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Brad Balfour
In These Tech Times: Why I Should Write About Stuff
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- Parent Category: Blogs
- Category: Brad Balfour
- Published on Thursday, 15 November 2012 13:05
- Written by Brad Balfour
At a recent event produced by Pepcom -- a technology marketing company -- I scanned the Metropolitan Pavilion looking at all the tables of tech stuff with publicists, marketers and executives hovering around, and watched them engage journalists and analysts in conversations about the wares they were promoting.
I listened to the pitches, watched some of the demos and glanced at the literature I had culled.
I got into a conversation with myself. “Self, what am I doing here?”
I had to ask: what kind of writing do I want to do about all this cultural material whether it be the many versions of digital cameras, touch screen phones and various storage devices among the many others.
Besides my reviews, an interview or two and an occasional press conference report, I had to think how else I could write about all this without my eyes glazing over or my brain calcifying at the thought of finding ways to reiterate the tech manual.
I was at a gathering of New York’s many tech geeks and I wondered how many devices can one review; how many variations can you analyze or test without just stewing in minutiae.
Then I hit on it -- while we like to think other people inform us the most with films, tv, or music a surrogate or simulacrum for expressions of personal relationships, I think we really define ourselves by our devices.
Yes I do. We get command over our world by being able to manage a cell phone, tablet or new version of an operating system. In a funny way, the real surrogate for relation-building lies in our devices; they allow us to reach out to many and maximize contact.
I am not one of those quasi-luddites who speak of turn off your cell phone day and think they need email addiction therapy. I love my tools and tools they are.
Is our life informed by a use of utensils in the kitchen, our capabilities in driving a car or how we shape our environment by the ways we create comfort for ourselves?
I proudly say, "Yes," and figure -- even if I may not have the most original thoughts on how my devices work or the best judgement and reviewing them -- celebrate having the chops to use them with some facility and skill. So if my writing can do anything, it will be sharing the pleasure of getting better at it.
In These Tech Times: Watching a "Revolution"
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- Parent Category: Blogs
- Category: Brad Balfour
- Published on Thursday, 15 November 2012 09:13
- Written by Brad Balfour
Recently I wrangled an invite to a unique preview event -- a look at the producer J.J. Abrams’ latest series, 
Revolution -- hosted by cast member Tim Guinee (Iron Man).
Watching the first episode of Revolution (created by Eric Kripe and directed by Jon Favreau) being played before me with an audience of hardened New Yorkers so dependent on their machines, electricity and technology with a side show of bike riders supposedly pumping to power up the generators electrifying the event.
I thought about how dependent we were and how this show played on that feeling.
It was a sensible feeling to exploit -- we are after all out of touch with the survivor’s sensibilities necessary to adapt to less than ideal conditions we so desperately need to live in a city like NYC. Think about it, what really draws us to a series like The Walking Dead?
It’s more than just the fear of Zombies run amok threatening to tear us limb from limb and consume us literally. It’s the chaos and the loss of a secure world that we know and feel safe in.
Look at the profusion of post-apocalypse dystopia. It’s not just a matter of economic collapse. It’s a matter of surviving on the most basic level at all -- dirty, smelly, no hand sanitizer, eating what can be found whether it be old cans, dead animals or human bodies.
Take films like The Road, A Boy And His Dog, Book of Eli, the German film Hell, or even The Hunger Games. They all intrigue because we have to ask -- could I cope? Can I survive or do I want to without the tech-generated creature comforts?
On a pure sci-fi level I could tear apart the gaps of logic seen in this first episode of Revolution. Ok, so the large-scale energy net created by our power grid is gone whether by electromagnetic pulse or some energy absorbing device. But after 15 years later would people have been able to create the idyllic rural havens with alternate energy sources enough to keep some machinery going?
Just the idea of a fascist para-military force attempting to impose order sometimes seems more forced than likely. But while I could rend it apart I admire Abrams, his team and producers, and the network’s belief in an intelligent audience willing to ponder.
Why not?
Everyone has these primal fears.
A Start to Spring -- Denver Style
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- Parent Category: Blogs
- Category: Brad Balfour
- Published on Tuesday, 10 April 2012 01:15
- Written by Brad Balfour
As I sit outside at Taki’s, a little Japanese dive on Colfax Avenue in the Capitol Hill section of Denver -- slightly east of downtown -- I marvel at the warm saki I am sipping and the fine Spring weather I am enjoying.
