nook

The new Feedcorp project - nook - is now online under the umbrella of Leader Newspapers (News Corp's local newspaper division). Check it out.

It's structured local blogging. Translated into English, that means its a place to find information about your local area, review local businesses, exchange tips with other locals and etc. It's very cool. While it was in alpha, I moved suburbs and got some great tips from other alpha-ites on the best place for a coffee near my new home.

The only sub-optimal aspect is that posts and comments are moderated so you don't get to post something up and see it instantly appear on the site. An example of old-media thinking banging up against new-media reality. Times they are a'changing ...

Black Magic

Just got the new Swollen Members album - Black Magic - it's awesome. They are building up a really really solid body of work [I'm sure you'll excuse all the multiple entendres]. When you have high expectations it is so easy to be disappointed even when they're pretty good (eg numerous Tricky albums) but this one satisfies all expectations...

Happy birthday

It's my birthday!! happy birthday to me.

Was just looking at my blog stats. Amazing and a little scary how much info is collected about visitors [i KNOW who you are. No actually I don't, but I do know which browser you use]. And I guess nice to know my words and images are travelling so far.

My last 20 visitors include:
- 7 Melbourne, Australia (including suburbs)
- 2 Western Australia
- 1 North Carolina
- 1 Chino Hills, California (isn't that where Ryan on the OC is from? I didn't know they had computers there)
- 1 somewhere else in the USA
- 4 Canada (Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, 2 x Ontario)
- 2 unkown
- 1 UK
- 1 Japan

New Wong Kar-Wei

Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love, 2046, Ashes of Time (seriously, it's really good ) ... Wong Kar-Wei is awesome. Not sure whether to be excited or scared by reports of My Blueberry Nights. And note no Christopher Doyle!

See below from NYT

The Master of Time: Wong Kar-wai in America

By DENNIS LIM
Published: November 19, 2006
ON a SoHo film set last August, Jude Law and Norah Jones were getting intimate. Repeatedly intimate. To be precise, they had kissed upwards of 150 times in the past three days.

The occasion for this outbreak of passion was “My Blueberry Nights,” the first English-language film by Wong Kar-wai, the maverick Hong Kong director turned avatar of cosmopolitan cool. This particular night was stifling as the crew spilled out of Palacinka, a small cafe on Grand Street that was the principal New York location, preparing for yet another take of the scene
known as “the Kiss.”

It’s closing time, and Ms. Jones, the only remaining customer, is slumped on the counter, her eyes shut. A smudge of cream rests on her upper lip, the telltale sign of a dessert binge. Mr. Law, cleaning up behind the bar, gazes at her, slowly leans in and steals a lingering kiss. When he surfaces, the cream on her lip is gone.

The shot lasted less than a minute, but the number of permutations that Mr. Wong and his cinematographer, Darius Khondji, devised — 15 set-ups, by the count of the script supervisor — suggested it would play a central role in the finished film. The Kiss was being shot at different film speeds and from a multitude of angles: a wide shot, his point of view, hers, through windows, with objects in the foreground.

“I’ve never worked with someone who’s put so much emphasis on a single moment,” Mr. Law said between takes one night. “It’s extraordinary how he’ll take a moment and replay it and slice it up.”

The consecration of a fleeting, fugitive moment is one of Mr. Wong’s specialties. Perhaps more than any filmmaker since Alain Resnais, his great subject is time — or more specifically lost time. His rhapsodic movies, haunted by voice-over ruminations and swathed in lush regret, seem to transpire in the realm of memory. People and places are mourned even as they are captured on camera.

Mr. Wong, 48, is keen to describe “My Blueberry Nights,” a road movie shot in New York, Memphis, Las Vegas and Ely, Nev., with a cast that also includes Natalie Portman, Rachel Weisz and David Strathairn, as a new beginning. His last film, “2046,” was planned as science fiction but demonstrated the gravitational pull of the past as well, succumbing to the hothouse delirium of 1960s Hong Kong. A kaleidoscopic head rush, “2046” quoted so extensively from Mr. Wong’s earlier work that it felt like a midcareer retrospective unto itself.

To a notorious degree Mr. Wong finds his way as he goes, often plunging into production with little more than an outline. His exploratory method gives his films a unique shape and intensity; the result is inseparable from the process.

In the mid-1990s, with Hong Kong’s reversion to Chinese sovereignty looming, Mr. Wong directed three films — “Chungking Express,” “Fallen Angels” and “Happy Together” — in quick succession. Made as if on deadline, they have a brash Polaroid-like immediacy. The films that followed, “In the Mood for Love” and “2046,” are period reveries rooted in the melancholy of transience. It’s only fitting that he had a hard time letting go; each took a seeming eternity to complete. “In five years you can make five films, but I spent five years making one,” he said in his Manhattan hotel room soon after the shoot, referring to “2046.”

