Author: Dan Dickinson

"No one wins. One side just loses more slowly."

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There was a great article about the upcoming final season of The Wire in last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal. It talks about th…wait, where?

In the post-“Sopranos” world, “The Wire” is more central to HBO’s strategy than in years past. The network’s looking to the series to retain subscribers at a time when many in the industry say it’s on shaky ground. In many ways “The Wire” is HBO’s closest cousin to “The Sopranos” — they’re both gritty dramas and they’re loved by critics. (Slate’s Jacob Weisberg has called “The Wire” “the best TV ever broadcast in America.”) It doesn’t hurt that the season will be premiering in early January, against other lineups weakened by the writers’ strike — much of what’s being scheduled is reality television and reruns. “The stakes are higher this time,” says Brad Adgate, a media analyst with ad-buying agency Horizon Media. “The golden age of HBO is over, back when they had ‘Sex and the City,’ ‘Six Feet Under’ and ‘The Sopranos.’ ”

Named for the wiretap that a special police unit uses to listen in on members of a Baltimore drug ring, the show’s title doubles as a metaphor for viewers’ experience of listening in on worlds they’re not usually privy to. When the show first aired in 2002, it focused on a police investigation. In the four subsequent seasons, the program’s scope has spiraled out to include the stevedores’ union, local politics, the school system and the media — in short, it’s a portrait of a struggling American city.

I can’t say it often enough: if you’re not watching this show, start. What with the writer’s strike right now, there’s no better time to pick up the best show on TV today.

[tags]the wire, wall street journal[/tags]

"Hence I am cautiously optimistic."

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Interesting stuff found via Brijit, both of which relate to the book I’m reading right now: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.

From The Washington Post: A Chance to Defend Themselves (Thomas B. Wilner)

More than 300 prisoners remain at Guantanamo. Most have been there almost six years. We now know that the great majority were not captured on any battlefield. They were not even captured by U.S. forces. Rather, as the National Journal reported last year after an exhaustive study into government records, many were simply “innocent, wrongly seized noncombatants” who were “handed over by reward-seeking Pakistanis and Afghan warlords” in exchange for bounties.

From the New York Times: What’s Your Consumption Factor? (Jared Diamond)

The population especially of the developing world is growing, and some people remain fixated on this. They note that populations of countries like Kenya are growing rapidly, and they say that’s a big problem. Yes, it is a problem for Kenya’s more than 30 million people, but it’s not a burden on the whole world, because Kenyans consume so little. (Their relative per capita rate is 1.) A real problem for the world is that each of us 300 million Americans consumes as much as 32 Kenyans. With 10 times the population, the United States consumes 320 times more resources than Kenya does.

The outlook of the second article is more encouraging than the first, which at least ends with cautious optimism from the author, but its central issue is no less troubling.

[tags]brijit, naomi klein, guantanamo, jared diamond, consumption[/tags]

"Thundercats are go!"

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I’ve watched far too many movies lately to describe them all in a lot of detail, so here’s the nickel version of each:

  • Sicko (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was typical Michael Moore: silly, biased, irreverent and more than a little frightening.
  • Hostel Part II (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was rubbish, lacking what tiny scrap of appeal the original had.
  • Breaking and Entering (imdb | rotten tomatoes) featured a philanderer played by Jude Law, which must have been a stretch for him. Oh, and I don’t care how old Juliette Binoche is, that woman is sexy.
  • No End In Sight (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was a very slick documentary about just how fucked the Iraq situation is. In case you weren’t already aware.
  • Juno (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was about as twee as a movie can get, but it was also very, very funny and impossible not to like. Great acting from a great cast.
  • Atonement (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was supposed to this sweeping, romantic, epic tale. It was. It was pretty much just like every other sweeping, romantic, epic tale I’ve ever seen. It was decent and unremarkable and that’s probably what makes it so broadly appealing.

I’d say that Juno and No End In Sight were great films; Sicko was very good, and the rest go downhill from there.

[tags]sicko, hostel part ii, breaking and entering, no end in sight, juno, atonement[/tags]

My favourite songs of 2007

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  1. The National . “Fake Empire”
  2. Arcade Fire . “Intervention”
  3. The Besnard Lakes . “Devastation”
  4. Rogue Wave . “Harmonium”
  5. Grinderman . “No Pussy Blues”
  6. Vampire Weekend . “Walcott”
  7. Matt Pond PA . “Reading”
  8. Matt Pond PA . “Last Light”
  9. Okkervil River . “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe”
  10. LCD Soundsystem . “All My Friends”
  11. Kissaway Trail . “61”
  12. Rebekah Higgs . “Parables”
  13. Kings Of Leon . “The Runner”
  14. Raising The Fawn . “Cliffdivers”
  15. Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip . “Thou Shalt Always Kill”
  16. The Office . “Oh My!”
  17. Radiohead . “House Of Cards”
  18. Datarock . “I Used To Dance With My Daddy”
  19. Band of Horses . “Lamb on the Lam (In The City)”
  20. LCD Soundsystem . “North American Scum”

Before you ask, I meant to put those two Matt Pond PA songs back-to-back. In fact, I couldn’t even rank one above the other; it’s essentially a tie. LCD Soundsystem is the only other double-entry, but had I gone a few songs further I think “Own Your Own Home” by Rogue Wave or the Arcade Fire‘s “Keep The Car Running” would’ve made an appearance.

I highly recommend making these into a playlist and plugging it in at whatever festivities you attend this evening. If the party were attended by 300 of me, I’m sure it’d be a big hit.

