Phlogging Futurballa

As mentioned below there are some new images in the Futurballa Store, but I failed to let you have a peak. For those of you who are not through clickers, here they are in glorious FuturScope.


Tabernacle


Narrows at Zion

Poo-tee-weet?

George Wallace, he of A Fool in the Forest, commented in a previous post that he was curious to hear my assessment of Big Fish.

Never one to walk away from a challenge, I will take the bait and give my review of Tim Burton's Big Fish.

Firstly, I liked it. In some ways it was a return to form for Burton after the nice to look at, but trite Planet of the Apes remake, and the also nice to look at, but somewhat pointless Sleepy Hollow. I admit to having a soft spot for Burton and having enjoyed both of those films, but they definitely weren't up to his best work, such as Edward Scissorhands and my personal favorite, Ed Wood. Big Fish has the look that Burton is famous for, but it also has the heart that makes his best movies stand out.

Watching the film, I got the same sort of nostalgic feeling for small time America of the past that I get from certain other books and movies. This is possibly some sort of archetypical memory that all Americans experience, but having grown up in West Hollywood and being the son and grandson of immigrants it is unlikely to be genetic memory. The Hardy Boys and certain Disney live action movies like Polyanna are good examples of the genre. Even better, it also reminded me of the wonderful George Pal film 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.

More particularly and more interestingly this is the magical world of small town America that Ray Bradbury summons in books like Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Burton also seems to share this connection to the past, and the protagonist of Big Fish, Edward Bloom's fantastical life is an homage to this lost world. I also had the feeling of a man "unstuck in time", as Billy Pilgrim of Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, re-lived his life in no particular order, all moments in time being one.

Or perhaps the true inspiration was another Bloom that is famous for his travels.

Billy Crudup mumbles his way through an uninspiring character, and the wonderful Jessica Lange is sadly under-utilized. The film relies a bit too heavily on narration for my taste. But Albert Finney as the elderly Bloom and Ewan McGregor as his younger self are a delight. Along with supporting roles from Danny De Vito, Steve Buscemi and Helena Bonham Carter that are charming and original. The film is fun, nostalgic, and warm without becoming overly sentimental or manipulative. It is a perfect Tim Burton vehicle and well worth a seeing.

Mr. Wallace, the ball is in your court.

Futurballa Photography Update

There are a couple of new images available at the Futurballa Store and can be viewed in the Galleries. The first is a shot of the Narrows at Zion and the second is a black and white piece of the Mormon Tabernacle. Also there are now larger prints available at Futurballa (approximately 10"x13" framed and matted to a 16x20 frame).

Springfield, USA

Well it's about time. At last some fan with too much time on his hands has done us all the service of mapping Springfield, home to the Simpsons.

From the Springfield Badlands to East Springfield, from Camp Krusty to the Springfiled Tire Yard Fire, it's all here.

Explore the Guide to Springfield USA.

For the Potter Fans Among You

J.K. Rowling has relaunched her personal site. It is a fun site with lots of news and information. She also puts a bunch of rumors to rest. Sorry guys, no Star Wars endings; Voldemort is definitely not Harry's father.

Visit J.K.Rowling Official Site.

Talk about an expensive hobby

Via DPReview we see this article about Pretec coming out with a 12 GB Compact Flash Card.

And the price, you ask?

Why a measly $14,900.

Now asides from the astronomical price, would you want to trust 14gb worth of images to a single memory card? Not I.

What we're (watching, reading, hearing)

Just finished Tom Robbins' last book, Villa Incognito. If you don't like Robbins, it's more of the same psycho babble, wrapped in overly hip jargon. If you like Robbins, it's a return to form, funny and literate. Robbins writes women and men who love women like no one else. If you hadn't guessed, I like Tom Robbins.

Currently reading another Spenser novel. These things are like salty peanuts. Great fun.

Consuming a TIVOed La Dolce Vita in half hour increments. Actually not a bad way to watch Fellini.

Coming from Netflix for Memorial Day Weekend viewing... Tim Burton's Big Fish, and Errol Morris' Fog of War.

Good Times

Most days I'm just curling up in a fetal position in front of CNN.

But then there are days like yesterday...

Lakers took a 2-1 lead against the TWolves, and Barry hit his first ding since April in the Giants fourth straight win.

Sometimes things just seem right in the world.

Mandom Rusings

I wonder if I mangled my syntax along the line or a glaring Spoonerism had found its way into a posting, because the Google ad banner on my blog this morning was linking to a site about dyslexia.

Giving in to consumerism once again, I've succumbed to the sirens' call of an iPod. Every time we take a driving vacation, which is my preferred sort of holiday, I struggle putting together just the right mix of CDs. Books on tape, country music for driving through Bakersfield, Cecilia Bartoli for those majestic vistas, Pink Floyd as I cruise down a lonesome highway, Chris Isaak rolling along PCH. It is a major challenge, and by the time I've returned home I find that I've missed the perfect CD for some bit of scenery, and more than half of what I've packed have never even found its way into the CD player.

Finally the temptation of having, virtually, my entire CD collection on a single device was too great, and when the Wife asked what I wanted for father's day, I said, "iPod, please."

And then there was one... Sad to see that Friedrich von Blowhard is taking an extended hiatus from blogging, and leaving Michael to do all of the heavy lifting. Hurry back.

God's Country

I don't often use that sort of expression, but if any place I've been deserves that title, then Southern Utah should be it. Here are a few pictures to get your proverbial juices flowing. If you want to see more I've put together a small web gallery (haven't had time to do too much retouching or correction). These were all snapshots taken with the Canon s400. The more serious work has to be processed and scanned, but I will share the best of those at a later date, either here or at futurballa.com.

The wife and I drove from San Jose to Reno to see family on day one and then drove on to Salt Lake City.


Temple Square

Not much to do there on a Sunday, but we had a nice dinner and a pleasant walk around downtown and Temple Square.

From there we drove through Provo and rural Utah to Torrey. A charming town with a couple of restaurants that would be at home in any major city. I'd especially recommend the Diablo Cafe, which I'd categorize as Southwest Fusion. We stayed at a charming lodge overlooking Capitol Reef.


This was our view


Mule Deer abounded

Capitol Reef is named as such because it reminded the early settlers of a reef in the ocean that blocked the way, and the dome of the major feature was reminiscent of the Capitol Dome in Washington.


Early morning


We drove over the Escalante

A stop at Kodachrome National Park. And yes, it did have nice bright colors.


Kodachrome (actually shot with Ektachrome)

Then on to Bryce Canyon. The canyon itself is a breathtaking site. Rugged red rock, awe inspiring vistas, stomach churning ravines, and geological formations called Hoodoos. Sadly, the lodgings in Bryce were not up to snuff.


Hoodoo, you do


More hoodoos at the aptly named Fairyland Canyon

We spent our last two days in the town of Springdale, just outside Zion National Park. The Driftwood Lodge, where we stayed, sports a fine Photographic Gallery, featuring the work of David Pettit, of which I purchased a small print.


View from our porch

Zion and Springdale offer free shuttles through the town and park, which limits traffic and are very efficient, running about every 10 minutes. Springdale has a hip vibe and we found a couple of excellent restaurants. The Bit and Spur offers upscale Mexican and Southwest cuisine, and Pentimento (located at the Driftwood) had a pretty nice rack of lamb that I tried.

I also recommend the River Walk that runs an easy mile along (of all things) the Virgin River and ends at the entrance to the Narrows.


The Narrows

From there we headed home, which was a fairly gruelling day, driving through such garden spots as Barstow and Bakersfield.


Zion National Park

I'm Baaaack

And I promise you, as soon as I've sorted some pictures out and caught up on email, I'll have a complete trip report with pictures. Check back.

Mahalo

Busman's Holiday

I'll be taking a short hiatus next week for a bit of well deserved vacation. Promise to come back with a refreshed perspective, a sunny attitude and lots of pictures. In the interim, may I direct you to the blogrolls on my right, where you can find the best in culture and politics that the blogosphere has to offer.

Be seeing you!

Breakfast of Champions

Writing in In These Times, the iconic author, Kurt Vonnegut shares 81 years worth of wisdom in a wide ranging essay on the state of America and the world. In his curmudgeonly voice Vonnegut talks the kind of sense that is all too often lacking in political discourse.

Read Cold Turkey.

All Your Digital Photography Needs

Why do you come to Futurballa?

The answer for that is usually I searched for something totally unrelated to Futurballa Blog and stumbled on to this pointless blog. I was checking my referrer logs and this guy linked to me. Or, I went to college with Rick and feel obligated to look in once a day.

But, if you are the one who stops in here for my perceptive takes on photography, to see my photo blog postings, to link through to my other site, or to find out what is hot and new in the world of digital photography. Have I got the links for you.

These are the stops I make every week to get the latest news, learn about techniques, read the forums, and generally waste some valuable time.

Digital Photography Review - DPReview is the best site to keep up on news and reviews if you are looking for gear.

Steve's Digicams - Steve is the next stop after DPReview. Also a great resource.

Rob Galbraith - Rob's site is a great place for more in depth info and analysis.

The Luminous Landscape - A fantastic stop for techniques.

Norman Koren - Norman has the best tutorials around on scanning and color management.

That should keep you busy for a while.

Political Animal

Kevin Drum has a few very good posts on Bush and on Abu Ghraib and links to some interesting commentary.

One of the writers he links to is Senator Lindsey Graham. I saw Graham on yesterday's Meet the Press, and was a bit of surprised. You may remember that Graham, while still a congressman, was a major player in the impeachment hearings and was a hard line Clinton antagonist. While still doing his best to be a good Republican soldier, Graham obviously hackled at Cheney's assertion that people should "get off of Rumsfeld's back", and seemed sincerely disturbed by the treatment of Iraqi prisoners.

All I could think watching this was, if Bush is losing the full support of this guy, things are going south really fast.

Coincidence, I think not...

Crooked Timber's Chris also saw Wender's Wings of Desire for the first time recently. His one word review, splendid. He doesn't want to give too much away in terms of the story, but he sums up the movie's theme with a wonderful quote from Dennis Potter.

I can celebrate life. Below my window there's an apple tree in blossom. It's white. And looking at it - instead of saying, 'Oh, that's a nice blossom' - now, looking at it through the window, I see the whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be. The nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous. If you see the present tense - boy, do you see it. And boy, do you celebrate it.

My original post can be found here.

The Cathode Ray Mission

A New Look at Copyright

I spent a part of the morning today listening to a presentation by Stanford Law Professor and blogger, Lawrence Lessig. Mr. Lessig was promoting his Creative Commons Project, which is a new way to look at copyright and licensing of artistic product. Of course, as someone involved in both software used by creative professionals and as a photographer, I was very interested in what he had to say.

If I may attempt to summarize his thesis, and I hope do it a bit of justice... Lessig makes the point that copyright law derives from 18th century technology, and as written, causes a lot of problems with 21st century technology. Since the 1980s it has been assumed that copyright is granted upon time of creation. I.e., hit SAVE and it is your property. The onus is on the person seeking to use your material to seek permission from the artist. But what if the artist would like to share their works, but set reasonable limits. Copyright law does not provide for a method for the artist to do that up front.

That is where Creative Commons comes in. The artist simply goes to CreativeCommons.org and makes some choices on a web form. Such as, does he want attribution, is he sharing for non-commercial purposes only, are derivative works to be bound by the same contract? And voila, 3 documents are generated. A human readable license agreement, one in legalese, and a machine readable document.

The goal is that at some point using metadata that digital creations will be able to link back to the license, and creative persons will be able to see to what extent they can use or repurpose artwork created by other artists.

"All creativity is based on the past," says Lessig. And he hopes to remove the intermediary where no intermediary is necessary between creative individuals, and hopefully foster an explosion of creativity.

He doesn't seek to replace copyright, but instead to offer a method to "opt in" to a more open system. I'd be interested to hear from those of you who are creative types yourself, and from my creatively legal friends as well.

Stuff an Nonsense

This is a very disturbing use of Flash. [via Lileks]

Hi, I'm Rick and I'm a noisaoholic. Pretty much the whole day in my office, either KFOG, Air America Radio, or iTunes is playing. In the car it's KFOG (again), a Giants game, NPR or I'll surf talk radio to get pissed off.

What I'm reading: Neil Gaimon's Stardust
A grownup fairy tale about a boy looking for a fallen star.

On the shelf: The Triplets of Belleville just arrived from Netflix and is slated for this weekend's viewing.

If you haven't been over to Futurballa Photography lately, be sure to check out the new look.

