WFC Liberia: The Redemption of General Butt Naked

This documentary is another Amazon Video find and is perhaps more American than Liberian. It’s about a former Liberian warlord who was even more way out there than the rest: General Butt Naked, who went on naked killing sprees. He’s now reformed and is a Christian preacher.

It’s a fascinating film because he’s seems so open and honest about all the atrocities he’d performed. I’m usually just intensely bored by the “getting to know mass murderer” genre: Killers are sad, stupid and dull. But this one’s just so horrifying. And the director is going for a level of ambiguity that’s very refreshing.

It’s so bizarre and well-made that I had to google it to ensure that this wasn’t yet another fake documentary, but the internets seem to say that it’s real.

The Redemption of General Butt Naked. Daniele Anastasion and Eric Strauss. 2011. Liberia.

Liberian Ginger Beer

  • 1 part ginger
  • 2 parts pineapple
  • yeast
  • 1 part molasses
  • 1 part rum

Chop the ginger finely. Chop the pineapple into chunks (without peeling). Bring the water to a boil pour over the ginger and pineapple. Cool to lukewarm. Add the yeast. Allow to stand overnight covered. Add the molasses and the rum. Strain and chill.

The original recipe is without the alcohol.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

Isn’t 4K@60Hz HDMI possible in Linux?

I bought a spiffy new 4K TV the other week, and I wanted to set up a complete 4K pipeline. Not that there’s that much 4K stuff available: For instance, Netflix has a pitiful 101 list of shows, most of them made by Netflix themselves.

Anyhoo! I was thinking a bit about how to set this all up so that I’d have a 4K pipeline from my computer, while there’s a 2K pipeline from the Ipod (which I use to watch Amazon stuff) and a 4K pipeline from the Chomecast (which I planned on using to watch Netflix stuff). All the while being able to record shows so that I can screenshot them for the “The World” blog series. It’ll be simpler if I just draw a diagram:

See? Easy peasy. I have to insert an “HDMI splitter” (which is a euphemism for “HDCP stripper”) in between the Ipod and the HDMI recorder because DRM. But! Then I realised that I could just watch non-4K Netflix on the Ipod, so that simplified things hugely:

So simple! So I have the Ipod as a DRM device, and then all the rest is FREEDOM!

This is what it looks like in reality:

So neat and orderly.

So everything is A-OK, then? No. The thing is that I’m not able to get my PC to do 4K at 60Hz. This is what xrandr says:

See the 3840×2160 entry? That’s the one I want, and it has a max refresh rate of 30Hz. TV is 50Hz or 60Hz, so having only 30Hz sucks.

As you’ve probably also noticed, xrandr says that DP1 is connected, not HDMI. That’s because I plugged in an external DisplayPort to HDMI adapter, which is supposed to support 4K @ 60Hz. But that apparently doesn’t work.

I also tried the native “HDMI” plug on this motherboard (which is an ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Gaming-ITX/ac LGA1151 HDMI 2.0 ITX motherboard *phew*), but that turns out to also be DisplayPort, really, but with a built-in DP->HDMI adapter (to allow 4K@60Hz).

This stuff is apparently called LSPCON, and support for it landed in Linux somewhat recently.

I’ve tried very up-to-date kernels (I’m now running on 4.12.0-994-generic), and my Debian is stretch, so it’s also quite recent. I’ve tried plugging the computer directly into the TV via an HDMI 2.0 cable, bypassing all switches and everything, and the result is the same.

My TV is a Sony A1E, which claims to support 4K@60Hz, but I’m unable to make either the Chromecast or the TV say what frame rate it has when it’s doing 4K.

So… is this supposed to work or not? Has anybody gotten 4K @ 60Hz HDMI to work in Linux?

[Edit a day later]:

Googling around shows a lot of people with similar problems that they apparently are able to resolve by adding the proper ModeLines.  In 2017.

So I tried this:

xrandr --newmode "3840x2160_60.00" 712.34 3840 4152 4576 5312 2160 2161 2164 2235 -HSync +Vsync
xrandr --addmode DP1 "3840x2160_60.00"
sleep 15
xrandr --verbose --output DP1 --mode "3840x2160_60.00"

But the Xorg log says:

[  2222.946] (II) intel(0): switch to mode 3840x2160@60.0 on DP1 using pipe 0, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none
[  2222.967] (EE) intel(0): failed to set mode: Invalid argument [22]
[  2223.014] (--) intel(0): HDMI max TMDS frequency 300000KHz
[  2223.031] (II) intel(0): resizing framebuffer to 1920x1080
[  2223.031] (II) intel(0): switch to mode 1920x1080@60.0 on DP1 using pipe 0, position (0, 0), rotation normal, reflection none
[  2223.084] (--) intel(0): HDMI max TMDS frequency 300000KHz

So that’s a no go..

WFC San Marino: The Last Alchemist

There aren’t many films from San Marino, and this is an Italian co-production. As is the cocktail.

This is the 151st film in this blog series, which means that there’s only 49 films to go! *gasp* This will end sometime! This summer!

This is a 30 minute thriller, and it’s heavy on the irony. It kinda works, but it’s a bit on the sloppy side: Things don’t really move along as they’re supposed to. Still, it’s pretty entertaining. I think it wants to be more than that, but it’s not really.

The Last Alchemist. Michele Massari. 2012. San Marino.

Aperol Spritz

  • 3 parts prosecco
  • 2 parts Aperol
  • a splash of soda
  • a slice of orange

Pour prosecco into an ice-filled glass. Add the Aperon and a splash of soda. Garnish with a slice of orange.

I don’t understand this recipe. Pouring the prosecco over the ice makes all the fizz go out of the prosecco, leaving a rather flat drink. This method is supposed to avoid having the Aperol settle to the bottom of the glass, but I think that would be better than drinking a fizz-less spritz.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Latvia: Par desmit minutem vecaks

Uhm… I’m not sure how I ended up with this short: Surely there must be some Latvian feature films available on DVD? It’s a mystery lost to the winds of time.

So… this Soviet era silent short basically is a long shot of a group of kids watching a very exciting film in a movie theatre. I didn’t find it riveting.

Ten Minutes Older. Herz Frank. 1978. Latvia.

Trampoline

  • 7 parts vodka
  • 2 parts grenadine
  • a line slice

Put the lime into an Old Fashioned glass and muddle. Add ice, vodka and grenadine. Stir. Serve with a straw.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Bolivia: American Visa

Whew! South American to the rescue again. After a string of old-fashioned grandiose films, it’s such a relief to watch a smart, fresh film again.

It’s a bit like… Breaking Bad. An asshole (as the cab driver says at the start) is dealt a bad blow and turns to crime. And we’re supposed to care a lot because er er er he’s the protagonist. He even looks the same, which makes me think that Breaking Bad is a rip-off of this film! Sure!

But it’s excitingly shot and the actors are lovely. However, it goes a bit maudlin in the middle and becomes kinda boring. Still… the good bits are good.

If this blog series was a Worlds Best Part Of The World For Films Competition, South America would win it hands down. Easily. Perhaps I should watch a bunch of South American films next… Like fifty… Er… Sudamérica Cinquenta… Or SAL…

Or I could do something else, like get back to hacking Emacs.

American Visa. Juan Carlos Valdivia. 2005. Bolivia.

Pisco Sour

  • 9 parts Pisco
  • 6 parts lime juice
  • 4 parts simple syrup
  • 4 parts egg white
  • dash of Angostura bitters

Shake everything except the bitters vigorously with ice. Strain into a glass and add a dash of Angostura bitters.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.