Dear Google,
I can't really be bothered by you, with your adorable business strategy ("Don't Be Evil") and your giving Sarah a good job and all, but...this new "street view" map thing edges ever closer to being downright freaky. Why do I get the impression that if your trend of business innovation continues, I will awake one morning to find context-sensitive ads on the inside of my eyelids and an index of my head available online?
Sincerely,
Sketched out in Scienceland
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Birthdaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
This picture can only mean one thing. Yeah, so, turning 27 had me a little worried. It just seemed so old, and hadn't I just turned 26? How could I explain another year gone and so many problems still left to fix! But, then I had a great week (salsa lesson, coffee with tilotama, a great session at fountainhouse, salsa dancing out in the city, awesome black tie dinner with the masons, dinner with Patience and Brian) and capped it off with a great dinner with a few friends:
and seeing Pirates 3. These events brought me to a certain conclusion: If this can be how I spend the week leading up to my birthday, and spend my birthday in such good company, maybe I'm doing something right and 27 won't be so bad. Besides, it's either turn 27 or die, really, so thank you but I'm going to pick 27. Here we go!
Monday, May 14, 2007
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Tribeca Film Festival (the final four)
Sorry it's late! This week has been nothing if not, um...interesting. So let's finish this!
Thursday
I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal
This documentary was produced by the film unit of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, meaning the film-makers had the best access to, and most command of, the material. And with a life as eventful as Wiesenthal's, that's very important. How do you tell the story of a man who survived the concentration camps, but lost his mother and most of his family, and who went on to become the most relentless, effective, and well-known hunter of Nazi war criminals? There's the Wiesenthal who successfully tracked down Eichmann and others and the Wiesenthal whose obsession came first above his family and his own health, and both are essential to telling this story. The film does a great job of managing the hundreds of cases and many long years of Wiesenthal's life, and is an inspiration to watch.
Friday
West 32nd: The plot of this Korean gangster movie is at times fun, at times really exciting, and at times weighted down with cliche gangster flick elements. But what I was excited by - and judging by the 200 people who had to be turned away for this sold-out show, I'm not the only one who was excited - was that this film brings to the big screen a really solid group of 6 or 7 young Korean actors with big, big potential. Like a modern-day rat pack, there is some real talent in Korea and I'd definitely like to see more of these actors. In talking with friends, I hear there is starting to be quite a buzz around Korean cinema. (Also, the friend who was to accompany me had to bail at the very last minute, so my extra ticket went to the film-maker's wife, who would otherwise not have been able to see the movie!)
Saturday
Hard As Nails: Okay, this one's going to be hard to write. Anything I write will only provide the elements of this documentary with minimal context, and the film already had to strip a lot of the context for the sake of time, so...consider that there may be some better explanation out there somewhere to what I am about to describe. This documentary tells the story of Justin, who runs a youth evangelism program for catholic kids and catholic schools in the Northeastern united States. He's clearly emotionally unstable - and admitted to being so in person at the screening, but more on that in a second - but from the film it seems his tactics include getting kids to re-create the stations of the cross by carrying a cross and being screamed at, threatened, and thrown to the ground. The kids are made to cry, expected to open up about their darkest past experiences (e.g. rape or molestation), and then screamed at some more. There's a pair of horrendous examples: 1) An obese young woman is pulled from the audience. "I'm going to speak the truth," says Justin, "she's fat. Admit it. That's how people see you. And the truth is that you are fat. And you," he says, turning to a boy chosen at random in the crowd,"you know that's what you're thinking. So say it. (screaming) Say she's fat right now! Say it!" (boy does not respond) Justin screams, "Well, forget you then!" 2) Justin asks all the students in the audience who have ever seriously considered suicide to come to the front. They do, and Justin then turns to the audience and screams, "You are the problem! You are why these kids feel this way." The film shows Justin getting kicked out of a school - the teachers and principal object to his tactics and claim they are not at all equipped to deal with the fallout of upset kids - and then the whole Catholic Diocese of Vermont bans him from the state. But he continues, as sure as ever that what he is doing is right. And that's the weirdest part - the film shows kid after kid who claim their lives were saved by Justin's workshops (and one kid whose shoulder was separated when he was thrown to the ground, who happily responds along the lines of, "I'm just happy to be able to suffer for Jesus.") The theater was at least 1/3 full of these same kids. It was a very strange viewing.
At the Q&A afterwards I asked if getting kicked out of the vermont school was an isolated occurence, and after these kids open about being molested or trying to kill themselves or whatever, and after they go through all this highly emotional stuff, whether there is any follow-up after Justin moves on to his next gig. Are the kids checked out by a counselor or anything? No, he says, because he's just one guy. He says they're starting to add some of that, because a psychiatrist has volunteered his time, but with 60,000+ kids a year going through these workshops, almost no one gets any follow-up. Any suspicions I had gotten from watching the film about whether Justin should be in his position and whether he is acting irresponsibly were loudly answered by seeing him answer questions in person: he needs to stop or be stopped from doing what he is doing.
The documentary was very intense and tells a very current and important story - I just hope somebody with some authority sees it and stops this guy before it's too late.
Sunday
World Narrative Award Winner: My Father My Lord
See this movie. Whatever you must do, whoever you must rob, see this movie. It is gorgeous and powerful like nothing I have seen in a long time, and the acting is almost supernaturally good. The film tells the story of a family of very devout Orthodox Jews. I won't tell you more about the plot, because I don't want to spoil it. But the person who introduced the film said that because of the overwhelming audience reaction and overwhelming juror votes in favor of the film, it was more than likely going to get world-wide distribution. So see this movie!
