Very much a Faustian tale of our times, Garfield and Shannon do well to show how misfortune can shape men into monsters that prey, in turn, on the misfortune of others. Garfield is good, but, as you would expect in such a role, it's Shannon who gives the star turn (he won a couple of Best Supporting Actor awards). Recommended, but not easy viewing.
Saturday 24 December 2016
99 Homes
A topical drama from my Amazon subscription, Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) and his family are evicted from their home after losing his job and the court case against the bank. Through a twist of fate, he ends up working for Rick Carver (Michael Shannon), the man who evicted him, who then teaches him the ins and outs of the business.
Very much a Faustian tale of our times, Garfield and Shannon do well to show how misfortune can shape men into monsters that prey, in turn, on the misfortune of others. Garfield is good, but, as you would expect in such a role, it's Shannon who gives the star turn (he won a couple of Best Supporting Actor awards). Recommended, but not easy viewing.
Very much a Faustian tale of our times, Garfield and Shannon do well to show how misfortune can shape men into monsters that prey, in turn, on the misfortune of others. Garfield is good, but, as you would expect in such a role, it's Shannon who gives the star turn (he won a couple of Best Supporting Actor awards). Recommended, but not easy viewing.
Sunday 18 December 2016
Miller's Crossing
One of my favourite films, and one of the best and clever gangster films, is Miller's Crossing from the Cohen brothers starring Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney.
In debt due to a bad gambling habit, Tom Reagan (Byrne) tries to play his boss Leo O'Bannon (Finney) against upstart Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) when the two won't compromise over bad bookie Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro).
Although it's a complex film, and takes a few viewings to sort out who kills who and why, it's a good plot and well acted by Finney and Byrne, with a good supporting cast. It's even got a half-decent sound track. However, if you take one thing away from the film it's the sight of Finney in his dressing gown and slippers, firing a Thomson sub-machine gun with his house on fire behind him while "Danny Boy" thunders out. I cannot hear that song without smiling. Highly recommended.
In debt due to a bad gambling habit, Tom Reagan (Byrne) tries to play his boss Leo O'Bannon (Finney) against upstart Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito) when the two won't compromise over bad bookie Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro).
Although it's a complex film, and takes a few viewings to sort out who kills who and why, it's a good plot and well acted by Finney and Byrne, with a good supporting cast. It's even got a half-decent sound track. However, if you take one thing away from the film it's the sight of Finney in his dressing gown and slippers, firing a Thomson sub-machine gun with his house on fire behind him while "Danny Boy" thunders out. I cannot hear that song without smiling. Highly recommended.
Tuesday 22 November 2016
Trumbo
It's not often that Hollywood explores the darker side of it's past. There's films like The Player and Bowfinger, but they're comedies satirising, rather than narrating. This is a biopic of Dalton Trumbo, played by Bryan Cranston, a screen writer who was blacklisted in the late forties for being a communist, but who continued to work under pseudonoms for B-Movie studios, eventually earning two Oscars for Roman Holiday and The Brave One. He finally recieved credit for Spartacus, breaking the blacklist and allowing him to work again under his own name.
A brilliant film, well acted by Cranston and an excellent supporting cast including Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper, the gossip columnist and anti-communist, and Diane Lane as his wife Cleo. Recommended.
A brilliant film, well acted by Cranston and an excellent supporting cast including Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper, the gossip columnist and anti-communist, and Diane Lane as his wife Cleo. Recommended.
Monday 21 November 2016
Captain America: Civil War
The latest in the Avengers series out on DVD (Dr Strange is out at the Pictures) sees a plot to implicate the Winter Soldier, a.k.a. Captain America's (Chris Evans) friend and former comrade Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), in a series of terrorist attacks, forcing th' Cap into a confrontation with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), a.k.a. Iron Man.
This is a real step up from Avengers: Age of Ultron, with a complex (for Marvel) plot and the usual characters having to deal with personal conflicts, giving the actors something to bite on for a change outside of the action. The action scenes are well catered for, although I thought the airport scene was a bit drawn out, as if to fill out the perceived lack elsewhere. All-in-all, a superior pizza movie and recommended.
This is a real step up from Avengers: Age of Ultron, with a complex (for Marvel) plot and the usual characters having to deal with personal conflicts, giving the actors something to bite on for a change outside of the action. The action scenes are well catered for, although I thought the airport scene was a bit drawn out, as if to fill out the perceived lack elsewhere. All-in-all, a superior pizza movie and recommended.
Monday 14 November 2016
The Big Short
There aren't many films about the 2008 crash and what caused it, apart from the odd documentary (notably Inside Job, a 2010 film by Charles Ferguson), but there have been many books and one, written by Michael Lewis, who wrote Moneyball and Liars Poker, has been turned into a movie starring Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt.
Analysing the existing mortgage bond market, eccentric hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Bale) decides to "short" i.e. bet against the market, which he thinks will shortly collapse. He is followed by other hedge fund managers Mark Baum (Carell), Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock).
It must have been very difficult to portray the intricacies of what happened to an audience munching on their popcorn, but the use of celebrity asides, although corny, does work quite well and the moral outrage is expressed by Baum on the one hand and Ben Rickert (Pitt) on the other rings true. That it was allowed to happen at all and that others didn't spot the problems sooner is the truly amazing part.
Analysing the existing mortgage bond market, eccentric hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Bale) decides to "short" i.e. bet against the market, which he thinks will shortly collapse. He is followed by other hedge fund managers Mark Baum (Carell), Charlie Geller (John Magaro) and Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock).
It must have been very difficult to portray the intricacies of what happened to an audience munching on their popcorn, but the use of celebrity asides, although corny, does work quite well and the moral outrage is expressed by Baum on the one hand and Ben Rickert (Pitt) on the other rings true. That it was allowed to happen at all and that others didn't spot the problems sooner is the truly amazing part.
Saturday 12 November 2016
Comfort and Joy
From my Amazon subscription, this is a light comedy og the 1980's by Bill Forsyth (who directed Local Hero and Gregory's Girl). Radio presenter, Alan "Dickie" Bird (Bill Paterson) is having difficulty adjusting when his girlfriend suddenly leaves him and gets involved in a conflict between two rival ice cream van families.
