磁場
I'm not nearly the science geek that this guy is, but I still greeted this site like a long-lost friend when a commenter at Hit & Run linked to it. Atsushi's home for the weekend, and we went to see the Lille Museum of Modern Art exhibition at Bunkamura. Then tea at Wedgwood. Tie shopping, scone shopping.
Anyway, all the preciousness was threatening to suffocate us, so we decided to compensate with a Lite, brain-cell-eating DVD with pizza for dinner: The Core, which I'm pretty sure I saw on an airplane once. And lo, it is a thing of Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics beauty. I have to say, I don't mind implausible scientific stuff when it's skated over quickly and used to fuel fantasy that's genuinely entertaining or to ask interesting questions about human nature. (My inner lit. major is much more annoyed by Insultingly Stupid Out-of-Character Movie Behavior for Cheap Plot Compliance, which is too massively indulged in by Hollywood to be done justice by a single website.) But lazy internal inconsistency of any kind is annoying. Using the tremendous pressure inside the mantle as an explicit reason something or other is impossible at one point and then expecting us to believe, a half-hour later, in a giant amethyst-lined cave in the mantle in which people in space suits can gambol around freely--that's unforgivable. Two of the chief science-geek types in The Core also seem to think that one is a prime number, unless I misheard.
Speaking of video art that leaves me cold...yeah, I've seen the video for "Jump," the new Madonna single and my favorite song on the most recent album. I kind of like the way her outfit and dancing recall "Lucky Star," but she has to get over this idea that simply intercutting shots of her with those of significantly younger and more agile dancers will camouflage the fact that she's getting older. Also, while "free running" may be a phenomenon, it's not exactly interesting to watch...especially since the video is set in Tokyo. The footage for the first jumps, before Madonna begins singing, was filmed right in the same neighborhood as my office, and one thing I will say is that it portrays Tokyo the way it actually looks when you're here: grey and brown and full of gnarled power and telephone lines.
Anyway, all the preciousness was threatening to suffocate us, so we decided to compensate with a Lite, brain-cell-eating DVD with pizza for dinner: The Core, which I'm pretty sure I saw on an airplane once. And lo, it is a thing of Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics beauty. I have to say, I don't mind implausible scientific stuff when it's skated over quickly and used to fuel fantasy that's genuinely entertaining or to ask interesting questions about human nature. (My inner lit. major is much more annoyed by Insultingly Stupid Out-of-Character Movie Behavior for Cheap Plot Compliance, which is too massively indulged in by Hollywood to be done justice by a single website.) But lazy internal inconsistency of any kind is annoying. Using the tremendous pressure inside the mantle as an explicit reason something or other is impossible at one point and then expecting us to believe, a half-hour later, in a giant amethyst-lined cave in the mantle in which people in space suits can gambol around freely--that's unforgivable. Two of the chief science-geek types in The Core also seem to think that one is a prime number, unless I misheard.
Speaking of video art that leaves me cold...yeah, I've seen the video for "Jump," the new Madonna single and my favorite song on the most recent album. I kind of like the way her outfit and dancing recall "Lucky Star," but she has to get over this idea that simply intercutting shots of her with those of significantly younger and more agile dancers will camouflage the fact that she's getting older. Also, while "free running" may be a phenomenon, it's not exactly interesting to watch...especially since the video is set in Tokyo. The footage for the first jumps, before Madonna begins singing, was filmed right in the same neighborhood as my office, and one thing I will say is that it portrays Tokyo the way it actually looks when you're here: grey and brown and full of gnarled power and telephone lines.
Posted by Sean on
2006-10-16 00:46:42