Another Sundance Film Festival come and gone. Afterwards, I'm always asked the same two questions, which I will address here:
1. What did you see that you liked?
★ ★ ★ ★ The Visitor
★ ★ ★ ★ Diminished Capacity
★ ★ ★ ★ Transsiberian
★ ★ ★ ★ A Raisin in the Sun
★ ★ ★ ★ Birds of America
★ ★ ★ Made in America
★ ★ ★ The Merry Gentleman
★ ★ ★ The Deal
★ ★ ★ U2 3D
★ ★ ★ Henry Poole is Here
★ ★ ★ The Yellow Handkerchief
★ ★ ★ Red
★ ★ ★ CSNY Déjà vu
★ ★ ★ Baghead
★ ★ The Last Word
★ ★ Incendiary
★ ★ The Year of Getting to Know Us
★ ★ Sleepwalking
★ ★ Time Crimes
★ Pretty Bird
★ Savage Grace
★ Towelhead
Unrated: Death in Love
Other movies that got very good word-of-mouth, but that I didn’t see:
In Bruges (Colin Farrell, brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes)
The Great Buck Howard (Tom Hanks, John Malkovich, Steve Zahn, Colin Hanks)
Sunshine Cleaning (Amy Adams, Jason Spevack, Steve Zahn)
Phoebe in Wonderland (Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Bill Pullman)
Frozen River (Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott)
What Just Happened? (Robert DeNiro, Bruce Willis, Sean Penn)
The Wind and the Water (Spanish/Panama)
2. What stars did you see? I always hesitate to answer that. Perhaps the better questions would be:
What big stars did you meet personally, get to know, and plan to vacation with in the future? None.
What big stars did you make small talk with and exchange email addresses? None.
What big stars did your wife bump into in the bathroom and you exchange a sentence with? One—Glenn Close.
What big stars did you see as they walked by and up to the podium to talk about their movies? Hmmm… I’ll try to list them: David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Neil Young, Bono, The Edge, U2, Sharon Stone, Jimmy Fallon, Tom Arnold, Luke Wilson, Eddy Redmayne, Wes Bentley, William Macy, Meg Ryan, Stacy Peralta, Jason Ritter, Matthew Broderick, Alan Alda, Virginia Madsen, Michael Keaton, Kelley Macdonald, P. Diddy, Phylicia Rashad, Woody Harrelson, Glenn Close, Charlize Theron, Dennis Hopper, Maria Bello, Ben Kingsley, Eduardo Noriega, Kate Mara, William Hurt, among others.
Which of these were most impressive? Ben Kingsley, Jimmy Fallon, Stacy Peralta, Alan Alda and Phylicia Rashad.
For most of us mere mortals, the big stars are very inaccessible at Sundance. Maybe you see them here and there, but it would be inappropriate to intrude, even if you could. On the other hand, there are plenty of people involved in the movies, e.g. directors, producers, writers and actors, who are passionate about their work and more than eager to talk about their films. They haven’t become big yet (and maybe never will) and they are very excited to be at Sundance. I always meet and talk to quite a few of these, and it is one of my favorite parts of the festival.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
More Favorite Quotes
"Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing."
--Robert Benchley
"You can't build a reputation on what you're GOING to do."
--Henry Ford
"Fall seven times. Stand up eight."
--Japanese Proverb
"The real secret of success is enthusiasm."
--Walter Chrysler
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."
--Thoreau
"There is more to life than increasing its speed."
--Gandhi
"We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know."
--W. H. Auden
"He deserves paradise who makes his companions laugh."
--The Koran
"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment."
--Emerson
"Be bold--and mighty forces will come to your aid."
--Basil King
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them."
--Thoreau
"The superior man things always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort."
--Confucius
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
--Daniel J. Boorstin
"The sun will set without thy assistance."
--The Talmud
Wisdom has two parts:
1) Having a lot to say.
2) Not saying it.
