A true Tibetan tale
Tibet suffers from being seen from two diametrically opposed points of view. Some people idealise Tibet and its people as representing a peaceful Buddhist culture. Others hold the view that the Chinese colonisation was necessary to civilise to the Tibetan people.
The reality of life in modern Tibet is undoubtedly somewhat different. While there have been a number of notable films related to Tibet in recent years, they still try to represent Tibet as a Shangri-la.
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol is a film set in Tibet based on a true story. It is beautifully shot in the harsh mountain landscape. The scenery makes you realise that despite its rugged beauty, life here is tough. In fact, as the movie develops you can see that people are really fighting to survive in this high altitude desert.
The story of Kekexili revolves around the mountain patrol, a group of Tibetan men who are trying to stop the poaching of the endangered
Tibetan antelope. These men are as tough as the mountains they live in. They are trying to do something to protect their environment. As the movie progresses it becomes clear that the distinctions between good and bad are not always clear. Often moral decisions are based on nothing more than what is necessary to survive.
Overall, this film presents a stunning and realistic picture of life in modern Tibet.
Links
Mountain Patrol - National Geographic World FilmsIMDB: Kekexili (2004)Kekexili - Rotten TomatoesLabels: movies, Tibet
Reflections on the Tour de France
Cadel EvansWell, the Tour de France 2006 edition has been run and won. After being pretty much a one-horse race for the last few years this one definitely departed from the script. Floyd Landis amazing comeback to claim victory is being hailed as one of the greatest ever. Although I think Greg LeMond's victory in 1989 ranks equally with it.
For much of recent history the Tour de France has been dominated by a single rider. Miguel Indurain won five consecutive tours from 1991 to 1995 and Lance Armstrong seven consecutive tours from 1999 to 2005. In most of these tours these two riders were so dominant that everybody else was merely racing for second place.
Thankfully the 2006 Tour saw a big change in the script. It began in dramatic fashion with the two biggest favorites forced to withdraw over doping allegations. That left perhaps a dozen riders who could have realistically had a chance of winning the tour.
After the first major time trial Landis emerged as the favourite, which was later confirmed in the Pyrenees. However, on the second stage in the Alps he blew up and his Tour appeared to be over. The next day he rode like a man possessed to regain most of the time he lost. His daring breakaway confirmed his extraordinary class and talent. He was a deserving winner of the tour.
For me though, the most exciting thing about the Tour was the performance of the Australians. Robbie McEwen won three stages for a career total of eleven and he won his third green jersey. He proved himself as one of the finest sprinters of the modern era, able to win in all sorts of conditions.
Not since Phil Anderson back in the 1980s has an Australian finished in the top five. This year Cadel Evans again confirmed his class, equalling Phil Anderson's best placing and improving on his eighth place last year. Cadel was consistently up with the pace in the toughest mountain stages. He perhaps lacked the power to attack and take the time out of his rivals. He needs to be able to do this if he wants to win the Tour. Also having the support of a stronger team would be a great help.
Michael Rogers was the other big star from Australia. He finished tenth overall. Given that he was riding for T-Mobile team leader Andréas Klöden, who finished third overall. Rogers is a three time world champion in the time-trial and he, too, showed that he may have what it takes to win the Tour de France.
Floyd Landis' victory marks a continuing domination of the Tour by riders from the USA. American riders have now won 11 of the past 21 Tours (Greg LeMond 1986, 1989-990; Lance Armstrong 1999-2005; Floyd Landis 2006). Let's hope Anglophones continue to dominate one of Europe's biggest sporting events, but next year I hope it will be an Australian wearing the yellow jersey in Paris.
Labels: cycling
A brilliant Buddhist movie
I just watched
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring on DVD. The film is exquisite. There are just so many fine details that capture the spirit of Buddhism.
The film is set on a small temple that floats on a lake in a secluded mountain valley. The temple itself is only small, but the artwork inside it is absolutely exquisite.The location is Chusanji Lake located in Mt. Chuwang National Park and it looks like an amazing place. I would love to visit Korea just to see it.
The story is simple and revolves around an old master and his disciple. At the beginning of the film the disciple is just a young boy, but he is middle aged at the end.
I don't want to give away the story or just rehash the plot. I can only say that this is one of the best films I have ever seen. Watch it, you won't regret it.
Labels: movies
On reading science fiction
Although I have been an avid reader and lover of books all my life it is only recently that I have taken a serious interest in science fiction. When I was at high school
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin was one of the set texts in my final year English class. I also remember reading
The Triffids by John Wyndham and
The War of the Worlds by HG Wells.
Yet despite having a good introduction to some of the sci-fi classics I never took a special interest in the genre. As a university student I read most of Ursula Le Guin's books, but this was because I thought Le Guin was a great writer, not because I was specifically interested in science fiction. I also read Douglas Adam's
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Some might argue whether these books actually qualify as sci-fi. I guess I read them for the humour anyway.
I don't know whether science fiction is really the best word to use to describe some of these books anyway. I prefer the term speculative fiction which can be similarly abbreviated to SF. It can refer to a broader spectrum of literature including science fiction, fantasy, horror and alternative history.
