The Movie I Watched Last Night LXXXVIII

A Place in the Sun
Who knew that Elizabeth Taylor was such a hottie? This 1951 film noir billed as a romance for the ages delivers on the noir but languishes in the love department. The slack-grinned and largely passionless Montgomery Clift, a downtrodden member of the otherwise well-to-do Eastman family -- which seems to have made its millions in swimming suits -- gets a job at his uncle's factory and quickly begins to work his way up. First though, he has his way with a fellow worker -- a femme feeble -- on the shop floor. What he found attractive in the frustratingly pasty-faced and frumpy Shelley Winters, I know not, but perhaps proximity proved his downfall. In addition to that hush-hush hug-'em-up -- workers aren't supposed to date -- Clift's character starts making time with Taylor's high-society debutante, a friend of the wealthy Eastman family. They inexplicably fall in love, and it's certainly a better match, but then Winters' character begins to further dig her claws into Clift's character. For good reason, but the "solution" he arrives upon is less that satisfying and, in the end, only distances him from everyone that he might love. Taylor makes for amazingly delicious eye candy, yet I have some cognitive dissonance reconciling her with the ET of today. More early '50s Taylor, please. Meow.

Pieces, Particles XVI

The following stories spotted recently in print publications might be worth a look. Heads and decks, only. Heads and decks.

All Over the Maps by Bryan Miller, New York Times, March 28, 2004
For a lover of cartography, fold-out charts of streets and roads are worthy of endless study

The Birth of the Meta-Protest Rally? by Jack Hitt, New York Times Magazine, March 28, 2004
Billionaires for Bush are not for real, except when they are.

Casting Reality TV, No Longer a Hunch, Becomes a Science by David Carr, New York Times, March 28, 2004

Cellphones Ringing at Home and at Work by Lisa Belkin, New York Times, March 28, 2004

Consumed: Sprite ReMix by Rob Walker, New York Times Magazine, March 28, 2004
The drink is not about loyalty to a consistent taste but to a consistent idea about taste.

Dorothy Denny Scardino, 82, Musical Star of the Bank Lobby, New York Times, March 28, 2004

Giving Credits the Credit They're Due by Steven Heller, New York Times, March 28, 2004
A survey of the work of a three-minute auteur

New Way for Teenagers to See If They Bounce by Anna Bahney, New York Times, March 29, 2004

News Reports for Ultra-Short Attentions by Warren St. John, New York Times, March 28, 2004
A news program that feels "like a train that's about to come off the tracks."

Police to Protesters: Come on Down! by Michael Wilson, New York Times, March 28, 2004

They'll Have the Usual by Richard J. Scholem, New York Times, March 28, 2004
Restaurateurs never tire of their super-regular customers

Tom and Hank's Birthplace, Along the Mighty Chemung by Michelle York, New York Times, March 28, 2004
It's not Hannibal or Hartford, but Elmira was also home to Mark Twain.

Among the Literati LV

Maura Jasper and Hilken Mancini of Punk Rock Aerobics are featured in the health section of today's Daily News. Seemingly to promote the May 6 New York City Punk Rock Aerobics class at the Virgin Megastore Union Square (Is that punk, or what?), Chrissy Persico's piece is really just a combination book review and personal essay about rediscovering the fun of exercise.

Hiking History XVI

Find a Grave is an online service that will, well, help you do just that. Want to know whether anyone well known -- or worth knowing about -- is buried near where you live? Search by name, location, and claim to fame to find the dearly departed to whom you'd like to dedicate an afternoon exploratory stroll. Why, in Brooklyn alone, I could track down the headstones of such Media Dieticians as James Gordon Bennett (founder of the New York Herald), John Bunny, and George Catlin -- and that's just in the first few letters!

Thanks to Charlie McEnerney.

Big Brother Is Watching XVII

The Daily News reports today that the Transit Authority plans to install more surveillance cameras in subway stations -- even in MetroCard machines. Ostensibly to thwart fare scammers and further secure Transit property, the proposed cameras are currently "under review." While the SOS Camera Watch documents publicly available Webcams trained on public spaces, is anyone other than the Surveillance Camera Players documenting general security cameras in the city?

South by Southwest 2004 III

File under: Small world. My friend Brad emailed me a link to Jenville's report on Arlo's trip to South by Southwest this year. It was widely agreed that Arlo was the cutest baby at the conference, and if you look at the photo gallery, you'll see many of the people I hung out with, too: Pableaux, Molly, Ben, and Jay among them. But I don't know -- and I didn't meet -- Jen and her family. Some day, I'm sure I will. And it'll be because of Brad.

Products I Love XII

Since my move to Brooklyn, I've only been able to listen to cassettes and records -- and the latter in mono for some reason -- because my CD player is on the fritz. It will recognize CD's in the changer -- but not play them. I've been too lazy to take it into the repair shop on the corner, but just now, I ordered an RCA RP8070 five-CD carousel from Buy.com for less than $100. My life at home here has been relatively devoid of music for the last two months. That needs to change.

Music to My Ears LII

Andrew, formerly of the band Bread and Roses, now has a new project: xDonRicklesx. He absolutely cracks me up.

Products I Love XI

I haven't actually used this yet, but GameStop's Nintendo air freshener makes me smile. Gizmodo jokes that scents include "blown dust from cartridge" and "Doritos."

Newspaper Chase VII

While I have yet to pick up an edition of AmNewYork, a free daily in the city -- I'm too busy trying to keep up with four other dailies, and I'd like to read even more -- I am thrilled silly that Metro is launching in New York sometime after May 1. A friend of mine was a scout for the Boston launch, and while I didn't read the Boston Metro every day, I was impressed by its internationalism, attention to labor activism, and sense of humor. May the New York Metro be as scrappy. Besides, I kind of miss the hawker who'd hand me my paper every day at the Central Square T stop. Will the Metro hawkers venture to Nassau Avenue on the G line? We shall see.

Rest in Peace VI

John Klem, who helped pioneer international newspaper syndication, died yesterday. Working for the Editors Press Service, Klem traveled around the world to introduce overseas newspaper editors to American columns and comics. Over the course of his career, he sold hundreds of features to 2,000 newspapers in 120 countries.

Among the Literati LIV

While Douglas Rushkoff claims that his novel Exit Strategy is the first open-source novel, I'd suggest that the first such experiment truly deserving the label "open source" might be Rick Heller's Smart Genes. Beyond seeking footnotes and amendments -- even Cory Doctorow's iterative near-open source approach as he emails portions of his new writing seeking feedback as he writes -- Heller has put the entire text of his novel online as a Wiki.

"Anyone can edit it," he writes. "It may be better or it may be worse than the released version." But in the end, it turns out that he's not going all the way.

Because not all changes are for the good, I have posted a stable, released version of the novel. I will review changes that readers make, and merge those I think are good into a new release of the novel. I hope to be liberal in including readers' changes, but those which I don't believe would strengthen the novel will be rolled back.

That said, he does encourage contributors to save their own changed sections in personal areas of the Wiki. Imagine, coupled with a Creative Commons license, Heller could end up with hundreds of parallel -- yet independently original -- versions of the novel.

Smart genes, indeed.