martes, mayo 15, 2012

T.I.M.E. de cine (películas mágicas): El Mago de Oz

Aquí

La protagonista (la que le da el centro a la historia): Judy Garland

Los demás (los que giran alrededor de Dorothy) son todos personajes excepcionalmente entrañables:

Ray Bolger (el espantapájaros)

Bert Lahr (el león cobarde)

Jack Haley (el hombre de hojalata)


Minibio desde imdb:

"One of the brightest, most tragic movie stars of Hollywood's Golden Era, Judy Garland was a moved-loved character whose warmth and spirit, along with her rich and exuberant voice, kept theatre-goers entertained with an array of delightful musicals.

She was born Frances Ethel Gumm on 10 June 1922 in Minnesota, the youngest daughter of vaudevillians Frank and Ethel Gumm. Her mother, an ambitious woman gifted in playing various musical instruments, saw the potential in her daughter at the tender age of just 2-years-old when Baby Frances repeatedly sang "Jingle Bells" until she was dragged from the stage kicking and screaming during one of their Christmas shows and immediately drafted her into a dance act, entitled "The Gumm Sisters", along with her older sisters Mary Jane Gumm and Virginia Gumm. However, knowing that her youngest daughter would eventually become the biggest star, Ethel soon took Frances out of the act and together they traveled across America where she would perform in nightclubs, cabarets, hotels and theaters solo.

Her family life was not a happy one, due largely in part to her mother's drive for her to succeed as a performer and also her father's closeted homosexuality. The Gumm family would regularly be forced to leave town due to her father's illicit affairs with other men and from time to time they would be reduced to living out of their automobile. However in September 1935 the Gumm's, in particular Ethel's, prayers were answered when Frances was signed by Louis B. Mayer, mogul of leading film studio MGM, after hearing her sing. It was then that her name was changed from Frances Gumm to Judy Garland, after a popular 30s song "Judy" and film critic Robert Garland.

Tragedy soon followed however in the form of her father's death of meningitis in November 1935 and, having been given no assignments with the exception of singing on radio, the threat of losing her job following the arrival of Deanna Durbin. Knowing that they couldn't keep both of the teenage singers, MGM devised a short entitled Every Sunday (1936) which would be the girls' screen test. However, despite being the outright winner and being kept on by MGM, Judy's career did not officially kick off until she sang one of her most famous songs "You Made Me Love You" at Clark Gable's birthday party in February 1937, during which Louis B. Mayer finally paid attention to the talented songstress.

Prior to this her film debut Locuras de estudiantes (1936), in which she played a teenage hillbilly, had left her career hanging in the balance. However following her rendition of "You Made Me Love You", MGM set to work preparing various musicals with which to keep Judy busy. All this had its toll on the young teenager and she was given numerous pills by the studio doctors in order to combat her tiredness on set. Another problem was her weight fluctuation, but she was soon given amphetamines in order to give her the desired streamlined figure. This proved to be the downward spiral that resulted in her life-long drug addiction.

In 1939, Judy shot immediately to stardom with El mago de Oz (1939), in which she portrayed Dorothy, an orphaned girl living on a farm in the dry plains of Kansas who gets whisked off into the magical world of Oz on the other end of the rainbow. Her poignant performance and sweet delivery of her signature song 'Over The Rainbow' earned Judy a special juvenile Oscar statuette on 29th February 1940 for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor. Now growing up, Judy began to yearn for more meatier, adult roles instead of the virginal characters she had been playing since she was 14. She was now taking an interest in men and after starring in her final juvenile performance in Las chicas de Ziegfeld (1941) alongside glamorous beauties Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr, Judy got engaged to band leader David Rose in May 1941, just two months after his divorce from Martha Raye. Despite planning a big wedding, the couple eloped to Las Vegas and married during the early hours of the morning on 28 July 1941 with just her mother Ethel and her stepfather Will Gilmore present. However, their marriage went downhill as, after discovering that she was pregnant in November 1942, David and MGM persuaded her to abort the baby in order to keep her good-girl image up. She did so and, as a result, was haunted for the rest of her life by her 'inhumane actions'. The couple separated in January 1943.

