This is, according to WordPress, the 600th post I’ve made since I started Solitude way back in January 2003. A lot of time has passed, lot of changes, and lot of silly things said (as well as the odd gem). I did consider going back through the entire archive and pointing out all the places I disagree with myself, but I figure that could take a while.
No grand promises about posting more, or better, or anything like that; just a marker to say we’re still going.
Things have been quiet here for the last few months for a number of reasons: moving flat, getting internet back, changing jobs (within the same company), and a bunch of other reasons (some of which I’ll be mentioning soon).
One of the big reasons for a slowdown in the number of posts is that I’ve been unhappy with my current content management system, Finetto, for quite some time. It was designed with a fairly limited amount of functionality in mind, primarily to help out a friend who needed a CMS quickly. It was also one of the first big PHP projects I had undertaken, before I really understood the language, and while I was still quite fresh to real programming (I have been programming since I was about 8 but not in a consistent and structured way). The design quickly became messy as more features were required. I could go back and rewrite the whole thing, with some interesting ideas, or I could just enhance an existing product.
In the last month or so, I’ve taken the time to pull data out of the old CMS and migrate it to everyone’s favourite CMS, WordPress. I’ve been talking about doing this for a while, and one of my long stated goals for any such transition is that it would be functionally seamless for end users. Since I actually switched a few weeks ago and no-one seems to have noticed, I’ll call that one a success. As an aside, the recent feed problems were not related to the WP switch.
The switch itself was pretty painless. WP is easy to set-up, the design I used on the old CMS was easy enough to convert (using standards-based design helps), and the data was easy enough to migrate on the WP side. The only trick was actually pulling the data out of the old CMS. While it’s file-system based storage was exceptionally quick, it wasn’t the easiest to manipulate.
Expect some WP plugins to appear soon.
Apologies for any recent feed problems you’ve been experiencing. As part of an effort to try and consolidate all my feeds (about 6), I’ve decided to outsource the URL to something a bit more permanent, in the form of FeedBurner.
There was a rather silly problem with cyclical redirects, but it’s all sorted now. I advise that you change your subscription to the Solitude FeedBurner Feed, if your feed reader of choice has not already done so.
Yes, it’s massively late (March should be ready soon), but it’s time for the February Film Fight.
First up is an Academy Award winning performance by Forest Whitaker in the terribly titled The Last King of Scotland. The story of a young doctor who wants to see the world, and ends up becoming the personal physician of Ida Amin, the Ugandan dictator. As we see Amin rise to power, Whitaker masterfully portrays the paranoid, capricious nature of the General. A powerful and terrifying movie.
The much vaunted Babel ties together four disparate stories, transcending language barriers and racial backgrounds to show us how we’re all the same, or at least that’s the idea. In practice, the links between the stories are tenuous at best, the characters are in bad situations through every fault of their own, and very little can be done to reconcile their general idiocy with any saving graces. Despite the hype, this film is resolutely dull and the plot goes nowhere. The key point should have been a 10 minute short film; at nearly two and a half hours, it is terribly paced. Avoid.
Despite some misgivings about Leonardo Dicaprio’s accent, Blood Diamond is a surprisingly good movie. It’s the story of a man caught in the illicit diamond trade in Africa, and those who will do anything to exploit him to gain a precious gem. A very honest, and at times brutal, reflection on the insanity and greed of man. More great performances throughout make this well worth seeing.
I like Michel Gondry. His music videos are great, some of his movies have been genius but, sadly, The Science of Sleep is not. It includes his usual mix of oddball characters and usual visuals, which is just fine; we’re happy with visually interesting cinema. What does not work is when you have a lead character who wants to be a playful childish twenty something, but actually comes across as a creepy stalker type. Breaking and entering is not a sign of mental stability, folks. Building out from this guy, there’s nowhere you can really go. A sad mistake.
Since everyone has no doubt seen Hot Fuzz I’ll make this brief. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Edgar Wright, ITV drama piss-takes, buddy cop films, and some fairly dark humour all brought together. Genius. Go see.
Finally, The Number 23 has Jim Carrey in serious mode. After he begins reading a novel he receives as a gift, he begins drawing parallels between his life and the main character, and the constant reappearance of the number 23 in both their lives. The first two acts deal with these coincidences while the final act takes a fairly take it or leave it twist. Not awful, but this film does take a few poor alleys of exploration.
Despite the near non-review, the winner this week is Hot Fuzz, though both Blood Diamond and The Last Kind of Scotland would have the weight to win in other weaker months.
P.S. March will appear when I can remember what I saw last month. I didn’t take notes which is making it trickier.
If you’re wondering why I’ve been so quiet here (and on my twitter) it’s because I’ve been quite busy elsewhere. I won’t bore you with the details, but I will say that the silence will continue for a short while as I will be moving house at the end of the week. As always with these things, it will take a few weeks to get a phone line and internet access sorted.