From David Denby comes The New Yorker’s Best Films of 2009 list, and includes only two films that I saw in the theaters (yes, it was an odd year).  I would not consider “Up” to be one of the ten best of *any* year, but – opinions are individual, and if Denby liked it that much, good for him.

I did think “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” was spectacular, and am pleased to see it on this list.  Go see it if you can – it’s still in theaters right now.

One notable thing is how anti-star-power the assembled list ends up being: where are the huge Hollywood stars?  The giant productions?  The multi-million dollar budgets?  It’s a pretty subtle list, an understated list, a calm list, almost a soporific list.

As an aside, I agree with what he writes about “Inglorious Basterds” – too violent and context-insensitive to be a great film.

Tuesday night I joined a standing-room-only crowd at the King Cat Theater in downtown Seattle for Ignite! Seattle 8. I think this is the fourth Ignite! event in Seattle I’ve gone to, and I like to do a little recap of my experience following the event.  My body having decided this week that it needs 10+ hours of sleep a night (must be fighting off something), I’m a little tardy, but here goes: a recap of selected presentations that I thought were worthy of some special mention.  Note that these are not necessarily in order.

Eugene Lin – iPhoning my way to retirement, $.70 at a time
Eugene kicked off the night with a riotously funny recap of his experiences developing iPhone apps.  Excellent use of animation and repetition in the slides to carry his thesis along.

Benjamin Franklin – Intellect: without an outlet in the world
This presentation was notable for the period-authentic attire worn by the presenter, whose real name is still a mystery to me.  Eccentric? Yes, a bit.  He spoke about Ben Franklin being the “original geek”.

Wendy Chisholm (wendyabc) Challenge your assumptions. Innovate. Change the world.
Wendy gave an inspiring talk about how we think about design and accessibility that was punctuated with visually compelling yet understated slides.  I contradict myself constantly when I think about how best to use slides in an Ignite! talk.  On the one hand, dense or animated slides give the audience something to look at while listening to the speaker; on the other hand, subtle slides combined with a passionate presentation can be equally effective.

Sarah Schacht (sarahschacht) Overcoming Cacophony: Making Gov 2.0 Work for You
Sarah, the founder of Knowledge As Power, oozes spirit and intensity when she talks about good government and citizen involvement.  The first time I ever saw Sarah she was giving an Ignite! presentation in the old home on Capitol Hill, and she is still active, enthusiastic, and extremely knowledgeable.  Great information, strong delivery, and as always, a timely topic. 

Jason Carmel (defenestrate99) Defamation and Twitter – A Practical Guide to Covering Your Ass
Another very funny presentation on how not to get sued as you spread your words out over the innertubes.  Considering that I just got accused of defamation and libel by a very litigious claimant (long story), I should have been taking closer notes.

Norman Guadagno (thinktone) Amazon Archaeology OR Swimming In Our Own Clickstream
This presentation fell into the personal lifestream category – Norman looked back with humor and curiosity at his Amazon purchases and how they tied into his corresponding life circumstances.   I really liked his presentation – I wonder how I’ll look back at my 2009 blog posts in 10 years.

Dylan Wilbanks (dylanw) Everyone Core Dumps: Death and Loss For The Geek
This presentation hit home for me – it was about how to care for people when someone close to them has passed away.  ‘Nuff said.

Mike Tyka – Cubes in the Sky
Mike teamed with Richard Bailey to give a back-to-back talk about a giant interactive Rubik’s Cube they built at Burning Man, and it was fascinating stuff.  Burning Man-as-background-story always plays really well to Ignite! audiences, and I have to say that thing they built was just fucking AMAZING.

Again and again I can’t say enough good things about Brady Forrest and the team that helps organize Ignite! Seattle.  They really do a service to the community and should be applauded for their tireless efforts.

There was a strange situation with regard to minors – they had to be segregated off in one corner of the theater about thirty minutes before the start of the talks.  I’m guessing that we can thank the Washington Liquor Control Board for this one – officiousness at its best worst.

Best presentation?  I’d have to give it to Eugene Lin: very funny, timely, and he combined a showman’s sense of confidence with some great slides.

