This week on the Blu-ray release watch, many discs I would add to my collection.  I have never seen the series Rome, I will now.  The best film of the summer, Star Trek  is out.  That will be a great re-watch.  A few of Kevin Smith films are finally being released.  My favorite is Chasing Amy, which ranks at #87 on my all-time favorite 100 films.  Finally Fight Club  comes out on Blu-ray.  Fight Club  is in my all-time top 10. 

First rule, buy it on blu-ray...Second rule, buy it on blu-ray.....

Also LOST fans will be excited.  Henry Ian Cusik, who plays Desmond Hume, stars as Charles Darwin in Darwin’s Darkest Hour.

"I'm playing Charles Darwin, brotha!"

Expect some great releases as we head toward the holiday shopping season.

November 17, 2009

• Brüno (Universal)
• Chasing Amy (Disney/Buena Vista)
• Clerks (Disney/Buena Vista)
• Darwin’s Darkest Hour (National Geographic)
• Earth, Wind and Fire: Live at Montreaux 1997 (Eagle Rock)
• Fight Club: 10th Anniversary Edition (20th Century Fox)
• Franklyn (Image)
• Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa (FUNimation)
• Galaxy Quest (Paramount)
• Gone with the Wind: 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition (Warner)
• Is Anybody There? (Magnolia)
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas (20th Century Fox)
• Kevin Smith Box Set (Disney/Buena Vista)
• Léon: The Professional (Sony)
• Marilyn Manson: Guns, God and Government – Live In L.A. (Eagle Rock)
• My Sister’s Keeper (New Line)
• The Open Road (Anchor Bay)
• Rome: The Complete Series (HBO)
• Scrubs: The Complete Eighth Season (MGM)
• Sex, Lies, and Videotape (Sony)
• Star Trek Limited Edition Replica Gift Set (Amazon Exclusive) (Paramount)
• Star Trek [2009] (Paramount)

source : blu-ray digest

DVD ONLY

Farscape: The Complete Season Four [6 Discs]

Huckleberry Finn and His Friends: The Complete Series [4 Discs]

Humpday

Intrepid Descent

My Sister’s Keeper

NHL: Montreal Canadiens – 100th Anniversary Collector’s Set [4 Discs]

Prisoner

SEAL Team

Smurfs: Season One, Vols. 1-3 [3 Discs]

The Who: The Who, The Mods and the Quadrophenia Connection

WWE: Hulk Hogan’s Unreleased Collector’s Series [3 Discs]

EVENTS : Air Power Seminar Series 

 Latest videos Latest podcasts

New Air Combat Capability – Project Update

Presenter: Air Vice-Marshal John Harvey

10:00 – 11:00  Thursday 19 November 2009
R1 Theatre, Russell Offices

Air Vice-Marshal John Harvey is the Program Manager for the New Air Combat Capability Integrated Project Team – NACC IPT. The 2009 Defence White Paper endorsed a future combat fleet of ‘about 100’ Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft…

MEDIA :  RAAF – Flying Females

VISION

The Royal Australian Air Force will be a balanced expeditionary, networked Air Force capable of achieving the Australian Government’s objectives through swift and decisive application of air and space power in joint operations or as a part of a larger coalition force.

We will be the most respected and v…alued Air Force in our region. We will be a model of how to build and sustain an effective, modern Air Force.

Our professionalism and combat effectiveness will deter potential adversaries from actions detrimental to Australia’s national interests.

Command and Control in the Royal Australian Air Force

The handbook enunciates the Chief of Air Force’s responsibilities to Government and the Chief of the Defence Force, and the processes used to discharge these responsibilities. It identifies CAF’s two principal executives, the Deputy Chief of Air Force (DCAF) and the Air Commander Australia (ACAUST), and the processes and support structures they use to command and control the Air Force on CAF’s behalf. In particular, the roles and responsibilities of ACAUST are detailed because of how the raise, train and sustain aspects of Air Force capabilities are managed so they are ready for operations, and also how ACAUST oversees the Air and Space Operations Centre (AOC), which is force assigned to Chief of Joint Operations (CJOPS).

This handbook also defines the terms command, control, leadership and governance, and describes the nature of C2 within the Air Force noting the key and enduring air power C2 tenet of centralised control and decentralised execution. As such, the terms and definitions for C2 used within this handbook are fully synchronised with ADDP 00.1—Command and Control.

Historical vignettes have been included to amplify key elements of Air Force’s C2 mechanism and to illustrate that the C2 framework has evolved over time, incorporating lessons learned from past operations and Air Force’s proud heritage. In this respect, attention is drawn to the historical vignette on RAAF C2 in World War II and the subsequent impact of having an ineffective C2 framework with unclear lines of responsibility.

Always There: A History of Air Force Combat Support

 

Combat support is the Air Force idiom for all of the support it needs to run an operational airbase. Always There traces the history of Air Force combat support from its origins in World War I through to the modern era.

The Air Force has always relied on its specialists on the ground to keep its aircraft and aircrew in the air, from communications and logistic specialists to cooks, health professionals, security and defence guards, clerks, commanders and many others.

