Crises of Capitalism

Educational and entertaining!

Question

And just how, praytell, shall we fit into these "2D theatres"?!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

It was pretty compelling for a film in which, essentially, nothing happens. Not as good as the first film, but much better than the second.

Well worth the $5 admission.

*** (out of 4).

Found it!

"It" being the radio program that fills the void left when CBC Radio 2 canceled Brave New Waves in 2007...


...it's Late Junction, on BBC Radio 3. Yes, I'm sounding like a shill for BBC Radio lately, but I don't care. Where else am I going to hear a guitar quartet arrangement of Arvo Pärt's Summa?!

Enjoy!

More Who Fun

This time from BBC Radio Wales. It's... The Terry Nation Story, an overview of the career of the man who created the Daleks.

Available until 8:00 p.m. (GMT) Sat, 1 Jan 2011.

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (or, What? No Cyberking?!)

Compared to the Tennent-era Christmas specials, this year's Doctor Who Christmas special was a treat. There were no monsters, no Torchwood tie-ins, no giant Cyberking kicking the shit out of Victorian London; no RTD false sentiment, no farting aliens, and no flimsy plots. Instead, we got a charming, quiet Doctor Who take on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It was a crazy, time-altering story that followed a well-constructed internal logic, but allowed for some unexpected twists. Smith, as he has been from The Eleventh Hour, was pitch-perfect, and guest-star Michael Gambon added some gravitas without being overwrought.

And the season 6 preview showed us we're in for a whole lot of River Song... what's not to love about that?!

BBC, whatever you do, keep Moffat happy and working on Doctor Who! He "gets" it, in a way RTD never did.

Happy Christmas!

There's nothing I like more than discovering a good radio comedy series or a one-off I haven't heard before. Here are six of the best I've heard this year:

1. Two Episodes of Mash. That's both the name of the comedy duo and their very funny one-off sketch show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast as part of a comedy showcase series. Let's hope we hear more from them in 2011.

2. Nebulous. Mark Gatiss (from The League of Gentlemen, Doctor Who, Sherlock, etc. etc. etc.) stars in this hilarious sci-fi radio sitcom. It also guest-stars the wonderful David Warner. If you like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or early Red Dwarf, you'll like this. I think it's far funnier than both.

3. Beautiful Dreamers. Six mockumentaries, played straight, and all the funnier for it. Outstanding writing and performances, with my favourites episodes being "The River Europe", and "The Whalemen of Musungenyi".

4. Richard Herring's Objective, in which likable comedian Richard Herring attempts to reclaim things society has deemed unlikeable or unacceptable (i.e. the hoodie, the Hitler moustache). Lots of laughs and social commentary.

5. Rhod Gilbert's Bulging Barrel of Laughs. Especially funny are this Welsh comedian's Rant Club segments. The single-potato rant had me laughing aloud on the transit.

6. Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show. A very old-fashioned radio sitcom starring Steve Delaney as the arrogant, aging, malapropism-spouting stage actor, Count Arthur Strong. He is a fine comedic invention: all bravado and bluster and backpedaling. Delany has invested a lot in developing this character, and he shines here, making the mostly unbearable Count simultaneously acerbic and sympathetic.

Any surprise that these are all BBC Radio productions?

As far as I can tell, Nebulous and the first five seasons of Count Arthur Strong's Radio Show are available on CD. Season six of Count Arthur is running on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesdays as of the date of this posting. Of course, all these programs are "available" if one knows where to look. But support the productions and comedians by buying the CDs where you can, yes? Nebulous lists for C$21 and change on a popular book-seller's site, that's just over a buck an episode.

I heard a couple of poor comedy series this year too, but thought I'd leave the "bah humbug" out of this posting. Happy Christmas!

Infantalization, part 4

The Star reports today on an iphone app developed by the LCBO. It lets you send a pre-recorded message to a friend to warn them about the perils of drinking and driving.

Sez the LCBO marketing boffin:

Customer research suggests the toughest thing for many hosts is approaching guests on the issue of drinking and driving, hence the arm’s length approach to an issue that is often the elephant in room.

Well, okay, but why is no one talking about the other elephant in the room, the fact that more and more of our social interactions are being mediated through technology, taking away our ability or desire to actually communicate directly with others? High tech meets passive aggressiveness, and to no one's surprise, it's like they were meant for each other.

I give full marks to the LCBO for attempting an education campaign, but few marks to the end result, and even fewer marks to the final users who are happy to abdicate responsibility by pressing a button on a screen. It will be interesting to see how use of this app might be used as a legal defense "I sent the drunk guy who drove, crashed, and crippled himself a message in someone else's voice telling him how concerned I was about him driving that night, what else could I have done?" "My client pushed the send button, Your Honour; we have the data records to prove it."

