Bandon Dunes

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I heard about Bandon Dunes from some of my golfing buddies here in Seattle in 2000, but I could never go down with them on their annual pilgrimage. And that is the right word to describe the journey, because Bandon Dunes is the new mecca of golf in the U.S. It's one of the few links-style courses in the U.S., and it's supposed to be simply gorgeous, set along the Oregon Coast. There are two courses: Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes. Many rank Bandon as the best public course in the U.S.
Well, I've finally taken matters into my own hands and planned a mid-summer golfing weekend down there. Having a vacation planned and reserved in the future is the easiest way to elevate the quality of every day from now until your vacation. No one should be without some vacation plans at all times.
P.S.: A links style golf course means several things, but mostly it refers to a golf course with terrain similar to that of Scottish golf courses built on sandy earth. Not many trees grow on such terrain, which is good for your golf score. However, in its place grows thick, tall grass, and most fairways are not continuous from tee to green, which is bad for your golf score. Also, you have many blind tee shots to greens hidden behind dunes. In Scotland the weather tends to be quite variable and thus has come to be associated with links style terrain in golfer's minds. Therefore, golfers tend to have to play a lot of punch and run shots instead of hitting beautiful, high-arcing iron shots which would get blown away.

Movie glossary entries

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Saw Infernal Affairs at SIFF last night. I thought of some new entries for the fabulously humorous Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary. Maybe they're already in there, but if not...
Always photocopy your passport and driver's license. In any movie where a policeman goes undercover and only one other person in his department knows of his secret identity (usually his department chief), that one person inevitably gets killed, leaving the mole stranded. Inevitably he has to flee while getting shot at by other policeman, all the while trying to think of some way to prove his identity. (e.g. Face/Off)
Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. In any movie where a gang boss suspects one of his gang of being an undercover cop, the mole is inevitably his right hand man, the one he trusts the most.
Keep your friends close, your enemies closer part II. In any movie where a gang boss suspects one of his gang of being an undercover cop, he merely needs to think back to the member of his group who earned his position by appearing out of nowhere and (a) committing some extravagant act of violence which saves the gang boss's life and simultaneous proves his ruthlessness or (b) executing some other member of the gang who has somehow failed the gang boss or is secretly working for some other gang or (c) offering to step in to kill some policeman or innocent citizen when the gang boss was about to do the job himself (usually the death can't be confirmed because the body is tossed into a river or something like that).

Melville

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I was absolutely sure I had bought a ticket for this weekend's screening of Le Cercle Rouge at SIFF. Call it senility, call it a gross oversight, either way you'd be right. I showed up at Will Call on Sunday and they had no record of my having purchased a ticket. I was incensed, but when they pulled up my purchase record, it did appear that I had somehow forgotten to hit add-to-cart. Unfortunately, the screening was sold out, and scalping tickets to a movie that's only showing once at SIFF is like getting Dustin Hoffman to take a shower in Rain Man. Scalping tickets to Springsteen in Jersey would be easier.
It's doubly painful because it's one of the few Melville movies not on video in any format. I love Jean-Pierre Melville's gangster movies. Just flat out adore them in a way that is not right or normal. Le Samourai is one of my top ten movies of all time. My only hope now is that since Criterion Collection issued Bob Le Flambeur on DVD that Le Cercle Rouge (and even Le Samourai or Les Enfants Terribles) won't be far behind.
If anyone knows of another screening of Le Cercle Rouge anywhere in the world or even a rogue copy on video, let me know!
Footnote: Holy chipotle! It looks like the restored 35mm print is on tour and is hitting Seattle the week of June 20-27! Whooo-hooo!
Footnote #2: hmm, it looks like it may be on DVD after all, though only in French (Amazon.fr). Bummer.

