Twitterpated (no, it's not dirty)

So, I caved in and created a Twitter account.  You can see the feed in the pane to the right.  If you need more boredom in your life, click the 'follow me' button underneath the feed and then you can be updated on all the minutiae of my life, as it happens!  Isn't that what you always wanted.  Of course, if you're reading this on Facebook, then there's nothing of interest to the right.  Instead you'll have to scroll to the bottom of the post and click the 'View Original Post' to be taken to my actual blog post and then you can fulfill your desire for pointless info from me.  Enjoy.

Video Rundown

Just a quick rundown of some videos that I think are worth checking out.

First up, the trailer for the new project from Joss Whedon (Toy Story, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly), the TV Dollhouse which premieres on Fox in February:

 

Next, a couple of newly recorded bits which began popping up on YouTube recently to prepare for the big re-launch of the Muppets franchise next year (if you like these, be sure to check out Ode to Joy, Classical Chicken, and Stadler and Waldorf's video response heckling):

 

If you haven't seen it yet, you really need to head over to iTunes (or Hulu if you're in the US) and download Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog:

 

And, finally, since we're on a bit of a Whedon kick, here's the promo for the proposed 2001 Buffy animated series:

That's it for now,

Sleep well,

DTE

Football and Turkeys

Today is Thanksgiving Day here in the US, where I'm currently living.  Just as in Canada, Thanksgiving here is a day to gather with friends and family and remember all the things you have to be grateful for.  And to watch a lot of football and plan out strategies for hitting all the Black Friday sales the next day.  Because, you know, nothing says "I really am fortunate to have been blessed with all of this" like plotting how to get as much more "stuff" as you possibly can.  It brings to mind the line from the Garfield Thanksgiving TV special - "Thanksgiving is the day when people celebrate having food to eat by eating as much of it as they possibly can". 

I'm sure most blogs going up today fall into one of two camps.  Most of them will probably be touchy-feely ruminations on all there is to be grateful for.  The considerably smaller minority will no doubt be addressing the hypocrisy inherent in the holiday, the way it has been commercialized, turned into the launching pad for the season of getting, and examining its roots in the slaughter and mistreatment of the Native Americans.  I'm not going to do either.  As I just stated, you have plenty of other options if you want to read on those topics.  Frankly, though, I'm too lazy, and perhaps too self absorbed, to write on the first topic, and I have no interest in writing on the second.

I spent this afternoon at a screening of Charlie Kaufman's (Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) latest film, Synecdoche, New York.  It's probably best described as a real life horror, or the horror of real life.  It deals with a man grappling with the realities of growing old, having friends leave or die, having your body start to fail you, and your eventual, inescapable death.  He becomes so obsessed with trying to find meaning in his life and understand the nature of living and dying that he ends up missing out on the life he has left.  It's not the typical blood and guts torture porn that gets passed of as horror these days.  It's not even the more psychological Hitchcockian horror.  It's something far more real, and far more terrifying.

I've often said that I don't want to live past the age of 30.  That isn't to say that I intend to kill myself on my 30th birthday, because that's certainly not the case.  It's the fact that, at this point in my life, everything beyond 30 looks like nothing I want to experience.  Decades of nothing but work, until you're too old to work anymore, but also to old to do much of anything else.  Friends moving away, starting families, drifting apart.  Being left behind, left alone.  As my current situation changes, the future should look brighter, but from where I sit now, I'm not real eager to get there.

And that's exactly what the film tapped into.  Each one of those fears, in their most extreme and terrible forms.  And that's what makes the film so frightening.  What's being shown to you isn't just scary, it's not reinforcing new fears that have been conjured up during the course of the narrative.  It takes fears that were already present before you even entered the theatre and then plays them out in (metaphorically) gory detail.  But there is something to take away form it as well.  The film's message is that we shouldn't waste time trying to discern some meaning in our lives or worrying about or dwelling on the horror of what is to come.  Doing so only saps the present of whatever meaning or joy it has.  It essentially creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This leads into something else I've been thinking about lately - motivation.  Everyone needs something to be living for or to be working towards.  Whether that be trying to complete a degree or earn money to feed your family, there has to be that motivating factor, that reason for doing what you do.  But what do you do when that element no longer exists for you?  Up until recently, my motivation had always been about school.  Finish this project.  Finish this year.  Make enough money to go back next year.  Get high enough grades to get a good job.  That's all over now.  I finished school, got the grades, got the job.  Now what?  What is there to drive me now?  I've slipped into a state of merely existing.  It goes back to that rather bleak view of the future.  Work to make money to do what?  Motivation has degraded into small and meaningless things - the next movie, the next sporting event, the next concert, etc.  It's enough to keep you going in the short term, but it can't stay that way forever.  Eventually, I think you have to take a much broader view.  Whether you believe in predestination with free will or think that everything is meaningless, I think the only way to keep moving forward is to do just that - move forward.  "If nothing we do matters, all that matters is what we do" (Angel)

Sleep well,

DTE

____________________

Songs of the moment:

Metric - Help, I'm Alive, The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight, Billy Joel - Piano Man

Music while I wrote:

Our Lady Peace - Clumsy

Driving Fear

So, commuting back and forth twice a week between Edmonton and Calgary for the last three months had given me a lot of time to think.  One of the things I've been thinking about recently is, coincidently enough, driving.

I haven't really been thinking anything deep, or even worth repeating, but I'm going to anyway.  One of my favourite things to do is drive at night.  I love all the lights and the empty roads.  It's just relaxing and a great way to forget about everything.  It probably also has something to do with when I'm typically driving at night.  It's usually on the way to something fun or on the way back from it.  It's probably somewhat psychological - driving at night usually means fun, so I find it relaxing even when there is nothing specifically fun happening.

The other thought I've had about driving is the amount of conscious thought, or lack thereof, that it requires.  A couple weeks ago I found myself doing four things at once while returning from Calgary.  I was driving, but also singing (that's right, I sing along with whatever I'm listening to while I drive), planning what I would do when I returned home, and analyzing the fact that I was doing all of these things at once.  Sure it was on the notoriously straight and boring Highway 2, but still.  That seems like a lot of brain activity to be directed at activities other than driving.  And yet, I wouldn't have considered myself to be distracted or not paying enough attention during that time.

And now on to the reason for the second half of this post's title.  Fear.  I talked a little bit about fear and insecurity in my last post, but I think I'm going to touch on it again.  I'm now living in Austin, and will be for the next three months.  After that, I'll be living in New Orleans for another three months before moving back to Edmonton.  During this time, I'll only return home for ten days around Christmas.  The question I got asked the most when I would tell people about my trip was "Are you afraid?"  My answer was usually something noncommittal.  The truth is, no I'm not really worried about living on my own in a new city in a new country.  And I'm only a little nervous about starting a new job with a new branch of the company.  But I have realized that there is one thing that I am afraid of.  I'm afraid of what home will be like when I return.  We are all constantly changing.  When you see people all the time, this changing is almost unnoticeable, but when there are long periods between seeing someone, they can seem like a completely different person when you finally meet up again.  And that's what I'm afraid of.  That when I get back, my friends or I will have changed and moved on and we just won't fit anymore.  I think that about the only thing that can be done to try to prevent this from happening is to try to keep in touch and communicate as much as possible during the time that I'm gone.  Beyond that, it's just a matter of waiting to see how things shake out.

Sleep well,

DTE

____________________

Songs of the moment:

Human - The Killers, The Summer Sends its Love - Sherwood, Kids - MGMT

Music while I wrote:

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog Soundtrack, Social Code - Social Code

The Other Side of the Mirror

Life is really all about perceptions.  How you perceive others. How they perceive you.  How you perceive how they perceive you.  So much comes down to this really somewhat abstract concept.  As such, learning to manage perception is something most people learn to do early in life, though certainly to varying degrees.

