testing my ping.fm email interface

I just confirmed to @rickabruzzo that I am going appear in his *very sophisticated* gameshow, later this month: http://ping.fm/uRoWc

Jacques Tati's Playtime at the Castro Tonight

Playtime is one of my favorite films of all-time. It is really its own form of cinema, not a typical movie. It's at the Castro tonight and I'm catching the 6pm show! You really should come out tonight or tomorrow to catch this incredible film.

from an article on Jacques Tati

In most cases - in fact, all but one - the real joy of seeing Tati's films is still unknown to me. This is because, out of the six features and three short films he made between 1932 and 1974, I've only seen one of them in what could even loosely be called its proper format: Parade, which was originally broadcast for Swedish television. It is presently available on video in three forms: the Criterion Collection laserdisc, a number of videotape editions, and a DVD from the French company DVDY, of adequate quality. For the remaining eight - Trafic, Playtime, Mon Oncle (1958), Les Vacances de M. Hulot (known alternately as M. Hulot's Holiday), Jour de fête (1948), L'École des facteurs (1947), Gai Dimanche (1935), and Oscar, champion de tennis (1932) (which is believed to be lost) - I confess with great remorse that my acquaintance has only been through DVD, laserdisc, and videotape. The issue of format matters most in the case of Playtime, the only movie Tati shot in 70-millimeter, because although I advocate seeing all of his (or any artist's) work in the proper format, Playtime on video is the same as 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) or Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962) on video: the television monitor cannot possibly suffice. Details from Tati's mise en scène are muted. The spectrum of colour becomes limited. The reduction of a 70mm. presentation to the scale of a television set is similar to reducing the performance of a symphony orchestra to a badly done audiocassette.

The cool thing is that I saw Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm over the weekend, so after tonight I'm 2/3 of the way to hitting the movie geek triple crown!

Here is a tiny example in what is most assuredly the wrong format...

Happy 4th of July

it's a lovely day to break meat with friends

photo by Robin "Evil Bob" A

Please keep yr fireworks under control!! Cuz we already have too many fires out there!

photo by good10740

Two new posts from me up on Laughing Squid for the holiday. A bit of fun fluff from Colbert: a difference-maker who is a fireworks smuggling enabler. The other is about one of San Francisco's great 4th of July traditions: The San Francisco Mime Troupe's 4th of July show.

Whatever you're up to have fun! be safe!!

mikl.em

(it's political) Yoo & Addington play their games

John Yoo & David Addington testify (i.e. dissemble) in front of John Conyers' Judiciary Committee

Here you see the Jekyll and Hyde of the Bush Administration's Justice Department.

John Yoo is the ultimate 'yes-man' who could crank out papers supporting whatever policy was put in front of him. Here we see him for the intellectual lightweight toady that he is. Unable to give an unqualified answers, backing the long way around into word games, all the time slowing down the proceedings.

Addington is a bully, who is a kind of (evil) genius. He is Cheney's lawyer, and he build the large legal justifications that he then gets the Yoo's of the world to execute on the brick & mortar level of position papers. His demeanor and MO is to stand toe-to-toe and bluster and debate, showing no shame or pause in rationalizing his pauses work. This is the modern Machiavellian attorney of the powerful and rich (who want to stay as rich as possible at all costs).

This encounter is really pretty comical, but of course none of this is really funny.

The Cheney's Law episode of PBS' Frontline gives the best coverage of this dynamic, and how these two enabled the worst tortures and travesties of this Iraq War. Don't seem to be able to embed the video on this page, but you can watch here.

RIP Carlin

We'll miss you George

George Carlin a great and long-standing-up comedian has died at 71.

A Ride on the SS Jeremiah O'Brien

Engine room of Jeremiah O'Brien, originally uploaded by mikl-em.

Danielle and I and a few friends rode for four hours on the bay today on the SS Jeremiah O'Brien. A beautiful day, an incredible ship, we had a lovely time.

This video shows you the engine rooms at work. You can see more images and videos from our trip.


And you can visit the boat and witness the power of her engines for yourself when Long Now's Mechanicrawl happens on July 12th.