Finding Nemo, fables, and family values

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Seeing Finding Nemo this weekend reminded me of the fairy tale trope of the parent-less hero or heroine, as if having parents disqualifies one from taking the archetypal heroic journey. Sometimes the hero is missing both parents; evil or dislikeable stepparents or foster parents are optional add-ons (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Lion King). Sometimes one parent is missing; this is the so-called single parent fable household, though sometimes the single parent remarries, though rarely to someone as kind as the person they're replacing (Nemo, Hansel and Gretel, Belle, Pinocchio). Often these heroes grow up in the company of a motley crew of friends, including anthropomorphic animals and household objects or dwarves (Belle, Cinderella, Tarzan, Snow White).
But we know that in society, generally kids who don't have any parents or just one parent are susceptible to a higher rate of social problems. I don't have the statistics handy, but in my experience, kids who grow up in the company of animals and who talk to those animals or to brooms and grandfather clocks and teacups are mentally disturbed.
Who will stand up and restore family values in our fables? How ironic that most of the movies that parents take their kids to depict children becoming adults without a full set of parents to aid them. It's certainly convenient from a dramatic perspective--it amplifies the emotional isolation of the protagonist and thus their subsequent heroism as well, and it avoids the uncomfortable emotional complexities of teenage rebellion from clouding the movie. Or perhaps the two parent family is too well-adjusted, on average, to offer dramatic possibilities?
Then again, I'm reading The Nurture Assumption by Judith Harris, one of the more famous books on child development, and the central thesis of the book is that children socialize each other more than parents socialize their children. It shows that the idea that parents are massively influential in the way their kids turn out is a cultural myth that's been propagated over the years with little evidence to back it up. Perhaps our fables simply do away with parents because they know that the most important influence of our parents is the genes they pass us, and that our subsequent development is driven more by our peers.
I'm only part way into the book, and I went into it with some skepticism (my parents would have a huge problem with the idea that they weren't highly responsible for the way I turned out) but it has definitely tickled my aha! nerve. Highly recommended for any parents out there or anyone interested in understanding how they turned out the way they turned out. Maybe our fables are smarter than we think.

All-time Cubs team

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Rob Neyer is posting his picks for all-time best lineups for each team in the majors. Monday he posted the AL rosters, and tomorrow he'll post the NL rosters.
I'm going to post my picks for an All-Time Cubs roster and see how it meshes with Neyer's (with apologies for pre-1900 players like Cap Anson who I just haven't read enough about to judge):
C: Gabby Hartnett--No one even close in Cubs history. His homer in the gloaming is perhaps the most famous homer in Cubs history. Widely considered the best pre-WWII NL catcher.
1B: Mark Grace/Phil Cavarretta--Cubs have had a plethora of 1B who hit without much power (Bill Buckner, Stan Hack, Frank Chance). I can't choose between Cavarretta and Grace. Grace gets the nod for longevity (he was the major league hits and doubles leader in the 90's) while Cavarretta would take the prize if you consider that, at his peak, he was one of the top hitters in the league, and players like Grace or Buckner were not. Cavarretta led the Cubs to their last World Series, in 1945, while Grace battled valiantly to counter Will Clark in the 89 playoffs. The guy who would be listed here, had he stayed with the Cubs and shifted to 1B, is Rafael Palmeiro. If I had to choose, I'd probably lean towards Grace since I saw him play from his very first callup to the Cubs. He is one of a fan favorite, a classic Chicago sports hero, the type that makes the most of minimal physical talents. A grinder. His rift with Sosa is painful for Cub loyalists to stomach.
2B: Ryne Sandberg--the best player in baseball in 1984, when Whitey Herzog compared him to Babe Ruth (just a bit of hyperbole, huh?) after he hit two homers off of Bruce Sutter to beat the Cards in extra innings. Solid fielder who became made a successful transition from speed and contact hitter to slugger later in his career. Fortunately, he did it with the Cubs (see Palmeiro, Rafael).
SS: Ernie Banks--Mr. Cub played his entire career for the Cubs and had his peak seasons in the late 50's. Actually spent most of the latter half of his career as a 1B. Has, though it's unfair, been the personification of the tragic lovable loser image which haunts the Cubs.
3B: Ron Santo--get this poor man in the Hall of Fame! In addition to hitting and hitting with power, he racked up 5 Gold Gloves at 3B. It's a travesty that he isn't in the Hall yet.
LF: Billy Williams--could hit and field, and was durable.
CF: Hack Wilson--standing only 5' 6", Hack had a great 5 year run with the Cubs from 1926 through 1930, culminating in his 56 HR, 191 RBI (still a ML record) season. Tragically, he drank himself out of baseball.
RF: Sammy Sosa--the most prolific slugger in Cubs history. Personifies the Cubs, in a way. Not as good as the greatest players of his ERA, but lovable even as the Cubs continue to lose (though the recent corking incident hurts).
SP1: Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown--Pitching in a different era, the dead-ball era (or should I say, dead ball ERA?), Brown posted six straight 20 win seasons starting in 1906, including a 29 win season in 1908, and his ERA was routinely under 2.00, well below league average. His ERA of 1.04 in 1906 was less than half the league ERA of 2.62. Earned his nickname because a childhood accident left him without the top joint of his index finger or use of his pinky (his other two fingers were disfigured as well). The injury allowed him to throw a devastating natural sinker. 4 of his 5 World Series wins were shutouts. Of course, this spot should be occupied by Greg Maddux, the most tragic free agent departure in team history.
SP2: Ferguson Jenkins--Only pitched 9 full seasons with the Cubs (the latter two at the twilight of his career) but those first 7 were a doozy, including six straight 20-win seasons. I saw him pitch a game in 82, at the tail end of his career. He slugged a triple and then head to leave the game shortly after, worn down by the brutal Chicago summer heat.
SP3: Greg Maddux--at the end of five great seasons and his first Cy Young for the Cubs, Larry Himes let the Braves pinch him for the difference of a few million dollars on a multi-year contract. The rest is history as Maddux went on to win 3 more Cy Youngs in a row. The best fielding pitcher in Cubs history.
SP4: Hippo Vaughn--definitely the best lefty in Cubs history. In one of the few great trades of Cubs history, Vaughn came over from Kansas City for Lew Richie in 1913. Famous for being involved in a double no-hit game through nine-innings against the Reds' Fred Toney in 1917, a game Vaughn lost in the 10th on an unearned run. This spot currently being warmed for Mark Prior.
RP: Bruce Sutter/Lee Smith--Smith wins for longevity with the Cubs, but Sutter was more dominant in his 5 years with the Cubs before he passed the closer mantle to Smith and moved to the hated rivals in St. Louis. Perhaps I have too many ugly memories from my youth of Lee Smith blowing saves, especially game 4 of the 1984 NLCS, which cloud my judgment. But if I were headed to the 9th with a lead I'd rather pass the ball to Sutter. Some of the great closers in history have passed through Wrigley, including Gossage in his twilight and Eckerseley before anyone thought of converting starters to closers.
Looking over the roster, you can see why it's been a rough century for the Cubs. There aren't any players on this list who you'd consider to best ever at their position. Hopefully the 21st century will bring bigger stars and less heartbreak for long-suffering Cubs fans.

