New Music Roundup

Some recommended new music: RobertPlant, Aimee Mann, Maria McKee, Spoon.

Revenge of the Sith

I saw Episode III today. Technically, this is an outstanding film. The CGI
characters and the human actors' integration is virtually seamless. George
Lucas' visual acumen is superb for the most part. The bulk of the action
sequences are stirring and entertaining. There are several scenes that are
also, if you are a fan of the series, quite powerful and moving. Numerous
reports of the stilted dialogue and wooden acting seemed to have been
exagerrated. It's not Shakespeare, but it's not THAT bad. And let's be
honest here: these are difficult roles to play for any actor. I thought
Natalie Portman was good as well as Ewan MacGregor and Ian McDiarmid.

I thought some scenes, especially at the end, went on too long and were too
repetitive. The story became weaker and weaker as it went along. I was not
convinced by Anakin's turn to The Dark Side. I don't think that was handled
all that well. Still, it was an enjoyable film for a fan of the series and
not as bad as episodes I and II. It does add depth to episodes IV and V and
I look forward to viewing them again. Incidentally, if you watched The
Clone Wars animated series, it may also add some depth to your experience of
this film.

newsobserver.com - A growing stake in the biotech crops debate: "The issue has immediate relevance in Eastern North Carolina, where Ventria Bioscience has a permit to grow an open-air, experimental plot of rice engineered with synthetic human genes (to produce artificial human milk proteins) near the state Agriculture Department's Tidewater Research Station in Plymouth, in Washington County. Two earlier attempts by Ventria to grow its genetically modified 'pharma rice' -- a crop that yields drugs for use in human and veterinary medicines -- were opposed by farmers, food companies and environmentalists in California and Missouri because of concerns that the genetically altered pharma rice could cross-pollinate with conventional rice, thus contaminating the food supply."

Forget about Kansas, what the hell is wrong with North Carolina? It is going to take some big corporate entity with a rather large stake in locally grown crops to oppose this, like Anheuser-Busch did in Missouri. This is ludicrous.

TV's 'Sopranos' final season will focus on money - Yahoo! News: "Network television, particularly hour-long drama shows, 'gives such a false picture of life,' he said.

'So much of it is a glorification of authority and an attempt to convince the American people that life isn't tragic, that everything works out and all those cops and all those firemen and all those judges and all those doctors, they really care,' he said."

Well put and right on the money. That's what is so ridiculous about the so-called 'reality' shows. There's no reality there. It is all editing. Superb editing, I might add. The best art doesn't avoid reality.

Culture of Life Breaking News: I HAD A DREAM: "So here we are, the Democrats in the Senate 'get to keep' the filibuster but only if they never use it. Only Thurmond was allowed this privilege because he was trying to oppress blacks which is evidently OK, no?

Guess what?

Sometimes you have to walk out. And yell. A lot. And show you are really committed to being pissed off. I spent much of my life fighting for things I wanted or needed or thought were just. This involved being beaten up, put in jail, harassed at home, spied upon and yelled at all the time."

What a travesty. What are they POSSIBLY thinking? Does Harry Reid really believe his words that he has sent some sort of message to Republicans? Can he be that stupid? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? So who do we get for 2008? Clinton? I don't hear her saying much. Obama? Can't hear him either. These Democrats are about nothing but getting elected. They stand for nothing except the next fund raiser. They all make me sick.

UPDATE: The more I think about this, the more I realize that this means it is all over. Bolton will be confirmed (as if that was ever in doubt). There will be major cuts to social security and increasing public debt. We will most likely invade Iran and possibly Syria this summer. There is NOTHING the Democrats will oppose or even attempt to oppose. They are merely going to sit around until 2007 when the campaign for president gets going in earnest. They are sick, sick people.

New York Daily News - Movie Reviews - Jami Bernard: Last 'Star Wars' is a bit Forced: "The fundamental, overarching 'Star Wars' theme, established in 1977 and still going strong, is that when you are old enough to leave the farm and responsible enough to take the wheel, then — and only then — will you be allowed to drive fast. In 1977, Luke chafed at the bit to be taken seriously, and in 2005, his father, Anakin, pouts about how everyone gets promoted to Jedi master except him. When Samuel L. Jackson's noble Mace Windu effectively tells Anakin to go to his room, you know the Dark Side is just a temper tantrum away. This theme of wanting to be treated like a grownup, with its hints of displacing the father, is why kids love 'Star Wars' while older audiences are cool to it. This also explains why 'Sith' opens with yet another video-game-like space chase, in which Anakin's and Obi-Wan's driving skills help determine the outcome of the Clone Wars."

