Categories
Web

Quick note before bed

Phil Pearson is talking about the project I’ve been working on for Broadband Mechanics the last few weeks. I’m not working on the Structured Blogging component; I’m creating a middleware server called Outputthis.

A limited version of the service will be up for Tuesday for the Big Rollout, and then I need to add the rest: autodiscovery of web services through RSD; full update and delete for the Profile and Targets. But it should be enough for demonstration purposes and alpha testing/use on Tuesday.

Outputthis provides services that allow you to register weblogs or other resources that you might want to post to through the Structured Blogging “Blog This!” functionality. When you click the Blog This button, one of my services returns a list of weblogs, you check which ones you want, click the button and the next thing you know: the post has been posted to all the sites.

Right now, we’re upgrading the database and I’m fighting a really odd incompatibility between mcrypt and the xml_parser so it’s not running; something I’ll fix in the morning. Besides, it’s too early to turn it on–the rollout is Tuesday, and the focus at the party will be on the web 2.0 stuff like the Structured Blogging plugins (which are impressive); not the web 1.0 stuff, like Outputthis.

In the meantime, whatever Phil and Kimbro and the others have done with the SB plugin is not forking.

Categories
Media

Saturday matinee: It’s a raging squid!

I watched the Japanese movie The Calamari Wrestler and it meets or exceeds all expectations when you consider the premise: wrestler dies and re-incarnates as a giant squid and goes on to challenge all comers in the ring.

There is no pretense about the creature–it is obviously a man in a squid suit, with eyes that move about (though they sometimes stick, which is a bit unnerving to see). He has his arms inserted into two of the tentacles and then waves them madly about. All emotional expression is managed with body movements, and the exaggerated nature of mannerisms typical in these types of movies works rather well.

Favorite quotes and scenes from the movie:

“I have no giant squid friends!”

The giant squid seated in zen meditation. The giant squid getting out of an elevator. The giant squid making love (what was all of that in the background?) The giant squid wrestling. The giant squid.

“Joint locks don’t work on an invertebrate. They’re too slippery.”

The giant squid has a wet dream, and it literally becomes a wet dream. Nothing like a sweaty squid.

The giant squid trying to be incognito by wearing sunglasses.

“You want me to date a giant squid? But he has been banned from wrestling–how could he support me?” (Not exact wording but close.)

The scene where the romantically rejected squid is dejectedly walking home, tentacles waving about, back-lit by the setting sun was a kicker. But not as much as watching the squid skip about with the woman of his dreams.

Is it a ‘good’ movie? Define ‘good’. From what Cinema Strikes Back writes:

Right up front, I have to say Calamari Wrestler is not a “good” movie. The budget is miniscule, the acting is broad, the plot meanders, and, obviously, the whole movie is completely ridiculous. However, none of that stops this from being a great piece of entertainment.

The writer went on to compliment the costumes of the creatures, and I agree: they weren’t real, but they were art (something lost in today’s hunt for ‘realism’ in fictional works.)

The Calamari Wrestler is both spoof and a commentary on the Japanese Professional Wrestling association, and from a wrestler featured in the movie and other scenes, must be as truthful and believable as our own American form of the sport. It is a silly movie, but played straight; increasing the entertainment value and the humor in my opinion.

However, there are some other aspects of the movie that seemed quite serious and I wondered how much of it reflects underlying Japanese perceptions and attitudes. For instance, Japanese professional wrestling is seen in the movie as the wind behind the wings of spirit (if I remember the term correctly) that gave heart to the Japanese when they were occupied by the US. No, the ‘hated’ US was the term used.

The movie also had, I thought, overtones of race and class differences–subtle, and not so subtle–such as the health of the giant squid being a measure of the ‘whiteness’ of its skin. I wish I was more familiar with Japanese culture and history because this movie is (for all its Saturday matinee cheesy monsters) subtly nuanced. I think the director targetted more than just Japanese professional wrestling with Calamari.

Do I recommend it? Yes! But only for those people who get to the end of this post and think to themselves, “I have to rent this!” If you do, don’t suspend belief with this movie; you’ll enjoy it so much more if you accept it completely at face value.

Next week: the matinee movie Dogora

Categories
Stuff

It’s a raging squid!

