Posted on by mwhybark

SIFF '04 RIP

I pointed this out a few times early in the festival run, but I want to prompt Seattle-area readers or ex-locals to stroll through the amusing doings the various Tableteers got up to over at the Siffblog.

I still need to fix an IE display bug which centers everything, but on the whole I think the experiment worked out well. I think it would be interesting to see Tablet implement something like this as a regular part of their main site design.

A very interesting aspect of getting the blog, um, rolling for them was the relative lack of internet-oriented thinking my friends there have. I asked if they knew what the base traffic of the main site was. This proved to be data that had not ever been sought previously. While I think most of the folks on the Siffblog had a vague idea what a blog was, I don’t believe that they had ever committed their own time to either reading or writing one on a regular basis.

As it happens, yesterday was the one-month anniversary of the blog, and I’m pleased with how it worked out. Never a high traffic site, it still enabled direct, personal writing about the experience of the festival per se.

A few other folks were blogging SIFF as well. Since SIFF draws a dedicated core of pass-holders who can be quite competitive about numbers of films seen, I think next year it would be a really great idea to set up a collaborative blog for passholders as well, possibly scraping film listings from the main SIFF site and allowing the pass holders to riff on that material.

Spatula vs. SIFF runs through June 9, and is (oddly) an audio blog. Being constitutionally averse to multimedia, the content will remain obscure to me for the nonce. But don’t let me stop you!

Artdish did some blog-form previewing, but steers clear of lengthy personal reactions, alas.

Eric at Of Charm and Strange wrote up Sky Blue, Buddy, Open Water, The Five Obstructions, Doppelganger, Touch of Pink, Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space, and Torremolinos ’73. He may have reviewd more, but it’s time for me to move on.

MoviePie has a nice listing, with about 64 films reviewed – just eyeballing, I’d say that they rate films more or less as I did, although I have quibbles with a perfect score for Hero, which I predictably view as imperialist running dog propaganda, if beautiful (that’s a mild joke there folks, and yes I do hope to write about it).

Cinecultist weighed in every now and then with dispatches from one Seattle Maggie, and last but not least, Mena and Me, at a not-long-for this-world radio.weblogs.com URL, took the time to drop some lines on SIFF as well.

In other news, I just shipped a review of SIFF Golden Space Needle Best Film winner Facing Windows – look for it in this Wednesday’s Stranger. More than that I dassen’t say. I did take the opportunity to interview director Ferzan Ozpetek when he was in town. It was my first-ever interview with a non-native English speaker. It included the services of a translator. I think it went well enough, but of course, I can imagine how to improve the experience next time. I don’t have an assignment to use the material yet and thus will keep mum about what we discussed.

Posted on by mwhybark

MeFiPNW Listings

Attendees

  1. Jerry Kindall (kindall) of jerrykindall.com.
  2. Christine, who was there with
  3. Christian Beaudroux (christian) of Infliction.org.
  4. Vincent (vito90) of juxtapositions.
  5. Noah Malmstadt (mr_roboto) who lists no site on MeFi but was googled at ideotrope.
  6. Roman (Stoatfarm), who provides no personal site info on MeFi and lacked business cards.
  7. Tom Harpel (tomharpel) of Tandoku.com.
  8. Mike Whybark (mwhybark – me) of mike.whybark.com.
  9. Caitlin Burke (caitlinb) of Marmoset Media.
  10. and a non-MeFite, Jim Flanagan (jimfl) of Everything Burns.

No Shows

  1. mathowie, pleading family obligations.
  2. jessamyn, of whom a discussion was held in which apologies were made for the lack of cardboard standees representing her.
  3. Mars Saxman
  4. black8
  5. Dan Engler (Danelope ) of foreword.com, due to ill humour.
  6. filmgoerjuan, who did show in the IRC.
  7. Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing, who was in Seattle in Wednesday and Thursday and consequently was included as a speculative no-show in discussions at the table.