I started thinking about this topic because I was watching a TV show in which the main character, somewhat of a geek, goes into a trendy restaurant to try to track down a friend.  As I watched, I thought to myself "Dude, I wouldn't have even tried to go in there" (yes, I called myself dude.  Let's not get into that...).  But then I stopped to analyze that response.  Why wouldn't I go in?  I think it comes back to a very junior high mind set.  Part of me still felt like I wasn't "good enough" or "cool enough" to go in.  Keep in mind this wasn't a bar, where you'd be evaluated and then either admitted or dismissed based on your perceived merits, but just a restaurant.  The only barrier to my entering would be constructed in my own mind.

In junior high I was something of a geek, which I define as being a step above the nerds, those who are just into the wrong things, or a little too smart, or not exactly socially graceful, or all of the above.  As a geek, there were definitely places in the school where you just didn't go, or people you just didn't hang out with.  But this was something which I had considered myself to be largely past.  Not just in the sense that I no longer consider myself to be a geek, but also in that, if asked, I wouldn't say that I let other peoples opinion affect my actions.  But clearly that's not quite the case.  Were I to actually go into that restaurant it's very unlikely that anything would happen.  Most likely no one would even take notice.  But it all comes back to how we perceive other's perceptions of us.  Even though it'd probably be completely wrong, my first thought would be that suddenly the center of attention, with everyone noticing how much I don't belong.  A good friend of mine recently pointed out that all humans tend to feel like their actions or presence drawn more attention then they actually do, especially when they're uncomfortable.  She had a term for this phenomenon, but I don't remember what it was at the moment.  But she's absolutely right.  Just think about how much attention you really pay to the people around you.  Certainly there are times when events or people draw you attention, but for the most part, we don't notice a lot.  So this notion that there are places where someone "doesn't belong" really are just the final remnants of junior high hang-ups and something which must be overcome.

Of course, it is possible, and often advisable, to manage the way other people perceive you.  This is something that everyone does, though most probably don't realize they're doing it.  I know that, personally, I have several different versions of myself that I use at different times.  Some of these versions contain elements that aren't even a part of what I consider to be my "true" self, while others merely emphasize certain elements while downplaying other.  For example, I'd describe the personas I adopted as a swimming instructor/lifeguard and as an engineer to be equally close to my "true" self (though neither are really all that close) but they are quite different personas.  My least accurate version is probably the one I use with my extended family, followed, unfortunately, by the one I use with my immediate family.  After that there are the ones I use for acquaintances, then friends, and finally my closest friends.  The last two versions are almost the same, but for my closest friends I truly hide nothing.  Which means that less than a dozen people get to see absolutely, exactly who I am.  I realize that this is probably more extreme than most people and it's not something that I'm exactly comfortable with, and it gets a little exhausting acting almost all the time, but that's something I'm working on too - reducing the number of personas.

Some of the things we hide are understandable, as they could lead people to perceive us incorrectly.  However some that I hide aren't necessarily bad things, they just produce undesirable results.  For example,  I rarely divulge the fact that I'm one point shy of having a "genius" level IQ or that I have a "near photographic" memory (that's right, according to the official tests I fall just short of the mark for being truly special in both categories).  Neither of these things are bad.  But I never answered questions in class and don't go out of my way to share my knowledge because I know how it would affect the way I'm perceived, and that's not a perception I'm comfortable with.  I'm far more comfortable with the slackers and the relaxed crowd than with the brainy set.  Similarly, I frequently deliberately hide my memory.  I can usually recall, word for word, any conversation I've had in the last month or more, but I'll often pretend to forget details or even entire conversations, as I've found that it makes people uncomfortable to talk to me once they've decided that they're talking to a human tape recorder.  Even the fact that I'm color blind (color deficient), while not something I actively hide, isn't something I frequently bring up.  It's not to avoid playing the inevitable "what color is this?" game but because I don't particularly relish the sympathy or being treated like I have some huge handicap.  And, yes, I realize that I've just revealed three things that I normally keep hidden, to varying degrees, in a very public forum.  But you and I both know, dear imaginary reader, that no one actually reads these things.  And anyone who does stumble onto this will likely either be a complete stranger or a member of my closest friends, so it doesn't really matter.  After all, this is really just a whisper into the abyss.

Regardless of whether you feel that presenting different versions of yourself is honest, it's something we all do, and I think that realizing that fact is the first step towards being able to overcome any other hang ups you may have over the way you are perceived and will increase the accuracy in the way you perceive others.

So that's it for today, but before I sign off, I'm going to add a new feature to the blog, mostly for my own amusement - a song list.  At some point in each post from now on, or until I get bored with it, I'll list some of my favorite songs of the moment, as well as what I listened to while I wrote the post, since I always require music while writing.  So for the inaugural list:

Songs of the moment:

Bitter:Sweet - Dirty Laundry

Rancid - Fall Back Down

Rancid - Time Bomb

The Trews - Fleeting Trust

Music as I wrote:

Barenaked Ladies - Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits 1991-2001

Sleep well,

DTE

Microsoft presents Porn Explorer

Just a quick post today.  So if you haven't heard, and there's really no reason why you would have, Microsoft is close to releasing the new version of their browser, Internet Explorer 8, and has released the public beta, meaning anyone can download and test it.  Going over the list of changes and improvements, most are pretty dull, just routine security improvements, speed enhancements, and other small features designed to win back users who have switched over to Firefox.

There is one new feature, however, which is being largely overlooked by the tech sites, but it's the one which will likely get the most use.  It's called "In Private" browsing.  When activated, the computer will not record any search, history, form, or password data and will not store any cookies or temp files.  According to Microsoft, it's designed to be used on public computers when checking your e-mail or other tasks with sensitive information (why anyone would still be stupid enough to use sensitive info on a public computer, I have no idea) or for when you're buying gifts for family members at home and don't want the website to show up in the history list, so the family member can't accidentally find out about it.  I suppose these are both legitimate reasons to use the feature, and many people will likely find it very useful for this purpose.  There's another use for this feature, though, which will likely find much higher adoption: porn.

That's right, teenage boys and bashful husbands the world over should be rejoicing.  With a single click of a button, it's now possible to surf for all the porn you can handle without leaving any trace for those nosey parents/spouses to find.  Sure, before this you could always go into the internet files and manually delete all the cookies, history, search records, and temp files, but that was more work, there was always the chance that you'd miss something, and the savvy snoop could notice that browser history always seemed to disappear after you used the computer.  Now that's all taken care of in one simple fix.

So, while it appears no one in the media has figured this out yet, don't be surprised if you hear a news story in the near future about advocacy groups attacking Microsoft for making a tool which makes it so easy for minors to access porn behind their parent's backs.

Microsoft Porn Explorer.  Until then...

Sleep well,

DTE

Gone

So, it's happened.  I've finally left my old job as a lifeguard and swimming instructor.  Actually, I left it early in July, but starting a new job, moving, etc. has prevented me from having the time to write about it until now.  The whole experience was quite surreal, and I'm not sure it's entirely sunk in, just yet.  You could break my departure down into four separate events.

The first would be my final all staff inservice.  This yearly event happened to occur this year on my birthday, and also five days before my last scheduled shift.  Prior to the day I had thrown in a plug to my boss for the fact that it would be my birthday and that I, half jokingly, expected a cake.  Her response left little doubt that there would, in fact, be a cake.  Really that's all I expected - a cake and the mandatory goodbye card signed by the staff.  What I got was  a whole lot more.  In addition to the cake and card, I received several other gifts and cards, and many nice things were said.  All in all, it was a little overwhelming, and I'll admit to being somewhat choked up.  It was great to be able to say goodbye to everyone all at once, to get to spend some time with everyone and not have to have to give anyone a lacklustre goodbye because I was unable to see them before I left.  I'm sure that the cards and signed picture will continue to mean a lot to me for years to come.

The second portion of my departure occurred the next day.  I received a phone call from one of the other lifeguards, asking me to come in to guard because a scheduling mistake had left her short staffed.  I include this as one of my departure events because of the particular guard that I was working with.  I had know her for 10 years and taken many of my swimming courses with her.  On top of that, the very first lifeguard shift I worked had been just the two of us, and now it had come full circle so that the last lifeguard shift I would work would be just the two of us again.  It was great because the pool deck was closed for two hours in the middle of the shift, meaning we just got to hang out one more time before I left.

