Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:07:29 GMT

Filmmaker overviews.

The "filmmaker overview essay" is "an immensely useful and educational form," notes Girish, who then points to a healthy handful, only one of which has been noted before here: Jonathan Rosenbaum''s piece on Nagisa Oshima for Artforum. The occasion for that one, of course, is In the Realm of Oshima, the series co-organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Cinematheque Ontario and curated by James Quandt - whose essay on Oshima for the Cinematheque is now online.

Two more Girish has been reading: Adrian Martin on Abel Ferrara for 16:9 and, again, Jonathan Rosenbaum, this time with a 1988 piece on Sergei Parajanov. "Finally, the Senses of Cinema Great Directors database is the definitive resource of its kind on the Interwebs," adds Girish, who, having recommended several books as well, naturally wraps it all up with a question: "Do you have some favorite examples of either books or individual essays, print or online, of filmmaker overview pieces?" If so, head to Girish''s place and add to the collection. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:20:27 GMT

Humboldt County

"From its simple title font evocative of another era to its opening and closing shots reminiscent of The Graduate to its casting of filmmaking icon Peter Bogdanovich, Humboldt County acknowledges its immodest aims early on," writes Kristi Mitsuda at indieWIRE. "Taking as their subject matter a happy, hippie hideaway in the marijuana-rich forests of Northern California, writing and directing team Danny Jacobs and Darren Grodsky seem to believe that representation of the unconventional marks their debut effort as such, but the film fails to break any new aesthetic or narrative ground."

"If Being There''s Chance the Gardener were younger, smarter, and a medical student, he might look and act something like Peter Hadley (Jeremy Strong), the character at the center of Humboldt County," writes Hailey Eber for Radar. "Time and motivation get a bit hazy, but what can you expect in the marijuana capitol of North America?"

Updated through 10/3. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:17:29 GMT

Myrl: Connecting virtual lives

• Old form of world wide web: We contacted people by e-mail.

• Web 2.0: We’re connected to each other by social networks.

• Myrl: Our virtual lives (avatars) are connected to each other.

I’m a regular Second Life user but know there are other virtual worlds as well with many different avatars. Why not to connect them to each other? Myrl just does it.

Myrl is a social gateway for virtual worlds that allows you to share your virtual life on the web. Discover, browse and play across multiple worlds with Myrl.

Live report about what you are doing in your virtual life.

You also get a profile for your avatar.

And of course, they have a Second Life residence as well:

I can’t wait to see how many users they will have in some months… Posted by: Bertalan      Read more     Source

September 25, 2008, 10:50 PM CT

Homeowner perceptions in fire-prone areas

Most residents in fire-prone communities surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest have taken steps to protect their homes from wildland fires, as per a U.S. Forest Service study completed this summer.

"The Experience of Community Residents in a Fire-Prone Ecosystem: A Case Study on the San Bernardino National Forest," showed about 94 percent of homeowners who participated in surveys and focus group discussions in 2007 had taken defensible-space steps. About 75 percent reduced the flammable vegetation because it was required.

Inadequate financial resources, physical limitations and a desire to leave the landscape unchanged were usually reported as barriers for undertaking action to protect homes from wildland fires.

"Overall, we found participants were concerned about fires and thought they were knowledgeable about ways to reduce the threat," said Pat Winter, a U.S. Forest Service research social scientist at the Pacific Southwest Research Station.

Winter completed the study with George Cvetkovich, a psychology professor at the Western Washington University Center for Cross-Cultural Research. She and Cvetkovich conducted the research on the San Bernardino National Forest because it is one of the most fire-prone forests in the country......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:58:32 GMT

Apparently I'm Shallow

I''m going to be very honest here:

There isn''t a lot I wouldn''t do for these shoes.

I think I felt my dignity slipping the second I clicked through the Style.com lookbook, to be replaced with pure, unadulterated shoelust. Carrie Bradshaw has nothing on me - well, nothing except for a wallet equiped with the means to buy such expensive footwear.

Anna Sui shoes. Photo sources: 1, 2. Posted by: Kori      Read more     Source

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:40:39 GMT

Sunday swirlings

We’re having a bit of a celebration here at Roundrock Journal. My web master recently upgraded me to the latest version of WordPress, and that fixed a number of minor inconveniences. No longer will I have to cut and past HTML code in order to add pix to the posts. The punctuation will no longer go wonky when I apply any formatting to the text. And best of all, I seem to be able to preview my posts again. I only had sporadic access to that feature before. So thanks, Web Master! I couldn’t do it without your help.

The nearly invisible sliver in Cedorum’s palm calls out for identification. Head on over there and identify the thing, will you? (I’m curious.)

Meanwhile, the news from Alabama is that Rurality is merely “busy, busy, busy” but that no misfortune has befallen the Queen of All Blogs. She hopes to get back to posting on her blog after the first craft show is out of the way.

Alas, it sounds as though Beemused in the Country will be going away, but there’s a silver lining in this dark cloud.

The latest edition of the Festival of the Trees may already be up over at Exploring the World of Trees, coming to the world from lovely Spain. Head over there and revel in the world of trees in all their splendor.

