Alexander Chalkidis

Blog

Stealth – when Top Gun met A.I.
There have been many movies about Artificial Intelligence lately. Most of them pretty good actually, generally quite thought provoking. Especially for those of us who regularly talk to our phones and rely on cloud services for daily stuff. Close to home as they say. But none of them were fun.
In the good old days, if you wanted character in a plane, you painted a mouth on it!
So here are three hitech warplanes who get a new team-mate. An all singing, all dancing, all watching and listening plane that learns on its own. If you know very little about drones, you might think it is somehow close to reality. If you know anything about military protocol you will not. But that isn’t the point.
Everyone says “Top Gun” when you speak about plane movies, but by the end, this is more like “ET” meeting the “Iron Eagle” trilogy. Epic stuff. People smile at the right time, salute, explode and laugh just when they should be. Well made movie. For its kind. As long as you don’t try and relate anything you see to anything in the real world, geography, politics or technology. They even threw some romance in for good measure.
This is not for everyone. If I wasn’t in the right mood, it wouldn’t even be for me.
January 20, 2016
Bridge of Spies. I wish Spielberg was Greek!
When “Schindler’s list” first came out I lived in London. I was meeting a good friend and major movie buff that day. Over the years together, we had watched all sorts of Iranian, Afghan, Icelandic or alternative South Pole native penguin films. I had even enjoyed some of them. He is as far from Hollywood movie wise as you can put someone. But he must have heard something good about it from someone he trusts more than me, so he graciously came along.
At the end of the movie he had to admit it was pretty good. Or “not as bad as I expected it” in his words. Since then Spielberg has moved on a lot. In fact I credit this entire genre to him. “Didactic movies which are made with enormous attention to detail and a ridiculous amount of research but are actually watchable and entertaining too while standing on their own as films too.” Since “Saving Private Ryan” it has become a trend. “Band of Brothers” or the Pacific adventures of the US army in WW2 on TV were simply mind blowing in the amount of work involved. I wish we had Greek film directors as able in “good” propaganda like this. From Byzantium to more recent history, we need the good Press urgently!
Movies with a message can get pretty tiring. These weren’t. OK, some of them overdid the appeal to emotions, flags, flashbacks and old men standing in front of graves. (All of which worked with me by the way, I cried like a baby through most of all that!) Often American propaganda films are just too heavy handed. Spielberg though, has it all figured out. He doesn’t need to whore himself or the cast in the pre-film publicity. Bridge of Spies is not only the great director back in form, but the whole PR machine being sensitive about it too.
Ah, and the film. Instantly attention grabbing shots, great character material. Even if you don’t get caught in the plot you have to admire the technical aspects. As the story unfolds you figure it out: the Cold War is still relevant. From Gitmo to Putin, these issues are still very much alive and important. Not a fan of Tom Hanks, but luckily the great director doesn’t let him “do a Tom Hanks” all over his scenes. Most of it is keen, sharp and to the point.
I clicked on the “Date” category because I assume that for some couples this is “heavy” and “serious”. In any case, if you don’t know much about this era, it would give you something to talk about over dinner. Which is precisely why I give it 7 out of 10 (if you haven’t got a clue) or 6 out of 10 for the rest of us. All those hours with Alex watching arty farty movies allows me a certain amount of snobbery, eh?

