http://ergh.org/blog/index.php http://ergh.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080821-035946
The acting was fantastic. Performances were, for the characters in both movies so far, spot on. They knew their characters and their roles, so they didn't have issues with appearing to be off in any way. (With the exception of Rachel Dawes, but of course... was played by a different actress.) The new characters in The Dark Knight were excellent. Heath Ledger really did turn in one of the most phenomenal performances we'll see in a long time... completely unexpected and worth watching the movie for.

What I could forgive...

Was that the visuals between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight were too different. It wasn't as wet and dark as it seemed before. The city didn't even look the same, it didn't resemble the first movie at all. Given the size of the budget, you'd think they'd at least try for something beyond the minimal CGIing of Chicago that they went for. That's a minor point compared to what led me to absolutely hate the rest of the movie.

What I hated is that every scene, every moment in the movie hung by one really thin thread: Perfect timing.

I could even forgive all of the glaring lapses of logic, jumps in the story and major, major, major plotholes... That comes to be something you get used to with dumb hollywood popcorn blockbuster flicks.

I can even accept that one event is an extremely unlikely coincidence, a chance of fate that sets everything else in motion. A person in the right, or wrong, place at the right... or wrong... time.

But The Dark Knight depends on perfect timing for its entire length.

Every scene. Every event that leads to another is absolutely, to exact seconds, perfect timing in execution. This went beyond suspension of belief to "Oh, come on, you've got to be fucking kidding me!" territory.



Exact timing from the moment Batman sets the stickybomb timers on the skyscraper, to how long the fight inside the penthouse lasted, to how long it took for security to get inside, to how long it took to inflate the weather balloon to how long before the plane arrived to take Batman and Lau away. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment Joker decides to crash Bruce's fundraiser for Dent, to how long it took for Bruce to escape and change into Batman, to how long it took before Rachel got herself in deep with Joker, to how long before Batman could arrive to save her, to how long it took for Joker to escape from that penthouse after Batman dives down to save a falling Rachel, to how long it takes for Batman and Rachel to land on a car, to how long before the Joker is fleeing in a van. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment that Batman takes a sample of a bullet from a crime scene, to how long it takes for him to analyze it, to how long it takes to reconstruct the bullet to get a fingerprint, to how long it takes for him to get to the address located right at the end of the funeral procession, to how long it takes for him to get up the stairs, to how long he talks to the captives, to how long before the timer goes off and snaps up the windows shades... happening at the exact moment that Bruce happens to look in the binoculars while the replaced Honour Guard start firing at the Mayor. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment where Harvey Dent claims he's the Batman to the chase scene to when Joker gets captured... and then from when Joker is being interrogated. How long it takes for Gordon to show up and talk to the Joker, to how long Batman ends up beating the crap out of Joker, to how long it takes for Batman to get to the warehouse where Dent is to how long it takes for him to get inside, drag Dent out and get him outside of the building as it explodes. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment where the sleezy lawyer goes on TV to say he wants to out Batman, to how long the Joker spends at a warehouse with all the cash, to how long it takes for all the thugs to arrive, to how long it takes for Bruce Wayne to find the lawyer being escorted to safety, to how long it takes to evacuate all the hospitals, to how long it takes for the Joker to talk to Dent and convert him to Two Face, to how long it takes for Joker to walk out of the place, to how long it takes for the last of the buses to leave, WHILE THE HOSPITAL IS BLOWING UP BEHIND THEM, just waiting long enough to allow Joker to climb on board. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment where people are fleeing Gotham City, to how long it takes before both ferries find detonators on the ship itself, to how long before Joker announces to each ship his Prisoner's Dilemma scenario, to how long it takes for Batman to rush a building and clear the hostages/thugs, to how long it takes for Batman to find Joker, to how long it takes for people to decide what to do, to how long it takes for the fight between Batman and Joker to reach its conclusion. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

Exact timing from the moment it takes for Gordon's family to show up where Rachel dies, to how long it takes for Gordon himself to show up (just as soon as Batman finishes fighting with Joker), to how long their moment plays on, to how long Batman and Gordon discuss what to do about Dent's reputation, to how long before other cops start showing up and chasing after Batman trying to escape. Right down to the seconds perfect timing.