Today's Suggested Viewing

The German film director Wim Wenders can be a pretty frustrating guy as an artist. Some of his work is borderline schlock, and he has had his flirtations with Hollywood fame, but at his best he is a visual poet. In his best films, Wenders has a slow, languid style of filmmaking. He concentrates on the visual, on the rhythms of the scene. Plot takes a back seat, but he manages not to be boring.

Arguably his finest work was 1987's Wings of Desire. This movie works on so many levels, a love story (That was unfortunately remade with Nick Cage), as an essay on Berlin before the fall of the wall, as a meditation on the secret lives of ordinary people, and as an allegorical tale about an Angel longing to touch and be touched.

Oh, and watch for Peter Falk. I often forget what a fine actor he is.

Point Counterpoint

If you are looking for a remedy to RNC spinpoints and the So Called Liberal Media, former conservative hitman David Brock has started a site for just that purpose. You might call it "Fox in the henhouse watch".

Media Matters for America

I'll be your mirror

There has been a major revamp of Futurballa Photography. It's a whole new look. Check it out.

Futurballa.com

Barfly

I pass this place quite often on my way to lunch, but never go in. The Caravan sits conveniently next to the Greyhound station. It's downtown San Jose before the tech boom. An oasis for barflies and bums in a high tech desert.

There was a time that I would have ventured in and pulled up a barstool. But now I walk by and take a picture.


The Caravan

Ulla, Dance

Nicole Kidman will be answering the phones, "Bialystock and Bloom" when she picks up the mantle (not to mention the blonde wig) of Ulla, in the film version of Mel Brooks' Broadway musical.

"Last night a star was born on Broadway - the lovely Miss Ulla
Inga Hansen Bensen Yonsen Tallen-Hallen Svaden-Svanson.
We predict that her name will soon be up in lights. If they can find enough bulbs."

Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick are slated to reprise their stage rolls and word is that Will Ferrell will be taking on the role of Franz Liebkind.

Here.

God of Last Night

Aaron Haspel's satirical take on About Last Night is almost spot on. However his title was missing one necessary little touch, if you want to totally get that Teachout style he so aptly parodies.

It should have read AH: Administrivia.

Here is Terry Teachout's good natured response.

Hot Enough For You?

It's been a few days of scorching weather this week in Northern California, but today is supposed to be cooler. These kids had the right idea.

You Will Watch This Space

It seems to be a trend, but many of my favorite bloggers and friends are too busy with their dayjobs to post at the moment. Alas, I too must say stay tuned.

Combustibles

Had a very entertaining DVD watching day yesterday including some worthy recommendations to pass on.

School of Rock... Jack Black doing a pretty good Angus Young impersonation in this Sister Act for heavy metal fans. Light weight fare, certainly no This is Spinal Tap, but good innocent fun.

The Searchers... Following my comments earlier on John Ford and Terry Teachout's appreciation of Ford's "painter's eye", I had to return to the greatest western every made. This is a multilayered film about racism and obsession. There are all sorts of unanswered questions that take on meaning with each repeated viewing. Like the tension in the early parts of the film between John Wayne, his brother, and his brother's wife. Could Natalie Wood's character be the biological daughter of Wayne? Had never thought of that possibility before, but it struck me last night that might be the case. Would certainly add another layer to the fact that Wayne is ready to kill the girl after she has become the wife of the Indian war chief, Scar.

Finally, I ended my triple feature with Robert Aldrich's, Kiss Me Deadly... The Mickey Spillane classic starring Ralph Meeker in the role of Mike Hammer, with a very young Cloris Leachman (Blucher... neigh) as the blonde who sets the story in motion when Hammer picks her up on the road. The film contains the infamous suitcase full of ?????(could we say, combustibles?) that has been paid homage to in Alex Cox's Repo Man and Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

Next up... Evil Dead II

Fashion! Turn to the left

Slate is sharing a small slideshow and essay on the NYMoMa's exhibit of fashion photography.

The article is titled, Striking Poses: Is fashion photography art?. I am familiar with two of the artist's featured (Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin) in the slideshow and neither of them made their names as fashion photographers, but instead are best know in the fine arts world.

Based on this small sampling, it would seem that the exhibit is more about, is art photography fashion?, instead of vice versa.

John Ford and Antonioni

Terry Teachout is watching John Ford in today's consumables, and praising Ford's "painter's eye". I concur. Ford was a master of composing a frame.

My own consumables at the moment include, Robert B. Parker's earlier Spenser novels. Michael Moore's last book, Dude, Where's My Country. Listening to the Zabriskie Point soundtrack. Most recently watched was David Cronenburg's first feature, Shivers. And next up on my movies to watch, Harry Shearer's Teddy Bears' Picnic.

Was searching Netflix to no avail for the Zabriskie Point DVD, and after searching Amazon, discovered that it has never been released on DVD. Criterion, what are you waiting for?

A Nod and a Wink

As Carrie Fisher said in When Harry met Sally, "Everyone thinks they have good taste and a sense of humor, but they can't possibly all have good taste." Not to say that people who don't get Quentin Tarantino have either no sense of humor or bad taste, perhaps the opposite. But I do think that a taste for Tarantino requires that you are in on the joke and share his tastes to some extent.

This, by way of saying, I saw Kill Bill Vol. 2 last night and predictably enjoyed it. Liking Tarantino is similar to having a taste for Kevin Smith, who also seems not to be everyone's cup of tea. It is often one big "in joke", and either you are in on it or not. Kill Bill Vol. 2 is pretty much that. Where Kill Bill Vol. 1 was mostly a tongue in cheek homage to a certain brand of Hong Kong action pictures, Vol. 2 is a pastiche of styles, from Noir to Spaghetti Western, to other types of Kung Fu movies, with nods to TV shows of the seventies and before.

David Carradine shines as Kwai Chang Caine's evil twin and Uma Thurman takes a beating that might catch Mel Gibson's attention. The dialog is typical Tarantino. Nobody actually talks like that in real life, but there is nothing in this movie that would or could lead you to think that this is real life.

I heard Ebert and Roeper on Sunday singing the praises of KB2, and one of them even mentioned the "O" word in terms of Uma Thurman's performance. That will happen about the time monkeys fly out of my butt. This is low art and not the sort of thing the Academy is ever going to honor. But it is high entertainment, full of wit and action, and can be oddly touching. But you need to share some of Tarantino's vocabulary. I lack Tarantino's fanboy passions for Kung Fu movies, but I've seen enough of them to get the archetype character of the white haired teacher. I get the joke when the master says something like, "Your Kung fu is pathetic... Let us see if your Crane style kung fu can defeat my Tiger style." And I had to laugh when the Bride walks out of the chapel and there sits David Carradine playing a bamboo flute.

