Categories
Digital Culture Media

Renaissance

posterAnother must-see film for those who might have missed this (I know I did until today)…Renaissance. This came out in France in March, and is just now making it over to the US.

In 2054, Paris is a labyrinth where all movement is monitored and recorded. Cut off from the world for its own protection, the city has nonetheless continued to expand. Now, 21st century skyscrapers overlay centuries-old architectural masterpieces. And below street level, a sophisticated network of streamlined plazas push up against the city’s ancient, deteriorating tunnel systems. Casting a shadow over everything is the city’s largest company, Avalon, which insinuates itself into every aspect of contemporary life to sell its primary export – eternal youth and beauty. When 22-year-old Ilona (Romola Garai), one of Avalon’s most promising scientists, is abruptly kidnapped, Avalon calls on Barthélémy Karas (Daniel Craig), a Paris cop with a hard-fought reputation for finding anyone, no matter what sacrifices he has to make along the way. As the trail gets hot, Karas senses he’s not the only one looking for the beautiful enigma, and every witness he digs up seems to turn up dead. To find Ilona and unlock the secs of her disappearance, Karas must plunge deep into the parallel worlds of corporate espionage, organized crime and genetic research – where the truth imprisons whoever finds it first and miracles can be bought but at a great price.

I recommend hitting Apple’s Trailer site to get the full HD goodness of the film…WOW this looks good. Like Blade Runner meets Sin City.

renaissance

Categories
Books Library Issues Media

New Worldcat search

Check out the new search from OCLC…Worldcat gets Googlized, and the results are pretty good. I absolutely adore the “refine your search” options that it gives you on the left bar…Now can we finally get rid of our local catalogs? Pretty Please?

Categories
Books Library Issues Media

Turn it up!

I’ve got a ton of leftover stuff I still want to talk about from ALA Annual. Here’s my favorite vendor sign from the exhibit hall at ALA in New Orleans…

Large Print Audiobooks

Large Print Audiobooks? Do they just talk louder?

Categories
Media Music

American Edit

American Edit

Today there is a cyber protest going on in support of Dean Grey, a group of mashup artists that produced the American Edit. American Edit is a mashup album of works with the Green Day album American Idiot.

As I support the ability of artists to reappropriate works in the production of new art, and this work cannot possibly interfere with the sales of the Green Day album, I suggest that everyone take a listen. It’s brilliant stuff.

Categories
Media

Nacho Libre!

I have found a new hero for our time. A hero that will show us the way…light our path….and deliver us from evil.

That hero is Nacho Libre.

Nacho Libre

Jack Black as a 1970’s era luchador? Yes, please!

Check out this interview, as well as yet another amazing pic. It’s directed by Jared Hess, he-of-napoleon-dynamite fame, and co-written by Mike White, who gave us School of Rock.

Plus, you know: LUCHA!

I’m so there.

Categories
Digital Culture Media Music

Second verse, same as the first…

A phenomenal new service launched yesterday: Mp3Tunes.com…unfortunately, I’m not quite sure how long it will stick around. Seems a bit…like mp3.com, and the lawsuit that effectively bankrupted them.

* YOUR ENTIRE MUSIC COLLECTION ONLINE
o All functions of the MP3tunes Locker work inside iTunes!
o You can store your entire music collection online with a Premium MP3tunes Locker ? unlimited storage!
o Sync your entire collection to any of your computers or devices with a Premium MP3tunes Locker
o Play your music inside iTunes or anywhere you have an Internet connection with a Basic or Premium MP3tunes Locker
o Back-up your playlists and create new ones online with a Premium MP3tunes Locker
o Webload and Sideload free music on the net directly into your Basic or Premium MP3tunes Locker
o The MP3tunes Oboe Software Suite required for backing up, syncing and playing your music in iTunes free and compatible with Windows, Mac & Linux.
o The MP3tunes Locker works with any web browser on Microsoft Windows, Apple or Linux computers.
o MP3, MP4, M4A, M4P, AAC, WMA, OGG, AIF, AIFF and MIDI files are compatible with a MP3tunes Locker

It’s an AMAZING service, though. I’d pay $40 a year just to ensure a safe backup of my music (currently over 100 gigs or so…). The streaming to any computer is just gravy. I’m tempted to try it out, and just pray when the inevitable lawsuits occur.

Categories
Digital Culture Media

Thanksgiving, by William S. Burroughs

via BoingBoing:

william s. burroughs


Link to .mov

For John Dillinger
In hope he is still alive
Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1986

Thanks for the wild turkey and the Passenger Pigeons, destined to be shit out through wholesome American guts

thanks for a Continent to despoil and poison —

thanks for Indians to provide a modicum of challenge and danger —

thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin, leaving the carcass to rot —

thanks for bounties on wolves and coyotes —

thanks for the AMERICAN DREAM to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through —

thanks for the KKK, for nigger-killing lawmen feeling their notches, for decent church-going women with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces —

thanks for “Kill a Queer for Christ” stickers —

thanks for laboratory AIDS —

thanks for Prohibition and the War Against Drugs —

thanks for a country where nobody is allowed to mind his own business —

thanks for a nation of finks — yes, thanks for all the memories… all right, let’s see your arms… you always were a headache and you always were a bore —

thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams.

Categories
Media

The Greatest Movie Ever in the History of the World

This must be the finest film ever produced. Nay, this may be the finest object ever crafted by human hands. I await its arrival every day, and will not be a complete person until I am bathed in its glory and wonder.

Tenacious D movie

Categories
Digital Culture Media Personal

I *heart* Penn Jillette

I’ve been a fan for years, but Penn just keeps saying what he believes, and I just keep loving it. Their show on Showtime, Bullshit!, is amazing, and one of these trips out to Vegas I’ll actually get to see them live. For now, I’ll just be blown away by the manner in which he sums up his wordview worldview (and mine) for NPR:

So, I’m saying, “This I believe: I believe there is no God.”

Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I’m not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it’s everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I’m raising now is enough that I don’t need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.

Believing there’s no God means I can’t really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That’s good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.

Believing there’s no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I’m wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don’t travel in circles where people say, “I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.” That’s just a long-winded religious way to say, “shut up,” or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, “How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do.” So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that’s always fun. It means I’m learning something.

Believing there is no God means the suffering I’ve seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn’t caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn’t bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

Categories
Media Personal

Another CAT 5

Ok…this is just wrong. Hurricane Rita is now a Catagory 5, and may strengthen further.

Two Cat 5’s in the Gulf within a month of each other? AND we’re about to run out of hurricane names…all we have left this year are Stan, Tammy, Vince, and Wilma. If that happens it would be the most active hurricane season in recorded history.

But global warming…nah, not a big deal, right Mr. President? I suppose the Salon article is right…if you can’t even admit that evolution is a fact, how can you possibly be asked to understand Global Warming?