Category: Personal

With the film successes of Tommy and Quadrophenia in the bank, Pete Townsend and Company capitalized with The Kids Are Alright. While the first two were ‘real’ films, with plots and everything, this one is more a collection of film clips and interview bits massaged together–if Kids came out 15 years later it would have been an MTV special or DVD release. But if you’re a Who fan, this is well worth the time to see and enjoy. Lots of classic tunage, including a great and revealing live version of Shout and shimmy and nicely done recording studio footage of then-new Who Are You, and some primo Moon looniness topping.

Recommended

According to the NY Times, former Jacksonville (and Parcells-era Giants assistant) Tom Coughlin has been hired as the new head coach of the New York Giants, replacing Jim Fassell. Coughlin, known as a very strict leader in eight seasons with the Jaguars, gets a four-year contract worth more than $11 million. Interesting, if predictable, choice and a decent way to start off the new year. The team also interviewed Romeo Crennel and Lovie Smith and I do think it’ll be a shame if all seven openings get filled without those two getting jobs.

Harsh language to use about our president and his trusted advisors, for sure, but what else can you call them when they sneak civils rights destroying provisions into barely visible legislation on the same day last month that the media and everyone else was preoccupied with the capture of Saddam Hussein? The TFH types claimed that we’d captured Hussein well in advance of that day so that everything could be prepared just so but were dismissed as raving lunatics; now, though, I start to wonder. The legislation grants the FBI unprecedented power to obtain records from financial institutions without requiring permission from a judge and was originally part of the Patriot Act II–which was defeated when people realized how seriously bad it was. Sneaky fucks, all right.

I’m a sucker for cool computer shit, actually any cool techie stuff, so that probably explains some of my excitement watching this Microsoft Longhorn application demo. The presenter, one of the Longhorn evangalists not named Robert Scoble, states that the demo takes advantage of new features in the Avalon, WinFS and Indigo subsystems to produce what would be a really impressive real estate application from a new company called RE3W if it really worked as shown. The application works across company lines using secure connectivity, integrates communication (email and IM, I think), sophisticated graphics to bring an amazing level of automation to the commercial real estate purchase process. I would love to find out, however, how much of the application’s impressive functionality requires Longhorn’s capabilities and how much can be done today using, say, C++ or Java even though more coding would be necessary.

It’s a Wal*Mart World, we’re just living in it at cost-plus.

Along with the film release page updating the other day, I’ve added a little feature to the Movie Review Index so that my one or two word rating shows as the tooltip when you hover your mouse over the title. Exciting, I know. Don’t bust a gut trying to tell all your friends and neighbors. 234 entries in that database at the moment. I’ll likely add the same thing to the book review index next time I add a review.

Office 2003/XP Add-in: Remove Hidden Data: “With this add-in you can permanently remove hidden data and collaboration data, such as change tracking and comments, from Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint files.”

One career (or hobby/addiction) I’ve never pursued is sports gambling because, simply put, I suck at picking winners. Especially when there’s money on the line; I found that out when I was much younger and actually put about $200 where my mouth was on a few wagers. So I’m not at all surprised that in the first round I had two winners and two losers. In other words, if you’re looking for winners in the NFL playoffs don’t go by my picks. Which, after this weekend’s amusements, are:

Division Round: New England over Tennessee, Indianapolis over Kansas City, Philadelphia over Green Bay, St. Louis over Carolina. Props to John Fox for getting the Panthers this far but (ignoring the really strange season ending loss to Detroit) the Rams have really had game the last couple of months. Farve and the Packers run into a rested, tested Eagles with a lot to prove but if there’s any one of these picks I’m wavering on, it’s this one. Kansas City is backing, or rather stumbling, into the playoffs with a 3-4 record to end the season and Priest Holmes only plays offense.

Conference Round: St. Louis over Philadelphia, New England over Indianapolis. One dome team wins in the cold and on the road, one won’t get untracked.

Super Bowl: New England over St. Louis. Tom Brady is amazingly underrated as a winner and was even back in the day when he was the Michigan QB.

Remember, though, that I’m not good at this and you use this guidance at your own peril.

The Times has an article today on the low carb diet trend. While the bulk of the article is about the increasing number of restaurant chains adding low carb dishes to their menu, also mentioned is the uptick in such products on supermarket shelves. “More than 600 such products were introduced in 2003, compared with 339 in 2002 and 47 in 1999…sales of low-carb products would exceed $15 billion for 2003.” I’ve noticed the increasing product count in the stores myself, not only with some established brands (Arnolds bread, Breyers ice cream) but also more of the specialty brands like Atkins Nutritionals, CarbSense and EAS.

However, the conclusion of the article, that low carb is a fad that–especially with the death last Winter of Dr. Atkins–will burn out in the next couple of years, is just wrong. Variants like the South Beach diet are just coming online and, more importantly, major food companies are getting into the space. Those companies, with hefty R&D budgets, are the ones who will develop these foods and overcome taste and texture issues.

On a personal level, I ended the year at my lightest poundage in a decade or more; I even bought new jeans two weeks ago with 36″ waist! My brother-in-law to be and his brother are also using this eating program to get their bodies in shapes not seen in years. Low carb ain’t goin’ nowhere any time soon, trust me.

I sure wish Broog had eaten the entire reel of film, preferably the original master, before I got to the theater for this dud.

