Submarine Race

Borrowed Time

I saw in my Chrysler log book that my engine belts were due to be replaced at 168 000km. I'm not at 188 000km. So I've gone on the Chrysler website and am arranging replacement. Another blow to the bank.

I hope I make it home tonight as I forgot my cellphone at home. Then I have the Alpha Course - at least it includes a free dinner. Going running with Janet on Thursday. Throat is still tender but I am almost well now.

Costs: Jozi vs Bloem

Accomodation: Expect to pay as much as 3 x more in Jozi
Insurance: Add around 33% to what you're paying when you move to Jozi, even if it's to a 'good' area.
Commuting: This can be anything from double to 10 X your usual fuel bill. I fortunately stay only 5km from where I work.

Fan For Love

Reporter lead story

'Citizen Journalism' Grows Up

By Rory O'Connor
Published: August 9, 2007

AlterNet.org
Can ordinary citizens actually function as journalists? Or, as many in the mainstream media would have it, is journalism some sort of priesthood of professionals who venture, Moses-like, to mountaintops and then return to deliver the news as divinely revealed truth to the rest of us earthbound mortals?

In the wake of such recent citizen-mediated news events as the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the London train bombings, U.S. Senator George Allen's political suicide, the Virginia Tech massacre, et al, the real question is why anyone would still wonder about the possibility, much less the efficacy, of so-called "citizen journalism."

Last month I travelled to Seoul, Korea, to take part in an international gathering of "citizen reporters" sponsored by an intriguing, cutting edge media firm called OhmyNews.com. OhmyNews is one of the most successful projects in the world in the burgeoning field of citizen journalism -- wherein "amateur" reporters participate in the creation and dissemination of news and information. The brainchild of Oh Yeon-ho, a professionally-trained Korean journalist, OhmyNews was launched in February 2000 and has grown rapidly since. Today it boasts nearly 60,000 "citizen reporters" worldwide, who work closely with dozens of professional staff members, creating content for websites in Korean, Japanese and English. Its corporate motto is: "Every Citizen is a Reporter."

Having already revolutionized the media environment in the Republic of Korea, Oh Yeon-ho is equally passionate about spreading the concepts and practices of citizen journalism worldwide. The OhmyNews "pro-am" concept of combining citizen reporters with trained professional journalists and editors is rapidly becoming a model for other efforts around the world, and its annual forums on the topic are a key way of networking among the field's leading theorists and practitioners.

'Host of pressing issues'

Featured speakers this year included Dan Gillmor of the Center for Citizen Media, Michael Tippit of NowPublic.com, McJoan of Daily Kos, and dozens of other presenters and panellists representing literally every continent, from Australia and Europe to Africa, Asia and the Americas. This year's focus was "cross-cultural exchanges" and how they can contribute to the vision of the global village envisioned decades ago by Marshall McLuhan.

Oh Yeon-ho set the stage with his welcoming message, which accurately noted, "The question looming large is increasingly less about 'digital opportunity' and more about how we can best manage the abundance of content, Web platforms and user participation" now pouring forth. Oh also laid out "a host of pressing issues" including the need to balance user-created content with editorial accountability, as well as to identify business models to sustain citizen journalism during an age of ever-more rapid commercial and technical transitions and unclear revenue models.

Dan Gillmor -- author of "We the Media" and long one of the movement's leading theorists -- noted in his keynote speech that, despite the many successes of citizen media thus far, "It is still early in the development and we still have far to go." Like Oh, Gillmor believes that sustainable business models and issues of trust and accountability are highest on the agenda. He also urged all attending to "keep experimenting." With the cost of doing so at an historic low, "There are very few institutional barriers to trying," Gillmor concluded. And even in failure, he added, "We still learn. In fact, we usually learn more from failure than success!"

Panels on citizen journalism in Eastern Europe, South Africa and Australia, South Asia, and North America followed. Four new sites have appeared in the "emerging hotspots" of Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Estonia and start-ups loom in South Africa and Australia as well.

Breakthrough Canadian deal

Meanwhile, Canada was well-represented by Michael Tippit of NowPublic.com, whose breakthrough deal to supply the Associated Press with citizen reports obtained through "crowdsourcing" is a potential landmark in the struggle to gain both legitimacy and sustainability for citizen media efforts, and Joan ("McJoan" to Daily Kossacks) McCarter of the incredibly popular Daily Kos blog, read daily by about half a million people, spoke smartly on issues of transparency, credibility and accountability.

Of particular note was the announcement at the conference of the formation of a new South Asian Citizen Reporters Network. "Citizen journalism across borders is a vital question for Pakistan and India," said one of SACRN's founders, Pakistan's Muhammad Aslam Khan. Fellow Punjabi Munish Naga of India echoed Aslam Khan's analysis, saying, "It was because of citizen journalism that Aslam and I became close. And then the idea to form a network of South Asian citizen reporters emerged in our minds. Since then, SACRN has been growing day by day!"

We were also treated to a first-hand account of how Han Na-young, an OhmyNews citizen reporter living in Harrisonburg, Virginia, reported on the Virginia Tech massacre, working in close collaboration with the head of the OhmyNews international department for sixteen hours to bring written and photographic reports of the event to readers all over the world. The first day's final session was devoted to an account of the recent expansion of OhmyNews into Japan with backing investment from SoftBank, a leading Japanese telecommunications and media corporation.

The conference's closing sessions were devoted to a close examination of the related issues of ensuring editorial accountability and the search for a sustainable business model. First Oh Yeon-ho set forth what he called the "ten preconditions of valuable user-created content," centering around issues of credibility, responsibility, influence and sustainability.

The big 'ifs'

Next he asked and answered the question "Why Citizen Journalism?" (Answers: to change traditional journalism; to find and create a new type of journalism; and "to change the world.") Finally Oh posed a larger, more philosophical question -- one never asked in any corporate media suite: "Will more participation and better information make us happier and more fulfilled?"

The answer, Oh Yeon-ho posits, could be yes -- provided that "participation is responsible, trustworthy, influential, solution-seeking, and sustainable."

So can citizen journalism really change the world? Many skeptics still doubt it can even change the news industry, and still question, despite much evidence, whether ordinary citizens can really function as journalists. But why not? After all, I've been a professional journalist for decades -- yet I never took a course in it, received a license for it, or even got anointed on high. So here's my advice: if you don't like the news, report some of your own!

'Rent' on Me Tube

Is Bourne the new Bond?