Considering the field of speculative fiction also includes fantasy I can add to the list of books that I read earlier. I read
The Hobbit when I was eleven or twelve and loved it. However, it took me about ten years before I finally read the entire "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. I tried reading a few other fantasy books but I found them derivative and unoriginal. Acknowledging Tolkien is one thing, but trying to write books that are little more than poor clones of his work is really unforgivable. I am sure there are some good works of fantasy out there, but I haven't read them yet.
My real interest in SF was prompted after a friend recommended the book
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I liked it so much that I went on to read the rest of the Ender Saga and a couple more of Card's novels. Reading these books helped me overcome some of my prejudices towards science fiction -- namely that the writing is one dimensional with little character development.
After Card I moved on to reading Frank Herbert's
Dune. It was dense reading but I was impressed by the originality of the novel in constructing an entire world so vastly different from our own. I read the second book in the series, too.
I don't know why it took me so long to finally get around to reading Asimov. And when I did it was kind of indirectly. My introduction to Asimov came via the novel
Nightfall which is based on one of Asimov's short stories of the same name. The novel itself was co-written by Robert Silverberg.
Nightfall struck me as such an important and relevant story. It was on reading this book that I realised sci-fi was not just fantasy set in space. It was about examining the human condition and asking questions about what would happen if... The whole world of SF was suddenly opening up to me and I picked up books by Philip K Dick, Ray Bradbury and Kim Stanley Robinson.
One thing about SF is that it is about imagining alternative realities. One genre where this is achieved in a novel way is alternative history. Two examples of great works in this genre are
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson and
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick.
The Years of Rice and Salt is a history of the world based on the premise that a plague wiped out the population of Europe in the 14
th Century and China rose to be the centre of world power.
The Man in the High Castle takes a more recent look at history as it might have been. It tells of a world where Germany and Japan were the victors in WWII.
After taking an interest in science fiction novels I also began to take a greater interest in science fiction in popular culture. I don't watch television so I might have missed some good television series, but I do watch movies and there have been a number of successful science fiction movies made in recent years. Steven Spielberg's
The Minority Report was great, even if it did star Tom Cruise, as was his movie
A.I. The movie adaptation of Asimov's
I, Robot was probably great for fans of action films starring Will Smith, but it didn't really do justice to the book and the ideas behind it.
Serenity was a great film even though it was probably more of a Western set in space than hard science fiction.
The world of SF is something that I have only just begun to explore. I am sure there are many more gems out there waiting to be discovered.
Labels: books
Watching DVD movies on a PC
After I bought my computer I thought I would be able to watch DVD movies without any problems. I put a movie in the DVD drive and selected "play with Windows Media Player", but then found I lacked some of the necessary software.
I was lead to
this page and
this page on Microsoft's website. It seemed like I would have to pay US$15 or thereabouts to download a DVD decoder plug-in for Windows Media Player.
A little more searching via Google lead me to discover the
VideoLan site where I was able to download the VLC media player for free. After installing the program I put a DVD movie in the DVD drive and I was able to watch it without any hassles.
It really is amazing that there is so much free software out there that is often just as good as the stuff you pay big dollars for. With the exception of Windows XP, all the software installed on my computer was free. And it is totally legal!!!!
A few of the excellent programs I can recommend are
Irfanview for editing photos and
OpenOffice.org for word processing. Mozilla's
Firefox internet browser shows up Microsoft's Internet Explorer as a hopelessly inferior product.
Labels: tech
Le Tour
The
Tour de France started a few days ago. I am a big cycling fan and there is no bigger race than
le Tour.
Australian riders have been some of the biggest stars of the race in recent years. Robbie McEwen is one of the world's fastest sprinters and has one the green jersey twice and many stages. He has already claimed another stage victory in the 2006 Tour.
Stuart O'Grady has been another big star. He has won several stages and also worn the yellow jersey. He is a very aggressive rider and although he is not a sprinter in the class of McEwen he is consistently near the front of the bunch in sprint finishes. He is an outside chance for the green jersey.
Among the other big stars of recent years have been Baden Cooke and Bradley McGee. However, while the Aussies may have won many stages and other honours, none has yet been on the podium when the race finishes in Paris. That may change this year. For the first time since Phil Anderson wore the yellow jersey in the 1980s an Australian is finally amongst the favourites for this year's race.
Cadel Evans is a former world mountain bike champion who made a successful transition to road racing. He made a long awaited debut in the Tour last year and finished eighth overall. He was impressive in several mountain stages, holding his own with the best climbers.
Unfortunately this year's Tour seems to be engulfed in controversy with the two favourites, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, left out over doping allegations. The allegations raise so many questions about drug use in cycling. It is not the first time something like this has happened. The 1998 Tour was similarly controversial and many of the Tour's biggest stars have been guilty of doping.
Still when the Tour reaches the mountain stages I will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Cadel Evans. In the absence of an obvious favourite the race is there to be won by any rider that has the consistency to finish among the leaders in the mountain stages. Cadel Evans has what it takes. Go Aussie, go!!!!
Labels: cycling
Skype me!
I bought a new computer a few days ago. My apartment has an ADSL line, but not a phone line, so I thought I would try
Skype as an alternative way of making phone calls.
I downloaded Skype and paid for 10 Euros of credit with my Visa card. I bought a USB phone and then I could dial away. I was surprised how simple the process was. I have already called my family in Australia. It will now be able to talk to them more regularly.
Labels: tech
