Sunday, November 11, 2012

Blog Happenings for the End of 2012

Because I'm using National Novel Writing Month to launch myself back into writing my fantasy series, my blogging time has been short lately. So, instead of pushing through and getting out some sub-par entries, I've decided to put my blogs on hold for the rest of November.

However, I will be posting the entry for Stanza 8 of "Dum Diane vitrea" this coming Tuesday, while the final wrap-up entry for that poem will be posted on 4 December.

So, enjoy what's posted here and over at Tongues in Jars for the rest of November, and watch for new content come December!

Oh, and if you're interested, watch my Examiner.com video game blog for a new article every Saturday, plus an extra one this Monday!

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Monday, November 5, 2012

[Moon-dæg] Looking East while Writing in the West

Context
Gazing Across Prairies
Closing

{The prairie's amber wave. Image found on Bridal Buds.}


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Context

Inspired by a lovely face, this is another poem I composed out West. It's been modified from its original to bring some more unity to the over all metaphor of face as prairie field ready for harvest, but still needs some work.

If you've got some suggestions, leave them in the comments!

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Gazing Across Prairies

Her face is like a field of wheat stalks
Each topped by grains massaged by wind
Bringing out the gold of harvest

Each grain heavy with meaning
Each gust a desirous finger
Joy itself is in the meadow beyond that field,
As each finger yearns to run
From field to hair through to air.

So that the deepest wells awake and open,
Awake to gaze, blink, and water

Always moistening in laughter's course,
Ridiculous echoes fill the field
As winter clouds call each grass leaf
Each stalk home.

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Closing

That's it for a Glass Darkly this week. My commitment to getting through NaNoWriMo, and this week's work hours have conspired to force my blogging into a minimum. But don't miss my translations and commentaries over at Tongues in Jars: tomorrow, I look at stanza seven of "Dum Diane vitrea," and on Thursday, my delve into the Old English epic Beowulf continues!

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Saturday, November 3, 2012

[Sæternes-dæg] Annotated Links #24: Strangeness in the Sciences

1. Rosner, Hillary. "A Chemist Comes Very Close to a Midas Touch." The New York Times 15 October 2012. Web. 3 November 2012.

Paul Chirik, a chemist at Princeton University, has successfully managed to make iron react like platinum in certain chemical reactions. Though shy of changing the base metal into gold, Rosner describes this as a kind of alchemy and gives a brief glimpse at some of the implications of this discovery - including how it's contributing to new fuel-efficient tires. writes in a clear conversational style.

As a medievalist and someone interested in modern discoveries that either look or wink back at medieval beliefs and/or ideas, I just had to include this article.

2. University College London. "Virtual reality puts human in rat world: 'Beaming' technology transforms human-animal interaction." ScienceDaily 31 October 2012. Web. 3 November 2012.

Computer scientists at UCL and Barcelona have managed to create the technology to add a physical dimension to long distance interaction. The article details how this technology works (a mix of virtual reality and robotics), and includes some quotes from the scientists leading the project about its implications. This one is written in a clear style while making use of block quotes.

As someone who's been in a distance relationship for several years, this kind of technology is beyong intriguing. So, this one had to be included.

3. Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). "Asteroid belts of just the right size are friendly to life." ScienceDaily 1 November 2012. Web. 4 November 2012.

Rebecca Martin, a NASA Sagan Fellow from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and astronomer Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md, have published a study that suggests that a perfectly placed asteroid belt is necessary for life-sustaining planets to develop. The article summarizes these scientists' hypothesis, and walks readers through the possible asteroid belt-related scenario that lead to the formation of Earth, as well as suggesting that asteroid impacts can help to spur on evolution. This article is written in a clear, matter-of-fact style.

The necessity, and usefulness of asteroids is something curious to ponder. And what better way to stir thoughts on space rocks than to read about them? That's why this article is included in this week's Annotated Links.

4. Adams, James. "It’s high time: The Dreamachine is no longer just a dream." The Globe and Mail 31 October 2012. Web. 3 November 2012.

Adams' article provides a quick overview of the history and cult popularity of the dreamachine - a device that simulates light undulating in a regular pattern, as when passing by evenly spaced trees at sunset. Adams also gives some insight into the celebrities that have used it in the past, and uses the case of Margaret Atwood's recent receipt of one to provide a slightly cynical perspective on the device. This article is written in a steady going style.

Anything that offers a "drug-less high" is a curiousity. Not because it's possibly a legal way to get such a high, but because of what it suggests about the brain and its ability to, put simply, entertain itself. This article is included in this batch of links because of the insight into this phenomenon.