By this time, Judy had starred in her first adult role as a vaudevillian during WWI in Por mi chica y por mí (1942). Within weeks of separation, Judy was soon having an affair with actor Tyrone Power, who was married to French actress Annabella. Their affair ended in May 1943, which was when her affair with producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz kicked off. He introduced her to psychoanalysis and she soon began to make decisions about her career on her own, instead of the influence of the domineering MGM and her mother. Their affair ended in November 1943 and soon afterward, Judy reluctantly began filming Cita en St. Louis (1944), which proved to make her a big success. The director Vincente Minnelli highlighted Judy's beauty for the first time on screen having made the period musical in color, her first color film since El mago de Oz (1939). He showed off her large brandy-brown eyes and her full thick lips and after filming ended in April 1944, a love affair resulted between director and actress and they were soon living together.

Vincente began to mold Judy and her career, making her more beautiful and more popular with audiences worldwide. He directed her in El reloj (1945) and it was during the filming of this movie that the couple announced their engagement on set on 9 January 1945. Judy's divorce from David Rose had been finalized on 8 June 1944 after almost 3 years of marriage and, despite her brief fling with Orson Welles who, at the time, was married to screen sex goddess Rita Hayworth, on 15 June 1945, Judy made Vincente her second husband after tying the knot with him that afternoon at her mother's home with her boss Louis B. Mayer giving her away and her best friend Betty Asher serving as bridesmaid. They spent three months on honeymoon in New York and afterwards, Judy discovered that she was pregnant.

On 12 March 1946 in Los Angeles, California, Judy gave birth to their daughter Liza Minnelli via Caesarean section. It was a joyous time for the couple, but Judy was out of commission for weeks due to the Caesarean and her postnatal depression, so she spent much of her time re-cooperating in bed. She soon returned to work, but married life was never the same for Vincente and Judy after they filmed El pirata (1948) together in 1947. Judy's mental health was fast deteriorating and she began hallucinating things and making false accusations of people, especially of her husband, making the filming a nightmare. She also began an affair with aspiring Russian actor Yul Brynner, but after the affair ended, Judy soon regained health and tried to salvage her failing marriage. She then teamed up with dancing legend Fred Astaire for the delightful musical Desfile de Pascua (1948), which proved a successful comeback, despite having Vincente fired from directing the musical. Afterwards, Judy's health deteriorated and she began the first of several suicide attempts. In May 1949, she was checked into a rehabilitation center, which caused her much distress.

She soon regained strength and was visited frequently by her lover Frank Sinatra, but never saw much of Vincente or Liza. On returning, Judy made In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which was also her daughter's film debut, albeit Liza had an uncredited cameo. She had already been suspended by MGM for her lack of cooperation on the set of Vuelve a mí (1949), which also resulted in her getting replaced by Ginger Rogers. After being replaced by Betty Hutton on La reina del oeste (1950), Judy was suspended yet again, before making her final film for MGM entitled Repertorio de verano (1950). At 28, Judy received her third suspension and was fired by MGM and her second marriage was soon dissolved.

Having taken up with Sidney Luft, Judy traveled to London to star at the legendary Palladium. She was an instant success and after her divorce to Vincente Minnelli was finalized on 29th March 1951 after almost 6 years of marriage, Judy traveled with Sid to New York to make an appearance on Broadway. With her newfound fame on stage, Judy was stopped in her tracks in February 1952 when she fell pregnant by her new lover Sid. She made him her third husband on 8 June 1952 at the age of 30 after tying the knot with him at a friend's ranch in Pasadena. Her relationship with her mother had long since been dissolved by this point and after the birth of her second daughter Lorna Luft on 21 November 1952, she refused her mother Ethel to see her granddaughter. Ethel then died in January 1953 of a heart attack, leaving Judy devastated and guilty about not reconciling with her mother before her untimely demise.