Radio Vault

In my "secret" life, I'm a writer for Radio Vault, a Toronto sketch comedy troupe that performs in the style of 1940s radio shows.

Here's our site: radiovault.ca. You can find podcasts and upcoming show information there.

If you do make it to a show, please say "hello" to us, we don't bite. And if you're listening to the podcast outside of Toronto, it would make our day to know where we've been heard. Please leave a comment on our pages.

Misread wish fulfilment?

While visiting a friend recently, we walked by a movie theatre near her home. The view of the marquee across the street was slightly obscured by a tree, leaving this:

THE GIRL WHO KICKED
THE LITTLE FOCKERS

If only.

For Your Listening Pleasure

Said the Gramophone, an excellent music blog, has posted a "top 100 songs of 2010" list, complete with links to download all the songs in two .zip files.

While the tastes of site mangers Sean, Jordan, and Dan doesn't always intersect with mine (one or more of three likes dance tracks), it overlaps often enough that I find about 80% of the music they post of interest. And hey, at least this list was compiled by someone with opinions about what he likes, not by some algorithm or sales figures. This quote from the posting sums up Said the Gramophone's philosophy nicely:

Said the Gramophone is one of the oldest musicblogs. We try to do just two things well: finding good songs, and writing about them. We don't mess about with tour-dates, videos or advertising.

So, check out the site at saidthegramophone.com and Sean's top 100 songs of 2010 here.

In praise of BBC Radio

If I could pay the BBC license fee of £142.50 annually, I'd do so gladly. What? you gasp. Nearly C$300 for radio?! Yes. First because of the excellent content, and second because, out of the major English-speaking countries' public broadcasters, the BBC's media player is the best.

Have you ever tried to find a podcast or live radio stream on the CBC's website? Maddening. You bounce around from page to page until you hit a dead end or, all too often, a dead link. Then you get to click "back" a bunch of times and start your quest again. Program and podcast pages are separate (why?) and often not even linked (huh?). It's like the Mother Corp doesn't want you to find something to listen to.

The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) site has fewer dead links, but it's difficult to find programming of interest due to poor layout. That said, the program pages, once you find them, archive past shows nicely. Once you find a program you like and its corresponding page bookmark it! You may not be able to find it from the main page a second time.

NPR's player is better, but a lot of their old material is up in .ram format, requiring you forego the player and use RealPlayer, if you have it installed... Does anyone use RealPlayer any more? I haven't seen it for years. Also, the site's navigation is far from intuitive: new content could be posted at any time on one of hundreds of pages, and with no index page or all-encompassing guide, you'd miss it quite easily.

The BBC iPlayer (despite some marketing dork's stupid recommendation for its name) is uncluttered, well-organised, and well-maintained. Everything from the stations' last seven days of airplay is there, listed by station then chronologically.

You want listeners? Build it simply and they will come.

And finally because I'm talking about finding content there are two excellent sites to help with that: PublicRadioFan.com and Radio-Locator.

P.S. BBC? I wasn't kidding about £142.50.

Fringe: Nope, Take the Quick Way Home

All of season three so far leads to... this?! Fauxliva goes back to The Other Side. Olivia, aided by alt.Broyles, comes back to Our Side. And no one gets hurt. Well, except for alt.Broyles who for helping Olivia gets replaced by a shape-shifting doppelganger. Everyone is back where they should be, albeit with a bit more information about the other's dimension.

Here's a nagging question... given that Olivia and Fauxlivia were basically improvising their respective ways home by the end, due to a series of complications, how did they both manage to do it within a couple of hours of each other? Oh, right. 10 cc of dramaticexpediencium.

Honestly, this has to be the most anti-climactic climax since Fringe began. The Olivia of two worlds story fizzled this week, faster than the John Scott or Newton storylines.

Cue the outraged message-board geeks who were counting on some Torv-on-Torv catfight action.

I'm going to ruin it for you. Forever.

Ready? As quoted in The Guardian, no less "...Lisa Simpson, giving London a blowjob." You'll never see it any other way now.

Any way you see it, it's a dreadful design (how long did it take you to realize it was a very stylized "2012"?) and a far cry from this:

Fry & Laurie Reunited: A Wasted Opportunity

I was hoping for something along the lines of Monty Python, Almost the Truth when I sat down to watch Fry and Laurie Reunited. Instead, I got a rather lightweight documentary, content to simply recount the careers of the boys using insipid little animations when not showing clips. One could have read in five minutes on Wikipedia all that was revealed during this plodding 90 minute show.

Interesting stories were started by each of the estimable comedy duo, but were never completed, the show moving from segment to segment to segment with no flow at all. What a fluff piece this was. There was no need for the producers of this show to put Stephen and Hugh in a room together if they weren't going to use anything interesting from their conversation. The guests interviewed didn't add much either, mostly phrases like "Oh, Stephen and Hugh are very funny," and "I was in a Fry and Laurie sketch and it was funny." Emma Thompson popped in to say, "I introduced Stephen to Hugh." The entire show was maddeningly context-free.

