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In case youre one of the eleven people in the United States who hasnt yet seen

Batman,The Dark Knight

, let me be brief so you can go out and buy your ticket. Okay, maybe there are more than eleven of you out there, but according to Reuters this morning, Batman became the fastest movie to make $300 million, and it has only been out for ten days.

Every now and then, a movie comes along that resonates in the viewers mind.
Certainly Heath Ledgers brilliant portrayal of The Joker is a huge part of the success, Christian Bale is convincing and the special effects are sterling. But that doesnt explain why it resonates. With apologies, then, let me point out a couple of my observations. In this movie, Batman is not quite as squeaky clean as he had been portrayed in past incarnations. He is conflicted, often coming right up to the very edge of the line that separates good from evil; right from wrong; perhaps he even crosses that line. There is no consensus of whether what he is doing (his vigilante-ism) is good for the residents of Gotham or not. The population is split, some calling

the batman

a criminal himself. Even visually, the city of Gotham itself is darker than past portrayals. Is any of this starting to sound familiar, say, perhaps, when compared to certain political leaders or situations?

But

The Joker

(Heath Ledger) steals this show. He is evil incarnate. Unlike previous villains, this Joker does not want money, or power. Those are things we have grown accustomed to. They no longer frighten us. In fact, they seem, in these early days of the twenty-first century, almost normal. In one scene, the Joker sets fire to a pile of money, the ultimate crime to most Americans. What the Joker wants is to bring down Gotham, to throw it into chaos. Americans are just coming to grips with this notion. People understand the motivations of Napoleans and Hitlers who want to take over the world. But this idea of declaring war on somebody for the sole purpose of destroying them is a relatively new one to most, say something they have had to get used to since 2001. The Joker does not want to rule Gotham, or to steal all of its money. It simply wants it destroyed.

Am I reading too much into this? Perhaps. My friends have accused me of worse. But besides the fact that it is a good movie on its own merit, The Dark Knight has managed to encapsulate our darkest fears. This movie is set in a world where good overlaps evil, and motives have changed. I wonder if a movie goer in 1950 would even get it. Sixty years ago it would have seemed preposterous that a villain would not want to take over the world. Ledgers Joker would have seemed farcical, in fact, unbelievable. That is why this movie resonates. On some level, we are confronted with this sort of Joker every day. He fills us with terror. He is truly frightening. More than any other movie I can think of, this movie is about the world in 2008.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Voltaire called Canada

a few acres of snow

It is that sort of dismissive comment that has made us Canadians particularly proud of our musical heritage. Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young, all rock icons, hail from Canada. You might be asking yourself, what does Myron Gushlak know about music? and why should I be listening to an investment banker about what is any good? While my association with the formation of EMusic has given me cache in the financial world, it is probably not enough to get a job at Rolling Stone. So it was with no little skepticism that I listened to the Canadian group The Arcade Fire.

Though not a particularly new group, (they have been around for almost five years with two best selling CDs under their belt) they are relatively unknown outside of the Indie music scene. This is unfortunate. Not for them. Theyre doing quite well thank you, but for the masses of people who have yet to hear them. Led by Win Butler and his wife Regine Chassagine they are a vibrant tour de force of music. Besides the usual drums, guitar and bass, they incorporate such un-rock-like instruments as the accordion and the harp. Their music fills a room. I was fortunate enough to see them at Radio City Music Hall in New York, so obviously they are not unknown. Their stage act seems to incorporate a small army of versatile musicians. Violins, brass, percussion, fantastic harmonies and stunning lyrics make them a banquet both audibly and visually. I did not necessarily intend this to be a commercial for the band, but once you see them, youll understand why Im so enthusiastic about them. Their 2008 tour is over after 122 shows in 75 cities in 19 countries, so your best bet at seeing them is U-Tube. Check out the one where they’re all playing in an elevator.

And to make it all too sweet for words, theyre Canadian!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNfWC4Sgkcs

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yelp.com is a site I use when visiting the U.S. to find restaurants, stores and other services. It pretty much covers all the bases. I first heard about it when I was telling a friend in New York that I needed to find a dentist. She said

Just yelp it

. I had no idea what she was talking about. A few minutes later I was asking if there was a good camera shop in the area because I needed a charger for my Sony. Again, she said,

Just yelp it.

At this point I just asked what yelping something entailed.

Basically you just select the City you want to search in and what you are looking for and user-generated reviews appear. I prefer these types of reviews to Zagat guides that don't cover things intangibles like the vibe of a place, and that only look at a few menu items. My friend Dave found a veterinarian for his dog on yelp. Good stuff. Though I have to say that I am steadfastly against inventing verbs out of website names. Yelp should not be added to the dictionary people.

By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most of the time I write about information based websites. Gizmodo, Panbo and Cribcandy provide me with countless hours of distraction during tedious and boring times.

Once in a while though I come across a web service that is truly compelling and makes me think,

Wow, these guys are really on to something

. One such site is www.opentable.com which operates a restaurant reservation engine in the U.S. (and I think a few cities in Europe).

Whenever you want to make a reservation you log-in and select from a list of restaurants or search by cuisine or location or price based on the time you want to eat and the size of your party. Once you have selected where you want to eat the available seating times are displayed and you can just choose what you want. Opentable will even send an email confirmation to all of the people in your party with directions to the restaurant. Need to change or cancel the reservation? No problem. Just log-in and do it. The hostess will receive a notification of your change. Best of all, the more you use the service, the more points you earn towards dining gift certificates. If this company is ever taken public I'm going to buy buy buy!
By Myron Gushlak

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

http://www.cargolaw.com/2007nightmare_msc.napoli.html

This is one of the best posts on Cargolaw.com and it documents an ongoing operation to salvage a ship that ran into some extremely rough weather in the English Channel earlier this month.

The photos are incredible – including actual shots of people looting BMW motorcycles that were in cargo containers that fell into the sea and were washed ashore. Imagine the force it takes to wash a container weighing several tons onto dry land!

Having lived through a few Hurricanes in the Caymans and having paid the price for the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to my home I feel for this shipping company. As far as the looting goes; it’s tempting but come on people, it's just wrong. And, if you don’t have a moral issue with stealing, at least be smart enough to not do it in front of somebody holding a camera and taking pictures!

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out http://www.cargolaw.com/2006nightmare_tradewinds.html and scroll down to the bottom to see what happens when winds blow a plane back onto the ground and crack it in half. Yikes. I'm flying tomorrow and did not need to see that.

I also like http://www.cargolaw.com/2006nightmare_mv.alvastar.html this Captain just rams a giant cargo ship into the side of a mountain. No storm caused this and it happened during the day! You could spend hours on this site (I do all the time) just reading about maritime disasters. I shouldn't give this Captain such a hard time. For all I know piloting a container ship is even more difficult than parallel parking a semi-truck. Then again, it's a mountain folks. A frigging mountain!

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just found a great boating site called www.cargolaw.com.

It is operated by a law firm called Countryman & McDaniel that specializes in Customs law and Air and Ocean logistics. Once you scroll down past their ad you get to the meat of the site -- an encyclopedia of ocean disasters complete with photos of attempted rescues and even the looting that occurs on the shore as people try to steal everything from giant bales of thread to motorcycles that get pitched off of container ships during heavy storms. I will definitely be spending countless hours looking through the dozens of maritime disasters they have captured. Who knows, maybe I will even blog a few.

Posted by Myron Gushlak at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)