Sawyer was better as a self centered, needy, nickname giving, loser. Now that he’s supposed to be a Jack hating widower avenger, he’s exposed as a rather o.k., over acted character, oops.
Intellectually I’m interrested in the logic of the narrative, however, the production has become conspicuous, over dramatic, and borders on low camp. The characters played by actors with the greatest chops and charisma have been killed or minimized: Desmond, Faraday, Jacob, and Eyeliner. Ben and John had just enough presence to sustain the season premier. Jack needs a quick and squirrel voiced death, you damn bore – “It’s [y]our destiny.”
My God, Joss Whedon tells how he continually asks his actors, “Give me less.” As much I’ve enjoyed Lost these many seasons – kind of surprised it has really been six seasons, actually – I’m a little tired of the success of over acted television. Maybe that’s why Joss Whedon can’t keep a series lately, he’s unwilling to have his productions over produced.
Otherwise, you’ll end up looking like your girlfriend dressed you – or better yet your mom.
I was shopping yesterday when I heard a couple of comments from what was likely a guy’s girlfriend. Things like, “Oh, that looks like a woman’s shirt.” or “No, that’s no good.” Man, the guy just said he liked the shirt, and you gotta go gettin’ all fashion expert on him. I couldn’t not say anything after her last comment, so I told him the first rule of shopping for guys, shop alone. She didn’t appreciate it saying, “He needs my help.” He put on a big smile – rather huge, actually – and said, “Sounds like good advice to me.”
So here are Danaher’s rules of clothes shopping and fashion for guys:
Screw fashion, wear what makes you feel good.
Shop alone, period.
If you can’t match colors and patterns, ask a sales person about it, that’s their job.
P.S. My mother and brother happen to do a decent job of picking clothing gifts for me, lucky me. I just don’t go shopping with them.
Reason, mostly. A student made a most profound hypothesis, “I bet he got mad. Didn’t he?”
I mentioned that I had a conversation with someone recently about whether enough time had elapsed to tell whether President Obama’s policies were working or not; that the person I was speaking with and I Both agreed that no data existed to support a conclusion either way; but, the other person opined that Obama’s decisions where wrong. When I pressed the person on how they could have such a conclusion he replied, “Well I have my opinion and you have yours.” To which I replied, “No. You have an opinion and I have a conclusion. Conclusions are based on data, which we both agree we don’t have enough of yet.” That is when my student hypothesized as to the emotional response of the person I was speaking to, and, she was right. The person became defensive and condescending with a big ol’ smile of self importance to boot, “Well, thank you for schooling me.”
Without data or reason claims are just ego, which always lack merit.
The ultimate point being made in class at that moment was that studying physics in high school is 50% knowledge of the reality of the universe around us, and 50% critical thinking; that when we discuss the details of presidential logic we must use reason, the same tools we hone in physics class, not whatever feelings we decide to pay attention to.
This student’s observation – this 14 year old student’s observation – was quite telling, and satisfying. He/she knows not only the difference between opinion and conclusion, but the emotional baggage that can be dragged into a simple conversation about politics.
“the everything group for progressive western mass’ers”
Yes, the first sip is special. I remember my most favoritest sip of coffee ever: yup, I have a favorite sip of coffee. I had just awakened, a couple hours post day break, the sun still low, the day’s weather mid summer dry and blue sky sunny; extra people were strewn about the floor of “The Ranch” still asleep; someone had gone to the general store and bought two or three large coffees for all of us to share. My eyes widened when he said, “Want some?” My first thought was that they were spoken for. I sipped, glorious, “Mmm.” I couldn’t help uttering the words: certainly in this case ‘mmm’ is a word, it conveys clearly discernible meaning. I said, “Usually I don’t like sugar in my coffee, but this is good.” ”There is no sugar. ” ”Huh?” I said in disbelief. ”It’s the cream they use; they use cream, not half and half. No sugar in there.” That was a nice day.
“The everything group for progressive western mass’ers” is the name of a group of folks that are organizing get togethers in order to meet new people using Meetup.com. I attended their third “Meet up” this evening here’s my review…
The Toasted Owl was welcoming and comfortable, the chicken quesadilla was robust and filling and the prices were reasonable. My tab – individually kept without prompt or complaint by the pleasant and attentive waitress – was about 20 bucks for the food and two glasses of wine.