Perhaps a little too light for my taste (as where the other films from Forsyth), it is a bit of a relic of a previous age. It's acted well enough by Paterson and the rest of the cast (Clare Grogan, from Altered Images, plays the femme fatale, so it's worth watching for that alone), but the ending does seem to be a bit false, given the violence and the reality of the so-called Ice Cream wars in Glasgow at the time.
Perhaps a little too light for my taste (as where the other films from Forsyth), it is a bit of a relic of a previous age. It's acted well enough by Paterson and the rest of the cast (Clare Grogan, from Altered Images, plays the femme fatale, so it's worth watching for that alone), but the ending does seem to be a bit false, given the violence and the reality of the so-called Ice Cream wars in Glasgow at the time.
Friday 4 November 2016
Nebraska
No, not the Bruce Springsteen album, but a light comedy starring Bruce Dern, who played the Cop in The Driver all those years ago. A confused Woody Grant (Dern) keeps trying to get to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim a $1 Million prize, much to the consternation of his wife (June Squibb) and his sons David (Will Forte) and Ross (Bob Odenkirk, better known as Saul Goodman from Better Call Saul). David eventually relents and takes his father on a road trip via the town where he grew up.
Although a slight film, it does have it's moments, such as when the boys steal a compressor to get back at old rival of their fathers', and the criminally inept cousins, and it does have a genuine warmth. Dern acts a great role effortlessly and ably supported by June Squibb and the rest of the cast. Recommended.
Although a slight film, it does have it's moments, such as when the boys steal a compressor to get back at old rival of their fathers', and the criminally inept cousins, and it does have a genuine warmth. Dern acts a great role effortlessly and ably supported by June Squibb and the rest of the cast. Recommended.
Monday 31 October 2016
Love and Mercy
Another film from the Amazon subscription, this charts both the decline into mental illness and eventual recovery of Brian Wilson, the songwriter behind the Beachboys' many hits.
Told in two parts side-by-side, with Paul Dano playing the younger Brian and John Cusack playing the older, the film shows how drugs and the pressure to create lead to his mental breakdown, but also his eventual recovery thanks to his then girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) rescuing him from the clutches of a dubious and controlling psychiatrist (Paul Giamatti). Like most bio-pics, it must be taken with a pinch of salt and I would imagine that the reality was a lot more complicated. However, Brian's eventual completion of his master work, Smile, gives testament to his recovery and innate genius. Recommended.
Told in two parts side-by-side, with Paul Dano playing the younger Brian and John Cusack playing the older, the film shows how drugs and the pressure to create lead to his mental breakdown, but also his eventual recovery thanks to his then girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks) rescuing him from the clutches of a dubious and controlling psychiatrist (Paul Giamatti). Like most bio-pics, it must be taken with a pinch of salt and I would imagine that the reality was a lot more complicated. However, Brian's eventual completion of his master work, Smile, gives testament to his recovery and innate genius. Recommended.
Sunday 23 October 2016
Citizenfour
This is a documentary describing the meeting between Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden regarding the latter's whistle-blowing on the NSA (and other agencies) collection and use of personal data from the internet and other sources.
The initial impression I get about Snowden is that his actions were motivated by utopian ideals. That the internet should be a free and open society of equals. That the spy agencies are hoovering up vast quantities of data by subverting the ISP's and other involved companies would hardly be surprising even to the most naive. That's what spy agencies do: spy. Whether it's on each other, us, companies, a man preparing to blow himself up to further his cause, it doesn't matter, except after the fact. In other words, it's what the spying is for that matters and the main accusation of the film against the US government is that this is being done for profit, rather than protection, to screw over other countries rather than to protect itself and others. The argument against this is that security can mean economic as well as physical, but the best economic security is good government and administration, effective diplomacy, not spying.
The film ends on rather a romantic note, with Snowden's girlfriend joining him in Russia despite all the problems she must have gone through to do so.
The initial impression I get about Snowden is that his actions were motivated by utopian ideals. That the internet should be a free and open society of equals. That the spy agencies are hoovering up vast quantities of data by subverting the ISP's and other involved companies would hardly be surprising even to the most naive. That's what spy agencies do: spy. Whether it's on each other, us, companies, a man preparing to blow himself up to further his cause, it doesn't matter, except after the fact. In other words, it's what the spying is for that matters and the main accusation of the film against the US government is that this is being done for profit, rather than protection, to screw over other countries rather than to protect itself and others. The argument against this is that security can mean economic as well as physical, but the best economic security is good government and administration, effective diplomacy, not spying.
The film ends on rather a romantic note, with Snowden's girlfriend joining him in Russia despite all the problems she must have gone through to do so.
Thursday 20 October 2016
BBC Micro:bit at Home
Yes, folks,I decides to raid the piggy bank a little and get a BBC Micro:bit from those rather lovely people at "Technology Will Save Us!":
As well as the basic package, they give you a few bits to play around with. However, they don't give you a prototyping board, which would have been handy, but you can get those from Maplin. It looks pretty and when you plug it in to the battery pack it does a little start up routine that's pretty awesome for such a small device. Cute!
As well as the basic package, they give you a few bits to play around with. However, they don't give you a prototyping board, which would have been handy, but you can get those from Maplin. It looks pretty and when you plug it in to the battery pack it does a little start up routine that's pretty awesome for such a small device. Cute!
Wednesday 19 October 2016
Badoo Londroid
Just for giggle, and potentially free food, I went to a meeting of that alternative Java (i.e. Android) development group Londroid, sponsored by Badoo, a social networking tool, and hosted at Skill Matter/CodeNode. William Gibson once refered to Britain as Mirror World, like America but oddly different, and the same is true of Android to Java. It's where the Java desktop world went when the internet turned up and everything went all server-side, so the meeting had a certain surreal quality for me.
It also gave me the excuse to meetup with my erstwhile colleague Matt, who has finally had enough of working for airline companies and has gone contacting at a fitness firm. Very fitting.
