Short Attention Span Review - FrackNation (2013)

FrackNation is a documentary looking at the fracking industry in America. Specifically, it was made in answer to Gasland, a 2010 anti-fracking documentary made by Josh Fox. The film's genesis seems to be a confrontation between Fox and the man who would eventually make FrankNation, Irish journalist Phelim McAleer. This is the confrontation, about one of Gasland's most arresting images, a man igniting the water coming out of his kitchen faucet, allegedly because of fracking.

FrackNation does a great job of deploying facts. In the former category, the filmmakers show how fracking works, how it is regulated, and debunk some of the misinformation that has sprung up around the industry. We see examples of how corrupt the media coverage has been. We get some useful info about how exaggerated the claims of seismic activity caused by fracking are. Most importantly, the film provides significant evidence that fracking does not containment groundwater.

There are also more emotional moments, the most poignant of which are a series of interviews with farmers who see fracking as a way to save their farms. And, the film ends with a dramatic - if generally accurate - look at how critical energy production is to modern civilization.

There are some surprising moments, like the interview with Carol Collier, former executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission. She comes across as a stereotype of a civil servant serving a narrow interest group instead of the poeple; in her case, Josh Fox and the anti-fracking movement. She makes herself look even worse by sending her department's lawyer to try and confiscate the interview footage because it makes her look bad.

There are some items that are less well-supported, such as allegations that anti-fracking groups in the West are being funded by the Russians to ensure Russia's domination of Europe's natural gas market. While this may be true, there is no evidence presented of this, although there is a lot of good info about how vulnerable Europe is to Russian manipulation due to its dependence on them for natural gas.

To be clear, this is as much an advocacy piece as Gasland. It is one that I happen to think is better researched and does a much better job of presenting a fact-based argument; but, I am biased since I am pro-fracking, as well as pro-solar, pro-wind, pro-nuclear...I'm for anything that increases the amount of the primary limiting resource for modern civilization, power. However, as with any work that advocates a certain position, you need to keep in mind that information will be presented that supports whatever the thesis is.

Fracking is one of the most important issues of our day. It holds great promise for the long-term health of the both the US economy and for global civilization; but, like any technology, it has problems that need to be addressed. You need to do more than watch just Gasland or FrackNation. However, these are not bad places to start. Check out Gasland, then check out FrackNation. See these as the start of your education.

Although, I think you'll find that FrackNation is closer to the truth.

A Little Short Fiction

So, I run a writing group. Every 6 - 8 weeks, I send out writing prompts and we all write something. Then we get together, read and critique what we've written, get drunk and pass out in a pool of our own awesomeness. This time around, a friend of mine came up with the following prompt, in honor of the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (9Nov89).

"And there you have it, a historical day for Germany and for Europe as the Berlin Wall has been opened."

Helmut muted the triumphant voice of the television. He turned to his guest with a somewhat quizzical expression and a simple question.

"What now?”

And here's what I came up with. It's short (329 words) so I thought "Hey, put it out there; someone might like it." Enjoy.

---

9 November 1989, East Berlin.

"And there you have it, a historical day for Germany and for Europe as the Berlin Wall has been opened."

Helmut muted the triumphant voice of the television. He turned to his guest with a somewhat quizzical expression and a simple question.

"What now?”

The man that Helmut knew only as Dimitri was all smiles. “This is a great moment, comrade. I never thought I’d live to see the day that the West would surrender.”

Helmut understood Dimitri’s feelings. The divide between East and West had seemed permanent. Helmut assumed that future historians would find those moments when the fall of the capitalists was decided. Would it be American defeats in Vietnam, Central America, and Mexico? The failure of the West to recover from the economic collapse in the wake of Israel nuking Syria and Egypt? President Mondale’s decision to unilaterally disarm? The Soviet victory in Afghanistan and the subsequent liberation of the Persian Gulf states? The collapse of NATO following the Green Revolution in West Germany?

Helmut caught himself and smiled. Now just Germany, he thought.

