Tuesday, January 17, 2012

1911


Jackie Chan as Huan Xing
I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone except as an insight how nationalistic Chinese view their own revolution. It's got a propagandistic tone that undermines both it's historical veracity and its value as entertainment. The Last Emperor was a better film, yet Sun Yat-Sen and the Revolutionaries are more interesting than the last of the Qing.

 If movie about the Xinhai Revolution is going to have appeal to a Western audience (not something the producers of 1911 had any reason to be interested in), the logical choice for a central character would be Homer Lea. Sadly, the Western actors in this movie were horrible -- most notably the actor who played Lea. But, I don't suppose movies about 5'3" hunchbacks who end up being trusted advisers to foreign revolutionaries are a hard sell.


Downton Abbey

Masterpiece | Watch Online | PBS Video

It's not Deadwood (not by a long shot), but I must admit this series (written by the same Julian Fellowes who wrote the criminally underappreciated Gosford Park) has got me hooked. Terrific performances and a gorgeous setting help gloss over a few minor flaws (lame Mr. Bates is lightning fast when the story calls for it) in this character-driven examination a society that was living in a dream, and woke up to the Great War.

I've heard Season One called an apology for the British class system, but I don't think I agree. Certainly Robert's integrity is impeccable, but we see how clearly stultified Mary and Edith are by it, and we see the tolls of the rigid hierarchy downstairs and up.

The first two episodes of Season Two aren't quite as strong as any of Season One, but I am still eager to see what becomes of Matthew and Mary, Bates and Anna, whether that snake Thomas gets what's coming to him, and whether his crony Mrs. O'Brien will ever recover enough of her humanity to see the his complete lack thereof.

Of course, nobody steals a scene like the Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham.

Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess (image via 12ptplan.com)

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Luis Mijangos, dirtbag hacker, profiled in GQ.

Webcam Hacker Luis Mijangos: Newsmakers: GQ:


Mijangos, AKA Mistah X


Luis Mijangos was an unlikely candidate for the world's creepiest hacker. He lived at home with his mother, half brother, two sisters—one a schoolgirl, the other a housekeeper—and a perky gray poodle named Petra. It was a lively place, busy with family who gathered to watch soccer and to barbecue on the marigold-lined patio. Mijangos had a small bedroom in front, decorated in the red, white, and green of Mexican soccer souvenirs, along with a picture of Jesus. That's where he spent most of his time, in front of his laptop—sitting in his wheelchair.

Serious Silliness Meets Silly Seriousness


This all makes you realize something that has been a longtime thematic undercurrent of “The Colbert Report”: Mr. Colbert is a serious performer playing a silly character, while the media and political world are deeply silly but pretending to be serious.

If you were already worried about fracking and earthquakes ...


Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise.
 Not to be irrationally fearful, but how good an idea is it, really, to mess around with volcanoes?
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