I love big robots and I love computer animation. So why, was “Transformers; Revenge of the Fallen” one of my worst movie watching experiences of all time. I think it is worth the effort to elaborate on this horrible piece of cinema, because it should become a landmark of failure in most every realm of film making, decency, and ultimately imagination.

For now, Roger Ebert’s analysis captures the majority of my sentiments…

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meager joys. If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.

The plot is incomprehensible. The dialog of the Autobots®, Decepticons® and Otherbots® is meaningless word flap. Their accents are Brooklyese, British and hip-hop, as befits a race from the distant stars. Their appearance looks like junkyard throw-up. They are dumb as a rock. They share the film with human characters who are much more interesting, and that is very faint praise indeed.

~Roger Ebert, The Sun Times

Roger Ebert’s Kind Review

Categories: Reviews, Film Making, Movies, Criticisms
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Thanks be to the critic
Bring your precision
That well crafted word of deflation
That righteous eye of observation
Convict us of the sin
Of settling for the lesser thing

Thanks be to the critic
The one motivated rightly
Born of pure honesty
Tempered with humility
Defending the senses diligently

Thanks be to the critic
Friend of the populous
Scourge of the callous
Seeker of the righteous

Thanks be to the critic
Revealer of beauty to us
Mindless enjoyment your sacrifice
In a pursuit zealous
For art and culture beneficent

Categories: Poetry, Criticisms
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I have been encountering many challenges to reevaluate my online social habits as of late. After reading this article entitled, “Possibility Junkies” and the discussion source article, “Dwelling in the Possibilities”… I am forced to evaluate my compulsion to blog…

Reading and re-reading books, slowly, keeping personal and private journals (not public blogs) which invite true introspection without the distraction of self-presentation, face-to-face conversations that linger and dwell, conversations that achieve some contrapuntal pleasure, attentive listening to musical works that require us to slow down and perceive subtle resonances and formal nuance: these are monotasking practices of closure, commitment, and contemplation.

~Ken Myers

Why am I doing this again?

Categories: Introspection, Technology, Criticisms, About This
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• Myspace -1
• Humanity +1

Hi Shane Sevo,

We have received your request to cancel your MySpace account.

In order to complete the cancellation process, please click on the link below:


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Categories: Technology, Criticisms
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As part of my current tour through thoughtful critiques of our modern technology saturated culture, I have been reading Steve Talbott’s book, Devices of the Soul; Battling for Ourselves in an Age of Machines.

• 
  Devices of the Soul: Battling for Our Selves in an Age of Machines
  Author: Steve Talbott

Each essay is specifically insightful and the collection as a whole is broad in cultural scope. Talbott does the hard work of trying to frame the discussion of technology in an overarching context that begins with a discussion of how Homer’s Odyssey portrayed Odysseus as an early forerunner of today’s technologist and ends with a myriad of anecdotal snapshots of technology in modern life. The breadth in scope comes from Talbott’s years of writing as a technology journalist / philosopher. Many of these essays and articles are cataloged online at the refreshingly spartan website, www.netfuture.org

I am still in the midst of enjoying this collection of poignant essays. The tone is usually somber, but there are several topics that lend themselves to much humor in content and delivery. One chapter entitled, “The Ideal of Ubiquitous Technology” featured a brief survey of some of the projects undertaken at the renowned MIT Media Lab. The media lab sports the following purpose statement proudly on their website…

“Inventing a Better Future” just above a slide show of recent projects, featuring such entries as “TOFU; a Squash and Stretch Robot”.


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Categories: Technology, Books, Criticisms
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…or,

How FaceBook is killing my friendships.

Let me just come out and say right up front that the real murderer is not FaceBook, or any other social networking technology, the actual culprit is none other than… me. I am the guilty one who perused your profile, made a cursory summation of your life, and decided to shoot you dead with a knowing glance the next time we should meet in person.


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Categories: Confessions, Technology, Criticisms
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I was recently spouting off, with a fair amount of smug self appreciation, about how little television I watch. My good friend, who has probably endured my unsolicited viewership habit report on several occasions, replied back…

That’s something white people like to do… not watch TV and then tell other people about it.

He then informed me of an entire website (and book) dedicated to cataloging stuff white people like. And sure enough, there I am… number 28, “Not Having a TV”. Ok, so technically I do have a TV… several actually… but I rarely use them to actually watch television programming. It truly took me 20 minutes on the phone when ordering my internet package to convince them that I did not want TV with it, the temptation to watch 37 hours of straight History Channel during the “Tale of the Gun” marathon is too great for me to resist.

Anyway, a full perusing of the list revealed much more of my apparent “whiteness”…

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/full-list-of-stuff-white-people-like/

It does seem to be tailored to a specific type of white person. Nascar does not make this list, which may be all that needs to be said in order to describe the type of white person this list intends to quantify. Nevertheless, they got me on several counts… and I enjoyed the biting wit and sarcasm that oozed from each racist wound. It’s a bit like the Onion, but hits so much closer to home… I think the Onion probably deserves to be on the list as well.

• #115 Promising to Learn a New Language
• #107 Self Aware Hip Hop References
• #102 Children’s Games as Adults
  
• #87 Outdoor Performance Clothes
• #44 Public Radio
• #9 Making you feel bad about not going outside

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  Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions
  Author: Christian Lander

Categories: Introspection, Books, Criticisms
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What an interesting turn of events. My fundie baptist college of yesturyear is certainly having some issues…

• The Cedarville Situation
• News Paper Articles

Categories: Cedarville, College, Theology, Criticisms
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• I hate being categorized
• I hate it even more when its derogatory
• I hate it the most when it is true…

This article hurt my free wheeling independent male ego to the core…
http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_1_single_young_men.html

Not so long ago, the average mid-twentysomething had achieved most of adulthood’s milestones—high school degree, financial independence, marriage, and children. These days, he lingers—happily—in a new hybrid state of semi-hormonal adolescence and responsible self-reliance. Decades in unfolding, this limbo may not seem like news to many, but in fact it is to the early twenty-first century what adolescence was to the early twentieth: a momentous sociological development of profound economic and cultural import. Some call this new period “emerging adulthood,” others “extended adolescence”; David Brooks recently took a stab with the “Odyssey Years,” a “decade of wandering.”

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Categories: Criticisms
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… is a chump.
Read all about it…

Categories: Detroit, Criticisms
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Ok, I know I am guilty… but I have been to Europe… it does not excuse much, but it should at least earn me the right to say…

Cheers!

… when it is appropriate. Most of the time it is not. If you are clanking together glasses full of beer at the end of a work day, go ahead and toss it out there with a hearty smile…. but does it really belong at the end of every e-mail you send out? Did you mean cheers when you just got done ripping through a bunch of to do items and action lists for your next corporate conquest? I think not, lets try to practice some self restraint and salvage a few decent greetings for when we really mean it…

Cheers!
Shane R Sevo

(one moderate world traveler who thinks he is the defender of contextual grammer in this one instance)

Categories: Criticisms
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