The Wicked Good Blog

TV Tropes: Waste An Afternoon

2009-08-08T14:30:00.001-07:00

It's far too easy to get lost in the infinite links of TVTropes.org, which breaks down the myriad familiar tropes of popular storytelling. So naturally, I highly recommend it.

The hat trick of "Ten Minute Retirement" followed by "Foe Tossing Charge", leading to a "Slow Motion Fall" makes me laugh out loud.

See also "Big No", "Compressed Vice", "Alien Sky", "Zepplins From Another World", and the very true "Rule of Cool".

GarBadge: Smell Greatly

2009-03-16T08:46:00.001-07:00

Think fast: can you spot what's wrong in the following sentences?

“With ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ we had such resistance from the fan base to changing it,” Ms. Hammer said of a series Sci Fi introduced in 2003, based on an ABC show from 1978-9.

“The upshot was, we ultimately won them over,” she added, and the series, scheduled to end on Friday, became one of the most successful on Sci Fi. It has inspired a spin-off, “Capricia,” to begin on Syfy in 2010.

If you think the second spelling of the network is a typo, consider the source: The New York fricken Times. Yessir, the SCI FI Channel is rebranding come July 7, ditching the iconic saturn logo and classic spelling in favor of a new name and wordmark.

I can't even count the ways this is stupid. The old logo, visible in the Times article, made for a perfect bug (the network logo on the bottom-right corner of the screen), felt both classic and modern, and made at least an ounce of goddamn sense. "SyFy" looks and feels like the kind of Web 2.0 encounter that makes me want to take a long hot shower to wash away the stink of inappropriate, cutesy, substance-less style.

I'm glad Battlestar Galactica will be over before this identity launches; better dead that branded with SyFy.

Think about it like this: "SCI FI" was recognizable and a good fit. Sure, it wasn't perfect, and probably scared a few people away. But the loaded term helped the network make an identity that fit itself and its viewers. Meanwhile, "SyFy" reads like a syphillus medication and reeks of current branding trends so as to make it indistinguishable from any of these companies. Seriously, can you imagine anyone thinking "Sci Fi is boring and geeky, but hey – I find this 'SyFy' strangely intriguing!"? I thought not.

But hey, if a new brand uses vowels sparingly and strangely, looks like it might sound like a word we recognize, and has a generic slogan set in a modern sans serif font, by golly it's got to be great.

Daft Tron

2009-03-05T06:43:00.001-08:00

Somehow I missed the news that Daft Punk is going to score the new Tron sequel. Hot damn, that is awesome. The only downside is I have to wait until 2011 to see it.

Blast!

Resumé Item

2009-02-23T07:36:00.001-08:00

For anyone who's interested, there's a little taste of what I do over at MTV.com (apologies for the ridiculous fact that you have to sit through an ad for one movie before you watch an ad for another). That behind-the-scenes piece was cut by one of our editors, and I did the online - adding final graphics and doing the color correction, cutting in the audio mix, and delivering the final tape.

More of our work will start hitting the web as the summer gets going, so there may be ore as the weather gets warmer...

[link courtesy of io9]

Wow

2009-02-13T07:44:00.001-08:00

Holy Jesus.

This woman's octuplet-containg belly looks like a Stan Winston special effect or something. And yet, it is real.

On Ideas & Writing

2009-02-11T23:55:00.001-08:00

Some solid advice from John August:

You’re not going to become best friends with every nice person you meet. You’re not going to write every good idea you have.

I've made this very decision myself in the past week or two, after I consciously "allowed" a few gems escape without writing them down.

A-Rod Juiced

2009-02-08T08:48:00.001-08:00

Surprise! Yankee "star" player Alex Rodriguez just got outed for using steroids! He tested positive in 2003, the year he won the M.V.P. award which gave him the leverage to, as Will put it, "get the big contract with the Yanks AND TAKE THEM NOWHERE." That contract runs until 2019 (!), giving A-Fraud a possible net of $300 million.

Universe 16, Yankees 0. Karma's a bitch.

New Year: Status in Brief

2009-01-11T01:28:00.001-08:00

It's rather obvious that TWGB has been on a bit of an, ah, hiatus, of late.

That will likely continue for a little longer yet. I've got some serious Life Projects that need attention, in addition to work and social time. So updates are going to be especially spotty for a while.

I am NOT stopping, I am NOT going away, but officially marking this as a slow period. Regular, worthwhile postings will resume on some sort of schedule once I get some of my personal backlog sorted out. In the meantime, I appreciate your patience, and please bear with me.

For those of you so inclined, I've started experimenting with Twitter, and may have some brief tidbits up there to supplement this site; you can find and follow me here.

On Making Art

2008-11-30T22:41:00.001-08:00

Willard Wigan, who creates microsculptures:

I enjoy it when I finish it. Not working on it, no. It's misery, it's painstaking.

I can think of several artists who would agree...

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T11:15:00.001-08:00

The turkey is out of the brine and into the oven; my parents are in Mexico with my Uncle John and Aunt Susie; Ian is hosting a dinner with Liz's family and Caitlin and Ash; Adam's sister Maya has flown down from San Fran, Mike is driving in, and the LA orphan crew will be assembling shortly. We're healthy and happy and in good company.

Plus, our president-elect has given us a message of hope and thankfulness.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Breaks And Paragraphs

2008-11-22T00:56:00.001-08:00

[WARNING: Here be web nerdery]

Yikes.

Turns out, I've been writing some crappy code these past years. I haven't been using paragraph tags; instead, I've just been inserting line breaks between paragraphs as I type. Now, initially, this looks the same when converted to HTML for display, as the default paragraph tag setting is almost the same as a line break.

No, the problem appears when you start trying to customize your code.

So, for example, the post prior to this looks funky, with way too much space between paragraphs. This one looks just as lame. It happens because I've recently started using the <p> tag, because it'll let my (eventual) full-site redesign be more powerful. But, because everything old was done with line breaks, I need the blog to perform an action where it displays "returns" as line breaks. So, as I do have returns between <p> tags, suddenly the space is getting doubled between paragraphs anywhere the <p> tag is used.

I am lame. I know. I admit it.

My plan is this: I'm going to let the <p> tag posts look ugly for another week or two. Then, I'll disable the line break setting, making everything old look bad. At that point, I'll begin going back through my old posts and formatting them correctly; it will take a long time, so please be patient.

I'm sorry it has to be like this. I guess it's just my growing pains as a web designer. And, since I am not a web designer, I guess it could have been worse...

Michael Crichton R.I.P.

2008-11-21T23:59:00.001-08:00

Michael Crichton died at the beginning of the month, and I feel bad that I haven't gotten to it until now. Other than Tolkien and (recently) Orson Scott Card, he's the modern writer I've read the most of. Jurassic Park, Congo, Sphere, and Eaters of the Dead are books I re-read regularly. I can't claim I do this for sparkling prose or thought-provoking narratives – my motive to return to these wells is pure entertainment.

That I am a science fiction geek is no surprise; the fact that I've read most of Crichton's work follows logically. For all of his weaknesses as a writer (and he had his share), he excelled at blending intriguing narratives with technological questions and dilemmas – those most basic "What if?" questions at the heart of good science fiction. Sometimes the premise was simple and primal – what if scientists cloned dinosaurs – while other times he went for a more specific story – what if a society of anciently trained gorillas came head-to-head with a late-twentieth century tech-heavy search party. But at his best, it was always intriguing, and kept me turning the pages.

One of my first memories of a "new" book is from the early nineties, probably March of 1992. My mom had orchestrated me giving my dad the Jurassic Park paperback as a Christmas or birthday gift, though I had barely glanced at the cover before it got wrapped. So a few weeks later, when my dad handed me some book open to a particular page.

"Read this, from here to here," he said.

So I did.

A narrow path wound down the hill. The air was chilly and damp. As they moved lower, the mist around them thinned, and Grant could see the landscape better. It looked, he thought, rather like the Pacific Northwest, the Olympic Peninsula.

"That's right," Regis said. "Primary ecology is deciduous rain forest. Rather different from the vegetation on the mainland, which is more classical rain forest. But this is a microclimate that only occurs at elevation, on the slopes of the northern hills. The majority of the island is tropical."

Down below, they could see the white roofs of large buildings, nestled among the planting. Grant was surprised: the construction was elaborate. They moved lower, out of the mist, and now he could see the full extent of the island, stretching away to the south. As Regis had said, it was mostly covered in tropical forest.

To the south, rising above the palm trees, Grant saw a single trunk with no leaves at all, just a big curving stump. Then the stump moved, and twisted around to face the new arrivals. Grant realized that he was not seeing a tree at all.

He was looking at the graceful, curving neck of an enormous creature, rising fifty feet into the air.

He was looking at a dinosaur.

And then I was hooked.

I read Jurassic Park over three days, reading almost every moment I could, staying up until 3 or 4 in the morning to keep on going. Sure, the story was a survival adventure about dinosaurs, but it also tied into technology and science,; it was hard to imagine a single story tying into more of my interests.

When watching the news with my parents, we heard a report on Hurricane Iniki, which had just hit the Hawaiian island Kaua'i "disrupting the filming of Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park." My dad and I looked at each other – our favorite director, making the movie of a book about cloning dinosaurs? It's hard to imagine a time before the internet, when we would have had no way of knowing about it, aside from a lucky newscast, but there we were, and we were excited.

We saw the movie as a family – I'll never forget my mom jumping and screaming when a velociraptor stuck its head through the piping in the maintenance shed. Just two weeks after it's June 3, 1993 opening, I took my dad back as a father's gift, just the two of us.¹ Clearly, an impression was made.

And so my love affair with Crichton was born; soon, I was reading Disclosure, Rising Sun, Sphere, and Congo. Our copy of Jurassic Park starting falling apart, so I got another one. The Lost World is the first book I remember looking forward to; everything else I was excited about, literarily, was either long since published, or a new find. In this case, I got to anticipate, which was a fun all its own.²

I've read most of his books, some bad, most good. I've studied him in class, watched his movies, and enjoyed his TV shows. He may have been a right-wing nutjob (with his "global warming is a myth" book State of Fear which I have not finished), and he may not have written the greatest prose, but the man had a knack for storytelling, and more than the normal share of imagination. Plus, he was a big time Mac user.

