Balti-Quaking and Smart SF

Unless you’ve been hiding under a convenient rock (or an inconvenient one for that matter) you’ve heard the news coming out of Baltimore where the “activists” have once again stirred up racial tensions and then stood back trying to wash their hands of the consequences. These are the same people who always caution about “rushing to judgment” but do not feel the need to follow that same stricture. The death of Freddie Gray certainly needs to be addressed and guilt assessed wherever a thoughtful investigation leads.

Idiots on Parade

Baltimore is a city of interesting dichotomy. The inner harbor and the area around the ball parks are an island of touristy tranquility completely surrounded by hardscrabble neighborhoods made famous by The Wire. In other words, a potent powder keg that the traveling activists were only too happy to ignite and then sit back to watch the incited carnage. They were enabled by a city leadership whose lenient initial approach allowed chaos to erupt.

In the Immortal Words of my Wife - "You Go Girl!"

Baltimore, though, has more heart than the activists counted on. You have the most famous mom in America now hunting down her rioting son and beating some very public sense into him. Yesterday some of the community leaders formed a line in front of the police line to protect the police from the protest incited hooligans who have stolen whatever “message” the myopic activists intended. Kudos to those brave citizens for trying to take back their own streets despite the lack of news coverage of that event.

Brave Citizens of Baltimore Yesterday

In family news I’m receiving initial reports of my Cali-Daughter surviving her first earthquake. Apparently it failed to impress, only shaking her computer monitor. The office cat didn’t budge from his window perch but given that cat’s level of sloth it would have had to be something truly cataclysmic.

"Energetic" Office Cat Ignoring Quake

I noticed in the local paper yesterday that a movie I’d been anxiously waiting for, Ex Machina, was showing in Worcester but not in our local theater. This entailed a road trip after dinner as my wife agreed to a second movie since I had unwittingly taken her to a chick flick the night before. Ex Machina was science fiction at its most intelligent. The special effects were impressive simply because they were understated and used to just support the plot instead of being the end all be all of the film.

Go See This

The plot of androids and artificial intelligence is well trod SF territory but this may be the smartest look at it in film history. A young man is selected for a mysterious task at the isolated home of an IT genius/billionaire. Once arriving he’s introduced to Ava whom he must interview to assess the quality of her AI. There’s a lot of subtext as to who is playing who and what the ultimate rationale is for the entire exercise. The decisive resolution says a lot about the arrogance of intelligence and the very “human” need for freedom. Clearly one of the best films I’ve seen this year and well worth the road trip.