July 1st, 2008 by 
Allan
I’ve never actually disliked a movie from Pixar, but some of their work is better than the rest. One of the very best is their new movie Wall-E. In a future where the earth has become too polluted to live on, and mankind has left for space, one cleaning robot is accidentally left on. In its long years of solitude the unthinkable happens and it develops a personality.
Among the most marked features of the movie is how little dialog of any kind there is. It does feel a little unusual to go to a theatre and hear so few words spoken but it serves to highlight and accent all of the gestures and actions of the cleaning robot, Wall-E. Without dialog, there is a high reliance on the quirks of Wall-E’s personality to entertain. Happily, it is pulled off brilliantly. Just when you think it will become repetitive or boring there is another surprise in store. When Wall-E meets a probe sent to see if earth is inhabitable again things begin to get even more interesting.
The message of the movie is primarily one of stewardship of the resources entrusted to us. Since society is, if anything, moving in the other direction, we can all stand to hear this message again. The message is well conveyed, since the emphasis of the environmentalism is serving the human person and not Gaia worship. The prominence of the later often obscures the former with myself and like-minded folk so hearing the message in such a clear way is a real blessing.
Of the movies I’ve seen so far this year Wall-E is definitely the best and I highly recommend it.
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June 10th, 2008 by Allan
I got my MacBook Pro on March 17th 2007 and have been becoming more and more of an Apple fan since. Earlier this year I picked up a 16 GB iPod touch which I’ve been very satisfied with. Slightly before that I attended the Apple Store release of OS 10.5 Leopard which has proven to be another great product. I guess it’s only natural that I would take a cue from my brother and others and watch the live text stream of WWDC on MacRumors Live. WWDC is a huge Apple expo (with upward of 50,000 attendees, apparently) where Apple announces some of their new products and directions for the coming months.
Although the announcements Apple made didn’t really surprise anyone who had been following the rumors they were welcome nonetheless. A $199 8 GB iPhone is coming in the next month or so with support for the 3G network and built-in GPS (although apparently without the rumored video conferencing).
They also announced the next version of OS 10, 10.6, dubbed Snow Leopard. Rather than implementing all sorts of fun bells and whistles like they did in 10.5, Apple said they will be focusing on performance, stability, and quality this time around. This is especially exciting since those things have always been above par to begin with. They mentioned that one enhancement will be Safari 4 which will process JavaScript at up to about fifty percent faster than current browsers (which is great for Web 2.0 applications). Apple said that there are also new technologies for improving access to the multiple cores of the processor and also to the GPU. Quicktime X is was also announced, which is an all new version of Quicktime optimized for modern high-end video formats.
In short, there is a lot to look forward to and precious little money to pay for it.
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May 22nd, 2008 by Allan
It should be known from the outset that, while I have always enjoyed Indiana Jones, I have never been chronically attached to it as I have with, say, Star Wars. Maybe that is why I seemed able to enjoy it much more than some of the people with whom I went to the theater. I can’t say for sure that they idealized the earlier films in a way that made Kingdom of the Crystal Skull unable to live up, but in many ways it seems like they did.
Why? Because any and all criticisms of this movie could be applied with equal merit to the original trilogy. Is the central device of the plot in this movie more ridiculous than its predecessors? Maybe a bit, but when you’re dealing with the Arc of the Covenant or aliens it is simply a matter of degree. Lucas has commonly said that it was his desire to present to new audiences the joy he had in the serial films of years gone by. In that genre aliens and religious artifacts are equally at home, and it is for that reason that I am not bothered in the least by the premise of Crystal Skull. What’s more, it is executed without being campy to a much greater degree than say, Transformers.
The script is humorous and well written. Speaking of Transformers, Shia LaBeouf is much more tolerable, even likable in Crystal Skull than he was in Transformers, where he was a more or less hapless facilitator of the action we really wanted to see.
Ultimately what you get out of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is what has been aptly characterized by one reviewer as “an amusement park ride.” It is an adventure to be enjoyed and not a theorem to be scrutinized. Taken as one, plus a healthy dose of nostalgia, it will yield broad smiles and enjoyment.
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October 11th, 2007 by Allan
The title pretty much says it all. I’m fairly excited though. Finally the console wars of yesterday can be decided by you, playing as Mario against Sonic or vice-versa, slugging it out on your Wii. I was going to put off buying a Wii for longer but I can’t help myself anymore after this announcement. I think I’ll have to get one after my next paycheck.
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October 2nd, 2007 by Allan
The practice of fans subtitling unlicensed anime is undeniably the reason that the market for anime in the US is what it is today. Companies such as FUNimation and ADV that now enjoy such wide success here enjoy it because of fans that gave their time to subtitle shows they liked and distribute them. Until recently, because this had been a symbiotic relationship, Japanese companies and US distributors never bothered people doing fansubs. One recent and unfortunate exception is the halting of the RomeoxJuliet by Gonzo through the agency of FUNimation.
This is an example of biting the hand that feeds. Perhaps Japanese companies and US distributors now think that they can create hype and excitement on their own without fansubs. Perhaps they can, but it is unlikely that shows like Air would be being released now purely on their initiative. Even so, it shows either ignorance of or disrespect for how the anime market in the US came to be.
Money should not be a real issue. Fansubs do not take away money from official releases because they cease distribution when the show is licensed in the US. Fans that liked the show will then be compelled to buy the official release.
I will say this quite clearly. If a fansub group gets a cease and desist order I will not buy that anime in its official release. I simply won’t watch it. I suggest that anyone concerned about the future of fansubing do the same.
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July 8th, 2007 by Allan
Happily, the long-awaited Motu Proprio has finally been released. Many people expected broader permissions for the Tridentine mass but the decree surpassed most expectations, making the Tridentine mass co-normative for the Latin rite along with the Novus Ordo. It is completely up to individual priests as to which mass they celebrate, except for the Triduum when the Novus Ordo is still required. Not only that, all of the sacraments except Holy Orders can now be celebrated according to the older rubrics. Even the Tridentine breviary may now be prayed instead of the one which came out of Vatican II. My own parish, Christ the King in Ann Arbor, MI, plans to celebrate Tridentine masses on certain special occasions. My preference continues to be for the Novus Ordo but I am glad to see this made available to the Church.
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July 4th, 2007 by Allan
Last night I saw the new Transformers movie. I’m not going to say enough about it to spoil it but I will say that it rocked my world. It brought back my childhood with big budget special effects and licensed vehicles. I particularly enjoyed that they retained the voice actor of Optimus Prime from the cartoon. Perhaps the only disappointment was that Stan Bush (who created the song “You’ve Got the Touch” for the soundtrack for the 1986 movie) did not make his rumored appearance on the soundtrack.
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