bitdepth

School of Rock

I’m a teacher of Screen Arts which is filmmaking, and that’s part of the entertainment industry, which is related to music. One of the great things about my job is that I get to teach cool, rock-star-like people who are creative and don’t always realize the abilities that they have. That’s why I identified with Jack Black‘s character in The School of Rock. The film is directed by Richard Linklater who first burst (or wandered) onto the scene with the rambling, but compelling film Slacker. Slacker is similar to his later film Waking Life and while Waking Life is amazing to look at, it rambles a bit too much and seems more like an essay than a film and lacks the feeling of Slacker. I haven’t obsessively followed Linklater’s films, but I really liked Before Sunrise and I was thinking that maybe I just didn’t like Linklater’s writing or the more heavily philosophical parts of it.

Seeing the trailer for The School of Rock and finding out that Linklater was directing made me think that it could be interesting. The film is built around Jack Black who has been stealing scenes in films such as High Fidelity, Enemy of the State and The Cable Guy. But I first really noticed Mr. Black as part of the cast of Mr. Show where he played a number of characters in the first and second season. Black has great comic timing and was good (but a bit too restrained) in Shallow Hal. In Orange County he played the stoner brother and Mike White, the writer of Orange County wrote The School of Rock for Black. The film allows Black to strike the right balance and he’s funny and solid too. Kind of like Robin Williams when he strikes the balance right in a film.

One of the rules in filmmaking is not to work with kids or animals, but they assemble a great supporting cast with the kids and there is a genuine chemistry with Black. It’s a goofy mistaken-identity film where everyone all learns a valuable lesson and it manages to be funny and sweet without being sappy. I thought that it would be funny and I was surprised by how much I liked it.

October 29, 2003 comedy, film, review, richardlinklater, schoolofrock

Once Upon a Time in Mexico

With a title that is an obvious reference to the films of Sergio Leone (who made Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America), Robert Rodriguez wraps up his desperado trilogy in style. The first film was El Mariachi and is a legendary ultra-low-budget production about a guitar player who is on the run. It was the breakthough film that allowed him to remake the film with a bigger budget and stars as Desperado with Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek.
There are some actors that have “it” and they are very watchable. Banderas and Hayek have “it” and have been able to pull off some great performances in films that may not be so great. They return for Once Upon A Time in Mexico with the addition of another actor with “it” with Johnny Depp. Depp steals the show in a quirky performance where he constantly changes a series of tacky t-shirts. The film is a violent action story of betrayal and revenge – similar to the “spaghetti westerns” of Sergio Leon’s “Dollars” trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) and Once Upon a Time in The West as well as many other, lesser films. The odd history of the “spaghetti westerns” is that they were Italian coproductions featuring American stars such as Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson.
Rodriguez produced, wrote, directed, shot, edited, designed and scored the film which was shot on HD video. It looks gorgeous and has the feeling of the earlier spaghetti westerns with a modern update. While on the surface it is a tale of revenge, there is a fascinating political allegory just below the surface with Johnny Depp as a CIA agent causing destruction throughout Mexico. So while he’s a person, he also represents America, just as Antonio Banderas embodies Mexico. The allegorical content keeps it interesting, but it is a fast-paced action movie that was a lot of fun.

October 28, 2003 film, onceuponatimeinmexico, review, robertrodriguez

My New PowerBook

I actually received it a few weeks ago, but I didn’t write about it right away, but now I’ll tell you about my new PowerBook. I’ve been lucky in having PowerBooks where I’ve worked over the last few years and it’s definitely part of my computing lifestyle. The three PowerBooks that I’ve had have all been great and have never been the first models of that generation. Most of the time they’ve been the previous model when the new model came out. My first PowerBook was a 1400 which was a great colour PowerBook with a neat top lid that allowed you to change the cover… it even came with a template to make your own covers. The keys are worn down and shiny as I used it every day. The power supply went after I had it year or two and it had to be replaced. My second PowerBook was the one that I just moved from and it still works well aside from the sound going and a frayed power cord that had to be replaced.

I found out that I would be getting a new PowerBook and patiently waited for it to come in as rumours constantly swirled around about the new Aluminum 15-inch PowerBooks. When the sound went on my trusty old “Pismo” G3 PowerBook and the need for a new PowerBook became much stronger. Then the announcement of the new 15-inch Aluminum PowerBooks was made and my PowerBook hadn’t arrived so I was hoping that I’d get one of the new Aluminum 15-inch PowerBooks. Then mine arrived and on the outside of the box it said Titanium, so I knew that I had one of the older Titanium ones. I quickly got over my disappointment (there wasn’t really much disappointment) and started using it and I have to say that I like it a lot. It has a SuperDrive so I can burn CDs and DVDs and it’s spiffy and good looking too. I’m still getting used to the keyboard and trackpad and sometimes I do miss the feeling of my old Pismo PowerBook. Another reason that I didn’t write about this right away is that the power supply went shortly after I received it. I plugged it in and there was a spark from the white square of the adapter and it wasn’t working. So for a week I was able to get recharges from other people who would lend me some power, but I had to move back to my Pismo to do work. But now the TiBook is my home and I’m enjoying it. The next thing that I have to do is run Final Cut Pro 4 a bit more and see how it works.