One unlikely coincidence to set things in motion is one thing, but using perfect timing as the only link between events setting off another... and using that link throughout the entire movie... was just way too much for me to accept. Even though I was watching a fictional movie about fictional people in a fictional city.

I may have good timing when it comes to calling people I know over the phone, given my luck with almost always catching them on the shitcan when I happen to call... In a 2 1/2 hour movie, however, it was simply too much for me to swallow.

And that's why I hated The Dark Knight.

Decent enough dialogue (I found Batman Begins to be more sharp and effective in its use of dialogue though), great acting, good use of locations... ultimately forgotten due to my annoyance with the movie trying to make a 'realistic' Batman story so completely, unforgivably implausible because no matter what happens... the plan always happened as it should because everyone just had such perfect timing without knowing what trap or situation they were getting themselves into.

I know the character of The Joker was supposed to be that brilliant in how he managed to pull his plan off... but nobody is THAT lucky. Not even myself, when I WANT to annoy someone I call by hoping I happen to be calling them while they're on the crapper.]]> http://ergh.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080820-031721
Last night I was at a bar that was doing a promotion with Absolut. "Global Cooling."

They had some hand pedal cranks hooked up to batteries that you could recharge. Doing so got you a neat little trinket and a free drink. They also had a stationary bike hooked up to a motor that was then hooked up to a battery system to power a $20,000 display... essentially a plexiglass tower with shelves of plexiglass... designed to illuminate the bottles on shelves within.

Or at least that's my best guess. It didn't work. So the stationary bike and hand pedals were there for nothing. Even if you sat on the bike and pedaled for a while, achieving nothing... they gave you a drink coupon anyway.

The trinket? A hand-crank flashlight.




I thought it was neat enough. Because the tower display didn't work, they turned a few of these on and stuck them around the tower. For hand cranked flashlights they sure lasted for a while. "Batteries?" I asked... "Nope!" they said. Suuuree. Well. Maybe it had something like a capacitor inside. Or a mini rechargeable battery. Either way, I got a second one with the express intent to tear it apart.

The hand crank was spring loaded, so I had some trouble getting it back together again. I didn't notice anything unusual. Just a big bulky, but lightweight, bulb area. Crank. Magnet. Motor. Wires...

Of which I ended up breaking, by accident... I swear. But the damage was done, so I decided to tear apart the bulb area.

And guess what I found...






Batteries.

Not just any kind of batteries. Alkaline watch batteries. 3 of them, in parallel, hidden inside the big bulky bulb area.

Non rechargeable batteries.

As much as they spent on a promotion on broken equipment, I had hoped that even a little giveaway would have a purpose... to teach people to not use disposable items, even if it meant having a phallic like motion to your flashlight just to give yourself some light.




After all, less batteries in the trash, the better. You're using renewable energy! It's better for the environment!

But all I could do with the one I took apart was throw it away...]]> http://ergh.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080812-205533
Still doesn't get any easier.



More here: http://ergh.org/photos/index.php?TopicID=VinniePics]]> http://ergh.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080606-173855
]]> http://ergh.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080421-235659
Download it here: http://ergh.org/ah/ah8.php

--

Previous updates:

The tracklisting for Anti House 8 can now safely be considered final.



Polishing, tweaking, fiddling, mastering and uploading to be completed next. Hopefully everything with be finished by March 14th May?

Tracklisting is below...



Tracklisting:

1. Recoil: Electro Blues for Bukka White (Outro)
2. Depeche Mode: I Want It All
3. The Orb: Hamlet of Kinds
4. The Black Dog: 4 3s 777 (Original Mix)
5. Underworld: Best Mamgu Ever
6. AquaRhythms: Stellar Jazz
7. Fluke: Spacey (Catch 22 Dub)
8. Download: Attalal (Remix)
9. Lovely/Patterson: Wild Little Sisters (Moby and Oscar the Punk Remix)
10. Fenomenon: Solara
11. Banco De Gaia: Mafich Arabi
12. Mental Generation: Cafe Del Mar (Underworld Mix)
13. Cirrus: No Pressure
14. John Came: Hapsburg Chin
15. The Thrillseekers: Outland
16. Recoil: Incubus

Anti House 8 has been a long, frustrating and laborious project... and I'm glad to see it nearing completion after approximately a year and a half of restarts.

