December 31st, 2003, 2 Comments »
An amusing story from CNN:
A flight in the United States proved lucky for a British woman who suffered a heart attack. Fifteen heart specialists, all bound for a medical conference in Florida, stood up to offer help when a cabin attendant asked: “Is there a doctor on board?”
December 31st, 2003, 4 Comments »
Earlier this week, I saw Col’ Mountain. I call it that because no one–for everyone is affecting a North Carolina accent–in the film appears able to pronounce the ‘d’ in the title. Speaking of the cast, check out the cultural mosaic who are the leads:
All playing 19th century American pioneers in a film shot mostly in Poland.
The film was certainly epic in scope, and nice to look at. Renee Zellweger was fantastic–she is that rare Hollywood A-list actor who is willing to take risky roles. While the whole cast (including surprising, small turns from Giovanni Ribisi and Philip Seymour Hoffman) was very good, they were dwarfed by the scope of the landscape and story.
For me, the most striking feature of Col’ Mountain is its remarkable similarity to The English Patient, another film from Anthony Minghella. Consider the following parallels:
There’s one more major similarity, but it’s a major plot spoiler. Click the link below to read it at your own risk (SPOILER AHEAD):
December 31st, 2003, No Comments »
Pictures of things that sound dirty but aren’t:
Admittedly, those last couple don’t really sound that dirty. I kind of ran
out of steam.
December 31st, 2003, No Comments »
An interesting article on possibly the first nude scene ever shot:
Most of Muybridge’s nude female models were recruited from the core of Pittsburgh prostitution. I’m not sure which one was filmed first, but here are four of his compositions from the 1884-1886 period. One of those may be the first nude scene ever filmed. Certainly the tricolored one is the first example of a single scene filmed from multiple angles with several cameras.
Caution, tiny, grainy, black and white animated GIFs of nude women carrying buckets upstairs ahead. Unsafe for work if you’re a typesetter from 1890.
December 30th, 2003, 34 Comments »
Michelle Branch, a folk-rock singer of some note, is appearing on the cover of Maxim next month. This has caused some consternation among her fans, who thought she’d be above using her (fetching) body to sell CDs. I guess they hadn’t seen this Cartier ad, where she’s using her face to sell watches and so forth. I’m reminded of some fine lyrics by the venerable Neil Young:
I ain’t singing for Pepsi
I ain’t singing for Coke
I ain’t singing for nobody
Makes me look like a joke
But selling out really isn’t my point. After all, everybody from Bob Dylan to Moby has sold out these days–it’s par for the course.
I’m more interested in Michelle Branch’s butt crack.
December 30th, 2003, 1 Comment »
Check out this poorly-formatted list from ABC News. It shows state arts funding for 2003 and 2004. Given Governor Schwarzneggar’s ouevre, it is hardly surprising that they’re cutting their funding by 90% (to a mere $1.9 million), the highest cuts across the nation. The nation as a whole (thanks no doubt to the Bush administration, terrorism paranoia and invading Iraq) is down 23%. Mind you, all the states combined only contribute $272 million to the arts. That’s less than a dollar a person. I wanted to compare this with Canada, which probably isn’t much better, but couldn’t easily find the relavent provincial funding stats.
I’d like to see a chart that shows arts funding over time, indicating Democratic and Repulican terms in power. I’ll bet it’s a roller coaster ride. I guess all of those California artists will be emigrating to Mississippi, one of the few states with an increase.
December 30th, 2003, No Comments »
Former Grateful Dead lyricist and co-founder of the EFF John Perry Barlow has a weblog (and, may I respectfully observe, attractive daughters). I’ve always admired Barlow’s writing, and in particular this fine essay from 2000 in Wired magazine: The Next Economy of Ideas. It is a sequel of sorts to The Economy of Ideas from 1994. The former article made a big impact on my thinking about intellectual property, copyright and making art. I had an epiphany when, two-thirds of the way through the essays, he states “Art is a service, not a product.” Every artist and consumer of art ought to read this piece.
December 29th, 2003, 5 Comments »
Jay Currie, one of the few conservatives I’ve found on the Web who isn’t a complete nutter, had some thoughts on the future of the Internet. I posted a comment there, but as my thinking got out of hand, I’ll repost it here:
I first encountered the term ‘Internet-addled memory’ a few months ago. I’ve already forgotten where. I think this will be a real issue with our children, and have a potentially transformative effect on education. How will you convince children that they have to memorize facts (particularly obscure ones) when they literally have them at their fingertips.
Read more…