Peter Howard is Wintermute, mythologist

Turing's Cathedral

29October2005 [directLink] [myth]
This item was changed on 05June2006

Interesting essay by George Dyson on the history of digital computing; the really interesting part comes in some speculation at the very end. Alan Turing, a founding father of computing and AI, wrote that in creating intelligent machines, we are not usurping God’s role as Creator of souls; we are merely creating bodies, “mansions for the souls that He creates”. As most of the article is historical, I’ll quote the rather sci-fi ending here:

Google is Turing’s cathedral, awaiting its soul. We hope. In the words of an unusually perceptive friend: “When I was there, just before the IPO, I thought the coziness to be almost overwhelming. Happy Golden Retrievers running in slow motion through water sprinklers on the lawn. People waving and smiling, toys everywhere. I immediately suspected that unimaginable evil was happening somewhere in the dark corners. If the devil would come to earth, what place would be better to hide?”

For 30 years I have been wondering, what indication of its existence might we expect from a true AI? Certainly not any explicit revelation, which might spark a movement to pull the plug. Anomalous accumulation or creation of wealth might be a sign, or an unquenchable thirst for raw information, storage space, and processing cycles, or a concerted attempt to secure an uninterrupted, autonomous power supply. But the real sign, I suspect, would be a circle of cheerful, contented, intellectually and physically well-nourished people surrounding the AI. There wouldn’t be any need for True Believers, or the downloading of human brains or anything sinister like that: just a gradual, gentle, pervasive and mutually beneficial contact between us and a growing something else. This remains a non-testable hypothesis, for now. The best description comes from science fiction writer Simon Ings:

“When our machines overtook us, too complex and efficient for us to control, they did it so fast and so smoothly and so usefully, only a fool or a prophet would have dared complain.”

Source: Edge 24Oct2005

I don't HATE Microsoft

28October2005 [directLink] [myth]

I’m rather ambivalent towards Microsoft… Past experience has taught me not to use Windows until they prove otherwise. And I don’t use Office as I just don’t need something that powerful, so free software like KOffice does exactly what I need… But then, I see something like Xbox360, which looks spectacularly designed, and well-integrated into other offerings (particularly Xbox.com, but potentially Media Center as well), and it makes me want to get back to MS just for the integration…

For now though, I don’t need what MS integration offers, and I really will only go back to Windows (and thus Media Center) after lots of playing around to make sure all the little annoyances are gone… (Yes, that’s not really fair, but it comes down to branding really, and the Windows brand is seriously weakened)

I think I’ll definitely get an X360; I signed up for a gamercard on Xbox.com today even though it’ll be a few months till the console is even available in Australia

And these videos are part of what did it: Xbox360 and Xbox.com, both with Larry Hryb (MajorNelson) on Channel9

Oh and related: I think that’s why Apple doesn’t particularly attract me: the ‘integration’ they offer is limited to iPod/iTunes and its variants. And I don’t want an iPod, and I don’t want the limitations of iTunes. But on Linux, I can interact with both MS and Apple machines, plus I can work with whatever hardware I want…

That’s integration on my terms

QOTD: French and Saunders

28October2005 [directLink] [personal]

“Who’s there?”

“Madonna”

“A Madonna, Mother of Our Lord?”

“No, The Madonna, Mrs Guy Ritchie”

Procrastinating

28October2005 [directLink] [personal]

Finally finished my Project Proposal and sent it off… I don’t think it makes a lot of sense, but because I’m doing a pre-negotiated, non-traditional project (a short film rather than a 5000 word essay) it’s difficult to fit it to their specifications… The most important thing was tying it down and giving some theoretical justifications, which I ended up doing with the concept of flânerie, an idea I’ve been obsessed with since discovering it in first year uni… I’m slightly worried that the rather traditional International Studies faculty won’t take so well to the idea, but given I’ve already had the film idea approved, I figured I might as well go all out…