I'm not coming down on Stephen Fry or Hugh Laurie, I think they are terrific talents. Maybe some day, someone with a point of view will make a good documentary about them. Fry and Laurie Reunited sure isn't it.

Huzzah! More Peep Show

Peep Show, the best British sitcom since The Office, Extras, and The Thick of It, returns for a seventh season, and the quality is still as high as ever. David Mitchell and Robert Webb slip effortlessly back into their hapless loser personae, and hilarity ensues.

No Canadian broadcaster (that I can find) but well, it's available, if you know where to look.

Brian Eno interview

Took me a bit to catch on to what's going on here...



Small Craft On a Milk Sea is out now on Warp Records, and it's very, very good.

Fringe: Take the Long Way Home

10 random thoughts and questions about last night's Fringe, "The Abducted":

1. One of the Candyman's victims is alt.Broyle's son? How convenient!
2. Fringe Division been working this case for years, but only Olivia can crack it? How convenient!
3. Candyman isn't a serial killer, more of a serial... drainer?
4. Why do all serial killers and kidnappers have a second full apartment hidden behind a closet of the the apartment they live in?
   
5. The joining-of-the-dots between the Candyman's speech then the church, then the Candyman's lab and the minister require big leaps of logic.
6. If all the bad guys are after is life-force from children, why does the minster attack the alt.Broyles family?
7. Of course Olivia saves the alt.Broyles family in order to set up that alt.Broyles will save her from Walternate in an upcoming episode. I wish the the writers weren't so heavy-handed with the foreshadowing.
8. Why does Henry the taxi driver help Olivia a second time? She's never paid him for the very long cab ride she had when she first met him. He seems too altruistic, without justification. Hmm, maybe this is subtle foreshadowing...
   
9. Having been to the DOD lab only under supervised conditions, Olivia knows how to set up the sensory deprivation tanks, and find the right drugs to administer to herself, all in the space of five minutes? I know she has a photographic memory and high intelligence, but the other times she was at the lab, surely she wasn't privy to the settings of the tank or the combination of drugs administered. Yeah, yeah, dramatic expediency...
   
10. Fauxlivia: busted! Peter, sleeping with her: disgusted!

Infantalization, part 4

Lifehacker's newest amazing article... Are you sitting down?... Are you sure you're ready for this?... okay, it's called, "Make Mashed Potatoes for Just Two People". Click on the link if you don't believe me. The article is mostly a preamble to a link to another site which gives the actual instruction (a whopping 635 words! Holy over-explaining!). But here's what Lifehacker has to say on the matter,

Mashed potatoes can be seriously comforting at the end of a long day, but most recipes require a lot of potatoes, specific equipment, and a big mess.

I love the writer's assertion that "most [mashed potato] recipes require a big mess."

I was heartened to see most of the comments on the article were as sarcastic and derisive as my posting here.

Why People Voted for Rob Ford's Transit Vision

Avatar 1.3

I'm reading online there's another version of Avatar coming out on DVD, making it the third version of the film. Is it just me or does anyone else see the irony of a film with a strong environmental message being released three times on discs and packaging made from non-renewable resources?!

I get that audiences in general won't sit still for films over two hours and that theatre owners (rightly) don't like the longer films, because it means fewer screenings per day. So I'm not opposed to an extended cut of a film on DVD, if the film warrants it, but when it becomes the norm, when we can't ever see a "definitive" version of a film on a big screen with an audience, let's call it what it is: a cash-grab. Does a DVD release of Predators, to pick an example, need more footage?! The Expendables?! Would any amount of extra footage make Watchmen a good film?

Sometimes, studios mess with a director's vision. Films like Blade Runner and Brazil were released with happy endings which their respective directors railed against. In these sorts of cases, "Director's Cut" versions on DVD are valid. Sometimes films are restored years after they were made and new footage is unearthed, examples being Vertigo, or Metropolis. In this case, a new DVD release is warranted. These days, however, in most cases, the new editions are nothing more than scraps from the cutting room floor stuck back into the theatrical release, or in the case of comedies, a bit more nudity and swearing. It's now expected that nearly every major film release will have an alternate version available on DVD a few months later. That's not restoration, or artistic vision, that's planned greed.

Not being a buyer of DVDs (the odd used disc here, a Criterion disc there), it doesn't affect me much, but I worry for a society that not only consumes but is willing to re-consume basically the same thing a short while later (and in the case of Avatar, one more time!) I know someone who has a wall of DVDs, a lot of which, by his own admittance he bought "to have complete sets of.." [Indiana Jones, Star Wars, X-Men, etc.]. He hasn't watched some and has no desire to watch others. He's bought DVDs that do nothing but sit upon a shelf! He's bought into some marketer's idea of what constitutes a complete set of something. It borders on mania! When did seeing a film in a theatre become just the first part of an experience? More importantly why the F are we listening to marketers?!