Gadgets

  1. Photographic cell phones, two.
  2. Canon Rebel, one.
  3. Optio cameras, two.
  4. Twelve-inch Powerbook, one.
  5. Fourteen-inch iBook, one.
  6. Wifi-equipped PDA, one.

Objects

  1. Ace of Aces books, one set.
  2. Plush microbes, three.
    • the flu
    • the common cold
    • heliobacter pylori (ulcer).

    Courtesy caitlinb, and I am happy to report that Ulcer now has a happy home in my desknest. TYVM, Caitlin!

  3. Laptop bags, about four.
  4. Anti-globalization propaganda tee shirts, one.
  5. Full beards, one.
  6. Pairs of glasses, four.

Events and miscellany

  1. Beer-pitcher-pounding excited anti-torture rants in which an article from the Atlantic was cited, one.
  2. Long hair, male, none.
  3. Long hair, female, two.
  4. Interesting discussion of the sacrifice of Isaac, one.
  5. Known posts concerning these events, one (non-recursively counted).
  6. Catch phrases, one.
  7. Live IRC at the table, one.
  8. Participants in IRC live at the table, several.
  9. Discovery that the Elysian is covered by a free wireless access point, one.
  10. Threats to engage in juggling, one.
  11. Laughing and jovial attendees, several.
  12. Pronounciation of “Danelope” as “Dan-ell-oh-pee,” several.
  13. Discussions of stoats and voles accompanied by dismissive mention of naked mole rats, one.
  14. Distribution of several non-corporate business cards, one.
  15. Analyses of the reasons people invest a great deal of time into their online personas, at least two.
  16. Personal beers consumed, four.
  17. Cigarettes smoked at the table, none.
  18. Anticipatory discussions of Farhenheit 9/11, one.
  19. 30-to-90 day uptime claims made for a Windows XP box, one.
  20. Detailed discussions of a distributed information service database architecture, one.
  21. Good time had by, all.
Posted on by mwhybark

Well-put

jimfl, at Everything Burns, sez:

The Democrats are running a very nice Republican for president this year, and I hope you consider this alternative.

Which is a much nicer, wittier way of putting things than I was able to the other day. OTOH, characterizing Senator Kerry as a Republican with regard to his career record is possibly off the mark. But the underlying point – it’s hard to distinguish policy differences between most professional US politicos, and it’s disheartening – is valid.

Posted on by mwhybark

Eh?

I had every intention of exploring issues in computer-human interaction that relate to the idea of an aging user this evening.

But I find that my 2.something hours of user education with my folks has wrung the little grey cells right out of me.

I am comforted that bilingual oldsters apparently do better, in the long run (MeFi). ¡Que bueno!

Posted on by mwhybark

overwhelmed

Right.

So I actually started this entry about 24 hours ago, but miscellaneous things have interfered.

Thing one: The Day After Tomorrow, on which more presently.

Thing two: Chris and Sabrina – Chris has been visiting the lovely ms. poupou, and I have been doing my part to encourage Mr. Dent to take up his proverbial toothbrush and towel. I had brekkus witth ’em this morning and when last seen they were projected to become visitors to the new downtown building of the Seattle Public Library.

Thing three: my mom and dad just bought their first Mac, and I spent some portion of the afternoon helping with user education stuff.

Thing four: unsurprisingly, Matt Uhlman has been experiencing the same variety of ranterrific red-eye rage that plagued me last week. Thanks, Ronnie! Hope that’s over with for now! Coffin killer – qu’est que c’est?

Thing five: Ken is supporting himself via the magic of poker, but refuses to identify himself as a “professional gambler” when attempting (or avoiding the attempt, really) to pick up chicks.

Thing six: John Kerry’s extreme lack of clue. See the next entry.

Posted on by mwhybark

But now I see

Ray Charles’ career ignited only blocks from my home, on Jackson Street, I learn. Charles is the first singer who I recall making me aware of the value of phrasing.

“. . . in Seattle, at that point, all of a sudden I had to become a man.” —Ray Charles

The EMP has a link with (Windows Media, yuk) audio of Charles on his time here.

Sorry to hear him go.