Building a framework with Clean Architecture with Rich King
First up was Rich from the sponsor Badoo. Rich discussed how the Clean Architecure principals, as described in "Uncle" Bob Martin's blog post, impacted on the development of the Badoo Android application. Here's a description of Clean from the man himself:
What Rich described in his presentation is separating the parts of the system into domains (shades of DDD here), usually done in the Java world when designing for a Microservice architecture. Because of the limited nature of the Android platform, all this is in what might be described as a micro-monolith (think there's a niche for nano-services on Android?). All-in-all a nice presentation, only spoilt by ghost transmissions from the presentation upstairs.
Presentation Patterns Using Rx with Yoel Gluschnaider and Flavio Zanda
Although there are no Spring-like frameworks in Android, again due to the limitations of platform, RxJava has taken off somewhat, mostly as a more sophisticated option or supplement to data-binding.
However, there's still a need for what frameworks usually implement, in this case the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern for managing the interactions between the screen and what goes on the the back. Alternatives to this pattern are the Model-View-Presentor (MVP) and the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) patterns. The former, and the one they recommended, is a variation on MVC pattern and, like this, the view makes a request to the controller and the controller consults the model about how to respond. MVC assumes the controller is pretty dumb, just acting as a junction box separating the View from the Model. MVP moves most of the decision making to the controller, to the point that View does almost nothing (a Passive View pattern, as it's been called). MVVM is more complicated, by the sounds of it, and I haven't had time to do any research on it at the moment, but that looks interesting.
Yoel and Flavio's talk was very engaging and only marred by the fact that everyone was hungry by the end and expecting the promised food. This was at a place over towards Old Street and well out of my way, so I made my excuses and left the group hungry (for knowledge as well).
It also gave me the excuse to meetup with my erstwhile colleague Matt, who has finally had enough of working for airline companies and has gone contacting at a fitness firm. Very fitting.
Building a framework with Clean Architecture with Rich King
First up was Rich from the sponsor Badoo. Rich discussed how the Clean Architecure principals, as described in "Uncle" Bob Martin's blog post, impacted on the development of the Badoo Android application. Here's a description of Clean from the man himself:
What Rich described in his presentation is separating the parts of the system into domains (shades of DDD here), usually done in the Java world when designing for a Microservice architecture. Because of the limited nature of the Android platform, all this is in what might be described as a micro-monolith (think there's a niche for nano-services on Android?). All-in-all a nice presentation, only spoilt by ghost transmissions from the presentation upstairs.
Presentation Patterns Using Rx with Yoel Gluschnaider and Flavio Zanda
Although there are no Spring-like frameworks in Android, again due to the limitations of platform, RxJava has taken off somewhat, mostly as a more sophisticated option or supplement to data-binding.
However, there's still a need for what frameworks usually implement, in this case the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern for managing the interactions between the screen and what goes on the the back. Alternatives to this pattern are the Model-View-Presentor (MVP) and the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) patterns. The former, and the one they recommended, is a variation on MVC pattern and, like this, the view makes a request to the controller and the controller consults the model about how to respond. MVC assumes the controller is pretty dumb, just acting as a junction box separating the View from the Model. MVP moves most of the decision making to the controller, to the point that View does almost nothing (a Passive View pattern, as it's been called). MVVM is more complicated, by the sounds of it, and I haven't had time to do any research on it at the moment, but that looks interesting.
Yoel and Flavio's talk was very engaging and only marred by the fact that everyone was hungry by the end and expecting the promised food. This was at a place over towards Old Street and well out of my way, so I made my excuses and left the group hungry (for knowledge as well).
Tuesday 11 October 2016
Domain Driven Design London - The Three Real Problems in Software Development
Yes, I thought there would have been a few more. This was a presentation I attended at Skills Matter/CodeNode, just off Broadgate, by Pete Smith.
The three problems, as Pete sees it, are:
The three problems, as Pete sees it, are:
- grouping and separating the work into domains, both in terms of software and teams;
- using the tools and technology wisely;
- communication.
Sunday 9 October 2016
The Economic Singularity with Calum Chace
Have a little time on my hands these days, I went to see a presentation hosted by the London Futurists concerning the impact of artificial intelligence on the world economy. Chace is the author of two books concerning AI:
The first concerns what he terms the technical singularity. This is where AI becomes smarter than humans, attains consciousness, etc. The second book, the main subject of the presentation, concerns the impact of current AI developments on work and society. Jobs that we currently consider safe today, lawyers, truck drivers, doctors, etc. will be replaced by neural network-based AI's. This will lead to social instability and calls for economic reform, leading to a basic universal income state, with AI, or AI supported elites, making the decisions. Sounds awful. The banality of the future.
Back in the real world, the Oxfam shop has been flourishing due to the new precinct opening nearby, what Mark called The John Lewis Effect. "We're a Destination shop now", he proclaimed, to mutual joviality.
The first concerns what he terms the technical singularity. This is where AI becomes smarter than humans, attains consciousness, etc. The second book, the main subject of the presentation, concerns the impact of current AI developments on work and society. Jobs that we currently consider safe today, lawyers, truck drivers, doctors, etc. will be replaced by neural network-based AI's. This will lead to social instability and calls for economic reform, leading to a basic universal income state, with AI, or AI supported elites, making the decisions. Sounds awful. The banality of the future.
Back in the real world, the Oxfam shop has been flourishing due to the new precinct opening nearby, what Mark called The John Lewis Effect. "We're a Destination shop now", he proclaimed, to mutual joviality.
Monday 26 September 2016
Taxi Tehran
Iranian film director Jafar Panahi travels around his home city of Tehran in a taxi, recording conversations with his fares.
A surprisingly engaging movie, somewhat staged. Panahi's fares include a midget bootleg video dealer; two old dears trying to get to a sacred spring to release some goldfish; Panahi's precocious niece and a woman taking roses to a political prisoner on hunger strike.
Panahi is not allowed to make movies by order of the Iranian censor, so the film is also a bootleg, of sorts. Recommended.
