Batman : Ashes to Ashes HD
Ry and Lu’s house
Our pals in Juneau suffered a tragedy yesterday when their house caught on fire in the middle of the night and burned out. The source of the fire came from the house next door, which only suffered a fraction of the damage. We can hear Ry’s and Lu’s voices laughing about finding out what’s covered…
Sorry I’m Late
Stop-motion never gets boring, especially since people keep finding new ways to make it even more compelling. Take, for example, a short I found today on Laughing Squid made by Tomas Mankovsky that was shot from above using a still camera on the ceiling: click here to see how it was made. = c
Barca Championship 2009 Highlights
A pal and I watched the game from Brit’s Pub in downtown MPLS yesterday where the ratio was easily 3:1 United to Barca fans. The first few minutes of the game were controlled by United and thus their fans looked on us with dominance. We thought, “Oh, no”. But then, Barca suddenly and collectively began…
Why is there buttock stabbing in Rome?
QUESTION: Why is there buttock stabbing in Rome? Manchester United fans are in Rome for the Champions League final. When English teams have visited the Italian capital in recent years there have been a string of fans stabbed in the buttocks by hooligans. But why do they target the backside? Other than the fact that…
BARCA!
Today is the day, meeting a pal downtown to watch – GO BARCA!!! = c
Tag to play on PBS
I make films under the moniker of thinfilms. My films are mostly fiction, but recently I completed a documentary about the game of tag, titled appropriately “Tag”. It was a long process as I did most of the work myself and kept the budget under $5000. From thinfilms.net: For three years I collected candid interviews…
Hero : James Burke
James Burke has the storytelling powers of the immortal. Here we can listen and see him discuss the thinking behind his work. Groovy, indeed. = c
Nice bubble
Some friends and I debated over whether this is real or photoshopped. The consensus is that if this was photoshopped, then that would be even more of a feat. The whimsical nature of this is great – even if it took the fella a few tries to nail it. = c
Danny Wilcox Frazier
I give thanks to the gods for Danny Wilcox Frazier. Responsible for chronicling the Midwestern way of life in multiple mediums, he is true to the cause of his homeland and to the powers that live here, unknown to those on the coasts who dare not venture out of their safely *cool* havens for parts…
On reducing pain and suffering
View Larger Map Our pain and suffering can be greatly reduced by simple precautions. On my bicycle yesterday, while cruising home from work, I was moving fast across a busy street and beginning to brake hard as I pointed the albatross [my bike’s name] up over a curb onto the sidewalk just down the way…
Isabel Coixet
Earlier this year, I had the thrill of spending some time with Isabel Coixet. I also worked closely with her daughter, a young filmmaker herself, during my residency in Barcelona in March and April. Those not familiar with Isabel’s work, I kindly recommend her features: * Demasiado viejo para morir joven (“Too Old to Die…
Another reason why the Midwest rules
Justin Vernon: = c
Reading List : The Black Swan
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable is a book about randomness and uncertainty by epistemologist Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The Black Swan theory refers to a large-impact, hard-to-predict and rare event beyond the realm of *normal* expectations or logic. His theory refers to events of large consequence and their dominant role in history….
BARCA!
[From SoccerSlave] Ten-man Barcelona denied Chelsea of a place in the Champions League final in the cruelest of fashions with a 93rd-minute away goal at Stamford Bridge. A stunning first-half volley from Michael Essien looked to have earned Chelsea victory and set up a repeat of last year’s Champions League final against Manchester United, where…
Garage Sale Jukebox
Here we see a picture of David Browne posing for his pseudo-wedding portrait [long story] back in 2006. He and his bride, Sarah Lukacs, are old pals of ours from our days living in Seattle, where these two still live and are always up to one scheme or another. His latest is Garage Sale Jukebox….
Driftless: Stories from Iowa
Received this from MediaStorm today: We are excited to announce a special premiere of our soon-to-be released documentary Driftless: Stories from Iowa by Danny Wilcox Frazier on Monday, May 18, at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, Brooklyn. The screening of the film will be followed by a Q&A with Danny and the team from MediaStorm….
Searching for a Heart of Gold
My new pal, David Cevoli, wrote earlier this week about the influence Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and others of that era have had and continue to have on him. He’s a gifted musician and though I’ve not had a chance to listen to him in person, I’ve listened to the demos he’s posted on ReverbNation…
Overlooked : Slackers in Nature
Earlier this morning, Tim O’Reilly tweeted about this research published in the NYT and I am so completely fascinated and thus fixated on it today: Dr. Dornhaus is breaking new ground in her studies of whether the efficiency of ant society, based on a division of labor among ant specialists, is important to their success….
Here’s the [Beef] Genome
By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 24, 2009 The genomes of man and dog have been joined in the scientific barnyard by the genome of the cow, an animal that walked beside them on the march to modern civilization. A team of hundreds of scientists working in more than a dozen countries…
Raise your hand if…
…you need to want more. One thing a recession is good for is reminding us how much we need. Raise your hand if you’ve been doing a lot of talking about the economy and the lack of growth and the rise of unemployment and the worry and the poor attitudes and the general malaise about…
Still Relevant After All These Years
We showed silent films that have been around for almost a century to 7-year-olds and they were rolling on the floor. Chaplin and Keaton are as relevant as ever. Once they caught their breath, they made simple storyboards, title pages and backdrops for their own silent movies, acting out the scenes with toys. Each crew…