James Cameron’s new film, “Avatar,” opens tomorrow. The production budget was estimated to top $230 million. The New York Times gave it a big thumbs up.
Mr. Cameron lays out the fundamentals of the narrative efficiently, grabbing you at once with one eye-popping detail after another and on occasion almost losing you with some of the comically broad dialogue.
He’s a masterly storyteller…Mr. Cameron has said that he started thinking about the alien universe that became Pandora and its galactic environs in “Avatar” back in the 1970s. He wrote a treatment in 1996, but the technologies he needed to turn his ideas into images didn’t exist until recently.
Few films return us to the lost world of our first cinematic experiences, to that magical moment when movies really were bigger than life (instead of iPhone size), if only because we were children. Movies rarely carry us away, few even try. They entertain and instruct and sometimes enlighten. Some attempt to overwhelm us, but their efforts are usually a matter of volume. What’s often missing is awe, something Mr. Cameron has, after an absence from Hollywood, returned to the screen with a vengeance. He hasn’t changed cinema, but with blue people and pink blooms he has confirmed its wonder.
“All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.”
“Is this bill all that I would want? Far from it. Is it all that it can be? No. But when history calls, history calls. And I happen to think that the consequences of inaction dictate the urgency of Congress to take every opportunity to demonstrate its capacity to solve the monumental issues of our time.”
Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, on her Finance Committee vote supporting the health care bill
Just read this post on Seth Godin’s blog and thought it was worth putting here in its entirety:
The Washington Post recently laid off a columnist because his blog posts didn’t get enough web traffic.
Of course, in the old days, the newspaper had no real way to tell which columns got read and which ones didn’t. So journalists were lulled into the sense that it didn’t really matter. The Times quotes Jay Rosen, a journalism professor at NYU, “It’s an unusual public rationale for serious newspaper people, that’s for sure.”
Wrong tense. It’s not going to be unusual for long.
In fact, in a digital world where everything can be measured, we all work on commission. And why not? If you do great work and it works, you should get rewarded. And if you don’t, it’s hard to see why a rational organization would keep you on.
You don’t have to like the coming era of hyper-measurement, but that doesn’t mean it’s not here.
President Obama and his family plan to visit Yellowstone National Park on Saturday and the Grand Canyon on Sunday. We hope this visit will inaugurate a new commitment to conserving the national park system and to the science on which sound conservation is based. We also hope that the visit will impress on the president the serious fiscal issues threatening the parks.
Since the first national park — Yellowstone — was created in 1872, the idea has spread around the world, including to Afghanistan, which opened its first national park in June. But this is not an idea that sustains itself easily anywhere. It requires conviction and leadership and, overseas, the continued, inspiring example of America’s national park system.
“Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they only unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows us what we’ve become.”
My last post below was May 11. It’s been a month of non-stop work and prepping for the big day. Didn’t even know the Lakers were playing in the NBA Finals until someone mentioned it last week at Pavillions at 9:30pm…after Game 3.
In Tokyo now; we arrived last night. We took ANA’s premium economy class for the first time; it was basically as roomy as business class with the same food. You can even order snacks in-between meals like udon, ramen and tonkatsu sandwiches. Highly recommended. A celebrity sat behind Harumi: the popular enka singer, Jero (ジェロ). It’s nice to see everyone here again.
Looking forward to seeing Mom, Pop, Carol, Michael, Sue and Deano here next week…and going to Bora Bora the following week!