I remember my father being outraged in the summer of 1977, upon finding out I'd been to see Star Wars again after he'd taken me. "What are you, stupid?" he asked. "You can't remember things?!" Harsh as that was for me to hear at 10 years of age, he had a good point.

Lake Shore

Everyone's abuzz about how racist and homophobic the characters on the new "reality" show, Lake Shore, are. Forget that, how about just plain stupid?

Behold, the certainty and wisdom of Downtown D!

The jig is nearly up for Fauxlivia...

Fringe,"6955 kHz," was one of those stories in the series that plods along in service of a greater story. I'm feeling like I felt once I knew Walter was going to cross over and grab young Peter from the Other Side: a couple of steps ahead of the writers. That's not the most enjoyable vantage point to watch a story from.

Not much new happened in this episode, and all the characters got to do the usual things they do:

• Walter smoking dope? Check.
• Astrid decoding something not by hard work but by sheer luck? Of course.
• Peter observing everything but saying nothing until he has all the facts? Affirmative.
• Nina bringing out some device Massive Dynamic has made or studied which "coincidentally" ties into the investigation? Roger that.
• Broyles delivering exposition? Confirmed. Poor bugger, that's all he ever gets to do. One episode last season gave him a bit of a back story including a failed marriage. But that story ended up being told by his character rather than shown.
  
• The whole gang solving something in a few short days that has eluded hackers and crackers and cryptologists for decades, possibly centuries? Of course.
• Imaginary Peter telling the Real Olivia on the Other Side* some ominous truth? Yep.
  

Which isn't to say "6955 kHz" was a bad episode. For once, the threat of the week didn't maim, mutate or mutilate anyone, a nice change. Weirdo book collector Markham made an appearance, which always injects some humour. And Anna Torv is doing a great job playing one Olivia pretending to be another. Her performance is quite understated. Even though we as viewers have the benefit of knowing it's "Fauxlivia", Torv gives the impostor some subtle tics and facial expressions the real Olivia doesn't have. As an actor, she's thought it through. She and John Noble (Walter) seem to be enjoying playing two variations on their respective characters this season.

Fringe is very good sci-fi TV, but like most serialized US shows, it tends to have too much filler. I don't think TV in general has learned how to properly tell a long story in weekly installments yet. Perhaps the media and the format precludes it. Dexter season 1 came close, but it was based on a novel. The long arc of Dexter over five seasons and counting, isn't very cohesive. Things that in a long novel wouldn't be tolerated--plot holes, subplots that start and stop abruptly, and inconsistent characterizations--are rampant.
-----
*Yes, this does sound like nonsense if you don't watch the show.

Chris Morris interviews

These probably won't mean anything until you've had a chance to see the Jihad comedy Four Lions (yes, you read that correctly, and yes, it is funny, very funny in places) but you can hear and see director/co-writer Chris Morris discussing the film on WFMU, on the Film School Rejects site* and on the Motion Captured Podcast.

Best quote from Mr. Morris: "I don't have a pathological personality disorder, so why get involved in Twitter?"
-----
* Be warned, the audio on the Film School Rejects video is quite poor.

A coffee and a muffin costs... um, Wait! I KNOW this... Um...

This morning I went to a local coffee shop. I asked the woman at the counter for a coffee and a muffin.

"I can't get that for you," she said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Our cash registers are down and I don't know how to figure out the price."

I was dumbstruck. These two thoughts came to me:

1) How did this woman in her early twenties, not know how to do very simple addition and multiplication to figure out my total!? The manager and another employee overheard our conversation and neither of them jumped in to help, which leads me to believe they didn't know how to do the math either.

2) Why did this shop not train its employees to do transactions manually should the cash register be out of service? That's just bad business!

I didn't have the heart to do the simple math for the woman; I certainly didn't want to make her feel stupid. I hope she didn't notice me shaking my head as I walked away coffee- and muffin-less.

Review: Doodle

Sometimes something comes along that makes life a bit simpler. That this something is free makes it that much better.

If you need to get consensus on anything, head over to doodle.com. Once you sign up, this site lets you quickly set up events and polls. Add the Email addresses of the people you wish to participate (you can import contacts from Gmail), press send, and wait for the results.

Doodle is far, far, simpler than compiling Email responses and trying to remember who has yet to reply. Even if you use Outlook for your Email at work, this site-based polling is easier than the Outlook's "radio button" voting option.

As well as being able to track the results online, you can export the final poll to an Excel sheet or a PDF file. Doodle also makes everyone accountable for their choices. You can even hide all the responses from an invitee save their own to curtail strategic voting. Doodle is a terrific tool.

