Monthly Archive for January, 2006

TV vs. iTunes, round 2 0 cmts

TV vs. iTunes, round 2: Matt Jacobs calculates his cable costs vs. the cost of buying all the shows on iTunes. His results are the opposite of I got in my study on the subject, soon to be revised and re-posted.

Elektra 0 cmts

Fiddling with my silly DVR tonight I accidentally stumbled upon this Marvel Comic-inspired film on HBO-HD. The visuals are beautiful, the cinematography captivating, and the main character, played by Jennifer Garner, is deep and interesting. And that’s about it. I can’t summarize the plot because, having seen the movie, I don’t understand it. The bad guys have annoying superpowers, everybody is a ninja, and standard action film cliches apply. Elektra’s childhood backstory, wonderfully flashbacked, never leads anywhere interesting.

In general the plot is straight-forward and easy to follow — girl with strange gifts (she can see glimpses of the immediate future), mother killed when she was young, young woman full of anger, finds work as a hired assassin, caring teacher and mentor, woman ends up on a path to redemption — except that there is cleary so much more (probably explained in the comics) that is only barely hinted at and then tossed aside, haphazardly, leaving the viewer with a sense that there is probably a lot of meat here, if only someone wanted to take the time to clue us in. Then Elektra decides to save her latest assasination targets (a father and young daughter) rather than killing them, and all kinds of weird superpowered villains appear, from nowhere in particular, to finish the job. Elektra fights, as you might expect. We never quite understand why.

Clearly this is no a movie I can recommend if one is looking for any depth. As a standard action film it is so-so. Which is sad, because the locations they filmed in were marvelously deep and interesting and beautiful and infused with personality, the visuals were captivating, some of the fight scenes were delightful (if one can ignore Elektra’s hideous red costume), Jennifer Garner’s portrayal of the main character was so full of promise, and even the score (by _Buffy_ composer Christophe Beck) was pleasant. Sadly, all of that counts for little when there isn’t a plot.

If you’re looking for something with which to enjoy your new HD setup, though, this fits the bill quite well.

Brilliance 0 cmts

Note a few entries back when I said I was fed up with TextDrive and going to stick AgBlog on a Berkman machine temporarily? Yeah, then that machine got hacked. Humph. Sorry about that. Welcome back.

Sun

Jan

2006

The undercover economist explains rude waiters 0 cmts

The Undercover Economist strikes again with an explanation of rude waiters at fancy restaurants. The explanation echoes his similar essay about Starbuck’s elusive “short” cappuchino. This is quickly becoming my favorite Slate column — sorry, Explainer!

Sat

Jan

2006

Why Lawyers Are Liars 0 cmts

Why Lawyers Are Liars — Michael Kinsley wonders when it became accepted belief that lawyers will never have their own opinions.

Thu

Jan

2006

Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It… 0 cmts

There have been several of these, but this isn’t a bad explanation of why geeks and nerds are worth dating. It’s even sorta funny!

Wed

Jan

2006

Another move 6 cmts

I’ve gotten sick of “TextDrive”:http://www.textdrive.com for several reasons, and it was annoying enough tonight that I said to hell with it and just moved AgBlog over to a Berkman server, and also upgrade WordPress while I was at it. It took all of an hour. I should have done it sooner.

I’m not sure how permanent this will be, but in the meantime the site is nice and fast and I can finally finish my theme. I’m also installing the plugin that will let people receive an email when new things are posted. Let me know if you see broken things.

Caitlin Flanagan looks at teenage sexuality 1 cmts

In what is ostensibly a review of the book _Rainbow Party_, Caitlin Flanagan hashes out an incredibly detailed and complicated look at teenage sexuality and how it has changed over time. She describes recent trends and media scares (I was unaware of how big of a deal oral sex has become among 13-year-old girls, and their parents) and traces a path of awakening and shifting cultural mores from Judy Blume’s original groundbreaking work in the 1960s right up to the culture and media of today. The pictures she paints — complicated, conflicted, tinged with self-doubt and uncertainty — is an upsetting one. But in many ways, as much as I don’t like to admit it, she is probably right.

Mon

Jan

2006