October 2006 Archives (9 posts)

War Photographer (2001)

War Photographer (2001) is a fabulous documentary film about photographer, James Nachtwey.

The filmmakers attached a small video camera to the end of Nachtwey’s Canon lens, letting us see what he sees in places like The West Bank, Kosovo, and Rhwanda. Nachtwey’s whole life is devoted to photography. He constantly puts himself in danger to get ‘the shot’.

By the end of the film you realize that Nachtwey has been deeply affected by some of the things he’s photographed. So why does he continue to shoot photographs for Stern and Time? It’s not for the awards, to sell more photographs in mid-town Manhattan or to become a celebrity. Nachtwey says it best on his website:

I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.

To see some of Nachtwey’s work, visit his website at jamesnachtwey.com. Better still, watch War Photographer on DVD. ½

Films are rated from 1 to 4 stars.

Posted in DVD Reviews and Photography at 8:27 PM | Comments (3)

Rabbit

I just came across Rabbit — an animated short film that is creatively twisted. I’m going back to the motionographer.com to watch it again.

If you’re at all interested in motion graphics then motionographer.com is a great portal to some of the best talent out there.

Posted in Motion Graphics at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)

Bush uses ‘The Google’

Has there ever been a president more out of touch with reality. I can’t stop laughing after watching ‘W’ on this CNBC clip. Here what he has to say about ‘The Google’.

One of the things I’ve used on the Google is to pull up maps. It’s very interesting to see — I’ve forgot the name of the program — but you get the satellite, and you can — like, I kinda like to look at the ranch. It remind me of where I wanna be sometimes.

I’d be willing to bet money that ‘W’ doesn’t use email. I wish the CNBC host asked him if he uses Firefox. Now that would have been an interesting answer.

Posted in Humour at 8:13 PM | Comments (1)

Too many Paul’s

The other day I was telling a guy named Paul, a story that involved two other Paul’s. It was a little confusing keeping track of the names. I seem to know a lot of people with the first name Paul. Here are a few:

1. Paul Nethercott
2. Paul Robertson
3. Paul Little
4. Paul Lantinga
5. Paul Neary
6. Paul McArthur
7. Paul Newman
8. Paul Wismer
9. Paul Little (yes, another one)
10. Paul Kyte
11. Paul Brennan

I only know one other person with the first name Jay. Okay, back to work.

Posted in Personal at 5:13 PM | Comments (5)

CNET reviews IE7

CNET reviewed the recent release of Internet Explorer 7. These comments made me laugh out loud.

IE 7 was Microsoft’s one chance to leapfrog ahead of the competition, but the company has only barely caught sight of the current front-runners. For more features and greater security, switch to Mozilla Firefox.

Then I read that IE 7 “reuses old IE 6 code and doesn’t yet comply with current Web standards” and I wasn’t laughing any more. Why? Because now I’m going to have to use more hacks and work-arounds to make my client’s websites render properly in IE 7.

What has Microsoft been doing for the last couple of years?

Posted in Web Development at 3:52 PM | Comments (1)

Shooting in Vermont

Last Friday I hopped in the ol’ Mustang at 4 AM. Destination, Vermont.

The ‘lovely’ was nice enough to let me leave for three days to take photos in the Green Mountain State. The fall foliage was at its peak in many spots and I was determined to see as much as possible. Aside from the amazing colour of the leaves, there were plenty of waterfalls and covered bridges to shoot.

1,800 km later I’d been through the entire state, top to bottom, shooting each day from sunrise to sunset. If you’ve never been to Vermont in the autumn, you’re missing out. The landscape is incredible.

The most picturesque town I passed through was East Manchester. I’m hoping to get down there next year for the first week of October (with ‘the lovely’ this time).

