Finally, finally I saw I'm Not There. And I loved it. It was as good as I expected, funny and with a love for details that was just a-fucking-mazing.

I don't know a lot about Bob Dylan, so it's hard for me to judge whether the film is an accurate portray of him. But I felt like I got to know someone - whether or not that someone is really Bob Dylan, I can't say. But it doesn't matter anyway (at least to me).

Todd Haynes really has a thing for very good musician bio-pics (and if you still haven't seen Velvet Goldmine it's high time!). And he knows who to give the responsibility for the casting (for Velvet Goldmine it was Susie Figgis and for I'm Not There Laura Rosenthal). Do I really need to reiterate the perfect cast? Probably not, but I'm going to anyway :). Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin [Watch out for that little guy, he's absolutely wonderful!], Charlotte Gainsbourg, Richard Gere, Bruce Greenwood, Heath Ledger, Julianne Moore and Ben Whishaw. And Kris Kristofferson has a very nice narrating voice.

I adored the small jokes that were just standing around - the appearance of the Beatles, the zoo and the poet (Ben Whishaw) is called Arthur Rimbaud, for krissakes.

And I need to get the soundtrack.

There are only two things I can critisise about the film:
1. It was a bit confusing (which I don't mind when I'm in the right mood - leaves room for discussion).
2. There wasn't nearly enough Christian Bale and he became a Born-Again-Christian (but that's only a real criticism if you are a HUGE fan of CB - like me - and an atheist with an aversion against anything even remotely like a dogmatic doctrine - like me)

Last Saturday was pretty busy for me. I met with my college friends at Greenbelt around 4pm. We had an early dinner at CYMA and ordered too much food whose names I can't even remember because to be honest, I couldn't even pronounce half of them. But I love Greek food, so we pretty much enjoyed everything.

Aside from that, Lai and I fooled around with her phone (Lai = camwhore).

Still waiting for the other pictures from Nikki and Madz, though *ahemahem*.

After that, we transfered to Glorietta to watch Dan in Real Life (might review on a later post, together with 2 other movies). Of course, being the saps we are, Lai and I cried before the movie was over.

The movie finished around 10pm so we said our goodbyes because they all live in Parañaque which is pretty far. I, on the other hand, had to go to Greenhills to meet up with a different set of friends....who apparently are into crappy B movies. So yeah, I watched The Flock. Good thing I didn't pay for it because Andrew got his MTRCB card which pretty much gives him and a friend free passes to all movies (suck on that!). Richard Gere is my favorite actor, but geez! Really?! Anyway...after the movie, we just stood around making fun of it and each other. And of course, the girls HAD to take pictures.

So that was my Saturday. My Sunday was spent with the fam, hearing mass and watching Kite Runner. And yeah, I bawled like a freakin baby yet again.