A surprisingly engaging movie, somewhat staged. Panahi's fares include a midget bootleg video dealer; two old dears trying to get to a sacred spring to release some goldfish; Panahi's precocious niece and a woman taking roses to a political prisoner on hunger strike.
Panahi is not allowed to make movies by order of the Iranian censor, so the film is also a bootleg, of sorts. Recommended.
Sunday 11 September 2016
Bad Cop, Worse Cop - Precinct Seven Five
Among the latest films from my Amazon DVD subscription was this documentary about corruption in the NYPD's 75th Precinct (Brooklyn) in the late 1980's, centred on Officers Michael Dowd and Kenny Eurell.
This is an excellent documentary, both harrowing and comical, as Dowd and Eurell relate their gradual slide into criminality from robbing drug dealers to protecting them and their business (shades of the "New York's Finest Taxi Service" in The Usual Suspects), to eventually dealing themselves, all the while being documented by a Federal operation into corruption at the precinct. Highly recommended.
This is an excellent documentary, both harrowing and comical, as Dowd and Eurell relate their gradual slide into criminality from robbing drug dealers to protecting them and their business (shades of the "New York's Finest Taxi Service" in The Usual Suspects), to eventually dealing themselves, all the while being documented by a Federal operation into corruption at the precinct. Highly recommended.
Sunday 4 September 2016
Marxists Behaving Badly - The Baader Meinhof Complex, Lone Star and Hitman: Agent 47
An update on my latest movie viewing, first up is a German language film given to me a few years ago by my mate John.
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Interpreting a death of a protester at a rally and an assassination attempt on a left-wing leader as government crypto-fascism, Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu), Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) and Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) form the Red Army Faction (RAF) to hit back.
The movie tries to be as even-handed to the protagonists as it can while not disguising the horror perpetrated by them (and, to some extent, to them), but can't help but paint Baader and Ensslin as a kind of left-wing Bonnie and Clyde, with Meinhof providing the ideology. The RAF dissolved in the late 90's, but a recent attempted bank robbery has been linked to some former members.
Hitman: Agent 47
A sequel to Hitman, which I blogged about a couple of years back, this has Rupert Friend in the title role, taking over from Timothy Oliphant, who obviously got a better gig elsewhere. Trying to find her father, Katia van Dees (Hannah Ware) becomes a target of two mysterious organisations.
Although an inferior remake of the original, it's also not a half-bad pizza movie, mostly due to Zachary Quinto as the antagonist. And it could have been worse. It could have been Pixels.
Lone Star
Made in the 1990's and written and directed by John Sayles, this is one of my all-time favourite films. Sheriff Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) investigates the death of one of his corrupt predecessors, Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson), while rekindling a romance with a former flame (Elizabeth Peña).
Told mostly in flashback as Sam tries to establish how much his father, played by Matthew McConaughey, was involved in the death of Wade, the film is only a whodunnit on the surface and at it's heart centres around the unfinished romance between Sam and Pilar. A rare and beautiful film and highly recommended.
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Interpreting a death of a protester at a rally and an assassination attempt on a left-wing leader as government crypto-fascism, Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu), Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) and Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) form the Red Army Faction (RAF) to hit back.
The movie tries to be as even-handed to the protagonists as it can while not disguising the horror perpetrated by them (and, to some extent, to them), but can't help but paint Baader and Ensslin as a kind of left-wing Bonnie and Clyde, with Meinhof providing the ideology. The RAF dissolved in the late 90's, but a recent attempted bank robbery has been linked to some former members.
Hitman: Agent 47
A sequel to Hitman, which I blogged about a couple of years back, this has Rupert Friend in the title role, taking over from Timothy Oliphant, who obviously got a better gig elsewhere. Trying to find her father, Katia van Dees (Hannah Ware) becomes a target of two mysterious organisations.
Although an inferior remake of the original, it's also not a half-bad pizza movie, mostly due to Zachary Quinto as the antagonist. And it could have been worse. It could have been Pixels.
Lone Star
Made in the 1990's and written and directed by John Sayles, this is one of my all-time favourite films. Sheriff Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) investigates the death of one of his corrupt predecessors, Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson), while rekindling a romance with a former flame (Elizabeth Peña).
Told mostly in flashback as Sam tries to establish how much his father, played by Matthew McConaughey, was involved in the death of Wade, the film is only a whodunnit on the surface and at it's heart centres around the unfinished romance between Sam and Pilar. A rare and beautiful film and highly recommended.
Monday 29 August 2016
The Voynich Manuscript
It's not very often I write anything about the shop these days. I volunteer on Sundays and it's mostly uneventful. However, a few weeks back I spotted a book on the mysterious Voynich Manuscript.
The manuscript purports to be an illustrated book written in medieval times in an encrypted or invented language that no one can decipher. The book details the history of the Manuscipt to date and describes how codes and cyphers work, as they apply to the Manuscript. It looks a good book and it had been priced at £15, which I thought was a little steep.
Last week, the i newspaper (the cut-down version of the Independent) had an article on the Manuscript saying that a Spanish publisher had been given access to the original document with a view to making folio copies for sale at £6K a pop. Nice work if you can get it. I showed it to Mark and had a quick look at the book, which was still on the shelf. Someone had reduced the price to £10, which I think was reasonable, so I snapped it up.
Mark commented that he'd discussed it with Howard, who I've had odd dealings with in the past, but no conversations as such. Mark said that the conversation descended to the point where Howard claimed that he'd been abducted by aliens "near Norwich". Obviously, that's because it's a lot flatter country around there for them to land.
The manuscript purports to be an illustrated book written in medieval times in an encrypted or invented language that no one can decipher. The book details the history of the Manuscipt to date and describes how codes and cyphers work, as they apply to the Manuscript. It looks a good book and it had been priced at £15, which I thought was a little steep.
Last week, the i newspaper (the cut-down version of the Independent) had an article on the Manuscript saying that a Spanish publisher had been given access to the original document with a view to making folio copies for sale at £6K a pop. Nice work if you can get it. I showed it to Mark and had a quick look at the book, which was still on the shelf. Someone had reduced the price to £10, which I think was reasonable, so I snapped it up.