For now, it really didn’t matter. Europe had come to its senses and joined their socialist comrades. America would have to follow suit or disintegrate. Helmut had read reports of socialist movements in New York, California and Michigan that were preparing for secession. The course charted by Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Beria, and Andropov had led to the dawn of a socialist future, he thought. Still, there was one nagging, more personal concern.

“Well, what about us?”

Although it seemed unlikely, Dimitri’s smile actually widened. “They’ll always be work for men like us. As long as there are enemies of the People, the state will need the KGB,” he clapped his hand on Helmut’s shoulder, “and the Stasi. Now, let’s get that bottle of Stolichnaya I know you have in the freezer and go celebrate. It looks like one hell of a party out there.”

Helmut grinned. It sure does, he thought.

Happy Trailers - Chappie (2015)

Neill Blomkamp has made two feature-length movies. Movie one District 9 is a great sci-fi alt-history, one I never tire of watching. Movie two is Elysium which has some nice moments and visuals, but a terrible story, boring characters and far too many plot-holes to overlook.

Next year, we get movie three, Chappie. From the trailer, it appears that Chappie is a damaged police robot, recovered, repaired and somehow given artificial intelligence. The movie seems to follow the emerging AI as it tries to create an identity, while being hunted by people who see it as a threat.

Visually, the movie looks good. Blomkamp is good at creating immersive worlds, places you want to see more of, that seem realistic enough that you can speculate about what is happening around the corner without seeing it. From the trailer, you can't get a sense of the acting, although there are some heavy hitters in the cast (Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver). The blonde chick is South African rapper Anri du Toit; we'll see how that casting decision goes.

One problem I have with the story as presented is the resemblance to Short Circuit. While there are a lot of movies (not to mention books, comics, etc) about emerging AIs, these two films seem to track pretty closely. In Short Circuit, Number Five is a combat robot who suffers damages from a lightening strike that damages his software, allowing him to become self-aware. After meeting Ally Sheedy (one of my childhood cinema crushes), he eventually decides that he does not want to go back to the military, because they will "kill" him.

Given what we see in the trailer, this film seems a lot like that. There's nothing inherently wrong with telling the same basic story; however, it does make me wonder if Blomkamp is the best choice as a writer (I have no doubts about his abilities as a visual director). I'm encouraged by the fact that his District 9 co-writer Terri Tatchell is on this project, whereas Blomkamp was solely responsible for Elysium's terrible story. Hopefully, the resemblance to Short Circuit is superficial and that Chappie has something new and interesting to say about mankind's relationship to technology and how we treat the other. If not...well, at least it'll look nice.

Star Wars VII Gets A Title

"The Force Awakens." Why was it napping? Is it because the average age of the cast is 87?

I was excited back in the Nineties when Lucas announced The Phantom Menace. I really was. After the story-telling abortion of the prequels, I have a hard time getting excited about even more Star Wars movies. And, having it directed by J.J. Abrams is not a draw for me. I'm expecting another Pepsi-and-Pop-Rocks fueled festival of lens flare, swooping cameras, and a disregard for telling any kind of interesting or engrossing story.

I'm sure the effects will be fine. They'll probably be some exciting action sequences. But after films like Super-8 and Star Trek: Into Darkness I have little confidence in Abrams delivering a film with anything other than the most cursory and cookie-cutter story and characters needed to justify a two-hour-long orgy of people running around and space-ships exploding. And I want more than that.

Free Games!!!!!

How did I miss that the Internet Archive has a browser based emulator for some sweet coin-ops from the 1980s? It must be all the paint I've been huffing lately.

Anyway, there are some great titles here - Bosconian, Star Trek, Discs of Tron, Timepilot, Galaga and Galaxian....I'm having a flashback to my childhood and the hundreds of hours spent in arcades. The keyboard controls aren't the greatest; but, we're talking about hundreds of free games. do you really want to be the guy who looks a gift horse in the mouth?

Actually, I don't want to look at any horse's mouth. Childhood horse trauma.

