April 11, 2010

ipod Opinions run Wild

Pro, con iPad opinions run the gamut

Defining the iPad is a work in progress. Toward that end, readers made strong arguments for and against the iPad in response to a post one day after sales of the device began.

In that earlier blog, I listed some of the reasons buyers gave for lining up to purchase the iPad on April 3, the first day of sales. The reasons and reader responses to those reasons are worth a second look since the iPad, like theiPhone, is one of those products that could alter the computing landscape permanently.

How exactly this will play out is of course still unclear. One reader, however, argued that the iPad will create a more pronounced "schism" between those who "create a lot of content"--i.e., people who use more powerful Macs and PCs--and "all the rest"--the latter defined as people who use small, highly-mobile computers like the iPad and Netbook for media consumption and light productivity.

Apple Store in southern California on first day of iPad sales.

(Credit: Brooke Crothers)

Comments were varied, running the gamut from readers who thought the device was redundant and/or impractical to those who thought it to be a worthy purchase.

Here's a sampling, pro and con:

Hard to justify: "I love Apple products....However I can't justify purchasing this device...A novelty product."
Steamroller: "Apple haters, technical scowlers, squinters, and grouches--eat your hearts out because the IPad is going to take over the world."
Productivity versus consumption: "My home computer will suffice for the number crunching, code compiling and media encoding needs. The iPad will be my encyclopedia, mailbox, newspaper, library, music jukebox, video player for the home and on the go."
Regression: "People are paying for something that does less than what we've been doing before...Because we want to be able to do two things at once (multitasking)...that makes us nerds?"
Better than a Kindle: "Much as I hate to admit it, I'm likely to be an early adopter as soon as the 3G arrives...I have to read & review a lot of academic papers on the go. Not a great use for a laptop, iPhone is too small, notetaking on the Kindle (and PDF handling) way too limited."
Useless: "The more i read about the iPad, the more it angers me...its SO useless. a 500 dollar + device, for really really bad reasons. High end netbooks, that can do multitudes more, are cheaper. I can't wait till more people realize how bad this device is, and it plummets."
Apple allure: "One glaringly obvious reason is missing from this list. 'Because it's from apple.' Like apple, hate it, or anything in between, you still have to recognize...brand loyalists who would buy any product Steve Jobs waved in front of their faces because it was the latest greatest thing."

Phelps son: "God Hate Fags" This Minute Will Turn Vilonet. " I think ur craxy..u make me crazy..u make me crazy..probablyyyyyy. They tried........u make make M'Crazzzzy

Phelps' Son Says "God Hates Fags" Church Could Turn Violent

What's Your Reaction:

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The challenge with writing about Fred Phelps, frankly, is suppressing the urge to burp.

Phelps and his hateful clan spent this weekend in West Virginia taunting innocent families whose fathers, brothers and sons were buried alive in theUpper Big Branch mine disaster. The last four of 29 miners were pronounced dead on Saturday. The Phelpses actually complained they didn't get adequate police protection during a picket at the state Capitol, where they carried signs that read: "Thank God for Dead Miners," "God Hates Your Tears" and "God Hates West Virginia."

It's a new low for The Most Hated Family In America, as they were dubbed in a 2007 BBC documentary about the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members routinely picket funerals of American soldiers. They claim God smites our military because America tolerates lesbian and gay people. The group is so obsessed with anti-homosexual theology it adopted the slogan "God hates fags" for the name of its website.

I've always ignored these psychopaths and refused to give them the media attention they crave. But information about them that can't be ignored surfaced last week on The Standard, a Vancouver-based public affairs program. In his first-ever television interview, Fred's son Nate Phelps says the family could turn violent if his father ever finds a Bible verse to justify it.

The interview was conducted by Peter Klein, an Emmy-winning producer for 60 Minutes and my colleague at the University of British Columbia graduate journalism school.

Nate Phelps, who left the family more than 30 years ago and lives in Canada, says his father is a violent individual. He talks about rage and the physical abuse Fred Phelps inflicted for hours at a time on his wife and children. He speculates that his father is mentally ill and effectively calls the Westboro church a classic cult:

They fit the definition, and I've said for years that all it would really take is if my father made the decision, found the right justification in the Bible, that they would turn towards violence -- either violence towards themselves or someone else.

The interview is long (roughly 30 minutes) and conversational. Klein is less bombastic than the hosts of American cable news programs and more likely to let his guest talk. The first segment may be a little repetitive for anyone familiar with the long and vicious history of the Westboro Church.

I kept looking for some evidence that Nate Phelps was unstable. How could he not be?

I was expecting the glassy stare of someone who had undergone intense recovery therapy or at least a man given to spontaneous emotional surges. But Phelps is calm and reasoned - almost matter-of-fact without appearing overly detached from his family. A capacity for empathy (missing in his parents and siblings) is evident in a story he tells about his own son, who one Christmas asked who Jesus was.

Phelps says he began the generic message about Christ, the crucifixion, repentance, eternal Hell - and before he knew it, the little boy was terrified and crying uncontrollably. Phelps says he realized he was passing his father's destructive teaching to his son. He stopped. That experience, he says, changed his life.