Bourne blows Bond out of the water

Jason Bourne is hard as nails, and he is back in another gritty installment that does not disappoint. In fact, you may find yourself gritting your own teeth and balling your fists as Bourne fights tooth and fingernails, again and again, for his own survival. Matt Damon instills this Robert Ludlum character with a familiar but indefatigable hardness that is not only believable, but practical and insightful. Bourne, after all, is a sign of our times. Bourne epitomizes the essence of our time: innovation, flexibility and sheer speed. By comparison, James Bond is a clumsy 20th century objet d'art.

After the Bourne Ultimatum, an excellent fast paced action flick directed by Paul Greengrass, many movie audiences will be disappointed if the franchise is put to bed. So soon? Is a Bourne Resurrection likely? Given the epilogue to the third episode, it’s unlikely. But stranger things have happened on the big screen, and the consensus must be that audiences worldwide want more of Bourne, and less of Bond.

Although Bond was impressive in Casino Royale, most intuitively felt the 007 franchise is trying very hard to remain relevant. Bond is reinventing himself, in much the same way as Batman and Superman have. Do audiences have the stomach for a reinvented Bond? It’s possible, of course, to refresh Bond. The problem though is that Bond belongs to a Cold War era. The world has simply become too much, too complicated for the likes of James Bond. Perhaps with a new Q, this flaw could be addressed, except, isn’t it odd that Bond always needs a paternal scientist to set him up. Bourne is entirely self sufficient, entirely independent. Worse, Bond’s approach to the world no longer works. The Us Vs Them mindset is no longer a functional paradigm. It’s too simplistic.

In the modern era, there just aren’t overt Cold War foes like there used to be. In the globalised Flat World, many systems are integrated, and so even identifying your adversary becomes problematic, and a foe – who is usually also covert – can under certain circumstances become a friend and allie. It is clear that in our era, the enemy lives and moves among us. It may even come to be a group within our own government or community. Because of competition for jobs, success etc, the ‘enemy’ can be someone who we need to outwit or outplay in the daily scheme of things. This may be someone of our own tribe, who lives next door, and drives the same car. This is a remarkable departure from the exotic bad guys who pursue grand world domination scenarios and speak with strong accents in Bond. In a very real sense, Bourne demonstrates to what extent the enemy can lie within – including those who may purport to be friends and allies.

Good news, perhaps, for Bond, but bad news for us, is that if Peak Oil alarmists are right, the world will contract, which means countries will diminish backwards, behind their borders, the walls will go up again and the mid 20th century paranoia’s will likely return (think of popular panic along the lines of nuclear annihilation, world war, the threatened rise of communism and other ideologies). The consensus is that this austere period is either imminent or already happening. The laziest predictions put these nasty catastrophes no further away than the year 2015.

Unfortunately, this time round, all these threats are a lot more credible. In the 21st century the stakes are so much higher. The world’s population is much larger, the resources the world consumes on a daily basis is staggering. There are more major powers (Russia is resurging, along with China, India and all of Europe), more nuclear armed countries than there ever were, aggressive and tech savvy terrorists around the world, and add to that world weather that is out of whack, increasingly wobbly financial systems and a world that has invested itself on energy (and resource) systems with no future.

I’m not sure about you, but for me, Bond just doesn’t cut it any more. For one, patriotic loyalty is becoming a questionable stigmata. Although patriotism always seems a good idea at first, it is a hollow roar in the patriot’s head when the fiercest find themselves in trenches – whether real or metaphorical – defending their ‘idea’. What, after all, is a patriot? A flag waver? A jingoist? A nazi? It must be possible to love one’s country without having to demonstrate that love by fighting against another country. Is it not possible to love one’s country by investing oneself in that country; by farming it, by finding, building and developing sustainable systems, by protecting the organic systems already there, and moving towards a new urbanism that binds communities together? But it seems even in 21st century, patriotism continues to be defined as: the willingness to go to war without question. If that is true then patriotism is synonymous with being a moron. And Bond, patriot that he is, echoes this sense of duty to her majesty without any critical reflection of what that duty serves.

Bourne is a sign of our times because who he is has been erased from his memory; but, all credit to him, he still cares about finding out who he really is, and changing himself for the better. There is that integrity, in the cinematic sense, which also prevents him from making random friendships – including with the opposite sex – because these actions (he must know) puts their lives at risk. Bond’s mission prerogative is first and foremost to charm and entertain, and second, to get the job done (because he must). Bourne’s priorities are far more austere: he is trying to survive, and while he can, pursue the problems that are at the root of his present difficulties.

Bourne’s is a real world connectedness that movie audiences would do well to emulate, and this consciousness needs to be integrated into the popular mindset beyond the present day. As the resources in the world wither away, we will be called upon to be resourceful as human beings have never had to be before. We can do it, but it will require a mindset like Bourne’s, and all the integrity we can muster.

The Road is Long

Vrystaat Nooi

Water, Water Everywhere, but Guilt by the Bottleful

By ALEX WILLIAMS
Published: August 12, 2007
ON a recent family vacation in Cape Cod, Jenny Pollack, 40, a novelist and public relations associate from Brooklyn, did something she knew she would come to regret. She did it on the spur of the moment. She did it because she felt desperate.

Besides, the giant illuminated Dasani vending machine was just standing there, like a beacon.

So, with her reusable plastic Nalgene bottles dry and her son Charlie working up a thirst in an indoor playground, she broke down and bought a bottle of water. To most people it would be a simple act of self-refreshment, but to Ms. Pollack it was also a minor offense against the planet — think of all the oil used to package, transport and refrigerate that water.

“Something about it felt like a betrayal,” said Ms. Pollack, who otherwise does not consider herself an ardent environmentalist. She said she decided to stop buying water after hearing friends talk about the impact of America’s bottled water habit. And now she is doing what she can to spread the word.

“I’ve pretty much said to every single one of my friends, ‘Can I tell you my spiel about bottled water?’ ”

How unlikely, that at the peak of a sweltering summer, people on playgrounds, in parks, and on beaches are suddenly wondering if an ice-cold bottle of fresh water might be a bad thing.

In the last few months, bottled water — generally considered a benign, even beneficial, product — has been increasingly portrayed as an environmental villain by city leaders, activist groups and the media. The argument centers not on water, but oil. It takes 1.5 million barrels a year just to make the plastic water bottles Americans use, according to the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, plus countless barrels to transport it from as far as Fiji and refrigerate it.