After the funeral, Judy signed a film contract with Warner Bros. to star in the musical remake of Ha nacido una estrella (1937), which had starred Janet Gaynor, who had won the first ever Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929. Filming soon began and as a result, set off an affair between Judy and her leading man, British star James Mason. She also picked up on her affair with Frank Sinatra and after filming was complete, Judy was yet again immortalized for being a great film star. She won a Golden Globe for her brilliant and truly outstanding performance as Esther Blodgett, nightclub singer turned movie star, but when it came to the Academy Awards, a distraught Judy lost out to Grace Kelly for the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the wife of an alcoholic star in La angustia de vivir (1954). It is still argued today that Judy should have won the Oscar over Grace Kelly. Continuing her work on stage, Judy gave birth to her beloved son Joey Luft on 29 March 1955. She soon began to lose her millions of dollars due to her husband's strong gambling addiction and with hundreds of debts to pay, Judy and Sid began a volatile, on-off relationship which resulted in numerous attempts to file for divorce.

In 1961, Judy returned to her ailing film career, this time to star in ¿Vencedores o vencidos? (1961) at the age of 39, for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but this time lost out to Rita Moreno for the coveted Academy Award, due to her performance in West Side Story (1961). Her battles with alcoholism and drugs led to Judy making thousands of headlines in newspapers, but she soldiered on, forming a close friendship with President John F. Kennedy. In 1963, Judy and Sid finally separated permanently and on 19 May 1965, their divorce was finalized after almost 13 years of marriage. By this time, Judy had made her final performance on film alongside Dirk Bogarde in I Could Go on Singing (1963) at the age of 41. She married her fourth husband Mark Herron on 14 November 1965 in Las Vegas, but they separated in April 1966 after 5 months of marriage due to his homosexuality. It was also that year that she began an affair with young journalist Tom Green. She then settled down in London after their affair ended and she began dating disk jockey Mickey Deans in December 1968, before getting engaged once her divorce from Mark Herron was finalized on 9 January 1969 after three years of marriage. She married Mickey, her fifth and final husband, in a register office in Chelsea, London on 15 March 1969.

She continued working on stage, appearing several times with her daughter Liza. It was during a concert in Chelsea, London that Judy stumbled into her bathroom late one night and died of an overdose of barbiturates, the drug that had dominated her her whole life, on the 22nd of June 1969 at the age of 47. Her daughter Liza Minnelli paid for her funeral and her former lover James Mason delivered her touching eulogy. She is still an icon to this day with her famous performances in El mago de Oz (1939), Cita en St. Louis (1944), Desfile de Pascua (1948) and Ha nacido una estrella (1954)."

viernes, mayo 11, 2012

Innovación prosaica (una innovacioncita)

¿De qué otra forma nombrarla?

Se trata tan sólo de la opción de crear "collages" de Picasa, que permite combinar varias fotos en una única.

Así funciona:

1. Se escogen las fotos a combinar.
2. Se "clickea" para que Picasa las mezcle aleatoriamente (como quien las mueve con la mano sobre la mesa si tuviéramos las fotos impresas).
3. Se "clickea" para ordenarle a Picasa que la mezcla en 2. sea bajo el formato 1, o el 2, etc. Esto es, cada formato da expresión visual a un tipo de collage: por ejemplo "fotos parcialmente montadas unas sobre otras", por ejemplo "fotos ajustadas en la vertical (o en la horizontal), cada una con la misma porción del espacio total"

Y eso es todo. Ver este par de ejemplos (que creo hacen honor a la herramienta :-)

Villa de Leyva en invierno: Semana Santa 2011


Villa de Leyva en verano: Semana Santa 2012


jueves, mayo 10, 2012

Google+ Hangouts; y ahora Hangouts On Air

Resumámoslo así: transmisión en vivo de señal audiovisual, con grabación y almacenamiento incluidos (para el replay), en producción desde la casa (PC+WebCámara+Internet), llegando a quienes se desee, en cualquier parte del mundo... sólo falta la traducción simultánea (que de seguro pronto estará disponible, gracias a la "fuerza de la nube")

Aquí 1er anuncio de septiembre 20 de 2011

Aquí anuncio de mayo 7 de 2012

1. ¿Quién lo hubiera soñado tan sólo hace 10 años?

2. ¿Qué hacer ahora que está así de disponible?

