For much of the three grueling hours that is Dogville I wanted to rip director Lars von Trier’s heart out. I enjoy a good misanthropic anti-everything that is American gloom-fest as much as the next guy, but come on, enough already.
But, it dared me to watch and I did. It was done cleverly (or at least interestingly) and on these levels it succeeded. Reluctantly, I recommend it.
I’m not a huge fan of fantasy novels, but if I ever decide to write one, this guide pretty much nails the entire process.
Next thing our hero wakes on a white alabaster slab in the Healing Room where the Pure Maiden Warrior (see “Characters” below) tells him that the battle is over and, Guess what? They won! Result: you’ve saved 50 pages of intricate military description.
For other difficult plot points such as Impassable Mountain Ranges see “Caves” below.
[via Bookslut]
I see that the Glenmorangie distillery is for sale
It would make a lovely Christmas gift.
The new iMac is what very few products from Apple are - boring. It’s an iBook with the screen on the outside glued to a metal stand. Yuck. They can do better.
Some great stuff here
I had no idea what I was cracking open when I started listening to Ryan’s shared iTunes library. Scroll down past Beck and Black Sabbath and other stuff I’ve heard of and finally just select something at random, click Play and….
Jeeez! What the hell is that noise!!?
But wait…as I was lunging for the Stop button I heard something. Right in the middle of that noise was something interesting. Something that was exactly like what music isn’t. There were sounds and clamor and haunting voices and some actual melody.
The band was Deerhoof. Never heard of them, but kept listening. While listening I was thinking of ways to describe it.
This is music an insane 7-year-old hears in her head. It sounds like it could be played on a very old record player in hell’s day care center.
I’m listening to Walt Disney on acid. It’s a posessed music box.
I furrowed my brow and grinned stupidly - at the same time. It’s interesting and completely different than anything I’ve ever heard.
I like it.
I’m sure I’ve posted this one before, but it’s worth another look. First Principles of Interaction Design from AskTog.
“The following principles are fundamental to the design and implementation of effective interfaces, whether for traditional GUI environments or the web. Of late, many web applications have reflected a lack of understanding of many of these principles of interaction design, to their great detriment. Because an application or service appears on the web, the principles do not change. If anything, applying these principles become even more important.”
When and if I switch back to a Mac, I’ll probably need some software. I’m compiling a list of neato-peachy-keen utilities I’d like to have and try…
Still looking for: screenshot, MySQL editor, Finder enhancements, etc.
Years ago I lived in BBEdit. When I moved to a PC I couldn’t understand how anyone could edit text at all in Windows. Over the past year I’ve grown to like jEdit quite a lot.
I’m switching back to a Mac soon and it looks like BBEdit 8.0 might have addressed what I considered its biggest shortcoming: multiple document management. Can’t wait until I get a chance to try it again.
Well thank God for the design talent at work, because there’s no way I could handle the actual “design” part of web design. I spent about two hours today staring at my site, hating it and thinking I should come up with something better. What did I end up with? Well, I stole that orange color and scurried home mumbling something about “no-talent, design-deficient idea-less wanker…”
Update: No more orange. Gone by popular demand.