I’m a poorman’s son, from across the railroad tracks,
The only shirt I own is hangin’ on my back,
But I’m the envy of ev’ry single guy
Since I’m the apple of my girl’s eye.
When we go out stepping on the town for a while
My money’s low and my suit’s out of style,
But it’s all right if my clothes aren’t new
Out of sight because my heart is true.
—Uptight by Stevie Wonder
13 April 2005, the wee hours
Sin City was excellent. The movie is based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller that share the same name. I think the movie collects the stories from the first three graphic novels. The people involved with the film did an amazing job bringing the comic to life. The film looks stunning. If you look at shots from the movie against shots from the book (nsfw), you’ll see just how close things match. Sin City is like a very gritty film-noire type movie. The dialogue is very campy, but it adds to the effect of the film. Oh, the violence! The violence was ridiculous. The movie features some of the goriest stuff I’ve seen captured on film; well, stylized gore anyway. You would be a fool—a damn fool—not to check Sin City out.
Reviews of Sin City at Rotten Tomatoes
[4] Movies
11 April 2005, late afternoon
In contrast, the wisdom of the right consists of knowing how to take its absolutes just far enough, which is to say never so far as to relinquish the prerogatives of wealth and power. The achievement amounts to an ethical sleight of hand. You work the trick by shifting the domain of moral absolutes to those areas of life where they least apply. You treat the gray areas of human existence as though they were black and white, the better to disguise one’s self-interested smudging of black and white to gray. You erect castles of rectitude on the frontiers of mortality in the hopes that the murder and rapine taking place in the town squares can go on undisturbed. You accept the death of a six-year-old child by aerial bombardment or economic sanctions and defend the life of a six-week-old fetus. Think of it as taking the high road in Lilliput.
The Feburary 2005 issue of Harper’s had a great article on physician assisted suicide and the right to die: Life Everlasting: The religious right and the right to die by Garret Keizer. The article examines the current assisted suicide debate taking place in America today. There is a lot of interesting material, so I would recommend you check the article out. I wasn’t even aware that in addition to Belgium and The Netherlands, Oregon of all places allows for physician assisted suicide. The above quote comes from the article, though I think it stands well on it’s own. I probably like the quote because it echoes my own sentiments when it comes to the right-wing, put down with more eloquence than I can muster. My opinions on the right are no secret, so I’ll leave that point alone. There is no shortage of great quotes in the article:
It is a well-known statistic that with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, Americans consume a quarter of the world’s nonrenewable energy. It is considerably less well-known that within that all-consuming sliver, per capita federal spending on the elderly exceeds the amount spent on children by a ratio of 11 to 1. When I was younger and more romantic I could imagine serving the poor by dying in a revolution. Now it seems as though the most truly revolutionary thing I could do is simply to die.
[2] Politics
11 April 2005, early afternoon
The Delicate Art of Parking was an entertaining mocumentary. The film begins as one jerk of an independent movie directory starts to make a film about the anger people feel about getting parking tickets. The director and his crew end up getting wrapped up in the life of a parking enforcement agent who is very passionate about what he does, and the lives of a few of his friends. The movie is quite funny, if only because the subject matter is so ridiculous. There are some hilarious characters featured in the film, and some of the dialog is brilliant. But beyond the humour and parking enforcement, the movie is really about friendship, loving what you do in life, and treating each other with respect. It was a nice film, well worth watching.
The official The Delicate Art of Parking web site.
