Category: words mean things (Page 124 of 223)

Quite an interesting conversation going on on MetaFilter about photographer and Greymatter author Noah Grey’s return to the web. It mostly centers around Grey’s disabling of common image-saving techniques on his web pages.

My personal opinion, guided by Philip Greenspun, is that on the web, you should put everything out there for people to see. Greenspun, for example, puts the entire text of his books online. And I bet it doesn’t hurt his sales. I know I bought the book – after getting interested in the text online. I think you gain more from that approach than jealously guarding your works. Would you become interested in a photographer after seeing just postage-stamp-size scans of his photos, because he wants you to pay for a fancy print otherwise? I don’t think so.

Large sign seen in local store window:

GOD LOVES UGLY.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, I really hope that’s true.

Saw “Thirteen Conversations About One Thing” yesterday. It was made by Jill and Karen Sprecher, who in addition to being from Madison, also made one of my favorite movies, “Clockwatchers.” It’s great to see a dialogue-centered movie, after all the summer season gunk we’ve had to wade through. I can’t wait to see it again, so I can forget about the big picture of the plot, such as it is, and concentrate on the conversations people are having. Great movie – but see it with someone interesting, so you can talk about it afterwards.

One of the points of the movie, I think, is something I’ve been considering a lot lately. So many people are just sitting around waiting for something to happen. They feel like external forces control their existence. Well, the hard truth is that no magical event (or person) is going to come along to make your world a better place. If you don’t do it for yourself, no one will. And even if you try and fail, that’s better than doing nothing. If you ask me.

Sci-fi pronunciation geek

David Lynch’s “Dune” was on the Sci-Fi Channel the other night, and I sat and watched the whole thing. This was the extra-long director’s cut, so it probably had a lot more stuff in it than I remembered. I mostly was interested to watch it because I got the DVD of the Sci-Fi Channel’s “Dune” miniseries as an early birthday present, and had watched that one just before Lynch’s was on.

Lynch’s version is more of a comic book telling of the Dune story – lots of amazing images with very little dialogue, and the plot advanced mostly through exposition. The miniseries is sort of like a junior high production version – it tells the story more completely, but in a flat, affectless way. So neither is a quite satisfying telling of the book, if that’s even possible.

But what annoyed me most about the miniseries was the way they pronounced names. Probably Frank Herbert didn’t publish a pronunciation guide with the book, and the names are unusual enough to leave some interpretation open. But to pronounce Chani “Chaney”? It made me laugh every time they said it, thinking about the vice president. And they pronounced Leto “Lay-toe” (as if casting the nearly comatose William Hurt as the dynamic duke wasn’t bad enough).

And to answer your inevitable question, yes, I will be seeking treatment.

Homer Simpson on stupid movie plots

Homer (to theater audience): Come on! It’s obvious that she’s going to end up with Richard Gere!
Man: What? I thought she was going to end up with that rich snob!
2nd Man: Ably played by Bill Paxton!
Homer (smacking him): It’s Bill Pullman, you idiot!

Happy 4th of July

?America is advanced citizenship. You?ve got to want it bad.?
-Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas), The American President

I love this country.

At the same time, I?m troubled by the road we?re walking these days. We forget that we?re a young nation. We?re like a rebellious 14-year-old who hasn?t yet learned the painful lesson that we don?t know everything after all. When you learn that lesson is when you become an adult. We?re not there yet.

We forget that it?s called ?Independence Day,? and not ?Loyalty Day.? I fear that we?re in danger of losing that independence that so many fought and died for. Independence means questioning the status quo, sticking up for ourselves and our values, and not blindly following what we?re told, especially by the government. Where is that spirit today?

I?m disturbed that real freedom and consideration of issues that shape our lives have given way to bumper stickers, saber-rattling songs on the radio, and ?United We Stand? paperweights on QVC. When did blind acceptance become the most important virtue in our society? It seems to me that spirit of acceptance and unquestioning loyalty goes against everything upon which this nation was founded.

I say these things because I love America. And I can say them because I live in America. We have to wake up and think about what this country really means, or one day we?ll lose the freedoms we thought we would never have to fight for again.

Tonight I did something that apparently 25,000 people do every day. And I’m pretty pissed off about it. There’s nothing like tripping over a tiny rock in the parking lot, in full view of your neighbor watering her plants, and wildly flailing as you go down like a sack of potatoes. It’s not a bad sprain, but public embarrassment coupled with lack of mobility can really put you in a foul mood. Trust me.

It’s so hot….

I feel like if I look in the mirror, I’m going to see one of those guys at the end of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with his face melting off.

Feel free to recount your heat-related complaints in the comments. I’m going to go crawl in an ice cave.

I’ve seen a lot of movies lately.

Enigma
Two solid hours, and every single thing that happened in the movie happened off-screen, and was recounted to others in painful, British-accented exposition. Stinker.

Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
A pleasant surprise. A little overwrought at times, but sweet-hearted and well-acted. The young leads are extremely effective at depicting what it’s like to be 14, and the animation by Todd McFarlane is icing on the cake. Oh, and Jodie Foster plays a one-legged nun.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Fluffy and filled with stereotyping, this movie is still a fun, lightweight summer experience. You walk out with a smile on your face, and these days, what more can you ask for?

I’ve been doing a fair amount of writing lately, for the e-mail newsletter I want to start. And I’m finding that the words flow better when I’m working on the laptop in the living room, rather than the big desktop with the big monitor in the computer room. A laptop just feels existentially lighter somehow, you know? Freer, when it comes to writing. Anyone else have this experience?