the pod bay door

:: Scanning the Leisure section of yesterday’s NYTimes, I noticed an ad for a movie called Primer, written, starring, and directed by Shane Carruth. I visited the film’s web site, discovering that it includes a review from the NYTimes, written by AO Scott. The film sounds compelling and interesting, and quite the mind bender – Scott describes the movie as “technically speaking, science fiction, but of an unusually rigorous and unassuming kind.” Two amateur inventors create a machine in their garage, “a device that reduces the apparent mass of any object placed inside it by blocking gravitational pull”, with far-reaching consequences. Scott compares the brain-teasing flow of the film to other movies like Pi and Memento. One reviewer has seen the film five times, with Scott advising that “part of the attraction is the tantalizing belief that if you see it enough, you will finally figure it all out.” But he counters with the following:

I’m not sure of that. Having seen it twice from start to finish and gone back over the videotape in search of clues to its meaning, I wouldn’t say that it entirely makes sense. At a certain point, Mr. Carruth’s fondness for complexity and indirection crosses the line between ambiguity and opacity, but I hasten to add that my bafflement is colored by admiration. Mr. Carruth has the skill, the guile and the seriousness to turn a creaky philosophical gimmick into a dense and troubling moral puzzle.”

Ambiguity: “doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention” (1 of 2 definitions listed); opacity: “obscurity of meaning” (1 of 7 definitions listed). I’m not sure that helps me. 🙂

Also intriguing: the film was shot on 16mm and cost $7,000US to make. Unfortunately for us in Edmonton, I doubt we’ll see a print of the movie before 2005 at the earliest. Until then, watch the trailer here.

:: My Winnipeg visit is nearly over. On Friday night, as mentioned earlier, Claire and Tony hosted a group of 15 friends at their home, having cooked an Indo-Dutch dinner, on which we feasted for the evening. The food was incredibly delicious, the company engaging. On Saturday, I attended my cousin Barbara’s wedding ceremony in the afternoon, and reception in the evening. There were enough guests invited to warrant the use of a curling rink for the dinner and dance that evening. I was able to spend some quality time visiting with my cousin from Atlanta, Adam. I also took time to bolt over to Oakbank, and visit some of the WPC homeys, who were enjoying a post U Manitoba Bisons football game bonfire and pizza party.

This morning, my parents, my friend Susan Robinson, and I went for dim sum. Following that was another visit with Steve, Tony and Mike, and Steve’s family, including daughter Kaitlyn, aka KickButt Kate (her soccer name). After that, I drove back to St Vital, to a community club where my cousin and her husband were opening their wedding gifts. After visiting with everyone there, and eating yet more food, I returned to my parents’ place, where I’ve packed, and now plan to veg out for the evening, before waking again tomorrow morning at 0430 hrs, to catch a plane that leaves at 6:25 am for Edmonton.

:: The USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future has completed a study of the impact of online technology (note – 105p pdf document), specifically how the Internet affects America. I don’t know of an equivalent study underway in Canada. From the press release, among the findings from Year Four of the Digital Future
Project:

-Internet access has risen to its highest level ever. About three-quarters of Americans now go online.
– The number of hours spent online continues to increase, rising to an average of 12.5 hours per week – the highest level in the study thus far.
– Although the Internet has become the most important source of current information for users, the initially high level of credibility of information on the Internet began to drop in the third year of the study, and declined even further in Year Four.
– The number of users who believe that only about half of the information on the Internet is accurate and reliable is growing and has now passed 40 percent of users for the first time.
– The study showed that most users trust information on the websites they visit regularly, and on pages created by established media and the government.
– Information pages posted by individuals have the lowest credibility: only 9.5 percent of users say information on those sites is reliable and accurate.
– Television viewing continues to decline among Internet users, raising the question: “What will happen as a nation that once spent an extremely large portion of time in a passive activity (watching television) transfers increasingly large portions of that time to an interactive activity (the Internet)?”