“My Blueberry Nights” — repeat kisses notwithstanding — is a conscious attempt to pick up the pace. For one thing, Mr. Wong shot it in just seven weeks. “We thought of this as a vacation film, spontaneous and contemporary,” he said. “Making a film under the best conditions, it’s like a rock band on tour,” he added, ever the rock-star director: his trademark sunglasses stayed on through the New York night shoots.

For another, Mr. Wong said that the project “happened overnight.” He was in New York last year researching another movie, “The Lady From Shanghai,” a period drama (no relation to the Orson Welles film noir) that would star Nicole Kidman and shoot in Russia, Shanghai and New York. When that was postponed, he decided to make a smaller, off-the-cuff film, which he conceived as a vehicle for Ms. Jones, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, who had never acted before.

“She’s a natural,” he said, adding that he had instructed her not to take acting lessons.
As he sees it, “My Blueberry Nights” is in a sense about Ms. Jones’s face as it reacts to different environments. “In Memphis there’s something very classic about her presence,” he said. “In New York it’s very contemporary.”

Ms. Jones seemed less confident than her director. “I have no idea what he saw in me or where he saw it,” she said on a coffee break one night. “When I got the call, I thought he wanted some music for his movies. It’s weird because I feel like I’ve looked uncomfortable in every music video I’ve been in.”

William Chang, who has been Mr. Wong’s editor, production designer and costume designer from the start, is with him on “My Blueberry Nights,” but for the first time in 15 years Christopher Doyle, the iconoclastic Australian cinematographer, is not. Together Mr. Wong and Mr. Doyle invented a much copied visual shorthand for romantic alienation, a mix of neon-smudged kinesis and slow-motion contemplation. But their relationship has been strained of late, with Mr. Doyle’s Hollywood workload and Mr. Wong’s erratic schedules becoming incompatible. In Mr. Doyle’s place is Mr. Khondji, the French cinematographer best known for the dank atmospherics of David Fincher’s “Seven.”

Just as striking as Mr. Doyle’s absence from the project is the presence of Hollywood actors. Over the years Mr. Wong has built up a repertory of Hong Kong luminaries who learned to thrive under his impulsive demands. “My Blueberry Nights” subjects its starry ensemble to an open-ended process that would be inconceivable on a studio movie. (The film was acquired for American distribution by the Weinstein Company earlier this month.)

Mr. Wong was also working for the first time with a screenwriting partner, the crime novelist Lawrence Block, who had written some scenes based on an outline. While shooting, Mr. Wong constantly revised and added new scenes, often at the last minute. He said he was surprised to find that the actors were not only ready for the challenge — his reputation preceded him — but even excited.

“I wish we had endless time and endless money,” Mr. Law said. “It’s not often you get to be part of something like this — a living story that’s still being decided.”

There is a pragmatic side to Mr. Wong’s seemingly reckless method. Entire subplots are planned, cast and even shot, only to evaporate. But he recycles ideas as often as he abandons them. A stray segment from “Chungking Express” became “Fallen Angels,” while “2046” bloomed from a kernel first planted in “Days of Being Wild,” his 1991 breakthrough film.
Similarly “My Blueberry Nights” grew out of a planned omnibus called “Three Stories About Food.” One chapter became “In the Mood for Love” (2000). Another, the basis for “Blueberry,” was filmed as a short with Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, and has only been screened once, at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

That short, called “In the Mood for Love 2001,” contained the blueprint for the Kiss. As Mr. Wong expanded the scenario, it turned into a road movie partly because it would cost too much to shoot entirely in New York. So he contrived a romantic predicament to send Ms. Jones’s character on a trip. “She needs time to think so she takes the longest road across America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,” he said.

The next step was to map her route and find at least two pit stops. Crew members went on three cross-country location scouting trips, accompanied twice by Mr. Khondji and once by Mr. Wong. Both took copious photos of highways, diners, motels: slices of Americana in the style of Robert Frank and William Eggleston.

Mr. Wong considered post-Katrina New Orleans, but the logistics were daunting. He opted instead for Memphis, where Ms. Jones would encounter Mr. Strathairn and Ms. Weisz’s unhappy couple. (Mr. Wong called the Memphis segment a tribute to Tennessee Williams.) He discovered Ely while driving along Highway 50, often called the loneliest road in America, and decided to place Ms. Portman’s story line there.

Mr. Wong asks for complete trust from his actors, but he’s also willing to customize their roles to suit them. This was especially so with Mr. Law’s character, the cafe proprietor, who started out as a quiet type but grew more boisterous when the actor’s charisma and energy became evident. “I kept telling him to get louder,” Mr. Wong said.

