Author: greg

That Elephant in the room just won the Palme d’Or

Gus Van Sant, protege and DP accepting the Palme d'Or, image:festival-cannes.fr

Swearing may be better in French, but teen shooting? That’s best en anglais, mon ami. Gus Van Sant just won the Palme d’Or and Best Director awards at Cannes for his latest film, Elephant, which is Columbine-esque, but actually based on the late Alan Clarke‘s last film, a 1989 short about killings in Northern Ireland.
Check out a review from Elvis Mitchell, wild, anti-american reports from those lushes at the Guardian, and an interesting theory of Cannes’ gunloving esprit at the GreenCine weblog.

If you Google me do I not bleed?

So Friday, when I responded to a friend I haven’t seen for a while, a friend who, after guessing incorrectly on my email/domain format, spammed every possible combination of greg@, gregallen@, greg.org, greg.com, gregallen.com, gregallen.org, etc., I somewhat haughtily included a this URL in my coordinates: http://www.google.com/search?q=greg. Somewhat haughtily and somewhat hastily.
When I sent the email, I was at #5, but yesterday, when I showed off to a good friend, Haniel Lynn, I’d dropped below 20. (I’m back at #6 now, so I don’t know what’s going on.) What we do know: I’m superficial (i.e., I cared enough about a one-name Google ranking to show-and-tell people), and relying on Google for any sense of your own self-worth is dubious at best.
[update: Read Jeremy’s discussion of how other first-name-search-obsessed people fared in Google’s recent PageRank machinations. Misery loves company. (Thanks, Tyler.]
That’s when Haniel showed me his own Google-induced folly. Somehow, the Wharton Usenet servers attached his name to someone else’s lameass 1995 review of the 90’s Manchester band, Stone Roses. (Haniel Lynn’s graduate class of 95; the reviewer is an undergrad, class of ’96.) Whenever he’d show up at a new client’s office, or interview someone for a job, they’d try to work Stone Roses into the conversation. Or if they didn’t, they’d quiz his colleagues after he left, impressed but confused at how an X’ed up groupie could find his way to McKinsey. All they really did, though, was blow the cover on their Googling.
My advice to Haniel: be on more panels, get quoted in articles more, and (obviously) get a weblog.

A newer, easier Bloghdad.com

“Winning the war’s easy, it’s winning the peace that’s hard.” Even in this season of sequels, the media seems uninterested in the Iraq followup story, even when it was so heavily foreshadowed in the first script. Eh. Nothing to see here, folks, keep moving.
In a service to fans of the original GWII, though, and in hopes of keeping interest alive until the sequel, I have consolidated all the Bloghdad.com posts into one spot–what do you call it, a sublog? Makes for easy readin’. Now how about them tax cuts?

Lessons from Pearl Harbor; Designing the Pentagon Memorial

USS Arizona Memorial, image: nps.gov

In today’s NYTimes, Sam Roberts looks for Lessons for the World Trade Center Memorial” in the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. I don’t know what he finds, though. Opened on Memorial Day, 1962, four years after Eisenhower authorized a memorial at the site, and more than 20 years after the actual attack, the Arizona Memorial is more the product of inertia and circumstance than of design. The Arizona remained in place partly out of respect, but also because technology didn’t exist to raise her. Honolulu architect Alfred Preis’ design was selected from among 96 submissions in a public competition.
Over 6,000 people have registered for the WTC Memorial competition, Roberts reports.
And on the front page of the Washington Post, Timothy Dwyer profiles Julie Beckman and Keith Kaseman, the young NY architects who won last year’s Pentagon Memorial competition [see related posts and links here.]

Cremaster Roundup

The Cremaster Cycle is now playing in LA, Berkeley, SF, and Chicago. Wider exposure goes hand in hand with wider discussion, as these two very interesting links show:
Mario and Matthew, image: gamegirladvance.comWayne Bremser’s article, “Matthew Barney versus Donkey Kong”, for the video game magazine GameGirl Advance takes a look at video game character, mythological, spatial and narrative elements in Cremaster 3. That’s the one where Barney’s character scales the levels of the Guggenheim, passing various obstacles along the way. The hermetic logic of Mario’s quest stacks up well against the esoteric, Freemason-inspired obstacles the Entered Apprentice confronts in C3. Bremsen loses me a bit, though, in his critique of the current Guggenheim installation-as-interface.
I once compared Mario to Gerry, Gus Van Sant’s nearly dialogue-free desert movie, which is similar to C3 in another way: some people had a hard time staying until the end. Anyway, the idea that everything we need to know, we learned playing Super Mario holds great appeal for me.
For a very thoughtful, engaging, film-savvy discussion, check out Scott Foundas’ interview with Matthew Barney on Indiewire. While all the hype’s about finally being able to see the Cycle in “proper” (i.e., numerical) order, Foundas puts forward an interesting argument for watching them chronologically. The ambition and production values evolve, obviously, but you can also see shifts in the visual language Barney references, from sports broadcasting (C4, C1) to narrative film (C2, C3).
Once the films are done, the tendency is to see them as the objective; their form overpowering their function (at least for Barney). His discussion here of the films as object generators sounds more persuasive and interesting than in any other interview I’ve read. And this explanation of the limited edition laserdisc distribution model puts the horse back in front of the cart

Barney: Part of it had to do with figuring out a way to fund it. Looking to the thing we knew best, which was how to edition and distribute artwork, that’s what we did. We made an edition of 10 out of the [first] film, divided the budget by 10 and sold it for that. So, at least the film would break even and the work that was generated out of it could start to fund the following film.

