Bikes vs Cars

I’d love to be in Spain to see this movie Bikes vs Cars, namely in Barcelona where it is going to be shown this Saturday at Docs Barcelona. The movie has been doing the tour of independent film festivals, from Sweden to South by south west and the american circuit. It is coming back to Europe again and I hope Bikes vs Cars can be seen in DocLisboa in October. Let’s hope some organiser reads my blog . . .

THE STORY OF BIKES VS CARS

We are immersed in a great global crisis that we will eventually have to face: climate change, the exhaustion of fossil resources, urban and ocean pollution. In this context, the bicycle stands as a powerful tool for change. However, this is a David and Goliath fight, since the automobile industry invests millions of dollars every year to maintain its business. Car sales are currently higher than ever before and there are more than one thousand million vehicles in the world.
Activists and thinkers around the world, from São Paulo to Los Angeles, including the idyllic situation in Copenhagen, get organized to change the state of things and make cities more sustainable. Alongside those citizens who refuse to stop cycling despite the increase in the number of deaths from traffic accidents, they carry out a small action that can lead to great changes.

from DocsBarcelona.

Reino Unido bloqueia sites de ebooks

O Reino Unido ordenou que os principais fornecedores de internet bloqueassem o acesso a sites de partilha de ebooks. E o argumento é o mesmo utilizado pela indústria da música ou do cinema: a pirataria. Até aqui nada de novo, o problema é que na entrevista do responsável entrevistado pela BBC aprende-se algumas coisas:

  • Na luta entre ebook e papel, o ebook já vale mais de um terço das receitas. Para uma indústria madeireira isto dos ebooks afinal não é residual.
  • É preocupante que se esteja a por o ónus de polícia no fornecedor de acesso. Este princípio é assustador porque o mesmo princípio é utilizado na Coreia do Norte. Os estados filtrarem o que está acessível é perturbador. Não sei qual é mais criminoso, a censura ou piratear um livro. E há muitos websites onde descarregar ebooks
  • O representante da indústria revela entretanto muita preocupação que a decisão só seja válida para o Reino Unido, e gostava que uma decisão Britânica fosse estendida automaticamente à União Europeia. Isto é irónico, numa altura em que David Cameron ameaça sair da Zona Euro (Qual a diferença para Grécia?) a indústria sonha que as decisões judiciais Britânicas possam automaticamente condicionar toda a União. O espirito colonialista imperial por detrás deste pensamento é revelador.

update: pequenas correcções gramaticais e um link para um post sobre onde encontrar ebooks

Wayward Pines Day

Do you love Twin Peaks? While we still wait for a remake of the Laura Palmer case why not start the summer season with the series. Wayward Pines. I’ve podcasted about it and I am really eager to see what they made in the series. I’m mainly curious to see Juliette Lewis again — One of my favourite actresses.

As a fan of Twin Peaks I’m sure I’ll be disappointed, but I promise not to be very biased while watching. Are you going to enter Wayward Pines, knowing that you cannot ever leave again?

Under the Skin

Under the Skin

I finally managed to see Under the Skin. This is a science fiction movie so out of the ordinary that someone should create a category just for it. Scarlett Johansson makes a big acting statement about not being just another pretty face in a great body.

In Under the Skin, Scarlett Johansson produces an excellent performance. This movie is all about her acting in this strange female alien character that abducts (seduces) lonely men while discovering herself in the process. This is partially induced by a Gordon Gallup kind of experience, when she sees herself in the mirror (curiously not used after the failed attempt at having sex – sorry for the spoilers).

Under the Skin’s story is set in a misty Scotland were beautiful landscapes are interleaved with suburban decayed areas. This gives the film a character like a painting of dystopian contradiction.

The sound design and the score are just brilliant. You can feel the coldness, the silences, the curiosities, or the whirl of emotions that pierce Scarlett Johansson as you hear the soundscape that was created by the sound designer.