Mark commented that he'd discussed it with Howard, who I've had odd dealings with in the past, but no conversations as such. Mark said that the conversation descended to the point where Howard claimed that he'd been abducted by aliens "near Norwich". Obviously, that's because it's a lot flatter country around there for them to land.
Saturday 27 August 2016
3D Printing - At Last!
Yus, folks, I'm finally printing out plastic objects (it's called PLA: poly lactic acid):
The object on the left is a chess piece and on the right is what is called a Nautilus Gear, normally used as a demonstration piece for 3D printing, as it's difficult to make any other way. The pieces have a sort of fibrous quality, being made of strands of plastic rather than one piece, so there's both strength and lightness.
I took a video of the printer in operation:
The process is very laborious as it requires me to wipe away surplus plastic from around the nozzle (the seal isn't quite good enough) every five minutes or so. It's also slow, taking about two hours each to create the two pieces.
The series hasn't quite finished as they want to include a cover, but it seems good enough as it is.
The object on the left is a chess piece and on the right is what is called a Nautilus Gear, normally used as a demonstration piece for 3D printing, as it's difficult to make any other way. The pieces have a sort of fibrous quality, being made of strands of plastic rather than one piece, so there's both strength and lightness.
I took a video of the printer in operation:
The process is very laborious as it requires me to wipe away surplus plastic from around the nozzle (the seal isn't quite good enough) every five minutes or so. It's also slow, taking about two hours each to create the two pieces.
The series hasn't quite finished as they want to include a cover, but it seems good enough as it is.
Wednesday 17 August 2016
Multimedia Mayhem - Injection, Life, and others
This is a broad collection of what I've been soaking my brain in over the last few weeks, a mixture of movies and comics. First up, my latest reads in the comics media.
Descender
Written by Jeff Lemire and illustrated by Dustin Nguyen, this is the story of an artificial boy, TIM, trying to find his human "brother" many years after a cataclysmic attack on the human/alien civilisation by the robotic Harvesters.
Drawn using what looks like watercolours, Nguyen and Lemire have conjured up a fascinating and engaging story of TIM's journey to find Andy (who's since grown up and become a robot bounty-hunter). The style is unusual and, although it doesn't always work for me, I've stuck with it as I like the story and the characters, even Andy.
The Sheriff of Babylon
In the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, Christopher Henry, a military contractor hired by the administration to train the new police force, tries to find out who has killed one of his recruits.
Tom King (writer) and Mitch Gerdas (artist) have woven a labyrinthine plot of cops, insurgents and other opportunists in a murder mystery set in Baghdad just after the fall of Saddam. King (probably a pseudonym as he's a former CIA officer) has managed to convey the confusion of post-Saddam Iraq where no-one is quite who they seem. Gerdas' art is subtle enough to shock you at the horror of the carnage without distracting from the story. Overall, it's slow going, but it's more than worth the effort and I'm looking forward to the next volume.
Life
A movie, just to break things up a little. This is a biopic of the encounter between photographer Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) and James Dean (Dane DeHaan) just before the premier of East of Eden and Dean's subsequent fame.
Directed by Anton Corbijn (I've seen quite a few of his movies: The American, A Most Wanted Man and now this), it takes a while to get into. This is partly because DeHaan's voice sounds so dull and flat (the sound quality is generally bad throughout), but also because the pace is slow, building up the frustration that mirrors Stock's as he tries to get the essence of Dean onto film. Stock made the iconic photos of Dean that everyone now knows and that featured in the Life magazine article, making Dean famous, and this lends the film a quiet poetry that makes it worth watching to the end. Recommended, but not for the impatient.
Injection
Authored by Warren Ellis, who lives futher down the Thames Delta, this is illustrated by Declan Shalvey. A team of experts try to create a new kind of artificial intelligence by fusing magic and technology, with disastrous results.
A sort of fusion itself, Injection mingles elements of Hellblazer with Neuromancer and James Bond, but Ellis is good enough to bring off what could have been a real mess, making it a delight to read. The characters are engaging, although the agent character, Simeon Winters, has yet to be significant, as is the logician Vivek Headland. The art is also excellent, combing the mythical with the technological. Ellis is also writing Trees with artist Jason Howard, which I'm also reading, an alien invasion story. His work is always worth reading and he's got an interesting newsletter, Orbital Operations, that I subscribe to.
Descender
Written by Jeff Lemire and illustrated by Dustin Nguyen, this is the story of an artificial boy, TIM, trying to find his human "brother" many years after a cataclysmic attack on the human/alien civilisation by the robotic Harvesters.
Drawn using what looks like watercolours, Nguyen and Lemire have conjured up a fascinating and engaging story of TIM's journey to find Andy (who's since grown up and become a robot bounty-hunter). The style is unusual and, although it doesn't always work for me, I've stuck with it as I like the story and the characters, even Andy.
The Sheriff of Babylon
In the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad, Christopher Henry, a military contractor hired by the administration to train the new police force, tries to find out who has killed one of his recruits.
Tom King (writer) and Mitch Gerdas (artist) have woven a labyrinthine plot of cops, insurgents and other opportunists in a murder mystery set in Baghdad just after the fall of Saddam. King (probably a pseudonym as he's a former CIA officer) has managed to convey the confusion of post-Saddam Iraq where no-one is quite who they seem. Gerdas' art is subtle enough to shock you at the horror of the carnage without distracting from the story. Overall, it's slow going, but it's more than worth the effort and I'm looking forward to the next volume.
Life
A movie, just to break things up a little. This is a biopic of the encounter between photographer Dennis Stock (Robert Pattinson) and James Dean (Dane DeHaan) just before the premier of East of Eden and Dean's subsequent fame.
Directed by Anton Corbijn (I've seen quite a few of his movies: The American, A Most Wanted Man and now this), it takes a while to get into. This is partly because DeHaan's voice sounds so dull and flat (the sound quality is generally bad throughout), but also because the pace is slow, building up the frustration that mirrors Stock's as he tries to get the essence of Dean onto film. Stock made the iconic photos of Dean that everyone now knows and that featured in the Life magazine article, making Dean famous, and this lends the film a quiet poetry that makes it worth watching to the end. Recommended, but not for the impatient.