For full article follow this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/fashion/12water.html?_r=1&ref=fashion&oref=slogin

Kunstler: Margin Call

"The FTSE has dropped by its largest margin in 4 years..."

From www.kunstler.com:

The seas were a might choppy off Hedge Fund Island last week after all when the Federal Reserve started tossing life preservers of ready cash to the Big Fund Boyz bobbing and thrashing in the swells. Now, about that "money" -- which is really a bunch of extended lines of credit at the Fed's artificially-low official interest rate -- what actually happens to it? The simple answer is: it disappears into the same ocean of financial woe that the Boyz are drowning in.

The mere $38 billion that the Fed tossed out Friday afternoon, as the Dow was tanking down a few hundred clicks, will be used by banks and investment houses to cover losses in the synthetic securities they themselves created, and have been trading, during this psychotic final blow off of cheap energy capitalism. In essence, the Fed is buying worthless paper. The trouble is, there is so much more worthless paper out there that all the computers at the Federal Reserve could never generate enough pixelated cash to cover them in the life of this universe or several like it.

An additional problem: there is a practically inexhaustible supply of "dead" mortgages and corporate loans washing up on the pebbled beaches of Hedge Fund Island. No matter how bad the mortgage-and-credit-derived racket looks now, it is certain to only get worse as the dead mortgages and loans fester in the sun and the tropical foliage on Hedge Fund Island starts to wilt from the toxic fumes of all that decaying matter. This summer is only the beginning of a cycle of adjustable mortgage interest rate re-sets. The numbers go way up in the fall and are scheduled to continue rising well into the winter of 2008. How long do you think the Big Fund Boys can tread water?

What you're seeing now is a simple matter of financial sector players trying desperately to evade the consequences of their own actions. The fake wealth generated by the synthetic securities they created is now being recognized for what it is: a swindle. The hallucination is over. The collective denial that supported that hallucination is dissolving. The losses are become manifest. Even worse, the losses are growing exponentially because the synthetic securities were used as collateral to leverage far greater multiples of "positions," bets, and plays in a casino-like global electronic trading arena.

This is what happens when investment gets de-coupled from real productive activity and becomes an end in itself. It has been terrifically enhanced by computer programming. But no amount of digital legerdemain --with the "sugar-on-top" of accounting trickery -- can now hide the fact that there is no "value" there. What's more, the losses are going to have to show up somewhere. If you try to suppress them in one area, they'll pop up in another. If the Federal Reserve tries to cover the losses racked up by the Big Fund Boyz by giving "cash" away, they'll only succeed in destroying the value of the cash itself, i.e. the US dollar.

Now, few reasonable people can really imagine that the Fed would blunder into hyper-inflation. But the situation is so desperate that the Fed's mission to do what's necessary to rescue drowning banks may over-ride the prudent deployment of cash life preservers. As that occurs, foreign holders of the US Dollar may detect the impending loss of value of the dollar, and there would be a stampede to the redemption windows to get rid of them. That would leave the Federal Reserve (and by extension the American Nation) in a position of stark and implacable insolvency.

In any case, the US now stands on the brink of an unprecedented liquidation of assets. The mortgaged title holders to over-priced McHouses will have to liquidate their positions as "home-owners." The over-leveraged holders of credit-card debt will have to sell their Ford Explorers, bass boats, sports memorabilia (good luck with that shit) and flat-screen TVs. The retired dentists will have to dump their stocks and bonds. The corporations will have to sell off subsidiary operations, buildings, and corporate jets. Some colleges will just shutter. The Big Fund Boys will have nothing of value left in their portfolios to sell. They will just drown. Their heirs and assigns will then have to dispose of the house in Sagaponak, the 10-room apartment on Central Park West, and the family fleet of SUVs.

The Big Boyz will take quite a few institutions with them -- the club-like banks and investment "houses" that employed them and went along with their mendacious shenanigans.

The upshot is that we are going to find ourselves a poorer nation. There will be far fewer people with money. There will be far fewer buyers of repossessed McHouses, bass boats, etc. Even the houses in Sagaponak and the Manhattan apartments will go cheap. The effort to pretend our way out of a financial crisis will fail. Sooner or later the recognition will set in that all that "boo-yah" was dreamed up. The United States swindled itself. We became a nation of such greed-crazed clowns that we committed financial suicide in an orgy of self-deception.

Anyway, that's how I see it this morning. The equity markets open in a half hour or so. The mood out there must be dark. The hands that hold the Starbucks cups must be trembling at the trading desks. I hasten to add that I think the turmoil and destruction can go on for quite a while. This slow-motion train wreck is not going to play out in just a week or two. And in case anyone forgets, in the background looms another storm at least as potent as the one now blowing through the financial markets: the gathering permanent global energy crisis (a.k.a. "peak oil").

Just because some Big Fund Boyz liquidated their positions on the oil futures market last week to try to cover their losses elsewhere does not mean that price of oil is going to keep going down. It may rest on the ledge in the $60 -$70 range for a spell, but you can be sure it will take flight again. And if it does as the dollar is crashing for other reasons, this will become a pretty disorderly nation in a very dangerous and unforgiving world.

Mugabe's Protege

Is it just me or is our government starting to resemble the quintessential 'African autocracy'. I mean, the government that foreign investors particularly want to not do business with (because of the sort of economic chaos they cause).
In our case we already have a leader who does not listen to the people, and seems to prefer an inept Minister of Health (who according to certain sources is a virtual alcoholic and thanks to her position secured herself a brand new liver).

Meanwhile her deputy who happens to be doing a brilliant job, some excuse is found to fire her. Possibly this casts doubt on our president's impeccable taste and discernment.

Dr Beetroot will now I'm sure continue to wage her war on AIDS in vegetable gardens across the country (and then off to the vineyards), meanwhile Mbeki must be spending a lot of his time fudging statistics. He seems unable to believe that 4.4 million people don't have work in the country, and since he can't see it, the numbers must be wrong.

The Zimbabweans streaming across the border present another case of African Intransigence. Unemployment and crime is already a problem. 6000 new arrivals per month - all heading for the same port of call, Gauteng - are naturally going to cause a problem.

I suppose if you are having Chianti each evening and surrounding yourself with crone that tell you how swell you look, that's not something you want to change with a few powerful doses of reality. Thus the powerful enjoy the excesses at the expense of those who put them in power, forgetting conveniently the burdens they once voiciferously fought for. And then the cycle continues.

