the insignificant ramblings of a disturbed graphic designer
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Battle In Seattle
Next month will see the debut of an independent film about the 1999 demonstrations against the WTO in Seattle. The movie looks like it will be pretty good, not the average Hollywood tale in which the “terrorists” all have foreign accents. Independent director Stuart Townsend has taken pains to present the story from many points of view, including lead characters from amongst the protesters, the media, the police, and the general Seattle citizenry who got caught up in something they didn’t understand.
While the the film’s official site features the normal marketing pieces about the cast, et al, it also features three very personal and extremely interesting short clips in which Townsend talks about his impetus to write and make this movie. Even more interestingly, the site features a great deal of information about the issues the demonstrators were trying to bring to light (see screenshot below).
There’s even a separate site, Who Controls the World?, which acts as sort of a historical archive of the 1999 protests, featuring short video interviews with protest organizers and participants, a day-by-day timeline, participant memories, and much more about the pitfalls of globalization.
The film opens September 19 in San Francisco and a few other cities. For a higher quality version of the trailer, go to Apple.com. IMDB entry for Battle in Seattle.
Orwell Diaries The Orwell Prize, a British award for political writing, is publishing George Orwell’s 1938–1942 diaries as a blog. orwelldiaries.wordpress.com
Free Rice Play a vocabulary game, and feed the world at the same time. www.freerice.com
Posted by espd at 8:13 AM |
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Thursday, August 07, 2008
Thursday Top 5
“The Streets of San Francisco” might get remade This was a great show, and it looks like CBS might remake it. The original made a star of Michael Douglas. But the best part was the theme song. Even today it still starts playing in my head whenever I drive around the hilly parts of SF. I need to burn the song to a CD and keep in it my car's player at all times.
Save Polaroid Polaroid announced early this year that the company would cease making instant film. It’s a shame that this unique and distinctive photographic medium will go the way of the dodo. But you can do something about it. www.savepolaroid.com
Ani DiFranco I've never really been much of a fan of Ani DiFranco; while I like some of her songs, and I greatly respect her socio-political views and her DIY work ethic, I just never really liked her voice much. The interview with her on “City Arts & Lectures” was worth it, though. Unfortunately, the program doesn’t make downloads or streams available of past shows, so unless you catch the show some time on a rebroadcast, I guess you're outta luck : \ www.cityarts.net
"Green" graffiti makes paint-free protests Photo gallery of culture jamming and graffiti techniques that don't rely on spray-paint. news.cnet.com/2300-13838_3-6242898-1.html
Posted by espd at 2:35 PM |
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Thursday Top 5
Pixar – A Human Story of Computer Animation A long (101 minutes!) but really interesting panel discussion at the Computer History Museum featuring the guys who invented texture mapping and alpha channels back in the early 1970s. They would later do early computer graphics for some films you may have heard of (like the original Star Wars) and go on to found a little animation studio you also may have heard of: Pixar.
Am I Not Pretty Enough? I usually detest this sort of talent show crap, but these guys deserve props indeed. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzashX3FglM
Top 5 update: Donnie Hoyle unmasked Back in March I told you about the hilarious "You Suck at Photoshop" tutorials by Donnie Hoyle. Time magazine last week revealed the creators of the series as Troy Hitch and Matt Bledsoe. www.time.com
Posted by espd at 7:02 AM |
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Thursday, April 24, 2008
Thursday Top 5
Google Me, the movie Jim Killeen Googled his name and found there were Jim Killeens all around the world. So he traveled to meet some of them and made a documentary.
Grabb.it A group music blog anyone can contribute to. grabb.it
I want to see that! Every Monday, Ben and Katie review all the new movies. Even if they haven't seen them yet. iwtst.com
1,000 True Fans Ever heard the term "the long tail" and wondered what the hell they were talking about? Here's an article that posits that a person (an artist, a musician or even a blogger, for example) can make a living if they can reach a point where they have 1,000 true fans. www.kk.org/thetechnium/
Posted by espd at 8:05 PM |
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Thursday, April 17, 2008
Thursday Top 5
The Pixar Story I hadn't heard about this documentary, and now I'm looking forward to it. Unfortunately, there's no trailer on the site yet (boo!), even though the film's been screening around the country for months. Meantime, I quenched my thirst by reading this column from a couple years ago, about Pixar's 10th birthday. www.thepixarstory.com
Posted by espd at 1:44 PM |
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Thursday, April 10, 2008
Thursday Top 5
Penguins Linux ad
Buy n Large From aerospace to food services, robotics to watermills. Now that's a global corporation. Ten points if you can figure out why this site is humorous. www.buynlarge.com
Five dangerous things you should let your kids do I guess I was lucky. I got to do all of these things as a kid. Although it wasn't spears, it was Jarts (later banned), and the I didn't do the driving bit until maybe 13 or 14. www.ted.com
"Lemme finish" In an interview with an Irish TV correspondent, Not-My-President Bush shows just how much of an idiot he is. "History will judge what I'm about." www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fze2J2Ve9is
English Russia A blog of Russian interestingness. Apparently written by actual Russians, since the English is a little broken here and there. www.englishrussia.com
Jasper Morello and the Lost Airship is the first of four shorts in an Australian animated series titled The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. The animation style is at once creepy and deeply beautiful. I'd really like to buy the DVD of the whole series, because they're so wonderful looking (for a teaser of better-quality video than YouTube offers, watch the trailer on the official website), but for some reason the DVD is not sold in the USA or Europe.
