Movie Friday: Argo

I saw Argo last weekend, and found it to be quite entertaining, though not especially deep.  It's a thriller based on historical events (though with a certain amount of license taken to ratchet up the tension and emphasize the role played by Tony Mendez at the expense of the Canadians and others).  Its current rating at Rotten Tomatoes is 96%, which is quite impressive.

What mainly struck me about this film was the sure hand shown by the director, Ben Affleck.  I've seen all three of his features, and while I was distinctly underwhelmed by The Town, I thought that both Argo and his debut, Gone Baby Gone were excellent.  (Interestingly, The Town holds a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 94%, though only 83% of the audience liked it, while Gone Baby Gone has a 94% rating with the critics and 84% with the audience--nearly identical.)  He has a bright future as a director.

Quickie Song of the Week: When the Shit Goes Down

Cypress Hill really were an amazing, groundbreaking crew in the late 80s/early 90s, with several just outstanding songs, such as How I Could Just Kill A Man or Insane in the Brain.  However, another great song from the triple-platinum Black Sunday (an album full of great songs such as Insane in the Brain) is When the Shit Goes Down.  I love to listen to this when I'm riled up about something; somehow it calms me down and even makes me laugh.

Give it a try:

Online Courses

Still no time for a SOW post, but wanted to mention this recent piece in CAUT Bulletin about the essential importance of in person interactions in higher education, something that is clearly missing from things like Coursera or Udacity.

This is something that we see time and again in our society:  a search for short-cuts and economies of scale, when sometimes we just have to acknowledge that certain things are labour-intensive if they're done right.  Like education.

Slacking

Light posting for the next week or so, due to a pressing deadline.  I will still try to come up with a SOW and MF, but no guarantees.

Movie Friday: My Dinner With Andre

There have been a few interesting snippets of news this week on campus, especially with respect to FGSR, as noted by Jeremy.  However, a lot of this is still in the hearsay stage, or to the extent there is something solid, it is at the level of a trial balloon with few details.  At some point, an actual proposal will be rolled out, and I might post on it then.  In the meantime, it's Friday.

I've already commented on several recent or upcoming films, so this week I'll once again visit the past for Movie Friday:  My Dinner With Andre.  Although it came out in the 1980's (and I remember reading reviews and watching Siskel and Ebert discuss it), I did not see this movie until the 1990's.  I remember being impressed, and have watched it again a couple of times...most recently this week.

Written by the two protagonists, actor and playright Wallace Shawn and theatre director Andre Gregory, and directed by Louis Malle, this movie was quite a departure from the usual fare, since it consisted almost entirely of a conversation held over dinner at a fancy restaurant.  Apparently, much of what was discussed is based on real experiences by Shawn and Gregory, both of whom are fascinating characters.  I've loved Wallace Shawn ever since he showed up as Diane Keaton's Svengali ex-husband in Manhattan.  Of course, arguably his most epic work was as Vizzini in The Princess Bride.  In fact, it's inconceivable that there could be a better performance out there.

Anyway, here's a nice clip from My Dinner With Andre:

Song of the Week: Pharaoh

Richard Thompson is a brilliant songwriter and performer, and I could easily select any of a dozen timeless classics to highlight.  (In particular, I just love 1952 Vincent Black Lighting.)  However, for this week's song, let's consider Pharaoh, a song nominally about ancient Egypt, but really an allegory for our modern plutocratic society.  Not much else to say--listen to the lyrics, enjoy the musicianship, and despair.

Sweet Science

Carbohydrate research Todd Lowary gets a nice write-up on the U of A news feed recognizing his Killam Annual Professor award.  Well done!

Movie Friday: Seven Psychopaths

Seven Psychopaths looks interesting, in a perhaps overly cute and self-conscious Tarantino fashion.  The director, Martin McDonagh, previously did In Bruges, an interesting piece starring Brendan Gleason and Colin Farrell as hitmen on the run after a botched job.  This one has Farrell in it again, but also Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken and Tom Waits.  Oh, and Woody Harrelson as a violent gangster trying to recover his dognapped Shih Tzu.

The overall Rotten Tomatoes score is 84%, though somewhat lower for the top critics.  However, if the world's most reliable reverse barometer Rex Reed doesn't like it, that's good enough for me:  it's gotta be good.

Here's the trailer:

Test

Access Copyright

Song of the Week: No Self Control

Trying to start a new tradition on this blog, and in honour of my obsessive snooping around in the blogosphere (and periodic posting of my own), I'll start with this Peter Gabriel classic from 1980.  So many great things about this song, and indeed the whole album:  fantastic, disturbing lyrics; that "gated drum" sound that was explicitly created for this album; and perhaps most of all, that hypnotic xylophone!

Sad Movie Friday: Grave of the Fireflies

I recently watched the 1988 Japanese anime film, Grave of the Fireflies.  This is a depiction of the fate of a young brother and sister in the waning days of the Second World War.  Their house is destroyed in a fire-bombing and they are orphaned, and then things go downhill from there.

This is an extremely depressing movie, but very well made.  Interestingly, the animation was done by Studio Ghibli, very soon after their inception.  It enjoys a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 96%, and this is certainly appropriate.  However, I caution anyone contemplating watching it to be prepared for a downerific evening.

Here's Roger Ebert talking at length about this film, and Japanese anime in general:

The McMaster Effect

I have been bemused for several years at the way McMaster seems to outperform Alberta in many university rankings.  The latest Times rankings are only the most recent.  Are they actually better, or is there some metric that is capturing something that they do and giving it more weighting than it deserves?

Access Copyright

I posted earlier in the summer on the U of A's apparent move towards settling with Access Copyright, at a very steep premium.  In the latest CAUT Bulletin, there is a short piece about the increasing isolation of Access Copyright in the face of continuing challenges by universities to their extortionate demands.  This caused me to search the U of A website to determine whether they have followed through with their plans to jump aboard the badly listing HMS Access Copyright, and found that there is nothing newer than the June Folio article that provoked my original post.  It's the usual information blackout that we have come to expect from this administration.  Does anyone know whether we are still committed to this highly questionable course of action?

Economic Impact

Studies like this always make me a little nervous.  Yes, I agree that large research universities play a role in the economic development of the surrounding areas, and that such an impact can potentially be quantified.  My concern here is two-fold.  First, if the study is conducted by people at the university whose impact is being measured, and who therefore have an axe to grind, the credibility of the numbers can be called into question.  Second, should we really fall into the facile trap of packaging a university's value to the community in terms of tangible economic impact?  I would like to think that a strong public university that provides a rigorous education to its citizens is of great intrinsic value, regardless of its direct economic impact.