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

I watched the Japanese movie The Calamari Wrestler and it meets or exceeds all expectations when you consider the premise: wrestler dies and re-incarnates as a giant squid and goes on to challenge all comers in the ring.

There is no pretense about the creature–it is obviously a man in a squid suit, with eyes that move about (though they sometimes stick, which is a bit unnerving to see). He has his arms inserted into two of the tentacles and then waves them madly about. All emotional expression is managed with body movements, and the exaggerated nature of mannerisms typical in these types of movies works rather well.

Favorite quotes and scenes from the movie:

“I have no giant squid friends!”

The giant squid seated in zen meditation. The giant squid getting out of an elevator. The giant squid making love (what was all of that in the background?) The giant squid wrestling. The giant squid.

“Joint locks don’t work on an invertebrate. They’re too slippery.”

The giant squid has a wet dream, and it literally becomes a wet dream. Nothing like a sweaty squid.

The giant squid trying to be incognito by wearing sunglasses.

“You want me to date a giant squid? But he has been banned from wrestling–how could he support me?” (Not exact wording but close.)

The scene where the romantically rejected squid is dejectedly walking home, tentacles waving about, back-lit by the setting sun was a kicker. But not as much as watching the squid skip about with the woman of his dreams.

Is it a ‘good’ movie? Define ‘good’. From what Cinema Strikes Back writes:

Right up front, I have to say Calamari Wrestler is not a “good” movie. The budget is miniscule, the acting is broad, the plot meanders, and, obviously, the whole movie is completely ridiculous. However, none of that stops this from being a great piece of entertainment.

The writer went on to compliment the costumes of the creatures, and I agree: they weren’t real, but they were art (something lost in today’s hunt for ‘realism’ in fictional works.)

The Calamari Wrestler is both spoof and a commentary on the Japanese Professional Wrestling association, and from a wrestler featured in the movie and other scenes, must be as truthful and believable as our own American form of the sport. It is a silly movie, but played straight; increasing the entertainment value and the humor in my opinion.

However, there are some other aspects of the movie that seemed quite serious and I wondered how much of it reflects underlying Japanese perceptions and attitudes. For instance, Japanese professional wrestling is seen in the movie as the wind behind the wings of spirit (if I remember the term correctly) that gave heart to the Japanese when they were occupied by the US. No, the ‘hated’ US was the term used.

The movie also had, I thought, overtones of race and class differences–subtle, and not so subtle–such as the health of the giant squid being a measure of the ‘whiteness’ of its skin. I wish I was more familiar with Japanese culture and history because this movie is (for all its Saturday matinee cheesy monsters) subtly nuanced. I think the director targetted more than just Japanese professional wrestling with Calamari.

Do I recommend it? Yes! But only for those people who get to the end of this post and think to themselves, “I have to rent this!” If you do, don’t suspend belief with this movie; you’ll enjoy it so much more if you accept it completely at face value.

Categories
Weblogging

Slingshot

I still find the reaction regarding Mena Trott’s and Ben Metcalf’s little contretemps at Les Blogs to be very interesting. The concensus seems to be that Trott lost it, and Metcalf was cool under fire, especially considering that he was unexpectedly told to stand up during this conference.

In comments to Metcalf’s post, Dave Rogers:

Although I’m no fan of IRC backchannels during a presentation, I saw the video available on the web and I think you conducted yourself quite well under the circumstances. I think it was an interesting event, which gives us much to think about (though not many will, I’m afraid).

Also in comments Ian Forrester writes:

The reason why nothing was accomplished, could be for the exact reasons of what Ben was getting at? Cultural differences… Unless people like Ben stand up and call people on these things, we will never deal with the core issue.

about the actual timeframe
I’m not saying I’m totally supporting Ben in the way it came about but if you step back for one second. Mena was a speaker presenting, she understands not everyone will be in agreement. And to be fair to Ben, he did not plan to interupting her talk. He didnt shout her down and was actually listening to her. He was using the backchannel to voice his views like many others which is exactly what its there for!

Liz Lawley writes on the power difference, speaker to audience member:

Nobody seems to be acknowleding the huge power differentials that come into play there, and it’s simply *not* the same thing as making comments in the backchannel. For her to comment on and respond to Ben’s remarks are one thing (although civility in her response would have gone much further towards furthering her call for civility from others). For her to swear at him from the podium and and call him out is something quite different.

