scott aaronson interview

Great (long) interview with Scott Aaronson at Scientific American:

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/scott-aaronson-answers-every-ridiculously-big-question-i-throw-at-him/

Particularly liked this quote:

> Like, I'm a damn good theoretical computer scientist (and modest too), but I'm not at the absolute pinnacle of the field—so rather than trying to ascend the summit myself, sometimes I can serve the interests of science better by staying on the lower slopes, and just trying to defend the mountain from the forces catapulting dung at it.

Movies + TV

Time for more binge and purge....

Indecent Proposal (1993): the classic love story for the 0.01%.

Death In Paradise (Season 1-2, 2011): entertaining BBC murder mystery set in the Caribbean. Think Agatha Christie meets "A Place In The Sun". Features Danny-John Jules (Cat from Red Dwarf).

Parenthood (1989): Great film with a great cast. I had watched bits of it before, but definitely enjoyed re-watching it in full as a parent.

The World's End (2013): I was really really enjoying this film -- as a hilarious sad-sack bromance a la The Hangover -- right up until the point where blue paint started exploding out of robot heads. After that, things got a bit silly. Still, it was a pretty entertaining to the "three flavours cornetto" trilogy.

The Hobbit - Battle of Five Armies (2014): expectations weren't high but, wow, this was one bloated CGI turd of a film. Never mind Azog, Peter Jackson is the real Defiler here.

Predestination (2014): intriguing little time-travel yarn with Ethan Hawke, based on the 1960 sci-fi short story "All You Zombies" by Robert Heinlein, which was also the inspiration for the Red Dwarf "Ouroboros" episode.

The Drop (2014): solid little crime flick dealing with the Russian mob in Brooklyn which turned out to be James Gandolfini's last film role. Written by Dennis Lehane (The Wire) and, for me, somewhat reminiscent of "A Bronx Tale".

The Imitation Game (2014): Benedict Cumberbatch is superlative in this powerful biopic about the great mathematician/computer scientist Alan Turing and the cracking of the German "Enigma" code in WWII. Unfortunately, the film takes copious liberties with the true story that detract somewhat from its overall impact (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imitation_Game#Accuracy). Disappointing, because the true story scarcely needs any exaggeration.

Theory of Everything (2014): excellent biopic about the life of physicist Stephen Hawking. I'd say "God bless him" but he might take that as an insult.

Birdman (2014): self-indulgent arthouse flick about a washed up actor (Michael Keaton) producing a theatre show with Ed Norton as the main actor.

Moneyball (2011): Joe Satriani plays the Superbowl! Oh, and a solid little story about baseball manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), based on the book by Michael Lewis.

Snowpiercer (2013): quirky steampunk sci-fi flick that seemed to combine elements of George Orwell and Roald Dahl. Interesting but didn't get up there for me.

12 Years a Slave (2013): stirring film that leaves you shaking your head to think how recently slavery was a way of life in the USA.

Sunshine (2007): mediocre Danny Boyle sci-fi yarn.

In the Flesh (2013): surprisingly moving BBC drama about zombies, or "partially deceased syndrome" sufferers.

Lucy (2014): flamboyant but ludicrous Luc Besson sci-fi effort about the (unfortunately debunked) idea that we only use 10% of our brains and so what might happen if someone (in this Scarlett Johansson) is able to access the remaining 90%.

Interstellar (2014): excellent sci-fi blockbuster in the mould of Contact (which also featured Matthew McConaughey). Physicist Kip Thorne (who was also involved with Contact) was involved, and helped to make the science as plausible as possible; his book "The Science of Interstellar" is well worth a read.

American Sniper (2014): whatever your view on the second Iraq war, and war in general, there is no denying the heroism of guys like Chris Kyle. I somehow hadn't followed this story in the media, so the tragic epilogue caught me by surprise and left me quite gutted. Powerful film.

Lincoln (2012): I'm not generally a big fan of this kind of epic period biopic, but a superlative performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, together with an undeniably powerful story, won me over.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012): phew, looks like I watched this just in time before the Seymour Hersh article exposed the whole story as a CIA cover up. Well, whatever, but the last 45 minutes depicting the Navy Seal extraction mission is excellently done.

These Final Hours (2013): indie sci-fi flick about the last few hours before the world ends. Set in Perth, which feels strangely appropriate. Liked it.

How To Get Away With Murder (2014):  a brilliant law professor and her class of hyper-competitive over-achievers get more than they signed up for when a theory class on "how to get away with murder" unexpectedly becomes a practical.

Miss Bala (2011): interesting mexican drama about a beauty contestant who gets caught up in a drug cartel.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014): machine-gun-toting chimpanzees on horseback looks every bit as ridiculous as it sounds.

The Cube (1997): intriguing low-budget "math thriller" from Canada. The script and acting aren't all that hot but the math is cool.

Nightcrawler (2014): Jake Gyllenhaal is excellent as a creepy sociopath who finds a lucrative career in filming late night carnage and selling the footage to unscrupulous news stations.

Dallas Buyers Club (2013): moving aids drama, showcasing impressive performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. Unlike the unfortunate protagonists, be sure to use protection here (Private Internet Access IYF!).

Son of a Gun (2014): another home-grown WA flick, featuring Ewan McGregor. It's a fairly by-the-numbers prison/robber flick, laden with most of the usual cliches of the genre. However, as a debut effort it's not bad, and McGregor brings some class. A former schoolmate of mine had a role as the scary-looking extra in the prison van in the opening scene.

Locke (2013): strangely gripping for a film that basically consists of a series of phone conversations as a man drives from Wales to London. Tom Hardy is excellent.

Ex Machina (2015): the latest in what's starting to feel like a new wave of A.I. movies. Quite good.

Cool Hand Luke (1967): a dated Paul Newman classic one whose of many quotable quotes was the beginning of the G'N'R song "Civil War": "Whaaaaat we got here is a failure to communicate…"

Gone Girl (2014): Well-acted but pretty silly, and too long.

Boyhood (2014): Excellent coming-of-age story. Starring Patricia Arqette and the chronically under-rated Ethan Hawke, it was filmed over 12 years which seemed to lend it a uniquely "real" feel. The storyline might have been a little cliched in parts but I really enjoyed it.

Dispatches from the graveyard shift

Over the past couple weeks of parental leave, I've found myself alone with the tv most evenings, so have been enjoying clearing my backed-up "to-watch" list:

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996): Definitely one of the lesser oeuvres in the Tarantino canon, but has its moments.

Rush - Clockwork Angels Tour (2013): Instrumentally, Rush are still on top of their game, but Geddy Lee's voice is starting to flag pretty badly and at its worse sounds like a warbly yodel.

Up In The Air (2009): George Clooney is entertaining as a frequent flyer mile-collecting jet setter whose job consists of flying around the country firing people for a living. It's a superficial and ultimately empty life, as is hammered home a little too forcefully in the film's overly formulaic and moralising conclusion.

Planet Terror (2007): another piece of self-indulgent Tarantino homage-porn which comprised half of the "Grindhouse" double feature (in which it was paired with the pretty decent "Deathproof"). It's pretty forgettable fare but, as seems inevitable where Tarantino is concerned, there are some entertaining performances: Jeff Fahey and Michael Biehn are resurrected to particularly good effect, while Rose McGowan (who was a favourite of mine in her Charmed days) is excellent in the lead role.