--Robert Benchley
"You can't build a reputation on what you're GOING to do."
--Henry Ford
"Fall seven times. Stand up eight."
--Japanese Proverb
"The real secret of success is enthusiasm."
--Walter Chrysler
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."
--Thoreau
"There is more to life than increasing its speed."
--Gandhi
"We are here on earth to do good to others. What the others are here for, I don't know."
--W. H. Auden
"He deserves paradise who makes his companions laugh."
--The Koran
"Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment."
--Emerson
"Be bold--and mighty forces will come to your aid."
--Basil King
"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them."
--Thoreau
"The superior man things always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort."
--Confucius
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge."
--Daniel J. Boorstin
"The sun will set without thy assistance."
--The Talmud
Wisdom has two parts:
1) Having a lot to say.
2) Not saying it.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Sundance 2008
Sundance 2008 has opened and I have joined the black-clad throng in Park City. Saw four movies yesterday and the expected smattering of celebrities talking about them, including Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley, Kelley MacDonald, Maria Bello, William Hurt and Michael Keaton. I write little snippets on the movies, published as a blog on a friend of mine's site (good place to get a condo in Park City and other exotic locations!). You can see it at http://www.summitpacificinc.com/films.html. Too much writing for one week, so taking a hiatus from Downstream Ditties.
Monday, January 14, 2008
The Starfish and the Spider
A few months ago I ran across Rod Beckstrom’s website (www.beckstrom.com), which is mainly about his new book, The Starfish and the Spider. I was fascinated by the concept and found his video on the site very entertaining, so I got the book and read it with interest.
The core principle contrasts “spider” organizations with “starfish” organizations. Turns out that spiders are very centralized, rather like humans. Cut off their heads and they die. In contrast, starfish are decentralized creatures. Sever a leg, and another one grows back. Remove all the legs, and remarkably, each one can grow a new starfish. All the biological information and equipment required for the starfish exists in each leg. Well, you see where this is going. Traditional companies are like spiders, with a CEO running a top-down organization. Command and control, maybe sprinkled with a little distributed autonomy. But a new type of organization is beginning to emerge, stimulated largely by the existing internet network, that are more like the starfish.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a starfish organization. No one controls it. You can start a chapter wherever you want. Napster was a starfish organization, as are virtually all P2P file-sharing services. Maybe the ultimate starfish is the Internet. (Beckstrom tells a great story from the mid-90’s when some French investors asked an ISP CEO who was the president of the Internet, and couldn’t fathom the idea that no one controlled it.) It’s power to the people. These organizations are very difficult to kill. Cut off a limb, and another grows back. And there are also, quite appropriately, hybrid organizations—part starfish and part spider. Ebay is one of these. The payment structure is all spider, with a centralized PayPal service for your protection. But the network of buyers and sellers, policed by member ratings, is very much starfish.
Beckstrom points out great benefits to decentralized organizations, including something of a moral charge. If you’re a fan of democracies, then relinquishing control to members has something more than a practical appeal—it seems romantically idealistic. The Starfish and The Spider is the kind of book that stimulates your thinking, and after reading it I had all manner of visions and ideas floating around in my head. And I’ll never look at starfish the same way again.
The core principle contrasts “spider” organizations with “starfish” organizations. Turns out that spiders are very centralized, rather like humans. Cut off their heads and they die. In contrast, starfish are decentralized creatures. Sever a leg, and another one grows back. Remove all the legs, and remarkably, each one can grow a new starfish. All the biological information and equipment required for the starfish exists in each leg. Well, you see where this is going. Traditional companies are like spiders, with a CEO running a top-down organization. Command and control, maybe sprinkled with a little distributed autonomy. But a new type of organization is beginning to emerge, stimulated largely by the existing internet network, that are more like the starfish.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a starfish organization. No one controls it. You can start a chapter wherever you want. Napster was a starfish organization, as are virtually all P2P file-sharing services. Maybe the ultimate starfish is the Internet. (Beckstrom tells a great story from the mid-90’s when some French investors asked an ISP CEO who was the president of the Internet, and couldn’t fathom the idea that no one controlled it.) It’s power to the people. These organizations are very difficult to kill. Cut off a limb, and another grows back. And there are also, quite appropriately, hybrid organizations—part starfish and part spider. Ebay is one of these. The payment structure is all spider, with a centralized PayPal service for your protection. But the network of buyers and sellers, policed by member ratings, is very much starfish.
