Saturday, June 30, 2012

[Freya-dæg] The Wrath of the Titans More Effective Than Their Clashing

{The Wrath of the Titans's movie poster, found on Wikipedia.}

Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

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Plot Summary

The age of gods is fading and the age of men is dawning. But on the cusp of this change, a threat lingers. Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Ares (Édgar Ramírez) have cut a deal with the leader of the Titans (and Zeus (Liam Neeson), Poseidon (Danny Huston), and Hades' father), Kronos, and are working to revive him so that he may plunge the world of man into chaos.

Fearing the worst, Zeus appeals to his son, Persues the Kraken slayer (Sam Worthington). Since his heroic deeds of a decade past, Perseus has lost his beloved wife Io (not featured in this film), and been raising his son Helius in a simple fishing village. Hoping to keep his oath to his departed wife that he will never let his son Helius (John Bell) wield a sword, Perseus reluctantly joins Zeus in the fight against Hades and Ares - but will it be enough to soothe the Wrath of the Titans?

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The Good

The best thing about this movie is that it is definitely an improvement over the first - Clash of the Titans (read my review here).

The story is told in a better fashion, character conflicts are better handled, and the graphics are improved to the point where there are only a few flawed frames and textures.

The story is told in a way that's similar to Clash of the Titans. Where that movie had an unbalanced pair of parallel plots, Wrath of the Titans presents a much more balanced pair. Not only do we see what's happening with Perseus and his quest for the Spear of Triam, but we also see enough of what's happening with Ares and Hades and Zeus to care about it.

And within that divine trio, there is some definite drama in the conflict between Zeus and Hades. This drama comes mostly from Hades' having a decent motive to fight Zeus - he holds a grudge for being banished to the underworld when the gods were still young and sorting the universe out. This explanation doesn't gel with the original myth, wherein Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades simply draw lots for the realms of air, sea, and underworld, but it's at least something.

The conflict between Perseus as an unbeliever and reluctant demi-god and his father Zeus is also fairly well-done, considering the sort of movie this is and its obviously teenaged male key demographic. *spoilers*Especially poignant is the scene in which Zeus dies, as it packs an unexpected amount of dramatic punch for a movie that is otherwise entirely action-driven.*/spoilers*

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The Bad

However, Wrath of the Titans is not a complete and entire improvement over Clash of the Titans.

While there's definitely a more balanced approach to storytelling in the more recent film, it still suffers from something rather noisome. It plays out far too much like a video game.

On the one hand this isn't necessarily a bad thing, there's nothing wrong with storytelling methods associated with one form of entertainment being used by another. But, at the same time, it isn't carried out in a fashion that's well-suited to the screen. The end result is heavy implication that this movie was produced with high hopes of (or maybe even because of) a movie tie-in game.

The plot follows the general "pyramid" or "arc" convention of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement. But, instead of having one climax, the movie tries to pull off two. This can be made to work through clever writing and plot twists, but this movie has neither.

The first climax is the reveal of Kronos at approximately the one hour mark, after an entire hour of buildup. Then, after this reveal of a slow-talking, slow-moving, lava-monster like thing (think the Nome King from Return to Oz, but on fire and less clever). And the second is a three-minute let-down of a fight involving Perseus, Pegasus, Kronos, and the unimpressive Spear of Triam (essentially a glowing stick).

{Kronos above, the Nome King below. Which is more terrifying? Image of Kronos from F*ck You: Idiosyncratic Wit and image of the Nome King from The Fourth Wall: A Television and Film Blog.}


Thus, just like so many action/adventure games and RPGs, the movie's 'exposition -> quest -> last minute complication -> more quest -> quest completed' plot arc is more suited to video gaming. Simply put, the false climax device is better suited to a medium where a good twist isn't needed to pull it off. Video games can make a much better use of this sort of device since good gameplay can pull in players to the point where storytelling becomes truly secondary. Experimentation is good, but this one is definitely a failure.

Characters don't suffer quite so much, at least in their portrayal, but there's a glaring absence in this movie. There are only three named women, and one of them has only a smile for a line.

Those other named women are Andromeda (Rosamund Pike) and Io, who doesn't even appear in the movie. The one who does, Andromeda, is essentially present to balance Perseus' party. She is underdeveloped (it's not clear who she's fighting, how she knows where Kronos is going to come from after he's freed, nor is the romantic tension between her and Perseus properly established).

In fact, it's fair to say that she's just in the movie because all action films need a femme fatale, and all the more if she can wear a completely impractical leather sleeveless top and skirt (skirt!) - which she does throughout the entire hour and a half running time of the movie.

However, the sense that there was a "No Girls Allowed" sign hung over this movie during its production and editing is solidified when Hephaestus mentions Aphrodite, but makes no mention whatsoever about catching her and Ares in an adulterous embrace. This would have made Hephaestus' motives for helping Perseus and his party so much stronger, since it wouldn't just be a matter of saving the world, but some revenge could also be involved.

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Judgment

Wrath of the Titans is a fine action film that is squarely aimed at teenaged boys who likely spend most of their time playing the standard sort of FPSs and western RPGs that are full of male/male conflict and warrior women clad in armor that would only protect them from torso-aimed dodgeballs.

But, if you can set that aside, it's a decent enough movie that actually does get inches deeper than most others in the genre, and that is a definite improvement on its predecessor.

But is it improved enough?

Not quite. Some real effort has been put into improving this movie, but without a well-portrayed female lead, or a fully engaging plot, this film falls flat.

Freya, fly low and take a look, but smile or frown, leave this one down in the field of fallen films.

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Closing

Check back here next week for another piece of creative writing, an editorial on the newest news, and part one of Nic Cage month - a month of looking for the good in some of the lowest rated efforts of the action star. And of course, Tuesday and Thursday will host more annotated links.

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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Annotated Links #3: Invasive Technology

1. 1. Robbins, Gary. "UCSD camera lens can see everyone in a stadium." U-T San Diego 22 June 2012. Web. 28 June 2011.

In a project led by Duke University, UC San Diego has helped to develop a lens for a camera that can take 1-gigapixel images of large spaces. The project is funded by U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and designed primarily for 'surveillance, wildlife observation and sports coverage.' The article is written in a plain style with ample use of quotations.

2. Finnegan, Matthew. "Pigment discovery makes biological chips possible." TechEye.net 27 June 2012. Web. 28 June 2012.

Scientists from the University of Queensland believe that melanin could bridge electronics and human biology because of its ability to switch electrical charges from electrons, essential to electronics, to ions, essential to human biological functioning, and vice versa. The article is a dense summary of information, and written in a straightforward style.