Blackfish (2013): excellent, very sad documentary film about the plight of killer whales (orcas) that are kept in captivity for the amusement of that other breed of large blubber-girded mammals that is endemic to North America and is peculiarly entertained by silly circus routines and cheesy marketing. It's a disgrace that we can continue to exploit intelligent animals in this way, but unsurprising that it's being done by a big company (Seaworld) in the name of making a buck.

Coffy (1973): a Blaxploitation classic featuring Pam Grier, who would later star in Tarantino's Jackie Brown. Worth it for the soundtrack and spectacularly gratuitous toplessness.

Holy Motors (2012): one of those weird arthouse French flicks that's so arty it doesn't even try to make sense. It didn't really work for me.

Waking Up With Sam Harris (2014): slickly produced lecture and Q+A session exploring the themes of Harris' recent book of the same title. I find Harris an entertaining and convincing speaker, but on the topic of spirituality he is entering some murky philosophical waters and the Q+A discussion reflected that.

Dire Straits - On the Night (1993): live concert video from the early nineties. Mark Knopfler is totally rocking the Jerry Seinfeld jeans + sports jacket look.

Hot Fuzz (2007): the second part of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost's "Three Flavours Cornetto" trilogy. Some good laughs but at 2 hours felt a little long — a trimmed-down 90 minute version might have been more effective.

American Hustle (2013): very decent yarn about a pair of con-artists in 1970s News York. Heavily redolent of Goodfellas, and though it's not quite as good as that film, it's the closest thing I've seen in a long time. The cast is top notch, and Christian Bale in particular is excellent.

movies + tv

Hannibal (Seasons 1+2): Very decent adaptation of the Hannibal Lecter franchise, though the gore factor is pretty full on.

Black Mirror (Seasons 1+2): anthology series of dystopian techno-tales of the unexpected by Charlie Brooker from The Guardian. "The Entire History of You" (season 1, episode 3) was particularly good.

Amazing Journey - The Story of The Who (2007): With the exception of "Pinball Wizard" — and my preferred version of that song is Elton John's version for the Tommy movie adaptation — I've never really understood why The Who were considered such a big deal. Their early yeah-yeah songs (a la "My Generation") just sound like Rolling Stones-lite, while their later concept album "Tommy" just puts me to sleep. Pete Townshend's place in the pantheon of guitar legends seems to be based more on his windmill strumming gimmick than anything else. And watching this documentary didn't really change any of that.

Before the Music Dies (2006): the premise of this fairly tedious documentary film is, in a nutshell, that the music industry has become too commercial and superficial. Unconvincing and overly nostalgic.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014): absolutely LOVED this film. It's the perfect sci-fi film: great action, humour and doesn't take itself too seriously. Tom Cruise is on a roll. 

Elysium (2013): okay, but not great.

Silicon Valley (2014): amusing comedy series about a bunch of nerds trying to get a start-up off the ground. Sort of Entourage meets The Big Bang Theory.

Fight Life (2012): documentary following the training of a group of mixed martial fighters in the lead up to a fight night. The dedication of these guys is impressive.

Los Cronocrimenes (2007): Quirky little time travel story from Spain, about a Peeping Tomas who gets into a spot of chronological bother and has to get his timeline in order.

The Tunnel (2013): British-French adaptation of the Swedish-Danish series Bron|Broen. Featuring Stephen Dillane, aka Stannis Baratheon from GoT. Pretty well done, but the adaptation so faithful to the original that, if you've seen one then the other won't hold any surprises at all.

The Rover (2014): post-apocalyptic Aussie flick, sort of The Road meets Mad Max. Guy Pierce and Robert Pattinson give a good account of themselves but it's pretty slow going.

recent movies and tv

Things have been rather quiet on the movie front, but a few recent ones:

About Time (2013): schmaltzy Richard Curtis rom-com which explores some similar themes to Sliding Doors (and is also set mostly in London). The premise is that a young man discovers a family secret: all the men in his family have the ability to travel back in time to any moment from their past and relive things from that point on. Yet more proof that I'll watch anything with a bit of time travel.

Source Code (2011): low budget sci-fi flick featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, which explores a scenario very similar to the excellent Edge of Tomorrow.

Proof (2005): treacly yarn about a daughter (Gwyneth Paltrow) and her brilliant mathematician father (Anthony Hopkins) who went mad in his last years. It's about the connection between genius and madness, as the daughter tries to understand how much of both attributes she has inherited. Jake Gyllenhaal once more rears his head as a young graduate student. It's not a great film, but you have to give it marks for including a reference to Sophie Germain prime numbers.

Coherence (2013): low budget indie sci-fi thriller flick that reminded me somewhat of The Man From Earth: dialog-heavy, no effects, mostly set in one room, but strangely gripping and thought-provoking.

Things have been more active on the small screen front:

Fargo (Season 1): loved it. The entire cast is excellent and the slow-burn drama and creeping inevitability are strongly redolent of both Breaking Bad and No Country For Old Men.

True Detective (Season 1): I'm not naturally a big fan of Matthew McConaughey so I wasn't chomping at the bit to watch this. Indeed, it took me a few episodes to get into it, but by the end it won me over. The performances by McConaughey and Harrelson are both excellent.

Veep (Seasons 1-3): Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as the ambitious Vice President surrounded by an entourage of no-less ambitious lackeys and gophers. It's very much in the style of The Office, with relentless fast-paced one-liners. Gary Cole from Office Space is excellent as the number crunching economics advisor, as is Timothy Simons as super-doofus Jonah ("Jonad") Ryan.

American Horror Story (Season 1): dripping with horror movie cliches but a strong cast sucks you in and keeps it interesting even as the plot starts to flounder.

Sherlock (Seasons 1-3): I feel like the last person on Earth to get around to watching this, but I wasn't disappointed when I finally did.

myRig

I’ve recently devoted a bit of effort to setting up a decent practice environment on my iMac. Here are the ins and outs of what’s working for me:

IN: Running my guitar direct into the computer via an Apogee Jam audio interface. It’s a quick plugin and the audio interface doesn’t take up any deskspace.

OUT: Running through any external pedals before the computer.  After several attempts I gave trying to use my multi-effects pedal (BOSS ME70) or loop station (BOSS RC20XL); the sound quality was mediocre (in comparison to Amplitube – see below) and with power supplies and extra leads the setup/packup effort is substantially increased.

IN: Amplitube 3 as a plugin to Garageband 10. I have found Amplitube 3 to be the best-sounding amp simulator for Mac OSX. Using it as a plugin to Garageband 10 requires a hack (which the good folks at IK Multimedia were happy to provide – it involves copying a certain plist file from one place to another). The best thing is, the basic app is free and comes with some great sounding amps and pedals. I am tempted to explore some of the paid add-ons at some point (Marshall, Fender, Orange, and others – together with a huge range pedals), but there’s no urgent need.

