December 2001 Archives
I have been feeling sort of - I don't know - melancholy lately; sort of down, but not too far down. I just got into the "spirit of Christmas" (whatever that means) on Christmas day and now find myself with feeling of remorse that it is over. I still haven't even exchanged gifts with my wife yet! Maybe I am trying to prolong the season a bit - postpone the coming months that are a fog of ice and snow and sub-zero temperatures running together with alternating grey and black skies. Winter in Minnesota seems to always bring about feelings of despair in me, and ideas of moving - usually out west. If I wasn't in the "web industry" I might even make the move but for the fear of getting to San Francisco only to find very little in the way of job prospects. Maybe I'll just put my hat and gloves on and feel content with what I have for a while - at least until spring.
Some soundtrack news:
Although I have not seen the movie yet, I am sure I will love the
soundtrack to The Royal Tenenbaums. Of course this is another Wes Anderson movie and it includes a score made by Mark Mothersbaugh much like his previous films' soundtracks:
Rushmore and
Bottle Rockets but it also has some tracks by Bob Dylan, The Clash, The Ramones, Nick Drake, Elliot Smith, and the Velvet Underground. Unfortunately, just like Rushmore (and possibly Bottle Rockets) there are some huge omissions - songs that were left off the album for some reason. Some of these include a version of the Beatles' "Hey Jude" by Elliot Smith, "Sloop John B" by the Beach Boys, and "She Smiled Sweetly" by the Rolling Stones. Rushmore left off a good Rolling Stone song too - does Wes Anderson have something against Mick, Keith, and the boys?
Another great soundtrack that I happen to have a pre-release copy of is for the movie
"I am Sam". Though I don't know if the movie (with Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer) will be all that good, it won't be because of weak musical accompaniment. It is a
soundtrack of all Beatles' (who I love) covers by various artists (most of which I happen to love as well). There are tracks by The Wallflowers, Rufus Wainwright, Ben Harper, Paul Westerberg, Heather Nova, Nick Cave, Sarah McLachlan, Eddie Veder, Ben Folds, and more. Aimee Mann & Michael Penn's rendition of "Two of Us" particularly stands out. It is a very good soundtrack and any movie that plays that many Beatles tunes can't be that bad can it?
Finally a post couldn't be complete without something about the Lord of the Rings movie.
The soundtrack is mostly original score by Howard Shore but there are two new tracks from Enya called "May It Be" and "The Council Of Elrond (Theme For Aragorn And Arwen)" both good, but then, I like Enya.
The Fellowship of the Ring now ranks as the top movie in the
Internet Movie Database's Top 250 movies as voted by users. Previously The Godfather had been number 1, as the only other movie to garner an overall rating of 9 or better. But at 2/10's of a percent better than The Godfather, it is possible the movie could stay there (it does have nearly 14,000 votes at the time I am writing this).
Do I think it should be there at number 1? I will wait to answer that.
The Lord of the Rings movie was even better the second time around. I am down to only two nitpicks now. One was the headstand spin break-dancing move and the other was the psycho queen tantrum special effects. I hope those obscure references don't spoil anything for anyone. This film lives up to the hype and should be a serious contender for best picture of the year.
The people who decide the
Golden Globes already think so and have nominated the film for 4 Golden Globes including best picture - drama and best director. [
CNN]
Lord of the Rings: A beautiful movie, with good casting (except for Elrond being played by Agent Smith), and compelling story. Any pacing problems that I thought the movie had were likely a result of it being 2:30 this morning at the time. Aside from a few nitpick-type criticisms I thought it was a very good movie. I will let you know more after tonight's viewing.
Although I did not take these pictures these are some very cool photos of some large waves crashing against a ship canal on Lake Superior in Duluth, MN. Needless to say, Lake Superior rarely gets waves quite this large. Although it is by no means a calm lake, these ocean-sized waves are hardly common and have actually collapsed walls and other structures over the last several weeks.
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Just when all the hype surrounding the Danza/WHAT was reaching its crescendo, 0sil8 Heavy Industries gives us the Megway TH - just in time for the holiday gift buying season. Although no details were given as to how much it will cost I have already purchased several hundred of these things for my office and town from Amazon. I sure hope they run less than $4.99.