January 19, 2016
Burnt – Rocky does cookery for kids
No, this isn’t the sexy guy from the movie
This is not meant to be a movie for kids. Nice looking guy, romance, cookery….it is datenight material. Our hero is a genius fighting ghosts from the past. But he does it in such an easy way, nobody gets worried. Kids can watch this, no problem.
If nothing else, it is a great antidrug advert. Kids, don’t take drugs because bad people will chase you for money, you ruin your life and it is generally a big dark cloud. No needles, no mess shown. Quite the opposite. For someone who hasn’t really thought about cooking as a job, this is a great introduction.
“But Daddy, why on earth are knives so important?”
My eldest is twelve years old now, time to start thinking about careers. Well if he wants to be a chef, this is one way to start getting excited about it. The importance of teamwork, good ingredients, hard work, presentation and many other facets of the job. Sure, they are glossed over in a very female-audience-friendly way, but it still works.
You never really worry too much that he won’t make it but this is a watchable 5 or 6 out of 10.
January 19, 2016
Bulletproof monk – great job of a mediocre idea
It is pretty hard to take a film seriously when it starts with two monks sparing on a bridge and flying around. That whole karate/flying/Chinese wire trick…really…why? But “Bulletproof monk” pulls it off well. For starters, it is the first movie with an explanation of how to walk on air. But mainly the two lead roles are likeable and drive the story forward all the time.
The old guy from Tibet is neither Jackie Chan, nor some martial arts guru. More like a regular guy you might want as a neighbour. The young guy is a New York pick pocket, smart kid but not falling into any easy pidgeon holes either. None of those overdone slow motion stylistic shows action movies on a budget often fall for. If our hero needs to take out ten bad guys, OK, he does some fancy stuff, but he gets on with it.
Plot is the normal thing. We all have to protect some ancient scroll with the secret to ultimate power. Twist is that some Nazi has been chasing it since the second World War. Yeah, we have heard that before too. But it really doesn’t matter, the take is fresh. My kids watched it straight after the Spiderwick Chronicles, same story, protecting a book from evil, but they didn’t mind at all.
The girl in the film is interesting too. While Star Wars fans pine and groan about Rey not getting her own doll, the female lead in this film is cool, sexy, sweet, tough, able and with a nice twist at the end does real equality sort of stuff. In all, a great cast guided by an obviously good team, makes a great job of a mediocre idea.

Family entertainment value, 5 or 6 out of 10
January 19, 2016
Will this idea work?

Some time ago I sat in a school committee meeting. As usual they were wasting time talking too much. For about half an hour they were discussing what to do about the graffiti on the wall. I calculated that in that time we could have actually painted it over at least twice. By doing we would have solved the problem we were thinking about. It wasn’t about consensus, it was just that everybody was playing with “what if” scenarios instead of “just do it” solutions.
I have done the same in big business meetings though too. All too often you come out of a meeting with an idea. The problem is that the idea that seems better has no data to back it up. There is no way to differentiate between ideas when they are just blah blah over coffee and stale biscuits at a Monday morning meeting. That to me seems like a big waste. If I have spent an hour getting excited about an idea, why leave it to die?
Business is essentially a series of experiments. Every day you look for “solutions”. Which means that essentially you are testing a hypothesis. “Here is a situation we need to change. Will this work?” www.willthiswork.org is something I just started to help you with that. How to test ideas quickly, cheaply and with little or no risk. (Depends how you do it and what “it” is.) I come out of that meeting and start the project. That simple.
Anyone who has commissioned a panel knows how frustrating it is. 8 or 10 people carefully selected and coordinated by specialists end up giving you pretty bad data. You have no idea how accurate or useful it is really. And it is way too expensive. Instead of talking about “social media”, I think of them as cheap experiments. There are ready made tools and keen audiences wanting to partake in your tests. At worse you get a lot of feedback, maybe some new ideas. At best you have launched the idea in a spectacular way and proved it works.
It is pretty addictive. Having done it thousands of times I have remnants of old ideas all over the place. That product launch page which is still counting down to a launch that never happened. That other site which just republished content but got us more than twenty thousand unique hits and saved the day with the search data it provided. The other software idea which seemed fantastic but a month down the line seemed less fantastic as it would cost way too much. Some of these ideas didn’t even wait until the meeting ended. I have automated the procedure so much now, I can launch an idea website within five minutes of thinking of the idea.
It’s not always that simple. So www.willthiswork.org has just started from phase one, all rough and ugly right now as it is going slowly so I can explain some of the challenges at every step. Try it out. Just do it.

November 19, 2015
Nick Cave dies of an overdose
The first time I saw Nick Cave live it was in a grungy basement club. He was either too stoned or not stoned enough. In any case the man showed very limited connection to anything happening around him. Like for example the songs being played. Truth be told it is amazing he recovered from that state back in 1980something when I saw him, even more so that he became a success. And I am really really happy I have never listened to him since.
I forced myself to listen to the entire album. “Skeleton Tree” does not put me in a good mood. Nick Cave reminds of a friend at high school who always wore way too smart clothes and insisted on painting only with black ink. He refused to do anything normal. If he painted something that looked recognizable he would mess it up. If he said something approaching what you expected, he added something irrelevant. This album is exactly that. Cave drones like the failed poet that he is. If you like Leonard Cohen you will love this. He recites his prose and makes sure it doesn’t really rhyme or even fit in the rhythm. As soon as it starts sounding normal he goes off on a tangent. If we didn’t know better, we would assumed he is stoned silly.
The real problem with this album is the music. Or more specifically the completely boring background tracks to Cave’s rants. Perhaps the only half decent attempt where he bothers to try and fit with what the rest of the band is doing is this:
On a good day you will listen to that entire track and even half like it. But the rest of the album is much much worse. And on tracks like “Distant Sky” it is well, truly pathetic. The man can’t decide if he is a devout Christian, a lost soul or a fanatic atheist. The music is even worse in lack of positioning. The choir and female backing tracks make your local school kids singing seem awesome.
That friend of mine from school is now a famous composer and doing really well for himself. Personally I find his music banal and generally ripped off from others. But hey, like Nick Cave, he is a success and the women love him. Just goes to show. Some girls will go crazy about this verse or the other in the album, fans will look for references and try to figure out whether the supermarket he mentions is Heaven or just the local 7/11. Nick Cave is not a “rock legend” as some describe him. He is a second rate musician, a third rate poet and a terrible songwriter. If you like the words . ask him to do performance art at some cultural event, accompanied by a tuna, a trombone and a tit. He has no place on a CD or near a band. It almost makes me wish that night in 1980something in the basement Nick Cave had decided to just give up.
September 16, 2015
Socrates on Greek debt
“Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius; pay it and do not forget.” The last words of the famous philosopher have been much discussed. Maybe he foresaw the Greek debt situation! Nietzsche of course turned it to metaphorically mean death. Others say it was Plato who was ill and recovering, Socrates heard of this and wanted to thank the God. Or maybe he had already started having dellusions due to the hemlock and remembered an old debt.
But most take it literally. Socrates, having eloquently stated his case in court, with cynical dryness and panache mentioned an actual debt to tidy over before he died.

July 12, 2015
Greek on a soapbox
Will try and keep this short and unGreek in drama. I am a Germanotsolias according to many people here. The term refers to the police collaborators with the Nazis and is very fashionable again. Ι write in full knowledge that I am probably going to be pinpointed by this, already the Press is facing ridiculous inquisitions on political grounds.
Europe I am sorry. We just kept taking your money, lying through our teeth and spending it. Even just before the referendum, our government was busy hiring more civil servants under various guises. Even after the referendum, our ministers are lying to your face. They are not going to make any proposals. Even if you give away all our debt and accept all our terms, they won’t sign any agreement. They don’t need to. 61% of half the voting age Greeks, voted No to the referendum. Some of them were fooled. Many of them truly believe that now is the time to start a global revolution against banks, the European Union and the shortcomings of the global economy from our country.
I am sorry. I know it sounds ludicrous. It is preposterous. Imagine what we feel like. That 39% that managed to vote “YES”, despite all the pressure. Despite seeing close friends suddenly lose touch with reality with a religious fervour that is truly frightening. People that should have known better. They studied abroad, they do business with other countries, they work with the European Union yet….somehow they manage to disregard reality. For some it is a knee jerk reaction to being accused by others. For some it is an indirect admission of guilt. They feel we should be reduced to rumbles in order to work our way back up. They imagine it as a quick musical interlude in a corny American movie, a dramatic song, our hero working overtime and then…everything is fine ten minutes later and the movie ends.
On top of it all, our latest government has played the “Europe needs fixing” card in a way which is criminal. Just as the Scottish referendum showed the UK how to move towards a more Federal model and things are moving in the right direction, comes the Greek bulldozer. So let this be a warning to you all. For too long, European politicians have blamed Europe. It was the easy choice. Be careful what sows you seed and by all means, don’t allow your current politicians to lead you to fanatical choices.
Maybe Europe doesn’t “work” for you. If you have a strong economy, reliable politicians and social cohesion maybe you can do something better on your own. Just don’t rush into it.
July 8, 2015
Aristotle on sleeping with sheep
It is warmer if you sleep with goats than it is with sheep. Sheep are more nervous, whereas goat snuggle up close to people in the night.
History of Animals – Aristotle
June 7, 2015
Philosophy pays
Thales of Miletus was often mocked for being poor. Some said that this proved his philosophy was useless. But while studying the stars one winter, Thales discovered that it would be particularly good weather that season for olives. He subsequently leased all the olive presses he could. Both in his home town of Miletus but also on Chios island. The lease was cheap. No one else made a bid. Many months later, the time to harvest came. It was indeed a great year, so they all needed oil presses. Since their need was urgent and Thales controlled all the presses, he increased the price for his services and made a lot of money.
This was how he showed everyone that if a philosopher sets his mind to it, he can indeed make money. But he chooses not to.
Politics – Aristotle
June 6, 2015