In Film: "Depuis qu'Otar est parti"

I'm way too tired to write about this film, but I just want to note it as a favourite.

"Depuis qu'Otar est parti" is centred around the life of a family of three women in Georgia and how they deal with the death of another member, Otar, who left for Paris to find his luck.

What I liked about the film: it started with a lie and when the person that is being lied to finds out about it, she decides to invent her own lie. But it's also about grasping for ideals and making the best out of a situation. I came out of it, feeling refreshed and ready for what the next week will bring. That kind of films, there's way too little of.

In Film: "The beat my heart skipped"

It's been a while, mostly because I'm busy with other things + diligently updating Tech IT Easy.

Why I like this film is because it places the antagonist between two sources of pressure, his father's business and his mother's art. Since my own home-situation was similar, it hit a note. From Wikipedia:

"The Beat That My Heart Skipped (French: De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté) is a 2005 French film directed by Jacques Audiard and starring Romain Duris. It tells the story of Tom, a real estate thug torn between a criminal life and a wish to be a pianist."

Btw., Romain Duris is the actor that played in one of my favourite films of all time: "L'Auberge Espagnol."

In TV-shows: Mad Men's Cigarettes

I'm not sure what I like about Mad Men. There's no real action in it, but I guess it gives a glimpse, a stylised one, into 1950's and 60's society in the US, and I'm always fascinated by how people used to live before I was born. Of course, it's usually better to watch a movie from that time for that, or read a book.

In any case, things to like about it are:

• the marketing—the industry was just getting started and it's interesting how things worked and have evolved since then.
• the fashion—it's pretty stunning how people are dressed in that show, elegant certainly, and not quite mass-produced elegance either.
• gender-relations—the rise of feminism, the machismo of men
• the vices—the constant smoking, drinking, and sleeping around… in and outside of work

I think there'll be cigarette-counts released as soon as season 1 has ended. But in the mean time, I found out that at least one show featured the lighting of 42 cigarettes—that's one every minute! That alone makes it a fascinating watch; I wonder if they're real!

In people: my Twitter quotes of the day

Twitter.com/vincentvw

I've been collecting a number of quotes over the last few months, not many, but enough for this post.

• "A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful." (Warren Buffett)


• [about starting a company] "The truth is boring: the state of the economy doesn't matter much either way." (Paul Graham) http://bit.ly/3rtGG7


• "I only report what I know to be true. This is not some sort of high standard. It is basic journalism." (John Gruber) http://bit.ly/1gE0YN


• "Think about the things that don't change in the next 5-10 years." (Jason Fried).


• "find an editor you can trust, one who is working at the highest possible level of professionalism" (Simon Roberts) http://tinyurl.com/4phbo8


• "How much of human life is lost in waiting…?" Ox, Indiana Jones, 2008


• "Truth be told, I like getting my ass kicked because it makes me angry, motivated and focused." @jasoncalacanis on the downturn


• "When things go bad nowadays, you get yourself an Ism, and you're in business" (M. Vanderhof 1938) http://tinyurl.com/2f56yw


• "Risk Aversion is the single biggest innovation killer" (@KathySierra), via @ceciiil http://tinyurl.com/6x9933


• "He who looks outside, dreams; he who looks inside, awakes." (Carl Jung quote from an AVC comment)


• "what A-list twitterers are doing with their 1000s of followers is turning it into mass-media again."(@Matthias20)

In music: Spoon & The Black Keys

Two albums I liked today:

Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Favourite track so far: The Ghost of You Lingers



The Black Keys - Attack and Release

Favourite track so far: Lies

In books: The Elements of Style

If you're a writer and, apparently, a coder, you can't go wrong with "The Elements of Style." As Roger Angell writes in the foreword:

Writing is hard, even for authors who do it all the time. Less frequent practitioners—the job applicant; the business executive with a Faulkner assignment; the graduate-school student with her thesis proposal; the writer of a letter of condolence—often get stuck in an awkward passage or find a muddle on their screen and then blame themselves. What should be easy and flowing looks tangled or feeble or overblown—not what was meant at all. What's wrong with me, each one thinks. Why can't I get it right?

Well, if that's how you feel about writing, then this delightfully thin book is certainly for you. The book ends with a number of sage advices, such as:

• Place yourself in the background.


• Write in a way that comes naturally.


• Do not overwrite.


• Do not overstate.


• Avoid fancy words.

And much more, all of which should be read and reread. You can get it for free online or here. I got my brother the illustrated edition before he left for his studies in creative writing, but I personally prefer the non-illustrated kind—keeping it essential and portable. Though the other kind makes for a nice gift.

In software: favourite official & unofficial Mac-plugins

Check it on Tech IT Easy.

In TV-shows: How to not live your life

My favourite British sitcom, which does narrow it down a bit. But it's definitely laugh-out-loud brilliant.

Not safe for work and if you can't get your hands on it, be creative.

In music: Ziggy Marley's "Beach in Hawaii"

Somebody in my street blasted this song this morning and woke me up. I'm sure that makes me biased, but I liked it. That said, Ziggy M. has the artistic bandwidth of my left foot: always the same rhythm and always the same theme: love.

In web: Phil Gyford’s website

Gyford.com

Design:

• I first noticed the nicely categorised lists at the side: currently reading, the recently listened to tracks (changes to most listened artists when you click on a post, which I prefer).
• I liked the choices in rss-feeds: writing only, pictures only, links only, or a combination of the above.
• The picture feed at the top is very subtle.
• And I love, love the time-line view of the things he's done. Best I've seen so far.

Content:

• The time-line view, once again, is excellent and shows a well-rounded background, which should also translate into better writing.
• I can mainly judge the article I originally fell on through Kottke, entitled "Graphs that lie," which makes for an interesting point.
• The video he acted in, called Manicato, is very nice though!

1st impression: I like.