Saturday, November 26, 2005

Punctuation and participation

Good night, and good luck. Good night. And good luck. Good Night, and Good Luck.

I was trying to figure out a good way to write about the film and the production company at the same time.

There’s Good Night, and Good Luck, a highly modern, succinctly acted masterpiece about something that happened more than 50 years ago that isn’t as well known as perhaps it should be. Although that may not really be the point.

Then there’s Participant Productions. A new, highly political production company founded by the founder or eBay. One of those examples where someone makes money and somehow makes good on what they believe.

The thing about Good Night, and Good Luck is how mature the storytelling is.

If you don’t know about McCarthy, 50’s television, or liberalism in general – you may become a little lost. The movie doesn’t give you more than you need to understand the event that’s occurring. There’s NO exposition. You will not learn who these characters are from anything outside of what they do on screen. You may not get the inside jokes.

The keyword is subtlety.

As for Participant Productions. I haven’t seen any of the other movies. North Country clearly presents its message… arguably in an unappealing way (just look at the box office). And Syriana looks like it could be great. I guess I’ll have to wait and see on that one.

But the idea is brilliant.

Labels:

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Another way Sony is ruining the video game industry...

Oddly enough after swearing off video games forever, I’m still fielding about three questions every day about whether I’m going to buy an Xbox 360.

The answer is no. I’ll never buy another video game system at launch.

There are never enough great games for a system’s launch and there’s always that slow trickle of games for six or nine months after launch too. You also end up paying twice as much as you do a year after launch. And, as a grown up, I can no longer rationalize overpaying for a consumer electronic just to be the first to own one.

Of course, the biggest reason is the Sony PSP. That’s the last video game machine I bought at launch.

The PSP is a worthless piece of garbage.
  • There are still no good PSP games (nine months later).
  • The extra features I was so excited about are cumbersome and unnecessary to my life (really, how often do I NEED to watch an episode of The Office on a three-inch screen?).
  • And the system shortage scare that goes with every launch ended up being a bunch of crap. Most retailers were overstocked on PSPs.
Right now, the $250 I invested on PSP in March is collected dust in my underwear drawer. (Or, if you’re interested, the entire package is available for the highly competitive price of $200 –– barely used!)

As for the Xbox 360... I can wait.

Labels:

continuation

The narrative could come straight out of a Donald Kaufman film.

The song structure barely classifies as skeletal.

Xylophones are used.

All the same, in a musical landscape of countless vapid second person lyrics and empty personal pronouns, John Vanderslice's "continuation" is startling in its terseness and precision.

It is simultaneously concrete and opaque for all the right reasons.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

An Anaphylactic Shock!

This weekend I had a massive revelation.

For years I thought my allergic reaction to mango and pistachio was some sick cosmic joke. Little did I know this seemingly illogical nexus of food sensitivity belied a biological explanation: they both belong to the Anacardiaceae family.

Apparently there is method to the madness.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Midnight mysogyny

So Mike Newell takes the directing reins. (Mike Newell primarily of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame.) While Steven Kloves (primarily of Harry Potter screening writing fame but perhaps soon of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time fame), again handles the screenplay.

And something isn’t quite right.

I like Goblet of Fire best of the books so far. It was J.K. Rowling’s first attempt to really break up the formula the books were beginning to fall into. Plus you have the resurrection of the Dark Lord.

But in the movie you have a rambling plot and a not-so-subtle misogyny.

Hermione is reduced from a nearly omniscient, clever girl to a whiner and worrier. Fleur goes from being a champion and an unattainable woman to… whatever it is she’s doing in the movie. Wearing swimsuits, tights dresses and revealing gym-style shorts. Any other woman of substance is either not present or simplified so as to be the romantic object.

Plot wise… I didn’t mind the major changes to the story. Some shortcuts (after all) had to be taken to make a 750-page book into a three-hour movie. But I miss some the teachers. And the world doesn't feel nearly as real as in Prisoner of Azkaban.

It’s worth seeing for a fan. But unlike Cuaron’s variation it might not be for a non-fan.

Labels:

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Murder by Numbers

"Taken as such, one-nine-six-eight and one-nine-eight-nine are merely four-digit numbers without any particular significance."

- Konrad Jarausch, 1968 and 1989: Caesuras, Comparisons, and Connections, pg. 461

I feel ashamed to be a historian.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

The Devil in the White City

My experience with the World's Fairs is mostly limited to looking up at their tall remains; my knowledge of them mostly gleaned from the Food Network.

