In the Batman I see

(Spoiler alert, If you haven't seen The Dark Knight don't read this)

The Dark Knight was awesome, there is no dispute about that. It was a perfect descent into unrelenting chaos. But it could have been even better (or at least to people who enjoy unrelenting chaos). Firstly the mass Cellphone conversion to a sonar array? Come on, don't insult us. That also goes for the bullet reconstruction. But OK, I admit it is a comic book movie and we have already accepted all of batmans other gadgets, so why not these, so I let them pass with a pained grimace. But really the only reason Batman got anywhere is cause he had really unbelievable gadgets, it was a bit thin.

The big change I would have made is at the ending. The people on the boat not blowing each other up? Thats ridiculous, of course they would have done it. But I would have changed it, we can still go through all the voting and stuff, but they pull the trigger, the trigger is connected to their own boat, so they blow themselves up. That way the big criminal dudes heroics are in complete vain, and the joker would have been proved right. He and batman would have seen it and his entire position would have been vindicated. That would have been awesome, an unrelenting end to an unrelenting  movie.

That said its obvious to me that my ending wouldn't have gone down as well, people want to feel happy when they leave a cinema. But really the movie should have been called The Joker. They could have done away with batman completely.

Minus

I Just found beautiful web comic strip "Minus". Apparently it's just ended, but there are 130 of them. The strips are hand drawn 'on a 15x20" piece of Illustration board.' The comic follows a young school girl with magical powers. At this point I tried to write a sentence explaining the ambiance of the strips, and I was going to use words like Surrealism and Post-Modernism, but then I realised I didn't really know what any of those words meant, so I declined to write that sentence. I get the feeling that the artist wouldn't like me boxing his work anyway. So I leave it up to you, my imaginary public, to decide for yourself.

Flight 5

Flight Volume 5 is coming out, which is awesome. I can't wait. Someone I know has to preorder it. I would but, well anyway... uh ya. So there is a preview at http://www.newsarama.com/ and an interview with the editor Kazu Kibuishi .For those who don't know, Flight is the most awesome comic anthology ever created. Check it out.

The cover

Evening Breeze

The gulf was made to be seen at night, you can say what you want about it during the day but the night hides many flaws and accentuates the city. The temperature on a summers night here is still in the high 30's, but after the heat of the day that seems pleasant.

Around 8:30 you can hear the start of the last prayers being announced from the minarets, the sounds engulfs the entire city. This time feels the most foreign, like you are really out of the West (where West includes South Africa) now.

On a clear night if you are in the right place the lights look fantastic, even on a dusty night they look good, though the effect is different. Lights are what makes the gulf look good at night, I don;t think anywhere else in the world does lights like they do it here.

There is an evening breeze tonight, it feels almost cool and calm tonight.

A view from the villa's roof

Bubbles, Sun and Dust

I kept on waking up at night thinking I was by the ocean, or really close to the highway. As I ascended back to consciousness my surroundings reminded me it was just the air-conditioner. Air-conditioning is ever present, a constant dull hum in the ear where ever you go. The bubble world is magnified, personified by the air-conditioning. I move from the bubble home, to the bubble car, to bubble work. I return via the bubble mall. There is only the bubble, there is no natural world, no connection with the land.

The Bubble Mall

I take a 15 minute break around lunch each day to make sure I get some idea of real Saudi summer. I sit outside in the raw sun where everything radiates heat. It's a type of heat that you feel you are swimming in, it's thick, viscous. Even at night it's too hot to stay outside for long and the cold water taps still run warm.

The Air-conditioners that keep our villa cool

Last night a dust storm came up, when we woke up the entire city was in a thick fog of dust. The sky looks white, blinding initially until your eyes adjust to the glare. You vision fades after about 20m in all directions. The dust gives the surroundings an surreal texture, like everything is slightly imaginary. The dust in your lungs reminds you of the opposite. Apparently last month the entire east coast was under a dust cloud for 3 weeks. At least it cools things down a bit. The sun can't reach through the dust. Even at mid day you can stare right at it, it looks like bright white disk, or a pearl. It doesn't seem to really shine, it's more the light is a property of the mist.

The view from the office after the dust storm