Netflix. Yay Netflix!

The Subatomic office has been Netflix subscribers for years now. The office has scaled back on the cable-tv, but Netflix remains a necessity. We like to watch TV-shows, indie-dramas, obscure docs, foreign stuff, and even the latest hollywood blockbuster. Netflix has never let us down.

We were saddened when they announced that they were going to cancel their 'profiles' feature which allowed several people to have their own queue for one single account. The feature allowed everyone in the office to at least get one movie that they wanted to see. No more...or so we thought.

There was a huge online movement to have them continue the service, and we signed a few online petition. So imagine the delight at the email saying they would keep the 'profiles' after all.

In an age when many corporations are screwing customers left and right, and raising rates for fewer services, I'm glad to see that Netflix keeps it real.

Coldplay at MSG

The Grand Finale
Originally uploaded by subatomicfilms.

I was one of the lucky (actually, there were thousands others, so maybe not that lucky) folks that got tickets for the Coldplay show at Madison Square Gardens. Can't say that I'm a huge fan, I'm more of an armchair Coldplay admirer.

I really enjoyed their first album, Parachutes, but think their albums after it are nothing to be proud of. So, I went to the show with low expectations, and mostly because it was free.

The first two opening acts were abysmal (not even worthy of a mention)! So, I was getting more and more frustrated and decided that I'd give Coldplay a few songs, and if they sucked, I would exit early to Brooklyn.

However, they brought it! I think they are settling nicely into their billing as 'the new U2/Radiohead', arena-rock gods. The band sounded tight, and Chris Martin played the role of frontman quite well: inane banter between songs, dancing wildly, audience participation and charisma to burn.

They belted out a nice mixture of old and new songs and pulled some cool 'surprises', including a bizarre acoustic performance of monster hit Yellow at the back of the arena amongst the crowd.

The only downer was that there was no encore, which the crowd totally wanted. I guess, you get what you pay for.

Slow Summer (So Far...)

I'm a media Whore
Originally uploaded by subatomicfilms.

If you didn't know, Swedish furniture giant, IKEA, opened a store in Brooklyn. Red Hook to be exact.

They've pulled out all the stops in trying to get New Yorkers away from the New Jersey and Long Island stores: they've got shuttle buses running from nearby subway stations, water taxi's, and ample parking (which is a premium in NYC).

Anyhoo, the hardcores started lining up on Monday to get a free couch. I'm a busy guy, so I decided to show up at 730am (the store opened at 9am). The nice thing is that the store has commanding views of Manhattan and Lady Liberty. It's also employing about 500 folks, mostly from Brooklyn.

In hindsight, there really wasn't much holding me back from camping out on Monday for the couch. As you can see, it's been a slow summer for the Subatomic Films office.

Get a job, Class of 2008!

IMG_7387.jpg
Originally uploaded by subatomicfilms.

I remember when I graduated from YorkU back in 2002, the speaker at my commencement was astronaut Marc Garneau (whom apparently has made a bid for politics recently. Thankfully, he didn't win. Scientists that want to be politicians scare me). That was kind of cool. But let's be honest, most commencement speeches are incredibly boring especially when they venture into political territory. If it's not political, they can all be summed up by "good job, believe in yourself, you are awsome, etc..."

The Times put together a page of excerpts from commencement speeches this year, and surprise surprise, most of them suck. The only words that ring true to me were given by, of all people, Clarence Thomas: "As those of us who take responsibility for our lives, and don’t blame others, know only so well, life has a way of humbling, if not humiliating us."

He Shoots, He Scores!

Since I don't have cable, my sports viewing is predominantly relegated to major championships.
So, I'm grateful that NBC airs the Stanley Cup Finals.

Hopefully you saw last night's game that continued for 3 over-time periods. It was easily the best game that I've seen in years. Good end to end, fast-moving and relatively clean playing.

Usually, I hate the announcers on NBC, but I found Mike Emrick, Pierre McGuire and Eddie-O (who I met at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto when I was like 8 years old!) to be rather engaging and thoughtful.

I haven't seen a game on CBC in a while. From this column, it looks like things are looking bleak for them.

Cruelty No More in Canada?

