Blogger's Favourite Movies

Tidying my profile link and then the profile, I noticed I could click on movies I'd favourited. This gave me the top ten of popularity, amongst Blogger users of these movies.

Clicking through was an exercise in revelation as some were far more well-known than I thought and others had interesting, not always predictable, fans.

Not in order of addition, some movies I could watch over and over

• Wizard of Oz 6,700
• Jackie Brown 2,500
• Manhattan 2,400
• South Park 2,400
• La Dolce Vita 1,600
• Muriel's Wedding 1,000
• Amarcord 1,000
  
• Blue 1,000
• Beautiful Thing 672
• Mirror 175
• Ciao Manhattan 50
• Distant Voices Still Lives 15

I also investigated clips and found out just how enormous the YouTube archive is getting, though not every thing's there and not every scene I'd pick.


Mirror
A couple of scenes from Tarkovsky's "Mirror"


Manhattan
Storica introduzione di "Manhattan", film che più di ogni altro può essere considerato capolavoro della poetica del grande regista Woody Allen. Scritto da Allen e da Marshall Brickman, accompagnato dalla storica colonna sonora di George Gershwin.


Amarcord
Trailer for Amarcord directed by Federico Fellini

Just going wider to Google Video Search brings up more gems.


La Dolce Vita
Anita Eckberg e Marcello Matroianni nella celebre scena della Fontana di Trevi, dal film "La dolce vita" di Fellini

Peroni's beautiful and stylish portrayal of Fellini's 1960s Italian classic La Dolce Vita. This advertisement is the colour version of Peroni's stunning La Dolce Vita commercial — a great pastiche of the opening scene but I couldn't find the original :{

'e-suicide'? Nothing new

Danny Finkelstein at The Times looks at copycat suicides, supposedly spawned by the web, and finds them part of a long tradition.

Too right. One word: Valentino, the silent screen heartthrob.

At the news of Valentino's death, two women attempted suicide in front of Polyclinic Hospital; in London a girl took poison before Rudy's inscribed photograph; an elevator boy of the Ritz in Paris was found dead on a bed covered with Valentino's photos.

While Valentino was lying in state at Campbell's Funeral Home, New York streets became the scene of a ghoulish carnival as a mob of over 100,000 fought for a last glimpse of the Great Lover

From Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon.

Kenya: where is the BBC?

Here's today's BBC Online headline:



And here's Kenya's headline:



More about the troop movements on Siasa Duni's blog and others.

Very little continuing political analysis about Kenya on the BBC's site, although this was published on Monday.



Note the author. Let's hear more from him. Keep the star reporters at home (less carbon miles for one thing).

It is right to report the violence but not when that's the whole story and the impression is left that it's solely 'tribal' or little explanation is given.

BBC Online has the vastness of scale to do way, way more to report what's happening or - at minimum - link to it. There's not even cross links to their other huge resource, the World Service, which has specialists.

