bitdepth

My Wife is an Actress

She’s not, actually, but that’s the name of the film we watched last night (Ma Femme est une Actrice). I’ve been on a bit of a French film kick the last week or so… I watched Jeunet and Caro’s Delicatessen again and 8 Women is out on DVD this week… I loved it… It’s written, directed and starring Yvan Attall as a man who is married to a beautiful actress played by Attall’s real-life wife Charlotte Gainsbourg. They play Yvan and Charlotte as a couple who struggle with Yvan’s jealousy as she goes off to London to shoot a film with Terence Stamp (who plays a character named John). A lovely looking film with a great cast with real chemistry between all of the characters (especially Attall and his sister…the actress who plays his sister). The blurring of roles is a recurring theme in a lot of films lately (especially Adaptation), but the whole filmmaking thing reminded me a bit of Truffaut’s Day for Night (La Nuit Américain) which tells the story of a French film being shot with an English lead actress. Truffaut cowrote, directs and stars as the film director. Another Truffaut connection (at least in my mind) is that the first time that I saw Ms. Gainsbourg was in the film The Little Thief (La Petite Voleuse) which was made posthumously based on a story by Truffaut. My Wife is an Actress was released in France in November 2001 and it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2001… which is probably why it has taken a while to come out… and it also played at the Atlantic Film Festival, where I should have seen it, but I didn’t find out about it until a few months ago! I have to see more festival films next year!

February 24, 2003 8 women, charlotte gainsbourg, day for night, delicatessen, dvd, film, french, my wife is an actress, review, terence stamp, the little thief, truffaut, yvan attall

Cellular Remote Control

Via Rael I saw this nifty little bit of Bluetooth wizardry… the Sony Ericsson Clicker which uses the Bluetooth capability of the cellular phones from Sony Ericsson to turn the phone into a remote control for a Bluetooth equipped Mac with 10.2. You can control your presentation, the dvd player, or use the proximity sensor to pause iTunes when you leave the room. It’s very cool and illustrates the potential that Bluetooth has….hmmm… Bluetooth TVs, radios, lamps… they’d shut off when you leave the room. But I’ve still got too much stuff that I lug around… my PowerBook, my cell phone and my Visor… and I’m still waiting for my cell phone provider to provide the ability to send email from my phone directly… I can receive it, but no sending yet…then I can ‘blog via mobile phone… that will be cool and brief.

February 24, 2003 bluetooth, powerbook, raeldornfest, remote, sonyericssonclicker, technology, visor

Something Clicked

It’s neat when something comes into focus all of a sudden. I read “The Death of the ‘Comments’ Section. RIP” by Steve Mallett and I finally figured out why (instead of how) to use Trackback. Until I read the article I didn’t really realize what need more specifically that Trackback filled… now I do. Now since many people have weblogs they aren’t posting comments as much…they’ll just make an entry in their ‘blog that links back to what they’re commenting about. Trackback can assemble those together. Mallett also links it up with community, which is less than or equal to 150 people. Movable Type has Trackback built-in and I can use that where I teach (with a Movable Type ‘blog for my students) and I can also add Trackback support to Blosxom (which runs this ‘blog). Rael also did a comment hack to Trackback to add comments to Blosxom. It’s neat to see how this stuff is all evolving and even better when a bunch of things click into place and suddenly make sense.

February 15, 2003 blog, blosxom, comments, movabletype, raeldornfest, steve mallet, trackback

NetNewsWire Goes Pro!

It’s great when you get to see something develop and grow and come to fruition. My favourite new app has gone pro and you can register it to help the development continue. NetNewsWire Pro is the only thing other than Mail that runs constantly on my PowerBook. It has been developed by Brent Simmons of Ranchero Software and it’s the best way to quickly catch up with all of the RSS feeds that make collecting information and opinion so much easier than aimlessly surfing around for hours. I also use it to edit the Movable Type ‘blog that I use with the Screen Arts students at NSCC where I teach. Yay!

February 12, 2003 movabletype, netnewswire, nscc, ranchero, screenarts

Shuttle Reflections

It’s been a few days and the news cycle revolves around and around alternating between the Space Shuttle Columbia and the pending war in Iraq. I was absent-mindedly watching tv and noticed the “Breaking News” on CNN…it’s used so much now though that it took me a little while to figure out what was going on. Seeing Mission Control made me start to pay attention as I didn’t think that was a good sign. As what was happening slowly began to become clearer and clearer it was sad, but I can’t help but think about the horrific events of Sept. 11 and how the media coverage of that in some ways seems to have permanently numbed part of impact that “Breaking News” has.
But as the days went by I started thinking about the astronauts who were lost and then remembered the Challenger and how I’ve followed space flight pretty much my entire life.
My earliest memory is of the Apollo 11 moon landing (I wasn’t there…I just remember seeing it on tv). My Mom saved the local newspaper from that day and I still have it. The first novel that I read was a sf novel about the Moon race…it was fascinating as I read it years after the actual Moon landing which made it oddly anachronistic. The idea of space travel is amazing and inspiring. You can see the earth–the whole planet with every human being on it–from space…it’s amazing to think about that and the perspective it provides.
The connections that people feel with the space program are fascinating as well.
Many ‘bloggers are remembering their childhood and the various significant milestones and tragedies in the history of sending animals and then humans into space. The technology that I’m using now is connected to the development of technology for space so if it wasn’t for the space program, I wouldn’t be writing this and you wouldn’t be reading this. But the technological and scientific goals are often wrapped up with nationalistic goals as well. With the end of the Cold War much of the flag-waving motivation and attraction of the space program has faded and it has seemed to become less about patriotism and more about science…maybe that’s why the launches and landings didn’t get as much coverage and it seemed much more commonplace and less of a risk. But it was and remains risky and it sadly takes a terrible accident to bring the space program back into our thoughts again.

February 5, 2003 apollo11, challenger, childhood, columbia, history, mom, moon, nasa, news, space, spaceshuttle

My Wife is an Actress

Cellular Remote Control

Something Clicked

NetNewsWire Goes Pro!

Shuttle Reflections

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