Funny, Free, "Flumpf": What More Do You Want?!

There's a Free Ricky Gervais Podcast here: Karl Pilkington: A Day In the Life. You can easily find it on Bittorrent or through Soulseek if you don't like or use iTunes.

It does what it says on the tin: Karl describes a typical day, much to the delight and amazement of Steve and Ricky. Karl reveals his love of (and lack of knowledge about) worms, coins the word "flumpf", and makes unflattering comments about the poor, put-upon Suzanne. I don't believe for a second Karl has any idea of how funny he is, which only adds to the comedy.

I thought I'd be tired of Karl by now, that I'd heard all the permutations of weirdness in his head. Nope.

Fake, or Impossibly Fake?

I couldn't agree more with this article, "How to kill a mockumentary", even though, once you get past the contrivance, Modern Family is a damned funny show. Interesting that the article doesn't call out the U.S. version of The Office for using the same fake technique.

Fringe: "Amber 31422"

An lot of setup just to start to get Olivia thinking about getting home, wasn't it? Not awful, but it has to be the weakest of the "That Side" episodes so far.

Around the City in 24 Cups, #3

Indie Coffee Passport adventures, yada yada yada, previous parts here and here.

#8
Quaff Café
668 Queen Street West
November 5, 2 p.m.
Atmosphere/Décor: Industrial minimalism with dark wood tables and accents. Very calming.
Seating: Ample.
Wi-fi: Yes, didn't try it.
AC Outlets: Enough for all!
Traffic: Not busy.
Staff: Friendly.
Drink of choice: large Americano. Very good.
Would I return? Yes. if in the neighbourhood, I'd choose this over a chain shop.
Overall rating: 4/5.

"Computer! Now, dammit! I'm a taxpayer!"

Some people should not go out in public. Seriously.

I was at the library today, using the internet. A woman, mid-30s, highly-strung, starts demanding, not asking politely, that someone give up a computer to her because she had to send something by a certain time. I saw her looking at what I was browsing (some products on the Source’s website) and felt her giving me attitude which said, "what you're looking at isn't important." I politely told her that I was using the computer and wouldn't be giving it up before my allotted time had run out. All the other computers were in use, too, and her aggressive attitude wasn't getting her anywhere.

So, off goes Miss Important to the head librarian and within earshot of everyone using the computers, starts to complain very loudly about how selfish people are and that she owns a house and pays $12,000 in property taxes and therefore should get computer time at the public library when she needs it. "These people," she said, indicating the computer users (me included), "don't even own property!" I couldn't believe my ears, and couldn’t let this go past without comment. I said to the woman that perhaps someone would be willing to give her a computer if she wasn't so damned offensive. She was so caught up in her tirade, it didn’t seem to register.

Ugh. What a horrible human being, and such a sense of entitlement. I hope she missed whatever deadline she was trying to make.

Time Traveler in 1928?!

Okay, this is just bizzarre.



More here.

(R)ather (E)xhasuting; (D)isappointing

RED was bad. Feel the seconds of your life running out of your body and onto the floor bad. Walk-out bad. This film was completely flat, under-written, and barely directed. Everyone except Karl Urban phoned in their performances. It wanted to be an action film but didn't have the guts to be violent. It wanted to be a comedy but didn't have the snappy dialogue or pace needed to elicit laughs. This film should have been a cross between Leon (aka The Professional) and Gross Pointe Blank. Instead it was more like a cross between The Dream Team and Kindergarten Cop. So, Producers, you think Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle can save a film? Maybe, but RED ain't that film.

It's a shame this wasn't a better because the source material--a three-issue comic series by writer Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hamner--is a compact, nasty revenge story that zips along to its sad, inevitable conclusion.

RED, the comic, is worth seeking out. RED, the film is worth avoiding.

Buckaroo Dexter

Gah! The minute I give up on Dexter, they add Peter Weller to the cast! No... still not going back...

Bizarro-Toronto?

Fuckin' hell.

And is it just me or does Ford remind anyone else of Sheriff J.W. Pepper (as played by Clifton James) from the early Roger Moore Bond movies?

Revenge of the Office Drones

I see Lifehacker's at it again... posting pointless and extremely juvenile articles. Today's masterwork, "Defeat Food Thieves Once and for All with Laxatives", in which the article writer and commentors discuss many ways to keep others in your office from eating your lunch. Everything short of polite confrontation or keeping your lunch with you, that is.

If high-school revenge pranks are now story material why, then, Lifehacker, have you not responded to my proposals for the following articles?

