Category: uncategorized

~ Mark

These Aren’t the PRISMs You’re Looking For – Waxy.org.

I’m a little obsessed with the story that broke yesterday about PRISM, the NSA/FBI project to gather information from popular Internet services, including Facebook, Google, and Apple.

So, naturally, I’ve been doing a lot of digging about the story on *.gov websites. In the process, I realized that the U.S. government loves the “PRISM” acronym. There are literally dozens of projects and applications named PRISM at the state and federal level, many with delightfully goofy logos. Here are some of my favorites.

Frances Ha

~ Mark

Frances Ha. I loved it. We’re all incomplete; this is about filling in the gaps. The way it treats deep friendship is so rare in movies. There’s a great California interlude with family that underscores the theme. Home can be so comfortable, but we leave it and we have to figure out how to find that support elsewhere. Other things I liked: Gerwig has a delightfully expressive face, and great timing. I thought the script was funny and loose – it didn’t feel have the volleyball bump-set-smash rhythm to the jokes, just kept rolling along through the bad ones and the good ones. And a good bit of the humor is cinematic, based on a cut/juxtaposition, or underscored with music and a lingering camera. The black-and-white photography and marvelous bursts of music throughout bring to mind Woody Allen + French New Wave. It doesn’t feel like an homage, but it’s similarly joyful. Good flick.

Bright Wall/Dark Room.: Seinfeld (1990-1998)

~ Mark

brightwalldarkroom:

NOT THAT THERE’S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

by Elizabeth Cantwell

I love that [Elaine] eats on screen—a lot—and it’s so normal that she doesn’t even have to say a bunch of jokey punchlines about it. Liz Lemon is perhaps a good counterexample here—she’s also often portrayed eating, but whether it’s a donut or a pizza or a piece of cheese, the food is always the punchline to a joke. Because watching a cute woman eat a lot is just HILARIOUS to us, right? But Elaine, she just walks into Jerry’s kitchen and starts eating cereal—or ice cream, or muffins—while talking about the weather or about how she hates her roommate or about toupees. Not one word about the food. It’s almost as though she’s just eating because she’s hungry or even—gasp!—because she simply wants to. This is maybe the healthiest portrayal of a woman’s appetite I’ve ever seen on screen.

Man, I had the biggest crush on Elaine.

Okay, I’m not fooling anyone with the past tense there.

Bright Wall/Dark Room.: Seinfeld (1990-1998)

Valhalla Rising

~ Mark

Valhalla Rising. I wonder if, seen in a different state of mind, I would call this brooding rather than plodding. So much slow motion and silence, which is punctuated by some astounding brutality. There are hints at good things, but just didn’t do it for me. I’m trying to catch up on the Refn filmography before Only God Forgives, and I definitely have to recommend Drive over this one.

Fast Five

~ Mark

Fast Five. My, my. This franchise has gone a long way from where it started. I’m struggling to keep up. More is more, but also more is not more. The movie warms up with bus-jacking followed by a high-speed train robbery. Street races feels so quaint in comparison. But it also means this movie doesn’t feel as idiosyncratic as the earlier ones in the series, and there’s more standard-fare crude language, violence, vulgarity. Exploding toilets? Come on, guys. Although, there was one scene where Walker had this goofy, exhilarated smile and just seemed so happy to be at the heart of all the destruction, and I’m like, yeah, I get that. The final tow-chase was legit.

This one also has the undeniable joy of a cast reunion and team chemistry. It’s heist time! (Downside: Sorkin-style teamsplaining the plot, and the inevitable camera that rotates around the planning table at HQ.) And alas, I couldn’t help but let out a resigned sigh when I saw the team’s bundle of new gadgets and spy-tech. Vin Diesel seems to have acquired superhuman strength, and a new rival in the no-nonsense fast-talking Dwayne Johnson (hints of TLJ in The Fugitive), and they get in a fight that’s not very interesting.

The family/togetherness theme was more upfront in this one than the others. “Money will come and go. We know that. But the most important thing in life will always be the people in this room.” And earlier, “Promise me we stick together.” It made me remember back to Tokyo Drift: “I have money. It’s trust and character I need around me. You know, who you choose to be around you lets you know who you are.” With that in mind, I think that’s why some of the best tension of the franchise isn’t in this film: for the most part, they’ve staked out their loyalties and they don’t have to wrestle with them very much.

Two last notes: One, I was disappointed to hear a greater reliance on fairly standard orchestral scores; I remember the earlier movies having more song-based soundtracks that were connected with locale. And two, I love how they did the subtitles, floating and fading out on the screen instead of hugging the bottom edge. Small touch, but it’s cool that they took the time to make it cool.

The Jefferson Bible – The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth by Thomas Jefferson

~ Mark

I figured I should read this eventually. I mean look at this thing. It cuts off the miraculous bookends of Jesus’ life and focuses on the Enlightenment-friendly moralizing. There was nothing in here I hadn’t heard before, but reading it in all in one go made me remember how many common phrases come out of the Bible. A quick run-through, just from the Sermon on the Mount:

  • blessed are the…
  • salt of the earth
  • light of the world
  • town upon a hill
  • turn the other cheek
  • left hand knowing what the right hand is doing
  • serving two masters
  • can’t serve God and mammon
  • lilies of the field
  • ye of little faith
  • tomorrow will worry about itself
  • just not, lest you be judged
  • cast pearls before swine
  • seek and you will find
  • do to others what you would have them do to you
  • wolf in sheep’s clothing
  • by their fruit you will recognize them
  • bearing bad fruit

And that section is only, what, 2500 words? That’s some influential shit.