The point is that Nate Phelps can't be ignored. He isn't seeking revenge or selling a book. His motives aren't in question. He speaks with authority, and he's offering Americans and the law enforcement agencies that protect them at the local, state and federal levels a warning about his family they can't afford to ignore

CIAO

Ciao

I seemed to have developed a slight "thing" about small, foreign films with one-word titles beginning with the letter C. In 1997 I first saw an Australian movie named Cosí, which introduced me to the actress Toni Collette. I’ve adored her ever since. Now, in 2010 there is the American/Italian film Ciao that has brought me, adoringly, to Alessandro Calza. Both films, on the surface, seem simplistic and potentially dull, but underneath are amazing, startling, ultra-human and very much to be cherished.

Director/screenwriter Yen Tan and Director/screenwriter/designer/web designer/actor Alessandro Calza met on the Internet and over time forged the story that is at the core of this movie. Two men, Jeff and Andrea, meet on the Internet after the death of Mark, a mutual friend. All three are gay. One, an Italian from Genova, has planned a meeting with the dead man and he comes to Dallas anyway to meets his on-line chum’s best friend. The two of them slowly spark and by the end of the film may have begun a romance. Maybe not.

That’s it. That’s the story of Ciao. It doesn’t sound like much, but the sum of these simple parts is much greater than its components. First, the two men are superbly real. Not once does it seem that they are acting. The slow pace and distancing of the editing make it feel as though we just happen to be in the same places at the same times as these two. There is almost no human voice heard in the first twelve minutes or so. The awkward spaces set up by the directors cannot be filled without the man who has passed away, so the meeting of Jeff and Andrea - intended to bridge those gaps - starts the process of completion. The choice to leave holes in the story, the tension and anxiety built into this loose structure, is the making of a minor masterpiece of film.

Adam Neal Smith plays Jeff with shuddering tension; although nothing is ever said about this, there is a sense of illness about this character that Smith uses delicately. He is handsome and robust, but a quality of emotion is missing. This mysterious element makes Jeff a compelling character, someone you would want to know, and know more about.

Andrea, on the other hand, is exuberant in a sophisticated way. Never over the top, this debut role for Calza, gives him the chance to exhibit the most beautiful eyes in movies today, the most sensual mouth and the sweetest disposition imaginable. Andrea is someone who asks to be held ; to be kissed, without ever saying a word or imparting through a gesture that this is even possible, and yet his kind and sweet disposition just naturally expresses it. Calza, who will never seem to be an actor, plays this to perfection. Again there is that feeling as you watch him that he just exists and we are just fortunate enough to have come upon him.

The almost sedentary pace of the movie allows us ample time to fall in love with both of these characters and when they finally touch one another, embrace, allow their emotional sides to be seen, we are almost grateful to be there in the room with them.

I went into this movie unsure about what I’d see, but hoping for some one-on-one action but I came out grateful that I’d been given the chance to witness the start of what could be a truly passionate relationship some day. I wait for the sequel, hope for a postcard from them saying things are good. It’s wonderful to watch a friendship grow from thin soil and dry weather. I hope it blossoms. I’ll watch this again, hoping for additional clues.
Ciao, a film by Yen Tan and Alessandro Calza. HereVideo/E1 Entertainment. 87 minutes. $24.98.
Reviewed by J. Peter Bergman

J. Peter Bergman is a journalist and playwright,living in Berkshire County, MA. A founding board member of the Berkshire Stonewall Community Coalition and former New York Correspondent for London’s Gay News, he spent a decade as theater music specialist for the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives at Lincoln Center in NYC, is the co-author of the recently re-issued The Films of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy and a Charles Dickens Award winner (2002) for his collection of short fiction, "Counterpoints." His features and reviews can also be read in The Berkshire Eagle and other regional publications. His current season reviews can be found on his website: www.berkshirebrightfocus.com. He is a member of NGLJA.

The killers are...., The killers are Here

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Posted on Advocate.com April 11, 2010

Police Probe Gay Link to White Supremacist Murder

By Advocate.com Editors

South African police investigating the murder of well-known white supremacist Eugene Terre'blanche are looking into allegations that he attempted to have sex with the suspects accused in the crime.

A lawyer for the two black laborers charged with the murder has claimed that Terre'blanche attempted to have sex with at least one of the defendants, according to the Associated Press. Police in Johannesburg had earlier claimed an unspecified pay dispute between Terre'blanche and the two men was at the heart of the slaying. Officials have not commented on the defense lawyer's account.

"We will investigate all pertinent facts that have a bearing on the matter," one official said.

A leader long on the margins of South African politics following the end of the apartheid era in the early 1990s, Terre'blanche was known for his racist and homophobic diatribes as founder of the Afrikaner Resistance Movement. He served six years in prison beginning in 2001 for assaulting a gas station worker and the attempted murder of a security guard in 1996.

Terre'blanche was found half-stripped and beaten to death on April 3 at his family farm near Ventersdorp, 60 miles west of Johannesburg. Thousands of his followers waved apartheid-era flags at his Friday funeral.