And now I'm speaking of him in the past tense.

Thanks for everything, Mr. Crichton.

Embarassingly, I remember taking him to McDonald's (!) for dinner, and I think he paid for the movie, but hey, it's the thought that counts! [⇪]

That this book, as well as the two film sequels, were somewhat disappointing didn't matter; my dad and I saw both of the films together, and found plenty to like in the book (as well as the first sequel). [⇪]

The Secret Lives of Ants

2008-11-21T22:29:00.001-08:00

We've all seen ant farms; however, like Khan, they betray a bit of two-dimensional thinking. Eager for a better look at a real colony, a group of scientists scrounged together 10 tons (!) of cement and poured it into a leaf-cutter ant colony.

The results are, in a word, breathtaking. The complexity of the resulting structure, as well as its obvious logic and seeming design, must be seen to be believed. Yes, it looks like they buried a living colony in cement, but it's hard to be upset once the colony is unearthed.

Enthusiasm Beyond Reason

2008-11-18T07:36:00.001-08:00

Linked below is a feat that is American down to its core.

Dedication to a seemingly impossible task; refusal to accept defeat; willingness to experience utter humiliation in pursuit of a dream.

Oh – and it's totally, completely pointless. Ridiculous, in fact. Done only because maybe it can be. Not for any benefit to mankind or personal gain. The mountain is climbed because it is there.

O beautiful, for spacious skies...

Primer: Where The Money Went

2008-11-17T15:46:00.001-08:00

I don't know many financial pros (Hi Sahra!), but I do know my fair share of smart people. And the only consensus I've seen among them is that the financial mess the United States finds itself in is really hard to figure out. I guess that once you have billions of dollars being traded daily, a government policy designed to obfuscate and enable, and greedy people and corporations who don't care about consequences, chaos sets in really fast.

So it's nice to find a few easily-digestible breakdowns of what exactly went wrong. Most recently, Daily Kos published an organized, succinct, and funny explanation:

Wait a second. Swaps are unregulated. No one says I have to have enough resources to cover the swap, and even better, no one says I have to offer the swap to the person who actually made the loan! Hey buddy, see that loan over there? You may think it's iffy, but I think it'll hold up. In fact, I'm so sure it will, I'll sell you a credit default swap on it that pays off if it fails. You don't make the loan, you don't have to pay off on the loan, you don't have anything to do with the loan. You just pay me the fee. And if that guy loses his money, you collect. How sweet is that!

…At this point, credit default swaps have become completely divorced from the original function. A single loan can be covered by multiple swaps. There's a complicated fiscal term for this. It's called gambling, and at this stage, that's all that remains of those little "insurance" policies. They no longer protect anyone from anything, they just offer a chance to place enormous overlapping side bets on everything.

For the record, the article is overly partisan, and overlooks the role of many Democrats who enabled this mess, but fairly targets the total failure of deruglation, and the role it played in getting us into this mess.

This American Life and Ira Glass have visited this well himself; first in May, he devoted the entirety of episode 355, "The Giant Pool of Money" to the initial mortgage collapse, and again with a follow up a few weeks ago called, appropriately, "Another Frightening Show About the Economy," which is exactly what it sounds like.

I've listened to each program twice, and they're both incredible illuminating. Highly recommended.

Yes, This Is Real

2008-11-16T23:29:00.001-08:00

Actually, you know what?

I don't want to link to this.

Everyone's (least) favorite plumber Joe has launched a website. And I'd be laughing my way across the floor if it wasn't so scary and sad.

See, apparently "we are all Joe." Awesome. I'm a tax-evading self-promoting schmuck who, along with Sarah Palin, believes strong opinions and under-education (plus a solid need for celebrity) qualify me for public service and national power.

There was a lot of noise about that fact that Joe isn't Joe – he's Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. I am in no position to rag on the man for going by his middle name (we even share first names), and have to say that that criticism is unfair. But if that's how you like to be called, then man up and stick to it; don't credit yourself as "Samuel J. Wurzelbacher" on your book "Fighting For The American Dream," just to make yourself sound like one of those educated media elites you hate so much.

Hmm. On second thought, don't title your book that, either.

Those of you hungerin' for more Joe, head on over to "secureourdream.com" (really). It's exactly what you'd expect it to be, wrapped up in some excellent circa-1997 HTML. I can't say I recommend it, and he shouldn't get the clicks, but some of us (myself included) are gluttons for punishment.

Anyone have a fifteen minute timer?

Digital Terror

2008-11-16T22:38:00.001-08:00

A little late for Halloween, but follow the link for a taste of the horror every computer-user lives in fear of.

Backup, people! Backup!

A Bunch of Rocks

2008-11-16T22:00:00.001-08:00

As close to poetry as I imagine stick-figure comics can get.

Smokey Days

2008-11-16T11:30:00.001-08:00

I was doing some exercises in the living room yesterday, and thought to myself Hey, did I leave a burner on?

Only to realize, a moment later, I hadn't cooked anything all day.

Wildfire season had been doing its thing in Southern California, but the direct L.A. area had been spared – until this weekend.

Orange county is burning. Sylmar, in the northern Valley (only a few miles from where I work and many of my friends live) is quickly turning into ash. Oprah, Rob Lowe, and Christopher Lloyd all have homes in the danger zone.

But we're safe in West Hollywood. I guess being in the middle (or closest thing) of the L.A. metropolitan region has some benefits. When the wildfires rage, we all smell the sticky, hazy odor of burning homes and buildings, cars get a little ashy, our temples may pound from the god-knows-what we end up inhaling, and the sunsets turn scarily-beautiful red, while lasting twice as long as normal. We don't lose homes or life, just oxygen and sleep.

So yesterday, as I walked the neighborhood doing shopping, smelling the burnt California in the air around me, I felt thankful that amidst the personal tragedies these fires bring, where on literally all sides the country is burning, where peoples' lives are falling apart less than 20 miles away, ravaged by a force of nature that has utterly destroyed so many cities in the past, my biggest concern was the odor in my nostrils, and the overpriced chicken at Whole Foods.

As Jamie points out (with a fantastic picture of the fires, I might add – where'd you get that, Jamie?), we don't fight fires that much smarter than we did 100 years ago. Bigger tanks, airborne deployment, and occasional chemical aid pretty much round out the tactical advances. Wildfires still rage, and people braver than I run up to the edge of them with as much H₂O as they can deliver. What worked for the Athenians works for us.

But we've gotten damn good at insulating ourselves from the hot stuff.

Did I leave the stove on?

Charcoal & Honey

2008-11-14T16:37:00.001-08:00

This one goes out to my mom and dad, who keep bees back home.

Find out why outdoor grills and bees may not be the best combination, in a story both tragic and amazing...

Wow!

Toast Is In The Air

2008-11-12T07:50:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I read about a toaster that will brand handwritten messages onto your toast (yes, one commenter did refer to these as "Toast-It Notes"). Today, Kevin sent me an e-mail featuring the ultra-cool (and -geeky) Darth Vader toaster. Add in the "Toaster toaster" from July (heh heh), and toasting seems to be weirdly chic.

To round it out, here's a list of novel toasters from September, featuring several out-there designs. Apparently, a lot of work is being done in the "custom-image-on-your-toast" market; it certainly seems smarter than the "combine-exposed-electric-elements-with-water-for-toast-teapot-combo" market.

East vs West

2008-11-12T00:18:00.001-08:00

I've got as good a geographical sense as the next guy, but Randall Munroe over at xkcd has a damn good point.

It goes to show, sometimes obvious reasons aren't so obvious from another point of view. Just like Obi-Wan Kenobi told us 25 years ago.

Ri-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ight

2008-11-11T07:52:00.001-08:00

Coming to you straight from the planet Htrae, conservative blogger John Hinderacker has some very important advice for President-Elect Barack Obama, culled from the positive examples of our current lame-duck President:

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks. He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has committed. If Obama doesn't raise his standards, he will exceed Bush's total before he is inaugurated.

My response is best described by an uncommon typographic symbol: the interrobang.

Birmingham-Southern College hosts an image of the exact thoughts I had while reading this.

History Is Made, And For The Better

2008-11-05T09:07:00.001-08:00

One Giant Leap, indeed.

Check out the Newseum for more front pages; a lot of great images from a very slow (overloaded?) website.

More from me later, I promise.

[Note: that link takes you to the "Today" page, as there is no permalink. I suspect this link here may work in the future, even though it isn't functional now. Update to follow whenever that link goes live.]

Let's Do This

2008-11-04T17:47:00.001-08:00

Ready to go.

Obama Wins Dixville Notch, NH

2008-11-03T23:27:00.001-08:00

Dixville Notch, an unincorporated northern New Hampshire township, has followed a unique voting practice since 1960; at midnight, all registered voters in the town of 75 gather at the town hall, vote, and immediately announce their results.

Dixville Notch provides what is essentially the first official number on election day.

And this morning, the village voted 15-6 for Barack Obama.

A deeper look into Dixville Notch shows that, since the midnight voting tradition began, there has never been a larger electorate than in 1988, when 38 voters cast ballots – 34 of them for George Bush (Sr.).

They have had a Democratic majority exactly once, prior to this, when they voted for Hubert Humphrey over Richard Nixon, 8-4. Not the happiest of portents, but I'll take it.

It's going to be a long day...

[And no, Dixville Notch is not an indicator of the election at large. Interesting factoid, yes. Electoral tea leaves? No. That'd be Missouri.]

This Just In

2008-11-01T15:03:00.001-07:00

About five minutes ago, it started pouring in West Hollywood. About a minute in, a bright flash of lightning was followed almost immediately by a thunderclap so loud, it set off car alarms up and down the street. The guy who parked his convertible across the street is not going to be happy.

Fall's over. Winter is here. Good news for the wildfires, I guess.