Hope you were there to see it in person; if not, the next event is in March, as part of some sort of global Ignite! week, where 40+ Ignite! sessions will be held all over the world.

We’re all mentally lazy," says psychologist Scott Lilienfeld of Emory University in Atlanta. "It’s simply easier to focus our attention on data that supports our hypothesis, rather than to seek out evidence that might disprove it.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703811604574533680037778184.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories

(I like to think of confirmation bias as “relentless optimism in face of constant disappointment” )

David Denby, perhaps the preeminent film critic of our time (although I love Anthony Lane also), reviewed the Coen brothers’ new film A Serious Man in a recent New Yorker and wrote:

The Coen brothers in the black, bleak, belittling mode, and, except for a few moments, it’s hell to sit through […] As a work of film craftsmanship, the movie is fascinating; in every other way it’s insufferable.

I wish I’d read his review before I shelled out the $10 to see the movie, because my review was right in line with his. On the other hand, a night out at the movies is a treat no matter what the outcome.

Whip It is the story of a seventeen-year old girl, a square peg in a round hole, who is stuck in small-town Texas and longs for escape.  So many movies, especially those made by Fox Searchlight Pictures, could start out that way.  The girl, Bliss (played by Ellen Page, in a role that seemed written especially for her) finds her particular outlet in the high-velocity world of women’s roller derby.  While working at the Oink Joint BBQ restaurant and finishing out high school, she spends her evenings with her skates laced up, and the movie revolves around her efforts to find her dreams in the face of parental disapproval and small-town peer pressure.

I won’t give away any plot details that might ruin the movie, but instead I’ll talk about what I liked.  First of all, it’s got a true-to-life, indie feel to it – no big-budget Hollywood over-exuberance here.  Second, just like a few other sleeper indie films over the past few years (Little Miss Sunshine, Napoleon Dynamite, and Juno, which also starred Ms. Page), the movie is charming, disarming, and ultimately uplifting.  There are no huge surprises here – it’s not a whodunit – but part of the allure of this genre of film is being able to root for the hero, the misunderstood rebel, and cheer as things turn their way.

The actors – especially the ladies of the roller derby teams – were chosen well.  Drew Barrymore, the director, also makes a supporting appearance as Smashley Simpson, a girl with anger management issues who just wants to have fun.  Juliette Lewis, at least the 90 pounds of her that are left to ogle, plays the bitchy Iron Maven, the antihero, and she swaggers and hisses and purrs wonderfully.  I LOVED Andrew Wilson’s turn as the coach of the Hurl Scouts.  “Run the plays, people!” lol.

My biggest acting surprise was Daniel Stern, who plays Bliss’s Longhorn-loving father.  After years of watching Stern play the lanky goofball in films like Home Alone and City Slickers, it was a surprise to see him in a more weighty role, emotionally speaking.  I think he did very well.

There’s a very cool make-out scene underwater in a pool that brought to mind the same scene in Children of a Lesser God, although this one had much less va-va-voom going on.  The song they played during that scene has stuck in my head – must find it on iTunes.

The highlight of the film?  The roller-derby scenes were trés über, but the best part for me was watching Bliss realize over time that she could do what was best for her and still be OK.  We’re all bound up in convention, expectation, inertia, habit, and rules – but those bonds can be unwound, and new paths cleared as we move on with our lives.  That really spoke to me.

About a month ago, Zoka opened a new store in Kirkland, right at the junction of Central Way and Lake Street. The new Zoka in Kirkland shares a name and a coffee heritage with the two Zoka stores in Seattle, but the interior designer obviously has been born with, or acquired, an “Eastside aesthetic” because the store looks nothing like its Seattle counterparts.

Lots of stainless steel, tile, dimmed light fixtures, and black leather.  They have this awesome hardwood table right in the middle of the lobby – it looks like it was cut out of a single huge tree, but it’s actually four pieces, joined together.  I like the communal aspect of the seating – it’s similar to the large wooden table at the University Zoka store.  Not that I’m up on design lingo, but I might say that the interior exhibits a sort of Asian-Northwest fusion.