The “Meetup” was a rather less compelling affair. The group is not an outgoing inclusive collection, it is a clique seeking to find folks of the exact same composition. We introduced ourselves, “How long have you lived in the area?” and such, but that was really about it. For the most part, folks focused on people they knew and superficial conversation. About half the group sat at a separate table and made no attempt to move about. One person spoke in stereotypes, persistently. A couple clung to each other all evening and only spoke to a few people, exclusively. One attendant asked me for directions when she was leaving. The only person willing to engage in substantive conversation was another first timer. At a couple of points one guy became condescending and rude. Seems, when he didn’t understand something, instead of trying to understand it, he became what he likely thought was witty, but was only defensive and sarcastic. It was like a blind man claiming to have the scoop on color when he doesn’t even know he’s blind – from birth. I pined for a Mensa meeting where such fragileness of character has never surfaced.
The gathering had no organization, no guide, do real introduction to the experience. I asked if folks were going to eat, they said yes but that they hadn’t ordered yet. Then without warning food started arriving. The other first timer offered to order something communal, a pizza. But no one seemed to care or notice the gesture. I told him, “I think, as far as food goes, it’s everyone for itself.”
Now that I’ve insulted 90% of the participants, let it be clear that not everyone was so extreme as portrayed above.
This experience has revived me; reminded me of the shallowness and fear that pervades too many aspects of our society; reinforced the importance of why I have the sturdy folks I have in my life; and I now know concretely how to filter out the duller from my life: speak truth; speak with reason; but, above all, speak in sentences over six words long.
Score 1-10: 5
Depth: 2
Location: 8
Go Again: 0
Law of Opposites: 10 - “We are looking to meet folks who are open minded, tolerant and friendly who appreciate diversity in opinion.” Uh, yeah, right…
Cuba Gooding Jr. delivers the affective face again, Helen Mirren is in yet another film – what films is she not in? Medium slow pace, pretty pictures, logical plot, sadism, sex, drugs, professional murder, all to weaved into a family values narrative: some producer was brave!
David Mamet’s writing is contrived, stilted, unnatural. Why do actors seek his roles? When Gene Hackmen sounds like a Mickey Spillane drop out and DelRoy Lindo sounds like, well, Delroy Lindo, something is wrong. The dialog is like that not-so-funny-but-thinks-he’s-funny guy at the party who never shuts up: an endless stream of wannabe quips – punctuated with smiles of self importance.
With zero character development and random and uninteresting gadgets the plot is more about feeding a Hollywood ego than a discerning pallet.
Any movie that has me dancing during the final credits is a sure winner. Ok, so I watched it in two installments being all ADD and such, but, the acting is spot on – quirky and depthful – the story is realistic and righteous – what ever that means. Ok, I know what that means: some sports fans are absolutely pathetic: I can here in the acting and writing the exact same qualities I hear when tuning in to sports radio from anywhere west of the Mississippi. The best part is that I hated the main character for his ‘patheticness’, however, the climax had me routing for him – dancing actually.
Any film willing to kill off Robert Dinero at the half way point is confident. This one was exciting, had few dull moments, and left me wanting more. The acting, characters, and writing make this film a blast. I think what I like most about my movie watching experience tonight – moments ago, really; actually the credits are still playing – is that the top reviews on Netflix panned the film as one star, they tried to make humor using the film’s title: I chose to watch the film because the bad reviews seemed stupid. When the professional critics all vote yay and the amateurs all vote nay, most likely something smart is afoot.
Review snippit from novato old man: “Boy o Boy!! When they named this 15 minutes.. They neglected to finish the title.. It should read.. 15 Minutes of Shame!!” You are a doink. Er, btw, an ellipsis has three periods.
Scale 1-10 of the amateur reviewers at Netflix Accuracy: 0 – “the only promising name in the film (Di Niro) is the same guy he plays in every other film in his recent catalogue.” Right. Someone who plays adolescent jokes on professionals and then while duct taped to a chair realistically kicks the ass of his two captures, picks up a gun by dropping on it on his back while still duct taped to the chair and starts shooting and misses everyone, and, then – well you’ll have to watch the film. I don’t want to spoil it for ya. Doink. P.S. You meant to use commas, not parentheses, around Dinero above. See? Like I just did around “not parentheses.” Depth: 0 – “Maybe it gets better after the first few minutes, …” It does, doink. Evidence: 0 – “… the movie took a turn to try to catch up on things it forgot and completely ignored everything it built” Huh? A bloody noogy for you. Grammar: 0 – “irregardless” Most modern computers have spell check, or did you click “learn” because you thought is was a word? Doink. Usefulness: 10 – when using the Law of Opposites
Directed by Michael Bay, staring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. Clones gain self awareness and ruin an otherwise perfectly perfect product. I love shoot ‘em ups as much as the next bloke, however, the effects need to have story value, and when people fall seventy stories and survive unscathed because the giant “R” they were riding lands in a contrived multi-layer bed of chain link fence, well, I have no problem finding time to visit the bathroom.