This movie is not for everyone’s taste. Under the Skin requires the patience of contemplation, the curiosity to wait and to see beyond what is shown. The story is not told. Not given to you in a plate. Instead, you have to construct it as you are allowed to take part in this hyper-realism of the senses. The movie feels like a documentary where you are invited into the characters lives. Almost without dialogs, the movie is a mixture of piece of art, installation and subliminal message. The result can only be contemplated in the end when you think back about what you’re gifted with.

At the end Under the Skin is mesmerising. Scarlett Johansson proves she knows her act. She is a better science fiction character in this movie than the one she did in the film Lucy. Pity this film didn’t get the Oscar’s nominations it deserved.

And The Oscar Goes To

Ok, this is not a review neither it is a pre-Oscar selection of films… It is just a list and a short one. So Oscar, here we go:

  • Boyhood – What a great story and a technically difficult one to do. A coming of age movie that runs almost three hours (166 min) long without feeling repetitive or dull. You engage with the film and with the story. Although there are some rough edges in a movie that took 12 years to direct the photography is gorgeous and the acting is good. Maybe the exception being Lorelei Linklater that gets lost in growing up and isn’t that talented for acting.
  • The Theory of Everything – There’s nothing in this movie that would make me want to watch it again. Well, except the performance of the Eddie Redmayne. Many make him a candidate to the Oscars but let any actor with this part would be sitting in the same spot (no pun intended). This being the biography of Stephen Hawking makes it politically incorrect for anyone to bash it. In any case, I believe that you give prizes while people are alive and you write biographies and build statues after they’re dead. Well, moving on.
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel – This is one of the must-see films of 2014. You cannot forget this film even if for Oscar matters it was released too early  in 2014 and no one remembers it. I was even surprised when it was nominated – ‘WHAT? released in 2014?’. I doubt that it can win an Oscar, but I’m pleased to have seen it almost as soon as it was released in the cinema.

Still to see before the Oscar’s night: Birdman and Whiplash – don’t know if I’ll have time for many more. I’ll edit this note as soon as I have seen them.

update 1:

  • Birdman – This is an odd film as it feels a bit claustrophobic. It is this long single continuous cut that wonders around, all seeing and all being, travelling in the guts of those small spaces in the theatre. Sometimes it takes the point of view of a character. Sometimes it takes the point of view of a bird. Sometimes it takes the point of view of an external narrator or of the blue pale audience in the theatre. All clapping (not applauding) to the absurdity of all this. All this without blinking, in a continuous motion that reveals a deep neurotic disorder (like the main character – Hm, aren’t they all neurotic at some level?). The film is nice but feels over-produced, over-designed and over-staged, for such a basic and predictable plot. The cast is irreproachable and I liked both Michael Keaton and Zach Galifianakis the most. Oscar material? Maybe, but I’m not 100% convinced.

update 2:

  • Whiplash – This is a simple movie that uses that old (and successful) premise of storytelling “Perseverance triumphs”. The movie is all about this, in the opposition of the two main characters (the Sergeant teacher and the Dedicated pupil). I don’t understand how this movie could be nominated as it is basic and even somehow pathetic in trying to push musical achievement just to a matter of execution speed. But… five Oscar nominations might prove me wrong.

So what are your favourites to win the Oscar this year? Have you seen all the movies? Have you realised that Meryl Streep’s nomination is her nineteenth nomination? 19? (But it is only her fourth time in the Best Supporting Actress category). What are you expecting from this year Oscar ceremony?

update 3: small rewrite of the text for legibility.

Surrounded by sound: how 3D audio hacks your brain – Binaural audio explained

The Verge has a great story on how binaural audio is recorded and how it is perceived by our brains:

Surrounded by sound: how 3D audio hacks your brain.

It is a great story on how our brains respond to the 3D sound around, and it is just an eight-minute read.

What are Binaural Recordings?