Titulo Original: The hunting party

Director: Richard Shepard

Reparto: Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, Diane Kruger

La película narra la historia de dos corresponsales de guerra que tras un grave incidente ante la televisión nacional emprenden caminos completamente opuestos para reencontrarse 5 años después para en una mezcla entre comedia, road movie y denuncia política recorrer los caminos de la Bosnia de la posguerra. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes a news release is more confusing than illuminating. I am becoming more of a fan of simple gasification of wastes to produce electric energy (as compared to using fossil fuels for this purpose). One such announcement came out a few days back that a company called Global Energy, Inc. has signed two separate deals. For some strange reason they seemed to feel it was only worth one publicity release, and thereby helped confuse more than enlighten me. The press release said that Global had a deal to allow them to purchase projects from the company to which they are licensing their technology (that is, IF I understood correctly, and I am not sure I did). Specifically the release says they will have, "the right to invest a majority of the equity for all of the projects that are developed by," the other company, which is called Renewable Diesel LLC.
Meanwhile, Global Energy Inc., has also done a deal to license their technology to Covanta, who have recently become involved in power production in Guangzhou province of the People's Republic of China. The Chinese deal is specifically for converting some of the 27 million tons of annual household wastes in that province. The deal with Global has to do with "certain feedstocks" in the US and some other countries. Meanwhile, Global Energy Inc., seems most intent upon using its Integrated Gasification and Combined Cycle IGCC processing for the (clean?) combustion of coal and "petcoke". So, I trust you can see where the initial reading of the half page press release left considerable confusion as to what was being announced and who was doing what, and to whom.
Nevertheless, I wish all three companies the very best in their efforts, and hope that we see more of the gasification of MSW and less of coal. Whatever else may be done with coal fired electric generating plants, it is still digging fossil carbon out of the ground, and spewing it into the atmosphere, or at best adding that carbon load to the life cycle carbon in plants and oceans. Until and unless we are forming smokestack carbon directly into sheets of carbon fiber materials for the construction of airplanes and cars and such, I have a great deal of difficulty looking upon combustion of fossil fuels (coal) as a positive step for the environment.
On the other hand, I read an interesting, though unsubstantiated statement this week that I will be giving some thought and perhaps some investigation to follow. In a "pro" forum on biofuels, one gentleman forwarded the proposition (which he claimed was a conclusion) that the temperature of the planet causes the rise in atmospheric carbon and not the other way around. As you may know, if you have been reading my columns for a long time, I am not a subscriber to the idea that ANY scientific theory or "law" is beyond re-examination, and I am certainly not convinced that the verdict of thousands of scientists make "global warming" (or, if you prefer, "climate change") a fact as regard to the main cause being human originated greenhouse gases concentrations rising in our planet's atmosphere. There are at least to major alternative theories that still seem viable and neither has been conclusively disproven. If either of those are, indeed, the primary cause of our climate change observations (including greenhouse gas concentrations), this gentleman's proposition that planet temperature may be effect rather than cause in our situation.
Whole books have been written, I am sure, on both of these postulates, so I won't try to argue for or against them, except to say that the actual amount of energy transaction initiated by humans for the last few thousand years is probably less than 1% of the energy output of the center and star of our solar system, the sun, in a week. (Probably closer to 1% of the sun's output in an hour.) So it seems perfectly plausible to me that the much overlooked idea that the upward trend in sun spot activity may well be the real source of additional energy striking the earth and possibly the principal cause for a warming trend in our weather. Nor is that the only alternative explanation.
Similarly, rather than an external force (or human's bumbling) causing slightly different weather, it could, in fact, be INTERNAL forces, below the surface of the earth's crust. Down deep in the mantel or even at the level of the earth's core, the convection currents of molten rock or the expansion or contraction of the core (by even microscopic amounts) could have unimaginably significant effects on the earth's magnetic fields, the gravitational fields, and thereby subtle but not insignificantly affect ion levels , wind patterns, ocean currents, and much more as well. I am certainly not saying that these are more valid explanations, I am simply saying that not enough is known about either core dynamics or solar radiation to completely eliminate them as contributory, to some large or small degree.
Remember that even Sir Isaac Newton's "laws" are invalid at the sub-atomic level, if quantum physics has any validity, and for that matter, quantum physics is starting to be displaced in the scientific pantheon by string theory. Who knows what the next generation might discover. I am also not saying that my own personal version of "string theory" is any more correct than anyone else's, but I do hope that eventually some brilliant young mind(s) may stumble across it (maybe even with my help) :o) and gain an insight from an alternative perspective that may flip on a light bulb in their mind that takes us through the next giant leap for mankind.
Back in today's energy world, Wired's Blog reported some substantial improvement in hybrid battery performance was claimed by some folks who replaced the factory installed Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries with their version of a lead-acid battery. Their variation was superior in performance because of more efficient charging. Lead-acid batteries can be recharged on a smaller increase in power than the factory ones (105% vs. 140%, I believe the article said), but also because of more efficient power management which was possible because of the addition of electronic monitoring and modern electronic capacitors, indeed it was called the "Supercapacitor UltraBattery". Further improvements were also expected by the use of a "foamed" lead plate. The foam structure is actually carbon fiber in the "Firefly" battery. Again the recharge characteristics offer an advantage because the NiMH batteries charge best with a constant flow of current (not really available when being charged by intermittent regenerative braking, for instance), while the lead acid batteries only require constant voltage for the most efficient use of the charging energy, so again, this is better suited to the mobile application, and Firefly touts this as making plug-in hybrids a step closer to your garage.
