Sat 31 Oct 2009
Posted by chris under Monsters of Computer Science — No Comments
I stumbled across this fine documentary on Claude Shannon, who was dubbed the author of “the Magna Carta of Information Theory” by Scientific American. I figured this is an opportune moment to inaugurate a new category, Monsters of Computer Science. Enjoy.
Fri 19 Jun 2009
Posted by chris under Friends, Movies, Reasons to be Cheerful — No Comments
My friend, New York Times reporter, filmmaker and mensch of the century Andrew Jacobs has created what looks to be an amazing film, The Four Seasons Lodge.
From the film’s website:
They come together to cook, gamble, flirt, fight and dance. Having endured the worst of humanity, they gather at a Catskills bungalow colony each summer to celebrate life, and relive their harrowing pasts. They are part of a remarkable tribe whose members are fast disappearing – Holocaust survivors with a captivating joie de vivre and a bracing sense of humor.
View the Four Seasons Lodge trailer at their web site. I can’t wait to see the film; I hope it gets down to Florida soon.
Mon 16 Mar 2009
Posted by chris under Movies, Music — No Comments
I was completely unaware of this “Wizard Rock” phenomenon, which is odd given my bona fides as both a Harry Potter fan and follower of quirkily bland college bands. For my fellow ignoramuses, “Wizard Rock” is a genre in which all of the songs and music are inspired by the Harry Potter books. The deans of the genre, apparently, are “Harry and the Potters”, two nerdly lads who dress as Harry at different ages.
Their unexpected success launched a wave of surprisingly good little bands that are refreshingly sincere. The fans are thrilled without pretension (the gigs mostly take place in libraries, it seems), and the musicians genuinely beam and enjoy the weird celebrity that they stumbled into.
The “Wizard Rock” movement is only a third of this movie, but it is the part that struck me because of its novelty. Equally striking, if not more, is the tale that this movie tells of Warner Brothers coming to grips with massive fan culture and the technology of “mashups” (see the segment about Brad Neely‘s amazing “remix” of the 1st HP movie).
Go check it out on hulu.com, absolutely free!
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Mon 5 Feb 2007
Posted by chris under Friends, Movies, TV, The Internets — No Comments
The boys at World of Wonder (friends and fellow members of the 80′s/90′s East Village diaspora) have done us all a great service by creating WOW TV, which includes a hefty chunk of their awesome work.
My special faves are the documentaries, which can be found at wow-doc.wowtv.tv. Two of my faves are Crazy Rulers of the World (raved about in earlier posts) and the original documentary of Party Monster, which should have won an Oscar™!!!
All this amazing stuff can be viewed for a pittance. Get thee over there, ASAP!
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Mon 20 Nov 2006
Posted by chris under Movies, TV — No Comments
Engrossing documentary about a true world changer — photojournalist Ron Haviv — who I am proud to have known as a friend.
Ron & I were at NYU together back in the olden days. I always had an unrequited crush on him, which was rekindled by watching this impressive documentary. (You can only imagine — if I had a crush on him way before he got praised by the likes of Susan Sontag, what must I feel now that he is a dashingly courageous, globe-hopping war photographer? Something deeper than a schoolboy crush, for sure….)
If you are unfamiliar with his work, I urgently direct you to Ron Haviv: Blood and Honey, his important collection of photos from the war in the former Yugoslavia. The title is very apt: the viewer is simultaneously revolted and entranced… there is dignity and beauty in these horrifying pictures.
PS — for the doubters, here is proof positive that I really knew Ron in college. Here you can see him chatting up a blonde girl at MY PARTY at NYU (I’m the tweaked-looking guy smoking a cig).
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