 |
http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/photos/shooting-the-moon-tonight/ Date: May 16, 2011 |
Easy A (3 stars)
Emma Stone is cute and droll and carries the movie. Stanly Tucci and Patricia Clarkson are also quite entertaining as her parents. An above average teen flick.
A clean-cut high school student relies on the school’s rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.
Colossus: The Forbin Project (1 star)
I was 15 when I first saw this. The best part of seeing it again was its portrayal of computers, especially all those wide greenbar printouts we were still using in 1980. And if a supercomputer were to design its own voice, I hope it would not choose such a gawd-awful mechanical sound. Hal’s voice was soo much better.
The strangest thing about this movie is not only its quaint take on sex. Weirder, I remember an elaborate scene that is gone or imagined or from another movie.
Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) – IMDb
An artificially intelligent supercomputer is developed and activated, only to reveal that it has a sinister agenda of its own.
Salt (2 stars)
Salt is in the genre of the Bourne series, although it is not quite as good as the worst of those (the last). The opening violence is just a taste, although the most personal; I lost count of the killed. Hard to recommend, even to a Jolie fan.
A CIA agent goes on the run after a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy.
Abstracts
Abstract photography presents a puzzle. There is a pattern to the subject. As I see it, the pattern in natural subjects is complex, whereas architectural patterns are usually simpler. (A stained glass window could be an exception.)
Photojournalism
I like to take pictures of pretty things. But photography must include unpleasant subjects, as well.
I took that picture four years ago. I was driving when I saw the truck. It took me a moment to catch the error. I thought, “I wish I had a camera,” and my wish came true (it had been on the seat next to me the whole time). Later, I decided not to post this because I abhor that word and the violence of this act. However, time passes and it’s never too late to ridicule the idiot who painted this. (Mind you, dyslexics have my sympathy; misogynists do not.)
Similarly, I was appalled to find the following sign in my neighborhood park. Who would wrap packing tape around a tree to post a sign. And who would hire such a person who couldn’t spell or use spell check – or capitalize properly.
Both of these are part of a large topic I call “AlBAHquerque,” with which I document the ugly side of our town. I call quite a few of these “screw the view,” because that’s what they say to me: that someone’s profit matters more than beauty.
photojournalism
 |
http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/photos/photojournalism/ Date: May 13, 2011 |