3. Gaudin, Sharon "Google looks to make science fiction real with Glasses." Computerworld 28 June 2012. Web. 28 June 2012.

Google has launched their glasses, wearable computers that are equipped with a processor, memory, cameras, microphones and speakers. The glasses will sell for $1,500 at first, but then Sergey Brin, the co-founder and CEO of Google, is optimistic that they will be offered to the general public for a lower price in 2014. The article is a summary of an interview with Brin that is rich in quotations.

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Closing

Check back here tomorrow for a hunt for the good in Wrath of the Titans.

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Wednesday, June 27, 2012

[Wōdnes-dæg] Ebooks: Easing Working as a Writer

Introduction
The Article Summed Up
Not New, But Great
Publishing's Next Stage and Mainstream Acknowledgement
Closing

{A simple and intriguing image, from a simply intriguing blog: These Are My Days....}


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Introduction

On the front page of the Globe and Mail Arts section of Wednesday 27 June 2012, is an article about a 14,000 word ebook and what it means for journalism, as well as for writers more generally.

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The Article Summed Up

The article delves into the story behind Paula Todd's ebook about Karla Homolka, Finding Karla. Todd discovered that Homolka has been living in Guadeloupe with three young children, and wanted to get the story out more quickly than the standard months-long magazine publishing schedule permits.

So, she published her story as an ebook with Amazon. It's been in the top 10 list of Kindle Singles since its release on Thursday. Combine that ranking with the price tag of $3, and Todd must be seeing some tidy returns on her three-week, NaNoWriMo-like efforts

Simon Houpt, the article's writer, then goes on to explain and illustrate that this means that writers can take back some of the power - and the profits - that they formerly had to relinquish to publishers. Specifically, he notes that ebooks have helped writers to fight for the electronic rights to their works.

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Not New, But Great

This is great news.

Not because it's anything especially new, but because this information's being printed in a high profile newspaper suggests that indie authors can expect to get a little bit more cred in the publishing industry. This is definitely a good thing, since those who take the ebook route are generally painted with a very broad brush previously dipped in a wide, deep pot of scorn by more than a few in the mainstream publishing industry.

Though there are some who might validly argue that along with the market for ebooks, a market for ebook editors needs to be established.

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Publishing's Next Stage and Mainstream Acknowledgement

One article is not going to change that entirely, but the acknowledgement of indie authors' successes does suggest that traditional media and those representing it are starting to take ebooks seriously.

Does this mean that indie authors might not be able to add that adjective to their title soon? Likely not.

The printing press made it possible to create multiple copies of a book relatively quickly and cheaply. This meant that more people could put their ideas and stories to paper - hence the propagation of pamphlets and broadsheets and books from the 16th century onwards. But using a press is a process that requires time, special training, and specialized equipment.

E-publishing requires nothing so hard to get and efficiently operate as a printing press. It just requires a computer capable of word processing and connecting to the internet. More and more people are able to say that they have this equipment, and so there are more and more e-books being published on a daily basis.

So many are these e-authors, in fact, that the ebook industry might just be impossible to regulate in the same way as the traditional sort of publishing is with its queries and editors and budget considerations.

So, the "indie" label isn't going anywhere. But just as the case has been with indie musicians going mainstream, the growing recognition of ebooks as a serious alternative source for longer pieces of writing means that it may just get easier for indie authors to go mainstream.

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Closing

Check back here on Friday for a hunt for the good in Wrath of the Titans, and tomorrow for another edition of Annotated Links.

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Annotated Links #2: Science (Fiction)

1. O'Neil, Lauren. "Google brain simulator learns to identify cats on the internet." CBC 26 June 2012. Web. 27 June 2012.

All about a "Google Brain" that can recognize a cat after constructing the concept of the animal from randomly viewed YouTube videos. This piece of technology, consisting of 16,000 computer processors, was developed by Google's X Laboratory, the research facility responsible for augmented reality glasses, self-driving cars, and a slew of other projects involving computer programming. It is written in a straightforward fashion, and is a fine example of classic, mostly objective reporting.

2. Linster, The. "The best women authors of science fiction and fantasy: Who's on your list?" After Ellen 25 June 2012. Web. 27 June 2012.

This article presents a list of six of the best female fantasy/science fiction writers inspired by a list commemorating Octavia Butler's 65th birthday that can be found at Flavorwire. The list ranges from Octavia Butler to J.K. Rowling, presenting the highlights of each author's work. The article is written in a casual style that makes regular use of the first person.

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Closing

Check back here tomorrow for an editorial on some of the newest news, and on Friday for a hunt for the good in Wrath of the Titans.

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Monday, June 25, 2012

[Moon-dæg] Parody Reporting, Gold, and Laughter

Preamble
Billionaires Breathe Comedy Gold
Closing

{Forget gold mining, today's bit of writing reveals a more sought for metal. Image from portableantiquities on Flickr via Fotopedia.}




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Preamble

Tonight's piece of creative writing is another that came from the local writing group. It was written in response to an exercise where we each had to name a despicable person and either defend or incriminate that person. The person we were writing about at the time was one Kevin O'Leary, a periodically controversial entrepreneur, investor, and TV personality.

I must have been thinking about a particular root vegetable when this was written on the night of 20 November 2011, because my writing took the form of parody reporting. So some things may have been exaggerated for effect.

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Billionaires Breathe Comedy Gold

It appears that in a world where jobs are scarce, resources are being eaten up, and reasons for laughter seem few and far between, there is a ray of hope.

Billionaires like Mr. Kevin O'Leary.

Good, kind, old, "I like money" O'Leary is one of the few things that comedians can still use to connect to the common man, woman, and child. These brave people of the punchline - never out of work themselves it seems - are able to use figures like Mr. O'Leary for a nearly inexhaustible supply of funnies.

"In this tough economic time, I'm just glad that there are still some fat cats for us to still poke fun at," said Lana von Opsidoodle. "It's really taken the pressure off in our search for material. And, finally the plight of African children working in ridensium mines across that continent have been heard. Mr. O'Leary and those like him are real heroes to us. And to those kids."

Ridensium is a rare metal found only in places that were once rife with hyenas. Scientists say that the animals' hilarious barks echoed off the walls for centuries, infusing them with what they like to call "pure funny."

"We were very near a ridensium shortage" Dr. Arno Leggit said at a recent press conference. He explained further that "Hyenas are nearly extinct because of people like Jamie Oliver and Chet McCooks who lauded the animal for its nutritional value and steak-like taste. So the mines were just about tapped out and no new ones have been discovered."

In a later interview Professor Legit was quoted as saying "I think Mr. O'Leary should get more money. Now we can free the slave workers of African ridensium mines, clean up those governments, and maybe bring back the majestic howl of the hyena."

