So this is what it feels like to be a famous photographer.

(To be honest, it feels a little silly.)

(Also, I’m wantonly misinterpreting “famous”, and possibly also “photographer.”  And maybe “feels like.”)

But the movie is (movies are) still pretty good.  Don’t think I’m complaining.

Because I’m not.

Not about that, anyway.

(Also, his event schedule looks pretty desolate right now, but if you get a chance, the “live event” is better than either the book or the movie.)

word cloud - click for a larger view

Word (and tag) clouds are fairly useless (but interesting) way of arranging information.  Wordle is your go-to webapp for creating word clouds from just about anything.  (In the right hands, it might actually allow for a useful graphical representation of word frequency.)  In any case, it’s certainly an interesting time-sink.  Play with the source, the font, color, edging, orientation, and more!

(via Crooked Timber)

Mysterious, but not.

(2005) dir Cristi Puiu - w/ Ion Fiscuteanu as the eponymous Lazarescu, and a few other people, hospitals.

Synopsis: Mr. Lazarescu feels unwell, and calls an ambulance.  His neighbors harangue him for drinking, his family doesn’t want much to do with him, and various doctors, nurses, and EMTs (their Romanian equivalents, anyway) poke fun and insult him.  The plot is both incredibly straightforward, and not.

Review: Given the title and synopsis, you’d expect this to be a depressing move–and you’d be right.  You’d also expect it to be slow, and you might be wrong.  “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu” is meandering but methodical: not plodding, exactly, but certainly not speedy.  It is difficult to watch at parts, and bleak, and wrenching, but somehow also wry, and knowing, and rarely long.

I can’t entirely explain what makes this movie compelling.  There are brief glimmers of humanity, but they’re very often quashed by selfishness and indifference.  People are in a hurry.  They’re tired of being told things by others.  They don’t want other people to tell them what their jobs are, and they’re tired; it’s late.  And the old man probably just wants attention, they reason.  Stop drinking.  Don’t be so sick.  Get rid of that cat, why don’t you?  There is no good or evil in this story.  If there is any kind of hope, it surfaces in the most unlikely, unfulfillable ways.

Rating: [••••] out of [•••••]

Perhaps the most provocative essay argued for a tie between Ernest Hemingway and O.J. Simpson. The author’s point seemed to be that Hemingway was “not the typical American,” but that Simpson sort of was.

And:

One person wrote about the Hummer all-terrain vehicle. This is not technically a human, but I could see her point.

Nuggets of random anecdote. Fairly useless, but curious anyway.

(via Esquire: “How Foreigners See America,” by Chuck Kloserman [30 June 08])

Winnie-the-Pooh, a panther, and a mouse rob a passer-by of $160.

Also questionable: the robbers were wearing their costumes on account of “they had run out of clean clothes.”

(Although… probably not actually $160, as the setting of the crime in question is Tokyo.)

Related: Winnie-the-Pooh, Soviet style.

(via Reuters: “Winnie-the-Pooh held for robbery?” [12 Aug 08])

(2007) dir Kenneth Branagh, screenplay by Harold Pinter - w/ Michael Caine and Jude Law.  And a fancy necklace.

Synopsis: Andrew’s (Caine’s) wife has left him for Milo (Law).  Though of course the paperwork’s not entirely cleaned up yet.  Like a good fellow, Milo wants to have a sit-down with Andrew, a man-to-man.  A nice talk.  It’s kinda like “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, minus the women, with a little more sleight of hand thrown in for good measure.

Review: It’s hard to do much in the way of reviewing without giving away the movie.  Yet Sleuth wasn’t surprising as it might have been–you don’t necessarily anticipate all the twists, but they also don’t come as that much of a surprise.  The antagonism and banter between Caine and Law is quite good (which is fortunate, because otherwise the movie would not be worth watching at all).  The dialogue itself has a peculiar cadence which you’ll either become accustomed to, or hate.  If you have a problem with the kind of rhythmic, unnatural dialogue of David Mamet, this might not be the movie for you.  The dialogue works, though, and gets you where you’re going.  The main problem I had was the characters: they’re fine folks, and charismatic, but not actually likeable.  Meaning, you don’t really care what happens to either of them.  Meaning… well, what was the point, again?  Human nature?

Rating: [•••½] out of [•••••]

The top 10 most discarded books in hotel rooms

1. The Blair Years by Alastair Campbell
2. Don’t You Know Who I Am? by Piers Morgan
3. A Whole New World by Jordan
4. Wicked by Jilly Cooper
5. Dr Who Creatures & Demons by Justin Richard
6. The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown
7. I Can Make You Thin by Paul McKenna
8. Humble Pie by Gordon Ramsay
9. The Story Of A Man And His Mouth by Chris Moyles
10. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

(via Bookslut)

Sort of.

The (terribly informal) verdict:

Believable: Iron Man, Batman

Unbelievable: The Incredible Hulk

Quote:

Now, many people are aware that the most incredible thing about the Hulk is the way his pants always stay on when he expands to ten times his original volume.

But did you also know:

The good superhero stories require only one miracle exemption from the laws of nature.

Oh.  You did?  Well then.

(via SciFi Scanner)

(via MAKE)

1. ColorFlip
2. Hedgehog Launch
3. MKSR. I don’t know. This one might just be addictive for me.

“Consumer Reports Survey: More Than 90 Percent of Hagglers Scored Better Prices on Furniture, Electronics and Appliances, Medical Bills, and More.”

(via Consumerist)

Airline menus through history (plus a steamship menu or two), at the Northwestern University Library Transportation Archives.

(via ResearchBuzz)

(via Crooked Timber)

Forget the Golden Gate Bridge and House of Nanking and Zeitgeist on a summer night — the heart of San Francisco beats loudest on the carpeted second floor of that South Van Ness building you thought was Bank of America.

…

“Thank you for calling San Francisco 311, this is Kyle speaking, how may I help you?”

Kyle Sutton is one of 50 or so customer service representatives, or CSRs, asking this question 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The free service launched in March not just to funnel 2,300 government phone numbers into a single line, but to give the city more of a service orientation. About 6,000 calls come in every day, and program director Ed Reiskin says 311 is on track to answer 2 million a year.

Officially, the purpose is to supply a handy route to non-emergency government services and information. Unofficially, it’s a glimpse into the funny inner mind of the city.

“Hello, how long does it take to build a cable car?”

“There’s cocaine all over my clothes! There’s cocaine everywhere!”

“My roommate has been passed out for two days.”

“There’s pig balls on the street.”

Ideally, every call would be like these and our city would have the best dinner parties ever. In fact, most people call about the bus. How do you get to Justin Herman Plaza? I’m on Clement and 8th Avenue, where’s the 2? My driver didn’t stop for me.

(SFGate: “Pig balls and stuck skunks: A 311 customer service rep has a window onto San Francisco’s secret heart,” by Chris Collin [4 Sept 2007])