During World War II they fought in every theatre from Europe to the Middle East (where they were largely forgotten), at the fall of Singapore and the bombing of Darwin. They opened new airfields in New Guinea and moved to Japan with the occupation force. Later, they supported the war in the air over Korea and in Vietnam.

In the modern Air Force they form Combat Support Group. They have operated airfields in East Timor and the Solomon Islands during periods of unrest, repaired runways on Bougainville, helped evacuate the injured from Bali after the terrorist bombings and were among the first to respond to the devastation of Aceh following the Asian tsunami. They still support Australia’s air effort in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Always There tells a part of Air Force history that is more often forgotten than told, emphasizing the varying concepts and constructs through the years, highlighting some lessons that might endure and recounting how the modern Combat Support Group came about during major Defence reforms of the 1990s and its seemingly continual involvement on operations since.

Friends in High Places: Air Power in Irregular Warfare

Conventional military forces across the world are investigating and adopting measures to be effective in the increasing incidence of irregular wars in order to counter non-state adversaries perpetuating acts of violence in support of causes ranging from extremist political and religious ideologies, transnational crime, local insurgencies and guerrilla wars.

Air power is a critical element within the holistic military capabilities of a nation and forms an indelible part of the broader national security apparatus.

This book looks at the varied and critical contribution that air power makes towards the successful prosecution of irregular wars, from a military perspective. It also analyses the crucial role of air power in the strategic national security policy in relation to the current global trend of non-state entities to wage irregular wars against sovereign nations.

MEDIA : RAAF – Air Force Training

PUC pass? Well think before you for any govt. jobs as your competitor may be an MBA.

The server of State Bank of India (SBI) crashed last year when two million candidates applied for 20,000 clerical posts. The bank could nite find enough venues to conduct the exams and the written examination had to be conducted over four shifts.

This year, the country’s largest bank faces an even bigger dilemma. It has 11,000 clerical posts on offer, but has received 3.4 million applications. That’s about 300 applications for every vacancy.

The shocker is while the requisite for the post is a minimum Class 12 qualification, the vast majority of the candidates who have applied for the Rs 8,000-a-month job are engineering graduates and MBAs.

In spite of globalization and the phenomenal growth projected by most industries today, unemployment is reaching a new height altogether.

It’s not that there aren’t enough suitable jobs for good-quality engineers and MBAs. There are countless stories of how leading Indian companies are visiting engineering and MBA colleges in interior parts of the country to add to their basket of employable graduates but are returning empty-handed.

The main problem is that of employability. Studies have indicated that only one in four graduates from India’s colleges is employable. A Nasscom study found that India still produces plenty of engineers – 400,000 a year. But most are deficient in the required technical skills, fluency in English or ability to work in a team and deliver basic oral presentations.

As a result, those engineers or MBAs who manage to become SBI clerks may still consider themselves lucky.

Rediff.com recently reported an incident with Sandip Mukherjee (name changed), an engineering graduate from one of the middle-rung private institutes in Kolkata.

He came to Navi Mumbai to join a windmill company which has its headquarters in Europe. The quality of the job, however, he says, was only slightly better than that of a security guard. Mukherjee, who was lucky enough to find another job within four months, says his ex-boss had asked him to prepare a project report on the security system in the company’s godowns.

Apparently, the company suspected that a lot of pilferage was taking place in one of its godowns. The engineer was asked to station himself in the security office to figure out the lacunae in the system.
One of his observations was that some people left the godown unchecked during lunch hour when the security guard would go to the canteen to bring food. Impressed with this finding, the boss then asked him to find out whether this was happening during tea break or at dinner time also, or whether the security guards went to the toilet often, leaving the gate unmanned. “I didn’t pursue engineering to observe people’s tea and toilet habits,” Mukherjee wrote in his resignation letter.

A mismatch between qualification and quality of job is inevitable in a country where everybody and his uncle is either an engineer or an MBA. The quality of teaching in most of the second-rung institutes is poor and companies often have to pay through the nose to train them.

The Alumni of IIT and IIM have time and again expressed serious concern over the mushrooming of engineering colleges that are being run as “business ventures” by contractors, builders, coal dealers, brick-kiln owners and sweetmeat sellers.

Tamil Nadu according to me seems to have the maximum number of schools and colleges. There are boarding/residential schools at every turn of the street in Namakkal and surrounding areas. These schools which are nothing but business investments for the trading class, claim to prepare students enough to score no less than 80 percent in their board exams. And its true that they do manage to attain that. But the unfortunate fact is that the essential damage in the student’s caliber is done right there. The analytical skills are never developed or allowed to develop. The ultimate aim of the schools is to make the below average student a topper. Instead of giving students conceptual knowledge they are made to cram their books and vomit it in the exams. Result: With 3/4 of the student clearing in first class.

Moving on from school is the pressure of taking up either engineering or medical (as anything else is not good enough). Again, no understanding of the knowledge but rather cramming the text books. Not much importance is given to extra-curricular activities.

The case is the same in other parts..

In Uttar Pradesh alone, 250 such engineering colleges have come up in the last decade with an intake of about 60,000 students.