Yet ridensium mines aren't just filled with laughter. They're also popular lion hangouts since along with the animal's sound, the rocks are also rife with the hyenas' scent. Therefore, lions frequent the caves in the hopes of finding there what has long since been absent from the savannah.

As of press time, Mr. O'Leary is slated to receive a large novelty check from the president. The nation's comedians are reportedly standing at the ready.

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Closing

Check back here Wednesday for an article on the newest news and on Friday for a hunt for the good in Wrath of the Titans. Also check this blog out on Tuesday and Thursday for more "Annotated Links."

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Saturday, June 23, 2012

[Freya-dæg] All About The Last Airbender

{The Last Airbender's movie poster, found on Wikipedia.}


Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

M. Night Shyamalan, a director best known for movies like The Sixth Sense and The Village should stick to what he knows, or at the least to doing what he does best: creating an engrossing plot that strings the audience along until they reach some crucial twist.

Not only is adaptation outside of his wheelhouse, so too are movies where his signature twist is missing. Put the two together, and, somehow, you get the live action adaptation of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Last Airbender

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Plot Summary

Based on the idea that each of the “books” referred to in the title cards of the animated series could be turned into a movie, The Last Airbender follows the plot of “Book One: Water.”

For those unfamiliar with the Nickelodeon show about a world where people can bend water, earth, fire, and air to their will, this section of the story introduces Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) of the Southern water tribe shortly before they discover Aang (Noah Ringer) frozen in a glacier with his sky bison. He winds up freed from the ice, and after a brief encounter with the reviled Fire Nation, the three of them set out to help Aang realize his potential as the Avatar, the one who holds the four elemental forces of the world in check.

Ultimately, Aang, Katara, and Sokka end up at the city of the Northern Water Tribe, so that Aang can master water bending, and also so that they can help to defend it from an upcoming Fire Nation assault. As General Jao (Aasif Mandvi) of the Fire Nation plots to kill the spirits of the moon and ocean, thus robbing the water tribe of its bending power, defeat looms over the last truly free city in the world and only our three heroes can help to avert it.

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The Good

As you might expect from a movie about a world where people can bend the elements to their will with movements that Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan would be proud of, the choreography in this movie is decent. And the effects are fairly well done. Whatever else may be said about it, it has no shortage of spectacle. Especially when the fire and the water fly in the final battle.

Also, and this was more a surprise than anything else, but Dev Patel does a good job of playing the brooding, exiled Fire Nation prince Zuko. His character is softened, but it's still really obvious that he's absolutely brimming with conflicting hatreds and loyalties and desires.

Aasif Mandvi's appearance was also a very pleasant surprise. He didn't play anything up for laughs, and a movie based on an animated series (other than Avatar: The Last Airbender) might not be expected to offer up the chance to show your dramatic chops, but he definitely hits it out of the park as General Jao.

{The Daily Show's Senior Hollywood Correspondent goes a little too deep undercover for his exposé on bad adaptations. Image from a screen capture}



Seychelle Gabriel also works well as Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe – she even puts some feeling into her lines.

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The Bad

Cool World is not a very good movie. However, having seen The Last Airbender, it seems as though the quotation used to introduce The Bad in it was used too soon.

The biggest problem with this movie is the absolutely bizarre pronunciations of names and things that are pronounced in entirely different ways in the animated show.

Where the series pronounces Aang as “(r)ANG,” and Sokka as “Sock-ah,” the director of the movie (Mr. M. Night himself) has them changed to “Ah-ng” and “So-ka.” At one point, a character even refers to the "Yang" in "Yin and Yang" as “Yah-ng.” So, first off, why not just follow the pronunciation that fans have become familiar with over the course of three television seasons?

The next biggest problem (a very close contender for the title) is that all of the character arcs that are presented throughout the show's many episodes are almost entirely shaved away to make sure that this movie is feature length. This is an understandable change, but, if The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask teaches one thing about building character, it's that it can be done in a limited space and a limited time.

Rather than trying to pack the movie with all of the side plots and diversions that the show presents so wonderfully, why not just have Aang, Katara, and Sokka interact with people in the Northern Water Tribe city as stand-ins for the characters they meet in the show? It'd even be possible to just move some of those characters into the city so that they could still be interacted with.

To be fair, the movie doesn't try to pack everything in, but it skips over so many key moments for character development that the characters are left to develop through dialog that's not only written so it conveys almost no subtlety but that's often delivered as if it's being read for the first time.

Dev Patel works well as Zuko, and Seychelle Gabriel does an alright job of playing Yue, but the actor that was cast as Sokka just doesn't seem to get it. In the show, Sokka is a goofball of an older brother who's always hatching plans and making schemes that have some hole or other in them. He isn't solely a comic relief character, but he often is the one that audiences are meant to laugh at – at least early in the series.

As the three travel together and their characters develop, Sokka does become more serious, but that seriousness is always undercut with a bad pun or a silly gag. Instead of this nuance, Jackson Rathbone plays Sokka as some kind of straight man who hardly ever smiles. And when he does – especially when Yue is telling him about how she died when she was born and is alive because the Moon Spirit gave her its life – it's really poorly timed.

{Maybe Rathbone's Sokka is off because his timing, the heart of comedy, is off. Image from a screen capture.}



Aang and Katara are a little bit better, but again, because we see them in so few situations compared to the show, they aren't as nuanced as they are in the original. Aang's Monkey-King-like energy and playfulness are replaced by a more sullen, “I-don't-wanna-be-the-Avatar-because-then-I-can't-have-a-family” nature, and Katara is, well, just Katara. By the end of the first book in the series, it was already clear that there was some chemistry between these two characters, but in the movie there's practically nothing to suggest this.

Mercifully, Zuko's absolutely mad sister Azula, is only shown briefly in only two scenes. But, these two scenes set her up as more of a giggly little girl than as the scheming, psychologically twisted monster that she is in the series.

And, to end on a minor detail, a running joke in the series is that everywhere Aang, Katara, and Sokka go, they wind up upsetting a man's cabbage cart. Even the new series Avatar: The Legend of Korra, includes a scene where a cabbage man is dispossessed of his cabbages.

It might be fan service, but it would at least show the fans that you care about something that they admire, Mr. M. Night. And, including the scene would also have assured people familiar with the series that you had actually watched it and not just written your script based on some sort of terribly truncated SparkNotes summary.

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Judgment

The Last Airbender is not the movie it could have been.

Now, it's unrealistic to expect any filmmaker to be able to condense 20 episodes of a television show (about 6 hours and 40 minutes) down into something that's less than two hours while retaining things like characters, a coherent story, and a fully realized world. But there are ways that such an adaptation could have been made to work.

