post). I’ve discovered that I have been suffering the Digital Photo Effect with my music for well over a year now. I have not added (or deleted for that matter) any MP3s from my music collection since last June. I’m fairly certain that there are albums and whole artists in my collection (it’s pretty big) that I have never listened to. I never put it as such but the ramifications are definitely valid (photo-specific references replaced with music-specific ones):
- I feel behind all the time.
- Because there is so much to consume, I don’t enjoy each individual photo as much as I did when they were physical prints. I click through fast.
- Because of 1 and 2, sometimes I don’t even bother.
I’m sure there’s a lot of good (even great) music that I’ve missed out on over the last year and a half but I honestly can’t find the energy to go and obtain it. I often go back to either listening to radio shows (Gilles Peterson Worldwide, Off The Deep End or The Higher Ground) or old favourite albums. I’m listening to Akufen in honour of the linked post right now.
I suppose the Digital Photo Effect has also taken hold with my photos as well. Since we’ve moved I haven’t had much time for photography. Most of that is probably due to being busy but maybe a part of it is that I don’t have as much interest in taking pictures right now. Perhaps that will change once the holiday vacation starts next week. I’ll have to revisit this topic.
You can click the image for a larger version.
As seen as today’s Foxtrot (or en Espanol if you prefer).
Well the Ken Jennings era on Jeopardy! is indeed over. It wasn’t that much of a surprise and even if I didn’t have the heads-up that last night was the last episode, the television stations sure did let the cat out of the bag. CTV had a preview of their nightly news before Jeopardy! came on and they had a small clip of the final Final Jeopardy! results for Ken.
It was interesting watching the show knowing the eventual result. Of course there will be conspiracy theories that Ken wanted to lose but I wouldn’t give that much credence. It was curious that Alex asked Ken if he was going to quit his job as a computer programmer (he says no). I think it’s just coincidental though. I bet that Alex feels like a good friend has left though; him and Ken seemed to get along really well.
I agree with Anil that Sony TV (and their lawyers) was being very shortsighted by asking Jason to take down the audio clips from last night’s episode.
I looked at the Wikipedia article on Ken this morning and it’s very thorough! They list every single game, his total (per day and cumulative) and his opponents. The person who beat Ken, Nancy Zerg, has her own page now too.
From this news article:
Zerg needed an unusual display of Jennings fallibility to stay in the game. He twice answered wrong on Daily Double questions, which give contestants a chance to make a big wager and increase their lead.
Maybe that’s why he paused, ever so slightly, when asked in an interview Tuesday whether he had lost or been beaten. He then graciously gave Zerg credit.
“I would have dwelt on it if I missed something that I knew or didn’t phrase it in the form of a question,” said Jennings, a computer software engineer from Salt Lake City. “It was a big relief to me that I lost to someone who played a better game than me.”
Zerg, a former actress who lives in Ventura, Calif., psyched herself up before the game by repeating to herself: “Someone’s got to beat him sometime, it might as well be me.”
Hanging out backstage with fellow contestants, she saw some Jennings opponents had essentially lost before the game. She heard one person say that it looked like he was playing for second, and another just wishing not to be humiliated.
“I heard another one say, `It’s no great sin to lose to Ken Jennings,’ and they went in and lost Ken Jennings,” she said. “I thought, `That’s no way to play the game.”‘
…
Jennings said he’d been thinking about walking away after some future milestone — 100 wins, perhaps, or $3 million or $4 million in winnings. He said there were about a dozen games where one reply made the difference between winning and losing.
“The fact that they had all fallen my way was beginning to worry me,” he said, “because at some point the law of averages was going to kick in.”
He wasn’t prepared for how much he’d miss the daily competition, though.
“It didn’t really hit me that was going to be the hard part,” he said. “I thought the hard part would be the loss.”
I think I might take a break from watching Jeopardy! but we’ll see if that has any hold. Ken is writing a book and he’ll be back for next year’s Tournament of Champions so we’ll meet again then.
Jason has a copy of the audio for Final Jeopardy! the day Ken loses (supposedly tomorrow). I’m always amazed at how Jason gets these tidbits of information. You can read Jason’s post for the final answer much discussed here and elsewhere.
I was watching A&E last night and they had a commercial for this week’s featured Biography – Ken Jennings on Wednesday. They preempted the biography of Scott Peterson to show Ken. This leads me to believe that tomorrow is indeed the last day for Ken. It’ll be a heartwarming episode.
Ok, this post has been floating around in my head since September but I only seem to remember it when I’m in the car listening to the radio. I listen to CBC Radio One almost exclusively and though it doesn’t have commercials per se (it’s public radio), they do have promotional clips for the network and other shows. The CBC promotional clip features a band I know very well – Zero 7. This was the same band that I gushed about almost exactly two years ago after having seen them in concert in Seattle. They’re really a special band to me and my ears. I never get tired of listening to their albums, particularly their debut Simple Things.
Anyway so the CBC uses little bits from a variety of songs off of Simple Things. Not much but enough for someone familiar with the music to recognize it. It brings a smile to my face each time I hear that. It’s nice knowing that someone at the CBC appreciates music like this.
Remember the headphones that the cats were snacking on back in September? Well it’s been a rough few months for these things. The covering on the headphone has been shredded and I basically have only foam touching my ear now. Back in Kitchener the headphones were in the tv case and that’s where we kept the cinammon pinecones so the headphones smell strongly of cinammon. Now today the headphones fell on the floor (not an unusual happening) and the right “phone” broke. It attaches back to the headpiece but it’s by no means secure. Not exactly comfortable to listen to music with either. I need a new set of headphones.
On Sunday Marcy and I watched American Dreams. We don’t usually watch it but it’s a show that Marcy has enjoyed in the past and so we just started watching. It was their Christmas special I guess because Thanksgiving is this week. It was brought to us “without commercial interruption” by Ford. I guess technically that statement is true.
The annoying thing about the episode (centering around an MIA son coming home in time for Christmas) is that Ford was an integral part of the episode. The televisions in the store were showing Ford commercials from the 1960s, the bus had a poster for the Mustang on the side. And at the end of the episode the returning son got a new Mustang (1967 version). How naturally this ties in with the new Ford Mustang which has design essences of that 1960s version.
After the episode was done there were between 5 and 8 minutes left and Ford filled this with an extended “commercial” for the new Mustang. It featured a soldier coming home from Iraq (likely) or Afghanistan. His mom and brother come to meet him at the airport but his dad, lacking some emotional connection with his son, does not. The dad finally shows up having completed some “errands” for his wife. The father and son have an awkward conversation and we learn that the dad also served his country in war, likely in Vietnam. The dad has a Ford Cobra and the two reminisce and talk about the car. Then it’s revealed that the dad has bought a brand new Mustang for his son. The son seems pretty happy and who wouldn’t be? Getting a new Ford vehicle makes all of that fighting in Iraq worthwhile! All of the horrors? All of the fighting? Melting away as we speak because now I get to drive this bad boy around town. What a boon!
Pardon the cynicism but Ford’s advertising this fall has really irritated me. I’ll write more about this later.
On Saturday we went to see The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (hyped up here). Actually we saw 3 movies on Saturday (the list for November is much fuller than October). We went to Famous Players Colossus in Woodbridge and it was insanely busy. It was also insanely expensive – $13.95 per ticket. The theatre looks more like a spaceship than anything. The theatre was full of kids which probably wouldn’t surprise anyone. Someone used a laser pointer just when the movie started but fortunately that practice did not continue.
The movie was pretty funny in parts but overall I was not as “gung-ho” coming out of the theatre as I would have liked. I guess it’s difficult to translate a 30-minute cartoon into a 90+ minute cartoon. I didn’t like how they marginalized Sandy and Squidward’s characters. I also didn’t like the emphasis put on “being a man”. The princess looked like she belonged in a Scooby-doo cartoon, not a Spongebob one.
No movie is perfect. I’m glad that they made a Spongebob movie because we all know that the world needs more Sponge. I was just expecting a little more.
On Friday I couldn’t listen to music because for some reason my sound card wasn’t giving me any sound (one of the basic properties of a sound card). I just tried playing a sound and it worked. I’m not really sure what changed between Friday and now but I am glad that it works again. Now I can listen to last night’s Gilles Peterson show. One of the neat things about listening to his show is that I get to hear the news right before the show starts. It’s a little taste of the items catching the attention of the BBC once per week.
I don’t put much faith in gossip but this is a funny story even if it’s not true. [Via]
Freemans tuesday night the 16th of nov. the bush twins along with 2 massive secret service men tried to have dinner they were told by the maitre ‘d that they were full and would be for the next 4 years upon hearing the entire restaurant cheered and did a round of shots it was amazing!!! [Ed: We’re hearing that this is actually true.]
Remember Grey Tuesday? There’s now a video called Grey Video. I’ve seen this link on a bunch of different places but I’ll point to Downhill Battle for this post. The video is pretty interesting (a la Buddy Holly) but I think it’s easier to make black & white clips merge together seamlessly than doing it in full colour like Weezer’s video. Check it out!
Edit: the official site has gone down but here are some mirrors!
The current #3 story on the CBC News site?
Sex OK during Grey Cup week: Argos coach
Seriously! Go read the article for yourself.
Argos head coach Mike (Pinball) Clemons sent the press gallery into hysterics at Wednesday’s news conference with his response to the seemingly annual question of whether his players would be allowed to have sex in the days leading up to Sunday’s CFL championship game against the B.C. Lions (CBC, 4 p.m. ET).
While most coaches usually brush off the question, Clemons, renowned for his jovial personality, chuckled and offered his view on the subject.
“Personally speaking, this game is of such great magnitude that far be it from me to interrupt what may be a player’s normal course of action for readying himself for a game,” he said, as those in attendance laughed.
“If it has worked thus far, please indulge.
“If it has not benefited you to this point, please abstain.”
A humourous sound bite from a humourous coach (also a former player of the team).
I don’t usually read “The Fix” on Salon but today’s entry had me curious:
Awards-show stabbing: Violence broke out an hour in to the taping of Vibe Magazine’s two-hour award show last night when a knife-wielding member of Death Row Records chief Marion “Suge” Knight’s posse lunged toward after rap star Dr. Dre as he began to accept a Vibe Legend award from presenters Quincy Jones and Snoop Dogg, according to a witness. The would-be attacker was allegedly then blocked by members of rapper 50 Cent’s entourage, though one unidentified man was reportedly stabbed. The event was quickly canceled, and stars — including hosts Tyra Banks and L.L. Cool J — beat it out of there. “Russell Simmons ran out of here crying,” the witness said. But hey, don’t worry. The witness also helpfully reported that, “Whoever was stabbed was definitely not a celebrity.” (NY Post)
That award show has had problems each year they’ve tried to have it. It’s a wonder they keep on trying. At some point I guess they’ll finish the 1999 awards show. That’ll be an accomplishment.
Fila Brazillia is one of my favourite duos in music. Period. Their discography is one of my most prized musical possessions. I routinely listen to some of their older albums. I listen often to their recent release, Jump Leads primarily because I can’t find where I put the album and also because I was underwhelmed with its sound. It didn’t sound as polished as previous releases; it didn’t have that flow and 4 or 5 really great songs. Before I left Kitchener I bought a few CDs at the local record shop downtown and two of the CDs that I bought were this year’s releases from Fila Brazillia – “The Life and Times of Phoebus Brumal” and “Twentythree Dicks and Twentythree Records”. The latter is a series of cuts that didn’t make it onto the former. There are some really high-quality tracks on these two albums. “Boca Raton” on “The Life and Times…” is a favourite at the moment. This album sounds more industrial and less jazzy than Fila efforts. There is a lot of synthesizer work which makes it sound like an instrumental New Order album in some ways.
A Fila Brazillia song was featured in CSI: Miami last night. A track from Jump Leads but I can’t recall the name. It’s been a while since I listened to it.
Wikipedia’s music entries are growing more complete. I’m impressed! Their entry on Ambient Music is quite thorough. Potentially a replacement for Allmusic? We’ll see.
This happened this morning:
- I got up
- I turned on the monitor and read a few of my updated blogs
- Among the blogs I read was Accordion Guy’s, specifically his post about the new Hardee’s burger
- Breakfast Television was on for traffic reports
- They start talking about the new Hardee’s burger
- They use the same jokes about Super Size Me that Joey used
It was kind of strange. I guess they could have read CNN’s story and come up with the same introduction but it seemed rather coincidental to me. It was like I was watching someone reading Joey’s blog. I guess it shouldn’t be too surprised if people in other media read Joey’s blog; after all he’s been in the Globe and Mail several times now.
Moral of the story? Hardee’s is trying to kill people.
Should I get tickets for this concert?
16-NOV-04 SUFJAN STEVENS LEE’S 19+ $14.00
I admit it’s very tempting. Sufjan Stevens is one of my recent (in the last year) favourite artists (see this praise post). I’ll think it over.
Since I can’t seem to post to my del.icio.us account right now, I’ll add the link to Theo van Gogh’s short film, Submission here. IFilm is hosting it. Synopsis:
Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh (yes, that van Gogh) was assassinated November 2, 2004, by a 26-year-old extremist Muslim of Dutch-Moroccan descent. The current theory is that he was taken down for his critical look at the treatment of Muslim women. It’s not a documentary, but a metaphorical look at the harsh realities of their lives. (In English with Dutch subtitles.)
I’ll have to watch when I get a free moment. [via]
Jeopardy! takes a two week break to bring us the College Tournament so no more Ken until near the end of the month. It was on while we were getting ready for dinner and I was feeding the cats during the revealing of Final Jeopardy! questions. I’ll let adm summarize [via]:
Tonight was round 1 of the Jeopardy College Tournament. One of the contestants, Kermin, a comp-sci/engineering student from Carnegie Mellon University, had a commanding lead (well over $10K) going into Final Jeopardy.
His final wager had Alex Trebek scratching his head, but Kermin was clearly sending a message to fellow computer nerds. His wager:
$1337
In leetspeak, 1337 translates to “leet” or “elite.”
