A story in six words? Wow!

Wired hired writers for short stories.
The rule is: only six words.
Hemingway was first, SciFi writers now.
OK, I stop. (no seriously now)

A few of my favorites here:

Vacuum collision. Orbits diverge. Farewell, love.
- David Brin
Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
- Joss Whedon
Longed for him. Got him. Shit.
- Margaret Atwood
From torched skyscrapers, men grew wings.
- Gregory Maguire
With bloody hands, I say good-bye.
- Frank Miller
It’s behind you! Hurry before it
- Rockne S. O’Bannon
The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
- Orson Scott Card
Tick tock tick tock tick tick.
- Neal Stephenson

Not that difficult? Try it yourself!

Jeff Buckley - What Will You Say

A great song, What Will You Say was never released in studio version. Jeff's father, Tim Buckley was a famous folk singer/songwriter at the end of the 60s and early 70s. He died at 28 of a drug overdose. Jeff, who never got to really know him, still clearly had issues with his dead father as evidenced in this song:

"...Father do you hear me?
Do you know me?
Do you even care?..."

Although I prefer Jeff's voice, you should definitely try some of his father's works. There is a great anthology available released a few years ago. UPDATE: here's a link to a Tim Buckley's video. Try also here and here.

This clip was filmed during the Glastonbury Festival in 1995 (rest of the lyrics in the comments).

The log lady diaries 4

Even the ones who laugh are sometimes caught without an answer:
these creatures who introduce themselves but we swear we have met them before.

Yes, look in the mirror. What do you see?
Is it a dream or a nightmare?
Are we introduced against our will? Are they mirrors?

I can see the smoke. I can smell the fire.
The battle is drawing nigh.

Good night, and good luck.

After Bill Clinton impassionate reply to a moronic Fox News journalist last week, Keith Olbermann (journalist at MSNBC) channels Edward R. Murrow. I know the whole journalists-have-to-be-objective thing but this made my day. It's time some people (and that includes journalists) wake up and start talking out loud.

If you haven't seen it, I would really recommend that you watch George Clooney's second movie as a director (which proves that you can actually be good looking AND smart) Good night, and good luck. This movie (shot in black and white and set in the 50s) depicts CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow as he opposes Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House of Un-American Activities Committee. With a desire to report the facts and enlighten the public, Murrow, and his dedicated staff--headed by his producer Fred Friendly (played by Clooney himself) and Joe Wershba (Robert Downey Jr) in the CBS newsroom--defy corporate and sponsorship pressures to examine the lies and scaremongering tactics perpetrated by McCarthy during his communist witch-hunts...

After this segment, I think Murrow would have been proud of Olbermann.

Who are we?

Putting things into perspective.

Jeff Buckley - Grace

Amazing (live version of) Grace on NPA, Canal+ (1995).

The log lady diaries 3

There is a sadness in this world, for we are ignorant of many things.
Yes we are ignorant of many beautiful things--things like the truth.
So sadness, in our ignorance, is very real.

The tears are real. What is this thing we call a tear?
There are even tiny ducts--tear ducts--to produce these tears should the sadness occur.
Then the day when the sadness comes--then we ask:
'Will this sadness that makes me cry--will this sadness that makes my heart cry out--will it ever end?'

The answer, of course, is yes. One day the sadness will end.

Quick summer movies reviews

This week a movie about some mofo snakes on a mofo plane, one about a pageant contest for little girls, one about the very friendly world of fashion publishing in NY and the last one about the even friendly-er world of caving in the Appalachians.

Snakes on a plane
With: Samuel L. Jackson, Julianna Margulies, ...
Directed by: David Richard Ellis
Release date (France): august 30th

OK not the best movie ever but better than what I expected. I guess I don't need to tell you the story, the title is kinda self-explanatory, no? You have to see this movie preferably in a crowded theater as (just like for the "Rocky Horror Picture Show") the reactions of the audience are almost as important as the movie itself. Samuel Jackson overact just the right way, the fake CGI snakes are not so scary but whatever... just enjoy the ride. Don't forget before the movie to go and buy some fake plastic snakes to throw on the crowd at the right time... ;-)


Little Miss Sunshine

With: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carrell, ...
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Farris
Release date (France): september 6th.

A dysfunctional family (the grand-father is a drug abuser near the end of his life, the father is a loser in his professional life, the son won't talk until he manages to enter the air force academy and despise everybody on earth except Nietzsche and the uncle has suicidal tendencies - actually only the mother and daughter seem to not be that far gone) decide to help the 6 years old daughter to achieve her ultimate dream: participating in a pageant contest called "Little Miss Sunshine". To do so they have to cross the country in the old familial van. IMHO one of the best movie released so far this year, the kind of movies, like Amelie, where you exit the theater with a big smile on you face just because you feel happy. I don't know why but I just love road movies. A road movie (and the best one for me would be Thelma & Louise) is a great vehicle (no pun intended) for a story and its characters. This movie is packed with love, the dialogues are great and the cast is perfect (Carrell as a gay Proust-literate with suicidal tendencies is another demonstration of this guy's talent). I don't need to say "Go and see it!", just... go and see it!

The devil wears Prada
With: Meryl Streep, Ann Hathaway,...
Directed by: David Frankel
Release date (France): september 27th

When Andy (Hathaway) arrives to take the position of Assistant to Miranda Priestly (Streep) the most powerful woman in the fashion world, she has to decide between her love life and mental health or a promising carreer in the fashion biz. Definitely more creepy than the snakes on a plane, Meryl Streep shines in this movie as the viper-like editor of Runway Magazine and perhaps won a new nomination for the Oscars 2007. Between the prospect of a flight in a 747 filled with snakes and being seated besides her character in this movie in another flight, I think I'd take my chance with the first one, survival instincts.

The Descent
With: Shauna MacDonald, Natalie Mendoza, ...
Directed by: Neil Marshall

One year after a tragic accident, six women go caving in the Appalachians. When their way back to the surface is blocked they have to find a way through an unexplored cave. Creepy. While Snakes on a Plane can be considered as a "horror movie" it draws more laughs than screams from the crowds. Not so much with this one as it's definitely one of the scariest movies since the first Alien. Note to self: consider not going back caving in the near future...

The log lady diaries 2

Sometimes ideas, like men, jump up and say 'hello'.
They introduce themselves, these ideas, with words.
Are they words? These ideas speaks so strangely.

All that we see in this world is based on someone's ideas. Some ideas are destructive, some ideas are constructive.
Some ideas can arrive in the form of a dream.
I can say it again: Some ideas can arrive in the form of a dream.

NASA News

This week a demotion, a new name and did we really go to the moon?

D'oh! Sad news for our fellow plutonians, and I know there are lot of them out there reading this blog, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. To be even consider a planet, under the new definition, one has to be "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit" which de facto restrict the membership in our solar system to the eight "classical" planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Orion is the new name of the new Crew Exploration Vehicle (it's a bit more sexy than CEV) which will replace the aging space shuttle as the new manned spacecraft to get us back to the moon and beyond. The name was leaked to the press during a transmission between the International Space Station and Earth. Still I would have preferred a name like... Serenity...

Finally, 'cause I've been asked by a few people, no I didn't steal the original tapes (which are 4 time better quality than the pictures we know) of the moon landing for my own private collection. They're merely... lost/misplaced somewhere in the huge warehouses at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. And by the way for all those of you conspiracy theoricist, yes once and for all: we've been to the moon ;-)