[Movies] Puccini for Beginners (2006)

A popular adage goes that you shouldn't judge books by their covers and by the same vein you probably shouldn't just movies by their posters. Unfortunately, I have to admit that when my partner and I go DVD-hunting, we sometimes fall prey to that kind of a shopping strategy.

Being the queer film enthusiasts that we are, there's nothing that hooks us in better than one of those independent film festival logos on the DVD jacket. It's resulted in a number of surprising finds amongst the DVD racks and of course a fair number of disappointments.

This was definitely one of the former rather than the latter.

Puccini for Beginners was a surprisingly well-written film that we picked up on the fly. Given the volume of DVDs we were sorting through at the time, I just saw the logos as my partner showed me the cover, took a glance at the synopsis (inaccurately captured by the pirate who burned the copy of course) and then gave the nod to add it to the pile of movies we were buying. It sat amongst our collection of movies for some times (more than at least a year if I'm not mistaken), until my partner popped it into the player one lazy day after work.

The film turned out to be a GLBT movie of the lesbian variety, which is not a bad thing at all. Given how witty the dialog and writing turned out to be, the first movie that first came to mind was Imagine Me & You, which is one of my favorite movies. There was definitely that strong attempt at humor and making sure things were relatively light while not getting too shallow or campy. The gay aspect to things wasn't so blatant and in-your-face, so to speak. It was just there, rather matter-of-factly, which was a great thing. Some pink films just get too full of themselves as if there's nothing else to cover beyond the characters being gay.

The movie follows the complicated social life of Allegra (Elizabeth Reaser), who shortly after breaking up with her girlfriend Samantha (Julianne Nicholson) finds herself being attracted to a straight man, Philip (Justin Kirk). Justin had also recently broken up with his girlfriend and eventually he and Allegra hook up and start sleeping together despite her being a lesbian. At the same time, she eventually meets Grace (Gretchen Mol), who had just left her boyfriend and eventually experiments with lesbianism with Allegra.

You do see where this is going, right?

The concept behind the film was rather refreshing and certainly amusing for a romantic comedy. Executive left a little to be desired, but I suppose it could have been worse. It did have that independent film quality to it, but not the cheesy backroom kind of movie - it did have some production value after all.

It ended rather abruptly and I feel a tad disappointed that's the way things went. It certainly had a lot of potential, which is the case for many films, but then it fell a bit short of the mark as thing wrapped up. There was a rather hurried sense to things, as if the makers didn't quite know how to end things and so they just yanked at the threads and hoped that things would unravel in a way that made sense.

It's still worth the time of day watching if you have a lazy weekend free. I wouldn't pay to see it in a theater but given how tricky it is to catch these kinds of films on TV, you'll probably need to buy a copy or find somewhere to rent it. Man, why doesn't this country have Netflix? But that's another topic entirely.

[Google] Offline Gmail

When Google first launched Google Gears, it was a pretty exciting product - a way to address the reliance on the internet for all web applications at the time. The initial kick-off with Google Gears was certainly promising and soon other providers decided to follow suit. Initially it seemed like other providers like Zoho were taking better advantage of Google Gears by providing offline access for their web applications but in time Google started to catch up by enabling it in Google Docs (albeit, to a limited degree) but that didn't stop the clamor for offline access in one of their most famous web applications - Gmail.

Finally, it seems that Google engineers have heeded the call with the announcement of offline access for Gmail as a Gmail Labs feature. Like all Labs-realated announcements, it'll take some time before all users (especially ones outside the US like me) get access to his new feature but I'm willing to wait a little more. Given the quality of my internet connection as of late, having offline access to my Gmail account even just when my internet connection is acting up a bit without fully disconnecting is a god send and I'm really excited.

Actual reviews of the new service to follow once I've had a chance to test it out.


Offline Gmail (in Gmail Labs)

[Viral Video Chart] History of the Internet

Yeah, we all know the general bits about how the internet came to be but not everyone has actually taken the time to dig into the facts and see how things really came to be.

So it normally takes an eerie, documentary quality voice and animated icons to help explain things. Works for me!