Two years ago, an assessment of the country’s higher education system by the University Grants Commission (UGC) found that as many as 25 per cent faculty positions in universities remained vacant; 57 per cent teachers in colleges did not have either an M Phil or PhD; and there was only one computer for 229 students, on an average, in colleges.

The assessment was conducted on 123 universities and 2,956 colleges across India – an estimated 60 per cent of these institutions were private, the rest government-run.

Now, look at a couple of rungs further down in the job market pyramid. India’s vocational training institutes produce six million students every year. That’s a minuscule number considering that an estimated 88.5 million people in the 15-29 age group need such training.
And industry says less than half of the six million people who have received vocational training are in the employable category.

A Planning Commission assessment shows 80 per cent of the 12.8 million new entrants to India’s workforce every year have no opportunity for skills training. Even more worrying is the fact that only 2 per cent of the workforce has skills training and 80 per cent of the rural and urban workforce does not possess any “identifiable” market skills.

What is also worrying are the findings of the India Labour Report prepared by TeamLease – it has found that over half of employed youth suffered some degree of skill deprivation, while only 8 per cent were unemployed. In all, 57 per cent of India’s youth suffered from some degree of “unemployability”.

The good news is that some companies have decided to take the bull by the horns in their own limited ways to bridge the skills gap. Infosys, for example, recently launched the Campus Connect initiative with engineering institutions in Mysore, Bangalore, Pune and other cities. Under this, workshops and seminars are held for students to provide them with industry-specific exposure. Several other companies like HCL too have a similar Campus programs.

ICICI Bank is working in order to upgrade curriculum in areas like wealth management and credit relationship sales with institutes like Management Development Institute, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and so on.

MNCs like Japanese auto major Toyota too is tying up with 40 more Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in addition to the existing 16. Under its technical education programme, Toyota has prepared a one-year syllabus on body and paint repair in association with its dealers.

Under a tie-up with the Delhi Government’s Department of Training and Technical Education for this purpose, Toyota has synchronized the curriculum with the selected industrial training institute’s syllabus in the second year of the course.

India is the 53rd country where Toyota has introduced such a programme. Initiatives like this are a win-win situations for all the parties. Hope many such opportunities make in roads into India

I’ve got lots of DVD reviews I’m putting up this weekend.  I’ve been watching Blu-Rays like crazy. Check back in over the weekend for reviews of Up, Monster’s Inc, The Kevin Smith Box Set, and Rocky: The Undisputed Collection, all on Blu-Ray.

Designation: Recruitment of Probationary Clerks

Job Description:

The South Indian Bank Ltd. invites applications for filling up vacancies of Clerks for branches in Kerala and Tamilnadu

Name of post: Clerks

Qualification: Graduation from a recognized University having completed a regular 10+2+3 course securing at least 50% marks in Science Stream or 45 % marks in other streams. Candidates should be proficient in computer operations.

Pay Scale: Rs.4410-13210

Age Limit: Age as on 30.09.2009.- 26 yrs

Important Dates:

Opening date for making online registration – 28.10.2009

Closing date for making online registration – 21.11.2009

Last date for receiving the system generated print out with Demand Draft, photo and other documents – 28.11.2009

Tentative date of written test – 03.01.2010

Application Fees: Application fees should be paid by means of Demand Draft (Crossed Account Payee) favoring The South Indian Bank Ltd., payable at Trissur, Kerala State. Fee for general category is Rs.250 and that for SC/ST is Rs.50

Location: Across India

Education: Graduation

DETAILS HERE : http://southindianbank.com/UserFiles/RecruitmentOnline.pdf

APPLY ONLINE : http://southindianbank.com/Careers/careersdetails.aspx?careerid=37

I am a follower of Kevin Smith. And by “follower,” I don’t mean to convey that I simply follow him on Twitter. (Though, I do.) However, I use the term in a much broader and possibly more frightening sense. I not only adore his films, but will engulf his blogs, tweets, podcasts, DVD commentaries, books, ANYTHING. He’s just one of those guys I can’t seem to get enough of. An easy and simple reason for this might just be because he’s hilarious. But, there’s something deeper that draws me to the man.

He’s almost unbelievably authentic. He will talk publicly about almost anything, especially when it comes to his own personal life. For those of you familiar with him, you understand just how personal he can get. He’s not afraid of his own opinions, beliefs and struggles being made public. In fact, he seems to really enjoy letting it all hang out, despite the ever-present long coat he wears to hide his gut.

And so, for a guy that makes a living off of making very R-rated films, it’s almost impossible to fault him for anything because he’s so authentic. Sure, all his movies tend to rest on the backbone of the “dick and/or fart joke.” But, who’s worse? This man who is unapologetically himself for all to see or the kind of person who denounces Smith’s art as “trash” and “ungodly,” yet lives daily in their own facade of self-righteousness, hiding most aspects of themselves from their loved ones?

