Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express, which consists of stories about two different lovesick Hong Kong policemen, is one of my three favorite post-1980s films. (The other two are David Lynch’s Lost Highway and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The City of Lost Children.)
David Cronenberg is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor. He is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror genre. This style of filmmaking explores people’s fears of bodily transformation and infection. In the first half of his career, Cronenberg explored these psychological themes mostly through horror and science fiction. Notable works include Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986), eXistenZ (1999), A History of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007). Cronenberg was born on this day in 1943.
Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was the last of four kings to rule the last Sinhalese monarchy of the Kingdom of Kandy on the island of Sri Lanka. The Nayak kings were Buddhists who spoke Tamil. The king was eventually deposed by the British under the terms of the Kandyan Convention, in 1815, ending over 2,300 years of Sinhalese monarchy on the island. The island was incorporated into the British Empire.
Yes, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha really was the King of Kandy. I like to think he lived at the top of a gumdrop-adorned Kandy Mountain surrounded by kandy kane fences, referred to his palace as Kandyland and snacked on only the finest kandy korn. This information is not verifiable via Wikipedia. But I did find that the British Empire declared war on the Kingdom of Kandy in 1815 and the king was exiled to India, never to return. In a related story, Candy told me nothing really matters anymore.
Hugo Chávez was the President of Venezuela from 1999 until his death on March 5, 2013. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when it merged with several other parties to form the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which he led until his death. Following his own political ideology of Bolivarianism (named after Simón Bolívar), Chávez focused on implementing socialist reforms, including a new constitution, increased government funding of health care and education, and significant reductions in poverty.
Note: Shortly after Hugo Chávez’s death last week after a two-year battle with cancer, it was announced that he will be embalmed and put on display “for eternity,” much like the posthumous treatment of Communist leaders Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Ho Chi Minh.
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor who did most of his work as an expatriate in the United Kingdom. He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Many of Kubrick’s films broke new ground in cinematography. His masterpieces include the science-fiction 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), the dystopian A Clockwork Orange (1971) and the psychological horror The Shining (1980). Kubrick died on this day in 1999 at the age of 70.
Gabriel García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, he was awarded the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. García Márquez started as a journalist, but is best known for his novels, including One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), Autumn of the Patriarch (1975) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). His works have helped popularize magic realism as a literary style. García Márquez was born on this day in 1927.
The nonlinear, multi-generational One Hundred Years of Solitude is my wife Heidi’s very favorite book and Gabriel García Márquez is her favorite author. I love magic realism and I agree that García Márquez is a pretty fantastic craftsman of richly detailed run-on sentences. But I was stunned that nearly every character in his famous century-spanning book is named José Arcadio or Aureliano. I am not exaggerating when I state that there are 22 characters named Aureliano in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Twenty-two. If you put this novel down for a few days, you too can share the farcical experience of having to cross-reference a family tree to remember which members of which generation are being talking about in a given chapter—even when you know that history repeating is the point and it almost doesn’t matter. I do like to experience how the world feels from García Márquez’s unique perspective.
Willie Stargell, nicknamed “Pops” in the later years of his career, was a Major League Baseball (MLB) player. He played his entire 21-year career as the left fielder and first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1962-1982). He helped the Pirates capture six National League East division titles, two National League pennants and two World Series (1971, 1979). He was born on this day in 1940.
Alexander Graham Bell was a scientist, inventor and engineer credited with inventing the first practical telephone. Both his mother and wife were deaf, which led him to research hearing and speech. His experiments with hearing devices culminated with the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Many other inventions marked Bell’s later life, including groundbreaking work in optical telecommunications, hydrofoils and aeronautics. In 1888, Bell became a founding member of the National Geographic Society. He was born on March 3, 1847.
In retrospect, Bell considered his most famous invention an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and refused to have a telephone in his study. Over 100 years later, I agree with his assessment. I do not like talking on the phone, or hearing it ring/vibrate/sing pop songs. Bell and I have the same birthday, so perhaps we would agree on many things.
Miranda July is an American film director, screenwriter, actress and artist. Her body of work includes film, fiction, monologue, digital media presentations and live performance art (which she began while living in Portland, Oregon). July wrote, directed and starred in the films Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) and The Future (2011). Her most recent nonfiction book, It Chooses You, was published in 2011. July was born on February 15, 1974.
Miranda July is a hero of my wife Heidi and she wishes they were best friends. On that note, Heidi would like to share some biographical information about July that you won’t find on Wikipedia: “The same extraterrestrial who impregnated my mom also impregnated Miranda July’s mom, which means she and I are alien half-sisters.” Also, Heidi and I learned everything we know about making buttons from July.