Also, as usual, kudos to Tarantino for a great soundtrack. Especially the Malcolm McLaren, oh so slow version of The Zombies She's Not There (titled About Her on the soundtrack). There is also a wonderful Johnny Cash rendition of A Satisfied Man.

If you want to get in touch with your inner teenager KB2 is a lot of fun. Is it better than KB1, as many critics are claiming? Yes, as a piece of filmmaking, but KB1 had it's charms. KB2 is slower and more about dialog and character. It took me a bit longer to warm to KB2, but it hooked me in and I had a good time. And what's so bad about a good time?

And Speaking of....

The self same Brian Mickelthwait has some thoughts on The Godfather today. He seems to like the more structured, linear, and operatic Godfather over the sequel, Godfather Part II. He has yet to get to Godfather 3.

The second one had a really strong "deleted scenes from the real movie" feeling about it. I don't share the widespread opinion that Godfather 2 is the greatest movie in general and sequel in particular ever made. I thought half of it was those deleted scenes, and the other half was a rather slight anti-capitalist Americans Being Evil in Central America movie, that every star seemed to want to do one of in those days, usually starring a journalist or a photojournalist. The Godfather is, in short, one movie, not three. There is The Movie. There are the extra bits. There is the Al Pacino versus the Jewish Guy bit, which is as small and mundane and stitched on as the Real Movie is big and remarkable and of itself. And there is 3, which everyone says is nonsense, and which I'll let you know about when I've sat through it.

Yes, G2 is less linear, yes it is focused on the parts of the book that got left out of G1, but the great Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth, Fredo in the boat, De Niro at his best as the young Vito Corleone. There is so much good stuff in G2. The film has a more sprawling, Sergio Leone or Bertolucci style to it. It is less opera and more family epic history.

The Godfather (Part I) may in fact, in some ways, be the better movie. But to dismiss Part II as a collection of deleted scenes is to miss the point. Where I agree with Brian is that these movies are best seen together. He mentions the TV version (known in America as "The Godfather Saga"), which re-edits the two films chronologically. I would love to see this version on DVD (without the cleaned up language that Coppola did for American TV).

Read the whole thing here.

Going All Mickelthwait on Your A**

Yes I'm promoting a new word, in honor of culture blogger Brian Micklethwait.

What is going Micklethwait, you ask?

Answer: Excessive photo blogging, containing bridges, birds (in the British sense), and buildings. Let's make it a meme.

And all of this is merely by way of introduction to a few pictures I took of a covered bridge in Felton, California last Saturday.











[Update: I've corrected the spelling of Messr. Micklethwait's name. I seem to have inverted an ee and an el.]

Baseblog Phlog

Wasn't a good weekend for the Giants, but it was a great weekend for Barry. If you care about this sort of thing, there is a very good piece at SFGate (here).

Here are some images I shot from my seat, high above SBC park.


Say Hey!


Bonds tied Mays


Cruising by the park


Barry takes his hacks

The night we attended, Barry knocked number 662 out of the park, and there was an awards presentation for number 660 at which Willie Mays said a few well chosen words. Worth the price of admission right there. Mr. Mays is, and always has been, a class act.

Quick Note on an Ongoing Controversy

Aaron Hapel summarizes the plot of Kill Bill Vol. 2, and manages to get in some entertaining jabs. Aaron and I went back and forth a tiny bit on KB1 and agreed to disagree. I will withhold comment until I've actually seen KB2, which I plan to do this week.

Stay Tuned

Read Aaron's comments here, [Beware: one or two minor spoilers]

Baseball has been very good to me

I'll be at the Giants game tonight. Mr Schmidt is pitching. Barry is hitting. The hated and reviled Dodgers will be batting first. We're in the nosebleeds, high above the third base line, but it is SBC Park (formerly known as Pacbell Park, don't you hate corporate sponsorship?), and the smell of garlic fries will be filling the air.

Maybe some pictures on Monday.

Elsewhere

At Wired News, an interview with author Neal Stephenson. I had a hard time getting through Quicksilver and will probably give a pass on the rest of the Baroque Cycle, but I've enjoyed his work in the past and he is a very interesting guy.

The Best of Baseball Blogs can be found via an article at Slate. To find your favorite team, BaseballBlogs.org is the place to go. And there are no less than 10 blogs for my Giants.

Singer, poet, photographer, Patti Smith has a new website, a new label and a new album. Check it out.

I (shame, shame, snik, snik) admit to being hooked on American Idol. My daughter got us started watching it and we can't stop. Last night's episode featured guest judge Quentin Tarantino. Sounds odd, but he claims to be a fan too. Blogcritics.org has some ongoing reviews and commentary, so I'm obviously not the only one to get Idol fever. But if you really want to enjoy snarky commentary on Idol or any of your favorite reality shows or teen dramas, the place to be is Television Without Pity. Home of the snark.

Marcel Duchamp

Some quotes and images from the father of Dada, Marcel Duchamp

In his own words...

an-artist, chess player, cheese dealer, breather, fenetrier

By John Cage

The check. The string he dropped. The Mona Lisa. The musical notes taken out of a hat. The glass. The toy shotgun painting. The things he found. Therefore, everything seen - every object, that is, plus the process of looking at it - is a Duchamp.

He simply found that object, gave it his name. What then did he do? He found that object, gave it his name. Identification. What then shall we do? Shall we call it by his name or by its name? It's not a question of names.

One way to write music: study Duchamp.

Say it's not a Duchamp. Turn it over and it is.

-from 'Statements Re Duchamp'

By Salvador Dali

The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.

When Duchamp understood that he had generously sown the wind with his youthful ideas until he had no more, he aristocratically stopped his "game" and announced prophetically that other young men would specialize in the process of contemporary art.

Then he played chess itself.

-from Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp


Duchamp


The Bride Stripped Bare


Nude Descending the Staircase


Fountain

Page 23, Sentence 5

Terry Teachout has a great game that he got via via. Grab the nearest book, go to page 23, find the fifth sentence and post it to your blog.

I'll play along.

From The Photoshop Bible by Deke McClelland (yes, that was the nearest book)...

"If the second value is bigger than the first, then all is happiness and Photoshop is running as fast as your particular brand of computer permits."

660 Baby

Go Barry!!!!

