“The Cove”
The Cove, a documentary about a dolphin slaughter in Japan, was a difficult movie. On the one hand, it's a testament to the power of film. The footage obtained is powerful. Powerful enough to actually stop the slaughter. And it's shot like a Dirty Dozen mission or Ocean's 11 heist, which makes for an interesting movie. But on the other hand, I am extremely wary of documentaries that have a particular cause. And this movie is a good example. Take it's use of Paul Watson as a "talking head", a man I generally think has crossed the line past activism Read more…
TV’s back!
After a summer cable hiatus, Mary and I have re-hooked up our cable. Originally, we’d cut cable out to save money, and we watched shows via DVD, Hulu, and iTunes. But we found a good compromise. By switching to Click (something I’d planned on doing anyway) we were able to get cheaper Internet and pay Click about $12/month for broadcast channels over cable. This works perfectly. Our monthly costs won’t rise, and we can watch The Office (which was great tonight, by the way!), Lost, How I Met Your Mother, Saturday Night Live (the only show we couldn’t watch in Read more…
Stockard Channing on Freelancing
A few years ago I watched Stockard Channing on Inside the Actors Studio. One of the students asked her at the end, “How do you evaluate whether you should take a part?” Her answer, and I’m paraphrasing from memory here because I can’t find it on the Tubes), was roughly this: There are three good reasons to take a part. Because you love the part. Because it will help your career. And the money. Look for two out of three. Of course, Channing was speaking about acting, but it’s a pretty good way to look at freelancing jobs too. Working Read more…
Play to the End
I just finished Play to the End, by Robert Goddard. I've never heard of the author, but he can tell a good murder mystery, that's for sure. I've been reading a lot of mysteries in the last few years, which has a lot to do with my interest in writing in the genre. This book was the first in a while that I had to put down so that I could work on my own. I don't know what it was, but but it got me going! Set in Brighton, the book takes place over a week. The "detective," as Read more…
I’m George Harrison
I've never played Rock Band before, but I picked it up pretty quickly … at the easy level. I tried graduating to Medium and flunked big time. The most fun was playing bass on The Beatles Rock Band. The game is beautiful and the songs are–of course–great. I even sang Back in the USSR and Taxman (I will spare you from video of that, no worries). A cool game!
Lauren Bacall is getting an honorary Oscar
I have had a crush on Lauren Bacall for the last 10 years. I was flipping channels and saw the last half of To Have and Have Not (movie still above) on AMC. I'd read the book so I thought I'd see what the movie was like. Turns out it had absolutely nothing at all to do with the the book. But I did fall for the 20-year-old Lauren Bacall. I quickly watched the other three movies she did with her husband Humphrey Bogart: The Big Sleep, Key Largo, and Dark Passage (don't bother with that one). I've also read Read more…
South Sound Technology Conference announces keynoter on privacy
Keynoting at the event will be Richard Purcell, CEO of the Corporate Privacy Group. Purcell ranks among the original Chief Privacy Officers in the United States. He created the position at Microsoft in the late 90s, becoming a leading voice in addressing consumer privacy and data protection, domestically and internationally. From the Tacoma Tech Connect blog I’m on the Steering Committee for the conference, which will have a focus on data security and protection, an area in which Tacoma actually has a good cluster of businesses. The conference is coming up November 21 at UWT! Sign up for updates at http://www.sstconference.org
Set back
I was all set to post some audio interviews yesterday morning about online identity, but a whole crazy sort of day set me back. I'll be back up to speed soon!