Beckstrom points out great benefits to decentralized organizations, including something of a moral charge. If you’re a fan of democracies, then relinquishing control to members has something more than a practical appeal—it seems romantically idealistic. The Starfish and The Spider is the kind of book that stimulates your thinking, and after reading it I had all manner of visions and ideas floating around in my head. And I’ll never look at starfish the same way again.
Friday, January 11, 2008
I Will Not Equivocate!
This morning I was reading about William Lloyd Garrison, the American 19th-century abolitionist, whose inflammatory speeches and writing cast slavery as a moral issue of profound importance to our nation. His most famous quotation:
"I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; – but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD."
Contrast that to the empty rhetoric I heard in last night's Republican debate, where everyone did their dramatic best to show conviction and earnestness, but with the occasional exception of Ron Paul, no one waved the banner of moral imperative and desperate urgency. In this age of political correctness, we have become comfortable only in the company of moderation, and cast as radicals those zealots whose shrill cries aim to ignite the fires of outrage, and kindle the flames of a nation bound to action. We mock unbridled passion as the misplaced tool of the lunatic fringe.
Garrison suffered the same in his day, yet was amply rewarded for his pain with the satisfaction that he made an important difference; that the masses finally acknowledged his cause as just; and that his indelible mark on our country's history stands in stark contrast to the ugly stain of slavery. Time has not mended society, and there remain outrages in our midst today. But precious few voices crying in the night, and even fewer of us willing to tolerate them.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Blink
I generally don't read books when they first come out. I like to see if they pass the test of time, if people are still talking about them a year or two later. So I finally picked up Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, the follow-up to his successful The Tipping Point (which I plan to read a little later). Bending between the genres of business, culture, science and self-improvement, the title captures the premise--that in a nanosecond our brains can unconsciously process data and often make better decisions than it can given more time to gather and analyze information. First impressions count. And sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. (If you don't believe me, go to a university bookstore and look at the chemistry texts.)
Like most business books, I got it after the first chapter. But unlike the typical fare, the rest was filled with fascinating anecdotes and accounts of research which illuminates or adds color to his premise. There are many examples where less information, and relying on instinct, trumped the opposition, for instance in a war exercise frighteningly similar to what we're seeing today in Iraq. But also the opposite, where snap decisions can prove disastrous. The counter-intuitive conclusion is that for simple decisions, an analytical approach is better, but for more complex ones with more variables (like picking a spouse), instincts are often superior. Uhhh ... maybe, but don't marry the first cute girl that smiles at you.
The Blink idea rang true to me personally, because I've always done better when I trust my gut, and generally paid a price when I ignored it. I was particularly intrigued by research on reading faces--how people who have extensively studied facial expressions can accurately tell an extraordinary amount about a person very quickly. I've always felt the same thing, but been a little embarrassed by the snap judgments I tend to make about someone's character, after very little interaction, even though I think my track record is pretty good. I feel a little better now, knowing that there's a potential scientific basis for what I do.
I'm not ready to relinquish all my decisions to a blink. There will always be a place for research and analysis. And of course, eenie-meenie-miny-mo.
Like most business books, I got it after the first chapter. But unlike the typical fare, the rest was filled with fascinating anecdotes and accounts of research which illuminates or adds color to his premise. There are many examples where less information, and relying on instinct, trumped the opposition, for instance in a war exercise frighteningly similar to what we're seeing today in Iraq. But also the opposite, where snap decisions can prove disastrous. The counter-intuitive conclusion is that for simple decisions, an analytical approach is better, but for more complex ones with more variables (like picking a spouse), instincts are often superior. Uhhh ... maybe, but don't marry the first cute girl that smiles at you.
