I was totally expecting to find #3 on the list:
Monthly Archives: April 2015
About that Cross-Country Delphi Driverless car…
A few days ago (you can read the original post here) I wrote about how the Delphi company, which has driverless car software, had initiated a cross-country trip from San Francisco to New York, effectively duplicating Horatio Nelson Jackson’s famous 1903 cross country trip that was the first made in a car.
It barely made the news then, and out of curiosity I did a search to see if the car made it to its destination. It did. Three days ago:
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/driverless-car-completes-cross-country-trip-9-days-n334776
It amazes me that this story didn’t receive much press (at least none in the venues I usually frequent!). Granted, the car supposedly made 99% of the trip using its driverless features, so it didn’t make the entire trip using only the Delphi software, but still: It crossed 99% of the entire United States, effectively, on “auto pilot”!
That’s pretty damn amazing! And, paradoxically, chilling.
Once again I can’t help but think what the future of car transport will be like.
On the one hand, using driverless cars will greatly reduce both traffic congestion and highway/road fatalities/accidents. As I noted before and given some of the smaller driverless cars such companies as Google are working on, there may come a time when people no longer even have to have a car. I envision a future where there is a small fleet of very economical to use driverless cars on the streets. You use an app on your phone to call one in, it takes you to your destination, and when you need to return home, you call one in to do that.
The other side of the coin is darker. How many jobs will be lost with the full arrival of the driverless car? Already there are several careers that will be endangered, from truck drivers to taxi/Uber drivers. What about public transportation drivers? School/Public bus drivers might become irrelevant as well.
Alas, technology moves ahead and there’s no turning back. After all, there was a time the Blacksmith had one of the most secure jobs in any town.
Not anymore.
Twin Peaks revival…without David Lynch!?
Before I get to the story, a brief statement: I’m a fan of director David Lynch and certainly appreciate his work and its influences (especially when it comes to Twin Peaks), but I’m not a fanatic of his works.
To me, his best all around film was Mulholland Drive (2001), and I believe part of the reason that film worked so well is because it felt as if Mr. Lynch took everything he knew and/or had worked on up to that moment and distilled the very best of it into that film (one very clever critic at the time of the film’s release stated that watching Mulholland Drive was the equivalent to buying one of those “Best of” albums from one of your favorite bands).
As for Twin Peaks, my memories of watching it when it originally aired are rather foggy. This much I recall: I didn’t watch the show religiously. Curiously enough, after seeing the show’s pilot episode I accurately guessed the central mystery (ie who had killed Laura Palmer, though I didn’t see the whole evil spirit stuff coming). Again, my memory is hazy about all things Twin Peaks (including the pilot), so for all I know it was very obvious who the killer was and my realization was nothing more than a “no shit, Sherlock” type deduction.
Having said all that, I was curious when I heard Mr. Lynch was coming back to Twin Peaks. Alas, it appears financial issues have forced Mr. Lynch out of the production:
http://io9.com/the-twin-peaks-revival-is-happening-without-david-lynch-1695866373
What a bummer! Apart from seeing all those original actors in their original roles, the main reason one wanted to see a Twin Peaks revival -even for a casual fan of the series such as I- was for the chance to see what new concepts/ideas Mr. Lynch would bring to what is arguably his best known work…and now it appears he won’t be involved in it.
At least for now.
Who knows, maybe the studios and Mr. Lynch will come to some kind of agreement. One would hope so.
Having Twin Peaks return without Mr. Lynch is like having a Beatles reunion…only without half the band.
Because you needed to know! (Part…uh…three?)
Here it is folks, by Anna Pulley for Salon.com:
The 8 Kinkiest Passages of The Bible
Hmmm…no need to wonder why the priests/nuns in the Catholic schools I attended early on never focused on these particular passages!
The thrill is gone…
So I’m sitting before the computer in a near daze. Being in the early stages of a cold can do that to you.
Last night, while completely out of energy and dealing with a throat that’s on fire, I tried to watch some of the TV shows I’ve been DVRing for the past few weeks (in some cases, months!). And I find there are 10 episodes of Justified waiting patiently to be watched. This represents the whole of the sixth season of the show aired to date minus the season’s very first episode.
Seeing this, I couldn’t help but be somewhat surprised. Used to be that I couldn’t wait to see the latest episode of Justified. Season Two of the series, which featured Mags Bennett, was a stunner. In retrospect, that may well have been the series’ high point and one could argue that, while still good, the show hasn’t reached those dizzying heights again.
This was certainly the case, in my humble opinion, with the show’s fifth season. That season featured a relatively weak menace in the form of Daryl Crowe Jr. When the season ended and it was announced the show’s sixth season would be its final one, I felt this was, well, justified (blame the pun on the cold!).