Whaddya gotta do to get a fair trial in this country??

Hmm. In order to run them through military tribunals, the guys (and kids) at Guantanamo are finally getting defense lawyers, which means they may finally be charged with something. Sounds like progress. On Google News, the link reads, “Prosecutor says tribunals will be fair,” but when you click through, the actual Wash Post headline reads, “Both sides say tribunals will be fair trials.” Of course, you’d expect them both to say that, since they both report to the Pentagon’s general counsel’s office.
What I didn’t expect is the chief defense attorney, Col. (I swear) Will A. Gunn, saying, “I immediately recognized the glamour position was that of chief prosecutor, the opportunity to be America’s hero.”
And speaking of glamour in the courts (and glaring shortcomings in the justice system), over at The Morning News, glamblogger Choire Sicha does a play-by-play of his stint on jury duty. Alas, he didn’t get picked for a trial.
I realize now, too late, that if only I’d been reading W, not The Believer, my own jury duty report and reflection would’ve been much spicier. Not that it’da been much use for the fellas in Guantanamo, though.

The Book of Mormon meets The Week in Review

It’s Wednesday. I clearly wasn’t set on posting this, but then I read James Norton’s The X2 Guide to US Foreign Policy and figured, what the heck. All that purely Revelations-based analysis of the latest End of The World was leaving me unsatisfied.
Goodbye Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker! Hello Nephi and Mormon and Moroni!Not listening too closely to the sermon Sunday morning, I cracked open the ole Book of Mormon for a diverting read. (Just letting the Bible fall open’s far more unpredictable, what with those vast stretches of Old Testament, and that giant concordance and dictionary tacked on.)
[Background: Joseph Smith translated the BOM from golden plates unearthed by an angel in upstate New York. It’s the religious history of pre- and post-Christ-era believers in the western hemisphere. I’m sure there’s a more overtly persuasive description at Mormon.org.]
Anyway, the book fell open to Alma, ch. 51, smack in the middle of the long account of the wars between the Good (believing) tribe and the Evil (fallen) tribe (the Nephites and Lamanites, respectively, although < SPOILER ALERT > they switch places later on), a section I’d always imagined was there to encourage teenage boys to keep reading and make more enthusiastic missionaries.
It’s 67 BC, and there’s political turmoil afoot among the Nephites, which is filtered here through the all-knowing perspective of the AD 400 editor/abridger (Mormon) and the stiff 19th century prose of the translator (Smith). Still, it seemed annoyingly topical.

5 And it came to pass that those who were desirous that Pahoran should be dethroned from the judgment-seat were called king-men, for they were desirous that the law should be altered in a manner to overthrow the free government and to establish a king over the land.
6 And those who were desirous that Pahoran should remain chief judge over the land took upon them the name of freemen; and thus was the division among them, for the freemen had sworn or covenanted to maintain their rights and the privileges of their religion by a free government.
7 And it came to pass that this matter of their contention was settled by the voice of the people. And it came to pass that the voice of the people came in favor of the freemen, and Pahoran retained the judgment-seat, which caused much rejoicing among the brethren of Pahoran and also many of the people of liberty, who also put the king-men to silence, that they durst not oppose but were obliged to maintain the cause of freedom.
8 Now those who were in favor of kings were those of ahigh birth, and they sought to be kings; and they were supported by those who sought power and authority over the people.
9 But behold, this was a critical time for such contentions to be among the people of Nephi; for behold, Amalickiah had again stirred up the hearts of the people of the Lamanites against the people of the Nephites, and he was gathering together soldiers from all parts of his land, and arming them, and preparing for war with all diligence; for he had sworn to drink the blood of Moroni.

Paris like it’s never seen us

Tad Friend Segwayin' down the Champs Elysees, image:slate.com

Put this in the “seems so wrong, feels so right” category*. Tad Friend & some friends conquer Paris on some Segways. Sure, it’s a corporate boondoggle, but that just adds to the giddy, entertaining genius of American Empire.
I remember when a New York friend–who affected a bilingual answering machine message and pretended to forget words like “fork” (“Give me that, how you say, fourchette.”) after a measly three-week sejour, a three-week sejour–took the new, how you say, Roller Blades to Paris. She was not only an alien, she nearly killed herself ten times a day trying to skate over all the paving stones. Well, she should’ve waited. Segway sails over them and their crazy unpaved parks with American savoir faire, technologically superior, aloof, and head-and-shoulders above the shockin’ awed crowd.
* Nothing smacks the smugness right off your face like Googling for half-remembered “something so wrong/feels so right” lyrics. Let’s see, did I hear it from The Backstreet Boys, Bryan Adams, Taylor Daynes, Air Supply, or Tia Carrere in Wayne’s World? I’m now available for iTunes Music Store commercials.

