Common Thoughts

Actually, I learned how the pieces moved when I was a little kid from my Dad.  I played a couple of USCF  tournaments in High School, but never learned anything about how to play.  Now I’ve hired a chess coach and today I finished Chess Tactics for Students by John A. Bain, an excellent quick introduction to basic patterns.  Having entered the problems into ChessBase, I will now redo them four or five times quickly to familiarize myself with the patterns.

Alien (1979) asks the question “who deserves survival?” in a well-paced horror/science fiction movie.  The conflicts here are simple: man vs. alien, man vs. man, man vs. machine, man vs. corporation.  The primary construct in the movie lies in the parallel of the man vs alien struggle with all of the others… basically to realize there is no difference.  Survival is the question and the answer; without survival nothing else matters.  Ridley Scott’s refusal to show the Alien very often creates tension that is only interrupted by some strangely paced scenes like the alien scooting off the table after it emerges and the weird “nest” scene that was added to the blu-ray version.  All of the action is supported by a fantastic grimy mood that comes from the excellent sets and  lighting.  Aliens (1987) takes a big step down from the original with lesser actors and a weak screenplay.  The sets also look much more generic and unbelievable.  This movie beats the man vs. corporation theme to death in the most superficial and pedantic ways possible.  To Cameron’s credit, he does refrain from showing the aliens very much until the end.  The delay allows some tension to develop despite the weak acting, sets, and dialog.  Sigourney Weaver carries the cast as usual.  The only contribution of this movie lies in the addition of the motherhood aspect to the survival story as Ripley and the Alien are plainly and simply compared.  The fact that the movie does not force a clear moral decision on who should survive also helps strengthen the movie.  Alien 3 takes another takes another large step down in acting and writing, although the sets and mood are easier to believe.  The theme of religious faith as a purpose for survival crops up in this film.  Faith is portrayed, but never judged.  Alien Resurrection (1997) discusses the theme of survival beyond the self, religious faith, and the relative moral value of man and machine in these contexts.  The screenwriting improves substantially as the themes are explored with more subtlety than the previous two films supported by good sets and special effects.  The pacing of the movie fails as the film degenerates into more of an action shooter rather than developing the horrific tension of the earlier films.

Spoilers.  I read the Ebert review after watching this movie and heartily disagree with his conclusions.  The Mission doesn’t seem to be a retelling of historical events as much as a historical atmosphere surrounding one man’s (De Niro) search for redemption.  After killing his brother in a fit of rage, De Niro’s character seeks penance and redemption among the Jesuits.  To try to save the local population of the Jesuit mission from the onslaught of Portuguese and Spanish military forces, De Niro must take up arms even though the head of the Jesuit order insists on peace.  By taking up arms, De Niro sacrifices his hard-won redemption to save the lives of the local population. This decision for sacrifice (perhaps a greater sacrifice than life itself) serves as the fulcrum of the movie.  The lever pushing across that fulcrum lies in a late scene in which De Niro, while dying from battle-wounds, sees father Gabriel resisting peacefully.  De Niro struggles to stay alive while watching to see if Father Gabriel succeeds.  When Father Gabriel dies, De Niro surrenders and something far greater than life is lost.  The sense of loss is reinforced by the Papal emissary at the close of the movie.  While every scene has great photography and fine acting, there is no synergy between the parts, preventing the movie from being truly great.  The pivotal struggle, decision, and surrender of De Niro’s character (metaphorically casting a new light on the sacrifice of Jesus) make the movie a rewarding experience.  The contrast of the spiritual struggle of a simple priest (Father Gabriel) and a mercenary slave-trader (De Niro) against the cold-hearted machinations of the Papacy and the King’s of Spain and Portugal exaggerates the poignancy of De Niro’s struggle.  This is not merely historical dramatization.

Detective (1985) and Helas Pour Moi (1993) both explore relationships between men and women in Godard’s usual style with abstract story, asynchronous sound, and rapid dissonant edits.  In Detective, a woman works against her own needs, that of her husband, and a con-man lover.  In short snap-shot scenes Godard draws passionate pictures of these individuals, their sense of hope and loss, and how the affect each other.  In parallel scenes the detective and a younger accomplice try to solve a largely irrelevant crime. In another series of scenes a boxer and a young girl working for the con-man comically explore the violence and lust that are inherent in the relationships between men and women.  Neither film works smoothly, but both are worth the effort if one is in a patient and introspective frame of mind.