I watched part of a Bill Moyers program on PBS Saturday night (due to the inconvenience of Arizona having its OWN time zone, PBS may have broadcast this on another date in your area, if you even get PBS, which tends to only be available in the USA and border town to the North and South). His guest, being interviewed, was a former National Public Radio reporter. "After the war," as she termed it, Sarah Chayes, went back to Afghanistan to develop a business, to try to help, in many ways, including rebuilding the country in a way that we as Americans, or rather the Bush administration, have neglected to do in that country since "winning" the battle with the Taliban, and installing our guy, President Hamid Karzai as president of the "Islamic Republic of Afghanistan" (hey, I kid you not, that's the link to his web site, just like "whitehouse.gov"). It is Ms. Chayes contention that the US$1 billion we are sending to Pakistan every year is what is financing the insurgents in the area, and the Pakistani government is turning a blind eye to a certain Mr. Baitullah Mehsud in order not to have him running amok all the time. Ms. Chayes says that the Pakistani army tosses us a token al-Qaeda leader from time to time, but the Pakistani people consider Mehsud to be the main terrorist in their country, according to what Senator Joe Biden said when he appeared on This Week with George Stephanopolous on Sunday) and no one is actually looking for Osama Bin Laden. The National Post (www.nationalpost.com online) reports that the Pakistani, "the military seem prepared to cut the same sort of deal they made two years ago with Islamist extremists in North Waziristan."
Meanwhile they also know very well where Mehsud is, too, but they are not attempting to go after him to avoid reactionary actions by his supporters elsewhere. Sarah Chayes still operates a cosmetics business in Afghanistan in Kandahar province. She says that although the roads in town and the road to Kabul have been paved, they are no longer safe for her to travel. Certainly not alone, and not as a woman alone. The locals tell her that during the day they are extorted by corrupt officials, and then the Taliban come with their own extortion threats at night when the government officials have gone home.
Senator Biden also pointed out that our total financial contribution to the rehabilitation of Afghanistan in the past 5 or 6 years has been about equal to what we are spending in Iraq in just 3 weeks. Senator Biden, Senator John Kerry, and Senator Chuck Hagel have just returned from observing Pakistani elections in which President Musharaf's party was overwhelmed by support for two opposition parties. Yet the "wise men" of Washington advise that it is too soon for the Pakistani Parliament to consider impeaching President Musharaf, even though he now says he has no plans to resign, and that we need to give him "room" to come to that decision on his own.
Although I am tempted to turn to the Oscars here, I will spare you, since I have just put the TiVO on hold to finish this column and haven't finished watching them myself, yet. However, in the world of entertainment, it is not entirely coincidental that I just watched a film set in Serbia where, this week, protesters set fire to the US Embassy to signal their disapproval of US officially recognizing the new independent government of Kosovo. Oh, don't mistake my meaning. I had no prescient feelings about Kosovo or US reaction to it.
What I meant was not entirely coincidentally to Ms. Chayes' account of the Taliban and the "ceasefire" with insurgents in Pakistan, this film was about a what happened after a "massive manhunt" that failed to turn up the leading Serbian war criminal known as "the Fox", reviled for his slaughter of whole villages Muslims and other unspeakable horrors in the name of “ethnic cleansing.” The film is called The Hunting Party which stars Richard Gere, Terrance Howard (probably best known for his fine performance in Crash) and although his "star" status did seem to rate him star billing, Jesse Eisenberg. (Mr. Eisenberg’s performance was outstanding, and I offer that unbiased assessment on Oscar night, of all nights.) The story goes that "only the most ludicrous details and incidents are true", that after a supposed massive manhunt by the UN forces, these few journalists are able to locate and meet with this heinous war criminal in just two days of casual journalistic investigation, at which point the film story goes, they are rescued by a secret (non-existent, they are so secret) CIA team from the clutches of this monster mass-murderer just as he is about to kill them. Yet somehow the Serbian leader who was just running out the back door when the CIA arrived, guns blazing, escapes and everyone who had any contact with the journalists is transferred to another country. I am not in the habit of spoiling people's enjoyment of a movie by giving away the plot entirely, so I won't reveal the ending, but although the film was at least passable, with many enjoyable moments, the real point of the film, and of my mentioning it, is the parallel to the situations in the Middle East today.
Well, that wasn't exactly my traditional "good news" ending, so I will take a quick side trip to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (“the Oscars,” to you), to mention that the wonderful young actress who gave such an outstanding performance as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (I commended her performance in this column a few weeks back, I believe) won the statuette for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role. It was well deserved, even among such luminaries as Kate Blanchett, (who also DID win for Best Supporting for her portayal of Bob Dylan [yes, THE Bob Dylan, the man] in I'm Not There) and Julie Christie (in Away from Her) and the captivating newcomer Ellen Page (from Nova Scotia, by the way), in JUNO.
I was happy for Kate Blanchett in the supporting category, although it might have been nice to see the second "tie" in Academy history so she could split it with the marvelous performance by Ruby Dee who played Denzel's character's mother in American Gangster.
Now, I must get back to the rest of the Oscars on TiVo, and I will look forward to chatting again with you next week.
Love
Stafford "Doc" Williamson
p.s. Oh, yes, almost forgot to mention, I opened a new online "Game Mall" at
http://gamemall.winfotech.com and don't puzzle too long over the actual name of the Game Mall, it is pronounced "Circus" but spelled "Psyrk.us" (well, I thought it was cute). See you at the mall, I hope. ;o)