IN: setting up a generic project in Garageband with a number of channels for each type of guitar sound I regular want (e.g. heavy rhythm left/right, heavy lead, clean). I use this as a loop station for jamming along to some chord progression or practising a lead over a given rhythm. There is an irritating bug in GB10 which results in noticeable latency in the sound monitoring when first starting up. I find this goes away as soon as I record something in one of the tracks. Any time I end up with something I want to keep, it’s easy to export as mp3 (or direct to Soundcloud!) or save it off as a new project.

OUT: Amplitube’s loop station in standalone mode. The interface is extremely clunky and limited in features. My experience with Amplitube generally suggests that it’s an app that should be heard and not seen.

IN: Anytune Pro for slowing down and transposing songs, to transcribe by ear and play along to. I experimented with a few apps in this space, but this one has by far and away the most intuitive, well-designed interface – it’s simply a joy to use. The step-up trainer, which automatically plays a section repeatedly at gradually increasing tempos is incredibly cool and useful. It also allows you to quickly browse and import songs from iTunes (no more haplessly navigating the folders where the mp3 files live!) and remembers the various annotations and settings you apply. Overall, this app has dramatically sped up my workflow for figuring out songs by ear.

OUT: Amazing Slow Downer. The original program of its kind, but it has the most atrocious interface of any program I’ve ever used for anything, anywhere. Dropped it like a hot potato as soon as I found Anytune Pro.

IN: Guitar Pro 6, tablature word processor. Very nice, intuitive WYSIWYG editor. You enter the tab (with rhythm values) and it generates the corresponding music notation. I don’t really need the notation, but it looks cool. There are heaps of guitar-centric annotation (slides, hammer ons, tapping, pinch harmonics etc) – the end result is very professional-looking. And the best part is that you can play the score once you’ve written it out, so you can see if your rhythmic transcription is up to snuff. Should be very useful for writing out song arrangements to share with the band.

OUT: Lilypond. It’s the LaTeX of music notation editors. I love the idea, but it’s just not a realistic solution for quickly banging out a rough song arrangement.

Movie night

As I've undoubtedly already mentioned at some point, the once-venerable institution of snuggling up for an evening spent watching one or two feature-length movies has been relegated to blue-moon status chez Gekko. It's still unclear exactly why, but among the contributing factors are surely the following: the lack of movie-length contiguous blocks of disposable time; the ascendence of high-quality tv drama series (and their availability for binge-consumption); a dreary dearth of compelling new film content; me just having more of a life than I used to (okay, just kidding).

The exception to prove this rule occurred over the weekend, as I polished off the following:

Under the Skin

Based on the book by Michel Faber, which I read and quite enjoyed a few years back during a sojourn in Dublin (as I recall, it provided some welcome distraction during the write-up of my PhD thesis). Despite that, I couldn't really get into the movie. Scarlett Johansen was excellent, but the interpretation (which, from memory, took considerable liberties with the original) was just too bleak and arty for my taste.

Wolf Creek 2

A mildly entertaining second outing for John Jarrett's memorable slasher from down under, Mick Taylor, who continues to subvert every cherished outback stereotype. But this one descends into straightahead torture-porn fare, and ultimately doesn't really add anything to the original.

The Man From Earth

Interesting low-budget sci-fi flick from a few years back. The premise is of a university lecturer who, at his farewall get-together before he leaves town, confesses to a group of his friends and colleagues that he is actually 14,000 years old and then tries to convince he isn't lying (or crazy). It sounds kooky, but it makes for a strangely gripping and thought-provoking yarn.

Apple TV and tidying up my media library

So the big news chez Gekko is the recent purchase of an Apple TV 3. Precipitated by the timely demise of my 7 year-old iMac, this latest homage to iFanboy-ism was conceived with the intent of streamlining my home entertainment infrastructure and just generally reducing the number of cables within reach of Gekko Jr.

So far, it's working out very well. For the most part, as per Apple's catch cry, everything "just works". AirPlay works really well from computer or iPad (except if you try to stream HD video while mirroring your computer screen --- but of course that's a silly thing to try to do anyway).

One caveat is that everything "just works" a little better if you are able to manage all your media content in iTunes, since you can access your iTunes library remotely (thus avoiding the need to use AirPlay explicitly).

And one problem with this is that iTunes only has truck with a very limited number of video (mp4 or m4v) and audio (mp3,aac,m4a) formats, so if you happen to have a rather sizeable collection of, um, "home" videos in other formats (such as avi, mkv), it isn't at all obvious how you might shoehorn these into the iTunes ecosystem.

To Gekko of course, this presented an irresistibly geeky challenge, one whose chief insights will now be shared.

Converting file formats

Firstly, a fortunate turn of events is that many of the more recently disseminated "home" video content is in mp4 format (where it used to be avi), and this works without problems. So going forward, all is well, and our problems lie primarily with the content previously amassed.

The mkv ("Matroska") format, meanwhile, doesn't work directly, but generally uses the same "codecs" as mp4 (x264 and whatnot) under the hood, so it is a relatively inexpensive task to convert from this to mp4 (a process referred to as "remuxing" in geek speak). There is a very nice (free) command-line tool for this called "ffmpeg". A straightforward remuxing is handled by the following:

> ffmpeg -i Forbrydelsen.S01E01.mkv -acodec copy -vcodec copy Forbrydelsen.S01E01.mp4

The -acodec and -vcodec options are set to "copy" which means they are just being copied without any re-encoding into the new mp4 container.

In some irritating cases, I've found simple remuxing leads to a file with perfect video but no audio. In this case, you want to copy the video, but re-encode the audio. I didn't want to get too bogged down in the quagmire of different options for audio encoding, but the following seems to work just fine:

> ffmpeg -i Transformers.Prime.S01E01.mkv -c:v copy -c:a aac -strict -2 Transformers.Prime.S01E01.mp4

There are some other cases where the audio seems to be in 5.1 surround sound which results in weird echos when played through my stereo output. Again, an audio re-encoding does the trick:

> ffmpeg -i filename.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a aac -strict experimental -b:a 128k -ac 2 -scodec copy new_filename.mp4

Okay, so what about the crappy avi files which unfortunately comprise roughly 99% of my "home" video collection? Well, since leaving well enough alone obviously wasn't an option, it seems that here there was no choice but to roll up my sleeves and re-encode the video. And for this task I found the (free) program Handbrake to be just the thing. The gui version works well but is a bit clunky at first (hint: the "File>Add all titles to queue..." menu item comes in very handy). I've found the command-line version to be much more useful for en masse re-encoding. Example:

> HandbrakeCLI -i 'Blackadder.S00E03.avi' -o 'Blackadder.S00E03.m4v' --preset="AppleTV 3"

Note the handy preset here which seems to give pretty good quality. The resulting mp4 file is iTunes-ready.

As an aside, Handbrake is an excellent tool for importing DVDs in m4v format, although I find myself needing to do this increasing rarely.

I, Subtitle

I have found subtitles to be a perennial bugbear with downloaded videos. Sometimes they're hardcoded, which makes life easy (unless they're in swedish); other times they come in the form of an .srt file or (uselessly) as a dvd-style .vobsub file. As you'd expect, .srt files are no use when dealing with iTunes, and the only way I've to get subtitles working is to use a little app called "iSubtitle". All you need to do is load up your mp4 file, add the appropriate .srt file as a subtitle track using the toolbar/tray on the right, and then save. No re-encoding necessary. Once that's done the subtitles should be available via the controller in iTunes. It's a hassle but the end result is nice because you can switch subtitles on and off.