I'm no stranger to KFC outlets worldwide, and my consuming probably wouldn't be affected, but it's nice to know that KFC Canada has bowed to the endless protests/boycotts of PETA and will buy chickens that been killed in a manner that is considered more humane.

This could be a watershed moment in fast-food, as I'm sure other companies in Canada will follow suit, and the pressure will then be states-side and eventually worldwide.


The suits at KFC Canada are also promising a vegan chicken alternative at restaurants. To be honest, a lot of the 'faux-chicken' products made by Morningstar Farms are pretty damn tasty... just stay away from Tofurkey.

Makin' me look bad

Everyone knows that I'm a big supporter of Nuclear Energy and it's ability to provide huge amounts of power relatively cheaply.

Unfortunately, it's stories like this, that make me feel and look like and idiot.

Nuclear Energy rests on and demands that proper safety precautions are taken in all steps involved.

It's as if Lake Ontario's history of pollution wasn't enough.

Inside News from the Obama Camp

One of my teachers (and dare I say, 'friend') got a job last year working on the Obama campaign as the director of field production. Basically, he's the one making the campaign ads and videos.

There's a very nice profile of him, his life on the road and the creative process which is high turnaround.

When I ran into him after the New York rally last year, he confided that he thought his gig would be over soon. Clearly, he was wrong.

Physicists Tell it to the Judge!

I lub me some baby mama drama!

The woes for the LHC continues as a few quacks (Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho) are suing (yes, legal action!) CERN for potentially creating black holes that will swallow up the Earth.

Even better than that has been the discussion over at Peter Steinberg's blog (Full disclosure: Peter is a former colleague of mine). It gets better, as Wagner got around to posting a nasty response.

As it turns out, Wagner is a master of "the sky is falling" prophecies as he predicted black holes would surely result from RHIC over at BNL. From the year that I spent at BNL, I can truthfully say, I am still alive.

R.I.P.: Wheeler

We were saddened to hear about the passing of the mighty physicist John Wheeler. This guy was the real deal and was perhaps the most influential physicist alive.

I first came to know Wheeler when I read a paper that he and Feynman (Feynman was Wheeler's student) wrote on the Retarded Potential. I was struck by the philosophical implications concerning the arrow of time. It was that brief paper that caused me to look more into Wheeler, and his massive contribution to knowledge.

I've never been star-struck by scientists (and movie stars are starting to lose their luster), but Wheeler was the only contemporary physicist that I really wanted to meet.

Back in the Office

Toronto Skyline from the Ferry
Originally uploaded by subatomicfilms.

It's been a while...I've been dealing with some serious family problems (looks like everything will be OK though) which took me to Toronto and away from the blogosphere for a bit.

However, you will be happy to know that I am back, and my typing fingers are itchy.

This One's For you, Mr. Cohen

In this week's installment of Status Ain't Hood, Tom Breihan gives his regular roundup of American Idol. It's good that he's able to recognize the best performance of this year, which was Castro's version of "Hallelujah."

Everyone's talking about Jeff Buckley's version and tons of people are downloading it, which is great. However, it's Leonard Cohen's original that is the real masterpiece. I also really liked Rufus Wainwright's version too.

I've been listening to a lot of old Cohen stuff, and even though he's being inducted into the Hall of Fame, an imminent tour and there was a doc about him with celebrities galore, Old Man Lenny is still pretty much flying under the radar.

His Cousin is Descartes Nietzsche

Last week a postdoc from Princeton did a talk in the Physics Department at NYU. Some folks are meant for their respective professions: Coco Crisp was meant to play basebell. Doug Gilmour easily a hockey player. Hulk Hogan, wrestler. Aristotle Socrates can be nothing other than a physicist.

MC Nerding it Up

Scientists are a jovial bunch. Despite the common stereotype, most do enjoy a good party. Especially a good drink. At least in my experience, scientist + alcohol + dancefloor = good times (+ embarrassing pictures later).

Some nerds across the pond have taken it one step further, where at a recent party, they were urged to "Dance their PhD". That is, to create an interpretive dance based on their dissertation topic. It was organized by a molecular biology grad student that also moonlights as a club DJ.

You can see interesting video from the scene here. Honestly, most of it isn't that great aside from Simone Recchi's "Dynamical and chemical evolution of blue compact dwarf galaxies." In my mind, the post-doc astronomer from University of Trieste really got it when he performed to Daft Punk's "Around the World".