The dialog is uninteresting, the logic of the character’s actions is barely explainable by the premise – that they are clones with no real world experience. Sure, their “sponsor’s” memories are being reconstituted by some invisible unexplained magic of luck. That doesn’t excuse a director for providing a run of the mill love scene that is supposed to be not only the clones first such encounter, but be their first ever thought patterns around the very idea of sex.
Once again, massive artistic possibilities squandered, watch it anyway.
Scale 1-10
Overall: 6.5 = Director is a semi-failure as an artist story teller
Photography: 8 – nice pictures
Story: 8 – humanity vs. vanity
Acting: 8 – Except the Special Ops guy – 3
Set: 7 – pretty, but some poor logic
Directing: 6 – less money, more intelligence
Special Effects: 6 – lack purpose
Character Development: 6 – Lucky for Bay to have good actors
Dialog: 5 – bland
Plot: 4 – too much of it is dumb
Logic: 4 – so many bullets, so few hits, tunnel under the floor…
Almost forgot – The product placement is shameful, obvious and purposeless.
Late as I might be to discover these gems – Firefly TV series and Serenity (the big damn movie), my view of film has refined dramatically because of it. I’m really getting a kick of how old the “last Updated” dates are on Web sites hosting forums or information on these truly fine examples of TV and film: 2004. Cracks me up really. I don’t care, even if all I do is write stuff that only I find when searching “Firefly Serenity Whedon Doll House etc.”
Serenity is the feature film little brother to the Fox Series Firefly, a future set science fiction western created by Joss Whedon, also creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Doll House. I discovered this oddly and rather uninterestingly named film when digging through Netflix a few months back. While the opening scenes both attracted and repulsed me, I soon learned that the director is a master and was using intelligent design to manipulate viewer reaction. In fact, I’ve learned through a bunch of essays just how purposeful the use of frame composition, pacing, color, language (my personal favorite), character development, casting, and on and on where used to this end. Years from now Serenity will stand as one of the greatest science fiction films ever, imperfections and all.
Powerful female characters and simple plot lines that center on quests for jobs, food, and spare parts for their ride drive this reality based depiction of the future. Well, its reality basis does not include reality based physics; but that is half the beauty of its design: if a physics guy can ignore the silliness of the fantasy physics, then the framework must have integrity.
Anyway, this being a barely informative introduction to my passion for Serenity and Firefly, my main point is to inform you of my new hobby, and recommend it to my friends and family. I’ve got much to say on the topic and expect to post a bunch soon enough.
With the exception of the persistent uselessness embodied in your mice, Apple you have been my work horse of computing practicality – until I attempted to use iMovie ‘08. Plane and simply it’s matched the mouse. Yes, yes, iMovie ‘08 has moved on to iMovie ‘09. Doesn’t matter. A fundamentally appealing quality to your products are their fundamental stability and untility, their use generally lasts longer than the march of technology. But alas, my good friend of productivity in art has left me sitting in a crappy part of town with a flat spare – and only money beats that rap. Crap.
How you went against human anatomy and got everyone thinking a left click is a click I’ll never understand. A left handed mouse is the true right handed mouse, and vice versa… All the carpal tunnel you’ve caused – all of it actually – and no one has said a thing – through the courts I mean – you’re a lucky bastard, Steve Jobs, on that one. Round mice? Might as well have made the clear, slippery, and invisible mouse – that screeched like old brakes.
For the first time ever, Apple, you have wasted my time. I feel cheated. Short of a free copy of Final Cut Express or 170 bucks in cash to buy it with, nothing will assuage my disappointment and snarl. If you were my little brother, no one would blame me a bit for not helping you with the chores so you couldn’t go to the fun place with everyone else Friday night. Nope, you deserve a bloody noogy, a wedgie, cold chicken broth for coffee, and a random twitch in a random muscle at any old random moment for more days in a row than your calm can endure.
Poop.
P.S. – No timeline or paste over? – the two most fundamental components, besides insert edit, to editing a time based art form? uh. I’m gonna watch Serenity, that’s quality that lasts.
Well, I can’t tell you that, but, I can discuss not lying to ourselves.
It came up in class the other day. The course has just begun and the broad aspects of science are our main focus: skepticism, curiosity, and integrity are the main ones. Curiosity seems the toughest quality to learn for people who are not naturally curios either in general or for science. In teaching I assume all human beings possess some amount of curiosity for something, at minimum a curiosity about one thing. This assumption allows me to act on an unproven premise, that bridging something boring to something interesting creates the possibility of making the boring a little more interesting; which could then lead to learning. So said Edith Bunker.