As soon as Alex announced his wager I chuckled. I wonder how long he was planning that little stunt. He was a pretty impressive contestant and I’m looking forward to seeing him compete again. Hopefully he comes up with some equally geeky for his next appearance!
Elite Designers Against Ikea [via]
From the site:
We are the Elite Designers. We design profound and beautiful furniture for those with wealth and taste. Which is why IKEA makes us furious livid and angry. Do their designs live, breathe and growl? Are they born from tears of pain? Do they gently touch the bottom of the human soul? Pah! Of course not, no more than weeds can attract a bee. The big blue place is odious, its affordable design is sickeningly shallow and we loathe it even more than we loathe football. Please join us in our unqualified hatred.
I like the commercials.
Last night Marcy and I watched an odd movie – The Rules of Attraction. It stars James Van Der Beek in a very un-Dawson-like role.
The movie was quasipornographic and vaguely disturbing in the same way that Generation S.L.U.T. is. The music was pretty good and the thing that really impressed me was the camera work. Several scenes were played in reverse (completely including dialogue and background music) and then played forward again. It was a pretty neat technique. Certainly not original but definitely impressive and well-executed. Another scene featured a conversation between two of the characters but instead of seeing both of them on-screen we were shown a tight shot of each of their faces. Only after the conversation was finished did we see both characters with one camera. It was quite effective.
Overall not a great movie and I’d say that the story and characters didn’t really interest me that much at all.
It’s been a while since I discussed Jeopardy’s permanent champion, Ken Jennings (here’s a list of my posts on the topic). I still watch Jeopardy when I can and sure enough Ken’s still on the show. Jason has some information on when his final show will air – there’s a break for the college tournament for the next two weeks so it’ll either be the beginning of the last week of this month or the beginning of next month (really the same week).
Watching Ken everyday though I’ve found that he seems weary and tired. It has to be taxing to perform at such a high intellectual level during the tapings. They don’t even announce anymore how long he’s been champion but apparently this is his 70th show and he loses after the 74th. I’m going to try my best to watch these last few shows. It’ll be interesting to see if Ken gets interviews after he loses. I would imagine he will because then he’d be free to discuss everything. Truly he’s a very gifted man. I’m in awe of his talent.
Trailer for Pixar’s new movie, Cars. [via]
This is the last movie under the Disney-Pixar partnership. Hopefully it’s a good one. I want to see The Incredibles soon.
From The Blogging of the President:
Q: What’s the difference between Vietnam and Iraq?
A: George Bush had a plan to get out of Vietnam.
Via Bad Attitudes.
Man oh man, wish I’d heard this one *before* Nov 2.
Partisan humour to start your day!
I leave you today with one photo taken from today’s Daily Mirror:
Dumb
At least in England they don’t pretend to be nonpartisan in their media coverage.
Joi’s blog had an interesting find earlier this morning but CNN quickly changed the filename.
Now that I’ve gotten a little bit of what I’m feeling out there, let’s talk about what I did last night (after picking up the car and getting home – a story for another post).
We turned on the tv around 7:30 and already there were results. Bush was ahead but it was still very early.
I was watching CBC Newsworld’s coverage since I found that the other stations either didn’t have the information visible or they had too much information on the screen or they were focusing on local Buffalo races which while interesting, aren’t exactly relevant to me. We watched the results come in past 8 o’clock and nothing was particularly revelatory in that any state was a surprise result.
We watched Degrassi at 8:30 and then some of Election at 9. Such a great movie. I would flip back to the election coverage during commercial breaks. I was frustrated that it was taking so long to bring in the results from each state.
At 10 we watched The Daily Show’s special – Prelude to a Recount. It was pretty funny but I wasn’t in much of a comedy mood it seemed. I wanted to be optimistic but it didn’t seem like there was much to be optimistic about. Florida wasn’t as close as predicted and Ohio was increasingly going to Bush’s corner.
I switched to watching CBC Newsworld again at 11. More results were finally coming in. I tried staying up as late as I could but could only last until 11:45. When I went to bed it was 210-199 for Bush. Things looked tenuous but I figured that there wouldn’t be much settled overnight. So I went to sleep.
I didn’t sleep very well and woke up often. At 3 I was tempted to go see how things were shaping up but thought better of it. When the alarm went off at 6 this morning I got out of bed and checked the computer and it was at 254-252 on most networks (higher for Bush on some other networks) and that Ohio was the key state. Bush was ahead there but Kerry was waiting to count the votes before doing anything. People were talking about protracted struggles for the win (like in 2000) but it felt to me like it was more posturing than anything; even though they could wait for 11 days to count the provisional ballots it seemed to me like it was incredibly unlikely that Kerry could make up the ground there in Ohio. Also even if he did win Ohio and thus win the election (at least by the ingenious electoral college system) he would still lose the popular vote by 3+ million votes. After 2000 Democrats complained often how Bush was an illegitimate President who didn’t win the popular vote and had the judges on the Supreme Court rule him into power. It would seem equally bad if Kerry won technically according to the system but not according to the wishes of the population on a whole.
I wonder how I’d feel if the results had been different – if Kerry were ahead in Ohio and it was Bush who had the choice to concede or fight. We talked about this a bit at work here and said that Bush would fight to the very last vote – it’s not in his character to give up because he believes that he’s always right and will win.
I just read a good post on Boing Boing:
Four more years of a nation led by criminals. I was making coffee with one eye on CNN when the news broke, and I called my dad, a man who’s spent many years fighting for good things, sometimes at great personal cost.
“Get over it,” he said, “The way you feel now is exactly how I felt when Nixon won a second term — crushed. I just couldn’t believe America was that stupid. “But remember what happened to Nixon that term.”
Dan Gillmor sums up what the continuation of Bush’s presidency means for America.
The Republicans have an even stronger congressional majority. They have shown how gladly ruthless they can be in using their power. Bush and his allies have never believed in compromise. They have even less incentive to govern from the middle now, even though the nation remains bitterly divided.
There’s no secret about what’s coming. We don’t have that excuse this time.
Here comes more fiscal recklessness — as we widen the chasm between the ultra-wealthy and everyone else, cementing a plutocracy into our national fiber, we’ll pay our national bills on the Treasury Bill credit card for the next few years. Many economists expect a Brazil-like financial crisis to hit the U.S. before the end of the decade. If we muddle our way though the near term, we’ll still have left our kids with the bill.
Here comes an expansion of the American empire abroad, a fueling of fear and loathing elsewhere on the globe. This is also unsustainable in the end. Empire breeds disrespect.
Our civil liberties will shrink drastically. This president and his top allies in Congress fully support just one amendment in the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms. Say goodbye to abortion rights in most states. Roe v. Wade will fall after this president pushes three or four Scalia and Thomas legal clones onto the Supreme Court. Say hello, meanwhile, to a much more intrusive blending of church and state.
The environment? We’ll be nostalgic for Ronald Reagan’s time in office.
This is not sour grapes. This is reality.
I hope, but doubt, that the Democrats re-discover enough of their collective spine to block the most extreme moves. If they do it’ll be a change for a party that stands for so little these days.
People say there are two Americas. I think there are at least three.
One is Bush’s America: an amalgam of the extreme Christian “conservatives,” corporate interests and the builders of the burgeoning national-security state.
Another is the Democratic “left”: wedded to the old, discredited politics in a time that demands creative thinking.
I suspect there’s a third America: members of an increasingly radical middle that will become more obvious in the next few years, tolerant of those who are different and aware that the big problems of our times are being ignored — or made worse — by those in power today.
That third America needs a candidate. Or, maybe, a new party.
Marcy and I have been talking frequently about how different the United States would be like if they had a parliamentary system. There’s no conceivable way that it would be implemented but it’s amusing to think about it.
It’s good to muse about the possibility of impeachment or something akin to that but it seems like the actual electoral process seen yesterday was relatively clean and fair. What happened leading up to the election was not – both sides were incredibly negative. James described that this morning. I don’t see how things can change – the country is still divided to the extent that people with contrary points of view can’t even talk to each other for 10 minutes. There are disputes here in Canada too but we also have more political parties so your differences are spread out across more groups. Some might say that Americans are centrist for the most part but if you have two choices in an election you’re bound to see a polarization of the electorate.
The next four years will be interesting even if the doomsday predictions are incorrect (and I hope they are).
Via Scoble:
This is a cool time-lapse video of them moving a bridge in downtown Bellevue. More info on the project is here.
When I lived in Redmond two years ago I used to travel across that bridge quite frequently whenever I wanted to get to Bellevue. To think that they rolled that bridge over 12 hours is really remarkable. I wish other construction projects could be completed so quickly.
I’d really like to see this concert:
Sat Oct 30:NYC Rope A Dope Afrobeat Funk & Groove
‘ANTIBALAS’ 2 Sets @10:30 & 12:15. $15.00 Adv @Hs-Rt-Ss. $18.00 @Door.
Antibalas is a pretty amazing group. I have two of their albums (Liberation Afro Beat, Vol. 1 and Talkatif) but I don’t have their latest effort – Who Is This America? They’re a very political afrobeat/funk group that is supposed to be awesome in a live setting. I heard them mention the two concerts at The Horseshoe (tonight and tomorrow night) on Metro Morning during the drive in. They played a little Antibalas and it got me grooving.
I would go to the concert except for one thing – they’re playing 2 sets and the first one doesn’t start until 10:30. Sad as it may sound to you, that’s when I usually go to bed during the week. Last weekend we managed to stay up until near midnight but that was only because we slept in on Saturday morning. I’m not sure I’d have the energy to stay out that late no matter how good the band might be. Ah well, I can always listen to their albums.
If you’re grasping for ideas on what to wear for Hallowe’en, why not choose from this fantastic set? You’re sure to get a laugh. Or a scream. [via]
I mentioned that I had recently purchased new CDs on the weekend. Well here’s the list in no particular order:
- The Arcade Fire – Funeral (heard wonderful things about the band)
- K-Os – Joyful Rebellion (which includes Marcy’s favourite song – Crabbuckit)
- Elliott Smith – From A Basement On The Hill (his last album)
- Jill Scott – Beautifully Human (praised here)
- Gilles Peterson In Brazil (I can’t resist his compilations)
- Iron + Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days (supporting good artists)
- Amelie Soundtrack
So today I will be listening to music. I have the volume turned down low so I don’t miss any important conversation in our dev area.
Last night Marcy and I watched “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” I hadn’t seen it in a long long time and I think Marcy had only read the book.
My favourite (though saddest) segment is when they’re out trick-or-treating and at every house Charlie Brown looks into his bag and says “I got a rock”.
Kid Koala (who I haven’t listened to in too long) used this particular voice clip in his superb mix tape, “Scratchcratchratchatch“. A definite classic that I should listen to again.
I just need to get some headphones for work. I have ~$200 worth of CDs purchased over the weekend to listen to.
Even if it likely won’t come to pass (and I sincerely hope it won’t), this site is still humourous.
Link courtesy of Ms. Huffington.
I haven’t seen this hypothesis before:
idebate
That would certainly explain “the bulge” controversy. Bush just wants to listen to his tunes! As I said the other day, some people work better with music.
Via Joi’s blog.
An addendum to my last post.
Last night Marcy and I were rebels. We stayed up late to watch The Daily Show. It felt good – we missed Jon’s comedic banter. As a result though we’re both feeling pretty tired this morning. Fortunately I have my supply of stimulants right beside me. That should get me through the morning at least.
So far at work I’ve decided to not listen to music while I’m working. Primarily it’s because I don’t want to seem isolationist and I want to make new friends and meet people and I might seem standoffish if I have headphones on my head all day. What I’ve discovered kind of surprised me – I’m more productive when I’m not listening to music. I’m not really sure why this is; I always found that I would work better if I had something nice to listen to. Perhaps it’s because here there are fewer distractions and I don’t have to figure what I want to listen to next every hour or so. We’ll see if this continues – so far the ambience is conducive to non-headphone work but I do miss my music at times.
I just saw an ad for the release of Fahrenheit 9/11 on DVD and video. That might be something that I’d watch again, possibly even purchase. I wonder if Michael Moore will get the film on tv before the election. That would be quite the feat.
Well as I predicted, I’m feeling sick today. I had a fever overnight and my stomach is clenched. I’m drinking plenty of fluids and last night I didn’t do all that much except sleep. I did catch a movie but I’d rather forget that I ever saw it. At least it was better than the movie I saw on Sunday. This month’s movie list has seen a wide variety of quality.
Tonight I need to get some more packing done. I’ve had to cancel going to Hamilton because I really don’t think I’m up for the drive. Hopefully Kevin won’t be too angry.
Via Ian this afternoon I present you with this humourous webcomic.
Note: I’m not saying that’s what I went through when I decided to give notice a couple of weeks ago. I do know that the last three bubbles accurately represent me as well as most tech workers I would imagine. We like to know that we’re still important to the places we leave.
Moving from one good album to another I bring you “Two Pages” by 4 Hero. I picked this album up back in 1999 and it’s still one of my favourites and I listen to it often. I once again turn to the AllMusic review of this album:
It’s nearly impossible to listen to 4 Hero’s Two Pages without thinking about the incredible success enjoyed by the jungle movement (and Roni Size’s New Forms LP in particular) during the four-year gap which separated Dego and Mark Mac’s second album from their third. With LTJ Bukem, the duo were one of the first jungle acts to desert hardcore for the astral drift of jazz-fusion atmospheres, and Two Pages is about as fusion-soaked as it gets.
The first of the two discs includes the more downtempo R&B, almost orchestral side of 4 Hero, quite indebted to jazz luminaries like Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Liston Smith and Roy Ayers. Many of the instruments are live contributions, while vocalists as wide-ranging as poet Ursula Rucker and Digable Planets rapper Butterfly make appearances. The second disc is the dancefloor (read: tighter) half of the album, skirting through dense soundscapes of paranoid breakbeats.
As could be expected, more than two hours of music is way too much for listeners to work their way through, and a heavy editing job would have made this a stellar album instead of the flawed and somewhat bloated album it turned out to be. For drum’n’bass fans, the real highlights come with second-disc tracks like “We Who Are Not as Others” and “In the Shadows” — as it is, they’re so terrific as to nearly justify purchase by themselves.
