Ministry of Intrigue

Let The Right One In is a novel from Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, and also now a film from Swedish director Tomas Alfredsson. I’ve consumed both now, and while they each should be judged on their own merits I’m going to attempt to review both the novel and the movie in one post. I’ll be pulling some of this from my review of the book on my GoodReads account.

The Novel

I was extremely impressed with this book. It’s a dark and disturbing tale that is beautifully written. The characters are complex, and the novel manages to capture the essence of human loneliness more effectively than any other book I’ve read in the last few years. Lindqvist grants none of his characters an easy path, and takes the time to depict each of their hopes and pains. Nor does he flinch at showing their evils, whether it’s careless alcoholism, the savage cruelty of children, or the darkness of Eli, as well as Eli’s servant.

Even Oskar, the innocent young protagonist, who has suffered so much abuse from his cruel classmates, has withdrawn from the world, and has turned dark from the years of bullying. Over that time he has nursed a hatred so pure and violent in intent that it could only come from a child. He practices stabbing trees with his knife and daydreams about killing his young tormentors. Good does come into his life though, in the form of a new friend. Eli, a pale waif of a child moves into his complex and slowly begins to befriend him, but Eli only comes out at night, and has been 12 years old for a very long time.

I’m hesitant to even mention the word vampire here, because of all the literary baggage it comes with, especially in a post Anne Rice, post Laurell K. Hamilton world, where Twilight and True Blood are what people immediately think of when the v-word comes into the conversation. So let me make something clear, this is not a vampire novel, or at least it is not just that. It’s a deeply moving story of human loneliness and the darkness that grows from the desperation of any outcast, and therefore a very human story, although many may find the humanity depicted in this novel disturbing. It’s beautifully written though, and your heart aches for the people of this tale, even some of the ones that are unquestionably evil.

The only complaint I have about the book is that it seems like the cast of characters is almost too well defined, and in some cases more for completeness rather than serving the story. For example, there is a decent amount of time spent learning about Tommy and his family, when he really has very little impact on the rest of the story and only actually interacts with the central characters briefly on a handful of occasions. It’s well-written, and great character stuff, but seems like an unnecessary detour from the core of the tale.

The Movie

The film version of Let The Right One In is as beautiful as the novel, and while it is somewhat more circumspect in scope, being more focused on Oskar and Eli rather than the wide cast of characters in from the book, it still manages to successfully communicate the emotional core of the story.

The two young actors playing Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) and Eli (Lina Leandersson), each give stellar performances of difficult material far beyond their years. Hedebrant portrays Oskar’s hatred and desperation with a wide-eyed innocence that is absolutely pitch-perfect. Leandersson’s Eli is also well done, maintaining the appropriate level of awkward childishness and quiet severity that draws Oskar to her. At times though, Eli seems almost too human, and I’m not sure if it’s Leandersson’s portrayal, or Alfredsson’s direction. One important thing in the book is that Eli is never completely human, but instead always has a sense of otherness about about her, which does not hold completely true in the film. It still works though, after all this is no more a “vampire movie” than the novel is a “vampire book”, and this is ultimately a very human story, even Eli’s part of it.

The cinematography of the film is perfect and captures the bleak and lonely winter the story takes place in very well. I can’t speak to how well it captured Sweden in the mid-eighties, but the environment and colors reflect the isolation of Oskar, as well as Eli, whom he first meets out in the frozen playground of his apartment complex as he sits alone in the cold.

Alfredsson has made excellent editorial decisions in bringing this story to screen and has cut some elements of the plot which would have been distracting from the core relationships of the characters. His tight focus and clear understanding of the story he wanted to tell has created something truly great in cinema. It is no wonder the film has won such international acclaim. It’s a splendid piece of art, and after viewing, it is hard not to be profoundly affected by it.

Unfortunately, the DVD distributer of the film used a different set of English subtitles than what was seen in theaters. Supposedly, the original English subtitles are far superior, and outcry has been so loud that the distributer will start pressing the future versions of the DVD with the theatrical subtitles as an additional option, but only as they replace stock, so it could take a while before you see those pressings showing up in stores. Honestly, I saw it on disc, and I still thought it was great, but purists may want to hold off purchasing until theatrical subtitles are available as well. Even if you want to wait on purchasing, you should still consider renting it, because it is excellent, and trust me, you want to see this before an American studio remakes it and mutilates it in the process.

Conclusion

Let The Right One In is profound exploration into human loneliness and savagery, without falling into the trap of becoming a meditation on the nature of evil, which would have been pretentious as well as missing the point. Although it is significant that in both the book and the movie, the characters that are closest to being actually evil are the children that Oskar goes to school with, while Oskar’s salvation and hope comes in the form of a monster that wants to be his friend. It sounds simple and ridiculous simplifying it like that for the purposes of this review, because it plays far out more subtly in the book and movie. Neither make simple choices, and every moment of the story is filled with complex emotions.

Both the book and the movie are well worth your time, and I don’t feel I have to caution you as to the order you approach them in. I discovered the book through watching the movie first, and I don’t feel like it spoiled either for me. They are both excellent, and I highly recommend you check them out.

Final Verdict: The Ministry of Intrigue approves both this book and movie.

Google Voice is Google’s upgrade to the GrandCentral service they acquired almost two years ago. I’ve had a GrandCentral account for almost as long as the service existed, but I never found a reason to use it, mostly because the feature set was just short of being useful enough for me to want to manage an additional phone service. However, Google has added a number of features that make it an extremely compelling service. In particular:

• Ability to place domestic and international calls with Google Voice number
• SMS support and routing
• Voicemail transcription (Also, downloadable as MP3)
• Call conferencing
• Call Recording (Incoming calls only, downloadable as MP3)

Wait, you smell that? Smells like screenshots:

Google Voice Inbox showing SMS functions and voice mail transcription.

Google sends a notification email for new voicemail with the transcription.

Google Voice forwards SMS messages received to my cell phone as well as voicemail notifications.

These features, along with the previously existing call-routing and contact management features (which are awesome) make the service something I could easily see myself becoming dependent on in the near future. I’m already scheming to start routing more of my telephone communication (especially anyone who is not a friend or family member) through my GV account.

Now, Google Voice has already received a ton of press online detailing all the new features, and rather than repeat everything that has already been said, let me just say this: I do not understand how this is not already a paid service. Slap an SLA on this service and I would not even think twice about paying $50 a year for it. The only possible reason I can think of for not doing this is to stay cheaper than Skype, which charges for having a phone number and voice mail. Skype’s international rates are still slightly cheaper than Google’s, but it’s free offerings offer nothing like the basic feature-set provided by Google Voice.

I have only two one complaints about Google Voice. First, the inbox defaults to showing all messages and does not have a way for me to use the unread-only view as my default, which gets annoying because it is an extra mouse-click every time I go to look at my messages. The only way to prevent a message from showing up again is to delete it, which I don’t want to do. (Fixed: Google pushed out an update on 2009-04-02 which defaults the inbox view to unread-only, or at least it remembers my preference). Secondly, While the mobile web app is fast and great, I want a native app for managing my account on my phone. It seems like Android integration is the obvious path for Google, but I would hope they would also follow their previous practice and release an iPhone application (or integrate it into their existing app) as well.

On the whole, I think this is an excellent service and a home-run for Google. It’s the first time I’ve been this excited about a Google product since Google Reader and Gmail. In fact, I’ve written this post partly in the hopes that it will help me stop telling my friends about Google Voice every time we talk to each other, as I am sure they are ready for me to shut up about it. I was even tempted to do a screencast to show off how you work with the application, but video adds a lot of difficulty to the process of hiding other people’s phone numbers, and I respect my friends’ privacy.

Currently the service is only available to users with existing GrandCentral accounts, but Google has stated they plan on opening to the service to new users soon, presumably with “soon” being a value somewhere between a few weeks and just before our sun explodes.

If you have used Google Voice and would like to leave me a comment about what you think, feel free to click the call widget below to leave a voicemail message with my Google Voice account. I’ll keep it active for at least a few weeks. Also, when you leave your message, please indicate if you would like your message included in this post. I don’t promise that I will include your message, but I do promise that if you leave me a voicemail I will not post the audio or your name without your permission. I reserve the write to quote you anonymously in text, however, because I like to write and that’s just the way I roll.

I went to go see Watchmen opening night, and I thought it would be worth my while to jot down some of my thoughts, now that I have had a couple to days to think about the film.

First, a disclaimer, the comics have been out for 20 years, and as such I am unclear of what would be considered a spoiler and I don’t really care. There will be spoilers in this review. If you have not seen/read Watchmen yet, either stop reading this review now or deal with any spoilers you encounter.

Let me start by saying this about Watchmen: in my opinion, it is as faithful a movie adaptation of the comic as we could reasonably expect. It has its flaws, but ultimately Zack Snyder has done a good job bringing the comic to life on the screen. He has captured the look, feel and pace of the comic, and coming in at nearly three hours in duration, Snyder has managed to squeeze in almost every essential scene into the movie, although geek purists may still complain about a few issues. The primary reason for that is that the aforementioned “geek purists” use their ability to identify inconsistencies with the source material and their associated rage as a method of demonstrating dominance in the geek pecking order. In short, that sort of behavior is mostly a pissing match.

So let’s talk about the movie.

In general, I thought the casting for the movie was excellent. Perhaps Adrian Veidt could have been a bit more charismatic, and Malin Akerman’s rendition of Laurie Jupiter was tolerable, but could have been better. However, Billy Crudrup’s Dr. Manhattan, Jeffery Dean Morgan’s Comedian, and Jackie Earl Haley’s Rorschach were all outstanding casting choices, as was Patrick Wilson’s Nite Owl II. The movie would have failed had it cast the lead roles incorrectly, but it succeeded here. I think they probably could have done a better job casting with Nixon, but honestly I don’t care much about him in the movie. He’s a background character in the comic, and only takes a slightly larger role in the movie to help explain to the audience what’s going on politically in this alternate version of 1985.

As you would expect in a Snyder film, the action receives special attention. It’s brutal in the comic, and Snyder definitely brings that to the big screen. There are moments where I think Snyder goes further than the comic, but I have a hard time faulting him for it particularly when he has a modern movie-going audience that’s already seen some gritty comic book movies. I’ve read some reviews where people complain about the violence, particularly in relation to the kidnapping case Rorschach investigates. Complaints seem centered around the sadism of how the little girl was killed, although that’s in the comic too, so the issue is with the established story and not the movie. Admittedly, there is a change here in the movie that some comics fans have an issue with and that is Rorschach’s method of dispatching the kidnapper. The original story had Rorschach handcuffing the criminal to the stove with only a small saw for his wrist and setting the house on fire. I can see one obvious reason why this has been changed: because by now, this has been done in movies and television so many times already that it doesn’t have the same level of impact it once did. In fact, it’s almost passé, so I didn’t have an issue with the change.

Some fans will be disappointed that there is no time devoted in the film for “Tales of the Black Freighter”, the comic within the comic. This has been split out into a separate animated short. In this interview, Snyder says he shot all the in and out scenes at the newsstand in order to incorporate it in the movie, but that we may have to wait for a DVD before we see it integrated into the film. From the interview:

Alan C: We know that the “Black Freighter” is being produced as some sort of add on to the film for home release. What I want to know is will the “Black Freighter” parts cut back and forth to the newsstand and the comic as it does in the book? Will the DVD release have an option to include the “Black Freighter” scenes in context with the film (as they happen in the book) or will it just be a standalone extra?

Zack Snyder: It is my intent right now, and of course all this could change, to create a version of the “Black Freighter” that thread throughout the movie. As I write this, I have already shot the ins and outs of the News Vendor and Bernard… So we’ll try them in the film and then certainly we’ll at least see them on the DVD, but if it works awesome, then it works awesome, and it could end up in the film. I just want to make the best movie I can.

I’ve heard some fans complaining that not enough time was dedicated to Rorschach’s story, and in particular a sense of disappointment that the film wasn’t as character driven as the comic was. This is a valid complaint, but in order to do such a thing without cutting any of the other essential scenes would have required a minimum of another hour of screen time in order to do them properly. The cuts that would have been required in order to pull that off would have had every fan up in arms. Honestly, the only way to do that would have been to film Watchmen as a high budget miniseries, with an episode for each chapter, and even then I’m not sure that would work.

The ending of the film undergoes a slight change, but I have to say, I think it was a better choice within the context of the movie. To establish the original ending would have probably required another 30 minutes or more of build up in the course of the film and honestly, I think this works a bit better than what’s in the comic for the final strike of Veidt’s plan. I’ve always had a problem with the comic’s ending because I feel like it comes out of left field. Moore does his work establishing the design and backstory for the alien beast, but then says that Veidt cloned its brain from human psychics, without ever previously establishing that psychic phenomenon exist in the context of the story. That always felt a little sloppy to me, and especially in deference to making a movie that is not six hours long, the shift in focus to Dr. Manhattan is much better choice for the film.

I’ve heard some people complaining about the way the soundtrack of the movie was handled, it didn’t always fit what was happening on the screen. A lot of the music seemed to be selected by the lyrics that were quoted in the comic, but when the music was put up against the backdrop of the screen it didn’t work. I’ll agree that it was an awkward soundtrack for the film, it probably would have been better to ignore those quotations and just score it based off of the movie itself.

I’ve also read a lot of people complaining about how uncomfortable they were watching the love scene in Nite Owl’s ship. My girlfriend and I both left the movie with the impression it was deliberately shot to be uncomfortably awkward and we found it a little bit funny. It’s an important moment for the two characters, but in the context of the story its also a ridiculous one. I mean, in the comic and the movie, we see that it takes wearing his costume again for Dreiberg to be able to get it up, his self-confidence is so tied into his vigilantism. That being said, that probably could have been expressed with a slightly shorter scene, but in the end I think it works.

I only have one primary complaint about the movie, and it is related to the end, but not the plot change. My issue is with Dr. Manhattan’s departure. In the movie, he explains to Laurie that he is going to another galaxy, and his line “Nothing ever ends” is delivered by Laurie, quoting him. Here’s my issue with this: One of my favorite parts of the original story is that after Veidt has won the complicity of all those involved, and achieved all his goals, he has a moment of self-doubt in his final conversation with Dr. Manhattan (who reveals he is leaving for another galaxy). Veidt asks, “I did the right thing didn’t I? It all worked out in the end.” And Dr. Manhattan replies, “‘In the end’? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.” Veidt calls out for an explanation, but Dr. Manhattan is already gone. It’s significant, and the way it’s shifted around in the film neuters the line and the moment. In my ideal version of the movie, Adrian Veidt would have had this moment with Dr. Manhattan and the movie would have ended as Veidt sits alone in his dark room trying to understand what Dr. Manhattan’s cryptic answer meant.

All that being said, I think Watchmen was an excellent adaptation of the comic, though not without its flaws. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and am really looking forward to getting my hands on the DVD when it comes out so that I can see the super-nerdy extended cut with everything Snyder had to remove from the film to get it down to just under three hours. I’m particularly excited at the possibility to see a version of the movie with the Black Freighter comic integrated into it. If you haven’t seen the movie yet (in which case why did you read a review filled with spoilers), I recommend you go see it, especially if you are a fan of the comic. If you haven’t read the comic, you may have to watch it more than once to understand everything that is going on, but you should really read the comic anyway.

Final Verdict: The Ministry of Intrigue approves this movie.

I know that I usually write about geekery and tech here, but I do occasionally walk away from my electronics and live in the physical world. This is categorized, appropriately, as a “good thing“. Certainly my girlfriend, friends and family appreciate it. So I thought I’d share with you something from my adventures in meatspace.

I love to cook. I don’t set aside time for it often enough, but I love preparing an elaborate meal that will be enjoyed by others. I collect recipes and cookbooks, although I only rarely refer back to them. Most of my cooking is more like improvisational theater based off of a half-remembered premise rather than a scripted scene, and I rarely record what I come up with, preferring to rely on memory and creativity when I revisit a particular dish. That being said, I did whip up a steak marinade last night that was delicious enough to share with others. It’s not the most elaborate or original recipe in the world, but quite good.

Please note, measurements are not exact, as I’m just estimating on some of them. When I’m cooking I tend to go with “what feels right” rather than a numerical value. I made this marinade for two thick-cut steaks, a ribeye and a New York strip. You may need to adjust the amount of marinade depending on how many steaks you are preparing. You will certainly need to double this if you intend on doing more than two steaks at a time.

Also note that you will want to have at least two bottles (I prefer the widget bottles) of Guinness on hand for this recipe: one to include in the marinade and one to drink while you grill the steaks.

Marinade Ingredients

• 4-5 cloves of garlic (minced very fine, or through a garlic press)
• 5-6 Tbsp of brown sugar
• 7 Tbsp of soy sauce (or more to your taste)
• 1 12 oz. bottle of Guinness

Preparation

Mix the marinade ingredients together in a glass dish or bowl that will be large enough to hold the steaks, but small enough that the marinade will actually cover them. If the marinade doesn’t cover them completely, you can occasionally flip the steaks to ensure that the meat gets fully soaked.

If you wish, you can grind some sea salt onto each side of the steaks and rub it into the meat before placing them in the marinade, but that is a personal choice. I personally like to do it, although I doubt it has a huge impact on flavor after you factor in the marinade itself. Be careful not to overdo it though, just use a little salt. After all, the soy in the marinade already provides plenty of salty goodness.

If you are not going to have time to marinate the steaks for at least 3-6 hours, you can pierce the steaks repeatedly with a fork before placing them in the marinade to help it soak into the center of the meat. This is a bit of a cheat, but if you only have about two hours of marinating time available, it will help. The steaks will increase in tenderness the longer you marinate them, so if you can, try to let them soak for at least four hours. Also, unless you have some highly advanced immune system or just decide to tempt fate, always marinate your meat in the refrigerator.

When you are done marinating the steaks, grill them to your personal definition of perfection. Personally, I prefer to have steak that is prepared medium to medium-rare, but feel free to char them to smithereens if you prefer.

Serve the steaks with your favorite sides. Personally, I don’t think you can go wrong with some potatoes and broccoli, but use whatever you prefer. If you still have some left, drink Guinness with the steaks, or lieu of that, a nice red wine.

As I said, it’s not an especially elaborate or unusual recipe, but it is quite delicious. I know that I will be playing with variations of this marinade for some time to come.

Enjoy!

My good friend Dan Patterson of Creepy Sleepy just recently had a rather nasty wake-up call with regards to his current hosting provider, Bluehost. Due to a security flaw on their servers, malicious files were injected into several of the websites he was hosting there, but despite the fact that it was failure to maintain security on their servers (as opposed to his account being hacked due to weak passwords or similar), they suspended his account. Dan sent out an email to both his friends and the folks whose sites he was hosting explaining the issue. Here is an excerpt of that email (reprinted with permission):

According to the tech support guy (who refused to let me speak to his manager) Bluehost recently (he wouldn’t say when) experienced a security flaw/vulnerability that exploited a vulnerability in php. They initially blamed the problem on Wordpress and said that “everyone” with WP sites was experiencing this right now. I told them that upon doing a Google Blogsearch and Twitter search, I’ve seen no other similar problems. I also pointed out that after the last Bluehost security flaw (yes, something similar happened a month or two ago) I made a point to keep every single site up to date. They guy tried to reiterate that it was not Bluehost’s problem if a security vulnerability doesn’t take down every Bluehost site. I replied, calmly (really) that it was their flaw on their servers and that even if it was a php or WP problem, and even if I wasn’t taking care of my servers, they have a responsibility to a) warn me first, b) give me the chance to backup. They killed even backend access. I stayed on the phone until they relented and allowed a short window to backup.

When the long hard ass pain of migration is done, I will look at this as an opportunity to talk about brands. At the core, Bluehost experienced problems that exposed their paying customers to a security flaw. Bluehost lied about the extent of the problem (first they wouldn’t say where the vulnerability occurred, then finally admitted that it originated on their end). Then blamed me, the customer. After prodding, they blamed Wordpress. Finally, they allowed me to back up, but refused to assist in the process or migration. I, the customer, stayed calm during the entire processes. I was not allowed to talk to a manager, and no one apologized or said “I’m sorry sir, we see that you’ve been a customer for a number of years. While we don’t believe the problem is our fault, we would like to assist you in restoring your sites, backing up your data, or migrating to a new provider.” This is customer service 101 and essential for every brand in the digital age.

Forget ethics, forget right and wrong - let’s look at the brand and company. Bluehost’s demo is web-savvy folk looking for affordable hosting. Is this the way a brand should act? Who’s calling the shots? I can understand a car manufacturer, but for a hosting company this is just complete incompetence. And it’s sad.

This is a pretty terrible way for Bluehost to deal with a customer, especially when it appears it was an error on their part. I suspect it has a lot to do with poorly trained, outsourced support staff. But, as Dan said later in his email, this is an opportunity to talk about what a competent brand should do when they make a mistake.

• Own up to it, confess. “We screwed up.”
•  Apologize.
• Make it right, or help the customer move on. Stories like this spread fast, make sure you are the good guy.

Anyone competent knows this, because competent people know that the best solution is to use common sense. So the end result is: Bluehost loses a customer, a customer who happens to be an excellent media producer at that. More than that, they will probably lose a lot of potential customers as well. At least, one would hope so.

Stories like this really mark the night and day difference between companies like Bluehost, and my current hosting company of choice. Webfaction (not an affiliate link, I don’t advertise here) has always been highly responsive and helpful. On the rare occasion that they have made a mistake, they have always been quick to take ownership of the error and make it right for any customers affected. This is what good brands do. This is what good people do. The two concepts usually (and should) lead to the same conclusions.

Really, when looking for the appropriate response to any situation, whether as a brand or a person, it’s actually pretty easy to figure out what to do. Use common sense, and do the right thing. Most importantly, remember what Wil Wheaton said and “don’t be a dick.”

Here’s hoping that Dan’s migration goes well, and that we see the return of Creepy Sleepy sometime soon.