I haven't seen the film yet and I intend to, but I thought Bernard's take on the "theme" of "Star Wars" was interesting and novel. It's also pretty much the "theme" of Lucas' "American Graffiti". Bernard also reiterates that "Sith" continues in the series' trademark awful dialogue and wooden acting. But I wonder if this is not a deliberate choice Lucas made. The same complaint gets made frequently about Stanley Kubrick's films and definitely Kubrick wanted, and usually got, a certain acting style that was a bit distant and odd. He said once that movies can be about more than just the characters. Maybe this is giving Lucas too much credit and in reality he just finds writing dialogue and directing actors boring or uninteresting. I'll see the flick and let you know.

George Gallow Senate Testimony

Just once I would like to hear something similar from an American politician. No spinning, no couching your words in plausibly deniable vague-speak. Just plain English calling a liar a liar. The Scottish brogue does help though...

The Huffington Post | David Rees

I was not exactly bowled over when The Huffington Post debuted yesterday, but then at that time I had no idea that David Rees of "Get Your War On" fame was going to be a contributor. He and he ALONE is reason enough to give this place a slot in your RSS aggregator. His first post had me in tears. An extremely funny guy.

Twin Cinema (MP3)

Pure. Power. Pop.

Amid Poll Woes, Bush Proposes Social Security Fix - Yahoo! News: "But for Americans concerned about investing in the stock market, he also proposed a relatively safe investment option for private accounts, one invested entirely in U.S.-backed treasury bonds."

Yes, that's right. Those same treasury bonds that Mr. Bush recently said were worthless. He can't be a liar because the contradictory lies don't make any sense at all. I think he is just plain stupid. I don't really believe he understands what he is saying. It's just extremely curious. I would like to know someday just what in the hell is going on here. This is all just too bizarre.

Yahoo! News - 'The Simpsons' Hit 350th Episode Milestone: "'That isn't to say we don't do some bad shows now and didn't then. But I say that by and large, the shows we're doing now are just as good as any I've been involved with.'"

I would have to agree. When you press those who claim the show has gone downhill, they admit they haven't watched the show regularly in about 5-10 years. I was not a big fan of the show at first, especially during the Bart-craze. I think it was somewhere around season 6 or 7 when I started to watch it on a regular basis. It has been a marvel of consistency to me. They cram a great many jokes into those brief 22 minutes, a lot of them in the background. How many shows can do that?

Indy

Now THIS is what the internet is all about! Absolutely awesome app that finds music for you based upon how you rate what it finds. A great idea, elegantly executed. Brilliant all around. THIS is what the music industry should have come up with in response to Napster. If they think file sharing was hurting their business, wait until Indy reaches a tipping point.

NBC.com > The_Office > Episode Guide - Basketball

As an ardent admirer (ok, HUGE fan) of the BBC original, I have been watching the US version since the pilot hoping that the series would eventually reach a tipping point of its own. I believe with this episode it has. Very funny, very American, and for once the Michael Scott character becomes believable and almost recognizable. That seemed to be the 'magic' of the BBC version that Gervais was able to pull off this loathsome character and make him not just recognizable but sympathetic. Cannell, who I think has significant comedic talent, has been unable to get me to that point but with last night's episode he is starting to. Maybe it is also the writers are becoming more comfortable with the whole concept and able to make it their own. It is a question now as to whether NBC will renew the series, which is certainly one of the most daring and intelligent sitcoms on network TV today, just as it is seeming to gather some steam. The season finale is next week.

STLtoday - Genetically modified rice won't be planted near Bootheel fields: "The California company whose plan to sprout pharmaceutical rice in Missouri's Bootheel triggered a boycott threat from the Anheuser-Busch brewing company said Friday that it would seek a new Missouri planting site removed from commercial rice fields. After a meeting in St. Louis with brewery officials and political leaders, the California company, Ventria Bioscience, said it would amend its application with the U.S. Department of Agriculture so that its genetically engineered rice would be planted at least 120 miles away from the prime rice fields of southeast Missouri. "

I guess the market actually does work...thanks to worldwide consumer opposition to GMO crops. I will have to do some research on this, but I can't recall anyone having open-air fields of pharma-crops. There are many instances of cross-contamination of crops hundreds of miles away so this is merely a temporary setback. How Missouri can allow a company to plant this in an open-air field when you cannot even TEST to see if something has been contaminated by it is beyond me. Not even mentioning the fact that if it does contaminate other crops, it would more than likely render it worthless for human consumption. From a business standpoint, this GMO stuff is simply not going to work. ANd I love this line: "Blunt called the agreement 'a huge step forward' for agriculture, Missouri's plant-science industry and Ventria's goal of finding medicines that can help children." Oh please. There are already plenty of medicines and FOOD available to help all the children you want. It is a distribution 'problem' (read: no profit). GMO's are not going to help that.