And You Thought Your Pumpkin Was Cool

2008-10-31T15:26:00.001-07:00

Follow the link and prepare to get schooled.

Trick or Treat

2008-10-31T13:46:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween; always my favorite holiday.

Didn't get the time to make a costume this year, so I guess I cam dressed as Peter Jackson – shorts, bare feet, and a baseball cap.

Huzzah.

In honor of the holiday, here are a couple of spooky link treats.

Mary Poppins really was here to terrorize us all along.

A guide on dealing with being buried alive.

A glimpse into a dystopian, chilling, and (hopefully!) alternate future.

A parasite so disgusting, I almost don't want to live in the same world as it. [ Side note: although I find it fascinating, and really reminiscent of the flying louse in Godzilla: 1985. Ugh, that thing gave me nightmares! ]

Watch as zoo animals eat some pumpkin treats.

Recession, reschmession. See what really scares investment bankers.

Last, look deep into the abyss... (see here for more info).

Obama Rap

2008-10-24T11:58:00.001-07:00

This video is exceedingly silly, but it's a surprisingly good rap with some damn good points.

5 Reasons Luke Skywalker is a Complete Idiot

2008-10-24T10:31:00.001-07:00

Missing? "But I was going to go to Toshi Station and pick up some power converters!" That aside, though, it's a fun little feature.

What has Luke had to look forward to after the original trilogy? Mostly trying to start up the whole Jedi Order by himself, which is a ton of work, and watching Han have almost constant sex with Leia.

See the list over at Topless Robot.

Plankity–Plank

2008-10-23T23:18:00.001-07:00

Another classic interview with Sarah Palin.

...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

John McCain In Pennsylvania [Updated]

2008-10-22T08:18:00.001-07:00

[UPDATE: Follow the link for video of the moment in question... and really, "verbal thicket" doesn't begin to describe it. I am embrassed just watching this.]

Last week, Pennsylvania Representative John Murtha, a Democrat, said of his own constituents that "there is no question that Western Pennsylvania is a racist area."

John McCain decided to use that to help sway voters:

“I think you may have noticed that Senator Obama’s supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about Western Pennsylvania lately.” As the crowd booed, Mr. McCain became tangled up in the rest of his remarks. “And you know, I couldn’t agree with them more,” he said, to silence, and then wandered around in a verbal thicket before finally managing to say, “I could not disagree with those critics more; this is a great part of America.”

A "verbal thicket?" We can't let this man be the next president.

Can we?

(as reported in the New York Times by Elisabeth Bumiller and Jeff Zeleny)

Sherman Gets It Right

2008-10-10T22:14:00.001-07:00

As said via IM this evening:

work = crap sometimes.

Sometimes Nothing Can Be A Pretty Cool Hand

2008-09-27T14:10:00.001-07:00

Boy, I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals.

Sad news today: Paul Newman has passed away.

He was a real movie star... turning in classic performances more consistently than most. An artist in the truest sense of the word.

I never met him, but I almost worked at the Hole in the Wall Camp after graduating from college, and did sit a few rows away from him during a play at Wesleyan.

Many of my generation (and younger) think of him as the "Newman's Own Guy." It's sad that we young'uns caren't as familiart with his performances as we should be... But adding a philanthropic, high quality, and good tasting food company to a filmography like his? I have to ask: Is that such a bad legacy to have?

We should be so lucky.

Enjoy a classic scene, in just about the right mood. It's quiet, so crank up the volume.

'Wait a minute - you didn't see Lefors out there did you?'

'Lefors? No, why?'

'Thank God for that. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble.'

"Break's Over"

2008-09-24T23:28:00.001-07:00

So.

Maureen Dowd calls up Aaron Sorkin. Asks him what he thinks President Josiah Bartlett would have to say to this year's Democratic presidential hopeful.

The results are, simply put, wonderful.

Now, this only really works if you've watched the “The West Wing” – the more of the first four seasons, the better. Because hearing this in the voice of Martin Sheen's thoughtful (but fiery!) economist president is delightfully perfect. Yes, it's written as television, and sounds like it. Sure, it comes off a little smug, a little too “meta.” We get the easy lines like “as a Democrat I was surprised to learn that I don’t like small towns, God, people with jobs or America,” and “the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional.” Shortly put, it's fiction, written by a master of the form, delivering more of a beloved character we're already familiar with.

But damn if it isn't inspiring and well written, a satisfying glimpse at the kind of leadership, the level of statesmanship, so many of us dream of.

And Bartlett's advice? Spot on!

Pants on Fire

2008-09-24T20:49:00.001-07:00

John McCain has dropped a few, ah, "untruths" during his campaign so far… but this is one of the stupidest ones yet, and where the Media has let a lot of the past ones slide, this time someone called him out on it.

David Letterman busted McCain's balls but good.

On TV.

Watch the Late Show tonight to see what happens when a presidential candidate uses the biggest US financial crisis since the Great Depression as an excuse to blow off one TV appearance for another, the new one with a cuter interviewer during Prime Time. That link has the full story, and it's ridiculous.

So, Mr. McCain – are you suspending your campaign because the economy is ~~still fundamentally strong~~ a wreck, or because you're scared stiff of the competition?

I love the smell of burning trousers in the evening… it smells like… victory.

[On a side note: I love that the McCain replacement on Letterman was Keith Olbermann; the MSNBC commentator delivers the righteous smackdown to the NeoCons and Right-wingers like no other. Follow the link for some greatest hits… I especially love this and this.]

Already?

2008-09-21T21:08:00.001-07:00

Christ, is it really Sunday night already?

More importantly, is it really late September already?

Yikes, time to try and get productive... this is all happening too quickly...

Not Quite Eminem

2008-09-21T21:02:00.001-07:00

Because nothing brings the funny like ironically repurposing something hip and urban, and using it as a context for a geek-chic in-joke, check out the Battle of the search engines.

My favorite part of the whole affair may be the still images used as profiles on either side of the video. Why Yahoo! ends up as a cowboy, I can't say, but that's one hell of a funny pose. Ditto Google hanging out on a Segway.

See here for more in the same vein, id you need it.

Snuck Past The Censors

2008-09-20T13:57:00.001-07:00

Over the years, Bart Simpson has made plenty of crank calls to Moe's Tavern.

But he's never come up with something this perfect, and his have never made it on the news.

Huzzah!

Anti-Helium

2008-09-18T20:08:00.001-07:00

Be warned: the following video will make you want to try something really, really almost immediately.

The MythBusters deomonstrate what happenes when you inhale sulfur hexaflouride.

Pretty please can I do this? Please?

Gun Play

2008-09-18T19:56:00.001-07:00

Phil Mellinger takes a look at The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly through the lens of games theory:

Three men in a triangle -- each with a gun, a rock at the center of the three. It is up to each man to evaluate his situation. All are excellent shots. Who do they shoot?

A fun, if simple analysis of this scene. Now, if only someone could prove who shot who in Reservoir Dogs, then we'd be talking.

F5 Autocomplete

2008-09-18T08:21:00.001-07:00

Here's a great tip on auto-completing text fields in almost any Mac app.

I've already started using this, and am getting hooked. Helluva solid keyboard shortcut.

McCain ≠ Honest

2008-09-18T00:25:00.001-07:00

Andrew Sullivan on John McCain:

For me, this surreal moment - like the entire surrealism of the past ten days - is not really about Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or pigs or fish or lipstick. It's about John McCain. The one thing I always thought I knew about him is that he is a decent and honest person...

So far, he has let us all down. My guess is he will continue to do so. And that decision, for my part, ends whatever respect I once had for him. On core moral issues, where this man knew what the right thing was, and had to pick between good and evil, he chose evil.

HD Waterproofing

2008-09-18T00:22:00.001-07:00

There's something about the image in this article that's kind of... hot.

The late-80's styling with the modern waterproofing is a cool combo. Excessive and unnecessary, but fun.

Buses on Screen

2008-09-15T00:46:00.001-07:00

There is some strange stuff out there on the Internet.

Quite randomly, while searching for some typeface identification, I stumbled across this site, which catalogues the appearances of buses in film and television.

Let me say that again: it's a website dedicated to listing what buses appear in specific scenes in movies and TV shows.

Awesome.

Somewhere out there, a thesis student is excitedly comparing bus models across some subset or genre, and getting a degree as a result. Kind of reminds me of this scene from P.C.U.

Ahhh, college, film school, and Wesleyan.

GOB Would Be Proud

2008-09-15T00:04:00.001-07:00

This one goes out to that Segway-riding Bluth brother, as well as AHB.

Watch some Syracuse boys bring out the funny with some "classic" eighties rock.

Sweetest air-synth ever. And isn't the guitarist cheating?

My Secret Identity

2008-09-13T14:50:00.001-07:00

A while back, Will found a questionnaire that calculated which superhero you're most like. He turned out to be, of course, Spider-Man. Peter Parker is the guy most geeky boys like to imagine they really are. Sure, we fantasize about being all-powerful or dark and brooding, but when we look deep down inside, we like to believe we're smart, funny, and would do the right thing, all on top of being a total geek.

So, naturally, when I took the quiz, I thought I'd be Spider-Man, too. But, to my surprise, it turned out differently.

I am...

Superman!

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

Superman		80%
Spider-Man		60%
Green Lantern		60%
Batman		50%
Robin		47%
Supergirl		45%
Hulk		45%
Wonder Woman		40%
The Flash		40%
Iron Man		40%
Catwoman		35%

[Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz]

I would like to point out that the Marvel hero I most resemble is, indeed, Spider-Man. But it's hard to argue with 80%.

In terms of storytelling, Superman is pretty boring, since he'll always be invincible unless he leaves the planet or encounters kryptonite (or magic). But as an ideal, hey, I guess I could do a lot worse than be an optimistic, helpful, cheerful and self-sacrificig guy.

Just keep the green rocks away.

High Enough For Ya?

2008-09-13T11:00:00.001-07:00

Burj Dubai is the tallest structure every made by humankind, currently clocking in at 700.9 meters.

And it isn't even finished yet.

