Monday, January 28, 2008
Winter Time Blues
It strikes me that the Eddie Cochran song that says their "ain't (sic) no cure for the summertime blues" was probably not written from the vantage point of Chicago in late January. As therapy for this mid-winter malaise I will now change my desktop wallpaper to a some random beach scene from Flickr and spend a few moments browsing gardening catalogs.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Calamari For Two?
I love calamari but seriously this startling image is almost enough to turn me vegan.
Image Courtesy of Pink Tentacle.
Image Courtesy of Pink Tentacle.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Cloverfield Review
It's been three days since seeing Cloverfield and here are my thoughts.
The shaky camera thing is both a blessing and a curse. It drives a sense of authenticity AND nausea. I (a first person shooter gamer) generally do alright with fast camera moves, but even I found my stomach churning during some portions of the film. My wife had to look away for minutes at a time to keep her popcorn in her stomach. That said, I found the constantly moving camera really did help to up the sense of realism. The ever moving camera pays dividends when Hud (the camera holder) is surprised by a stream of military troops marching up the street with all their weapons blazing. His point of view drifts from trying to take in the soldiers, to focusing on his friends and back again. His mounting sense of confusions and fear is palpable.
While I can understand how it might effect those from NY and Washington D.C., the use of 9/11 imagery in the film doesn't bother me at all. I think as a country we are still working out what we took in on that fateful day. Well made movies that visually reference 9/11 aren't so much exploiting our memories as providing another opportunity for us to reflect on the horror from the more comfortable distance of a Hollywood movie.
My strongest critique of the film centers on the relative lack of inspired character development and the less than stellar script. Imagine this film with a linguistic punch of authenticity that was able to match the visuals and you would of had a nearly perfect film. As it stands it is still a remarkable night at the movies, which is more than can be said for the likes of The Bucket List.
The shaky camera thing is both a blessing and a curse. It drives a sense of authenticity AND nausea. I (a first person shooter gamer) generally do alright with fast camera moves, but even I found my stomach churning during some portions of the film. My wife had to look away for minutes at a time to keep her popcorn in her stomach. That said, I found the constantly moving camera really did help to up the sense of realism. The ever moving camera pays dividends when Hud (the camera holder) is surprised by a stream of military troops marching up the street with all their weapons blazing. His point of view drifts from trying to take in the soldiers, to focusing on his friends and back again. His mounting sense of confusions and fear is palpable.
While I can understand how it might effect those from NY and Washington D.C., the use of 9/11 imagery in the film doesn't bother me at all. I think as a country we are still working out what we took in on that fateful day. Well made movies that visually reference 9/11 aren't so much exploiting our memories as providing another opportunity for us to reflect on the horror from the more comfortable distance of a Hollywood movie.
My strongest critique of the film centers on the relative lack of inspired character development and the less than stellar script. Imagine this film with a linguistic punch of authenticity that was able to match the visuals and you would of had a nearly perfect film. As it stands it is still a remarkable night at the movies, which is more than can be said for the likes of The Bucket List.
Monday, January 21, 2008
A Scandal Gets A Name
A currently unnamed scandal (Note: Scandal without a catchy name = scandals nobody knows about) involves accusations of extremely senior U.S. officials selling nuclear secrets to dangerous foreign players and a reported F.B.I. cover-up.
Some scandals get a lot of play in the MSM (Lewinsky, Whitewater, Valerie Plame) and some do not. Let's see how much coverage the scandal gets in the U.S. media. I suspect they won't get around to focusing on this London Times Online article and their follow-up story either. The world press on the other hand will follow along and that might hurt our credibility on the whole non-proliferation/Iran thing.
Oh, and for good measure we have the voice of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons weighting in on the non-coverage of the "Nuke-Gate" scandal. (Mark this portion of the post as my first feeble attempt to brand the scandal.)
It goes without saying that this whole thing probably won't be raised during the presidential debates.
Some scandals get a lot of play in the MSM (Lewinsky, Whitewater, Valerie Plame) and some do not. Let's see how much coverage the scandal gets in the U.S. media. I suspect they won't get around to focusing on this London Times Online article and their follow-up story either. The world press on the other hand will follow along and that might hurt our credibility on the whole non-proliferation/Iran thing.
Oh, and for good measure we have the voice of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons weighting in on the non-coverage of the "Nuke-Gate" scandal. (Mark this portion of the post as my first feeble attempt to brand the scandal.)
It goes without saying that this whole thing probably won't be raised during the presidential debates.
What Should We Name This Recession?
After looking at this Optimism Index chart I am left wondering what we should name this recession?
Suggestions: The Bubble 2.0, Mortgage Malaise, Foreclosure Fest...
Optimism Index: Company vs. CFO Optimism Index Optimism Index: US economy - Swivel
Suggestions: The Bubble 2.0, Mortgage Malaise, Foreclosure Fest...
Optimism Index: Company vs. CFO Optimism Index Optimism Index: US economy - Swivel
Getting Better All The Time
An expert shows how Third World conditions are getting better using a powerful data visualization tool that I wish came with Microsoft Office.
The Center for Graphic Facilitation: Debunking 3rd World Myths with Animated Statistics
The Center for Graphic Facilitation: Debunking 3rd World Myths with Animated Statistics
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)