Top of the B-List
I agree with Roger Ebert, who says Richard Linklater’s Waking Life was unfairly overlooked in the Best Animated Feature category in this year’s Oscar nominations. His theory is that Hollywood and its huge CGI industry didn’t like an indie film director’s use of off-the-shelf Macintosh computers and home-brewed animation software to challenge their supremacy.
What do you think of this year’s nominations overall?
Mondays are my day off, and so I curled up in front of my computer screen today to watch Steve work his magic. And, though there were some interesting announcements, I was a little underwhelmed. I kept waiting for his trademark, “Oh, and one more thing…” but it never came. The iMacs are funny looking, but they’ll grow on me, and iPhoto is a great idea (though runs pretty slow on my computer, 1000+ photos notwithstanding), but I was expecting more.
Though that’s probably not to blame, I’ve just been feeling sad all day. So I went out and finally found the soundtrack CD for The Royal Tenenbaums, which is just perfect bittersweet music for nursing a sad mood. Listen to me: ignore the sudden swarm of war movies, which glorify violence and blind patriotism, and go see this movie, instead. You’ll be glad you did.
I’m a Mac user, less fanatical than some, but still pretty excited by the upcoming Macworld conference in San Francisco next week. One of the rumour sites is reporting that Apple will announce the availability of a new PDA device called iWalk. From the pictures and video on the site (which many believe are fake), it looks bulky and large. Still, I can’t help but get excited. What other computer maker is innovating like this? Even Apple’s own site can’t help getting excited. The front page has been teasing us with hype for the past few days. This had better be good.
Apple has published a feature on the Richard Linklater film Waking Life, which was animated using a lot of Mac computers. Go and read my review of the film, and then get thee to a cinema!