Plans call for the skyscraper (sky-puncturer? sky-piercer? sky-stabber? Babel?) to reach a maximum height of 800-950 meters. That range alone (150 meters) is over twice the height of the tallest building in Maine (good 'ole Franklin Towers), and about as tall as the tallest buildings in Arizona and Virgina.

It's peak will be twice as high as the roof of the World Trade Center. If it reaches its maximum height (I assume that will include antennae), the Statue of Liberty (sans podium) could be stacked 5 times between where construction is currently and where Burj Dubai will end.

That's one big mother.

The main site has several pictures, but I have yet to see one that brings on the awe, the amazement, the vertigo as much as this picture.

No way am I working in one of those cranes. No way.

Politics: The Lighter Side

2008-09-12T21:54:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of attempts by one Hutson Hayward to lighten the eff up regarding the current US presidential election.

This is a little snarky, but this is pure genius (the secret is reading it in Samuel L. Jackson's voice).

Sarah Palin has a blog! Just Like Steve Jobs!

Will has been keeping up a fantastic series of faux-slogans over on his blog, a few of which I've helped with; you can see the whole run (and future updates) here.

It may not be much, but it's a start.

Ha ha ha.

About Friggin' Time!

2008-09-12T21:29:00.001-07:00

My dad popped me a message the other day, with the good news:

Tomorrow, after seven years and 197 locations, Apple is finally opening an Apple Store in Maine!

The Maine Mall gets the goods; anyone with time should swing by the opening (starts at 9:30) and try and score me a free T-shirt.

Wish I were there!

An Alternate Campaign

2008-09-12T21:24:00.001-07:00

This one goes out for Brett and Will: now this is change I can believe in!

Phallic Slide

2008-09-12T21:22:00.001-07:00

Follow the link for some truly bad creative decision making.

I mean, really?

Helium & Sulfur Hexafluoride

2008-09-12T21:19:00.001-07:00

Quite possibly, the coolest thing ever.

EVER.

Check it out!!

Birthday Revisited

2008-09-12T21:15:00.001-07:00

Today, I have been 27 for one month.

And so, a couple of birthday notes.

A big thank you to Brett and Trina, who took me out to Ahi Sushi on the night of Friday the 8th... with pretty much everyone else (and Tracy) out of town, it was a really wonderful birthday dinner.

Trina got a saki sampler, including one type served in a wooden box. Who knew?

Kevin and Sarah got me a wonderful lasagna pan and makings; he talked these guys up earlier in the year, and I was excited to check it out.

I have since made the recipe it came with, a chicken/tomato lasagna. No sauce, lots of cheese – including smoked gouda. It was awesome, and I substituted chicken sausage for some of the chicken.

Tracy, although out of town, grabbed me a snazzy new suitcase. The old one tipped over and was, well, old, so I was pretty psyched. Plus, it's orange, and that makes me happy.

I got some wonderful books from my parents, and the new Bowdoinham T-shirt. My grandparents sent me a wonderful card and a check. Tracy's folks got me a book, as well as some homemade Gak, which was fun.

I flew out of LA on my birthday proper, taking the redeye home to Maine. Will was kind enough to give me a ride, getting me there right on time. Waiting for the plane, I completed the following in about 40 minutes.

Made me feel good before getting on an 8-hour flying adventure.

The following morning, my dad picked me up, ready with Standard Baking morning rolls – possibly the greatest thing in the world. With some cupcakes from Two Fat Cats for dessert, we had a nice quiet post-birthday dinner, just my mom, my dad, and me.

The next day, the 14th, we had a big barbeque to celebrate no juts my birthday, but being in town, and John's being in town for a vacation from Guatemala. The Fisher-Baums came over, Jim and Cynthia, Tracy's folks, the Englers (including brother Dan), my bro, sis, and nephew, the Barry's, we all got together, ate some great food (including Hutson-style grilled burgers), ran out of the rain, made hand-cranked ice cream, and enjoyed some more Fat Cats cake.

All in all, it was a wonderful birthday. Over the course of a few days, I got to connect, one way or another, with most of the people I love, and I had a good time all the way through. So thanks to everyone who helped ring in 27 years with me.

Until next August!

Dueling Tax Cuts

2008-09-12T20:21:00.001-07:00

Show this chart to everyone you know. Hang it up at work, put it by the coffee maker or water cooler, e-mail it to your brother and your college roommate.

The Washington Post should be ashamed for their biased, misleading chart. We must undo the damage they have done.

[graphic c/o Viveka Weiley at chartjunk.]

Anger Management

2008-09-12T02:02:00.001-07:00

[PREFACE]

[This post is, in all likelihood, too long. It's been festering for a while, and needed to get out. So if it seems like it changes gears suddenly, or tries to cover too much, that's why. It is, however, a decent view into what's been in my head the last seven days, and says things I think need saying. I may change my mind about parts of it, and have certainly failed to adequately think some of this through or explain my thoughts. But that is for later posts – and comments – to determine.]

- - -

Regarding the lack of posts... aside form the general writer's malaise I've had for a long while now, I've had something else coming between me and the blog.

Rage.

This whole Sarah Palin thing rubs me the wrong way. I try my best to laugh about it – and trust me, there's plenty to laugh about – but whenever I try to put some serious thought into the matter, finding an article or fact, insight or thought I want to share here, I start getting a little angry. That makes me think harder about the situation, so I get even more angry. And then I start to brood, getting madder and madder, until...

Dammit, I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN.

It's one hell of a vicious circle.

McCain was bad enough – out of touch, unfamiliar with the internet, almost unquestioningly loyal to the current administration. But we're not even talking about him any more. Nope, he's let himself be overshadowed by his running mate; something that was looking pretty negative to the Democrats is now suddenly an asset to the GOP. Small wonder, when McCain is boring, prickly, and old, while Palin gets people talking.

So many reasons to be furious:

She is woefully unqualified. See here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

She lies like a rug, like a dog, like a snake, like a Bush.

All of these questions.

The Republican party: same old hypocrisy, GOP business as usual.

She puts he political ambition ahead of her family (a four-month-old baby with Down's syndrome, a 16-year-old pregnant unmarried daughter, plus three other children) while claiming to represent small-town family values.

She doesn't even know what the job is!

One week after the announcement of Palin's selection, and it's starting to look like the Dems are rolling over and taking it like they've already lost. True or not, this perception will kill us.

She's dumb, dumb, dumb, and proud of it!

Sarah Palin is no different from our current president. She's George W. Bush with a fertile womb. She flaunts her ignorance and inexperience, claiming that this makes her "real," using the blanket of small town America to disguise her extreme right-wing agenda. This woman is the poster child for pork barrel reform, sex education, a woman's right to chose, and tighter control (and higher accountability) of corporate interests – not as a maverick champion from the Heartland, but as the worst kind of offender. She is the reason we need to fix things, along with plenty of others (I guess). Bush is currently enjoying the lowest presidential approval rating in the history of the Gallup poll, but along comes his female doppelgänger, and suddenly she's the hot new thing.

This is John McCain's trial run at executive power, and an example of the kind of decisions he'll make if elected. What a doozy of a forecast, what an ominous start.

Sarah Palin (via the empowerment of John McCain and the ratings-hungry media) has turned an already contentious election into something much, much worse. She started up the "us-versus-them" rhetoric all over again, after Barack Obama had made some genuinely positive strides towards reaching a common point of view in many Americans. Now, on the side of patriotism and family, we have the Small-Town Mavericks. In the other corner, wanting to tax us and let the terrorists rape our babies, the Big-City Elite. The genius of this is any intelligent, researched, valid criticism on the ~~McCain/Palin~~ Palin/McCain ticket can be dismissed as elitist attempts to undermine real American values. The better the point, the deeper the hole dug. We can't win for losing.

Chez Pazienza isn't far off when he calls this "civil war;" the tone of the campaign, at least from the Conservative side, is one of intentional disenfranchisement. Like Bush's (false) "mandate" following the 2004 election, Palin is essentially telling half of this country to bugger off, because we don't deserve a say. We flower-fucking hippy elitists don't know anything about "real" Americans, and it's time for them to finally have a say!

Because lord knows we didn't hear about this eight years ago – the liberals have been in charge all along, and man have they botched it up!

RAGE.

It's time for the liberals, the progressives, the Democrats, the Lefties, to get pissed. Not annoyed, not dissatisfied, not upset. Epic, Moses-breaks-the-ten-commandments, Valkyries-riding-down-from-Valhalla fury. We've been rationally whiny for too long now, and no sooner do we find a nominee with the power to articulate our hopes and needs but we cut him of at the knees when seven tough days (which include the RNC!) and the 24-hour news cycle scare us a little.

Take back patriotism. The Right doesn't have a monopoly on being American, unless we let them.

Cool Rationality hasn't worked. Flip the equation, not to the insanity of the extreme Right, but to Burning Rationality. Believe in people and ideas not just with your brain, but with your hearts. Channel your inner Jimmy Stewart and rail against injustice. Looking smugly down our noses hasn't seemed to have accomplished much so far.

Go out and do something, don't just read and stew. Let it out. Volunteer at a calling center, try and talk to people, give them the straight-up facts, but passionately. Show them the lengths the Republican ticket will go to screw them, and what being liberal really means.

Because we can't afford to keep letting ourselves be dragged down this path. We all, each of us, Left, Right, and Center alike, deserve better.

- - -

[AFTERWORD]

[Yes, I can see that I linked to about eight-thousand different pages in here. I know it's a lot, and it makes it look like throwaway thoughts. The thing is, each and every one of these is worth reading. I encourage you to look at all of the videos, check out the transcripts, read the articles and op-eds. Take your time, bookmark this page, check them out over a few days. But there's a lot of good (and infuriating) information out there, and you owe it to yourself to keep informed. So follow those links!]

Still Here

2008-09-10T08:29:00.001-07:00

No, I don't just mean myself, I'm talking about all of us.

So I guess that means that last night's inaugural proton circuits on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN didn't create a black hole and destroy the Earth.

So much for the "Doomsday Machine" some people were afraid of.

