“Clear Skies Act”? “Healthy Forests Initiative”? Give me a break. THE CHOCOLATE RATION USED TO BE 30 GRAMS, PEOPLE! I SWEAR IT!
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…and that’s SplashDown.
Editor’s Note, 2020: Try this link.
Kent remembers sitting in the village, watching athletes walk through the door and playing a game of Guess What They Do. “The bikers have skinny little upper bodies, farmer tans and massive, clean-shaven thighs. Invert them and you get the kayakers, who have skinny little legs and massive backs and shoulders. The seven-foot-tall giant who ducks under the doorway entering the cafeteria is probably from basketball. The seven-foot giant who smacks his head on the door frame is definitely a rower; they don’t have that hand-eye co-ordination thing. The kids running at the rowers’ ankles with the high-pitched voices are gymnasts. It just goes on and on. Being at the village is like taking your place in a wild anatomical parade seen nowhere else on the planet.”
Paul Hochman, The New Scotsman
Strict regulations published by Athens 2004 last week dictate that spectators may be refused admission to events if they are carrying food or drinks made by companies that did not see fit to sponsor the games.
Mark Franchetti, The Halifax Herald
Sweltering sports fans who seek refuge from the soaring temperatures with a soft drink other than one made by Coca-Cola will be told to leave the banned refreshment at the gates or be shut out. High on the list of blacklisted beverages is Pepsi, but even the wrong bottle of water could land spectators in trouble.
So Father Fractal himself, Benoit Mandelbrot, suggests in his latest book that computers should be used to search for patterns in the vagaries of the Stock Exchange:
A well-managed corporation devotes some portion of its research and development budget to basic research, in fields of science that underlie its main business. Isn’t understanding the market as important to the economy as understanding solid-state physics is to IBM? If we can map the human genome, why can’t we map how a man loses his livelihood? If millions can contribute a few cycles of their PCs to the search for a signal from outer space, why can’t they join a coordinated search for patterns in financial markets?
Benoit Mandelbrot
Wouldn’t this be a complete waste of time? Assuming you did find a pattern, you couldn’t do anything with it, because as soon as you took action based on assumptions derived from the pattern, you’d be changing the system and the pattern would no longer be valid. It’s not quite quantum observation effects, but still…
James LaBrie is the Celine Dion of progressive rock. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! I have a secret confession to make. I like a lot of the songs that Celine Dion chooses to sing. Given the right material, she can knock it out of the park without even trying. But quite often, she over-emotes or affects her delivery, accentuating in a way that, quite frankly, ruin the whole thing.
The material written by Henning Pauly on Frameshift’s debut is strong enough that James knocks it out of the park, even if the first few stanzas of the first track got me wondering whether he was going to “pull a Celine” and over-emote. J la B is best when he cranks up the volume and lays off the vibrato, and fortunately there is plenty of that here.
This album was much, much better than I thought it was going to be when I read the blurb. At one point they liken it to Queen, and yes, there is one track at least where that is not hyperbole. Recommended.
Grade: A- (a point off for the odd vocal affect)
So Roger Ebert said that this movie was produced for an audience that didn’t exist. Um… Hello? I, for one, thought this movie was pretty cool, but I expect for completely different reasons than the 20 or so kids who enjoyed it along with us. I think you either have to have loved the original Thunderbirds series as a kid, or you have to be a kid in order to “get” this film. Ebert clearly is in neither group.
Points off though for the rather annoying child characters (hint: Spy Kids kind of needed them, because that was the whole point, but Thunderbirds never needed a kid in a starring role in order to appeal to the target audience of same) and also because, for some reason, the words “International Rescue” could never actually be said out loud by any character in the film. Why not? Is it politically incorrect to imagine an organisation not directly affiliated with a single nation?
This movie really put me in the mood for Team America: World Police which is coming from Matt Stone and Trey Parker in October. (It’s a satirical action film – with marionettes.)
Terminal C, Cleveland Airport
5300 Riverside Dr,
Cleveland, OH 44135
They were out of plain bagels as we stopped briefly at Terminal C on our way back to Las Vegas, but I took the opportunity to sample a toasted sesame bagel. Extra points for the generous slathering of butter, which unfortunately rapidly soaked through the paper wrapping.
Grade: B-
I think Garfield said it first. For some reason it sticks in my head. It is at least appropriate, because I am in fact on an airplane, on a Cleveland-Las Vegas flight, and running out of laptop battery.
Thanks to our hosts Andy and Marcia for a wonderful few days, and a special hello to the folks at Prime Prodata for a great Cleveland welcome.
It seems that this was just in the theaters last week, yet on our last trolling through the pre-viewed cheapo surplus bins at the local Hollywood video rental chain store, we found a copy of this on sale, so we picked it up.
Here’s the deal: it’s entertaining, and visually arresting, but Koyaanisqatsi it isn’t. At the beginning we thought it was going to be random pictures of birds flying around, set to music. They we marvelled at the amazing photography – just how did they get these pictures of birds migrating, nesting, swimming, doing their thing, at such amazing close up? And flying in formation in the air?
Then we realized that there is a kind of story – or more accurately, three or four stories as we followed various species of birds on their migratory paths around the world. It is spectacular, but then it becomes contrived. We realized that there is simply NO WAY to have obtained these shots unless there was some magic trick involved. So, for the rest of the film, we wondered what the trick was.
Like much magic, knowing how it was done rather spoils the enjoyment of the film. My recommendation: Don’t watch the “making of” featurette on the DVD (but you won’t be able to help yourself) and don’t listen to the commentary – it’s more boring than the music track. Still worth seeing, though. Three stars.
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