ISO: Warner’s Little Brother (or Sister?)

In the the Observer’s “Satisfying Mr. Soderbergh”, Rebecca Traitser writes about Warner Brothers’ drawn out search for someone to head up their long-planned specialty film division. One of the key requirements of the job: make Steven Soderbergh happy by releasing his films properly.
One name that being bandied about was Elvis Mitchell, the aim-for-the-blurbing-bleachers NYTimes critic. But whoever the new studio head is, Traitser lays out a combination of director-sympathy and strategy-awareness that makes me think she’s gunning to succeed him.

The Guardian‘s Cannes-imatrix Freakout

1. Kudos to the Guardian for enlisting every film monkey who can type to produce their extensive Cannes coverage. (Granted, Brits::Cote d’Azur, fish::barrel, and it’s not exactly a hardship post, either.)
2. Or maybe it is. The Guardian crew seems to be suffering from serious alcohol-free delusion. The evidence is in the writing:

  • Trapped in the (presumably dry) media lounge, Matt Keating is forced to piece a story together using only quotes from his partying fellow journos.
  • The two main themes of Fiachra Gibbons’ Cannes diary are old stories of old British actors’ penchant for bluedarting (hint: there’s a Badass Buddy icon for it.) and complaints about being barred from the bar at the Matrix Reloaded party.
  • The result? A crazytalk-filled, sobriety-induced revenge piece, “Taliban Thinking”, where he draws a bizarrely Stryker/Wolfowitzian conclusion about Animatrix. “As with the Terminator, which uses the same thin philosophical veil of man versus machine, the message is simple. If the rebellious robots had been stamped out straight away, Zion would now be safe. [italics added]
  • Then, Gibbons’ colleague, Andrew Pulver, also slams Animatrix but for another, wrong-end-of-the-telescope reason. “Attempting to dress up the fictional man/machine conflicts with images from contemporary political protest (The Million Machine March and the like) was not a good idea. African-Americans, Chinese democracy activists, liberal demonstrators – the implication is that they will enslave us all. [Italics=kooky theory #2]”
    Am I high? Just check out Fiachra’s last report from France. Garcon, get these people a drink toute de suite.

    • Something about this iLoo thing still stinks

    iTunes, iPod, iMovie, iCal, iLife, I know what company all these brands come from. And I know what company immediately came to mind when I heard Microsoft was calling their “so stupid it must be a mistake, a hoax, or an Onion story” toilet an iLoo.
    What I don’t get is why, when Microsoft sidles up Apple’s brand, lets loose with this iLoo story, then walks away making a dumb face, trying to pretend they didn’t cut the cheese, no one calls them on it. Not even a “Dude!”
    It’s like Bush’s people planting a silent-but-deadly one about John Kerry, saying “He looks French.”

    Bloghdad.com/Contemplating_name_change_to_Bloggy_Arabia

    In a NY Times editorial, President Jimmy Carter warned that “the aftermath of a military invasion [of Iraq] will destabilize the region and prompt terrorists to further jeopardize our security at home.”
    But that was way back in March, ancient history. Just go ahead and ignore it…And anyway, he was so wrong, because it’s the terrorists who are destabilizing the region. The military invasion’s got its hands full destabilizing Iraq.

    From the Gawker Section of the NYTimes

    I have to admit, I was kinda bummin’ for a while. The week HBS’s most powerful alum decides he wants to fly in a fighter jet (n.b.: not the one he went AWOL from during Vietnam), my Wharton alumni magazine arrives in the mail with the cover story: “Wharton entrepreneurs capitalize on trends in the food industry” about a dude with a crepe stand.
    But then a boost to my alumni pride, via this exchange (in the article not about blogging):

    And then there was the tall, good-looking young blond woman holding a purse made out of a Mexican cigar box. She had on a sunburst-print minidress by Ms. [Benhaz] Sarafpour.
    I [fashion reporter Cathy Horyn] asked her if she worked for the designer. “I’m a student at Wharton,” she said. “At the University of Pennsylvania.”
    Adopting that tone of voice reserved for small children, I asked the woman what she wanted to be when she grew up.
    “Well, my dad’s in real estate, so I’m planning to go into that.”
    “And what’s your name?”
    “Ivanka Trump.”

    [Sidebar: Never mind that Ivanka’s been modeling for six years, since she was like 10, and that Horyn should’ve seen her in several shows, at least. I’m sure the NYT would never run a reporter’s so-good-you-can’t-bear-to-factcheck-it story.]