Overrated books

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BoingBoing links to this article lists the books that some famous Brits really dislike. I love it when the gloves come off--they should make more such lists public, though I doubt many famous people want to irritate each other. Never know who you'll run into on the dinner circuit.
Off the top of my head, some acclaimed and highly overrated books:
Lord of the Rings: don't confuse effort with quality. Most books praised by readers as so imaginative, or so elaborate a fictional universe, should raise warning flags. Sure, he invented an entire language and all sorts of histories and races, but Tolkien still can't write prose or poetry for shit. I forced myself to reread the books after the first Jackson movie came out, and now I wonder why I wasted so many hours of my life. The movies are better.
Harry Potter series: I've read the first two now, and I still don't understand what all the fuss is about. Sure, it may be an interesting diversion for kids, but why are all these adults filling their brains with this childish nonsense? Anyone who uses the word muggle in a sentence while in my presence shall be shot.
The Fountainhead: I had to read it in high school for the annual Fountainhead essay writing contest. It's also the book most often cited when I ask people what their favorite book is. She might as well have written an essay, because none of the characters are believable. Every one of them is simply a skeleton on which to hang some philosophical archetype.
There must be more, though none come to mind right now. Other nominees, folks?
P.S.: Speaking of Brits, I saw a highlight from the French Open in which some guy ran out on the court naked and hopped the net with security officers in pursuit. What is it with European sports fans and streaking? That just doesn't really happen in the U.S. Is it the same reason Americans are so uncomfortable on European nude beaches?

Apple Mac G5

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Looks like the new Mac G5 is just around the corner. At the same time, my Windows desktop at home is on its deathbed. Usually, old computers just become obsolete because they aren't fast enough to run the latest software. That's not the problem here--my current desktop is still plenty fast enough with dual Pentium 866Mhz processors. No, the problem is that it has become so unstable and slow after an operating systems upgrade that I may put my fist through the monitor one of these days.
After I upgraded to Windows XP, boot-up suddenly took several hours. I turn on my PC and go away to do other things and several hours later I get the login screen. After login, I always get the "You don't have enough virtual memory" error. Windows released a supposed fix for that issue, which was exciting, but it didn't work for me. The two hard drives each have cooling fans, and one of them is incredibly loud. I opened the box up and removed the hard drive, but getting into the casing where the fan is enclosed is probably not a good idea unless I want to risk damaging it. The sound card also croaked after the Windows XP upgrade because compatible drivers were never written. Dell's upgrade evaluation program conveniently left that tidbit out, so now my computer has no sound at all except the annoying whirring of the fans.
I've been trying to scan photos from my sabbatical. Every third or fourth photo, the application just quits, which is really galling because it takes some ten to fifteen minutes to scan a photo at the highest resolution. Then, when I try to edit photos in Photoshop, it just suddenly shuts down every other photo. When software misbehaves, it's one of the most helpless, frustrating things in the world. You search the web for software updates and patches and fixes. You uninstall and reinstall software. You scream at your monitor, and it stares back at you blankly, a deaf-mute. Your blood pressure rises.
So I may just have to switch over to a Mac G5 when it comes out. The biggest problem with swapping is the replacement software cost. I paid for a full copy of Photoshop once. But to pay for a full version of the Macintosh version? I just can't stomach the $500 cost. I wish Apple would work with software companies to offer discounts on their flagship programs when switching over from Windows to Macintosh. It would certainly be more effective a switching strategy than running lots of TV testimonial commercials.