The discovery of Aang could have happened during the opening credits. Then a voice over could give the background of the setting and what had happened up to x-point as the characters did something (maybe fly somewhere on Appa, or walk between villages with a group of people trailing them since Aang is, you know, the Avatar and all). From there, most of the movie could be based in the Northern Water Tribe city with flashbacks to fill any gaps, fully realized relationships with the city's inhabitants to develop characters, and simply more dialog that revealed the story in an organic way, rather than lines that even the actors seem to balk at from time to time.

Unfortunately, M. Night Shyamalan's adaptation was not so bold as to make this many changes. Instead, he seems to have taken a more scissor-happy approach, trimming away everything excess until only the bare outline of the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender's plot remains.

Some of the actors were definitely well picked, and the spectacle that the movie offers is quite impressive. But the four elements of Patel, Gabriel, Mandvi, and spectacle alone aren't enough to save the world of water, earth, fire, and air.

Freya, feel free to shed a tear as you fly over this one, but do no more save let it remain.

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Closing

Check back here next week for more creative writing, an editorial on the newest news, and a hunt for the good in, and hopeful redemption of, another generally despised movie.

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Thursday, June 21, 2012

Annotated Links #1: Ladies and Medievalism

Why is this here?

"Annotated Links" is a new feature here on the blog. It's being started in part to share links that readers might find interesting, and to get more stuff posted here while also helping me to keep some time free for other projects.

Expect 2-3 links every Tuesday and Thursday, complete with annotation. And, in the interest of cohesion, these links will share at least some small thing in common.

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The Links

1. Debnath, Neela. "Interview with ‘Game of Thrones’ star Natalia Tena." The Independent (Blog) 13 June 2012. Web. 22 June 2012

An article about an interview that the author held with Natalia Tena at Collectormania 2012. Tena argues for more male nudity in a Game of Thrones for the sake of equality in the series. Debnath also asks about Tena's other current projects. The author approaches a Game of Thrones from a second hand perspective.

2. "Catholic nuns: Taking on Rome and Republicans." Al-Jazeera 21 June 2012. Web. 22 June 2012

A quick summary of why Catholic nuns are opposing the Republican budget. It gives the perspective of Congressman Paul Ryan extensively, while giving a sense of the opposition to the budget that extends beyond the nuns alone. Written in a direct style, this article provides an overview of several perspectives on the issue of the poor in America and what Catholic nuns should be doing, but does not go in depth with any of them. It also includes a 25 minute long video clip.

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Closing

Check back here tomorrow to read through my hunt for the good in The Last Airbender!

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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

[Wōdnes-dæg] Internet Superpower Google Alarmed by Growing Number of Removal Requests

Introduction
The Article Summed Up
A Brief Reminiscence, and how Things are Now
The Words of House Google
Search Engines: Naturally Democratic?
Closing

{Just like Nintendo with its Hanafuda cards, before they made it big Google had its postcards. Image from the Jo-Joe Politico blog.}



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Introduction

In the Globe and Mail of 20 June 2012, tucked into the right-hand side of page A3 was an article about Google. Specifically, about how Google has released its transparency report for the first half of 2012 and found an "alarming" trend.

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The Article Summed Up

According to the transparency report the number of requests from governments has increased by a quarter from last year (when Google began to notice censorship struggles). According to the 2012 report, 12,000 items were requested to be removed. These items ranged from videos to blog posts, most of which were political in nature.

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A Brief Reminiscence, and how Things are Now

This article indirectly presents an interesting state of affairs.

I can still remember when "Google" was a new thing, and how I was the one who turned a few of my friends onto it. Yet now the company has so much control over the internet. Such power might make some people nervous, but of all the internet-based properties search engines might make the most benign internet overlords.

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Search Engines: Naturally Democratic?

Search engines exist to help people find content. Content mills are in full swing despite many objections from writers, readers, and almost everyone else. People are always creating more and more blogs. Videos, photos, and music are all being constantly uploaded to said blogs, or to countless other websites.

It's in a search engine's best interest to help make sure that people can create a wide variety of content, and to help keep freedom of speech in tact as much as possible.

If content was completely curtailed and all political, or contentious, or controversial things were blocked from search engines they would lose a lot of their current influence. People would find ways to access content that didn't involve search engines, either going back to sharing content exclusively via direct links, or coming across some other means of spreading around what they had to say. And with these other ways of sharing and finding content, the heart of search engines' power, their search algorithms, would lose more and more importance.

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The Words of House Google

At the same time, it's hard to dispute Google's dominance among search engines (although it's quite a bit behind almost everyone else on the social network front - it seems Google+ is still a mystery to many).

Monopolies are never good, and there are alternatives (e.g.: Microsoft's Bing, GoodSearch, and Yahoo!), but a company with "Don't be evil," as its unofficial motto is bound to live by those words, right?

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Closing

Check back here on Friday for a hunt for the good in The Last Airbender.

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Monday, June 18, 2012

[Moon-dæg] A Poetic Turn for Mondays

The Change Up
Still the Same old Moon-dæg
The Poem's Intro
The General Lee Stanza Suite
Closing

{This General Lee can definitely make any and all jumps, with a little "digital" help. Image from Toy Wonders, Inc.}



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The Change Up

Because A Glass Darkly is my general blog, I’ve decided to make it a little more general.

Up until now, Monday’s and Wednesday’s entries have been more or less the same - just editorials or opinions about current news of one sort or another. Though the suite of recipes back in February was a bit different from all that (interestingly Bibimbap proved the most popular dish).

So, in an effort to make this blog a broader spectrum of writing styles and to work some non-editorial/review stuff into it, Monday’s entries will now feature what’s included under the umbrella term “Creative Writing.” Sometimes poetry will be posted here, sometimes fiction. Eventually, it may include novel excerpts, eventually.

The content of Monday's entries is also changing in the hopes that it will free up more time so that I can put that extra time towards other projects.

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Still the Same old Moon-dæg

As per how this fits in with the blog's original conceit: The moon is very closely related to many magical practices and occurrences.

Creative writing, in the way it weaves devices and plots and characters together into something that causes some sort of response, is similar to some of the moon's magical aspects (think of the full moon's effect on lycanthropes). And that's the connection.

However, there may still be series or sequences of work spread out over weeks, not just standalone pieces.

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The Poem's Intro

Now then, for the inaugural “creative writing” entry, I present a poem written at a local writing group.

This piece was written based on an exercise involving a handful of random figures that one member of a group or meeting brings in. At this particular meeting these figures included a tiny plastic Millenium Falcon, a Superman figurine, a Strawberry Shortcake figurine, a generic wooden man on a peg, a board for the peg man, a green figurine of some sort, and a tiny, metal General Lee. The idea behind the exercise is to write based on whatever comes to mind when looking at the brought items - in any configuration.

