Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day is one of my all-time favorites. I've never heard anyone say they dislike the movie. But I must admit I never stopped to think of it as a religious parable.
See, I knew it was a great movie all along.
See, I knew it was a great movie all along.
Cap Codes
Ebert's latest Movie Answer Man includes a note from a moviegoer angered by the cap codes in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Ebert had addressed them before, but it was only while watching Master and Commander that I noticed the dots for the first time. They showed up repeatedly during the chase in the rain storm and were definitely distracting. For a minute or two, I tried to guess at what the dots were instead of following the chase.
At a preview screening of The Last Samurai in LA this weekend, a security guard spent the entire time scanning the audience with infrared binocs, checking, I presume, for recording devices. It's a shame, because as I was walking into the theater I was thinking that LA has so many impressive theaters (like the Bridge Cinema de Lux where Karen and I saw The Last Samurai), many more than Seattle does. The movie industry is moving towards the same antagonistic, distrustful relationship with its customers as the music industry. The type of customer who will watch a fuzzy, wallet-sized image of a movie on their desktop with lousy sound shouldn't worry movie studios.
And if the studios insist on making every moviegoing experience feel like a frisking, every theater feel like a police state, then can they at least stop forcing me to sit through those first person testimonial ads from respectcopyrights.org before every movie?
At a preview screening of The Last Samurai in LA this weekend, a security guard spent the entire time scanning the audience with infrared binocs, checking, I presume, for recording devices. It's a shame, because as I was walking into the theater I was thinking that LA has so many impressive theaters (like the Bridge Cinema de Lux where Karen and I saw The Last Samurai), many more than Seattle does. The movie industry is moving towards the same antagonistic, distrustful relationship with its customers as the music industry. The type of customer who will watch a fuzzy, wallet-sized image of a movie on their desktop with lousy sound shouldn't worry movie studios.
And if the studios insist on making every moviegoing experience feel like a frisking, every theater feel like a police state, then can they at least stop forcing me to sit through those first person testimonial ads from respectcopyrights.org before every movie?
Bittersweet
The DVD for Lost in Translation is available for pre-order and ships Feb 3, 2004.
The Day After Tomorrow
It's from Roland Emmerich, the director of Independence Day and Godzilla and crap like that, so The Day After Tomorrow is unlikely to be cinema. But the trailer sure is a lot of fun.
Review: The Two Towers, Platinum Extended Edition DVD
Dan had folks over to watch the new extended edition of LOTR: The Two Towers on DVD Friday night. It was an ambitious undertaking for a Friday evening, after a long work week. We had to take an intermission at the disc change for pizza, and another break later for pie and ice cream just to avoid passing out.
The added footage explains the story with greater clarity and adds details that readers of the books will welcome. It gives the story the heft and pace of a quest or a long journey, more similar in feel to the novels, and it added some moments of levity which were needed in the extended version. At times, all of us would totter, eyelids growing heavy, like Frodo whenever the ring tightened its hold over him, but the movie was good enough to pull us through. Those who napped could feel like they had gotten a few hours of good sleep and awaken to find a few hours of movie still remaining: "Wait, you mean they still haven't started the Battle of Helm's Deep?!"
I'm ready now for The Return of the King. And, in a way, I feel a bit less anguish about not having tickets to the Trilogy airing on Dec. 16th. I've seen the first two so many times now that to sit through both of the extended editions again, back to back, might be so draining that it would detract from the ROTK viewing. Bring on da king.
[Footnote: my complaint to AMC about their Trilogy ticket sale fiasco didn't go on deaf ears, and I was given the opportunity to purchase a few tickets to the opening morning 11am showing of ROTK at Cinerama on Dec. 17 before they went on sale to the public. I decided that the 2:30am showing was just a bit too sadistic. Maybe I'm getting old.]
The added footage explains the story with greater clarity and adds details that readers of the books will welcome. It gives the story the heft and pace of a quest or a long journey, more similar in feel to the novels, and it added some moments of levity which were needed in the extended version. At times, all of us would totter, eyelids growing heavy, like Frodo whenever the ring tightened its hold over him, but the movie was good enough to pull us through. Those who napped could feel like they had gotten a few hours of good sleep and awaken to find a few hours of movie still remaining: "Wait, you mean they still haven't started the Battle of Helm's Deep?!"
I'm ready now for The Return of the King. And, in a way, I feel a bit less anguish about not having tickets to the Trilogy airing on Dec. 16th. I've seen the first two so many times now that to sit through both of the extended editions again, back to back, might be so draining that it would detract from the ROTK viewing. Bring on da king.
[Footnote: my complaint to AMC about their Trilogy ticket sale fiasco didn't go on deaf ears, and I was given the opportunity to purchase a few tickets to the opening morning 11am showing of ROTK at Cinerama on Dec. 17 before they went on sale to the public. I decided that the 2:30am showing was just a bit too sadistic. Maybe I'm getting old.]
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Trailer for this movie is available in Quicktime now. The premise, as you'd expect from a Charlie Kauffman script, is intriguing: what if you could erase unpleasant memories? Jim Carrey has his unpleasant memories of his relationship with Kate Winslet slowly erased. But, as he does, he finds he's falling back in love with her.
I would like to have some unpleasant memories wiped. I want to erase all memories of having seen The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, to go back to that time when, after having seen The Matrix for the twelfth time, I learned that two more entries would be forthcoming, filling me with a sense of giddy anticipation.
I would like to have some unpleasant memories wiped. I want to erase all memories of having seen The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, to go back to that time when, after having seen The Matrix for the twelfth time, I learned that two more entries would be forthcoming, filling me with a sense of giddy anticipation.
Matrix Not-so-Revolutionary
[Some spoilers here, so the paranoid should avoid reading on...]
If they had just ended after The Matrix, the first movie, if the Wachowski brothers had just faded back into oblivion after that first movie, we'd be hailing these cinematic geniuses who had made two great movies (Bound being the other one) and brought the debate about the nature of reality to the mainstream and made pop-philosophers of film geeks everywhere. I think back to what I thought after seeing the first, and now that I've seen the second and third, I wish I hadn't.
The inverse cost and quality law seems to have struck again. The Wachowski bros, backed by Ron Silver and the fat wallets of Warner Bros., got free reign to spend and overspend on the second and third of this trilogy, and the sum of the two combined not only failed to live up to the bar set by the first but have tarnished my memory of that original as well.
The Matrix offered a visually thrilling metaphor for a wide variety of philosophical debates, but it was never meant to be stretched to the limits which the second and third films forced it to (the first movie managed to tell not only an exciting action story, but it played loosely enough with its metaphor that it was ideologically coherent as well; for that reason it's a sci-fi marvel). Once the second movie played, though, all sorts of Matrix scholars began analyzing the movies as if the metaphor could be read as precisely and literally as a philosphy doctoral thesis (perhaps it was wishful thinking), but the third movie seems to play as if the Wachowski bros finally threw up their hands in the realization that it was impossible to stretch the philosophical analogy out any further without compromising the story so they just decided to sacrifice symbolic integrity for an orgy of CGI-addicted battle scenes.
What do characters like the Merovingian and Persephone represent? They get only a few minutes of screen time. Monica Bellucci's breasts get more dialogue than she does. What does the Train Man represent? Is the ending some sort of loose Christian allegory, or some sort of analogy to viruses which die off when they kill their host? The movie won't stand up to that level of scrutiny.
And while this movie has more action than the second, and while it's technically impressive, it's viscerally empty and logically unsatisfying. Why don't they put some sort of windshields on those robotic battle suits? Why the clunky interface for controlling them (you have to move each lever forward and back, forward and back, to move the legs, and it looks like it requires so much strength that only men have the strength to operate them). Why don't the humans store more EMPs around home base?
The first two episodes of this trilogy invited this type of analysis, so to seem so flimsy in the face of the spotlight is disappointing, especially considering the dialogue is still ponderous and most of the humans remain one-dimensional cutouts whose primary character development consists of their outfits.
It seems small-hearted to criticize an endeavor that obviously required gargantuan efforts on the part of so many people, one with such ambitious and impressive special effects. But, in part because of people like the Wachowski brothers, the bar on CGI special effects has been raised so high that even the most complex fight scenes, executed with the highest production values and precision, simply guarantee you a seat at the table. Story and acting still count.
Fortunately, in my film geek world, hope springs eternal. I did see the trailer for Troy, coming out May 2004, and the zoom out to reveal hundreds of ships tickled my movie nerve.
If they had just ended after The Matrix, the first movie, if the Wachowski brothers had just faded back into oblivion after that first movie, we'd be hailing these cinematic geniuses who had made two great movies (Bound being the other one) and brought the debate about the nature of reality to the mainstream and made pop-philosophers of film geeks everywhere. I think back to what I thought after seeing the first, and now that I've seen the second and third, I wish I hadn't.
The inverse cost and quality law seems to have struck again. The Wachowski bros, backed by Ron Silver and the fat wallets of Warner Bros., got free reign to spend and overspend on the second and third of this trilogy, and the sum of the two combined not only failed to live up to the bar set by the first but have tarnished my memory of that original as well.
The Matrix offered a visually thrilling metaphor for a wide variety of philosophical debates, but it was never meant to be stretched to the limits which the second and third films forced it to (the first movie managed to tell not only an exciting action story, but it played loosely enough with its metaphor that it was ideologically coherent as well; for that reason it's a sci-fi marvel). Once the second movie played, though, all sorts of Matrix scholars began analyzing the movies as if the metaphor could be read as precisely and literally as a philosphy doctoral thesis (perhaps it was wishful thinking), but the third movie seems to play as if the Wachowski bros finally threw up their hands in the realization that it was impossible to stretch the philosophical analogy out any further without compromising the story so they just decided to sacrifice symbolic integrity for an orgy of CGI-addicted battle scenes.
What do characters like the Merovingian and Persephone represent? They get only a few minutes of screen time. Monica Bellucci's breasts get more dialogue than she does. What does the Train Man represent? Is the ending some sort of loose Christian allegory, or some sort of analogy to viruses which die off when they kill their host? The movie won't stand up to that level of scrutiny.
And while this movie has more action than the second, and while it's technically impressive, it's viscerally empty and logically unsatisfying. Why don't they put some sort of windshields on those robotic battle suits? Why the clunky interface for controlling them (you have to move each lever forward and back, forward and back, to move the legs, and it looks like it requires so much strength that only men have the strength to operate them). Why don't the humans store more EMPs around home base?
