Stop Frame

m15m , best rendition of the film V for Vendetta . Totally. Like, no contest. This is easily one of the most disappointing films I've seen this year. Now it's on DVD and shrinking it to the little screen doesn't improve it. It could have been brilliant and great. Instead...eh. No, it's not just the obvious politics of the thing. Well, yes, it is the obvious politics of the thing. If you want to take digs at Bush, fine, have at him, but when it comes to Art (that's right, with a capital "A") you need to look a few moments past the current moment, because once the moment has passed, your "Art" looks like crap. The graphic novel understood this. It's worth several readings, because you need to wade through it a few times, and even then you miss stuff. Some of the artwork could have been clearer, especially during those scenes where the picture is the only way to identify who is dying at what time. That aside, the plot is great. Because wha...

Look, I really want to like this stuff. I had reach a level of tolerance with OpenOffice sufficient to tempt me to use it all the time. I love the interface, especially when I can kick over to WindowMaker . But, damn, it's amazing to me that the screensaver can bring my computer to its knees! Once it kicks in, my only recourse is the reset button. I can't get crash out of the x-server. The system is locked tight, Windows NT blue screen of death tight. So, I've downloaded images for openSUSE and PCLinuxOS . It is time to walk away from Ubuntu . And, damn, it seems so close . Then again, if I "fixed" this I'd next have to figure out why Amarok is silent, yet every other mp3 player works just fine. G'uh. UPDATE: Found out this might be the result of a bad patch, though probably not because that crash was the one I already re-installed to correct. So now I'm dual booting into openSUSE v10.1, and I hate it already. I'm sure that somewhere there'...

Ubuntu Linux v6.06.1 LTS returns to my desktop because, well, I have a resurrected desktop computer. Thus, my laptop gets a vacation and I get to give this flavor of Linux another chance. Maybe this install will remain connected to the Internet. Ahem.

I watched Infernal Affairs last night. I understand there are at least two sequels; I'm not sure I want to watch them because I'm afraid they'll undo the afterglow. I'm also afraid that Martin Scorsese , one of the cinematic greats, might do the same with his Americanized version this fall, The Departed . I dislike the name change to start with. Infernal has that name because of the quote used right from the get go: "The worst of the Eight Hells is Continuous Hell. It has the meaning of Continuous Suffering. Thus the name." (Nirvana Sutra) Verse 19. And that is precisely what the movie is about, thus the reference to hell in the title is completely appropriate. The setup is relatively simple: Two young men join the Hong Kong police force. One "washes out" because he's actually been recruited to go undercover with the HK gangs (triads). The other is in reality a gang plant in the police force, assigned to work his way up through the hierarchy ...

In case you hadn't noticed, I have no (as in zero, none, nada) respect for Jimmy Carter. This has long been the case, beginning in 1977 when he took the Oath of Office for the presidency. I think he made my skin actually crawl during his campaign, even more so when he begged for re-election in 1980. It was in 1980 that I lost all hope for the man, when he conceded the race to Reagan, several hours before the polls in California closed. I remember that moment vividly because my father and I were getting off work (5ish) and on our way to vote when Carter's concession was announced on the radio. To say that my dad, a lifelong Democrat, was pissed is a vivid understatement. Since then, Cahtuh has done nothing to redeem himself in my eyes. Oh, there's that whole "habitat for humanity" thing, but I believe he does that in some quest to salvage his soul, personal aggrandizement, rather than the altruistic urge he advertises. Where he completely drives me up a fig tree i...

Really, I'm beginning to think so. I've been ripping my CD collection into VBR MP3's. I've finished soundtracks, so I can easily see how many of his I have, and when I drift through the tracks I get sorta weepy. James Newton Howard is a composer that when he is on, he's evocative. Even when he's composing for third-rate movies, like Jackson's King Kong . You listen to the finale bits, Beauty Killed the Beast IV and V, and the Enya crap aside...wow. The submarine piece in his score for Atlantis ...wow. This has been a back-burner question for me because I keep wondering who will come along to take the place of John Williams , John Barry , and Jerry Goldsmith . Sure, they're not all dead, but sometimes I wonder. Have you listened to Williams' bits for Munich and War of the Worlds ? The occasional moment, yes, but that makes him less than Howard because Howard's moments are getting longer. Maybe I miss Goldsmith. That there was a composing god...

It starts with a simple question: If you could save the victims of one of the following four events, which group would you save? 1. The victims of Fidel Castro's 'revolution?' 2. The victims of Hezbollah's ambushes, rockets and missiles over the past three weeks? 3. The victims of the Seattle attack on the Jewish federation? 4. The victims of Mel Gibson's repulsive outburst of anti-Semitic venom? ...and goes from there. It's from August 3rd, but excellence knows no time limit.

I read this article at MSNBC about a culture of rudeness, and all I can say is: Amen, brother! I am so sick unto death by the general rudeness in the world today, and I think he's pegged at least most of the reason. It's not for snobby reasons that I don't watch TV (my TV is a display for movies that I buy or rent), it's because I'm tired of the celebrity-go-round, the "reality" TV, the sheer weight of mind-numbing crap. I'd rather watch endless reruns of "She's the Sheriff" than most anything on the air today. I think I was forced to this conclusion, about celebrity rudeness and "news" coverage, by Paris Hilton. She is obviously Satan. I don't mean "daughter of Satan", I mean she is the anti-Christ herself. She became a "celebrity" simply by inheriting a shitload of money. Period. That's it. She's never done a worthwhile thing in her life, other than be a participant in an Internet-distribute...

All right, so this is Live Writer (Beta), the latest from Microsoft. So theoretically, I type this over here on my desktop, then...what? Ah, click publish.... Update: Wow, it works.

According to the history text, today marks the anniversary of the Battle of Thermopylae, 480 B.C. The battle has been the subject of movies , some books , and even a new film that's in production. Most focus on the 300 Spartans of King Leonidas . Bob's History in a Nutshell: King Xerxes of Persia decided he wanted to own the world. He assembled a vast army, numbering in the millions, and got to work. Here a conquest, there a conquest, soon he was a royal (ahem) pain in the ass headed for Greece. At that time, Greece was a collection of squabbling city-states. Individually they were going to be easy pickings. But some Greeks thought this would be a bad idea. In order to let the squabblers stop squabbling, a few select opted to face Xerxes at the pass of Thermopylae, a narrow strip of land that would nullify the Persians' superior numbers. This force was led by Leonidas and his 300 Spartans. They -- and those that fought with them -- died to a man. But buy time they did, a...

From a video clip sent to me by my USAF daughter: MidEast guy: You better remember, we blew up two of your buildings. Carlos Mencia: Oooo, and we blew up two of your "countries". You wanna play this game, bitch?!? I keep thinking of that clip whenever I read the news coming out of the Middle East, specifically Israel's response to Hezbollah (Hizbollah? Herbollah? Whatever!). Let's see if I can make my interpretation of what's going very, very clear. Say you live in an apartment complex. Not a great one, but clean, with a roof, most of the comforts of home. Next door is a stellar set of condos. Very nice, very state of the art. Some of the basement tenants in your apartment building don't like the people living in the condos, so they start shooting bottle rockets at them. Every now and again, a kid gets hurt, and once in a while, someone in the condos is actually killed. (These are very serious bottle rockets.) Naturally, this pisses off the condo dwellers. The...