And even more than the authenticity that I see in Smith, there is also an unabashed sweetness underneath the layers of dirty jokes. Last night, I was fortunate to attend a Q&A featuring him at the House of Blues in Dallas. It was an awesome experience. The man is not only incredibly witty and sharp, but he is an amazing storyteller. One of the highlights of the night were a few anecdotes about the late comic George Carlin, who was a huge influence on Smith and ended up being in a few of his films. In fact, Carlin’s last film appearance was one of the leading roles in Smith’s Jersey Girl (a film that is widely regarded as terrible, but I still have a special place in my heart for.) Smith’s musings on the effect Carlin’s death had on him showed a side that, if you are waiting very patiently, will often escape from him. It’s a very sentimental side that often revolves around the people in his life. One thing about Smith, whether listening to him speak or even within the emotional foundation of his films, is that relationships play a large part in his life and have much more meaning to him than your average “Hollywood” filmmaker. Some of the most poignant stuff I’ve ever read comes from his experiences with the death of his father and the drawn-out struggle with his good friend, Jason Mewes (the Jay to his Silent Bob), and Mewes’s addiction to heroin which took hold of both their lives. (Both these stories can be found in his book, My Boring-Ass Life, a collection of his blog posts.)

In his self-made, self-financed debut, Clerks, the emotional core of the film rests between two friends whose relationship is anything but perfect. While the majority of the message Smith is trying to get across lies in being okay with who you are and where you are in life, it’s also about the friendship that Dante (Brian O’Halloran) needs from Randall (Jeff Anderson). After all, Randall is completely fine with being a clerk the rest of his life. Dante seems to always chalk this up to a bad characteristic in his friend’s life, but by the end of the film, understands that Randall helps him be okay with who he is. And what better thing can a friend do?

My personal favorite film of his is Chasing Amy. It can easily be labeled as “that movie where Ben Affleck falls in love with a lesbian,” but it’s so much more than that. It not only focuses on the close friendship between Holden (Affleck) and Banky (Jason Lee), but once the aforementioned lesbian, Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), enters the scene, the whole film becomes about relationship. Between Holden and Alyssa, it’s about dealing with falling in love while both being broken at the same time. For Holden, his insecurities begin getting the best of him as he is dating someone who has a very “storied” track record when it comes to sex. For Alyssa, it’s more about dealing with her past in a way befitting to the man she now has fallen for. At the same time, Holden’s best friend, Banky, sees his friendship with Holden slipping away because of his friend’s newfound obsession with this girl. This all culminates in a meeting of the three called by Holden, who has an idea to help all of there inter-connected relational problems with one quick (and outrageous) fix. But, relationships never have such an easy-out of a difficult problem and Holden learns this the hard way.

Even in Smith’s most recent film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, in which, well… Zack and Miri make a porno, there is tons of truth to be found in human relationship when it comes to sex. Again, this movie can easily be written off by someone who has only seen the title and instantly jumped to a conclusion about what this is, but they would be missing out on something rather profound. Here, more than any other of Smith’s films, sex is actually taken very seriously. Two longtime friends, Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks), are in dire need of money therefore they seek to join the porn industry by making one of their own with the help of their friends. This, however, leads to the moment where both have to “perform” with one another in a particular scene. But, everything is okay because sex is just sex, right? However, what happens is something neither of them were expecting. I don’t want to ruin the film, but Smith uses this little parable to show that sex is something very serious and very special. And while, of course, he still loves his particular brand of “sex jokes,” there is a certain level of respect given to the act here that is not seen in a lot of mainstream Hollywood films.

Kevin Smith is a Christian. He’s very vocal about the struggles he encounters in believing in something that he often finds very hard to believe in, but he seemingly still believes nonetheless. His film, Dogma (which deserves its own blog post), is a wonderful satire on the Christian religion and it’s many caveats and the loopholes that tend to pop up once a system of rules, regulations, and propositions are introduced. Dogma triumphs the importance of belief and celebrates the diversity that can be found under the umbrella of faith.

These are just a few films that give an indication that there’s a lot more out there that God might be trying to use to speak to us in some way. I am not at all saying that Smith’s particular brand of storytelling is for everyone, but for those who enjoy the sort of thing, there is a lot of truth to be found in his work. After all, relationship is a big part of God and the world he created. If it means a few off-color jokes (that we can “secretly” enjoy), I’m okay with the many, rather prophetic, messages of Kevin Smith.

It’s hard to believe that this film was made 16 years ago.  It is timeless.  Kevin Smith, you are of the finest cinematic kind.  Finding Clerks at the local video-in-a-box for a buck was a bit painful, but I didn’t mind saving the salad.

In this clip, Dante and Randall discuss Star Wars politics.

And here’s “What a Wookie” from Trey Parker’s ‘DVDA’:

“I know you’re supposed to tell kids not to do drugs, but, kids, do it! Do weed!” the New York Post quoted the ‘Jay and Silent Bob’ star as saying. In other evidence, Smith is the king of stoner movies.