The first two episodes of this trilogy invited this type of analysis, so to seem so flimsy in the face of the spotlight is disappointing, especially considering the dialogue is still ponderous and most of the humans remain one-dimensional cutouts whose primary character development consists of their outfits.
It seems small-hearted to criticize an endeavor that obviously required gargantuan efforts on the part of so many people, one with such ambitious and impressive special effects. But, in part because of people like the Wachowski brothers, the bar on CGI special effects has been raised so high that even the most complex fight scenes, executed with the highest production values and precision, simply guarantee you a seat at the table. Story and acting still count.
Fortunately, in my film geek world, hope springs eternal. I did see the trailer for Troy, coming out May 2004, and the zoom out to reveal hundreds of ships tickled my movie nerve.
Innocence
From AICN: the sequel to the beautiful and influential Ghost in the Shell, titled Innocence, now has a website and a trailer. It's all in Japanese and so remains cryptic and a bit inaccessible (somewhat like the plot of the first movie).
With little fanfare, at least compared to The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions opens tomorrow. The influence of Ghost in the Shell on the Matrix series is obvious, especially in its visuals. And while I have little idea what the plot of Revolutions is, it appears from the trailer that Agent Smith has become some sort of virus that can replicate himself and infect hosts both human and machine and so Neo has to stop him. In that, Smith echoes the computer program that achieves consciousness and tries to merge itself with a human mind in Ghost in the Shell.
You can preview the soundtrack for The Matrix Revolutions. Or you can buy it. But unlike the other two soundtracks, this one is mostly Don Davis' score, and not heavy metal techno craziness. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different.
With little fanfare, at least compared to The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions opens tomorrow. The influence of Ghost in the Shell on the Matrix series is obvious, especially in its visuals. And while I have little idea what the plot of Revolutions is, it appears from the trailer that Agent Smith has become some sort of virus that can replicate himself and infect hosts both human and machine and so Neo has to stop him. In that, Smith echoes the computer program that achieves consciousness and tries to merge itself with a human mind in Ghost in the Shell.
You can preview the soundtrack for The Matrix Revolutions. Or you can buy it. But unlike the other two soundtracks, this one is mostly Don Davis' score, and not heavy metal techno craziness. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different.
Evil, evil Cinerama
Cinerama was supposed to accept sales for the LOTR Trilogy on Dec. 16 through Movietickets.com from 10am this morning to 10am tomorrow morning. Then they'd open up for sales through the box office tomorrow.
Well, obviously it would sell out online, so I had all the proper web windows open, waited patiently until 10am, and then assaulted Movietickets.com, hitting the refresh button like a hamster getting electric jolts to the pleasure nerves in the brain.
Nothing. The site kept crapping out on me at various stages. On and off for an hour and a half, I pounded away. I finally called Movietickets.com and was told that they had shut down the entire AMC system to try and fix things. Try back later in the evening, they said. Fine. I called Cinerama, and the line was busy. It was starting to look like I'd have to trudge out to wait in line in the morning for tix. No problem, I'd done it before..
Until Cinerama decided to go against their posted ticket sales schedule and open the box office at 3pm in the afternoon. Today. Of course, tickets sold out instantly, and by the time I finally got through on the phone to Cinerama's box office I was transferred to some guy who works at the concession stand who could only offer a "Sorry dude."
After all the huge groups I've brought to Cinerama over the years (I brought 40 people to see The Two Towers last year on opening day), all the lavish praise I've heaped on that damn theater, to have them screw me like this...I feel like a cuckold. You cheating SOB.
Now, out of love for LOTR, I'll have to beg for someone to give me a ticket to the trilogy (this is me begging...help me). And if somehow I get one I'll still go.
But me and the Cinerama, we're through. No more convincing people to head there for movies which are much more easily seen elsewhere. No more organizing large group outings. Cinerama has wasted enough of my time and taken enough of my money. I'm kicking her out into the street and changing the locks.
Well, obviously it would sell out online, so I had all the proper web windows open, waited patiently until 10am, and then assaulted Movietickets.com, hitting the refresh button like a hamster getting electric jolts to the pleasure nerves in the brain.
Nothing. The site kept crapping out on me at various stages. On and off for an hour and a half, I pounded away. I finally called Movietickets.com and was told that they had shut down the entire AMC system to try and fix things. Try back later in the evening, they said. Fine. I called Cinerama, and the line was busy. It was starting to look like I'd have to trudge out to wait in line in the morning for tix. No problem, I'd done it before..
Until Cinerama decided to go against their posted ticket sales schedule and open the box office at 3pm in the afternoon. Today. Of course, tickets sold out instantly, and by the time I finally got through on the phone to Cinerama's box office I was transferred to some guy who works at the concession stand who could only offer a "Sorry dude."
After all the huge groups I've brought to Cinerama over the years (I brought 40 people to see The Two Towers last year on opening day), all the lavish praise I've heaped on that damn theater, to have them screw me like this...I feel like a cuckold. You cheating SOB.
Now, out of love for LOTR, I'll have to beg for someone to give me a ticket to the trilogy (this is me begging...help me). And if somehow I get one I'll still go.
But me and the Cinerama, we're through. No more convincing people to head there for movies which are much more easily seen elsewhere. No more organizing large group outings. Cinerama has wasted enough of my time and taken enough of my money. I'm kicking her out into the street and changing the locks.
Day One Maury
Maury: "Derek, what do you do when you fall off the horse?" Silence. "You get back on! That's what this business is all about!"
Derek: "Sorry, Maury. But I'm not a gymnast."
For the first time in a long time, three months to be exact, I dressed for work today. No, I haven't been going to the office naked for three months. My sabbatical came to an end.
I woke up and realized I needed to press a shirt for work. Quite a change from my time hiking the Inca Trail, when I wore clothes that had been crumpled and stuffed into my pack for days.
You know what feels especially fresh after a layoff from work? The wrists. Typing hundreds of e-mails each week takes its toll on your hands. My fingers and wrists felt strong and limber today. They felt slightly less so after I worked my way through most of the 3,500 e-mails that had accumulated during my leave.
I saw a few folks, but for the most part I laid low. I feel like a stranger in the office, like an outsider. Like that feeling you have when walking into your room after months away. Everything is familiar but new--it's a dreamlike state, like deja vu. If only we could take regular breaks from all the familiar places in our life, they'd always seem fresh, magical.
Having been away for so long, there's much culture and news to assimilate. A not so brief tour of some of it...
Edward Tufte, author of what I consider to be essential reference books such as The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, writes an interesting critique of Microsoft Powerpoint. It costs $7, but it's worthwhile. Powerpoint has always been the weak link in Microsoft Office, and they I know it inside out, my relationship with it has always been one of reluctant acceptance. Not even love hate, because there isn't much love there.
A short clip illustrating a day in the life of air traffic over the U.S. (Quicktime movie). Cool.
A graphic of all the flights and bus rides and horse rides and train rides and hikes I took while in South America would look something like that as well.
Has there every been a movie more hyped than Matrix Reloaded? The practice of offering pre-screenings and access to either Time or Newsweek in advance in exchange for a cover story (The Two Towers was the previous movie to make that type of business deal, in exchange for one of those covers, I think it was Time) is already getting old. I'm a fairly big film geek, but let's be honest. A blockbuster movie doesn't really merit the cover of Time magazine, not at this time in the world, and perhaps not ever. Standing in the airport on arrival in the U.S. from South America I saw Morpheus and Trinity and Neo staring at me from every second magazine cover.
I haven't seen the movie yet (being on sabbatical meant a temporary demotion from the ranks of the opening day fanatics, but the next time I'm in line for the first showing at Cinerama, say for LOTR: Return of the King, don't call it a comeback), but the expectations are so great that some backlash and letdown is inevitable. The "okay people, let's get real, it's just a movie and not some philosophical masterpiece" articles were bound to happen at some point after the first movie inspired books with titles like Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix.
After the uniqueness of the first movie (American movies that appropriate visual tropes from Japanese anime and Chinese martial arts cinema is always considered fresh in this country), it's hard to imagine the second movie being superior except in budget and special effects.
Okay, so the Wachowski brothers aren't the next coming of Kierkegaard and Baudrillard. I hope that amidst the marketing blitz no one made the mistake in thinking that they were.
The new Apple music store is very solid. The solution is not complex. In fact, it's built on components that have been available all along. (1) Selection: Apple has songs from all five major music labels (2) Micropayments: allows users to download individual songs for the fair price of $0.99 (3) Ownership: the service allows users unlimited burning of the songs to CDs and generous sharing of the songs across their iPod and 3 Mac computers.
My main quibble is that the selection, while it includes albums from all five major music labels, is still just a fraction of the music available from their vaults. It will likely take some time before all the artists allow their music to be shared digitally through the Apple music store, but it's futile to resist. There are still numerous albums and artists I'd like to see represented. Let's hope their early success convinces holdouts to cross the line.
I'd also prefer that the $0.99 price per song be inclusive of sales tax. But that's just me being greedy, since I don't really mind odd prices ($1.07 per track after sales tax in Washington) when I'm paying with a credit card.
All in all, the new music store is a surprising but well-executed move on the part of Apple. It won't eliminate or even significantly dent music piracy, but count me among the converted who are happy to fork over $0.99 for a good tune. Another reason, if you're considering joining the Mac community, to follow through.
And a second reason to make the Mac leap sometime in the next year? Perhaps a launch of a new processor architecture, finally bringing Apple out of the dark ages and into greater parity with the Intel and AMD processors powering most Windows boxes.
Considering the popularity of Macs as multimedia editing machines, the new processors can come none too soon. Rendering certain effects on a Mac can be painfully slow.
Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins are working on a sequel, Every Second Counts, to the bestselling biography It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. I'm counting down every second, though it doesn't look like it will be ready for me to carry with me up the Alps in July.
If TV marketing held complete sway over me, I'd most definitely be a Marine. Great commercials.
Bill James, every interesting, both for his analysis and his crusty personality, conducted a chat at ESPN today. His sharp tongued writing is always entertaining, particularly in a chat environment where he can always get the last word. An example:
Tim - Cohasset, MA: Bill, I'm very interested in your work and was wondering how a 20 year old college student would get in on the ground floor working for a team like the Red Sox.
Bill James: Learn to throw 95
Come to think of it, Bill James and Edward Tufte have a lot in common. Among the fun assertions he makes, in the chat, is that the three most valuable commodities in baseball, in order, are Alex Rodriguez, Mark Prior, and Vladimir Guerrero. Good news for Cubs fans. Maybe the Cubbies can sign Vlad in the offseason and get two out of three. I don't think Cubs fans realize yet how good Mark Prior can be. He's certainly the pitcher you'd draft first in the entire major leagues if you held a major league wide draft.