And don’t forget International Rock-Flipping Day coming up next weekend. On September 7, go to the woods or the wilds and turn over some rocks, then take a picture or a video of what your find. Make a sketch. Even write a poem. Then post it on your site and link it to the coordinating blog. For more information, go here and here.

And remember, Ted of here. (another fine Missouri blog) notes that it is critically important to return the rocks to their original positions once you’re done. He wrote extensively about this very thing and the negative consequences of leaving no stones unturned in here.

What’s Pablo reading now? I’m still grinding my way through The Age of Reason. Yes, I know it’s an important work in the history of our nation, but, ugh! I have a couple of weeks before I have to get going on the next selection for the book discussion group, so I should finish this Paine book and use my free time to pick up some things I might like. I’ll let you know.

Missouri calendar:

• The Missouri Natural Events Calendar is blank for today.

Today in Missouri history:

• The Nineteenth Amendment was added to the U.S. Constitution on August 26 and Marie Byrum became the first woman to vote in Missouri history five days later in 1920.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:36:26 GMT

The Baader Meinhof hoopla

If a studio in the US knows it''s got a stinker on its hands, it simply won''t show it to critics before dumping it in theaters on a Friday evening. That used to be a rare, desperate measure, but as studios realize that audiences are now swayed more by marketing than reviews, it''s become an increasingly common practice. But it only works for a certain kind of film, a non-event movie like a B-level horror flick or a romantic comedy with a poster showing Matthew McConaughey about to take his shirt off. If a cone of silence were to descend on a film as big as, say, Der Baader Meinhof Komplex hopes to be in Germany - produced by Bernd Eichinger (Downfall, Perfume) and starring the country''s top of the line: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Bruno Ganz, Nadja Uhl, Johanna Wokalek, Hannah Herzsprung and on and on - audiences would smell a rat.

So Constantin Film and their PR agency, Just Publicity, are trying out a new tactic - and it''s blown up in their faces. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

August 27, 2008, 7:19 PM CT

Economic and Social Disadvantage and Voter Turnout

A study recently reported in the Journal of Social Issues illustrates how certain disadvantages experienced in adolescence, such as early pregnancy, dropping out of high school, being arrested, or going to an underprivileged school, contribute to lower voter turnout in young adulthood. In addition, the types of disadvantage vary across racial groups.

Julianna Sandell Pacheco and Eric Plutzer of The Pennsylvania State University used data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey to measure disadvantage and voter participation.

Hardships affected cumulative turnout of disadvantaged youth, but in a manner specific to each racial group. For White youth, early pregnancy or parenthood leads to dropping out of high school, and the combined impact of these two events resulting in a turnout decline of more than 30 percent. For Blacks, being arrested is linked to dropping out of high school, subsequently decreasing turnout by more than 30 percent.

Institutions have both a positive and negative influence on youth voter turnout, acting to both increase and decrease the impact of these disadvantages on political participation. Whites who are poor are more likely to attend disadvantaged middle and high schools, which additively decreases turnout. Community colleges, however, increase youth voter turnout immensely among Blacks......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

August 25, 2008, 10:05 PM CT

How to get a college roommate you can live with

Anxious college freshmen can relax. No matter who will be sharing their dorm room, they have the power to make the relationship better, University of Michigan research suggests.

The research, reported in the September 2008 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, was conducted by psychology experts Jennifer Crocker and Amy Canevello at the U-M Institute for Social Research.

"Roommate relationships can be really good or they can be really bad. And the fear is that they'll go from bad to worse," said Crocker, a social psychology expert who studies how our own behavior and attitudes affect the kinds of relationships we experience. "But our study shows that you can create a supportive relationship and turn the stranger who's your roommate into a friend".

For the research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, Crocker and Canevello studied more than 300 college freshmen who were assigned to share rooms with other students they didn't know at the start of the first semester. In one study, participants were surveyed once a week for 10 weeks about their attitudes toward friendships in general, and about their feelings of loneliness and experiences of conflict. In a second study, 65 roommate pairs completed daily reports about their relationships during a three-week period in the middle of the semester......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source

August 21, 2008, 8:42 PM CT

"Grow Your Own" Homes

A bus stop that grows its own foliage as shade? A children's playground, made entirely from trees? A shelter made from living tree roots that could provide natural protection against earthquakes in California?

"Eco-architecture" may sound like a Buck Rogers vision of an ecologically-sustainable future, but that future is now thanks to the guidance of Tel Aviv University Professors Yoav Waisel and Amram Eshel. The concept of shaping living trees into useful objects ---- known as tree shaping, arborsculpture, living art or pooktre isn't new. But researchers are now ready to use this concept as the foundation of a new company that will roll out these structures worldwide.

Pilot projects now underway in the United States, Australia and Israel include park benches for hospitals, playground structures, streetlamps and gates. "The approach is a new application of the well-known botanical phenomenon of aerial root development," says Prof. Eshel. "Instead of using plant branches, this patented approach takes malleable roots and shapes them into useful objects for indoors and out".

A Scientific and Commercial Partnership.

The original "root-breaking" research was conducted at the Sarah Racine Root Research Laboratory at Tel Aviv University, the first and largest aeroponics lab in the world. Founded by Prof. Waisel 20 years ago, the lab enables researchers to conduct future-forward and creative research that benefits mankind and the environment......... Posted by: Ethen      Read more         Source