WFC Guyana: Exploration Guyana

Another Youtube documentary.

Perhaps I should say something about my methodology for finding films from these smaller countries. First I check Istanbulfilms, because they have an impressive list of interesting films. But the only film they listed from Guyana wasn’t available anywhere, not even Amazon Video.

So then I google for “best films from Guyana”, which usually doesn’t turn up anything interesting, and it didn’t here either. Then I go to imdb and use their country-based listing, and sort it by number of votes (because that’s usually a good indication for how available the films are).

Then I just go through that list and search for the films on US Amazon, UK Amazon and sometimes French Amazon, and then I search Youtube.

So when I end up with a film like this (which is really a British travelogue from a Guyana), it’s not because I’m trying to avoid feature films. It’s just getting difficult now to find films. So little makes it out of these countries.

Exploration Guyana. Charles Montier. 2011. Guyana.

The Georgetown

  • 2 parts dark rum
  • 1 part maraschino liqueur
  • some dashes of orange bitters

Pour into an ice-filled mixing glass and stir for a minute. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist.

I thought this was going to be horrible, but it was refreshing.

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

My New Fashion Designer Blog x Useful Consumer Review

I’ve been trying to use an Android device as my “lug around the apt. while doing stuff” device, but it’s just not good enough. None of the apps for sshfs file browsing or video watching are beyond the “well, it kinda works” level. The ssh times out and doesn’t come back again until you do *stuff* and all the video apps have audio/video sync issues.

(Don’t all Android users play TV via sshfs?)

So! Back to Linux!

I got this laptop which has a “tent” configuration where the keyboard is in the back. Since it’s Linux, sshfs and mplayer work perfectly. The only issue is just the portability.  Physically. See, it’s all tent-ey and stuff, but when it’s in that configuration, picking it up is very awkward. There’s nothing to grab hold on.

So! I got my sewing kit out (a gift from my mother like ten years ago and seldom used since) and bought a ribbon thingie.

Oh, yeah, the computer is a… is that a d and a q? So it’s a … Dairy Queen laptop?

Let’s go with that.

I had planned on wrapping the ribbon around a wine cork, but the wine tonight turned out to be from New Zealand and had a screw cap. So instead I just rolled the ribbon up…

… and then expertly stitched it up. (Don’t show that seam to anybody with sewing skills unless you want them to have a heart attack.)

I did one at either end and now I have a handle!

See! It works!!! (He says while gingerly walking around with it.)

(Oh, the thing being shown is an episode of … Killjoys. Yeah, that’s what it’s called. It’s about people pointing guns at each other… IN SPACE!)

This is what the Dairy Queen looks like from the other angle. Not quite as … TV-ey. That’s a word. (The keyboard is switched off when it’s in this position.)

I had to adapt my Emacs video viewer for touch action, and I used Touchéegg along the lines for the music player. Seems to work OK. I added touch actions for mplayer, too, so that I can pause and skip and stuff.

THIS ALL MAKES SENSE!

WFC Grenada: Blinded

This one can be found here and then and then and then the last part is missing! It’s a no-budget shortish film, but I didn’t realise that the last 20 minutes wasn’t available yet. Oops! It’s told in flashback form after something disasterous has happened, and then we learn… what. But (I’m always sorry to say this about non-professional films in this blog series), it’s just not very gripping.

Blinded. Anderson Quarless. 2006. Grenada.

Tropical Teaser

  • 2 parts dark rum
  • 1 part Amaretto
  • 8 parts grapefruit juice

Shake vigorously until very cold. Strain into an ice-filled glass.

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

WFC Equatorial Guinea: El proyecto del mono dril

And we’re back to Youtube this weekend.

This is a documentary about an island off the coast near the equator, and in particular about the drill monkey, which I hadn’t heard of before. (And they’re endagered, of course.)

It’s a very pretty and quite traditional nature film, except at the end where it’s all about praising the government in Equatorial Guinea and how all the endagered species are safe now.

Which is an unusual turn. But I hope it’s true.

The Drill Project. Justin Jay. 2012. Equatorial Guinea.

Ginger-lemonade Highball

  • 1 part Grenadine
  • 3 parts ginger syrup
  • 3 parts simple syrup
  • 5 parts lemon juice
  • 5 parts vodka
  • soda water

Pour all ingredients into an ice-filled highball glass. Stir. Top up with sida water. Garnish with a lemon slice.

I think this cocktail might be more Congolese than Equitorialguineaian.

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

Face Your Problems

I maintain a web site (and a gaggle of apps) that scrape event lists of all the clubs and concert venues in Oslo.  The other day, I was told that it missed a bob hund concert and I was all whaaa?

It turned out that the reason was that Facebook is now blocking all non-logged-in access to their event lists.

Because nobody who has a venue wants anybody but people on Facebook to show up when they have a concert.  I guess that’s what you get when you’re gardening in a walled garden.

This made about a dozen sites disappear off of CSID, so I had to get real and figure out how to deal with the Facebook “Graph” API.  And it turned out to be really easy to work with.  After I read “howto” web sites for half an hour, implementing it was just a matter of connecting app secrets with app IDs with client tokens with access tokens with long-lived access tokens.

It all makes sense.

It’s all on github as usual, but it’s trivial, really.  And I guess it’ll work until Facebook feels like they should cut off more access to the data, whenever they feel like that’ll make more sense for their quarterly outlook.