This poem involves the figurines and models, but not entirely directly. This indirect inspiration is reflected in the poem's title.

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The General Lee Stanza Suite

Part 1: Prophecies of Playtime

Too much too much
Crowded like a stable when all the inns are full
This train of random figures is simply too much
What will the man in the red cape save?
Through what will the mercernary and new hope fly?
Where will the woman in the fragrant hat plant
her virtues and straws?

A green man will the red cape save
Through gravel and brush will the two fly
And on a block of solid flat wood -
made fertile by a plethora of mite corpses will
the lady plant.

The green man - lowing like cattle
at the prospect of lowering over his arm
something sharper than a knife - will be saved
Those two will leave the gravel and brush behind
And that woman will make all square with
the round man’s help.

The cape will flash and sharpness will shatter on the ground
Those two will land with a leap and a pulse higher than a
snacking pastry chef’s - back out more gravel and brush
And that woman, the round man, will stand as if the ground had
grooves and
smile, their bright red reward to see.

Part 2: Further Impressions

A lot will be written about figures -
images cast in plastic -
laying on a flat brown table
While from some other space

Music of the island plays and
a voice both bright and bawled
will make an announcement to fill
auditoriums.
Such words as that on which
books are made.

Any connection -
only as needed -
the Doctor and the Farmer
born and raised in
the pretty how town.

If you only knew of all
the plundering done
to swim upstream and
to reach that distant shore with more

Or with enough
So that in your
Wake diamonds and gems would shudder
and shake causing the river to

Undulate in
A bed muddi-
er than your hands at such an end.
No matter it all comes off a

'gainst a leaf still
caught in its tree
Plucked down and scraped across each palm:
You’ll need clean hands for the promised feasts.

(Composed on 20 December 2011)

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Closing

Check back here Wednesday for an article on the newest news, and on Friday for the hunt for the good in The Last Airbender.

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Friday, June 15, 2012

[Freya-dæg] A Whole Cool World Is Just too Aloof to Care About Explanations

{Cool World's movie poster; the first sign of things to come. Image from Wikipedia.}


Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing



Before Brad Pitt made it big, he starred in a number of TV movies and features that didn't make it to theaters. He was even on a few episodes of the hit series Dallas (check out Wikipedia for his full filmography).

One of the movies from this early part of Pitt's career is the Ralph Bakshi picture known as Cool World, a move that, just like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? in 1988, splices real footage with animation.

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Plot Summary

Immediately we're introduced to the movie's hero, Frank Harris (Brad Pitt), as he returns home to his mother after WWII. But, Frank's post-war life is cut short when he crashes his motorcycle after swerving to avoid a drunk couple in what might be a strange nod to Manos:The Hands of Fate. However, just as the ambulance pulls up, Dr. Vincent Whiskers brings Frank into the animated “Cool World.”

Skip ahead 47 years to 1992 and we meet Jack Deebs (Gabriel Byrne), the creator of Cool World, as he finishes off a prison sentence. But Jack's life isn't about to get any easier, since his most famous drawing, Holli Would (Kim Basinger), keeps bringing him into Cool World in the hopes of having him make her real. As Cool World's top cop, Frank can't let this happen, and a mad pursuit follows.

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The Good

It's always a welcome experience to see big stars in their early roles, and this is no exception. Pitt isn't fantastic here, but it's instructive to see someone like him in a movie like this. It inspires a certain amount of hope.

On the point of the power of individuals in movies, David Bowie also wrote a song for the movie entitled “Real Cool World.” It's a decent example of Bowie's work in the 90s, but it's precise part in this movie will be addressed later on.

As a Ralph Bakshi film, there's definitely a fair deal of trippy animation and visuals, which are good. But only up to a point.

Also, some neat ideas do come up over the course of the movie. Particularly in many of the early exchanges between Jack and Holli – the creator and the created. Actually the entire relationship between Cool World and the real world is rather interesting.

But. Neither of these ideas are particularly developed.

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The Bad

To quote the one-time open mic stand up comedian Doctor Pepper (Patton Oswalt repeats his best bit on Feelin' Kinda Patton): “I don't know where to start or where to begin.”

There are a lot of problems with this movie.

None of the mechanics of the universe are explained. We never get any more information about which came first, the Jack Deebs or the Cool World. We never know if Cool World was created by Jack Deebs from nothing, or if Cool World existed in some kind of realm of ideals and Jack simply pulled it into the real world with his comics.

There's never a reason given for why there are 47 years between the time when Frank gets pulled into Cool World and when Holli starts stirring up trouble.

We never get any real background or idea of what Frank's character is actually like.

We're never told why Holli wants to be made real aside from it allowing her to get power, and “be real.”

Too much time is spent on pointless animated vignettes that scream at the audience “Hey! We're in a cartoon world, isn't this wild!?”

But, on top of all this, the David Bowie song (part of the soundtrack that was better received by critics than the movie itself) is reserved until the end credits. It's not played in parts through the movie, it's not hinted at by any kind of guest appearance. It just plays over the end credits like a minstrel found by house hunters in a secluded closet.

In short, the first hour and fifteen minutes of the movie could be cut down to 20 and the only effect would be that this movie would be about 42 minutes long instead of 98.

{An apt expression to pull after watching Cool World. A screenshot from the movie.}



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Judgment

Cool World is a movie that presents a handful of neat ideas, but those ideas are hidden under sheets and cells of animation that do almost nothing to forward the plot.

This movie would have greatly benefited by starting with the chase scene at the hour and twenty minute mark, and then telling the story in flashbacks, or with some other sequential shuffling.

It also wouldn't have hurt if a reason was given for why it took 47 years for something to happen in Cool World with Holli, or why it took her until the end of Jack Deeb's prison sentence to start trying to get him to make her real.

Or even some kind of explanation of why Holli wanted to be real, and what the purpose and/or origin of a spike on top of a random Vegas hotel was would have helped. But, to quote the good Doctor Whiskers himself, “the spike...is beyond our understanding.” And so too is much of the motivation within and for this movie.

Freya, fly high, and when you pass over this one, make sure that you don't look down, unless there be a thick covering of cloud.

To help wash away the terrible taste of this movie from your mind, check out this music video for Bowser and Blue's “Just A Cartoon.” It does so much more with the idea of human/cartoon crossovers than the entirety of Cool World.

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Closing

Next week, check back here for another variation on Monday's entries, an article on the newest news, and a hunt for the good in M. Night. Shyamalan's The Last Airbender

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

[Wōdnes-dæg] Music Online: Product for Sale or Product of Passion?