Although, so far, no collisions have occured; they've sent proton beams in both directions, but not simultaneously. So we may still yet wake up to find ourselves sucked into a black hole that popped up in Switzerland. Or worse, as this article points out:

Besides, the random nature of quantum physics means that there is always a minuscule, but nonzero, chance of anything occurring, including that the new collider could spit out man-eating dragons.

Remember, kids, science is scary, scientists are amoral, and the Devil will use it to blow up the world, or at the very least, unleash dragons. So we need Sarah Palin and John McCain – in that order! – to protect us!
</sarcasm>

On that note, these poll results (courtesy of Pharyngula) show the kind of numbers that would make Karl Rove smile; between the extreme and wooden-headed anti-science fiscal reasoning in the top response, to the Christian fundamentalist lunacy of the next top two answers, the far-right Republican demographic is almost fully represented.

Sigh.

Base Jumping [Updated]

2008-09-05T10:39:00.001-07:00

I have some friends going skydiving this weekend, so I thought I'd share a cautionary tale to set the mood.

Remember kids, always check your parachute.

[UPDATE - Turns out it's NEXT weekend... but I still figure it's good advice...]

One Of The Voices Is Gone

2008-09-02T00:39:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, we all lost a long-standing friend; Don LaFontaine, the Voice of a thousand trailers, has died, at the age of 68.

Don was one of a handful of men who do the majority of the trailer voice-over in the US. I've had the pleasure of working with a few of these gentlemen, and they're all a bunch of pros, who can do this is their sleep. You may recognize Don's voice from the trailers for Terminator 2, Batman Returns, or Shrek. The intro to his website should seem awfully familiar, and Ain't It Cool News has a fine assortment of his greatest hits, including a nice featurette at the end of their YouTube links.

We still have Hal Douglas, among others, so we'll continue to hear great VO like this; yet Don will be missed; he is the voice of the movies, and will continue to be for some time yet.

Seeing that Hal is 84 years old (!), I'm starting to wonder... what will the next generation of Trailer Voices be like? Who will it be? I suspect they'll look for a near-identicle replacement, but those are some tough shoes to fill.

Thanks for the good times, Don. See you in another life.

Yikes x3

2008-08-25T08:10:00.001-07:00

The live feed from Britney Spears' mic during live performances illustrates not only why she lip-syncs at shows, but also the sheer talent (and computing power) of modern music mixers.

Another blog featuring embarassing photo trends from decades gone by - now including the '90's! My personal favorite is here, and I had this picture taken of myself.

Naomi Klein on the Beijing Olympics:

When Beijing was awarded the games seven years ago, the theory was that international scrutiny would force China's government to grant more rights and freedom to its people. Instead, the Olympics have opened up a backdoor for the regime to massively upgrade its systems of population control and repression. And remember when Western companies used to claim that by doing business in China, they were actually spreading freedom and democracy? We are now seeing the reverse: investment in surveillance and censorship gear is helping Beijing to actively repress a new generation of activists before it has the chance to network into a mass movement.

Yikes.

August 12

2008-08-12T17:33:00.001-07:00

Today, I am 27. I'm feeling more than a bit old. I'm at the point where a birthday isn't that big of a deal; and, during the course of the year, I often forget just how old I am. 26, 27, something like that?

Did you know that on the exact day of my birth, IBM released the very first PC? Or that 882 years before that day in 1981, the First Crusade ended? That on August 12, 1883, the last quagga died, that on August 12, 1908 the prototype Model T was built, that on August 12, 1977 the Space Shuttle Enterprise took its first free flight, or that on August 12, 1990, Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex was discovered?

See all that, and even more, here.

It's been a good birthday so far, and even though I'm about to jump on a red eye, it's a red eye to Maine, which makes it all worth it. It's unfortunate that the day before my birthday, our president had to go and be an asshole, again, but them's the breaks. Nobody got me this (at least not yet), but I am consoled to think that nobody has been gifted with that.

Here's a house, Clingstone, that I would love to live in; reminds me of the Barnacle, done with elegance. The New York times wrote about it the other day.

But this, right here, is my real dream home. Tracy probably won't let me make us live in this, but I fully intend on building a hobbit office once we settle down. I don't know how best to do it, my building skills are may not be that great, but it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

Time to go – I have a flight to make. I'll leave you with something that shouldn't, by any means, work at all, but ends up being almost sublime.

Enjoy.

Happy birthday.

"Tell It To Me In Star Wars"

2008-08-02T11:58:00.001-07:00

Brilliant explanation of the Uncanny Valley.

Here's Wikipedia with a little more.

Speaking of Law School

2008-07-31T07:39:00.001-07:00

This sounds like good advice to me, and passionately given at that – even the policeman agrees, and good-naturedly. Care to weigh in, future lawyers?

As an aside, this guy is the kind of professor a student dreams of – he cares so much he can't even slow down. Love it.

Huzzah!

2008-07-30T23:46:00.001-07:00

So, as of tonight, Dan is done with the bar, while Kevin and Sarah wrapped up yesterday. With a little luck (and a lot of hard work), they have passed muster and become lawyers – now just waiting for official confirmation. And an additional shout-out to John, who recently smoked the GMAT, and has every reason to be proud himself.

In celebration, a brief audio grab, from a... ah, trusted authority:

I raise my glass and toast to the former, my friends. Well done!

(Say friend, you got any more of that good sarsaparilla?)

Good Luck!

2008-07-28T07:56:00.001-07:00

This is a big week for a few friends; Kevin and Sarah are both taking the West Virginia Bar Exam over today and tomorrow, while Dan E. takes the California Bar Exam today as well, and continuing it through Wednesday.

Together, these three are some of the smartest people I know, and I have faith that they will all do well. That being said, a little luck never hurt anyone, so join me in wishing them the very best of luck with these tests, and congratulations on getting this far.

You guys makes the rest of us look bad; I'm proud to know you all!!

Break a leg!

Meta: Stay Tuned

2008-07-24T08:42:00.001-07:00

The Stones may have said it best.

The absense was unintended, but needed. No specific reason, just the way things happened. All is good, and I am back.

I find my blogging habits and muscles a bit atrophied now; it may take some time before I get back up to speed.

But stick around, if you're still interested. Regularly scheduled programming will resume soon.

Best Review Quote Ever

2008-07-08T22:56:00.001-07:00

Amanda Seyfried's publicist should start ordering t-shirts:

[Seyfried] is shot in such warm close-ups that you almost want to spread her face on your toast.

Ladies and gentlemen, David Poland and his review of Mamma Mia: The Movie.

Confirmed: The Clock Tower is Gone

2008-06-01T19:40:00.001-07:00

Truly a sad day for film fans... for the clock tower has burned down.

I took that picture in the spring of 2005, when I was still relatively new to Los Angeles. At the time, I didn't think much of our visit to Universal Studios, but looking back, I consider myself lucky. I had a chance to see not just the Hill Valley Square set, but also the New York City sets I've seen in dozens of classic films, and go through the chesseball King Kong portion of the set. And now they're gone.

The LA Times has a report on what exactly burned; given how large the studios are, this was a fairly small fire. Check out the "Map" popup to get a sense for the layout, and where the fire was. According to another article, it looks like low water pressure stymied early efforts to get the fire out. Universal Studios is built on unincorporated land, so it's part of LA county, but not the city, so has less stringent regulations. I'll bet they're reconsidering those regulations after today.

To be fair, several of these sets have burned before, and been rebuilt; this story lists a few of the more spectacular studio fires, the overwhelming majority of which have taken place at Universal. Seriously, they should take a look at that water pressure.

I bet a "Save the Clock Tower" drive/website is set up in a matter of days. And when it shows up, I'm there.

Here are some fire photos I took today – my lens has a few spots, so forgive the smudges, but there was one hell of a smoke cloud. All were taken from the Herzog & Company office building. Click on any photo to see some more.

Fire Under the Mountain

2008-06-01T10:42:00.001-07:00

Just over a year ago, I was posting pictures of a fire in Griffith Park.

Now, I'm on the roof of the office building I work in, and the Universal Studios are aflame.

I woke up to find an e-mail from my brother Ian, telling me that there was a fire. A quick trip to the LA Times confirmed it, and a look out at the hill from over our pool showed a huge smoke cloud. Crazy. The ground around our office is covered in pretty large ash, and the smoke cloud is heading northwest for miles.

I don't have any pictures to post just yet - I'm actually working today, and I took the shots with my Digital SLR, so I need to load them into my system a bit differently. But, tonight I'll get them up, and you'll see just how nuts this looks right now.

In the meantime, here's a story from the LA Times with a lot of info. Looks like the King Kong tour/set, and the New York City and New England standing sets are taking the brunt of the fire, as well as an archival vault containing "copies," so it looks like no serious history is going away. The Clock Tower from Back to Future is right in this part of the backlot, though, so who knows if it'll survive this.

To Live and Watch HD in LA

2008-05-29T00:24:00.001-07:00

The LA Times recently posted an article about the dearth of HD channels and programming on Los Angeles area cable:

The entertainment capital of the world ranks last among the five biggest U.S. markets in the number of high-definition channels available to cable-TV subscribers. New York, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia all get far more, as do such smaller cities as San Diego and Charlotte, N.C.

Southern California's No. 1 pay-TV provider, Time Warner Cable Inc., can't improve its systems fast enough to keep up with demand for the sharper pictures of high-definition.

The company, which serves 1.9 million customers across Southern California, has promised to add 12 high-definition channels by July 1, and nine more by the end of the year, but cynical subscribers aren't buying it.

This frustrates the hell out of me. The only cable provider in the area is Time Warner Cable, so there is no way for any of us to switch to a competitor without going to satellite. And trust me, I thought long and hard about DirecTV's 100+ HD channel lineup after getting my HD set in December, but in the end I decided it was a lot of hassle for minimal gain. The reality is I don't watch that much television; there are a few shows I follow, but all of them except for Battlestar Galactica are on the four major networks, which are in HD with TWC. Sure, I channel surf some nights, but that matters less to me – besides, having a disincentive to watch crap TV is a good thing.

