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October 29, 2006
Boo-rat
A letter to the editor from this week's Newsweek:
I am one of Sacha Baron Cohen's many victims ("Behind the Schemes," Oct. 16). Because his handlers told me he was Borat Sagdiyev, "a TV journalist from Kazakhstan," I booked him for a live studio interview on our morning news show in Jackson, Miss., thinking he was a legitimate reporter doing a documentary to be shown in his home country. I checked out his public-relations company's Web site and even met one of the publicists in person. They seemed genuine. But once the camera was on him, this man destroyed our credibility in very short order. Because of him, my boss lost faith in my abilities and second-guessed everything I did thereafter. I spiraled into depression, and before I could recover I was released from my contract early. It took me three months to find another job and now I'm thousands of dollars in debt and struggling to keep my house out of foreclosure. How upsetting that a man who leaves so much harm in his path is lauded as a comedic genius. Think of all the other people who've probably been fired because of his antics.
D. A. Arthur
Panama City, Fla.
I'm not sure if Newsweek published this letter to be funny or what, but I wonder if this guy got fired because he deserved to be? Google should be even the laziest TV producer's best friend. Plug "Borat Sagdiyev" into any search engine and it should be pretty clear who this guy is. It's probably for the best that this guy isn't producing news anymore.
I'm not saying Borat is the funniest guy ever or that his tactics are always right, but I don't think *he* was the one responsible here...
October 22, 2006
Cursed
The last movie Aimee and I went to was, I think, Inside Man back in March/April. Our absence from theaters was based on our terrible luck: sitting by people who talked, the movie starting very late, cold theaters, poor overall customer service.
We took a chance today and saw The Departed at the Cobblestone 9. No big problems with the audience, but the movie started about 15 minutes late- and we missed the very first part of the movie. I shouldn't say we missed it entirely because we heard it. We just didn't see it. Black screen with the sounds of the tide coming in and out. After another 10 minutes, they finally got it going- although it was a little jarring trying to get into a quickly paced movie without the usual credits at the beginning, which sort of puts your mind into first gear for movie watching.
I noticed right away that the film looked... different. Crisp. Bright. It was a small screen, so at first I thought it might have just been a new print combined with a small screen size, compressing the resolution. I didn't think about it too much for the rest of the movie- one thing I did notice was an occasional "swirling" of the colors in small patches. Hard to describe, but it didn't really look "digital" in any way, so I thought it might be more of a chemical problem when the film was developed.
As it turns out, we were watching a digital projection. Texas Instruments DLP to be exact.
I was pretty impressed. I bet there are a lot of advantages besides distributors saving money on prints. One big downside might be what we encountered- projectionists not being able to run the digital projectors. When the film was delayed tonight, an usher said they had to "call the technician."
Anyway- the movie was pretty good overall, except for some story problems toward the end. But I won't ruin anything. Anyone else have any good or bad digital projection experience?
October 16, 2006
It's about time
More YouTube fun! Check out some of the latest videos, including some Animation Shmanimation.
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I've been on an audiobook kick lately. It makes my commute a little more tolerable. So far, I've gone through Freakonomics and Stephen King's On Writing, both I highly recommend. I also got a few CD's into Fellowship of the Ring, but decided it was a little too slow (the movie does a good job cutting out a lot of unnecessary scenes in my opinion- Aimee might disagree). Right now I'm working on A Short History of Nearly Everything.
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Last week Aimee and I went to eat at India Star. Our first mistake was going there already a little hungry. It was about 45 minutes until we got our appetizer, and another half hour for the main dish. The food is great but the service is slower than dirt. I suggest doing take out (and getting there 10 minutes late- the food should be almost done).
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Want to know when your old analogue TV will be pretty much worthless (unless you have cable or a digital tuner)? Check out the FCC's terribly designed Digital Television website (warning- really annoying sounds). It has a countdown to when stations are supposed to go all digital (850 days from today). By the way, did you know that right now any TV 25" or bigger is supposed to have a Digital Tuner built in? Most stores are still lagging behind.