Robert Elswit

Robert Elswit
Originally uploaded by subatomicfilms
The master cinematographer came to the department last night to talk about his experiences. He was kind enough to arrange a screening of a 35mm print of There Will Be Blood, for which he is nominated for an Oscar.

To be honest, I didn't really know his work until I checked him out on imdb, and learned that he's shot some of favourite movies of the past few years: Michael Clayton, Good Night, and Good Luck and Magnolia. An impressive CV.

He mostly spoke about TWBB, working with Paul Thomas Anderson and his unorthodox approach to filmmaking.

He himself said that he's not (nor will Tony Gilroy) going to win on Sunday night, but he'll always be #1 in our hearts. Yeah I said that.

Leaks

Our friends at the Pirate Bay are apparently behind the new wiki-style site wikileaks which allows the dissemination of classified documents pertaining to governments and corporations. It encourages whisteblowers to pass on information, promising anonymous, untraceable uploads.

It launched in late 2006 and gained big hits when it posted the SOP's for the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp.

It is sites like this that are truly making the internet an absolutely essential alternative to mainstream media.

A quick perusal through some of the other docs is scary and infuriating.

James McBride & Spike Lee

Spike Lee's class this semester is all about his next film, which just wrapped shooting 2 weeks ago. It's an adaptation of James McBride's book "Miracle at St. Anna", and the 92nd Division (mostly black soldiers in WWII) experiences through Italy.

Last week we were absolutely treated to see a teaser trailer that was assembled for Hollywood types. The stuff is truly beautiful.

This week, we were lucky to have the author James McBride (who also wrote the screenplay) come to class and talk to us about working with Spike on adapting his own work. It was really great to hear about his writing process, and what goes through his mind when writing for characters. It's interesting to note that Mr. McBride is also a notable jazz musician and journalist (he teaches journalism at NYU).

At the end of the class, Spike said that we were all getting copies of McBride's latest book Song Yet Unsung, which was released on Tuesday. We also got copies of the screenplay. It was like Oprah! I was a fanboy and got them both signed by the author, who was extremely gracious.

It was a great treat to have two master artists in one room, and to hear them talk about storytelling and craft.

Worst Headline Ever?!

Either Toronto is having a snow storm, or just had a massive Taco Bell meal.

Abderrahmane Sissako

Last week, Abderrahmane Sissako came to the department for a Q&A. As with many of the guests that we are lucky to get, Sissako was fantastic.

He has an interesting story: born in Mauritania, grew up in Mali, moved to Moscow for film school (VGIK). A short that he made went to Cannes, and garnered much attention to him. He was able to move to Paris and continue to make films on his own terms for French television (but still gets theatrical distribution). Most of his films are based in Africa and there was a screening of his earlier film Waiting for Happiness.

Through an interpreter, he was incredibly sincere, gentle, thoughtful and passionate about his experiences and his philosophies on filmmaking and working with actors.

He also screened a few scenes from his student films all the way up to his latest feature Bamako (in which the World Bank and the IMF are put on trial for screwing up Africa). In the scene he showed us, a villager comes to the podium and just starts singing in some native language that is not translated. However, everything the man is singing about is incredibly clear to the viewer. Perhaps one of the greatest moments on film that I've ever seen.

Mike Trent Hates Canadians (i.e Black People)

I couldn't make this stuff up folks....

Assistant District Attorney in Harris County, Texas sent out an email referring to "Canadians" in the jury of a case he had just won. Problem is that obviously, there were no Canadians on the jury (and further, it wouldn't be possible for a Canadian to sit on a jury). However, there were a few black folks.

From the Urban Dictionary:

Canadian:

Expression for black people used by whites as "code" when they want to refer to blacks in a semi-derogatory manner without being detected in a group of people "Jeezus, look at all the Canadians out tonight."

Of course, the guy in question is claiming no foul, and is quoted as saying: "Am I insanely stupid enough to send a racial slur to 250 LAWYERS? Litigious, complaint-ready lawyers, some of whom are African-American?? That is just absurd."

Well, I guess you are probably not insane...but definitely stupid. Not to mention ignorant.

Just a further illustration of the systemic racism that plagues the justice system everywhere.