Puff, puff, pass it on - a round table of Tinseltown's biggest pot fans

I first read about this news on Kevin Smith’s twitter (@ThatKevinSmith) this morning.  His post was, “It’s like hearing the house you grew up in has burned to the ground.  I’ve now watched Miramax die twice. *sigh*”

Anyone who follows this blog knows I’m a huge Kevin Smith fan.  I first saw Clerks when I was a senior in High School in ‘94.  I was one of the few people who saw Mallrats in the theater.  I count Chasing Amy as one of my top five all time favorite movies.  Hell I went to the first Vulgarthon in Redbank, NJ in 1999.  I love his work, his wordplay, and his vision; even when it is off the mark sometimes.  Kevin Smith is who introduced me to independent film, and to Miramax since they were the kings in the 90’s.  He made me a lover of films, especially well written ones.  I think the news that Miramax is all but dead is sad, but it’s not unexpected.  When the Weinstein brothers left Miramax a year or two ago I figured it was only a matter of time.

Slashfilm.com breaks it all down much better than I can.  Read all about it at their site here.

In 1994, writer/director Kevin Smith was heavily criticized by the Black Community for neglecting to include any Black People in his uproarious feature debut “Clerks“.

However, three years and two films later Mr. Smith not only put a Black Person in his 1997 film “Chasing Amy“, but he also made the character a homosexual because, as everyone knows, a Black Homosexual in a movie will automatically become a rich source of laughter 100% of the time.

And so, Kevin Smith gave his first Black Character a very hilarious 3 minute monologue that manages to encapsulate the Black Community’s views on how Black Characters are portrayed in comic books, graphic novels, TV and movies. And it even manages to include how much Black People are tired of hearing about Lando Calrissian (that was almost 30 years ago!).

This scene is easily the highlight of the entire film.

The Black Community has accepted this scene as a personal apology from Mr. Smith for neglecting them in his past films (he would later go on to work with Chris Rock and Craig Robinson).

However, he is not completely safe from being called a racist until he writes and/or directs a (good) film with a Black Person as the main character. This goes for pretty much every filmmaker with great examples like Steven Spielberg (“The Color Purple“) and Clint Eastwood (“Bird“, despite what Spike Lee says.).

Standings after two weeks:

Brian: 6
Jordan: 6
Glen: 6
Mitch: 5
Travis: 5
Greg: 5
Russ: 4
Chad: 4

I received a great early birthday present from my Mom and siblings this year. They all chipped in and got me a ticket to see Kevin Smith speak at the Orpheum in LA. I am a huge fan…nuff said. The show is impressive when you consider that he has no script, just that a large audience is there to hear him speak. if you want an idea of what the show is like go to your local video store and look up “An Evening with Kevin Smith” or “An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder“. At times it is just crass juvenile humor which I very much enjoy and at times need. Sometimes it is inspirational as well, and Saturday night did not disappoint.

Anyone who was there will probably tell you about the pot stories, his stories about George Carlin, the story about Jason Mewes’ cock, etc… Which were all great, I am really glad however that he took nearly 45 mins to segue into a story about watching a documentary about Candian Hockey and how hit turned him into a Gretzky fan. I could care less that it was about either of those two subjects, cause I barely understand hockey, and before Saturday night new little more about Wayne Gretzky than that he is the “Michael Jordan” of hockey.

Kevin explained that through watching the documentary at a very vulnerable time for himself that he learned that he needed to get back to his roots of being an innovator. Not going where the puck is, but going where the puck is going to be. 15 years ago he made “Clerks” a comedy for an audience unrepresented at that time. Now it is an audience represented well, and the concept of going where the puck is going to be spoke to him and is driving him in new and what I think will be exciting directions.

Because he saw that documentary and was inspired, he was able to turn it into inspiration for others. I went there to be entertained by “dick and fart” jokes. I came away with an inspiring lesson that hit me at just the right time. I am going to stop going where the puck is and start going where the puck is going to be!

Snoogins!

Well, finally I spoke with somebody, who’s working in this area. It was some 50 years old man, truly the businessman. He is working in bank and had “only a minute, because I came just for a cup of coffee and have a meeting in two minutes”. So we decided to have an interview while he goes to his workplace.

After interview I have three conclusions:

• They are really friendly (notice the end of the interview – his question, was it helpful);
• He considers that the atmosphere of the district is created mainly by the buildings not the people;
• They are really busy all the time!

Yesterday we went to the bar and had some drinks with the organizers and participants. The most interesting part was going back to home. You would imagine that clerks are in Canary Wharf only in working hours? No, You can see them along the tables and drinking the beer, speaking to each other.  They still are here. The organizers told me that You get used to them and to Yourself, working here and being part of “clerkulture”.

But this morning was opposite. At 9 AM it seems that district is without people. There are only buildings and they are so similar that I got lost and was late for the courses.

I am still wondering, who they are and what are they doing.  The thesaurus actually is not saying anything about clerks. It just gives me more intention to find more about them.

My friends in London are living in the area of tube station “Oval”  and they never thaught about living in Canary Wharf. Still they were surprised about my choice (which actually wasn’t mine) to stay in this district.

Well on Monday I understood their worries – it is really concentrated area of clerks and business staff.  You can see (or imagine) something like this in New York, particularly Manhattan or somewhere else, but I have never seen so much clerks and suits at all in one place in Riga.

What’ s wrong with my country’ s economy? Where are all the clerks of Latvia? Are they afraid to walk on the streets? And why am I afraid of them here in Canary Wharf?