The third event occurred after after my final shift.  It was a Thursday night, and I went out to Boston Pizza with many of my closest friends from work.  We stayed there for several hours, and I have to admit that having them all meet me at the pool made leaving the building after that final shift a lot easier.

The final event occurred on Monday, two weeks later.  I had returned from my training in Houston two days earlier.  I was leaving the city to heard to my new job.  Before doing that, however, I had one last bit of paperwork that I needed to complete at the pool, so I stopped there before leaving town.  I got to say goodbye one more time to one of my favourite people, and then I left the pool, this time alone.  While I had been inside, it had started to rain, so I exited to find dark grey skies and rain pouring down.  When I got into my car, the radio was playing Green Day's Good Riddance.  Since I tend to assign meaning to just about everything that happens, it began to sink in that my time at the pool really was over.  This confluence of events felt somehow fitting and, though I was again a little choked up, it felt right and I was at peace with it.

Now, even after having not worked a shift there in almost two months, and having received my official release papers, the place still feels like it's connected to me.  I still refer to it as "my" pool, and when telling stories still say they're from "work" and not "my old job".  I think I'm going to cling to that possessiveness of the place for a long time.

So now I'm in a completely new city, surrounded by completely new people, which has got me thinking about the meaning of home.  I have my own apartment here, which is great, but at the same time, I don't quite think of it as my home.  This might be due to the fact that in my head I know that I'll only be there for a few months before being shipped off to another new place, with another new apartment.  But when I return to Edmonton on the weekends, I'm finding that the house I grew up in is feeling less and less like my home as well.  Though I always thought I understood it intellectually, I feel like I'm just now really beginning to understand the exchange in Garden State where Andrew (Zach Braff) says:

"You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home any more. All of a sudden, even though you have some place where you put your shit that idea of home is gone.

You'll see one day when you move out. Just sorta happens one day and it's gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know? You won�t ever have that feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself. You know, for your kids. For the family you start. It's like a cycle or something. I don't know. But I miss the idea of it, you know? Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people that miss the same imaginary place."

It really is a sobering realization.  And more than a little unnerving.

The difference that I notice the most, between my old job and the new one, is the people.  At the pool I was surrounded, almost entirely, by women, most in the 16-25 age range.  As you'd probably expect, they talked.  A lot.  Which was great.  I really got to know a lot of people, made some great friends, and I credit working with these girls with a lot of what helped me to overcome a lot of my shyness and really helping me improve my conversational skills.  At the new job, however, the difference is almost night and day.  I now work with all men, most in the 40-60 range.  And none of them talk.  Ever.  They just sit in their cubicles all day, silently.  Even during coffee and lunch breaks, no one moves, no one talks.  When I do have to say something to one of them, I feel as though I'm just interrupting, destroying the precious silence they've obviously worked so hard to cultivate.  And they do it all in the dark.  The room has plenty of lights and windows.  It could be a bright, encouraging place to work.  Instead they leave all lights off, all windows shut.  The only illumination is provided by the computer monitors.  Well, the monitors and whatever light spills out of my office.  You see, that's the other way I'm winning new friends there.  In addition to being the young punk kid who comes in and gets the corner office while the rest of them are in cubicles, I also turn the lights on in my office and open the window.  The result is that some of that light inevitably spills out into the dungeon-like main area, robbing them of some of their coveted darkness.  Yep, they all love me.

What I didn't really figure out until I began the new job was how much I got out of my old one in terms of contact with friends and conversation.  Since I would be able to return to Edmonton most weekends for this first assignment, I didn't think I'd have too many problems with missing people or getting lonely.  After all, when I lived in Edmonton, I mostly hung out with my friends on weekends anyway.  What I didn't piece together was that all that time during the week when I was at work was also time when I was with friends and people I could talk to.  Now, in the Silent Workplace, that's all gone.  And I miss it.

I'll be in my current assignment until the end of September, at which point I'll be transferred much farther away, making returning to Edmonton on a regular basis impossible.  I guess I just have to hope for a more talkative staff at the next one.  Otherwise all my communication energy is just going to have to be routed into texts, e-mail, Facebook, and, of course, this blog so that it can be read by you, my imaginary reader.  We'll just have to wait and see.

Sleep well,

DTE

Goodbye

For anyone who missed both the e-mail and the hard copy I left in the message book, here's a copy of my goodbye letter to the O'Leary staff. And if you're not O'Leary staff, quit reading and mind your own business.

___________________

June 26, 2008

To the O’Leary Staff,

I have tried to write this letter several times over the past few days, without much success, and I’m sure as soon as I send it, I’ll think of something I would have liked to have changed or added, but you’ll just have to suffer through this version. It’s more or less what I would have liked to say at the inservice on Saturday, but since I’m not very good at speechifying (which spell-check is telling me is actually a real word!), I decided it would be best to do it this way.

I want to give my most sincere thanks for the cards and gifts which I received on Saturday. I was genuinely touched by the sentiments expressed within them. I got a little choked up as they were given to me (I tried to hide it, but at least one person saw right through that), and even more so as I read all of the comments later on.

I also want to thank everyone for being such a great staff to work with. I’ve said it many times before, but the truth is that the single biggest reason I’ve stayed at O’Leary for so long is the people. It really has been great to be able to come in to work every day knowing that I’m going to work and hang out with people I genuinely enjoy and care about. I really believe that I’ve worked with the best staff in the city.

Finally, I just want to say thank you for all that this pool and the staff here have done for me over these years. When I started here, as I’m sure Lisa, as the last surviving member of that era, will attest to, I was extremely shy and painfully awkward. My first couple sessions did not go very well at all and it took me a while to find my place. However, with Christie, Dao, Lesley, Lisa, Jenni, and Nicki’s gentle (or, in Jenni’s case, blunt) guidance, I did eventually get things figured out. I give the people here a lot of the credit for shaping me into the less shy, slightly less awkward, and exponentially more crass person that I am today. And for that, I am grateful.

I wish all of you the best, both in your time at the pool and in your future endeavours. For those of you who are still new to the pool, I really encourage you to hang out for a few minutes before and after your shift and get to know the people you’re working with. They really are great people and doing so will not only help you do your job better, it’ll make it a whole lot more fun.

When I started here, I never would have imagined that would stay for so long, that I would get so much out of this job, or that I would form relationships with so many terrific people which I intend to continue for years to come. This letter has become far sappier then I had intended, so I’ll leave with one final thought. I hope that during my time here I have made your experience at least a little more enjoyable, and that you can get as much out of working here as I have.

Thank you all,

David

For the love of my "Art"... or "Craft"... whatever...

So, my dear imaginary reader, this blog is now in its third month.  Three months and ten posts.  Admittedly, that's not a record by any stretch of the imagination, but it is more than I expected.  As I'm sure you recall, oh dedicated reader (as long as you're imaginary, you may as well be a fanatically dedicated reader), I promised one post every two or so weeks "if you were lucky".  I have, however, written even more frequently than that.  Not much more, but more.  Had time permitted, I would have written even more often.

So, what is it that drew me into this blogging thing so much more than I expected?  I think it was just the chance to write.  I've always enjoyed writing, but, up until this point, I only wrote papers for school.  Blogging gave me a new excuse to write.  Not only that, but I could write whatever I wanted, on any topic I chose.  It also provided me with a captive (albeit theoretical) audience with which to impose my opinions upon.  Though I'm seldom reluctant to share my views on things, and though I haven't yet discussed anything here which I wouldn't talk about in person, with the exception of the post Girl.Sister.Friend., it is somewhat liberating to be able to expel them here.