First Name Carmen follows Passion as another meta-analytical Godard movie, where a young woman, Carmen, falls in love with a security guard while her gang robs a bank.  In standard Godard fashion, the soundtrack, images, and story all work independently.  In this film of sudden cuts, momentary comical commentary, and non-linear story telling,  the relationship of Carmen and the guard remains the center, although definitely not the focal point.  The gangster plot line is paralleled by the story of a washed-up movie director (Godard himself) who the gang attempt to hire to film their heist, and contrasted by the evolving rehearsals of a string quartet practicing Beethoven, where one young woman never seems to merge into the group.  The Godard character is frequently seen with an 80’s style boom box on his shoulder providing yet another disjointed soundtrack.  Of particular interest are all the plot points that never seem to move forward as characters exit for unknown actions with the words “I’ve got to work.”  This is possibly a commentary on work versus art or on the class divisions of labor in society.  Interestingly, the gangsters improvise their actions while the musicians rehearse.  The security guard longs to be accepted but seems condemned to be alone.  Currently 68/103 on the best movies list.

Godard’s Passion intrigues, but never engrosses.  It sits in the mind for a while, percolating.  A movie about a movie without a story, it is filled with meta references to itself and numerous film techniques that constantly challenge the viewer to reassess everything about what they see and hear.  The soundtrack, in the standard evolving Godard fashion moves slightly out of sync with the story and the visuals, challenging the viewer in its own separate way.   The disparity between film elements leads to a powerful synergy at the times when they do synchronize.  At times the highly choreographed movie-within-a-movie seems to lose continuity as to which layer of meta performance is on display; the actors in the inner movie seem to have choreography that can only be seen by the cameras for the outer movie.  The great artistic dissonance comes as the inner movie attempts to create live versions of great paintings, while the director continuously comments on what works and does not; it is a like a drama where all the players speak different languages.  A worthwhile movie for a very particular introspective frame of mind; it has moments of political commentary, satire, and humor., while seeming to focus on a commentary about art and the artistic process. Currently 60/102 on my top movie list.

One can’t help but have thoughts about some of the strong design choices made by Steve Jobs.  Here is the first:

Dear Steve,

I have never once tripped over my power cord and pulled a notebook onto the floor.  I have never met anyone who has told me a personal story of doing so.  Several times a month, I pickup my Macbook for a quick task and find the battery dead because the little magnet thingie fell off.

Miles manages to sleep on whatever you happen to be doing at the moment.  As of March 15th, he’s been doing this sort of thing for 18 years.

Upon upgrading to Mac OS 10.6 (or perhaps applying the latest software upgrade to Rosetta Stone), the voice recognition feature of Rosetta Stone 3 stopped working correctly.  The program either indicated an error without any input or gave an error as soon as the user began speaking.  The microphone calibration feature demonstrated a distinct and highly variable delay between the time a sound was produced and the time the software sound meter moved.  In other programs, the USB microphone (Plantronics DSP-500) worked perfectly.  After numerous fruitless contacts with the Rosetta Stone support where they repeatedly asked questions I had already answered, I searched the web.  Finding no answers via Google, I purchased a new USB microphone (Logitech  Clear Chat Pro USB) and it worked well in all programs.  Although I found no root cause, the most likely issue lies in an inherent conflict between the Plantronics microphone and Rosetta.

Common Thoughts has been written and produced by Robert G. Buice, Jr.  since 1999.  The site has existed in other forms using the brand “common” since the middle 1990’s. Following massive problems with the hosting provider Spacetrend, the site went off-line for a few years starting in 2006 until domain names could be freed up and moved to a new provider.  Much of the original content as well as that of The Commonplace Review and other sites was lost.  I would not recommend Spacetrend as a hosting provider; the company’s actions seemed to me to be either incompetent or unethical.  After the hassle of freeing up my domain names and moving them to another provider, I experimented with various software platforms until, after much procrastination, settled on Wordpress.  The topics covered in Common Thoughts will cover a wide range, but will likely orbit a core set of themes involving art, literature, science, and spirituality.  I fully expect wild non-sequiturs.