I like that term fusion-soaked. I kind of agree with their complaint that this album is a lot of music to listen to. Often I find that I listen to a few key songs and then switch to something else. Most of those songs are in the first half of the album like “Loveless”, “Golden Age of Life” (love that choir), “Escape That” and “Universal Love”. They’re great tracks!
Now it’s onto The Cinematic Orchestra’s “Everyday” album.
Mr. Cranky gives a scathing review of First Daughter:
You know that impending terrorist attack they’ve been warning us about? I think this movie may be it. If I were the real U.S. President and saw this movie, I would immediately surround Hollywood with an invasion force and stop at nothing until director Forest Whitaker had been tracked down and dug out of his spider hole.
“First Daughter” is so bad, it may actually one day become a cult favorite, a centerpiece of midnight showings where drunken, rowdy homosexuals gather to dress up like the characters, recite the lines in unison, and throw condoms at the screen whenever first daughter Samantha (Katie Holmes) and love interest James (Marc Blucas) come together to exchange strained romantic platitudes.
After this movie is over, you’ll know what muscles you use to cringe, because they’ll be sore by the time the final credits roll. Though she’s the daughter of the U.S. President (Michael Keaton), Samantha just wants to go to college and be a “normal girl.” You know how to wrap up these “princess just wants to be normal” movies in about 30 seconds? Put princess in a Wal-Mart uniform on the graveyard shift and take away her health care benefits. Since this is Hollywood, however, and not heaven, that doesn’t happen here. Samantha’s journey of self-discovery entails a mind-numbing procession of staged “spontaneous” collegiate moments. One example: At James’s urging, she eats popcorn and chocolate candies — TOGETHER! “It’s disgusting; I like it!” she enthuses as the audience, of course, cringes.
Ouch. Marcy mentioned the other night that she wishes that Katie Holmes would play a different kind of character than the one she’s been playing all her life. She does have a bad habit of playing a near clone of her character on Dawson’s Creek. It must be frustrating to always act the same way. Either that or she’s too lazy to find new roles.
One of my all-time favourite albums begins this way:
Closing of places of entertainment.
All cinemas, theatres and other places of entertainment are to be closed immediately until further notice. Sports gatherings and all gatherings for purposes of entertainment and amusement, whether outdoor or indoor which involve large numbers congregating together are prohibited until further notice. This refers especially to gatherings for purposes of entertainment. But people are earnestly requested not to crowd together unnecessarily in any circumstances.
That narrative is spoken overtop of the absolutely fantastic Fila Brazillia song, “A Zed & Two L’s”. The mix is by Coldcut, founders of the legendary Ninjatune label. I haven’t really been following Ninjatune’s path for a while but their old-time music (circa 1994-2001) still tickles my fancy every now and again.
This mix album is very solid from start to finish. It includes tracks by Fila Brazillia, Global Communication, DJ Food and the Asian Dub Foundation. That said, it’s very difficult to find any information about this album. I’ve never seen it in stores and it’s not mentioned on many of the discography sites that I visit. I’m glad I found it all those years ago.
So last night I drove to Whitby (as I mentioned) and then back again this morning. I’m tired but it’s worth it to see Marcy for the evening. I had a couple of errands to run before I left town, namely try to find a copy of The Crucible for Marcy to show her Grade 11 class. I haven’t seen the movie or read the book but we have the movie until next Wednesday so perhaps I’ll watch it before then.
Traffic wasn’t too bad seeing as I left a bit later than last Friday. Leaving a little past the main rush home made a huge difference and I barely had any slowdown at all going through Toronto. I left earlier this morning than I have in the past (before 7) and it didn’t make a huge difference in the time it took me to get back here. The only advantage really is that I get to work earlier and seeing as the deadline looms once again I suppose that isn’t such a bad thing. Traffic was slow in “the usual spots” (more on that term at a later date) but generally ok. One thing that really doesn’t agree with me eyes is when a pickup truck has something sticking off the back like a ladder or something. For some reason it seems like it’s going to hit my eye. I can’t really explain it and it doesn’t make much sense but there you go.
When I got to Marcy’s house it seemed like no one was home. I tried ringing the doorbell a couple of times but all of the lights were off inside so I figured that I’d just wait until someone showed up. Marcy was home; she had just fallen asleep. She’s been feeling sick this week and I think she might have a throat infection or something. I had some homemade pizza and chili for dinner (tasted great!) and watched tv for a little bit.
We watched the series premiere of CSI: NY. For a first episode, I’d give it a passing grade but I wasn’t overwhelmed by the episode. The story seemed to fall apart near the end. We did see a new magical technology introduced however – the triangulation modelling application. Now the principles behind this are sound (for once) but I highly doubt that it’s that easy to match up landmarks in a photo using software. Perhaps I’m just ignorant of the software that crime labs have available to them but I suspect the process would be more involved than what they show there. Anyway, the new show is most likely something that I’ll keep watching though I notice that it’s on against Law & Order, another favourite. I’ll have to see how they integrate the new character into that show seeing as Lennie is now gone.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m looking forward to seeing this movie. My interest is at an insane level. I just finished watching the trailer as a refresher. I saw it in theatres when Marcy and I went to see The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement back in August. It’s a funny trailer though the story is a little unclear from the trailer alone. Fortunately there’s a link to the story.
I’ve talked about the movie before and recently there hasn’t been much news to post. Now that we’re in the home stretch before the premiere, I’d expect the media coverage to increase. I can only hope that the Reformed Church of Spongebob (a radical branch from the now-defunct Church of Spongebob) gets more converts. I like their sacraments, specifically the Simple Pleasures Sacrament:
- Lean forward on your right foot, with your left leg bent and sticking out slightly behind you.
- Spin around, STOP!
- Double take 3 times, counting out loud, one, two, three.
- Pelvic thrust Wooo! and back again, Wooo!
- Stop on your right foot, don’t forget it!
- Bring it around the town.
- Bounce on your bum twice.
- Make a circle with your body;
- A zig-zag,
- A triangle,
- A donut around your body.
- Flatten yourself on the floor.
- Bounce up with only one eye.
- Then, stand on your left foot and blow a bubble (or pretend to).
Bringing it around town is one of the most important steps. I’m going to bring it around town tonight.
Oh my word I had forgotten how absolutely phenomenal The Avalanches disc, Since I Left You, is. I’ll leave you to the AllMusic review to give you an idea of what this album is about:
Endless summers for many youths don’t consist of beaches and surfboards. Instead, they’re spent on blacktops and jungle gyms. More gritty and halfway between the curb and the hoop than anything celestial, the Avalanches remind you of a point in your life when you could blissfully hang upside down from monkey bars and just dangle.
Like recklessly riding your BMX or skipping rope after downing a sugar-laced pitcher of lemonade, the un-mawkish Since I Left You thrives on making you feel youthful and mighty. Its Utopian grove stand bric-a-brac of grooves, beats, flutters, whistles, oohs-and-yeahs, and sundry animal noises can alternately sound familiar and fresh. Some origins can be immediately placed, and those that can’t trigger an impulse that you’ve heard it somewhere before. You’re at least familiar with the tone as it relates to a long-lost feeling of childhood bliss — whether it’s staring at a clear blue sky from a fresh-cut lawn or the first time you heard “Rock the Bells.”
If you want stifling touchstones, they’re there. Dunk the Beastie Boys of Paul’s Boutique and Basement Jaxx into the fountain of youth; Sylvester meets Tweety; Mercury Rev links hands with the Bomb Squad for laps around the roller rink. It’s no cloyed nostalgia trip, pieced together humbly by Aussies who are probably telling you the truth when they say they listen “to a little bit of everything.” The unflinching mix offers plenty of tempo variety, knowing just when to change the pitch before hitting overkill. The second half features a subtle lull that builds up in time for “Live at Dominoes,” possibly the strongest cut.
There’s little doubt to Since I Left You’s status as one of the most intimate and emotional dance records that isn’t vocal-based. Working on a mystical level, don’t be too surprised if a future dig through the wallet unearths a membership card to the Summer Break Funk Association.
That captures the feeling perfectly for me. Boards of Canada reminds me of my childhood too but that’s a haunting, mournful reminder. The Avalanches are all about having fun during those “endless summer nights”.
I’m not sure what made me want to put this album on this morning but perhaps with the summer weather that we’ve been enjoying this week it’s an appropriate choice.
Watch the steps
Get a drink, have a good time now
Welcome to paradise, paradise, paradise…
Since I left you
I found the world so new
Yesterday I watched a tv movie called The Last Casino. It’s a Canadian tv movie so it’s highly unlikely you’ve heard of it. It’s about a professor of mathematics who trains a team of 3 university students to win at blackjack by counting cards. I thought it was a fairly well-done film. I liked the pace, the character development and most of the plot. The “investor” didn’t warm me over at all.
Looking at the credits I notice that the person who played George was also in Bulletproof Monk which I discussed in an earlier posting this week. George is a computer engineering student at the university and he plays a painfully stereotypical character. He doesn’t dress all that well, he’s a virgin and when he starts winning money he spends it on an XBox. When told to have some fun he eats alone in his hotel room. I guess I take more offense at this portrayal because I’ve had to deal with this perception of engineers and computer engineers in particular often socially. I remember when I lived in Mississauga back in the summer of 2001 and my roommate was absolutely shocked that I went out socially with other people. She was an engineer too! I suppose it comes with the territory.
Anyway, back to the film. I really liked the scenes in the casino and the training sessions. It reminded me a lot of the time I went to Las Vegas 2 years ago (pictures here). Mat, Sandy, Steve and I sat up quite late discussing different ways to win at blackjack (we played a lot of blackjack that weekend). We had a very good strategy that didn’t include counting and ended up winning quite a lot from one table. Man that was a fun trip. Marcy and I are thinking of going to Las Vegas during March Break next year. That would be a lot of fun too. I’m looking forward to taking trips with her.
I’m no stranger to Badly Drawn Boy. I wrote quite extensively about his new album a few months back. I really enjoy his music.
And while I may never see About A Boy (Tagline summary), I will never tire of listening to its soundtrack. Badly Drawn Boy does an excellent job setting the mood with his music.
I’m listening to this album today because I was listening to CBC Radio yesterday afternoon (driving through some horrendous traffic) and there was a commercial for the show Wire Tap. It’s an interesting show and from what I’ve heard of it (I listened a couple of weeks ago), the host has a fine taste in music. It’s on at a slightly awkward time however (6:30 on Saturdays) so I’m not sure that I’ll be able to catch it too often. I can endeavour to try though.
Last night I watched Bulletproof Monk on TMNOD (The Movie Network On-Demand). I actually started watching it Tuesday night but I was so tired that I only made it through 30 minutes. I watched the rest last night before the hockey game started.
Let me say this – I will never get those 104 minutes back. The Metacritic score for this film is a balmy 39. Basically if you look at all of the better Hong Kong action movies over the last few years – Hero, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the like and then you compare it with this film you don’t have much to compare it to. I’m not really sure why Chow Yun-Fat would want to make this movie but I just hope that they paid him handsomely for it.
One bright point – at least now I won’t have to wonder if this is a good film.
I’ve had an odd musical relationship with Amon Tobin. I’ve seen him live in concert twice (described in some detail here). I’ve enjoyed him in all of his different configurations, whether as himself or as Cujo. I think I have most of his releases and I’ve listened to them extensively over the years. Ian mentioned to me that he has been using Amon’s songs as his Winamp alarm this week to some success. So I listened to Amon’s most recent studio recording, Out From Out Where, released in 2002. I still find that I enjoy the quieter, more introspective of the songs on the album like “Hey Blondie”, “El Wraith” and “Mighty Micro People”. I just can’t enjoy the drill n’ bass songs as much. I remember a time when I used to really get into that sound but that time is long since passed. I wonder what it is about certain musical styles that the interest you once had in them seems to fade away with time. What will my musical tastes be 5 or 10 years from now?
This album is kind of special though because it was the last album that I obtained before leaving for Seattle 2 years ago. I recall listening to it while falling asleep during my last few days in Michigan and also on the long plane ride. This album was the catalyst for making friends with some of the other interns. There are a lot of memories associated with this music.
More Ken news – Jason, through some amazing sources, has obtained the final Final Jeopardy! answer that Ken sees. Yes, I’ve ruined my attempt to protect the spoilers. It’s all over the news today. I have an idea what the correct question is but I’ll wait for Jason to post it later. It’ll be sad to see Ken go but he’s such an amazing contestant that he’s more than earned the praise and respect that he’s received. I’m not going to miss that last show for the world.
Drew said here that he wanted to know what I thought of Femme Fatale which I saw on Saturday afternoon (described in this post).
Well, what to say about the movie. Naturally most guys will focus their attention on the first 20 minutes (watch the movie and you know what I mean). The guys at Tagline had this humourous conversation back in 2002:
STEPHEN: … You know, [Rebecca Romjin-Stamos is] a chick, she’s evil, there’s sex – usual De Palma. Anyway, in the trailer, the first thing you hear is [Adopts very deep, Trailer Guy voice] “From Brian De Palma… the MASTER of the erotic thriller!” Now, if I’m in a video shop and I see the words ‘erotic thriller’ on the box, I’m expecting to see something starring Shannon Whirry, and called Animal Sex Instincts. IV. (Co-starring one of the guys from Grease.)
AL: You mean Shannon Tweed.
STEPHEN: There’s two of them – Tweed and Whirry, actually.
STEPHEN pauses.
STEPHEN: Oh God, it’s so sad I know that.
AL: And that we’re having this conversation.
Anyway, that conversation never occurred in this house mainly because I don’t think I’ve seen that many so-called “Erotic Thrillers”. I thought the movie was ok. Some parts were kind of clever and I’ll admit that I was a little thrown after she woke up in the bath… again. I liked the photo collage idea and I was thinking that that would be a really cool idea to do. I just need a plaza in Europe to photograph over several years now.
I was a little disappointed that the other thieves’ characters weren’t developed all that well. All of a sudden we had to figure out where one of them was for 7 years though that wasn’t particularly difficult. I just wish we could know what they were doing during other parts of the movie. I wanted to know their anger a bit better.