Speaking of the Cubbies, they pulled out a 17 inning game today. The Cubs are going to break the single season strikeout record they themselves set two years ago (that's my prediction). They are stocked up and down with power arms, and today Todd Wellemeyer struck out the side for the save in his major league debut. He was throwing 95 mph cheese and mixing in an 84 mph changeup with very good arm action. Granted, it was against the strikeout prone Brewers, but still, a lot of the Cubs strikeouts have to do with the power arms on their staff. They have a seemingly endless supply of 6' 3" to 6' 6" right handers who throw in the mid 90's. Nasty. Now if the Cubs pick up Mike Lowell from the Marlins before the trading deadline, I'm going to start getting nervous, in a good way.
As the ever smart John Hollinger predicted, the Lakers succumbed the the Spurs, ending their run of championships at 3. Even with Rick Fox, their bench was terrible, and a lot of their loss this year should be blamed on their general manager, who did nothing to bolster their team behind Kobe and Shaq. I was no fan of Jerry Krause, but at least he knew that restocking around Jordan and Pippen was his single most important job, and he did his job well. It doesn't take much when you have two players as good as Kobe and Shaq, so it's a particularly egregious failure on the part of Lakers management.
The Bulls formula was straightforward. Surround Jordan and Pippen with strong jumpshooters to take the kickouts (Kerr, Paxson) and defenders (Grant, Rodman, Harper). The supporting cast knew their roles. Poor Kobe and Shaq had nothing to work with this year. Still, as a Bulls fan, I'm pretty happy to see the Lakers stopped short of 4 in a row. Sam Smith always claims the Bulls couldn't have won four in a row even if Jordan had stuck around after either of the runs of 3 championships, but I disagree. I like Kobe and Phil, but I like Jordan even more.
Fun players to watch when they're hot: Kobe (like Jordan, has developed into a dangerous 3 point threat when it counts), Nick Van Exel (pretty left-handed stroke), Allen Iverson (can embarrass defenders in a greater variety of ways than any player in the NBA), Tracy McGrady (always the chance he'll dunk in a way that will strip his defender of all manhood), and Dirk Nowitzki (the ball hits his hands and then is gone a second later in a beautiful arc towards the basket, no matter where he is on the court). Maybe Paul Pierce, and Peja. Tim Duncan isn't terribly exciting to watch, but his footwork is beautiful.
Derek: "Sorry, Maury. But I'm not a gymnast."
For the first time in a long time, three months to be exact, I dressed for work today. No, I haven't been going to the office naked for three months. My sabbatical came to an end.
I woke up and realized I needed to press a shirt for work. Quite a change from my time hiking the Inca Trail, when I wore clothes that had been crumpled and stuffed into my pack for days.
You know what feels especially fresh after a layoff from work? The wrists. Typing hundreds of e-mails each week takes its toll on your hands. My fingers and wrists felt strong and limber today. They felt slightly less so after I worked my way through most of the 3,500 e-mails that had accumulated during my leave.
I saw a few folks, but for the most part I laid low. I feel like a stranger in the office, like an outsider. Like that feeling you have when walking into your room after months away. Everything is familiar but new--it's a dreamlike state, like deja vu. If only we could take regular breaks from all the familiar places in our life, they'd always seem fresh, magical.
Having been away for so long, there's much culture and news to assimilate. A not so brief tour of some of it...
Tufte on Powerpoint
Edward Tufte, author of what I consider to be essential reference books such as The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, writes an interesting critique of Microsoft Powerpoint. It costs $7, but it's worthwhile. Powerpoint has always been the weak link in Microsoft Office, and they I know it inside out, my relationship with it has always been one of reluctant acceptance. Not even love hate, because there isn't much love there.
How many airplanes are over the United States right now
A short clip illustrating a day in the life of air traffic over the U.S. (Quicktime movie). Cool.
A graphic of all the flights and bus rides and horse rides and train rides and hikes I took while in South America would look something like that as well.
Exponential hype
Has there every been a movie more hyped than Matrix Reloaded? The practice of offering pre-screenings and access to either Time or Newsweek in advance in exchange for a cover story (The Two Towers was the previous movie to make that type of business deal, in exchange for one of those covers, I think it was Time) is already getting old. I'm a fairly big film geek, but let's be honest. A blockbuster movie doesn't really merit the cover of Time magazine, not at this time in the world, and perhaps not ever. Standing in the airport on arrival in the U.S. from South America I saw Morpheus and Trinity and Neo staring at me from every second magazine cover.
I haven't seen the movie yet (being on sabbatical meant a temporary demotion from the ranks of the opening day fanatics, but the next time I'm in line for the first showing at Cinerama, say for LOTR: Return of the King, don't call it a comeback), but the expectations are so great that some backlash and letdown is inevitable. The "okay people, let's get real, it's just a movie and not some philosophical masterpiece" articles were bound to happen at some point after the first movie inspired books with titles like Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and Religion in The Matrix.
After the uniqueness of the first movie (American movies that appropriate visual tropes from Japanese anime and Chinese martial arts cinema is always considered fresh in this country), it's hard to imagine the second movie being superior except in budget and special effects.
Okay, so the Wachowski brothers aren't the next coming of Kierkegaard and Baudrillard. I hope that amidst the marketing blitz no one made the mistake in thinking that they were.
Apple Music Store
The new Apple music store is very solid. The solution is not complex. In fact, it's built on components that have been available all along. (1) Selection: Apple has songs from all five major music labels (2) Micropayments: allows users to download individual songs for the fair price of $0.99 (3) Ownership: the service allows users unlimited burning of the songs to CDs and generous sharing of the songs across their iPod and 3 Mac computers.
My main quibble is that the selection, while it includes albums from all five major music labels, is still just a fraction of the music available from their vaults. It will likely take some time before all the artists allow their music to be shared digitally through the Apple music store, but it's futile to resist. There are still numerous albums and artists I'd like to see represented. Let's hope their early success convinces holdouts to cross the line.
I'd also prefer that the $0.99 price per song be inclusive of sales tax. But that's just me being greedy, since I don't really mind odd prices ($1.07 per track after sales tax in Washington) when I'm paying with a credit card.
All in all, the new music store is a surprising but well-executed move on the part of Apple. It won't eliminate or even significantly dent music piracy, but count me among the converted who are happy to fork over $0.99 for a good tune. Another reason, if you're considering joining the Mac community, to follow through.
PowerPC 970
And a second reason to make the Mac leap sometime in the next year? Perhaps a launch of a new processor architecture, finally bringing Apple out of the dark ages and into greater parity with the Intel and AMD processors powering most Windows boxes.
Considering the popularity of Macs as multimedia editing machines, the new processors can come none too soon. Rendering certain effects on a Mac can be painfully slow.
Lance, part deux
Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins are working on a sequel, Every Second Counts, to the bestselling biography It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. I'm counting down every second, though it doesn't look like it will be ready for me to carry with me up the Alps in July.
The few. The proud.
If TV marketing held complete sway over me, I'd most definitely be a Marine. Great commercials.
Sports break
Bill James, every interesting, both for his analysis and his crusty personality, conducted a chat at ESPN today. His sharp tongued writing is always entertaining, particularly in a chat environment where he can always get the last word. An example:
Tim - Cohasset, MA: Bill, I'm very interested in your work and was wondering how a 20 year old college student would get in on the ground floor working for a team like the Red Sox.
Bill James: Learn to throw 95
Come to think of it, Bill James and Edward Tufte have a lot in common. Among the fun assertions he makes, in the chat, is that the three most valuable commodities in baseball, in order, are Alex Rodriguez, Mark Prior, and Vladimir Guerrero. Good news for Cubs fans. Maybe the Cubbies can sign Vlad in the offseason and get two out of three. I don't think Cubs fans realize yet how good Mark Prior can be. He's certainly the pitcher you'd draft first in the entire major leagues if you held a major league wide draft.
Speaking of the Cubbies, they pulled out a 17 inning game today. The Cubs are going to break the single season strikeout record they themselves set two years ago (that's my prediction). They are stocked up and down with power arms, and today Todd Wellemeyer struck out the side for the save in his major league debut. He was throwing 95 mph cheese and mixing in an 84 mph changeup with very good arm action. Granted, it was against the strikeout prone Brewers, but still, a lot of the Cubs strikeouts have to do with the power arms on their staff. They have a seemingly endless supply of 6' 3" to 6' 6" right handers who throw in the mid 90's. Nasty. Now if the Cubs pick up Mike Lowell from the Marlins before the trading deadline, I'm going to start getting nervous, in a good way.
4 is an unlucky number in Chinese
As the ever smart John Hollinger predicted, the Lakers succumbed the the Spurs, ending their run of championships at 3. Even with Rick Fox, their bench was terrible, and a lot of their loss this year should be blamed on their general manager, who did nothing to bolster their team behind Kobe and Shaq. I was no fan of Jerry Krause, but at least he knew that restocking around Jordan and Pippen was his single most important job, and he did his job well. It doesn't take much when you have two players as good as Kobe and Shaq, so it's a particularly egregious failure on the part of Lakers management.
The Bulls formula was straightforward. Surround Jordan and Pippen with strong jumpshooters to take the kickouts (Kerr, Paxson) and defenders (Grant, Rodman, Harper). The supporting cast knew their roles. Poor Kobe and Shaq had nothing to work with this year. Still, as a Bulls fan, I'm pretty happy to see the Lakers stopped short of 4 in a row. Sam Smith always claims the Bulls couldn't have won four in a row even if Jordan had stuck around after either of the runs of 3 championships, but I disagree. I like Kobe and Phil, but I like Jordan even more.
Fun players to watch when they're hot: Kobe (like Jordan, has developed into a dangerous 3 point threat when it counts), Nick Van Exel (pretty left-handed stroke), Allen Iverson (can embarrass defenders in a greater variety of ways than any player in the NBA), Tracy McGrady (always the chance he'll dunk in a way that will strip his defender of all manhood), and Dirk Nowitzki (the ball hits his hands and then is gone a second later in a beautiful arc towards the basket, no matter where he is on the court). Maybe Paul Pierce, and Peja. Tim Duncan isn't terribly exciting to watch, but his footwork is beautiful.
The next big thing
Keira Knightley is going to be the next big young star, after her performances in Bend it like Beckham and her starring role in the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean (check out the preview from this site; Bruckheimer's movie syntax is exactly that of movie trailers). Female British accents slay me, and it doesn't hurt if you look like a young Winona Ryder crossed with Natalie Portman.
