One year ago today: October 9, 2015, all cameras are junk.
Five years ago today: October 9, 2011, John Lennon, most influential musician in history.
Nine years ago today: October 9, 2007, who remembers Bernie Cornfeld?
Random years ago today: October 9, 2009, we cease anti-virus work.
MORNING
Since Matthew fizzled, we decided to dine on the hurricane supplies. So it was pork chops stacked like pancakes for breakfast. JZ decided to stick around the house all day, so I got myself the Sunday crossword and headed to the coffee shop. JZ does not drink coffee much and unlike myself, he will drink the dreaded Folger’s.
Most of us have seen these “film” shots in advertising and at the beginning of movies. The little white squares representing perforations on the picture are there for decoration. Apparently, they are meaningful to movie-makers, however. For example, look how in this picture the squares are above and below the scene. If you were to count and measure, you would find there are 15 perforations to the inch.
To a movie crew, this would tell them quite a lot of information. One is that this is a special type of 70mm film called IMAX. A regular 70mm would have the perforations along the edges. The majority of movies are filmed on 35mm, which was a standard adopted in 1909. It costs only 25% as much to use 35mm than 70mm. A recent article stated it requires $2,000 to develop two hours of 35mm movie footage, which implies it would cost $8,000 to use 70mm. That is still trivial considering film budgets these days.
I learned that for technical reasons (which nobody would explain), digital sound such as Dolby cannot be put directly on to 70mm film. However, I suspect it has to do with the film format, if you look at the 35mm (that measurement includes the black strip with the perforations) the pictures look distorted. These are made regular again when projected through special lenses in the equipment. Maybe they can’t do that with sound.
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NOON
I want to get back home, a good sign. I was only prepared for four days and three nights here, and it is now getting to twice that. So to make the trip as memorable as possible I decided to head over to Coral Gables and see this 70mm movie, Lawrence of Arabia. I’ve seen glimpses of the movie but never the entire film. On top of that, I’ve also read his book and studied other accounts of the campaign. I’m as equally curious how Hollywood twists the facts, so I drove the batbike to Aragon street around 2:00PM. To get both a ticket and a parking spot. Remember, this is Florida, where they love to put two-hour parking spots all around two and a half hour movie theaters.
I arrived well before the movie start time, so I wondered over to the Barnes & Noble, stopping to talk with an attractive brunette lady who was the only customer at a sidewalk café. She recommended a 70mm film I’ve never heard of, “Samsara”. It’s about natural disasters or something. I got a table and read a new Arduino book, then a text on how to make more interesting home movies. And tried one of the salty caramel cookies, you know, they are not that bad.
And a book on statistics. At age 30, 74% of women are married, but only 61% of men. For some reason I can’t quite pin down, I’ll bet the 26% of unmarried women would include Lisa Randall.
[Author's note: that's the lady who I had intended to ask for her list of 400 locations where she thinks dark matter has hit the surface of the Earth. JZ and I were speculating at the time (neither of us are geologists) that these impact craters, which do not have a meteor mass at the center, could have been the explanation of Lake Okeechobee and beyond.]
NIGHT
I saw the entire movie, and it was worth it. They preserved the Roadshow format, which I like because of the intermission. Particularly in theaters that sell coffee. This was one long movie, some 3-1/2 hours. Just my luck, there were two pretty ladies sitting on either side of me and my tummy began to growl. So I grabbed an apple juice and some candy, bringing the cost of this show up to over $25. Coral Gables is not a cheap place to spend an afternoon.
The film was worth it, both for its spectacular desert scenery and portrayal of the times. Like the books, the movie overplays the situation with Lawrence’s encounter with the Turkish police. Just accept that back in 1962, such events were considered pivotal to screenplays. Overall, the work is a real masterpiece, although attention to detail is lax. Lawrence drinks with the wrong hand and his army of 50 was more like 34.
There were some big-name actors of the day, including Omar Sharif playing that one single character he can play. You cannot beat the desert scenes or the battles. It is accurate in showing the tribal nature of Arab politics and territorialism. Our societies have the same, but at least we know that such things are wrong to begin with rather than practicing them on a quasi-religious scale that permits shooting thirsty people who drink our well water.
I may eventually have more to say about Coral Gables, but for now, I drove over to Kendall and called JZ to join up for a scrunt hunt. We chatted up quite a number of receptive women, but they were all married. I don’t do married women. It was still our best night out so I picked up the tab. One thing, Kendall, while I appreciate the free validated parking, it would be nice to put some signs in the underground parking that tell people who don't know the area where the stairwells and exits are located. It took me 15 minutes to find my way out, and just watch it before you make any snarky comments about my ability to do so. I found quite a number of exits--all alarmed. I finally had to walk to the south end of the complex before finding a staircase to ground level.
Your architect doesn't by any chance know a Lisa Randall, does he?
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