How is the coffee?  I drink cappuccinos, which tend to be very sensitive to brewing problems, and my palate can’t detect any difference from the excellent stores across the lake. And, unlike some other coffee shops that I frequent, the baristas at Zoka are all very consistent and it’s difficult to tell one’s output from another’s.

They also have this interesting thing called a “pourover bar” – it’s how they make all their drip coffees at this Zoka.  According to the barista, it results in a cleaner, more full-bodied cup.

Their food selection is similar to, but much more limited than, the Seattle stores.  Whether that’s by design or accident, you won’t see all the awesome selection of pastries that you might be used to.  Since I’m off pastries for a while, I wasn’t too put out.

A few notes for the laptop warrior:

• Outlets are few and far between.  Directly beneath the large wooden table are some floor outlets, but I can’t find a single wall outlet anywhere.
• The WiFi network appears to be adequate, even though I laugh that they misspelled “Kirkland” in their network name.

You can see the full set of photos of the interior by viewing my Whrrl story.

I had a good – possibly great – day today.  In the afternoon I took the kids to the Puyallup Fair.  If you’re a native of Western Washington you probably have lots of great memories of your own about past trips to The Fair (no adjective required; they have the url thefair.com ).   My kids gave me some good new memories of my own today and you can see the photo album here on Facebook if you’re interested in a visual montage of the day.

The best part of The Fair?  For me, it was a simple thing – purchasing Original Fair Scones.  Careful readers may possibly (correctly) conclude why.  Sometimes, it’s the little things – the things that recall past memories; the things that establish or strengthen our connections with friends; the things that top off those needful reservoirs in ourselves with hope or warmth or care or meaning or love – that are the most important.

There was a laughable moment when I paid a guy $5 to guess my weight – and he overestimated my actual weight by 19 pounds.  I haven’t been on a scale in a couple months, but with all the exercise I’ve been doing (and to be fair, a sensible diet), I found that I’m now as lean as I’ve been since I competed in a triathlon in 2004.  Yay me!  I say “a laughable moment” because I paid the guy $5 to win a stuffed animal that probably cost sixty-nine cents, imported from Bangladesh or Ghana or something.  You don’t go to The Fair to save money, that’s for sure.

The great day didn’t start with The Fair, however; I also had a fantastic morning at work.  It’s Monday, right?  Strange.  But I was very productive, starting with a 5:30 AM trip to the gym to continue my exercise streak.  The team had a good start to a new iteration at work with a retrospective/planning meeting that went really well; and I had an excellent time catching up with friends over coffees.  I wish all Monday mornings went this well.

I picked up the journal again – no big surprise to me, all things considered; the timing was predictable, given all the thoughts running through my head over the weekend.  A couple more pages of disintermediated thoughts, direct from brain to page.  I predict that some point in the future, at my commitment hearing, they’ll break out the journal as proof of the crazy train I hopped on a few months ago.  Fair enough.

I also found out today that the friend that I’d been really concerned about is hanging in there; no real change in the situation, but strength and patience and the support of friends can help see us through even the toughest times.  I’ve reiterated my blanket offer of support, in whatever capacity I can offer, and hope that my friend will be able to accept offers of support and consolation and expressions of concern.  Sometimes it’s hard when you’re feeling raw to let people to close, for fear of getting overwhelmed with the pure NOWNESS of the situation.  I understand.  But I care about this friend very much and want to be there, both in tough times and good times.

In closing, I almost can’t believe I’m writing this, but – I can’t wait for tomorrow.

This is a classic Tarantino film; the only odd note was that there wasn’t a single samurai sword or chop-socky fight scene to be found.  But in the classic QT tradition we have lots of in-your-face violence; a woman gets strangled, another woman gets shot, point-blank, in the abdomen and chest, several hapless extras get machine-gunned; a score or more of German soldiers get scalped (yes, you read that right); a British agent and a Gestapo goon shoot off each other’s testicles; and in the most gruesome scene, the “Bear Jew” beats a German sergeant to death with a baseball bat.  Lovely.