The ending was kind of clever but I’m not sure that I felt satisfied after the movie was finished. Perhaps I’m looking too deeply into the film. I can see why people might not like it or find it slow and tedious. I didn’t necessarily feel that way but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was a great movie.
Jason has heard a rumour about the demise of Ken Jennings’ streak on Jeopardy! He has cleverly concealed the news but you can read it on his site if you want to by highlighting the black text. I watched Ken yesterday and he seemed fairly confident even though the match was fairly close until the end and then ended close because Ken got the Final Jeopardy! question wrong. He only won $21,000 yesterday.
Edit: I should mention that it’s kind of different watching Jeopardy! when your TV is on mute. You can tell by the people’s expressions if they got the answer right or wrong, particularly in Final Jeopardy! HopefullyI’ll be home in time tonight to watch Ken continue!
Edit 2: Jason says now that he’s received independent corroboration about this news. Again if you don’t want to know this potential spoiler then don’t click on the link. For some reason this makes me excited and proud. Ken won $27000 today which brings him close to $1.4 million.
I just finished watching Days of Thunder, a classic Tom Cruise film. It’s a good film to watch on a day like today where it’s too hot to do anything outside and all you want to do is just relax. I remember a Dinner and a Movie episode where they showed this movie and had Richard Petty, a real NASCAR driver, as a guest. The hosts asked him how this movie compared with real competitive driving. Petty’s answer? “We both drive cars.” That’s too funny. Harvey’s had some pretty wicked sunglasses when this film first came out way back in 1990. Next movie? Femme Fatale with Rebecca Romijn (formerly -Stamos). I wanted to see this back in 2002 but I’m only getting around to it now.
Last night I watched Equilibrium. It was on TMN On-Demand (such a great service) and since Marcy is busy writing up lesson plans and getting her classes organized for next week, I decided to give it a go. Well let’s just say that I’m glad I didn’t have to pay to see it. Some aspects of the movie were interesting but I can’t say that I was as excited as the guys from Penny Arcade were back in 2002. I remember being in Seattle at the time this movie came out and there were a lot of people at work who were interested in seeing it. I’m kind of glad now that I didn’t go see it then because I think I would have been disappointed and out $10. I looked up Tagline’s review of the film and I think I agree for the most part:
Given as it consists pretty much of Bale jumping and twirling around a lot like some Tekken character and firing multiple guns in a spinney, martial arty, you’ll-have-someone’s-eye-out kind of way. There is a plot though, it’s – of course – the near future, where emotion has been outlawed and Bale is charged with enforcing this dubious policy decision. This seems to consist of burning the Mona Lisa and striding around in one of those super sleek sci-fi costumes with no visible buttons or zips beloved by film designers. A bit like Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, except with added martial arts and less subtext about 1930’s British politics. Of course into every fascist utopia there must come some kinks in the system, and dutifully enough Bale becomes one of the hunted when he starts experiencing emotions. Cue joining up with the ubiquitous underground resistance, firing lots and lots of guns and enough gymnastics to warrant you looking around in the background for a small foldout table with some judges.
To me, it didn’t really feel like the near future but rather like the past. With the machine guns and swords it almost felt like the 1920’s or 1930’s to me. It’s kind of disappointing that Christian Bale hasn’t made a lot of good films though I loved him in Empire of the Sun. That’s probably one of my favourite films.
The funny thing is that while I was watching this film I kept thinking about Gattaca (definitely in my top list of films). The plots are vaguely similar – a society of control with those people who are labelled as “different” being marginalized to the fringe of society. Gattaca handles this topic far better than Equilibrium however. Anywya, the funny thing to me was that after the film was over I was flipping through the guide and saw that Gattaca was actually on tv too. That’s a strange coincidence.
I was listening to Gilles Peterson’s radio show yesterday and he had the remarkable Jill Scott on-air. Jill has a new album coming out soonish (her site says it’s out now) and I was so impressed by what she had to say. She’s an incredibly intelligent woman. She spoke about all kinds of things, like being bugged incessantly on the street about her new album (it’s taken 4 years), about how sex and love is portrayed in hip hop music currently (not exactly pleasantly most times) and how her marriage to her first husband was not the right thing for her. I’m going to try and get her album – the songs Gilles played (and he only plays good songs) were particularly great.
What I’m really trying to say though is that after hearing Jill on the show, I tried to think of all the other absolutely jaw-dropping amazing artists that I like that hail from the Philadelphia area. Apart from Jill we have The Roots, Kindred The Family Soul, Floetry, DJ Jazzy Jeff, King Britt and the list goes on and on. I really got into this music during my neo-soul period last year and their songs still stir my heart. I haven’t been able to keep up with my musical tastes of late but I’m hoping that that will change soon enough.
I’m fiercely proud of the music that I listen to. Spend five minutes with me and you’ll probably realize that immediately. It confuses me when people dismiss it out-of-hand. I’ve lost friends in the past who have used my music as an excuse as a reason for terminating the friendship. Personally I thought that was a flimsy excuse and really hiding other reasons but that’s for another time. For me, I’m just not satisfied in any way with what I hear on the radio and so instead of putting up with it, I seek out alternatives. I’ve been doing this 7 years now and as a result I have a huge, varied collection of music. There’s too much good music out there to sit down and listen to prepackaged content. Go out and discover something new!
I liked this picture so much that I added it to my local collection of images:
End Bush
I found this on Boing Boing just now. Most people this week are focusing on the Republican National Convention (who seem to think it’s cute when they capitalize the middle W in their website name). I don’t know how much perspective I can have from up here but I do know that Canadians living in the US do tend to feel strongly about this election even if they can’t vote (found here). There are certainly some inventive signs displayed at the protests so far (look here or here for some great shots). I’m looking forward to Jon Stewart’s take on the week. Hopefully we’ll have enough time to fit in his comedic show into our busy schedules currently.
See here for an explanation to my post’s title reference.
If you’ve watched movies or television shows with me then you might know that it irks me to no end how the forensics labs have amazing photo manipulation tools that inevitably reveal the truth about a crime or person’s identity. This happens most times you turn on the tv or watch a movie. It happened most recently to me when Marcy and I watched Foolproof last week. The trio were trying to read a new combination for a fancy safe and they had installed a camera in the ceiling of the office to capture the view of paper. It of course was very fuzzy so they asked the computer whiz to “clean it up a little”. The end result, you guessed it, was a crystal-clear image of the new combination, enabling them to break into the office the next night. Argh!
Has anyone in the entertainment industry ever used photo manipulation software? It doesn’t work that way. To prove a point, Darren goes through a typical scenario featured in these shows and movies. It’s amusing because in some ways you get less information from the image after “he’s cleaned it up a little”.
Apart from Darren’s mention about the customized software they use, it always amuses me how specific their searching capabilities are. You use one software application to search for felons in the tri-state area. Another one is used for sexual assaults in these counties. Yet another is used to track different fingerprints. Also amusing – the fact that a positive search result takes so long and inevitably displays hundreds of different “possible matches”, eventually ending up on the one result we want. Negative search results? They take very little time at all and sometimes don’t display any of the possible matches.
Ah well, I guess we all have our pet peeves with television and the movies. I know I’m not alone in having this one as mine though. I’m sure it’s a common tech-person annoyance.
Update: Ian points me to this comic that illustrates the differences between Hollywood and reality quite aptly – one, two and three.
Bjork holds a special place in my heart. I remember my life took a different path when Lisa let me borrow Bjork’s Homogenic album. Sure I’d heard her songs before: “Army of Me” was an early favourite though I recall that Jon and I both had watched her “Unplugged” special on MuchMusic one day and we thought it as quite bizarre.
But “Homogenic” was a windfall to my impressionable musical mind. Here was a contemporary female artist who wasn’t afraid to push the boundaries of her sound. In a time when “pop music” was gaining influence on the charts again it was refreshing to hear something so original and non-fabricated. It’s hard to disagree that there aren’t many who sound like Bjork, if anyone at all. I mention once again the fantastic article on Salon from last September – All Hail The Ice Queen for reference.
When I moved into residence in first year, I listened to a lot of Bjork. Primarily I listened to Homogenic. Perhaps it was the roots of my interest in “underground music” like house or hip hop or trip hop or other miscellaneous categories that caused me to listen to this album so much. I know it annoyed Jon (my roommate in a very small double room) that I listened to it so much. Eventually I managed to obtain the other albums in Bjork’s oeuvre (Debut, Post, Telegram, etc.) and was astonished at how much this singer had grown musically over the years. I searched for live recordings of Bjork’s shows and managed to find a few and the concerts seemed very special to be a part of.
In the summer of 2001, I was hotly anticipating Bjork’s newest album, Vespertine. I would search frantically for sources before the official release date. I found one source but it ended up being in a different track order than the final cut. It didn’t matter though, I had a chance to listen to the new songs. To say that I was impressed would be quite the understatement. Here was the most intimate, personal album that I’ve ever heard. I couldn’t get enough of this album. I listened to it at work, in the car, at home, everywhere. Vespertine let me crawl into my own “hidden place”; my work situation was spiralling out of control at the time and things looked very bleak financially. When the CD came out in the stores, I bought it.
Four years ago now, Bjork starred in a movie – Dancer In The Dark. It took me a while to watch it but I’m glad I did. I really enjoyed it though it was depressingly sad at the end. It was a quirky film – half serious drama, half humourous musical. Bjork did the soundtrack, also part of my collection. It was nice to see Bjork branching into new areas but she admitted that she’ll never do another film again. She was too nervous.
The SwanIt’s unfortunate that people most associate Bjork with her swan costume at the Academy Awards three years ago. Even during Bjork’s performance at the opening ceremonies in Athens 10 days ago, the commentators on the air mentioned this fact. It’s like they don’t know how to cubbyhole Bjork’s sound so they mention her eccentricities. That’s disappointing to me, but I can’t expect everyone to like Bjork.
For Christmas last year I received a couple of Bjork’s DVDs. One is a taping of a concert that was part of the Vespertine tour and the other is an archive of her videos. I watched the concert DVD one night while Marcy was in London2. It was a fantastic show and I could feel the crowd and Bjork’s energy through the TV. It was really something special to witness. Someday I’ll go see her in concert but not if she continues to charge upwards of $60 per show.
That brings us to today. The picture at the top is the cover of Bjork’s new album, Medulla. I read this morning on Boing Boing that Bjork approves of music sharing on the Internet.
Q: So Bjork is not superstitious then?
A: “You know, its ironic that just at the point the lawyers and the businessmen had calculated how to control music, the internet comes along and fucks everything up.” Bjork gives the finger again, this time waving it into the air. “God bless the internet,” she adds.
Q: And what about you, then?
A: “I’ll still be there, waving a pirate flag.”
That’s interesting but more importantly to me was the news that she has a new album coming out next week. I’ve become so out-of-the-loop in terms of music lately that I didn’t even know that there was a new album in the works, let alone being released next week. I listened to it this morning and it’s very different from past material. Gone are the techno sounds and pretty much any musical accompaniment. Singers are the only accompaniment in a lot of the songs. Medulla of course means:
The inner core of certain organs or body structures, such as the marrow of bone.
so perhaps this album is her “inner core” musically.
Bjork has set up an interesting-looking mini-site for the album that I’ll have to explore further at some point. For now I’ll try and absorb as much of this new material as possible and instead of comparing it to previous works like I do with some artists, I’ll appreciate it on its own, for its own merits.
I learned this morning from the cybersleuths of the entertainment world that Quentin Tarantino has a blog. Consider it subscribed.
Update: It’s a fake. Stephen was fooled and thus I was too. Consider it unsubscribed.
Brian Eno changed my life. Or rather his music changed my life. No I’m not talking about his stint with Roxy Music but rather his solo ambient works. His minimalism is surprisingly full to the ear and it provides for excellent background music or foreground music. It all depends on my mood. Since I usually only listen to music while I’m at work it’s more the former than the latter but when I was in school I used to spend hours listening to Eno’s classics like the Ambient Music series, Discreet Music, The Pearl (with Harold Budd), Apollo: Atmospheres And Soundtracks and many many others. I remember when I went to see Pearl Jam back in 2002 with Jeff that I was amazed to hear them playing a Brian Eno song while we were exiting the arena. It seemed like the perfect recessional music. Brian Eno’s music brings me tranquility, introspection and curiosity. It’s amazing that something that sounds so simple can bring all of those emotions and more out of me.
I find a very similar feeling when I listen to Erik Satie’s works. His Gymnopedie’s give me shivers but when you look at the music it’s so simple – a few chords and a very straightforward melody. How can something like that sound so wonderful? I think it’s primarily because you don’t need complexity to deliver an effective sound. Sure you can have complexity and succeed – J.S. Bach’s music (”Ahhh, Bach!”) is a very good example of this but too often I think that artists like to pour complex sounds into their production studio sessions and hope that the end result will be something a) coherent and b) brilliant. Sadly either of those two qualities are missing in much music. This usually results in a) dissatisfaction and b) confusion on the part of the listener.
I’m a fussy music listener. Songs that will enthrall me one day will bore me the next. It takes something really special to last more than a few months in my playlist. Brian Eno’s music has been a constant fixture in my listening schedule for several years now and I don’t really see that changing. Unless I have a massive shift in my listening tastes (it could happen), Brian Eno is with me to stay.
Every Friday this summer there has been a DJ spinning records in front of City Hall. I’ve heard him play a few times but not recently as I’ve been an office hermit. There’s the DJ and then some random white guy who hangs out with him but doesn’t seem to do much. I think he’s just for show. Anyway, I think the primary purpose is for this guy to get DJ jobs doing parties, weddings and those types of things but I respect the man for the music that he plays. One week he was playing DJ Shadow which I’m always a sucker for (hence the name for this site). Another week he was playing the instrumental from Little Brother’s amazing “The Listening” album from last year. I’m a shy person but hearing that being played out in the square almost made me want to go over and congratulate him on his choices. Too often the air downtown is filled with hard rock or pop hip hop and it’s nice to hear something different for a change. I think this will be my theme for the day.