So while I don’t have the latest and greatest, I’m still very happy that I’ve got this PowerBook. It’s probably better not to have the very first of a new generation as the later models are the ones that are tweaked and fixed and honed. That’s it for talking about this new computer.

October 26, 2003 computer, laptop, powerbook

ALA is Back

I haven’t done much Web design or coding in the last while. I haven’t been teaching it either. But I still keep up with things and always at the back of my mind is the desire to redo my sites to look and do things better. One of the (still) frustrating things about putting a Web site together is making it look good and having it work in various browsers. It’s amazing how the Web has been around a relatively long time and many of us take it for granted, but it’s still hard to depend on everyone seeing everything the same way on a site. The standards haven’t changed that dramatically, but the adherence to the standards still isn’t completely there. One of the major resources that I’ve relied upon in the last few years has been A List Apart which is filled with great articles about Web design.

ALA just launched version 3 and it’s still a great resource. The look of this site grew out of an article on ALA and my desire to follow the standards and really separate content and presentation. But that’s another rant (but you really should be using CSS). The driving force behind ALA is Jeffrey Zeldman who is one cool standards-based Web designer who also wrote Designing With Web Standards and was one fo the people behind the Web Standards Project. Zeldman drives home the point and exemplifies the maxim that it is the content that is most important in what we produce.

One of the three articles in the new issue of ALA is a neat examination of some of the neat things you can do with CSS called Sliding Doors of CSS. Douglas Bowman explains how to use CSS to create a tabbed interface. It’s one of those articles that makes me start thinking about redesiging things. Even though I recently redid this site, this article makes me think that there is a better way to do some of the things that I’ve done with it.

If you not that geeky about HTML, CSS, and standards as I am… well, you probably won’t be that excited about ALA 3.0 firing up.

October 25, 2003 ala, alistapart, css, howto, html, web

Intolerable Cruelty

I’m a big fan of Joel and Ethan Coen’s films. I’ve liked every one of them for different reasons and I’m always excited to see what they’ll do next. They are genre chameleons, similar to Kubrick, moving from noirish drama to slapstick comedy to tragedy and back again. With Intolerable Cruelty they tackle romantic comedy with a nod to older screwball comedies. Some of the reviews of the film were a bit lukewarm and I liked it more than those reviews. One of the neat things about the brothers is that they seem to mold the characters, look, style, tone, and plot together to fit the type of film that they are making. It’s fascinating to look at trailers for many of their films as it’s obvious that the studios have always faced challenges in marketing the films because they straddle so many boundaries. They also work with much of the same team every time which has got to be a lot of fun.

Intolerable Cruelty has some great performances from George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Jones has great comic timing and says so much with just a glance. The film itself is very funny and features some great scenes whose pleasure comes from the surprise of what is happening. As with all of their films, part of the pleasure is in meeting the characters that populate the film. I’m thinking that some of the disappointment amongst some critics is that it seems a little bit more restrained than other Coen brothers films and that could be due to the original script being written by others with Joel and Ethan doing a rewrite. But I had a lot of fun and laughed a lot and still love whatever they’ve done.

Many of the films that they’ve made are cut by them (as Roderick Jaynes) and this is the first one that they’ve cut digitally, using Final Cut Pro. An article on Apple’s web site goes into detail which is great for geeks like me. I love Final Cut Pro and it’s neat to see that Joel and Ethan Coen are using it too.

October 18, 2003 coenbrothers, comedy, ethancoen, film, intolerablecruelty, joelcoen, review

Talkin’ Honky Blues

I hadn’t heard anything from Buck 65‘s new CD, Talkin’ Honky Blues, but I loved the other CD that I bought, so I got it and I love it. I’m listening to it right now on my new PowerBook (but that’s another Titanium-tinged story for later). It’s filled with great lyrics, catchy loops & rhythms, great instrumentals, and just good songs. One neat aspect thrown into the mix is the addition of live musicians which move the CD into the world of carefully-crafted, alternative music. It’s an eclectic combo with Buck’s distinctive voice forming the core and music elements that remind me of Portishead and Ennio Morricone along with a sprinkling of Tom Waits. I don’t want you to think that Buck 65 is derivative… he’s original and not derivative… there are just some family resemblances. It’s eclectic, very listenable, and beautifully crafted. I think this could be “The Big One” that moves Buck 65 into the larger consciousness of the music public. But, I’ve got the CD and he’s doing ok, so whether greater success spoils him or not won’t affect this lovely little disc. The CD has some enhanced CD content (which is something I’m partial to) with a video that provides a neat glimpse at Buck 65 and some info about the CD as well as a link to the “Buck a Month Club” where I’ll be getting more music every month. Now it’s in heavy rotation in iTunes and in the CD player in the car.

October 17, 2003 buck65, cd, music, review, talkinhonkyblues

1 / 2