The Blink idea rang true to me personally, because I've always done better when I trust my gut, and generally paid a price when I ignored it. I was particularly intrigued by research on reading faces--how people who have extensively studied facial expressions can accurately tell an extraordinary amount about a person very quickly. I've always felt the same thing, but been a little embarrassed by the snap judgments I tend to make about someone's character, after very little interaction, even though I think my track record is pretty good. I feel a little better now, knowing that there's a potential scientific basis for what I do.
I'm not ready to relinquish all my decisions to a blink. There will always be a place for research and analysis. And of course, eenie-meenie-miny-mo.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Fallen Kindness
Last night the winds blew mightily—enough to uproot a 50-foot tree in our backyard, which managed to crash through our fence and completely block our neighbor’s driveway. Faced with such an inconvenience, my neighbor had every right to ask me what the heck I was going to do about this—at eight o’clock Saturday night—so that he could regain access to his house. Instead he turned his car around, bought a chain saw, set up a portable light, took his trailer out of the garage and immediately went to work. I had to race outside to keep up with him or he might have done the whole thing himself.
It was a great lesson in neighborliness, the kind that is often lost in this day and age. And I am reminded of the era of barn-raisings, when entire communities would gather together to assist one another. Christmas cards are nice. A plate of cookies now and then is even better. But there’s nothing like working together to create ties that bind.
I’ll miss that tree, but always fondly remember the experience. And with apologies to Robert Frost, sometimes broken fences make good neighbors.
It was a great lesson in neighborliness, the kind that is often lost in this day and age. And I am reminded of the era of barn-raisings, when entire communities would gather together to assist one another. Christmas cards are nice. A plate of cookies now and then is even better. But there’s nothing like working together to create ties that bind.
I’ll miss that tree, but always fondly remember the experience. And with apologies to Robert Frost, sometimes broken fences make good neighbors.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
New Product Excursion
I tried three new products today. My ears have been ringing for three days. I knew it was an ear infection, because I used to have them as a kid. So instead of a more complicated trip to a doctor, I decided to stop by FirstMed, just down the street, to get a prescription for antibiotics. Was it as a good as going to a doctor? I waited 25 minutes and the magazine selection was reasonable, about like a doctor's office. The Nurse Practitioner was in her 20's, but she had one of those cool cone light things that let her look into my ears, just like a real doctor. (I'd like to have one of those myself.) Her diagnosis was unpretentious and to the point: "You've got infections in both ears." I was as confident in her assessment as if the Surgeon General himself had spoken. She gave me a prescription and I went my way. It was certainly more convenient for me. And it has to be cheaper for somebody--probably my insurance company. And it all just seems to make sense. These patient care centers are going to be a huge business in the next few years, replacing doctors for 75% of what ails us in Wal-Marts, Walgreens and strip malls. Good idea.
I went to the grocery store to get my prescription, so I had 15 minutes to kill. I wandered down the aisles, not really interested in buying anything. But I was fascinated by the beverage section, where the burgeoning water SKU's lure you with ever more exotic flavors and packaging. I settled on a bottle of "hint," which was billed as "Premium Essence Water with raspberry, lime and other natural flavors." Not sure what "Essence Water" is, or what "premium" got me, but after downing the bottle in-store, I concluded that beyond the marketing and wide-mouth packaging this was nothing special. I also noticed on the shelf bottles of "H2O Zip--caffeine-enhanced water." Finally, someone is willing to play this one straight--you want the buzz, but nothing else. So scrap the vitamin baloney and fruity tones and quit forcing drowsy shoppers to read the fine print to find out if it really has caffeine. This one makes it easy.