660 BONDS TIES MAYS

Dark Thoughts

Welcome back to Michael Chabon central. Or at least it seems that way lately. The author today has an op-ed at the New York Times on the subject of children expressing themselves in writing.

Chabon writes...

It is in the nature of a teenager to want to destroy. The destructive impulse is universal among children of all ages, rises to a peak of vividness, ingenuity and fascination in adolescence, and thereafter never entirely goes away. Violence and hatred, and the fear of our own inability to control them in ourselves, are a fundamental part of our birthright, along with altruism, creativity, tenderness, pity and love. It therefore requires an immense act of hypocrisy to stigmatize our young adults and teenagers as agents of deviance and disorder. It requires a policy of dishonesty about and blindness to our own histories, as a species, as a nation, and as individuals who were troubled as teenagers, and who will always be troubled, by the same dark impulses. It also requires that favorite tool of the hypocritical, dishonest and fearful: the suppression of constitutional rights.

Kids can be violent and dark creatures. As a child I sought out lurid comics, horror movies and read Lovecraft and Poe. And what did I get out of it? A healthy ability to separate fantasy from reality, a tad of creativity, and a morbid sense of humor.

It is important that in the time of the Patriot Act and in the wake of Columbine that we not throw out the baby with the bathwater by stifling our children's creativity in the name of protecting them. What you attempt to suppress comes out in all sorts of ways. Be involved, be aware, but don't block their creativity. They need that outlet. I know I did.

Read Solitude and the Fortresses of Youth

Le Mepris

I know Godard half as much as I should. I'm a fan of Alphaville and Breathless, and have seen a couple of others over the years, but it was only this past weekend that I finally saw Contempt. It is perhaps his most commercial film, in blazing technicolor and cinemascope, with money from Hollywood and Italy, featuring Brigitte Bardot and Jack Palance.


Charles Taylor writing in Salon back in 1997 describes the plot...

"Contempt" is built on a single moment of seeming inconsequence. Paul Javel (Piccoli), a promising young French writer, is courted by Jeremiah Prokosch (Jack Palance), a brash, vulgar American producer, to rewrite the screenplay for Lang's film. Paul and his young wife, Camille (Bardot), visit the studio one day, and Prokosch invites them to his home for a drink. He suggests that Camille ride with him in his sports car and Paul follow in a taxi. Despite Camille's objections, Paul agrees. He arrives at Prokosch's to find his wife out of love with him, convinced Paul left her alone with Prokosch so the producer could make a pass at her. While coping with the unraveling of his marriage, Paul has to decide whether to work on the rewrite, which is expressly against the wishes of Lang. From that scenario, "Contempt" becomes another of Godard's explorations of how much of ourselves we can sell and still remain true, a questioning into how love or work is possible in a world constantly urging us to name our price.

But it is not just Bardot's contempt for Picolli that the film's title is about. Godard's contempt for Hollywood film making, his contempt for the crass producer played by Palance, even his contempt for the sex kitten icon Bardot is apparent.

Fritz Lang, who represents an older, more pure style of film making is the only one that seems to escape Godard's venom. Lang's filming of Homer's Odyssey becomes a metaphor for Picolli, a fedora wearing Ulysses, with Bardot standing in for Penelope, Palance the suitor, and Lang a sort of Zeus watching the whole thing from above.


Read Taylor's essay here.

Carnival of Souls

This is a most striking series of documentary photography and text by a woman travelling on her motorcycle through the "dead zone" of Chernobyl.

Elsewhere

Al Franken and his Team have a blog at the Air America Website.

Chris at Crooked Timber muses on how fictional presidents are best. Watching The West Wing often leads to similar fantasies in our house as well.

And Brian, also of CT offers a link to a remix of Man of Constant Sorrow. Mmmmmm, downloads.

The unbelievable Tony Pierce has a dancing Angus Young. It made me smile.

Via DVD Journal we have this bit of Mel-ania, Our friends at Warner are prepping a 30th Anniversary Edition of Mel Brooks' 1974 Blazing Saddles, which will include new Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, commentary from Brooks, a featurette on Madeline Kahn, a cast-reunion documentary, and the 1975 TV pilot "Black Bart." Drat, how many special editions will I have to buy?

A Piece of Work

In the irony is not dead category....

While attending a speech given by Antonin Scalia, reporters were ordered to stop taping mid speech. This prototcol had not been explained before the speech began and reporters were approached by federal marshals during Scalia's talk.

The reporter initially resisted, but later showed the deputy how to erase the digital recording after the officer took the device from her hands. The exchange occurred in the front row of the auditorium while Scalia delivered his speech about the Constitution...

[Scalia] said he spends most of his time thinking about the Constitution, calling it "a brilliant piece of work."

Read the whole thing here

Smells Like Sonic Youth

I kind of missed out on grunge. I was living in Holland when Nirvana came around and didn't even hear of grunge until it was already passe.

Later, I discovered Nevermind and Unplugged in New York and loved them. I've never been a gigantic Nirvana fan, but have grown to respect their work. I'm especially fond of the unplugged version of Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World", and their cover of The Vaselines "Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam".

Writing in the New York Times today Thurston Moore, of the Post-Punk band Sonic Youth, pays tribute to Kurt Cobain in a thoughtful piece that does a good job of putting Kurt, the band, and grunge in context.

Read it here.

A Futurist's Holiday

I am informed that today is the birthday of Gino Severini, Italian Futurist, and contributor, along with our namesake, to the Futurist Manifestos.




Take the day off.

Schmatahs

More Yiddish stuff for Passover. Yiddisha.com has a collection of T's with Yiddish words. So you can wear your tochus on your chest or let the world know you have a shayna punim.

I myself would opt for the Meshuggenah shirt.

The mannequin for the Mamaleh shirt is a bit zaftig, especially compared to the Shiksa model. Are they making some kind of statement there?

Find Yiddishe Schmatahs here.

A Fraylekhn Pesah

In honor of Passover, Crooked Timber reprints (and links to) an essay by Michael Chabon, Next year in Yisroel. Coincidentally, you can also read a piece about Chabon at the blog of my good friend George Wallace, A Fool in the Forest.

I'd actually read this essay before, and might have even linked to it. Though I'm certain at having linked to Chabon's site, which is very generous with reprints of essays and articles by the author.

Chabon's essay is a sad lamentation on the melancholy idea of a book called "Say it in Yiddish". Where would you use such a book? In what country would you need to ask an airport employee, "what is the flight number" or a medical worker, "I need something for a tourniquet" in Yiddish?