{Image by Pablo Pablo Gonzalez at Elfwood.com.}




Introduction
The Article Summed Up
Pay vs. Passion
The Mass May Emphasize The Few
Closing


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Introduction

The internet is an amazing place. A place where people can find everything that they’re looking for or would care to look for. It’s a great place for business, and it lets musicians and artists and writers reach out to audiences well beyond the population of their immediate surroundings.

And getting things out to more eyes - especially when you pursue something in the arts - is essential. Having someone with the right connections see and enjoy what you create could lead to your being discovered, or at least to your picking up an important gig or job.

But an article in the Globe and Mail from Tuesday 12 June 2012 raises a counterpoint to this sort of optimism about the arts on the internet.

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The Article Summed Up

The article, ("A leg up for artists or a step back for the biz?" by Guy Dixon), is about the digital music provider TuneCore. It’s a service that hosts musicians' works for a flat fee and lets them sell these works without any commission being taken from sales.

So, instead of losing 30% of every sale as is the case with iTunes, musicians pay the $9.99 or $49.99 annual fee to host their song or album and then bank whatever profit comes their way.

Admittedly this sounds like a sweet system. Make more than your fee and production costs and you can see actual profit from your music. The site also provides a songwriting copyright registration service that can help artists see international royalties come in if their works are used in the right contexts for $49.99.

Plus, according to TuneCore’s Jeff Price, about 1000 artists made over $1000 in one month around February. As far as income from art goes, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

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Pay vs. Passion

Yet, the point that the article’s author raises, alongside Pete Townshend, is that services like TuneCore may get musicians paid, but they don’t guarantee that they’re “heard.” That is, it turns music from an artistic pursuit into something more monetarily driven, it takes out the creative feedback that bands might receive from a record label’s Artists and Repertoire (A&R) department or from listeners themselves.

And, Townshend notes, it’s this feedback that artistic people want. They want to know that what they’re doing is appreciated, and not just picked up on a whim and never really given a thorough listen.

That music becomes more commercial when it’s easier for people to get their music out there and sold without all of the barriers presented by record labels. After all, their taking their percentages and ownership of copyrights (neither of which TuneCore takes) is problematic.

If people are making music to make money rather than making music to make music, turning it into a way to live rather than a way of life, then there’s a risk run that the experience will be cheapened.

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The Mass May Emphasize The Few

However, the mass number of artists that services like TuneCorp enable won’t really affect music as an art form.

There will always be a mass of popular bands and musicians that appeal to a wide audience, but then there will always be those acts or artists that are iconic. The David Bowies, the They Might Be Giants, the Björks that really only sound better for all of their mediocre competitors.

After all, the more noise there is, the more harmonious and wonderful true music becomes. And the more musicians there are promoting and creating music, the more points of reference there will be to show just how great great musicians can be, making the medium much more accessible and more appealing to more people.

In fact, as more and more people successfully make music in capitalist terms, more and more people will be able to appreciate it since more people will be able to “get into it.”

The result of this nigh-on-utopic spread of musical appreciation is that more and more people will be able to find something that really appeals to them as individuals and as communities, strengthening the identities and confidence of all.

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Closing

Check back here on Friday for a search for the good in the Ralph Bakshi flop, Cool World.

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Monday, June 11, 2012

[Moon-dæg] Two Takes on North Korea - Part 4

Recap & Introduction
The Same
Basic Differences
Differences in War
Truly Curious
Wrap Up
Closing

{Where is that camera pointed, and what will it see? Image from the Agnes Kunze Society Hope Project website.}



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Recap & Introduction

Two weeks ago we looked at how the North American media reacted to the Bombardment of Yeonpyeong. Last week, we looked at the South Korean treatment of the same. So what’s the same? What’s different? And what can be told from all that? Let’s find out.

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The Same

Both North American and South Korean news sources covered the Five Ws: Who, What, When, Where, Why. This is practically a given, but an important thing to lay down. So both sources reported the facts, in one way or another. However, aside from this, there aren't many remarkable similarities between these two sets of articles.

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Basic Differences

North American coverage often buried its facts in analysis, and this analysis was always the core of the story. Why was Yeonpyeong bombarded? What was the North’s motivation for doing it? What does it all mean?

Because of this, North American news sources were much more likely to trumpet various conclusions: the North was growing hostile and dangerous, it was a show of power to help usher in Kim Jong Un’s ascension to power, it was deeply related to North Korea’s growing nuclear testing and supposed capabilities.

On the other hand, South Korean news sources stuck closer to the facts. They reported what happened, and sometimes added in extra details for various effects: official statements, personal anecdotes, etc.

Plus, no real assumptions were made in any of the South Korean sources looked at. Since the event directly affected them, South Koreans were more concerned, or interested in, what the attack meant for them specifically and what their leaders had to say about it.

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Differences in War

Curiously, though, none of the three North American sources that were looked at cited Kim Tae-Young, the South Korean Defense Minister, replied to a question about being at war by saying “Didn’t it start already? We must stop it from expanding.”

Since this quote appeared in an article from 23 November 2010, it wouldn’t have been difficult to work it into the slew of stories that came out around the incident. And it even has an action movie kind of a ring to it. But perhaps this omission speaks the loudest to the difference of the two in their coverage of the event.

Not including the quote suggests that it wasn’t deemed newsworthy over here. Even though it is a reflection of present reality in the Koreas – an armistice was signed, but there never was a peace treaty. So, technically, the Korean War carries on, though in a definitely colder sort of way.

But that’s not how North Americans see war. Even something like the Cold War strikes fear into the hearts of many, and for the most part that fear was the product of the media.

The people of South Korea didn’t need to speculate about Kim Jong Il’s plots or ploys or machinations behind the bombardment. They just viewed it as the tragic even that it was and declared it an action that is unforgivable and spoke of how it’s necessary to keep things from getting worse.

But those are the people in power, those completely unaffected by it might have hardly blinked at the story – the same way that something about a shooting in a different part of the country might cause the average North American to simply turn to the next page in the paper, or to scroll onward to the next story.

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Truly Curious

This also illuminates another essential difference between reporting styles. For better or worse, the North America news media is all about finding out the “why” of an incident, whereas South Korea news media seems to be more about the “what.”

While the articles that have been looked at are about the same length, North American coverage dwelled on speculation about motivation, and South Korean sources focused on just what happened and how it effected the people involved.

But that’s exactly it. That’s why the media can inspire so much fear in North America – because it works on the imagination. It relies on thinking of things that may or may not be true, and the human imagination is ingenious at scaring the human wielding and/or listening to it.

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Wrap Up

So, at heart, the difference between the two is really the North American media's social curiosity calling itself out.