• Poison Yourself. Without you at work, whose lunch will those thieves steal?
• Social Interaction: Not Just for Team Building Meetings!
• Poison Your Way to a Nicer Workplace
• They Steal Your Lunch, You Steal Their Desk: The Fine Art of One-Upmanship
• Sarin Gas: That'll Teach 'em.
• Death by Chocolate: The Literal Recipe
• You Say "Po-tay-to", I say "Deadly Snake Venom"
• What's for Lunch? A Bag of Bees!
• High Voltage Tuna Salad
  
• Common Decency: A Reappraisal
  
• Lunchroom Death or Fun Prank? A Legal Primer
• Co-Workers, You Can't Kill Them. Wait... Yes, You Can. Here's How

Kevin Eldon

If you like British comedy, you've probably seen Kevin Eldon in supporting roles on many shows such as Brass Eye, Smack the Pony, Look Around You, Jam, I'm Alan Partridge, and in the recent Chris Morris film, Four Lions.

He's a very, very funny man. Here's a link to a series of comedic monologues he did for Resonance FM in London: monologues.

And here is a London Evening Standard piece about him: article.

God, I feel old.

Twin Peaks is 20 years old

Book Review: The Checklist Manifesto

In an attempt to improve my writing, I have decided to review films and books here occasionally. This won't be my usual rant about about the state of Dexter or my offhanded comments about Fringe. These will be short reviews of around 300 words.


First up: The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande. Gawande is a surgeon who wanted to learn how people successfully handle complex tasks, such as surgeries, flying planes, or constructing a skyscraper. How can they keep track of all the variables? Gawande's two answers surprised me.

One: You can't. But you can keep track of the individuals keeping track of the pieces and schedule communication between them. Complex systems are best managed in pieces by super-specialists. A centralized, top-down approach doesn't work as tasks become increasingly complex and involve more people and equipment. Gawande cites the failure of FEMA during Hurricane Katrina to prove his theory. Wal-Mart did a far better job of providing food, medicines, and supplies to flood victims and first responders than the government because Wal-Mart allowed their employees on the scene to use their best judgment in the moment. Similarly, Dr John Snow did a better job of stemming a terrible cholera outbreak in Victorian London than the government and health officials, because he observed and then acted against accepted wisdom based on his careful observations. [1]

Two: checklists. Yes, checklists. Even the most skilled person can forget or choose to skip simple yet crucial steps in a process because those steps don't usually turn up problems. Until they do. The deadly 1977 Tenerife airport collision of two Boeing 747s (583 fatalities) happened because a pilot skipped a routine procedural step. Simple, crucial-step checklists, not pages and pages of detailed steps, are used with great result by the airline industry. Gawande helped developed a checklist for surgeons to reduce infection rates and human error. This checklist which takes 90 seconds to run through has saved thousands if not tens of thousands of lives and countless millions of dollars and has been adopted in many countries.

You can see how answer one incorporates answer two. Gawande is a great believer in the checklist, and you might be too after reading this book. In an age where our first response is to throw money at problems and add complicated software and technology to the mix, it's nice to read that someone is espousing an incredibly simple and more comprehensive alternative.

The Checklist Manifesto is an excellent read for anyone interested in project management or effective human interactions. I highly recommend it.

Note: [1] See Stephen Johnson's outstanding book, The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World.

The Dulcet Tones of James Earl Jones

I'm not much for parodies, especially Star Wars parodies, but once in a while, someone puts in the time, effort, and talent and comes up with something hilarious. Enjoy!

Wolverine 2

Darren Aronofsky is reportedly directing Wolverine 2 (source). At least it's not a prequel or a reboot.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was unbelievably awful. But then again, 90% of the comics featuring Wolverine have been unbelievably awful. Marvel Comics has so often nearly killed the goose that laid the adamantium eggs with overexposure, contradictory origin stories, convoluted time-lines, and knock-off characters (because more of the same is what the audience demands, isn't it?). Hell, there's even dispute about Wolverine's designation. Is he Weapon X (the letter), or Weapon 10 (Roman numeral X), as suggested in the now-nearly-wiped-out-of-canon Grant Morrison New X-Men stories? At this point, who cares? And of course, the movies versions of the X-Men are different again.

I haven't seen Black Swan yet, but Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, and The Wrestler have all been excellent films. No reason why Aronofsky won't succeed with a genre piece. I'll go see it, but to see what he's doing, not Wolverine.

Currently Listening to...

...The Social Network soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It's a terrific disc of dense music, packed with lots of slippery electronics and surges. It's one the best things Reznor has done. Like all good soundtracks it enhances the film without distracting. Yet this soundtrack is not uninspired background music. On the headphones, devoid of image, it's a terrifically engaging work.