Last night Marcy and I watched My Boss’s Daughter on TMN On Demand. I’ll paraphrase Marcy for the review – “When you watch movies like this, it makes you appreciate the good movies out there even more.” How true that is. It was a really strange movie. I was really surprised that Dave Foley was in it and he played such a bizarre character. I still remember the first time I met Lissa she seemed to think that I was very similar to Dave. There were parts that we had to fast forward because they were either a) too stupid or b) too disgusting or both. It was kind of endearing in a way to see Ashton Kutcher play someone with some semblance of sensitivity. I’m still anxious to see Garden State but apparently “wide-release” doesn’t cover the burgeoning metropolis of Kitchener-Waterloo.
I’ve been eating carrot muffins for breakfast this week. Now usually I abide by the rule that the muffin top is better than “the stump” (as prescribed in this classic Seinfeld episode) but with Coffee Time muffins it seems that “the stump” is almost as good if not better than the top. I know it seems ludicrous but I can vouch for this fact. I’m not sure why this is but for one thing, the muffins don’t come in their traditional wrappers but I’m sure they were baked with them. All I know is that I’m enjoying my week o’ muffins though even these fantastic muffins can’t compare with Marcy’s baking. I get homemade baked beans to look forward to eating tonight! I can’t wait!
I watched the first part of The Daily Show last night and they were talking about this. They discussed the doctor who said that he worked on John Kerry when he was injured and consequently received his first Purple Heart. This despite the fact that the doctor’s signature did not appear anywhere on the medical forms at the time. In addition, the doctor recalls the wound being so minor and superficial. The guys at The Daily Show invented a letter home sent by the doctor:
Dearest Prudence,
The horrors of war are mild as they are weak.
Yesterday I saw a wound so minor that I wondered what kind of God would allow a man to be injured so superficially.
I found that pretty funny. I didn’t stay up to watch President Clinton speak because last night I was feeling rather sick. Perhaps working 72 hours last week might have something to do with that.
Once again, I defer to Augie to bring me my Jeopardy!-related (and Ken Jennings-specifically) articles. I’ve even created a new category devoted to Jeopardy! posts.
In Othello, Shakespeare wrote: “O! Beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”
We have become such a cynical society that we cannot often make success and achievement a cause for celebration. That has been no more personnified than those who would minimize or throw verbal knives at Jennings and Jeopardy! with unsupported allegations and baseless baloney.
This guy has written the most erudite defense of Jeopardy! and Ken Jennings than they could ever hope for. It’s brilliant and a must-read, particularly for those of you who think every tic of the show is now a sign that the whole thing is fixed.
September 6 can’t come quickly enough.
I don’t understand why people would think that Ken has been cheating. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would do that. I think he enjoys the game too much. I agree though – September 6th can’t come soon enough. It’s just not the same with the College Tournament on this week.
Found via Angie McKaig is this very interesting article about one of my most-visited sites, IMDB. I’ve been using IMDB for movie and television questions for many years now and I remember the days when you had to pick a mirror. Fortunately now that’s not required but it’s neat to see how humble IMDB’s beginnings were and considering the vastness of the site (only AllMusic comes close) it’s remarkable how current and frequently updated the content is. I had no idea that IMDB was actually owned by Amazon but considering the number of Amazon links on each page it’s really no surprise. I was telling Stephen today that who knows where his site might be in 5 years’ time. He seems to think that he’ll either be in jail or filthy rich. Maybe he’ll have both.
I’ve talked about the movie Collateral (opening today) before and goodness knows that the boys over at Tagline have had their fun with the movie and you should really go over there to get more of “the funny”.
Anyway, the movie is playing at King’s College here downtown and I noticed that the poster they’re showing is not the one featuring The Big Star but rather one with a picture of Jamie Foxx. Maybe they save the posters featuring Tom Cruise for the bigger, more popular theatres and not the ones that only charge $6 to see a movie, anytime.
I’ve decided to license the content here under a Creative Commons license. I’ve been thinking of doing this for quite a while now. I started reading my (autographed!) copy of Lawrence Lessig’s book, The Future Of Ideas this week and it has spurned me to formally define how I want my content to be protected. Basically this is what you’re allowed to do:
You are free:
- to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
- to make derivative works
Under the following conditions:
Attribution. You must give the original author credit.
Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.
Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one.
- For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.
- Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
Consider me a part of the commons though it’s dubious how creative I can be.
As promised last week, Marcy and I went to see The Village this weekend, on opening day no less. Fortunately enough for us is the fact that we saw the movie at the cheaper theatre in town. Total cost = $11.
The verdict? I should have listened to Stephen and Al at Tagline. Additionally, I should have taken seriously what Mr. Cranky had to say about the movie. He’s rarely wrong.
The people talk like some amateur historian’s version of the 19th century. It’s essentially the way some ideologue would want 19th century people to talk, not the way they really used words, which is at the heart of Shyamalan’s problems these days. He wants his films to be a certain way, but they’re not. When you get to the end, nothing makes any sense. The mysterious creatures in the woods who surround the village completely are referred to as “those we don’t speak of”. The color red is “the bad color”. Maybe in the future we’ll all refer to “The Village” as “the bad film”. There’s also the littany of cliche characters. Ivy is the blind girl with the heart of gold who can see better than most sighted people. There’s Noah (Adrien Brody), the funny retard who provides the comic relief because that’s what retards do. Those are just the most blatant.
Now I don’t consider myself a sheep (as Stephen seems to allude to in his post) though it may appear that way by my act of seeing the movie on its opening day. There were plenty of other people in the theatre so perhaps the “mystique” of M. Night.
So what was wrong with this film? I found it particularly unexciting. Sure the “monster” aspect was a bit frightening for a little bit but they ruined the whole suspense halfway through the film. And the other aspect to the story? Highly disappointing. I wasn’t really sure which Plot Twist the story was supposed to be leading up to. I have in my mind an impression of the movie. It’s a loaf of bread. It could be a great loaf of bread but instead it is only semi-risen and tastes terrible. Visually unappealing. Texture is all off. Timing is a mess.
That’s not to say that I could do better, mind you. I’m no film director, that’s for sure. I guess I was just thoroughly unimpressed with this film.
This morning I read a post on “Better Living Through Software” dealing with this movie. There are some interesting ideas discussed there and I didn’t really think of that aspect while I was seeing the film. Would it have changed my impression? I think it’s doubtful.
I just received confirmation that my copy of Outfoxed has shipped. It should be here in 7-10 business days. I mentioned this documentary previously on my other blog and although I technically didn’t follow the subject (”When I have some more cash”), I still felt that it was important for me to watch this film. For $9.95 I’m hoping that it will be worth it. It has received a lot of attention on blogs recently and though it’s hard to tell if people have actually seen the film or are just jumping on the critical bandwagon, there’s no denying that the public (at least the blog-reading portion) is aware of this film.
I watched Robert Greenwald’s previous film, Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War and was impressed with the critical slant of the movie. It’s much less heavy-handed as Fahrenheit 9/11 though certainly not as visually appealing as that film. Salon called (mentioned in my post here) Uncovered “more intelligent if less entertaining” and I’d agree with that assessment. I’m not aware of many other people who have seen the film though in the same article Salon calls it a “cult success”.
Robert Greenwald is definitely a fan of the Shocking-word: explanation template for his film titles. The full title for Outfoxed is Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War On Journalism. In addition to this and Uncovered we have:
Both of these would be interesting to watch I’m sure but I don’t know how easy it would be to obtain a copy of either film.
Watch for a review of Outfoxed as soon as I receive my copy.
I was just looking at Liam O’Donnell’s website and noticed that he has done some work for Owl magazine. Man what a nostalgic trip looking at that magazine’s site was. When I was growing up, I lived off of Owl magazine and my sister read a lot of Chickadee. I’d forgotten all about these magazines until now but I realize (again) that they contributed to my love of reading and of magazines. The magazine describes itself as:
OWL is loaded with fascinating articles and amazing facts for 9 to 13 year olds. Each issue includes the science behind how things work, quizzes, contests, and topics that affect readers’ everyday lives. With breaking news stories and mind-boggling puzzles, it’s a thought-provoking, entertaining place for kids to grow.
I’m not sure how or why my parents decided to get a subscription for me but I’m glad they did. It probably made a not-insignificant impact on my love for technology, learning and science. I’m happy to see that something that I enjoyed as a kid is still around.
My musical listening habits are extremely cyclical. You might think that as odd considering the vast quantities of music that I have. Actually I’m not sure that I’ve ever mentioned (in this space) just how much music I own. Let’s just say that I could go many months listening to music 24 hours a day and not hear a repeated song. Yeah, that much.
Anyway, every so often I have a strong desire to listen to a lot of Naked Music’s compilations. It’s pretty smooth deep house (I think) and is very easy to listen to and be productive to. Perhaps this sudden urge to listen to their output is due to the fact that I’ve been reading the House Industries book (more when I finish the book) and I’ve seen a lot of their fonts used on various compilations over the years. Those are some very talented folks (at Naked Music and at House). I’m in awe of their creativity.
All week it has felt like day+1. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not because most weeks are long enough as it is. This weekend is a long one too as Monday is our Civic Holiday (only in Ontario). The goal? Pure relaxation. We’ll probably see a couple of movies at least (there are some good ones playing at The Princess this weekend). Also, Marcy wants to see The Village and despite Al’s fervent attempts (see Stephen I do read who writes the articles!) to dissuade any and all moviegoers, we’ll probably end up seeing it too. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t seen Signs that I’m not so anti-M as Al is.
Uh oh, I’m listening to “Steppin’ Out” by Joe Jackson. I always go into a crazy mood when I hear this song.
Edit: It’s going to be even harder to keep straight what day it is. Both of my bosses have left for the week. Hopefully it isn’t too difficult to work tomorrow (assuming tomorrow is still Friday).
Last week I posted about Ken Jennings, Jeopardy player extraordinaire. In that post I linked to this amusing post on Jason Kottke’s site. I also did a trackback on the post and thus was listed at the side under the other trackbacks. I received a lot of referral traffic from Jason which is not surprising since he is one of the more widely-read blogs on the Internet. Also, as Hello, Typepad says, he is Mr. Google since his post about Ken Jennings is the #1 hit when you search for him on Google.
The traffic did level off somewhat until Jason posted an update on his last 100 posts. More referral traffic was directed my way as a result of people reading Jason’s original post about Ken Jennings. To get a sense of the popularity of his blog, I’ve received over 550 hits from people clicking directly from his post. Since I’m just an obscure blogger, I can imagine that the actual number of people reading that post (and not clicking on my link) is far higher.
I would imagine that the traffic will die down as Ken Jennings is forgotten until the show starts up again in September. For me, I’m just happy that my server has withstodd the traffic, as it’s not exactly the most reliable of machines.
Edit: Augie has a nice summary of why Ken Jennings is such a strong contestant.
It’s interesting that I just read Darren Barefoot’s post about the Escape Hybrid because I was just about to discuss the most recent book that I finished, High And Mighty: The Dangerous Rise of the SUV by Kenneth Bradsher.
This book was very well written and helped solidify a lot of ideas that I’ve developed over the years about sport utility vehicles. It’s pretty disconcerting that SUVs are so popular in the United States, particularly in the areas that are the most affluent. I remember when we used to live in Michigan that by far the most predominant vehicle on the road was an SUV. Naturally since we lived near the Big Three headquarters, employees and their families had deep discounts on these vehicles but I would ask these drivers the main question raised in the book – is it worth the risk to drive one of these vehicles, both to yourself and more importantly to other people on the road? What are the long-term consequences of driving these big vehicles – how many people will needlessly die over the next 20 years because of the poor design characteristics of SUVs? What are the environmental impacts of driving cars with such poor fuel economy?
It’s strange because here in Canada SUVs are far less common though they’re certainly a force on the highways and streets. Canada tends to be more focused on buying used cars and many of the vehicles on the road are smaller, fuel-efficient cars like the Honda Civic. It’s not really surprising considering the fact that fuel is at least 30% more expensive here than in the U.S. and the cost of living in general is more elevated.
Even when I lived in Washington state in the fall of 2002, the rate of SUVs on the road was much (much) lower than I found in Michigan which is surprising if you think that people buy SUVs because of their four-wheel drive capabilities but not so surprising when you consider that people buy SUVs because they’re a) popular b) high up off the road c) perceived as safer than cars and d) look fashionable.
As a small car driver, I’m terrified of the damage that can be inflicted on me, my car and its occupants if I were to be hit by an SUV. I can’t possibly see myself purchasing one and I know that Marcy feels the same way. Even though my parents now own an SUV (a Toyota Highlander) it’s at least on the safer side of SUVs, not that that is much comfort. SUVs are very dangerous vehicles and the idea that the number of used vehicles on the road driven by mediocre drivers (like teenagers and drunks for example) is only going to increase is really scary.
I’d like to think that legislators and government agencies can help the situation but after reading about the power of the UAW and Midwestern members of government I’m not so sure. I’d like to know more about the Canadian auto regulatory market but I haven’t yet begun to seek out that information.
One thing is for sure, the SUV controversy is not one that will be disappearing anytime soon so long as they’re popular at the dealers and poor in terms of safety and environmental footprint.
One final thought – it says on the back of my paperback edition that the author is now the Hong Kong bureau chief for the New York Times. I wonder if he sees that change as a promotion or a demotion because from what I read, he got a lot of publicity (positive and negative) because of this book.
Marcy and I went to see I, Robot last night. I really wasn’t expecting much and although the movie presented some interesting thoughts, it just didn’t do much for me in terms of filmmaking. I read I, Robot way back in Grade 5 so I can’t comment in any great detail on how faithful the movie is to the book (this article does a better job of that). I suppose you can only go so far in comparing two works when one is merely “suggested” by the other. As Mr. Cranky humourously points out in his review of the movie,
At the end of “I, Robot,” the credits note that the film was “suggested by” the book by Isaac Asimov. That’s about as warm of an embrace of your source material as one might expect to see between George Bush and Michael Moore. Here’s a more appropriate credit: “opportunistically named after” or better yet, “an affront to.”