3. ¿Qué significa poder cada quien tener su propia "ágora", su propia "tribuna", de alcance mundial, bajo "demanda"?

4. ¿Quiénes escucharán, quiénes tendrán ya algo más que decir?

5. ¿Será que el genio maligno tras la "Invención de Morel" se las apañó para pasar de la literatura al espacio real, al ciberespacio al menos?

***

Google (Chee Chew, Engineering Director) nos "dice" (ver videos a continuación), nos presenta -es una expresión más correcta-, ejemplos de Jobs To Be Done que la misma gente ha hallado:





miércoles, mayo 09, 2012

Vuelve (volvió) el baseball de las más grandes ligas :-)

Aquí la página de la MLB

¿Por qué vivirlo (así sea sólo por TV)? R/ Mejor en fotos :-)









martes, mayo 08, 2012

U-verse from AT&T update (todo por USD 79 mes)

Why switch to AT&T U-verse?
Better DVR. Better features. Better experience.


Better DVR (included with most TV plans)

Exclusive! Record 4 shows at once on a single DVR.
Store up to 233 hours of SD or 65 hours of HD content
Record and play back your shows from any room in your home
Pause live or recorded shows in one room and pick them up in another
Program your DVR remotely from your computer or wireless phone

Better features

Multiview allows you to follow up to 4 channels at once and know the right moments to switch

Take the U-verse experience with you; schedule your recordings and, with qualifying TV plans, watch hit TV shows on your mobile phone (1).

AT&T U-verse On Demand
Exclusive On Demand programs and shows
"Same day as DVD" movies available on the DVD release date
High-definition movies now available
Premium On Demand programs
Growing library of Free On Demand
Free movie extras to watch before you rent
EXCLUSIVE! Weekly text alerts when new Movies On Demand are available when you also have wireless phone service from AT&T

The only truly interactive TV service in your area with these great features:
AT&T U-bar shows you customized online sports, weather, and stocks from your AT&T U-verse Internet homepage (2), plus local traffic info with a click of the remote - all without leaving the TV program you're watching
AT&T Media Share lets you stream music and photos from your PC to your TV - watch and listen at the same time (3)
AT&T Weather On Demand shows updated information for any U.S. city, with hourly and extended forecasts, maps, and more

Better experience

Over 170 HD channels and growing
Rich picture quality and 100% digital
AT&T U-verse TV supports 720p and 1080i in linear and On Demand programming and uses the latest encoding technology to deliver the best quality picture
Channel-hop fast. No drag, no delay. PLUS, Picture-in-Picture browsing!
Help On Demand
Instant access to three-minute video clips about all U-verse features
One bill-TV, Internet, digital home phone and wireless-all on a single bill

Did we forget to mention?

Our 30-day money back guarantee
No contract term is required
Professional standard installation (included with most packages (4)
Includes access at home and on-the-go to the entire national AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spot network, at no extra charge (5)
Wireless home networking capability (6)

1 Access to select content requires compatible device, qualifying U-verse TV plan or monthly subscription fee, and WiFi connection and/or cellular data connection. Available content may vary by device and/or U-verse TV subscription and is subject to change. Data charges may apply.
2 AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet account required.
3 Media Share requires Windows XP or Vista operating systems and streams only photos or songs that are supported by Microsoft Media Player.
4 Installation not included with U-basic package. Credit qualified customers only.
5 Access includes AT&T Wi-Fi Basic. Wi-Fi enabled device required. Other restrictions apply. See www.attwifi.com for details and locations. Use of Wi-Fi at home will count toward your AT&T high speed Internet usage allowance.
6 Wireless networking may require adapter purchased separately.

lunes, mayo 07, 2012

El iPhone (ya vamos por el 4to)

Aquí


En la imagen se puede apreciar el "combo" del valor que se nos propone; ciertamente es muy difícil decir no.

Voy a resumirlo así: es el PC otra vez, más personal que nunca, ahora de cargar en el bolsillo, más abierto a lo lúdico, más cerrado al trabajo.