Grab a roll of quarters, slip on your Walkman headphones and start playing.

Bonus: There was a time when coin-op video games inspired sings. My favorite - "Froggy's Lament" from the album Pac Man Fever. Enjoy.

Short Attention Span Review - Snowpiercer (2013)

Set on a perpetual motion train in the frozen future of 2031, Snowpiercer is not a movie to examine logically. Really, the premise is pretty silly and there are a lot of questions that the story raises that go unanswered. However, if you approach the movie as a fable, a story with moral messages, then it holds together pretty well. It helps that some of the leads (Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton) turn in solid performances, the action scenes are intense and the set and costume design is believable.

After a hair-brained attempt to stop global warming goes awry and causes a new ice age, a tiny segment of humanity exists on a train, one that navigates path across every continent (except Antarctica). The passengers exist in a strict class system with those farthest from the engine live in squalor, the middle classes occupying the "working cars" (food production, water purification, train systems) in the middle and the decadent upper class living in drug dens and sauna cars in the front. This is not a subtle story.

Curtis (Chris Evans), one of those dwelling in the rear, organizes a revolution and manages to fight his way to the engine, losing most of his followers along the way. He confronts the train designer, Wilford (Ed Harris). Wilford explains that the entire revolt had been planned by himself and Curtis' mentor, Gilliam (John Hurt) as a way to cut down on excess population and maintain equilibrium on the train. Wilford offers Curtis the job of being the new engineer, keeping the train running and humanity alive. For a moment, he almost agrees. Then he finds out that children from the tail of the train are being used to replace worn out parts of the engine. He helps drug addict/train security system developer Namgoong (Song Kang-ho) and his stoner/possibly psychic daughter Yona (Go Ah-sung) blow a hole in the side of the train. Curtis also damages the engine by jamming his arm into the mechanism. The explosion causes an avalanche, destroying the train. Yona and five-year-old Timmy (Marcanthonee Reis) are the only survivors. As they emerge from the wreckage, they spot a polar bear in the distance. The End.

The end of the movie...and of the human race. This is a pretty bleak film. Starting with the attempt to manipulate the environment (something some people actually want to do; read more about climate engineering) everyone makes bad decisions, often for good reasons. In the context of the train, the first mistake was letting people like Curtis on in the first place. The train was set up as a closed system, but, for some reason, Wilford let one thousand extra people on-board. Wilford's overseers, led by Mason (the incredible Tilda Swinton) think they are doing what is necessary to ensure the survival of the human race. If that means taking children and using them as slave labor, so be it. Curtis and his followers think they are going to win a better life for themselves; but given the conditions on the train, it is hard to see how that would work. Even if successful, they would just become another ruling class (the end result of most proletarian revolutions). The final result of all these choices; the extinction of humanity.

I've read some analyses of the film claiming it is anti-capitalist; maybe that's what the filmmakers intended. But, it seems much more pro-middle class than anything else. The poor - those in the rear - produce nothing. They are not proles in the sense of laborers; they are an indigent class, on the dole. They are the restless hordes of the welfare state, something that is a hallmark of the social welfare state. The rich are shown to be equally worthless. It is the middle class - the farmers, repairmen, security personnel and the like - who actually do the things necessary to keep everyone alive. In addition, it is a productive capitalist, Wilford, who develops the means for survival, the Engine. The film makes it clear that the only government program mentioned - the attempt at climate engineering - is a disaster. It is also clear that the system in place on the train is not a liberal, free-market democracy; it has more in common with a tyrannical prison-state like North Korea (no surprise since director Bong Joon-Ho is from South Korea).

In this sense, the movie is actually pretty pro-free market, at least as far as it deals with functional economics, class mobility and political freedom. It is an alliance between the productive capitalist and the middle class that keeps the train functioning. It eventually falls apart when the rich (who produce nothing) and poor (who have nothing) clash. It also shows what happens when the productive capitalist becomes enamored with the product of the free-market system (represented by the Engine), but allows the actual system, and the inherent risks to power and wealth necessitated by social-ecnomic mobility and dispersed political power, to atrophy.

