Wednesday, 28 May 2003

Ever wish you could change history? Jimmy Page didn’t like some of the mistakes he made in live concerts recorded in the 1970’s so before releasing a new DVD/CD of the concerts he “fixed” some of the wrong chords.

Wednesday, 28 May 2003

Once a remote wilderness that few could reach let alone climb, Mt. Everest is becoming a trash heap.

Monday, 19 May 2003

Hmmm where to start? I loved the world of the matrix in the first film, such a well-executed concept. In the newest installment of the series the world seems a lot less consistent. Things seemed much more disconnected, the relationships between parts of the future earth much less cohesive.

The effects were top-notch but ranged from convincing to just silly. I am sure a scene like the neo vs. multiple agents in the outdoor park took a lot of time and was fun to do but it looked too much like a 3 dimensional cartoon with overhead views that looked just ridiculously faked and animated. [update: after reading HOW the scene was done I am just amazed at what the effects people managed to accomplish, how close up parts made entirely via CGI fooled me into thinking it was a combination of CGI and real-action - that is phenomenal, but the overhead scenes and some of the flying smiths still looked really fake] Same with Neo as superman, just too silly looking. [Is there ANY way to show a flying human and not have it look silly?]

The fight sequences seemed to dominate at least the first half of the film, but at least trying to follow all the jump cuts and establish a sense of what was happening kept me too busy to notice plot holes and world inconsistencies. There was one whole extended action sequence I liked, from the start of the scene where they find the keymaker (mansion lobby) shortly after they encounter rude french dude and his twin undeads (nice wallwalking with several people all doing tightly choreographed bizzaro gravity defying animatricks that looked like it was designed by MC Escher), through the subsequent car chase (completely over the top (in an enjoyable way)).

I found world inconsistencies distracting; things like neo spending the time to duke it out with multiple Mr. Smiths when he could just fly away, the high speed car chase with not so much as a single aerial vehicle in pursuit, automatic weapon fire spraying a car from close range but apparently not penetrating the vehicle or harming the occupants, I could go on and on.

I will have to think about the plot some more to see if it made any sense at all, but my first impression is that you really have to suspend disbelief to accept the story at all at this point. Keanu was as Keanu-ish as ever, but other than the role of Theodore S. Logan Esq, this may be the best role he has ever had.

So, the movie had well done effects, entertaining action scenes, holes in the plot a rogue agent could drive a semi through, but on the plus side, Trinity looked better than ever. I have had some internal dissonance over how attractive Carrie Ann Moss appears in these films with other pictures I have seen of her where she doesn’t seem as objectively pretty - and a friend cued me into the problem. The dissonance is between what *I* personally find attractive and what society at large says is attractive - she definately falls into the attractive category using either criteria, but obviously my own personal criteria match her more closely than society at large’s. And anyone who doesn’t agree/believe that Carrie Ann Moss is one of the most gorgeous women alive on the planet is obviously being controlled by their cultural / societal conditioning (e.g. the matrix).

P.S. It was very disconcerting to see ‘Jasmine’ from Angel in a non-”evil human-devouring entity out to take over earth” role as one of the friendly zionites.

Monday, 19 May 2003

sound and vision:The Matrix Reloaded, A Mighty Wind

Friday, 16 May 2003

A topic that regularly bothers me is the amount of things I throw out - ok, not me personally as I tend to keep things long past any semblance of useability - but the inclusive I - as in “we” as a culture. Appliances, toys, you name it. Thought this post from a Mac-related forum discussion on product quality had an interesting observation.

Re: What is up with Apple’s Quality anymore?

Author: ~otto boners~ (—.NYCMNY83.covad.net)

Date: 05-16-03 11:25

…

On the other hand, the quality of manufactured goods is a reflection more of the time that they were built and the perceptions of it’s builders.

Everything has it’s “golden period”. Read “Time and Again” by Jack Finney.

Buildngs of the 19th Century. The Pyramids. Rome. People felt things were ordered, that life was consistent, people had time to invest and things were built to last.

Cameras of the 1930’s and early 1950’s. Magnificent machines that could not be built to a price today. Most of the skilled machinists who could make such a thing are dead.

…
Nowadays, with the pace of things going so fast and with little thought for the future, you no longer buy a “thing”, you buy a “function”.

Since the “function” is understood to be obsolete soon, the “thing” is built as cheaply as possible to perform the function, then fall apart.

Even look at the early ICM XT’s. What a solid chunk of metal. Why put all the work into a modern PC that will be tossed in a year or two?