killing me loudly with his song

I'm about to crawl into bed, happy and full of fine bacon vodka spaghetti -- but before I do, I have to post this.



I first heard this song this morning, on my way to work. Two minutes in, I was already singing along with it, belting out the chorus with all my soul as I hurtled down the 110 freeway. I had no idea the song was by Death Cab for Cutie [trust me, it's a fine figure of a website, nice 'n' retro] until I Googled "i will possess your heart" a few minutes ago this evening. The video is a wisp of a thing, plotwise, but it sure captures a lot emotionally. Not sure how, since watching a beautiful woman walking around the world doing nothing isn't normally my idea of compelling entertainment.

Anyway, they will possess my heart, those dastardly devils of deliciousness known as Death Cab. I feel like such a sell-out trendster now, but it's a good kind of pain.

products progressing though production progress, bang

I was sitting in training yesterday in order to learn how to use a particular database. Here is a direct quote from the presentation:

"A lifecycle represents a succession of phases or steps at which a product progresses through a production progress."

Because, you know, banging your head against a brick wall can be so goshdarn time-consuming sometimes, and PowerPoint presentations offer greater efficiency for achieving the same result.

SEE Neopoleon.com: Are You Passionate About Utilizing Your Core Competencies To Effect Strategic Outcomes?

no, the OTHER Astrid Phillips

There is somebody out there doing biology in my name. Once in a while, I get emails meant for her.

October 2005:

I have your LSU contract ready for your signature, please see Christine in 202 LSB to sign. Thanks . . . .

Department of Biological Sciences
Louisiana State University

And then there was this:

April 2006:

This is a test of the Emergency Contact Management System. Please reply to this email so that we can determine the response time and if this alternative email address is valid. . . .

Department of Epidemiology
Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine

Most recently, before Hurricane Gustav reached Louisiana, there was this:

Sunday, August 31, 2008 4:06 PM

Hi Astrid,

I just wanted to check on you and Lee and make sure that you both are ok. Did you evacuate? I spoke to Brad on Friday and he told me about the university closing. If you need anything at all, please don't hesitate to ask. I hope that you are both safe and stay that way through this entire process.

All I can say is, this other Astrid Phillips sure gets around in terms of teaching biology in Louisiana, plus she has terrific friends, plus her email address must be only one letter off from mine. Perhaps I should start an Astrid Phillips Club, just for an excuse to meet everybody else living in my name. So, here we go:

I hereby announce the existence of the The Astrid Phillips Club. If your name is Astrid Phillips, or if you know somebody named Astrid Phillips, contact me immediately at astridica@yahoo.com. Most likely, absolutely nothing will happen. Or we could all end up best friends. Really, who knows where this could go?

petaheat turns to stoopid

Petascale data-centers in Nature [via Boing Boing]: "Every watt that you put into retrieving data and calculating with them comes out in heat, whether it be on a desktop or in a data centre; in the United States, the energy used by computers has more than doubled since 2000. Once you're conducting petacalculations on petabytes, you're into petaheat territory. Two floors of the Sanger data centre are devoted to cooling."

Do we still lack the technology to harness this heat in order to power other things? We can't possibly be this stupid.

Happy Friday the 13th!

For the first time in a while, I'm feeling thoroughly lucky.

i heart digital art

This video is so beautiful it almost takes my breath away. I love the kaleidoscopic quality of the editing, the angular self-possession of the dancer Masako Yasumoto, the elegant black-and-white design, the simplicity of the diffuse overhead lighting, even the almost-cheesy-but-not-quite VFX of the 'water' streaming out from Yasumoto's gestures towards the end of the piece. Man, I love it all. ::sighs happily::

Bear in mind that the music, such as it is, happens to be one of those chiptune disco tracks which might annoy the hell out of you at the very least, and render you temporarily deaf with its prolonged high tones at the very most, but I think it adds a certain Gibsonesque (WiGi?) charm.

Regardless, I love this digital objet, score and all. I luuuuv it. I lurrrrrve it. I may have to get a hotel room with it. Enjoy!

the 6%

WARNING: feminist discussion below. If you're not feeling terribly feminist-discussion-oriented, then I strongly urge you to check out the charming, Lord of the Mapquest Programmers, popcult-savvy Clifton Craig, since goodness knows he's been trying to funnel enough traffic to li'l ol' me, and it's time I return this long-overdue favor. Then, go visit the dashing, Lord of the Sound Designers Who Also Enjoy Programming, Frank-Capra-savvy Jamie Hardt; he rocks his shades like Corey Hart, but with rather less pouting, thank goodness.

And then, of course, there is always the prestige of the Pianola.

Moving right along:

I know a fab filmmaker named Sasha from USC, and yesterday she sent out a mass email to us 'SC alumnae informing us of the following:

nyt article about women in movies
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/movies/moviesspecial/04dargi.html
[requires free registration]

This article says nothing new; it's all the same moaning which has been going on for years about the obvious fact that everybody hates the gals, nobody in the film biz wants to hire us, nobody wants to market to us, we'll never make it in the boys' world, we all might as well just march ourselves into the ocean along with our wretched scrapbooking, potpourri, suffrage etc.

These articles annoy me, both because I've seen so many of them they're turning into a whiny, depressing blur; and also because my spunky, brave nature hates admitting they're true. It's pretty brutal when multiple male cinematographers tell me that they've seen their female counterparts get offered far less pay for the same jobs, if the gals even got offered the jobs at all. Sigh. But hey, that's what I signed up for; no one put a gun to my head and said "Attempt a career in film, Ms. Phillips, or I'll hand your brains to your parents in a convenient and tastefully decorated plastic bag."

But here's something which stood out for me:

"Some point to the lack of female directors, whose numbers in both the mainstream and independent realms hover at around 6 percent."

When I read that, I immediately had to send out this mass response to the email list:

Thanks for the article, Sasha! What I find really crazy -- and I'd love to have somebody on this list prove me wrong -- is that the figure "6%" seems to crop up a lot with women in film. The article says about 6% of current, mainstream directors are female; this is the same percentage I got when calculating female membership of the ASC as well as of the SOC. Crazy!

So, where did the magic number 6 come from? Surely it's not that we only have 6% of a typical man's testosterone? 6% of a typical man's ambition? Enterprise? Talent? Are only 6% of America's female population willing to try film in the first place? Or are there really hordes and hordes of us, and most male executives possess only 6% of their total possible courage to hire us and market to us?

All very peculiar. Any and all thoughts on this would be welcome!
Astrid "Six Percent" Phillips

And I hereby extend this invitation to you, dear reader, to offer your opinion on the subject. Or put on your red shoes and dance the blues, with your Corey Hart shades on at night, whichever comes first. (He really is wearing red shoes in his "Sunglasses at Night" video, I love it!)

Oh yeah, and happy Cinco de Mayo, while you're at it. Olé and so forth.