If anything, the movie has made me desire to re-read the Asimov books that I grew up with in my “formative” years. I used to read a lot of them (though nowhere near his total output during his life) partly because my dad had a lot of science fiction novels and partly because I loved going to the public library (go Sherwood branch!).
Even in terms of a “summer action blockbuster”, I felt very disappointed with the film. It was like a cross between Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Short Circuit and AI: Artificial Intelligence without any of the good qualities of any of these films. Returning to Mr. Cranky:
The most interesting aspect of the film is the intriguing possibility that it was written and directed by a robot. The story is so formulaic that it’s practically an algorithm (rogue cop + dystopian futurescape + promising technology gone horribly awry = lots of shootin’). Will Smith plays his character with such precisely calibrated insouciance that it’s uncomfortable to watch. He delivers wisecrack after wisecrack, but the film’s humor subroutine apparently still needs work, because the jokes fall flat.
There were definitely no surprises during the movie for me and the interesting points raised by the underlying themes did little to redeem the weak plot. I think I’ll resolve to re-read the book and imagine what could have been an interesting tale captured on film.
I’ve mentioned previously the fantastic exploits of one Ken Jennings in this space. As he continues his streak (surpassing now the highest lifetime winnings on the show), he’s getting more and more attention in the media. This morning there was a Bill Simmons article on him, last week Heather Havrilesky wrote about him and there’s even a Wikipedia entry on Ken Jennings now (updated regularly I assume).
Interestingly, from the Wikipedia entry comes this page which is Ken’s own page listing the top 10 movies from 1921-2003. This guy has seen a lot of movies which shouldn’t be very surprising based on his breadth of knowledge.
One of the most amusing posts that I’ve read is The Cult of Ken Jennings on Jason Kottke’s site. He muses on the future implications for Ken’s continual success.
I’m pretty sure that this (or next) week is the last for the 2003-2004 season so we’ll see if he makes it past that roadmark with his streak intact or not.
Edit: I forgot to mention that a lot of the links above I received from this informative post on “hello, typepad“.
I’ve been a Jeopardy! fan for many years now; my parents used to watch it a lot while I was growing up and so I had a natural affinity towards the answer-question format of this popular gameshow. I’d watched it off and on over university (mostly off) and over the last year I’ve had periods where I watched it everyday and periods where I did not. Mainly it depended on what else was going on in my life.
I’d been reading “Various and Sundry” on a regular basis (since February I think) and noticed that he kept on mentioning this amazing streak of one contestant from Utah. I decided to start watching Jeopardy! again.
This guy, Ken Jennings, is quite gifted at the format of the gameshow and he has a firm grasp on many of the categories that they’ve used so far. Even when it seems like he’s in trouble, Ken can clean up on one category and be too far in the lead for any of the other contestants to catch him.
Augie mentioned today that there is the beginning of a backlash against the show for Ken being the champion for so long. I can understand the viewer anger but the man has to lose to get kicked off of the show.
And I’m sorry to hear that. I’d like to see him go 50 outings before he loses. I like the idea of rewarding achievement, and not punishing it “to be fair to others.” If only the rest of the world were like that…
I agree, the show isn’t meant to be some kind of “co-operation booster”, it’s a competitive show.
In reference to this quotation:
indicates that the streak is ended already, but that nobody’s talking as to how. The shows were filmed in February.
It has always amused me how Alex pretends to be living in the present day on the show when in fact the show is taped 4 months before airing. Yesterday on the show he said that when Ken was first champion it was still spring and today it’s “over 90 degrees”. Now yesterday in Los Angeles (where I presume the show is filmed), it was indeed over 90 degrees but I’m sure L.A. routinely has warm weather in July so it’s an educated guess by Alex. I often wonder if the contestants find it difficult to pretend that today is “New Year’s” or “Thanksgiving” because Alex says that’s what it is and there are categories reflecting that.
Ken Jennings is a gifted player for today’s Jeopardy!, there’s no question about that. He’s won over $800,000 thus far and it’ll be interesting if he cracks $1 million.
I’m not in the habit of watching CBC’s Witness though I have watched a few of their documentaries over the years.
Last night I decided to watch it and was pleased to watch a fabulous documentary on how Islam has been finding a lot of converts with the prison population in the United States, Canada and England. It’s called Islam Behind Bars.
There are apparently over 200,000 Muslims in the American prison system and most of these are African-Americans. This particular statistic is kind of frightening:
African-Americans comprise 13% of the U.S. population, 30% of people arrested, 49% of those in prison, according to a 2000 report by Human Rights Watch.
Frightening because it would tend to reinforce the idea that the “Black Man” is one to be feared.
I found it particularly interesting how the prisoners interviewed had such strong feelings against Christianity. They felt that it is a “slave-master’s faith” and didn’t really speak to them (these were the black prisoners saying this). When they discovered Islam, it threw the despair, poverty and hardships of people in other Muslim countries as well as their own into sharp focus.
The documentary tries to investigate whether this shift towards Islam is a positive development or “a breeding ground for terrorist organizations.” This latter view is held rather strongly by author Stephan Schwartz:
“They have turned Islam in prisons into little Saudi Arabias, in which they can exercise total ideological control, ostracize dissidents and threaten and intimidate people.”
Now I have little connection to the prison system so I really can’t say one way or another if this is true. I can understand how people might perceive this surge in Muslim adherence as a warning sign but I think that if these criminals can find a way to be peaceful, faithful and good citizens inside the prison (and later outside) then how can that be a bad thing?
I think people need to walk a fine line between labelling every Muslim as a terrorist and allowing people to speak their minds freely. Sure there are Muslims who want to destroy Western civilization but there are Christians, Jews and probably even Buddhists who think that way too. That determination extends across all faiths.
I read this article on Tagliners this morning and noticed this afternoon that Darren Barefoot had picked up on the same thing. The article in question, “On The Implausibility Of The Death Star’s Trash Compactor“, is pretty humourous but funnier than that for me is Stephen’s rewrite (the first link above) of one of the main points:
It’s funny, in a dry Martini kind of way, y’know – “And I was just saying to Reginald the other day, is it not odd that the trash compactor only compacts trash sideways? By my stars, it would only produce large, thin sheets of compacted trash as a result – surely an obstacle to the ships of the Imperial fleet!” Polite laughter ensues.
Now if only Stephen would rewrite the entire treatise in such a humourous, dry-wite kind of way, I’d be able to fill my laughter quota for the day.
I think I ignored the relevant links before, but Accordion Guy has definitely put things into focus for me (via Stereogum).
This is a recent picture of Britney:
Britney
Isn’t she classy looking?
How about a closer shot:
Britney – closer
Possibly even more enlightening than those two photos is this New York Post article.
Some choice quotations:
She happily explained why her recent weight gain is a sign of happiness (”Not that I’m going to become some lardass”) and what a great chef her fiance is (”He can cook anything – macaroni and cheese, fried chicken”).
and
She also dismissed her first marriage – which took place this January in Vegas and lasted all of 55 hours – as a “total ugh.”
So it’s a total “ugh” not an “ick” or a “blech”. I wonder at which point it crossed from being a good idea to a bad one?
These shots give a slightly different image than the Showtime special previews that I’ve seen (link only valid in the United States – seriously). I also read today that Britney has refused to get a prenuptial agreement with her fiance, much to the horror of her parents. She’s worth about $100 million and in case of divorce, her fiance would get half of that amount. She claims that she’s marrying for love, not money. Allegedly he gave her a $40,000, 5-carat engagement ring. But she had to pay for it.
This is pretty stunning: it’s a stop-motion-animated short version of Spiderman 2 done entirely in Lego.
You can find the film here (Quicktime 6 required). It’s a pretty amazing piece of work; better than the actual film in my opinion.
Reading the producer’s website, I find that the film was commissioned by Sony Pictures and Lego.
I took a break from posting for a few days. I hope that everyone had a great Canada Day and/or Independence Day.
My weekend was very relaxing and that was exactly what I needed. It felt like each day was its own weekend, that was how long everything seemed.
Friday Marcy and I went to Burford to visit with my Aunt Nellie and also to visit my grandmother and grandfather’s grave. Ten years ago last week she passed away. Seven years since my grandfather passed away. My aunt (actually my Great Aunt) showed me a book she had made for my grandfather (she made one for each of her siblings). It was pretty emotional seeing all of those early photos of them and my mom and her siblings, the photos of my family, the photos of my uncle’s family and finally at the end, the death notices of my grandparents and my other great aunts. It’s easy to see now that my grandmother’s passing was the catalyst (but definitely not the cause) of our falling-out with the rest of my family, on both sides.
Friday night we went to see Spider-Man 2 at Galaxy with John, Mark, Carolyn and Lamont. John was in from Vancouver to go to a wedding on Saturday and it was very nice to see him. The movie I did not like that much. It dragged in too many parts. I know I’ll probably be labelled as a blasphemer by some for saying this but it wasn’t that great a movie. After dinner we went to Molly Bloom’s in Waterloo for some food and drink and that was a lot of fun. Marcy has a way to capture a crowd that I’m very envious of but I know that I’ll never be able to do that. It’s just not in my nature.
Sidenote: I encourage you to go and see John’s film, Ewok in an Elevator playing over at Atom Films. Unfortunately it’s going to look like he copied the idea in the new Spider-Man movie but I assure you, he thought of the idea first.
Saturday Marcy and I slept in and then went berry picking up in St. Jacob’s. It was extremely hot and Marcy got a little dehydrated so we went back to the apartment to cool off. We watched Clueless at night. I like that movie, it’s pretty funny.
Yesterday we went to Chapters during the afternoon for a bit. I started reading a comic book biography of Louis Riel (man I hate Chapters‘ URLs). It was pretty interesting and I’ll have to go back and finish it (I was about halfway done). After that we went over to visit Marcy’s old roommate, Stacey. We showed her the wedding photos and ended up staying there for almost 5 hours. It was good though, we haven’t seen Stacey in a long time.
We got some New Orleans Pizza for dinner (which subsequently gave me heartburn) and watched most of Forrest Gump. Since it was July 4th, I suppose people thought it would be appropriate to show that movie since it’s a “feel-good” film and has a lot of “American values”.
I also finally finished a book that I started a while ago – Eric Schlosser’s Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market. I love Eric’s writing (he also wrote Fast Food Nation). It was fascinating to read about the rise of the pornography industry in the United States and the ridiculousness of the marijuana punishments meted out by the US justice system. It’s remarkable how different the situation is here in Canada versus the United States and Eric remarks on this difference. I was a bit disappointed by the paltry amount of material about the illegal migrant worker situation but maybe Eric thought that subject has had more coverage than the other two issues discussed in the book. I look forward to Eric’s next book, reportedly on the prison system in the United States. I’d have to say that he’s one of my current favourite non-fiction writers.
So that, in essence, was my weekend. Hardly action-packed but considering how many of the weekends this year (extending even to last year) that we’ve had to run around the province, it was more than pleasant to stay in one place. This weekend is the bachelor party and the next weekend is our reception. After that we have little-to-no-plans which I’m definitely looking forward to.
I remember reading about this when it started:
In an abandoned church in the German town of Halberstadt, the world’s longest concert was coming two notes closer to its end Monday: Three years down, 636 to go.
[…]
The concert began Sept. 5, 2001 — the day Cage would have turned 89. The composition, originally written to last 20 minutes, starts with a silence, and the only sound for a first 1 1/2 years was air. The first notes were played in February 2003.
After debates in Germany about what exactly “as slow as possible” could mean — anywhere from a day to stretching on infinitely — the group of German music experts and organ builder behind the project chose the concert’s 639-year running time to commemorate to the creation of the city’s historic Blockwerk organ in 1361.
It’s not immediately clear why they would choose 639 apart from the fact that 1361 + 639 = 2000 but then they started the concert in 2001 and when the concert is finished, in 2640 (if we’re still alive), that year is nothing special either.
I wonder if there will be a DVD-type of product available at the end of the concert and will the ClearChannel patent still apply? I wonder if this be a big deal in 2640 when the last note (or beat) is measured out? What measures are in place to ensure that everything progresses smoothly beyond our lifetime? If they miss a note, do they have to start over? If they’re late (but still get it), how does that effect the timing of the next measure/line/etc.? These are the questions that the musician in me has to ask.
I regularly read Since You Asked on Salon. Today’s question is appropriate for people in any country who disagree:
Dear Cary,
I have many right-wing relatives and friends. And I belong to a colonial reenacting group where we regularly dress up and handle guns, march in parades and reenact history.
Here’s the problem: the opinions of right-wing assholes (RWAs). Now, when socializing with family or in our little club, the rule to observe is “Don’t talk about sex, religion or politics.” RWAs would be the first to assert these family values, but of course can’t help getting in little digs. Or big digs. No matter what activity you pursue, RWAs must express their opinions. “That’s one for Hillary.” “‘They’ don’t like us handling guns.” “There’s this one guy at work who’s a Muslim, but he won’t be around long if I can help it.” And “the liberals did this, did that, did this other thing.” Gay marriage, women’s rights, gun control, our eternal wars — you name it, a right-wing asshole can sneak it into any conversation and slam it.
And, oh man, can they talk! Many RWAs are blue-collar and listen to Hate Radio for eight hours a day, and can (and will) gladly blather for eight hours at the drop of a hat. None of their opinions are their own, of course. They’re just parroting the talk-show hosts. And because they’re “talking sense” they assume everyone listening agrees with them.
Which leads to my problem. Politically, I’m a radical. I never agree with talk-show dittoheads. But I’m also one of these rare individuals who actually listens when people talk to me. (Even talk at me, which is more common.) And as these RWAs go on (and on and on) I occasionally grunt “Uh-huh” to show I’m still listening.
But muttering “Uh-huh” during these verbal barrages seems like a betrayal of my beliefs. It’s simply the wrong response. Because in English, “Uh-huh” has two meanings. One is “I’m still listening.” The other is “I agree.”
How can I talk to people I disagree with politically?
I do not agree with these bigoted, hateful, reactionary, simplistic, unthinking morons, but I can’t think of any other response to make. The Japanese have a word, “hai,” which only indicates, “I’m listening.” Further, I do not want to spark an argument with fools because it’s a waste of time. I believe in the old adage, “If you’re going to engage in a battle of wits, first make sure your opponent is armed.”