Holy Colossus, Batman!
Forgot the giant squid I'm always obsessing over. My new favorite nature pinup is the colossal squid. Even more, well, colossal and more dangerous than the giant squid, it has 8 arms and two tentacles that have up to 25 lethal hooks! We're talking "sharks with frickin' laser beams on their heads" territory.
Thanks to Hawaii Scott for forwarding this to me. I can't believe this isn't bigger news. I'd never even heard of the colossal squid before today. You probably haven't either. This is an oversight we must all strive to correct.
Seriously, who would have thought New York would have a smoking ban earlier than Seattle? I'm moving.
On the downside, there's a possibility I could end up like this poor German chap.
On the positive side, I discovered yesterday that Jennifer Garner filed for divorce from her husband. This, combined with the mefloquine, leaves the distinct possibility that I'll meet her in my dreams tonight. Her, and a colossal squid.
He was at his best playing aloof, brooding, seemingly tortured souls. Sadly, perhaps this is one time life did imitate art. HKFlix has a very complete DVD filmography for Cheung.
On a side note, the publication of silly April Fool's Day stories on the web on April 1 has become a bit predictable, and when serious and somewhat shocking events do occur on April 1 their validity comes into question. I hesitated to link to this story at first because I thought there was a tiny chance it could be a prank.
How comforting for those of us living in Seattle, the only major city within the outer range of his nuclear weapons.
I recommend reading it while listening to Horowitz in Moscow. A great recording of a great recital.
Thanks to Hawaii Scott for forwarding this to me. I can't believe this isn't bigger news. I'd never even heard of the colossal squid before today. You probably haven't either. This is an oversight we must all strive to correct.
Smoking bans slash heart attacks
Story over at New Scientist. Personally, I don't care if others want to smoke, but my latest pet peeve is coming home from a bar or club smelling like a chimney. Maybe if all smokers would contribute a small tax which I could draw from for my dry cleaning bills.Seriously, who would have thought New York would have a smoking ban earlier than Seattle? I'm moving.
I see colossal squids...and Elektra...and there's Auntie Em...
I took my first dose of mefloquine today. It's an anti-malaria pill, and one of its most common side effects is disturbing, strange, and/or unusually intense dreams. It's happened to me before, and after popping the pill this morning I've been somewhat woozy.On the downside, there's a possibility I could end up like this poor German chap.
On the positive side, I discovered yesterday that Jennifer Garner filed for divorce from her husband. This, combined with the mefloquine, leaves the distinct possibility that I'll meet her in my dreams tonight. Her, and a colossal squid.
Leslie Cheung commits suicide
Fans of Hong Kong cinema are all familiar with Leslie Cheung. Shockingly, the acclaimed actor committed suicide Tuesday, leaving only a cryptic suicide note. Most know him for his roles in A Better Tomorrow, Chinese Ghost Story, Farewell My Concubine, Once a Thief, and The Bride with White Hair. Being a Wong Kar-Wai fan, I enjoyed his work in Ashes of Time, Happy Together, and Days of Being Wild.He was at his best playing aloof, brooding, seemingly tortured souls. Sadly, perhaps this is one time life did imitate art. HKFlix has a very complete DVD filmography for Cheung.
On a side note, the publication of silly April Fool's Day stories on the web on April 1 has become a bit predictable, and when serious and somewhat shocking events do occur on April 1 their validity comes into question. I hesitated to link to this story at first because I thought there was a tiny chance it could be a prank.
North Korean dictator places triplets in orphanages
This sounds like a plot of an Asian martial-arts B-movie, like the ones in which the evil emperor drinks the urine of young boys to increase his kung-fu skill, but sadly it's true.How comforting for those of us living in Seattle, the only major city within the outer range of his nuclear weapons.
What would it be like to be the last man on earth?
Not quite as good as it sounds. Highly entertaining read.I recommend reading it while listening to Horowitz in Moscow. A great recording of a great recital.
Where's Marshall?
The Oscars lost some of their luster this year, given the context of war. I wasn't fired up enough to throw a party, and if I had missed them it wouldn't have been a great loss. You won't hear me say that often--I live for the show. Still, Steve Martin set a proper tone by poking fun of the sacrifice of the stars in his opening monologue ("The red carpet ceremony was cancelled this year. That'll show them."). What else are the movie stars going to do, anyway? No other major entertainers are canceling their regularly scheduled events, so why blame movie stars for holding their annual backslap?
Anyway, it was an excuse to visit Jason's new pad. I wanted to wear a prosthetic nose to his party, inspired by the success of Nicole Kidman and her schnozz in The Hours, but ran out of time.
Happily, there were a few signs that Hollywood has some good taste:
On the other hand, the show handed out its usual dose of injustice:
A few other notes:
If Jack Nicholson and Harvey Weinstein faced off a la Count Dooku and Yoda, who would win?
Morning: Up at 8am. Breakfast of cereal. Read from Atonement for about forty-five minutes. Spent half hour on phone with travel agent, cycling through permutations of a South America trip which would last a month starting next weekend. Managed to get the cost down several notches, and it's looking like a near-reality.
Next I popped in the DVD of Hero, rented from Scarecrow Video, the coolest video store in the world. I couldn't wait for the copy I ordered to show up.
Hero was somewhat of a disappointment, given the talent involved. Gorgeous cinematography, attractive leads, solid soundtrack, but the movie suffers from a gravity of acting that borders on grim melodrama. The movie lacks passion. Yimou inserts one too many shots of water dripping in slow motion, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung have little romantic chemistry (I thought Chow-Yun Fat and Michelle Yoh had the same problem in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and the martial arts is of the flying, choreographed dance variety rather than the hyper-realistic, forceful hand-to-hand combat of a move like Fist of Legend. While some of that imagery is gorgous, as when Jet Li and Tony Leung bounce off of the surface of a lake as if it is rubber, it's so ethereal and choreographed as to be symbolic, like a Chinese Opera dance, and without physical impact. When people are stabbed they don't even bleed. I recognize some of these as symptoms of Asian martial arts dramas in general, so perhaps my distaste is a cultural preference.
The colors and cinematography of Christopher Doyle deserve special recognition, though. Stunning.
Next I met Kate for lunch downtown. It's healthy to see at least one other human being everyday. Unfortunately, Salumi was closed (Armandino Batali's Italian shop Salumi is my favorite eatery in all of Seattle, offering incredibly tasty and affordable cured meats, but its hours are terrible) so we grabbed some Creole cuisine in Pioneer Square. I laid off of the Tabasco sauce, however.
Last week Jodie took me to Dixie's BBQ on the Eastside where I encountered The Man. There is actually a man, Gene Porter, who owns the place, and then there's The Man, the hot sauce which Porter encourages you to slather on your BBQ. Well, I've had a bit of that sauce before, but for some reason Porter spooned a more than healthy dose of The Man on my ribs. That is the hottest of hot sauces I've ever sampled, and it led to a coughing fit that lasted four days. I think one of those peppers lodged in my esophagus and burned a hole through it. No more hot stuff for me for a while.
Anyway, back to today. After lunch I dropped off a roll of slide film at Ivey Imaging and picked up some negatives. I also stopped at Glazer's and bought a remote cord for my Nikon, since I seem to have lost my last one (argh!). I shot some tripod long-exposure shots at Jason's last night, but given that I didn't have a remote cord on me I'm not optimistic that they'll turn out sharp. Gotta have one, though they aren't cheap given their size.
Then I headed home, and, since it wasn't raining, I jumped on my bike and headed for Mercer Island. Last week I jumped on a scale at the gym and screamed in horror. The number that came up was the largest I'd ever encountered. Many grueling sessions at the gym ensued, and the extra weight is especially brutal on the bike. Getting around Mercer is as painful as it's ever been, and today was no exception. Went counter-clockwise and then clockwise back for roughly a 30 mile ride. Felt like I was pulling an open parachute the whole way. The only consolation is that sore, achy feeling in my legs. Love that feeling.
Back home for a shower, then off to Ivey to pick up my slides. Ah, a few winning shots of Sadie Sutton in that batch. Will post a few tomorrow if I get the time.
Then I headed off to Pacific Place to see about using a free movie voucher I received for earning a gazillion Moviewatcher credits. But nothing there interested me, so I spent the next several hours in Barnes and Noble "library", perusing travel books and photography magazines. Digital photography and Photoshop magazines are my current vice, but since I'm not working I just read them in the store and jot down any useful tips in my notebook.
And then back home to cook some dinner and scan some slides with the TV on in the background.
That monitor was ridiculous, though. 5 inches!?!
On the late finish of the Oscars for East coasters: "I had as much trouble staying up as Queen Latifah's dress."
On the new Monica Lewinsky reality show on Fox: "Every week a different guy gets voted off her."
On Michael Moore's speech at the Oscars: "To give you an idea how unpopular Michael Moore was, after giving his speech he showed up just ten minutes later in the dead person's montage."
Anyway, it was an excuse to visit Jason's new pad. I wanted to wear a prosthetic nose to his party, inspired by the success of Nicole Kidman and her schnozz in The Hours, but ran out of time.
Happily, there were a few signs that Hollywood has some good taste:
- The excellent Spirited Away won best animated feature over a mediocre set of competition (Lilo & Stitch, Cimarron: Spirit of the Stallion, Treasure Planet, Ice Age), despite rumors that Ice Age would triumph due to its box office. Basically, any animated film that came out besides The Wild Thornberrys Movie got a nomination for best animated feature last year. Thanfully the one nominee worthy of an Oscar took it home.
- Eminem and two other people I've never heard of won in the category of best song for "Lose Yourself." Whatever your opinions on Eminem, that was definitely the best song of the group. Besides, Daniel Day-Lewis prepared for his role as the Butcher in Gangs of New York by listening to that Eminem tune, among others. Inspired by Day-Lewis' subsequent performance in that movie, I've adopted the same regimen in the gym. It's working. I feel like kicking Leonardo Dicrapio's scrawny butt. Why didn't Eminem perform? Was he not invited? There aren't any expletives in "Lose Yourself." That was a missed moment.
- Chris Cooper took home the best supporting actor Oscar for his comical transformation in the otherwise inconsistent Adaptation.
- Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers captured a well-deserved best visual effects award. Gollum is more emotive than Brendan Fraser, who introduced The Two Towers as a best picture nominee.