Biggest news story today was clearly Manny Ramirez’ 50-game suspension for using banned substances. I first heard about it afternoon on an elevator video screen in Century City. As expected, opinions varied, based on articles I read this evening:
“I want to apologize to Mr. McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, Mr. Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. LA is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I’m sorry about this whole situation.” — Manny Ramirez
“Who hasn’t done something we wish we hadn’t done?” asked Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti. “Had he dismissed it or acted like it was somebody else’s fault, I’d have a hard time with it. He took ownership of what transpired. That speaks to the man. Admit your mistake in a public forum, that’s not easy to do.” — Ned Colleti, Dodgers GM
“You see that there’s no favorites being played. That shows you that baseball is serious about what they’re saying and doing. I’m happy that we’re heading in the right direction.” — San Diego Padres pitching ace Jake Peavy
“Hey Giant-fan! Why are you even on this chat board? Or are you here just to show us how to deal with PED using team members from all the experience you have.” — Fan comment, Dodgers.MLB.com article
“Now take some of that 8 million you just saved and spend it on a bullpen that can hold a 6 run lead.” — Another fan (Dodgers blew a 6-0 lead tonight, losing 11 – 9)
“We’ve had a chance to learn from him and it brought us confidence to be where we are right now. It’d be tough to say we won’t miss him in the lineup, but I feel we’ll find a way to get the job done.” — Andre Ethier, Dodger outfielder
“I’m turned off by players that try and test the system. It doesn’t make any sense.” — Larry Bowa, Dodgers 3rd base coach
“I must admit, when I first heard the news that Ramírez had tested positive for use of a banned substance, I honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I was filled with a lot of I-told-ya’-so anger directed at the people in Los Angeles, most notably the fawning media that had bought into the whole Manny act and that had apparently decided that we Big Meanies in Boston had made it all up.” — Bob Ryan, Boston Globe sports columnist
There’s a good chance we already know how this whole thing is going to end, probably a Sunday game against the Giants in late September, 50,000 people on their feet screaming, ‘Manny, Manny.’” — T.J. Simers, L.A. Times sports columnist
Interesting article on President Obama managing the many people and organizations with a stake in GM and Chrysler. Excerpt below:
For a new president, the automobile industry crisis has tested the boundaries of his activist approach and the acuity of his political instincts. As with so many issues in his action-packed 100 days in office, Mr. Obama confronted choices few of his predecessors encountered. His ongoing intervention in an iconic sector of the economy offers a case study in the education, management and decision-making of a fledgling president.
Tutored by veterans of past administrations, Mr. Obama, often after dinner with his wife and daughters, devoured briefing papers until midnight to master the intricacies of the auto industry. But he had advisers deal directly with the car companies and never spoke with the G.M. chief executive he effectively fired.
Methodical and dispassionate, Mr. Obama aggravated powerful players in Congress and the unions that helped elect him, then moved to assuage them. He encouraged internal debate but was forced to head off tensions as his treasury secretary and White House economic adviser maneuvered for position. In the end, he struggled with the proper balance between government power and market forces, a theme that has defined his first months in office.
Last night got an e-fax from my dad’s cousin in Hiroshima, Yoshinori Sawa, with our family crest, or kamon (家紋). After asking some relatives on the Osa side, he managed to track it down. It looks cool…will have to learn more about its meaning when we’re back in Japan. Thank you Yoshinori!
“I don’t think that Tim Geithner was motivated by anything other than concern to get the financial system working again. But I think that mindsets can be shaped by people you associate with, and you come to think that what’s good for Wall Street is good for America . . . [This] led to a bailout that was designed to try to get a lot of money to Wall Street, to share the largesse with other market participants, but that had deeply obvious flaws in that it put at risk the American taxpayer unnecessarily.”
It’s Sunday morning and we’ll be heading to the airport in a couple hours. Thanks to Harumi, we ate really well this week, probably too well … veggies next week.
Our first meal…tonkatsu (とんかつ), fried shrimp (えび フライ) and potato croquette (コロッケ) lunch at Wako, between Yurakucho station and the Imperial Hotel.
ハンバーグ (hamgaagu, or Japanese-style hamburger) at Tsubame Grill (つばめ グリル), near Tokyo station. Really good…the hamburger was so tender. If you like Hawaii loco moco, you’ll like this.
President Obama will soon get his new, high-security Blackberry, according to the Washington Times:
The top-secret BlackBerry 8830 is in the final stages of development by the National Security Agency, which will soon begin checking to make sure its encryption software meets federal standards. The device could be ready for use in the next few months.
Once in hand, the president will be able to send text and e-mail and make phone calls to others with the secure software loaded on their devices. Others expected to get secure BlackBerrys include top aides as well as first lady Michelle Obama.
The software being used is called SecureVoice, developed by The Genesis Key Inc. of Washington. It can turn any BlackBerry 8830 or Curve into a device that is designed to defeat hackers, eavesdroppers and spies.