#11 - History of the Internet

[Viral Video Chart] Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance

By now, you should have already figured out that I have a rather healthy love for the world of stop motion animation and creative photography. This expands into my interest in clay animation, puppetry and those little drawings in the corners of notebooks and Post It pads. Yeah, they're just adorable.

So it comes as no surprise that this video from Oren Lavie caught my attention as soon I the buffering ended and the video started to play. Oh what would I do without the Viral Video Chart to help me find these things?


#1 - Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance

[Videos] Borrowing Money in Plain English

The folks at the Common Craft Show are back with another great "In Plain English" video. They seem to be responding to the current financial crisis in their own small way by releasing timely videos that discuss various financial concepts. While they don't position this as solid financial advice, it does help explain how banking concepts go especially for the unfamiliar.

This time, they're tackling borrowing money, which essentially builds up to how loans work. A definite must-see for those seeking to borrow money for business needs or other purposes.


Borrowing Money in Plain English

[Viral Video Chart] I Pledge

Let's hope Obama's presidency really does inspire a lot more change.


#17 - Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher's I Pledge Video

[US Politics] Welcome to a New World

This is a Tri-Blog entry that will appear on all three of my blogs - The Geeky Guide to Nearly Everything, Beyond Dinobot Island and Moonbase 8.

---

Some day many years from now when people try asking me that classic question of "Where were you when Obama was sworn into office?" I'll answer as honestly as possible. I'll tell them, "I was at the office without access to a TV and our internet connection was wonky because we got hit by the W32.Downadup worm."

I know, it's not necessarily the greatest answer in the world, but it's pretty much how I'm going to remember things.

I didn't get to watch the live CNN coverage. I couldn't even get alternative sites like Justin.tv, Hulu, Joost or uStream to work for me. I guess the office was just too good at blocking streaming media and what they couldn't block was effectively stopped by the effects of the computer virus on our security infrastructure.

It wasn't a total loss, at least I got to catch news snippets here and there. I tried my best to catch comments on Twitter and I got to read the TIME.com Liveblog coverage of the event. I saw a few images on the various blogs I subscribe to via Google Reader and I noted how while the Oath was not perfect, it was certainly genuine and clearly marks Barack Hussein Obama officially becoming the 44th President of the United States of America.

The 8-year nightmare is over and now I actually feel excited about things. These past years we've feared how the awesome might of the US has been mishandled time and time again under Bush. Obama has a very tall order ahead of him and while I doubt he can possibly live up to ALL of the hype set up over the past few months, even years, but I can see it in his eyes that he's out to make a serious change for the better.

I initially wanted to end this with the full transcript of his speech but then I'm sure everyone's doing that right now and you've probably read it a million times by now. If you haven't then I've linked to it up there and you certainly should get around to it.

You go Obama. Your country and a very significant part of the world is rooting for you.

[Books] Fragile Things

Short story anthologies are always a bit tricky for me to finish. Unless they're all set in the universe (such as Magic: the Gathering's Rath and Storm anthology), I always find myself having a difficult time working through a collection since each story tends to be very different from the last. Plus on top of everything else, I'm the kind of reader that likes to invest a lot of myself into the story and so it takes me a little time to really get to appreciate the characters and get more involved in the tale. Short stories are built on a shorter time frame of an appreciation and thus the emotional investment isn't as significant for me.

So today I finally finished reading our copy of Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things and I definitely have to say that I enjoyed it a lot. Sure, the stories were set in very different environments and very unusual settings but then that's Gaiman for you and he certainly knows how to craft a compelling story. I had written about my love for Gaiman as a writer before and this book strongly reinforces that belief. He does things in a way few other authors can match with and degree of decent quality, hehe.

Image via WikipediaWhat I like the most about Fragile Things is how Neil Gaiman takes the familiar and twists things around in new and interesting ways. He taps into that part of our social consciousness that ensures that the worlds of fan fiction (and even slash fiction) thrive. Let's face it - we become attached to characters from stories, books and movies and we often want to find out what happens to them after the end of the story. Our minds run off in various directions as we try to piece together what could have possibly happened and thus stories that try to answer that question will always have a market somewhere.