Filmmakers often use songs to put viewers into the emotional headspace of characters or convey specific emotions. It's a cheap shortcut, one I call "soundtrack over substance". Watchmen is a film loaded with examples of this. The director and producers didn't even have the good sense to license much of music which was directly quoted in the comic, or they changed the scenes so much that when they did use music quoted in the comic, it made no sense in the context of the film. The comic shows two characters approaching an Antarctic fortress on hover bikes. Author Alan Moore imaginatively quotes "All Along the Watchtower": "...two riders were approaching/ And the wind began to howl." The film uses the same music, but the characters are walking towards the fortress, so the lyrics now don't mirror the action, and it becomes an "I wonder why they used Jimi Hendrix here?" moment. The use of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" over an overly-long sex scene was just schmaltz.

Doctor Who broke with tradition last season and used a song under a scene wherein Vincent Van Gogh is transplanted temporarily to the 21st century to see a retrospective of his own work. While the perfectly serviceable song by Athlete didn't ruin the scene, I'm not convinced the scene needed such an obvious musical punch, not with Matt Smith, Bill Nighy, Tony Curran, terrific actors all, and the luminous Karen Gillen onscreen.

Some films make great use of songs. Magnolia manages to nicely avoid sentimentality by having the characters lip-sync one of the wonderful Aimee Mann tunes. Basquiat uses period songs evocatively, not literally. Trainspotting busts out "Lust for Life" as an ironic anthem for the "upside" of herion use.

Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone, Guy Ritchie, and David Lynch all use songs to complement or contrast action and dialogue. Using "Bang Bang" by Nancy Sinatra to Open Kill Bill Volume 1 was inspired, as was re-purposing "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" by David Bowie for Inglorious Basterds. Julee Cruise's vocals added more layers of dread and loss to Twin Peaks.

I'm happy David Fincher and the producers commissioned a proper score for The Social Network, and didn't just fill the film with assorted songs from the years covered in the film. With dialogue like Sorkin's why would you let song lyrics speak for the characters?

The Social Network soundtrack is up there with the soundtracks for Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters and The Hours, both by Phillip Glass; and Mike Oldfield's score for The Killing Fields. What are your favourites?

RIP Dexter

That's it. I'm out. Dexter season five has far too many plot holes and "what the hell--?" moments. To watch any further will just annoy me.

It's been an up and down ride. We went from the brilliant expansion of the slight novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter in season one, through the overlapping but opposite obsessions of Doakes and Lila in season two, then down into a sludgy season three nearly derailed by the bombast of Miguel and a completely lacklustre foe called, I think, the Skinner, who was never explained or explored. Season four saw a return to form thanks to a cohesive story, a grotesquely dark turn from John Lithgow as Trinity, and an unexpected final scene.

Which brings me to the end, my arbitrary end, one-third of the way through season five. This is not the Dexter I've come to enjoy and expect. It's horribly unfocused yet everything is telegraphed. Most the characters are chasing their own tails because the writers can't think of anything new to do with them, or can't be arsed to expand on established traits or plot points from previous seasons. And, just in case you're too slow to follow the meandering story or Dexter's internal monologue, don't worry: Harry, aka The Ghost of Plot Present, will pop up to keep you on track.

Even this episode's "huge reveal" at the end won't bring me back. I've taken my blood slide, already chopped up the body, and taken down the plastic...

Fringe: Not to be Negative, Man...

In early issues of the Doom Patrol (DC Comics), The Chief recounts how Larry Trainor became the Negative Man.

CHIEF: I know how and why you became an outsider--a strange one! Disaster struck as you tested the K2-F, the experimental rocket plane that flew higher than any manned aircraft had ever gone... You lost ground contact... blacked out! For hours your jet skimmed through the still uncharted wave belts of inner space until it suddenly began to nose downward..."

Larry crash-lands the plane, only to find that a "negative energy being" has merged with his own body.

The Negative Man looks like this...

In Fringe, season 2, episode 6, "Earthling", A man sent to space came back with a dark entity in him. Walter learns that the man and the entity are connected and cannot be separated. The entity looks like this:

Swipe or homage? Discuss.

Fringe - another "homage"

Challengers of the Unknown No. 1 (April-May, 1958), DC Comics:

This is how the thieves get in... beamed through the walls...

Fringe, season 1, episode 10: Thieves steal scientific equipment. They enter and leave undetected. How? Beamed through the walls, of course!

I'm digging all these swipes. More as I find them.

Even with the cars, it's beautiful.

Photgrapher: Jason Allies. Source: BlogTO

Infantilization #3

I like Lifehacker (lifehacker.com), but sometimes the articles are ridiculous. One recent article was entitled, "How to Safely Disinfect and Clean Your Gadgets". One commenter, too stupid to realize we have products like dish soap asks,

Any DIY receipe for the iKlenz rather than paying $20 for water and a bit of some secret ingredients? [grammar and spelling uncorrected]

Really?!

