Sunday, January 20, 2002

Colors

This is a nicely designed site, despite the truly annoying music, the typos, the random spelling variations (is it "color" or "colour"? Doesn't matter - there's both here). The content is rather silly, from Paul Goldin, Psychologist (whomever the hell that is and why would I even care?) - another of those personality test things. A good way to waste five minutes. Colorgenics
posted by lee on 01/20/02 at 10:41 PM

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Playing with the camera

'Twas a snowy evening. Not much to do 'cept watch bad tv, eat dinner, take pictures of the creatures.

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Twitch tries to kill the laser light.

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But the light is gone ...


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Hey, hey - there's this noise, see, and, well, it's dark ...

The snowplow is coming to get me, oh no,
pleaseletmein ... it's me, Ginger, hey, hurry!
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Ah've put a spell on you ...
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posted by lee on 01/20/02 at 06:40 PM

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Saturday, January 19, 2002

LOTR - read this review

It's funny - and dead on. At least for LOTR - I haven't seen The Majestic (and don't care if I see it or not - hearwarming sucks). Lord of the Rings and The Majestic.
posted by lee on 01/19/02 at 10:15 PM

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LOTR - again

Ebert on LOTR - interesting. The best movie of all time? 'Lord,' no!
posted by lee on 01/19/02 at 08:32 PM

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LOTR - PS

The sound sucked. What ever happened to actors acting like they were whispering instead of actually whispering? I'm very hard of hearing, but I can hear most movies. Directors, though, are increasingly forgetting that the tendency is for their audience to have less-than-perfect hearing. They forget whispering is an effect, not an actual event, at least in a well-crafted movie. And the conversations over significant background noise - ohmygod - older directors seemed to be able to handle this, why can't directors do this any more? They need to keep the sound above a minimum threshold. I'd rather imagine the theater was rumbling rather than actually feel it rumble - I'd rather be able to hear every word rather than try to read lips or give up. In the case of LOTR - I gave up. If I'd paid for the movie, though (we had free coupons!), I'd want my money back or at least the chance to hear it again with those godawful headphones. "The Other" is another example - a great movie ruined for me and any other marginally hard of hearing person because the sound was awful.
posted by lee on 01/19/02 at 08:16 PM

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LOTR - Finally!

We finally got a chance to see it last night. I must admit, Lord of the Rings was better than I expected it to be. I had a lot of trouble believing all the hype - what was real and what was just this nation of sheep bleating in unison.

That said, it was TOO LONG. A good 45 minutes could've been trimmed with no loss. Stanley thinks it was good as it is - he said it could've been longer and he would've been happy. I think trimming a minute or two here and there would've made it a more bearable movie since some scenes were interminable (the Ringwraiths chasing Liv Ullman, the canoe trip, the slogging through the snow, the length of time it took to get across the stone bridge in the tomb of the dwarves, the fight scenes -- all could've been trimmed significantly without ruining anything).

I listened as parents and other people explained what was going on to those (kids and others) who'd never read the books - the movie does not stand alone. It is very confusing unless the viewer is one of the initiated (no matter how long ago. In my case, I read the books about 30 years ago).

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It would've been better, too, if the movie weren't so patronizing of the Hobbits and treated them as the central, most important characters - the way they are treated in the books. It rests on Frodo's shoulders to save Middle Earth from The Shadow - no one else, not human, not elf, not dwarf, not wizard. That really bugged me.

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But the special effects were great - I loved, especially, the river attacking the Ringwraiths. I'd like to watch it again to see all the details I missed the first time around - the rock creatures embedded in the scenery, more of the background details, the stuff that lent all the texture to the movie in an almost subliminal way.
posted by lee on 01/19/02 at 06:30 PM

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Friday, January 18, 2002

Blog-surf traps

Twice today I got trapped in a blog frame when blog hopping. You know, that thing you do when you follow Blogsnob or other links just to see what else is out there. Anyway, I'd ended up on Scott Rubush's blog. Which has a number of links. I followed the Blogsnob link through several, maybe five or so blogs. I happened to glance at the address bar and saw Scott Rubush's http no matter where I was. I noticed that on another blog hop earlier today (I forget which one). This is REALLY ANNOYING. That's why I'm not linking his blog. Sometimes I like to pop the blog into my favorites to look at when I have more time. This blog hopping trap makes it impossible to do that.

Does trapping blog hoppers in an URL jack up stats or something? Increase the popularity rating somewhere? (And why would anyone care?) Why would anyone do this? If it's intentional and not something accidental because one is using Blogger or something, then this is just begging for a countermeasure. Such as ostracism, maybe, or something else ...
posted by lee on 01/18/02 at 10:20 PM

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Just one more use for those little yellow pad thingies

Well, I want to know how long it takes to SCAN one of these puppies ... Post-It Theater. While you're there, explore the whole site - it's a strange conglomeration of stuff.
posted by lee on 01/18/02 at 04:20 PM

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Old Postcards & more

James Lileks, a writer hailing from Fargo, ND, has put together a gallery of postcards from Motels - apparently of the 1950s and 60s. There's also a LOT of other stuff to explore on his website -- a time sink to enjoy. Maybe you could even follow the link to buy "The Gallery of Regrettable Food."
posted by lee on 01/18/02 at 03:13 PM

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What my parents saw

GREAT collection of WPA posters via the Libe of Congress site. Wonderful for getting ideas for good retro designs.

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posted by lee on 01/18/02 at 12:37 AM

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