Richard's Reveries and Rantings: Entertainment

Violence of the lambs

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 18:58:47 GMT

Every once in a while, I see a video trailer on my Windows Live Instant Messenger window that catches my eye. Today, it was the trailer for Black Sheep. I almost fell out of my chair laughing... becuase this is apparantly a real movie in theaters. I'm dying to watch it!

Black Sheep - Trailer

Yes this is real. Quite possibly the funniest unintentional trailer of the year about killer sheeps.

A Very Inconvenient Truth

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 17:09:24 GMT

I just saw An Inconvenient Truth yesterday and I must admit, I was very moved by the film. The substantial evidence, found in thousands of years of historical data, photographs of the earth, and dramatic changes in weather patterns, makes it CLEARLY OBVIOUS that the world is headed straight towards a global catastrophe unless something is done. The photographs alone were enough to make me shudder.

I must admit that I've always been a bit lackadaisical when it comes to being green. Sure I recycle and am vigilent about not littering, but I have never been very proactive politically or socially to encourage broader change in my community. This film has opened up my eyes. Maybe its because I have 6 month old baby now, but I couldn't help but feel completely burdened by the fact that my generation is leaving behind a world less livable for generations to come, including my baby girl.

The film was very well done but what really bothered me was how it ended. Throughout the film, Al Gore spent about 80 minutes describing how the global warming phenomenon was REAL, URGENT, and CATASTROPHIC. By the end of the film, I felt ready to act, and ready to do something BIG. But as the final credits were rolling, they creatively inserted tips for the viewer on how he/she could help mitigate the causes of global warming. Tips included things like:

Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb
Move your thermostat down 2 degress
Use less hot water

C'MON! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Here I am ready to do something BIG to get help save the world from this collision course and now, you're telling me that if I simply replace a few light bulbs and take lukewarm showers, I can make a difference? These tips completely undermined the film's "call to action." In fact, these tips encourage complacency among the viewers... "hmm.. if i don't change my lightbulbs today, will it really make a difference?"

In any case, I was still very moved by the film and will think of ways to make a difference. The one tip which I appreciated the most, was "write your congress person." Its clear that the issue of globla warming has become a political instrument to be leveraged only when it has clear benefits for the advocate (or opponent). We should drop the political allegiences and simply tackle this problem dead on.

If you don't share my sentiments, watch the film and let the data speak for itself. More info about global warming and what to do about it can be found at http://www.climatecrisis.net/.

Where is Dave Dameshek?

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 07:30:22 GMT

I've been a big fan of the Adam Carolla show for the past year (heard in the Bay Area on 106.9 Free FM during the morning commute). He's a great start to my morning routine and a welcome alternative to the annoying "morning zoo" shows splattered across the radio. However, after returning from my holiday vacation, I was suprised to hear that Danny Bonaduce of Partridge Family (and more recently VH-1 reality show) fame is a regular addition to the show, replacing Dave Dameshek. While I can't say that Dave was the soul of the Carolloa show, he complemented Adam in a very non-intrusive way, and the pair clearly had history and chemistry which made the show feel unrehearsed and spontaneous.

Over the past few weeks, I haven't been able to listen to the show for longer than 5 minutes without being highly annoyed. Danny Bonaduce either interrupts Adam just as he's about to hit his stride, or endlessly rambles on and on about himself, without a clue that no one else cares about his pointless rantings. Its truly a shame what has happened and I'm hoping that the show's producers will drop Bonaduce before he drives Adam Carolla off the air.

For those of you who want to hear the podcast about how Dave and company were swapped out for Bonnaduce, listen here. It sounds like Adam's hands were tied in this matter. Here is also a thoughtful op-ed piece in the LA Times about this casting mishap.

Little Miss Sunshine

Sun, 03 Sep 2006 19:48:29 GMT

E and I realized that our days of peacefulness are limited so we went on an old fashioned date last night. We had dinner at PPQ, a vietnamese restaurant in the city that serves incredible garlic butter dungeness crabs. Since it was a long weekend, there was a huge crowd and the waiters were totally understaffed but the food was delicious. The crabs never disappoint and the garlic noodles and braised greenbeans were excellent.

Next we went to see Little Miss Sunshine and we both loved it. Its about a dysfunctional family that rallies together to get the youngest daughter to a baby beauty pageant in CA. They embark on a roadtrip filled with ridiculous twists and turns and each character walks away from the experience a bit changed. I thought the acting was great... Stevel Carrell and Greg Kinnear were excellent and they played off each other perfectly. If you need a good laugh, this film will do the trick.