HDTV package for DirecTV

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DirecTV just announced a new HDTV package for $10.99 a month. The good news is that it includes ESPN HD and Discovery HD Theater, as well as some NFL games for the upcoming 2003 season. The bad news is that to watch local channels in HD you still need to install a regular TV antenna, and the selection of channels is still limited. The press release claims that HDNet Movies will offer 24 hours worth of blockbuster movies, but HDNet, while technically superb, has been disappointingly thin on content. The price, $10.99, also seems pretty steep when you consider that it's the same cost as a premium movie channel.
I suppose I should install the Winegard antenna I bought. Watching the NBA Finals in HD is mildly tempting. Someday our kids will wonder how we watched standard definition TV, just as I can barely remember what it was like to have fewer than 100 channels of programming to choose from.

My country club summer

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I've decided after two seasons off from golf and some ten years off from tennis to try and pick up both again this summer. I'm trying to play tennis weekly with Eric, and hopefully I can find an instructor. The Seattle Tennis Center is way too popular; all the lessons for the summer have filled. Still, after just two weeks of hitting around outside on public courts, I'm having fun and rediscovering the kinetic pleasures of hitting the ball cleanly and competing on the court. I need to find more people to play with. I've realized that I really don't know many tennis players in Seattle.
The only fly in the ointment is that my shoulder is killing me. I don't think I ever fully recovered after my bike accident earlier this year, when I separated my shoulder. I hit a lot of serves last Saturday, and when I went to throw a softball on Sunday my shoulder was throbbing. I couldn't get anything on my throws. I had been working on rehabbing the shoulder in the weight room before I went on sabbatical, and I don't think it's all the way back. Doc's going to check me out next week, so maybe until then I'll just play without serving.
As for golf, I took my first private lesson ever today. It was only a half hour, but watching myself on video was extremely helpful. The most frustrating thing about golf is not knowing why you're not hitting the ball the way you want to. It's time for me to finally learn all the shots, all the fundamentals of the game. All these years just guessing at what to do while hacking around the grass--I don't know how people find that fun. It's just aggravation for me. But when you get a few tips and suddenly start hitting beautiful 7 irons, one after the other, like I did today, it's mystical and joyous in a way that non-golfers will never understand.

Mozilla Firebird

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Let me be the last one on the Mozilla Firebird bandwagon. In Windows, it's an improvement over Internet Explorer because it has built in pop-up window blocking and tabbed browsing which I've come to use all the time. Also, Mozilla has its own Google Toolbar called Googlebar. On a Mac, you can use Safari which also has built in pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, and a Google search box. But I prefer Firebird because, at the moment, Safari isn't a supported browser for posting to Blogger over the web.

Ugh, Sammy

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Not much to say about the Sosa cork scandal. MLB has all of his bats now, so we'll learn shortly if he had an entire arsenal of corked bats.
It's depressing to see such a popular, likeable guy, especially a Cub, caught in such an embarrassing scandal. It goes without saying that someone like Sosa is the last person in the world who needs to use a corked bat. I don't think the corked bat had much to do with his 500+ homers, and the only way he can prove it now is to come back after his inevitable suspension and keep hitting them like he used to. We did a physics problem in a college class in which we attempted to estimate the performance enhancing effects of corking a bat. The goal in corking a bat is to reduce the weight of the bat, reducing the rotational inertia. Theoretically, assuming the structural integrity of the bat is the same, the bat speed should increase. However, we found in our class that the benefit was so small as to be pretty much irrelevant, not to mention that the decreased mass and density of the bat might actually decrease its effectiveness. Certainly it's not worth the risk to one's reputation and career. So why do it if it doesn't really help? Stupidity.
Unfortunately, at Sosa's age, he's due for some natural decline in production, and that will only lead to more questions. Psychologically, this has to be a massively humbling and embarrassing blow. I wonder if he'll ever be as exuberant. Perhaps not this year.
I'm taking my mini Sosa bobblehead doll off of my computer monitor and retiring it to a desk drawer for a while. It's too painful to look at right now. Looks like Cubs fans are getting the next century of pain started in style.