Injection
Authored by Warren Ellis, who lives futher down the Thames Delta, this is illustrated by Declan Shalvey. A team of experts try to create a new kind of artificial intelligence by fusing magic and technology, with disastrous results.
A sort of fusion itself, Injection mingles elements of Hellblazer with Neuromancer and James Bond, but Ellis is good enough to bring off what could have been a real mess, making it a delight to read. The characters are engaging, although the agent character, Simeon Winters, has yet to be significant, as is the logician Vivek Headland. The art is also excellent, combing the mythical with the technological. Ellis is also writing Trees with artist Jason Howard, which I'm also reading, an alien invasion story. His work is always worth reading and he's got an interesting newsletter, Orbital Operations, that I subscribe to.
Thursday 21 July 2016
It's Just Not Cricket! - Death of a Gentleman and Red Army
I've been watching two sports' documentaries, the first about cricket and the second about ice hockey, one about the future and the other about the past.
Death of a Gentleman
Two cricket mad journalists (Englishman Sam Collins and Australian Jarrod Kimber) try to find out if test cricket is dying out and if so why, mostly by following the career of test cricketer and Australian opening batsman Ed Cowan.
What starts out as a travelogue with the focus on test cricket matches turns out to be a sort of sports version of "All The President's Men", with Sam and Jarrod finding a trail of very suspicious dealings between the Australian, England and Wales, and Indian cricket boards to effectively take over the International Cricket Council (based now in Dubai!) at the expense of other ICC members. Mostly this is due to the sheer spending power of TV franchises centred around the Indian Premier League.
The IPL is based on Twenty20, a short version of the game akin to Sunday League cricket, and this has increased the popularity of the game, but to the detriment of test cricket, partly due to the different styles required, but mainly due to good players being unavailable having being "drafted" into the IPL, in a fashion similar to American sports.
It's unusual for a sports documentary to engage as well as this and, although it's a little melodramatic at times, it does show the corrosive and corrupting effect of money on sport and the people who run it. Recommended.
Red Army
By the 1980's, the U.S.S.R.'s national ice hockey team had come to dominate the Winter Olympics, frequently winning gold. With the invasion of Afghanistan and a potential boycott of the summer Olympics later that year looming, a clinching match took place between the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.
Centring on the Soviet team, especially the leader of the five most prominent players, "Slava" Fetisov, this is a window into that late Soviet era, complete with KGB minders, midnight arrests and defectors. It also shows how these players struggled to survive in the post-Soviet world, eventually teaming up to win the Stanley Cup in 1997 for the Detroit Red Wings. Recommended for fans and non-fans alike.
Death of a Gentleman
Two cricket mad journalists (Englishman Sam Collins and Australian Jarrod Kimber) try to find out if test cricket is dying out and if so why, mostly by following the career of test cricketer and Australian opening batsman Ed Cowan.
What starts out as a travelogue with the focus on test cricket matches turns out to be a sort of sports version of "All The President's Men", with Sam and Jarrod finding a trail of very suspicious dealings between the Australian, England and Wales, and Indian cricket boards to effectively take over the International Cricket Council (based now in Dubai!) at the expense of other ICC members. Mostly this is due to the sheer spending power of TV franchises centred around the Indian Premier League.
The IPL is based on Twenty20, a short version of the game akin to Sunday League cricket, and this has increased the popularity of the game, but to the detriment of test cricket, partly due to the different styles required, but mainly due to good players being unavailable having being "drafted" into the IPL, in a fashion similar to American sports.
It's unusual for a sports documentary to engage as well as this and, although it's a little melodramatic at times, it does show the corrosive and corrupting effect of money on sport and the people who run it. Recommended.
Red Army
By the 1980's, the U.S.S.R.'s national ice hockey team had come to dominate the Winter Olympics, frequently winning gold. With the invasion of Afghanistan and a potential boycott of the summer Olympics later that year looming, a clinching match took place between the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.
Centring on the Soviet team, especially the leader of the five most prominent players, "Slava" Fetisov, this is a window into that late Soviet era, complete with KGB minders, midnight arrests and defectors. It also shows how these players struggled to survive in the post-Soviet world, eventually teaming up to win the Stanley Cup in 1997 for the Detroit Red Wings. Recommended for fans and non-fans alike.
Sunday 10 July 2016
Mega Film Update
It's been a while since I wrote anything down and I've been going through films at a rapid rate. These are the highlights.
Good Kill
Related to the previous blog about drones, this is a drama starring Ethan Hawke as an airforce pilot relegated to piloting drones and showing signs of the strain.
A slow drama that captures the growing tension between Egan and his colleagues regarding their work, and also with his wife (January Jones), it never quite succeeds, everyone being a little too controlled and unemotional. Not bad, though.
Future Shock - The Story of 2000AD
A documentary on the creation, trials and success of the best comic Britain ever produced:
This introduces you to figures such as Pat Mills, Andy Diggle, John Wagner, Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Carlos Ezquerra, Carlos Ezquerra and Grant Morrison. Even Neil Gaiman and Karl Urban get a look in. 2000AD affected an entire generation (mine) and, although video games and the internet have lessened it's effect, it still packs a punch.
Spectre
Yet another outing for Mr. Bond. James gets in trouble again when he follows a lead to a mysterious organisation... (yawn). Tell you what, I'll let Honest Trailers explain.
A nice finale for Daniel Craig, although the plot was meandering. It all looks very nice, stylish an' all, and there's enough special effects, stunts and exotic locations: I think it's just that it's a fantasy and it shows.
Killer Joe
Desperate for money, Chris (Emile Hirsch) plots with his inept and devious family to have his estranged mother murdered by hitman "Killer" Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey).
A film version of a stage play, it shows as it's sometimes slow and claustrophobic. The Southern Gothic makes the film too grotesque for my taste, and, although the plot has a few twists and McConaughey does his best, it doesn't really engage. It also puts you off KFC.
The Fantastic Four
Reed Richards (Miles Teller), after demonstrating his matter transporter with childhood friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), gets invited to help perfect a larger version with Sue (Kate Mara) and Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), together with original inventor Viktor von Doom (Toby Kebbell).