Thursday
I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life and Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal
This documentary was produced by the film unit of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, meaning the film-makers had the best access to, and most command of, the material. And with a life as eventful as Wiesenthal's, that's very important. How do you tell the story of a man who survived the concentration camps, but lost his mother and most of his family, and who went on to become the most relentless, effective, and well-known hunter of Nazi war criminals? There's the Wiesenthal who successfully tracked down Eichmann and others and the Wiesenthal whose obsession came first above his family and his own health, and both are essential to telling this story. The film does a great job of managing the hundreds of cases and many long years of Wiesenthal's life, and is an inspiration to watch.
Friday
West 32nd: The plot of this Korean gangster movie is at times fun, at times really exciting, and at times weighted down with cliche gangster flick elements. But what I was excited by - and judging by the 200 people who had to be turned away for this sold-out show, I'm not the only one who was excited - was that this film brings to the big screen a really solid group of 6 or 7 young Korean actors with big, big potential. Like a modern-day rat pack, there is some real talent in Korea and I'd definitely like to see more of these actors. In talking with friends, I hear there is starting to be quite a buzz around Korean cinema. (Also, the friend who was to accompany me had to bail at the very last minute, so my extra ticket went to the film-maker's wife, who would otherwise not have been able to see the movie!)
Saturday
Hard As Nails: Okay, this one's going to be hard to write. Anything I write will only provide the elements of this documentary with minimal context, and the film already had to strip a lot of the context for the sake of time, so...consider that there may be some better explanation out there somewhere to what I am about to describe. This documentary tells the story of Justin, who runs a youth evangelism program for catholic kids and catholic schools in the Northeastern united States. He's clearly emotionally unstable - and admitted to being so in person at the screening, but more on that in a second - but from the film it seems his tactics include getting kids to re-create the stations of the cross by carrying a cross and being screamed at, threatened, and thrown to the ground. The kids are made to cry, expected to open up about their darkest past experiences (e.g. rape or molestation), and then screamed at some more. There's a pair of horrendous examples: 1) An obese young woman is pulled from the audience. "I'm going to speak the truth," says Justin, "she's fat. Admit it. That's how people see you. And the truth is that you are fat. And you," he says, turning to a boy chosen at random in the crowd,"you know that's what you're thinking. So say it. (screaming) Say she's fat right now! Say it!" (boy does not respond) Justin screams, "Well, forget you then!" 2) Justin asks all the students in the audience who have ever seriously considered suicide to come to the front. They do, and Justin then turns to the audience and screams, "You are the problem! You are why these kids feel this way." The film shows Justin getting kicked out of a school - the teachers and principal object to his tactics and claim they are not at all equipped to deal with the fallout of upset kids - and then the whole Catholic Diocese of Vermont bans him from the state. But he continues, as sure as ever that what he is doing is right. And that's the weirdest part - the film shows kid after kid who claim their lives were saved by Justin's workshops (and one kid whose shoulder was separated when he was thrown to the ground, who happily responds along the lines of, "I'm just happy to be able to suffer for Jesus.") The theater was at least 1/3 full of these same kids. It was a very strange viewing.
At the Q&A afterwards I asked if getting kicked out of the vermont school was an isolated occurence, and after these kids open about being molested or trying to kill themselves or whatever, and after they go through all this highly emotional stuff, whether there is any follow-up after Justin moves on to his next gig. Are the kids checked out by a counselor or anything? No, he says, because he's just one guy. He says they're starting to add some of that, because a psychiatrist has volunteered his time, but with 60,000+ kids a year going through these workshops, almost no one gets any follow-up. Any suspicions I had gotten from watching the film about whether Justin should be in his position and whether he is acting irresponsibly were loudly answered by seeing him answer questions in person: he needs to stop or be stopped from doing what he is doing.
The documentary was very intense and tells a very current and important story - I just hope somebody with some authority sees it and stops this guy before it's too late.
Sunday
World Narrative Award Winner: My Father My Lord
See this movie. Whatever you must do, whoever you must rob, see this movie. It is gorgeous and powerful like nothing I have seen in a long time, and the acting is almost supernaturally good. The film tells the story of a family of very devout Orthodox Jews. I won't tell you more about the plot, because I don't want to spoil it. But the person who introduced the film said that because of the overwhelming audience reaction and overwhelming juror votes in favor of the film, it was more than likely going to get world-wide distribution. So see this movie!
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Tribeca Film Festival (Wednesday)
Brave Story: Even with an incredible plot like "young boy's father abandons the family, boy's mother tries to kill herself so boy befriends another boy (whose father killed his family) and together they travel through a magical door in a spooky old house to a far-off land to learn that suffering is an inextricable part of life," Brave Story is actually pretty standard fare as far as anime goes. It's got occasionally gorgeous, almost 3D animation, but with other near-flawless heavy-hitters like Spirited Away and FLCL telling similar stories, Brave Story has some stiff competition. Still, if you're into movies of that sort - and I am - and you're looking forward to some downtime after a hectic workday - and I was - then Brave Story does a great job.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Tribeca Film Festival! (Tuesday)
My Best Friend: Tonight I saw this charming little French comedy about a man who realizes he has no friends and will die alone. While witty and well-written, I'm pretty sure it's small enough and French enough that it won't ever see major distribution here - so much the better then that I got to see it at the Festival!
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