It’s also worth saying that there’s a difference between saying that a speaker’s remarks are bullshit, and saying that a person is an asshole. One is about content, the other is about personalities. I think Mena crossed a line there.

The Blog Herald writes, in sensational script:

Mena Trott has lost the plot again, this time in France during the Les Blogs conference…interrupting her speech to single out a blogger who had dared criticise her speech as part of a back channel discussion on it, and called him an Asshole and also dropped the F word….get this….during a speech in which she was imploring people to be more civil to each other.

The victim of Mena’s breakdown, Ben Metcalfe comes to his own defence on his blog…

The victim of Mena’s breakdown… Oh my God! Whatever you do, don’t let Mena on an airplane!

I wonder what people’s reactions would be if Metcalf were to jump up during Trott’s talk and suddenly burst out with, “This is just bullshit.” By doing this virtually rather than physically, is he somehow absolved of any responsibility in inciting Trott’s reaction?

Don Park takes a more zen view of the whole thing:

Civility is nice but, as a norm everyone must follow, it’s as comfortable as a bowtie to a person who is more used to baremetal communication. So called baremetal communication has a price too in that folks raised in more civil surroundings feel offended easily and noise called emotions intervenes. In the end, I believe tolerance (elasity) supercedes both civility (curve) and frankness (line).

To sum it up, my advice is to:

1. be civil mostly.
2. be direct when civility intereferes more than helps.
3. be tolerant always

I liked what Don wrote, but it reminded me of a slingshot.

My own reaction to the events is to be appalled, furiously so at first, that the conference organizers actually put a huge screen behind the speakers where anyone could post either backchannel IRC communications, photos, or what have you. The only reason I can assume they did so is because they knew that they had to use whatever gimmick they could to attach the audience’s attention, in an age where conferences of this nature occur every 2-3 months.

If this was the strategy, it worked, but then that’s all that’s being discussed from the conference, as Salvor Videoblogging points out:

It is interesting to observe what parts of LesBlogs 2.0 conference gets most attention. The most popular flickr lesblogs photo is of one of the keynote speakers sleeping during one of the sessions (video here) and the most talked about event right now seem to be when one of the keynote speakers confronted one of the people in the audience who had been fooling around on the backchannel. Why are these images of the conference so powerful?

(Marc Canter’s reactions to the photo being displayed behind him during his panel. BTW Marc, my name is spelled Shelley. That’s with an ‘E’ before the Y.)

Salvor’s question is the million dollar question: why are these images of the conference so powerful that nothing else will be remembered about the event other than these? In my opinion, it’s because they’re strong enough, emotionally, to grab an increasingly jaded audience.

This, then, leads to a question of my own: have we become emotional junkies? Do we need these confrontations in order to emotionally engage with a story? Have we run through so much writing and so many conferences and so many past discussions that it’s only the extreme of such that is capable of firing enough synapses in order to ‘hook’ us? Rarely can we find this level of interest about a piece of beautiful writing, or a joyful exchange between friends–the cross-weblog teasing and the learned discussions with respectful give and take between the participants.

If this emotional addiction is so, if in our insatiable need for more and more events that spark enough emotional connection to engage us and make us want to jump into, or perhaps a better word is slingshot into the fray, will acts such as these become the norm, rather than the exception?

I am suddenly overwhelmed with a need for something other: of beauty, of commonality, of humanity, of not this. Time to visit Wood s lot, a site created by Mark Woods who, I am fairly sure, cares nothing about anything I’ve just discussed.

Categories
Weather

First snow

We’re having our first snow of the season today. The level is already at 2 inches and could reach 4. We won’t get what the Northest is expecting to get tomorrow, but I like levels of snow that dust your toes, rather than dust your nose.

first snow

The first snow of the year always cheers me up. This has not been a happy few weeks for me, but it’s turning around, slowly. The snow, Photoshop’s performance in the new laptop (fast!), and cracking my Mom up during a long phone call last night, splurging and buying the “Pegasus” episode of Battlestar Galactica–mixed in with some other odds and ends, not to mention hearing from old friends, online and off, and the week will end better.

sun dial

I am finishing things: an edit, a writing, and an application. However, I am rewriting the application. Normally, re-working code isn’t fun, but in this case, it feels really good.

Christmas shrub