P.S. I’ m here thanks to Thomson Reuters foundation, which organizes courses on internet journalism and encouraged me to start blogging in English. Have a look on my colleagues, who are making their first steps in blogsphere!

For all those guys working behind the counter in suburbia this film is for you.

Convenience and video store clerks Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson) are sharp-witted, potty-mouthed, and bored out of their minds. Between serving nonstop shoppers, the overworked counter jockeys play hockey on the roof, visit a funeral home and deal with their off beat love lives.

The one great thing about Clerks is that it was only made for $27,575, and it grossed over a million at the box office. The dialogue in this film is like Pulp Fiction but with much more crudeness and a lot more humor. Kevin Smith shows that he has a great ear for colorful speeches, his characters are dropouts from Generation X who look at life with distrust and talk about marriage as if they were from another planet.

The film certainly is an up-close look at the Clerks, it basically is as normal as you get it. The customers walk in they walk out and you see these two clerks interact with one another and talk about the lives they dislike but the lives they understand.

Smith creates dialogue for these characters that seem so real and we feel like we know some of these characters from somewhere. They talk with such obscurity and rawness that you are grossed out but you laugh at the same time and know this is how real people talk.

The problem I had with this film was that I just wish there was more scenes about anything. The film isn’t very long and I liked to hear the insight of these two and the people around them and I just wanted more.

Consensus: Clerks. works because of it’s raw but insightful and entertaining dialogue mixed in with  very short budget and some very original real-life characters.

9/10=Full Pricee!

During my daily procrastination, I came across an old cartoon I used to love a couple years ago. Its a cartoon titled “Heroes” created by Powerhouse Animations. This cartoon is a parody of CLERKS and stars Captain America and Daredevil as Dante and Randal. It is pretty fucking hilarious if you are a fan of comic books or Kevin Smith. If you have never seen it click here to check it out.

I saw a piece the other day about the concept of Umami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami). It is Japanese idea concerning a certain combination of flavours working to produce a stronger flavoured whole. The example they used was marmite being spread on bread, under cheese and then toasted. The overall effect was to exagerate the flavour of the cheese. There are other ingredients which, when added to meals, boost the overall flavour. The ones highlighted were worcester sauce, tomato ketchup, and parmesan. They said that the highest form of Umami is expressed through sushi where the flavours are balanced to perfection in order to highlight all the constituent parts.

Yum, sushi!

Somehow this got me thinking about the nature of taste and emotion, how I feel about certain film, music and art. Whether there is an equivalent of Umami in these fields because there are some films that produce an indescribable feeling of contradictions that gives the whole flavour much deeper impact. A life-affirming ennui or hopelessness seems to be the thing that really makes a film impact on me most severely and I can’t always pinpoint why.

Sickert's 'Ennui', from the Tate's Degas, Sickert, Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition in 2006 - which was amazing by the way.

Films like About Schmidt, Donnie Darko, American Beauty, Fight Club, Lost In Translation, Old Boy, Pan’s Labyrinth, In Bruges, The City of the Lost Children, The Motorcycle Diaries, Spirited Away, Clerks, Batteries Not Included (yes, really), Leon, and Ghost In The Shell all bring me this feeling that I love completely but that I find wholly unsettling and disturbing. It is not just in film that it can be found either. The novels of Knut Hamsun, George Orwell, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, Nikolai Gogol, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Victor Hugo all have it. The art of Mark Rothko, Egon Schiele, Walter Sickert, and Vincent Van Gogh all have it. The music of Radiohead, British Sea Power (Man of Aran mainly), UNKLE, The Strokes, Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Doves, Queens Of The Stone Age, Libertines, The Strokes, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday all have it at times. What is it that draws all of these together though?

Franz Kafka, does his strange surreal existentialism change the way I think?

For films it seems to be sadness and loss that particularly flick my switches. In literature there are few moments that have moved me so much as Prince Andrei’s death in War & Peace. The death of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables was another emotional one. Crime & Punishment was a terrifying one for me because I could feel it playing with my mind as I read it. I became so involved with Radion Raskolnikov’s plight and mental deterioration that my own mood changed. The starvation of the lead character in Knut Hamsun’s ‘Hunger’ and the Parisian exploits of Orwell in Down & Out make my heart yearn for something whether it’s a mythical and romanticised version of the past or something missing from my own existence and experience. It’s a struggle between these two poles and what balances it all out seems to be love in the middle. It’s hard to find the love in any of Orwell’s books but there is something there, perhaps a love of the poor and downtrodden people of the world. I’m not sure but everything else involves either a woman or God, or both. I’m certainly no Christian but the exhilaration of Jean Valjean’s piety was amazing to me. It invigorated me whilst simultaneously depressing and hurting me. A very strange sensation but one I do revel in when I discover it.

The pious, wandering ex-convict Jean Valjean.

Again and again I go looking for this feeling and it crops up in unexpected places. Certain key changes in a piece of music or a lingering shot of a normal room in a film will trigger it too. Something mathematical and related to the golden ratio I expect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio)? My thinking on this subject is so far only a week old but I will work on it and try to unravel exactly what it is that makes me tick in this respect. Other people must know this particular sensation too, perhaps someone else can help to explain it better than I am?