What word can we Westerners adopt that indicates, “I’m listening, but may or may not agree”?
Listening
Dear Listening,
Unfortunately, we don’t have a single word that says “I’m listening but I may or may not agree.” But we do have several ways of saying “Kindly take your head out of your ass,” and it seems to me we ought to start saying it.
America is in political crisis. This is no time to sit quietly by. You simply have to register your dissent. We are living in one of those historic moments where you either respond authentically or you lose your soul. If your friends and relatives do not realize the depth of our peril, you owe it to them to try to make them aware of it.
So how do you register your disagreement in a way that is principled, respectful and historically conscious? Maybe you start by saying something simple and straightforward such as “I respectfully disagree.”
What happens next? Maybe somebody says, “You respectfully disagree with what?”
Then maybe you say, “I respectfully disagree with what was just said.”
“And what was that?” someone might ask, having noticed an interesting change in the noise level.
Try to avoid repeating what you disagree with. Instead, ask the person who said it to please repeat it, so you can make sure you heard it correctly. If he repeats it, just the repetition may make it obvious how stupid it was. But it might be a sentiment the whole room agrees with except you.
Very quickly, before things go any further, you need to lighten up a little; make it clear that you don’t want to ruin the convivial atmosphere but you genuinely believe that America is facing a political crisis, that urgent matters of history are at stake, and that it is our duty as citizens to debate the issues and be well informed.
Don’t try to win them over. Just stand your ground and say you’re a liberal and you don’t agree and that’s how you see it. If you’re challenged to rebut what was said, offer instead to do some research and present your case to the group at a later date, saying that even if you don’t persuade anyone, that way you’ll all end up a little better informed.
Then go home and study. Go over every detail. Learn the history of the subject. Listen to all the pundits you can stand and get to know what their arguments are. Find the factual holes in their arguments. Then, next time you meet, present your case, and ask for campaign contributions.
Sage advice I think. Now I need to get back to getting more informed.
I read about a horrible accident yesterday here. I didn’t watch the video until this morning because I was too busy yesterday at work.
I have to admit that at first I thought the video was not real because the cars colliding and hurtling through the air looked computer-generated. But if you read the news story (from Dayton, Ohio), it appears to corroborate what I saw in the video.
It’s a difficult video to watch because I know now that the pedestrian is in critical condition at the hospital. I’m surprised they survived at all.
I guess the lesson to take from this is to be extremely careful when crossing the street.
Marcy and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 last night, the late show at the local Silver City. It got out around 12:45 AM.
I had trouble sleeping; there were too many thoughts racing around my head. I felt just absolutely numb driving home. Every personal review that I’ve read has said something to the effect that “there wasn’t anything new to me discussed in the film” and to tell you the truth I find that difficult to believe.
Sure you might have known about the Bush-Saudi connection (after all, the major points discussed in the film were broadcast on CBC’s The Fifth Estate last year). Sure you probably read about Bush’s military service suspicions. Sure you knew about the Saudi flights on September 13th. Do you want a medal? This movie is not about testing how much you know and if you go around preening about how “educated” you are then you’ve missed the point.
Note: the above does not apply to any of my friends (real or Internet-based); I’ve just read some other reviews that have irked me.
This movie is certainly controversial and it’s not going to do much for uniting the general populace of the United States together on the issues. I think James has made some excellent points to that effect.
Here we are, just over 4 months away from Election Day in the U.S.. Will this movie change people’s minds? I really don’t think so. How important is this next election? Incredibly important and once I put my pictures online I’ll show you how far the Bush-Cheney campaign has gone to court voters in so-called “swing” states (my parents home state of Ohio being a very big example).
Now I said above that this movie probably won’t change your mind about the issues addressed. That’s not to say that the images shown in the film won’t affect you deeply. I’m doubtful that there would be a lot of people not moved to tears listening to the mother in Flint reading her son’s last letter home before he was shot down in his helicopter. Well ok, a lot of people besides the two thirteen year-old girls sitting behind us. The people in New York City watching the events of September 11th still haunt me. Seeing footage from Iraq haunts me. Looking at the smug expressions of the Bush Administration officials haunts me. By using archived footage almost exclusively, it lends some measure of authenticity to the facts presented though I don’t pretend to believe that the movie is entirely factual.
The next few months are going to be ugly. Shawn talks about the most recent problems with the Bush ad campaign here. The latest Bush ad is truly despicable. Make no mistake: it will be almost impossible for there to be an open and honest debate about the issues, foreign and domestic, before Election Day in November. It’s up to everyone to get as informed as possible on the issues. Don’t just read your current selection of media releases – expand your horizons and read something with the opposite viewpoint of yours. I read conservative news, blogs and writers on a daily basis because I want to know the issues and knowing the issues is more than just reading one side and making up your mind.
I’m terribly afraid of what’s going to happen over the next 5-10 years here in Canada, in the United States and around the world. What consequences will be visited upon our children and grandchildren because of our foolishness today? How could anyone possibly comprehend the complexity of our world? The people in power aren’t that much smarter than I am and that’s quite scary because even with the collective intelligence of all the people reporting to me (were I a world leader), I would find it incredibly difficult to form any kind of broad vision for the future.
In some ways this movie has made me disenchanted with politics. I’m hoping that by casting my ballot today in our own federal election, my democratic spirit can be stoked once again.
If you want to get a regular update of the situation on the ground in Iraq, I highly recommend Just Another Soldier. There used to be a blog there but the military forced the man to take it down and now updates go via a mailing list (I know, how old-fashioned). It’s worth signing up.
I watched an interesting documentary last night entitled Lost in La Mancha. It’s all about Terry Gilliam’s attempt at making a film version of the Don Quixote story. The documentary was originally supposed to be a “making of…” film that would be included on a DVD release but since the film was never finished, it serves as an insightful look into the ways in which a film can fail to make it past production.
The Don Quixote film (which was tentatively titled “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote”) suffers from Murphy’s Law. Things that couldn’t possibly have been forseen happen and slow production down to the point where the film has to be shelved for an indefinite period of time (it is still waiting to be resumed). Insanely strong storms, back troubles, contract issues and other things plague things from the start.
If anything the film should serve as a warning for directors that making a film cannot possibly go as you plan it.
If there was ever a song that makes me fall in love with music each time I hear it, it would have to be “Purrfect” by Funki Porcini. It’s from the 1996 album “Love, Pussycats & Carwrecks”.
Funki Porcini has a very interesting sound. He can be very sweet and soft and he can also be rambunctious and loud. Each has its place but I definitely prefer the softer music. This is one of those songs and combines a solitary trumpet (muted), a drum machine, keyboards and a cat purring.
It was this kind of music that first got me interested in music from Ninjatune. Somewhere along the line they lost me.
A future reminder to myself to watch Control Room whenever it starts playing here in Canada. It looks like a great movie.
With Marcy away to the East, I had the apartment to myself last night. I spent most of the night watching 3 movies:
All three were quite magnificent in their own ways.
The Kid Stays In The Picture
I had actually started watching this last week but never finished. I read the book (a cheap purchase from Casablanca Books) last November and thoroughly enjoyed it. This man seemed to live the high life and the very low life within the space of 10-15 years.
The movie was quite good. I liked how they had Evans doing the voice-over for the entire movie, even for characters that weren’t him. There were plenty of old photographs and the stylizing of the images was well-done. Having read the book beforehand though left me feeling a little empty by the end. Evans goes into far more detail in the book and the movie glosses over (to an extent) his troubles during the 1980’s. Overall though it was really a great film though it probably wouldn’t appeal to everyone.
Spirited Away
This was a pretty amazing movie. By the same director and writer as Princess Mononoke, one of my favourite movies, it’s the story of a young girl who gets trapped in the spirit world and has to fight to get her and her parents back to the real world. The animation is awesome, the music is very strong and the character development and plot are interesting. I loved how the Spirits were integrated in this film because the Spirits in Princess Mononoke were my favourite part of that movie.
I found that with the subtitles on I was able to grab more of the speech and it helped me understand the plot.
People have said that this is one of the most widely-acclaimed to ever come out of Japan. It was an excellent movie but I think I still enjoyed Princess Mononoke more. It seemed more polished and it had an air of whimsy about it that I didn’t get with Spirited Away. Perhaps that’s just because of the themes in each of the movies. At any rate, Spirited Away was still a great film to watch.
Semi-related: I wish I could find Mark’s review of this film because it’s pretty funny. Alas it is nowhere to be found.
Koyaanisqatsi
I got the trilogy – Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi, all directed by Geoffrey Reggio – for Christmas of last year. I’d watched Powaqqatsi (Life In Transformation) last fall but I wanted to get the other two.
Koyaanisqatsi means “Life Out Of Balance” in the Hopi language. There is no plot to speak of in this film. Rather it is a montage of different shots – natural and man-made with a beautiful Philip Glass score in the background.
This movie really makes you think and it moved me deeply. It’s simply amazing how complex humanity and human society is; there are several scenes that feature escalators, highways and train stations with the footage sped up to show the sheer numbers. It is really mindblowing.
One of the most poignant montages features row upon row of apartment buildings. At first they seem to be occupied but on closer inspection they are all abandoned. When I was watching this I couldn’t help but think – “Where is this? What happened there? Why are they destroying all of those buildings?” After the movie was finished I searched online and came up with this great site that has user commentary of the three films. It turns out that it is the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project in St. Louis and is discussed in detail on this site. I couldn’t help but feel sad and dejected that all of those buildings were sitting unused. It really made me think about the effects of urban planning from the previous generations has effected the way we live in our cities today. I know even here in Kitchener, the city council was very pro-shopping mall in the downtown core and that’s a mistake that they’re only now starting to pull away from. There’s really something about abandoned buildings that draws me in. I’d still love to go on a photo-tour of Flint, MI.
Overall this was a superb film and even though it’s more than 20 years old, I think the images that it presents and the message(s) that it conveys are definitely very relevant today. I can’t wait to watch the third film, subtitled “Life As War”.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Michael Moore’s new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. Naturally since it opens this Friday in wide release, I’m not the only one.
Stephen wonders if people are going to go:
Make no mistake; there hasn’t been this much controversy around a movie since The Passion of The Christ, and we all know what a flop that was. While of course Moore doesn’t have pastors and reverends across America standing up in their pulpits telling their congregations that if they don’t go see a particular movie, well, then they’re just gonna go to hell, he has the media telling us there’s every reason in the world to go. And not to go, of course.
You know my view – or if you don’t, welcome to the site. You should see it. If nothing else so you can argue with the facts to hand in the months ahead, because there’s nothing that annoys me more than people who argue about stuff without knowing shit about it.
You should also see it because the guy’s a great filmmaker. Documentary or polemic, the fact is, he makes movies that get people talking, that might well be manipulative (like – hey! All of Hollywood) but still make you think. For better or worse.
And finally, speaking personally, I think you should see it to open your eyes a bit. No, no, I’m not presuming everything Fahrenheit 9/11 will discuss will be acceptable to you – fact or not – but it’ll get you thinking about politics and politicians. And these days, those are probably people who need to get thought about a little bit more often.
Stephen’s right about one thing (among many): this film will be the hot topic for the summer and the weeks leading up to the U.S. elections in November.
Now there are plenty of other people who would argue that Michael Moore is guilty of the same thing that Stephen hates so much and that’s people who argue without having all of the facts. Granted, Michael has his own agenda to push (namely this year to get Bush out of office) and he will have a distinct slant on the facts that he presents but there’s no such thing as an unbiased documentary. Documentaries are not objective, they can’t be – they’re made by humans. If we had robots who could decide on the topic, the interviews, the shots and the music then we might have something closer to objectivity but since that doesn’t exist we have today’s documentarians.
Perhaps the most vociferous attack on Moore’s new film comes from Christopher Hitches, writer for Vanity Fair. He slams Moore in his article “Unfairenheit 9/11 – The Lies of Michael Moore” in Slate. Speaking about Moore’s stance on doing interviews about this film:
Moore has announced that he won’t even appear on TV shows where he might face hostile questioning. I notice from the New York Times of June 20 that he has pompously established a rapid response team, and a fact-checking staff, and some tough lawyers, to bulwark himself against attack. He’ll sue, Moore says, if anyone insults him or his pet. Some right-wing hack groups, I gather, are planning to bring pressure on their local movie theaters to drop the film. How dumb or thuggish do you have to be in order to counter one form of stupidity and cowardice with another? By all means go and see this terrible film, and take your friends, and if the fools in the audience strike up one cry, in favor of surrender or defeat, feel free to join in the conversation.
However, I think we can agree that the film is so flat-out phony that “fact-checking” is beside the point. And as for the scary lawyers – get a life, or maybe see me in court. But I offer this, to Moore and to his rapid response rabble. Any time, Michael my boy. Let’s redo Telluride. Any show. Any place. Any platform. Let’s see what you’re made of.
I’m not sure why Hitchens is so acidic towards Moore but he definitely does not agree with Moore’s tactics or his views in the film. I think Hitchens takes things a bit too far when he says:
If Michael Moore had had his way, Slobodan Milosevic would still be the big man in a starved and tyrannical Serbia. Bosnia and Kosovo would have been cleansed and annexed. If Michael Moore had been listened to, Afghanistan would still be under Taliban rule, and Kuwait would have remained part of Iraq.
I seriously doubt that Moore thinks that. That’s extrapolating the rhetoric beyond logic. That aside though, I did find Hitchen’s discussions on pacificism interesting, particularly when he included George Orwell’s views on pacificists (it’s not flattering).
I read Roger Ebert’s Movie Answer Man column from May 30th yesterday and it was filled with Fahrenheit 9/11 questions. People were complaining that Moore is not giving a chance for the views opposite to his to be aired in his film. Well why should he do that? Sure the weekly Presidential radio address features a rebuttal from the other party but that doesn’t mean that every political speech or film deserves a counterpoint.