Along the way I learned a few lessons that some people might find helpful:

• Don’t take your 18-year-old Mustang GT (with 234,000 km) on an a 3-day road trip. You might get to your destination faster but your dashboard and tail lights could fail. Mine failed one day into the trip.
• Try to find a motel while there is still daylight. I ended up in Waitsfield, VT on Saturday night. When I left in the morning I noticed that the motel sign read, “bikers welcome”.
• If you’re going to do some mountain climbing, don’t wear loafers that slip on wet rocks. I climbed to the top of Smuggler’s Notch just north of Stowe, VT. Breathtaking. Literally. By the time I reached the bottom of my climb, my legs were shaking, my knees hurt and I wanted to vomit.

I’ll be posting some photos on Bombippy Photos soon. If you’ve been to Vermont, what are some of favourite places you’ve been to?

Posted in Photography and Travel at 10:30 AM | Comments (2)

Shows I’m watching

For the last couple of years I haven’t watched a lot of TV. I’ve spent a lot of my time watching films instead.

Last year I started watching House and was completely hooked. The Sopranos is another show I love and am looking forward to when it resumes.

I took a look at Desperate Housewives and felt like I was watching recycled Melrose Place episodes. I also watched an episode of Standoff on Fox. Groan.

Two shows have caught my eye and I’m tuning in every week. The first show is Heroes on NBC. Awesome! It has a great blend of mystery, interconnected plot lines (think Syrianna, Traffic, Babel) and some supernatural elements that give it an X-Files feel.

The second show that impressed me was The Nine on ABC. It features an ensemble — nine strangers come together during a bank robbery that turns into a messy, 52-hour hostage situation. The series looks at how this experience has changed the people involved. There is also a lot of uncertainty as to what happened during the hostage crisis. A little bit is revealed each episode.

What are your must-watch shows this season?

Posted in Television at 11:23 AM | Comments (8)

SHAMELESS: The ART of Disability (2006)

Hot Docs launched the 2006-07 edition of Doc Soup (monthly documentary film series) last night with SHAMELESS: The ART of Disability (2006).

It was directed by Bonnie Sherr Klein (mother to Naomi Klein) who suffered a stroke in 1987 that left her paralyzed. 18 years later she is the first disabled person to make a documentary film in Canada about disabled people. Last night, she was at the Bloor Theatre in Toronto, to introduce her film.

I have to admit that a documentary film about disabled people wasn’t top of my list for viewing. When you sign up for the Doc Soup program you have to be open to anything. I think I gained a better perspective of how disabled people deal with their disabilities.

Overall, I thought the film was pretty mediocre. It didn’t shock or surprise me the way I think it wanted to. Maybe I’m too young? I felt that the audience for this film was geared more toward seniors, a TVO crowd. ½

Films are rated from 1 to 4 stars.

Posted in Movie Reviews at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

My bloody elbow

I played hockey on Sunday night for the first time in over a month. At some point I must have fallen and landed on my elbow (don’t remember) because it was a bloody mess when I removed my elbow pad.

When I checked my bruised elbow at home it was still bleeding. The part that really bothered me was the 2 cm worm-like piece of flesh that was hanging out of my elbow. I tried pulling it out but the pain put an end to that. I slapped a band-aid on and went to bed.

This worm-like piece of flesh, that nobody in my family wanted to look at, was going to be a problem. I could barely bend my elbow and I was running out of band-aids. Time to go to a walk-in clinic.

Two hours later I finally got to see the doctor. I asked him how a piece of your insides could squirt out of your arm and just hang there. He had no idea. He seemed amused and described the worm-like extension of my elbow as ‘a miniature tongue’.

“Do you want to just lop it off?” he asked. I gave him the go ahead. He froze my elbow with a needle, grabbed some tweezers and with the surgical scissors he snipped off the worm. It started to bleed like crazy. He grabbed my hand and told me to press on the wound with some cotton balls. He ran into the next room to get some stitches and close up the hole.

My elbow still hurts like Hezbollah but at least the worm is gone. Any doctors out there with some ideas as to what was hanging out of my elbow?

Posted in Personal at 3:00 PM | Comments (8)