Author: Dan Dickinson

What were people expecting?

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We went to see The Da Vinci Code (imdb | rotten tomatoes) this afternoon, just so that we’re not the only people in North America who didn’t see it this weekend. It’s been getting rotten reviews, so I was a little surprised that I didn’t mind it. I mean, it wasn’t a triumph of filmmaking or anything…it was just the book put onto the big screen. That’s it. That’s all. It was nothing more or less than the book (save a few minor alterations). This wasn’t The Godfather or All Quiet On The Western Front; this was a summer book made into a summer movie. Anyone expecting groundbreaking cinema or religious enlightenment was looking for the wrong thing and judging the movie on the wrong merits. It’s a decent, slightly-more-intelligent-than-average summer movie. The fact that it’s getting worse ratings than R.V. suggests The Da Vinci Code is bearing the critics’ hipper-than-thou wrath.

.:.

Umm…I think I know where 24 is taking place next season…

[tags]da vinci code, 24[/tags]

R.I.P., Connor

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CBGB had some folks over to their place last for night for a housewarming…ironic, since yesterday was an unseasonably cold & windy day. Still, GB fired up the barbeque in style and dashed off more than enough food for all. There were even some thai appetizers that I avoided…wisely, as it turns out; Nellie had one and spent ten minutes fighting off tears. A good time was had, etc.

.:.

I know a few friends who could use the services of LBA (Lip Balm Anonymous). Time for an intervention.

.:.

We watched The Wild Parrots Of Telegraph Hill (imdb | rotten tomatoes) over the weekend after it sat on the PVR for months. It was yet another documentary that deserved to win the Oscar more than March Of The Penguins, but whatever. I figure I must be getting soft in my old age, ’cause the personalities of the parrots and the dedication Mark Bittner showed to them were pretty touching. It sounds like it’ll be a boring movie but it’s not. Highly recommended.

[tags]lip balm, wild parrots of telegraph hill, march of the penguins, documentary[/tags]

"A four-minute f*** you to the format and our listeners"

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I don’t like country music. At all. But this CNN story about the Dixie Chicks is right when it says “it’s tough to deny that by gambling their careers, three Texas women have the biggest balls in American music.”

Twenty years from now I wonder who people will remember as being groundbreaking, pioneers, important…Faith Hill, or the Dixie Chicks? My Chemical Romance or Green Day? James Blunt or Sufjan Stevens?

[tags]dixie chicks[/tags]

Elaborate, expensive porn for women

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Salon talks about how Grey’s Anatomy is “just elaborate, expensive porn for women“, which would explain why I couldn’t stand the 30 seconds that I watched once.

.:.

The Toronto Star asks whether Jon Stewart is helping or hurting.

But is his sarcasm turning those who watch him the most — young adults — into giant cynics with a diminishing trust in politicians and the institutions of democracy?

One new study, published this month in the journal American Politics Research, says yes. Reseachers have connected The Daily Show to lower opinions of politicians and greater cynicism toward the mainstream media and the electoral process itself.

My own opinion? It’s not Jon Stewart that’s making people cynical…governments and news media are doing that all on their own; Jon Stewart just calls bullshit. Maybe, though, he’s speeding things along…

[tags]jon stewart, grey’s anatomy[/tags]

Shitty newspaper? Check. Flimsy propaganda tool? Check.

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This false story that was leaked (and reported by the National Post) yesterday about Iran planning to require non-Muslims to wear badges (a la Nazi Germany…a parallel they’re still drawing graphically even after removing the original story and posting a half-hearted retraction) could be seen coming a mile away. Antonia Zerbisias fills in some detail about the origins of the rumour and how it got planted in media circles, and POGGE sums it up well:

“It’s true that Ahmadinejad is a nasty piece of work. It’s also true that we’re being conned. Again.”

No kiddin’.

[tags]iran, badges, national post[/tags]

The ICB is not filling me with confidence right now

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As you might be able to tell from past blog postings, I’m in an MBA program that’s done jointly by Dalhousie University and the Institute of Canadian Bankers. I’m almost halfway through the program right now, so I found it odd this morning when I received an email from the ICB telling me that, because I have some credits with them, I could apply for this exciting joint MBA they offer with Dalhousie.

Now, granted, screwups happen like this sometimes. Email marketing’s an inexact science; trust me, I know that from past experience. This, to me, seems like kind of a rookie mistake…like the marketing people just didn’t think to check their mailing list against the list of people who’re actually taking the MBA program they’re trying to pitch. What bothers me is this: the MBA course I’m taking right now is the ICB marketing course.

I find myself questioning their expertise.

.:.