I haven’t posted much since the original mention but a good deal of progress has been made with the framework project though I still am nowhere near ready to post code. Rest assured that much time and thought has gone into it; the PHP is streamlined and tested, the CSS is primitive yet correct, new pages are simple to add, and page content is easily authored and maintained (a major goal, trust me). While programmers who’ve created more substantial systems might look at Blitzen as trivial (and they’re probably not wrong), I’m laser-focused on my client’s requirements and also quite happy with the state of things.

Two good ones, at least: iStockphoto and stock.xchng [via Mark Paschal]

This Jack Nicholson/Diane Keaton movie was good, really good; I’d say it even had a chance to be on some all-time top romantic comedy lists but missed by just a bit. Nicholson plays his public personna: the wealthy ultimate womanizing bachelor still dating under 30 beauties at 63, with the concept of commitment and relationship utterly foreign to him. Keaton plays a mid-50s-ish divorcee, a leading playwright who’s given up on finding someone to shop at her store (to paraphrase one of her lines).

Nancy Meyers has a history with romantic comedies–Father of the Bride, Baby Boom, What Women Want–so Something’s Gotta Give doesn’t come out of the blue but she’s certainly taken her game to another level since divorcing former writing/producing partner Charles Shyer prior to Women. While I’ve no reason to believe that this is autobiographical, one can easily draw a line from her circumstances, throw in demonstrable creativity and get a character in Keaton’s Erica that Meyers understands. And being a longtime Hollywood professional, she’s surely met many men like Nicholson’s Harry Sanborn!

As I said, this is almost an all-timer, which certainly makes me happy to have spent $15 for two tickets. The plotting is believable and the way we get to the (admittedly inevitable) ending has unpredictable twists, the characters feel real and developed, the dialog is funny and crisp. The main supporting roles are done well too: Keanu Reeves in his first post-Matrix role as Nicholson’s doctor and a much younger man who falls for Keaton, Amanda Peet as Keaton’s daughter and Nicholson’s original romantic interest, and Frances McDormand plays the encouraging, snarky, intelligent sister who pushes Keaton to remember that life is for the living.

So what quibbles did I find that make me say Something’s Gotta Give is almost but not quite great? There are three main reasons. First, towards the end after what is the first false ending (when Harry comes to the rehearsal of Erica’s new play), Meyers simply skips the action ahead six months and this feels artificial and out of step with the rest of the movie. Second, Peet’s character is the only one that doesn’t feel real and in the second half seems written simply to support the plot rather than organically do the job. Last, I wonder why there isn’t a single less than beautiful person in the entire movie–the closest is a somewhat chunky Jon Favreau in a cameo as Nicholson’s chief assistant–and I see this a true flaw in a movie which argues, at its core, that model-style beauty isn’t necessary for love. Even so, where a classic would rank above 95 on a scale of 100, I’d rate Something at 90±2.

Surely recommended

No matter what the BCS computers or regulations say, USC’s complete domination of Michigan in the Rose Bowl today showed that the voters were right when they chose the Trojans in the top spot for the final pre-Bowl polls. Three touchdown passes from Matt Leinart (24 of 34 for 331 yards and zero interceptions) to Kerry Colbert and Lendale White and a pass from stud receiver Mike Williams back to Leinart, nine(!) sacks and an interception by the SC defense. If the coaches voting the ESPN/USA Today poll had any balls they’d cross out the 2 at the top of their ballot and put a 1 in big black marker, then write USC next to it.

I surely agree with Elliot Robertson!

Another year, another list: Bill’s Best of 2003

After waiting an extra day to allow his son, a freshman QB at UCLA, to focus on the Silicon Valley Bowl, the Raiders announced that Bill Callahan was not offered a new contract and will not return for a third season as head coach. ESPN says that he’ll likely head down to Florida and join Gruden’s staff in Tampa Bay. A bad day all around for the Callahans as Brian’s team could not muster any punch and lost the bowl game to Fresno State. Looking to the future, ESPN’s Len Pasquarelli posted an interesting column yesterday breaking down the seven current openings and he forecasts Dallas offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon or former University of Washington coach Rick Neuheisel as the new front for Al Davis; he dismisses Dennis Green as a man who would love the job but won’t be able to close a deal with Davis.

Why am I not surprised that country singer Faith Hill has a featured role in the coming comedy remake of The Stepford Wives (teaser trailer, which is a faux ad much like the one for I, Robot)? She is probably a nice enough person, certainly I’ve never met her and cannot comment on that, but between her perfect marriage to fellow singing star Tim McGraw and perfect children and her so good she looks manufactured appearance, it’s almost satirical that she’s been cast as the perfect robotic wife in this film.

Minnesota Vikings owner Red McCombs wondered what all the fuss was about and pointed out that he never said anything less than supportive of head coach Mike Tice. After the way their season ended, you might expect some changes in the defensive coaching staff, so it’s probably fortunate that defensive coordinator George O’Leary resigned a couple of weeks ago to take the head coaching job at the University of Central Florida.

Surprising no one but confusing many with a non-denial denial that he’d resigned, Steve Spurrier did resign as coach of the Washington Native Americans after two years where pretty much nothing went his way despite mucho dinero for players and facilities provided by baby owner Dan Snyder. Though that moeny apparently also came with plenty of suggestions regarding how Spurrier out to spend it. Not nearly as pleasant an experience as all those years where he was more or less worshipped at that little college down in the Sunshine State.