Mike Masnick tireless advocate for internet freedom fighting against censorship
Mike Masnick founder of TechDirt
TechDirt is one of a kind – editor Mike Masnick works tirelessly writing stories every day to promote freedom of speech and freedom on the internet.
Mike has written articles denouncing censorship, state control around the world including the US Congress attempt through SOPA to shut down the internet as we know it. Continue reading →
Gripping movie uses metaphor of deafness and isolation
Reina Makino as Chieko in Babel rave scene (photo Paramount Pictures)
I was watching the DVD of Babel (2006) over the weekend. In the Tokyo rave scene with a group of deaf teenagers, the sound goes dead for Chieko.
Suddenly the viewer is immersed in the world of the deaf. The effect is quite startling. You can instantly feel Chieko’s isolation from the crowded and noisy rave.
Chieko’s disability is a compelling part of the story, the emptiness of communication. It forms an ironic counterpoint to the miscommunication or babel of the non-deaf characters.
The world’s most famous crooner played in jazz bands and movies about jazz
Bing Crosby on drums (Photo: Rex Hardy Jr./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Jan 01, 1937)
Everyone knows Bing Crosby (b. 1903 Tacoma, WA d. 1977 Spain) for his smooth voice singing White Christmas or comedy “Road” movies with Bob Hope.
Less well known is Bing Crosby started his career as a jazz drummer and singer.
In 1925 Bing Crosby dropped out of law school to tour as a singer and jazz drummer in a duo with pianist Al Rinkler. In 1927 while the two were touring the vaudeville circuit, they joined the Paul Whitman jazz orchestra.
Bing left Whitman soon when his star and personality clashed with the controlling Whitman.
In the popular movie High Society, Bing played a jazz singer backed by his friends such as jazz trumpet player and singer Louis “Satchmo”Armstrong.
The 1956 film was centered around a love mismatch with Bing and Grace Kelly in the setting of the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport Rhode Island.
While critics panned High Society as a weak remake of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story, movie goers loved the music and light story about socialite Kelly and her ex-husband jazz singer Bing Crosby. I love the film for the music and fun performances from people like Frank Sinatra, playing himself like he did in Guys and Dolls.
High Society also has a musical and witty score by American composer Cole Porter with memorable songs like True Love sing by Bing and You’re Sensational by Frank Sinatra.
Trivia – it was Grace Kelly’s last film before marrying Prince Ranier of Monaco
The video clip is from the 1940 film Rhythm on the River, which featured Bing Crosby playing drums, the only clip I could find with Bing on the drums.
To get the free digital download of Fox Crazy Heart, you are supposed to read 2,900 words of legalese
Fox "bonus" movie download requires lawyer and DRM (illustration Fox Media)
The Digital Copy “bonus” DVD inside Crazy Heart requires reading and accepting a 2,925 page legal agreement that seems hefty for just watching a movie.
The intent is to allow consumers to buy a Blu-Ray DVD and watch the movie on their computer, iPhone or other portable device and Blu-Ray player. All good intentions.
Crazy Heart is a second rate re-make of Tender Mercies, a touching and believable movie with Robert Duval in the lead.If you haven’t seen Tender Mercies, rent it or buy it. I cry every time I see it.
Duval is a co-producer of Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges playing himself as a country singer “Dude” down on his luck from alcoholism.
It’s an OK movie. Jeff is the dude. The country music, mostly by T Bone Burnett of the excellent Oh Brother Where Art Thou, sounds authentic and is forever forgettable. Continue reading →
Tron Legacy adds 3D effects to the Tron 1982 but fails to live up to the legacy with bits new, old and borrowed
Tron Legacy (picture Disney)
I was excited to see Tron Legacy in 3D but disappointed by the movie at several points.
The cycle games/races and dog fight near the end were exciting on the one hand.
However, there were also long periods of boring and inaudible, philosophical commentary.
I still might go back and watch it again.
Tron (1982)
The original Tron in 1982 was innovative in the animation of characters in glowing neon suits and the metaphor of life as a computer bit. Tron’s appeal was mainly computer geeks (those few of us around back then) and fans adventure movies.
Tron was full of David-and-Goliath references as the hero gets dematerialized and re-materialized inside a computer. Is he a bit, a byte, a program? No he’s a “User.” Continue reading →
The best time to convert your digital audio workstation software is when you are on a tight time line, right?
Sonar X1 two days of crash on the tracks but now it's great
Tuesday night I was pretty flushed with getting the guys tracks down for our release of Blue Christmas so I did the unthinkable – upgraded Sonar 8.5.3 DAW software to the new Sonar X1.
If anything could sabotage the project, new recording software is about best way to go about it. From my point of view, what could be worse than the trouble I went through trying to get a backing track last week?
What could be worse was two days of misery trying to get the new software working. But I did it and that suffering is behind me. Sonar X1 is a champ.
Unstable DAWs
Maybe it’s me or maybe it’s Sonar but it that always been a flaky tool. Recording audio is like supporting an inverted pyramid of sound drivers and audio files being processed through the bottle neck called a CPU – central processing unit. People using other programs will tell you their software is better than Sonar. I don’t believe it: the internet is full of support forums with cries of despair. Continue reading →