Skepticism – what Richard Feynman terms ‘doubt’ - seems a built in nature of all human beings, however, many are not aware of its power, or how and when to use it, or that they have or are even using it in the first place. Education theory has used this possible core nature of the human for bit of time. I include what are called ‘discrepant events’ in this category, events witnessed or facts learned that just can’t seem to be believed, e.g. like when helium balloons move forward when the closed-up car they are in speeds up, or that space exists between you and everything, even your shoes and the floor when you’re standing. These things tend to grab everyone’s attention, which opens a door to learning.
Integrity, sure, we all think we have it, but do we. This is not a cynical statement, it’s a bit more subtle. Most people have integrity at the grand level, we know to help granny or return that wallet ~<:| But what about with ourselves, are we always honest with ourselves. I’ll answer for me: not enough when I was young, I am much more honest with myself since I recognized the phenomenon a bunch of years ago. Need I state a proof or example of the benefit of self honesty. Don’t answer that…
Our biases for this or that can lead to allowing misconceptions to maintain a foothold. For example, had I realized certain aspects of my personality at an earlier age I would have addressed them much earlier. Sure, I am who I am, the sum of my experiences good or bad, but that is not the point here, the long run is not the point here; what matters is the tactics of now, of the moment, am I choosing my actions right now based on the best intelligence. The small steps of our lives take place in the moments of here and now, ooh how cosmic. Well, c’mon, ain’t that what ‘they’ say? “one step at a time.” Well here is a tool to help make that work, pledge to never lie to yourself by being politely curios and skeptical about your own knowledge; and to have a sense of humor if you find you’ve been a fool.
All I can say is how cool to be back being a geek again.
I had a great summer that was nice and boring.
Well one exciting thing was swimming in the ocean for the first time in, I think, decades – literally; I still have not remembered the last time I swam over my head in ocean water, ha. It was very cool, the buoyancy, the force of the waves, the rising and the falling, just floating.
I wish I’d had the fried tofu. My sister Kate Danaher has long advocated for the humane treatment of animals. She played a prominent role in the rescue of New Orleans animal companions from the grossly negligent human blunder that followed hurricane Katrina. She traveled to Uganda to support chimpanzees, and has quietly sat outside a professional rodeo with only the support of her beliefs and a gentle sign asking for such events’ end. And while she used to be a pain in the ass, I now see that she is a respectful and righteous advocate, a true citizen.
The link below is difficult to watch.
Without stating my beliefs about the ethics of using animals for my personal needs, to support the efforts of so many people such as Danaher, and to support the effort toward creating a global community that treats animals with humanity, I pledge to be a vegetarian for the next 30 days.
Now that I must use the Interstates again I’m in close quarters twice a day with people that tailgate in long trains at 70 plus mph. They pull in front of me with only a car’s length between us. This is extremely dangerous behavior. Is this ignorance, arrogance, or stupidity? Today I’ll be nice and say I don’t know the answer. But that is a lie. I’ve had a challenging yet very satisfying week, and I’d like to keep that positive sense. So, I ask that you chat with one or two friends about this simple everyday matter to help improve all our safety on the Interstates. Here are a couple talking points:
1. Following distance -> 3 to 4 or more seconds minimum between you and the car ahead of you
2. Following distance –> add 1 second for rain, snow, motorcycle ahead, etc.
3. Gaging distance: when the car in front passes something start counting; stop counting when you pass the same something.
Yes, this is a personal agenda that I have great passion for.
AMHERST – Tonight I saw Cirque Du Soleil – Saltimbanco! The athletes pictured above performed – as best I could tell – without safety rigging: no net, no tether (whatever it’s called), and no hand of God below, just the audience. I found myself feeling as if my own children were swinging 40 feet in the air, at times one hanging from the other linked only by clasped ankles and feet. Throughout most of the show the audience told the performers of their pleasure and excitement with hand claps and wordless exclamations, but when these gals ascended by ropes, mounted the trapeze, and danced a seemingly effortless duet, no one inhaled or exhaled for five minutes. I’m not sure my eyes have ever widened as much as then. How in heckarini do they do that! I swear I saw them chatting at one point near the end, not signaling or directing, chatting. My my my…
The music was live, artistic, and well engineered, i.e. not too loud and properly mixed. Each instrument was discernible, and never stepped on the other instruments. Its placement always accompanied the production constructively. For instance, in moments of great drama the music was more likely to recede or become subtle then to punctuate. It was never startling, overbearing, or in your face, yet it was always clear and crisp. Drums, electric keyboards, electric guitar, bass, saxophone, and a number wonderful wonderful singers.
Much much more must be said, but, I must sleep. Cirque Du Soleil, I shall see you again for sure, you are first class entertainment.