“With the recent foreign cybersecurity threats, it is important that the president has a BlackBerry that is completely secure at the top-secret level,” said Gary S. Elliott, Genesis’ chief information assurance officer, who is a specialist in cyberwarfare threats.
We arrived in Tokyo Sunday evening and it’s already Friday morning. The days have been packed with planning and running errands … and every evening we’ve had dinner with friends, former colleagues or Harumi’s folks. We got many things done which is great.
Of course food is one of the important reasons to visit Japan, so I’ll post a few pictures later today when I have more time. Harumi took the shot above near Jindaiji temple in Chofu, about 10 miles west of Shinjuku (yes I had a ソフト クリーム）.
It’s been exactly one year this month since our family vacation to Japan. Today Harumi and I will be going there for one week. But I think we’re equally excited about eating some great food, like curry at Sangosho in Kamakura and Kaotan Ramen in Nishi Azabu, two of Harumi’s favorite restaurants. Will try to post here during our stay there. It’s 7am now and back to some work I need to finish before we take off.
One month ago today I posted about mom’s iMac and getting her started using the Internet and email. Looks like she’s taken to it like a duck to water, as mom’s been reading the Japan online news sites every day, sending email in both Japanese and English and even called cousin John to help her replace the Mac Mail icon on her desktop (that she deleted again) because she couldn’t wait for me to fix it! (thanks Carol for the tip)
Mom told me on Wednesday with a happy face that it’s all おもしろい (omoshiroi, or interesting), and she told uncle to try it.
Now if we can find some bowling web sites we may be able to get pop online.
Back in February I had bookmarked this amazing tribute to Abraham Lincoln by designer Maira Kalman called “In Love with A. Lincoln” and meant to post it here.
The first two reader comments said it all:
Wow.
what a lovely tribute, maira. thank you so much for this long treat of beautiful pictures and words…
A colleague just showed me this cool Honda commercial. If you can spare two minutes it’s definitely worth a look. After seeing it you’ll understand why it took 606 takes and $6 million to get right. I was told no computer graphics animation was used.
Toyota Motor Corp. is expected to announce as early as Friday in Japan a major overhaul of its U.S. operations, bringing engineering, manufacturing and sales under a single executive to revamp the ailing business.
People familiar with the matter said Yoshi Inaba, a former senior executive who left the auto maker in 2007, has been formally asked by Toyota this week to oversee most of the key aspects of the U.S. business.
With the appointment, Toyota is expected to bring Mr. Inaba back to the company’s board, the people said. It is highly unusual for Toyota to bring back an executive who left the company.
As part of the reorganization, Toyota is expected to have its New York unit, Toyota Motor North America Inc., function as the company’s full-fledged U.S. headquarters that brings engineering, manufacturing and sales under one umbrella, the people said. Previously, the unit’s main function was investor relations and government affairs. Mr. Inaba, a fluent English speaker, is expected to be named president of Toyota Motor North America and live in New York.
The Yen/Dollar exchange rate has gone from 90 to 100 since the beginning of the year, which is helpful because we’ll be visiting Tokyo in less than two weeks. From the Wall Street Journal:
Japan’s economy is mired in recession. The Bank of Japan’s tankan survey of corporate sentiment recently showed that the country’s big manufacturers are more pessimistic than ever. Exports fell 50% in February from a year earlier.
So the steady erosion of the yen against the dollar — it is down about 10% since the start of the year — could continue for some time. Goldman Sachs suggests that a fair value for the yen is around 114 to the dollar.
Surely, few in Japan are upset by this. Over the course of a year, Toyota Motor says, a one-point rise in the yen against the dollar eats up $400 million of its operating profit.
Meanwhile Bloomberg just reported that the Japanese government may announce a new 15.4 trillion yen ($154 billion) stimulus package to help revive the economy.
Toyota’s 2010 Prius debuts next month. Based on a few reviews I read, the 3rd generation Prius is a higher-performance car (0 to 60 mph in 9.8 seconds) but is still rated at 50 miles a gallon.
How much will this markedly improved package cost?
That is another good question that has more than one answer. Prices have not been announced, and the most basic version, to be called Prius I, will not be available until later this year. It is likely to be priced comparably to the base 2009 model, which was $22,600. (Toyota said last week that it was planning a hybrid version of its Yaris subcompact that would compete more directly with the less expensive Honda Insight.)
