Binnsy's Hovel

Well, I bought the damn thing in about September or October of 2005, but after over eighteen months I’ve finally got around to finishing The Google Story, by David A Vise.

It was a bit of a gamble in purchasing it because it could’ve gone many ways. It could have been a purely business-oriented book, filled with dull commentary on the search engine’s many business dealings and stock market behaviours. Or it could have been a technology expose, replete with broken-down coding and fun algorithms in the appendix. Thankfully, it was neither, and ended up being an exciting and balanced read.

The book covers Google’s beginnings at Stanford University in the US, and its gradual development ‘in-house’, then its incorporation and steady growth to become one of the most recognisable brands on the net, and perhaps the most effective search tool ever conceived. Intriguing sections included the Burning Man stories, early days in the computer lab at Stanford (where some of the first Googlers slept, eschewing their dorms), and accounts of some of the arguments had by Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

The book did indeed contain some commentary on Google’s stock performance and early financial figures, however this was woven into the narrative with comprehensive comments by analysts in layman’s terms. I can only imagine the amount of research that would’ve needed to be undertaken in order to compose such an account of the founding, rise and dominance of such a dynamic and global conglomerate as Google, but David A Vise did a spectacular job, and he should be congratulated on his efforts.

The book is highly recommended to anyone interested in the Internet, the media, companies, social change and business.

Now I guess I’ll move onto The Devil In Amber.

I espied an amusing title the other day in Borders: Sensitive New Age Spy by Geoff McGeachin… might be worth a look. I’m also – at some point – going to purchase Al Gore’s new dissertation on the state of the world, The Assault On Reason, Robert Fisk’s The Great War For Civilisation and Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh’s Secret Germany.

But I still have Unspeak, Captain Bluebear, Artemis Fowl and Spartan – in addition to The Devil in Amber – to get through first.

Meh – what the hell else am I going to do in the holidays?

Until next time…

On Wednesday of last week, I saw Paris Je T’Aime, The Siege and Lucky Miles, three very interesting and very different films that highlighted many cultural disparities and varying world views.

The first was a series of shorter chapters, each directed by a different director and each made by a different team. Personal favourite parts were the Tuileries section starring Steve Buscemi and directed by the Coen brothers, the Oscar Wilde section directed by Wes Craven, the vampire section by Vincenzo Natali (starring Elijah Wood as a newly converted vampire) and Tom Tykwer’s section starring Natalie Portman.

There is such a diversity of filmmaking talent in the world, and much like there are far too many books in the world, there are far too many films. One does one’s best to keep up while trying to read all the ones from the past, but as more and more are written, it becomes un charger impossible. Paris Je T’Aime was an ambitious project that worked well.

The Siege was an Australian documentary about the Japanese embassy hostage crisis in Peru in 1996-7, when several government officials and diplomats were held hostage by a group of rebels for over four months. The film was striking in its directness and honesty, with much original footage shot during the crisis used as primary footage for the film. Most interesting and scary, perhaps, were the interviews with and footage of Peruvian president of the time Alberto Fujimori. Yet another part of world history fascinating in nature and impact. The film was well-made, and a great Aussie achievement.

The final film I saw was Lucky Miles, a very funny piece by new Aussie director Michael James Rowland. It concerns the exploits of several groups of asylum seekers who are trying to find their way around the vast Australian desert with hilarious consequences. However the film highlights the seriousness of the asylum issue, the cultural differences between asylum-seeking nationalities and between them and Australians, and the geopolitical crisis that Australia creates. A masterpiece, to be sure. Keep your eye on it.

Until next time…

In the immortal words of Sam, Josh and Toby…

“So… there’s this thing.”

This woman had the hide to show up at work yesterday and complain to the staff rostered on at the time that new release adult movies should not be in the new release section. First of all, let me point out the blunt stupidity of such a statement. For a start, there’s a semantic issue. ‘New release adult film’ contains the phrase ‘new release’, and it is mere common sense for the propietor of a video store to place new release films in a new release section, irrespective of genre. And secondly, there’s a discriminatory issue in that by placing new release adult films elsewhere, the propietor of the store would not be catering to all demographics; demographics from which the store seeks and earns revenue.

