3D Cinema and TV- an observation

The hands-on, absolutely. best. frickin. statement. about 3d in video entertainment today (I’m looking at you, James Cameron).

And really, it seems fitting that the first 3D film I actually want to see is one that doesn’t have a storyline. Up until now, the extra dimension granted by 3D cinematography has contributed little but distraction to the experience of following one as it unfolds. It’s like nailing Mel Gibson to the side of a taxi: people will stare, probably pay more to see it, but ultimately it’ll only distract passengers from enjoying the ride.

…3D movies — hugely expensive investments of mass generic appeal made by Hollywood, partly to fight piracy (it’s harder to illegally copy, download and watch a 3D movie), partly to get people out of their homes and into the cinemas (US cinema attendance was at a five-year low in 2010) and partly to better compete with the meteoric rise of videogames.

via Wired-UK

Jeez, what could have possibly happened?

News from Iran:

Mystery Surrounds Fordow Blast

Jerusalem, Jan 27. – Media reports Sunday suggest a damaging explosion at Iran’s top-secret Fordow nuclear development site took place last week, leaving as many as 190 workers dead.

Following the blast, the main road from Qom to Tehran was closed for several hours, the German newspaperDie Welt reported. If the reports are to be believed, the explosion was perhaps the most serious blow against the Iranian nuclear program to date.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented Sunday as the world marked international Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Iranians were continuing both to deny the Holocaust and pursue their goal of destroying the Jewish state. “They are not halting their unceasing and methodical race to obtain atomic weapons for the purpose of realizing this goal. We are not taking these threats lightly.”

 

Paging Mossad to the white courtesy phone, please…

via Ace

The Black Dog

I have found a name for my pain. (No, it’s not Batman.)

In the past few weeks, I have been extremely distracted by the move to the Undisclosed Location and all the jarring and uprooting and just plain hard work that entailed. But there’s been another issue, an elephant in the room I didn’t want to acknowledge, partly because I couldn’t describe it.

As usual, I fall back on the words of those more educated or who simply write better than I can. One such is The Diplomad, who came up with that name.

Apologies for the light blogging these past few days. Having one of those periodic visits by what Churchill and others have called the “black dog.” A little one, mind you, but nevertheless it interferes with my ability to engage in witty repartee of the blog-type. Let me explain. I am not talking about some clinical depression. I am talking about the black dog that bites you when you read the news, and see and hear the politicians–Democrat and Republican, American and foreign–prattle on about anything and everything except the facts. There are so many facts out there the size of elephants or at least the size of CTU President Karen Lewis, yet the world’s politicians manage not to see them and to see, instead, what they believe in.

Black Dog. Yes, I’ve been bitten by that fellow as well. It’s hard not to look at what is going on in our country today and not feel just a touch of, if not despair, then a strong sense of foreboding.

I spent the last sixty-odd days working side by side with folks you would call the “salt of the earth”-  the people who fix things, make things, make things happen in the background that is never seen unless it stops working. The folks who keep society functioning. The one universal thread I saw was a sense of “preparing”, a quiet withdrawal back to the near and dear, a vibe you only feel when something like a big hurricane is coming- it’s big, it’s inevitable, and it may tear your life apart, but you ready yourself as best as you can.

I think I know what it is, and am afraid of the knowing, so I turn from the macro to the micro and just get on with things. Now is a time for casting aside the trivial and unimportant and shoring up that which really matters, for a storm is coming and none of us knows what it will bring.

The Black Dog. I like that. It fits.