More than a month into the shoot, despite the breakneck pace and permanent uncertainty, the atmosphere on set was relatively serene. “There’s an incredible calmness to him,” Mr. Law said of Mr. Wong.

Even so, there are some basic aspects of production in this country that run counter to his prized spontaneity. Permit applications must be filed well in advance. Union regulations stipulate penalties for long days, precluding the marathon sessions that he has been known to hold.

In Hong Kong “we make films like a family business,” he said. “Here everything has to be quite specific. I have to explain to the crew that even though I respect the rules, there’s certain things I want to keep my way.”
As Ms. Jones put it, “He’s open to everything, but he knows what he wants.”

BETWEEN takes of the Kiss, Mr. Chang, the production designer, was fussing over Ms. Jones. He rearranged her hair, fanning her curls out on the countertop, and reapplied the spot of cream on her lip. Compared with the exertions of “2046,” which called for period re-creations, futuristic sets and a heaving wardrobe of traditional and android couture, this was a breeze.
“I really needed a break from period,” Mr. Chang said, smiling.

The cafe location had only been minimally altered. There were hand-painted inscriptions on the glass windows and a new sign outside with Cyrillic lettering. Mr. Chang had also installed a pair of columns to break up the tiny space and mounted mirrors to maximize the angles.

That night Mr. Khondji was working out a complex shot that required him to pan, track and shoot the Kiss through a vase, a cake dish and some beer bottles on the countertop.

After a few takes Mr. Wong asked if the shot would work better if Mr. Law, before swooping in for the smooch, extended his hand to touch Ms. Jones’s face. Or, as he put it, “Foreplay or no foreplay?” A vote was taken among those present; the former prevailed. Mr. Law incorporated the maneuver into the remaining takes.

Later Mr. Wong jokingly explained: “I had to ask because in America, sometimes they prefer things macho. I wasn’t sure if it should be too tender. In Hong Kong I don’t have to ask. I know what a guy would do.”

Most nights the mood music was “The Greatest,” the latest album of dreamy downer ballads by Cat Power. For Mr. Wong the on-set soundtrack was mostly for the benefit of the cinematographer. “The best way for the camera to pick up the rhythm is music,” he said.
Mr. Khondji said that he and Mr. Wong had intended to adopt a casually alert, near-documentary style, using a small crew and natural light. But once they got under way, perhaps through force of habit, the shots became more stylized. Still, Mr. Khondji added: “It’s not as perfect as his last two movies. There’s no time for perfection.”

Mr. Wong left for Hong Kong in September with almost all of “Blueberry,” his ninth feature, under his belt and — it would not be a Wong Kar-wai film otherwise — questions surrounding the ending. He said he would likely return in the winter to shoot the concluding scenes.
Reached by e-mail recently, he said he was editing with Mr. Chang and would not make any decisions about additional shooting until he had a first cut. The plan had been to balance the completion of “Blueberry” with preproduction on “The Lady From Shanghai,” but Ms. Kidman announced last month that she was pulling out of that film. “None of those reports have been confirmed by anyone involved with the project,” Mr. Wong wrote. Without Ms. Kidman, though, he added, “There is no reason to do it.”

Over tea shortly before he left New York, Mr. Wong said he was exhausted from the grueling shoot. But far from being fazed by the sense of incompletion, he seemed invigorated: the door remained open, no alternatives had been lost, the story was still alive.

And how might “My Blueberry Nights” end? “I think there will be a second kiss,” he said. “But I don’t know where.”

Borat legal dramas

First point - the current media about lawsuits resulting from the Borat film is (very) good publicity.

Second point - the people who thought it was ok to say and do racist / offensive / etc things as long as it was not shown in America are not overly sympathetic litigants.

Third point - see the release (posted at TMZ) - looks fine to me. Written in legalese but nothing worse than you'd expect. And the covering letter does refer to unrestricted rights to use image and voice .....

The only difficulty the producers may have is that a number of 'participants' allege they were told that the film would be shown only on Khazaki TV. Presumably they'll be settled at some point and the issue will recede into the distance.

I still miss Suck. Even after all these years.

the law will change. eventually.

Fascinating post by BB today about Helen Coonan's Andrew Olle lecture and then seguing into a discussion of the legal, technical and practical implications of blogs etc for major media ...

My [edited] comment on his post:

the law of defamation (and a number of other areas of law such as copyright) are very poorly adapted to the electronic world, particularly with the explosive growth of 'citizen-originated' communications published by major media. The law always develops to meet reality - it just takes a while. For the moment, there are real issues for major media playing in the new world. But IMHO the risks to them of not participating are far greater than the risks of participating.