Movies
Every ten year-old enemy soldier
Thinks falling bombs are shooting stars sometimes
But she doesn’t make wishes on them
When she wishes, she wishes for less ways to wish for
More ways to work toward it
Ten year-old enemy soldier
Our falling bombs are her shooting stars
—I.O.U. by Metric
9 April 2005, terribly early in the morning
I saw three bands tonight. The last of the three was Magneta Lane, who I had seen a couple months back at the Drake Hotel. They’re my band of the moment, probably because they remind me of my most favouritest band ever, Elastica: they both play short songs, and there are 3 girls in each band. Actually, Elastica had a 4th member, a guy, but that’s neither here nor there. Actually, I think Magneta Lane are probably more reminiscent of Hole than Elastica. Well, actually, I think making comparisons like this is probably a little silly, but what can you do? Perhaps I can work the word actually into one more sentence? Here goes: I actually think I simply like the band’s melancholy lyrics. I am a fan of all things vaguely depressing after-all.
She keeps, standing there, waiting to be noticed.
In-between sets, I would head upstairs to chat with Matt and Neil, who were spinning for their Dynamite Soul night. It was a quiet night for them, so I got a chance to chat with them both, which was nice.
Music | Life
8 April 2005, evening time
The TTC are on strike as of Monday next week. Son of a bitch.
Update: No they aren’t. Wicked.
[5] Life
6 April 2005, mid-afternoon
The presumption in postwar Bosnia—as well as occupied Iraq—was that elections create democratic culture. Yet elections are the result of democratic culture, not the catalyst for it.
After the Election , by Nir Rosen, examines the result of Iraq’s recent election. Many people touted the elections in Iraq as a success for democracy. Rosen asks the question, “Were they?”, and decides that, “No, they were not.” In his opinion, forcing national elections on the people accomplished nothing, and may have actually made the situation on the ground worse. He argues the elections only served to divide the country further along ethnic lines. With no campaigning to speak of, no debates, no party platforms, and in most cases totally anonymous party leaders, people simply voted for the party that represented their ethnic or religious group. It should come as no surprise that the Shiite coalition got the most votes, the Kurds the second most. The problem here is that majority rules hardly makes for a good democracy. At some point elements of liberalism must enter the picture or you end up with a ochlocracy. You need only look to Sri Lanka to see the problems a simplistic populist democracy produces.
The article is in the April issue of Harper’s, which has been quite good. The magazine is probably contributing to my recent spat of leftist ramblings and links. Harper’s may at some point put the article above online, but if you have a few bucks left over this month, I think this months issue is pretty solid. There is a great essay on Democracy and Populism, and another great article on farming in Cuba.
[3] Politics
5 April 2005, late afternoon
As you may or may not know, the current president is no fan of Social Security. Bush-Co want to replace it with some sort “invest your own moneys in the stock market” scheme. Bush wants to dump pension payments directly in to the stock market. It’ll be beautiful he tells the American people. The stock market is where people go to get rich. Everyone will be rich. Frankly, it all sounds foolish to me. Of course, I’m probably over simplyfying his actual plan.
The feature article in Harper’s this month discusses this very issue:
The one sure mark of a con, though, is the promise of free money. In fact, the only way the stock market is going to grow is if we the people put a lot more of our money into it. What Bush seeks to manufacture is a boom—or, more accurately, a bubble—bankrolled by the last safe pile of cash in America today. His plan is a Ponzi scheme, and in that scheme it is Social Security that is being played for the last sucker.
And, you don’t even need to subscribe to the magazine to enjoy the article: The $4.7 Trillion Pyramid
[4] Politics
5 April 2005, mid-afternoon
It’s a strange feeling not coming to work with one of Neal Stephenson’s books in my bag. I’ve been reading the books from The Baroque Cycle for the past few months now, a little bit each day on my ride to and from work. I had a very low opinion of the series after starting on Quicksilver. After reading The Confusion and System of the World, my opinion of the series as a whole has basically reversed. The series is really good. It’s very hard to get in to, but by the time you finish System of the World I think you’ll find yourself attached to the characters and the story.
The series is not without its faults. I’ve already expressed my annoyance at the language. Another complaint I have is the way characters appear and disappear from the story. Eliza all but disappears from the story by the time we get to System of the World, even though she is a central character in the first two books. Hooke, another important character in the book, isn’t mentioned at all during The Confusion and then by the time we get to System of the World we are informed he is dead. This happens a lot. Characters who are seemingly important sort of fade in to the background, their exit almost unnoticed till their name pops into the story once more.