Managing iTunes library

One issue that I've found problematic with iTunes is managing the physical storage of the music and video files. By default, iTunes wants to create its own copy of every file that you import into it. This means that (1) you have to constantly go back and delete the file you just imported (unless you want to keep duplicate copies); and (2) you have to trust iTunes to manage your files for you.

The latter became a real problem for me when my collection became too large for the local hard-drive and I had to shift to an external drive. For example, if the external drive happened to be disconnected for whatever reason when I imported something, it would go ahead and copy the files to an alternate library on the local hard drive. If left unchecked,this kind of thing could easily cause headaches down the track when changing machine or whatever.

So I've decided to disable the copying on import option (by unchecking "Preferences>Advanced>Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library"), and just manage my files myself. One advantage of this is that I can maintain files on different drives, which allows me to keep music and video that I frequently use on the local drive (whilst relegating more esoteric "I might listen to that one day" content to an external drive).

One cool thing too is that, provided you keep the files on the same drive, you can go ahead and rename them or move to different folders, and iTunes will still know where they are.

Metadata

This is a slightly pedantic issue, but one cool thing about Apple TV (and other media solutions such as XBMC) is that you can retrieve "metadata" about your media files which is then displayed all nicely on the Apple TV.

For my music files I've always managed the metadata manually and, although I've kept things pretty tidy, I've never obsessed too much about it. I admit I do generally make the effort to add the album cover (particularly if it's an Iron Maiden album); but beyond that, really only what's needed to keep things sorted.

For video content, however, I wanted to tap into the rich meta-databases of thetvdb.com and themoviedb.com. There seemed to be several options out there for doing this. None of them, however, were free, so it was only after much research and some experimentation that I settled on "iFlicks 2", a nice little app from the Mac App Store that does a great job. At $25.99 it's a little pricey, but after wasting $3 on the awful "MetaTV" app I can attest you get what you pay for.

One nice thing about this approach is that the metadata is stored in the file, and not away in an application-specific database somewhere (as with XBMC, say). ITunes reads this metadata on the fly, and it will also make it easier if I decide to move away from iTunes in the future.

Command-line power

I mentioned above the command-line tools ffmpeg and HandrakeCLI, which I use on the Mac OSX Terminal app. The great thing about the command-line is that it makes things very scalable when you're dealing with more than a couple of files.

And along the way I've learned a couple of neat Bash tricks that come into play when working with multiple files. The first is "for" loops, which allow the same command to be applied to multiple files. The second is Bash's text replacement syntax, which is an easy way to change file extensions. This example uses both:

> for i in *.mkv; do ffmpeg -i "$i" -acodec copy -vcodec copy "${i/.mkv/.mp4}"; done

"Arse sinking"

One final hack worth a mention pertains to the function "rsync", which is a standard unix command-line utility for backing up filesystems. By default, it works by comparing the files present in source and target directories; whenever they are different and the version in source is newer it will replace the version in target.

I have used rsync for my backup needs for a long time, but in the course of this project I found myself wanting to rsync between two locations where, for whatever reason, the files in the target directory were newer than the ones in the source. (Look, it probably shouldn't happen in a perfect world, but I think I renamed some directories or something and suddenly it wanted to recopy everything.) So a useful trick to know is the --ignore-existing option, which basically does nothing when there is a file of the same name in target (regardless of its size or age). As I say, this probably isn't something I should need in the course of a well-ordered backup operation, but it happened to be very useful when I did!

> rsync -av --ignore-existing TV/ /Volumes/Gekko_2TB/ExternalData/Video/TV

Future proof

So to summarize, I'm pretty chuffed with Apple TV so far. But that's not to say I want to blindly hitch my cart to the Apple bandwagon going forward. For that reason, I think that managing music and video files manually, and storing metadata locally, is the way to go. It means that should iTunes stop being a good option down the track, it won't be too hard to simply take my business, and files, elsewhere. And in the meantime, it makes juggling files across multiple hard drives a lot more manageable.

what gekko watched next

Movies

Jack Reacher (2012): surprisingly entertaining performance from Tom Cruise, and an all-round solid, old-school action hero flick. ****

Skyfall (2012): I enjoyed Javier Bardem but was mostly underwhelmed by the latest instalment of the Bond franchise. **

Oblivion (2013): very good sci-fi yarn, again with Tom Cruise acting up a storm. ****

The Grandmaster (2013): Wong Kar Wai and Tony Leung team up again, though not as memorably as in the excellent 2046. ***

World War Z (2013): pretty decent zombie flick. ***

Shaun of the Dead (2004): the first of the "Three Flavours Cornetto", and the first one that I've seen. Pretty funny. ***

Sound City (2013): Dave Grohl's documentary homage to the studio where many of rock music's most iconic albums were recorded. ***

Les Intouchables (2011): a bit schmaltzy, but the performances of the two leads (particularly Omar Sy) win you over. ***

Seven Psychopaths (2012): okay but not great — for me it felt like an awkward amalgam of Adaptation and something by Quentin Tarantino. Christopher Walken is entertaining as always. **

Too Big To Fail (2011): a blow by blow account of the events surrounding the collapse of Lehmann Brothers in 2008, based on the book by Andrew Ross Sorkin. It's pretty dry fare; for me the highlights were Paul Giamatti's hapless, panicky take on Ben Bernanke and Evan Handler's geeky Lloyd Blankfein. **

TV

The Fall (2013): BBC crime thriller starring Gillian Anderson and soon to be Mr Fifty Shades Jamie Dornan. Filmed in Northern Ireland! ***

The Walking Dead (Seasons 1-4): I lapped up the first three seasons of AMC's hit zombie show. But by the end of season 3 the storyline was starting to flag, and I bailed out shortly into season 4. ***

Engrenages ("The Spiral", Seasons 1-4): excellent cop drama, billed as France's answer to the The Wire. *****

Bron|Broen ("The Bridge", Season 1): interesting bilingual crime thriller set in Sweden and Denmark. ***

Game of Thrones (Seasons 1-3): if everyone else is watching it… *****

Ray Donovan (Season 1): quite enjoyed the first season of this darker take on the Entourage world. Jon Voight and Liev Schreiber are excellent. ****

Dexter (Season 8): a fairly weak last season, with possibly the lamest finale ever. This show had its moments but should have been several seasons shorter, and it was only the excellent ensemble cast that kept it alive this long. **

Breaking Bad: probably the best television series out there. The final few episodes demanded a strong constitution, but the ending was worth it. *****

True Blood (Seasons 1-4): I've been lapping up this bit of vampire porn. ***

Newsroom (Seasons 1-2): fast-paced and entertaining, but patchy and prone to passages of maudlin liberal idealism.  ***

In Treatment (Season 1): interesting little show featuring Gabriel Byrne as a psychiatrist with some issues of his own. The main drawback is the season's length — at 43 x 30 minute episodes, it's not an undertaking for the faint of heart. ***

Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia (Seasons 1-2): billed as "Seinfeld on crack", it was initially pretty funny but the laughs started to dry up in season 2. **

Tube Enema!

