I knew that the Great Gatsby didn’t get great reviews, but I had high hopes anyway. The trailer looked good, the NYT’s A.O. Scott offered a dissenting, positive review, and it’s a film based on a classic novel. It ought to be hard for it not to contain some gravitas, right?
But the film feels static and flat. Some of the music mash-ups are marvelous. The deconstructed Rhapsody in Blue was fun, and the rap score is a great counter-intuitive choice for the 1920s. But the story is just…what? Ironically, it wasn’t the film making, but the story itself that feels flimsy. Is the novel that paper thin? I read it in high school and took everyone’s word for it that it’s a classic, but the story left no greater impression on me now than it did then.
In the middle of the movie I found myself unable to contain an urge to get up and go get some Raisinettes – a sure sign the film I’m watching can’t hold my attention. Okay, it works well enough if you simply feel like going to the movies – I don’t regret going – but it’s not memorable.

The university’s llama appeared deep in thought this morning, as if pondering the eternal interconnectedness of all things. What’s up, Mr./Ms. Llama?

Yeah, okay, you might say the arrangement gets loungey at times, but the feeling comes through. Diana Krall lights a warm candle with this one.

The final scene from The Big Lebowski. Damn. One of the finest, deepest, most lyric moments in American cinema. Period.

Great column by Tom Friedman in the New York Times:

“Here is what I mean: Something really big happened in the world’s wiring in the last decade, but it was obscured by the financial crisis and post-9/11. We went from a connected world to a hyperconnected world. I’m always struck that Facebook, Twitter, 4G, iPhones, iPads, high-speech broadband, ubiquitous wireless and Web-enabled cellphones, the cloud, Big Data, cellphone apps and Skype did not exist or were in their infancy a decade ago when I wrote a book called “The World Is Flat.””

This always-on connection has broken down barriers; but it’s also a world in which more rests on you:

“If you are self-motivated, wow, this world is tailored for you. The boundaries are all gone. But if you’re not self-motivated, this world will be a challenge because the walls, ceilings and floors that protected people are also disappearing. That is what I mean when I say “it is a 401(k) world.” Government will do less for you. Companies will do less for you. Unions can do less for you. There will be fewer limits, but also fewer guarantees. Your specific contribution will define your specific benefits much more. Just showing up will not cut it.”

Are we ready for the implications of a world where this much rests on the individual? Succeeding in this world requires a greater level of education than ever before. It’s truly a Knowledge Economy.