Anyway, during the few days I was supposed to be writing the thing, I procrastinated by doing the following: (though hey, I managed to put this post off until _after_ finishing, so I did exercise _some_ self-control)

• make more coffees than is healthy
• go out for coffee with other Aussies; end up spending hours sitting around as no-one wanted to go home and do work
• do the washing
• have a random bath at 3 in the arvo
• catch up on the blogs I haven’t read in a couple weeks
• read through webcomics archives
• watch weird old black and white movies
• read up on XML microformats
• plan to implement XML microformats on this site
• plan new improved user interface to the old Reports system I wrote for Redfield
• make plans for return to Australia (a big deal really, as I hadn’t even thought about it till very recently!)

Reclaiming the label Amateur

27October2005 [directLink] [myth]

Let’s take back the name ‘Amateur’. An amateur isn’t supposed to be someone that doesn’t know what they’re doing, an amateur is someone who loves what they’re doing. A professional gets defined as someone who is paid for what they’re doing, but really, it should be someone who does it for the money; if they do it for the love, they’re an amateur.

The way amateur gets thrown around these days is so very capitalist: as though payment is the ultimate goal (and thus, professional).

There are, fortunately, signs that this is changing, thanks to the Internet… Where people can, relatively easily, do the things they enjoy, and if they get lucky, be paid for it as well.

<em>Desire</em> (1936)

23October2005 [directLink] [movies]

Just watched Desire, a Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper black and white from 1936. Dietrich plays a European con-chick/jewel-thief; Gary Cooper is the cool all-American who has his car and his heart stolen… Nothing special story-wise, and Cooper’s cool-American dialogue gets very annoying (though more because of all the terrible dialogue it inspired in modern films). But, some dialogue points:

Dietrich’s character asks Aunt Olga if she wants her brandy straight; she responds “Brandy’s the only thing I’m straight about”. But the pun on her crookedness was lost terribly in the French subtitle: “I never put water in my wine”.

Also interesting was a little conversation towards the end. Remember that this film is set in 1936. The threat of oncoming war is referred to rather obliquely, and there is a metaphor of Cooper as ‘America’ making threats (and he’s a big guy) — it’s all metaphor of course, the ‘war’ is supposed to be related to stolen pearls, America’s influence is Cooper trying to be the ‘good guy’ and return the pearls to their rightful owner. The filmmakers took the opportunity to drop some _very_ interesting (ie, in the historical and cultural context) statements in dialogue, including Aunt Olga’s “If America is wise, it will never mix in European affairs”; and Cooper’s “You can’t underestimate America, that would be a foolish thing to do; it’s a big country”.

That's not a knife

22October2005 [directLink] [myth]

Excellent comments on the state of broadband in Australia over on Bleeding Edge. The Americans think they’ve got it bad when an average broadband (DSL) connection is only 1.5Mbps; which they (rightfully) attribute to monopolistic practises. …But in Aus the government-controlled monopoly maxes out DSL connections at 1.5Mbps (well below the theoretical limit), and has only just got around to approving ADLS2/+, and there are already suggestions it is imposing arbitrary limits there too, in order to maintain its business broadband monopoly. There are occasionally signs that things are changing, but with the Financial Review claiming that Australia now has a good level of broadband penetration I’m increasingly pessimistic. As reported by Bleeding Edge, the AFR is proud of 10% broadband penetration, which is the level Iceland reached back in 2002, and worse, broadband in Australia is defined at _much_ lower speeds than overseas (ie, near anywhere in Europe or the States it would be _illegal_ to call the entry-level offerings from Bigpond and others ‘broadband’)

Source: Bleeding Edge 22Oct2005

Site Updates

20October2005 [directLink] [personal]

Was hoping to change the ?bits feed to Atom1.0, but after writing it, discovered that Akregator, my feed reader, doesn’t yet support 1.0! So for now I’m keeping RSS2.0 and have Atom1.0 as an option for anyone who wants it (personally I’ll be switching as soon as possible, as the format is much cleaner). Both links are over on the far right.