I find writing these posts relaxing, as well as a lot of fun.  I find that I sleep the best on the nights which I have written a post.  Sleep is a big deal for me, since it has never come easy.  I'm something of a mild insomniac.  I can't ever get to sleep before 11:30, and if I wake up after about 4:00 am I can't fall back asleep.  I can't nap, and I can't sleep in cars, planes, trains, or buses.  It's because of this that I value anything which isn't a drug that can aid in putting me to sleep.  I think it is the fact that writing allows me to collect and organize my thoughts and then release them which helps me fall asleep.  Typically, when I'm lying awake, it's because my thoughts are racing and I just can't get them under control enough to fall asleep.  Though it wasn't my originally intended meaning, the sign off I use has become even more apt.

I hope that someone gets something out of these posts.  But even if no one ever reads a single post, I expect that I will continue to write them, simply because I enjoy it.  And, really, that's what it's all about.

Sleep well,

DTE

The End of an Era: Remembering Ollie Johnston

Today, April 16, 2008, is truly the start of a new era in animation. On Monday evening, legendary animator Ollie Johnston died of natural causes at the age of 95. Ollie was the last living member of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men", the team of animators hand picked by Walt as the best of the best. Together, they wrote and rewrote the rules for animation and truly developed the art form. With his death, we are now officially in a new era of animation, the last link to it's golden age having been severed. As one looks at the largely bland, uninspired state of modern animation, one can't help but be saddened and wish for a return to the heyday of such luminaries as Ollie Johnston and his best friend Frank Thomas. If you haven't seen it, take time to watch Frank and Ollie and remember. As they said in their cameo appearance in The Incredibles, "There's no school like the old school." He will be missed. Godspeed, Ollie.

In both pictures, Frank Thomas is on the left and Ollie Johnston is on the right.

For some great tributes by Ollie's friends and some of today's top animators visit Cartoon Brew.

Below is Walt Disney Pictures' official press release:

LEGENDARY DISNEY ANIMATOR OLLIE JOHNSTON,
LAST OF WALT DISNEY’S “NINE OLD MEN”, DIES AT AGE 95

PIONEERING FILMMAKER/AUTHOR BROUGHT THE ILLUSION OF LIFE
TO SUCH DISNEY CLASSICS AS SNOW WHITE, PINOCCHIO,
PETER PAN AND THE JUNGLE BOOK OVER 43-YEAR CAREER

Ollie Johnston, one of the greatest animators/directing animators in animation history and the last surviving member of Walt Disney’s elite group of animation pioneers known affectionately as the Nine Old Men, passed away from natural causes at a long term care facility in Sequim, Washington on Monday April 14th. He was 95 years old. During his stellar 43-year career at The Walt Disney Studios, he contributed inspired animation and direction to such classic films as Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Song Of The South, Cinderella, Alice In Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady And The Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, Sword In The Stone, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Robin Hood, The Rescuers, and The Fox And The Hound.

In addition to his achievements as an animator and directing animator, Johnston (in collaboration with his lifelong friend and colleague Frank Thomas) authored four landmark books: Disney Animation: The Illusion Of Life, Too Funny For Words, Bambi: The Story And The Film, and The Disney Villain. Johnston and Thomas were also the title subjects of a heartfelt 1995 feature-length documentary entitled Frank And Ollie, written and directed by Frank’s son, Theodore (Ted) Thomas. In November 2005, Johnston became the first animator to be honored with the National Medal of Arts at a White House ceremony.

Behind every great animated character is a great animator and in the case of some of Disney’s best-loved creations, it was Johnston who served as the actor with the pencil. Some examples include Thumper’s riotous recitation (in Bambi) about “eating greens” or Pinocchio’s nose growing as he lies to the Blue Fairy, and the musical antics of Mowgli and Baloo as they sang The Bear Necessities in The Jungle Book. Johnston had his hand in all of these and worked on such other favorites as Brer Rabbit, Mr. Smee, the fairies in Sleeping Beauty, the centaurettes in Fantasia, Prince John and Sir Hiss (Robin Hood), Orville the albatross (The Rescuers), and more than a few of the One Hundred And One Dalmatians.

Roy E. Disney, director emeritus and consultant for The Walt Disney Company, said, “Ollie was part of an amazing generation of artists, one of the real pioneers of our art, one of the major participants in the blossoming of animation into the art form we know today. One of Ollie’s strongest beliefs was that his characters should think first, then act…and they all did. He brought warmth and wit and sly humor and a wonderful gentleness to every character he animated. He brought all those same qualities to his life, and to all of our lives who knew him. We will miss him greatly, but we were all enormously enriched by him.”

John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios and a longtime friend to Johnston, added, “Ollie had such a huge heart and it came through in all of his animation, which is why his work is some of the best ever done. Aside from being one of the greatest animators of all time, he and Frank (Thomas) were so incredibly giving and spent so much time creating the bible of animation – Disney Animation: The Illusion Of Life – which has had such a huge impact on so many animators over the years. Ollie was a great teacher and mentor to all of us. His door at the Studio was always open to young animators, and I can’t imagine what animation would be like today without him passing on all of the knowledge and principles that the ‘nine old men’ and Walt Disney developed. He taught me to always be aware of what a character is thinking, and we continue to make sure that every character we create at Pixar and Disney has a thought process and emotion that makes them come alive.”

Glen Keane, one of Disney’s top supervising animators and director of the upcoming feature Rapunzel, observed, “Ollie Johnston was the kind of teacher who made you believe in yourself through his genuine encouragement and patient guidance. He carried the torch of Disney animation and passed it on to another generation. May his torch continue to be passed on for generations to come.”

Andreas Deja, another of today’s most acclaimed and influential animators paid tribute to his friend and mentor in this way, “I always thought that Ollie Johnston so immersed himself into the characters he animated, that whenever you watched Bambi, Pinocchio, Smee or Rufus the cat, you saw Ollie on the screen. His kind and humorous personality came through in every scene he animated. I will never forget my many stimulating conversations with him over the years, his words of wisdom and encouragement. ‘Don’t animate drawings, animate feelings,’ he would say. What fantastic and important advice! He was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, and it was an honor and joy to have known him.”

John Canemaker, Academy Award-winning animator/director, and author of the book, Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men & The Art Of Animation, noted, “”Ollie Johnston believed in the emotional power of having ‘two pencil drawings touch each other.’ His drawings had a big emotional impact on audiences, that’s for sure - when Mowgli and Baloo hug in The Jungle Book; when Pongo gives his mate Perdita a comforting lick in One Hundred And One Dalmatians; when an elderly cat rubs against an orphan girl in The Rescuers - Ollie Johnston, one of the greatest animators who ever lived, deeply touched our hearts.”

Born in Palo Alto, California on October 31, 1912, Johnston attended grammar school at the Stanford University campus where his father taught as a professor of the romance languages. His artistic abilities became increasingly evident while attending Palo Alto High School and later as an art major at Stanford University. During his senior year in college, Johnston came to Los Angeles to study under Pruett Carter at the Chouinard Art Institute. It was during this time that he was approached by Disney and, after only one week of training, joined the fledgling studio in 1935. The young artist immediately became captivated by the Disney spirit and discovered that he could uniquely express himself through this new art form.

At Disney, Johnston’s first assignment was as an in-betweener on the cartoon short Mickey’s Garden. The following year, he was promoted to apprentice animator, where he worked under Fred Moore on such cartoon shorts as Pluto’s Judgement Day and Mickey’s Rival. Johnston got his first crack at animating on a feature film with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Following that, he worked on Pinocchio and virtually every one of Disney’s animated classics that followed. One of his proudest accomplishments was on the 1942 feature Bambi, which pushed the art form to new heights in portraying animal realism. Johnston was one of four supervising animators to work on that film.