So there are the mundane issues out of the road.

The woman’s main concern was that children might see the covers of these films. Measures are put in place to attempt to curb children seeing these films. They’re placed high up on the top shelves, out of the reach of impressionable people under three feet tall. It’s store policy to do so. This is to say nothing of the fact that most children wouldn’t go for such titles anyway. Would a young kid of, say, 5 or 6 choose Busty Co-eds over Open Season? I don’t know many children that would.

My main issue with this woman’s problems, however, is one of artistic merit. I have indeed seen adult-oriented material of sorts, most of which, however, is dramatic, intriguing and based on artistic integrity. I realise there are some films out there which lack any form of plot (any semblance that exists is usually highly contrived) and are purely concerned with the sordid escapades of the protagonists, however these too deserve their place in society. From a merely economic point of view, there are people who watch these films, and as long as there’s an audience for something, that something’s not going away.

Also, many artistically-purported mature films have more explicit covers than those rated with the subtext ‘Mainly concerned with sex’. Compare the cover for Lie With Me…

…with the cover for Sex Spa 2…

Lie With Me was a hotly anticipated dramatic release from acclaimed director Clement Virgo. Sex Spa 2 is a pornographic film directed by exclusively pornographic director Woquini Adams. Both contain explicit sex scenes. Both are currently in the new release section at Video Ezy.

My point, if there has to be one, is that adult films are everywhere, and explicit pornographic films are out of the way of children. Do not judge them, do not judge those who hire them, do not discriminate against a social niche that has its rightful place. In boycotting a rival store and in threatening to boycott ours, you are alienating yourself from one in five men, and one in fifteen women. These people aren’t addicted to pornographic material; they readily admit they watch adult-targeted material of any kind, be it sexual, violent, drug-related.

Films are expressions of society. It is only through expressing social attitudes that we encourage others to accept them. If you don’t accept them, don’t oppose them. Don’t keep them from others. Let them be.

Oh, and I saw three great films on Wednesday. More later.

Until next time…

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me…

In a brief introductory aside, I record here that today I’m starting somewhat of a new routine, in an attempt to regulate my diet, exercise, reading, writing and sleeping habits. I know what I need to survive, and I’m going to start nurturing it properly.

Renowned film author David Thomson (the tutor of one of my tutors at uni) is one of the critics that I will actually pay some heed to. Not only does he write with a veracity, enthusiasm and sincerity that is lacking in so many of his colleagues, but he writes what he wants to write, and damned be anyone who tries to stop him.

An article of his from the Guardian was syndicated in the Herald today, in which he dissects modern stardom, with specific reference to George Clooney. To say that he ‘ripped’ on Clooney is unfair, and I don’t believe that was his purpose. Rather he compared Clooney to Cary Grant, and made some general social statements about how society accepts actors now compared to the early twentieth century when cinema was in its youth.

I believe that great actors seek not to be so. They act because they love to act, and they don’t pander to stereotype.

Take Johnny Depp – he played a drug-addled journalist in Fear and Loathing, a womanising author in The Libertine and most recently the lovable lunatic of the high seas in Jack Sparrow with Pirates of the Caribbean.

Then there’s Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks – they’re as far as Thomson went.

I would add to that list David Strathairn, John Cusack and Ben Affleck. David Strathairn only came to my attention when I saw him play famed television commentator Edward R. Murrow in Clooney’s film Good Night, And Good Luck. Since then I’ve seen him in Heavens Fall and LA Confidential in very different roles.

Likewise with Cusack, who I fell in love with in High Fidelity and have since seen in Being John Malkovich and Runaway Jury.

And the three big ones for me and Affleck have been Paycheck, The Sum Of All Fears and Man About Town.

