BillSaysThis

Today’s book: Ripley’s Game

Most of you will remember Tom Ripley from the 1999 movie The Talented Mr. Ripley starring Matt Damon or my review of the original novel. Patricia Highsmith actually wrote five Ripley novels and Ripley’s Game is the third in sequence. I preferred the first novel but I do believe this one was interesting enough to get me to try and find numbers four and five (reviews generally say to skip the second one). Ripley is not so much the protagonist in this story but the main supporting character. Ripley connives to set Jonathon Trevanny, a dying man, down a path of little good and ends up most likely regretting his choice; Highsmith tends to leave at least some emotional results up to the reader to discern. The setting is mainly a couple of small French towns with a trip to Munich and a train ride and some care is taken to bring these villages to life. Not a thrill a minute but the kind of story where you appreciate the subtlety and emotional rat traps.

Passing 4,000

Well, I just love to see the numbers on the Sitemeter visit counter go higher and higher. I admit it. I love all those Google searches on George Carlin, Springsteen, Avolar, and Italy that bring visitors my way. And the occasional linkage, like USS Clueless and Winerlog. Simple thing but it makes me happy. Note: the counter started at zero on July 27, so this is visits for the last four months. Here’s a pic of the meter the first time I saw it passed 4,000:

Man Wanted in Abortion Anthrax Hoaxes Held

Clayton Lee Waagner, an anti-abortion terrorist, was arrested today near Cincinnati. Waagner, as previously discussed in this weblog, is a psychotic Douglas Adams fan who made creditable threats to kill a large number of abortion clinic workers without warning. I’m really glad to read that he’s been arrested before he could go ahead and harm anyone. Waagner had been on a crime spree across the eastern US since he escaped from an Illinois jail last February. He apparently was recognized by employees at a Kinko’s where he was renting some computer time and the local police were alerted. Way to go guys!

Buy Bill a holiday present?

One word: Aquos, only $1,799.99 for the 15″ model or $2,999.99 for the 20″ model from BestBuy but that includes free shipping. This is a lightweight (8.5 lbs.), skinny (2.5″), portable high performance flat screen Liquid Crystal Television from Sharp–sweet! Other bloggers have been known to post links to their Amazon wishlists or other donation/gift systems but I can’t really see any point to that. Aquos just looks so good you have to want it! Don’t you?

Tonight’s movie: The Man Who Wasn’t There

Face it, Joel and Ethan Coen make weird movies. Maybe it’s their last name missing the letter h that gave them a complex as children. Still, The Man Who Wasn’t There is the latest in a line of good but strange movies–O Brother Where Art Though?, Fargo, Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink, and Raising Arizona. That last one made me think they were great filmmakers 14 years ago and only exposed the tip of their weirdness. I enjoyed this movie, but you have to be in the mood for something out of the Hollywood mainline if you see it. Just one example: this film was shot in color and then transformed into black and white.

I have to give Billy Bob Thornton props for his acting in this film. He plays the title character, I suppose, and his emotional absence throughout the movie is what gives rise to that title. He has an odd, amphibious, almost nerveless presence, never moving off a slow, stiff keel. Jon Polito (Homocide) and James Gandolfini (Sopranos) play bookends, one a “pansy”, the other a big man who is shown to be something else entirely. Frances McDormand, a constant in Coen films, plays Thornton’s wife with a surprising sensuality. Scarlett Johansson plays a teenage piano player who almost figures as a Lolita in the second half but never quite gets there, which is not to take away from her performance since I can’t imagine the Coens wanting such an easily categorized performance.

Classic guitars, modern tech

Gibson Guitar Corp., maker of some of the best guitars ever, is looking to move those annoying cables hooking guitars to effects boxes to pre-amps to amps to mixing boards from dowdy old analog to digital with a new open, royalty-free software standard that runs on plain old Ethernet cable called MaGIC: Media-Accelerated Global Information Carrier. This very cool stuff (look for guitars with Ethernet ports in the next 12-18 months) was developed by a group of 12 Gibson engineers right here in Silicon Valley over the last two years. “MaGIC provides a single cable solution that is trivial to install, requires little or no maintenance, and offers a data link layer that supports a simple yet sophisticated protocol, capable of offering a superior user experience.” Author’s bias note: I’m more of a Fender Telecaster fan. Via Slashdot.

Saturday’s movie 2: Behind Enemy Lines

In the current highly charged environment, this film plays like a lit match in a tinderbox. Good but fed up American Navy pilot (the dreamy, I’m told, Owen Wilson) tires of playing cop on a beat where he isn’t wanted (Bosnia) nears the end of his hitch and turns in his resignation. Trying to teach him a lesson, the grumpy old admiral (Gene Hackman, who works a lot for a 71 year old) sends our boy on a Christmas recon mission. Sure enough, something goes wrong, the plane goes “off-mission,” gets shot down by some really good bad guys (Serbs trying to sneak a little genocide past a peace treaty), and the horse are off on a race. Joaquin de Almeda plays a Spanish NATO admiral who keeps getting in Hackman’s way. Wilson and Hackman play off each other on a series of radio conversations. Nicely done action sequences, I never felt like Wilson had to do something completely impossible to escape Serb bullets, and the radio conversations give good pause and punctuation to the ever more dangerous movement–good direction by John Moore in what is apparently his first time out. Strong action film, recommended.