To enjoy the film, you have to accept the premise and not nit-pick the film; this is not hard science fiction. What it is, is a thought provoking mediation on political and economic philosophy, punctuated by ax fights, wrapped up in the trappings of sci-fi. Anyway, check the film out.

Dawn of the Dead Opening Sequence, Fan Edit

And that fan is me. This shows you what you can do with Final Cut, access to riot videos on YouTube, and way too much free time. Oh, and a love for one of the best opening credit sequences ever made.

So, I stuck with the original length and soundtrack. I originally thought about using the full version of Johnny Cashes "The Man Comes Around" but thought four-and-a-half minutes might be a bit much. I also kept some of the original footage. Hope you enjoy it. It was fun to make and I did learn about some of the neat features that FCPX offers.

Halloween Moviefest 2014 - Trick R Treat

I just did a review of this film so there is not much more to say. Expect I never get tired of watching it. And it is awesome. And, if you don't like it, the terrorists win.

One thing that I don't think I mentioned was the opening credits. They are done in comic book style and set the while Creepy/Eerie/Tales From The Crypt tone of the film.

Update: Forgot the part where the kid barfs right into the camera. Yuck.

Update: Also, there's a great scene where Sam, the Halloween demon, is walking down some stairs, dragging a sack and you can hear cats meowing with each thump.

Update: If someone says something "stinks like a dead whore"is he being colorful...or is he speaking from experience? Hmmm....

Update: I love the horrified looks on the kids faces when they come across the adult costume party/orgy.

Update: Halloween School Bus Massacre sounds like it should be a movie title. Or the name of a death metal band.

Update: Foreshadowing through wheezing. Nice touch.

Update: Uggh....nasty compound fracture make-up. Grossest part of the film.

Halloween Moviefest 2014

Every year, right around Halloween, I have a marathon movie session. People come over, we eat, drink and watch lots of sci-fi and horror. This year, today is that day. Here's the line-up:

• Trick R Treat
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose
• Edge of Tomorrow
• American Mary
• Black Swan
• Prince of Darkness
• The Last Exorcism
• The Exorcist

Plus trailers, shorts, and other Halloween related stuff. I'll be posting as I go, so, check back and see what you are all missing.

Potentially Disappointing News About American Horror Story

Series creator Ryan Murphy, during an interview with Entertainment Weekly revealed that all of the season of American Horror Story are interconnected.

Ugh.

I liked having each season as an independent entity, an examination of different themes and tropes in the horror genre. With Murphy's statement, does that mean there is one big universe with aliens, ghosts, witches, evil clowns and demons? does that mean we have multiple Jessica Lange's running around? Are all the Dylan McDermott's connected?

I hope this is more of a thematic statement or that there are little Easter Eggs in each season. But, that does not seem to be the case. Here's the question and answer;

So you’re saying that season four is connected to season one?
They’re all connected. We’re just beginning to tell you how they’re connected. They’re all very separate but there’s clues every season that we’re now telling you how the different worlds are intertwined.

"[A]ll very separate but...the different worlds are intertwined." What does that mean, exactly?

Oh, wait, I know what it means; it means I have to re-watch every episode and figure out how they all are inter-related. Thanks a lot, Mr. Murphy, for forcing me to watch this awesome series once again.

Seriously, I have my doubts about this. I also wonder if his statement will lead to some retconning. Did the show's creative team really think "hey, every season is interconnected" before they even knew there would be multiple seasons? Are we going to get something like the collapse of Chris Carter's X-Files "alien mythology" when it became clear that he had never fully thought out that plot-line? Not everything needs a huge meta-story; I thought the initial concept of American Horror Story was brilliant. It may turn out that the season interconnections are subtle and unimportant. It may also turn out that the ties are deep, important and well-developed, in which case, I'll be writing an article saying "Ryan Murphy is a frickin' genius!"

Right now, I'll just adopt a wary stance and see what happens.