Computer upgrade: White vs Beige

19October2005 [directLink] [wishlist]

It’s coming time to get a new computer, and I’m hunting around, getting up-to-date on the latest releases and specs, so I’m ready to buy something when I get back to Aus.

My current system is a 4-year old laptop, a P3 800. I’ve improved it over the years, now running on an 80GB HDD, 384MB RAM, and with an external DVD burner. My primary OS is Linux, with Win2K installed as a dual-boot option, mainly so I can run Flash Pro (MX can be made to work under Linux, but not MX2004, and I need/ed the Pro features). I desperately need an upgrade, the only reason I haven’t done so yet was because it would be a waste of money before spending a year overseas — my laptop has served me well enough here.

But soon I’ll be able to upgrade, and it’s coming down to a big match-off: White vs Beige. In the white corner: Apple and their pre-built marvels; in the Beige: customisation… It was going to be Mac vs Windows (vs Linux), but that’s inaccurate… The three-way OS battle gives the following:

• For day-to-day work: I’d prefer Linux, I’d take Mac, I wouldn’t go near Windows
• For video editing: All 3 really, but Linux is a long way behind; Mac or Windows equal as most software runs on either platform the same
• Flash: I’m not sure how important Flash is anymore, but it has to run on Windows or Mac

So there Mac comes out on top, with a dual-boot Win/Linux setup second. However, on the hardware front, I still like Open-ness. At least Apple’s boxes are no longer hermetically sealed, but they’re still very limiting - sure I can boost RAM or hard drive space, but that’s it. And worse, with Apple, you pay extra for the privelege - sure, you pay for the knowledge that the machine will just work, but as I’ve said before, Computing isn’t meant to be Easy. So a ‘build-your-own’ system looks very attractive… I can keep Linux, and I can switch to Windows in desperation for multimedia work — I’m going to setup a Linux server for the home anyway, meaning no more losing access to files and emails when I boot into Win. Admittedly, I could also dual-boot Linux and Mac, but that’d be a waste of time — if I had Mac (and had paid a whole lot extra for it), I’d want to use it…

So in short: White gives me a perrty, but closed and expensive box, and means I can run all the software I want to without rebooting. Beige, though it gives me an ugly box, lets me run all the hardware I want to at costs I determine, with the condition that I have to reboot into an icky OS to run specific (but necessary) software. On the face of it, White is a spectacular choice, but that Closed box is _Very_ off-putting.

So there it is: the same thing that makes me want to use Linux (Open-ness), is driving me towards using Windows, because the alternative (Apple) just isn’t Open enough…

Some observations on 'Spam 2.0'

17October2005 [directLink] [myth]

As much as I dislike the term Web2.0 (but can’t be bothered pulling it apart as plenty of people have already done so), it has a use:

Introducing Spam 2.0

S20 is another of those phenomena I predicted years before it happened — the main thing for the moment is spammers setting up fake blogs and hitting the ping servers, overwhelming aggregation and search services with spam. All the geeks in the blog world (I refuse to use that ridiculous term with a -sphere on the end; ‘blog’ is bad enough!) are abuzz about spam blogs on blogspot.com, Google’s blogging service, which is apparently too easy to sign up for — meaning spammers can write scripts that automatically sign up and create hundreds of useless posts, overwhelming the pinging servers.

What does that all mean? That, as I always suspected, the sites dedicated to tracking blog conversations (del.icio.us, technorati, &c) are easily overwhelmed once spammers figure them out. Some of those sites are _much_ better at filtering than others (I’m only naming those two ‘cause they’re the big names) but the problem’s getting rapidly worse and no-one knows how to fix it (nor am I offering any solutions).

So, clock this one up as another easy prediction from the MuteProphet (my as yet unborn but germinating website). Some geeks seem to look at the relative success of Open Source software and Open Knowledge systems like Wikipedia and assume the same practices will work _everywhere_ (hence ‘open’ as the primary web2.0 buzzword!), but implement the practices too simply. The working Open systems are padded by Peer systems (Open Source is effectively ‘peer-review’ development), but blogs and their kindred technologies have no such padding (yet), so are wide open to abuse.

