STREAM.

Multimedia messaging on the iPhone, finally? About fucking time, if true. In my current experience, when someone sends me a multimedia message from their philistine phone to my messiah phone, AT&T helpfully lets me know via SMS, supplying a link to a web page where I can view the goddamn picture ... after I log in with a randomly generated username and password ... as long as I have Flash installed ... which of course Mobile Safari does not. Which means I have to wait until I'm near a full-blown computer before I can painstakingly type in the alphanumeric URL, by which time that spontaneous shot of the neighbor's dog doing/eating something charming/revolting is as stale as yesterday's biscuits.

Posted by R. at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Something about David Fisher's somewhat sky-pie plan for an eighty-story "building in motion" in Dubai, comprised of independently rotating floors, reminds me of William Gibson's descriptions of a post-megaquake Tokyo in the Bridge novels, wherein the city's future-shock skyline is reconstructed at the molecular level by nanotechnology, shimmering skyscrapers literally pulsating biomechanically upward with what the author describes in Idoru as "a streamlined organicism." I would use that phrase to describe what Fisher is reaching for as well.

In all likelihood, given sundry engineering uncertainties about the proposed structure, and various factual inconsistencies in the architect's biography pertaining to his credentials, the sci-fi-worthy project is probably more fiction than science—but it's an intriguing idea.

Posted by R. at 01:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In his review of The Incredible Hulk, Roger Ebert pauses to reflect on what is probably the movie's single most arresting visual—and it has nothing to do with the story or its characters:

"Banner's Brazilian sojourn begins with an astonishing shot: From an aerial viewpoint, we fly higher and higher above one of the hills of Rio, seeing hundreds, thousands, of tiny houses built on top of one another, all clawing for air.

"This is the City of God neighborhood, and as nearly as I could tell, we are looking at the real thing, not CGI. The director lets the shot run on longer than any reasonable requirement of the plot; my bet is, he was as astonished as I was, and let it run because it is so damned amazing."

Whatching that thrillingly vertiginous shot just go on—and on—and on—I was swept up in the when-will-it-end tension of the terrain and found myself reflexively reaching for a phantom TiVo remote whereby to review the footage in the hopes of discerning its hidden tesselations, its artfully concealed digital seams; but no: I imagine it was the most genuine thing in the whole film, more inherently dramatic in its fleeting seconds than the next two hours of CGI wrecks and effects.

Posted by R. at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An entire season of Top Chef shoots in less than three weeks? The way the contestants whinge (and occasionally sob) about missing their homes and families, I somehow always figured the show takes a couple of months to lens. Twenty days isn't even rehab.

Posted by R. at 01:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A transcript of J.K. Rowling's remarks to graduating Harvard students on the occasion of the University's 357th Commencement.

While I've never been able to get into the Harry Potter books, perhaps due to a basic indifference toward most fantasy literature on my part, I've come to appreciate the author herself via various anecdotes, interviews and commentaries over the years. She generally comes across as level-headed and sensible as her work is fanciful and free-spirited.

Posted by R. at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Apparently the new iPhone will require physical in-store activation. This is a huge retrenchment from the disarmingly simple iTunes-centric activation process Apple pioneered with the original iPhone merely a year ago. It's even a regression from every other cell phone activation I've dealt with over the past decade—during which time I've owned roughly twenty handsets (yeah, I know), all of which have provided the option of activation from home via telephone or the web.

I guess I'll be donning my bolshevik best and waiting in line with the rest of the madding flashmob come July 11th.

Posted by R. at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)