For his next feature assignment, Song of the South (1946), Johnston became a directing animator and served in that capacity on nearly every film that followed. After completing some early animation and character development on The Fox and the Hound, the veteran animator officially retired in January 1978, to devote full time to writing, lecturing and consulting. His first book, Disney Animation: The Illusion Of Life, written with Frank Thomas, was published in 1981 and ranks as the definitive tome on the Disney approach to entertainment and animation. In 1987, his second book, Too Funny For Words, was published and offered additional insights into the studio’s unique style of visual humor. A detailed visual and anecdotal account of the making of Bambi, Walt Disney’s Bambi: The Story And The Film, the third collaboration for Thomas and Johnston, was published in 1990. The Disney Villains, a fascinating inside look at the characters audiences love to hate, was written by the duo in 1993.

In addition to being one of the foremost animators in Disney history, Johnston was also considered one of the world’s leading train enthusiasts. The backyard of his home in Flintridge, California, boasted one of the finest hand-built miniature railroads. Even more impressive was the full-size antique locomotive he ran for many years at his former vacation home in Julian, near San Diego. Johnston had a final opportunity to ride his train at a special ceremony held in his honor at Disneyland in May 2005.

The pioneering animator was honored by the Studio in 1989 with a Disney Legends Award. In 2003, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences held a special tribute to him (and Frank Thomas), Frank And Ollie: Drawn Together, in Beverly Hills. Johnston and Thomas were lovingly caricatured, and even provided the voices, in two animated features directed by Brad Bird, The Iron Giant, and Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles.

Girl.Sister.Friend.

This post has taken me an inordinately long time to write.  I've been piecing it together, bit by bit, over the course of the last several weeks.  As such, it has devolved into something of a stream of consciousness ramble.  It hits all the points I intended, just not necessarily in the order which would make for the best reading.  But, hey, I figure if you're willing to subject yourself to this blog at all, then you'll have enough patience to make it through this post.

Why has this taken so long to write?  I don't really know.  Maybe it's just the intensely personal nature of the subject matter, but I can't seem to write on the topic for very long before getting stuck or distracted.  It's definitely not something I've ever talked about before, so maybe that's part of it too.  Whereas with my other posts I was merely laying out thoughts, feelings, and opinions which I was already well acquainted with, this time I'm expelling those thoughts while I'm having them.  I haven't yet completely thought through any of these opinions or lines of argument, and so have to work through them in real time, as I write, making connections and drawing conclusions as I go.  It's kind of exciting to write this way, but it's definitely more tiring, so that may be what has led to the piecework approach I've had to adopt.

Having slogged through that preamble, you must now be wondering just what it is that I had such a hard time writing about.  The title, though apt, likely didn't clear anything up for you.  It's about girls.  More specifically, I'm trying to connect a few long held desires (and no, I'm not diving into the sexual at this time)and do a little psychoanalysis on myself to figure out where they came from and why I have them.

What desires?  Well, first, a sister.  I have always wanted an older sister.  I don't know where this came from, just that the first time I remember thinking about it I was probably around 9 or 10 years old.  None of my friends at the time had older sisters, so it wasn't an emulation thing, and I doubt it was a rebelling, wishing I was different thing.  I have one female cousin who's a year older than me, but we rarely saw each other.  I didn't (don't) want a sister just a couple years older but a good five or more years older.  I've never bothered to think through how I would change my family to accommodate her, i.e. if I would become a middle child or the youngest.  The trials of the middle child are well documented.  It's a fairly widely known fact that my brother and I are not exactly what you'd call close.  If I were to be completely honest, I'd have to admit that my brother never appeared in any of my fantasies about an older sister (yes, I know fantasies again has a sexual undercurrent but, again, ignore it and treat this completely innocently).  Maybe this evolved as a way of replacing my brother.  After all, an older sister is the polar opposite of what I have - a younger brother.  I can't quite accept that as the right explanation, though.  The distance between myself and my brother didn't really start to form until I was around 14, years after the original appearance of this particular desire.  It's possible that the rift had already begun subconsciously a few years earlier, but I don't really buy that.  It's probably important to explain exactly how I saw my relationship with this older sister.  Basically, she would be my best friend.  Someone I could always hang out with, who would always be there for me, who I could talk to about anything.  She would be old enough that she would have all the answers, but young enough that I could always hang out with her, whether it was with her friends, my friends, or just the two of us.  I think the lines about having all the answers and being able to talk about is an important point.  I have always been the "fixer".  Going all the way back to elementary, probably age 7 or 8, I've always been the one who fixes everything.  From mediating arguments to fixing electronics to manipulating people and circumstances to prevent and problems before they occur to always having all the answers to everything.  I often read articles or web pages about topics I'm not at all interested in simply because someone I know is interested in it and might ask me something about it.  It's not something I explicitly mind doing, but it can be taxing.  I think that's why I imagined this sister with all the answers.  When I have a problem of my own, I often find that there is no one I can go to to help me with it.  This would solve that problem.  I would no longer be the last line of defence, there would be someone backing me up.

I think the desire for an older sister transferred and morphed into second desire I'll talk about - a close female friend.  Notice I didn't say girlfriend (though that would be nice too).  I think that I combined the relationships I saw on TV with my big sister fantasy to come up with this one.  It is very common on TV or in movies to see a boy and a girl who have been friends since they were little.  They are extremely close, having a bond that other people simply can't touch.  It's not romantic, but something unique, and it's what I've wanted.  It's completely different than a friendship between two guys.  It's not that I don't have any female friends, I do.  And I work almost exclusively with women and consider many of them to be friends as well.  I just don't have "that" kind of friend.

Just to confuse things, though, I have to make another point, again drawing from the world of television.  Whenever there is a situation where the guy wants the hot girl he can't have but the guy's girl friend (note the space) wants him, I always root for the friend.  Chloe versus Lana on Smallville, Elliot versus anyone on Scrubs, Lily on Radio Free Roscoe.  Unfortunately for me, however, the producers rarely decide to put the guy with the friend, giving him, instead, the hot girl.  In the rare cases where he does go out with the friend, they typically decide it won't work and they should remain just friends.  This bias towards the friends hooking up seems to fly in the face of my previous contention that I do not see the female friend is a sexual way.  But I argue that that is still the case.  I think that this may be more a case of me rooting for the underdog, the overlooked but loyal friend, to whom I can easily relate.  Maybe I'm just looking to TV to show me that it can turn out well for the friend, so I can get some hope for myself.  Then again, I have had to qualify quite a few statements in this post to attempt to remove their sexual connotations, so maybe subconsciously it really is all about the sex.  Kinda presents that first desire for an older sister in a new and disturbing light.  But I really don't think that's the case.

Well, I think that's finally it.  I don't think I have any more to add at this point.  I'm not sure I completely figured out everything I wrote about, but at least it's a start.  If you made it all the way to this point without skipping over any parts, I congratulate you.  I'm sure it wasn't easy, hopefully it made some sense.  If you did read it all, though I don't usually do this, I ask that you please leave a comment of some sort with your thoughts or reactions to what I've written.  I poured a fair amount of myself into this, and I want to know what others think.  Thanks.

Sleep well,

DTE

As The Silhouettes said, "Get a Job"!

Well, it's finally that time.  I attended my final university class on Friday.  I knew it would be a waste of time, but I went anyway.  Mostly, I did it as a symbolic gesture, you know, since I'm so big on symbolism.  At least when it suits my purposes.  I managed to wear the exact same t-shirt that I wore to my first day of orientation six years ago - yes, I still have it, and still wear it fairly regularly.  After the class, as I was walking to the LRT, I ran into the professor who taught me my very first university class, economics.  I didn't say anything, again just enjoying the symbolism.  Finally, when I got into my car, the first song that played on the radio was Green Day's "Welcome to Paradise", one last sign that it was all finished, at last.

With the end of school comes the need for a job.  Much as I would love to spend the rest of my days lounging around, travelling, and doing whatever happens to pique my interest at any given moment, it's kind of hard to find someone who will pay you to do so.  For the past several months I've been going through the process of applying and interviewing with a series of companies, trying to find the right one to work for.  This search culminated in offers from two companies.  Most aspects of these offers were the same - benefits, money, etc.  The one key difference was location

One company would keep me here in my home city of Edmonton.  The other would be moving me around the world every three months for the first year, after which a permanent (or semi-permanent) location would be chosen for me, with my input.  For some people, this would be an easy choice.  They may not want to leave their home town, and would therefore take the first offer.  Others may jump at the opportunity to travel and immediately take the second offer.  I fell somewhere in the middle.