Some of my favorite stories from this collection center around that central concept. Take for example the very first story in the collection - A Study in Emerald, which was Gaiman's take at spinning a Sherlock Holmes tale with H.P. Lovecraft overtones. You'd think that it would be a stretch to do so but the resulting tale was gripping for fans of both authors, I would say. I'm trying not to biased here but I definitely liked how things came out - if only I could rework stories with such skill.

The Problem of Susan was another great story that managed to take Susan out of her highly Christian-Narnian context and give the character a lot more edge and a lot more meaning. The tale has its fair share of sadness - the again Gaiman thrives in the realms of the somber at times, but it does so in a manner which retains the dignity of the character.

And of course the real gem of the collection is the last story entitled The Monarch of the Glen, which takes us back to the world of Shadow as introduced in American Gods and somewhat continued in Anansi Boys. American Gods remains one of my favorite books and to venture back into that story world while still exploring a rather different side of things was refreshing and wonderfully interesting. A lot of authors tend to get stuck in ruts with their characters and end up repeating patterns over and over again since they don't know what else to do. Gaiman made sure to continue to explore the development of Shadow and present new aspects to his personality and thus the continued evolution of the character.

Of all of Neil Gaiman's short story anthologies, Fragile Things has officially become my favorite and it's definitey a book I'd stronly recommened to any fantasy fan or pretty much anyone who appreciates a good piece of fiction.

[US] Keith Olbermann Summarizes the Bush Administration

Sure, not everyone likes Keith Olbermann, but he does certainly do his homework when he needs to in order to paint a particular picture. Some may argue he's biased, but let's take the facts he cites for what they're worth and you decide how things have gone.

As for me, I'm just glad that the 8-year nightmare is almost over. Goodbye Dubya! Don't let the door hit you on the rump on your way out!


#3 - Keith Olbermann - 8 years in 8 minutes

[Philipines] Language Does Not Equal Nationalism

Image via WikipediaA friend of mine directed me to this opinion article from the Philippine Star that talks about how changing our medium of instruction back to English is a bad thing. While I'm a tad undecided about where I personally stand on the actual issue he's discussing, I do have a bone to pick with the author in terms of the arguments he puts forward to further his side.

The joys of the internet - the ability to post responses like this without dealing with an editor, haha.

Fundamentally, his primary argument centers around the ties between language use as leading to stronger feelings of nationalism and going away from that language makes us want to associate with the nations related to English such as the USA (although they hardly speak true English, LOL) and the U.K. Worse, he goes on to belittle the Filipino's ability to comprehend English and how all learning facilitated in English becomes just a painful experience of translation.

Oh poo, where do we find these guys?

First, how does simply using a language lead to nationalism, what more a language that doesn't even have universal acceptance in our own country? Filipino, which is fundamentally Tagalog with a legally name change is hardly the true language accepted by everyone in the country. There are far too many dialects in a nation so small that if you do want to find a language we all speak in common, it'll always English. I don't understand a word of Cebuano or any of the other Visayan dialects and I doubt I could even begin to comprehend more southern dialects like Chabakano (if I even spelled that right). The point is that the use of Tagalog is hardly indicative of a universally accepted national identity.

He then goes on to cite a Hong Kong study that showed how difficult a time students had trying to do their coursework in English. However he forgets how deeply the English language has penetrated our country and how everyone is able to comprehend this a lot better than your average Hong Kong citizen probably does. We're swamped with books, movies and TV shows in English and we're even coupled with a legal system that's still based within the English realm and lawmakers who continue to give long-winded speeches in English as well. I don't think I'll ever be able to get over how I needed to learn History in Filipino while using an English text book. Now what's up with that logic?

Let's go on further to our own military and police forces who continue to struggle with speaking English and yet continue to insist to do so, haha. English is a lot more universal in the country and just changing the medium of instruction won't change things. If he really wants to force everyone to embrace the language, we're going to need to change things from top to bottom and change the way our government works, reinforce the proper language in all government institutions like those I mentioned prior and somehow promote / require stronger language representation in the media through legislation. We even get the news mostly in English after all. Plus remember we'll be pushing Filipino, thus making it harder for everyone else pretty much outside of Manila.

