Seem to be doing better at seeing films that are not on my to see list then films which are! Anyway, latest flick is Dogville (starring Nicole Kidman), which is a very curious but interesting film, quite apart from normal Hollywood fair.
The entire play is shot in a single location – the titular town of Dogville, which is at the end of a mountain road in the Rockies. Grace (played by aforementioned star) arrives in the town, population 15 adults, claiming to be running away from Gangsters (who very shortly afterwards turn up, looking for her). The main player is called Thomas Edison (no relation to the Thomas Edison), who befriends Grace, lacks her under his wings, persuades the town to accept her, and subsequently falls in love with her.
Sounds pretty normal – until you consider that there is a continual voice-over narrative, and chapters are introduced by black screens with white writing saying things like “Chapter 1. In which gunshots are heard and Grace arrives in Dogville.” Even more bizarely, the buildings are represented by white lines on the ground (except for the occasional piece of wall, to which notices are pinned). The actors open and close imaginary doors, but the soundtrack is complete so you hear the knob turning and the door slamming, you hear rain falling on the tin roofs even though you can’t see them! Each ‘room’ has it’s name printed on the floor, and the main street has the letters “ELM STREET” running down the middle. There are some lovely touches, like a bush painted on the ground with the word “Gooseberry”, and the way leaves and snow pile up against the white lines as if they were walls. The overall effect is just like watching a play, except it’s a film!
The strange set aside, the acting is faultless, and the story is extremely well written – I was totally hooked, and desperate to know what happened and how it was going to resolve. As you can probably imagine, the town go from being suspicious of Grace, to accepting her, liking her, then full circle round to hating her again, abusing her and treating her like some kind of slave (complete with a chain around her neck!). Grace is once again aptly named (cf. Bruce Almighty), and gives almost endlessly of herself to the town, only for them to take more and more. Throughout the film she never ‘snaps’, but by the end of film her character has been so corrupted that… well, watch it and see!
In conclusion, I was hooked almost straight away, and remained hooked from start to finish. This film shows both the dark and light side of human nature; how people can be drawn into doing the most awful things, and yet manage to argue around their conscience. But at the same token, how it’s possible to keep giving and loving and keep hope in the most desperate and dark circumstances. I find myself deeply torn about the ending too, between believing it was justified while knowing, on another level, that of course it wasn’t.
Buy this DVD on Amazon

My Linux for Playstation 2 kit arrived this morning – huge box containing a hard disk and network adaptor, USB keyboard and mouse, and a monitor cable. A short afternoon’s playing, and my PS2 is now running Linux – I was installing some development tools onto it from this box even while it was running in the sitting room (someone else in the household was using the TV to watch Neighbours, you see…) I can’t wait to actually run some of the graphics demos, and get my hands a bit dirty.

I’ve also taken the plunge and decided to upgrade to Fedora Core 3. Currently running FC1, which is fine, but thought I’d try a newer model. So it’s coming down on the bittorrent (something like 30 hours download in all – I only have entry level broadband), quick burn onto DVD, and hopefully Bob’s my uncle. It’s always the obscure but essential tools that break, the ones you only use twice a year but then really need them, and haven’t the foggiest where you got them from in the first place! I suspect the upgrade will trash my /usr/local, which is sad, but there’s nothing too important on there. /home is nice and safe on it’s own partition.

H’mm – this means “my linux box” is no longer a unique identifier (actually it wasn’t before, as there’s a redhat 486 packed up in the loft). Saddo alert – Time for bed!

OOO – exciting, exciting!! First trailer for Star Wars III (Revenge of the Sith) has been posted online! I found it via Lucas Online, but I’m sure it’s elsewhere too.

Ok, so it’s still 6 months away, but it is looking quite good…

Just discovered a new aide-memoire for the New Testament letters – God’s Electric Power Company (Galations, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.) Not bad, but it doesn’t beat my method:

So, there’s the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – just have to remember that), then Joan of ARC (Acts, Romans and Corinthians (1 and 2)), then AEIOU (GAlations, Ephesians, PhIlippians, COlossians, and ThUssalonians). Ok, so that last one’s a cheat! 🙂

After that it’s tricky – but it sort of rhymes:
Timothy Titus phi-le-mon
Hebrews James Peter John

Jude is another one you just have to remember, and then Revelation is easy ‘cos it’s last.

By the way – a couple of interesting bargains:

1. Canon EOS 300D – Canon are doing a 100 cashback/rebate on any 300D bought between now and Jan 31. I guess this excludes ones from eBay though!
2. Playstation for Linux – had a price chop (actually in March) to 150 Euro, but if you have any connection with an educational establishment just 100 Euro. This includes a network adaptor and hard disk, so it’s pretty much worth that much money for those alone. Given that you can now pick up a new PS2 for around a hundred quid, you could set yourself up a game development kit and Linux server for under 200 quid. Available from Linuxplay.com. Incidently, North America has sold out of said kits, and no more are being made… My order’s in!

Just had a lovely evening doing some fireworks in the back garden. I can barely remember the last time I did fireworks in the back garden, but I reckon it’s of the order of 20 years ago!

