It’s so much easier to throw up the smaller updates once you’re done with the larger one.
Remember when the gummint made waves, trying to track terrorists and similar undesirables through library records? Well, this is heartening, at least.
Rewriting history.
This Washington Post article is nothing new, but I wanted to document it nonetheless, and possibly disseminate (that’s where you, Reader, come in). Mostly, “White House Web Scrubbing” is about Iraq-related issues; here’s a particularly nauseating non-Iraq excerpt:
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and USAID have removed or revised fact sheets on condoms, excising information about their effectiveness in disease prevention, and promoting abstinence instead. The National Cancer Institute, meanwhile, scrapped claims on its Web site that there was no association between abortion and breast cancer. And the Justice Department recently redacted criticism of the department in a consultant’s report that had been posted on its Web site.
AFA poll
This is the American Family Association’s poll. They are going to present the results to congress to show that Americans don’t favor marriage for homosexuals. Unless, of course, that’s not how the results end up.
Take a minute to fill it out, if you care about such things. And please distribute.
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Andersen.
Perhaps I should take notes every time it occurs to me to blog about something; I feel as though my brain is currently missing some crucial topics that I’ve thought about putting out there in the past couple of days.
Went to see the Trilogy. That’s right, took my little not-terribly-crazy-about-LOTR-in-the-first-place self and, at a friend’s goading and offer of ticket, rode out into western Massachusetts to sit through roughly twelve hours of Movies. The following offers no spoilers, except for one possible place, where I name the topic of the third movie’s opening scene.
I have to say, I liked the experience. Had seen the first film in an airplane, and thought it a waste of three hours of my life even in an airplane – and now I know why; mostly, the appeal that Fellowship of the Ring holds for me is scenic. My goodness, but I want to go to New Zealand.
The second movie I’d been reasonably fond of before; I mean, Legolas on a medieval snowboard, what else does a girl need? It had seemed a bit fluffy, which was okay for once: I’d gone in expecting that. (Usually, I have little interest in eye candy.) Yesterday’s re-viewing confirmed that: nothing new, and not much that actively held my interest.
Return of the King was okay. The twenty million endings annoyed me a bit, not at all a good editing choice. They were each of them aesthetically appealing enough, but that isn’t justification for lumping all of them one on top of the other, with long fade-out transitions that get old quickly.
One thing I really, really did not appreciate is the Middle Eastern imagery in some of the Evil Guys’ costume choices. It’s a choice, and as costumes the black face veils and turban-like headgear looked wicked cool, but that was the only hint at The Arab World, and it was presented in a negative context, and frankly, I’m tired of the goddamn propaganda. It makes me cranky, doubly so if it’s unconscious.
Elijah Wood also seems to have little acting ability. Sure, he can do agonized okay, but kindness and wisdom are foreign concepts to his acting range. He was saccharine in places, and his relationship with Sam was more patronizing than it needed to be. (Although I liked Sean Astin’s portrayal of Sam’s relative simplemindedness, it would’ve been nice to see Sam’s wisdom and confidence grow, after all of his adventures.)
With the caveat that the furthest I got in the paper trilogy was about fifty pages into The Two Towers, I was disappointed with the turn Gollum’s character took in the third film. For all of his inner conflict, brilliantly presented in the second part of the epic, there was no clear resolution in the third. His good self did not clearly struggle to survive through to the end; and there was no clear triumph of the evil self either. Considering that the movie opens with a flashback to how Smeagol got hold of the ring, I thought they’d actually, you know, do something interesting with the character.
All of this said, though, I liked it. The photography is stunning; the soundtrack is both grand and unobtrusive; and, I admit it, the eye-candy factor is high, when it comes to the actors. I mean, Orlando Bloom. swoon.
Unrelatedly, Sir Ian McKellan is impressive as Gandalf, through and through, including both his transformation in the second film and the change over to a fierce, down-to-business attitude in the third. Cate Blanchett as Galadriel is not bad, though there were a couple of moments where she seemed to try too hard. Both Mortensen and Rhys-Davies did what they could with the roles of Aragorn and Gimli, although the post-cut material they were left to work with was rather pitifully poor (fault of the director &c.). Liv Tyler as Arwen… well, she’s as pretty and vacant as ever. Miranda Otto as Eowyn kicked all kinds of ass. Merry and Pippin were just what they needed to be, no more, no less; although I did find Pippin’s accent and naivety surprisingly endearing and not annoying. And finally, Mr. Weaving was great as Elrond but really shouldn’t have taken on two roles so major at once, both requiring him to use a non-native accent. Every once in a while, I caught glimpses of Agent Smith in his speech, and giggled.
VeriSign gets kicked.
I’m a bit slow on the uptake, but then, I don’t spend much time on the ‘net nowadays, on the weekends. Here you’ll find a letter from ICANN’s [1] Paul Twomey to VeriSign’s Russell Lewis, dated 3 October. This one’s quite a bit harsher than anything else I’ve seen officially voiced. Excellent:
[P]lease consider this a formal demand to return the operation of the .com and .net domains to their state before the 15 September changes, pending further technical, operational and legal evaluation. A failure to comply with this demand will require ICANN to take the steps necessary under those agreements to compel compliance with them.
Thanks to Liz for the link.
[1] The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. I’m including this here because I had to look it up myself.
I *heart* modern technology.
I’ve nothing of work-related or political import to say, and apparently neither does Maria (but at least she has an excuse!), but this is funny.
news bit.
Talked to my sister-in-law and brother on the phone today. They live in Rome, together with my 3-year-old nephew. But this isn’t about them, it’s about a news bit.
Do you know why there was no electricity in all of Italy for an entire day recently?
Because a tree fell in Switzerland.
speech! speech!
Today, Mikhail Gorbachev received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Brown and gave a lecture titled “Democracy’s Impact on Globalization.” It was truly a privilege to listen to this intelligent, diplomatic, humble, utterly humane politician. It’s in large part thanks to his “daring… and restraint,” as Ruth put it, that I have been able to go back to Russia after emigrating; thanks to processes he helped set in motion, people are now less afraid, more politically active over there. To take a country as twisted and stifled by its own governments as the Soviet Union and turn it around, never losing sight of humanity in the process, is admirable.
He didn’t say anything new, by any vaguely politically aware person’s standards; nevertheless, it was an excellent lecture to read (and to hear) in the current political climate here in the States. He talked of real democracy, not only on a national but on an international level. He talked of the need for popular vote, pointing out that world leaders get elected by 25-30% of their populations, considering the nonvoting masses and the (fewer!) people voting for the opposition. He said that the UN needs to regain momentum and authority. He did mention Iraq, stating unequivocally that, although Americans did create the mess, it would be wrong for the world to not participate in cleaning it up, because it would only promote divisiveness. Later on, during the Q&A, he harshly criticized the U.S. for its imperialist attitude, said that imposing American will on other peoples is not acceptable and does not promote democracy, and quipped that the U.S. needs perestroika as much as Russia and Latin America do. Throughout his speech, Gorbachev repeatedly placed emphasis on peace and the betterment of the human condition (not his exact words) as the ultimate goals.
The simultaneous interpretation was atrocious. Having done it in the past, I know what it takes; and this guy was just plain unprepared. He was bad. I wonder if he’s Gorbachev’s “own” interpreter (unlikely, given the quality) or one provided by the university (which would be shameful). I hope that, if the text of the speech is posted, it is a better translation.
Art’s mortality.
Shelley Jackson announces Skin. Excellent idea, not to mention an excellent writer. What, you haven’t read The Melancholy of Anatomy? It’s hypnotic. She’s written and drawn a children’s book, too. Hers is some of the most interesting contemporary fiction I’ve read.
Trippin’
Ah, Denver. I am sitting in a funky coffee shop with ‘net access. I’ve decided not to kill myself driving, so will attempt to cover less ground today and tomorrow, and sleep in real beds.
Want to call me on the road? Reception has been spotty, but then, I was in the mountains. It should be more reliable now — and in any case, if you call and leave a message, I’ll be glad to call you back. The number is eight-eighteen, nine-fifteen, V-I-K-A. Yes, I am a dork. What?! They did ask me if I wanted anything specific for the last four numbers!