Not that this is a completely arbitrary connection: food has had a particularly lively history at the World's Fairs. Victorian culture frowned on the consumption of food in public, but like Carnival, the codes and mores were inverted at the Fair. Thus a lot of foods have their fable origins at the World's Fairs. The intolerably hot 1904 World's Fair was particularly prodigious: Iced Tea, the Ice Cream Cone, Cotton Candy, and the Hamburger all can be traced backed to St. Louis.

Chicago's World Columbian Exposition in 1893 also produced numerous firsts: the Cracker Jack, Diet Cola, Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, Pabst Blue Ribbon, the Exotic Dancer, and the Serial Killer. The World's First Ferris Wheel was stationed mere blocks away from the University of Chicago Campus on the Midway Plaisance.

The primary function of the World's Columbian Exposition, according to one of its official chroniclers, was to not merely commemorate the discovery of the ‘New World’ - which was considered by many to be the most important secular event to have taken place since the dawn of time - but to glorify genius and the progress of civilization. Within this general framework, the spectacle of the Midway took on a curious function. Despite being a general area for amusements spatially separate from the rest of exhibitions halls, the Midway also featured 'denizens gathered from all quarters of the earth' in cultural exhibits. For example, on the Midway grounds, an entire Java village was reconstructed where West Javanese participants would engage and demonstrate 'traditional Sundanese activities' such as batik, weaving, and embroidery. The Midway Plaisance was seen literarily as a laboratory, a tool for education and the advancement of knowledge.

Yet, in the reflective writings on the Fair by its principle organizers, we can truly see the nascent Social Sciences at their most nescient. There is a tension in the narrative of the Official History of the World's Columbian Exposition that I do not believe the author, Johnson Rotisser, himself was aware of: despite his claims of the “exact representation” (442) on the Midway, he also notes that “… at regular intervals a mock wedding procession passed along and an exhibition of acrobatic feats and jugglery and marvelous sword play took place in the square.” (439) Despite this artifice, he still believed that one could go to the Midway and spy through the windows of a mosque to observe "the exercises of the Moslem religion" as "performed by the faithful." (440)

In contrast to Rossiter’s glorification of genius and unabashed adoration for the scientific advancement made possible by the Midway Plaisance, another scribe of the fair, Benjamin Truman, was far more cynical and bellicose. His ire was raised by Rossiter's 'supposed natives', who were in actuality paid professionals whose sole goal was "to get all the money they can.” (550) As Truman succinctly puts it, “They have not come thousands of miles merely to add a picturesque feature to this wonderful exhibit. Almost all of them are professional traveling showmen, who pitch their tents in whatever portion of the globe offers the greatest inducements in hard cash. All the profuse explanations that they are here by special permission of Sultan this and Emperor that is bosh…” (550) Indeed, Truman was not far off in his analysis as the Midway had 2.5 million admissions with the concessions and sideshows generating over $4 million dollars.

One would think that within the context of this skepticism and the continuing crisis of 'Western scientific progress' the interest and enthusiasm for these large fairs would abate. Yet, the 2005 Expo at Aichi, Japan was well attended and signaled perhaps a new direction for the World's Fair: a focus on the "close links binding humanity to nature."

Whether this new orientation will continue in the tradition of building absurdly large structures and creating novelty foods remains to be seen.

Friday, November 11, 2005

The obvious moment for change

This week’s was the 13th episode of the U.S. version of The Office.

For those of you who are keeping score... that is the same place in the timeline as The Office Special, the final episode (or final two episodes depending on your viewpoint) of the British series.

What that means is that this was the obvious moment for a change in direction and plot. Naturally, the U.S. Office has been on it’s own little course since at most the second episode and at most this second season. But no difference has been as drastic as last night’s.

Suddenly Jim openly flirts with slash says “I really like you” to Pam. Then the fearless leader gets involved with she whom he calls “Hilary Rodham Clinton” (but not to her face.) And all is different.

It was honestly quite surprising and freeing in a way. I think they have finally left behind the knee-jerk reaction of The Office faithful (myself included) comparing it to the British show.

Now I just hope they can keep up the comic momentum. And more Dwight. I hope there’s more Dwight.

Labels:

Linguistic Update I

The word worry will no longer be used. Instead, substitute the word wonder.

This change has been instituted for two major reasons:

1) Worry is a sign of weakness; wonder is a pensive, intellectual activity.

2) Worry connotes fear of an unknown; wonder connotes awe for the unknown.

Examples:

I wonder if I’ll get cancer one day. (If you were to say “I worry I’ll get cancer one day” you’d sound like a paranoid fool. And you probably will get cancer, so no use worrying now.)

