All entries for December 2005

Sideways – better after 12 months bottle ageing

I watched Sideways again last night. Still a damn fine film, but a few observations.

Firstly, this is one of those films that just works better on the small screen – it makes it more initmate and seems to bring you closer to the characters.

Secondly, Miles is a lot more pathetic than I remember him being when I saw it for the first time. I found my sympathy for him draining as the film went on. Luckily it recovered at the end, but mostly I found myself wanting to give him a big kick in the cojones.

Thirdly – it's much funnier than I remember. We watched it over two nights and it just seemed to improve when you took time to savour it and reflect on the previous scenes.

We both wanted to go back and watch Ghost World again – one of the best films I have seen in the last 10 years and see if a similar film felt that much better on the small screen. It's on the amazon rental list…

: 21 Dec 2005 13:24 |  Tags: Movie Review |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Katamari style take on AIDS

Writing about web page http://www.transbuddha.com/index.php/buddha/medecins_sans_frontieres_human_ball/p/buddha/medecins_sans_frontieres_human_ball/%22

If you know the game Katamari Damacy you will see elements in this moving video. Quite a powerful image about the impact AIDS has on Africa.

It's interesting how these things cross over – the boundaries between different media forms are breaking down with increasing speed.

That last statement also raises the question as to how far you can now consider computer games as a media channel equivalent to tv or print media. A topic for discussion later on perhaps.

: 19 Dec 2005 11:48 |  Tags: Stuff |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Copy goes here… the video

Writing about web page http://www.coudal.com/cghfilm.php

great video from Coudal Partners – worth 11 minutes of your time.

: 16 Dec 2005 13:59 |  Tags: Design |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Best job title yet

Went to a meeting yesterday evening at CSWP and was introduced to someone with the best job title I've come across yet:

Social and Economic Renaissance Manager

Wow – what a job – to be responsible for a new Renaissance! The rediscovery of ancient knowledge, the search for a better today through the revival of some idealised past. Lets skim over the nepotism and corruptions blah blah blah.

This lead me to wonder what other significant historical events or artistis movements could lend some gravitas to job titles. For example:

The Baroque VC - elaborate and maybe over fussy but with a great sense of impact and "wow" factor.

The Gothic Head of Security – imposing and quite frankly bloody scary (i think we may actually have already appointed to this post…)

Pre-Raphelite Recruitment Officer – Tells you about your rejection in a whimiscal way that makes it seem not so bad.

Neo-Classicist Communications Director – Explains everything in confident, strident tones, perhaps clad only in a toga (actually, maybe not…)

Cubist Registrar – can really see issues from all angles

and my personal favourite

Surrealist Network Engineer – I asked for an IP address, he gave me a lobster

Peter Dunn has already declared his interest in the terms reformation (duh!) and counter-revolutionary (double duh!). The remainder of the whole of human history remains up for grabs.

: 16 Dec 2005 09:39 |  Tags: Stuff |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Blog comments from Google

Writing about web page http://www.google.com/tools/firefox/webcomments/index.html

Interesting Firefox extension from Google that adds a popup window displaying blogger comments about any page you are looking at.

Not sure if it is actually useful as yet, but seems fun.

: 15 Dec 2005 13:21 |  Tags: Blogs |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The smell of christmas

There is a practice amongst retailers to pipe christmas smells around their stores to make customers feel more christmassy and thus spend more money.

Woolworths used the smell of mulled wine, and I believe that others have used the aroma of christmas pudding and other similar whiffs.

Sat here in University House I can sense that Warwick Hospitality has taken a similar approach this year.

For those who don't know, there are bits of University House that seem to suffer from a direct connection to the kitchen – the practical upshot of which is that whatever is cooking in the kitchen, we get to smell it.

Now, this can mean getting the delightful aroma of freshly baked croissants. Today, however, we are getting sprouts. Yes, the office stinks of boiling sprouts.

I don't know if this is a canny marketing ploy on behalf of WH as today is one of the special christmas dinner days, but please can we have figgy pudding, not stinky sprouts. It's making us all feel ill…

: 15 Dec 2005 10:27 |  Tags: Christmas |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

We were here first….?

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4520286.stm

Watching the news last night I was struck by the idiocy of a big Aussie white guy explaining (sorry, shouting) to the camera that Australia is our country, immigrants are not welcome here.

I am sure the aboriginal people would have quite a bit to say about that.

(i seem to remember that the phrase "aboriginal" is now frowned upon – can someone enlighten me on preferred terminology these days?)

When you consider just how transitory most nation's populations have been in both recent and more distant history, you wonder how anyone can claim a bit of geography as being "their country".

: 13 Dec 2005 09:21 |  Tags: Australia Riots |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Muppet movie reviews

Writing about web page http://movies.go.com/muppets/index?CMP=AFC-NQ1652196847

What is there not to love about this – Statler and Waldorf do movie reviews.

: 02 Dec 2005 09:02 |  Tags: Film Muppet |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem