Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

16 September 2003

Antiques, They Wait for No Man

I saw Matchstick Men digitally projected (at AMC 1000 in San Francisco). It's the second movie I've seen that way — the first was the most recent Star Wars movie.

Digital projection has a few obvious benefits today: the picture is stable, no matter how long the movie has been playing; the sound and picture are crisp and clear; and the sound doesn't pop between reels.

The drawback: sometimes it's obvious that you're watching video, especially when there's text on the screen because you can see the jagged edges of the letters. For that reason, Matchstick Men looked better than Star Wars — it didn't have any titles during the movie to identify locations. Still, when the camera turns to a bright field, like the sky, the scan lines are obvious. It suddenly feels like you're watching a big-screen TV.

How about this: AMC 1000 didn't show ads before the movie. They did show six trailers, the AMC logo, and a "Don't add your own soundtrack" hush reel, all projected digitally, but they didn't show any commercials for TV shows, cars, or sugary liquids. Are the ads not yet available in digital format? Woo hoo!

Most of the frenzy over digital projection seems to have died down, but I imagine it's still coming. I'd like to think that the simpler distribution that digital projection allows could make it easier for the little guys to get their movies into more theaters, somehow.

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