If your readers really are this dim, Lifehacker, I would like to propose the following articles:

• Top Ten Tools to Help You Replace a Light Bulb (and how you can purchase them from me)
  
• Sneezing 101
• How to Hold Things
• Using Bar Soap
• Use Electrical Tape to Mark Your Toilet Brush and Ensure You Don't Use it to Wash Your Car, Scrub Your Back, or Brush Your Teeth
• Use a Proper Stance to Increase Your Unplugging Force
• Get Up: What to Do After You Fall Down
• What Could the Phone Ringing Mean? (a ten-part series)
• Using a Keyboard to Type
• Pencils and Eyes: Natural Enemies?
• How to Baby-Proof Blankets
  

Fringe, s03e04: Fringe Lite

This episode felt like filler. I was jolted from my torpor only by the few false starts, wherein Peter says something that could be interpreted as him having figured out that Fauxlivia has replaced Olivia, but then those comments turn out to be about some other things, and Fauxlivia heaves a sigh of relief.

I'm still not sure why Fauxlivia was put in charge of the other-dimension's forces on this side when it has been shown time and time again that Newton was doing a pretty decent job and was extremely capable and single-minded (in this episode he kills agents who deviate from the mission). Now he's just a pile of goo/mercury and Fauxlivia has upped her resolve, giving herself to Peter physically in an attempt to keep him distracted. M'eh.

Despite a few comedic moments with Walter and Astrid, and a couple of tiny revelations about the Shape-Shifters, this episode didn't do much for me. The idea that "Shape Shifters could be impersonating people in power and could have been doing so for years" is a such tired sci-fi cliche, it no longer instills the intended dread in viewers. Well, at least not in this viewer.

Knob-ends Add Homemmade Sharrows to McDonnell Ave

So... someone, or a group, painted two way-sharrows on McDonnell Avenue, a one-way street in the west end of the city.

Read the full article on Blog T.O.

Fuckin' Hell. I cannot believe people would act so irresponsibly! I hope the cops find the idiots who did this and give them the maximum penalty.

Guerrilla road-markings have no place in our city. Apart from the obvious--potentially causing serious accidents--they don't foster good relations between cyclists and drivers, many of whom already believe cyclists are taking up more than their share of the road.

Just because you, part-time Guerrilla Painter and full-time Selfish Prick, may want to ride against the traffic on a one-way street because it's a convenient way for you to get to work or wherever, doesn't mean you should be allowed paint a directional arrow and then do it! It's... What's the word I'm looking for? Oh, yes: illegal! Also, for nearly each one-way street in this city there are others nearby, parallel to it, usually going in the opposite direction. You're on a bike; those streets are often under a minute away.

Hey, Perpetrators, what if drivers decided to follow your example, painting over legit sharrows, or removing stop signs to expedite their travel? Sharrows have improved every road they've been put on. Don't diminish their effectiveness by painting your own! Don't make drivers guess which ones are legit and which ones aren't! Roads, whether you're driving a car or riding a bike, are no place for guesswork.

Two Alan Moore items

1. A TV project.

Yay! and

2. A comics store in Florida refuses to sell Neonomicon.

Boo! I mean, it's a free country, sell what you like, but why the need to label Moore's sexual philophies as "bizarre"? Neonomicon is fiction; perhaps the sexual philosophies being espoused belong to the characters, not the author?

More troubling is the blog posting's title, "Secret Headquarters Censors Alan Moore And Jacen Burrows’ Neonomicon". Someone might want to look up the meaning of the "censor".

The Event Canceled

After one episode. By me.

Toronto Sigh-clists Union.

In my inbox today, yet another Email from the Toronto Cyclists' Union (an erstwhile organisation I am proud to support) pushing BIXI (see here for my take on the programme).

It suprises me that a group that supports responsible cycling and cycling infrastructure would endorse what is essentially, a way for the city to convince the public it cares about cycling while spending as little as possible on it. Don't forget, the bikes and the drop-off stations for the bikes will be plastered with advertising meaning more visual noise on our streets. Not to mention that riders become de facto mobile advertisements, endorsing the sponsors whether they support them or not. Do I want to advertise CIBC (or whatever, I don't know who the BIXI sponors will be)? I assuredly do not. I wouldn't plaster my own bike with advertising.

As with many of the things the City does, BIXI may look progressive and novel to tourists, but does next to nothing for those who choose to live and work here.

(Yes the picture above may have been Photoshopped to include a helmet, something BIXI doesn't seem to care about).

Dexter, season 5, episode 3

I think Dexter as a concept is played out. We are now in the Zone of Diminishing returns. Tighten the Kyle Butler noose all you like, it's still not very interesting. Someone has seen Dexter kill or knows what he is? We've seen this before. Twice. Dexter has to hold the person who knows his secret hostage? Wake me when it's over.

Unless there is some sort of way-out plot twist coming, one that actually makes sense in terms of the story, it's time to put Dexter in the kill room.