Maurice Dantec

I just finished Maurice G. Dantec’s first novel, published in 1993, La sirene rouge (The Red Siren): a superior thriller, but nothing more. (Though I’d like to see the film, if only because it stars Asia Argento). But Dantec is also the author of the mind-boggling SF novel Babylon Babies (1999), unfortunately not (yet) translated into English…

I just finished Maurice G. Dantec’s first novel, published in 1993, La sirene rouge (The Red Siren): a superior thriller, but nothing more. (Though I’d like to see the film, if only because it stars Asia Argento). But Dantec is also the author of the mind-boggling SF novel Babylon Babies (1999), unfortunately not (yet) translated into English…
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Interracial Intimacies

Salon has an article by Joan Walsh on “interracial intimacy,” and especially on Randall Kennedy’s new book on that topic. Though Walsh is at least somewhat guarded on the idea that miscegenation will somehow solve America’s racial problems, the main contention in her article is that blacks, rather than whites, are the ones responsible today for opposing interracial sex, marriage and relationships. I’m sorry, but this is yet another example of a sincere white liberal blaming the victims of racism for racism’s perpetuation….

Salon has an article by Joan Walsh on “interracial intimacy,” and especially on Randall Kennedy’s new book on that topic. Though Walsh is at least somewhat guarded on the idea that miscegenation will somehow solve America’s racial problems, the main contention in her article is that blacks, rather than whites, are the ones responsible today for opposing interracial sex, marriage and relationships. I’m sorry, but this is yet another example of a sincere white liberal blaming the victims of racism for racism’s perpetuation….
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Blackboards

Samira Makhmalbaf’s Blackboards is about itinerant teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, who wander a remote, desolate part of Kurdish Iran, in search of students. Like many recent Iranian films, Blackboards is shot in a verite style, with handheld camera and nonprofessional actors, and an emphasis on particular situations rather than a well-rounded plot. I love this style/genre, but its repetition from film to film, and director to director, can become tedious after a while. However, the 23-year-old Makhmalbaf comes up with a very unique and distinctive film, different from anything else I’ve seen…

Samira Makhmalbaf’s Blackboards is about itinerant teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, who wander a remote, desolate part of Kurdish Iran, in search of students. Like many recent Iranian films, Blackboards is shot in a verite style, with handheld camera and nonprofessional actors, and an emphasis on particular situations rather than a well-rounded plot. I love this style/genre, but its repetition from film to film, and director to director, can become tedious after a while. However, the 23-year-old Makhmalbaf comes up with a very unique and distinctive film, different from anything else I’ve seen…
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Session 9

Brad Anderson’s 2001 film Session 9 is a fine, atmospheric horror film. It doesn’t break any new ground conceptually, but it is effectively tense and creepy.

Brad Anderson’s 2001 film Session 9 is a fine, atmospheric horror film. It doesn’t break any new ground conceptually, but it is effectively tense and creepy. A hazmat team has a job removing asbestos from an abandoned mental hospital that dates back to the 19th century; there’s a lot of tension between the workers to begin with, and the pall cast by the location gradually drives them more and more nervous and unhinged. The film works well because all the small things are done just right: the pacing, the acting and characterization, the lighting, the effective use of a genuinely disturbing locale (Danvers, Mass., an actual abandoned Victorian-era asylum building). Best of all is the gliding camera that moves through halls as dilapidated as the ones in Kubrick’s The Shining (a film that Session 9 explicitly pays homage to) are sterile and clean. Shot apparently on digital video, but I wouldn’t have known this if I hadn’t read it–there is no attempt at Dogme-esque forgrounding of the medium, and the colors looked to me as deep and subtle as if they had been shot on film. All in all, a satisfying little movie, of the sort that is no longer made in Hollywood, but only by independent directors like Brad Anderson.

Talk To Her

Pedro Almodovar’s latest film, Hable con ella(Talk To Her) is one of his best, I think; it is different than anything else he has done before; this difference can best be described as a new fluidity, with which he recombines elements recognizable from all his earlier films…

Pedro Almodovar’s latest film, Hable con ella(Talk To Her) is one of his best, I think; it is different than anything else he has done before; this difference can best be described as a new fluidity, with which he recombines elements recognizable from all his earlier films…
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The No Electronic Theft Act

If you’ve ever used a peer-to-peer network and swapped copyrighted files, chances are pretty good you’re guilty of a federal felony. While the RIAA and MPAA have been using lawsuits to drive P2P filesharing websites like Napster, Audiogalaxy, and now (they are hoping) KaZaa out of business, a law already on the books, the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act, already provides severe penalties for endusers making use of such services. According to this article by Declan McCullogh, it is only a matter of time before the Feds start actually prosecuting P2P filesharing users under this act…
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Bill Gates’ “Grand Challenges in Global Health”

Yesterday Bill Gates issued a global challenge on health. He put up $200 million to spur research on diseases that haven’t been studied sufficiently by scientists, because they occur mainly in poor parts of the world, rather than here in the West. This is a wholly admirable thing to do. But the rhetoric of his announcement was also interesting….
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