On the other hand, the show handed out its usual dose of injustice:
- Daniel Day-Lewis was robbed in the most competitive category of the night, Best Actor. Hopefully this loss won't drive him back into cobblerhood. Still, it wasn't a total loss. Adrien Brody planting a long, wet, sloppy, back-bender of a kiss on Halle Berry? Brilliant, a page right out of Colin Farrell's playbook. If I was Eric Benet I would have run on stage and kicked that scrawny Brody's ass. Thank god this wasn't the year Roberto Benigni won for best actor--the sight of Pinocchio jumping Halle would have been ugly.
- Chicago for best picture? Years from now we'll all wonder why and how this light, fluffy music video won a best picture award. At least Renee Zellwegger didn't win a best actress award. I'm sorry, I love Renee as much as the next guy, and she put forth a more than credible effort, but she wasn't right for that role.
- Peter Jackson and The Two Towers didn't get any consideration in any major category, despite being superior to Chicago in so many ways. The Oscars continued bias against sci-fi and fantasy movies is more than a blind spot. It's a prejudice similar to racism; call it genrism.
A few other notes:
- Steve Martin is a good host. His zany, intellectual humor allows him to zing a whole range of subjects without making it too personal, and though he seemed to tone it down given the war, he should receive a return invitation next year. His best quip? "It was so sweet backstage. The Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo."
- Did you watch the commercials? Whoa! That isn't like any J.C. Penney's I've ever visited. "It's all inside" indeed.
- Michael Moore somehow manages to come off as a redneck even though he isn't one. He could use a speech coach. The anti-war movement probably would prefer a more eloquent and dignified spokesperson.
- Catherine Zeta-Jones (it's pronounced "zee-tah") annoys me to no end. Zeta rhymes with diva.
- A retracting mike to cut off speeches that run long! Brilliant. I notice it doesn't seem to function when movie stars are on stage, only when crew members, like the visual effects guys, show up.
If Jack Nicholson and Harvey Weinstein faced off a la Count Dooku and Yoda, who would win?
A day in the life
Today was a balanced day, and representative of most my days back here in Seattle while on sabbatical.Morning: Up at 8am. Breakfast of cereal. Read from Atonement for about forty-five minutes. Spent half hour on phone with travel agent, cycling through permutations of a South America trip which would last a month starting next weekend. Managed to get the cost down several notches, and it's looking like a near-reality.
Next I popped in the DVD of Hero, rented from Scarecrow Video, the coolest video store in the world. I couldn't wait for the copy I ordered to show up.
Hero was somewhat of a disappointment, given the talent involved. Gorgeous cinematography, attractive leads, solid soundtrack, but the movie suffers from a gravity of acting that borders on grim melodrama. The movie lacks passion. Yimou inserts one too many shots of water dripping in slow motion, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung have little romantic chemistry (I thought Chow-Yun Fat and Michelle Yoh had the same problem in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and the martial arts is of the flying, choreographed dance variety rather than the hyper-realistic, forceful hand-to-hand combat of a move like Fist of Legend. While some of that imagery is gorgous, as when Jet Li and Tony Leung bounce off of the surface of a lake as if it is rubber, it's so ethereal and choreographed as to be symbolic, like a Chinese Opera dance, and without physical impact. When people are stabbed they don't even bleed. I recognize some of these as symptoms of Asian martial arts dramas in general, so perhaps my distaste is a cultural preference.
The colors and cinematography of Christopher Doyle deserve special recognition, though. Stunning.
Next I met Kate for lunch downtown. It's healthy to see at least one other human being everyday. Unfortunately, Salumi was closed (Armandino Batali's Italian shop Salumi is my favorite eatery in all of Seattle, offering incredibly tasty and affordable cured meats, but its hours are terrible) so we grabbed some Creole cuisine in Pioneer Square. I laid off of the Tabasco sauce, however.
Last week Jodie took me to Dixie's BBQ on the Eastside where I encountered The Man. There is actually a man, Gene Porter, who owns the place, and then there's The Man, the hot sauce which Porter encourages you to slather on your BBQ. Well, I've had a bit of that sauce before, but for some reason Porter spooned a more than healthy dose of The Man on my ribs. That is the hottest of hot sauces I've ever sampled, and it led to a coughing fit that lasted four days. I think one of those peppers lodged in my esophagus and burned a hole through it. No more hot stuff for me for a while.
Anyway, back to today. After lunch I dropped off a roll of slide film at Ivey Imaging and picked up some negatives. I also stopped at Glazer's and bought a remote cord for my Nikon, since I seem to have lost my last one (argh!). I shot some tripod long-exposure shots at Jason's last night, but given that I didn't have a remote cord on me I'm not optimistic that they'll turn out sharp. Gotta have one, though they aren't cheap given their size.
Then I headed home, and, since it wasn't raining, I jumped on my bike and headed for Mercer Island. Last week I jumped on a scale at the gym and screamed in horror. The number that came up was the largest I'd ever encountered. Many grueling sessions at the gym ensued, and the extra weight is especially brutal on the bike. Getting around Mercer is as painful as it's ever been, and today was no exception. Went counter-clockwise and then clockwise back for roughly a 30 mile ride. Felt like I was pulling an open parachute the whole way. The only consolation is that sore, achy feeling in my legs. Love that feeling.
Back home for a shower, then off to Ivey to pick up my slides. Ah, a few winning shots of Sadie Sutton in that batch. Will post a few tomorrow if I get the time.
Then I headed off to Pacific Place to see about using a free movie voucher I received for earning a gazillion Moviewatcher credits. But nothing there interested me, so I spent the next several hours in Barnes and Noble "library", perusing travel books and photography magazines. Digital photography and Photoshop magazines are my current vice, but since I'm not working I just read them in the store and jot down any useful tips in my notebook.
And then back home to cook some dinner and scan some slides with the TV on in the background.
Adam Osborne dead
Adam Osborne, inventor of the portable computer, passed away at the age of 64. The first computer I ever used was my dad's Osborne-1 with its miniscule, monochrome screen. I'd write papers using Wordstar and then print them out on a daisywheel printer. Ah, happy memories.That monitor was ridiculous, though. 5 inches!?!
T-Mac
John Hollinger is right. Tracy McGrady should be MVP this year. Check out the current PER ratings. This whole bias against players with teams with lousy records is ridiculous. Penalizing players for being on lousy teams is some arbitrary rule that sportswriters made up and has nothing to do with "most valuable." Michael Jordan played for years without any supporting cast. You mean to tell me he wasn't the most valuable player every one of those years?Go Paul
Paul Shaffer was the guest host for David Letterman tonight. Funny monologue! Good writers over there.On the late finish of the Oscars for East coasters: "I had as much trouble staying up as Queen Latifah's dress."
On the new Monica Lewinsky reality show on Fox: "Every week a different guy gets voted off her."
On Michael Moore's speech at the Oscars: "To give you an idea how unpopular Michael Moore was, after giving his speech he showed up just ten minutes later in the dead person's montage."
Global roaming
This announcement by AT&T sounds promising, though I'll reserve hope for a bit. I just bought a new global cellphone, an Ericsson T68i, and my service is with AT&T. Given the amount of overseas travel I'm doing this year, being able to just pop in a new sim card into my cellphone like all the Aussies were doing in New Zealand would be awesome and preferable to renting a cellphone. The U.S. doesn't just stand alone in its desire to run over Iraq with military force, it stands alone in the wireless standards arena and thus we marvel over features our international brethren have enjoyed for years.
The main reason I bought the new phone, though, is to allow use of a Bluetooth headset. Rumor has it that everyone at Motorola uses headsets, and until more conclusive results are in, I'd just as soon stop radiating my brain or groin.
The T68i is a pretty nice phone. Reception on AT&T's GSM network has been fine thus far, though I have yet to test its limits. Perhaps this Thursday if I head out to Spokane to see Stanford in the first round of the NCAA's. The phone's buttons are a bit small, a problem with most such compact phones, but so far everything else has worked like a charm. I'm anxious to get voice dialing set up and to try out my Bluetooth headset, though I'll hold off on WAP and the digital camera attachment functionality until it proves economical.
That's not enough of a reason to buy an HD receiver. A few other reasons I upgraded: one, the availability of a moderate amount of HD programming from the majors, including NBC, Fox, ABC, and CBS, all accessible by connecting a $25 terrestrial antenna like one from Winegard to your HD receiver. The Oscars will be broadcast in HD this year, and quite a few sporting events as well. Some of the major sitcoms are in HD, and on a widescreen HDTV set the A/V experience in HD is a huge improvement. Secondly, now I can watch a program while taping another on my Tivo, an option which would have saved me some difficult choices during the past several months.
Relative to the rest of the world and what it could be, the options are sparse, disappointing. Until the U.S. can agree on a standard and push it, we'll be limited to the slim pickings out there. It's a shame, because HD done right is gorgeous.
Wow.
I have no idea what I'm doing, and I still managed a few gorgeous prints at 8 x 10. Even at that size the print quality rivals that you'd get from a photo lab, and the inks in the Stylus 2200 are archival, meaning they'll last long after you're dead. The digital workflow isn't exactly fast, given that each high quality scan takes me about 15 minutes, including image adjustments in Photoshop. Still, the control you have in Photoshop to manipulate photos is intoxicating. You can easily change color photos to black and white, or vice versa. You can sharpen or soften photos, turn them into watercolors, correct exposure errors, and so much more. I still don't own a digital camera, but most of the other elements of my digital darkroom are falling into place.
I have a lot to learn about color management and Photoshop, but the book Mastering Digital Printing promises to move me far along the learning curve.
Can't wait?
The main reason I bought the new phone, though, is to allow use of a Bluetooth headset. Rumor has it that everyone at Motorola uses headsets, and until more conclusive results are in, I'd just as soon stop radiating my brain or groin.
The T68i is a pretty nice phone. Reception on AT&T's GSM network has been fine thus far, though I have yet to test its limits. Perhaps this Thursday if I head out to Spokane to see Stanford in the first round of the NCAA's. The phone's buttons are a bit small, a problem with most such compact phones, but so far everything else has worked like a charm. I'm anxious to get voice dialing set up and to try out my Bluetooth headset, though I'll hold off on WAP and the digital camera attachment functionality until it proves economical.