Where I was going at the end of my comment was that to a company like News Corp which has a lot to lose (eg. reputation, money) if it 'publishes' defamatory / criminal / etc material - one option which they must have considered is just to 'opt out' - to not allow unverified / unedited / unread material to be put up on sites they own / endorse. But News Corp, to stick with the example, took an opposite tack by buying MySpace (which has massive quantities of material which would not make it past the corporate censors if they had to approve it before it went up) - and on a local level, News Limited newspapers have been linking to outside blogs on current stories (via gnoos) and are currently trialling new-gen local portals (one in Q'land, the name of which escapes me, and one in Victoria with my friends at Feedcorp - the people behind gnoos). On a cost-benefit analysis... who knows! The business model is unproven, the legal risk is high.

But the risk of not doing anything is higher. The law will catch up. eventually. In the meantime, publishers have to bite the bullet, take the bull by the horns, do lots of other cliched things and wear the risk that they will cop some flak for publishing something inappropriate. The other option leads towards the mid-term graveyard. A newspaper or broadcaster without a viable online strategy is doomed (and yes Fairfax I'm talking to you).

party photos

emails (finally) back up.

new photos up at my flickr account

Denial of service

Our email server is down for the third business day in a row; apparently we're in the midst of a DoS attack. Nothing insightful to say about it, except that it is incredibly frustrating and a reminder of how massively reliant modern life is on email.

a poor choice of dinner conversation

While I generally keep my blog away from political topics, I need to put on the record how happy I am about the US election results. To my mind, insofar as the results can be interpreted to mean anything, this election represent a desire by the American people to move in a new direction and to reject an approach to Government which dismisses all opposition as irrelevant, evil or wrong... For the remainder of his Presidency, Bush will be forced to take opposing views into account in big decisions - his only alternative is to sit on the sidelines and let the country do nothing for 2 years....

Thankyou

Thankyou to all for the good wishes which have flowed this week... they are much appreciated!
Still excited!!

Queenstown to Milford

Flying to Milford
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

We flew to Milford Sound on a 7-seater single-engine Cessna 207. An awesome experience. We got up to around 6,500 feet and, a fair bit of the time, were not all that far above the mountains. Flights had been cancelled the previous 2 days due to bad weather, so we were very lucky to be flying.

I got some pretty good photos and had an absolutely fantastic time (a better time than M, who was a little airsick). The scenery was spectacular. A very beautiful part of the world.

M & T

M & T, boat at Milford Sound
Originally uploaded by samizdat7.

As most of my readers will already know, M and I became engaged this Monday in Milford Sound in New Zealand. Am very excited.

(many) more photos can be found at my flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/samizdat7/

NZ news

Have taken M away for a surprise 4-day-long-weekend in New Zealand. 

 

Yesterday flew from Melbourne to Dunedin, then drove to Queenstown.  A long day (left home 7:30am, arrived 8pm local time - 6pm melb time) but worth it.  We are staying at The Dairy , an awesome boutique hotel in Queenstown.  Incredible view from our room and balcony over The Remarkables - a range of snow-capped mountains.  

 

Last night had dinner at The Cow - a pizza joint in a 140 year old milking shed full of atmosphere and good pizza. 

 

Today we drove to The Remarkables, including a 13.5km each way drive along a VERY steep and VERY rough gravel road and hiked up the mountains for a while.  Hiking in snow after being in Melbourne just yesterday was a little surreal (and also given that it is about 20 degrees celcius in queenstown toay).  Very beautiful, very cold and windy, very slippery on the ice and snow.  Amazing experience.  Crossing my fingers some great photos.  Then some more hiking, including a great 1 1/2 hour walk up and down Queenstown hill along a very pretty path, again with great views.   Finally, jetboating through canyons.  In theory it's terrifying but in practice i was exhilarated rather than scared.  The operators were clearly pros and i didn't feel in any danger.  A lot of fun, though, as you are hurtled around the water in tight canyons in a boat 5m x 2m with 2 V6 engines pumping out a total of 520hp.  Got very wet.  Then afternoon tea included at the hotel and a nap.  A pretty good day so far.  More to come.

Further thoughts on ie7: it sucks

I posted my initial thoughts on ie7 a few weeks ago. I've been using it as my primary browser for the past week or so, so am now in a position to give a slightly more informed opinion.

Basically, I heavily over-rated it last time around due to my excitement at the (eventual) introduction of tabbed browsing. Having used it some more the main problems I see with ie7 are:
- it's slow
- tabbed browsing is not well-integrated into browser functionality (eg. right-clicking on a link does not give an option for the link to open in a new tab)
- the toolbar is awkward to use

Basically, it's just not as good as Firefox 1 and I couldn't wait to get back to Firefox.