Obtained said pyrotechnics from Asda (who bizarrely sell fireworks which, in the main, have a minimum viewing distance of 25 metres. TWENTY-FIVE meters!?!? These are sold as domestic “garden fireworks”.. Who has a 70 foot garden??) It was their cheapest box; something like 4 quid for 12 fireworks (it was also the quietest box, as poor Ben is only 10 months!), so my expectations weren’t too high, but actually there were pretty good. Not exactly quiet either (Ben ended up watching indoors through a window, as one or two of the bangs and whizzes upset him!)

Good variety, several which behaved like 2 or 3 fireworks rolled into one – the colours were good and bright, and reached a good height (easily 2m off the ground, 3m in some cases). The fuse was a bit scary though – last time I lit a firework it used blue touch-paper, which sort of faintly glowed for a bit.. these used mission impossible-like gunpowder fuses! I planned to set off 2 at once to kick off the display, but when the first one started fizzing and zipping down the fuse wire I legged it!!

And yes, we even had some sparklers (which were Ben’s favourites). Give it 5 or 10 years and he’ll be after the biggest, loudest, heighest fireworks just like his Dad. 🙂

Seems to me like 2004 has been the year of going digital for me. I retired my faithful filofax after around 11 years of service, having at one point believed I would never manage without it. This perception was wrong, of course – I wouldn’t manage without a system of writing down addresses, dates, notes, lists, etc etc, but it turns out that Palm devices hit the bill perfectly! Ebuyer are still doing the Palm IIIxe for around 30 quid, and it’s a fantastic little device, it does exactly what I want, AND I can play chess against it on the train.

Course, an equally seismic shift is to trade in my 35mm SLR for a digital one. The digital photography revolution has come upon me while I wasn’t looking.. we got a 3MP point and shoot a couple of years ago, and (more or less) since then I haven’t used my SLR. It gets dragged out for ‘proper’ photography, but then I just get frustrated when the pictures eventually come back from the printers, and half of them go straight into the bin! My strategy for picture taking is always to take loads, and expect around 10-30% ‘keeps’, but having lived with this in the digital era it’s too frustrating. So, Canon D300 is the one – 6.3Mp is easily enough to rival 35mm at A4, probably at A3 too. I’ll pontificate about this camera some more when I get my mitts on one (December 25th being a significant date in this case).

Final digital switch is in song-recording. I haven’t written many songs, and haven’t recorded any of them in a way I’m happy with, but I had built up a collection of gear (4-track, compressors, reverbs, minidisc, …) to this end. Actually said equipment involved a significant amount of space and wiring… so that’s all gone on eBay, and instead it’s a Boss BR-864 digital 8-track porta-studio thing. Ok, it has limitations (can only record 2 tracks simultaneously, for example), but the quality is fab, it has built in effects, including drum machine, and is pretty much perfect for the level of tinkering I do in a musical type way.

So, year of the digital revolution. Paper, film, and tape has been replaced by LCD and Compact Flash!

Didn’t like the SX1 at all – was just big and clunky, and have got so used to the SonyEricsson interface that trying to get my head around the Siemens one just didn’t do it for me. I thought I’d like the whacky key layout too, but just wan’t really up my street.
So – that’s gone on ebay (sadly didn’t quite make up what it cost me – lost about 30 quid, sigh), and instead I’ve got myself a K700i, which is an awesome phone. Does everything I want, without any fuss or bother or irritating little features (unlike both the Sagem My-V65 and the SX1).

Actually that’s not true – with the newest firmware it makes a horrid crunching noise (that I think is meant to sound like a shutter) whenever you take a picture. On the older firmware you could turn this off. Still, nevermind, eh?

It’s extraordinary how meetings just sap all your energy and mental capacity. I ended up in meetings all day today, and just find myself incapable of stringing more than about 3 words together coherently. (Typing this doesn’t count, as I can take 10 minutes between each word if I want!).

Funny old day too – really low visibility due to nasty cold fog. Actually it was only early morning – had cleared up by about 9am. Haven’t had a really good fog for ages, and I do find them quite exciting. The paper was also predicting a mega-cold winter, with average daily t emperatures of only about 4 degrees, and lots of snow. On the one hand, this is good (we like snow), on the other hand you just know it’s going to stuff up the trains. Perhaps it will only snow at the weekends? H’mm, and here’s me with 9am lectures to take from February.

Still, I consoled myself by buying a new phone today, which should arrive in the next day or two. Plumped for a Siemens SX1 (mainly because it’s a bit wacky), and think I will probably switch over to a PAYG tariff – I simply don’t use a mobile enough to justify a monthly contract anymore. If I hate the SX1 then at the price I’m getting it I should easily recoup my costs on e-bay. The Sony-Ericsson K700i was a close second, btw!

Another two films bite the dust – Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Cold Mountain. First was ok – nothing special, and not nearly as good as the book. Second.. well stunningly produced, but essentially a cross between a tragedy and the waste/inhumanity of war – not my favourite viewing. Loved Nicole and Renee in it though; they rocked!