Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:00:42 GMT

Romance & Cigarettes.

"Romance & Cigarettes, like One from the Heart, is an interiorized musical set somewhere between stark lower middle-class reality and all-consuming artifice," writes Michael Koresky at indieWIRE. "[A]lso like that film, it's not entirely successful in its aims, often poking around rather than rooting to its characters' emotional core. Yet the labor of [John] Turturro's love is evident in nearly every frame."

"More than two years after its original intended North American release date, this bawdy, ambitious musical has finally wended its way to a single screen." Franz Lidz tells quite a tale in the New York Times. "At times I've felt like jumping out a window," Turturro tells him. "A paean to the twin pleasures of lust and tobacco, Romance & Cigarettes is an ensemble piece that centers on a construction worker (James Gandolfini) caught between his wife (Susan Sarandon) and his mistress (Kate Winslet), a salty seductress with curves of Titanic proportions."

Updated through 9/10. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:03:43 GMT

pebbles

I definitely mean to write something about skimming stones. This poem - Small Boy by Norman MacCaig - has an interesting thought in it.

"He wasn't trying to fill the sea.
He wasn't trying to empty the beach." Posted by: Russell      Read more     Source

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:58:36 GMT

Venice. Lust, Caution

"Too much caution and too little lust squeeze much of the dramatic juice out of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, a 2½-hour period drama that's a long haul for relatively few returns," writes Derek Elley for Variety. "Wartime Shanghai was far more realistically drawn in Lou Ye's Zhang Ziyi starrer Purple Butterfly, which also conveyed a stronger sense of resistance and collaborationist politics..... Lee's 40s Shanghai, though immaculately costumed, has a standard backlot look; the Hong Kong sequences, largely shot in Malaysia, are much more flavorsome."



"The Taiwanese director's adaptation of a novella by Eileen Chang is an uncompromising and incredibly seductive piece of filmmaking that is too long but has so many good elements going for it that it is hard to really care that on certain points the director seems to have thrown caution to the wind," writes Boyd van Hoeij at european-films.net. "Acting and technical credits are more than first-class and newcomer Wei Tang, starring alongside veteran Tony Leung, is simply riveting."

Updated through 8/31. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 14:00:01 GMT

Again, more on Bergman.

"In the middle of the phone call, it popped out: 'Listen, I have a room here at Fåro, it's five by five meters. Here I've collected everything imaginable, you see, it's a damned kitchen midden. Would you like to take a look at it?' How can you answer such a question? You figuratively and almost literally curtsy over the telephone and say, 'Yes, please, Mr Bergman.'" Maaret Koskinen, who would find that "the rewards were beyond all expectation," has an intriguing piece on Bergman the writer, an excerpt from her book, In the Beginning Was the Word: Ingmar Bergman and His Early Writings.

Also in Film International: "Despite Bergman's ultimate repudiation of the trilogy concept, the release of the three works together as a set by Criterion indicates that, while their lineage is now uncertain, the union of these films is not easily ignored, and the tendency to view them as a whole quite illuminating." Liza Palmer on Through a Glass Darkly, Winter Light and The Silence. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 04:27:33 GMT

New Video Series Takes You to Woodward Dream Cruise

The one-day Woodward Dream Cruise rolls out on August 18 and although more than 1,000,000 visitors attend each year, there are millions more who'd love to be in Detroit but can't make it. So GM came up with an interesting idea. It has produced a 4-part video series focussing on the "cruising culture, the Dream Cruise and the cars that make the cruise so special." The first video was produced in and around the Vinsetta Garage, a classic Woodward landmark built in 1919. Its veteran mechanics are seen working on classic cars ranging from a '66 GTO to a World War II army Jeep. Said Christopher Barger, GM director of global communication technology "we're doing our best to try and take the cruise out to you."


What I especially like about this idea is that the series was made for Web viewing, thus we're not subject to the tyranny of television schedules. It can be seen on YouTube, the GM FastLane blog, and several other video sites. The first episode is already up and the rest will be in place by the time the Cruise begins on August 18th.

[photo: quartermilestones.com] Posted by: Philip Powell      Read more     Source

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:19:03 GMT

Watsonia fourcadei

Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel

All fifty or so species of Watsonia are endemic to South Africa, though some have naturalized elsewhere after introduction by humans. This particular species is not well-known in cultivation. It is named in honour of Henry George Fourcade, surveyor and botanist. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:56:59 GMT

SOX compliance down but costs up

Sarbanes-Oxley compliance costs might have levelled off but other costs are increasing at a fierce rate, according to a survey released by lawyers Foley & Lardner.

Costs have gone up because of increases in audit and legal fees and a need to pay corporate directors more.

"It is important to note that the majority of cost savings experienced by public companies after their initial implementation of Section 404 are driven by increased internal efficiency reducing lost productivity. Nevertheless, out-of-pocket costs associated with Sarbanes- Oxley Act compliance continue to increase."

Significantly, the study confirms that Sarbanes-Oxley has had a disproportionate impact on smaller companies. Between 2001 and 2006, audit fees at smaller companies rose 311 per cent, compared with 189 per cent for the S&P 500.

And while compliance costs have plateaued, the study shows they are triple what they were in 2001. Posted by: leon      Read more     Source

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:56:30 GMT

A new biofuel for developing countries

There has to be a careful balance with biofuels. As seen with ethanol, creating a fuel out of an otherwise usable crop can create supply and demand fluctuations. Additionally, it may even add to a deforestation problem, as more land is sought to grow the crops needed to produce the biofuel.

This is why biofuels made from a waste product are so beneficial, and an MIT team has come up with one answer. The team, calling themselves Bagazo, endeavor to produce coal briquettes out of organic waste and provide it to severely deforested and developing nations such as Haiti.

It's a fairly simple process they wish to fully exploit through mass manufacturing and shipping. Here's their full dissertation on the project:

Posted by: Miche      Read more     Source

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 07:07:10 GMT

Music's Swan Dive: Self-Inflicted Wounds

Rolling Stone published an in-depth feature on The Record Industry's Decline. Now that a new generation of executives is driving the record companies, they can admit what everyone else has known for many years - digital technology has transformed the business, they're turned off a huge number of their fans, and they've missed key opportunities.

It all went downhill with Napster seven years ago. The top execs, including Edgar Bronfman Jr. of Vivendi Universal, Nobuyuki Idei of Sony, and Thomas Middelhof of Bertelsmann, told Napster CEO Hank Berry they wanted to license the service and split the revenues. But in the end they weren't ready to jump to a new business and didn't close the deal. The rest is painful history. Posted by: Marc      Read more     Source

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 05:33:33 GMT

Incredible Renewable Energy Powerhouse

Hamiltons of London have an incredible design scheme called the Castle House, like a castle, this one too is self-sufficient and produces a major percentage of its electricity needs.

The 43-story tower will have 3 aerodynamically designed nine-meter diameter wind turbines at the top. When complete, the building will have over three hundred apartments and 250,000 square feet.

Such buildings will surely solve the energy crisis and make the world depend on better and renewable sources of power like Wind and solar. The project was scheduled to commence in late 2006 and should be completed by the end of 2009.

Via: Jets on Green
Posted by: Jolly      Read more     Source