When I first applied with the second company, it was primarily because of the travel.  Having someone else pay to send me around the world sounded great.  I think, though, that in my head I was envisioning working around the world, but still being able to come home to Edmonton every evening or weekend, which is obviously not possible.  However, I've always kind of planned to leave Edmonton to work somewhere else, so that leaving had to occur at some time, I just wasn't sure if I wanted it to be just yet.

The first offer was definitely safer.  I don't mean safer in the sense that I fear for my life at the second job, but safer in that it didn't require me to step outside my comfort zone.  I would be in a city I knew, with people I knew who could help me out.  The second job, on the other hand, would throw me into unfamiliar locations with new people and new circumstances.  Just going to the second round of interviews for the second job was challenging enough for me.  I'm not, by nature, a very outgoing person.  I prefer to sit back and observe until I feel I really understand how everyone in a given group works and then go in a be social.  I don't do well with the whole "mingling" thing.  And yet that's what I had to do for two days at the interview in Houston; mingle, make small talk, be social with complete strangers, trying to be interesting and look interested.  When I finished, I was exhausted, but fairly pleased with the results.  If I took the second job, it would be Houston all over again, but on a continuing basis.  I wasn't sure if I wanted that or could handle it.

But, I had to choose.  And so I did.  In the end, I settled on the second offer.  It just felt right.  Even though it seemed vastly more difficult and less "safe", I think it's where I'm supposed to go.  It will give me the opportunity to travel but, more importantly, to push myself, to force myself to grow.  All the safety nets will be removed.  Now I just have to make sure I don't fall.

Sleep well,

DTE

Dear Diary, Day 2

And now for part 2 of my extremely exciting recounting of my trip to Houston.

Wednesday, March 26

- Got up around 7:00 to be on the bus to the conference centre at 7:45

_ At the conference centre we had breakfast and listened to a presentation by the CEO of the company, as well as a presentation on company benefits.

- Took the bus over to the company headquarters to conduct the interviews.  Had two interviews over the course of two hours.

- Returned to the conference centre for lunch.

- Took another bus (a party bus, with mirror ceilings and everything!) to one of the company's production facilities for a tour.

- Got back to the hotel around 3:00 and, since there was some time to kill, decided to head over to the Galleria Mall to hit the Fossil store.

- At 6:45 got on yet another bus to go to Las Alamedas, a Mexican restaurant, for cocktails (still sober, still no rum) and dinner with the other candidates and various company bigwigs.

- Returned to the hotel around 9:30 and hit the hot tub.

- Finally, it was time to pack and go to bed so I could be up in a couple hours.

And that's it.  Nothing to do now but wait to see if I get the offer.

Sleep well,

- DTE

Dear Diary, Day 1

So, I'm in Houston for an interview, so I'm going to temporarily hijack the blog to fill everyone in on what I'm doing.  Cuz you care...

Tuesday, March 25

- Got up at 4:30 to make the 8:00 flight to Minneapolis.

- Arrived in Minneapolis on time, ate at McDonalds, met up with some others from Edmonton going to the same interview.

- I wasn't nervous at all until I spent the entire second flight sitting beside another candidate who did nothing but study data sheets on the company and write out answers to imaginary interview questions.  Suddenly I felt vastly unprepared.

- Arrived in Houston (with my luggage!) and was taken to the hotel by a company employee.

- Checked into my room, received a gift bag, and had a shower before the next event.

- Cocktails at the hotel (I remained sober, no rum)

- Went out for dinner with two company employees and four other candidates at Yao's, a Chinese food place run by the family of Yao Ming (?), that Chinese NBA basketball player.

- Back to the hotel at 10:30 to sleep.

More tomorrow...

Sleep well,

-DTE

The Kids Aren't All Right

Children today are tyrants.  They contradict their parents, gobble their food, and terrorize their teachers.

- Socrates, 400 BC

Clearly, this isn't a new problem.  If Socrates had something to say about it, its been going on for at least 2400 years.  But, seriously, the next generation scares me.  A lot.

I'm an early member of Generation Y.  I consider myself, and others in my age group, to be quite respectful and, by and large, quality members of society.  Something changed, though, in the kids born in the mid to late nineties (still technically Gen Y kids).  While the majority are still respectful, a growing number are becoming increasingly vile.  They have no respect for their elders, authority figures, even their peers.  And where once the kids would stand united against the adults, an sort of honour among thieves mentality, they are becoming more and more vicious towards one another.  Just last week I witnessed an eleven year old girl take a walker away from a handicapped five year old, leaving him stranded, sitting at the bottom of a slide.  She didn't know the boy, had no grievance with him, but did it simply to torment him.  My job requires me to deal with a large number of kids, often in a disciplinary capacity.  When these kids get in trouble, they don't just accept their reprimand or punishment, but instead challenge, talk back, or openly defy the disciplining figure.    I was not a perfect child, and I got into my fair share of trouble.  But when I got in trouble, I would accept the consequences and then go find a new way to get into trouble.  I would never even have dreamed of talking back or arguing, for fear of what the person I was in trouble with might do and what my parents would do.

And therein lies the problem.  All issues with current generations can be traced back to the pervious generations.  Believe me, writing this is making me feel way older than I actually am, but it's a fact.  If the next generation's screwed up, we've only got ourselves to blame.  Or, more specifically, the parents and authority figures.  Kids need boundaries.  They want boundaries, whether they know it or not.  That fact is quite widely accepted among psychologists.  But the current crop of parents, mostly from Gen X, have instead adopted an attitude of minimal interference.  We can't let our kids interfere with our careers/social life/recreational time, they can just raise themselves.  Or maybe they fear becoming like their own parents.  After all, they came out of a time when parents were much more strict, but they rebelled and fought to change the system.  Or, possibly most frightening of all, maybe they're just too lazy.  It takes a lot of work to raise a kid.  To hold your ground and enforce rules.  It's much easier to just let them turn on the TV or Xbox and then ignore them, letting them do their own thing.

This complete failing of the parents isn't being helped by the authority figures in other areas.  For many years, we've been overly concerned with children's self esteem.  As a result we've overcompensated in our attempts to protect them.  Kids receive awards just for participating.  They can't be told to sit out of an activity as punishment because excluding them will damage their self esteem.  They can't be sent to detention because it will damage their self esteem.  Several school districts in the US have even banned the game Tag because it could damage kids self esteem.  Tag.  I could maybe understand their logic if it was Red Rover or some other game where teams are chosen and someone could be left out, but Tag?  Fortunately, this type of thinking seems to be on the way out.  But we must still deal with the consequences of a decade of children who have been raised with a distinct sense of entitlement, superiority, and an inability to accept that they may be wrong, that they may not be special.

So, where are we left?  Well, probably not as bad off as you might think.  As I said before, even though individual instances of disrespect and cruelty are becoming more outrageous, these kids are still in the minority.  It's also entirely possible that, when forced into the adult world, these kids will be able to change into respectful, contributing members of society.  After all, another hallmark of this generation is that they are the most adaptable to change of any generation to come along so far.  And, at the very least, there's still one more round of kids to come before these ones start reproducing, with current research suggesting that the generation currently popping out new kids is far more family oriented and rule based then the last set of parents.  That means, worst case scenario, we can continue alternating between more and less respectful generations.  And isn't that an encouraging thought?

Sleep well,

DTE

Digital Fallout of a Format War

People are stupid.  Of course, they are generally stupid at all times, but become especially so when shielded by the anonymity  provided by the Internet.  That's why I rarely read the comments posted by users on product pages, news stories, or videos.  Because, when I do, I just end up frustrated, as I really can't abide ignorant, stupid people.  Yesterday, however, I broke this rule and read the comments at the end of a news story on the sales related to the end of the HD video format war.  I was so frustrated that it prompted this blog.