Yiddish is the kitchen table language of Jews. Sadly it is the language that my grandparents used when they did not want the children to understand. So, apart from a smattering of expressions and curse words, I am illiterate in the Yiddish language.

Fantasizing an alternative Jewish state, Yisroel, where the Hebraists lost out in favor of the establishment of Yiddish as a national language, Chabon writes, " There is Yiddish on the money, of which the basic unit is the herzl, or the dollar, or even the zloty. There are Yiddish color commentators for soccer games, Yiddish-speaking cash machines, Yiddish tags on the collars of dogs. Public debate, private discourse, joking and lamentation, all are conducted not in a new-old, partly artificial language like Hebrew, a prefabricated skyscraper still under construction, with only the lowermost of its stories as yet inhabited by the generations, but in a tumbledown old palace capable in the smallest of its stones (the word nu) of expressing slyness, tenderness, derision, romance, disputation, hopefulness, skepticism, sorrow, a lascivious impulse, or the confirmation of one's worst fears."

Now to look for my copy of "Say it in Ladino".

Odds and Oddities

2 Blowhards gives an extensive review of "Standing in the Shadows of Motown"
I concur that it is a better musical experience than it is a piece of movie making, but the music is fantastic. See it. And if you are looking to make it a soulful double feature, pick up the new DVD edition of Alan Parker's "The Commitments" finally available in a worthwhile widescreen version after years of a hard to find pan and scan, no extras DVD.

Small Trivia point on "The Commitments"... While several castmembers went on to have musical careers, perhaps the best known musician in the movie had a non-musical role. Andrea Corr, of the Corrs, played Jimmy Rabitte's sister Sharon, and her sister Sharon Corr was an uncredited fiddle player.

Chris at Crooked Timber is Joogling. Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew. Happy Passover.

Since I linked to this excellent site on Evolution in an earlier post, I feel obligated to link to Kevin Drum's posts on the subject of Evolution vs. Creationism in our schools. Read Kevin here and here.

New Photo Gallery

There is a new gallery at Futurballa Photography, aka 'the other site'.

Just click on the San Juan Bautista gallery link. I concentrated largely on architectural elements such as doors and windows. There are a couple of landscapes as well.

The majority were shot on Kodak Ektachrome G and the black & whites were shot using Kodak's professional BW400CN film.

Prints can be had by visiting the Futurballa Store or emailing store@futurballa.com

End of shameless self promotion.

Air America

Not much time for Blogging today, and I forgot my camera this morning, so even a quick photoblog isn't happening. But while I try to juggle multiple projects here at the office, I can listen to Air America's O'Franken Factor in the background. The best stream for those of you, like myself, not lucky enough to get it over the air, seems to be Portland's AM 620.

A Little Less Conversation

In an interesting and amusing literary exercise, Kevin Drum shares one half of a press briefing and let's us fill in the blanks.

Read the whole thing here.

Send Poets, Guns and Money

I seem to be making a habit of commenting whenever Aaron Haspel posts, but he posts so rarely these days that it is often noteworthy, and today's post would be noteworthy regardless of frequency. Following some references to favorite bloggers who wax poetic at the drop of a couplet, Aaron goes on to discuss the poetry of programming.

His praise for the single line of code as a sort of haiku is poignant, and his comment that code often grows into an epic in modern programming is well taken, but as someone who works on a mature application with years of code bloat, I might argue that the complete works of Shakespeare might be a better analogy.

Read "Code Poems"

In Praise of Suburbia

I'm quite fond of the photographic schools known as snapshot aesthetic and new topography. A couple of my favorites are Bill Owens, whose book Suburbia documents the suburban lifestyle of the 70s, and William Eggleston ,who pretty much defines snapshot aesthetic.

Here is my humble homage to them, taken at my Mother-in-law's garage sale in California's central valley...

Last Night I Saw the Strangest Thing

Bob Dylan, in his guise as Vincent Price, is pimping for Victoria Secret. An advertisement for La Victorias newest line of bras and panties features a cameo by Bobby Z to the tune of Love Sick, from the Time Out of Mind album.

Great song and I always enjoy seeing Dylan, but just struck me as more than odd.

We are Devo... D*E*V*O

UC Berkeley's (Go Bears!) paleontology department has put up a site for teachers on how to combat the growing antipathy in schools to the teaching of evolution. Sad that this is necessary, but they've done a wonderful job of creating an entertaining and educational website.

My only complaint is that the cartoon illustration of Darwin looks like a Rabbi.

Understanding Evolution

[Link via SFGate]

Whodathunk!

This might be a first at Futurballa Blog, but I'm linking to Glenn Reynolds, but not in his guise as conservative blogger, Instapundit, but instead writing at Tech Central on our favorite subject, digital photography.

Mr. Reynolds makes some excellent points about why digital is changing the nature of the pictures we take.

Web photos have a number of limitations compared to prints, but those limitations may -- as limitations have done throughout its history -- shape the nature of photography for the medium. Back when photography was limited to black and white, lighting and shadows were the dominant theme (think of Edward Weston's famous studies of nudes and peppers, as collections of interlocking shapes). Web photos have different limitations, but the results will likely be similar. Web photography is limited in resolution -- since most monitors won't display more than 72 dots per inch, photos are either low in resolution or displayed as so huge that viewers can't see more than a fraction on-screen at any given time.

He goes on to explain how camera manufacturers are pushing the envelope in the opposite direction, making 8, 11 and even 14 megapixel cameras (not too mention digital backs for medium and large format cameras that can top 30 megapixel) that can produce high quality photographs which can only be truly appreciated in a large print.

Interestingly, I myself have found that my 4 megapixel point and shoot, downsizing the images in Photoshop CS, is my preferred device for photoblogging, while using high resolution digital slr's (borrowed still, but not for too much longer) or film for my "serious" photography.

Certainly the images I choose to display on the blog are different then the ones I create for my photo galleries at my other site, or offer for sale.

Read The Greatest Picture Show on Earth.

[Link via George]

Commenting

Thanks to the fine folks at Haloscan, I've added comments and trackback capability to futurballa blog. Give it a try. If you dare!

Kevin Smith

Not an auteur, certainly not a visual director, but one of the most legitimately funny guys around (at least to my juvenile sensibilities).

An amusing article from the Globe and Mail. Read it here

Favorite quote on why he cast Jennifer Lopez after seeing Gigli? Smith says, 'Because Ben was in love with her so he didn't have to act and you want Affleck to do as little acting as possible. . . .'"