I wonder about the President’s latest political move. (You could worry about the negative effects of the President, but it is far more helpful to be in awe for his ability to make seemingly reasonless choices appear reasonable to Tony Blair and his base.)

Homework: think of a sentence of your life where you used the word worry instead of wonder. Use whatever means are necessary to correct your mistake.

Labels:

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

1 Man. 1 Love. 1 Quest. 1000 Years. 1 Destiny.

1 Huge Jackman.

Brad Pitt, with all due respect, I think you made a big mistake by picking Troy.

History Lesson - Part V

"The historian never stopped repeating to himself that he knew nothing about it; that he was a mere instrument of measure, a barometer, pedometer, radiometer; and that his whole share in the matter was restricted to the measurement of thought-motion as marked by the accepted thinkers. He took their facts for granted.

He knew no more than a firefly about rays—or about race—or sex—or ennui—or a bar of music—or a pang of love—or a grain of musk—or of phosphorus—or conscience—or duty—or the force of Euclidian geometry—or non-Euclidian—or heat—or light—or osmosis—or electrolysis—or the magnet—or ether—or vis inertiae—or gravitation—or cohesion—or elasticity—or surface tension—or capillary attraction—or Brownian motion—or of some scores, or thousands, or millions of chemical attractions, repulsions or indifferences which were busy within and without him; or, in brief, of Force itself, which, he was credibly informed, bore some dozen definitions in the textbooks, mostly contradictory, and all, as he was assured, beyond his intelligence; but summed up in the dictum of the last and highest science, that Motion seems to be Matter and Matter seems to be Motion, yet “we are probably incapable of discovering” what either is.

History had no need to ask what either might be; all it needed to know was the admission of ignorance; the mere fact of multiplicity baffling science. Even as to the fact, science disputed, but radium happened to radiate something that seemed to explode the scientific magazine, bringing thought, for the time, to a standstill; though, in the line of thought-movement in history, radium was merely the next position, familiar and inexplicable since Zeno and his arrow: continuous from the beginning of time, and discontinuous at each successive point.

History set it down on the record — pricked its position on the chart — and waited to be led, or misled, once more."

- Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, pg. 456-7

Saturday, November 05, 2005

The end is nigh…

Bad news for Logan.

Apparently the Coca-Cola Company is phasing out Vanilla Coke by the end of the year in the U.K. and the U.S.

As if school wasn’t difficult enough. ;)

Labels:

Friday, November 04, 2005

The Cover-Up Is Not the Only Crime

Let's hear it for Sony:

"Sony BMG is facing a cacophony of criticism this week following the revelation that some of its CDs are packed with special copy-protection software that conceals itself with an advanced hacker cloaking technique"

There is nothing quite like unfettered corporate hate.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

me·tem·psy·cho·ses

Hypothesis: the Stone Roses' "I am the Resurrection" is the greatest post-breakup song of - i don't know, let's say - ever.

Although I misheard one lyric as "Cut loose, you're no muse."

Take that parapraxis for what you will.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Stress test

I forgot about this. (Or blocked it out.) How everything is elevated to a level of hyper-meaning. Who talks first. Talking on the phone or not. Calling back or not. Seeming interested, but not too eager.

But that’s not what’s really stressing me. (Nor is it unexpected.)

The issue is: I’ve come to realize over that I quite enjoy being validated... okay... I quite enjoy being lauded. (That’s a lot of why I was so nervous about started Graduate school.)

See, I’m more dependent on the opinions of others than I used to be. Often, more than I’d like to be.

This isn’t to say that I live my life through the eyes of others. I’m still a bit of a loner and, as a writer, most of my life is spent working in a figurative isolation. Also – at the risk of sounding arrogant – I have every confidence in my abilities and myself the majority of the time.

It’s more that the period of my life where I have no care or concept of what other people think is gone.

And now that I’m back into a part of life in which I have less confidence and where validation isn’t as easy to interpret or receive. (By virtue of how male-female relationships work –– particularly when we’ve agreed to moving slowly.)

The brilliantly bright side: this all helped me realize one of the things I really like about her. In the past, with other girls, I was able to receive easy validation. But it was either insincere or through an unconscious (maybe) manipulation on my part.

She isn’t that easily taken, which is an incredibly good thing.

Labels:

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

_

i can't believe i just received an official letter of resignation bleached of all emotion from the girl i once loved. no sentiment, all corporate. that solves one riddle: she was never being, merely performing.

but the time of venom is over.

rebecca, it's been emotional.