What a strange place Denver can be -- if for nothing else than for its odd climatic moods. I have been here in the dead of winter getting slammed with a 10-ft snow -- only to have it all melt away by the following morning with the temp rising above freezing.
So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I came from the lingering cool of a New York March-into-April only to see people in the Mile High City galavanting in shorts and sleeveless t-shirts (always a pleasurable sight after winter’s cover-ups). But I still have to be thankful that I finally find a Spring here -- and through the glow of a this light aromatic liquid as well.
Not the usual thing I look for in Denver, but that's one of those little surprises that makes this city a worthy place to visit even for a have-seen-it-all New Yorker. Hey, even the waitress, Justina -- a former Oregonian from Roseburg -- found this place a better place to park oneself after a life of too many rainy days and gray.
And she doesn’t drive -- making the bus from Lakewood, CO, her main means of transport, a curious turn given that I'm in a place where people are so car-driven. So I linger over the saki as the 4:30 - 7 pm happy hour ends and my daughter makes her way from Aurora westerly -- late as usual.
James Bond Makes The Perfect Holiday Fest
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- Parent Category: Blogs
- Category: Brad Balfour
- Published on Sunday, 25 December 2011 12:51
- Written by Brad Balfour
Though the run-up to the holiday season (especially the month leading up to Christmas) usually means a slow up on festivals -- film or otherwise -- unless seasonally related, virtual fests are everywhere, especially on television.
Now EPIX, the premium entertainment service available on TV, video-on-demand, online and on consumer electronic devices, has created its own virtual film festival for fans of exotic locations, fast cars, beautiful women, crazy gadgets and vodka martinis, shaken, not stirred…
So the channel will present a James Bond film every night at 10pm ET from December 1 - 24, 2011, concluding with an all-day marathon of Bond movies on Christmas day. What a way to take a break from the holiday rush and escape with Agent 007 in films like Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me, The Living Daylights, Tomorrow Never Dies and many, many others.
That is for the love of a James Bond and the films that have drawn on his various incarnations from his earliest appearance in a 1954 BBC version to the incarnation as created by Pierce Brosnan.
EPIX is the only premium service providing its entire monthly line-up of new Hollywood hits, classic feature films, documentaries and original concerts, comedy and sporting events on all platforms.
A joint venture between Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Lionsgate, EPIX has access to more than 15,000 motion pictures spanning the vast libraries of its partners and other studios, EPIX provides a powerful entertainment experience with more feature films on demand and online and more HD movies than any other service.
The only thing missing is a hot babe or a fast run in the Aston Martin -- or the equivalent Corgi toy replica.
Schedule
- Thursday, December 1
Casino Royale - Friday, December 2
Dr. No - Saturday, December 3
From Russia With Love - Sunday, December 4
Goldfinger - Monday, December 5
Thunderball - Tuesday, December 6
You Only Live Twice - Wednesday, December 7
The World is Not Enough - Thursday, December 8
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - Friday, December 9
Diamonds Are Forever - Saturday, December 10
Live And Let Die - Sunday, December 11
The Man with the Golden Gun - Monday, December 12
The Spy Who Loved Me - Tuesday, December 13
Moonraker - Wednesday, December 14
For Your Eyes Only - Thursday, December 15
Never Say Never Again - Friday, December 16
Octopussy - Saturday, December 17
A View to a Kill - Sunday, December 18
The Living Daylights - Monday, December 19
License to Kill - Tuesday, December 20
Goldeneye - Wednesday, December 21
Tomorrow Never Dies - Thursday, December 22
The World is Not Enough - Friday, December 23
Bond Girls Are Forever - Saturday, December 24
Goldfinger
All-day Christmas Marathon
- 7am ET
The Spy Who Loved Me - 9:15am ET
From Russia with Love - 11:15am ET
Dr. No - 1:15pm ET
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - 3:45pm ET
Goldfinger - 5:45pm ET
Thunderball - 8pm ET
Live and Let Die - 10pm ET
You Only Live Twice
For the complete schedule & information on the All-day Christmas Marathon or more info on EPIX, go to: www.EpixHD.com.
EPIX info can also be found on Twitter @EpixHD; and on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/EpixHD
