January 2012

The Zone

Sunday, January 29th, 2012 Horrorthon Posts

Okay, let’s get into it. Here are my top ten (links are to Wikipedia pages, which have spoilers): “The Four of Us Are Dying” Not especially scary (as the Zone goes) but this one has incredible mood and atmosphere (in a heavily abstracted film noir kind of style) and, like all first season episodes, has […]

[continued]

You can’t see the actor

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 Horrorthon Posts / Movies

Minor cinematic observation: some of the best directors have used this really great counterintuitve technique at extremely dramatic moments in their movies. The protagonist is at an absolutely critical juncture in his/her story, and (usually) is having a conversation; maybe it’s on the phone, or maybe it’s with somebody else in the room. (Or maybe […]

[continued]

The new iBooks and education

Saturday, January 21st, 2012 Tech

[So I had just finished posting the following comment on a technology website:] Maybe I’m in the minority but I find this whole development [Apple’s new iBooks textbook technology] very disquieting. I remember when a schoolbook or textbook was a book—an inanimate, text-based object that you, the student, had to penetrate with your own intellect […]

[continued]