The sad state of HD
Another area where the U.S. lags the rest of the world is in HDTV standards and programming. I finally got my HD (high definition) dish installed and it added a whopping three DirecTV HD channels to my lineup, Mark Cuban's HDNet, a pay-per-view HD channel, and an HBO HD channel.That's not enough of a reason to buy an HD receiver. A few other reasons I upgraded: one, the availability of a moderate amount of HD programming from the majors, including NBC, Fox, ABC, and CBS, all accessible by connecting a $25 terrestrial antenna like one from Winegard to your HD receiver. The Oscars will be broadcast in HD this year, and quite a few sporting events as well. Some of the major sitcoms are in HD, and on a widescreen HDTV set the A/V experience in HD is a huge improvement. Secondly, now I can watch a program while taping another on my Tivo, an option which would have saved me some difficult choices during the past several months.
Relative to the rest of the world and what it could be, the options are sparse, disappointing. Until the U.S. can agree on a standard and push it, we'll be limited to the slim pickings out there. It's a shame, because HD done right is gorgeous.
True digital darkroom
On a more positive technological note, I've finally had the chance to try out the Epson Stylus 2200, generating some prints based on scans of slides from my trips to New Zealand.Wow.
I have no idea what I'm doing, and I still managed a few gorgeous prints at 8 x 10. Even at that size the print quality rivals that you'd get from a photo lab, and the inks in the Stylus 2200 are archival, meaning they'll last long after you're dead. The digital workflow isn't exactly fast, given that each high quality scan takes me about 15 minutes, including image adjustments in Photoshop. Still, the control you have in Photoshop to manipulate photos is intoxicating. You can easily change color photos to black and white, or vice versa. You can sharpen or soften photos, turn them into watercolors, correct exposure errors, and so much more. I still don't own a digital camera, but most of the other elements of my digital darkroom are falling into place.
I have a lot to learn about color management and Photoshop, but the book Mastering Digital Printing promises to move me far along the learning curve.
Animatrix
This is going to be cool. Can't wait.Can't wait?
The boy from Ipanema
That would be me last week. Right now I'm the really sick boy lying in bed in Seattle. I was up most of last night coughing like an alcoholic in his death throes.
On the one hand, vacation has reminded me that my body needs less sleep than I think. At the same time, a combination of sleep deprivation, dancing the samba, heat exhaustion, sun stroke, about ten pounds of beef at Brazil's most famous churrascaria Porcao (how do you write an "a" with a little squiggly over it?), and heavy alcohol consumption has weakened my immune system. I am checking myself into a detox institution in a brave, pre-emptive strike against alcoholism, obesity, and skin cancer.
On a side note, I love that the Brazilian lack of inhibitions extends to their food. Naming an all-you-can-eat meat buffet restaurant Porcao and placing a giant neon pig above the entrance tells customers to leave their guilt at home. It reminds me of Star Wars. Remember the overweight X-wing pilot who was part of the rebel assault on the Death Star? He was named Porkins, and yes, he was the first to die. Even as a youth this subtle yet open discrimination against the obese struck me as unjust.
Ah yes, Rio. A week of paradise. Rio during Carnaval is an American fantasy of what Brazil is like all the time, just as Brian de Palma's The Untouchables presents a glorified vision of what a 1920's gangland Chicago would be like in our imaginations. If Mardi Gras in New Orleans is the drunken frat party where usually pent-up Puritans release their inhibitions in a disgusting display of lewd behavior, Carnaval in Rio is the party you attend wearing your smartest tuxedo, but your bow-tie is hanging around your neck, undone, and underneath you've got a swimsuit on, or a feathered skirt, or a thong. Everyone in Rio is uninhibited year round anyway, so they don't need to go overboard a few days out of the year. They simply crank the knob up a few notches.
I'll have to jot down a few notes and memories in a bit, especially because I've decided that all of you need to attend Carnaval in Rio once. It's that much fun, and you can learn from my experience. You don't have to be some young, single swinger; it's fun for all ages, and couple-friendly. Unfortunately, a torrential downpour at the start of day two of the Samba Parade killed my Leica, so all I have in the way of photos are one (as of yet) undeveloped roll from some cheap disposable. Since Elijah's camera also malfunctioned, I'm taking it as a sign that no incriminating evidence was to be recorded. After all, Christ the Redeemer was looking down on us the whole time so I already felt guilty enough about the whole affair.
Party at my place.
My family is awesome, and Christmas 2002 was perhaps our best yet. If you ever get the chance to go on vacation with me and my huge extended family of siblings, I highly recommend it. You will have ridiculous amounts of fun, and we may adopt you.
Telemarketers complain it will devastate their business and have sued the FTC, claiming the legislation restricts free speech. My heart goes out to them. Plus, I'll have fewer chances to practice Chinese with the telemarketing reps from the long-distance companies who are hoping, because of last name, that I'm a middle-aged Asian who immigrated to the U.S., speak English as a second language, and will do anything when it's offered to me in my native tongue.
Let's hope this doesn't ruin my trip to France in July for the Tour de France. I'll need some of those French citizens to help push me up Alpe D'Huez.
Give Bush credit for one thing. He's not exactly taking the most popular route (though perhaps a majority of American are pro-war; it's hard to tell since the anti-war camp is so much louder). As Phil mentioned while we were sunning on Copacabana Beach, the traditional rule of politics is to hoard political capital to generate more of it for elections. Bush is just burning through it and using it to push his rather unpopular agenda.
I watched Journeys With George on HBO about two months ago, and in it I saw a Bush who wants to be liked. I saw someone who might have been president of his fraternity, chummy, joking around, a charmy smarmy jock-turned-investment banker type. Now Bush is angry, frustrated, irritated, and he's on an island. How un-political of him.
It must be frustrating for Bush, Rice, Powell, Rumsefeld, and all those folks, watching Iraq dilly dallying on compliance with resolutions that were passed over 10 years ago, hiding behind the U.N. Saddam is a lunatic for goading the U.S. like this, but he probably enjoys it. Of course, if you're the playground bully, the big man around the block, it's not exactly sporting to let some scrawny punk goad you into pummeling him. And when your fists consist of the world's greatest military, it's not humane, either.
No reasonable person really ever wants war, especially when alternatives exist. But I'd like to see Saddam stripped of his power a year from now. When some crazy dictator in North Korea is testing nuclear delivery mechanisms and when Seattle is the biggest U.S. city within theoretical range of those mechanisms, more than the usual grey clouds are casting a pall in the skies overhead. I'm ready to head back to the Southern hemisphere to work on my tan.
On the one hand, vacation has reminded me that my body needs less sleep than I think. At the same time, a combination of sleep deprivation, dancing the samba, heat exhaustion, sun stroke, about ten pounds of beef at Brazil's most famous churrascaria Porcao (how do you write an "a" with a little squiggly over it?), and heavy alcohol consumption has weakened my immune system. I am checking myself into a detox institution in a brave, pre-emptive strike against alcoholism, obesity, and skin cancer.
On a side note, I love that the Brazilian lack of inhibitions extends to their food. Naming an all-you-can-eat meat buffet restaurant Porcao and placing a giant neon pig above the entrance tells customers to leave their guilt at home. It reminds me of Star Wars. Remember the overweight X-wing pilot who was part of the rebel assault on the Death Star? He was named Porkins, and yes, he was the first to die. Even as a youth this subtle yet open discrimination against the obese struck me as unjust.
Ah yes, Rio. A week of paradise. Rio during Carnaval is an American fantasy of what Brazil is like all the time, just as Brian de Palma's The Untouchables presents a glorified vision of what a 1920's gangland Chicago would be like in our imaginations. If Mardi Gras in New Orleans is the drunken frat party where usually pent-up Puritans release their inhibitions in a disgusting display of lewd behavior, Carnaval in Rio is the party you attend wearing your smartest tuxedo, but your bow-tie is hanging around your neck, undone, and underneath you've got a swimsuit on, or a feathered skirt, or a thong. Everyone in Rio is uninhibited year round anyway, so they don't need to go overboard a few days out of the year. They simply crank the knob up a few notches.
I'll have to jot down a few notes and memories in a bit, especially because I've decided that all of you need to attend Carnaval in Rio once. It's that much fun, and you can learn from my experience. You don't have to be some young, single swinger; it's fun for all ages, and couple-friendly. Unfortunately, a torrential downpour at the start of day two of the Samba Parade killed my Leica, so all I have in the way of photos are one (as of yet) undeveloped roll from some cheap disposable. Since Elijah's camera also malfunctioned, I'm taking it as a sign that no incriminating evidence was to be recorded. After all, Christ the Redeemer was looking down on us the whole time so I already felt guilty enough about the whole affair.
Hero
One could wait until November or December, or whenever Miramax decides to release Hero here in the United States. Or you could just buy the all-region DVD and watch it next week.Party at my place.
Homework
It's a good sign when I'm travelling so much I can't even keep up with all the photos to scan and the journal entries to record. I still haven't finished posting my recollections and photos from my trip last year to the Tour de France, let alone New Zealand and Australia and Rio. I did finally finish scanning pics from Christmas 2002, and I added my memories as well.My family is awesome, and Christmas 2002 was perhaps our best yet. If you ever get the chance to go on vacation with me and my huge extended family of siblings, I highly recommend it. You will have ridiculous amounts of fun, and we may adopt you.
Next let's get the spammers
Dubya has done one thing which the majority of America will approve of. He signed legislation creating a national do-not-call list. Telemarketers calling someone on this list can be fined up to $11K for calling someone on the list. It should go into service this summer, and citizens can put their name on the list over the Internet or by dialing a toll-free number.Telemarketers complain it will devastate their business and have sued the FTC, claiming the legislation restricts free speech. My heart goes out to them. Plus, I'll have fewer chances to practice Chinese with the telemarketing reps from the long-distance companies who are hoping, because of last name, that I'm a middle-aged Asian who immigrated to the U.S., speak English as a second language, and will do anything when it's offered to me in my native tongue.
Don't get too high on our politicians, though
Of course, at the same time, many of our senators are spending time pushing through name changes for food in the House cafeterias. Upset with the French refusal to support the U.S.-proposed U.N. resolution, a few legislators led the change in names from french fries and french toast to freedom fries and freedom toast. That sounds like a great use of time.Let's hope this doesn't ruin my trip to France in July for the Tour de France. I'll need some of those French citizens to help push me up Alpe D'Huez.
George
It's fascinating to watch Bush and his administration in this whole confrontation with Iraq. Oh, to be a bug on the line during some of the phone calls from Washington D.C. to the heads of state of all the other members of the Security Council.Give Bush credit for one thing. He's not exactly taking the most popular route (though perhaps a majority of American are pro-war; it's hard to tell since the anti-war camp is so much louder). As Phil mentioned while we were sunning on Copacabana Beach, the traditional rule of politics is to hoard political capital to generate more of it for elections. Bush is just burning through it and using it to push his rather unpopular agenda.