I got nothing

What with work, a training class and a general empty-headedness today, I don't have too much to blog.

Couple of items worth quickly sharing...

Josh Marshall is Richard Clarke central this week, and if you are following the 911 hearings, Josh is definitely worth your time to visit.

Secondly, friend George took the bait and has a detailed history of The Two Noble Kinsmen over at Fool in the Forest. And remember, TNK can also refer to a Beatles cover by 801 Live.

Blogspot Irony number 1: What you criticize you will advertise.

Hotel De Anza

One of my favorite older buildings in downtown San Jose. Most of our downtown area was built in the era when office buildings conformed to the ugly gray box school of architecture, but the De Anza is a classic.

Destino

Here are some beautiful stills from the Dali/Disney short film, Destino.

Widely Reported

An entertaining piece on Jon Stewart and The Daily Show from the Chicago Tribune.

Random Thoughts

This is just kind of ironic, don't you think. He is risen, indeed.

Last night's The Simpsons featured a throwaway joke about Moe the bartender wiping up a spill with a lost Shakespeare play. It was The Two Noble Kinsmen. I have a peripheral connection to that play, but this blogger has a more than peripheral relationship. Perhaps he will expound.

I watched The Day the Earth Stood Still over the weekend. One thing that struck me was the scene in which two military doctors are discussing how Klaatu's advanced medical knowledge makes them feel like witch doctors, as they both light up a cigarette. My question is was this ironic back in 1951?

Starting with Terry Teachout's comments on Keaton vs. Chaplin, it is becoming the thing to comment on how un-funny the Little Tramp was (Aaron Haspel and George Hunka comment). I haven't watched much Chaplin since I was a child. I enjoyed him then, but will agree that what little I have seen in recent years has not particularly made me laugh. But honestly, I am not a big fan of Silent comedy in general. Terry poses the "two kinds of people" question in the Chaplin/Keaton debate. I'd update it slightly to talkies and ask the question of intellectual humor vs. slapstick in the Marx Brothers/Three Stooges dichotomy. My preference has always been the Marx Brothers over The Stooges, which puts me firmly in the camp of witty dialog over slapstick.

Representing the satiric wing of the Democratic Party. The New York Times has a lengthy profile of Al Franken. [Link via Kevin Drum]

Also via Terry Teachout, find out which classic novel you belong in. I will join Terry in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Friday Phlogging

I've been admiring this classic Impala in the parking lot at work for a while, and following on yesterday's Pink Elvismobile and comments from friend Bridget about her love of old cars, I took a couple of shots this morning.


Then...


and now

Photo Haiku

Wim Wenders has some very nice photography coupled with haikus on his site.

[Link courtesy of George]

You Mother What?

CNN reported this morning that Mercedes McCambridge has passed away. She won an Oscar as Willie Stark's secretary/mistress in All the King's Men and was nominated again for her role as Rock Hudson's sister in Giant, but she is perhaps best remembered as the voice of the demon in The Exorcist.

Perhaps in memory, but totally in jest, George Wallace at Fool in the Forest has a link to a very amusing Flash animation, featuring Bunnies... Demon Possessed Bunnies.

Odds and Phlogs

Life continues to be a bit busy so here are some images from my archive that I thought would be fun to Phlog. Hopefully we will have a bit more blogging time soon and perhaps even something interesting to write about.


Cherry Blossom Time


Lazy Susan


Elvis has left the building

Political Animal

Update your blogrolls. Kevin Drum, formerly of Calpundit is moving to the www.washingtonmonthly.com.

And note, "[www.washingtonmonthly.com] is a direct link to the blog. It will be right smack in the middle of their newly redesigned homepage."

Buried Under Hardware

I spent yesterday setting up Windoze boxes and dealing with Software incompatibilities. Today looks to be a bit of the same plus catching up on the work I didn't get done yesterday, so I'm afraid that means another day of light blogging.

I would like to recommend you to an interesting post that touches on one of our main subjects here at Futurballa. Michael Blowhard has a new digital camera and got to talk to a Kodak tech who filled him in on some of the developments in digital cameras. Be sure to read through to the comments where Alan Little clears up a few issues for Michael. Alan makes many of the points that I would of had I the time yesterday.

Read it here.

Zero Sum

Hopefully back from hiatus, if a trend of one posting can be seen as a trend, Aaron Haspel discusses his political and cultural odyssey. I will not comment on Aaron's politics, nor will I venture to argue poetry with him. In the former we would have to agree to disagree, and in the latter I am too ignorant to participate in the conversation. But when Aaron discusses the music of the late 1970s and early 1980s, I can't resist but to chime in.

In high school I refused to listen to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd: that shit was for the heads who wore cutoff jean jackets and smoked in the parking lot. I went in instead for Devo, Talking Heads, Sex Pistols, Clash, a few deservedly forgotten groups like the Fabulous Poodles ("Mirror Star" anyone?), and of course, as Professor Lee Roth would have predicted, Elvis Costello. Later on, when my ex-head friends sat me down with the headphones and forced me to listen carefully to Zep and Floyd, I was astonished to discover that it was good, really good, and that my own tastes at the time had held up spottily by comparison. The jean jacket boys were right, and I was wrong. It bothered me, as it would bother anyone. Only after several years of conscientious deprogramming could I listen to these bands without prejudice.

I fear that Aaron and I are "of an age", since I was in college when Elvis Costello and The Talking Heads first appeared. I saw Elvis on his first American tour, and was at the final Sex Pistols concert at Winterland shortly before their breakup and the eventual demise of Sid Vicious.

At the same time, I was listening to Floyd and a lot of British art rock, such as King Crimson, Roxy Music, and Brian Eno. It was not a zero sum game for me that required that I forsake the one for the other. I will admit that Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were considered passe at the time, even though I had listened to them a bit in High School. I only came back to the classic metal bands later. Also listening to freeform rock radio in those years, embodied by KSAN in San Francisco and KROQ in LA, there was nothing odd about hearing Roxy Music or David Bowie and the Talking Heads or Blondie in the same set.

Having grown older and wiser, Aaron states that the jeans boys were right and Zep rules, and that Punk and New Wave hold up "spottily" in comparison. I would say that Elvis Costello, The Clash, Talking Heads, The Pretenders, to name a few, hold up quite well, thank you very much. There is plenty of 70s metal that is a bit spotty. Yes Zep is a lot better than Flock of Seagulls, but give me The Talking Heads over Rush any day!

