Just finished this book. It is a gem.
Some stories are great because of the tremendous imagination of the author. Some are great because of the engaging tone and style in which they are written. This book is great because every word intensifies a single emotion: despair. Not one is wasted or counterproductive.
I like [...]
Nick Harkaway’s The Gone-Away World is a truly excellent book, particularly for an extra-long duty day. When you’re not fatigue-drunk, he’s got an engaging style and wild wit. When you in fact are, the story perfectly matches the sense that nothing is provably real.
Avatar: visually very nice. It’s good to see that we’re past the Uncanny Valley. The story wasn’t anything special, but this film should be remembered for its innovations in CGI if for nothing else. I did wonder, though: where did Sigourney Weaver find a Stanford t-shirt sized for a creature ten feet tall?
Speaking of CGI, [...]
Realism is easy. Everybody knows and agrees on what reality is, at least in the visible details. Anime is never perfectly realistic; if that were the goal, it’d be simpler to film a live action series. Despite the fact that certain aspects might be highlighted, caricaturized, or extrapolated, simple reality remains the baseline of the [...]
This is an odd film. It’s the Ramayana, illustrated in a dizzying medley of visual styles and set to roaring twenties blues. It’s narrated by a trio of people who seem to be modern Indians-on-the-street asked to tell the story collaboratively without reference to authorities. It’s also intercut with what appears to be an autobiographical [...]
I’m halfway through Anna Karenina now. Like most people who ever had a high school English course, I tend to be wary of big famous novels by big famous authors, but I’m actually finding it surprisingly accessible. It certainly helps that I’ve got a modern translation, but I suspect that even with an older one [...]
I went to a summer festival last night. Unfortunately, most of it happened after dark, so a lot of the pictures came out crappy, but I did manage to get one good video:
(If the embedded video doesn’t work, try this link)
I’ll try to get pictures up later.