BestBlogPosts

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:40:49 GMT

Shoot 'Em Up.

"Gun fights while delivering a baby? Check. Gun fights during sex? Check. Gun fights while sky diving? Check." Collin A at Twitch: "The idea of someone extracting the DNA of a vintage John Woo gun battle and stretching it to absurdist lengths resonated and the project came to fruition with a dream of an eclectic cast - Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci - and the backing of a major studio (New Line). The finished film tows the line of living up to and being a victim of its own hype."

"I've rarely been as uncomfortable in a screening room as I was at this geekshow, a quasi-parody of action pictures that, like Grindhouse and The Last Action Hero before it, will fail to satisfy genre junkies or anyone who thinks the genre is in need of a good ribbing," blogs Robert Cashill. "So what is this movie that has me so riled up? This I will say: Shoot 'Em Up is worth devoting time to dispatching, unlike run-of-the-mill dogs that can be dismissed in a paragraph or two." And off he goes.

Updated through 9/10. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:26:17 GMT

The Brave One.

"At first glance, Neil Jordan directing a Joel Silver-produced vigilante movie starring Jodie Foster looks like an incongruous grouping of elements," suggests Scott Foundas as part of this week's LA Weekly cover package on The Brave One. And he's just popping the first question for the director. A little further in, he just comes right out and asks, "Do you feel that the movie justifies revenge killing?"

"Foster gives a delicate, extremely internal performance in The Brave One, a performance sickening in its muted agony," writes Judith Lewis, introducing her interview:

Updated through 9/10. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 01:35:58 GMT

More on 3:10 to Yuma.

"James Mangold's movies include Cop Land (1997), Girl, Interrupted (1999) and Walk the Line (2005), and this is by far his most sustained and evocative work," writes David Denby in the New Yorker. "[M]uch of this Western is tense and intricately wrought, and I found myself settling into its stern logic and its physical splendor with a grateful sigh. The old rituals are so far removed from our glib media world that they seem as solid as the hills and boulders of Arizona itself."

But for Newsweek's David Ansen, 3:10 to Yuma is "hardly going to breathe new life to a genre whose demise has been reported for at least 30 years. What this version offers is the chance to watch Russell Crowe and Christian Bale - two of the more charismatic, macho leading men around - duke it out psychologically, while another fine but less well-known intensity artist, Ben Foster, steals whatever scenes are left."

Updated through 9/4. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 11:02:14 GMT

EW. "Fall Movies Preview."

Entertainment Weekly gets the jump on just about everyone with its "Fall Movies Preview." Some of the entries on various films are mighty brief, though, so I've added a few more links where possible. For example, with the help of Girish's post at 1st Thursday, I'll point to relevant Toronto International Film Festival pages for some of these films (September 6 through 15); same goes for the New York Film Festival (September 28 through October 12), reviews from earlier festivals and so forth.

For EW's cover story, Benjamin Svetkey talks with Reese Witherspoon about Rendition, "a sober political drama about a pregnant Midwestern woman who discovers that her Egyptian husband (Omar Metwally) is being secretly held by the US government. (Jake Gyllenhaal plays the rookie CIA agent overseeing the interrogation, and Meryl Streep the official who orders the covert abduction.)" Trailer. Released October 12. Related: Ewen MacAskill in the Guardian on the season's post-9/11 movies. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 03:34:37 GMT

Artists on the Web and Doing Blogs!!

Art is a very personal thing. One person likes landscapes, others like portraits, others have different styles- Impressionism, Realism, Pointillism and they are all meaningful in their own ways to different people - or even the same person depending upon where they are in the timeline of their life.

It's always interesting- no matter the artist- how and what they create. How they "pull it out " of themselves- what they see as being worthy to create. For some it's still life images, of other's, it's a sunset, still others, it could be total abstractions a la Jackson Pollack.



WaterColors by J. Matt Miller, San Juan Islands,Washington.

There lies the question- can we afford art? Can we NOT afford to have art within our lives as it helps bring out the emotional aspects and feelings of creation that we see in the objects of our creative vision. No longer do you need to trek to San Francisco, New York, New England, Paris, the south of France, Los Angeles or Carmel to find great artists. Simply do what you are doing right now, surf the web.

Recently reading an article from USA Weekend, Kathleen Conroy discusses various ways to find and buy original art work from real working artists, for art that could be the size of a postcard ot a 14 x 18 print. While shipping can be expensive, it also depends on what you find. Conroy lists 3 painters that she discovered online. Posted by: Stevie Wilson      Read more     Source

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 21:55:06 GMT

Cucurbita moschata hybrid

Is this Cucurbita moschata 'Tromboncino' or Cucurbita moschata 'Trompo d'Albenga'? The more I researched the name, the more confused I became.