A remake of the Marvel film made about ten years ago (probably because Chris Evans is now Captain America), it's basically a teenage version, and a bit rushed at that. The special effects are good, but the plot seems a bit haphazard. Not bad, but just not that good, as if someone deliberately made a pizza movie.
Good Kill
Related to the previous blog about drones, this is a drama starring Ethan Hawke as an airforce pilot relegated to piloting drones and showing signs of the strain.
A slow drama that captures the growing tension between Egan and his colleagues regarding their work, and also with his wife (January Jones), it never quite succeeds, everyone being a little too controlled and unemotional. Not bad, though.
Future Shock - The Story of 2000AD
A documentary on the creation, trials and success of the best comic Britain ever produced:
This introduces you to figures such as Pat Mills, Andy Diggle, John Wagner, Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Carlos Ezquerra, Carlos Ezquerra and Grant Morrison. Even Neil Gaiman and Karl Urban get a look in. 2000AD affected an entire generation (mine) and, although video games and the internet have lessened it's effect, it still packs a punch.
Spectre
Yet another outing for Mr. Bond. James gets in trouble again when he follows a lead to a mysterious organisation... (yawn). Tell you what, I'll let Honest Trailers explain.
A nice finale for Daniel Craig, although the plot was meandering. It all looks very nice, stylish an' all, and there's enough special effects, stunts and exotic locations: I think it's just that it's a fantasy and it shows.
Killer Joe
Desperate for money, Chris (Emile Hirsch) plots with his inept and devious family to have his estranged mother murdered by hitman "Killer" Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey).
A film version of a stage play, it shows as it's sometimes slow and claustrophobic. The Southern Gothic makes the film too grotesque for my taste, and, although the plot has a few twists and McConaughey does his best, it doesn't really engage. It also puts you off KFC.
The Fantastic Four
Reed Richards (Miles Teller), after demonstrating his matter transporter with childhood friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), gets invited to help perfect a larger version with Sue (Kate Mara) and Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), together with original inventor Viktor von Doom (Toby Kebbell).
A remake of the Marvel film made about ten years ago (probably because Chris Evans is now Captain America), it's basically a teenage version, and a bit rushed at that. The special effects are good, but the plot seems a bit haphazard. Not bad, but just not that good, as if someone deliberately made a pizza movie.
Friday 10 June 2016
Clangers!
While you weren't looking, the BBC have been showing a new series of that 70's kids show The Clangers. It's all been updated (there are fewer Clangers, but they've all got names), with a nice, but unobstrusive, combination of CGI and stop motion. The stories are also engaging:
Obviously I like it. Michael Palin takes the place of Oliver Postgate, but Smallfilms are still involved. They gone full media on it with a magazine and a really nice web site:
Just when you think the licence fee isn't worth paying.
Obviously I like it. Michael Palin takes the place of Oliver Postgate, but Smallfilms are still involved. They gone full media on it with a magazine and a really nice web site:
Just when you think the licence fee isn't worth paying.
Saturday 4 June 2016
Movie Update - Ant-man and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
I seem to be going through movies at a fair clip recently. First, the fifth MI movie. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team, on the verge of being shut down (again), try to expose baddies de jour The Syndicate, lead by Solomon Lane (Sean Harris):
Essentially a series of stunts and CGI held together by a relatively weak plot, the cast try their best make it interesting, but it's a case of diminishing returns by now. Not a bad pizza movie, just not a good one.
The second film is one of Marvel's more peculiar super-heroes. Thief Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), vainly attempting to go straight, gets involved with scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) in his attempt to prevent his shrinking technology from falling into the hands of vilain Darren Cross (Corey Stoll):
Although not brilliant, it does have a unique style of it's own, mainly thanks to Michael Peña as Lang's pal and Ant-mans general charm. Rudd makes the best of the role, with Douglas as the mentor and Stoll chewing the scenary (something that was missing from MI:V). One thing, though. The technology effectively changes the volume ("the distance between atoms", as Pym puts it), but doesn't affect the mass, so Ant-man couldn't ride ants as he'd just crush them under his weight... oh, ok, it is a comic book.
Essentially a series of stunts and CGI held together by a relatively weak plot, the cast try their best make it interesting, but it's a case of diminishing returns by now. Not a bad pizza movie, just not a good one.
The second film is one of Marvel's more peculiar super-heroes. Thief Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), vainly attempting to go straight, gets involved with scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) in his attempt to prevent his shrinking technology from falling into the hands of vilain Darren Cross (Corey Stoll):
Although not brilliant, it does have a unique style of it's own, mainly thanks to Michael Peña as Lang's pal and Ant-mans general charm. Rudd makes the best of the role, with Douglas as the mentor and Stoll chewing the scenary (something that was missing from MI:V). One thing, though. The technology effectively changes the volume ("the distance between atoms", as Pym puts it), but doesn't affect the mass, so Ant-man couldn't ride ants as he'd just crush them under his weight... oh, ok, it is a comic book.
Saturday 21 May 2016
There and Back Again - Mad Max: Fury Road and Cartel Land
Courtesy of my Amazon LoveFilm subscription, I watched the latest instalment of the Mad Max films. Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy), haunted by the death of his family, captured and used as a blood donor in a post-apocalyptic landscape, tries to help a group of women escape from their evil overlord.
Mad Max is one of those subjects that's difficult to discuss objectively. It's all about how you feel: rationalising doesn't work. Subtle things like, I dunno, plot or the quality of the acting, pale into insignificance. You have to judge it on it's own terms. You have to ask "Is it bonkers?". The answer is Yes. Yes it is. Yes, it's very bonkers. There is, however, a lot of driving around the desert in amazingly weird vehicles covered in spikes, so it is fun, but part of your brain feels a little uncomfortable as it tries to evaluate subtle things like plot, which is futile as there is none.