I don't think their coverage lives up to their responsibilities and, given their resources, is pretty pathetic.

~~~~~

More background from the Kenyan blogosphere:

· Very interesting post about division and 'dobbing-in' to authorities in the diaspora and how Kibaki backers are using the web to, amongst other things, say that Raila Ondinga is funded by Al Qaeda.

· Never mind the BBC, the same author has no time for the efforts of Kenyan MSM:

For the rest of their lives, Kenyans will have a healthy skepticism for the media. As of January 2008, Kenya will have the largest number of healthy media critics ever known. Why? Media personalities, such as Mildred Ngesa, Catherine Kasavuli and Carole Mandi, people that Kenyans looked up to, have turned out to be fickle and unprincipled. As it strived to cheapen its stories, the Kenyan media as a whole was cheapened. They allowed Michuki (Minister and loud Kibaki backer - very like the Zimbabwean tyke, Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo) to cello-tape their mouths. They cannot call themselves journalists. It is not enough for them to come out on national TV and emotionally say that they are forming a group because “Somewhere, the story has been lost.” If the true story has been lost, then it is because they were asleep while they were supposed to be telling it. I venture to surmise, however, that the true story is alive and well, because Kenyan bloggers have come out and done the job that the Kenyan news media is supposed to do. Kenyan journalists should be ashamed of themselves. They have let Kenya down. Many people now trust Kumekucha more than they trust their regular dailies. [Kumekucha says: Kofi Annan appears to have waved his MAGIC wand and viola all Kenyans are ululating with bliss. )

Kenyans who never cared much about media personalities have had their attention rudely drawn to the fact that their newspapers and televisions might not be giving them the whole story. Circumstances have forced Kenyans to begin to ask themselves what might be written between the lines; what is not being told; what the purpose is, for what is being told. This is very healthy, because it will hopefully bring a sense of accountability to the media. Pretty soon, people will begin to ask questions. How could Ugandan soldiers venture into Kenya undetected? Why did I have to read a blog to find out about a woman whose daughter was raped in the Rift Valley?

Previous:

• Send Kenyans some love
• Wesly Ngetich
• Kenya Crisis - Online response flourishing
• Kenya bloggers postscript
• This is Web power · Kenyans need blogs

On Day One

The Better World Campaign, a coalition of groups which works to build a stronger relationship between the United States and the United Nations, is trying to raise the status of foreign policy in the US Presidential campaign with this new site.

It wants overseas contribution and will sort and sieve it to provide some real numbers, if it's taken up.

On November 4th, 2008, Americans will elect new leadership and a new direction for the United States. Help shape a new way forward -- share your thoughts, upload videos and tell the next president what to do on the first day in office to improve our standing in the world.

You can:

• Post your ideas (including videos) for the next President
• Vote on and discuss other people's ideas
• Tell the Presidential candidates (and friends and family) what you think

Mohammed Yunus, amongst others, has already contributed.

Contributions will be whittled down to the most popular in each of nine categories. They will then be presented to the newly-elected president when he or she is sworn in.

Here are some aides memoire:

Send Kenyans some love

Very easy to show some support for Kenyans by sending some money to the Red Cross via MamaMikes.

I just bought someone a mattress and a few other items.

You can send just £5 - lunchmoney in the UK - and that will make a difference for someone.

Aussies should boycott the Daily Mail and Sun

This is how the Daily Mail has been spinning the 'drugs death' of Heath Ledger.

Nobody knows yet what exactly killed him but all the evidence thus far points to a fatal prescription drug interaction.

Australia is in national mourning and it's worth recording just how this British tabloid is treating their favourite son.

Also worth noting that I tried to add a comment saying 'shame on you' but the Mail doesn't like criticism of its behavior appearing on its website. Unlike The Guardian and others.

And they're not the only one - Aussies take note.



By contrast, this is the Australian tabloid 'spin'.

• Star Jones: Reporting on the dead

Blow me away travel maps

Absolutely stunning project from MySociety, a bunch of geniuses, on truly useful travel maps.

This mapping work was very important because it provides a potentially revolutionary new way of working out the best place for people to live and work.

You can see some examples here.

This one shows which areas it makes more sense to get public transport to work in Edinburgh, and which areas it makes more sense to drive.



They compare car vs cycling and one allow users to set both the maximum time they’re willing to commute, and the median house price they’re willing or able to pay.

There are two ways in which you can get a travel map of this sort centred on a location of interest to you.

If you’re a interested user, you can contact your local transport journey planning organisation, for example Transport for London or San Francisco BART, and encourage them to work with us to get a system like this working interactively on their websites.

If you’re a rich user, or company, you can commission us to create bespoke maps – we’re a non-profit after all and all the money will help run our other projects. And if you’re really rich, you can work with us to develop a real-time service of the sort that the transport agencies should be doing. Francis Irving from mySociety has written a technical review on the challenges of developing a real-time map generation system.

If you’re interested in working with us on this, email karl@mysociety.org.

Why Ken is losing

Compare and contrast these emails from Ken Livingstone's campaign and Barack Obama's.

Click for full-size




Just a terrible campaign email. Why does Ken need donations? Where is his rebuttal? Where are his allies? And, most importantly, why should I believe him? And who the heck is 'we'?

By contrast, Obama has recognised that the 'Barack=Muslim' meme isn't going away and impales it with John Kerry (losing Dem. 2004 candidate). Great ammunition for his supporters.

Ken needs to hire some online campaigning advisors, like, today.

The audacity of hope

Astonishingly powerful speech by Barack Obama from the 'bully pulpit' at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the church where Martin Luther King and his father pastored. Well repays 45' of attention. He's good.

"I wasn't born into money or great wealth, but I had hope!" he declared, bringing the congregation to its feet, cheering and clapping. "I needed some hope to get here. My daddy left me when I was little, but I had hope! I was raised by a single mother, but I had hope! I was given love, an education, and some hope!"

The Tweety Effect

Fascinating post on Media Matters by Eric Boehlert about a new net created phenomenon - the Tweety Effect.

'Tweety' is US TV commentator, MSNBC's Chris Matthews.

The meme, which Boehlert examines in detail, is that the barrage of sexism directed at Hillary Clinton by Matthews and other TV pundits directly affected the New Hampshire result as women voted for Hillary and against the media.

Matthews has referred to Clinton as "She devil." He has repeatedly likened Clinton to "Nurse Ratched," referring to the scheming, manipulative character in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest who "asserts arbitrary control simply because she can." He has called her "Madame Defarge." And he has described male politicians who have endorsed Clinton as "castratos in the eunuch chorus."

Matthews has compared Clinton to a "strip-teaser" and questioned whether she is "a convincing mom." He refers to Clinton's "cold eyes" and the "cold look" she supposedly gives people; he says she speaks in a "scolding manner" and is "going to tell us what to do."

Matthews was forced to apologise — by bloggers.

So we have a new Net term :}

Tweety Effect
-noun

1. where the misogyny of a talking head in the MSM so enrages a demographic that they go out and vote in a manner that will put egg on the face of the talking head.