The seeds for this plant growing in the UBC Food Garden were purchased under the name 'Tromboncino' squash. My first search for more information led me to this plant review page on the Dave's Garden site, where 'Tromboncino' is listed as an alternate name for the preferred 'Trompo d'Albenga'. The Kokopelli Seed Foundation repeats this assertion in its photo gallery of squash cultivars. However, things start to get muddied in the Kemper Center for Home Gardening photo gallery of 100+ squash cultivars – the name 'Tromboncino' is used; perhaps they didn't research the name to verify it? Or perhaps they did: the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County Online have a photo gallery of the squashes growing in McClellan Ranch in 2003, and 'Tromboncino' and 'Trompo d'Albenga' are distinguished as separate cultivars!

My final step for an easy answer was to consult whatever squash cultivar databases I could find online, and I came up empty. This comprehensive listing of squash cultivars excludes both names, unfortunately.

For general information on squashes, Purdue University's New Crop Guide has an extensive factsheet on cucurbits. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:24:03 GMT

Do You Watch Friend's Videos?

When you go to your friend's social networking profile, do you take the time to scroll down and see what movies they have on their profile page? Do you take the time to watch the movie?

I often wonder if people watch the movies I choose for my social networking profiles. If they do, they may get a glimpse of what kind of person I really am, deep down inside. I'm a different person on the surface. I have to be. I'm mother, friend, professional. I can't let the real me out, most of the time. There's a time and place for that.

If my friends did take the time to watch the kind of videos I choose, they may be in for a surprise. If you take the time to watch the videos your friends put up, you may be in for a surprise too.

Do you watch your friend's videos? Will you start now? Posted by: Linda Roeder      Read more     Source

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:13:35 GMT

Barter makes everything better

Okay so "barter" doesn't exactly sound like "butter" to most of you, but it does to me - I'm from the south. ....well, at least I thought it was funny.

Anyways, I've been on this barter kick lately. With the global economy as it is right now, it's no surprise money is in short supply. However, you might have something solid someone else wants, and you might want something not so solid that someone else can provide.

For simple trades, sites like U-Exchange will work just fine. It's free, it's simple - but what about business? You can't be bothered to finagle this and that just to ensure everyone is happy.

Enter Bartercard. You get a regular plastic credit card, and fund it with your own goods and services. If you want to purchase something but nobody has purchased your products yet, don't worry - you also have an interest free credit line.

The only downside is Bartercard is only available in 13 countries, and that doesn't include the United States (gasp). However, it is available in many African countries. Do I smell a bit of hope? Posted by: Miche      Read more     Source

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 05:34:14 GMT

eBay: Using email is a sign of progress

I just have to vent over something I read and this blog is as good a place as any to do it. The topic: eBay's Online Media Exchange.

For those of you who care less about the business of television advertising, the short story is that eBay believes that their bid mechanism somehow translates effectively into the business of television advertising. I will not bore you with all the reasons why this is naive. Never-the-less, they did finally get it up and tested with at one buy from Intel. The cable network receiving this "six-figure schedule" was Oxygen.

However, while defending the eBay system, Mary Jeanne Cavanagh, VP of Ad Sales at Oxygen, had this little chestnut of a quote. "The negotiations were very normal except most were done via email instead of by phone." And also added, "we want to be innovators in technology. We want to be on the cutting edge of everything out there."

Excuse me? Innovators because you used some email instead of phone calls! Posted by: martino      Read more     Source

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 21:50:16 GMT

Mentzelia hispida

David Tarrant continues to send photographs of Mexican plants that are poorly documented online, so here's another. Thank you again, David.

The common name in Mexico for this species is pega ropa or “sticks to clothing”. Blazingstar is the name often associated with the genus Mentzelia, so another common name would be hispid blazingstar (hispida: covered in short, bristly hairs).

This late-summer flowering perennial or subshrub is native to much of Mexico as well as Guatemala. Line-drawings of the flower and fruit can be seen on page 21 of Flora Del Bajío Y De Regiones Adyacentes: Loasaceae (PDF). The National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity in Mexico also has more photographs online: Mentzelia hispida.

A different blazingstar was previously featured on BPotD: Mentzelia lindleyi. Posted by: Daniel Mosquin      Read more     Source