Roadkill

Sights and Sounds

WEnd

Actually had a brilliant weekend that included:

- Great food (at Caramellos)
- Awesome rugby (Cheetahs 44-Bulls 18)
- Excellent movie (Bourne Ultimatum

Also was good to see Fransa again. We had a bizarre incident in Heuwilsig after delivering the last set of unbought Photo exhibition pics (gave Jean Marie 3, San Marie 3, and Ruth and Joy a total of 3) - a Hadeda ibis took flight and flew straight into an oncoming silver Merc. It flew about 5 metres vertically in the air and landed in a limp bundle in the dry veld on the side of the road.

One moment it was alive, the next, not.

BFN

Am leaving for Bloem in 5 minutes. An almost 4 hour commute - just for this weekend.

Going to do the Cheetah game and hopefully braai. Also have to pack up bar stools and pot plants, along with the TV (which, curiously, I haven't really missed) and video camera.

Got through a fair amount of work today, some of which was work I created for myself out of being a dumb me.

My left ear is aching! Throat is sore - but have boat some highly recommended Medi-Keel so hopefully will wipe the last bad guys out.
Am really in the mood for a movie like Bourne Ultimatum. Maybe tomorrow evening.

And thus concludes 2 weeks in Jozi. Has actually been a wild, but good ride so far. Things can only get better.

We Told You So

By JEREMY W. PETERS and WAYNE ARNOLD
Published: August 10, 2007
Stocks extended their losses on Wall Street this morning after markets in Europe and Asia fell sharply in the wake of a rout in the United States markets on Thursday over widening fears of losses in the American housing loan market.

The weekly Kunstler column has been warning of a Housing Bubble probably for the last 3 months or more.

For full article click on the title to link to the New York Times article.

Film reviews: Matt Damon is Bourne again

The search for his true identity isn't over yet for Matt Damon - there are assassins and a government agent to despatch on the path to enlightenment

By MANOHLA DARGIS
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK
Friday, Aug 10, 2007, Page 16

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
DIRECTED BY: PAUL GREENGRASS

STARRING: Matt Damon (Jason Bourne), Julia Stiles (Nicky Parsons), David Strathairn (Noah Vosen), Scott Glenn (Ezra Kramer), Paddy Considine (Simon Ross), Edgar Ramirez (Paz), Albert Finney (Dr. Albert Hirsch)

RUNNING TIME: 111 MINUTES

Jaw clenched, brow knotted, Matt Damon hurtles through The Bourne Ultimatum like a missile. He's a man on a mission, our Matt, and so too is his character, Jason Bourne, the near-mystically enhanced super-spy who, after losing his memory and all sense of self, has come to realize that he has also lost part of his soul. For Bourne, who rises and rises again in this fantastically kinetic, propulsive film, resurrection is the name of the game, just as it is for franchises.

Their sights set far beyond the usual genre coordinates, the three Bourne movies drill into your psyche as well as into your body. They're unusually smart works of industrial entertainment, with action choreography that's as well considered as the direction. Doug Liman held the reins on the first movie, with Paul Greengrass taking over for the second and third installments. And while the two men take different approaches to similar material (the more formally bold Greengrass shatters movie space like glass), each embraces an ethos that's at odds with the no pain, no gain, no brain mind-set that characterizes too many such flicks. Namely remorse: In these movies, you don't just feel Bourne's hurt, you feel the hurt of everyone he kills.

The Bourne Ultimatum picks up where The Bourne Supremacy left off, with this former black-bag specialist for the CIA grimly, inexorably moving toward final resolution. After a brush with happiness with the German woman (Franka Potente) he met in the first movie (The Bourne Identity) and soon lost in the second, he has landed in London. Stripped of his identity, his country and love, Bourne is now very much a man alone, existentially and otherwise. Damon makes him haunted, brooding and dark. The light seems to have gone out in his eyes, and the skin stretches so tightly across his cantilevered cheekbones that you can see the outline of his skull, its macabre silhouette. He looks like death in more ways than one.

Death becomes the Bourne series, which, in contrast to most big-studio action movies, insists that we pay attention and respect to all the flying, back-flipping and failing bodies. There's no shortage of pop pleasure here, but the fun of these films never comes from watching men die. It's easy to make people watch - just blow up a car, slit someone's throat. The hard part is making them watch while also making them think about what exactly it is that they're watching.

That's a bit of a trick, because forcing us to look at the unspeakable risks losing us, though in the Bourne series it has made for necessary surprises, like Potente's character's vomiting in the first movie because she has just seen a man fling himself out of a window to his death.

That scene quickly established the underlying seriousness of the series, particularly with respect to violence. There's a similarly significant scene in the new film, which caps a beyond-belief chase sequence in which Bourne runs and runs and runs, leaping from one sun-blasted roof to the next and diving into open windows as the cops hotfoot after him. He's trying to chase down a man who's trying to chase down Bourne's erstwhile colleague, Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles).

When Bourne comes fist-to-fist with the other man, Greengrass throws the camera, and us along with it, smack in the middle. It's thrilling at first, and then - as the blows continue to fall, the bodies slow down, and a book is slammed, spine out, into one man's neck - ghastly.

An intentional buzz kill, this fight succeeds in bringing you down off the roof, where just moments earlier you had been flying so high with Bourne. (Look at the dude go!) Greengrass knows how to do his job, and there's no one in Hollywood right now who does action better, who keeps the pace going so relentlessly, without mercy or letup, scene after hard-rocking scene.

But he, along with the writers (here, Tony Gilroy, Scott Burns and George Nolfi), also wants to complicate things, mix some unease in with all the heart-thumping enjoyment. Not because he's a sadist, or at least not entirely, but because the Bourne series is, finally, about consequences, about chickens coming home to roost.

The Bourne Ultimatum drives its points home forcefully, making you jump in your seat and twitch, but it's careful not to leave any bruises. (It's filmmaking with a rubber hose.)

Amid the new and familiar faces (David Strathairn and Joan Allen), it introduces a couple of power-grasping, smooth-talking ghouls and stark reminders of Abu Ghraib that might make you blanch even if you don't throw up. As Bourne has inched closer to solving the rebus of his identity, he hasn't always liked what he's found. He isn't alone. Movies mostly like to play spy games pretty much for kicks, stoking us with easy brutality and cool gadgets that get us high and get us going, whether our gentlemen callers dress in tuxes or track suits.

What's different about the Bourne movies is the degree to which they have been able to replace the pleasures of cinematic violence with those of movie-made kinetics - action, not just blood.

