the pod bay door

Boxing Day is nearly over. I’m exhausted from the last few days of Christmas activities: visits, dinners, wine, movies – such is the time of the year. I hope you had a great Christmas. I’ve two more parties on the agenda, and in between, sleeping, cleaning, reading, and a few workouts. Additional movies seen include Catch Me If You Can, Live From Baghdad, and Behind Enemy Lines.

Speaking of Catch Me If You Can, read the comments about the movie from the subject of the film, Frank W Abagnale.

Today’s news of the death of Joe Strummer hits hard, and I think it may be, on some levels, Gen X’s equivalent of the loss of John Lennon, but on a smaller scale. While other punkers have passed on (Sid Vicious, for example), none who have left had the impact of Strummer. The Clash, led by Strummer, inspired U2, Billy Bragg, and countless other rockers who have imbued their music with politics and causes. Bragg is most eloquent with his words describing Stummer’s impact on his own music. It is a terrible loss. An interesting Brief History of Punk examines the late 70s heyday, when it emerged from the underground.

How the FBI can monitor your movements on the Internet.

The weather in North America has been unforgiving in a number of locations recently. California is getting a lot of snow, Newfoundland has received its usual blizzard-like conditions, and just east of Alberta, in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, snow and icy conditions closed the Trans-Canada Highway east of Regina towards Winnipeg. In Edmonton, we have no snow. I repeat, no snow. Well, drive about town and you’ll see remnants of heavy November snowfall, but for now, grass is visible, although covered in frost because it is very cold here, -20C in the evenings. On the upside, the days begin to get longer now…

When I bought my ’96 Corolla in March, I had installed a remote starter. At this time of year, it’s a blessing, as I can start the car from inside my house when it is this cold. Another nifty feature is this: aim the starter at the car and hold down the starting button for five seconds. Do this, and the car will start itself every four hours and run for about 4-5 minutes. In sub-zero temperatures, this helps the car warm up faster when you start it to leave in the morning.

Christmas fast approaches. I’m off work until 2 January 2003. I have gifts to deliver tomorrow, and dinner with a good friend in from Vancouver tomorrow night. I saw LOTR: The Two Towers, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, and Gangs of New York this weekend.

A recent judgement by the High Court of Australia may not bode well for bloggers, who are rapidly growing accustomed to expressing whatever they feel in their blogs. Joseph Gutnick, an Australian mining magnate, was the subject of an article published in the Oct 28, 2000 Barron’s Online (and in the print equivalent journal, dated Oct 30 2000). Having considered the article defamatory, he sued in Australian court for damages.

The question was, would the fact that the publication of the article originated outside of Australia (on a server in New Jersey) prevent the lawsuit from proceeding, since the story was downloaded in Australia? The Court said no, and ruled that a lawsuit could be filed in Australia against Dow Jones & Co, who own Barron’s. Dow Jones appealed, and the appeal was dismissed. Opinions in favour of the judgement and against are appearing in increasing numbers. The growing concern is what some consider an impending threat to what the Internet provides for millions: a platform for free speech and expression. Some are saying the judgement could be critical, because it opens anyone who expresses an opinion of someone or something in another country to be subject to that country’s libel laws.

Someone likes the name of this blog.

FilmWise is a nifty site that poses movie quizzes, including Invisibles, wherein they digitally remove the bodies of actors from scenes, leaving only their clothing. You try to guess from which movie each scene is. Here’s the latest quiz. Good luck.

A library specializing in the history of artificial intelligence, whose collection was built over a 20 year period by one librarian in particular, together with 150 work stations and equipment worth over £500,000 was destroyed by fire in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Dec 14th. Ouch! As a fellow librarian, I empathize with how hard it must be to come to terms with such a loss.

In Florida, a manufacturer is producing a set of trading cards which feature portraits of victims of the Sept 11 attacks. He apparently has the approval of the families of each victim shown on the individual cards, which will sell for $2.50US each. Families will receive 8% royalties. The manufacturer denies he is cashing in on tragedy, but rather, is “providing a service to these families.” Do you agree? I don’t – I think it’s really difficult to justify this. I might be more amenable if all the profits went to charity after costs, but that isn’t possible when a for-profit enterprise is behind such a product.

Today in NYC, another seven new plans for the rebuilding of the WTC site were unveiled. My first reactions are not that positive, but I believe I need to study the designs further. The design from Richard Meier and Partners appears as an enormous hash mark from a distance, for example. You can see them here, and vote for your choice. Clicking on each entry opens another window with different views of the proposed sites, and each graphic within the new window moves while you are looking at it, a nice touch. (Warning: pop-up windows)

First of all, it’s Tuesday evening, I’ve returned from working out, and am inhaling toxic fumes in my house. Workers were here earlier today, ripped out my kitchen window, cleaned out the rotting wood and whatever else they found, reinstalled it with new window goop stuff, and the fumes are stomach turning. Thank God it’s “warm” out, all my windows are open and the overhead fan in the kitchen is rocking. But my stomach hurts.

It’s the beginning of the movie awards season. The New York Film Critics Circle named Far From Heaven Best Picture, Daniel Day-Lewis Best Actor for Gangs of New York, and Diane Lane Best Actress for Unfaithful (now that’s a surprise!). Far From Heaven won 5 awards. The winners of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards included About Schmidt for Best Picture, Daniel Day-Lewis (Gangs of NY) and Jack Nicholson (About Schmidt) for Best Actor (a tie), and Julianne Moore Best Actress for her work in Far From Heaven and The Hours. The Boston Society of Film Critics Awards are never predictable. Best Picture went to The Pianist, a Holocaust film and a comeback of sorts for Roman Polanski (note: official site is in French), Best Actor to Adrien Brody for The Pianist, and Best Actress to Maggie Gyllenhaal for Secretary. The information above comes from the brilliant page of Alex Fung, the Film Awards Archivist Supremo!

But wait, there’s more! From Anne comes this: The Hollywood Stock Exchange! YES! But what is it? “Buy shares of your favorite actors and their new movies and watch their values rise or fall based on their success. Stocks soar with a blockbuster opening at the box office and plummet with a bomb no one went to see.” You begin with $2,000,000 “Hollywood Dollars”. It sounds like a blast, I’m joining today!