Film #80: Skaterdater

Skaterdater is, to my knowledge, the first skateboarding movie ever, and still the best I've seen (Gleaming the Cube and Dogtown and Z-Boys are pretty good, though). Look at how deftly director Noel Black catches the innocent, all-barefoot hot-dogging of this Cali street gang (his steady cameraman Michael Murphy deserves props, too). And that this is a love story, ultimately, captures my

Film #80: Skaterdater

Skaterdater is, to my knowledge, the first skateboarding movie ever, and still the best I've seen (Gleaming the Cube and Dogtown and Z-Boys are pretty good, though). Look at how deftly director Noel Black catches the innocent, all-barefoot hot-dogging of this Cali street gang (his steady cameraman Michael Murphy deserves props, too). And that this is a love story, ultimately, captures my

KFOG Broadcast: September 24th, 2008

SIDE ORDERS #6

We start off with this edition of SIDE ORDERS with a fascinating, mysterious, graphically boisterous trailer for one of the world's perfect drive-in movies: Monte Hellman's 1971 masterpiece Two-Lane Blacktop. Despite his steady inprovement (there's not a movie I'm looking forward to more than his Lincoln bio-pic in 2009), Steven Spielberg has never helmed a better scene than this transportative

SIDE ORDERS #6

We start off with this edition of SIDE ORDERS with a fascinating, mysterious, graphically boisterous trailer for one of the world's perfect drive-in movies: Monte Hellman's 1971 masterpiece Two-Lane Blacktop. Despite his steady inprovement (there's not a movie I'm looking forward to more than his Lincoln bio-pic in 2009), Steven Spielberg has never helmed a better scene than this transportative

Film #79: Power of Ten

First off, lemme show you some chairs. See if you can recall your ass resting in one of these...Now you see two people. They are husband-and-wife artisans Charles and Ray Eames. First off, may I opine that this must be the coolest couple of all time. They seem so happy working and playing together. Here's another photo:Now, I could pretend I know everything about the design of this

Film #79: Power of Ten

First off, lemme show you some chairs. See if you can recall your ass resting in one of these...Now you see two people. They are husband-and-wife artisans Charles and Ray Eames. First off, may I opine that this must be the coolest couple of all time. They seem so happy working and playing together. Here's another photo:Now, I could pretend I know everything about the design of this

California Academy of Sciences and Morrison Planetarium

The California Academy of Sciences reopens in a beautiful new building on Saturday September 27th. This long-awaited opening will be a major event for San Francisco. The new building is an architectural achievement and a model of sustainability. I am particularly enthusiastic about the new Morrison Planetarium, one of the signature pieces of the CAS. I was able to preview it today in a press-only tour and I was very impressed.

There are several elements of a planetarium that make it distinctive. The newest planetariums (such as Morrison Planetarium here in San Francisco and Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles) feature state-of-the art projection systems that blend traditional star projections with high-resolution digital images, enabling a richer and more engaging presentation of astronomy. Morrison also features a tilted dome rather than an overhead dome, so you can fully experience the immersion of the screen without having to tilt your head back in your chair. The dome is tipped at approximately 30 degrees so you are viewing the show more like a movie theater than planetarium. The narration and sound are very good and the total effect is to truly transport you out of the day-to-day and take you untethered into space. It works!

The highlight of my visit today was the show in the Morrison Planetarium theater. The inaugural show is called Fragile Planet and it provides, through a series of stunning images - the Earth, the Solar System, nearby stars with planets, the Milky Way and other galaxies - a snapshot of the extremely delicate balance of conditions necessary to create life as we know it. What I found most interesting was the notion of the "habitable zone" that exists at just the right distance from the Sun (or around any star for that matter), the space in which planets can experience the temperature conditions as we do on Earth, conditions which support liquid water. During Fragile Planet you are transported to Gliese 581 d, an extrasolar planet orbiting a star in Libra. Gliese 581 d is a planet that due to its location near and in the habitable zone of its star, might support life.

Wired Magazine has a good video clip on the new planetarium featuring Ryan Wyatt, Director of Morrison Planetarium and Science Visualization.

All in all, the California Academy of Sciences is a superb place to learn about a broad range of sciences, housed in a magnificent facility that will be a treasure for San Francisco for generations to come.

Display current playing song

In the world of IM, you may want to show songs you are listening to your friend. I'll teach you how to do so in two of the popular IM clients.

First Pidgin, which comes installed by default.

Go to Menu ->Accessories ->Terminal

In there type

sudo apt-get install pidgin-musictracker

After it gets installed, Open pidgin
Go to tools ->Plugins or press Ctrl+U

There you will see MusicTracker Plugin.
Enable it.



You can configure it by pressing Configure Plugin.
You will get options to customize your display.