Set in Serbia during and after the war. Richard Gere is a love-lost journalist in need of the biggest story of his life; capturing an infamous war criminal modelled on Radovan Karadžić. Gere's character manages to find him after only two days, which raises the question, why isn't Richard Gere on the the UN payroll? Brian Murray

I watched the movie the The Hoax the other night. I finally got around to renting the dvd. I had forgotten it was based on a true story until the end when they started giving little summaries of what happened to each of the main characters.

Here's a quick review since this movie came out a while ago. Its the story of how Clifford Irving and his accomplish, Dick Suskind managed to con the world into thinking they had exclusive rights to write the autobiography of Howard Hughes. The movie was very clever, given the true story. How one man is able to charm, and lie his way for over 4 months, and even manage to set off the initial snowball that would escalate to the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Richard Gere was great in this role, I liked seeing him in as a more humble and vulnerable character, he usually plays the cocky, overly arrogant character. There was great chemistry between all the supporting characters too.

Its a look into the pyschosis and desperation of one man trying to publish a book. I guess his book was rejected 1 time too many, and something just snapped in him. He created this whole little fantasy world with this book, even trying to become Howard Hughes himself.

Given the eccentricities of Howard Hughes and how he had basically become a recluse from society, it was fun to see how Clifford using those characteristics to promote his lie all the more. The special features on the dvd had small segments of interviews between Mike Wallace and Clifford on 60's minutes. I would love to see the full interview. I think there were two actually, one while the book was being written, and one after the truth came out and Clifford had served his time in jail. I would love to see both, and see how Clifford was able to fool everyone with nothing but lies and a strong imagination.

He eventually went on to write the book The Hoax, which details the whole event, and was the basis for the movie. I'm interested in reading the book now. I'll have to see if my library has it.

I'd give the movie an A. It was well paced, good acting, good costumes and the plot well...nothing is stranger is nonfiction, nothing is more bizarre and makes you think more than nonfiction.

Reading wise... I've developed a new strategy where each night I'm going to read the first chapter from a different book of mine until I find one that I want to continue reading past the first chapter. Its a long process, but I'll manage. I'm just stalling until April, when I'll be done with graduate school, and can just focus on reading without feeling guilty about not doing homework instead.

I've referenced the Richard Gere/Julia Roberts Pretty Woman dialogue in my writing before -- time to pull it out again. People shock the hell out of me!

I recently learned that back in July of 2007, a presidential commission revealed that the Department of Defense is penalizing WOUNDED veterans by not providing them with their full enlistment bonuses. AND in some cases, WOUNDED VETERANS HAVE BEEN ASKED TO RETURN THE MONEY THEY'VE ALREADY RECEIVED.

In other words, the financial incentive is only if the veteran makes it around the board and passes Go without getting injured. Am I the only one or does it sometimes feel like the current administration thinks they are sitting at a board game with toy soldiers and play money? Like Risk or Monopoly with each square being a different country.

If "we" truly want change, then "we" need to act NOW!

For more information on how YOU can be a change agent NOW, please visit www.iava.org and sign this letter to your Congressional Representative:

H.R. 3793 - Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act

Troops who are discharged for injuries they've sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan should be entitled to their full enlistment bonuses. I stand with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) in supporting the Veterans Guaranteed Bonus Act (H.R. 3793), and hope you will do the same.

We cannot continue to nickel and dime these men and women who have given so much to serve our country. Please support H.R. 3793.

Thank you.

When you sign this letter on IAVA's website, the letter will automatically be sent to your Congressional Representative.

If you or someone you know has been affected by this unfair issue, please contact Rob Timmins, the IAVA Field Director, at rob@iava.org.

Please take the time to support wounded veterans today -- sign and [click] send the letter (on the IAVA website) to your Congressional Representative! Thank you!

And thank you to all veterans.

