Then I will blog in the shade

Conditions: Sunny and windy.


Mayhem in Iraq

Which is about as odd as finding out water is wet. But a suicide bomber somehow got into the 'green zone' in Baghdad and blew up a cafeteria at the Iraqi parliament. On the BBC World Service, a reporter chased down local Iraqis for comment, and got answers along the lines of "well, the democracy was a load of crap anyway, and we've still got no electricity, so screw them." The fact that someone could get into the 'safe' green zone with a bomb is amazing. The response to it, fascinating. I guess it's akin to the survivors of a crashed airplane being asked if they care that the black box has a crack in it.

BBC news

NYTimes



Peekaboo on Mars

The enigmatic cydonian face on mars has been spotted again, this time by the HiRISE Orbiter camera.




Hmmm. With each level of detail the face is looking more and more battered. Interesting that they don't seem to take photos of the five sided pyramid, or the thing that looks like a village. Go here.


Film Review: 300

A long time ago, in a kingdom far away, Robert Rodriguez made Sin City, a noirish little epic based on, and looking like, a comic book. It made a bit of money, and it turns out the writer of that book also wrote a few other gritty epics, and here's the next. 300 doesn't pretend to be anything other than an excercise in style and volume, and in that sense it is a triumph. Colors and shapes are lovingly drawn across the screen, and everything is in service of a hyper-realistic style. As long as you understand that this is not a realistic depiction of a moment in history, you'll have a load of fun. The actors surely are, with the Spartans the very definition of the word, and the bad guys chewing the computer-drawn scenery every chance they get. Every now and then we're distracted with a scene set back at home, with the senate arguing over politics, but they're over quickly, and the good stuff, the spectacle, can continue.

Some might say, and many have, that a film that is all sizzle, with no steak is a failure. But I think the meat of this film lies in the simple ideas of strength and stubbornness, and not in the dramatic machinations of the characters found in other epics. King Leonidas is doomed from the start, as are all his brave men, and the film is a simple walk down a stylish last mile. The whys and the whens are left to history books, should anyone care to find out. A film is not meant to be a documentary, it's meant to be an emotional outlet, that's why it only lasts a few hours. Four arrows out of five.



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