I admit, I suck at speaking Filipino. My upbringing can be thanked for that and now I'm only comfortable primarily speaking English. However that doesn't mean I don't care for my country or my limitation of language makes me any less Filipino. Quoting the Indian study didn't really do the author any good from a factual standpoint - he just presented someone else's paper where all he did was quote Gandhi. I strongly support the progress and advancement of this nation and I'm willing to fight for its freedom. Just because I choos to do it in English doesn't make me any less nationalistic.

I think we all have to face the reality that our culture is a lot more diverse than most. We've been occupied by colonizers for most of our history and in that time our national identity has become inevitably married to other cultures. Our languages and dialects are colored with Spanish influence everywhere and our interests and beliefs beyond that have an undeniable Western flair here and there. Our system of government owes a lot to the Americans and our cuisine is a grand mix of everything in the region and beyond. What Filipino identity is he looking for? The last time we were without significant foreign influence was during our tribal period before the coming of the Spanish colonizers. Is that what he wants?

Nationalism is a good thing, I agree, but we first need to understand what exactly the Filipino identity is. We need to acknowledge the value we've gained from all the foreign influence and agree that we can come up with a national identity based on what we've acquired from them and more.

He probably could have sent a much stronger message had he actually written the article in Filipino. Instead he chose to chastise the government in English - the very language of instruction he's arguing against. That was the real cherry on top of it all, haha.

[TV] Where's My SciFi Channel?

Image via WikipediaBeing a science fiction geek living in the Philippines, it frustrates me to no end that we don't have the Sci-Fi Channel as part of our cable TV offerings in the area. I don't suppose this country is exactly known for science fiction appreciation in the eyes of media moguls and the like - they've limited our access to content whether in terms of dedicated cable channels and even books over the years.

I think what really gets to me is when affiliate channels like the Hallmark Channel start showing commercials and teasers for SciFi in an attempt to get subscribers to contact their local cable operators to start negotiating for package inclusion. I swear to god that as frustrating as it is, if SkyCable (my provider) decides to add the Sci-Fi Channel as part of their Platinum package offerings, I just might upgrade in order to gain access.

Geekdom can be so expensive.

I checked out the Wikipedia page for SkyCable and it seems there are no immediate plans of getting access to Sci-Fi anytime soon - although they do indicate the possibility of HD offerings by year's end. That's certainly something I'd have to see to believe.

Well, just consider this the ranting of yet another frustrated geek. Can you hear us SkyCable? We want our SciFi Channel! Please?!?!?

[Star Wars] Cultural Consciousness and Epic Geekdom

There are somethings that are just so big, they get into everyone's social consciousness. There are major political events, great historical events, moments in entertainment history and even pieces of geekdom that are strong enough to penetrate the minds of those totally not inclined towards the realm of science fiction.

Here's an interesting video based on someone who's never watched the Star Wars movies completely and just go on and see how much she was able to get right - it just shows jut how big Star Wars really is.


#17 - Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it)

[Viral Video Chart] Liverpool Station Dancing

Commercials make the world go round.

AND DANCING!

This just made my Sunday ♥ =D


#1 - The T-Mobile Dance

[World Affairs] Russia on the Rise

Image via WikipediaThis has been an interesting news week - at least I certainly think so. One of the bigger items that's been going for some time is the on-going dispute between Russia and Ukraine over the price of gas. Long story short, Ukraine's contract for gas comes up and they don't agree to pay Russia's higher rates, so Russia cuts them off. Russia then suspects Ukraine is stealing gas from the pipes running through the country in order to supply the rest of Europe and so they ultimately kill that supply too. Thus the rest of Europe begins to freeze due to insufficient heating and cooking gas while Russia and Ukraine continue in their pissing contest.

And where's the EU in all this? Well, they're pretty much as useless as always and are unable to force Russia into anything, They are rather angry though and are trying their best to make sure their citizens know just how angry they are.

Oh the joys of international politics.

