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January 31, 2006
SciFi Film Stuff
The best short film I ever saw was this one called "Powers of Ten," which they showed as part of a Wednesday night film series I used to go to in Brooklyn. It's about zooming microscopically and macrosopically, so you get to see molecues and galaxies.
Ever since that movie, plus another one about suns, I've been into shorts. I went to a couple of film festivals especially devoted to brief movies. Even a summer one in Tokyo, where they advertised on little paper fans.
Incidentally, I finished my own little short movie I talked about and it is 15:00.
And I am really curious about this one-day film festival coming up in Seattle next Saturday, it's a series of science fiction shorts.
Date:February 4
Place:Cinerama Theatre, 2100 Fourth Ave.
Time:4pm and 7pm
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January 27, 2006
Jared Diamond (2)
Just to follow up with you guys, I wrote a blurb about this lecture I mentioned before for a new blog, Northwest Science News. (This picture was far too blurry to post but I wanted to share it here. At times like this I miss the tripod and cable shutter release I used for my Minolta X375. Of course, my subjects back then weren't people, but plates of pasta and fries.)
Moving right along:
Jared Diamond on 'Collapse'
By Dipika Kohli
Scientist Jared Diamond came to Seattle on Jan. 12 to talk about the reasons why some societies flourish while others fail - and how those reasons are reflected in our response to crises ranging from AIDS to Hurricane Katrina.
A mix of all age groups nearly filled Town Hall for Diamond’s talk, based on his book "Collapse."
Diamond won a Pulitzer Prize for his earlier bestseller, "Guns, Germs and Steel," which describes why some human civilizations survive challenges that others can’t.
He said today’s societies are increasingly at risk of failure because more people are inhabiting the planet, consuming resources faster than ever. With globalization, slight shifts in the affairs of even small, remote countries affect the world's geopolitical equilibrium. (In the past, he said, one of the countries the U.S. government considered insignificant in this way was Afghanistan.)
Many of the problems faced by societies today are the same ones that faced now-bygone societies: for example, climate change and limited resources of wood, fuel and water. How people adapt to those problems affects whether they win or lose.
He cited one example from the South Pacific: a civilization that was clever enough to devise ways to shape monolithic statues - some as tall as 33 feet and as heavy as 90 tons - without stone tools, and to haul them without wheels. In the end, the society resorted to civil war and even cannibalism.
"So why did the people of Easter Island tear down and break the statues their ancestors built so painstakingly?" Diamond asked.
The professor from the University of California at Los Angeles paused, perhaps to scan the crowd for a raised hand, before giving the answer.
Easter Island once had ample forests, he said, but over eight centuries the people depleted this resource. They cut down the last tree in 1680.
Without wood, they couldn’t build the canoes they needed to harpoon dolphins. Thus isolated from outside help and unable to gather food, the people turned ugly. Diamond said "the meanest thing you could say to someone was, ‘The flesh of your mother is stuck between my teeth.’"
Declining forest cover was also a problem in old Japan, too. But the Tokugawa-era shoguns knew to leave wood resources for their children, so they worked across regions to replenish trees, Diamond said. Today three-quarters of Japan is forest.
Successful societies learn to conserve resources. Or they produce them. Or they make friends with reliable neighbors.
Most importantly, societies that succeed are willing to let go of old ideas. Pious Scandinavians who settled in North America long before Columbus were unwilling to learn how to fish from the pagan Inuit. There was plenty of meat, but the settlers starved, and the Scandinavians retreated from the New World.
If modern America is to avoid a similar collapse, her citizens must "reappraise core values of isolationism and consumerism," Diamond said.
Americans have been led to think it’s OK for "anyone to do as he or she darn pleases," he said. But people here must stop consuming so many of the world’s resources. Americans also have to learn the oceans aren’t barriers that will protect us from problems elsewhere.
Diamond said that his research turned up one thread common to societies on the brink.
"Are the elite in a society able to insulate themselves against disaster?" he asked. If so, that’s a caution sign. If the top tiers aren’t affected by poverty and disease, for example, they won’t be motivated to deal with the society's big problems.
Rich people in America live behind gates, Diamond said. They’re able to buy private health insurance and pension plans, too, skirting nonexistent or shaky systems left for the less well-off.
Then there’s New Orleans.
"The Dutch take very good care of their dikes," Diamond said, because both rich and poor live within flood basins. Not so in New Orleans. No one invested in the engineering infrastructure (probably a few hundred million dollars’ worth, he said) that could have prevented the $300 billion flood disaster born of Hurricane Katrina.
Solving long-term problems works out better for the economy, Diamond said.