Gino Marchetti is a retired National Football League (NFL) player who played for the Dallas Texans (1952) and the Baltimore Colts (1953-1966). He was voted “the greatest defensive end in pro football history” by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1972. Marchetti won his first of two NFL championships in the 1958 NFL Championship Game between the Colts and the Giants, which is often referred to as “The Greatest Game Ever Played” in NFL history. In 1959, Marchetti founded Gino’s Hamburgers. Gino’s became a successful East Coast regional fast food chain and had 313 company-owned locations when it was sold to Marriott in 1982, which converted many of the restaurants to Roy Rogers. In 2010, Marchetti revived the Gino’s name with Gino’s Burgers & Chicken, which first opened in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
Born in the historic coal-mining town of Smithers, West Virginia on January 2, 1927, Gino Marchetti is my first cousin, twice removed. Now 86 years old, he is the most famous member of my extended Italian-American family.
Luis Buñuel was a Spanish filmmaker who worked in Spain, Mexico and France. When Buñuel died at age 83, his obituary in The New York Times called him “an iconoclast, moralist and revolutionary who was a leader of avant-garde surrealism in his youth and a dominant international movie director half a century later.” Often associated with the Surrealist movement of the 1920s, Buñuel created acclaimed films in six decades, from the 1920s through the 1970s. Still, he is perhaps best known for his first film, Un Chien Andalou (1929), a 16-minute silent short made with Salvador Dalí. Buñuel was born on this day in 1900.
Chuck Palahniuk is an American novelist and freelance journalist, who describes his work as transgressional fiction. He is best known as the author of the award-winning novel Fight Club (1996), which was made into a feature film. Beginning with Lullaby (2003), the style of his novels has shifted to satirical horror. Palahniuk has had 13 novels and two nonfiction books published, the most recent being Invisible Monsters Remix (2012), a restructured and updated version of his 1999 novel. He maintains homes in the states of Oregon and Washington. Palahniuk was born on this day in 1962.
Douglas Rushkoff is an American media theorist, writer, technology commentator and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture, and his advocacy of open source solutions to social problems. Rushkoff is also known for coining terms and concepts including viral media (or media virus), digital native and social currency. He has written many books on media, technology and culture—as well as fiction works and graphic novels. His new book, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, is now available for preorder and will be released on March 15, 2013. Rushkoff was born on this day in 1961.
Two years ago, at WebVisions 2011 in Portland, I had Rushkoff sign my copy of his 2010 book Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age. As we chatted, I told him I worked at a university. He then asked about the learning management system my employing university uses to deliver courses online. I told him Blackboard (and possibly sighed bleakly). In reply, on the inside of the book, Rushkoff wrote, “For Ian – Blackboard is intentional,” and signed his name. His comment points out that software interfaces (and screens, in general) force users into particular patterns of thought, both subconsciously and consciously. Corporate models of screen-mediated learning are increasingly shaping how individuals understand the world, but to whom is the UI/UX in service? In a global sense, who stands to benefit most from the way our brains are being trained to consume/learn in this digital world? Related to these questions is another recent Rushkoff book, Life, Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back, for which there are many interesting videos available.
Matt Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, producer, animator and voice actor. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell (1977-2012) as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons (1989-present) and Futurama (1999-2003, 2008-present). Groening has won 12 Primetime Emmy Awards, 10 for The Simpsons and two for Futurama. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012. Groening was born in Portland, Oregon on this day in 1954.
Randy Moss is a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). Last season he played for the San Francisco 49ers, but Moss spent most of his career with the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots. He holds the NFL single season touchdown reception record (23, set in 2007) and is second on the NFL all-time regular season touchdown reception list with 155. A freakishly gifted athlete, Moss played college football at Marshall University and is one of the most famous “sons of Marshall.” He was born on this day in 1977 in West Virginia.
After a 15-1 regular season with the 1998 Vikings, and an 18-1 season with the juggernaut 2007 Patriots (whose only loss was the Super Bowl XLII upset), Moss just missed another chance at his first Super Bowl ring with the 2012 49ers. “I really think I’m the greatest receiver to ever play this game,” Moss said at Super Bowl media day in New Orleans on January 29, 2013. I agree that Moss is the greatest NFL receiver, in terms of pure, terrifying athletic talent, but NFL legend Jerry Rice leads him in every significant career statistical category. If Moss had a stronger work ethic, I’m pretty sure he could have been the greatest football player of all time.
Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He helped develop many influential devices, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera and the electric light bulb. However, to quote the hilarious Nikola Tesla comic by The Oatmeal, “Edison did not invent the light bulb. Edison simply figured out how to sell the light bulb. Edison was not a geek; he was a CEO.” And he was a terrible human being. For example, as a developer of direct current (DC) electricity, Edison put live “dogs and cats on display and publicly electrocuted them using Tesla’s alternating current (AC). His goal was to publicly smear Tesla’s AC and convince the public that it was too dangerous for home use. The only thing Edison truly pioneered was douchebaggery.” Edison was born on this day in 1847.