4 Conversations

Instead of going back to bedlam (as a sick dog should given the gift of a midweek holiday - women's day) I somehow managed to drag my corpse all over Rosebank, and even squeezed in some shopping.

I've felt peculiarly drawn and quartered, as though every aspect of my organism as been drawn out and beaten up (or otherwise grilled and roasted). Really, I mean, body mind and spirit, memories, the whole shebang seems to have gone in for simultaneous overhaul. I hope to emerge on the other side all shiny and er...TRANSFORMED.

Yesterday I met up with MF at Primi. After 6 years she hasn't added a wrinkle to her Mona Lisa mug. She imparted the following wisdom to me: be cold, don't let things worry you. Be like a machine. Not all of us are born auditors/accountants; we can't all be cool calculators. I seem to have been an amusing breakfast buddy though.

Next up I met NC to discuss my book. That's when signs of not being fresh began to tell. Found it a bit hard to keep up. all the gesticulating and soft talking...couldn't catch a lot of it. She has offered to edit my book, says the story is good, but it lacks flesh in the last quarter.

Speaking of which, I removed the last papery scabs from my shin last night. Underneath is a still deeply purple area of flesh roughly in the shape of Australia, that obviously took an incredible beating that day on the soccer field. Think that set me up for my present infection. My body has been fighting off THAT infection.

Met LW at Seattle after a short sleep. Like MF she has also put on a bit of weight, but somehow avoided wrinkling. And me too, I've also fattened up. Ate a cookie while we discussed teaching and dreaming etc etc.

From there went to Alex and Janet; watched Deja Vu - very implausible yet very entertaining thanks to good acting/cinematography. Also ate excellent Sushi and Jans paid me R200 (-R50 for takeout) for the 'Foam' picture.

Chatted to Alex until midnight about God, the universe and everything.

Today at work I felt like I suddenly developed Down Syndrome. Managed to inadvertently delete two comps as I was previews one I had just finished. Also managed to lock myself out of a PC. Throat feels like I gargled with two small razor blades. Will need to treat that. Feel like I need sleep and a nice huge empty green field, with no a single worrying cloud in the sky, and no Deja Vu.

Faith Like Potatoes

Put your faith elsewhere: this local film doesn't deserve it

October 27, 2006

By Theresa Smith

Director: Regardt van den Bergh
Cast: Francois Rautenbach, Jeanne Wilhelm, Hamilton Dhlamini, Sean Cameron Michael
Running time: 111 minutes
Classification: PG L
Rating: 5/10

It's been a while since a film with such an overt Christian message was released on the main circuit. The story is based on the life of Angus Buchan (Francois Rautenbach of 7de Laan fame), a Zambian farmer who left behind the land grabs and politics to set up a new farm in KwaZulu-Natal.

With the help of foreman Simeon Benghu (natural performance from Hamilton Dhlamini), he carved out a place for his family, but it is only once he asked the Lord into his life that things started going right.

The title alludes to the faith a potato farmer has to have that the vegetable is growing. Only at harvest time does he find out whether his faith was justified.

Unfortunately our faith in director Regardt van den Bergh is not justified. The film is beautifully filmed, but the wooden acting.and stilted dialogue let it down. Rautenbach's overblown acting is just too much.

The transition between his "I hate black people" Zambian farmer to "love thy neighbour" South African preacher is sudden, and while he goes melodramatic in emotional scenes, Jeanne Wilhelm (wife, Jill) is so impassive she might as well not be there.

The film is supposed to be about how faith has changed this man's life, but we never see how or why.

It would have made better sense if there was more about the process of change in his personality and less of the set up of how he got into this particular state.

If you can watch a televangelist faith-heal someone and not blink an eye but lift your hands to the Lord, you will love this. Otherwise, you are going to wince.

While the message of Christian love and tolerance is a beautiful one, hitting the audience over the head with it because your film lacks subtlety and character progression just turns them away.

New opening for HOLIDAY

An incinerating moth caught in the exhaust plume glimpsed the ink black jet dancing demonically against the cigarette sky. Even as the burnt flakes of the moth eviscerated into the jet stream, the perpetrator continued to press a cold hard body against the smoky air. Far, far below its belly, a wide wave of foam crushed over a sugary shore.

The dark dragon roared over more waters, the sky around it transforming from stained tobacco yellow to the color purple. Running along the inside of the dragon’s purple painted spine was an echelon of people, something like cyclists seen from above in a cycling race, except they had nothing of the organic nature of the peloton. The holidaymakers had placed themselves with machine like precision in columns and rows, like numbers on a spreadsheet. Most of these numbers were asleep. Some were reading, but in Hugh’s case, writing.

How to live longer

1. Don't oversleep
2. Be optimistic
3. Have more sex
4. Get a pet
5. Test for cholestrol
6. Be rich
7. Stop smoking
8. Chill out
9. Eat your antioxidants
10. Marry well.

I've got at least 3 of those, but the other 7 are gettable with a few lifestyle amendments. How about you?

Reporter Commandments

Here are the 10 Citizen Reporter Commandments as envisaged by me:

1. Thou shalt not spell words incorrectly
2. The word processor and Internet shall be for you a means of communion between people and not for spam or self-aggrandizement
3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with editors who are having a bad day
4. Be charitable and help your fellow citizen reporter in need, especially victims of writer’s block
5. Words shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin such as in the use of vulgar language
6. Charitably convince the young citizen reporter and not so young citizen reporter not to write when they are not in a fitting condition to do so such as when feeling verbose
7. Support the families of citizen reporter victims such as those who have been rejected by editors.
8. Bring plagiarizing citizen reporters and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so they can undergo the liberating experience of being threatened with a lawsuit
9. On the page, protect the more vulnerable reader from becoming bored by your words by writing more succinctly
10. Feel responsible toward readers. Without them you are but a tree that falls alone in a forest: silent.

These commandments, in whole or in part, do not supersede the OhmyNews Reporter's Code of Ethics which can be reviewed by registered OhmyNews reporters in the FAQ section of this Web site and are as follows:
1. The citizen reporter must work in the spirit that "all citizens are reporters," and plainly identify himself as a citizen reporter while covering stories.
2. The citizen reporter does not spread false information. He does not write articles based on groundless assumptions or predictions.
3. The citizen reporter does not use abusive, vulgar, or otherwise offensive language constituting a personal attack.
4. The citizen reporter does not damage the reputation of others by composing articles that infringe on personal privacy.
5. The citizen reporter uses legitimate methods to gather information, and clearly informs his sources of the intention to cover a story.
6. The citizen reporter does not use his position for unjust gain, or otherwise seek personal profit.
7. The citizen reporter does not exaggerate or distort facts on behalf of himself or any organization to which he belongs.
8. The citizen reporter apologizes fully and promptly for coverage that is wrong or otherwise inappropriate.