North American news doesn’t just look into the abyss and paint a picture of what it sees, it stares into it with all of the steady focus of an open-eyed stone gargoyle and all the tenacity of a determined squirrel. And nothing can terrify like that which looks back from the abyss, especially when it’s put under so much scrutiny it could be called duress.

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Closing

Check back here on Wednesday for a look at the newest news, and on Friday for another search for the good in a terrible movie.

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Friday, June 8, 2012

[Freya-dæg] This Movie's Going, but not quite Gone

Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

Gone's movie poster from IMDb.}



The 2012 movie Gone is a curious, teen thriller – a mix of serious acting and general performance, and of overblown and interesting story telling.

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Plot Summary

A young woman named Jill Parrish (Amanda Seyfried) is convinced that her sister (Emily Wickersham) has been abducted by the same man who abducted her earlier. She brings this to the police, but they don't believe her as after her own incident she was put into a mental hospital and could never describe her assailant. So, since she desperately wants to get her sister back and put an end to a killer on the loose, she sets out on her own to try and find her sister.

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The Good

As far as thrillers go, this one is a little slow to start, but in the movie's final act the suspense is immense. This is true if you've ever driven down a lonely country road at night, with trees rushing by on either side, and the only side aside from crickets being the gradual crunch of the gravel under your wheels.

The way in which Jill goes around investigating her sister's abductor is also quite well done. It may not be the most believable, or the most realistic, but it's an interesting portrayal of the power of storytelling.

Much of the movie features Jill's going around town, essentially conducting a criminal investigation all on her own. But she doesn't just ask questions of those that she meets, she always introduces herself with a different story. And leading into questions with some sort of fabricated background detail (my bike was stolen, my grandma's car was stolen, my grandfather knows him, etc.) also does a lot to make you wonder about Jill's mental state.

However, it also might leave you with the unshakeable feeling that the scriptwriter, Allison Burnett, or producers, has a strong belief in the charm of blue eyed blondes.

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The Bad

Gone's biggest flaw is that it pushes the boundaries of believability. Yes, a large part of any thriller is suspending your disbelief, but there's too much in this movie that makes it difficult to really take too seriously.

First, the premise that she doesn't remember the killer's face. We see several flashbacks to her time in the killer's clutches and in all of them his face is obscured in shadow or he's turned away. And it is possible that because of whatever mental condition she may or may not have, she's blocked this face out of her mind. But, since we're never really sure about her mental state, we're never really sure if she's just lying about being able to remember his face.

Further, the movie is supposed to take place over the course of a day. And though Jill doesn't range all over the country or state or county, she does a whole lot of traipsing about the city in one day. Almost as if she doesn't need to worry about transportation between her destinations. Like the ability to suspend disbelief itself, a small time frame is essential to a good thriller, but here it feels like she does in what's supposed to be one day, the work of two or three.

And, most damning of all, is the way the movie ends. Yes, this will contain spoilers, so just carry on to the Judgment if you'd rather skip them.

At the end of the movie Jill's sister is rescued, the man behind her kidnapping is killed, and Jill returns to as normal a life as she can. However, the movie's final scene shows an anonymous package being opened by one of the cops that Jill dealt with earlier and him looking over various photos of the women that had been killed by the man who abducted her.

We also see that this package includes a map showing where all of the bodies are. This is definitely great evidence for the police, and a big help to the law, but it suggests that she's either entirely selfless or entirely lacking foresight. She killed the man responsible for all of the crimes that the movie focuses on in the place marked on the map as well, and when they find his body they're going to wonder what caused him to be at the bottom of that pit and sorely burned.

Even though leading the police to the bodies might not lead to a conviction since Jill could cite self-defense, it still means that she'd be called into court and risk some jail time. Her murder of the movie's killer is definitely satisfying, but showing what happens next turns that sweet taste much too sour.

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Judgment

Gone is a flawed movie with a story that is complete, but could use some solid direction. Is Jill mentally unwell or isn't she? If she was then why was she living alone? How did her case actually go when originally brought to the police after her initial abduction? Why are the police so reluctant to believe her? And what happened with the investigations into the other missing young women?

However, the suspense in the final act is genuine, and having the power of storytelling come to light throughout the movie really makes it an interesting thing to watch. It's flawed, but worthwhile.

So, Freya, drape down your hand and pull this one from the pit, it deserves a finer bed.

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Closing


Next week, check back here for the fourth part in my five part series on North Korea and the media surrounding the Bombardment of Yeonpyeong, an opinion on some of the newest news, and a hunt for the good in another critically declaimed movie.

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

[Wōdnes-dæg] Abortion: Politics of, and Reasons to be Pro-Choice

{An Ontario Conservative MP takes part in the March For Life anti-abortion rally on Parliament Hill, 10 May 2012. Image found on theglobeandmail.com from Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS.}





Quick Warning
Introduction
Summary
Reason One
Reason Two
Reason Three
Afterword
Closing




Quick Warning

A quick warning - parts of this entry may be more graphic than you're comfortable with. If the discussion of abortion, especially when sarcasm and analogy are involved, makes you squirm, then you may just want to skip this one.

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Introduction

It’s heartening to know that abortion is a sheerly political thing among Conservatives at the party level. At least, that’s what this article from today’s Globe and Mail suggests.

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Summary

The article explains that a lone Tory has put forth a motion to redefine when human life begins, and that the Prime Minister’s Office has tried to keep this motion from getting support. The official line is that a vote for what is essentially an anti-abortion motion is a vote against Mr. Harper’s wishes, but senior party members have also said that it is a vote against Mr. Harper himself.

So what could be triggering party member Stephen Woodworth’s desire to re-open the abortion debate in Canada? Some sort of high morality founded on invented dogma? Nope. Not explicitly so.

Apparently, this MP knows that his re-election in 2014 depends on anti-abortion supporters. And he wants to make it clear to them that he really is the man they voted for.

This story ran on page A4 of the print edition, so isn’t big news (rightly so, since Toronto is still reeling from Saturday night’s Eaton Center shooting). But it is good to hear that Canada’s legalized abortion will not be coming under federal scrutiny any time soon.

So why am I, a Catholic of many years, thankful that the debate will lie dormant for now? For three reasons.

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Reason One

I agree with the current Canadian law that states that a fetus becomes a human person after it has exited its mother’s birth canal.

I agree with this law because it makes concrete sense. Yes, the different stages of development have been mapped out and know that such a vital thing as the heartbeat starts at 6 weeks, can begin to hear at 18 weeks, and can potentially respond to your voice at 25 weeks. But if you put a seed in the ground and peek in on its progress as it sprouts into a tree, once the seed breaks open, but the sprout still has to get through to the earth's surface, can what's come out be declared a sapling or a tree?