Deadliest Catch

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 18:47:55 GMT

I recently watched The Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. Its a must see documentary about Alaskan king crab fishermen who risk their lives during 96 hours to cash in on the crabbing season. Working 20 hours a day in sub-zero temperatures, they can make up to $40K over these 4 days but the death rate for these fishermen is super high. Fortunately for the filmmakers and unfortunately for teh crab fishermen, the crew gets hit with the worst storm the Bering Sea has had in 18 years with 40 foot waves and 80 mph windows. A very well done documentary.

I am so envious...

Wed, 21 Sep 2005 06:14:49 GMT

One of these days, I want to make the same video as this guy. But for now, I will settle for our Friday dance parties in A/2309.

Coldplay at the WhiteRiver Amphitheater

Wed, 17 Aug 2005 09:08:13 GMT

This summer has been packed with concerts. Eminem and Nikka Costa a few weeks ago and Coldplay tonight. Unfortunately, I missed Jack Johnson this past weekend since I had friends in town (would have been the third year in a row that I saw him at the Gorge). Oh well... maybe next year.

Coldplay's performance was by far, the best I've seen all summer. I was blown away by Chris Martin's vocals... every song sounded better than the CD. The production on the screen behind the band was creative and skillfully added layers and complexity to the various sets.

The two things I liked most about the concert were:

1. They played all the songs that made them famous! Clocks, Yellow, the Scientist, Speed of Sound, Politik, etc. Many musicians try to stay away from their staple by performing only new songs they're trying to promote. Coldplay played the best of the new and old.

2. Chris Martin interacted with the audience. Not only did he make the obligatory comments about loving Seattle (as all musicians must when they tour), but he also changed a few words in some songs to get the crowd pumped up, dedicated a song to the delight of the fans in the lawn seats, and finished his last song by jumping off stage, sprinting up the aisle, and running to the lawn section to sing in the midst of the crowd.

My favorite set was Yellow. Halfway through the song, HUGE yellow balls filled with confetti dropped from the sky and bounced around the amphitheather through the entire song. Visually it was quite a site to see. Hopefully, George caught some good photos. I'll post as soon as I can. I am even a bigger fan of Coldplay after this concert and will buy X&Y very soon.

One other random thought: I realized during the concert how universal the camera phone has become. They are the white screens that you see among the concert goers sitting ahead of you as a result of everyone snapping photos; LCDs are facing you, camera lens is facing the stage. They have replaced the swaying lighters in slow songs at concert venues-- although lit LCDs make a poor substitute for flames.

Dance Party in Redwest A/2309

Fri, 05 Aug 2005 23:57:32 GMT

So my officemate Tom and I just finished our weekly Friday afternoon dance party in our office. This basically entails Tom playing random songs on his computer (e.g. Britany Spears's Oops I Did It Again and Aqua's Barbie Girl) and then dancing at his desk. This week, we had a strobe light effect by flashing the office lights on and off.

His dance style is very unique... imagine Bill Cosby mixed with some Flavor Flav doing a pole dance. Today, we had other spectators come join us for the fun. Makes for a great way to end the work week but I think our neighbor Andrea must hate us. This is the same neighbor who had Facilities come by to sound-proof her office and tape up her vents 3 months ago because of noise issues.

The Celebration... Makes my Top 10 List of Films to Watch

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 19:29:17 GMT

The Celebration (1998) is one of the best films I've seen in years. Emotionally, its very taxing to watch but visually, its one of the most skillfully captured movies I've ever seen! The story unfolds as a Danish family gets together at the family estate to celebrate the father's 60th birthday. This neatly planned celebration unravels into a whirlwind of dark secrets, bitterness, and anger as the family's skeletons can no longer be kept in the closet.

The cinematography is haunting at times, and brings the viewer into scenes to capture a level of intimacy with the family that is disturbing (you literally feel like you're sitting at the dinner table as these secrets are being unveiled). The actors execute their roles convincingly; the family intimacy and sibling rivalry are very believable, as are the unique dynamics between father and son, brother and sister, husband and wife.

I watched a clip from this film in my "Intro to Filmmaking" class at Penn and have been meaning to see it in its entirety for years. The methods used by the director, Thomas Vinterberg, are truly avant garde; in fact, the Celebration is one of the first films out of the movement called Dogma 95 which aims to discourage filmmakers from sucumbing to the "over the top" technologies and methods of Hollywood. As a result, its members take the Vow of Chastity. This entire film was shot using hand-held cameras, natural light, and no special effects or music. I found out that some of the scenes were captured by taping a camera to the top of a broomstick! This is a film you don't want to miss.

Disclaimer: I tend to be drawn to pretty dark films, especially those that expose facets of real life that I would otherwise never see. So if you enjoy movies like Spiderman 2 and Shrek, you may want to stay away from this one.

Eminem and the Anger Management Tour

Mon, 18 Jul 2005 08:36:17 GMT

So I just got back from the White River Amphitheater where I saw the Anger Management Tour with Lil' Jon, 50cent, and Eminem. Eminem kicked ass and didn't miss a beat. His best sets were "My Band" with D12, "The Way I am," and the finale "Lose Yourself." 50cent and G-unit were a little less impressive and refused to play more than 30 secs of the songs that made them famous (e.g In da Club and Wanksta). Lil' John... well, I don't think he really raps anyway... more of a background rapper who complements the likes of Usher and Ludicris when they need some yelling in the background.

One of the most surprising things about the concert was the fact that ~90% of the concert goers were caucasian, which is odd given that Seattle is fairly diverse and the hip-hop scene is generally a bit more colorful than that. I was there with my other "not-so-gangsta" friend Anita from MS, who at one point commented on how surreal it was that we were both there jamming to some pretty hard-core rap with a crowd of people whom we'd otherwise, never have reason to be near. There were also a ton of parent/children pairings there, which Anita and I both scoffed at.

I think rappers these days have become marketing geniuses. One of the annoying things about the concert was the way in which each performer spent at least 30% of their time cross promoting other "up and coming" rappers on their label. Who the hell is StatQuo and Young Buck and why are you making me listen to them? Also, how do rappers cross-over into other lines of totally unrelated businesses to seamlessly? E.g. 50cent has his GUnit line of clothing, and now his own energy drink with the tag line "Quench your thirst or die trying." Uh, no, thats okay.

I'll post photos soon. Holla!

The closest I will get to Real World

Thu, 09 Jun 2005 18:59:24 GMT

For those of you know know me, it should be no surprise that I applied to a reality show. I love living vicariously through the wacky characters on the Contender, Real World, Road Rules, Show Biz Moms and Dads, The It Factor, etc. Now was my chance to live vicariously through... me. Of course my life, if I were on a reality show, would be much more exiting than 1. wake up, 2. work, 3. eat dinner, 4. watch reality tv, 5. dream about winning the lottery.

OK, the MSN Music Road Tour isn't really a reality TV show, more like a reality Web show. In any case, I applied to see how far I could get. It would have been impossible to actually join since the Bus was scheduled to leave four months prior to our Wedding in October.

Well, I was selected as a semi-finalist since I was "interesting enough to take to the next phase." Unfortunately, the T&Cs state that no MSN employee can be considered for the Tour. So CLOSE and yet so FAR!!!

******************************************************

Congratulations!!!

You’ve been selected as a Semi Finalist for the MSN Music Road Tour. What does that mean you ask? OK, hold your horses...I’m about to tell you…

We received tons of applications and, believe it or not, we found you to be interesting enough to take to the next phase of our selection process.

As you know, the bus leaves soon, so check out the items below that need to happen in lightning speed (as in now) in order to move on to the next phase ofthe selection process.

Having trouble understanding yo urban peeps?

Thu, 19 May 2005 01:54:30 GMT

Dan couldn't understand what i meant when I responded to his email with the words "fo shizzle" so he looked it up in the urban dictionary. Since he's pointed me to it, I've had fun looking up common phrases such as "what up dog?" Whats even funnier is when you look up every day phrases such as "trouble," "cat," or "car." I'm glad my use of the term hizouse is semantically correct.

Lori also pointed me to a great tool that suggests appropriate pimp-handles based on your name. Thanks Fadeproof Lori Large.

Sincerely,

Bishop Don Sim G.

Automatic Comp Sci Paper Generator

Wed, 18 May 2005 22:40:14 GMT

Where was this when I was in college? SCIGen creates random Computer Science research papers, including graphs, figures, and citations. It uses context-free grammar to form all elements of the papers. The paper that I co-authored with Erika is titled TASSET: A Methodology for the Deployment of Architecture. Here is a excerpt from the abstract [since I can't link to the actual paper that was generated]. We wrote this in about 5 seconds.

Abstract: The implications of ubiquitous information have been far-reaching and pervasive. Given the current status of replicated epistemologies, electrical engineers predictably desire the deployment of Smalltalk, which embodies the unproven principles of networking. We present a heuristic for ubiquitous modalities, which we call TASSET.

The funniest thing about this is that the creators of SCIGen submitted two papers to the World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics and the one titled Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy was actually accepted and approved to be presented at the conference.

In case you have any papers coming up, visit SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator and have fun. Like I said previously, MIT kids scare me.

Who said Business School Students can't rap?

Thu, 12 May 2005 18:15:29 GMT

Props go to my Columbia GSB gangstas. Holla!

http://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/students/organizations/follies/index_files/Dean%20Dean%20Baby.wmv