Since Otar Left … (Movie)

I don’t normally blog movies I’ve seen, but we just watched Since Otar Left … and it was one of the most touching movies I’ve seen in a long time. It takes place mostly in Tbilisi, Georgia and ends in Paris. The three main characters are a grandmother Eka, daughter Marina, and grandaughter Ada who are dealing with each other, life in post-independence Georgia and Otar, the missing brother of Marina (and beloved son of Eka.) The family are francofiles and Otar has gone to work in Paris where he dies in an accident. Like the movie Good Bye Lenin! (2003), Marina and Ada conspire to pretend Otar is still alive. Unlike Good Bye Lenin! the deception isn’t really about politics, doesn’t descend into farce, and leads to a touching conclusion for Ada. I found the movie dealt well with life in Georgia for an educated family without being about Georgia. It ultimately focuses on three generations of strong women, offering one of the best depictions of an independent grandmother I’ve seen. All three actresses are terrific, but Eka (who, according to the distributor is a “90-year-old former dental assistant and fledgling star Esther Gorintin”) is a character we almost never see in Holywood films.

A must see.

Adobe buys Macromedia

According to the Guardian and other sources Adobe is buying Macromedia for $3.1 billion (USD), Adobe downloads Flash for £1.8bn or Macromedia – Press Room : Adobe to acquire Macromedia. Stephen Elop, who I believe did CS at McMaster, will be head of worldwide field operations. Rob Burgess who also was at McMaster joins the Adobe board.
What does this mean for the multimedia software industry? Not good – we now have only one major provider of tools with an almost monopoly over our tools from Flash to PhotoShop. Time for some new competition.

Kate Taylor on Massive Change

Kate Taylor in this Saturday’s The Globe and Mail has a column on Bruce Mau’s show at the AGO. The column titled, “Why Massive Change feels minor league” (R4, March 12, 2005) points out what I noticed about the web site months ago – the show is really a student project by students in a special vanity COOP design program, Institute without Boundaries. (See my blog entry on the site, Mau: Massive Change and Overrated Sight.)
Of course, it is easy to grump. Now that the program is in Toronto I should go down and see for myself.

PressThink’s Top Ten Ideas for 2004

Jay Rosen’s blog on the press and media has a nice entry on PressThink’s Top Ten Ideas for 2004. The top ten ideas are:

1. The Legacy Media.
2. He said, she said, we said.
3. What the printing press did to the Catholic Church the blogging press does to the media church.
4. Open Source Journalism, or: "My readers know more than I do."
5. News turns from a lecture to a conversation.
6. "Content will be more important than its container."
7. "What once was good–or good enough–no longer is."
8. "The victory of affinity over geography."
9. The Pajamahadeen.
10. The Reality-Based Community.

There are explanations or links to blog entries that explain these. It is a great way to summarize a year of ideas. More generally Rosen’s blog does a good job of linking to highlights of ideas and short essays. His blog seems a good example of a blog made up of short essays rather than just links.