On his visits to Third World countries, people tell him they’re most worried about public health, family planning and the environment, he said. It would take $27 billion to ease the world’s problems with AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, he said. "And how much are we spending on weeks and months of a major war? ... There are 20 countries waiting to be the next Iraq."
Diamond's assessment may sound gloomy, but he says he's actually "cautiously optimistic."
Modern communication technologies can keep people informed of current "messes ... or successes." Meanwhile, today’s archaeologists and historians can help us learn the lessons of past messes and successes.
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January 26, 2006
上
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January 22, 2006
Fourteen Lines from Wordsworth
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration:--feelings too
Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
As have no slight or trivial influence
On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love.
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January 18, 2006
Light
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January 16, 2006
Fifth and Pike
"You gotta be humble, dude."
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January 13, 2006
Frame 1:37:22
This is a frame from the movie I am making. Yes! That's what I am up to right this second.
The good news is I already have gobs of footage so I don't have to run around Seattle with a videocamera in this rain.
What is going on is I'd given myself a week to construct a narrative and edit some 40-odd tapes I shot on world travels. After locating these Hi-8 cassettes in Design Kompany's storehouses on Capitol Hill, I'm viewing some of them for the first time. And they're definitely bringing me back in time. Five years, in fact.
The truth is, I haven't spent more than 70 hours on any one project in a long time. But I am really into this. It is fun. I would probably spend thousands of hours more on it if I didn't have a deadline. Which is Sunday. Wish me luck.
Posted by Dipika at 8:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 12, 2006
Why Societies Fail: Jared Diamond in Seattle
Jared Diamond, a scientist and Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction author, will be in Seattle today (Thursday) to talk about societies of the past that failed.
"Why do societies fall apart?," organizer Town Hall Seattle asks in a press release. "In his global bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond examined why some civilizations flourish. His new book, Collapse, looks at the other side of the coin. What happened to the Anasazi? The Viking colonies of Greenland? Rwanda?"
Dandan will listen for parallels between past cultural groups that broke apart and modern ones that could be on track to do the same. Of course, we can't go in there knowing what the story is, so for part of the time we'll just listen, too.
Date: Thursday, January 12
Place: Town Hall Seattle
Time: Tickets ($5) go on sale at 4.30 and 7 p.m.
Photo courtesy Town Hall Seattle
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January 11, 2006
feel like cheese dinner tonight?
Who is this marketed to, I wonder? Hapless curry lovers, desis whose mothers didn't tell them where you can get proper paneer, or just the curious like us.
For the record, it does have that spongy texture and tofu-like taste-free flavor, and no, it doesn't melt. Perfect for a curry dish.
Here's the manufacturer's web site.
Posted by Akira at 10:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 10, 2006
ムービーリビュー： Brazil
タイトル: Brazil (1985)
鑑賞日時：2006年 1月 6日 Central Cinema (Central District, Seattle)
主演： Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond
監督： Terry Gilliam
久しぶりのムービーレビューです。映画を見るのは相変わらず好きなんですが、寸評を書くのがなかなか追いつかなくって。。。また去年見た映画（「Heights」「2046」あたりが特に良かった）も暇を見て追加していきます。
さて、また古い映画ですが、この映画、ずっと見てみたかったんですよ。テーマソングに使われた曲「Aquarela Brazileira」（「チャッチャッチャ、チャラ〜チャッチャラ♪ ブラジ〜ル！」という、あれ）を高校時代に演奏したことがあった、というのもあって。ちょうど去年あたりに新しくできた映画を見ながら食事ができるシアターでリバイバルをやっている、というので、珍しい体験もかねていってきたという訳です。
監督はモンティ・パイソンで有名なテリー・ギリアム（この人、知らなかったけど、「Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas」「Twelve Monkeys」「The Fisher King」なんかの監督もやってるんですね）。カラフルでどたばたなシーンが盛りだくさんで、なかなか飽きないストーリーになってます。クロサワ映画や戦艦ポチョムキンへのオマージュもあったり、登場人物や台詞に深い意味がこもってたりと、何回見ても楽しめそうな、凝った作品になってます。
ジョージオーウェルの「１９８４」が下敷きになってる近未来の話で、早い話が現代社会のパロディなのですが、テロのシーンとか、今見ても現実味のある、というかちょっと現実に近すぎて恐ろしいような場面も。当時は救いがなさすぎるということでカットになった最後のシーンも、今見るとなんか当たり前、というか「そうなるだろ、やっぱり」という感じでショックは少ない。それだけ、救いのない世の中になったのかと思うとちょっと情けないですが。でも、ブッシュのアメリカならこれくらいやるだろ、本当。
演技にはあんまり見るところないですが、一つだけ、政府の間違いの犠牲になった未亡人（Sheila Reid）の演技が泣けたのと、若き日のロバート・デニーロが脇役だけどいい味出してます。
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Plane and Simple!