I'm not glad only because I can now finally put this volume behind me... but because I can put a volume behind me that I will be content with. In the past, I felt I've made too many compromises with some of my volumes and make (probably too much) effort not to have those "settled-for compromises" on future releases.

One of the previously abandoned attempts didn't fit the theme I was going for with #8 and a large block of tracks ended up becoming a part of #9, which I completed last year.

Way Out West: Apollo
The Back Dog: Riphead v2
Ian Brown: FEAR (UNKLE Remix Instrumental)
Orbital: Much Ado About Nothing Left
Deepsky: View from a Stairway
Plaid: New Family
Moby: Spirit
Fluke: Goodnight Lover

Were the tracks that survived. None of the other tracks attempted for this session made it into AH9 or the now finished version of AH8.

In 3 or 4 other near-finished tracklistings, the tracks attempted were either completely abandoned, re-purposed for a future mix or used above. From beginning to end of the process of this volume, only 2 tracks remained out of all of these attempts in the final version of Anti House 8. Funny how that is.

Some the ideas stumbled upon, however, were promising... You may see them in Anti House Ten.]]> http://ergh.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080202-231111
Bored out of my mind, I figured "eh, why not?" and set off to try to make my own. It would be the first time I'd ever try to do so.

Then I quickly found out why they quit. The snow wasn't "wet" enough and none of it was packing very well.

About an hour later, I had a pretty sad looking snowman just barely 2 1/2 or 3 feet tall.



Only method that worked: Shovel as much snow as you can scoop up each time and slam it into a pile, then carve your snowman out of that pile instead of packing snow to make each of the three segments.

A bit of a cheat. Oh well.]]> http://ergh.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080130-230908


...will know what this means.]]> http://ergh.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry080102-044015
Don't have much else to say, so here's a picture of a flying cow... or dog... or dog looking cow.

]]> http://ergh.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry071227-114050
Still cool, though.



Funny thing is, the last line was actually a little stab at the often insanely stupid "end of summary questions" that proliferate Slashdot's articles... and it was left completely intact. So much for a subtle attempt at parody.]]> http://ergh.org/blog/index.php?entry=entry071016-193353
"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man" -Thomas Jefferson

"The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." -Abraham Lincoln

"Religions are all alike -- founded upon fables and mythologies" -Thomas Jefferson

"Twenty times in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the point of breaking out, 'This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!'" -John Adams

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries." -James Madison

"Strongly guarded . . . is the separation between religion and government in the Constitution of the United States," -James Madison

"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between Church and State." -Thomas Jefferson

"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." -James Madison

"Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history." -James Madison

"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved -- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" -John Adams

"And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together." -James Madison

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." -James Madison

"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion... has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble." -Benjamin Franklin

"The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ leveled to every understanding and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from its indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that nonsense can never be explained." -Thomas Jefferson

"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not." -James Madison

"No man on Earth has less taste or talent for criticism than myself, and the least and last of all should I undertake to criticize works on the Apocalypse (Revelations). It was between fifty and sixty years since I read it and then I considered it as merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy, nor capable of explanation than the incoherence of our own nightly dreams." -Thomas Jefferson

"The Christian god can be easily pictured as virtually the same as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of the people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites." -Thomas Jefferson

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies." -Thomas Jefferson

"That Religion, or the Duty which we owe to our Creator, and the Manner of discharging it, can be directed only by Reason and Conviction, not by Force or Violence, and therefore all Men have an equal natural and unalienable Right to the free Exercise of Religion, according to the Dictates of Conscience, and that no particular religious Sect or Society ought to be favored or established by Law, in Preference to others." -George Mason]]>