"I´m Not There" ist eine ungewöhnliche Rückschau in das Leben von Bob Dylan und gleichzeitig eine Zeitreise in Episoden. Sechs prominente Schauspieler (Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Ben Wishaw, Heath Ledger, Carl Marcus Franklin) machen sich daran, eine der größten, einflußreichsten und vielschichtigsten amerikanischen Folk-, Rock- und Pop-Ikonen des 20. Jahrhunderts zu porträtieren und zu interpretieren. Das die Musik im Film nicht zu kurz kommt, und dabei auch viele unbekanntere Sachen gespielt werden, ist schon mal ein großes Plus. Die unkonventionelle Filmbiographie vom Regisseur Todd Haynes ist bei uns ab dem 28.Februar in den Kinos zu sehen. ....

http://www.imnotthere-movie.com/

http://www.myspace.com/imnottherederfilm

http://www.tobis.de/home/site_scripts/filmseite.php?id=107

China apparently made 146 incursions into Indian territory last year. The Chinese are preventing locals from going up to regions where they had been taking their animals for grazing. Even a statue of Buddha is off-limits. And "cartographic aggression", in which Arunachal Pradesh is shown as Chinese territory, is assuming epidemic proportions.

When two BJP MPs from Arunachal Pradesh, Tapir Gao and Kiren Rijiju, raised the issue at a party meeting last November, the journalist-turned-politician Arun Shourie, who was reading a book Why geography matters too chipped in. So, all three were invited by president L.K. Advani to attend the party's afternoon press briefing.

Shourie writes in The Indian Express on how the media reacted to a matter of profound national security. The hack-pack, he writes, is only too eager to get into a tu-tu, main-main; to pick holes in the motives and motivations of the messenger instead of probing the message. And, as he told Karan Thapar on CNBC-TV18 last night, The Times of India and the Hindustan Times were busy with two very urgent stories---longer working hours for bars and 24-hour shopping:

I had hardly concluded that the usual clutch—pro-Congress, pro-Left—was up in arms. "When was the book published?" one demanded.... "But what did the NDA do about the incursions?" another member of that clutch demanded... "No, Mr Shourie, but you have to acknowledge that there is no agreed international border between India and China. So..." That is the Chinese position as articulated by your paper often, I said. It has not been the position of any Indian Government...

An anchor from a news channel phoned. I saw your press conference, he said. We have been following this story for many months. Can you please come to our studio? No, I said, I really am very upset at what happened. But I give you my word, he said, we think this is an important issue, and we are going to follow it in the coming months also. I will send an OB-van to your house.

The van came. The late night news. The earpiece in my ear. All set. Delay—quite understandable: some new eruption in Nandigram. Eventually, the anchor and I are talking.

"But are you sure about the facts or is the BJP indulging in its usual fear-politics?" the anchor asks. But why don’t you ascertain them from the two MPs who represent the area? I respond. Better still, why don’t you send your own correspondents and photographers to the area? I inquire. "We will, we will, I assure you. I was just making sure..."

In any case, look at what the ambassador of China has himself said, I remarked. Remember, just days before Hu Jintao, the Chinese President, was to come to India, the ambassador declared, right here on Indian soil, that Arunachal is a part of China...

"But maybe he was saying it for rhetorical effect," said the anchor.

Rhetorical effect? I skipped a heartbeat. Is the Chinese Ambassador also running after TRP ratings like the TV channels? Would an ambassador say such things just for effect? And that too the ambassador of China, of all countries? You mean an ambassador, you mean the ambassador of China of all countries would claim the territory of the country to which he is accredited, that he would lay claim to an entire state of that country for rhetorical effect? I asked. And remember, I pointed out, he repeated the claim in Chandigarh later. And look at the government of China — it has not distanced itself from the claim advanced by its ambassador. On the contrary, its ‘think-tanks’ have held ‘seminars’ in the wake of the ambassador’s statement. In this the ‘scholars’ and ‘diplomats’ and ‘strategic thinkers’ have declared to the man that Arunachal is ‘Chinese territory under India’s forcible occupation’; that it is ‘China’s Tawang region’; that it is ‘Southern Tibet’ which must be brought under the control of the Tibet Autonomous Region. And you call this rhetorical? That is just lunatic...

The anchor was off to the next item. "Be that as it may... Another controversy... Thank you, Mr Shourie. Always a pleasure talking to you. Moving now to a slightly less controversial story..." "SHILPA SHETTY," he said, his voice rising, "has not been in the news since the famous Richard Gere kiss, but we have her back today. Here she is, SHILPA SHETTY..."

The sound on my earpiece cut. Shilpa Shetty had once again trumped poor Arunachal.

Photographs: The Daily Mail, London

Read the full article: Shilpa Shetty trumps Arunachal again

Also read: Kissing is not part of our culture? Pissing is?

Cross-posted on churumuri