In terms of actresses, look only at Julianne Moore, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Scarlett Johansson and Rachel Weisz.

My point is that there are plenty of film stars around today that seem – ‘Nay, it is. I know not “seems”‘; or so I like to think – to be honest, hardworking and don’t take things too seriously.

I could be wrong.

Until next time…

Through a combination of laziness, absent-mindedness (the extent of which my girlfriend, parents, friends and most of my family will readily and enthusiastically attest to) and sheer lack of motivation I managed to miss yesterday’s International Blogger’s Day. I knew it was on, but I couldn’t have been stuffed getting on the net.

So I thought today I’d just ramble for a bit about democracy and blogging in this new age.

The world is a dangerous place in the current era. The threat of terrorism, wars in the Middle East, the ever-growing power of Japan and North Korea, famine and disease in Africa and elsewhere: these paint a dull picture of what we’ve done with our world. Not to even touch on the crappy way we’re treating our world, and how much the world is going to kick our mortal butts for it.

Despite all this sadness, bad administration and danger, however, we live in an age where people all over the world are telling their stories through various mediums. Digital storytelling and foreign independent documentaries are springing up from terrorist hotspots and from underneath oppressive regimes. People flee to the West to tell their story. However no other medium has had more of an impact on the Western world than the blog.

MySpace, YouTube and others have tried, but the online web journal, weblog or blog is by far one of the most dynamic, engaging and intriguing media of the twenty-first century. An evolution of the personal web page, the blog is updated instantaneously, from anywhere in the world, with information, opinion, images and videos, and people all over the world flock to them for new information and insight.

Some are very personal, some not all that intellectual, some anarchic, some conservative, some somewhat opinionated, but they’re all there, and they’re all there because someone, somewhere in the world, has something to say.

Only now are world leaders (and dictators) realising the sway and power bloggers can have. In totalitarian governments blogs are slowly being banned alongside books and independent cinema. Blogs are such vehicles of opinion that they have changed human psyches – one only has to look at the impact Salam Pax had to realise this.

Blogs won’t be stamped out though – because of their sheer will of opinion, of perspective and of self. Bloggers have stood together in defending each other readily and on many occasions – despite the individual bloggers never having met in the real world. It is this online cyberspatial public sphere, solidarity, democracy, that can only increase in power – and one day, hopefully, spill over into reality.

In the coming days I’ll post bits and pieces from my paper on bloging to illustrate the above points. Meantime, fellow bloggers, stand together and be counted as the few who bravely state their cases in a world where everyone seems to stick their heads in the sand and pretend everything will fix itself.

In other news I went to the dentist today. Evil, sadistic people they are. I still can’t feel most of my mouth.

Until next time…

It’s been incredible living on campus these past few months, because I truly have very little concept of what’s going on in the world. I’m also not constantly bombarded by television advertising and the 95% of television that is crap. I have to seek out news when I feel like catching up on things.

And most of the time when I decide to head on over to the Herald’s website it’s all useless and non-relevant tripe anyway. Phil Spector’s trial, Paris Hilton in prison, Condi whinging about our IR legislation – it’s all the same to me.

So – living in a bubble, good thing or bad thing? Well I do miss television. I miss the few shows I did watch all the time like House and Spicks and Specks, and to a certain extent I miss the neatly packaged half-hour version of news I watched on the ABC. But it’s not a bad thing to only watch movies – I’m constantly being inspired with new ideas, and it’s novel that the only time my television is on is when I’m watching a film.

I guess I’ll just have to think about it again when I have normal TV once more.

Until next time…

Here it is. The thing that’s occupied many late nights over the last month or two, and many more when it was just my pet project and not a uni assignment. But here it is, as submitted earlier today.

Another semester down.

Until next time…

What’s with this weather? All of a sudden the heavens open and we get saturated in a deluge after two months of virtually no rain. Hey, no complaints; merely observing.

