Archives for November 2004

La Complainte de PJ

The contempt I hold for my fellow man was today fueled by the realization that some people would actually prefer to buy the soundtrack for the new Bobby Darin biopic Beyond the Sea (which features vocals done by Kevin Spacey) over an actual Bobby Darin CD.

It’s like my friend Ray says, “92% of people are not qualified to be human beings.”

Posted by PJ on Nov 26, 2004 | Comments Off |

links for 2004-11-24

Posted by PJ on Nov 24, 2004 | Comment |

TiVo Is So 2003

So you want to know what all the cool kids (read as content pirates) are up to these days?

There’s a new Java BitTorrent client called Azureus that supports plugins. Some enterprising fellow wrote an RSS parsing plugin, which enables a user to point the application to an RSS feed and download anything that matches specified filter settings.

In practice, this allows the user to automatically download HDTV television programs with the commercials already edited out.

This is particularly interesting for a number of reasons:

  1. Most people’s computer monitors are capable of displaying an image of significantly higher resolution than their television. I don’t own an HDTV, but my LCD computer monitor can handle 420p without breaking a sweat.
  2. You don’t even have to bother fast-forwarding through commercials. TiVo is so 2003.
  3. The HDTV files you download are even better than the DVD content you would get if you bought the complete season of your favorite program.
  4. Programs turn up on the feeds much quicker than you would expect, often within an hour of the time the broadcast aired.

There are already enough HDTV capture cards out there to keep this going until television becomes completely irrelevant, so the broadcast flag isn’t going to mean jack. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how the networks try to fight this one.

Posted by PJ on Nov 23, 2004 | Comments Off |

What Happened to George Lucas?

I picked up the director’s cut of George Lucas’s THX 1138 over the weekend.

THX 1138

I hadn’t seen the film in a number of years and I was blown away.

It’s actually quite remarkable how well the movie has aged. While other “dystopian-vision” sci-fi films from the 1970s look dated to the point of being almost laughable now (Logan’s Run, A Clockwork Orange, Soylent Green), THX 1138 looks as if it could have been made yesterday.

Robert Duvall’s performance was understated and brilliant. Walter Murch’s sound design was hypnotic and unyielding. The screenplay didn’t get in the way by awkwardly offering too much exposition (as is often the case in sci-fi films). And every shot was framed with obvious deliberation.

I’m going to make a few enemies here, but the experience left me wondering how such a talented filmmaker managed to produce Star Wars, an abomination of poor-acting and screenwriting rescued only through its sheer campiness.

Posted by PJ on Nov 22, 2004 | Comments Off |

I Am the Eggman…

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses, And all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again!

Why do we all have a collective mental image of old Humpty as an egg?

The nursery rhyme never even implies that he was an egg. In point of fact, it seems that Humpty was actually a cannon.

I blame Lewis Carroll for my confusion on the matter.

Posted by PJ on Nov 21, 2004 | 4 Comments |

Late Night Double Feature

The wife and I did a double feature at the Reston Town Center theater tonight. We saw National Treasure and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. A few observations from the evening.

  1. National Treasure was basically just The Da Vinci Code without the heresy.
  2. Bridget Jones movies are the film equivalent of the “Cathy” comic strip in the newspaper. The funniest thing about the films is that they are based on the proposition that several men would actually fight over such a clingy and obnoxious emotional cripple.
  3. Despite the fact that they bear a superficial resemblance to Gummi Bears, Swedish Fish are not a suitable substitute.

Posted by PJ on Nov 19, 2004 | Comments Off |

links for 2004-11-17

Posted by PJ on Nov 17, 2004 | Comment |

links for 2004-11-16

Posted by PJ on Nov 16, 2004 | Comment |

links for 2004-11-13

Posted by PJ on Nov 13, 2004 | Comment |

Laugh About It, Shout About It. When You’ve Got To Choose…

I voted today–for Kerry.

Then I walked home, threw up, and took a shower. I still don’t really feel clean, but I think it was the right thing to do for a number of reasons.

  1. The Republicans are only going to pick up seats in the House and Senate, and I think divided power is the best way to slow the growth of government right now.
  2. With Kerry in the White House, the Republicans will hopefully start acting like they care about limited government again.
  3. It minimizes the risk of a Hillary Clinton candidacy in the next 12 years.

In any case, the polling place was packed. People there wouldn’t shut up about how wonderful it was that voter turnout was so high.

I have a different take.

I think high voter turnout is a really bad sign this time around. When people are apathetic, it means that everything is “good enough.” They feel they don’t have to bother voting. Today’s participation rate is going to just prove that America is angry and divided.

Posted by PJ on Nov 2, 2004 | 5 Comments |

links for 2004-11-02

Posted by PJ on Nov 2, 2004 | Comment |

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