The Jefferson Bible – The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth by Thomas Jefferson

My first upholstery project

~ Mark ~ Leave a comment

It had been a while since my last significant hands-on project, when I refinished a
table I inherited from my grandpa. I figured I could use a padded bench/ottoman kind of thing. And I dove right in. This was my first attempt at any kind of upholstery. I got the original bench on the cheap from an antiques store. It was hideous, but I saw potential:

Floral
stripes + gold tassel fringe really ain’t my thing. First step, strip
all of that junk off of the frame. The previous owner/builder really half-assed
the internal seat support, and the frame itself:

After I added a few metal brackets to reinforce the frame, I
installed new jute webbing with some 5/8″ upholstery tacks. The webbing with the red stripe is stronger than the black-striped rolls, FYI, and hence better for areas that bear weight. I also made some
rookie mistakes at one ends by not weaving first. Whoops:

After that, I covered it with some burlap to help reduce wear and tear, and stapled it down:

I added some dense, firm foam as the bottom layer for the seat, and reused the previous
main cushion, which was still in decent shape (which also saved me another
$50-70, give or take). Both of those pads were attached to the base and
to each other with some spray adhesive:

For a little extra give, the bench gets swaddled in a few strategically-placed layers soft batting (focusing on the top of the seat and the corners of the frame), also affixed with some spray adhesive:

I completely forgot to take pictures of the final fabric-covering stage, but
basically it’s more staples and more tacks, with a little tugging and
tucking here and there to make sure the fabric is lined up correctly.
Like military bed-making, but permanent. Finished it off with a dust
cover underneath…

…et voilà!:

This simple project didn’t offer any special technical challenges, but it did provide some insight into how much of a pain in the ass it is to do a great job. So much of the material and so much of the effort is hidden when you’re all done. Shout-out to my mom, who I’ve seen refurbish
and reupholster about a million pieces of furniture, and who gave me a
great guidebook and some specialty tools that probably saved me 300-400 hours of tears and
frustration. I want to do this again.

~ Mark

carpentrix:

Over the fireplace in the first house my parents owned together, the house I was brought back to when I was born, the words BOIS TORTU FAIT FEU DROIT were painted on the brick in Gothic script. Crooked logs make straight fires.

The way I choose to make its meaning: out of something gnarled, tough, flawed comes something with use and power.

Or, even busted shit can work if put to use in the right way.

Or, twisted bizarro brains shine bright too.

Crooked wood, straight fires! It was a cold house, and I don’t remember it. I’ve heard many times from my parents about glasses of water that froze solid on bedside tables over night.

~ Mark

Can authenticity be aware of itself as such and still be authentic?

Michael Pollan, talking about the way we talk about food, specifically, the bullshitting/storytelling endemic to Southern barbecue culture (which is part of its charm, right?).

Fast & Furious

~ Mark

Fast & Furious. Decent. Most franchises don’t stay strong after three movies. It’s definitely grown up: multi-national settings, gratuitous helicopter flyover shots, fancier locations, and pretty fireball explosions among the big-budget must-haves. The obvious CGI in the tunnel scenes was a bit of a letdown. The races more frenetic and choppy; the crashes were definitely more… comprehensive. I was also thinking this is first in the series that’s felt wholly like a work of the 2000s. Even has teal and orange in full force, along with some shaky-cam here and there. Good to see Vin Diesel back in a bigger role here, though sometimes it seems like he’s following instructions or something. Gotta like him, though. I also really, really enjoy John Ortiz as a villain. So good. He has a knack for balancing the malice and the charm without turning into a sideshow (see also his role in Miami Vice). I don’t think the music is as strong as in the previous three. Also, border crossings and expendable, replaceable labor force? Where have I heard that before? Final thought: I’d love to know how many times in movie history there’s been a woman/man/couple carrying groceries into a house, unloading in the kitchen, and then devolving into an argument/outburst/tears/etc. It’s movie boilerplate.

I’m now four deep into the F&F franchise. My top and my bottom picks are pretty secure, but for the middle ones, right now I think I’d rank them like…

  1. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
  2. The Fast and the Furious
  3. Fast & Furious
  4. 2 Fast 2 Furious
~ Mark

Concrete Jungle » Food Map.

An ongoing project to document food sources in the Atlanta area. It is very incomplete and constantly changing, so if you know about a great fruit tree or other food source that you think should be on the map, please add it to the map!

Currently in season: blackberry, mulberry, plum, and serviceberry. Gotta get my harvest on.

Intelligent Artifice – The three most common techniques for telling stories in games

~ Mark

Mainstream games, or at least a significant subset that I’m too lazy to define here, make use of three big techniques to tell stories:

  • Cut-scenes.
  • Invisible boxes.
  • Environmental storytelling.

I think both game developers and players understand these techniques by now, and in fact I think players are getting tired of them. I know I am.

Intelligent Artifice – The three most common techniques for telling stories in games