Super duper lux deluxe "off the heezy" edition

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The trend in home video of releasing a new special edition of a movie every year has crossed the line of excess, and that's saying a lot coming from me. When the majority of the hot DVD releases in a given week are for movies already out on DVD, even I get nauseous at the stench of blatant greed. God knows how many versions of Evil Dead there are. Now we have a third edition of T2, the Extreme DVD, which comes on the heels of the Ultimate Edition. There's the 3 disc deluxe edition of Black Hawk Down, which emasculates last year's plain old regular DVD of the same flick. And the latest example to hit shelves, with the most gratuitous marketing name yet: The Fast and the Furious Widescreen Tricked Out Edition. Don't you dare be seeing driving around the block in the plain old Honda Civic that was last year's DVD.
I don't object to the studio issuing two versions of the same movie on DVD. I often prefer the collector's edition, as I did for The Fellowship of the Ring (after all, who wouldn't want Pillars of Argonath bookends?). But when they release the collector's edition a year later, out of nowhere, that's just a blatant attempt to induce collectors to buy the same movie twice. That stinks. I gave in the first few times it happened, when DVD was in its infancy, but now I'm drawing a line in the sand. At least with Lord of the Rings they've announced both editions at the same time, even though they still penalize people who want the collector's version by releasing it later than the regular version. Same announce date, same release date. Anything else is just plain greedy.
Of course, I still leave most of my DVDs shrinkwrapped, just in case I need to sell one back to trade up to the collector's edition. I hate myself for doing it.

Don't call

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Slashdot links to this press release from the FTC that announced an accelerated roll-out of the national no-call list. Supposedly registration will open around July 1 of this year.
People are generally skeptical of the ability of legislation to curb intrusions like spam e-mail, but on the telemarketing front my friends in Missouri tell me that their no-call list has been quite effective. An $11,000 fine per call is hefty. Once the law is in action, every telemarketing call becomes a game in which I have to keep the telemarketer on the line long enough to get their identity. It will be like in the movies, trying to coax a confession out of a witness while wearing a wire tap, or trying to stretch out a call until a trace can be completed.
The paranoid posters of Slashdot, who are the geek equivalents of conspiracy hillbillies who build bomb shelters in anticipation of nuclear war, are skeptical, but after my successful dealings with the Better Business Bureau last year I'm inclined to give the FTC the benefit of the doubt here. As long as it's easy to put your number on this list, what's the harm?

Scanning old photos

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Everyone seems surprised when I tell them that all the photos on my site are from analog cameras. Everyone assumes that an early adopter like me would be all over digital cameras (I recently caved and got a compact digital camera, the Minolta F300). For simply posting pics online, a digital workflow is definitely the way to go. Still, I love shooting slides using my different lenses attached to my lug of a camera body.
Most people have lots of old negatives and slides, and posting those pics online is a great way to share them. If you have enough of them, a film scanner is a great investment because it's cheaper to scan hundreds of negatives yourself than to have a photo lab do it. Used or refurbed photo scanners can be had for true bargains on eBay. For 35mm film scanners, try searching for a used Nikon LS-2000 (or make me an offer on mine), a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III, or best of all, a Minolta Dimage Scan Elite II. If you're willing to open the wallet, the upcoming Minolta Dimage Elite 5400 looks like one of the sweetest 35mm film scanners yet. It looks to retail for close to $1000, though. If you're a medium format film shooter and lucky enough to be able to afford a Minolta Dimage Multi Pro, you should also pick up a Scanhancer, a feature supposedly built into the upcoming 5400.
An added bonus? You can touch up those old photos in Photoshop. Scratched or dusty negatives and slides? Digital ICE and other software algorithms will work some magic on them to clean them up.

We are all Sims

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These days, the fastest way for a philosopher to make a name for himself is to tie his work to the Matrix. Nick Bostrom of Oxford is the latest to cash in with his essay, "Are you living in a computer simulation?" He postulates that the probability is high that we are indeed living in the Matrix.
Sweet, now I can finally get away with wearing sunglasses inside. (I'm being flip...there are some interesting papers linked from his page)
Speaking of artificial environments, little sis Karen is leaving Boston and moving to Los Angeles. All my college friends and family seem to be moving to NY or LA. Good film schools there, I hear.