The mainstream version that goes on sale in May will be the Prius II, in the mid-$20,000 range. From there, there will be Priuses III, IV and V, with additional luxury features and higher prices.
But wait, as the infomercials say, there’s more. Stand-alone options like a navigation system, solar-cell roof ventilation, pre-collision automatic braking, radar cruise control, lane-minders and automated parallel parking are all in the works. Fully loaded, the Prius will easily top $30,000.
At the end of last year I bought an HP Elitebook 6930p notebook with Windows XP and Office 2007, to use as my main computer for work. I love my 15″ MacBookPro, but the Mac version of Office seriously suffers in usability, which I am now totally convinced of after using the much better PC version of Office for 3+ months now. I still use my Mac for my home computing, digital photos, etc.
With Windows 7 rumored to be released later this year, this article caught my eye: Keep reading →
“The perennial procurement and contracting cycle, going back many decades, of adding layer and layer of cost and complexity onto fewer and fewer platforms that take longer and longer to build, must come to an end. There is broad agreement on the need for acquisition and contracting reform in the Department of Defense. There have been enough studies, enough hand-wringing, enough rhetoric. Now is the time for action.”
It’s difficult to argue with the points below if the goal is better education for children.
My point, as I made clear in the column, is that it’s a shame that when we do lay off teachers, ability has nothing to do with it. The only consideration is seniority. Every school has teachers who stand above the rest. Some of them veterans, some of them not.
Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Ray Cortines told me Tuesday that in the best scenario, a school has a good mix of senior, middle-experience and newer teachers, all of them feeding off of and learning from each other.
But the last-hired, first-fired system is no way to attract bright minds to the profession. Why would you want a job where you knew that the minute hard times came along, you’d be automatically bumped while less competent teachers would keep their jobs? And judging by my e-mail, a lot of teachers agree. In fact, some of them sound ready to rise up against their union bosses.
It’s true there is no easy way to evaluate teachers. But that’s because of the sorry politics of the matter, in which teacher unions are at war with school districts, politicians are paid too well to challenge the teacher lobby or fix an absurdly byzantine school funding system, and the children pay the price for the inability of the adults to work it out.
Principals, teachers and administrators need to grow up and work together to bounce the bad apples, polish the good ones and create bonus incentives for the best, and I’m tired of hearing everyone whine about how it can’t be done or won’t be done, or that no model exists.
Some cautiously optimistic news that we may be past the worst of the economic downturn:
April 1 (Bloomberg) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said there are “encouraging signs” that financial markets are recovering and expressed confidence in the response of global policy makers to the crisis.
“You’re seeing encouraging signs of improvement in our markets — we want to reinforce that,” Geithner said today in a Bloomberg Television interview in London. “I’ve never seen this much support around the world.”
Geithner’s remarks reflect the view of some analysts that the worst of the economic downturn may be past, even as some banks are likely to fail and unemployment is set to worsen. The Treasury chief said the main danger is that banks and investors take too little risk and refrain from betting on a recovery.
Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer and founder of Amazon, is a proponent of a Japanese philosophy called kaizen — which loosely translated means continuous improvement. As part of this belief, he has been working alongside folks at his company’s distribution centers in Lexington, Ky., perhaps to find out what else can he do to make Amazon better. This news was widely covered in blogs.
What caught my eye was the comments in response to Saul Hansell’s piece in The New York Times blog. Some of them pointed out the difference between Bezos and Bailout CEOs, who are good at offering excuses. Or others, like Auto Industry executives, who are often compared to lazy, brainless lumps.
As someone points out, the bailout money is going to companies that are big, not necessarily the best. The best companies wouldn’t need to be bailed out because they would be good at what they do.
Part of running a good company is knowing how each little part works and recognizing the importance of every person who contributes to the effort. Bezos clearly gets that. The bailout CEOs don’t.
“And so today, I am announcing that my administration will offer G.M. and Chrysler a limited period of time to work with creditors, unions and other stakeholders to fundamentally restructure in a way that would justify an investment of additional tax dollars; a period during which they must produce plans that would give the American people confidence in their long-term prospects for success.”