Jozi Petrol Crisis: ‘A dress rehearsal for the real thing’

Once global supply shortages kick in the breakdown will be chronic

In the last week there was not a drop of petrol at garages in Gauteng, the Eastern and Western Cape. What happened this weekend in Jozi is a little like when you turn open a tap, or flick a switch, and nothing happens. Our attitude to energy is not simply that we expect it to be there, but that we expect it to always be there. We’re expecting to continue cheap and easy motoring, I guess, until the cows come home. Sorry, it’s not going to happen.

In the same way that wishful thinking does not make us immune from reality, other warnings have been dismissed. In the financial industry, where hopes and anticipation often underpin sentiment, investors have been warned that the housing bubble in the US would infect world markets. Adrian Saville* from Canon Asset Managers dismisses the effect on credit markets as follows: “If you put a gram of poison into 999grams of really good food, you won’t taste the poison…”I’m not sure about you, but I would still avoid poisonous food, no matter what the proportion that tasted good. And in addition, there is growing consensus that the US has only advanced from the last recession (which officially ended in November 2001) as a result of borrowing.

You can always find some information to support your view, reality in the Information Age depends on who is writing it, and what it is for. But sooner or later, reality conflicts with so-called reality. The poison, however deeply it is embedded into our lives, will sooner or later, take effect.

On my way back from work on Friday I edged by a charcoal grey golf that had obviously run out of petrol in the centre lane of a three lane highway. Its occupant was talking into a cellphone, meanwhile the nearby forecourts of two petrol stations were cordoned off. Did the maiden in distress really think she would get home on thin air? Did the people on Jozi’s highways, on Saturday especially, and on Sunday, were they driving on anything other than hope and expectation? Because with virtually all petrol stations empty, from a particular line of logical thinking it would just be a matter of time before the charcoal car stranded in nowhere became you, me and the next person. All the vehicles on the highways yesterday were cars running out of time, running for the moment on hope and expectation. Here’s a reality check: this remains true of the world’s 600 something million vehicles that drink tens of millions of barrels of refined petroleum on a daily basis. They’re just hoping it will go on and on. It won’t.

The most chronic sufferers of the delusion that machines like cars are powered by thin air didn’t even notice the breakdowns in Jozi. They expected everything to be okey dokey on Monday, and luckily for them, it probably will be. In a way it is a shame we didn’t have another week of no petrol to practice and fully integrate just how not fun The Land of No Fuel will be. People need to spend a little time working out how they would cope if the petrol pumps didn’t work. How would they get to work, how would they buy groceries, what other difficulties would there be?
I saw mini bus taxi’s being pushed by their former occupants, cars stranded at roadsides everywhere, and people still driving into forecourts despite the red and white tape or orange traffic beacons which obviously suggested they were empty anyway. One blue car was so close to empty, they demanded to be first in the queue for whenever the next supply load arrived. They parked the car in the empty forecourt, and proceeded to stand around. Presumably the expensive oil era will involve a lot of that: people standing around, people waiting for something. I presume then that the blue car driver left his vehicle in the forecourt overnight with the understanding that the driver would be alerted when the next supplies were imminent. Probably that blue car did a lot of false advertising through the night. People seeing a car in the forecourt, apparently getting petrol. Except, of course, it wasn’t.

An added dimension to this story is that driving on a half full tank we visited 2 garages to pump up a friend’s MTB tire. Even the air pumps were out of commission because, the owner told me, the station had suffered a power surge. Back home we got down and dirty and it took a while to pump the wheel up ourselves using a slightly defective hand pump. There’s a small reality clip from The Land of No Fuel.

Do cars run on thin air? No they run on a precious and limited resource. It’s a pinkish liquid called petroleum.

Reality is that fuel energy for our cars is brought to us from faraway countries in ships. When pumps run dry we have to wait for ships to bring more petrol, and then trucks to drive, and pipes to pipe the petrol to where we are.

But what if the place where petrol comes from starts to not have enough for all the waiting ships? What happens then is that only some ships sail the seas, and only some countries (presumably the richest) get what they want. Smaller, poorer countries will increasingly go without these endowments, and that feeling of entitlement and expectation will increasingly be first tempered then eviscerated by feelings of first frustration and then anger.

The dress rehearsal that happened this weekend shows how quickly supplies can run out, and just how dependent everyone is on these fuel resources being there. Our chronic dependency on petroleum to run suburbia, to run essentially the world (the way it has been configured), will give rise to strong feelings of powerlessness and resentment when these shortages are unremitting and unalleviated.

It is not a pleasant place to be where we were this weekend. But without very significant reconfigurations to how we run our highway and other transport systems, without re-engineering how and where we live, we face an austere future. The reality, whether we face it or not, is grim: global shortages are imminent. We need to deal with this now, not only as citizens but as nations, or face the whirlwind.

*Quoted from Chris Needham’s article, The rough ride begins, in the August 5 edition of Business Times, Money.

Dinner For One

Been a strange experience, the last 3 days, in virtual solitude, fighting fevers, the cold, and the mental malaise that goes with it.

Last night Alex brought me a plate of food (chicken a la king with pudding and some bread rolls).

I'm starting to realise there are a heck of a lot of people in Jozi that I do know. And also starting to realise a lot of these people stick to certain territories. I'm not the only one who roams within the green 'safety' zones of suburbia.

I've noticed at a few intersections close to work, you see a 'helper' walking an apparently blind, disabled or older person, and playing the role of 'provider to dependent'. So far I haven't given any money to these people, and have noticed no one else does. My first thought was that I must give them money, but now I wonder:
is this another case of inviting vagrants and the poor and criminality into your neighborhood, because the more you give the more freeloaders you attract, the more people who start to demand and expect and want handouts?

While I was sick I also watched Faith Like Potatoes. I think guys like Angus Buchan are passionate and hardworking and courageous, but showers of rain aren't signs of divine intervention. Feeling something doesn't mean God is speaking to you. Nevertheless, it seems mean to criticise people who dedicate their lives, ostensibly, to being good.

Early 2007 saw record-breaking extreme weather: U.N.

