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Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category

Allan Savory and Biomimicry

Posted in Culture, tagged , , , , , , , , on 06 Mar 2013| 5 Comments »

Here’s my position on climate change: It’s happening.

You and I may disagree on whether or not it is anthropogenic, but if you deny that it’s happening at all, well, there’s no evidence I can provide that will convince you.

Last month, Allan Savory gave a presentation at the TED Talks, discussing climate change and the results of experiments in biomimicry. The content was astounding; so much so, that I strongly recommend everyone to devote 20 minutes to watching the video of his presentation. I came away, hopeful about our ability to address one of the contributing factors of climate change.

I first read about biomimicry back before the turn of the century (I love using that phrase) in a book by Janine Benyus entitled, appropriately, Biomimicry. The book did not address the issue of climate change–Al Gore hadn’t made a splash with it yet–but it did look at ways to solve human problems by mimicking patterns found in nature, such as the use of mixed-grain planting to mimic the prairie grasses of the Great Plains and help stop erosion and soil depletion.

What Allan Savory has done, is to mimic natural patterns and help reverse one of the four major anthropogenic contributors to climate change: desertification.

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Kevin Bacon, Meet Audrey Hepburn

Posted in Movies, Television, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 27 Feb 2013| Leave a Comment »

It’s not often that I can tie together what is arguably the grittiest crime drama on network television with a 1966 rom-com–OK, I’ve never done it, so today’s a first–and I’ll be frank with you, tieing these two objects together is going to take some doing, so have patience. I’ll get there.

Yesterday during my workout I watched “How to Steal a Million” (1966), starring Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. It is a light-hearted bit of fluff about the daughter of an art forger and a purported art thief who need to steal something to protect a secret. It’s set in Paris, Audrey is swathed in Givenchy throughout, O’Toole sports around in an XK-E, and it has several temporal “shout-outs” to the stars’ previous hits, so I’m sure it was doubly enjoyable for folks back in ’66 who’d been following these two icons through their early careers. It’s a little less believable than most romantic comedies (which means it was totally farcical), but one doesn’t watch a rom-com for believability or with any doubts as to the outcome. We watch them for the interaction, for the play, for the fun of it, and in this respect, “How to Steal a Million” delivers, even today.

I thought it was out-dated, though, because of its treatment of Ms. Hepburn’s character. (more…)

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Seen at the Mall

Posted in Culture, tagged , , , on 25 Feb 2013| Leave a Comment »

I heard the girls’ chirping laughs from across the atrium. They sounded like happy birds, echolocating in the grand space, and when I saw them, I could tell it was “Princess Day.”

They bounced along on their bendy, four-year old legs, dressed in pink and lilac and yellow and green. They wore leotards and leggings and big romantic tutus. On their heads were tiaras, pinned in their ponytailed hair, and on their feet were sneakers, their only concession to practicality.

They squealed and giggled, as only little girls do. Their guardian/pack-mule Dad followed along, dutifully observant, consciously laissez-faire. They buzzed around him like a time-lapse movie, his measured steps surrounded by streaks of pastel hues and tulle.

When they saw the fountain, their cries hit that dog-whistle range at 100dB, making every adult wince and smile at the same time. The fountain was surrounded by a shallow pool with pennies decorating its watered tiles.

One of the girls thumped purposefully down onto her butt and, with her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth and a look of decision on her face, she grabbed one of her shoes in both hands and began to tug. Her friend did likewise.

Dad, divining their intent, started juggling coats and bags so he could move in to stop the inevitable.

I turned and continued on my way, not wanting to know if they made it or not, not wanting to lose that mental picture of pure determination to have fun.

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My Inner Child was Dancing

Posted in Hi Tech, Seattle, tagged , , , , , , on 25 Feb 2013| 2 Comments »

Museum of FlightSaturday night we went to “Hops and Props,” a beer-tasting fundraiser at Boeing Field’s Museum of Flight.  Let me say now and for the record, if you visit Seattle you and do not go to the Museum of Flight, you’re a fool.

Of course, I’ll also point out that I hadn’t been there in, well, a loooong time, so I’m a bit of a fool myself.