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Who has seen the film, A Prairie Home Companion?
There are a few things that left me confused about the movie:
Guy Noir... for the movie, a dumb character. Kevin Kline tries to put in these little physical gags- tripping, falling over the bar, etc, into his scene. Not really funny. Maybe it would be slightly more funny in a theater full of people (comedies usually work better that way- similar to how stand-up comedians are usually funnier in person).
Is the movie more entertaining than simply watching a film version of a real Prairie Home show? I don't think so.
The real PHC performers appearing in the movie are much more polished, although, surprise, don't get as many close-ups as Streep.
Garrison Keillor wouldn't let a performer bang a gong in the middle of the show and not kick them out of the building. But if it's Meryl Streep I guess it's okay.
Why is Tommy Lee Jones's character a born again Christian, other than to make him a bad guy?
And what is up with Maya Rudolph's character who takes a swig of champaign while pregnant?
The answers to these problems might reveal themselves during Robert Altman's commentary for the movie: When asked by Kevin Kline if a particular line was in the script, Altman replies; "I didn't actually read the script."
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Anyone see the Mets Cardinals game last night? The Endy Chavez catch isn't on YouTube yet, but don't miss it once it is. Aimee and I saw it live and were pretty impressed (rewound it on the DVR a couple times). Would have been even more classic if they won the game.
October 06, 2006
An Inconvenient Blog Post
Aimee and I went out to eat at the Drake Diner last night, which is one of my favorite restaurants here in town (even though I've only been there twice). Right across the street there was a church with this sign, which I have taken the liberty of recreating:
(The word "movie" was also on the first line). After I told Aimee about the sign, she wondered aloud whether it was actually the movie or just a name for a sermon, which a lot of churches around here will do:
But I was pretty sure it also said "movie" on the first line, which it did. We ended up finishing dinner a little before 7 p.m. so we scurried over to the church to investigate. There were maybe 12 people there sitting at circle-shaped tables. Luckily there was a projector and a screen so it looked like it was a movie after all. We found a table and sat down.
It turns out an environmental group has offered the movie to churches throughout the state (or country?) for viewing this week in hopes of raising awareness about global warming. The movie was on DVD- true story, I think it might actually have been an Oscar screening DVD because at the very beginning it said "For your consideration" and all throughout it kept popping up text at the bottom reminding us it was studio property.
Anyway An Inconvenient Truth, or as I call it A Series of Graphs that Go Upward was very good if not depressing, so I will highly encourage everyone reading to see it (as part of the suggestions at the end of the movie). Makes me wish I hadn't left my H2 Hummer idling in the parking lot during the whole thing.
The other news is that Aimee and I got a 20" iMac. Because of my employment to a certain company, I can't let my thoughts be known how AWESOME this computer is, or how BLAZINGLY FAST the Intel processors are, or even how MONDO the screen is. But I can tell you we got a good deal on a demo model. It's a 2.0 Core Duo, so not quite the latest version.
To go along with the iMac, I ordered an EyeTv Hybrid, which turns out to be the COOLEST THING EVER. We've never had a DVR before, so it's fun being able to record a show with a click of the button, or pause and rewind live TV. Watching The Office in HD was AWESOME AND MAKES ME WANT TO TYPE IN CAPS ALL DAY. The Office is one of our favorite shows right now. "What is your dentist's name?" ... "Crentist." "Your dentist's name is Crentist?" "Maybe that's why he became a dentist." I like the fact that we get to know the other office workers, which didn't really happen in the British version (even though I love that show, too). The Call of Duty references last night were also hilarious.
Over the air Digital TV is the best. That's my plug.
Last but not least, here are some old Campus Talks we did, now on YouTube.
Jordan
Juggling
Pokemon
Windy
Oscars
Cribs part 1
Cribs part 2