Finally, I wandered by Red Box, the portable DVD rental units that have become omnipresent in the past few years. I've seen and studied these many times, but because I've had a DVD store in my office for six years, I've never actually used one. I rented Eastern Promises, a brand-new thriller that Blockbuster was out of earlier this week. There was something very satisfying about only paying $1.07 for a one-night rental. Red Boxes are already a big idea, and now I know why. They deliver just what you need, without the unnecessary expense of capital, labor or packaging. I'll be using them again.
I do love capitalism, where Adam Smith's unseeing hand gooses the backside of eager entrepreneurs, resulting in fabulous trial and error, and the occasional emergence of really cool and useful products and services.
I went to the grocery store to get my prescription, so I had 15 minutes to kill. I wandered down the aisles, not really interested in buying anything. But I was fascinated by the beverage section, where the burgeoning water SKU's lure you with ever more exotic flavors and packaging. I settled on a bottle of "hint," which was billed as "Premium Essence Water with raspberry, lime and other natural flavors." Not sure what "Essence Water" is, or what "premium" got me, but after downing the bottle in-store, I concluded that beyond the marketing and wide-mouth packaging this was nothing special. I also noticed on the shelf bottles of "H2O Zip--caffeine-enhanced water." Finally, someone is willing to play this one straight--you want the buzz, but nothing else. So scrap the vitamin baloney and fruity tones and quit forcing drowsy shoppers to read the fine print to find out if it really has caffeine. This one makes it easy.
Finally, I wandered by Red Box, the portable DVD rental units that have become omnipresent in the past few years. I've seen and studied these many times, but because I've had a DVD store in my office for six years, I've never actually used one. I rented Eastern Promises, a brand-new thriller that Blockbuster was out of earlier this week. There was something very satisfying about only paying $1.07 for a one-night rental. Red Boxes are already a big idea, and now I know why. They deliver just what you need, without the unnecessary expense of capital, labor or packaging. I'll be using them again.
I do love capitalism, where Adam Smith's unseeing hand gooses the backside of eager entrepreneurs, resulting in fabulous trial and error, and the occasional emergence of really cool and useful products and services.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Photo Albums
Lanee and Rebecca have taken advantage of their mutual break time to consolidate all of our family photographs, which had been stashed away in neglected albums and boxes, mostly unseen. Now we have robust three-ring binders with acid-free pages filled with photos from roughly 1980 until 2001, organized chronologically.
I looked through them this morning, taking advantage of their efforts to relive so many memories. Of course there are hundreds of photos of the children when young, but also parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, friends, neighbors and others. There are plenty of now-ridiculous styles to laugh at (what were we thinking with those glasses?), and many memories came flooding back, of family events, traditions and teams; of favorite shirts and old houses and cars; family vacations and the births of every child.
During holidays and family events, I expect that we will get out these albums, pass them around, laugh and share memories, ask questions and reminisce. I'm looking forward to that.
The photos end about 2001, when I got my first digital camera. We haven't printed many of those, but they can be found on hard drives and Flickr and a few random discs. I love technology, but once again I wistfully mourn the passing of an age-old tradition--family photo albums, and wonder how future generations will share their memories and relive their past.
I looked through them this morning, taking advantage of their efforts to relive so many memories. Of course there are hundreds of photos of the children when young, but also parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, friends, neighbors and others. There are plenty of now-ridiculous styles to laugh at (what were we thinking with those glasses?), and many memories came flooding back, of family events, traditions and teams; of favorite shirts and old houses and cars; family vacations and the births of every child.
During holidays and family events, I expect that we will get out these albums, pass them around, laugh and share memories, ask questions and reminisce. I'm looking forward to that.
The photos end about 2001, when I got my first digital camera. We haven't printed many of those, but they can be found on hard drives and Flickr and a few random discs. I love technology, but once again I wistfully mourn the passing of an age-old tradition--family photo albums, and wonder how future generations will share their memories and relive their past.
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