Until a fetus has left its mother it is a part of her, just like any organ is a living part of any other human being. It’s not a pleasant analogy because babies are so cute and full of potential, but could a tumor be declared a human being if it grew its own working heart or lungs or mind?

(The tree and tumor analogies may be crude, but defining "human life" is a sticky thing to do with some degree of objectivity.)

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Reason Two

Fetuses are very much a part of their mothers up until the point when they’re born or brought into the world. Because of this, if you remove the mother, then the fetus would not be able to survive. A baby couldn’t be expected to survive if left alone either, but the key difference is that a baby is no longer hooked into the human female’s automatic feeding system after it’s born. The cord is cut, and it becomes it’s own separate entity.

Whether you consider a fetus a part of a woman’s body or not, it is living inside of a woman’s body and that woman should be able to decide what she wants to do with it. And that’s not playing god, it's simply altering the body, something people do all the time in ways both obvious and not.

Further, abortion is not a recent invention. Though where surgery or one sort or another is the norm today, in earlier times it was much more common for a woman to abort a fetus through one of several folk methods like fasting, hard labor, taking diuretics, or getting an enema (check Wikipedia for a full list).

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Reason Three

Making abortion illegal would do more harm than good.

If abortion is made illegal that won’t stop people from getting them - even though making drugs, extortion, and rape illegal certainly has stopped people from getting and doing them.

But what’s truly dangerous about making abortion illegal is that it would force those who seek them out to go underground, and methods hidden in the darker parts of society are not going to be as clean and safe as those practiced in well-lit clinics.

Though, considering the economy’s current state, maybe abortion should be made illegal - it might give the wire coat hanger industry a boost.

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Afterword

This editorial also appeared in today’s Globe and Mail, and it nicely sums up what Catholics really should consider when it comes to real world issues like abortion and the LGBTQ presence in schools.

Gay, straight, Catholic
Re Catholic Schools Fear Fallout From Bill 13 (June 5): In 2008, Georgetown became the first Catholic university to open an LGBTQ resource centre. As a Georgetown student, a Canadian and a Catholic, this meant the world to me and my friends, several of whom are gay and practising Catholics. Why did the Washington university open the centre? Because the violence that emerges from ignorance and intolerance violates Catholic teachings. Because love, respect and growth are cornerstones of Jesuit teaching. Because we are men and women for others.
After donating $1-million for LGBTQ programming at Georgetown, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue explained: “The Center is inspired by Catholic and Jesuit principles of respect for the dignity of all and education of the whole person …” It is upsetting that Ontario’s Catholic school boards are unwilling to act on the core values of Catholicism: tolerance, non-judgment and love.
Kelsey Spitz, Toronto
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Closing

Check back here Friday for a hunt for the good in the newly released thriller Gone.

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Monday, June 4, 2012

[Moon-dæg] Two Takes on North Korea, Part 3

Recap & Introduction
The Korea Herald
The Chosun Ilbo
The JoongAng Daily
Wrap Up
Closing

{Smoke rises from Yeonpyeong Island. Image from The Korea Herald.}



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Recap & Introduction

Today’s entry takes a look at the Korean coverage of the Bombardment of Yeonpyeong, a maritime skirmish between North and South Korea that happened on 23 November 2010.

In last week’s overview of the North American coverage of this event, all of the news outlets looked at included fairly extensive analysis of their reports. There were points raised about how the incident fit in with the impending ascension to power of Kim Jong Il’s son Kim Jong Un, and the incident also offered the chance to mention North Korea’s continuing nuclear experimentation.

Let’s see if coverage in South Korea is any different.

The three news outlets featured (The Korea Herald, The Chosun Ilbo, and The Joongang Daily) are all considered major South Korean papers, and each has a distribution of at least 1.96 million.

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The Korea Herald

The article from The Korea Herald wastes no time getting to the facts. It begins with a quick outline of the incident, and moves onto more facts and reports from relevant sources. However, this article does talk about how tensions were high since the sinking of the Cheonan on 26 March 2010, and states that a “Seoul-led multi-national investigation team” had since concluded that North Korea was entirely responsible for the sinking of the corvette.

There are also passages like those about the shelling happening after South Korea’s exercises were finished, and that South Korean experts on North Korea expected North Korea to extend the olive branch rather than the bayonet to help stabilize themselves on the eve of power passing from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un. Crowning these statements, though, is a single paragraph:

"Foreign press quickly reported the attack as a major news, producing a flurry of interpretations about the motive of North Korea. Reuters quoted an expert as saying that the attack is "unbelievable.""

Interestingly, South Korean media was much slower to produce it’s own interpretations of the event.

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The Chosun Ilbo

The article from the The Chosun Ilbo is originally in Korean, and the translation offered by Microsoft’s translation service is decent, but not entirely clear.

Nonetheless, from the translation it's plain that the attack was unsuspected. The article also notes that North Korea’s actions put it squarely in the wrong in the eyes of the UN, and even suggests that the armistice between the two Koreas has been broken.

On the matter of war re-igniting between the two nations, though, the article is apparently quiet.

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The JoongAng Daily

Just like The Korea Herald article, this one from the The JoongAng Daily starts with a summary of events. Curiously, this includes the number of shots fired by North Korea, and the casualties and wounded on the South Korean side - both military and civilian.

Also interesting, is that this article includes the relation of a local who fled her home when the shelling shattered her windows.

The article also goes the most in depth of the three on the question of war reigniting. It notes that Joint Chiefs of Staff set the country to the highest level of military alertness. Even the Defence Minister, Kim Tae-Young, is brought into it as he is reported as answering a question about war breaking out with: “Didn’t it start already? We must stop it from expanding.”

The article winds down with a myriad of voices. These run from the South Korean Democratic Party and their call for co-operation with the ruling Grand National Party, to Japan on the tension between the nations, to China’s call for caution, and to Reuters’ reporting on the attack causing the Hong Kong stock exchange to suffer significant losses. But, going the furthest to prove its uniqueness among these three articles is the article's final paragraph.

In this paragraph it is stated that 11 days before the attack on Yeonpyeong, North Korea had been showing an American nuclear scientist its uranium enrichment facilities.

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Wrap Up

All in all, then, the local reporting on the incident offers quite a different take on the Bombardment of Yeonpyeong. Rather than the hunt for a motive and speculation on said motive found in North American coverage, there’s a much greater emphasis on facts. Any kind of elaboration on them is left entirely up to the reader.

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Closing

Check back here next week for Part 4 of this series, an analysis of the difference between these reporting styles and some reasons and theories for that difference.

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