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January 9, 2006
Slowing Down
Over the weekend Akira discovered how to slow the shutter speed on the digital camera. This is one of those Canon IXY cameras that can fit in a man's breast pocket. Just about everyone I know who has a mini digicam bought this exact model. Super popular.
Akira came up with some artsy photos that could run in lifestyle glossies. Next step: use the new mini-tripod, also pocket-sized!, to smooth blur.
Posted by Dipika at 5:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 8, 2006
Little Box of Stuff
Sometime between Christmas and New Years, this box arrived at our door. Postmarked from Japan.
Inside were small packages of individually wrapped sweets: a bag of chocolate-covered prunes, apple cheesecake, 'n some salty snacks that have peanuts mixed with other tiny edibles. We put away a few packs of curry for a rainy day. Of which there have been a lot of lately.
Oh, by the way. I'm making a movie about some stuff. More on this later, but if any AV folks have tips on useful editing software, I'd love it if you could shoot me a note.
(Somewhat) related side note: Last year we saw this fun Seattle improv group, Flaming Box of Stuff.
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January 7, 2006
Rite Aid
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January 6, 2006
Interstellar Limbs
Once in Africa I bore a cramped bus ride for over an hour just to visit a garden. A botanical green caps a mountain in Aburi, outside Ghana’s capital, Accra.
For a full hot summer, our group of thirty artists from America worked in studios in Kumasi, painting or making drums or doing batik. Each day we had the same breakfast, lunch and dinner, but we learned to like fried plantains and jollof rice. We figured out how to get about on jitneys and tro tros. And when we reached Accra a few days before jetting home, we weren't new anymore. We didn't need guides.
That's why I knew I could find my way to Aburi Botanical Gardens. Some of my colleagues spent their last day sunbathing, others bought small wooden trinkets with names like "unity." The morning I took my leave of them, setting out with a camera and comfortable shoes, I felt sure I was seeing Africa raw.
Alone, I found that children didn't clamor for t-shirts, ball point pens, or my home address. They're used to Indians living among them. I was not one of what the locals unabashedly called some of my peers; "black Americans" are the more common tourists. All of us visit the old slave castle at Elmina, where at the water's edge, children field soccer balls beneath palms.
Going to Aburi, I began to relax. Close your eyes, I'll tell you how it went.
Our driver maneuvers a steep slope expertly, stopping the odd time when a wheel needs mending or another vehicle needs to pass. No hurry. The sun is bright, the sky a tantalizing azure.
The baobab trees rise from a base of elephant toes, giant and resplendent. Gnarled roots ensnare patches of earth. A grey, unruly casing engulfs a stupefying trunk, which flies up, up up into the sparkling sun. Tilt your head to follow the line, feel the stretch of the muscles in your neck. The topmost limbs, far above the playground of kites and eagles, float and cry. They flutter, interstellar.
Yet here, where you and I stand closer to the earth's core, gravity contains us. We are breathless before the broad hulk of the baobab tree base. Not even the butterflies stir.
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January 5, 2006
Eight Lines from Tagore
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
Posted by Dipika at 11:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 3, 2006
Tips for Making a Gingerbread House
ASHEVILLE, NC -- Millions gathered at the Grove Park Inn over the holidays to examine small gingerbread houses made from assorted candies.
Of particular interest was a home built using pretzel sticks stacked to create a log cabin. Another featured "brick walls" rendered with gum sticks.
Competition entrants also decorated front lawns, for example by modeling snow with icing normally used to cover cakes. One person made a Christmas Tree by stacking star-shaped cookies of decreasing diameter. This worked, to a point.
Winning entries rotated on small platforms near the entrance of the hotel. Thanks to sheer luck and some maneuvering, D+A squeezed through the throng of house gazers to snap this image, a Dandan exclusive.
[Editor's note: Here are some Gingerbread House Construction Tips]
1. Decide on shape and style of house.
2. Make templates for all sides and roof.
3. Decide on the materials you plan to use.
4. Roll out gingerbread to approximately ¼ inch thick.
5. Decide on a style of window (examples: poured sugar, chocolate candies).
6. Do all decorating on side of house before assembly.
7. Make icing with egg whites, powdered sugar and vinegar. Keep covered.
8. Assemble. You will need cans and little boxes to help support your house while the icing dries.
9. Decide on material for the roof (keep weight in mind).
10. When sides and front are dry and sturdy, assemble the roof.
11. Cover with a little powdered sugar for a snowy look (optional).
12. Add Christmas trees or people, animals, little ponds, snow banks, etc.
13. Have fun!
Source: some Asheville tourism promotion site
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