Here are the top ten trends identified by the Center:

1. In America, The Digital Divide Is Closing, But Is Not Yet Closed As New Divides Emerge
2. The Media Habits Of The Nation Have Changed, And Continue To Change
3. The Credibility Of The Internet Is Dropping
4. We Have Just Begun to See the Changes to Come in Buying Online
5. The “Geek-Nerd” Perception Of The Internet Is Dead
6. Privacy And Security: Concerns Remain, But The High Levels Are Changing
7. The Internet Has Become The Number One Source For Information For Internet Users
8. The Benefits – and Drawbacks – Of The Internet For Children Are Still Coming Into Focus
9. E-mail: “E-Nuff” Already?
10. Broadband Will Change Everything – Again

:: I’m in Winnipeg. My cousin Barbara’s wedding is tomorrow (Oct 9th, not the 7th). Tonight is a dinner at Tony and Claire‘s house, a veritable feast of Dutch-Indonesian culinary delights, including Nasi Goreng and rijstaffel. Claire notes here that she is cooking for 17 (or 18), and the ensemble tonight includes a number of her friend as well. The edible hedgehog is a durian, resembling some kind of mutated pineapple thingee.

I’ve been sleeping and/or napping a lot here. Probably my body trying to catch up on days weeks months years of lost sleep. I took my folks to see Fahrenheit 9/11 last night. Michael Moore has two new books out, one being The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader, the other being a collection of letters sent to him from soldiers, entitled Will They Ever Trust Us Again?. The latter has received mostly positive reviews on the Amazon site, but the most telling has to be the one written by Andrew Balthazor, an Iraqi war vet, whose writing appears in the book.

:: Speaking of Amazon, I ordered four items today: this, this, this and this. Speaking of this, there is a good interview with and write-up on Paul Westerberg on the CNN site. And another 70s band is reuniting. When the hell is Wang Chung getting back together, dammit!

There seems to be a pop culture explosion of late, of stuff that I’d like to have. I need another nap.

:: I leave for Winnipeg in a couple hours, to spend a few days with family and friends, and attend my cousin Barbara’s wedding on Saturday. Yesterday, while packing, I opened the curtains a little in my bedroom, and a bird flew out from behind them, scaring the shyte out of me. Initially I couldn’t tell if it was a bat or a small bird. It flew around the second floor between rooms, until I was able to remove the screen in my master bedroom, and waited for it to fly back in that direction, which it did, and out into the night.

What I couldn’t determine was how it got in, and for how long it was hiding in my bedroom. So far, I haven’t seen any – er – evidenc, to indicate where it might have spent time while in my house. Enough surprises for one night.

:: Cough is 99% gone, today is the first day I’ve not coughed throughout the day since late August. I’m off to Winnipeg on Wednesday for my cousin Barbara’s wedding on Sat, Oct 7, and will make the round while there, visiting friends and family.

:: Check out the Mt St Helens web cam. I went to Mt St Helens in July 1981, a year after it blew its stack in May, 1980. I was at a conference in Portland OR, and my boss and I rented a car and drove to the mountain, or as close as we could. Much of the devestation was still visible.

I was in Vancouver on May 18, 1980, when St Helens erupted the first time. Later that week, I collected some ash from that eruption into a small container – the ash was on the car of a friend of mine who lived in Pullman WA, on the border with Idaho, and had driven to Vancouver a few days later. I still have it somewhere in my house, and it is the finest powder I’ve ever seen or felt.

:: So William Shatner releases a new album, and the buzz is positive. The album was produced by Ben Folds, and features collaborations with Henry Rollins, novelist Nick Hornby and Joe Jackson. He collaborates on Pulp’s song, “Common People“, with Jackson. I really don’t know what to make of this. Is Shatner’s new album kitsch supreme? I hope I have as much energy as he does now when I’m 73 years old.

:: Brian Wilson has finally released Smile – not the legendary album that never was, but a rerecorded version, just released. Legendary rock journalist Robert Christgau gives it five stars. More reviews and news available here, including the Village Voice.

:: Addendum: I forgot the Krispy Kreme update. A newspaper article in the Edmonton Journal on 30 Sept 04 reported that KK will open up a store at South Edmonton Common in the first half of 2005.