No Impact Man

The Times has an article about a guy attempting to have "no impact" on the environment for a year:
The Year Without Toilet Paper
I wrote my comments on his blog:

I have to say that this makes me angry-- self-congratulatory sustainable living in a city is much like bailing water from the titanic. I wish I could see it as a baby step towards better living, but I'm afraid things have to get much worse before they get any better. It seems like a great experiment while you can afford it, but what happens if you both lose your jobs and have to declare bankruptcy? Do you continue your experiment when you are struggling to put food on the table, or do you throw all your high and mighty ideas out the window? I'm sorry but I can't help thinking that people like you can live any way they please. Good luck in your exclusive club, New York Times articles written about you, guests marveling at how brave you are in taking this on, writing about your experience so that the other 1% can support you and think for a second about their impact on the world before they reach for another canape and change the subject.

And more comments on another blog:

It is clear to me after reading Mr. Beavan's reaction to the Times article (his "If I could change that bit..." PR move) that he is doing this to make money off the resurgence of the green movement and to sell his book and documentary. How quaint for two upper class, young professionals and their small daughter to experiment with no impact living, while not giving up their New York penthouse and privileged jobs. In the past year I have done my part to reduce my carbon emissions-- I live 15 minutes from work and ride my bike there everyday, buy from a CSA during the spring and summer months, and practice the three R's-- Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. But I am not writing a book about myself or stand to gain economically from my living. I think Mr. Beavan's extremism and time limit on his "no impact" lifestyle is detrimental to the whole idea behind leaving no footprints. What is he going to do when the year is up? Return to his old ways? Lighten up a little? His reaction-- drastic changes to a problem that has been ongoing for longer than he has been alive (increase of greenhouse gasses)-- is overdone. Instead of swearing off toilet paper and trash for a year, he should consider the small changes he could do now-- or even the drastic change of moving to the country and starting a small farm... but then he wouldn't have a book deal, would he?

Yes, they are angry and negative, but that's how I feel when upper class people with better lives and more choices than me preach about how I can sacrifice my life to make things better for their world.

Synecdoche, New York

Synecdoche, New York

I'm searching for the script for Charlie Kaufman's upcoming Synecdoche, New York, about a theatre director who may be dying or may be going crazy, or both, who, among other things, is building a life-sized replica of New York in a warehouse for his latest play. I'm sure the description is much like saying Being John Malkovich is about John Malkovich playing a life-sized puppet of himself, because there are many other elements, like stories within stories and time jumps. Check the links below for all the info.

Reviewed on Ain't It Cool News
IMDB listing
BeingCharlieKaufman.com blog
CHUD.com post (stands for Cinematic Happenings Under Development, watch out for pop-ups).
Synecdoche Wikipedia entry
Jay Hernandez's Los Angeles Times review of the screenplay
BeingCharlieKaufman.com main page

From what I can tell, it has the key elements of a Kaufman film-- self-referential scenes, a lonely guy who can't quite connect with women, obsessive hobbies--

January 12, 2012

The longest heat wave in history will continue for at least another week along the East Coast as temperatures threaten to push into one hundred degrees by Thursday. Yes, you heard it right, by the end of the week we should hit triple digits. But don't let that fool you, because we do have a cold front that may get us down into the low 60s sometime next week. It's been a record-breaking winter, or should I say Indian Summer? And if you think we have it bad, let's look at the temps around the rest of the country.

Flooding in Florida and the Mississippi delta continues to displace thousands who were not able to move in time, and California has been experiencing--well, it's been 2 years now and we still can't call them hurricanes--but that's just what they are--tropical storms resembling hurricanes causing massive devastation.

emotional society

the idea is to keep us highly emotional so that we can spend our money on things that we don't need. so you have movies and television shows mixed in with commercials and sensationalized news stories. you have polarized positive and negative feelings projected onto screens and at your face using electron guns, reflected dots, or energy discharge. on top of it all we are bombarded daily by radio waves and electromagnetic fields, which affect us in ways that we are not entirely aware. if you did not buy emotionally, you would only buy what you needed, not what you wanted. it might be a boring life but at least you would have enough money to retire comfortably.

alternate reality games

read about the wonderful world of alternate reality games. i guess this is what people do to regain control in a world where they feel, consciously or not, that they do not have any control. or they do it to pass the time as they've already satisfied their needs for food and shelter.

The Class

I just want to be the first to say it-- The Class will be the Friends of the 00s.

Do your own research:

• popsugar says no.


• the cbs site. With Crane and Burrows on board (both of Friends), it's hard to see how it can't be. this may be the breakout show that puts jason (ritter) on par with his late father.


• review on sfist.


• doubtful review on tvfodder.


• variety.

Watching

I am an audience.

refuse

Digital Technology will soon litter the streets like paper.