The Confusion and System of the World both have an entertaining plot. The Confusion jumps back and forth between the adventures of Jack Shaftoe, and the adventures of Eliza. Eliza’s story is definitely the weaker of the two, but is not without its intrigue. The Confusion is interesting because the story takes place over so many years. The time that passes in-between chapters is usually months or years. It’s strange to read. System of the World on the other hand moves at a totally different pace. Between two chapters we may find that 10 minutes have passed, or a couple days. Because of this, the story seems a lot more frantic, and fast paced.
Stephenson is known for his lame job at endings, but in the The Baroque Cycle he has done an admirable job at concluding the books properly. Quicksilver has a strange ending, and almost no story, but in some ways it can be seen as a prologue for the other two books. The Confusion and System of the World both have plots that reach their natural conclusion. You aren’t left unsatisfied by the ending of either book.
So it was good in the end. I’m surprised—pleasantly surprised.
[5] Comics and Books
4 April 2005, mid-afternoon
My friends and I saw Volcano High for rent at Blockbuster. The Korean movie had been dubbed, the voices of various hip-hop stars replacing the voices of the Koreans in the film. Nobody should watch a dubbed film, so we didn’t rent it that night. Worse still, the ‘hip-hop’ version of the film is re-cut to be shorter.
A few days later, my friends and I ended up at Bay St. Video, where we rented the original version of the movie. The film is about a high school where the kids all run around fighting each other. Some have super powers. The principal is guarding a secret manuscript that all the students want to read. The film begins with the principal being poisoned, and the students scurrying about trying to find out where he hid the manuscript.
The film is totally ridiculous. The film feels like a live action anime. From the over the top acting to the brief descriptions that flash on the screen to describe characters you are being introduced to for the first time, the film features every cliché one would expect to find in an anime. The action sequences in the film are all pretty blah. It’s all slow-motion Matrix inspired fighting that gets boring pretty fast. Still, the movie is so bizarre you may want to watch it simply to see how ridiculous it is.
Read reviews of Volcano High at Rotten Tomatoes
[1] Movies
4 April 2005, mid-afternoon
Das Experiment is a fictional re-telling of the famous prison experiment conducted at Stanford. The film was good, albeit a bit depressing and brutal. Like the experiment the story is based on, the prisoners and prison guards quickly lose their minds. The guards start to brutalize the prisoners, and the prisoners quickly become shells of their former selves. The acting is great, and the story was also quite good. There are some scenes that were also very much like something you would see in a Wong-Kar Wai film. I enjoyed the film, and recommend people go watch it.
The official Das Experiment web site
[2] Movies
4 April 2005, late morning
I watched Cellular this past Friday with some of my co-workers. In the film, a woman that is kidnapped manages to make a telephone call out on a broken phone to some dude’s cell phone. He helps the woman save herself and her family. The movie is entertaining enough—as action films go anyway. The acting is pretty horrible, but it’s not the sort of film you watch to see stellar performances. The film is funny at times and exciting at times. If you are looking for a action film to watch this one isn’t half bad.
The official Cellular web site
Movies
If the radiance of a thousand suns
Were to burst at once into the sky
That would be like the splendor of the Mighty one…
I am become Death,
The shatterer of Worlds.
—Baghavad-Gita
31 March 2005, late morning
The Globe and Mail has published a doctors account of the death of Canadian/Iranian photographer Zahra Kazemi. It’s sickening to say the least. CBC has picked up the story, but has not updated their in-depth section yet. I am sure her son was well aware her death was no accident, but could he have imagined just how gruesome the details surrounding her death would turn out to be. What the doctor describes is disgusting. Her family has my sympathy.