I’m slowly but surely expanding my film-going horizons, and have very recently entered the realm of contemporary French comedies. They’re incredibly hard to track down, however I found two at work which are very good.

Mensonges et Trahisons or The Story Of My Life, directed by Laurent Tirard, is a very funny French rom-com about a ghostwriter (Edouard Baer) who must write the autobiography of a famous soccer player (Clovis Cornillac). Complications arise, however, when the soccer player is dating one of the ghostwriter’s early romantic interests (Alice Taglioni), whom he hasn’t told his current girlfriend (Marie-Josee Cruze) about.

The sets are normalistic and natural, the characters are endearing and friendly, and the story is engrossing and very, very funny. I give it four croissants out of five.

The other one I watched in the last week is La Doublure, or The Valet, the newest comedy from renowned and loved French director Francis Veber (Le Placard; he also helped write the 1996 comedy The Birdcage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane). Alice Taglioni stars in this film as supermodel Elena, who is having an affair with married man Pierre (the very versatile Daniel Auteuil of Cache). When Pierre’s wife (Kristin Scott Thomas; who knew?) finds a tabloid photo of Pierre and Elena, he convinces her that Elena is with another man in the photo and not him. In furthering his scheme, Pierre tracks down the man (Francois, played by the endearing Gad Elmaleh) and pays him to let Elena stay at his house to continue the charade. Hilarity and cunning ensue.

This film is a little more serious than The Story Of My Life, but not much. There are some dark-ish moments from Auteuil and Thomas, but the viewer is mainly concerned with the relationship between Francois and Elena, hoping that they remain friends and nothing more so that Francois can get back together with his girlfriend Emilie (Virginie Ledoyen). This one gets three and a half baguettes out of five.

So there’s your French comedy wrap for this week!

Until next time…

Well, that was fun. For the most amazingly interesting subject entitled Communication Law & Ethics, I’ve had to compose a 1500 word paper on copyright. I’ve centred mine around film and the concept of authorship.

Problem, is, however, that I’ve gone about 500 words over the limit. So if I can cut 350 by tomorrow afternoon, I should be pretty much alright.

Anyway, here’s the intro for your perousal.

Copyright law has been a field that has baffled scholars, authors, lawyers and artists for many years. In such a dynamic and ever-changing world, the notion of ownership has been shredded to its bare minimum in order to maintain a sense of democracy, freedom and authorial control. Copyright and associated legislation can be said to create a legal framework by which the creations of modern culture are distributed, shared and incorporated. Perhaps nowhere else in cultural media are the concepts and principles of copyright more pertinent than in the world of film. Optioning the right to make a film based on a novel, for instance, requires an incredible amount of legal and financial negotiation between the novel’s author and the potential film’s producers. There are legal conditions that govern the distribution and display of films; there has been increasing debate over stringent copyright legislation and the use of films for educational purposes, for example. From a directorial point of view, there are issues that may arise with the use of product placement in a film, or from the use of an excerpt of another’s work. The analysis of copyright law generally comes down to a single dilemma: how to balance the incentive to create new exponents of cultural media, e.g. films, with effective access to older works that one might draw on for inspiration or adaptation. Film producers and directors must be constantly aware of the changing legislation in regards to product placement and the appropriate use of the work of others (in particular when adapting a screenplay from a stageplay or novel). With the ever-transforming nature of the Internet and the constantly-spreading film piracy epidemic, the distributors of film must always be vigilant when constructing marketing plans for their products. Furthermore, at what point will creativity be considered obsolete? As the private stranglehold on the rights to various creations – be they literature, film, art or music – lengthens, how can new ideas be adapted and drawn from the old?

More later.

Until next time…

Interesting. My semi-drunkenness only appears in speech marks. No, really, have a look. For most of lastnight’s post I was coherent, I spelt correctly, punctuated, grammar wasn’t bad, then whack up a speech mark and you get some incoherent babble cunningly disguised as the vernacular of a certain social group.

Curious…

Until next time…