5. Kim, Sam. "Elephant in South Korean zoo imitates human speech." Bradenton.com 1 November 2012. Web. 3 November 2012.

Scientists have confirmed that an elephant in South Korea's Everland Zoo can imitate human speech. Kim explains how this phenomenon came about and why it seems to be isolated to just a couple of elephants. Kim's article is designed for the internet with simple sentence structure and short paragraphs.

Various birds can mimic human speech, but elephants? That's just plain weird, and so it just plain had to be included in this article.

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Closing

Next week on the blogs watch for another poem on Monday, the second to last stanza of "Dum Diane vitrea" on Tuesday and more Beowulf on Thursday. As always Tuesday's and Thursday's updates can be found over at Tongues in Jars, and Monday's can be found right here at A Glass Darkly!

By the way, because of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and how my work week's rolled out, I'm not going to be reviewing a movie this coming week. But, watch for a review of something the next week!

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Friday, November 2, 2012

[Freya-dæg] The Room: "Leave your stupid comments in your pocket!"

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

Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

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Plot Summary

Everything in the life of Johnny (Tommy Wiseau) seems to be going well: he's lined up for a promotion at work, he's about to marry his girlfriend of seven years (Lisa, played by Juliette Danielle), and he's surrounded by friends. However, little does Johnny know that his world of easygoing trust is about to collide head on with the truth of a betrayal of all he holds dear.

Although he lives there, Johnny risks it all when he enters The Room!

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The Good

The first 30 minutes of The Room are a bizarre quasi-softcore porn hurdle (sex scenes make up 1/3 of it at least) that needs to be leaped in order to arrive at the movie's middle. And what a middle. Although it should really take a viewer out of the movie, this movie's middle is like a sweet cream filling while the first and last 30-35 minutes are like a low-grade chocolate shell. What matters, though, is that this set up works.

As the movie's events heat up and become more dramatic Wiseau's curious delivery makes all of his intense lines unintentionally hilarious. This is, after all, the home of the internet-famous

{"You're tearing me apart, Lisa!"}


Speaking of Lisa, it's refreshing to see an average, real woman featured in the female lead role of a movie such as this.

{But, as Lisa's mother Claudette (Carolyn Minnott) says, she "can't support herself."}


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The Bad

Although Wiseau's acting often has a tinge of the (unintentionally) comedic, the movie as a whole doesn't share in the same off-yet-endearing quality.

For starters, several side characters are introduced and then forgotten like so many Scooby-Doo villains, and quite unnecessarily. For example, we're introduced to Mike (Mike Holmes) and Michelle (Robyn Paris) fairly early in the movie, but they don't survive into the third act, as Mike is nowhere to be seen at Johnny's party.

What's more, Mike and Michelle, as a fellow couple, could easily have been the source of advice for Johnny and Lisa. Instead, for the space of a couple of scenes we get Peter (Kyle Vogt), the psychologist friend. Even stranger is the third act introduction of a mysterious man in a white button up shirt at Johnny's party who is the one who finds out about Lisa's and Mark's betrayal.

Much more importantly for a movie called The Room, the setting is really unclear. We're definitely watching a story in San Francisco, and that takes part in an apartment building of some sort for the most part. But what kind of apartment is difficult to nail down. Some establishing shots suggests a modest apartment building:


Others suggest a townhouse:


Perhaps the movie's uncertain setting is simply meant to make the titular room more expansive than one four-walled enclosure, but this lack of clarity is distracting.

Along with the uncertain setting and character introductions, a couple of side plots are mentioned but then just forgotten.

Denny's run-in with drugs and owing drug money? Apparently solved after Johnny and Mark attack the drug dealer.

Claudette's troubles with her brother and a house she's looking to sell? Just noted, and never returned to.

Both of these sideplots feed into the movie's drama, but developing and integrating either or both would have given it a much more consistent feel.

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Judgment

Decidedly a weird one to watch, The Room has its merits (it inspired its own indie flash game after all).

Wiseau's strange, quasi-high/drunk, almost entirely eye-contact-less acting style makes all of his dramatic scenes utterly laughable. But as a result the movie's drama is almost always turned on its head and rendered ineffective. Coupled with an awkward handling of what can only be assumed to be an attempt to make Johnny's apartment a main character, too much of the movie's acting and writing undermine the possibility of it all being taken seriously.

The Room is good for a laugh, but its uneven characters, settings, and side stories hamstring its ability to be anything more.

So, Freya, let this one be. It lay already in a prominent place, splayed across a crumbling battlement - there shall all who desire to shall see it, but it simply is not the sort to be raised up.

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Closing

Leave your thoughts on this internet cult classic in the comments, and watch for tomorrow's Annotated Links - especially if you're drawn to weird science!

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