[3] Politics
30 March 2005, evening time
I wasted my time today heading down to Bloor and Spadina to check out a photo-mart in the area. Annex Photo was recommended to me in a reply to an Ask.Mefi thread I posted some time back. I wanted to get a roll of 400 ISO film that I had pushed to 800 ISO developed. Shoppers Drug Mart does this just fine, so I expect proper photo-marts to be able to accomplish such a task.
I was told Annex Photo couldn’t develop my film as ISO 800; they’d have to send it out, and that would cost a lot of money. The place was already quite expensive, so I can only imagine how much sending it out would cost. Worse of all though, the guy helping had no idea why I pushed my film the way I did. He thought I should set my ISO lower and overexpose all my photos. If I wanted to use slow film I would; I’d also probably carry a tripod and not take pictures of anything that moves.
I’m so disappointed. I love the Shoppers Drug Mart near my house, but they have a bad habit of scratching my negatives. My search for a good photo-mart in Toronto continues.
Update: The Shoppers at King and Yonge is good. Now you know.
[3] Life | Photography
30 March 2005, lunch time
In an email entitled Hotness, I sent my friends the following:
Emm Gryner is pure hotness, and apparently she is a good singer to boot. So, does anybody want to go to the following: Emm Gryner (fiercely independent alt-pop songster & former Bowie backup singer) & Matthew Barber (indie rock heartthrob) @ Hugh’s Room
Dave and I had saw Emm Gryner present an award at the Toronto Indie Music awards before the Esthero Concert we went to. Dave was surprised I had no idea who she was. She was quite hot, so I was disappointed I couldn’t place her. Apparently she put out some sort of popular single when we were in high school.
My friend Mezan complains that no one listens when he tries to turn them on to something new and cool—or at the very least, that I don’t. He told me about threadless, metafilter, and countless other things, years before I stumbled on them myself. I feel the same way when it comes to dragging my friends out. I try to get my friends to go to concerts with me, to shows I know they would like. Since they live in Scarborough (miles from downtown) I usually go alone. Well, I suppose it’s a weak analogy, since I’m just being lazy while they have a good reason for staying in. I guess I should have just said: I ended up going out alone to the concert.
When I arrived, Matt Barber had already taken the stage. Matt Barber sings folk music I suppose. I say that, because he was performing alone on stage with a guitar. The set really showed off his voice and his songs. Barber’s set was excellent. He has a great voice. I can’t say I’m a big fan of folk music, that is to say, I don’t go out of my way to listen to it, but I enjoy good music when I hear it.
Gryner took the stage next. Again, she played alone on stage with a guitar, and at times a piano. I enjoyed her set a lot. Like Barber, she has a great voice, and the lyrics to her songs are quite good. And, as I had expected, she was looking hot. A girl in the audience yelled as much out midway through the concert. She smiled, and simply replied to the crowd, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I should warn you that some of this banter has been scripted.” She has a good stage presence, and was a lot of fun to watch.
Hugh’s Room is a great venue for concerts. The layout of the building is just right. There is a raised stage in the back right corner of the building. It’s surrounded by tables and chairs, and those tables and chairs are surrounded by another set of tables and chairs, slightly elevated. From almost any spot in the venue you should have a clear view of the band you have come to see. The sound system was also excellent. Judging by the praise from the singers that night, it may have had as much to do with the sound engineer, Marty, as it did with the speakers and what have you.
[5] Restaurants and Bars | Music
28 March 2005, lunch time
Laying in bed last night, I was woken up by the sounds of people yelling in the hallway outside of my apartment. Someone who sounded like an old lady was ranting about something. There was some sort of argument going on. I tried to listen to what was being said from my bed, but I couldn’t make anything out. When the argument didn’t stop for quite some time, I debated getting out of bed to tell people to be quiet. I was too comfortable to do that, so I just tried to sleep. Eventually I heard my neighbours coming out of their rooms to tell off the people arguing. The reason I couldn’t make out what the people arguing were saying was because they were arguing in some Eastern European language. Eventually things quieted down. I guess the lady decided to leave.