Much more downbeat is the subject of this documentary film about a Mexican and an American and their answer to the criminal cartels dominating life around the border between the two counties:
Even though Mireles is no saint (at one point he virtually orders the death of one of the gang members), you have more than a little sympathy for him: his situation has been brought about by the gangs on the one hand and a corrupt and cynical government on the other. Nailer is much more complex, but again there's the feeling of a government too far away to care. The film matches up with a book I found at the shop a while ago, called Amexica, by a journalist who covers the area:
Mad Max is one of those subjects that's difficult to discuss objectively. It's all about how you feel: rationalising doesn't work. Subtle things like, I dunno, plot or the quality of the acting, pale into insignificance. You have to judge it on it's own terms. You have to ask "Is it bonkers?". The answer is Yes. Yes it is. Yes, it's very bonkers. There is, however, a lot of driving around the desert in amazingly weird vehicles covered in spikes, so it is fun, but part of your brain feels a little uncomfortable as it tries to evaluate subtle things like plot, which is futile as there is none.
Much more downbeat is the subject of this documentary film about a Mexican and an American and their answer to the criminal cartels dominating life around the border between the two counties:
Even though Mireles is no saint (at one point he virtually orders the death of one of the gang members), you have more than a little sympathy for him: his situation has been brought about by the gangs on the one hand and a corrupt and cynical government on the other. Nailer is much more complex, but again there's the feeling of a government too far away to care. The film matches up with a book I found at the shop a while ago, called Amexica, by a journalist who covers the area:
Saturday 14 May 2016
Shaun the Sheep - The Movie
I've bought a small Blu-Ray player and the first film I've played (apart from the first Thor film, which I already had in dual format) is, appropriately, the Wallace and Gromit spin-off Shaun the Sheep. Shaun and his friends decide to liven up their lives by taking a day off, inadvertantly putting the farmer into hospital with memory loss:
Because there's no dialog, all the laughs are visual, essentially a silent comedy, and it's brilliant (how do you hide a flock of sheep in the middle of a city?) Fun for children of all ages and very recommended.
Because there's no dialog, all the laughs are visual, essentially a silent comedy, and it's brilliant (how do you hide a flock of sheep in the middle of a city?) Fun for children of all ages and very recommended.
Sunday 8 May 2016
Building a 3D Printer
Yes, folks, I've decided to join the 21st Century and build myself a 3D printer. It's delivered in weekly parts, as a magazine subscription, courtesy of Eaglemoss publications:
I've built it in stages, collecting a few months worth, and I photographed as I went. First the x-axis is constructed:
The rather chunky stepper motor is hidden behind the gearing, connected to a test circuit. The y-axis is fixed to the frame of the printer:
This shows where the print head is connected: the head moved across, while the piece moves perpendicular and vertically. The piece is printed on a heated plate:
When I got most of the structure assembled, I took a little video of the z-axis working:
This weekend, I put in the power supply and the covers:
The next phase will be to connect up the printer head, but I've installed the software that's used to load the models into the printer and connected it all up and switched it on, and it all communicates, so thumbs up so far. 21st Century, here I come!
I've built it in stages, collecting a few months worth, and I photographed as I went. First the x-axis is constructed:
The rather chunky stepper motor is hidden behind the gearing, connected to a test circuit. The y-axis is fixed to the frame of the printer:
This shows where the print head is connected: the head moved across, while the piece moves perpendicular and vertically. The piece is printed on a heated plate:
When I got most of the structure assembled, I took a little video of the z-axis working:
This weekend, I put in the power supply and the covers:
The next phase will be to connect up the printer head, but I've installed the software that's used to load the models into the printer and connected it all up and switched it on, and it all communicates, so thumbs up so far. 21st Century, here I come!
Wednesday 4 May 2016
Happy New Year
Suffering the last of April's storms, I thought I'd sit down and write something at long last. The main reason for the long time in writing is the amount of work and the long drive home, which the roadworks at J30 of the M25 have made even longer.
I've not really been ripping through the movies much, although there are one or two interesting ones. First, Fruitvale Station. On New Years Day, 2010, Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) was shot and killed by a Transit Policeman in San Fransisco, while handcuffed and unarmed. The film depicts the day leading up to his death, as well as showing flash-backs to his earlier life.
Although this is a film worth watching due to it's subject matter, it's not preachy or trying to convey any message other than that of a waste of life, and it does carry you along. The only complaint I have is that the sound quality is bad and it's difficult to follow the conversations. Recommended.
Tomorrowland stars George Clooney as a former child inventor who discovered a parallel, futuristic city.
A strange, confused film that just avoided bombing at the box office, it's difficult to see who it would appeal to. It's too complicated for children and teenagers (where is Tomorrowland, is never successfully answered), and there's too many children in it to appeal to the adults. This is mitigated to some extent by the gobsmacking special effects in the visualisation of Tomorrowland, how everyone in the 1960's thought the 21st Century would look.
There's also been a new series of Bosch on Amazon. Harry Bosch investigates what looks like a gangland shooting:
Slightly less distracted than the first season, Welliver slips back into the role like an old, favourite jacket. Ten hours well spent.
I've not really been ripping through the movies much, although there are one or two interesting ones. First, Fruitvale Station. On New Years Day, 2010, Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) was shot and killed by a Transit Policeman in San Fransisco, while handcuffed and unarmed. The film depicts the day leading up to his death, as well as showing flash-backs to his earlier life.
Although this is a film worth watching due to it's subject matter, it's not preachy or trying to convey any message other than that of a waste of life, and it does carry you along. The only complaint I have is that the sound quality is bad and it's difficult to follow the conversations. Recommended.
Tomorrowland stars George Clooney as a former child inventor who discovered a parallel, futuristic city.
A strange, confused film that just avoided bombing at the box office, it's difficult to see who it would appeal to. It's too complicated for children and teenagers (where is Tomorrowland, is never successfully answered), and there's too many children in it to appeal to the adults. This is mitigated to some extent by the gobsmacking special effects in the visualisation of Tomorrowland, how everyone in the 1960's thought the 21st Century would look.
There's also been a new series of Bosch on Amazon. Harry Bosch investigates what looks like a gangland shooting:
Slightly less distracted than the first season, Welliver slips back into the role like an old, favourite jacket. Ten hours well spent.
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