By Laura MacInnis Tue Aug 7, 9:57 AM ET
GENEVA (Reuters) - The world experienced a series of record-breaking weather events in early 2007, from flooding in Asia to heatwaves in Europe and snowfall in South Africa, the United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said global land surface temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since records began in 1880, at more than 1 degree Celsius higher than average for those months.

There have also been severe monsoon floods across South Asia, abnormally heavy rains in northern Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique and Uruguay, extreme heatwaves in southeastern Europe and Russia, and unusual snowfall in South Africa and South America this year, the WMO said.

"The start of the year 2007 was a very active period in terms of extreme weather events," Omar Baddour of the agency's World Climate Program told journalists in Geneva.

While most scientists believe extreme weather events will be more frequent as heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions cause global temperatures to rise, Baddour said it was impossible to say with certainty what the second half of 2007 will bring.

"It is very difficult to make projections for the rest of the year," he said.

HEALTH CRISIS

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N. umbrella group of hundreds of experts, has noted an increasing trend in extreme weather events over the past 50 years and said irregular patterns are likely to intensify.

South Asia's worst monsoon flooding in recent memory has affected 30 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, destroying croplands, livestock and property and raising fears of a health crisis in the densely-populated region.

Heavy rains also doused southern China in June, with nearly 14 million people affected by floods and landslides that killed 120 people, the WMO said.

England and Wales this year had their wettest May and June since records began in 1766, resulting in extensive flooding and more than $6 billion in damage, as well as at least nine deaths. Germany swung from its driest April since country-wide observations started in 1901 to its wettest May on record.

Mozambique suffered its worst floods in six years in February, followed by a tropical cyclone the same month, and flooding of the Nile River in June caused damage in Sudan.

Uruguay had its worst flooding since 1959 in May.
Huge swell waves swamped some 68 islands in the Maldives in May, resulting in severe damage, and the Arabian Sea had its first documented cyclone in June, touching Oman and Iran.

Temperature records were broken in southeastern Europe in June and July, and in western and central Russia in May. In many European countries, April was the warmest ever recorded.

Argentina and Chile saw unusually cold winter temperatures in July while South Africa had its first significant snowfall since 1981 in June.

The WMO and its 188 member states are working to set up an early warning system for extreme weather events. The agency is also seeking to improve monitoring of the impacts of climate change, particularly in poorer countries which are expected to bear the brunt of floods, droughts and storms.

Comment on 'Holiday'

Read your book through the night recently but left the last couple of chapters for later as was subjected to symptoms of looming panic attack! Dreamt of doom & gloom & all sorts of associated nasties, so I guess the positive spin is that it's not lacking in impact! The Amazing Race without the glitz...

Sick Dog

The saying: "At least you have your health" has new meaning for me. I've been incredibly sick the last 2 days. Last night probably made my top 20 worst nights. Wrapped myself in 4 layers of clothing, slept under 4 blankets with the heater right against the bed and remained an ice cube until about 3am, when I slowly started warming up.

Went to the Doc (he's nearby this internet cafe), who has put me on a short course of antibiotics. Not sure if I will go to work tomorrow. Still feeling really crap.

He did say it was unlikley my almost passing out at Vasco's was due to the Aqueous Cream (J - Kudos to you!-) - says it was more likely something I ate that was a bit off or something. I dunno, my leg was helluva swollen, and the doc is like 24 years old. Will have to get a second opinion.

My weekend though was incredibly up and down. Went to News Cafe with Nick, that was good. MM came round and that was when things turned on my head. Went for a run the next day, and then to Nino's with Alex and co. Sold the main Exhibition Pic for R700. Quite chuffed with that.

Plaka's Saturday night, nice, then a day of sickness gathering momentum on Sunday. At least my medical aid covers it.

The Road to a Job

Life's Details...

 
Don't forget them...

Postcards from the inner sanctum

HQ

 

Homer's Dilemma

 
Hungry and overweight - I can empathise...

Coming to Jozi was like...

 

Today in Jozi

 

13 Minutes

It took me just 13 minutes to get to work today. I also brought my camera along and was snapping pictures with my hand half attached to the streering wheel, two other fingers holding a camera and snapping pics of the drive to work.
I've also taken a few shots of the offices which I'll load up as soon as I can.

Had a productive meeting with my boss, based on two proposals I handed in. Am going to present strategy to the managers (upstairs) later, based on the proposals. Must have done well.

This week has really flown by. Funny, have not really missed TV, and have felt very stimulated in terms of coming with ideas and using the imagination.

Last night I connected my computer (using the kettle's cable)and watched McLibel (the story of 2 people who took on MacDonald's with no money, the longest court case in England's history). Then I watched the 40 Year Old Virgin. Half of it. Was quite funny.

Going to drinks tonight at the News Cafe with Nicky. Should be good. Must run this weekend or do SOME exercise.

BP warns of fuel shortages

From The Times:
Sapa Published:Aug 02, 2007

Petroleum company BP warned customers today of continuous fuel shortages at its service stations countrywide because of the chemical workers’ strike.

“The strike is already into day three. As a result it has gravely impacted on our delivery schedule to various BP service stations nationally,” said BP spokeswoman Zipporah Mothoa.

For full story click on the title.

Important Distinctions

GUTS - is arriving home late after a night out with the boys, Being met by your wife with a broom, and having the guts to ask: "Are you still cleaning, or are you flying somewhere?"

BALLS - is coming home late after a night out with the boys, smelling of perfume and beer, lipstick on your collar, slapping your wife on the bum and having the balls to say: "You're next."

Cutting Corners

Wow I realise now it may seem in particularly bad taste to have the story on Ryan Cox side by side with a poll on 'Where do I go when I die?' but even worse, a chick with a t-shirt saying: Do Not Resuscitate. Anyway, the t-shirt is directed at presidential candidates Bill and Hillary Clinton, so it's political, nothing more.

I'm writing an article on resuscitating a flagging product and thus was interested in what google images would come up with to define (image-wise): resuscitation. So that was coincidental.

Must say though I've heard a lot about Ryan Cox over the years, remember watching him on TV during the Tour of Langkawi (I visited Malaysia too), and it's always a shock when a top sportsman who is fighting fit, dies. His story is tragic. Robert Hunter loaned him 100k for the operation in France, and he apparently checked out before he was through with the treatment (possibly due to even more medical bills). I remember a Cape triathlete went to hospital and suffered two heart attacks in the helicopter after being airlifted from a triathlon.
I just wonder why it was so hard, in hospital, for the doctors to sort out his artery. Makes me think of Black Hawk Down, one of the troops suffered the same fate.