Also there seems to be wild accusations that the jury of the Cannes Film Festival was prejudiced towards Moore’s film and that they gave him the Palme d’Or not because it was the most deserving film but because it was the one that fit the political views of the jurists. Ebert responds:
It is assumed that a director distinguished enough to head the Cannes jury is above such conflicts. I attended the jury’s press conference, heard all nine jurors praise the award, and got the unmistakable impression that Tarantino personally would have been equally content if the Korean revenge epic “Old Boy” had won.
I’m no longer a reader of Ebert’s reviews (I used to read them a lot but there came a point where I didn’t think they added anything and/or I felt like Ebert’s appraisal of movies was no longer in tune with mine) but his answer to this question is excellent:
You reported on the reception his film received in Cannes. Given the location, France, and the crowd, journalists, Hollywood movie types and Frenchmen mostly, what did you expect? By praising an obviously politically motivated film, are you simply being a pawn of Moore’s own political agenda?
I must decide if a movie is good or bad, despite whether I agree or disagree with its politics. I oppose the death penalty, but gave “The Life of David Gale” zero stars. “Birth of a Nation” is in my next book, The Great Movies II, even though it reeks of racism. Many film historians rank Leni Riefenstahl’s “The Triumph of the Will” as a cinematic milestone, although it glorifies the Third Reich.
It’s important to look at artistic works for their artistic merit and to do that you sometimes have to put the politics aside. I’ve watched some early Soviet cinema and it’s pretty outstanding film work but it’s blatantly propagandistic. That doesn’t mean that it’s a bad film. It just means that it serves a dual role: beyond the “art for art’s sake” you have the political leanings of the work to deal with.
This ties in with my next link, the review of the movie in The Nation by Stuart Klawans. He entitles it “By Way of Deception” and he thinks this is a very important film and a great movie.
As with any good polemic–and this is an excellent one–you sit in the theater thinking of how someone else would respond, some imaginary “undecided” in a swing state, or perhaps your Uncle Max the Republican. You don’t much monitor your own reactions. But then, as you leave the movie house, you might notice that the sidewalk chatter sounds oddly muffled, the traffic looks a little blurred, as you begin to realize that your attention has not come outside with you; it’s still in the dark, struggling with the feelings that Fahrenheit 9/11 called up and didn’t resolve. Are you outraged, heartbroken, vengeful, morose, gloating, thoughtful, electrified? Moore has elicited all of these emotions and then had the nerve–the filmmaker’s nerve–to leave you to sort them out.
I think there are two bundles of messages in Fahrenheit 9/11, one political and one emotional–and while the first is about as ambiguous as a call to take up pitchforks and torches and storm the castle, the second is too complex to unsettle those in power. It works to unsettle you. It’s what makes Fahrenheit 9/11 a real movie.
I’ve watched movies and read books thinking that way – what would XXXX think if they read this book? Would they change their views if they saw this piece of footage? Of course I do this in the car too thinking about other people in their cars but that’s for another time.
I’ve felt confused after seeing films before. I’ve felt emotionally distraught and not really able to deal with the images that I’ve seen. I know I felt that way when I saw 11′09″01 – September 11. That was a difficult movie to watch because each short film, only 11 minutes long, each dealt with very complex issues and emotions. I remember how I felt on September 11th and I can vividly recall what I did. I think when I do eventually see this film that I will feel “dazed and confused” and it’ll take a little while for me to process what I’ve seen and heard. I know Morgan Spurlock (of Super Size Me fame) felt that way:
It’s Monday night in the NYC and emotions are running high. Just got back home from seeing Fahrenheit 9/11 and I feel so emotionally stripped: angry, sad, depressed … the full gamut of emotions. It’s an incredible movie and Michael will win Academy Award for it. It’s a fine piece of filmmaking.
That’s one thing that I’m jealous about New Yorkers – they get to see so many films either before the rest of the country/continent and/or they get to see films that just don’t play anywhere else. I suppose that’s the benefit of being a “metropolis”.
Getting back to Stephen’s original question of whether I’m going to go see the film, the answer is yes. I just don’t know when yet.
I just spent a few minutes and caught up with the Strong Bad emails that I’d missed over the last few weeks. I hadn’t really paid attention to the great Homestar Runner site since the wedding and it’s easy for something like that to just fall off of your daily routine’s radar. Here are the ones I’ve watched today:
The one that I laughed the most on was definitely Lunch Special. The Easter Eggs at the end cracked me up.
I now have the newest Badly Drawn Boy album and boy am I loving it. Forget what I said about there not being much good music this year. This album makes up for that.
Badly Drawn Boy
I’ve liked Badly Drawn Boy for a number of years now. Andrew introduced me to his first album, The Hour Of The Bewilderbeest in 2000. I listened to it a lot and I’ve picked up his other albums over the years – the About A Boy soundtrack and Have You Fed The Fish? from 2002. I think About A Boy is one of the best soundtracks, composed by a pop artist, that I’ve listened to. It almost made me want to see the film (almost mind you).
I was listening to last week’s Gilles Peterson Worldwide radio show yesterday and Gilles played one of the tracks from the new album, Another Devil Dies. I wasn’t even aware that there was a new album coming from BDB (fanboy’s acronym for Badly Drawn Boy) so I looked and found it with relative ease. The downside? If I wanted to buy the album locally I have to wait until July 27th.
The Badly Drawn Boy website has been redone to reflect the release of this album and although it’s a little difficult to navigate it offers some great content. Damon (the man behind the mask) discusses his thoughts about the album here and here. He says (and I had to copy the text found at those links into a text editor so that it would be easier to read):
It’s that ambitious and it connects – with songs about passing on good fortune, looking after your friends, encouraging the basic humanity in all of us, and always finding the love that makes us more than monkeys. To let the sunshine in.
I agree with his appraisal. It’s definitely an upbeat piece of music.
My favourite track has to be This Is That New Song. It’s such a sweet song. Damon says this about the track:
This Is That New Song emerges, even on first listen, as a crowning achievement. Heartfelt and moving it’s laced with the kind of of a confidence no musician has a right to have four or so years into his career.
I definitely think it is a “crowning achievement”, not only of this album but of the whole body of Damon’s work. The way the lyrics and strings blend together is really something to behold.
One of the things that I do love about Badly Drawn Boy is that he includes the lyrics to each of his songs. Here are the lyrics from this song:
And if I knew the answers
I would tell you now
Just what would be the chances
That I could show you how
If I knew where all the tears were coming from
Add up all the years that you’ve been gone
This is that new song
I told you about twenty years agoDo you know what true romance is
And could you show me now
Just what would be the chances
That I could tell you how
If I new where all the tears were flowing to
I’d guide them to a river
Where I’d swim with you down stream
This is that old dream
I told you about twenty years agoAnd could you hold me now
Simply an amazing song. I’ve been listening to it all day.
So I guess I don’t really need to say that I enjoyed this album. Even during the first listen it struck me that this sounded so similar to older Badly Drawn Boy material and yet it sounded so new at the same time. It would be easy for Damon to fall into a rut of sounding like himself but he’s decided to go in a direction while still holding onto the essence of his earlier work. I think that’s the sign of a true artist.
Marcy and I watched Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines last night. I had to fill Marcy in on the plot of the first two films before this one started because she wanted to have some general idea of what was going on.
Well the movie was about as good as I expected. As Al says:
… it’s about as depressingly bad as I could have imagined. James Cameron’s classic sci-fi couplet gets reduced to a humourless (although they tried, bless) and dull retread of scenes done better in the preceding movies.
Oh well, at least the movie provides for some funny reviews.
I should have listened to John last year:
Subject: Terminator 3
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2003 00:29:46 -0700Thinking about seeing it?
Imagine the greatness that was Terminator 2, then imagine an even better movie, in every way.
Now, don’t read any reviews and don’t see the Terminator 3. Ever.
Truer words have never been spoken.
I’ve been watching a lot of movies recently (particularly this month). Ed said yesterday that I’m becoming like him, watching 5 movies in a week. Perhaps that’s the case.
Found via the Scobleizer.
You really have to see this movie. This guy made a computer-animated movie using only his Athlon machine. It took him 23 months to complete. You can watch the entire movie here. It’s pretty amazing and inspirational.
It’s humourous that entertainment sections would find it “newsworthy” enough to mention the fact that Tom Cruise sports a nice grey hair-do in his next movie, Michael Mann’s Collateral.
I have to admit though that when I saw the trailer for Collateral (and I can’t think of when I actually did see it, that is which movie I had paid to see), I was surprised to see that Tom Cruise had grey hair. I think that it marks something of a milestone when an actor plays an older character (read: one with grey/white hair). Up until now Tom has only played youthful, exuberant roles that emphasize his good looks and physique. He’s not an old man so why should he play a role that makes him look like an old man?
Of course, in another Michael Mann movie, The Insider, Russell Crowe played an older scientist with nice white hair. Russell is younger than Tom so perhaps I have no point here.
Maybe Michael Mann insists on people playing roles older than them? You don’t see Maximus with a grey beard in Gladiator or Ethan Hunt with lots of wrinkles on his face in Mission Impossible (take your pick – I, II or III) do you?
Grey hair aside, I think I’d be interested in seeing Collateral once it comes out. It resembles my life.
I read off of Boing Boing that there is a Suicide Girls book. You can buy it off of Amazon here.
What struck me about the Amazon page though is a) the book pairings and b) the other books bought list.
The book paired with the Suicide Girls book is called Tortures and Torments of the Christian Martyrs: The Classic Martyrology by Reverend Antonio Galliono.
Repellent and fascinating at the same time, the terrible tortures of Christian martyrs evidence a sort of evil creativity and gleeful bloodlust on the part of their tormentors.
That sounds like a perfect match doesn’t it? I’m not sure which computer thought that that would be a good deal that would entice consumers.
The other items bought by purchasers of this book contains some expected items (Playboy: 50 Years: The Photographs, Down And Dirty: 69 Super Sexy Short-Shorts and 50 Things You’re Not Supposed To Know).
Then we have Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (the same book I discussed here). I liked the book a lot but I don’t understand why people would buy this book and the Suicide Girls book together.
Crazy consumers.
Following up on my post here regarding movie theatres, I read this morning a great “musing” by Al @ Tagliners about what the cinema atmosphere is like in the UK. You can read it for yourself here. Conclusion: it’s no better if not worse than the situation here. Also it seems that the prices are much more expensive though I suppose it’s hard to compare dollar-for-pound figures without factoring in the cost of living. Right now the most expensive theatre ticket will run you at $13.50.
Returning to my post of the other day, when Marcy and I saw Harry Potter, there were hardly any people in the theatre but even with that small number there will still annoyances. I can’t complain too much because there were a lot of kids in there and kids have trouble sitting still for 2.5 hours. The adults (those without kids) were acting just as strangely. There was one guy who took a cellphone call 30 minutes into the movie and then left and didn’t return. One lady walked into the theatre, leaned up against the doorway, and watched for 5 minutes. Then there’s the people with chronic throat-clearing problems. I guess it could have been much worse – the theatre could have been full of people.
My computer at work this morning sounds like a distant train. I hope it’s ok. Me and this computer have had a tenuous relationship at best and a few months ago things came to a head and the whole system went down for the count. The drive was completely destroyed and I was faced with the prospect of rebuilding my machine and getting my development environment set up again. This during a semi-crucial push in code development too which made my mood ever so cheerful. I’m going to put some music on to drown out the sound of my machine. If I ignore the problem, it’s bound to go away.
Stick To Drinking (from … Over Anything)
Just finished reading that critique of the new FoodTV show Iron Chef America: Battle of the Masters.
Marcy and I watched the first episode with Bobby Flay and initially when I saw it on the guide I thought it was just a repeat of the previous Iron Chef battle (US vs. Japan) but no it’s a whole new show. It seems like an interesting concept if you liked the original Iron Chef show and if you like the arrogance of chefs like Bobby Flay. They made a huge deal in the first episode of how Bobby jumped onto the countertop and the Iron Chef from Japan was immensely insulted. Well Bobby did it again this time perhaps to show that he was still as arrogant as ever or maybe he just likes irritating the Japanese chefs, who knows? Anyway, we missed this past week’s show and it’s probably not something that I’ll be looking to see each week but maybe once in a while it might be good to watch.
Marcy and I are travelling to Belleville tonight. I really don’t know any triplets in that fine city but I’m certain that they do exist.
It’s going to be a fun weekend though – tonight we may or may not go see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (hooray!), tomorrow is Andrew’s birthday and then tomorrow night we’re going to see Sally’s play. All in all it should be great fun and if the weather holds up (*crosses fingers*) I may even be able to go out and take some pictures. In the year that I’ve been going to Belleville with Marcy I’ve taken a scant few pictures. Each time we drive in we go by this wonderful train yard and it’s just begging to be photographed.
Hopefully the cats cooperate during the drive. Often times they don’t and it’s a 3 hour “meow”-fest from here to there.
We’re stopping in Oshawa to have dinner with Jake. We’ll give him his thank-you present for being our videographer at the wedding. Next week I want to start importing the video onto the computer so that I can have everything ready to go for the 17th.
It’s almost 5 whole months into the year 2004 and I can honestly say that I’ve found only two (2!) albums that I’ve really loved. Those two are:
- Sufjan Stevens – Seven Swans
- RJD2 – Since We Last Spoke
That seems really weird. I can’t remember the last time that I’ve been so stuck on so few albums. I’ve been quite busy at work the last couple of months and as a result I haven’t had many chances to look up new music. I can only hope that situation will change once I (finally) finish this project at work. I wouldn’t mind working on some Polyphony too. That project has been dormant and stagnant for too long.
Man how I love this show. I hadn’t listened to it in quite a while but then I was in the car by myself a few Thursdays ago and I was set again to listen to some good soul/deep house arranged by the talented Jason Palma. I’ve downloaded a lot of the past shows from this year and listening to them made me realize that I’ve missed quite a few great concerts this year already. I don’t know – concerts just don’t seem to interest me anymore but I would make an exception for Fila Brazillia, DJ Shadow, Boards of Canada and Gilles Peterson. I just wish that Jason Palma would update his archived shows quicker. It’s almost June and the most recent show available is still May 6th. I suppose I shouldn’t nitpick too much; at least he provides the shows online unlike some other DJs (*cough* Gilles *cough*).
Recent Comments