South X Southwest 2011: Day Three

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Category: Eric Lurio

Published on Friday, 11 March 2011 18:55

Written by Eric Lurio

Day Three: I took the wrong bus, and wound up somewhere in the U. of Texas campus. I then started to wander around the convention center, where I began talking to people, mostly about the interactive section, which is where a bunch of website constructors get together and talk about the latest gadgets. They really didn’t have much on their minds besides, parties, money and how to make it, and a fellow who had the platinum badge (it gets you everywhere) told me how the music industry is almost dead and soon there’s going to be nothing left except MP3s and self-published specialty vinyl.

I went to the filmmakers lounge and ate the bagels and drank the coffee. They told me not to do it anymore, but let me have seconds nonetheless. Then there’s the SXExpress, where one can get special passes to get in ahead of everyone else (except those who were in front of the SxExpress line). I got the ones I wanted. I could get four, but since this is the first day of the actual festival, there’s only time for two.

The press lounge is rather small for this year, and may not be available to us on the film side when the interactive part is finished. That’s what happened last year and it really sucked. That’s traditional. Not good.

Having gotten the express tickets, I had to wait on line for Source Code anyway. It started a bit late, as these things always do. The film wasn’t something particularly original. There was a TV series called Seven Days back in the ‘90s, not to mention Quantum Leap, Groundhog Day and the movie Groundhog Day ripped off.

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t good, just that it wasn’t original. I enjoyed it, but had another movie I had to go to. Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis about the guy who did most of Pink Floyd’s album covers, which was actually pretty decent for that sort of thing. Then I had to head home.

South X Southwest 2011: Day One/Two

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Parent Category: Blogs

Category: Eric Lurio

Published on Friday, 11 March 2011 18:51

Written by Eric Lurio

Day One: I got in around 8 in the evening, and a woman was nice enough to share a piece of manicotti, as they didn’t have any extra, and I was just sitting there, drinking soda. That was very nice of her, but the management said I had to pay for it. I told them the situation, and they changed their minds.

Day Two: Got up, fell out of bed (top bunk — ouch!) did the usual morning stuff before heading out to downtown Austin to pick up my badge. It turned out that they didn’t open until 11 am, so I went to the Starbucks next to the state capitol building and watched the world go by for about an hour. Then went back to the convention center, where I stood on the first of many, many lines to get my stuff.

There doesn’t seem to be anything going on right now. Just people constructing stuff, and the actual programs don’t start until tomorrow afternoon. So I take a bus tour of the city, using my decades-old student ID to get a discount (they didn’t ask if it was valid or not, only if I had one). We went out into the Hill Country and then north of the University by the LBJ Presidential Library, which I’ve seen already.

I checked out a few venues, which were empty, and had fondue for dinner before going back the hostel.  The good guys are losing the war in Libya and while one would expect something like that, it’s still a bit of a disappointment.

Why you cannot actually buy Ebooks

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Parent Category: Blogs

Category: Eric Lurio

Published on Monday, 24 January 2011 20:51

Written by Eric Lurio

That’s right, you are forbidden to buy e-books. You also cannot buy songs off the radio or apps for your mobile phone. You can go to Amazon or the App store and give them money, and they will send you something in return. But you do not OWN them… And if you don’t own something you’ve paid for, you haven’t bought it.  In other words, Amazon®, Apple® etc. won’t let you BUY anything.

I first realized this a couple of weeks ago I was stranded in Las Vegas, and was about to take a mid morning nap, when I decided to call a friend. He as surprised to hear that I was there and asked me if I was going to go to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which was going to start in a couple of days. I told him that I expected to be able to fly out late the following afternoon, well before it started.

Read more: Why you cannot actually buy Ebooks

Vandals On The Side of The Angels: How Far Is Too Far?

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Parent Category: Blogs

Category: Eric Lurio

Published on Friday, 27 August 2010 10:16

Written by Eric Lurio

It's amazing how sometimes movies come out in bunches. This particular bunch is extremely small (does two count?) but they bring up some interesting questions. For instance, how far can a group go before being considered the "bad guy" and when and how much vandalism can be justified before it morphs into terrorism?

The films in question -- At the Edge of the World and The Cove -- have been playing the film festival circuit for the better part of a year, and are soon getting limited release. Both are really well done, and try to glorify a group called the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a private navy that is currently at war with the Empire of Japan over the issue of whaling.

Now, let's get this straight right now. I am not a fan of whaling and have long supported the ban, but what Sea Shepherd and its friends have been doing has been mostly ineffective and somewhat counterproductive. Part of the reason is international law, which is, with a few exceptions, a total joke. The reason that it is that way is that countries are sovereign and independent, and that means they can do whatever it is they want and the only remedies to this are sanctions and war.

Do sanctions work? No. People who think otherwise generally cite South Africa, but in fact, they didn't work, and the reason they appeared to have is that blacks outnumbered whites in that country by around 10 to one. If sanctions worked, Iran wouldn't be working on nuclear weapons, and Burma would be a democracy.
War works, but only if it's done with a solid plan as to what to do once it is over. It is for this reason that quagmires occur, and why groups like Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace, from whom it seceded, get so little done beyond being annoying.

At The Edge of the World follows two Sea Shepherd vessels as they hunt for and attempt to vandalize Japan's scientific whaling fleet in the Antarctic. The Japanese are, surprisingly, extremely tolerant of these people as Sea Shepherd activists ram their vessels, try to destroy their propellers, and throw poison bombs onto the ships in an attempt to render the catch unusable. In doing so Sea Shepherd loses two of their crew, and spends the better part of the day looking for them with the help of the Japanese whalers. Cute, huh?

The Sea Shepherds think of themselves as an international police force trying to enforce international law, but as the movie clearly shows, they are not, and receive no support from anyone in any government. It's that kind of arrogance that will cause grief to them and not just the whales.

The Cove, on the other hand, is a different kettle of fish entirely. This has nothing to do with international law, and everything to do with espionage. It's also better propaganda for the cause.

The film is mostly about former animal trainer Richard O'Barry and his decades'-long quest to end the trade in dolphins for theme parks. It goes on about his change of heart and feelings of guilt, using footage from his work on the old Flipper TV show, before becoming one of the more obnoxious animal rights activists.

But the title is about a cove in the Japanese town of Taiji, where once a year, the local fishermen capture a few thousand dolphins, sell a few to seaquariua around the world, and slaughter the rest for meat. O'Barry and the Sea Shepherds cook up a plan to, not actually stop it, but to document it via film, something the locals, for some reason that I cannot understand, refuse to let them do.

The reason I don't understand why they don't want their activities filmed is that if they don't think what they're doing is wrong, then why hide it?

There have been documentaries on fishing and slaughterhouses before and they can be very graphic, but the people who are being filmed don't mind letting people see what they are doing. Director/ cinematographer Louie Psihoyos shows us a great deal of a number of locals who do.

This makes espionage-like actions necessary for the filmmakers and they carry it off with panache, something previous protesters, who are shown, most certainly didn't.

Both films make fun of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and condemn it as a bunch of lackeys of the evil Japanese. These people aren't nearly as stupid as they seem. Or are they?

But the IWC is the only body there is, and when something takes place in the territorial waters of a country, national law takes precedence. There is nothing that can be done short of sanctions or war, and countries' resistance to these people is going to get stronger.

There has to be something done about this, and what the Sea Shepherds are doing isn't exactly it.

Posted: July 30, 2009

http://www.seashepherd.org/