And finally: blogs are hardly even mainstream and we’re _already_ having these problems! There is no way they’ll go mainstream until the basic spam problems are solved — email is a whole different world: there the spam didn’t come until _after_ it hit mainstream (and was thus too late to change). This time round (ugh, that’s why the version2.0 is appropriate) we have to block spam _before_ it reaches the masses.

Bird Flu

15October2005 [directLink] [myth]

Bird Flu in ?bits=myth, ‘cause that’s right where it belongs for now… The media are doing their usual beat-up (here in France it’s becoming rather terrifying, with regular updates on the daily news!), and they’ve just reported cases in Romania (in the chickens, not in people)… But I’m inclined to view it as yet another ‘Asian Invasion’ scenario (it’s no coincidence that foreign pandemic scenarios are more heavily ‘reported’ whilst a country is feeling anti-immigration, nor is it something new)

Just saw a scientist out of Amsterdam being interviewed - the reporter doing their best to turn the Romanian cases into an argument for heightened paranoia, while the poor scientist is saying no, no, the chance of a pandemic hasn’t changed whatsoever.

The danger (to humans), it seems, is only that the flu may mutate into something that can be transmitted from human-to-human, but at the moment, it appears to be restricted to bird-to-human (eg, eating uncooked infected chicken) or in extreme cases. Nature, as always, is well balanced — the more dangerous the disease, the more difficult it is to contract.

Computing isn't meant to be Easy

15October2005 [directLink] [myth]

Starting to realise that computers shouldn’t be easy… _All_ computers should have an admin - someone who knows how to make them work, and how to adapt them to the appropriate end-users. Admittedly, this isn’t particularly straightforward, which is why the bigco’s build their computers/software for the lowest-common-denominator; but we know (from, eg, WinME, a failed experiment in dumbing-down) that aiming for the LCD doesn’t really work… Until computers have the intelligence to recognise and target their user’s abilities, we’ll have to keep guessing…

Many people get around this with the aid of a Trained Geek (TG) — either friend or family on call to fix the latest petit problem. But the technology is getting to a stage where that doesn’t have to be so disruptive - sensible TGs install software that enables them to control the PC remotely - as long as the computer can get online. I suspect that the Dells will get better at fulfilling this role (there are hints at this in WinXP and some of the Dell-native software already), meaning Average Joe can at least have a TG on call as part of his subscription with Dell (who probably upgrade his computer every couple years too). Further, it won’t take long to learn what each individual user is using their computer for, meaning tailoring to the individual and their abilities will become relatively straightforward — and from there, a small step to intelligent machines that act as their own Trained Geek.

But now I’m getting ahead of myself:

1. As a TG myself, I don’t want to put my family in the hands of Dell or any other bigco (though I’d have no qualms about an AI!); though:
2. At least I can setup some remote desktop to help out from wherever I happen to be
3. I plan on surreptitiously switching my family to Linux (and Mac as a concession); though it’s not as easy for any old end-user to setup, it’s far easier to customise and control for said end-user

And that there is Linux’ (grammar-people: an ‘x’ is an ‘s’ in a different form, so no need for ‘apostrophe-S’) strength: Yes, it’s difficult to setup, But once it’s working, it stays working. And if everyone had their Trained Geek to handle the setup and maintenance, they’d hardly notice the difference.

So, the “starting to realise” bit: I’ll happily be your Trained Geek if you’ll let me install Linux on your computer…

Trust me.

And Linux: don’t change. Don’t try to be something you’re not. The LCD-targeted model isn’t going to last much longer; it’s not worth emulating

Site Updates

12October2005 [directLink] [personal]

At last, I’ve transferred to using the database to hold my longer essays (they were previously flat text files). You’ll notice the difference if you click the ?myth link under ?articles on the right (still don’t have anything in ?film and ?webprog, but hopefully now that I’m setup I can add things a little easier). Each of those pages list the available articles with a short description — these sections are supposed to be for longer essays or just things more specific than little ?bits.