I will also reiterate what I wrote for my 8-bit Nikola Tesla character last year. I love this Funny or Die episode about Tesla and the evil Thomas Edison: “This is awful. I am inventing electricity and you look like an asshole.”
Anna-Lynne Williams is a Seattle musician best known as the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of Trespassers William, an indie rock band active from 1997 to 2012. The style of Trespassers William is often called experimental shoegaze or dream pop music. In 2007, Anna-Lynne started recording solo music under the name Lotte Kestner. She is also a member of Ormonde, with Robert Gomez. In 2010, Anna-Lynne established the Saint-Loup Records label to release music by Sergius Gregory as well as Lotte Kestner. The newest Lotte Kestner album The Bluebird of Happiness is now available for preorder and will be released on February 26, 2013. Anna-Lynne was born on this day in 1978.
Yesterday Anna-Lynne was named Trainwreck’d Society’s Person of 2012, which made me happy. Trespassers William have been one of my very favorite bands since I stumbled across an MP3 of “I Know” in 2001—and Anna-Lynne’s solo work is just as beautiful and haunting. On November 5, 2010, Heidi and I serendipitously had our first date at a small Trespassers William house show in the Wallingford district of Seattle. Also playing that night were OK Sweetheart and Goldfinch. On January 8, 2011, we returned to Seattle for a second Trespassers William house show, that time featuring Tomo Nakayama and Joshua Morrison. We have such fond memories of these wonderful, intimate concerts. Now two years later, Heidi and I are married and expecting our first child this summer. What I’m saying is that our happiness is pretty much Anna-Lynne’s fault. ♥
Alejandro Jodorowsky is a Chilean-French filmmaker, playwright, actor, author and comics writer. A hero of the underground film circuit, he is best known for his violently surreal avant-garde films, including cult classics Fando y Lis (1967), the acid western El Topo (1970) and The Holy Mountain (1973). Jodorowsky’s “psychoshamanism” spiritual system borrows from his interests in alchemy, the tarot, Zen Buddhism and shamanism. He was born on this day in 1929.
Hans Rudolf Giger is a Swiss surrealist painter, sculptor and set designer. He was part of the special effects team that won an Academy Award for Best Achievement for Visual Effects for their design work on the 1979 film Alien. Giger suffers from night terrors, a sleep disorder that has inspired his “biomechanical” work. One of Giger’s main influences was Salvador Dalí and he was a personal friend of Timothy Leary. He was born on this day in 1940.
In October 2012, while train-hopping across Europe, Heidi and I toured the Museum H.R. Giger in Château St. Germain in Gruyères, Switzerland. We also had lunch at the otherworldly, skeletal H.R. Giger Bar, where we ate Margherita pizza and I drank a flaming glass of absinthe. It’s an incredible place set in a stunning Swiss Alps landscape.
Robert Pack is a retired American professional basketball player. Nicknamed “Pac-Man,” he had a 13-season career in the NBA, most notably with the Denver Nuggets from 1992-1995. As a reserve point guard with the Nuggets, Pack was like a 6′ 2″ firecracker coming off the bench. His athleticism, energy and dunking ability could completely change the momentum of games. Pack is currently an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers. He was born on February 3, 1969.
Since I spent much of my childhood in Iowa, I was naturally a fan of the nearby Chicago Bulls (or, more accurately, I was a fan of Michael Jordan). But during Michael Jordan’s first retirement (1993-1995), my Bulls support wavered and I looked to other NBA teams. I decided to jump on the Denver Nuggets bandwagon while Jordan played baseball. Pack was part of an exciting young Nuggets team starring Dikembe Mutombo, LaPhonso Ellis and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf that went on to become the first eighth-seeded team in NBA Playoffs history to defeat the first-seeded team. In the first round of the 1994 NBA Playoffs, the Nuggets upset the mighty Seattle SuperSonics—which I enjoyed because I thought that Shawn Kemp-led Seattle team had a bad attitude.
Wong Kar-wai – No. 589
Wong Kar-wai is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Chungking Express (1994), Fallen Angels (1995), Happy Together (1997), In the Mood for Love (2000) and 2046 (2004). His latest film, The Grandmaster, was released in Asia earlier this year. Wong often wears sunglasses and often casts Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung in his films.
Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express, which consists of stories about two different lovesick Hong Kong policemen, is one of my three favorite post-1980s films. (The other two are David Lynch’s Lost Highway and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The City of Lost Children.)