Went out last night with MM for drinks and dinner. Can't believe she is now almost as tall as me. Has a Leslie quality about her, square jaw, very English features.
She was friends with my sister at school once upon a time.

Meanwhile my landlady is asking for this month's rent (as she should) and I must scrape together some bucks for that. Seems like I have so many expenses coming up. Now sure how I am going to sort out my car in Jozi. Must probably find a mechanic here to install a new drive chain/belt whatever. Speaking of my car, a blue car made a desperate turn in front of me this morning, on the way to word. Grey white guy was driving. I noticed a car behind me moments earlier, realised I was only going 60km/h and thought - well, there's a stop street 200m away and I'm in 4th so I am not going to speed up. Subtle thinking, but if I had speeded up, which is quite natural, I would almost certainly have collided with the car coming around that blind corner, and cutting across my lane. Whew.

I don't have a TV with me here, but haven't missed it. Have arrived home and then fallen asleep the last few days.

I must get the power cord for my computer. Seem to have left that at home.

Ryan Cox dies after surgical complications

From The Times.co.za:

Cox, one of South Africa’s top cyclists, lost the fight for his life in a Gauteng hospital after the main artery in his left leg burst yesterday.

Cox had recently undergone surgery in France after South Africa’s Tour de France ace, Robert Hunter, had lent him the money for the operation.

Clint Curtis, who coached the Barloworld rider when he was a junior, said Cox had been having problems with his left leg for some time.

"He sometimes lost the feeling in the leg after cycling and had little power in the leg towards the end of some races.

"Ryan then went to see one of the leading doctors in France. It was found that the artery had, as a consequence of all the cycling, become knotted as sometimes happens to a garden hose.

"It often happens to cyclists because they spend so many hours on the bicycles, with their legs bent while pedalling.

From news24.co.za:

Farewell Ryan
01/08/2007 12:51 - (SA)

Top SA cyclist Ryan Cox has died in the Kempton Park hospital after complications following a vascular lesion operation. (Brecht Decaluw, Cyclingnews.com)

by Sean Badenhorst

Team Barloworld cyclist, Ryan Cox, passed away on Wednesday, August 1, 2007.

He was just 28.

It was an unexpectedly abrupt end to such a promising cycling career and such a promising life.

Ryan and I weren't close friends, but our paths crossed a number of times over the past eight years.

The time I spent time with Ryan, I was filled with nothing but admiration and respect - such a fine athlete, such a refined human.

This was a young man who was completely committed to his chosen career as a professional cyclist.

You couldn't find a more professional sportsman if you tried.

Untimely passing

Ryan's progression up the ladder of cycling success was frustratingly hindered over the past couple of years by a mysterious ailment that was eventually diagnosed as being a faulty artery in his left leg that required surgery to repair.

How ironic that the procedure that was meant to set him free from pain would result in his untimely passing.

With cycling's dopers finally being weeded out one by one and Team Barloworld's newly raised profile following a fantastic string of Tour de France performances by his teammates, Ryan's post-operation prospects looked bright.

He'd have had far more opportunities to match his rivals on talent and class in the big races, with the huge mountain climbs, where he was most at home.

And Ryan wasn't short of talent and class.

He was brimming with it!

His smooth, elegant riding style was an absolute pleasure to witness.

All cyclists dreamed of being able to climb like Ryan.

His movement was so powerful yet seemingly effortless.

Career highlights

You just knew that he was suffering badly but he never showed it. That's class.

Among his career highlights, Ryan won the Pick 'n Pay 94.7 Cycle Challenge and two SA championship road titles.

He also won the Giro del Capo, South Africa's premier international stage race, and the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia, Asia's biggest race.

But those who follow cycling closely knew that Ryan's best was still come.

At 28, he was just reaching that 4-5 year period of athletic maturity when his potential would be turned into success.

His sudden death has left a gaping hole in South African cycling.

Ryan was undoubtedly one of our greatest prospects and one of our best assets.

It's just so sad that Ryan's race distance was changed at the last minute without any warning.

Completely devastated

We'll sadly never know how great he could have been. We just know he would have been great.

I was merely an acquaintance and I am completely devastated at Ryan's death.

I cannot imagine how hard this must all be for Ryan's family, friends and teammates.

We can only be grateful that we were privileged to have had such a humble hero to look up to, even if it was for such a short while.

It's such a pity that we generally pay respect to great people only when they're gone.

My biggest regret is that I'm writing this tribute in the past tense...

Angelina Up In Arms

...because of the lack of voting on my poll. Come on guys, only 5 hours left to vote, so if you haven't voted, vote NOW!

Jozi 4 Me

I brought my camera with me this morning to snap a few shots of the beautiful tree lined lanes on the way to work. Poplar trees? White branches - at night they are hauntingly beautiful. Also wanted to take a few photos of the inner workings here, massive screen TV's (set to SKYnews), the lunch area etc.

Sad to say when I turned on the power button it gave a bird click squeak and then died. So will charge the batteries and load them tomorrow.

Last night I played ping pong with Alex. 21-19. Probably gonna be a few revenge matches.

We also went to Marble Arch...I mean Melrose Arch, which is fairly near to where I live, to see the Virgin Active set up. Wow. Amazing complex. Will shoot some visuals of that too.

Woke up at 4am this morning not due to power outages or trucks idling outside, but thanks to a chatter of ideas in my head. Turned on the light and jotted down 5 pages of ideas.

Jozi is already growing on me...

Am I The Next Ingmar?

From the New York Times:

Mr. Bergman dealt with pain and torment, desire and religion, evil and love. In his films, “this world is a place where faith is tenuous; communication, elusive; and self-knowledge, illusory at best,” Michiko Kakutani wrote in The New York Times Magazine in a 1983 profile of the director. God is either silent or malevolent; men and women are creatures and prisoners of their desires.

For many filmgoers and critics, it was Mr. Bergman more than any other director who brought a new seriousness to filmmaking in the 1950s.

“Bergman was the first to bring metaphysics — religion, death, existentialism — to the screen,” Bertrand Tavernier, the French film director, said. “But the best of Bergman is the way he speaks of women, of the relationship between men and women. He’s like a miner digging in search of purity.”

Was at work until 19:30 yesterday. Going home now (17:10). Been a long interesting day, long discussions. Work is interesting. Feels a bit like play to be honest, which must be a good thing.

Now for traffic....