Russia has a long history of hard bargaining. Let's face it - we've seen a return to older ways under the reign of Putin, which is essentially uninterrupted with him now performing as the country's Prime Minister. The current disagreement with Ukraine may seem to be just a simple dispute between a merchant raising rates and a customer who refuses to pay the new rates but cannot survive without the commodity, but of course it's not just that. This is the country that came up with the KGB and made international espionage an art form more than Ian Flemming ever did.

Take for example the Ukraine's decision to side with the state of Georgia when Russia was stepping up aggression with the former member state. Throw in their intent to join NATO and naturally you have for one angry bear deciding to do something about it. And you have to admit, the move sends a very strong message that terrorists need high explosives to replicate. The measure may not impact Ukraine directly in the short term given their sizeable gas reserves, but it drastically affects the rest of Europe and those same nations who will determine if the Ukraine can join their military organization.

Sure, Russia has always played the role of the bully and nations at one point or another will end up crying foul and hoping something is done. But seriously, when has anyone been able to push back Russia once it sets out on an agenda in recent years? While the Soviet Union is a fast fading part of our history, recent events continue to reinforce the fact that they're not a nation to be written off just yet. The threat of nuclear conflict has been replaced with more subtle weapons like the economic warfare on-going right now.

And who knows what Russia will manage to achieve in the future - Putin remains in power after all, in one way or another.

[Viral Video Chart] Dirty Dancing Demonstration

I've never seen the show, "The Principal's Office" - then again we don't get TruTV over here either, so that's that. Still, there has to be a better principal to follow around than this guy because I mean COME ON, this is just silly!

Then again, it is reality TV, which more and more is not about real life. So there.

I just thought this was funny anyway, hehe.


#6 - The Principal's Office - "Dirty dancing"

[Viral Video Chart] Instruction Manual for Life

When I noticed this video on the Viral Video Chart, at first I thought it was some fundamentalist religious propaganda. It's hard not to make that association given the beginning of the video, seriously.

But then it evolved into a rather interesting of not highly veiled and metaphorical look at any number of things. It could be about differences in religion. It could be about differences in beliefs. It could be about differences in gender identity and sexual orientation. The creators did a great job of being deliberately vague about it, leaving the viewer free to determine what learning or meaning he can glean from the video.

It's worth the time to check it out, if you're not overly busy. Plus the who thing just makes you stop for moment and think about things.


#5 - Instruction Manual for Life

[Finances] Saving Money in Plain English

If you've been reading the Geeky Guide to any period of time, you know I'm a big fan of the "...in Plain English" series of instructional YouTube videos from CommonCraft. I think ever since I discovered them, I've always made it a point to share their videos here as well.

This week has them doing a guide that's rather timely considering the economic climate - Saving Money in Plain English. It's not about simply making money or generating a ridiculous large amount of income but it's actually just about the benefits of saving money, period. This is something that a lot of people have forgotten the value of, even though it yields limited results over a rather long period of time.

It's worth the viewing if you've ever wondered how banks work and what interest is and that sort of thing. Check it out!


Saving Money in Plain English

[US] Quantifying Bravery

Image via WikipediaThe Purple Heart has has always been a symbol of sacrifice for country in the US military, a medal given to those who were killed or injured in enemy action. When you get involved the military and put your life at risk, a medal seems a small consolation for your losses should you survive the conflict. The injuries one gets in a conflict, global or otherwise, are bound to affect your ability to perform in normal society or even function as a working citizen in your life outside the military.

The New York Times reports that the Purple Heart will not be given to soldiers suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) since the disorder itself is hard to define, difficult to diagnose and not necessarily directly caused by the enemy.

The validity of PSTD has always been rather controversial over the years and whether or not it is a truly valid disorder caused by participation in military action has been debated for years. In the eyes of some, it's more along the lines of cowardice and not necessarily a medical condition and policies like this silently support that premise without deliberately saying so.

It's bad enough that whether or not the war they're waging is valid or not, getting ridiculed for PSTD, being unable to hold a decent job after military service and all that is not even being recognized by a small medal just makes the entire situation all the more frustrating. I can't wait until the US comes to its senses and stops this sham situation with the "global war on terror".