Binaural audio recordings reproduce the way we listen. For this audio engineers use microphones placed 18cm apart. This distance mimics your ears and the way we listen to sounds. But it is not enough to place the microphones 18cm apart. Binaural audio also takes into account the mass of the brain, which acts as a barrier to sound propagation, and mannequin heads are used, among other techniques. In result, recordings that explore this create soundscapes that promise be more immersive and feeling 3Dish. They aim to put you in location by hearing the binaural audio.

Here’s an example of a binaural audio recording from SoundCloud. Try to use headphones and listen to the 3D aspect of this recording.

Listening to Binaural Audio

Naturally the best way to listen is to have a good pair of cans (headphones), or even better, to use in-ear headphones. They provide you the richest experience. Also, close your eyes and imagine the scene of the binaural recording. A binaural recording is not the same thing as a stereo recording because in stereo capture doesn’t necessarily try to imitate the human ear placement. Also, this kind of recording has been used to entrain the brain to allow for higher concentration. Those are called Binaural Beats and according to the different bands and frequency used, can lead you to relax or to focus better.

Binaural audio is not everyone’s cup of tea but it produces unique experiences that you might enjoy. Maybe they are also a good sleeping aid?

Quanto vale uma máquina de escrever manual?

Com o advento dos computadores as máquinas de escrever quase desapareceram dos escritórios e secretárias, para passarem a ser apenas um objecto decorativo que apenas encontram as montras de lojas para se mostrar.

Máquina de Escrever Royal

É verdade que as máquinas de escrever têm um look retro e há antiquários que as querem vender como jóias de um tempo que jamais voltará. No entanto os preços que alguns vendedores pedem pelas máquinas de escrever são disparatados. Quando me perguntam quanto vale uma máquina de escrever antiga, digo que vale menos do que pagaram por ela. Não compreendo essa obsessão de fazer das coisas mecânicas uma preciosidade.

Em termos práticos: Nenhuma máquina de escrever manual posterior a 1960 vale mais de 30€-40€ e isto se se encontrar em muito bom estado de funcionamento. Quem quer que esteja a pedir mais está apenas a tentar caçar o papalvo entusiasmado com a ideia de ser “cool” ou “retro”. As máquinas são mecânicas e como tal sujeitas a desgaste. Novas poderiam escrever facilmente milhões de palavras. Usadas? Nunca se saberá quanto tempo sobrevirão e as peças e reparações são difíceis de arranjar.

As máquinas de escrever avariadas apenas servem para peças (ou para decorar montras) e como tal não valem mais do que 10€. Não percebo como pedem fortunas. Foram construídas aos milhões em todo o mundo e que apesar de já não serem fabricadas são bastante fáceis de encontrar—principalmente avariadas ou com reparações tipo MacGyver. Em Portugal temos todos a mania de não fazer negócios. Preferimos ter as coisas a apodrecer num armazém fedorento espreando que algum Xá do petróleo nos compre o lixo. Parece doença crónica deste país.

eu ainda utilizo máquinas de escrever Mas ainda há quem prefira escrever nas barulhentas máquinas de escrever? Sim, o click clack que não perdoa. Não há “undo” ou “backspace”. Nos computadores é muito fácil escrever o draft e em simultâneo começar a editar, a corrigir. Numa máquina de escrever todo o erro é eterno, permanente, pelo que quando se escreve um primeiro draft sabe-se que será definitivo e obriga o autor a escrever novamente tudo (e aí sim a editar) quando passa para o computador. O primeiro draft na máquina de escrever não deixa voltar a trás e a perdermo-nos com o detalhe. Obriga a andar para a frente, a colocar no papel em grandes traços toda uma ideia. O detalhe virá depois.

Para quem escreve muito—e para quem escreve com ideia de fazer revisão do que escreve no computador—a máquina de escrever é um instrumento precioso. Mas também o são a caneta e bom papel. As máquinas de escrever não valem, nem nos sonhos mais benevolentes—estive quase para escrever eróticos aqui—aquilo que alguns “antiquários” querem chamar de “vintage”. Simplesmente NÃO.