Tarantino loves filming violence, but he also loves filming women, and the close-up scenes involving the cinema proprietress Shoshanna  Dreyfus and the fading German film star Bridget von Hammersmark are cinematographic lovemaking of the first order.    He’s able to bring out the full range of emotion in his women leads that he’s just not able to with his male leads.  Case in point: Brad Pitt, playing Lt. Aldo “Apache” Raine, a good ol’ boy whose one goal in life is to “kill me some Nazis”.  Pitt’s a good actor, but here he plays the same note over and over again, with the same throat-bouldery accent, and it gets a little tiring.

Of course the movie couldn’t have been released without a good helping of humor; for example, the side-story about Hugo Stiglitz flashes in with the signature QT Comic Sans labeling superimposed on the screen.  Hitler himself makes an appearance, slamming tables and showing an introspective side consistent with the state of the war in late 1944; Sylvester Groth, playing a simpering, weak Joseph Goebbels, gives a performance that simultaneously make one’s skin crawl and fists clench.

Despite the title’s focus on Pitt and his motley crew of underground Jewish-American butchers, the movie really revolves around – and is owned by – the performance of Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa, the “Jew Hunter”, a detective, a man of immense talents at his assigned task.  In the first scene of the movie, he purrs and cajoles and eventually persuades a French dairy owner to give up the Jewish family hiding under his floorboards, and in happy coincidences, is able to stalk and thwart the Basterds through the remainder of the film.  The final scene of the film involves a visual of Colonel Landa that one isn’t likely to forget – a signature QT fetishistic violence-fuck involving a Very Large Knife.

So am I glad I saw it?  Yes.  It was typical, but not predictable; the film maintains its tension throughout and has some really stunning and blunt scenes.  Was it QT’s best work?  No; but for QT fans it’s definitely worth seeing on the big screen.

Love to hear your review in the comments!

I’ll be using my favorite coffee shop, Zoka Coffee Roasters, as a case in point for how NOT to do social media marketing.

• There’s a new Zoka store that just opened up in Kirkland. The store is not listed in the “Locations” page on the Zoka website. I did end up finding the address and phone number when I googled “kirkland site:zokacoffee.com”, but 95% of internet users won’t know the site: trick.
• Doing a Google Maps search for “Zoka Kirkland” returned zero results in Kirkland.
• No Twitter account? Surely thou jesteth.
• The Zoka account on Facebook is a normal account, not a “fan page”, and gets updated about every solar eclipse. Looking at the feed, you’d never know they’re opening up in Kirkland.
• GetSatisfaction? Nein! Wuhoo! Nyet!
• Zoka has had a lot of success in regional and national barista championships. Phuong Tran won the 2005 national title, Jen Prince (who at one time was my favorite Seattle barista, hands down) won the 2005 NWRBC championship, and Maki Campbell took 2nd place in the 2007 Northwest regionals. You can find this info deep in the Zoka Blog if you search for it via Google, but these sorts of spectacular achievements should be made more front-and-center.
• Speaking of the Zoka Blog, 6 posts this year.  Total.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love love love Zoka, but their social media strategy needs a significant boost in the arm.

What other Social Media Strategy snafus can you find?  What would you recommend?

From an undated(*) “Best of Seattle” roundup on the Seattle Weekly website comes this shout-out to Zoka:

BEST COFFEEHOUSE: Zoka Five reasons why it’s our favorite: Great espresso drinks, beautifully roasted single-estate coffees, rarely a wait for a table, nonstop free wi-fi, and most important, no fucking attitude. 2200 N. 56th St., 545-4277, and 2901 N.E. Blakeley St., 527-0990; zokacoffee.com.

Of course, this immediately blew the mind of every coffee nut in Seattle, as we all have our own favorites.  Mine just happens to be Zoka, but I wouldn’t have complained too much about any of about a half-dozen worthy candidates.

I found this while researching whether or not the new Zoka store in Kirkland is open yet.  I found this Seattle Times article by Melissa Allison that indicates that Zoka Kirkland opened last Wednesday, the 5th of August, so I’m definitely going to head out there tomorrow morning for a little coffee and coding.  By the way, for coffee lovers, you might consider following Melissa’s Twitter account CoffeeCity; she publishes local coffee-related news on a pretty consistent basis, and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s relevant, interesting, and not spammy.

(*) I mean, come on guys, you’re a FUCKING NEWSPAPER.  Put a dateline on your shit.