THX 1138: low key early hard sci-fi effort from George Lucas, which I watched because I just read that it was the inspiration for the Toto song "99". If only Lucas had applied a similarly minimalist approach to dialog in his star wars prequels.

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace: 3-part BBC documentary on machines, philosophy and politics in the 20th century. There's some good stuff here: I particularly enjoyed the footage of objectivist whack-job Ayn Rand and interviews with some of her acolytes (sadly, her most notorious protege, one Alan Greenspan, declined to be interviewed). As the series progressed, however, it seemed to be lacking a coherent thesis, and in the end was overly fluffed up with sensational claims and dramatic sound-bites.

Looper (2012): look, given that I grew up claiming Back to the Future and Terminator as two of my all-time favourite film franchises, it was always going to be hard for me not to have a soft spot for any film involving time travel (heck, I even enjoyed Hot Tub Time-Machine!).

The History of the Eagles (2013): excellent documentary featuring extensive, unprecedented interviews with all band members. Pretty much essential viewing for anyone with even a passing interest in the ban or classic rock in general.

Killing Them Softly (2012): reasonably entertaining gangster yarn.

The Hobbit (2012): while it wasn't without a certain charm, it left me rather underwhelmed.

Django Unchained (2012): again, underwhelmed. Some brilliant performances (Samuel L. Jackson's in particular) but overall it didn't quite work for me.

Ted (2012): surprisingly funny.

The Wire: Possibly the last great cable tv series that I'll discover retroactively. Took me a long time to get around to watching it, and it took a while to get me hooked, but once it did I couldn't get enough. Quite simply a brilliant piece of work, with some really memorable characters. It's all in the game, yo.

You Can't Do That On AndroidTube

I've been suffering a bad case of blog-stipation, so let me try to squeeze out a very brief précis of my recent Android-Tubing pleasure…

Super 8: nice little retro alien horror flick. Lots of stylistic throwbacks to the kind of flicks children of the 80s grew up loving.

V For Vendetta: finally got around to watching this graphic-novel adaptation. And rather enjoyed it.

Cocoon: filling in a bit of a gap in my 80s repertoire. If you can get over the weirdness of seeing Brian Dennehy transmogrify into an angelic alien, this is quite a touching, yet cautionary, look at what happens when a fountain of youth is discovered.

Spaceballs: another inexplicable blank in the gekko canon. As a hard-core Star Wars aficionado, it's probably just as well I didn't watch this growing up as I may well have resented seeing my beloved franchise mocked so irreverently. Watching it now, as an only slightly-less defensive aficionado, I found it amusing in parts but pretty cheesy.

The Young Ones: inspired by my long-time admiration of his Lord Flasheart character from BlackAdder (Woof!), I decided to check out Rik Mayall's breakthrough comedy which was co-written by Ben Elton. Has its moments, but hasn't held up anywhere near as well as Blackadder.

Bottom: Rik Mayall's follow-up to The Young Ones, also featuring his comedic cohort Ade Edmondson (Viv from the Young Ones). Pretty forgettable fare; it went for 3 seasons but really wasn't good for it.

Searching For Bobby Fischer: a slightly Hallmark-esque drama about a father and his chess-prodigy son, based on a true story. Lawrence Fishburne has an amusing, though implausible, turn as a street-smart chess hustler.

The Killing (Forbrydelsen): excellent crime thriller t.v. series from Denmark. Blends some of the real-time urgency of the 24 series (in that each episode corresponds to a day), with a dash of Se7en thrown in. Each season (there are 3) deals with a single murder and its implications for a range of unrelated characters.

To Catch A Killer: we had a bit of a Brian Dennehy thing happening, so we went with it. This is a surprisingly good made-for-tv crime drama from the early 90s, based on the appallingly true story of serial killer John Gacy, played chillingly by Dennehy.

The Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes: I was rather disappointed with this attempted reboot/coda of the Apes franchise. The plot unfolded like a join-the-dots attempt to take us from present-day earth to a planet populated by super-intelligent apes.

The Bourne Legacy: speaking of franchises, I actually really enjoyed this addendum to the Bourne, um, legacy. I liked Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker, and I like him again here.

Men Of A Certain Age: probably the highlight of this installment of AndroidTube. By turns funny and serious, the show is about three middle-aged blokes in LA, who are buddies since high school and all going through some sort of mid-life crisis. The big 5-0 may be a ways off for me, but I really related to some of the issues faced by the characters, as they come to terms with where they're at in life, what they've accomplished versus what they had hoped to, etc.

Abandoned: a special dishonourable shout-out to Bad Santa (what was Billy Bob playing at?), and the catastrophic Rock Of Ages.

The Great Wall + Haffertee the Hamster

One of my favourite internet-based time-wasting activities is tracking down childhood books/toys/tv shows etc. I'm continually amazed both by how much of this often obscure material has found its way online and by how, for want of a better word, crap most of it is when I do track it down. (Transformers cartoon series anyone?) But occasionally, I do glean some insight into the true nature of something to which I had been oblivious when I originally encountered it.

Case in point: I was recently looking up a few children's books (with a view to perhaps revisiting them with Gekko Jr at some point). And what I found were two cases of what had seemed like wholesome, innocent stories that are in fact thinly-veiled propaganda materials.


1. "Haffertee Finds A Place Of His Own", by Janet Perkins. I vaguely remembered this as a nice yarn about a hamster who lives in the house of a nice family and makes himself a cosy little living space somewhere (in a shoebox was it?). So imagine my reaction upon finding this on Amazon:

Part of the "Haffertee" series, this is another story about a lovable soft-toy hamster and his friends. As children read the books, they will also learn more about Haffertee's best friend - God - and his care and interest in all aspects of everyone's lives.

Hmmm. Well, I guess on second thoughts nostalgia can go hang: suffice it to say that, loveable as he may be, Mr Haffertee won't be bedding down in the Gekko residence any time soon.


2. "The Great Wall", by Paul White. In this case I admit I already had a fairly strong suspicion that the story had some kind of religious undertones. (After all, the book was a gift from a great uncle who had a tendency to ply my brother and I with god-fearing reading materials: a children's bible and storybooks of parables such as "The Good Samaritan" --- which against I very much enjoyed -- were among his other offerings.)

Anyhow, I am unable to track down the original edition (a lavishly illustrated A4-sized paperback in landscape format), but I did find the text. As you can see, it starts off as an intriguing tale about some unusually loquacious jungle animals, but it gradually turns into something much more sinister:

In an African hospital the story is told of THE GREAT WALL. All the animals were very upset for suddenly this great wall had appeared right through the middle of the jungle. Elephant said, "what can we do?" All the rest of the animals chattered, "We MUST do something about this wall. It is very serious. How can we get to the other side?" Giraffe said, "The Great Wall is very high and as far as I can see it is very thick." Lion roared, "And the best parts of the jungle are on the other side!" Monkey jumped up and down, "We must get through. This side of the wall is desert. It's dry and dusty and dull." "Stop the talk, " snorted Rhino, "Stand back! I will charge through it." And he thundered away towards the wall with the animals cheering him on. BANG!!! The awful wall nearly knocked poor Rhino out and made his face and head bleed! Then Elephant had a go. He tried to push through the Great Wall. He pushed and pushed, and heaved and heaved. But had to admit at the end, "there is no way THROUGH that Wall."