Aside from being cleaner and easier to manage, the best side-effect is that the ?articles are now search-able. For example, type ‘arthur’ into the ?keyword box on the right and hit enter — you’ll be presented with a page listing the ?bits entries and ?articles containing that word — so my essay on the King Arthur movie comes up as well as the ?bits posts in which I referred to it. Note that the ?keyword box works best for a _single_ word, so ‘king arthur’ isn’t so pointed, returning posts that have just the word ‘king’ in them… If you know any advanced Boolean operators though, they do work — so you could type in +king +arthur to force both words. In any case, a single keyword should be enough to find anything on this little site.

Well, now that my system can handle it, I’ve uploaded my latest ICS project: a Visual Analysis of a mural made for the 60th anniversary of the Nazi Capitulation in Reims — bits on European and French identity and propaganda… At ?myth=7maimural.

Saved!

09October2005 [directLink] [movies]

Saw Saved!, quite a terrible movie really (at its heart just a love story, but with too much baggage), and have a few barely-coherent notes:

The final conclusion: that there _has_ to be a God … or … something, is just ridiculous (in the movie the director is God — there is no way the constructed suburbia could exist in our reality, and taken to its logical conclusion, the events that unfold are the product of a God-less, Chaotic world)

Macaulay Culkin’s character is the _only_ decent (read, Christian) or normal human being in the whole movie, though even he is thrown when the girlfriend exclaims “I thought it was all about the sex”

Pastor Skip comes a close second, as a normal human with human weakness to temptation — he never _really_ gives in, but the message is too ambiguous — seems to come out on the side of “love” rather than self-discipline/fidelity etc. (Admittedly, early in the movie he plays the televangelist or evangelical “Jesus freak” — his own words — but he quickly develops as a character — so much so that it is difficult to reconcile his earlier stereotypical antics with his actions toward the end of the movie)

The main character, Mary, though a horrible mish-mash of stereotypes (the ‘virgin’ not least of which), is relatively well-rounded, but her unfortunate conclusions about God, the too-obvious comparison to the Virgin Mary, and the other too-convenient script elements are detrimental to her character.

Mandy Moore’s character is appalling, and deliberately so, but suffers from the same problems afflicting the movie as a whole — a vague, though deliberately repulsive Christianity that is only redeemed on a secular or humanist level at best.

Patrick is her deliberate opposite: the “perfect” boy — what a Christian “should be”: Pastor Skip’s son, he is nonetheless compassionate and understanding, and he has been a missionary. But in this role, he is terribly one-dimensional, almost as off-putting as Mandy Moore’s character, and is never given the chance to develop. His final line in the movie sums up his character entirely: “I’m the boyfriend”.

Further, the movie tries to deal with issues confronting Christians (and others) of any denomination: particularly homosexuality and teen pregnancy, but on both counts portrays either extreme prejudice or fuzzy, secular “tolerance”. Again, Culkin’s character and Pastor Skip deal with both problems the best (though still far from perfect).

Continuing/Related is the theme presented around “Mercy House” — the place ‘problem’ kids are sent — whether for “de-gay-ification” or for unmarried girls whilst pregnant. At one stage, Patrick observes that Mercy House exists not for those that are sent, but for those who do the sending: a worthwhile observation on the old practice of sending away “embarrassments” — particularly unwed mothers. But in the final confrontation, Pastor Skip says “the bible is very clear about this” (the main issue being homosexuality at this stage), and Mary responds “so everything that doesn’t fit into some stupid idea of what you think God wants, you just - try to hide, or fix, or get rid of”. Unfortunately, those are two separate issues: the bible _is_ clear on homosexual acts, so it’s fair enough for Pastor Skip to not want a gay couple there, _but_, it’s not clear on homosexuality (the old nature or nuture argument), so yes, one can’t just “hide or fix or get rid of” gay people… (Note, however, that Pastor Skip’s “the bible is black and white” is yet another over the top statement, but by this stage one expects that from this movie)