A side note to the Megway TH hysteria is that the server that serves Alt Text has been extremely slow lately (it is sitting right next to the server for 0sil8 Heavy Industries after all).
...if you don't want to hear anything else about the upcoming Lord of the Rings movie. But as it has premiered already in London, I thought I would summarize some of the initial feedback: this movie kicks ass!
But you can also take the
word of the BBC if you would like.
I just had to post this as a response to those stupid-ass Burger King commercials. Sadly, I cannot take the credit nor give it as I do not know from whence this came:
Three drinks for the Burger Kings under the sky,
Seven burgers for the Dwarves who are stoned,
Ninety million consumers doomed to buy,
One cut for the Dark Lord, the franchise he owns.
In the land of Mordor where the Whoppers lie.
Onion ring to rule them all, onion ring to dine them,
Onion ring to bring them all and in the deep-fryer bind them
In the land of Mordor where the Whoppers lie.
I cannot believe I missed the 1-hour making of special on Sci-Fi.
Unrelated note: The Sci-Fi channel is showing
Iron Teacher, which is along the vein of the
Iron Chef show the Food Network puts on. They film it at the Exploratorium which you should visit if you live in or are planning to visit the San Francisco Bay Area.
[Source:
Slashdot]
I like
this site.
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Stop Outlook from rendering HTML email that is sent to you with this
handy plug-in. [Source:
Camworld]
I am so over "IT" now, I am all about WHAT. I cannot tell you much - not much is yet known or is being released. It is rumored however that
0sil8 Heavy Industries has a technology, codenamed "Danza" that can "allow you to breath underwater", is "powered by water", and can convert saline into substance that can "help grow hair and retain the hair you have", among other abilities. I will keep you updated if I hear more.
More on the
Segway HT (Human Transport):
I feel swindled on this whole deal. This invention does not change civilization as we know it and other such rhetoric previously spewed forth by Kamen, Jobs, Bezos, et. al. The only thing it will change is make American's fatter and lazier. Did you see the video of the guy using this thing indoors to get some papers from someone? Give me a break.
At $3,000 is anyone besides my boss going to buy one? And if they do, how will they fare against the public who alternately will be envious and want to kick their ass.
Does anyone else find the name of the company, Segway, intriguing, however? It's as if Dean Kamen and friends know this is not a big step but rather a transition to the next step in human transportation, whatever that may be.
Count me among the unimpressed with the unveiling of IT/Ginger/
Segway. It is not really that the new device is not cool. I am sure after riding it I would be impressed by it. It's just that you cannot hype something to the extent that this was hyped and then unveil a new scooter for lazy people. I want it to run on hydrogen, to hover, or otherwise be revolutionary as was promised. Unfortunately, from what
I have seen, this looks very evolutionary to me. [Source:
Kottke although I would have posted about this today anyway.]
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Also from Jason today is a reminder that
corporations and partnerships are stupid.. Apparently the accounting/consultancy firm
KPMG does not like people
linking to
them without permission. When will these folks learn what the Internet is for?
A while back (actually in July of this year) I, or rather Alt Text, was
reviewed at Blog You! Blog You! Blog You!: A Consumers Guide to Weblogs. It had been the first site of its kind that I had seen - devoted to critiquing the online journals of thousands of webloggers across the web. How did I fare? Well I received 3 Donalds (they rate on a Donald Sutherland scale 4 Donalds being the best while scoring 1 Kiefer is bad). Aside from a relatively good review, I was said to have a strange "Kottke hero worship." That seems unfair really, I mean have you seen that
Kottke fellow? Everyone agrees he ain't nothing special to look at. =P
Although I did not take these pictures these are some very cool photos of some large waves crashing against a ship canal on Lake Superior in Duluth, MN. Needless to say, Lake Superior rarely gets waves quite this large. Although it is by no means a calm lake, these ocean-sized waves are hardly common and have actually collapsed walls and other structures over the last several weeks.