[Geeky Guide] ISP Updates

My ISP (Globe Broadband) finally dispatched a tech team to figure out why my wireless connection was being terribly pathetic since, well, ever since I signed up about a month ago. After several minutes of twiddling with my computer (with me watching like a hawk), the tech went on to explain how wonky the wireless service does get and just explained (as I had already observed) what he had done.

As stupid as it was for him to continually reset the connection via the admin page, it seems to work and I tried the same thing out when things started to slow down, and so far it seems to help. It wasn't the most amazing solution provided, but it was a practical one.

Ultimately what this means to you, geeky reader, is that I'm finally decently connected again, so expect more updates as we continue on into 2009. If anything, you can always go on and check on my personal blog, Beyond Dinobot Island (yes, I'm an LJ user!) in case you're curious as to what I'm up to when I'm not posting entries here.

Cheers!

[Technology] A Step Towards HD

Image by zoph via FlickrLike most other geeks, I find gadgets pretty cool. Of course not all geeks like the same things and while I may not be big on mobile devices and the increasing miniaturization of chip sets and storage media, I do tend to get impressed by really powerful hardware, great home setups and vacuum cleaners that threaten to rip a whole in the fabric of spacetime. Throw in my other geeky leanings about movies and TV and of course the buzz around true home entertainment technology comes into play.

High Definition is the big buzz word for TV fanatics like myself these days. Despite my living in a third world country where HD penetration is laughable, I'm still pretty excited about the technology and recreating that experience at home. However given the prevailing climate, that's not really an easy option. I considered all this as I was shopping for a new DVD player today and ended up going home with a new 5.1 home theater system. I'm preparing myself for a true HD experience once I can actually afford / save up for / charge my credit card for a great HDTV in the choices I make now, but then again you have to take a step back and think about how far behind the Philippines is.

And we really do feel third world in this regard.

HD penetration has been really helped along by the prevalence of HD content. Having the equipment is only part of the equation - you still need content also in that weight class. Many people make the mistake of thinking that just owning and HDTV means they already have the HD experience. Content in itself can come from a variety of sources but as expensive at it is to buy individual movie titles in DVD or Blu-ray format, content is much easier to come by through paid TV.

That's what I think has really helped push HD awareness into the mainstream - the cable TV and satellite TV wars. With all the providers in the market, the race is on for them to provide either the most HD channels or the "best" HD channels by whatever standards they can think of. It's meant a big win for consumers as they rake in the benefits of more advanced content and at the same time its prompted more HD equipment purchases in order to unlock the added picture and sound quality.

Here in the Philippines, the paid TV isn't even predominantly digital and we're still making those first baby steps towards addressable set top cable boxes and access cards. Thus the only way to get HD content is through individual DVD or Blu-ray titles as I mentioned before, and this has stalled our progress towards true HD. Sure, HDTVs are on sale everywhere but the average consumer can't really appreciate the value of the equipment other than the TVs being a lot slimmer than before and being able to mount them on your wall like a picture frame. But that's not the point.

So as I was shopping for a DVD player today, that little debate kept raging in my mind. Sure, it would be cool to own equipment moving towards that HD direction, but without the actual TV and access to significant amounts of HD content, why bother, right? Was I just wasting money even making sure that the player I was buying already included an HDMI cable that I can't use right now?

I blame the campaign I'm working with at the office these days. I'm heavily involved in a sales campaign for a US satellite TV provider, and day in day out my working life is filled with discussions about HD technology, getting the most out of your home entertainment system and generally just getting the true theater experience at home. I have to admit that I WANT that HD experience. Just because I don't get digital cable TV signals means I'm going to give up on things right away. By hook or by crook, my personal geekdom demands I move towards becoming HD-capable at home.

Was it necessarily a smart decision? In the long run, maybe, provided I actually do get an HDTV in the foreseeable future, which I'm sure I'm bound to blow several paychecks on sooner or later. At the same time, it probably wasn't the most amazing decision either given the lack of HD content here in the Philippines. Still, a guy can dream, right?

Why is being a geek so expensive at times? =P