You Can't Believe Your Own Eyes

...literally.

But we knew this already.

Dark Materials

One of my favorite literary writers, Michael Chabon, writing in he New York Review of Books, goes into great detail on young adult fantasy in general and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy in particular.

An interesting point that Chabon makes is that most modern fantasy stems for the Norse and Celtic trappings of Tolkein, but that there is another tradition in fantasy, the Miltonian, and that Pullman's world of broken universes is more closely alligned with Milton.

Any list of the great British works of epic fantasy must begin with Paradise Lost, with its dark lord, cursed tree, invented cosmology and ringing battle scenes, its armored angelic cavalries shattered by demonic engines of war. But most typical works of contemporary epic fantasy have (consciously at least) followed Tolkien's model rather than Milton's, dressing in Norse armor and Celtic shadow the ache of Innocence Lost, and then, crucially, figuring it as a landscape, a broken fairyland where brazen experience has replaced the golden days of innocence; where, as in the Chronicles of Narnia, it is "always winter and never Christmas."

A recent exception to the Tolkienesque trend is Pullman's series of three novels, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass (with a promised fourth, The Book of Dust), which reshuffle, reinterpret, and draw from Milton's epic both a portion of their strength and their collective title: His Dark Materials. Pullman, who was a student at Oxford in the 1960s, has just served up a new volume, a kind of tasty sherbet course in the ongoing banquet, entitled Lyra's Oxford.

Read the whole thing here.

[Link via Crooked Timber]

< irony> ;o)

From Crooked Timber a suggestion that blogger irony get its own pronunciato.

Those Crazy Masons

From the news of the weird department...

Man killed during Masonic initiation

I want my MTV

As I mentioned recently, I've had a bit of a horror story with getting satellite TV installed. Starting with the installer showing up and discovering that the box in his truck was empty and he didn't have an actual dish with him, to our dish being stolen off our roof, to finding out that the retailer had signed us up for a different contract than he had initially offered. The list goes on ad nauseum.

Yesterday evening the story had come to its long awaited conclusion. The stolen dish was replaced, the retailer finished the wiring, and the contract issues were resolved. But like Michael Myers, laying motionless and ostensibly broken on the lawn, by the time I run down stairs to confirm that he is dead, the body is gone. (Cue scary electronic music.)

Dish Network and Viacom are in a contract dispute with the result that on the very night I get my TV viewing back, my daughter is deprived of MTV (which matters to her), and I won't be able to see John Stewart or CSI (yes, liberal and middle-aged, that's me).

Murphy, why must you always be right?

Enemies List

Welcome to our visitors from Roger Ailes (not the evil one). Just a quick note about Futurballa Blog. It is an eclectic place, mostly devoted to photography, art and culture, but when things get too weird I can't control myself and will comment on politics and of course link to some of the excellent bloggers that you will find to your right in the blogrolls.

So take your time and have a look around, and I hope to see you again.

Loose Enz

Thanks to Roger Ailes (the good one) for adding Futurballa Blog to his blogroll. Be sure to pay Roger a visit.

This weekend included a trip to Mission San Juan Bautista for a photoshoot that will hopefully turn into a coherent project. I am so rarely coherent, I thought it might be a good idea.

Be sure to check in at Futurballa Photography to view galleries and get prints.

I also have horror stories relating to my switch from Cable to Sattelite, but I am by no means emotionally recovered from the entire affaire to blog on it.

Mahalo

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans permalinks

I just spent too much time reading About Last Night. Terry and Our Girl treat us to a number of highly enjoyable postings, which lead me to link to the site in general instead of permalinks to individual postings.

ArtsJournal: About Last Night

A couple of highlights to look for...

Our Girl in Chicago shares her postcard from NY. My favorite line, "What a long, strange trip it's been - except for the long and the strange parts." She is like the Deadhead Dorothy Parker.

Terry offers up a letter from the then unpublished Flannery O'Connor to her would-be editor re Wiseblood.

Terry gets beaten to the proverbial punch by Blake Eskin of Nextbook on why Fiddler on the roof is the comfort food for the secular Jewish soul. And I concur.

Enjoy

Tom Hayden: Chickenhawks better duck

I actually worked for Tom's Campaign for Economic Democracy as a canvasser/fundraiser back in the early 80s. He has always been a smart thoughtful guy who sought to fight for change from within.

Writing in the Nation on the effect of the Vietnam era he shares his unique perspective on the current political scene.

Read the whole thing here.

[Link via Alertercation]

Friday Phlogging

A couple of San Francisco leftovers from my days at PhotoshopWorld.

Tracking Memes

A very interesting story this morning from Wired.com.

Blogs Can Be Infectious

I knew that.

Noooo, not the Cookies

Don't let Thin Mints become a pawn in the Culture Wars.

Girl Scouts Boycotted Over Planned Parenthood

Phlogging on Tuesday - SF Edition

I was in San Francisco yesterday (and will be again tomorrow) for PhotoshopWorld and took some pictures with the trusty digital. I thought them worth sharing.

They're broken it into a couple of sets. The first few have been processed in Photoshop to give an illustrative effect, the next set are contrasty black and whites, and the last one is just an interesting shot between the trains at the Caltrain station.

I want candy...


Oooooh, the colors

Signs of the Apocalypse

When I find something to agree about in editorials by both Christopher Hitchens (here) and William Safire (here).

Love the Trilogy? Reward the Installment!

Rating the Oscars is a bit of a standard blog practice (sbp) this morning, but I'll chime in with the Futurballa Meter. Billy Crystal has been better, but he was better than any alternative. Mitch and Mickey should have won. Glad to see LOTR so well rewarded, it was a truly magnificent achievement, but instead of virtually ignoring the first two, the academy chose to reward the entire trilogy by over-praising the third installment.

All in all a rather dull night of over long, dull acceptance speeches thanking attorneys (gads), agents, and New Zealander technicians. No real surprises. The only hotly contested category, best actor, went to the serious emotional performance, Sean Penn, instead of the dry, career defining performance, Bill Murray.

I actually like Rennee Zellweiger as an actress, but God help us from her being allowed to make a speech ever again.

And a note to Brian Micklethwait, who writes, "...my favorite (properly prepared I mean) performance was just Jack Black and a Very Tall Bloke singing a song called "You're Boring", the tune of which is apparently played at the end of every acceptance speech, but which, as they proved, also has lyrics." The very tall bloke is the great, and very funny, Will Ferrell.