Archer - Season 1

Have just finished, and enjoyed, the brisk first season (10 episodes @ 20 minutes each) of animated spy-comedy series Archer. Fast-paced and witty, the show is kind of like 30 Rock in a spy agency. Will be checking out Season 2 soon.

merging pdf files on the command line

The following is handy when you need to merge several pdf files in Linux:

gs -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOUTPUTFILE=firstANDsecond.pdf -dBATCH first.pdf second.pdf

The inputs are first.pdf, second.pdf (there can be arbitrarily many of these); the output is firstANDsecond.pdf.

Kings of Pastry (2009)

This enjoyable documentary film (which I believe aired on SBS at some point) follows three chefs in their preparations for the competition to confer the status of Meilleur Ouvrier de France ("Best Craftsman in France"). It reminded me in parts of the hugely entertaining "The Kings Of Kong" -- there is the same fanatical dedication, and the same feeling of taking something way past a healthy stage (e.g. when you see a grown man in tears because his giant spun-sugar flower arrangement has come crashing down). Still, you can't help but admire the unadulterated pursuit of excellence in any field, and you genuinely feel sorry for those who don't make it at the end. But you feel more sorry for their wives, who will have to pick up the shattered pieces of their husband's egos, dreams... and sugar sculptures.

Volver (2006)

Quite enjoyed this, my first Pedro Almodovar film. Penelope Cruz is great in this. The only other spanish film I've seen her in is "Open Your Eyes" (better known as the "original" Vanilla Sky); it's nice to see her without the annoying accent and attendant foreigner novelty status that encumber her english-speaking roles.

Carl Sagan on science in America

A cogent, and typically eloquent, point from the great Carl Sagan in Chapter 2 of his "The Demon Haunted World" (written in the mid nineties, it has only become more relevant in the subsequent decade-and-a-half):

[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance. As I write, the number one video cassette rental in America is the movie Dumb and Dumber. Beavis and Butthead remains popular (and influential) with young TV viewers. The plain lesson is that study and learning - not just of science, but of anything - are avoidable, even undesirable.

The Further Adventures Of A Jaded iFan (2011)

This entertaining yarn continues the story of Fanboy, a reluctant but hopelessly addicted user of Apple's iPod range of music players. Followers of the series will recall how the previous episode ended with Fanboy rejoicing at his success in replacing the battery of his aging 1st generation iPod Nano and seemingly poised to enter a renewed and lasting era of music listening prosperity.

Alas, as good (and not so good) sequels tend to do (just think of Alien 3 -- from the "not so good" category), this one begins with the revelation that the idyllic scenario envisaged at the end of the previous installment has not worked out quite as expected. Five months on from the battery replacement, Fanboy is struggling with new and more serious iPod issues: the battery is no longer recharging properly and the screen is intermittently displaying strange "screen of death"-esque diagnostic messages. He is soon forced to confront the grim but inevitable truth: the time has come to stop farting around and just get a new mp3 player already.

And so begins Fanboy's epic quest to choose the optimal player for his needs. He is briefly tempted to consider the "dark side" of non-Apple products (the Sony USB-stick Walkman seems particularly appealing) but in the end he realises his destiny: for overall usability and compatibility with his existing Mac-centric home set-up, he must remain an iPod Fanboy.

In the film's climactic final scene, Fanboy is forced to choose between the new 16GB Nano, whose smaller size and built-in clip makes it suitable for uses previously restricted to the iPod Shuffle (e.g. running, gym). However, still shaken -- and possibly a little wiser -- from his battery problems with the previous Nano, he ultimately chooses the new Shuffle, figuring that the smaller outlay ($56 as opposed to $220) more than makes up for the reduced storage capacity (2GB) and lack of (battery-sapping) LCD touchscreen.

Bottom Line: the new Shuffle is a nice upgrade to the range and a great little mp3 player. The new "voiceover" function allows you to check the name of the current song playing and, crucially, to switch between multiple playlists. My only major criticism is that it is now too small for its own good: the clip is rather awkward to open without inadvertently pressing the buttons. It's a detail, but an annoying one when you consider that the previous version worked perfectly -- why fix something that wasn't broken? But overall, the world is safe and Fanboy is content -- for now....

Darling Harbour Jazz & Blues Festival (June 10-13, 2011)

Thanks to a sustained period of rainy, windy and all-round rubbish weather over most of the weekend (and continuing through the following week as of this writing), this open air event was something of a washout.

I did make it to James Morrison's festival opener at Harbourside (on a floating stage in front of the shopping centre) on Friday night, which featured saxophonist Dale Barlow and guitarist James Muller. Some nice playing, particularly from Barlow and Muller. Morrison was quite entertaining with his easy-going patter between songs -- he's clearly very at home on stage -- and it was impressive to see him playing a range of instruments (trumpet, obviously, but also keyboards, trombone, and even a miniature saxophone). Musically, the highlight was a brisk rendition of bebop standard "Scrapple from the Apple".

I also made a point of checking out The Ron Carter Trio, who played in Tumbalong Park on Saturday evening. Featuring Mulgrew Miller on piano and Russell Malone on guitar, this is a genuinely world class act and their polished performance certainly reflected that. Unfortunately, this style of jazz would have been better suited to a cosy indoor venue rather than outdoors on a cold and intermittently rainy winter's evening.