It's Just this Little Chromium Switch Here

I watched This Film is Not Yet Rated over the weekend. In it, Kirby Dick sets out to answer a very difficult and elusive question. The answer, unfortunately, just isn't all that interesting to me.

Dick tries to discover exactly who is the (mysterious and anonymous) MPAA ratings board. This is the secretive cabal that confers the R's and PG's on movies. A good portion of the movie is spent with him and his hired investigators, rifling through garbage cans and eavesdropping on lunch discussions. He discovers, amazingly enough, the board is made of people.

I would be more interested learning how the MPAA got its power, how it is able to maintain its iron-clad control over the system, and where are the cracks that may lead to breaking the system. While it's interesting to know the sorts of people on the board, the time spent on the issue is disproportionate to its significance.

Dick has some excellent interview subjects. I was pleased to see Wayne Kramer and Maria Bello talk about their experience with The Cooler, which may be one of my top-ten favorite movies of all time. They painted a credible argument that although the ratings board claimed they wanted NC-17 due to a fleeting bush shot, the real reason is that the movie had a scene of unrestrained and lingering female pleasure, and that's what they found disturbing.

I was deeply troubled with the re-enactment technique Dick used to portray phone calls he had no permission to record. I suspect he had recordings somewhere to back up the dramatic re-enactments, but it still felt dishonest. Further, I'm not sure they were even necessary.

The film careens wildly from meaty discussion of our society's tolerance of violence to conversations with the private investigators that could have been ripped from a reality television show. There are some very good bits, but ultimately there were too many shallow spots that left me disappointed.

Last week, Lincoln Properties, the owner of the Northcross Mall and the developer who plans to put a record setting mega-box store in the middle of our neighborhood, announced a stand-down. They said that they would freeze further action so they could talk to the neighbors to resolve the problems.

Last Thursday evening the issue came before City Council. The neighbors packed the room, wall to wall, Lincoln Properties, however, was a no-show. Not much talking happened there, I guess.

Monday evening, the Crestview Neighborhood Association called a meeting, so the Northcross developers could meet with the neighbors. Once again, Lincoln Properties took a pass.

Tonight, the North Shoal Creek Neighborhood Association—my neighborhood association—held a general meeting with the Northcross developers scheduled to attend. And again, Lincoln Properties was nowhere to be found.

Is Lincoln Properties ever going to talk with anybody, or are they just trying to run out the clock? The empty chairs are not a sign of good faith.

This weekend, I've been blogging about issues related to the metadata stored in my music files, such as song title and performer. Today I wrap up with one final problem—one I've yet to solve.

When you walk into your favorite music store, the music is binned and organized for easy browsing. I want the same for my digital music. I can't, and I haven't found a solution yet, and that's frustrating me.

Just about a year ago, I converted my music library to digital form—and I love it. The CDs are all ripped to lossless FLAC format. I've got a small computer (running Ubuntu Linux) in the living room connected to the A/V receiver by S/PDIF optical connection. The fidelity from this hardware isn't quite as good as the original CD player, but it's close.

I've spent a lot of time—maybe too much time—trying to get the music organized. A lot of the work was spent trying to get the metadata right. I'm going to write a couple of blog articles about my adventures. Today, I'm going to talk about gathering the metadata—stuff you probably know if you've been through this already.