Listening to Podcasts, Reading Blogs, and Watching Photos (2007-02-08/07-13)

I want to share below some Web sites I find entertaining, a mixture of links from artists and friends. The blogs and photostreams of friends broadcast parts of their lives. I read them daily between tasks (really when I want to procrastinate).

Noticing that Walt, Jeff, and others have blogrolls and del.icio.us bookmarks, I decided to share selections from my reading using my news aggregator. The result is "William's Blogroll" on the right of the Where's William? page, which leads to shared items (also available as a feed for those using a feed reader).

Below are a few of my favorite sites:

• In Language Log linguists discuss language in the modern world--in news, in software, and on the Web.
• Scott Adam's Dilbert comic strip is popular with white-collar workers.
• xkcd is a "webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language" by Randall Munroe.
• My London friend ketuzin is a student and amateur photographer.
• My business partner Jim Benson writes about technological cooperation on the Web--and food and music.
• The Open Source podcast is my most recent addition to my previous podcast listening.
  

Watching Ne le dis à personne (2007-06-01)

In November while Ryan and I were in Paris, we noticed the release of Ne le dis à personne/Tell No One, a thriller based upon a novel. Upon our return to the States Ryan bought the novel No se lo digas a nadie, thinking it was a translation of the novel that formed the basis of the film in France. No se lo digas a nadie is indeed the basis for a movie--a different movie, No se lo digas a nadie/Don't Tell Anyone (which, like any movie mentioned in this blog, I had seen).

I'm glad we went to see Ne le dis à personne, as it was quite good. It had action, romance, and plot twists.

Watching Death at a Funeral (2007-06-01)

A modern UK comedy, Death at a Funeral centers around sibling rivalry and secrets (almost) taken to the grave. Those familiar with "Firefly" and Serenity will recognize Alan Tudyk.

Watching Black Sheep (2007-05-31)

The tagline, "Get ready for the Violence of the Lambs!" and the trailer tell the viewer what to expect from this New Zealand film: gory black comedy. A number of scenes are deliberately gross, with the camera panning across the bloody stumps of limbs chewed off by killer sheep. The comedy, of course, comes from the fact that it's sheep doing the killing. Surprisingly, I found Black Sheep more gory and less humorous than Fido.

Watching Ein Freund von mir (2007-05-31)

After watching the trailer a friend in Berlin thought that A Friend of Mine/Ein Freund von mir would have no real story but nevertheless be humorous. Indeed, even though fast cars are part of the plot, so are conversations; the film is more striking for its tone than its sequence of events. It shows the development of friendship between two quirky characters, one of whom is played by Daniel Brühl. I'll recommend the film to my German friends.