Gosh

(click to enlarge)

Maybe Ubuntu really is of the devil.

July Top 10

July Top 10

My favourite movies, books, lectures, etc. for the month of July, most of which is probably old to the rest of you.

10. Stop Messin' About: A Tribute to Kenneth Williams. BBC Radio.
Excerpts from wonderful old radio shows Round The Horne, Just A Minute, Big and Little, Kenneth Williams Playhouse, and others. Of special note is the reading of Gogol's Diary of a Madman, done with great skill and sensitivity.

Got it via Bittorrent.

9. Female Jungle (1955)
Lawrence Tierney plays a hard boiled and hard drinking detective, who investigates the murder of an up-and-coming young actress. But did he himself kill the actress while drunk? He can't remember and it is eating at him. Directed by Bruno VeSoto.
I rented this one largely because it also starred Jayne Mansfield, who is one of my favourite blond bombshells of that era. Boy, she was a looker.
Rented from Movie Madness.


8. In Bruges (2008)
Ray: There's a Christmas tree somewhere in London with a bunch of presents underneath it that'll never be opened. And I thought, if I survive all of this, I'd go to that house, apologize to the mother there, and accept whatever punishment she chose for me. Prison...death...didn't matter. Because at least in prison and at least in death, you know, I wouldn't be in fuckin' Bruges. But then, like a flash, it came to me. And I realized, fuck man, maybe that's what hell is: the entire rest of eternity spent in fuckin' Bruges. And I really really hoped I wouldn't die. I really really hoped I wouldn't die.

Saw it at the Laurelhurst Theatre.

7. Mongol (2007)
The sets and costuming were magnificent. What a visual feast this film was! And their interpretation of the Genghis Khan story wasn't bad either.

Saw it at the Hollywood Theatre

6. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
I'm not much of a book reviewer. And, chances are that everyone has already read Kafka on the Shore so that I am coming into the game. Suffice it to say that admirers of Tim Powers' work will dig this.


5. Revolver (2005)
I always enjoy Guy Ritchie's movies. One of these days I'll even watch those with Madonna in them.
Andre Benjamin and Vincent Pastore take the newly released from prison Jason Statham as an unknowing chela. With London's gangster underworld as the matrix, they gradually lead him into enlightenment. And make a hell of a lot of cash on the way. A rollicking good tale, reminiscent of Shawshank Redemption. Well, they both featured convicts, anyway.

Rented it through Netflix.

4. Portland Werewolf
This month, I played Werewolf (link goes to game rules) for the first time, and a damn good time it was too. I am looking forward to honing my skills in this month's game.
Portland Werewolf meets every month in the back room of the Lucky Labrador brewpub in SE Portland. This month there was around 24 or so people, which I was told was more than usual. It started at around 7 PM, and there was time for three games. I was a villager each time, dagnab it. Here's hoping that I'll draw the werewolf card at least once next time.
I took this photo during the third game, towards the end of the evening. I had already been quite unfairly lynched.


3. No Country For Old Men (2007)
Never have I seen a movie that was so perfectly cast. Tommy Lee Jones as the sheriff, Javier Bardem as Chigurh, Josh Brolin as Moss - all brilliant. And of course the Academy agreed.
I had devoured the book with relish, so avoided seeing the film for a little while so as not to be disappointed with the adaptation. The screen treatment rarely lives up to the original book, after all. But the Coen Brothers were sensitive to the text, even keeping the word for word dialogue in many scenes.
Rented from Movie Madness.

2. Mark Shuttleworth's lecture hosted by Legion of Tech
Shuttleworth is a fellow Capetonian, a home boy made good. Coming into serious money through his sale of Thawte corporation, he has set about doing something worthwhile with it. He is the driving force behind Ubuntu linux, which is more responsible for any other distribution for bringing the goodness of linux to the average desktop user. Apart from that, he is also the first African cosmonaut.
His talk, at the Mission Theatre, was very well attended. He started off with his space experiences, then moved on to speaking about Ubuntu. Shuttleworth is a naturally relaxed and articulate speaker, and his entire talk was extemporaneous. I found it inspiring.
Audio of the talk can be found here.
I took a few photos, but they all came out crappy. So here's one from the Legion of Tech site.

1. Johnny Cash: the Last Great American (2004)
This was a documentary made by BBC TV, and covers Cash's entire career. Worth it for the archival footage alone, this portray of the great man was both penetrating and sympathetic. Complementary without glossing over his weak points and darker side.
I blogged about the video previously here. Highly bloody recommended.

Ubuntu: Feisty Fawn installation

• In case there are any linux techs reading this, I just posted about an installation problem on the Ubuntu forums.
  

Mandela on the meaning of Ubuntu, and traditional knowledge

• The Christian Science monitor has a rather nice piece on the increased respect that Australian Aboriginal traditional scientific knowledge is receiving. It starts off
  To white Australians, the flocks of red-tailed black cockatoos which flap above tree canopies are a memorable highlight of any weekend hike. But to Aborigines, the parrots are living, squawking barometers.
  "A month ago when the cockatoos were flocking and the wattle bushes were flowering, we saw that as signs of rain," says Jeremy Clark, chief executive of the Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the Grampian Mountains of Victoria State. "Sure enough, we've just had two weeks of rain."
  and pretty much carries on in that vein throughout. What I found most interesting, though, was the following little paragraph on the division of the year:
  The Northern Hemisphere pattern of spring, summer, fall, and winter sits uncomfortably with the reality of Australia's climate. Aboriginal tribes, in contrast, recognize up to seven distinct seasons. In the Sydney region, for instance, September and October are known by Aboriginal people as Murrai'yunggoray, the time when the red waratah flower blooms.
  It is followed by Goraymurrai, a period of warm, wet weather during which Aborigines would not camp near rivers for fear of flooding.
  
• Nelson Mandela on Ubuntu: