About "Predictable But Fun"

Stylistically the movie combines documentary and narrative genres.
Ostensibly a comedy, ‘Predictable But Fun’ serves as a conversation springboard, investigating contemporary love, choices and the pursuit of happiness through the lens of our technology-saturated culture. It explores such issues as the role of technology in our lives (whether, how, or if it enhances our love lives), a look at the life-partner concept and the importance of knowing one's self. “

Predictable But Fun” is written and directed by' Grace Shulner.
Grace is a technologist and filmmaker, exploring the relationships between people and machines and people and each other. The movie is inspired by her research work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, where she focused on online-offline dialogue, online choices, decision making in electronic settings and online usability.

H@ppy Friday. This Sunday, 134 years ago,  Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for the telephone [March 7, 1876 ]  The history of the telephone is almost as complicated as today's cell phone plans...minutes, roaming, texting, and long-distance fees apply. In his first ever successful experiment, Bell spoke through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas Watson, in the next room, uttering these famous words: "Mr. Watson -- come here -- I want to see you."  Today, every time a new study is released on the number of landlines vs. cell phones in the U.S., the number of people who prefer or rely solely on cell phones creeps up and the number of landlines slips slowly. With this trend pushing the idea of a "home phone" towards the dustbin of history and having us all carry portable-communication-devices on the go, are we more connected with each other? Where are we adjusting, using these digit@living filters?

H@ppy Friday. This week its, Joyeux Anniversaire, Feliz Cumpleaños, H@ppy day of birth, to businessman and innovator Steve Jobs. You may be typing on or screen-touching the fruits of his labors right now. As the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple Inc, the title alone is already telling of his significance, so we don’t need to add to the all-things obsession here. Instead, this Twitter roundup will focus on what Steve Jobs has added to the conversation of digit@l living with his own dialogue. Here are our favorite SJ quote@bles and our back-at-ya questions in response! 

"The products suck! There's no sex in them anymore!" [On Apple's product, just before his return BusinessWeek, 1997] Who wants sex anymore? Social networking is the new porn as the #1 web activity. "What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds" [Library of Congress 1991]  But what about the poor bicycles? We can’t ride on a bicycle built for two if we’re dating online instead. "We believe it's the biggest advance in animation since Walt Disney started it all with the release of Snow White 50 years ago" [On Toy Story , Fortune 1995]  Avatar anyone? "I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger" [On Bill Gates, NY Times 1997]  So this is how the PC vs. Mac commercials started "I would trade all of my technology for an afternoon with Socrates" [Newsweek, 2001] A return to the classics, huh? Maybe Joseph Wiezenbaum had a point! "You had me at scrolling" [On the iPhone features of the iPhone, Macworld '07] Was it love at first text?

(Flickr/Luke Seeley)

@DrMacenstein, Blogger Dr. Mac Enstein. Feb 22: Extract" is worth renting. Not quite office space, but pretty damn funny. And Jason Bateman rules

@fsjblog, Blogger The Secret Diary of Steve Job. Feb 24: Michael Wolff is afraid of me — but not as afraid as interns are of him:

@milehighfool Technology, business, and culture writer-recent article: Has Steve Jobs Lost His Touch?Feb: 15: Anyone having success posting to Google #Buzz using email? I've tried multiple times over the past few days -- no success

H@ppy Friday. This Sunday, January 14th Cupid’s calling on the holiday of l-o-v-e.
Whether you are already in a relationship, looking for some hooking up, single and satisfied, or all of the above :); Valentine’s Day can be an ideal time to reach out and tell someone that you care. During Valentine’s week we buy more than 58 million pounds of chocolate, about 5.1 percent of total annual sales. Along with chocolate, roses are a go-to gift with an estimated 187 million produced for Valentine’s Day in 2009. So, even if you’re just waiting for a good deal on some chocolate goodness (which is what January 15th is for!), Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at Predictable But Fun !

H@ppy Friday. Today in 1937 the film "Modern Times" premiered in theatres.
Written, produced and directed by Charles Chaplin the film is a comment on the desperate employment and fiscal conditions many people faced during the Great Depression. According to Chaplin, these conditions were created by the efficiencies of modern industrialization and technology. Sound familiar everyone? If you ever worked a repetitive, soul-destroying job you will relate to Chaplin's factory worker. In “Modern Times,” Chaplin plays the hapless victim of circumstance. Again, can anyone relate? This film was added to the National Film Registry by the National Film Preservation Board [the public advisory group to the Librarian of Congress] in 1989 in recognition of its status as a landmark in the history of cinema. "Modern Times" was the last feature length silent film to be made in the United States. Charlie Chaplin was married four times and had 11 children between 1919 and 1962 which may inspired him to say this:  “Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.”

What happens when technology and love say ‘I do’? What was the courtship like leading up to it? What does its present and future mean? We are eager to share and hear what you have to say about this interesting junction of people and machines during our upcoming screening tour. With the film, our objective is to engage audiences in conversations and action about themes explored in "Predictable But Fun," such as: technology as a socializing tool, the life-partner concept, contemporary love and other digit@living topics. And although our roots are academic (the film was inspired by research work from MIT, Media Laboratory) we have branched out and hope to offer you some modern exploration along with laughter and of course>>FUN!
Technology’s social adaptation is a complex one. We seek the comfort of the past and integrate this nostalgia into the new and increasingly digital world. As a part of this series of posts we call: “when technology and love say…” we’re continuing to put the spotlight on current trends and what they say about the way we connect to one another. Part of the topics we look forward exploring more when we’ll see YOU. Today’s addition is all about ‘the comeback’. With the back and forth, in and out nature of technology, there’s always room for a comeback and a few knockouts, Mickey Rourke style!

Offline Multiplayers: Even the most ‘techy’ are going old-school. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs in companies suchvas Facebook, StumbleUpon and LinkedIn have found low-tech entertainment in the board game Settlers of Catan. Playing casually and in tournaments has become a way for employees to socialize and relax. Catan’s strategies for building settlements are similar to the skills necessary to running a start-up, so it’s easy to see the appeal and FUN in this unPREDICTABLE [shall we say old- fashioned] form of entertainment. [Source: Wall Street Journal]

Old McDonald had a farm: The simplicity of the great outdoors is invading our Facebook newsfeeds with Zynga’s game application FarmVille. Apparently all y’all are wearing your virtual overalls and harvesting some crops, because FarmVille is on the top of the App leaderboard with 73,651,676 monthly active users. We hope this cold snap in the weather doesn’t harm your veggies! [Source: Appdata.com]

Not SEXting, CLUting: Looking to join the tech-savvy, Hasbro has introduced a new version of the board game Clue which integrates cell phone text-messaging in game play. The new CLUE allows players to check in at Hasbro HQ and continue their mission activity via text. We Hope Agent Scarlet and Agent Mustard have unlimited texting plans! [Source: NYTimes Gadgetwise] 

Doing much SEXting lately? To participate in the dialog and be part of a screening event,
join our facebook page for updates and explosive invites!

H@ppy Friday. Tomorrow, January 30 is The Directors Guild Awards. With the Golden Globes [Best Motion Picture winner: Avatar] and The Screen Actors Guild Awards last weekend [Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture: Inglourious Basterds] behind us and the Oscars [The Hurt Locker?] a few weeks away, The Director’s Guild Awards marks the mid-point of the 2010 award season. The DGA for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally been a near perfect barometer for the Best Director Academy Award.
Only twice since 1970, when the current method began of selecting five nominees from which one winner is chosen, has a director received two DGA Feature Film nominations in the same year. In 1974, Francis Ford Coppola was nominated for both The Godfather Part II and The Conversation (Coppola received that year's DGA for The Godfather Part II); Steven Soderbergh was nominated for both Erin Brockovich and Traffic for the year 2000.  Out of this year’s five nominee in the feature film category, only 2 have an active  Twitter account: Jason Reitman [1,393 tweets as of 1/29 ] and Quentin Tarantino [6 tweets as of 1/29].  Here are our sample Tweets from insiders, outsiders, movie lovers, and fans. And the  best tweets go to...

H@ppy Friday. Today is Wikipedia Day, celebrating the public launch of Wikipedia.com in 2001. The site's nature of being open to edit content and provide links to cross-reference makes it a popular and dynamic site.As of January 8, 2010, there are approximately 3,151,800 articles with 358,474,672 edits made and counting! Anything under the sun is in Wikipedia starting at brief definitions which are then expanded upon and updated Wiki-style to keep up with the digital world.  The Wikipedia dating article not only explains “going dutch” but also includes information on, internet dating, mobile dating, and virtual dating.  Similarly, the Wikipedia marriage article continues to change from African marriage rituals to new laws about same-sex marriage.  Happy Birthday Wikipedia!"Predictable But Fun" Twitter Whaaat?

 H@ppy Friday! H@ppy Weekend! Something is happening all the time. And with Twitter people have something to say about it
(in 140 characters nonetheless!) Our T.G.I.F appetizers - a big h.u.g.e from us to you - kicking off the weekend - are our Twitter Roundups. In these posts we will focus on Tweeters with content that speaks to specific dates in history related to our “Predictable But Fun” themes. Themes like: technology as a socializing tool, films, contemporary love, digital living, wedding gown, chocolate :) and more. Because at the end of the day [or the end of the week] we’re all connected, thinking about the same subjects, and contemplating similar dilemmas in this web of a world.