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Ideas / The evolutionary revolutionary: "He's certainly returning to the ideas generated by that work. The book on deceit and self-deception that he's now starting grows out of a brief but widely cited passage from his introduction to Dawkins's ''The Selfish Gene.'' If deceit, he wrote, ''is fundamental to animal communication, then there must be strong selection to spot deception and this ought, in turn, to select for a degree of self-deception, rendering some facts and motives unconscious so as not to betray-by the subtle signs of self-knowledge-the deception being practiced.'' Thus, the idea that the brain evolved to produce ''ever more accurate images of the world must be a very naive view of mental evolution.'' We've evolved, in other words, to delude ourselves so as better to fool others-all in the service of the great game of propagating our genes. For Trivers, this isn't a mere technical question but the key to unlocking all sorts of deep human mysteries."

I find this approach extremely fascinating. While I have no idea if his conclusions will hold up to scrutiny, it should be quite apparent, especially in America at this point in time, that deception, of ourselves and others, is if not hard-wired then pretty darn close.

Susie Bright's Journal : "Aggressive Verbal Dominant Top" Seeks Submissive Male Who Can Reinstate White House Press Pass"If Jeff was a drug dealer (I’ll get to that part later) the investigative reporters would be eager to provide a profile of how drug dealers behave in similar situations. If he was a classical violinist, we’d be hearing about that. It would be part of our understanding of his background, his peers; it would lead to analysis how his social network came to include such powerful men.

Well, this is certainly the case with high class sexual services... and that is why anyone who’s ever done sex work understands that Jeff is not some wacky fluke... that the only way his access happened was because Gannon was dialed in, connected via his cock, to all the right people. The reason he got his little laminated press card was because someone was plying his favors."

And isn't the identity of the purchaser of those "favors" a legitimate news story? Isn't the fact that this issue has been shut down hard and quick also a legitimate news story?

Ohio's Odd Numbers"I had the chance to spend quality time with someone who came to me well recommended, who did not believe that fraud had yet actually been demonstrated, whose background was in the manufacture of the machines, and who wanted to be anonymous. It certainly could be done, she said, and only a very, very few people would have to be “in on it.” This is because of the small number of firms engaged in the manufacturing and the even smaller number of people, subject as they are to the hiring practices of these firms, who understand the technology. “Machines were put in place with no sampling to make sure they were ‘in control’ and no comparison studies,” she explained. “The code of the machines is not public knowledge, and none of these machines has since been impounded.” In these circumstances, she continued, it’s possible to manipulate both the count and the proportions of votes.

In the bad old days of Tammany Hall, she pointed out, you had to break the counter pins on the lever machines, and if there was any vigilance in an investigation, the broken pins would automatically incriminate the machine. With touch-screen technology, the crudeness and predictability of the old ward-heeler racketeers isn’t the question anymore. But had there been a biased “setting” on the new machines it could be uncovered—if a few of them could be impounded. The Ohio courts are currently refusing all motions to put the state’s voting machines, punch-card or touch-screen, in the public domain. It’s not clear to me, or to anyone else, who is tending the machines in the meanwhile …"

Hitch wakes up.

March 2005 Columns Magazine Feature: Wake Up Call“'I don’t believe any of those studies have ever been replicated,' says Joe Farren, director of public affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, a Washington, D.C.-based industry consortium that provides $1 million a year in funding for cell phone research. 'We believe you should follow the science. The science to date shows there is not a health risk associated with the use of any wireless device.'

"Technically, Farren may be correct about Lai’s study, but that’s because no one has tried to replicate Lai and Singh’s exact experiment. And a 1998 experiment that used common cell phone frequencies did find biological damage in some cases. More recently, a European research effort by 12 groups in seven countries also documented DNA damage from cell phone radiation. "

How many times have we heard this sort of response from corporate groups? "The results have never been replicated." Liars.

CNN.com - 'My truth' - Mar 6, 2005: "The car kept on the road, going under an underpass full of puddles and almost losing control to avoid them. We all incredibly laughed. It was liberating. Losing control of the car in a street full of water in Baghdad and maybe wind up in a bad car accident after all I had been through would really be a tale I would not be able to tell. Nicola Calipari sat next to me. The driver twice called the embassy and in Italy that we were heading towards the airport that I knew was heavily patrolled by U.S. troops. They told me that we were less than a kilometer away...when...I only remember fire. At that point, a rain of fire and bullets hit us, shutting up forever the cheerful voices of a few minutes earlier.

The driver started yelling that we were Italians. 'We are Italians, we are Italians.' Nicola Calipari threw himself on me to protect me and immediately, I repeat, immediately I heard his last breath as he was dying on me. I must have felt physical pain. I didn't know why. But then I realized my mind went immediately to the things the captors had told me. They declared that they were committed to the fullest to freeing me but I had to be careful, 'the Americans don't want you to go back.' Then when they had told me I considered those words superfluous and ideological. At that moment they risked acquiring the flavor of the bitterest of truths, at this time I cannot tell you the rest."

robot wisdom weblog
Jorn's back! And without the slightest acknowledgment that he has been gone for almost 18 months. Just picked up where he left off. Cool.