The Prestige

I normally try to keep movie stuff off this page, for numerous reasons, but this one looks very promising.

A new film coming out in October, starring some of my favourite actors of all time and directed by a master. I've been trying to restrain myself until a trailer came out but the only one I could find on YouTube had a voiceover from Entertainment Tonight so I'll put another one up soon.

With Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as the two leads and with Michael Caine and David Bowie supporting, it's already sowing seeds of huge promise, but then Christopher Nolan is directing which, in itself, is cool, but it means that both Caine and Bale have agreed to work with him more than they were contractually obliged to with the Batman Begins franchise...and I trust their judgement. There are also appearances by the ever-beautiful Scarlett Johansson, Andy Serkis (Gollum & King Kong) and Piper Perabo who, despite her failure to crack Hollywood in Coyote Ugly, is still pretty cute.

The story, apparently adapted from a novel by Christopher Priest revolves around two turn-of-the-century magicians in London both seeking to be the best magician and perform the most amazing feat the world has ever seen. The intensity of the competition between the two drives them both to darker and darker deeds in order to be the best. In classic Nolan fashion, there is sure to be a perfect balance between entertainment, through powerful characters and wonderous scenes, and a moral standing, presumably on how far one must go and still be the better man.

What makes it just that bit extra cool is that David Bowie plays Nikola Tesla, in what would've been the year of Tesla's 150th birthday (I'm not sure if that phrase works properly...I suppose it depends on whether you believe that there is an upper limit on the length of a man's life - but that's for another time).

For those of you who don't know, Tesla was the genius who invented long-distance radio communication and was the main force behind the use of alternating current (AC) for long-distance power transmission. He was, from memory, the third person to announce they'd derived a grand unified theory (the holy grail of physics since the beginning of last century) before dying without leaving any trace of their work on the matter. For the last decade or so, however, he's probably become more famous for the weapon named after him in the Red Alert computer games (which he'd also claimed he'd invented - at the time it was the first mention of a 'death ray'). Oh, and he spoke seven languages, of two families, fluently. So, yeah, he was a pretty awesome guy and is still regarded, pretty much universally, as the best electrical engineer who ever lived.

This is digressing a bit, more so because I doubt Tesla actually particpated in magic shows and is just involved a la the recent Jules Verne-esque stories, like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...but it's still cool.

So, I've got to the end of the post without a link to the IMDB page or the only trailer that's up yet so here they are: IMDB YouTube

Chimpanzees often use sticks as crude tools

Kinda cool video of a chimp playing Pac-Man. Though I'm not sure which is funnier, the chimp having fun or the crazy American lady cheering him on.

Why DMCA needs a tune-up

The EFF has put up a page, presumably intended for journalists attending an RIAA, MPAA or similar release who don't care so much about being invited back for the next one. Basically it's a set of questions pointing out the best flaws in commonsense allowed by the DMCA. Is one of the few parts of our free-trade agreement with the States that really pisses me off. That and damn farm subsidies.

I like:
* The RIAA has sued over 20,000 music fans for file sharing, who have on average paid a $3,750 settlement. That's over $75,000,000. Has any money collected from your lawsuits gone to pay actual artists?

* The major movie studios have been enjoying some of their most profitable years in history over the past five years. Can you cite to any specific studies that prove noncommercial file sharing among fans, as opposed to commercial DVD piracy, has hurt the studios' bottom line in any significant way?

I feel I should include a small glossary for those non-nerds who visit this page...and my folks. The links here will take you to the Wikipedia pages for each.
EFF: Electronic Frontier Foundation
MPAA: Motion Picture Association of America
RIAA: Recording Industry Association of America
DMCA: Digital Millenium Copyright Act

Communist Jokes & American Names

Two posts here mentioned by Maddy, the first is an essay on the history of jokes in the former USSR. The second is a great interactive site showing the popularity of the top thousand names from the last century and a half in the U.S.

So, Ben Lewis' essay, Hammer & Tickle, is a great, if short, text investigating the history of Communist jokes in the former Soviet Union. Pretty funny, if sometimes in a pretty dark way. For example, "When was the first Russian election? The time that God put Eve in front of Adam and said, 'Go ahead, choose your wife.'"

There's also The Baby Name Wizard which is a graphical representation of the popularity of any name which has been in the top thousand since the 1880s. Interesting to see the significant drop in biblical names (though it seems the only really significant girls' name has been 'Mary'). Seems, though, that my parents were pretty trendy with Daniel being ranked 7th in the 80s. As for the guys on the right, Chris and Matt were/are in the same boat as me, while Maddy, Sandro's folks were about a decade ahead of the time. (Vicki, you're parents were about thirty years out of date.)

Once again...Thank God we're not in America!

This is a perfect example of why politicians should have to prove themselves before they're given tickets as well as why party politics isn't so important in the states (I presume there are some fairly intelli...reasonably...republicans who are a bit smarter than this guy Westmoreland.

I found this at the everfunny God is for Suckers and the clip is from the Colbert Report on Comedy Central (for those of you who don't already know it, it's clearly one of the best pieces of television around, probably tying with the Daily Show - interestingly they're both up for the same Emmy for best variety show.)

Flickr & Fiji

Okay - so I've finally started posting my photos from my trip to Fiji and New Zealand. Unfortunately, Flickr only allows 20Mb a month for free, so it's going to take just a bit of time.

That brings me finally to my trip. I've been postponing posting this, but here it finally is. Overall, it was good. Auckland is just like any other city, but that also means that there are parts of it that you can't just see from an hostel or a tour bus. The islands off Auckland are pretty cool, the uni students are cool and the local food is great. The Bay of Islands is beautiful, Russell, the orignial capital of NZ and apparently a Port Royale for the Pacific in its time, is beautiful. Old colonial port architecture, it's spectactular. The island themselves are also pretty cool with small houses and communities dotted through the group.

Then there's Fiji. Fiji seems to be designed for a type of travel that I'm not used to, nor do I enjoy for more than a day or two. The idea of lying on a beach, not achieving anything seems, while relaxing, a bit pointless frankly. But when there is no other option, drinking games and sunbaking can be made fun.

But, a trip is a trip and it might as well be made fun. Anyway, it was a good opportunity for some good pics which, coincidentally, you can see at http://www.flickr.com/photos/crip/

So there it is, finally.
hmmm - wonder what the next post'll be about...

Real-Life Pacman

I know it's already made the rounds - but, yet again, YouTube provides quality indie entertainment.

Cool L&P Ads

Some cool ads for a drink called L&P from NZ





For those of you who haven't tried L&P before, if you see it you MUST buy it! If you're rushing to a plane you've still gotta try it.

Gabbly

Cool new thing called Gabbly. You put 'www.gabbly.com/' before the address of some page and you can chat with anyone else on the same page.

eg. http://www.gabbly.com/nonsocial.blogspot.com

anyway - could be awesome (provided people actually start using it)

C for Cookie

I was forwarded this from Chris (link on right) it's a parody of the V for Vendetta trailer...but with Sesame Street puppets - really is quite good. Short but funny.