From the start of Lost in Translation

Bats, Bugs and Drunks

Miss Rita, the middle-aged woman at the desk next to mine, is asking personal questions. That’s something she does every night. I’m 22 years old and this is my first serious job since being discharged from the U. S. Army, two years ago. The inquiring Miss Rita and I are clerks in the Social Security Administration — I’m a new hire and she’s my trainer. We are working the 4:00 P. M. to 12:30 A. M. shift on the seventh floor of the Falconer Building at 414 Water Street in downtown Baltimore, two blocks from the harbor. The year is 1959, deep summer, and I’ve made a new friend.

The windows are open, three huge floor fans blowing at full power. If the temperature in the Falconer Building rises above 90 degrees, we’ll be sent home. This happens often during the day shift, less so after the sun goes down. Miss Rita and I sit in the cross-ventilation and flip SS-5 cards and scribble name and date-of-birth changes into huge metal-covered ledgers, delighted with each other’s company. (This photo of an actual Form SS-5 shows a Miss Apgar requesting that her name be changed to Mrs. Lake. Click images for larger views.)

The evening passes to the rhythm of turning pages: flip, flip, scribble, flip, flip, scribble, scribble, flip. Against the background of dirty brick walls scores of other clerks’ bend to the identical task. The oily aroma of Baltimore harbor wafts in the windows and, when the wind shifts, more pungent odors come from the nearby wholesale fish market. The whirring fans cool our necks and blow the occasional card from desk to floor — or out a window. The strange sound of bat wings flutter in one window and out another. There is a gentle rustling noise as rat’s forage for sandwich crumbs in waste baskets, and the buzzing of blood-sucking insects foraging for us.

At the moment, Miss Rita’s job is to introduce me to the mysteries of entry-level clerking in the Numerical Register Section of SSA — and, it seems, to trade work information for personal tidbits. With anyone else her intimate prying might be offensive, but, somehow — I guess because of her odd sense of humor — it’s just harmless fun. Miss Rita’s constant stream of chatter, spiced with sexy double meanings, makes the long evenings of repetitive work bearable. In fact, they are downright entertaining. Anyway, there is not much of a private life to expose — I ‘m still in the process of trying to develop one. Somehow I manage to keep Miss Rita interested by making up outrageous but plausible tales about my exploits. She seems to especially enjoy the lies (these days we might call them “creative non-fictions”) that I tell about the erotic adventures of my mother, a born-again Christian, who would have been shocked if she knew that her son used her straight-arrow life for creative inspiration. Perhaps Miss Rita identifies with my fictions because she and my mother are about the same age.

On my first night in the Falconer Building — one of several rental properties which comprise the original SSA headquarters — Miss Rita gives me the grand tour. She points out the freight elevator which, she says, I can use at peak load times during shift changes, when the passenger elevator is often overwhelmed. She shows me the stairs and mentions in passing that they are handy because the freight elevator only goes to the 5th floor. She doesn’t comment on the empty booze bottles in the stairwell, nor does she explain the sleeping drunk. Our “cafeteria” is located by the elevator door on the 4th floor, Miss Rita says. That is, at 9 o’clock each evening an old man gets off the elevator and stands there selling cold sandwiches out of a large cardboard box. Finally, Miss Rita gives me a booklet explaining what is expected in terms of production and conduct. The publication also has a small map showing the location of the men’s room and fire exits. I can use the restroom anytime, Miss Rita says, provided it isn’t too often. “Two often” and it will reflect in my “rating,” whatever that is.

The Falconer Building is clean, at least compared to the steel mill in which I had worked prior to this job, and there is even a bit of external entertainment. As we young male clerks arrive early for the evening shift, we often gather to watch strippers sunbathing on the low roof of the nearby Gayety Show Bar, the keystone of Baltimore’s infamous “Block” of sleazy nightclubs clustered nearby. When the women are up there relaxing between shows we all go a little crazy. The younger clerks in the Numerical Register Section — male and female — are friendly, and I am quickly drawn into a sort of loose-knit social club. After our shift finishes at 12:30 A. M., few of us want to go home to bed — we’re still too primed with youthful energy — so most nights a meeting is called for a party or card game at someone’s home or apartment. Or we go out on a sort of group date, which usually involves bar-hopping, the only form of entertainment available at that hour. Some nights we simply cruise the city and talk until dawn at an all night diner. Often, I drop into bed at first light or later, sleep until two in the afternoon, then get up to start the work/play cycle again. Some of my new friends have been living this way for several years, but the fun will last only a few months for me. I have “EOD’d” (Entered On Duty) at the end of an era. The whole of SSA’s scattered downtown headquarters is scheduled to consolidate in a modern complex in the western suburbs of Baltimore in January of 1960, only a few months hence.