I watched Journeys With George on HBO about two months ago, and in it I saw a Bush who wants to be liked. I saw someone who might have been president of his fraternity, chummy, joking around, a charmy smarmy jock-turned-investment banker type. Now Bush is angry, frustrated, irritated, and he's on an island. How un-political of him.
It must be frustrating for Bush, Rice, Powell, Rumsefeld, and all those folks, watching Iraq dilly dallying on compliance with resolutions that were passed over 10 years ago, hiding behind the U.N. Saddam is a lunatic for goading the U.S. like this, but he probably enjoys it. Of course, if you're the playground bully, the big man around the block, it's not exactly sporting to let some scrawny punk goad you into pummeling him. And when your fists consist of the world's greatest military, it's not humane, either.
No reasonable person really ever wants war, especially when alternatives exist. But I'd like to see Saddam stripped of his power a year from now. When some crazy dictator in North Korea is testing nuclear delivery mechanisms and when Seattle is the biggest U.S. city within theoretical range of those mechanisms, more than the usual grey clouds are casting a pall in the skies overhead. I'm ready to head back to the Southern hemisphere to work on my tan.
Better Business Bureau comes through
I ordered an Epson 2200 Stylus inkjet printer from PCNation last June or July, and as I was leaving for New Zealand I still hadn't received it. On a whim I filed a complaint online with the Better Business Bureau just before leaving for Los Angeles. Past readers know the issues I have with PCNation, including false availability promises.
A short while later, while checking my e-mail from New Zealand, I get an urgent e-mail message from a PCNation customer service rep asking if I'll be home to accept a Fed Ex package.
I arrived home and my printer was there, along with two notes. One was an acknowledgment from the Better Business Bureau that they had forwarded my complaint to PCNation. Then, a few days later, another note from the BBB, with a response from PCNation attached. Lo and behold, they had located one unit for me and it would be shipped with an upgrade to overnight delivery. So for seven or eight months I didn't hear word one from PCNation, and then one quick note with the BBB and my printer appears out of nowhere.
Count me as a huge new fan of the Better Business Bureau.
Jason and Jamie, and Julie, and Jodie and Lee...so many have been there. Just about two years ago I couldn't tell you the first thing about New Zealand, didn't even know where it was relative to Australia on a map. Now it's one of my favorite places in the world. As Brian put it, it's one of the few places you'd go back and visit within five years of your first visit.
Lauri and Brian also welcomed me to the non-working fraternity. Lauri just passed the one year mark, and Brian's even further along. Their sage advice? Acknowledge that to take the time out to travel for months on end before you have any restrictions or commitments (read: kids) in life is a blessing. Don't feel guilty--seeing the world and greeting our fellow man is never a waste of time. Don't feel guilty about spending money even though none is coming in--if you're on vacation there's no use being miserable.
I knew some of that already, but gosh it sure helps to hear it from another mouth.
Toni had her baby. Michelle had her baby. Dan sent out wedding invites. All sorts of changes at the office, of course. Trista chose Ryan, Evan chose Zora. And Jason and Jamie bought a house.
Not just any house. I swung by to visit what will be, in 24 hours, the place they sleep at night. Can I steal two syllables from Paula Abdul?
Phe. Nomenal.
Good God. It's a mansion on Queen Anne hill with the view to die for, of the city and of Lake Union and Puget Sound. I staked out a room already, though Jason doesn't realize it. I've now spent more time in the home than Jamie has. Is she in for a treat or what?
I waver on whether or not to buy a home--it seems much too mature for me. But when I walk through a place like that and imagine what it would be like, I have to stop myself and count to twenty. It must tap some primal instinct, stemming from the days when settlers worked all their lives to stake out a piece of land and to build a home of their own.
But then we're at the top of Queen Anne, picking up lunch for Jason and Big Mo, and we swing over to the gelato shops just down from Noah's. Now, anyone who knows me really well knows I've been obsessed with rice gelato every since I tasted it in Florence. They'd know that I've walked into every gelato place I've passed since that visit to Florence, and never once have I found rice gelato.
Rice (riso) gelato, the sign read. As the saying goes, I did a double take, reading it again to make sure I wasn't having a brain cramp.
Are you kidding me? Has some guardian angel been assigned some after school detention time, to watch over me? Just when you least expect it, when you've given up all hope, your epic quest ends in a gelato shop in your own hometown.
Big Mo bought me two scoops from the Project Pregnancy envelope (ask Jason), and while it wasn't quite of Florentian quality, it was symbolically the most important gelato I've ever had in my life. It represents proof that we can and should seek a higher plane of happiness than we imagine possible.
In fact, that's what my whole month off and all my experiences in New Zealand and Australia have taught me. Life can be really really good. 1998 taught me that no matter how bad things can get, they can get worse. But the reverse is always true, and now I won't and can't be content with a life less extraordinary.
Flipping through all those pages, plastered with stamps, filled me with a unique satisfaction.
I never in my life imagine I could find sailing enthralling to watch, but a lot of things in New Zealand were more contagious than anticipated.
So this is what it feels like. It feels amazingly healthy, much like what I imagine converted vegetarians feel when they finally walk into a restaurant and have no craving for any meat products whatsoever.
Or maybe I'm ill. Can this last? What's wrong with me? I mean, not even ESPN?
It has to end when All the Real Girls comes out in Seattle. I adored George Washington, David Gordon Green's first movie, and maybe I am ill, because I'm actually in the mood for this, his new movie, a romance.
A short while later, while checking my e-mail from New Zealand, I get an urgent e-mail message from a PCNation customer service rep asking if I'll be home to accept a Fed Ex package.
I arrived home and my printer was there, along with two notes. One was an acknowledgment from the Better Business Bureau that they had forwarded my complaint to PCNation. Then, a few days later, another note from the BBB, with a response from PCNation attached. Lo and behold, they had located one unit for me and it would be shipped with an upgrade to overnight delivery. So for seven or eight months I didn't hear word one from PCNation, and then one quick note with the BBB and my printer appears out of nowhere.
Count me as a huge new fan of the Better Business Bureau.
The NZ fraternity
Having visited New Zealand, I joined a small but growing fraternity of American travelers who have sampled Kiwi bliss. I had lunch with two others today, Lauri and Brian, just to swap stories. It has to be near the top of most English speaking travelers' lists this time of year, especially with current political tensions. It's a safe, neutral nation, the people are friendly, the goods and services are extremely affordable, and the landscape is awesome, as showcased in The Lord of the Rings.Jason and Jamie, and Julie, and Jodie and Lee...so many have been there. Just about two years ago I couldn't tell you the first thing about New Zealand, didn't even know where it was relative to Australia on a map. Now it's one of my favorite places in the world. As Brian put it, it's one of the few places you'd go back and visit within five years of your first visit.
Lauri and Brian also welcomed me to the non-working fraternity. Lauri just passed the one year mark, and Brian's even further along. Their sage advice? Acknowledge that to take the time out to travel for months on end before you have any restrictions or commitments (read: kids) in life is a blessing. Don't feel guilty--seeing the world and greeting our fellow man is never a waste of time. Don't feel guilty about spending money even though none is coming in--if you're on vacation there's no use being miserable.
I knew some of that already, but gosh it sure helps to hear it from another mouth.
Frasier would be jealous
A lot happened while I was gone. Traveling for a month straight is like hitting the >| button on your DVD remote, skipping to the next chapter. Come home and the changes are visible to the naked eye. They're enough to summarize over one night of beers, but it's one intense and fascinating night.Toni had her baby. Michelle had her baby. Dan sent out wedding invites. All sorts of changes at the office, of course. Trista chose Ryan, Evan chose Zora. And Jason and Jamie bought a house.
Not just any house. I swung by to visit what will be, in 24 hours, the place they sleep at night. Can I steal two syllables from Paula Abdul?
Phe. Nomenal.
Good God. It's a mansion on Queen Anne hill with the view to die for, of the city and of Lake Union and Puget Sound. I staked out a room already, though Jason doesn't realize it. I've now spent more time in the home than Jamie has. Is she in for a treat or what?
I waver on whether or not to buy a home--it seems much too mature for me. But when I walk through a place like that and imagine what it would be like, I have to stop myself and count to twenty. It must tap some primal instinct, stemming from the days when settlers worked all their lives to stake out a piece of land and to build a home of their own.
Riso Gelato!!!
After my lovely lunch with Brian and Lauri and seeing the wonder that is Jason's new home and seeing Jason's mother (Big Mo!) again, I didn't think the day could get any better.But then we're at the top of Queen Anne, picking up lunch for Jason and Big Mo, and we swing over to the gelato shops just down from Noah's. Now, anyone who knows me really well knows I've been obsessed with rice gelato every since I tasted it in Florence. They'd know that I've walked into every gelato place I've passed since that visit to Florence, and never once have I found rice gelato.
Rice (riso) gelato, the sign read. As the saying goes, I did a double take, reading it again to make sure I wasn't having a brain cramp.
Are you kidding me? Has some guardian angel been assigned some after school detention time, to watch over me? Just when you least expect it, when you've given up all hope, your epic quest ends in a gelato shop in your own hometown.
Big Mo bought me two scoops from the Project Pregnancy envelope (ask Jason), and while it wasn't quite of Florentian quality, it was symbolically the most important gelato I've ever had in my life. It represents proof that we can and should seek a higher plane of happiness than we imagine possible.
In fact, that's what my whole month off and all my experiences in New Zealand and Australia have taught me. Life can be really really good. 1998 taught me that no matter how bad things can get, they can get worse. But the reverse is always true, and now I won't and can't be content with a life less extraordinary.
Filled my passport!
Every visa page in my passport has been filled. I can't travel anywhere until I get an extension or a new passport. It will have to be a post-Rio project, when I'm planning my next excursions.Flipping through all those pages, plastered with stamps, filled me with a unique satisfaction.
Poor Kiwis
Can it get any worse for the Kiwis in the America's Cup? One of the writers in the NZ papers called a 5-0 sweep for the Swiss. Give that guy a medal. Most people favored New Zealand slightly and thought they had the faster boat. You couldn't script a more devastating or depressing first four races for the defending champions.I never in my life imagine I could find sailing enthralling to watch, but a lot of things in New Zealand were more contagious than anticipated.