Mind you, I have a great deal of sympathy for those who toil behind the scenes on successful shows. The fact is its difficult to sustain a show for four years, much less six. Plot lines inevitably get repeated and the surprises that may have drawn you into the show in the first place become fewer and fewer. With Justified, there was always a sense of menace and absurdity presented in equal measures. Characters could -and did!- die violent, sometimes very unexpected deaths. After a while, though, you have a core of characters you almost have to maintain, fan favorites whose unexpected end might lead to audiences revolting against the show.
Ah, you say, but what about Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead? They’ve had some very big characters die and yet people still watch them, don’t they?
Both shows most certainly have turned heads with the deaths of “big” characters, but there are still certain characters who haven’t been offed and who remain “central” to the story. With the passage of time it appears clear they’re going to hang on for quite a while. If you think about it, I suspect you’ll know who they are.
Anyway, just offering some fevered musings. I’ll catch up to Justified. I’ve invested enough time in it so far that skipping out the final season would be silly. Yet I’d be lying if I were to say I’m not ready for the show to be over.
1408 (2007) a (very) belated review
Sometimes I miss a movie that, at best, I was only mildly interested in seeing when it originally came out. Often, I forget about this movie. Other times, my interest, though mild, remains. Though I don’t actively seek the film out, I will watch it if I get the chance.
Such was the case with 1408, a 2007 release starring John Cusack and based on a Stephen King short story. As I said, I had only a mild interest in the film and when it quickly came and went from the theaters I thought it probably wasn’t all that good. And yet it stuck with me, a little itch I had to scratch.
For the record, I like John Cusack and feel that even in some not very good movies he, nonetheless, is reliably good. And although I’m not a huge fan of the works of Stephen King, there have been some good movies made out of his stories.
So, the little itch remained.
A week or two ago the SyFy Network aired the film and I decided to record it. The movie languished in my DVR for a few weeks but yesterday I finally had a chance to see it.
Now, obviously I’m reacting to the “sanitized” TV version of the film, so therefore my opinions of what I saw should be taken with that particular grain of salt.
Nonetheless…what a disappointment.
John Cusack, for the most part, is the whole show here and he’s in good form. You sympathize with his character and root for him. This is a good thing as his character, after a few early and late sequences in the movie, is the whole show. A less sympathetic actor in this role might well have turned audiences off completely.
The story goes like this: John Cusack is author Mike Enslin, another of those Stephen King proxies. He investigates supposedly “haunted” Hotels and has carved a small niche publishing books related to his experiences at these Hotels. He’s also a cynic who doesn’t believe a thing about what he writes. To him there is no supernatural phenomena. Finally, as the film goes on it becomes clear he’s harboring some deep personal pain within.
The movie starts with his “investigation” of a Bed and Breakfast type place where the owners of the establishment are hopeful Enslin’s “investigation” will allow them to get some free publicity for their place. We then see him at a bookstore (remember those!?) signing copies of his book and answering questions from the few people who have come to see him.
Later, he returns home and finds an intriguing postcard regarding a New York hotel named The Dolphin. The postcard tells him about a room within the hotel, #1408 (natch), and he heads to the library to check up on it. He finds there have been several mysterious deaths in the room and decides that is the next place he wants to investigate.
He heads to New York and avoids his estranged wife (more hints at the pain he’s harboring within) and gets to the Hotel. Once there, he meets up with the Hotel’s manager, Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson in what amounts to a cameo role). Olin tries to convince Enslin not to go to the room but the author will not be denied.
Finally, he reaches the room and soon all hell breaks loose.
While one can certainly admire the sheer amount of work produced by Stephen King, it’s fair to say that its a dual edged sword. On the one hand, there’s more for fans of his works to enjoy. On the other hand, there are bound to be times when, consciously or not, Mr. King repeats certain themes. In the case of 1408, the long shadow cast by The Shining winds up darkening this particular work.
The protagonist? Like in The Shining, an troubled author with family issues.
The setting? Like in The Shining, a Hotel (though to be fair, most of the “action” in 1408 occurs in a single room).
The conflict? Supernatural elements in this Hotel room, not unlike the haunted presence in The Shining.
Thus as the movie progressed I couldn’t help but compare 1408 with the far superior Stanley Kubrick film version of The Shining. Despite this, the film was reasonably engaging early on.
Unfortunately, after the first series of phantom menaces, the film reaches its high water mark and never moves higher. Worse, as we near the conclusion we’re given a series of “climaxes” that are at best not very satisfying and at worse suggest the movie’s makers were straining to come up with a good end (my understanding is that the home video release features at least one more alternate unused ending!).
So, despite a good performance by John Cusack, 1408 winds up being a mess of a movie, especially in the second half. The film’s greatest sin is that its resolution undermines whatever good will it establishes beyond its similarities to The Shining.
Oh well, you can’t win them all.