Hyena laughed his spooky giggle. "For animals of great strength and small cunning there is no way through that Great Wall, But... we hyenas are smart and crafty. I will find a way AROUND that Wall." So he walked and walked, all day, all night. Another day and another night. And then the waiting animals saw Hyena coming back at last. They yelled, "tell us quickly what you found." Hyena gasped, "It is no use at all. There is no way around, the Great Wall goes on and on and on! There is no way AROUND!"
Then Snake hissed, "Enough of this! Sssssso you think you are clever and strong, but I am a ssslitherer. I will slither and ssssslide UNDER the Great Wall." Off Snake went, he twisted, wiggled, and squirmed. He disappeared for a long while, and then he came back up. "At last I have found a way under the Wall, " he said. "Pardon me, " said Giraffe, "you are still on the same side, snake!" "What, " hissed snake, "I have travelled many dark ways underground. No animal could have done as much. If there was a way UNDER the Wall I would have found it. There is no way under!"

No way THROUGH. No way AROUND. No way UNDER.
Then monkey yelled, "Look at me, look at me. I can climb anything. I will find a way OVER the Great Wall. Stand back - here I come!" And monkey yelled a giant "WOOOOP!!" and ran toward that wall. He leap on it and climbed and climbed and climbed. Down he fell at last with a crash. Then he got Giraffe to stand close to the wall. And monkey got a good start by climbing first up Giraffe's long, long neck. Monkey climbed and climbed, he tried so hard. Then he fell, and tumbled down with an awful "bump!" Elephant found him at the bottom of the wall knocked right out! He had to blow air into Monkeys' mouth with his trunk to get him to "come to" again. All the animals agreed, "there is no way OVER the Great Wall."
NO way THROUGH. No way AROUND. No way UNDER. No way OVER.

The Great Wall has a name which can be seen by those who understand. The wall is called SIN. People try all sorts of ways to get past the Wall made by their own sin. They try to get THROUGH, and AROUND, and UNDER and OVER Sin. But there is no way we can get past Sin by ourselves. Listen to what God's book, the Bible, says, "Your sin has come between you and your God." But Jesus has broken down that Wall. There is a Doorway in the Wall, and it is in the shape of a Mighty Cross! So that anyone who wants to have nothing to do with sin, who wants to come to God, can. When they come to the Great Wall they just walk through the Cross -Door. Why? Because of what Jesus has done. He shed His Blood for the Sin of the world. Here is what the Lord Jesus says to you and me: "I am the Way ... come to Me."

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." ( John 14:6).

Crikey, that's pretty heavy stuff to lay on an innocent child; in fact, I'd go so far as to describe it as a load of sadistic bollocks. The tragedy is that it starts off so promisingly --- if only we could read about how the animals then sat down together and somehow contrived a solution to the "wall" problem as a team (don't ask me how -- maybe they invent dynamite or something). Now that just might be a story with a worthwhile message.

The Devil and Simon Flagg

I originally came across this delightful short story in a mathematical text on Fermat's Last Theorem (I've forgotten its name, but suffice it to say I probably wasn't reading it in any depth). It says more about academics than it does about the Devil.

The Hunger Games

"Welcome to the 74th annual...... Battle Royale!!!... er... Running Man!?! Um, no that's not right is it... oh yes: Hunger Games!!!"

Regular interim-ites will recognize (and forgive, I trust) the pathetic but all-too-regular urge that I feel to tap into the zeitgeist and get jiggy with it that recently led me to read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (and watch the 2012 movie adaptation in fairly short order).

I actually quite enjoyed the book (which has the distinction of being my first fictional ebook read on the iPad) -- and I can imagine I would have enjoyed it all the more when I was a member of the "young adult" demographic which is its intended readership. Back then I probably would have eagerly gobbled up the remaining two volumes of the trilogy too, but in staid adulthood I find my curiosity sated by the first.

I found the film, on the other hand, to be a bit so-so and by-the-numbers. It was a reasonable effort, but it all seemed a bit rushed.

Of course, as you'll have noticed from my opening gambit, I drew the obvious parallels to the japanese gore flick Battle Royale -- which I watched just last year and rather enjoyed -- and the classic Arnie action movie The Running Man (1987), which was a childhood favourite of mine.

I decided to re-watch The Running Man and was pleasantly surprised to find that it still holds up quite well. The dialogue is pure cheese (it's Arnie in his heyday, after all) but it can be appreciated in a mildly tongue-in-cheek. The line "Hey, Christmas Tree!" is one of my all-time favourites, and he even manages to squeeze in an "I'll be back!". Also amusing to note that Mick Fleetwood and Dweezil Zappa have cameo roles as resistance freedom fighter types (what's up with that???).

Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning AndroidTube

life on mars

really enjoyed this series -- bbc at it's finest. john simms is sam tyler, the cop from 2006 who crashes his car and wakes up in 1973. Is he mad? Or in a coma? Or back in time? Take my advice: it's well worth
a watch to find out. The soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission.

ashes to ashes

follow-up series to "life on mars", featuring the foxy Keeley Hawes as DI alex drake, who takes a leaf out of the sam tyler playbook, taking a bullet to the head and waking up in 1981. Philip Glenister is back as "The Guv'", aka DCI Gene Hunt, who gives us the glorious catch phrase "fire up the quattro". Overall it's a fun and worthwhile return to the "life on mars" universe, but it's not quite as good as that
first series. It probably should have stuck to two seasons instead of stretching out to three.

broken embraces (2009)

another one from the cruz/almovodar canon. not bad, but not essential viewing.

the rules of attraction (2002)

film adaptation of the bret easton ellis novel. populated with characters that are as contemptible as they are uninteresting, this leaves one with the impression that Ellis is a tired one-trick pony.

priscilla queen of the desert (1994)

hugo weaving, guy pearce and terence stamp explore their inner queen in this iconic aussie flick.

the town (2010)

yawnarama bank robber flick directed by and starring ben affleck. you've seen it all before and better done.

eric clapton & friends (1986)

captivating performance by slowhand from the height of his eighties pastel era. features phil collins on skins, who delivers a stirring rendition of "in the air tonight".

get thrashed! (2008)

documentary film on the origins of thrash metal. features some interesting early footage and interviews with key players -- including a classic snippet where dave mustaine humbly acknowledges that he is
directly or indirectly responsible for the success of all the top thrash bands (having co-founded Metallica and Megadeth, he does have a point, but still...).

You Are What You AndroidTube

You know the drill:

Food, Inc.: Excellent, troubling documentary film which shines a light on modern-day food production in the US (and the role of large corporations therein). It's all-too similar to the problems we see in the finance industry: large corporations with deep pockets, armies of lawyers and lobbyists and, above all, a relentless, insatiable drive to increase profits at the expense of any other consideration. In both cases, the increase in "efficiency" comes at the cost of an increase in systemic fragility and, subsequently, a heightened risk of large shocks. In the finance world these take the form of ever-larger boom-bust cycles; in the food industry we see outbreaks of food poisoning and new strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria evolving in the petri dishes of modern CAFOs.