The cure? Sunshine and life
Another things my travels have cured me of is my desire to watch television or movies. I haven't watched a minute of TV since I've been back, even though my TIVO has hours of all my favorite shows in its belly and even though a gazillion channels beckon from the satellite dish. I don't remember the last time I felt this way, if ever. It's completely strange.So this is what it feels like. It feels amazingly healthy, much like what I imagine converted vegetarians feel when they finally walk into a restaurant and have no craving for any meat products whatsoever.
Or maybe I'm ill. Can this last? What's wrong with me? I mean, not even ESPN?
It has to end when All the Real Girls comes out in Seattle. I adored George Washington, David Gordon Green's first movie, and maybe I am ill, because I'm actually in the mood for this, his new movie, a romance.
Writing reviews
One of the last things I have to do at work is complete a lot of employee reviews. I've been writing them for days now. I spent pretty much all day today working on them.
I take writing reviews seriously, and perhaps it's no surprise that I get writer's block while writing them just as I do when writing fiction. I also get the same pleasure from producing an insightful turn of words, or an appropriate metaphor or descriptive phrase. Writers take pride in everything they write, from e-mails to reviews to postcards and letters.
All this typing this past week is killing my fingers, though. My wrists are really sore.
So many things on this show crack me up. First of all, Joe is clearly no millionaire. I'm not sure what type of training they put him through, but it's hilarious to hear him butchering French words, gagging over fancy foods like foie gras, and saying things in his soliloquys like "And watching two women doing the tango, that lifted my spirits." I think he was supposed to have come into the money late in life, which is supposed to explain his lack of suavity and savoir-faire. By letting the audience in on the secret, a Hitchcockian device, we can laugh at his inability to hold his wealth.
Secondly, what's up with that goofy butler? His random and occasional unsolicited commentary is unseemly for a butler (hasn't he read the stories about Princess Di's tight-lipped butler?), and there's something salacious about him.
Thirdly...I can't remember what else I thought was funny. Maybe it's not that funny a show after all. Joe (whatever his name is) does seem like a pretty down-to-earth, nice guy. His commentary seems pretty heartfelt. To see him exploited in this way on the show does leave the viewer feeling guilty, and the catty, gold-digging female contestants won't inspire much faith in humanity.
Still, I have to laugh at the people who fret over reality TV and its influence over society. People have loved to revel in the faults of others since they could communicate. This can't compare to the conversation in an old Victorian salon.
Still, it's not perfect, and some of the material from the conference sounds very promising. Paul Graham gave a follow up to his fascinating article "A Plan for Spam" which proposed using Bayesian filtering on the likelihood that single words appear in spam mails versus regular mails. If you know the word viagra is appears in spam mail 99.9% of the time and in a regular e-mail only .1% of the time, finding it in a message is very damning. His follow-up, Better Bayesian Filtering, has some thoughts on how to improve his filters. Very interesting, readable articles since Bayes' law is understandable to even those who only took intro to probability. Clever.
Even more promising is Bill Yerazunis' CRM114. With some training, it has achieved accuracies of 99.9%. It's available for free for those reading e-mail on Linux or BSD. If you use Outlook on Windows, Network Associates recently bought Deersoft and plans to merge SpamAssassin Pro with their own McAfee SpamKiller. CRM114 can be used with SpamAssassin.
I still think strong legislation against spammers is needed. It's not as if the spam I receive is useful advertising. Usually it's so evidently disguised to try and get me to visit a porn site (spammers now disguise their e-mail as personal messages, using language like, "Hey, I finished that web page you asked about. Check it out: [insert porn URL]") that it clealry crosses some ethical line. And when you just receive overt pornography in spam it's just plain offensive. Either way, I'd love to see spammers nailed with big lawsuits and jail time.
Of course, the ugly truth is also that enough people click on these sex ads and marketing offers that spamming remains profitable, and perhaps that's the saddest truth in all of this.
I take writing reviews seriously, and perhaps it's no surprise that I get writer's block while writing them just as I do when writing fiction. I also get the same pleasure from producing an insightful turn of words, or an appropriate metaphor or descriptive phrase. Writers take pride in everything they write, from e-mails to reviews to postcards and letters.
All this typing this past week is killing my fingers, though. My wrists are really sore.
Nephew
My new nephew Ryan...Comedy
I caught bits and pieces of my first real episode of Joe Millionaire today. Unintentional comedy cubed. I'm not sure if Fox can keep this going because future contestants will know the premise, but this is reality TV executed at a very high level (some people will see that as taking us one step closer to the end of humanity).So many things on this show crack me up. First of all, Joe is clearly no millionaire. I'm not sure what type of training they put him through, but it's hilarious to hear him butchering French words, gagging over fancy foods like foie gras, and saying things in his soliloquys like "And watching two women doing the tango, that lifted my spirits." I think he was supposed to have come into the money late in life, which is supposed to explain his lack of suavity and savoir-faire. By letting the audience in on the secret, a Hitchcockian device, we can laugh at his inability to hold his wealth.
Secondly, what's up with that goofy butler? His random and occasional unsolicited commentary is unseemly for a butler (hasn't he read the stories about Princess Di's tight-lipped butler?), and there's something salacious about him.
Thirdly...I can't remember what else I thought was funny. Maybe it's not that funny a show after all. Joe (whatever his name is) does seem like a pretty down-to-earth, nice guy. His commentary seems pretty heartfelt. To see him exploited in this way on the show does leave the viewer feeling guilty, and the catty, gold-digging female contestants won't inspire much faith in humanity.
Still, I have to laugh at the people who fret over reality TV and its influence over society. People have loved to revel in the faults of others since they could communicate. This can't compare to the conversation in an old Victorian salon.
Down with Love
Trailer for a new romance starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. Period design (I'm thinking Catch Me If You Can, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) seem to be in. Zellweger seems to be hanging out, knocking on the door of the elite tier of money-making actresses. The romantic comedy route seems to be her best bet, as opposed to the gravitas of, say, Nicole Kidman or Julianne Moore.Spam
A whole bunch of brainy geeks met at MIT recently to discuss solutions to spam. As long as smart people are peeved enough about receiving spam to work on the problem. there's hope that one day our inboxes will be free. To date I've been too lazy to try whitelisting, so I'm hoping filters will continue to improve. I used Cloudmark's SpamNet plugin for MS Outlook and it works fairly well.Still, it's not perfect, and some of the material from the conference sounds very promising. Paul Graham gave a follow up to his fascinating article "A Plan for Spam" which proposed using Bayesian filtering on the likelihood that single words appear in spam mails versus regular mails. If you know the word viagra is appears in spam mail 99.9% of the time and in a regular e-mail only .1% of the time, finding it in a message is very damning. His follow-up, Better Bayesian Filtering, has some thoughts on how to improve his filters. Very interesting, readable articles since Bayes' law is understandable to even those who only took intro to probability. Clever.
Even more promising is Bill Yerazunis' CRM114. With some training, it has achieved accuracies of 99.9%. It's available for free for those reading e-mail on Linux or BSD. If you use Outlook on Windows, Network Associates recently bought Deersoft and plans to merge SpamAssassin Pro with their own McAfee SpamKiller. CRM114 can be used with SpamAssassin.
I still think strong legislation against spammers is needed. It's not as if the spam I receive is useful advertising. Usually it's so evidently disguised to try and get me to visit a porn site (spammers now disguise their e-mail as personal messages, using language like, "Hey, I finished that web page you asked about. Check it out: [insert porn URL]") that it clealry crosses some ethical line. And when you just receive overt pornography in spam it's just plain offensive. Either way, I'd love to see spammers nailed with big lawsuits and jail time.
Of course, the ugly truth is also that enough people click on these sex ads and marketing offers that spamming remains profitable, and perhaps that's the saddest truth in all of this.
Piano Teacher
Finished watching The Piano Teacher, a Netflix rental, on DVD. It's a movie that you can only imagine the French making. Or perhaps the Japanese. No one in America would. And I could only imagine Isabelle Huppert playing the lead. To take a role like this ensures you'll never get a shot at a romantic comedy, and she's okay with that.
The movie won all the major awards at Cannes in 2001--best movie, best actress, best actor. Plays like modern or contemporary art: serious, intellectual, unflinching, pedantic. In other words, even though I think it's a really good movie, I'd only recommend it to one or two of my friends, and they're the ones that none of my other friends like.
Huppert's cold, precise disciplinarian of a piano teacher reminded me of every frightening music teacher I've ever had. You wonder how great musicians like Itzhak Perlman or Yo-Yo Ma endure years of harsh competition and training to emerge with such cheerful personalities. I, for one, would crack like a glass going from hot to cold.
Settled down from there. Yao has handled his public persona (or is that really his personality?) beautifully. He graciously sought the high ground and brushed off Shaq's silly comments, and in doing so he came out looking like a dignified veteran forgiving the silliness of a brash young kid when Shaq is actually his senior by many years.
The movie won all the major awards at Cannes in 2001--best movie, best actress, best actor. Plays like modern or contemporary art: serious, intellectual, unflinching, pedantic. In other words, even though I think it's a really good movie, I'd only recommend it to one or two of my friends, and they're the ones that none of my other friends like.
Huppert's cold, precise disciplinarian of a piano teacher reminded me of every frightening music teacher I've ever had. You wonder how great musicians like Itzhak Perlman or Yo-Yo Ma endure years of harsh competition and training to emerge with such cheerful personalities. I, for one, would crack like a glass going from hot to cold.
I, Robot
Crippled by the upgrade to Windows XP, my computer can no longer play any sounds. It can only beep. It takes me back to the days when the only sound a computer would make was a beep, when it encountered an error, for example. Windows XP is Tereus, and it cut the tongue out of my computer, Philomena. Now all my computer can do is grunt at me like an idiot.Giant squid
These people don't know how lucky they are. To be attacked by a giant squid? That's straight out of Jules Verne. Someday I'd like to see one alive, in person. Do they hang out in the Great Barrier Reef?Not bad
Yao vs. Shaq, round one. Yao acquitted himself alright. The first few minutes of the game were awesome. First series. Shaq wins the tip, then immediately posts Yao up and calls for the ball. Shaq spins baseline to throw up a shot, and Yao stuffs him. At the other end, they immediately go to Yao on the left block. Jump hook is good, and the crowd at Compaq center goes crazy. Two more Yao blocks of Shaq shots and a Yao layup in transition and I'm waving a towel in the air.Settled down from there. Yao has handled his public persona (or is that really his personality?) beautifully. He graciously sought the high ground and brushed off Shaq's silly comments, and in doing so he came out looking like a dignified veteran forgiving the silliness of a brash young kid when Shaq is actually his senior by many years.