For anyone who has been completely oblivious to the happenings on the HD video front for the past few years, I'll offer a brief rundown.  The standard DVDs which we have been using for the past decade can hold, at most, about 8 GB of information.  This is not enough to store a movie at High Definition quality.  As a result, two new formats were developed: Toshiba's HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-Ray.  Both of these formats were capable of producing virtually identical full HD pictures and uncompressed sound.  HD-DVD has a capacity of about 30 GB and Blu-Ray has a maximum capacity of 50 GB.  Most other differences were superficial, at least as far as consumers were concerned.  Some effort was made to combine the two formats, but both sides were unwilling to make concessions to allow that to happen.  As a result, both formats went on the market in the spring of 2006, creating the format war.  Both formats required special players in order to be used, and each format could only be used on the correct type of player.  This forced consumers to choose a side, to buy either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.  To make matters more confusing, the film studios also chose sides, with Sony, Disney, and Fox going Blu-Ray and Universal going HD-DVD.  Warner Bros. and Paramount/Dreamworks supported both formats.  That was the situation until Fall 2007.  At that point Paramount/Dreamworks announced that it would become HD-DVD exclusive.  Shortly thereafter, Blockbuster US announced that it would only carry Blu-Ray.  Then in January 2008, Warner Bros.  announced that it would switch exclusively to Blu-Ray, catching the HD-DVD group so off guard that they cancelled their presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show, which was to occur the same week as the announcement.  Early in February, Best Buy announced that they would be "heavily favouring" the Blu-Ray format in their stores.  The final nail in the HD-DVD coffin came courtesy of, who else, Wal-Mart when they announced that they would stop carrying the HD-DVD format.  On February 15th, word leaked out that Toshiba was about to close its HD-DVD plants in Japan, and the official announcement came on February 19th - HD-DVD was dead.

Throughout the duration of the format war there was abundant flaming on the Internet, courtesy of both sides.  Now that it's over, that flaming shows no signs of abating, particularly from the (rightfully) pissed off owners of now worthless HD-DVD hardware and software.  I don't have a problem with them being upset, but I do have a problem with both sides insistence on using lies to try to strengthen their argument.

So, first, was either format superior?  No, not really.  Both were capable of roughly the same things, with Blu-Ray having a slight advantage by way of higher max capacity the the ability to perform branching playback (if you don't know what that means, that just shows you how unimportant it will be to your life).  As a large number of Blu-Ray fans are ardent Sony supporters, they like to claim that the large number of Blu-Ray players built into every PS3 won them the war.  Again, this is not exactly true.  While it did massively increase the number of players in consumers hands, there's no good evidence to prove that most of them are being used as Blu-Ray players at all.  By looking at the sales figures for stand alone players and software, Blu-Ray consistently outsold HD-DVD, often by a margin of two to one.

The HD-DVD supporters like to blame Warner Bros. for switching sides and killing their format, especially since they accepted a large sum of money from the Blu-Ray Group to do so.  Again, not at all true.  First of all, the writing was on the wall.  The momentum was clearly in Blu-Ray's favour, and the market could no longer bear two competing formats.  By winter 2007 it was clear this thing was going to go Blu-Ray's way, it was just a matter of time.  It would have happened with or without Warner Bros.  Second, yes, Warner did take money from the Blu-Ray group to switch.  However, the HD-DVD group was offering a comparable amount of money to switch exclusively to their side.  Furthermore, the exact same thing had happened in the fall with Paramount/Dreamworks, Paramount just took the money from the other side.  Finally, as was expressed by the heads of both Warner Bros. and Paramount after their respective deals, the amount of money involved in the payoff was insignificant compared with the potential gains (or loses) associated long term with the HD video business.

This war had to end, and it had to end now.  The market just couldn't bear it any longer.  Not only were sales of the high def formats below what they should have been, as consumer support was divided, but standard DVD sales were down as well.  This is because consumers were aware that a new format was on the horizon and did not want to purchase a film on regular DVD that they would soon want to buy in HD.  But, since there were two formats for HD, they also didn't want to commit to either one just yet, for fear of winding up on the losing side, as memories of Matsushita's VHS versus Sony's Betamax format war were still fresh in their minds.  So, now that the war is over, the industry can finally move forward, with everyone using the same format.

But will Blu-Ray replace DVD?  Personally, I don't think so.  Most people don't see enough of a difference, and their still isn't a high enough installed base of HDTV's to make it worth most people's time.  It will likely remain a niche market.  The next big revolution in home entertainment will be digital delivery.  Companies like Microsoft, Toshiba, and others are already at work on new server solutions that will allow all home media - video, music, pictures, everything - to be stored in one place and then transmitted throughout the house.  Rather than owning anything physical, all content will be delivered directly to this server.  This isn't exactly a future I'm looking forward to, since the media companies have such a horrible track record with user friendly DRM, but I do think it's where we're headed.  But at least the war is over, for now.

 

Sleep well,

DTE

The Way It's Gonna Be

As you are no doubt aware, Hollywood's annual orgy of self congratulation is fast approaching.  The Academy Awards for 2007, the Oscars, will be handed out this Sunday, February 24th starting at 5 pacific.  As such, I decided I would announce the winners early.  That's right, what follows is the official list of who will win each award this year*.  I have marked the winner in each category in red and, as a bonus, I have marked the film which should have won will be in blue. If no film is marked in blue, then the correct film won.  In this way, there will forever be a record of all the mistakes the Academy will no doubt make.

I'm not going to keep you in suspense by saving the most anticipated categories for last.  I'm going to start right away with the biggie.  Come with me now on this magical voyage into the future...

BEST PICTURE
"Atonement" (Focus Features)
A Working Title Production
Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Paul Webster, Producers
"Juno" (Fox Searchlight)
A Dancing Elk Pictures, LLC Production
Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)
A Clayton Productions, LLC Production
Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production
Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production
JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
George Clooney in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros.,
Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah" (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" (Focus Features)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson’s War" (Universal)
Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal)
Julie Christie in "Away from Her" (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in "The Savages" (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in "Juno" (Fox Searchlight)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Cate Blanchett in "I’m Not There" (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee in "American Gangster" (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement" (Focus Features)
Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone" (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson - "There Will Be Blood"
Ethan Coen & Joel Coen - "No Country For Old Men"
Tony Gilroy - "Michael Clayton"
Jason Reitman - "Juno"
Julian Schnabel - "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly"

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Brad Bird - "Ratatouille"
Diablo Cody - "Juno"
Tony Gilroy - "Michael Clayton"
Tamara Jenkins - "The Savages"
Nancy Oliver - "Lars and the Real Girl"

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Paul Thomas Anderson - "There Will Be Blood"
Ethan & Joel Coen - "No Country for Old Men"
Christopher Hampton - "Atonement"
Ronald Harwood - "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
Sarah Polley - "Away from Her"

ANIMATED FEATURE
"Persepolis" - (Sony Pictures Classics) Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
"Ratatouille" - (Pixar; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Distribution) Brad Bird
"Surf’s Up" - (Sony Pictures Releasing) Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"Beaufort" - Israel
"The Counterfeiters" - Austria
"Katyn," - Poland
"Mongol" - Kazakhstan
"12" - Russia

ART DIRECTION
"American Gangster" (Universal) Art Direction: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
"The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners) Art Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount) Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Art Direction: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

CINEMATOGRAPHY
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.) Roger Deakins
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Seamus McGarvey
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Janusz Kaminski
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roger Deakins
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Robert Elswit

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
"No End in Sight" (Magnolia Pictures) A Representational Pictures Production; Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
"Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience" (The Documentary Group) A Documentary Group Production; Richard E. Robbins
"Sicko" (Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company) A Dog Eat Dog Films Production; Michael Moore and Meghan O’Hara
"Taxi to the Dark Side" (THINKFilm) An X-Ray Production; Alex Gibney and Eva Orner
"War/Dance" (THINKFilm) A Shine Global and Fine Films Production