It is all, quite literally, sickening and guaranteed to provide some (excuse the pun) food for thought next time you're in the supermarket. As for me, to paraphrase an Uruk-hai from The Two Towers: "look's like (non-organic) meat's back off the menu!".

True Grit: exquisitely shot, but fairly slow, western that will probably only appeal to purists of the genre (for the rest of us, suffice it to say it's no Tombstone!). Featuring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin.

Casino Jack and the United States of Money: documentary film about disgraced lobbyist and all-round shyster Jack Abramoff who screwed over everyone from sweatshop workers in the Mariana Islands to Native American Indian casino owners while peddling his connections to top-level US politicans. If you have any lingering doubts on whether the US political system is rotten all the way to the top, then watch this and be disabused. Warning: this film may leave you feeling so dirty that you need to take a shower immediately after viewing.

Invictus: tells the story of South Africa's rugby world cup win soon after the end of apartheid -- if it wasn't based on a true story you'd think it was way too much of a fairy tale ending. It's a reasonable film but doesn't quite work for me. Morgan Freeman is not bad as Nelson Mandela, but it's hard to nail such a larger than life figure. And not to belittle Matt Damon's performance as the Springboks captain, but it would be nice to see a genuine South African in the role (imagine how Aussies would react to an American playing the role of Don Bradman?).

Animal Kingdom: gritty family crime drama set in Melbourne and featuring a smattering of well-known Aussie acting talent (notably Joel Edgerton, Guy Pearce, and Jacki Weaver). Reminiscent of Underbelly or a darker version of Two Hands.

Warrior: excellent film featuring Australia's own Joel Edgerton. Equal parts "The Wrestler" and "The Fighter", with a liberal sprinkling of Rocky, set in the brutal context of mixed martial arts cage-fighting. A measure of how much I was enjoying watching this on the bus  last night is that I sailed, completely oblivious, right past my stop and on for about another kilometer or so before noticing. 

Return Of The Son Of Shut Up 'n' Watch Yer AndroidTube

With not even a half-hearted attempt at chronological order, here is a
crude dump of my latest and greatest android-tubing:

30 Rock (Seasons 5 and 6): it's probably past its best at this stage,
but it continues to do what it says on the tin. I had no problem
mugging up to 2-3 episodes per0 bus ride.

Hung (Season 1): short-lived HBO comedy/drama about a high school
teacher who, thanks to the GFC and a messy divorce, ends up
moonlighting as a male gigolo. It's mildly entertaining here and
there, but it's awfully contrived and none of the characters are
really engaging, so it's not hard to see why the show didn't last too
long. The opening theme by The Black Keys is probably the highlight
for me.

Control: a well-done biopic portraying the brief and predominantly
unhappy career of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. On the face of it,
there's little to pity, or respect for that matter, about a guy who
ditches his wife and newborn for a french floozy as soon as his band
starts to get a whiff of success, and who returns home to the family
fold only to get drunk and hang himself in the back kitchen. But the
film does a good job of conveying Curtis' depression as a real (and
debilitating) affliction, and invites compassion without going
overboard and heroizing him.

Alien Quadrilogy: I treated myself to a bit of revision here in the
run-up to seeing Prometheus on the big screen (more about that below).
Nothing fundamentally new here, so I'll limit myself to two
observations. (1) Aliens is still, for my money, the apex of the
series: much as the alien is the perfect organism, this is the perfect
action film. And the automatic sentry guns (which, in what can only be
described as a moment of pure cutting-room folly, were edited out of
the original, but can be seen in the "special edition") are simply
awesome. (2) Alien Resurrection is an appalling turd of a film that,
in hindsight, could be said to herald the beginning of the violent and
protacted rape of the franchise that would really get going in earnest
with the farcical "Alien vs. Predator" installments. Of course, the
writing was already on the wall with Alien 3 -- a film that I'll go to
my grave arguing should never have been made and wishing I could
somehow unsee (Hicks and Newt -- dead? Just like that? Why?), but at
least it was a sort-of okay film on its own terms.

Mad Max Trilogy: out of curiosity more than anything else, I decided
to check out these cult favourites (from a happier age in which the
"mad" tag applied to Mel Gibson's movie alter-egos more than
himself..). The first one was actually okay, but the sequels were
pretty silly. The bad guys dressed and acted, for the most part, like
they belonged to a Sydney Mardi Gras stage float that had somehow
taken a wrong turn on the way to George Street and ended up in the
outback. But I did like the elasticated cage fighting in the
Thunderdome.

Inside Job: excellent documentary film exploring the causes of the
GFC. Check out the weaselly squirming of some of the economists who
had (unwisely for them, as it turns out) agreed to be interviewed for
the film.

Margin Call: a fictional story set in an investment bank, loosely
based on the events leading up to the collapse of Lehmann Brothers.
Good performances from a surprisingly strong ensemble cast, including
Kevin Spacey, Simon Baker, Demi Moore and Jeremy Irons. There are a
couple of slightly over-the-top moments (Irons' theatrical boardroom
speech being one of them), but for the most part it rings quite true
and is as authentic a portrayal of investment banking culture as I've
seen.

Cloudstreet: thoroughly enjoyed this charming mini-series adaptation
of the Tim Winton novel.

Stardust: fun little fantasy/fairy tale film based on the book by Neil
Gaiman. Robert De Niro camps it up as a whoopsie pirate captain,
Michelle Pfeiffer plays a witch, and Claire Danes is a star fallen to
earth in human form (with a remarkably good english accent). Look out
for a scene-stealing cameo from Ricky Gervais.

Sweeney Todd: I didn't realise going into this one that it was a
musical, so there was a moment of serious trepidation a few minutes in
when a street urchin, apropos of nothing, burst into song. Despite my
early misgivings, however, I ended up thoroughly enjoying it. Johnny
Depp and Helena Bonham Carter manage to stay on the entertaining side
of quirky (a remarkable achievement, given that it's Tim Burton at the
helm), and Alan Rickman is enjoyable as always.

Anvil! The Story Of Anvil: a fairly interesting documentary film about
Canadian heavy metal also-rans Anvil who, despite promising early
success back at the beginning of the eighties, never quite made the
big time. Now in their fifties, they still haven't abandoned the dream
of breaking through and prepare to risk it all for one last shot. I'm
usually one to root for the million-to-one shot, but here it just
seems a bit sad.

Moon: haunting and thought-provoking little sci-fi flick in the vein
of 2001:A Space Odyssey. I wish more sci-fi films had this ratio of
budget to entertainment value.

Dr Strangelove: early Kubrick film, this is a very entertaining
satirical commentary on cold war madness, much in the mould of Catch 22.

Shame: a brooding film about one man's struggle with sex addiction.
For those of us who still thought of the latter as something faintly
glamorous to be read about in the tabloid media in conjunction with
the likes of Michael Douglas or Dave Grohl --- in short, as something
that applied to those more fortunate than us -- this film gives a
decidely smuttier take. Stars a Patrick Bateman-esque Michael
Fassbender.

