25 September 2012

Futures Past




It’s not the best app, but I don’t think there’s a better one.  
It’s a good idea, just the interface doesn’t work. 
Uh dudes, are the shuttles leaving us here? 
Try finger-swiping that one part. No, the other.

* * * * *

The above via Hate the Future. Sheer serendipity bumping into it now. Partly because it was originally posted before the recent spasm of gadget-related schadenfreude. But also because a local arts theater has been having a Kubrick month, and this past weekend I joined some friends for a matinee screening of 2001. I had seen the film on the large screen once before, or sort-of seen it. I was 11 at the time, when the thing was making the rounds of theaters in advance of the 10-year anniversary of its initial release. Being a bit too young for it and due to its pacing, I ended dozing off through the better stretch of its latter half, only being finally blasted awake by Ligeti's "Atmospheres" toward the end. And yeah, despite having no idea what I'd just watched, my mind was still blown.

Seeing it again was a reminder of what viewing any Kubrick would demonstrate: That despite his overall unevenness and deficiencies in certain areas, Kubrick was a consummate craftsman and technician, relentless work toward getting a film to look exactly as he wanted it. I was quite impressed with the "Dawn of Man" opening sequence of incidental establishing shots of the veldt. I was also reminded of how for the past four years I've been expected Apple to broker some deal with Kubrick's estate so that they can use this sequence for a rollout of a model of the iPhone...






It'll happen eventually, just you wait.

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