Well before we leave the city, though, it comes to pass that my social life is greatly enriched as a direct result of information provided by Miss Rita. She tells me that a particular young lady, another Numerical Register clerk, is interested in me beyond mere friendship, and before long I am involved in my first “adult” relationship. I reward Miss Rita by continuing my stories, now more fact than fiction, and much more titillating than ever. I even expand the scope of the tales to include many of my young and ever-horny (at least in my telling) coworkers. And I notice that Miss Rita’s interest in our escapades become more intense the closer I stick to real life, which I take as a literary lesson. So as I become a better clerk, I also sharpen my narratives. Miss Rita especially likes to hear my juiced-up versions of our nocturnal forays to various “hillbilly” bars and other hotspots around town, and the house parties that follow into the wee hours, many of them ending in sleep overs. These stories require scant embellishment.

All of this happened a half century ago, late summer until the end of 1959. I spent 29 years with the Social Security Administration, taking an early retirement in 1988. Not long after the SSA headquarters moved to the suburbs, I realized that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life flipping pages and scribbling in ledgers, so I took advantage of the Korean G. I. Bill and enrolled in evening art classes. That led to a temporary job in SSA’s drafting department, which in turn got me through what I called “the back door” of their large art department —where my first assignment was to help produce the original Medicare Handbook. Living and working in the suburbs was O. K., but I never again had an experience quite so rich in character or characters, or that made such an intense impression on me, as those early nights in downtown Baltimore, flipping SS-5 cards and trading punch lines with Miss Rita.

Copyright © 2009 Jim Sizemore.

A much longer version of this personal essay was published in the October, 1978 issue of OASIS, a magazine distributed monthly to Social Security Administration employees nationwide.

I was born in 1977, the year that perhaps the greatest movie of our time, Star Wars was released, so it goes without saying that I grew up watching Luke and Han and Leia and Darth Vader. We had a large collection of the toys (man, I wish I still had that Millennium Falcon) and Jeff and I even went as Star Wars characters for Halloween one year back in the early 80’s – I was an ewok with a costume that mom made and I think Jeff was Darth Vader. One of my earliest memories of viewing a movie in the theater was seeing Return of the Jedi back when I was probably only 6 or 7 years old.

That being said, over the weekend we decided it was time to introduce the girls to the greatness that is Star Wars. We watched Episode IV (I like to pretend Episodes I-III don’t exist) and I think they, well at least Rachel, really enjoyed it. Bekah has trouble sitting through movies or really anything that lasts longer than about 5 minutes, so she was all over the place during the film. Rachel asked a lot of questions during the movie, but it wasn’t too annoying because we understood that this was a bit different than your run-of-the-mill animated Disney film.

Knowing how the series ends, it’s interesting to think of the entire story and the overarching theme of redemption, especially since you definitely do not realize after only the first movie that Darth Vader is really the central character in a space age prodigal son story.

Secondly, and a bit more light-heartedly, I couldn’t help but think of the Kevin Smith movies from the 90’s where the Star Wars trilogy holds a sacred spot. For instance, when they blew up the Death Star, I remembered that conversation in Clerks about the Return of the Jedi Death Star that is still being constructed when it is destroyed and about the large number of unwitting contractors that must have died in the attack.

And then of course there is the assertion that Star Wars is racist from Chasing Amy. Now that’s some funny stuff. (Warning: If you are offended by bad language, skip this one)

We’ll watch Empire and Jedi soon too. Stay tuned for more…

I’m not even supposed to be here today!

– Dante Hicks

This is the first time I have seen Kevin Smith’s breakthrough film, Clerks. Since its release in 1994, it has a cult following with people who follow Smith. This film reeks with Smith’s staples raunchy, obscenity filled, witty dialogue. It’s not a masterpiece, but it was a enjoyable ride.

The movie revolves around the day of the life of Dante (Brian O’Halloran), a lonely convenience store worker that is trying to get through the day. He is called into work on his day off to open up the store. He doesn’t want to deal with the riffraff that comes into the store everyday.

This is a mundane take on twenty-something people that are living their unremarkable lives. Dante is friends with Randal (Jeff Anderson) who works a crappy video store that is attached the store. Randal is an abrasive personality that rubs Dante the wrong way.

Dante has to deal with his girlfriend, Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti) always prodding him to do something with his life instead of working at the convenience store. Dante still has feelings for his ex-girlfriend, Caitlin (Lisa Spoonauer), who he finds out in getting married.

Throughout of the movie, Dante and Randal have to deal with multiple customers with some serious problems. Have Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith) loitering in front of the store selling drugs and such.

A movie shot entirely in black and white was a good choice to convey how lifeless these characters lives are. O’Halloran had some very good moments in this film. There was a long continuous shot between two characters that lasted roughly five minutes was great.

That being said, this movie is not all good. Some of the sequences dragged on a bit too much. I don’ know if Smith wanted the customers to be overtly quirky and insane. The character of Randal is such a dick; I don’t understand how Dante could be friends with him.

Judgment: All and all, not the greatest movie ever, but an interesting take on people trying to find their way in the world.

Rating: ***1/2

It’s amazing how store clerks in Romania never have change for bills. But they always ask you to give them the exact amount of money for the merchedise. So they get all the change, but have none. What do they do with all that change? I’m beginning to think conspiration. Anyone with me on this one?