Organized into three major sections and chock-a-block with some of the most beautiful aircraft, from the earliest experimental gliders to the SR-71 Blackbird, this place is a stupendous treat for the young boy that lives inside me. (more…)

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At Blackbird House

Posted in Books, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on 21 Feb 2013| 2 Comments »

Kurt R.A. GiambastianiI know you’re all anxiously awaiting the “big reveal” on my full rewrite of “Cast in Stone”–he said, his words dripping with sarcasm–but that’s still a couple of days away. Meanwhile, I’m still working on the analysis task I set for myself.

If you’ll recall, as preparation for my next book, I’ve been analyzing the writing of some writers whose style I’d like to emulate. I’ve started with Alice Hoffman’s Blackbird House, a set of vignettes describing centuries of life around a single location. My goal was to understand how she is able, with extremely simple language, to create the feeling of lyricism and the mystical atmosphere that imbue so much of her work.

Let me warn you, though, before you take on a task like this. Just as most sausage-lovers don’t like to see sausage being made, doing a breakdown/ analysis/ desconstruction of a favorite author’s work can take some of the magic out of the reading experience. Suddenly, you’ll see the elements on every page, in every paragraph, and it may take some time before you can stop seeing those elements (if at all).

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Солярис

Posted in Movies, tagged , , , , , , , , on 20 Feb 2013| 2 Comments »

A few weeks ago, another blogger and I were discussing the topic of “accessibility” in fiction and film, and by way of example of the “inaccessible,” Prospero brought up the 1972 film, Solaris, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. I had read the novel (by Stanislaw Lem, 1961) and had seen the Soderbergh/Clooney film (2002), but I’d never seen or even heard of this Soviet-era science-fiction film. So, tappity-tap-click-click, I went over to Blockbuster and found I could put it on my movie queue. It arrived last week, and I watched it over the weekend.

Solaris (1972) received critical acclaim on its debut, and at Cannes it won two prizes and was nominated for the Palme d’Or. Ingmar Bergman had nothing but praise for Tarkovsky’s work, and Salman Rushdie called Solaris “a sci-fi masterpiece.”

Now, I don’t give too much weight to awards (though if Red Sonya had been nominated for the Palme d’Or, I might have stayed for the second half), and if you’re talking about inaccessibility in film and fiction, then you can hardly find better wingmen than Bergman and Rushdie. I’ve also seen several Russian and Soviet films, albeit from previous eras (e.g., Alexander Nevsky, Battleship Potemkin, etc.), so I was prepared for the somewhat lugubrious pace that Russian directors prefer. And lastly, brought to my attention as an example of “inaccessibility,” I knew this wasn’t going to be a action-packed laugh-riot.

Thus prepared, cue the music.

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The Reformation, Part Deux

Posted in Hi Tech, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on 15 Feb 2013| Leave a Comment »

Stack of BooksA follow-up to my earlier post about reformatting print-ready files for e-book readers…

In case these two points didn’t register in that post, here they are again:

  • Take Your Time…
  • Check Your Work…

I spent many hours over the past couple of days struggling with the files for FC Books II-V. I took my own advice (see above) and carefully and deliberately went through each reformation step, file by file. Then I uploaded the reformatted files and downloaded the KDP-converted files (in MOBI format) Then I previewed each MOBI file, using the Kindle Previewer, taking care to preview each file in each of the possible devices, from Kindle DX to iPad.

What I found was that while everything was fine on Kindle hardware, something was throwing off all the formatting when the MOBI file was ported to the iOS hardware. On iPads and iPhones, all my careful font styles were dropped and the whole shebang popped up in Courier New monospaced font. Ick.

Luckily, I had one file that was working on iOS (FC:I) so it was just a matter of comparing that file to the other files and trying to find the one thing that was causing the KDP conversion software to have a hissy-fit. I don’t know exactly what it was or exactly why, and I won’t bore you with details too tedious to be suffered. Suffice it to say that I was able to create files that work on all devices.

However, I still have not released FC:II-V into the e-book wild. I’m taking even more time, and will upload them all to my Kindle account, so I can see them on a Kindle, an iPad, and an iPhone for myself.

But it brings home my admonitions: Take Your Time and always Check Your Work.

That is all.

k

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