Prometheus: this has the dubious distinction of being my first cinema
visit since living in Sydney. My initial reaction was one of general
underwhelmedness (and no, I don't think it's because I saw it in
boring 2D on the non-VMAX screens). But that opinion improved steadily
over the following day or two, and in the end I've come round to
thinking it was actually a pretty reasonable effort. Michael
Fassbender, playing the main non-human character, gives the most
entertaining (and probably the most human) performance.

Shut Up 'n' Watch Yer AndroidTube Some More

More mobile film fodder...

Milk (2008): excellent film about the life and death of San Francisco's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk. A career-defining performance from Sean Penn.

Flags Of Our Fathers (2006): tells the true story behind the historic photograph showing American soldiers planting a flag on a Pacific island hilltop during WWII. It's a bit long and fairly dry overall, but it does feature some of the most amazing footage of a beach landing since Saving Private Ryan.

Das Wunder Von Bern (2003): heart-warming story about West Germany's victorious world cup campaign in 1954 in which, against all the odds, they triumphed over the hitherto invincible Hungarian team. 

Shine A Light (2008): over-hyped Rolling Stones concert film directed by Martin Scorcese. The concert, like the whole project, seems lazy and self-indulgent and doesn't really change my long-standing opinion that --- Keif's classic riffs notwithstanding --- the Stones are one of the most overrated acts in rock music history.

Hancock (2008): incredibly silly, but surpisingly watchable, action-hero flick with Will Smith and Charlize Theron. 

Black Orpheus (1959): film adaptation of a Brazilian musical based on the classic Greek love story of Orpheus and Eurydice. The soundtrack by Antonion Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfa includes several classic Bossa Nova standards ("Manha de Carnival" and "A Felicidad"). It's a bit dated but quite interesting.

Big Business (1988): camp and ridiculously contrived comedy starring Bette Midler. Strictly for 80s purists (as such, I rather enjoyed it).

Indian Runner (1991): fairly depressing yarn about a pair of brothers in the post-Vietnam American heartland. Directed by Sean Penn and featuring a young (pre-Strider) Viggo Mortensen.

Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988): a film about working-class life in Liverpool in the 50s and 60s, before the Beatles. Not really my cup of tea.

The Ides Of March (2011): recent political drama with George Clooney, Paul Giamatti and an ever-more-spherical Philip Seymour Hoffman. Not bad, but not great either.

Shut Up 'n' Watch Yer AndroidTube

The irresistible combination of my Android smartphone (with its
whopping 4.3 inches of viewing pleasure), my noise-isolating Klipsch
earphones, and two cosy 1-hour bus commutes each day has continued to
facilitate an unprecedented decimation of my "To Watch" list. Here are
the latest casualties:

Archer - Season Three: this smart, funny, and surprisingly racy
cartoon spy comedy continues to entertain. Be sure to catch the
3-episode pirate island prequel to the season proper.

Californication - Season Five: a show that's well past its used-by
date, but continues to be midly entertaining. It actually got slightly
better towards the end of the season.

Band of Brothers: I'd heard a lot about this WWII series by HBO, and I
have to say I wasn't disappointed. It's a great watch -- and with its
standalone 10 x 1-hour episode format, it's roughly equivalent in
length a 3-part mini-series epic.

Battle Royale (2000): a cult classic, this ultra-violent Japanese film
was the inspiration for Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1, and supposedly
shares many similarities with the new Hunger Games franchise. I really
enjoyed it, and suspect that so will most Tarantino fans.

The Player (1992): Hollywood self-satire flick, starring Tim Robbins
and Greta Scacchi, as well as half of Hollywood as themselves (also
look out for a bit part from Jeremy Piven). I found it kind of boring
-- and not quite as clever as it tries to be.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007): French film based on the
memoirs of Jean-Dominique Bauby who. following a stroke, awoke to find
himself literally trapped in his own body -- able to communicate (and
ultimately write his book) solely by blinking one eye. It's a sad but
beautiful film and well worth a look. I watched it sans-soutitres ftw!

Morvern Callar (2002): low-budget BBC flick set in Glasgow. It's the
classic story: boyfriend commits suicide before publishing his novel;
girlfriend hides the body and publishes the novel under her own name.
It's a dreary yawnfest that leaves you wondering, why?

My Name Is Joe (1998): another hard-hitting Ken Loach film set in
gritty working-class Glasgow. I enjoyed it even if I did find Joe's
character and his transformation a little implausible.

Valkyrie (2008): starring Tom Cruise as the eye-patching wearing and
utterly hapless Colonel von Stauffenberg who led an (obviously)
unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler towards the end of the war.
Pretty forgettable fare.

Woodstock (1970): concert film from the 3-day musical hippiefest. I
was surprised by the overall mediocrity of the performances ---
Hendrix was probably the only real highlight for me.

Micmacs a tire larigot (2009): another quirky, nostalgia-drenched
Parisian fable from the director of Amelie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The
formula that worked so well in that film (and many of the same actors)
are shamelessly trotted out again here, but not to quite as good
effect.

AndroidTube

A very brief overview the movies and t.v. I've been mugging up to on the bus courtesy of my new smart-phone (reading is soooo 2011):

Deadwood (Season 1): watched the first season of this short-lived HBO series from a few years back. Set in a fictitious gold rush town in the mid 1800s, it's a gritty western drama very much in the same vein as Tombstone. It's a little slow for my taste (an issue which is compounded by the 55-minute episode length), but it features some great performances and offers a very convincing portrayal of life in the wild west.

Dexter (Season 6): for a show that "pretty much jumped the shark in the first episode", as one friend puts it, this show has held up surprisingly well given that it's into its sixth season. This season features Edward James Olmos (Adama Sr. from the excellent Battlestar Galactica series) as well as an interesting turn from Mos Def. I don't want to give anything away, but it looks like we're set up for an interesting beginning to Season 7...

Treme (Seasons 1+2): an interesting show set in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It deals with the lives of a diverse group of characters, most of them in some way connected with music, as they try to get their lives back together. The music is a big focus of the show, featuring many real-life jazz and blues musicians, and is a treat for fans of these genres. I found the storylines in the show to be somewhat patchy: there is some great acting, but there is also fair bit of cliche.

Gomorrah (2008): a grim, bleak film from Italy dealing with the mafia-like Camorra crime syndicate from the poor south of the country. It's depressing viewing and raises some real concerns about the consequences of the systemic corruption (e.g. illegal dumping of toxic waste, resulting in heightened levels of cancer in the local populations).

Public Enemies (2009): I sort half-watched this depression-era crime flick starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. It looked like it contributed very little to a genre that has already been thoroughly explored (most notably by The Untouchables).

The Damned United (2009): very enjoyable biopic on mercurial football manager Brian Clough's unsuccessful stint at the helm of Leeds United.

Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001): great little doco-film on the surfing and skating scene in California in the 1970s. It's a fascinating insight that the whole "vertical" revolution in skating came about, at least partly, as a result of a long drought in California that caused swimming pools everywhere to dry up and thus become the perfect venues for skating innovation.

Sweet Sixteen (2002): another in the "grim and bleak" category, this Ken Loach film is a sad coming-of-age story set in the working class slums of Glasgow. Worth a look.