Posted by espd at 5:44 PM |
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Thursday, January 31, 2008
Thursday Top 5
Music for one apartment and six drummers
The Koepp and I (A Play in Two Parts) An interesting post by screenwriter Josh Friedman, who wrote the early script versions of "War of the Worlds," about how a completely different writer got all the credit. hucksblog.blogspot.com
Not Martha My favorites are the enews.org logo cupcakes! Well, that's not what they call them, but that's what I call them. www.notmartha.org
"Happy" A short animation from Vancouver Film School. This one's for Sage and Dakota. x D
The Russian Avante-Garde Book: 1910–1934 An online exhibit from the MoMA (New York). This one's for Olya and any people who appreciate historical art, design, and typography. www.moma.org/exhibitions/2002/russian/
Carrier Pigeon A well-done video podcast about all kinds of stuff, from designer Dave Werner. minorstudios.com Never heard of Dave Werner? He's a somewhat recent grad of the Porfolio Center. Check out his absolutely exceptional portfolio: okaydave.com
Barista Brat The rants and raves of a Starbucks Barista. Fun and even informative. This link's for Jenny, who recently got a job at a small coffee place in San Francisco. baristabrat.blogspot.com
"Helvetica" A beautiful film about a very pedestrian thing: The most common typeface of all. (I liked the film so much, I pre-ordered the DVD.) www.helveticafilm.com
Leaving Home... A very eloquent, moving, eye-opening story from a surprising source. riverbendblog.blogspot.com
"So You Want To Be a Movie Intern" Apple and the makers of the movie "The Seeker: The Dark is Rising" did some sort of promotion that filmed the experiences of nine interns on this movie. There are some short episodes available on the ITMS and they're kinda interesting. [This link will launch iTunes Music Store to view the videos] phobos.apple.com
Donate blood I'm not sure when the next CNET Networks donation day is scheduled for, but you can always make an appointment at the Blood Centers of the Pacific's downtown location, which is only about three blocks away. I went last week. www.bloodcenters.org
Iggy Pop's entertaining rider A rider is a document that spells out what a band requires a venue to provide for the artist. There have been some legendary strange requests over the years, but this one's just plain fun to read. www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1004061iggypop1.html
Wow. All I can say is...wow. Finnish cover of "YMCA" from the 1970s. The four dancers in the background are the best part. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCgrG35-3js
Posted by espd at 3:54 PM |
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Thursday, December 22, 2005
An Adams fan finally speaks the truth about the Hitchhikers movie
I was uncharacteristically silent here about my opinion of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" movie after I saw it earlier this year. Since then, when asked by friends what I thought of the movie, I have said something like "I liked it but I was somewhat disappointed."
But I've always felt a twinge when I said this, like it was a cop-out. I've finally come realize that I was probably not willing to admit to myself that I was more disappointed in the movie that I had originally thought, that I just couldn't bare to face the reality that the filmmakers had released such a phenomenal cock-up on the millions of fans of Douglas Adams' work.
MJ Simpson is a longtime Adams scholar who was privy to much inside information during the making of the film, including a pre-release screening last March. Simpson then published a scathing review on his website and subsequently suffered an onslaught of negative feedback because of it.
But I have to admit that he's essentially spot-on about each and every criticism. I applaud Simpson for putting his honest opinion out there, and for taking the shots that came from it. And I say he's right.
The filmmakers took out almost all the jokes. They removed the funny from Adams' trademark funny dialog. The movie suffers from a twisted and nonsensical plot that was made even worse from an utterly outrageous editing job. Simpson says it and I'll say it too: It's okay to mess about with the plot. Adams did it in every version of Hitchhikers. But the dialog still has to be funny.
It's a long review, it took nearly an hour to read, but it's worth it.
After all this, I still can't get past the fact that I really, really want the DVD [Update: I broke down and bought it]. I just can't help it. I'm a rabid collector of Hitchhikers stuff and I admit I simply must add the movie to my collection.
And maybe a part of me is hoping that I'll grow to like parts of the film more by watching it a few more times. I mean, it wasn't totally abysmal; there were some good bits. Just a shame it wasn't as good as it could have been.
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