If TWC intro'd Sci-Fi HD, and a few movie-type channels (maybe Bravo [soon to be Lifetime] HD for Project Runway), I'd be more than happy. I could always add HBO or Showtime, but again, I don't watch enough to justify that, especially when Netflix sends me al of the Blu-ray discs I can ask for.

My personal annoyances aside, it's embarrassing that Hollywood has such a lame HD cable lineup. This table shows just how bad we've got it.

Come on, TWC. We're making the content, and I can speak to how much of it is delivered in HD. So show it to us that way already!

[c/o Brett]

Fortune & Glory

2008-05-22T19:27:00.001-07:00

Well, it's time.

Several months of trailers and TV spots, subway poster plastering and internet reviews, and I haven't seen a one of 'em. The two screenings of Iron Man I saw both had the Indy trailer loud and large, but thanks to my thick fingers, all I heard was the muffled refrain of "The Raider's March" and saw not a thing. I've seen the title card flash by on my DVR once or twice, but that's not so bad.

I made it.

Today has been a hectic one – work has been wildly busy, the kind where a million little things keep popping up before you finish the old ones. Ugh. Plus, try coordinating 26 people all attending the same Indy screening tonight. It's a big list, and a bit of a logistical challenge.

But it's all worth it.

So I'm off, first to get the tickets printed, then off to a bar for a much-needed beer. Or two. Or... well, we'll see.

And then, well, you know the rest.

Fortune and glory, kid. Fortune and glory.

See you on the other side...

You Got Windows In My Macintosh!

2008-05-20T22:15:00.001-07:00

And people wonder why I hate using Microsoft ~~problems~~ products?

Pierre Igot details what can only be described as his quest to change a single keyboard shortcut in Mac Word 2008.

This kind of garbage is exactly why, for several months now, I've been trying to phase out all MS Office applications from my computer; with the help of TextEdit and the iWork suite, I only deal with Excel sheets (and the occasional Word document) at work. I'm pretty much there. Huzzah.

[c/o Daring Fireball]

Shipwreck Photos

2008-05-18T17:02:00.001-07:00

Nice collection of beautiful photographs featuring wrecked ships; reminded me of the D.T. Sheridan, the iron tug that sits to this day on the southern coast of Monhegan Island, Maine. I lived on Monhegan for about five months after graduating from Wesleyan, and visited the wreck several times. I have some Flickr pictures here, for those interested.

Sunday Clip Show: On Shyamalan and Television

2008-05-18T16:32:00.001-07:00

A few clips from the past week.

On the film front, a film clip (with introduction!) from M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening has been making the rounds. This features, hands down, some of the worst "sizzle" editing I have ever seen. This is the kind of piece we do at work a lot, hyping the movie using film clips and trailer bits, combined with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. The studios want these to be slick and cool, like trailers, and editing pieces like that is a lot of fun, and can be good.

But this is plain embarrassing.

Shyamalan is a pretentious hack (at least these days), and laying abrupt cuts to random film clips, flash frames, and repetitive ominous sound effects don't class him up, even as he tries to invoke Friedkin, Coppola, and Hitchcock. Plus, I usually enjoy Mark Wahlberg, but he's trying too hard or getting bad direction, because he is terrible here.

Lame.

Moving on to more interesting things, all of the major networks have released their TV schedules for next season (How I Met Your Mother was renewed, so rejoice, and watch that show). Here're the schedules for Fox, CBS, ABC, and NBC. With these announcements come two previews for new shows, each made by a big name in TV entertainment.

Fringe comes from J.J. Abrams, creator/co-creator of Felicity, Alias, and Lost, as well as director of Mission: Impossible III and next summer's Star Trek reboot. His TV shows (for the most part) have been met with a lot of favor, but MI3 got banged around pretty hard. I for one enjoyed it and felt that, with the exception of the slide down the Shanghai rooftop, it was a well made spy flick. Sure, it was a carbon-copy of the Alias pilot, but that some damn fine storytelling the first time, and transitioned well. And, as you all know, I am looking forward to Star Trek…

Which makes the Fringe trailer all the more depressing. I loved The X-Files and enjoyed a lot of Alias, but this looks derivative and unoriginal. As far as this preview shows, I can see no "hook" or idea that grabs me and sets this apart from the myriad sci-fi shows that have been released in the 15 years since Fox debuted The X-Files. Government conspiracies and hot female FBI agents are old hat, and no, casting Pacey from Dawson's Creek doesn't count as interesting.
This show could still be good and surprise me, but as of now, I'm not holding my breath. Unless John Noble (Denthor from Return of the King) sets his son on fire for real this time…

It's interesting that the spin this show is gong for is that science and technology have advanced to the point where we can't control them; I guess all of the "fringe" events are a result of science, then. The X-Files was a lot more flexible in this regard… for every genetic hybrid, there was a body-skipping spirit, or something that science couldn't begin to explain. That was, essentially, the whole point of Scully – she stood in for scientific understanding, and couldn't comprehend so much of what happened, as Mulder was able to with his more visceral beliefs. Of course, Scully was the religious character, too, so…

There's a lot more to be said about the philosophy and character relationships of The X-Files, and this isn't the time or the place. Maybe later, but for now, I digress.

Next up, fan favorite Joss Whedon has a new show coming out, too, called Dollhouse. Oddly enough, it looks a bit like Alias, yet manages to seem pretty fresh and interesting. I dig the concept, and like that the central premise and conflict are laid out for us; we get good guys and bad guys from the start, most played by known (and charismatic) actors. This and Caprica are probably the two new shows I am most excited about; the fact that Dollhouse is a mid-season replacement debuting in January is a bummer, but c'est la vie.

And, of course, both of these shows are on Fox, so, if they're good, we can look forward to having them cancelled after about 12 episodes (see Firefly, Wonderfalls, Futurama, Arrested Development, Drive, and this page). I try to tell myself that at least Fox airs these shows in the first place, but the sting of Firefly is hard to ignore.

Basketball and Movies

2008-05-18T15:19:00.001-07:00

Considering how many posts my good friends Kevin and Will have thrown up about the recent NBA regular season and playoffs, I couldn't resist this.

In the talkbacks to The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, "Magic Rat" said...

Lord of the Rings is the Michael Jordan to Narnia's Dominique Wilkins to the Golden Compass' Vince Carter.

I don't even know who all of those guys are, and I still cracked a smile at that, agreeing completely.

Californian Gay Marriage Ban Overturned

2008-05-17T16:51:00.001-07:00

Not always, but sometimes, I am proud to live in California.

As I understand it, this ruling specifically overrules California legislation excluding same-sex couples from eligibility for marriage licenses, claiming marriage and the legal creation of a family is a [California] constitutional right. So, any same-sex couple can be married by the state, while religious groups are free to deny marriage for dogmatic reasons. Kevin and others, feel free to weigh in a correct me if I've got some of this wrong.

It's important to point out that of the seven judges who made this ruling (with a split of 4-3), six were appointed by Republican governors.

Sometimes, a good idea is just a good idea.

While this is a big step, it isn't big enough; not only does this just apply to California, and not the nation, but even statewide there is a disparity between the rights of heterosexual and homosexual couples.

But every step forward is a good thing, and cause to be glad.

Just for fun, some responses:

Governor Schwarzenegger's response:

I respect the Court's decision and as Governor, I will uphold its ruling. Also, as I have said in the past, I will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn this state Supreme Court ruling.

President Bush's response (via Press Secretary Dana Perino):

President Bush has always believed marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. Today's decision by the California Supreme Court illustrates that a federal constitutional amendment is the best way for the people to decide what marriage means.

The LA Times has a collection of extracts from numerous figures.

Salon.com takes a look at the judicial press release, plus a release from conservative activist group "Concerned Women for America."

Lastly, the presidential hopefuls for this coming election.

Data Visualization

2008-05-17T16:10:00.001-07:00

A quick look at the Safari tabs I leave open for days on end, articles and sites I e-mail and like to post about, and the things I get a lot of pleasure out of reveals a few trends, one of which is my preference for really smart data visualization.

In that spirit, here are a few favorites from the past few weeks.

Andy Baio takes the data of the Whitburn Project (an effort to "preserve and share high-quality recordings of every popular song since the 1890s") and makes some interesting graphs here.

Stefanie Posavec breaks down Jack Kerouack's On The Road into its component pieces of language and turns that data into the most amazing analytical maps.

A photograph is cheating slightly, but when used to analyze the density/brightness of man-made light as seen from space, it qualifies as data representation to me.

Ben Fry took Census data of all streets in the conterminous United States, and plotted them on empty space, and watched a fascinating map of American development appear. This things is streets only. Incredible. Extra details on how here, and updated info here.

Makes me wonder… for all of those important statistics that we just can't seem to collectively care about, maybe all we need is an innovative way to present the data visually – something to impress us with.

Meta: Weekend Blogdump

2008-05-17T15:44:00.001-07:00

Another weekend after a busy life/slow blog stretch. Time to get through the list of things earmarked for posting.

Saturday Laugh

2008-05-17T15:42:00.001-07:00

Because everyone else seems to be e-mailing or posting this, I guess it's time to join the fray and throw up a link to Manbabies.com.

Who knew swapping heads between father and son in Photoshop could be so funny?

The Popular page gives an easy way to peruse the crème de la crème, but I've got to give special notice to May 17, which looks like something out of a Terry Gilliam movie.

Technology Horrors and Making Movies

2008-05-17T14:50:00.001-07:00

Read this blog entry for the ultimate movie-making nightmare. In the old days, the danger was destroying your actual film stock; in the digital era, it's all about losing your video data.

Considering the manpower, time, and money that go into making even a low-budget movie, the physical end result is staggeringly small. A few miles of film, a couple dozen video cassettes… or a several hundred gigabytes of abstract data.

The "all digital workflow" is always brought up as the coming Big Thing. Shoot your footage digitally, not to a tape, but to files on some kind of computer drive, either solid state (P2, Flash) or traditional (spinning platter hard drive). No need to capture or digitize footage into a computer-friendly format, because it's natively stored that way. Edit the original files at full resolution. Never have to worry about going back to tape, or negatives, or anything. Glory, hallelujah.