The second IM client is AMSN.
I have already posted it http://techspalace.blogspot.com/2008/05/amsn-music-plugin.html

Film #78: Coogan's Bluff

1968's Coogan's Bluff, whether you've heard of it or not, is a deceptively historic movie. It brought Clint Eastwood out of the western milieu he'd been so well-known for through his TV series Rawhide and his Spaghetti Western cycle with Italian director Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad & The Ugly), and into the streets of U.S. cities like New York (

Film #78: Coogan's Bluff

1968's Coogan's Bluff, whether you've heard of it or not, is a deceptively historic movie. It brought Clint Eastwood out of the western milieu he'd been so well-known for through his TV series Rawhide and his Spaghetti Western cycle with Italian director Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good The Bad & The Ugly), and into the streets of U.S. cities like New York (

simple command to turn off monitor or display

xset dpms force off

Press Alt+F2 and type the above command. It will switch off your monitor. Its very handy for saving power :P.

Whatever the reason is I hope you will find this useful.

And one last thing, spread the words, save power.

Film #77: Catch-22

Joseph Heller's now-classic 1961 novel was rejected by publishers 15 times. It started out as Catch-14, then Catch-11, Catch-17, and finally, upon publication, Catch-22. In the novel, Yossarian is a nervous WWII pilot who's fed up with risking his life and, by feigning insanity, wants to get drummed out of the force. In Buck Henry's college-try adaptation of this impossible-to-film novel (or

Film #77: Catch-22

Joseph Heller's now-classic 1961 novel was rejected by publishers 15 times. It started out as Catch-14, then Catch-11, Catch-17, and finally, upon publication, Catch-22. In the novel, Yossarian is a nervous WWII pilot who's fed up with risking his life and, by feigning insanity, wants to get drummed out of the force. In Buck Henry's college-try adaptation of this impossible-to-film novel (or

Film #76: Doctor Zhivago

Julie Christie hit it big in 1965. She won a Best Actress Oscar for portraying a sexually adventurous fashion model in John Schlesinger's Darling, but it was her role in David Lean's pristine Doctor Zhivago that really propelled her to stardom that year. Omar Sharif plays the titular doctor/poet who endures wars, winters and his own marital problems in order to spend some quality time with his

Film #76: Doctor Zhivago

Julie Christie hit it big in 1965. She won a Best Actress Oscar for portraying a sexually adventurous fashion model in John Schlesinger's Darling, but it was her role in David Lean's pristine Doctor Zhivago that really propelled her to stardom that year. Omar Sharif plays the titular doctor/poet who endures wars, winters and his own marital problems in order to spend some quality time with his

The Six Double-Feature Challenge

Okay, as an answer to a "meme" challenge put forth by my fellow LAMBs at The Dancing Image (which started it all), Cinexellence, Lazy Eye Theater, and Out 1, here are six double features of films not available through Netflix (most of these aren't even available on DVD yet) that I either have not seen or saw so long ago that I need to see them again. DOUBLE FEATURE #1: SMART KIDS1984's Old

The Six Double-Feature Challenge

Okay, as an answer to a "meme" challenge put forth by my fellow LAMBs at The Dancing Image (which started it all), Cinexellence, Lazy Eye Theater, and Out 1, here are six double features of films not available through Netflix (most of these aren't even available on DVD yet) that I either have not seen or saw so long ago that I need to see them again. DOUBLE FEATURE #1: SMART KIDS1984's Old

Film #75: Thanksgiving

In 2002, when I was the Programming Director for North Georgia's Dahlonega International Film Festival (now the Rome International Film Festival), I had to watch hundreds of titles in the span of six months. This resulted in weeks upon weeks of movie-watching, most of it predictably disappointing. (Tip to all festival-bound filmmakers: Actually, with that many movies to watch, a programmer

Film #75: Thanksgiving

In 2002, when I was the Programming Director for North Georgia's Dahlonega International Film Festival (now the Rome International Film Festival), I had to watch hundreds of titles in the span of six months. This resulted in weeks upon weeks of movie-watching, most of it predictably disappointing. (Tip to all festival-bound filmmakers: Actually, with that many movies to watch, a programmer

Film #74: Repo Man

This is the very first major review I ever did, printed on page 9 of Georgia State University's Tuesday Magazine. Date: October 2nd, 1984, very nearly 25 years ago. As I am typing this in, I've made a promise to myself not to add or edit anything unless it's a egregious error. So here's how I wrote when I was one month away from being 18 years old:How many times have you said to yourself "Gee,

Film #74: Repo Man

This is the very first major review I ever did, printed on page 9 of Georgia State University's Tuesday Magazine. Date: October 2nd, 1984, very nearly 25 years ago. As I am typing this in, I've made a promise to myself not to add or edit anything unless it's a egregious error. So here's how I wrote when I was one month away from being 18 years old:How many times have you said to yourself "Gee,