By the way, it could be a while before I can comment on my favourite films of 2007 since I still haven’t seen 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Atonement, Away From Her, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Charlie Wilson’s War, I’m Not There, Inland Empire, Iraq In Fragments, Juno, Lars And The Real Girl, Letters From Iwo Jima, Ratatouille, Terror’s Advocate, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, The Lookout, The Savages or We Own The Night.

[tags]best songs of 2007[/tags]

We're taking breaks only to eat, pee and buy fresh batteries for the remote

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We are movie-watching machines. We finished off the batch of four movies I rented on Friday and picked up four more.

We watched the very troubling and very authentic-feeling This Is England (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday. It was the story of a 12-year-old boy who falls in with skinheads in Thatcher-era England; the premise sounds far-fetched, but it portrayed in a very real and creepy way how easily it could happen. It was amazing how well they re-created the scummy, gray, economically downtrodden England of the time, and the characters all felt so real…probably partly because I’m unaccustomed to seeing actors make themselves so ugly (i.e., looking like they really came from that era, not a Hollywood-softened version of it) for authenticity’s sake. Highly recommended.

Black Book (imdb | rotten tomatoes) would have been an excellent movie, but it went on 30 minutes too long. An almost non-stop battle between the Nazis and the Dutch resistance, and done in Paul Verhoeven’s typical raw style, it lost momentum in the final act as it twisted and turned through too many endings. It’s still worth watching though.

The Kingdom (imdb | rotten tomatoes) got a bad rap from a lot of critics, but I liked it. It’s not a multi-layered intrigue-fest like Syriana; it’s an action movie. True, Jennifer Garner and Chris Cooper were wasted playing caricatures and the story got rather hard to believe at times, but it was gripping and interesting and even funny in parts. Again, well worth picking up.

Tonight we’re taking a break from potential best-of-2007 films and watching Hostel 2, as per Nellie’s wishes.

[tags]this is england, black book, the kingdom[/tags]

Who did this poll, Band of Horses?

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This news release presents a conundrum:

Toronto, ON – A new Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of CanWest News Service and Global Television finds that while two thirds (66%) of Canadians indicate that they believe in angels and half (48%) of the nation says they believe in spirits and ghosts. One in 10 (10%) Canadians believe that there is a spirit or ghost actually living in their house or residence. To put it in perspective, that’s 2.5 million Canadians who believe that when something goes bump in the night it’s more than the mice from Ratatouille.

So either a major pollster is wrong (not much of a shock) or my nation contains a great number of gullible ninnies…not exactly news either, but the magnitude is troubling. I just can’t decide which is more believable…and less palatable.

[via the Globe and Mail]

[tags]ipsos reid, poll, angels, ghosts[/tags]

"I can't become king if someone else already sits on the throne."

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In a belated attempt to see more of the best movies of 2007 (as ranked by critics anyway) we rented four movies yesterday in preparation for a lazy cinematic weekend. We watched two last night, and they were both great.

Eastern Promises (imdb | rotten tomatoes) won the top prize at this year’s TIFF, and was mentioned as a worthy follow-up to A History Of Violence. The hype was right; while it started off a teensy bit slow for my tastes, it quickly tightened up into an angry fist of a movie. Viggo Mortensen was just amazing, as usual, and while Naomi Watts seemed rather underused, I’d prefer that to artificially inflating her part to meet her star power. A little too violent for me to recommend to some people, but an excellent film overall.

Once (imdb | rotten tomatoes) is the kind of film that restores your faith in…well, a lot of things. The “musical” genre. Filmmaking as a whole. Even friendship and love. It was made for $100,000 yet packed more emotional punch than any movie made for 100 times as much. More than half the film was music, but it was so unlike a typical musical simply because the music was part of the movie, not just a random melodic interlude. The relationship between the two leads fills and crushes your heart at the same time. If you’re the kind of person who only sees the latest Jerry Bruckheimer / Michael Bay fireworks show, you should avoid this; you won’t recognize it for the brilliant piece of art that it is.

[tags]eastern promises, once[/tags]

She rolled her Rs…her beautiful Rs.

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I just got off the elevator with a mother and her little girl. The girl saw the elevator button marked “R” (which opened or closed the rear doors — we were in the larger freight elevator) and started playing the word game: “Ar is for…rabbit!” The mother, although appearing incredibly tired, encouraged her to keep going.

Little girl: “Ar is for…ice cream.”

Mother: “No, honey, I is for ice cream.”

Dan [inside voice, thankfully]: “Actually, ‘Ar’ could be for ‘Arse cream’, which technically is correct and, let’s be honest, much funnier.”

Good thing I’m an introvert and don’t talk to people, otherwise I might’ve thought that was funny enough to share and found myself being beaten with a diaper bag.

[tags]elevator, ice cream[/tags]

Like a thief in the night. Actually, it was exactly like that.

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Well, some joker got hold of my credit card number last night and used it to buy a bunch of stuff online. Mainly kids things, probably all highly fence-able. Luckily it was my “online” card, the one I use if I’m buying from a smaller online store that I don’t trust the way I trust, say, Future Shop. I’d noticed a fraudulent (or possibly mistaken) transaction on my card yesterday from the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C.; clearly that wasn’t me, so I called my card issuer. The agent took my info and sent out the paperwork they need from me, but apparently didn’t put a flag on my card or anything ’cause this morning the guy racked up a ton of purchases. Another call to my issuer and the card was canceled.

That’s the first time I’ve ever had fraud on my own card, to the best of my recollection. However, the secondary card worked exactly as it was meant to, so I guess it was the best possible outcome of a bad situation.

I get the sense that I’m unusual for having gone this long (buying as much stuff online as I do) without experiencing fraud. Is that true? Anyone care to share?

[tags]credit card fraud[/tags]