Saturday’s movie: Bridget Jones’ Diary

A definite chick flick. Amusingly, the producers felt there was no English actress capable of playing what was arguably the juiciest English female role in several decades and so we have Rene Zellweger doing a totally cute English accent. Of course, I’ve always had a little something for her, after such cool flicks as Nurse Betty, Empire Records, and even Jerry Maguire. Hugh Grant (sweet, smarmy, and of course unredeemable) and Colin Firth (overcool English reserve but a beautiful heart) have no problems in playing to character as the male romantic leads. Zellweger gained 20 pounds, drinks and smokes constantly in the film, and surely catching every eye with some of the outfits she wears–particularly the panties, tiny tee, sneakers, and robe she wears in one scene while running out into the snowy evening. Nice first time directing job by Sharon Maguire. Funny and sweet, recommended for watching as a couple especially on a rainy or snowy winter night.

Friday’s movie: Spy Game

Robert Redford rules in this movie, without a question, and for about the first time I recall, Brad Pitt actully does a creditable job of acting. I walked out of Spy Game laughing hard over how the clearly aging (64 years old!) Redford played the CIA assholes who for whatever reason were glad to see the last of him (the movie takes place on his last day working). If I had to pick one, the lack of any explanation or backstory for the animosity between Redford and Stephen Dillane (playing Charles Harker) would be my choice as biggest shortcoming of the film. The film uses Pitt’s current predicament and the play of power politics as the background to show us how Redford recruited Pitt into the CIA at the end of the Vietnam War, made him into a top agent, then blew up their relationship. Lots of explosions and bullets but good character development, cinematography, and pacing. The quality isn’t surprising to me, since Tony Ridley directed; his past films include Crimson Tide, Enemy of the People, and Last Boy Scout. Highly recommended.

Bill may be offline

Due to stubborn or poor negotiators, the AtHome network may shut down tonight after a bankruptcy judge (the apparently not-so-wise Thomas Carlson) gave permission today. So while this site would be unaffected, since it’s hosted independently in Indianapolis, my personal access and therefore ability to update may be interrupted. ATT Broadband (my cable modem ISP) has promised that it has a backup solution in place but there could be a delay of a couple of days to a couple of weeks before I get back online. The judge has suggested that the contesting parties (ATT versus a bunch of creditors) ought to be able to manage to not shut off the service but why should they be able to do it? Who’s representing the customer? Will Bill get screwed once again by his highspeed vendor (after getting left in the lurch by the Northpoint bankruptcy back in March and the inability–incompetence?–of Pac Bell in July)?

I heard the news today, oh boy

George Harrison, the quiet Beatle, died today after a struggle with cancer; he must have known his time was near as he passed away at a friend’s home with family and friends with him. I hope he got his fondest wish, to walk closer with his God. I’m not going to try and write another eulogy or biography of this man but just to pass on my favorite memory of his music. When I was little, in the late 1960s, I used to go rollerskating many Saturday afternoons with Joannie Reich in Livingston, NJ. Joannie was the first girl I ever kissed one Summer afternoon in the closet in my bedroom. When we went skating, we were the only little kids to be out on the rink during couples only skates, since you had to hold hands. Our favorite song to skate to was Harrison’s biggest contribution to the Beatles and still one of my favorite lve songs, “Something.” The lyrics and the gentle melody are so simple and beautiful, two things one ould surely say about the man himself. Harrison did many great things in his life but this will be how I remember him most fondly.

Psychotic and an Adams fan

Clayton Waagner is a seriously dangerous man, a man who feels he “was anointed and called to be God’s Warrior…. He freed me that I might lay down my life for His Will.” God’s will being, of course, the death of large numbers of people who work at abortion clinics; he has made a real threat against 42 such unnamed people. Therefore, Abortion Clinics are on alert across the nation. Steven points out that this is as much a terrorist threat as Al Quaeda albeit on a different scale and deserves a major response from the Bush Administration. But Waagner must also, in some twisted way, be a Douglas Adams fan, that’s the only place I know of where a reference to the number 42 makes a connection.

Understanding our allies in the War on Terror

I have often cited Steven Denbeste, Captain of USS Clueless, in recent months for his masterful analysis of curent events. But in this far from Clueless mini-essay, he takes a close-up view of our European and Arab allies. First he debunks the current mouthings of some sadly mistaken European ministers (lots of hot air), then he looks at the material contributions from other nations in the fighting and whether we could have succeeded without them (we could, although Pakistan and Britain’s assistance was quite useful), before concluding with a piquant note on the Europeans’ realization that “Europe is no longer the center of the universe.”

In a second post, based on a poll just done for The Washington Times and ABC, Steven explains how little Americans care about European attitudes towards our foreign policy and the strong probability that NATO will whither away from (U.S.) neglect.

Chomsky: Still absurd and proud of it

Doc points us to an article in Dawn, a Pakistani publication, reporting on a Nov. 25 Noam Chomsky lecture in Islamabad. The MIT professor has been speaking out against the US government’s response to the September 11 attacks since that day, before any actual American military activity. In this lecture, he essentially equates Al Quaeda and the American government, terming the actions of both the strong victimizing the weak. Mainly, Chomsky uses the lecture to explain how the US has been a violent bully for two hundred years, killing and maiming as it pleases: “The number of victims of US savagery are huge right upto the present moment.” Okay Noam, you can sit down now.

More on oil and security

Recently I argued against the Bush Administration’s claim that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, ecological considerations aside, is important for national security reasons. Now the Economist chimes in with an article that surely supports my position. In it, various experts’ opinions on the amount of global oil reserves (and therefore years of supply) are discussed. The opinions on when the supply runs out range from early in the next decade to at least 70 years; one of the key differences underlying these estimates is technology. As a firm believer in our ability to continue to make significant strides in technology, I would have to side with the more optimistic experts but I still believe we are better served by keeping our own oil in the ground as long as possible. What if the pessimists are right?

Legality of Muslims detained by US

David Tell, writing in the (ultra-?)conservative Weekly Standard, examines with precision the claim by many that Bush and Ashcroft are overreaching legal bounds through the dentention of many Muslim foreign nationals. The examination was prompted by articles such as Kangaroo Courts by alleged conservative William Safire. Tell pierces these claims quite clearly in the light of Supreme Court precedents (Zadvydas v. Davis and Reno v. Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee) and applies them in frustrating detail to a current deportation case the Feds are pursuing against a top agent of terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Mazen Al-Najjar has been in the United States illegally (his visa expired) since 1985 but due to extensive court maneuvering by his attorneys he is still in America. His attorneys are allowed under US law, amazingly, to argue that since the US has shown Al-Najjar is a terrorist he cannot be deported and must be granted political asylum because “few foreign countries would even consider accepting extradition of such a character, and any that might would very likely persecute him.” Just f-ing amazing! I generally judge myself to be more liberal than conservative but even more enamored of logic than either and this just blows me away.

VCs: Some are trying to learn the lessons

Many people I talk with and read have little or nothing good to say about venture capitalists, even people who’ve made money off of companies for which venture firms provided the financing. Certainly the VCs, along with nearly everyone else here in Silicon Valley, went a little nuts from 1998 until fairly late in 2000 starting and funding companies which had no possible path to profitability. Some of these people are thoughtful, though, and are currently stepping back and assessing how to move forward once again. There are IMO many, many smart people here, perhaps more than anywhere else when it comes to technology, and while the wind may have slackened, it will surely come back and fill the sails again soon.

Bill Gurley, who as far as I know actually made some real money during that time with Benchmark Capital and Hummer Winblad, writes a weekly column for C|Net and in his latest installment looks at the realities of starting a company aimed at an IPO. Robert von Goeben, another writer/VC (Starter Fuid/Redleaf Group), looks at the current realities and sees that many of the people who lost jobs but not hope or ideas in the dot bomb crash are working steadily, if stealthily, on new projects. He says this group is trying to do the right thing, real customer research and real product development, rather than hit up investors for funding first off. Of course, this is the way things should always have been done but I’m heartened to see that people are getting closer in touch with reality.

2210: No more TVs, computers, or hospitals

Frederick Pohl is one of the last authors of science fiction’s Golden Age still actively writing; I was surprised that he’s only 82, since he was writing published stories and editing major magazines in the mid 1930s. Not only is he still writing but some of his most popular and meaningful works have come in recent years, including the Gateway/Heechee series (another title is on the way next year) and Eschaton Sequence. SciFi Weekly has an interesting interview with him in their latest issue. The 2210 reference above, by the way, comes from one of his answers when asked to name five things which will no longer be around in the year 2210. [He] said, “There will not be any computers, television sets, traffic jams, hospitals or airports.” As a kid I loved his collaborations with Cyril Kornbluth, particularly The Space Merchants.

More egoboo: My letter gets published

Recently I wrote an entry disagreeing with Gale Norton’s column claiming that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is an important national security issue. In short, I argue that America is better off in a national security sense (putting aside ecological issues for discussion purposes) preserving our own portion of the finite supply of oil until others have exhausted theirs; instead the real shortterm drilling interest is oil industry profits. I also sent a slight variant as a letter to the editor of the San Jose Mercury News, where I read the column, and they published it. Due to the paper’s shortsighted web policies, the letter is unlikely to be available after 12/2/01 and for some reason the Wayback Machine doesn’t archive the newspaper’s site. Still, I love seeing my name on paper even if the boost is illusory.