ANIMATED SHORT FILM
"I Met the Walrus" A Kids & Explosions Production; Josh Raskin
"Madame Tutli-Putli" (National Film Board of Canada) A National Film Board of Canada Production; Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
"Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)" (Premium Films) A BUF Compagnie Production; Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
"My Love (Moya Lyubov)" (Channel One Russia) A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec Production; Alexander Petrov
"Peter & the Wolf" (BreakThru Films) A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production

LIVE-ACTION SHORT FILM
"At Night" A Zentropa Entertainments 10 Production; Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
"Il Supplente (The Substitute)" (Sky Cinema Italia) A Frame by Frame Italia Production; Andrea Jublin
"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)" (Premium Films) A Karé Production; Philippe Pollet-Villard
"Tanghi Argentini" (Premium Films) An Another Dimension of an Idea Production; Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
"The Tonto Woman" A Knucklehead, Little Mo and Rose Hackney Barber Production; Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown

VISUAL EFFECTS
"The Golden Compass" (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners) Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End" (Walt Disney) John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro) Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier

COSTUME DESIGN
"Across the Universe" (Sony Pictures Releasing) Albert Wolsky
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Jacqueline Durran
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal) Alexandra Byrne
"La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse) Marit Allen
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
"Freeheld" A Lieutenant Films Production; Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
"La Corona (The Crown)" A Runaway Films and Vega Films Production; Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
"Salim Baba" A Ropa Vieja Films and Paradox Smoke Production; Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
"Sari’s Mother" (Cinema Guild) A Daylight Factory Production; James Longley

FILM EDITING
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal) Christopher Rouse
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Juliette Welfling
"Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment) Jay Cassidy
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Dylan Tichenor

SOUND MIXING
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal) Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney) Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
"3:10 to Yuma" (Lionsgate) Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro) Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin

SOUND EDITING
"The Bourne Ultimatum" (Universal) Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
"No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Skip Lievsay
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney) Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
"There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Matthew Wood
"Transformers" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro) Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins

ORIGINAL SCORE
"Atonement" (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli
"The Kite Runner" (DreamWorks, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Participant Productions, Distributed by Paramount Classics) Alberto Iglesias
"Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.) James Newton Howard
"Ratatouille" (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino
"3:10 to Yuma" (Lionsgate) Marco Beltrami

ORIGINAL SONG
"Falling Slowly" from "Once" (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
"Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney) Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"Raise It Up" from "August Rush" (Warner Bros.) Nominees to be determined
"So Close" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney) Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"That’s How You Know" from "Enchanted" (Walt Disney) Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

MAKEUP
"La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse) Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
"Norbit" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount) Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End" (Walt Disney) Ve Neill and Martin Samuel

So, there you have it.  That's how it's gonna be.  Make sure you watch Sunday so you can be amazed at my accuracy.

 

Sleep well,

DTE

______________

* This isn't really the official list, merely a series of guesses, some educated, some not so much.  Apologies to anyone foolish enough to believe it was official.  You really ought to have your gullible removed, or at least a common sense transplant.

Voyeurism and Inventing Meaning

So, my first post was all about my self-centred reasons for creating a blog.  But now lets talk about you.  Why are you here?  And, again, this is pretending that anyone will ever actually read this.  But, let's pretend.  Odds are you know me, since it's very unlikely that you stumbled upon this page by accident.  So, since you know me, what are you hoping to get out of this?  Deep insights into the meaning of life?  Satisfy your curiosity?  Just another dose of me?  Maybe that's what you choose to believe but, just like I'm denying the real reason I'm writing, you're probably just denying the real reason you visited.  You're here to satiate your voyeuristic tendencies.  Yeah, that sounds dirty, because, as a society, we've been taught to equate voyeurism with peeping toms, up-skirt cameras, and illicit sex.  But that's not what it's about.  Voyeurism is just fulfilling a basic human desire to watch and understand another human in order to attempt to gain an understanding or insight for ourselves.  Watching TV (especially reality and talk shows), reading fiction or biographies, or just sitting at the mall and watching the people pass as you finish your coffee - it's all voyeurism.  And the sooner you come to terms with that fact, the more you'll get out of those activities (even your up-skirt cams, you pervert).

But, let's shift the focus back to me.  More specifically, to my film studies course.  Now, I watch a lot of movies.  A lot of movies.  And I've never really had a problem deciphering what the director was trying to say, why he chose certain shots, angles, filters, etc.  So, when I finally got to pick a complementary course to finish my degree, I opted for film studies.  I've enjoyed the course, hearing different people's opinions and ideas on various films.  But there is one thing which I cannot stand.  Occasionally we'll look at a film that the director, at least as far as I'm concerned, wasn't trying to make any type of statement, yet we'll analyze it  and be expected to find "meaning".  A good example of this it George Melies Trip To The Moon from 1902.  You've seen at least part of this film, whether you know it or not.  Everyone has.  But if you don't know which film I'm talking about, I've included the YouTube recording below.  Take the time to watch it.  It's only ten minutes and worth the time, if only to say you've fully experienced this important piece of film history.

Trip to the Moon

Now, I'll be the first to admit that, for its time, this was a revolutionary film, if not in terms of story then in terms of visual effects.  Melies used his background as a magician to create some very entertaining scenes.  But we spent 80 minutes in class dissecting what he was trying to ""say".  He wasn't trying to say anything!  It was 1902 and film was a novelty.  He merely created a showcase for his optical trickery!  He didn't show the rocket landing on the moon twice (once hitting the Man in the Moon's eye, then again landing on a rocky landscape) to demonstrate his control over space and time, he did it so he could include the gag of the rocket hitting the Man in the Moon's eye and still ensure the unsophisticated audiences of the early 1900's would understand the men had made it to the moon.  He did it because there was no such concept as "continuity editing" (showing things in the order they happen, as though the entire film was taking place without interruption).  The alien hanging onto the back of the rocket does not symbolize slavery!

I have no problem believing that many directors carefully choose angles, framing, actor placement, shot order, etc. to create a very specific message.  I know this to be true, both from talking with directors, watching or listening to interviews, and occasionally it's just so blatantly obvious.  But this is not always the case.  A lot of times they're just there to make a movie.  This was certainly the case at the turn of the 20th century.  It doesn't help anyone to sit around and try to invent meaning where there is none.  It's a fruitless exercise.

So I guess that's the first rant I've treated you to here.  It certainly won't be the last.  In the meantime, check out this Smashing Pumpkins video for Tonight, Tonight, which was heavily influenced by Trip to the Moon.

Tonight, Tonight - Smashing Pumpkins

Sleep well,

DTE

Screaming into the Black

I felt this was an appropriate way to begin my first ever blog. I think that the above comic should be used as a sort of disclaimer for the vast majority of blogs. After all, isn't that what they are all about? Trying desperately to convince ourselves and others that who we are and what we think matters? Trying to validate out existence, proving that we are, in fact, significant?
As much as I'd like to believe that that's not what is driving me, I'm sure that if you plumbed the depths of my psyche you'd find I'm in it for the attention as much as anyone else. And by "you" I'm referring to the imaginary reader, since I fully expect this blog to live out its entire existence without actually being viewed by anyone. Ostensibly, though, my raison d'être here is much more benign. When I installed the Windows Live suite a couple of months ago, one of the apps included was Live Writer, a program designed to be used to author Weblogs. Since I'm mildly OCD (completely self-diagnosed, by the way) I couldn't just leave a program on my computer without at least trying it. Which led to this.
So what, exactly, is this? Well, I don't exactly know. I'm sure it'll eventually contain a fair number of rants, since that's what the Internet was created for, right? Probably commentary on any current events which pique my interest. It will definitely discuss entertainment, likely focusing heavily on film and television. It definitely won't be updated daily. Probably not even weekly. Maybe biweekly, if you're lucky (or unlucky, depending on your point of view). Mainly, it'll just be a forum for me to expel whatever I happen to be thinking about, when the mood strikes.
Echoes from the infinite abyss.
Sleep well,
DTE