NO habrá dentro de poco, oígase bien, ninguna razón para que todo el mundo no tenga un iPhone antes de los 18 años (habiendo tenido un iPod antes de los 12). Luego ya más crecidito, un iPad. Y por fin, un Mac. Apple ha creado una línea perfecta, sin interrupciones, de dispositivos móviles para atraer a los jóvenes desde el fin de la edad de la inocencia y llevarlos, no "de la mano" sí -literalmente- "del bolsillo" hasta la vida adulta: la llegada a la vida del trabajo.

Impresionante.

Conclusiones especulativas:

1. Síganse comprando acciones de Apple: podrían triplicarse en su valor de aquí a antes de una década.

2. La expansión de la penetración mundial es el gran siguiente reto para Apple: espérense los dispositivos mencionados "en español", "en chino", "en portugués", "en ruso", "en indio", etc.

3. Para 2. no se necesita un Steve Jobs, sino un Roberto Goizueta (lo tendrán :-)

viernes, mayo 04, 2012

Update del libro y bibliotecas: análogos y digitales: el fantasma de un único libro vuelve a recorrer el mundo

Aquí, nos reporta Nicholas Carr, desde MIT Technology Review.

***

1. Parece que el libro no se deja atrapar.
2. Parece que el libro reta toda convención de "titularlo" objeto, o bien cultural, o discurso, o lo que sea.
3. Parece que el verbo y el libro siguen SIENDO lo único que en verdad hemos CREADO.
4. Parece que el libro y el verbo, así, nos RESUMEN.
5. Parece que vamos a descubrir algo insospechado, desde las tecnologías para registrar y luego recuperar, discursos, verbo, los libros.


***

Extracto introductorio:

"In his 1938 book World Brain, H.G. Wells imagined a time—not very distant, he believed—when every person on the planet would have easy access to "all that is thought or known."

The 1930s were a decade of rapid advances in microphotography, and Wells assumed that microfilm would be the technology to make the corpus of human knowledge universally available. "The time is close at hand," he wrote, "when any student, in any part of the world, will be able to sit with his projector in his own study at his or her convenience to examine any book, any document, in an exact replica."

Wells's optimism was misplaced. The Second World War put idealistic ventures on hold, and after peace was restored, technical constraints made his plan unworkable. Though microfilm would remain an important medium for storing and preserving documents, it proved too unwieldy, too fragile, and too expensive to serve as the basis for a broad system of knowledge transmission. But Wells's idea is still alive. Today, 75 years later, the prospect of creating a public repository of every book ever published—what the Princeton philosopher Peter Singer calls "the library of utopia"—seems well within our grasp. With the Internet, we have an information system that can store and transmit documents efficiently and cheaply, delivering them on demand to anyone with a computer or a smart phone. All that remains to be done is to digitize the more than 100 million books that have appeared since Gutenberg invented movable type, index their contents, add some descriptive metadata, and put them online with tools for viewing and searching.

It sounds straightforward. And if it were just a matter of moving bits and bytes around, a universal online library might already exist. Google, after all, has been working on the challenge for 10 years. But the search giant's book program has foundered; it is mired in a legal swamp. Now another momentous project to build a universal library is taking shape. It springs not from Silicon Valley but from Harvard University. The Digital Public Library of America—the DPLA—has big goals, big names, and big contributors. And yet for all the project's strengths, its success is far from assured. Like Google before it, the DPLA is learning that the major problem with constructing a universal library nowadays has little to do with technology. It's the thorny tangle of legal, commercial, and political issues that surrounds the publishing business. Internet or not, the world may still not be ready for the library of utopia."

jueves, mayo 03, 2012

ChotuKool (II)

Aquí entrada anterior sobre esta misma historia de innovación

Ahora el video:

miércoles, mayo 02, 2012

Codgertations

Un viejo-nuevo-viejo estilo de periodismo:

1. Lo viejo: la conversación, el acto de comentar
2. Lo nuevo: el formato de distribución-exposición, video en Internet, la producción en la sala de la casa

Obsérvese que algo así (por lo "nuevo", y por lo "viejo") sólo lo pueden hacer periodistas senior (lo viejo :-)