I’m excited that my oldest brother might be flying over to spend some time with us here in Toronto this summer. He’ll be back in Nova Scotia this summer, but between the Montreal and New York trips earlier in the year, the Rockies trip in the fall and the aggressive saving for the condo closing date in April it was just too much of a squeeze for us to make that trip as well. But ifhe shows up here in TO, I’m sure we can get into some trouble.

[tags]mba, dalhousie, icb, marketing, family[/tags]

Drater

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As funny as his Dilbert cartoons are, and as funny as half of his blog posts are, Scott Adams occasionally asks some damn good questions. Today’s topic: why does the US give foreign aid to Israel?

.:.

More baby-name fun from the Freakonomics guys. They point out a new one — “Nevaeh” — that went from eight babies in 1999 to 4,457 babies last year, and trace it to a single pop culture moment:

“The surge of Nevaeh can be traced to a single event: the appearance of a Christian rock star, Sonny Sandoval of P.O.D., on MTV in 2000 with his baby daughter, Nevaeh. ‘Heaven spelled backwards,’ he said.”

Frankly, I’m surprised Levitt and Dubner didn’t talk more about the influence of pop culture on baby names. For example, the name “Dawson” went from 734th most popular to 175th the year Dawson’s Creek debuted, and climbed to 136th the year after. “Dylan” was always resonably popular, but shot up to 28th two years after Beverly Hills 90210 went on the air. “Wyatt” went from 375th to 197th in the year after Tombstone and Wyatt Earp were released. It’s not just boys either; for girls, the name “Trinity” went from 526th the year before The Matrix was released to 74th the year after it came out. “Alyssa” went from 209th in 1983 to 180th, 130th and 86th in the years immediately following the debut of Who’s The Boss. And, perhaps the most telling, the name “Beyonce” made its one and only appearance in the list of the top 1000 baby names: it was #702 in 2001, the year Destiny’s Child released their multi-platinum Survivor album.

[all data US, from Social Security Online]

.:.

I would like one of these t-shirts, but for the life of me I can’t imagine any situation where it would be socially acceptable.

[tags]dilbert, scott adams, freakonomics, nevaeh[/tags]

Politicians & sales people…apparently I'm feeling masochistic today.

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Normally I read ITBusiness for work (natch) but these two articles caught my out-of-the-office interest:

  • Canadians swamp 2006 online census. I filled out the online census last week, and had no trouble at all. The Linux complaints and concerns about Lockheed Martin are valid, but it sounds like StatsCan answered them. Overall, I think the government deserves some praise for putting it online at all. Let’s at least pat them on the back before we nitpick them to death.
  • Sure the gun registry is a boondoggle, but shouldn’t we try to fix it? Did it go WAY over budget? Yes. Is the value of the registry difficult to measure? Yes. Does it completely stop gun violence? Of course not. Does it make sense to get rid of it? No. The cost is sunk; either the registry is valuable (in terms of perceived benefit versus ongoing — not initial — cost) to society or it isn’t. As far as I understand it the RCMP want it left in place, and I’d defer to them on this.

.:.

One final thought on mesh: too many people trying to get rich from blogs and web 2.0, not enough people trying to change the way companies talk to their customers. While I didn’t like the style of her presentation, you can tell that Tara Hunt just aches for the latter. People like her, or Jeremy Wright, or Tom Williams…those were the people with whom I found myself silently agreeing, who left me felt like we could be doing something truly different with this technology, not just extracting the same value from the same people in a slightly different way. The people in the crowd who stood up after every presentation to ask about how they could “monetize” this technology or that…they just gave me the creeps. Either they don’t get it, or they get it and they’re trying to exploit it.
[tags]mesh06, mesh conference, gun registry, census[/tags]

We were no there

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Last night I may have had a chance to get into last night’s Mogwai concert (which Frank from Chromewaves sums up nicely here) but I failed to tap the transatlantic-and-back-again connection to a member of the band that might have gotten me on the guest list. Probably. There was some confusion there. Anyway.

I don’t really know that anything could top my first time seeing them (like Frank, my ears have only recently stopped ringing) but I’d like to give them another chance after 4 years of good work since Rock Action. Some day the timing’ll work.

You can follow the boys in their fabulous driving machine at mr.beastmap.com.

[tags]mogwai, chromewaves, beastmap[/tags]

I KNEW IT!!

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Not dogs…rodents. This makes sense; I generally consider any animal my cats could eat to be a rodent.

A new study proves that the Chihuahua is actually a type of large rodent, selectively bred for centuries to resemble a canine, says The Watley Review. “This is clearly going to raise some eyebrows in the Chihuahua world,” said Peggy Wilson, president of the Chihuahua Club of America.

And really, how does one aspire to become president of the Chihuahua Club of America?
[via]

[tags]chihuahua, rodent[/tags]