Also in this scene, Dean raises that annoying old (and terribly American) issue: the _Right_ to a Prom (what’s the big deal?) (which is as ridiculous as asserting a “right” to marriage, so perhaps it fits)

(And Mercy House errors: 1. What place trying to “de-gay-ify” people would have two insecure gay guys sharing a room?!! 2. In the final scene one of the guys from Mercy House is wearing a turban of some sort (not sure, I think it’s Sikh) — there is no other reference to him, but I think it’s _terribly_ prejudiced to suggest that Christians would send non-Christians to be converted in such conditions [the other things I can believe, ‘cause yes, they do happen]!)

Final notes: I’d read a _lot_ about this movie before seeing it, and from what I’d heard I’d not really wanted to watch it, so admittedly I wasn’t particularly “open-minded” coming into it… I tried though…

“How a faithful nation gets Jesus wrong”

09October2005 [directLink] [myth]

Interesting article over at Harpers.org about Christian identity in the States. Bill McKibben asks how the west’s arguably most Christian nation can be so … well … un-Christian. Lots of good stuff about the different flavours Christianity takes; especially about End Times fundamentalism and ‘suburban’, ‘prosperity’ Christianity.

One great quote: “How nice it would be if Jesus had declared that our income was ours to keep, instead of insisting that we had to share. How satisfying it would be if we were supposed to hate our enemies.”

Source: Harpers.org 15Sept2005

Blog/Search

07October2005 [directLink] [webprog]

Made a couple little changes… Added a ‘ping-o-matic’ link so that I can notify the majors when my blog gets updated — but on some sites it wasn’t working, reporting that the URL wasn’t in their database. So I went to their site and did a manual ping; it worked, but when I did the ping-o-matic, still no dice.

What I did achieve however, was getting Google’s blogsearch to pick up my RSS feed — a potentially very handy feature, as it indexes _only_ the blog entry, ignoring all the template data (which is, after all, the same for every entry). Currently Google only have my latest 13 entries (should hit 14 quickly after I post this, I’ll be interested to see how quickly it picks up), because I only have the latest 10 in my RSS feed… But that’ll improve as Google’s index grows. Also noticed that Blogsearch has an extra blogurl:* keyword, so I can search for my own entries using “*keyword* blogurl:wintermute.com.au”…

And while I was there, discovered why the ping wasn’t working properly: I’d been using wintermute.com.au/?bits as the link in the RSS feed, while I’ve been reporting wintermute.com.au as the link in the ping — so some sites figured it out but lots didn’t — duh. So now that’s all fixed too.

Update: took somewhere between 30 and 50 minutes to hit blogsearch, which I’m rather impressed by…

Pollution != Global Warming

07October2005 [directLink] [myth]

Article in the Guardian on a new World Bank report, with the disturbing note: “Almost a fifth of all ill health in poor countries and millions of deaths can be attributed to environmental factors”. Some worrying statistics in there, and the World Bank can hardly be labelled reactionary hippies…

But, (and it’s a big BUT) the Guardian headlines this article “Climate change and pollution are killing millions”… Why can’t we just do away with the “climate change” buzzword and focus on pollution?! The problem with the debate is that the media uses the buzzword “climate change” to refer to environmental problems caused by industrial pollution, when “climate change” should refer _specifically_ to Climate and Change. Fluctuations in temperature are _natural_, and it still hasn’t been proven that there have been dramatic temperature changes since the Industrial Revolution. But then of course, people discard “climate change” as a bogeyman, and with it, ignore industrial pollution! Pollution _is_ causing serious problems, and if we don’t change our practices, it _will_ get worse (the emergence of new and larger industrial nations before the current ones have solved the problem is very worrying). But we need to stop bandying buzzwords and scifi fantasies about and work on the here and now.

Source: Guardian Unlimited 6Oct2005

(Reminds me of my Day After Tomorrow conspiracy theory: that the makers deliberately came up with an _absurd_ telling of ‘climate change’ so that people would discount the whole environmental issue all at once; the film certainly makes the theory look pretty ridiculous)

Bible truth

06October2005 [directLink] [myth]

The Times Online reports on a new document on scripture released by Catholic Bishops in the UK with the terrible headline “Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible”. Along with the ridiculously misleading “no longer”, the article tries to contrast the “timely” document, “coming as it does amid the rise of the religious Right”. It then goes on to talk about literal creationists and criticise fundamentalism… The most annoying thing there is that tendency to lump Christians of all stripes together.

But it gets worse, dropping the obligatory Galileo reference: apparently all Galileo’s problems were because people were interpreting the Bible literally — if only it were that simple; but I’ve _never_ seen reference nor heard the Bible used to suggest that the earth is literally at the centre of the Universe!!

Utter nonsense, but of course, the underlying message: if the Catholic Church can backflip on a longstanding tradition of literal Biblical truth, then it might also change on longstanding opposition to (insert politically-correct cause du jour)…

Source: Times Online UK 5Oct2005

Modding legal

06October2005 [directLink] [gaming]

This is very cool… The High Court of Australia just ruled that modding gaming hardware in order to play games bought overseas is legal! The ruling came about in a (very) long-lasting case between a modchipper and Sony, but it obviously affects Microsoft and Nintendo as well. About time someone drew a line between modding and piracy… During the case the ACCC stuck their head in to say that region coding was detrimental to customer choice — which could go a way to affecting DVD encoding as well (though from memory the studios aren’t fighting that one so hard anymore in Aus).

Source: Atomic 6Oct2005

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

06October2005 [directLink] [movies]

Saw Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas last night. I’d heard about it and had been meaning to see it for a while, then while checking the TV guide looking particularly for movies in English I stumbled across Las Vegas Parano. All I knew about the film was that Johnny Depp was in it, and I’d heard it had something to do with Hunter S Thompson. Was constantly surprised by recognisable faces - Benicio del Toro and a number of smaller cast members. And right at the end discovered it was directed by Terry Gilliam. A great team!

The entire movie was Depp under the influence of various drugs, and was remarkably trippy — but actually internally coherent — consistency not something I usually expect from drug films… And the half-way point in the movie worked really well - Depp/Thompson reflects on his generation in the ‘middle-60s’ and how they were going to change the world. Even better, the same ideas came up at the end of the film for some nice storytelling balance. (Too often the half-way point is that void into which the screenwriter and director cram anything out of sheer desperation)

Photo Updates

03October2005 [directLink] [france]

Finally posted photos from the latest trip, as promised… There are four new albums, all available by clicking the thumbnails under ‘latest’ on the right; or you can use the ‘preview all albums’ link for a couple thumbs from each… In order: World Youth Day 2005, including the trip through France and Köln; and three from Spain: Santiago de Compostela; A Coruña (y Betanzos); and Barcelona

Paris and Coffee

02October2005 [directLink] [personal]

Normally when Paris and Coffee are in the same sentence nauseatic convulsions result. But this is a rare exception: Le Molière on Rue St Honoré in the 1st, next to Les Halles. The best coffee I’ve so far had in Europe, and rivalling some of what we get back in Sydney — Dad had a couple coffees and was impressed when the second was as good as the first (not just one-off-lucky). Note that I must follow-up any claims about European coffee with the qualifier that I’ve not yet been to Italy, where coffee is apparently much better (though honestly I wonder how it could be good in one country and not spread to the others). The quality of French coffee was further attested to by the huge queues at various Starbucks!

Was also good to catch up with Dad for a couple of days, in circumstances I’d only dreamed about — being away from home, and in a completely different culture, and in some small way being the ‘local’. I don’t normally feel any older than when I left school (so it feels weird that my second brother is already graduating), but actually having some experience to share (on the WYD trip and this weekend) is hitching me over that.