Overlooking some fundamental flaws in this logic (try doing offline editorial for a feature with uncompressed HD media, 4k files, or anything of finishing quality, and feel the pain), there is a danger inherent in this thinking – that this makes the movie-making process simple and easy. It goes something like this: "We don't have to have to worry about film labs and transporting stock, telecine and vaulting negatives. We don't have to worry about dubbing tapes and digitizing, using rented decks on a fully built-out edit system. We can build a cheap Final Cut station on my buddy's old G5, and buy a couple of firewire drives to edit on. We don't have to worry about the technology, we can be cheap and worry about the art!"

The digital workflow is not the magic bullet. For every worry you manage to avoid, you introduce one.

You don't need AC's on set loading film canisters, but you need someone whose entire job is to track which cards/drives have been shot, which have been transferred, and which can or cannot be wiped and reused. You either need a computer and electricity for reliable hard drive storage on set, so you can back your cards up in the field, or you need enough cards that you can afford to wait until the end of the day, and have someone spend the downtime transferring the data – preferably in an organized and careful fashion. Your media is your movie, so you want it taken care of!

You don't need to vault negatives or tapes, or deal with dubs and prints and telecines. Except that you do. All of those procedures are, essentially, backing up your media by making copies, and then storing the originals. The nice thing about tape dubs and film negatives is that you pay someone else to have the expertise to make accurate "copies" for you, so you don't have to worry about it. But if you're treating the digital workflow as your cheap solution, you probably don't realize that you have to do the same thing with your digital media, and so have no expert available to you. Someone has to import every clip, using the metadata from the shoot. This takes time and drive space. Then (especially if you're shooting uncompressed HD, 2K, 4K, or RED), you need to generate a proxy, or transcode the media to a video format easier on your system, that takes up less space. This requires even more time, and still more drive space. Now you're ready to work… but you should make copies of everything to a different set of drives, and ideally also a tape-based computer backup, and store those at a different location. When your drives fail (and they always will) or your facility is broken into, you don't want to lose everything, like those poor people from the blog posted above.

And, because you're doing this cheap and easy, odds are the only person available to do all of this is the editor. He may or may not be up to the task; there are a lot of video editors out there who know just enough about software NLEs to enable them to practice their craft, which is editing movies, and not much else. If this is the case, you need a strong assist to take care of all of this administrative BS, which is yet another cost and consideration, and he still may not be experienced in the formats you chose to use.

This has been kind of a rant, for which I apologize. This all comes from feeling bad for the people who lost their movie, yet being frustrated with their stupid decisions. Every few weeks, a friend or a friend of a friend asks about ways to shoot a movie with direct-to-disk cameras, and I give my advise, only to be told they're trying to do it cheaply, and won't do any backups or transcoding. It makes me want to pull my hair out. You don't edit your film using negatives on a flatbed, do you?! It all comes from this willful lack of common sense; people need to think about these things, and not just assume that, because the marketing tells them it's easy, that it actually is.

I am not any kind of feature film expert, but I am knee-deep in post production and current video technology, and I tell you now, if it can go wrong, it will, especially if you assume it won't.

Backup your stuff. Treat it like a film negative. Because it is. And once it's gone, you can't get it back.

[c/o Little Frog in High Def]

Dear God No

2008-05-17T12:03:00.001-07:00

Someone needs to slap George Lucas and tell him he has bad ideas. Rick McCallum didn't do it, and apparently Steven Spielberg doesn't either. So whatever happens, it's up to us, to us.

Says FOXNews:

Lucas had a lot to say about the new "Indy" and its future… "But I have an idea to make Shia [LeBeouf] the lead character next time and have Harrison [Ford] come back like Sean Connery did in the last movie. I can see it working out."

No George, you see dollar signs. Something "working out" looks, much, much different.

[c/o AICN]

Tonight We Dine In Hell

2008-05-12T11:52:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of David H, here's something good for a quick laugh... Andrew Jackson has never been fiercer!

Gore Verbinski Directing "Bioshock" Movie

2008-05-09T09:08:00.001-07:00

So says Variety, here and here.

This sounds exactly like a Universal project; Doom, Chronicles of Riddick, Pitch Black, Serenity, even Children of Men and TV's Battlestar Galactica all fit in with this type of science fiction adventure story. That list of titles, however, leaves a dubious taste in one's mouth; I seem to have inadvertently typed it in ascending order of quality, starting at the very bottom of the barrel and going up towards a potential tie at the top. Clearly, this is no sure thing, especially with John "Star Trek: Nemesis" Logan scripting.

Gore¹ has worked exclusively with Dreamworks/Paramount and Disney, at least as a director, and his first picture with Universal could be exciting. I don't have an Xbox 360, so I never played Bioshock myself, but I was able to watch Jamie play a few times, and it looked like a rich and interesting world. One I'd be interested in seeing on screen, done right. If Gore can reign himself in (and have a good, finished script when he goes into production) à la Curse of the Black Pearl, this could be a lot of fun.

There's no release date yet; my money is on Summer 2010. That gives us two years to see if this will turn out to be more Doom (shudder), or more Serenity (yay).

Either way, I guess this means Jerry² (and Disney) will be waiting on Pirates 4…

[1] - That's right, I said Gore. After over three years of working continuously on Pirates of the Caribbean, we've earned the right to call them by their first names. [⇪]
[2] - Jerry Bruckheimer. See above. [⇪]

[c/o CHUD]

Physics Rocks

2008-05-02T15:23:00.001-07:00

Take a moment when you have about two free minutes, and watch five metronomes synchronize themselves.

Some observations and questions:

It's amazing how just a little rocking motion allows the energy to transfer between them, normalizing the motion.

I wonder if you had several moving metronomes and a single stationary one, would the stationary one ever start moving? Would you need a lot of moving ones, like 20, 30, or 40?

Although, as you used more, the weight of the board connecting them would start to absorb a lot of that energy...

Maybe having heavier pendulums would help compensate?

Truly mesmerizing...

Go See Iron Man

2008-05-02T03:28:00.001-07:00

The summer movie season begins today, with Iron Man.

It's every bit as fun as it looks, has excellent pacing, and feels exactly like what a summer popcorn flick should. Great action, well-told story, perfect performances, excellent effects, only the merest bit of shoe-horned romance, and an above-par post-credits stinger for a sequel (so wait until the roll is through!).

A few of us went to a midnight screening at the Arclight Cinerama Dome; director Jon Favereau and star Robert Downey, Jr. were both in attendance, and primed the audience with some (brief) words. New trailers for The Incredible Hulk (so-so), The Dark Knight (awesome!), and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (closed my eyes and plugged my ears and only heard the muffled refrains of the "Indiana Jones March," so good for me) screened before the film, and set a pretty excellent mood.

Iron Man rocked. Hard.

Add in a solid episode of Lost, some rousing Mario Kart Wii, and delicious pizza from a new local place beforehand, and I had a pretty excellent night – and it's only Thursday, a school night at that!

If only Tracy was in town... but I'll meet up with her in Davis tomorrow, and then off to San Francisco with Dan and Sahra.

This is the start of an excellent few days...

Which Sport Are We Playing?

2008-05-01T08:32:00.001-07:00

Will's been posting about the Wizards pretty much nonstop over the last week or two, and last night's comments struck home :

But the Wizards won, Caron made a SICK shot and they'll be playing Friday night! Can't wait... (not like I'm actually hoping they win or anything... hope... is the worst thing a Wizards fan can ever have.)

Funny, he sounds exactly like a Red Socks fan...

Meta: Rabbit Rabbit

2008-05-01T08:24:00.001-07:00

As Jamie quotes a friend, "there is nothing bloggier than a post about why you haven't been blogging."

Suffice to say, April wasn't a very consistent month here at TWGB.

I aspire to be better.

Happy May!

Wii Number

2008-04-29T11:09:00.001-07:00

Mario Kart has come out, and despite the fact that I preordered via Amazon.com in March, my copy still hasn't arrived.

Weak.

The game has an online multiplayer function; as Nintendo uses the "Wii Number" system to add contacts and friends, I assume I'll be needing to exchange Wii Numbers with the friends I haven't yet.

So let's make this simple: my Wii Number is 4217-6827-2856-6615. Drop yours in a comment if you want to, or shoot me an e-mail, and we'll get ourselves registered up.

To The Rescue... Here He Comes...

2008-04-25T09:18:00.001-07:00

It is accomplished; I have purchased my tickets to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crustal Skull. Opening night, at the Hollywood Arclight.

Hell yes.

To date, I have still managed to avoid seeing any video advertisements, though print ones have managed to seep in... not the final one-sheet (which apparently has a lot of mild spoilers), but the myriad billboards (some just showing the teaser poster image, some with just words, and some featuring a few plot-ish points) here in L.A. are hard to miss. Plus, my subway stop looks like this:

I still consider my self amazingly unspoiled, and that's pretty exciting.

To keep the mood, here are the trailers for Raiders, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade. If you want the newest trailer, I encourage you not to – look at how much the original trailers spoil! – but if you must, you're on your own.

Salvage on the High Seas

2008-04-20T12:11:00.001-07:00

I read a couple of amazing stories this past week, but none was so preposterously cinematic as the true story of the team of specialists called in to save a capsized freighter in the north Pacific. High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace, a Wired article by Joshua Davis, follows the group from Titan Salvage on their real-life adventure:

Right now, it doesn't really matter how it happened. What matters is that the Cougar Ace has become a multimillion-dollar ghost ship drifting toward the rocky shoals of the Aleutian Islands. What's worse, according to the crew, the ship is taking on water. The Coast Guard alone doesn't have the capability or expertise to handle this kind of emergency, and officials fear that the ship will sink or break up on shore. Either way, the cars would be lost, and the 176,366 gallons of fuel in the ship's tanks would threaten the area's wildlife and fishing grounds. Mazda, Mitsui, and their insurers would take a massive hit.