Then some time later, very late at night, the lady was back, yelling up a storm.
[2] Life
25 March 2005, late afternoon
One of my coworkers stood in like from 8:00 in the morning till 12:00 at night to be one of the first people to get a Play Station Portable. He brought his new toy in to work the next day. I want one. The screen is absolutely amazing. I watched part of Spiderman II, as well as clips from various games, and it all looked great. The screen is so sharp. I really don’t see how the Nintendo DS is going to compete. It looks so kludgy in comparison.
[4] Life | Technology
24 March 2005, late at night
I watched the Take, a documentary by former counterSpin host Avi Lewis, on the CBC today. The documentary examines what happened to Argentina after the west grabbed all the cash and ran. It’s amazing to see all these unemployed workers expropriate their closed factories and get them up and running again. This is communism from the bottom up. Fuck yeah.
[3] Politics | Television
22 March 2005, late at night
I am 40 minutes in to Swades, and I have to say that the lead actress in the film, Gayatri Joshi, is crazy-hot.
Two hours and change later I can say the film was good. Ashutosh Gowariker follows up the sucess he had with Lagaan with his second film, Swades. The story is a simple one: Shah Rukh Khan plays an Indian scientist who comes back to India looking for his childhood nanny, but ends up finding a sense of fulfilment and purpose in the country. There is a beautiful women, as mentioned earlier, who catches his eye, for if there wasn’t this wouldn’t be a Boolywood film. The music in the film is top notch, as can be expected when it is scored by A. R. Rahman. Visually the film was also a treat. I didn’t think the cinematography was brilliant, but there are a few shots in the film that are exceptional. This film is definetly worth checking out.
The official Swades web site.
[9] Movies
20 March 2005, late at night
I had high hopes for Bride and Prejudice. It has a good cast, a good director, and a novel story. The movie is a Bollywood retelling of the Jane Austin novel Pride and Prejudice. Unfortunately, I would have to say the film was poorly done. The story seems quite muddled. The Bollywood dance sequences are strange to watch, since the singing is all done in English. When the actresses have Indian accents, but then start singing with American accents it is just a bit too bizarre—more bizarre then people just breaking out into a dance sequence. The movie does feature lots of hot women, most notably Aishwarya Rai. Yummy. Though, I think you would be better off watching her in a film like Devdas.
The official Bride and Prejudice web site.
[3] Movies
20 March 2005, late at night
I haven’t watched a Tamil movie in ages. My friends and I all watched one this weekend. The film was M.Kumaran, Son of Mahalakshmi, the story of an Indian kick boxer, being raised alone by his mother. The film was entertaining, though not particularly good. It was still fun to watch. The film features lots of fighting, music, and comedy, all seemingly thrown in to pad out the length of the movie. This film is a remake of an older film from the 80s, which is probably why it felt so retro.
A short review of M.Kumaran, Son of Mahalakshmi
[1] Movies
19 March 2005, early evening
Sometimes, while you surf around on the Internet, you may come across people have a Language of Choice argument. In the western world we call these people geeks, but maybe where you are from they are referred to by another name. Recently I stumbled upon such an argument. When it comes to web development, some people are obsessed with Java. Others with Ruby. The lead developer at Signal vs. Noise, David Heinemeier Hansson, is a bit of a Ruby Zealot. He wrote the popular framework Ruby on Rails. He used the framework to write a simple To-Do list application, Ta-Da Lists. Of course, once the application was released, the bitching began. On the internet, especially with software, people will quickly tell you to put-up or shut-up. Geert Bevin, the bitcher in question, opted to put-up. Of course, this got everyone up in arms about which implementation was better. This is the geek community equivalent of a pissing contest.
[7] Technology | Computer Science
War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
—Bertrand Russell