The article is long, but gripping, and will obviously be made into a movie. It reads like a pitch for a film – not in the cheesy, "wouldn't-this-be-a-cool-movie-Hollywood-wink-wink-nudge-nudge" Tom Clancy way, but in the "this-happens-in-real-life-OMFG" way. Corporations, the environment, and individual lives could all be destroyed if they fail. There's a finite amount of time to accomplish their goals. The conflict and setting are high concept and exciting. And the guys who make up the team are the stuff of Jerry Bruckheimer's wet dreams:

They're a motley mix: American, British, Swedish, Panamanian. Each has a specialty — deep-sea diving, computer modeling, underwater welding, big-engine repair. And then there's Habib, the guy who regularly helicopters onto the deck of a sinking ship, greets whatever crew is left, and takes command of the stricken vessel.

And did I mention that the team leader, Senior Salvage Master Rich Habib, not only has an unlimited master's license, but he looks like an adventure hero, an "Indiana Jones" of the water. He reminds me of Jammer from The Abyss.

All of my talk regarding this story-as-film is to show what an incredible read it is. We forget, sometimes, just how extreme real-life adventures can be. The stakes are high, lives are lost, technology can be mixed with elbow grease and physical feats of wonder. And occasionally, reality has down-beat and mildly ironic triumphs.

Check it out.

[c/o kottke]

The Apple Store: Moving North

2008-04-17T11:57:00.001-07:00

Looks like Apple is finally opening up a retail store in Maine:

The maker of the MacBook laptop, the iPod and the iPhone has quietly made moves to open an Apple Store at the Maine Mall, according to job listings on Apple.com.

As the article points out, the closest shop has been in Salem, New Hampshire. Not good enough.

For contrast (and an unfair comparison), I can think of seven Apple Store within a 20 mile radius of my apartment in West Hollywood. And yes, that matters, when you want to test-drive a product before buying it – something I recommend on all over-$1000 purchases.

But now, at last, I can move back home...

The Bright Side?

2008-04-16T01:29:00.001-07:00

The only good thing about leaving work at 1 a.m. is that it only takes about 10 minutes to make the drive.

And it's not worth it, not by a long shot.

Looking like another busy one here, folks, so please try to bear with me. Or bare with me; whichever sounds like the most fun to you.

Long Week

2008-04-12T00:24:00.001-07:00

Taxes done, Universal and HBO projects (partially) delivered, switch to PC Avid systems (mostly) complete, bay painting finished, online schedule planned, bills paid, Galactica watched, kitchen cleaned.

Phew!

Time to take a little break and head to Vegas for the weekend, play some cards, see Kevin and Sarah (again!!), go out with Will, Tracy, and the afore-mentioned two, and do things with friends I don't often have a chance to.

It may not be my scene, but it's time to get out of town for a few days.

Plus, when we get back, Bear McCreary does the music of Battlestar at the Roxy...

Enjoy your weekends everyone!

Charlton Heston, RIP [Updated]

2008-04-06T01:15:00.001-07:00

Tonight, Charlton Heston died at age 84.

Despite extreme-right-wing political views that make me cringe, Heston starred in a lot of treasured movies from my childhood – Planet of the apes (obviously), Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, The Omega Man, The Three (and Four) Musketeers, True Lies... and later in life, I discovered Touch of Evil and Soylent Green (which, despite the now-comedic ending, is actually a funky little film).

In the coming days, keep your eyes peeled for too many jokes about Heston's famous "from my cold, dead hands" line (regarding gun laws in the US).

I choose to respectfully decline that gag, and instead call attention to his credits from 1997 - 1998, where he was credited in six different films as "Narrator" ("Actor" entries #11 - 15, and "self" entry #45). Well done.

He may have been crazy, but he leaves behind a collection of performances I'll be watching the rest of my life. In a lot of ways, he was my first view of "Old Hollywood," an era even farther away now that he's passed.

Bon voyage.

[Update]

I found this great tribute Richard Dreyfuss wrote back in August of 2002, when Heston announced that he had Alzheimer's disease. A wonderful piece, and sadly relevant today.

That's The Head Of My Department

2008-04-05T00:51:00.001-07:00

Jeanine Basinger, the head of the Wesleyan University film program, just got profiled in Variety (again):

According to filmmaker-thesp Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, "Jeanine teaches with positive reinforcement while putting the fear of God into you." Her policies are legendary, draconian -- and inarguably effective: No missed classes. No extensions. No exceptions. (She even holds her senior seminar on Sunday!) "Jeanine would say your only excuse for tardiness was death," remembers "Cold Case" producer Liz Garcia.

But once students get past those warnings, their reward is a class more fulfilling, engaging and stimulating than any they're likely to encounter in any discipline. Basinger's quick wit and deadpan sense of humor are as legendary as her intellect. On the recent crop of magic-themed films, ("The Prestige," "The Illusionist"), Basinger quipped to former student Marc Longenecker, "Magic in cinema is a bit like ventriloquism on the radio."

That humor is an integral part of Basinger's teaching style, which is peppered with personal anecdotes and highly original notions. Her three rules for mastering film: Watch two movies every day (to absorb history), take drum lessons (to learn rhythm) and study physics (to understand space and time).

While I never took drum lessons, I bag my hands around constantly, and like to think I've got a well developed sense of rhythm. The other two I do pretty well on, so much as working life allows.

I could pull quotes from just about every part of this article, as it all resonates – which should be no surprise, since this is the exact program I went through. I will call attention to one last bit, though:

...Basinger's teaching is founded on the premise that film's form and content are inextricable. Unlike most other film schools, where production and critical studies are separate, Wesleyan's undergraduate program, "was conceived as a wedding between history, theory and production," Basinger explains. She is intimately involved, as are all the faculty, in the editing and writing process of students' senior film projects. "Jeanine's classes bridge the gap between film appreciation, film criticism and filmmaking," concurs [Paul] Weitz ("About a Boy")... She assigns no books – though she's written 10 herself – because she insists that students study films by watching them. Writer Jeremy Arnold recalls the moment when a Basinger neophyte asked what he should focus on while viewing that day's movie: "Everything," she replied.

Amen.

Great piece, and worth a read. Especially if you want a glimpse on how I think about movies, as her department was truly formative in that regard.

[c/o Leanne]

More on "The Ruins"

2008-04-04T16:56:00.001-07:00

A while back I posted about Bowdoinham-boy Carter Smith and his new film The Ruins; the movie opens today and is getting solid reviews.

Massawyrm from Ain't It Cool News says:

Newcomer director Carter Smith really does his job here. He manages to choose all the right angles to keep the same characters in the confines of the same 30 or so feet interesting at all times. He tempers just the right amount of blood and sound work with off screen injuries and death to keep it both brutal but never over the top. And he never gets gratuitous with anything. Everything is in just the right amount to feel natural.

Capone, from the same website, has this to say:

First-time feature director Carter Smith does not spare us the blood and guts, but he doesn't go overboard with it either, especially when the young med student is forced to perform emergency surgery a couple of times in the group's time atop the temple... The Ruins is great, freak-out-worthy material that will have you questioning every little bump under your skin and itch you can't quite reach. Oh, I need to see this again very soon.

Even Ain't It Cool News' founder, Harry Knowles, seems to love it, in his rambling, horribly-written way.

In addition to the billboards I see everywhere, I checked my e-mail to find the marketing for this film is going full force: Amazon.com had sent me the following notice:

I can't say this is my kind of movie – intense gore-fest horror films aren't at the top of my list. But I'll be out there showing my support, and if any of you want to join me, let me know.

Dreamworks is going full-steam on this one; if the reviews were bad, I'd say they were trying to bum-rush the opening weekend, but with the solid reviews everyone seems to be giving, it looks to me like the studio believes in this one.

Not bad for a kid from Bowdoinham!

iTunes For The Win

2008-04-03T23:37:00.001-07:00

Big news; Ars Technica is reporting that Apple is the number one music retailer in the United States:

The news was announced in an e-mail sent this afternoon to some Apple employees, a copy of which was seen by Ars Technica. It includes a screenshot of an Excel file showing the top ten music retailers in the US for January 2008, and Apple is at the top of the list. The iTunes Store leads the pack with 19 percent, Wal-Mart (which includes the brick-and-mortar stores as well as its online properties) is second with 15 percent, and Best Buy is third with 13 percent. Amazon is a distant fourth at 6 percent, trailed by the likes of Borders, Circuit City, and Barnes & Noble. Rhapsody is in the tenth slot with 1 percent.

Wow. Take a look at those numbers – for every five songs sold nationally, one is bought on iTunes. Not bad for a store that didn't exist five years ago.

To my mind, this just goes to show how the old media business models are in upheaval; this is a lead Apple may not be able to keep up in the long term, but the days of the RIAA's hegemony are over. Hollywood faces the same challenges, and the next decade will feature a lot of similar rises and falls before the market figures out a new structure it can support.

Either way, NBC-Universal had better get back on iTunes!

Apple backs the news it up with a press release of their own.

Recaps

2008-04-03T23:25:00.001-07:00

On the eve of Batlestar Galactica's Season 4 premiere, it may be a good time for a recap.

Salon put up a comprehensive article yesterday, which ends with a series of "unanswered" questions, some featuring non-show research.

But, as far as I'm concerned, the only way to catch up is to watch this video.

Brilliantly cut and put together, a group of people spent a lot of time on this. Pulling together that much info isn't easy, and deadpan delivery that perfect takes practice.

Apparently, they make a habit out of promoting top-rated serialized televison dramas: they did a similar recap for Lost.

Tracy, Morgan, Will and I just finished watching the two-part Season 3 finale of Battlestar. We are primed, we are pumped, and we are ready for some fresh frakkin' action – for the first time in over a year!

Boss Fight: The Return

2008-04-03T15:47:00.001-07:00

Remember "Boss Fight," Jamie's Video-Game-Score Opus?

A friend of his did a remix, and it's totally worth checking out.

I still prefer the original, in all of its 8-bit glory, but this cracked me up.