Posted another Macro HD video on Vimeo. My son and I along with our friends were hiking behind the Old LA Zoo, and our beetle friend crossed our path. After getting the boys to let the beetle move along its merry way I was able to grab some video.  The music is Brian Eno - Always Returning

Darkling Beetle Takes A Stroll - Macro HD Video from youdiejoe on Vimeo.

Time has an article up on there website talking to the creators of "You Suck At Photoshop". Good read.

There are moments in your life you will always remember, your first kiss, your wedding day, the birth of your children, and the first time you watch "Slipstream". I had my first view last night at Cinefamily's The Most "HolyFuckingShit" Movie of 2007 screening.

A film written and directed by Anthony Hopkins, it's as if the film were the secret lovechild of Oliver Stone and David Lynch but was totally void of any of their fathers talents. Hopkins has worked with both directors and I got the feeling that while he was working on their films he was saying to himself "I could do what these blokes do with my hands tied behind my back". Only if someone had done him the favor of tying his hands behind his back, we and the cast of usually fine actors (Jeffrey Tambor, Christian Slater, John Turturro, Michael Clarke Duncan & Kevin McCarthy) wouldn't have been subjected to "Slipstream".  Hopkins will not "explain" his film, when interviewed at Sundance Film Festival were it screened all he would say is "I did it as a little joke.

Do yourself a favor, if you love really bad movies, find a copy and watch it.

 

I still laugh everytime I see or listen to this song. The love for Werid Al is strong. For the HD version you need to click thru to Vimeo

White & Nerdy from waymoby on Vimeo.

A film I worked on with friends Matthew Buzzell, Liz Massie and Lisa Molomot will air nationally on PBS next week April 1st. If you have the time please watch and also visit the PBS website and let them know if you liked it.

 

COMPAÑERAS profiles America’s first all-female mariachi band, Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles. Founded in 1994, the band members shatter age-old stereotypes while expanding the popularity of mariachi music. In a culture and a musical tradition that has always been male-dominated, these women are true pioneers.

A new little segment for my blog "Stuff I Have Worked On" the complete opposite of the sift as it's TOTALLY SELF PROMOTION! 

"Tell Me Do You Miss Me" is one of several films I have worked on with my long time friend and collaborator Matthew Buzzell. Matthew and I went to college together (North Carolina School Of The Arts) as did Sean Eden (guitarist for Luna) back in the 80's. I did post production audio for this doc.

I love how well this film turned out. It gives you a realistic view of the ups and downs of the music biz from the view of a successful "working" rock band, as well as documenting their farewell tour.  Below, I have embed the Trailer and a couple of performances from the film on the YouTubes. If you dig it, you can pick up a copy here, or of course you could NetFlix it.

I have been in and out of the Sift for the past 3 months, with personal time needed and an intown move of homestead. But the dust is starting to settle and the new digs are coming together here in lovely downtown South Pasadena. I have a steady net connection, my office is up and running again, I've managed to knock 20 pounds off my frame. Life is getting good again.

When you live in a town where the weather is mild and 76 4/5 of the year, when real weather shows up its pretty cool.

Yesterday at around 4:00pm I noticed the sky taking on some seriously cool colors and hues we normally don't get here, as I was heading out the door to take Jack to peewee basketball pratice I grabbed my point and shoot camera. Here is what I got:

This is a 3 panel stitched together panorama (click the photo to get to the BIG version), it gives you the dynamic of the two climate zones bumping up on each other. This picture is facing due north looking towards Glendale, CA overlooking the 5 freeway and the LA River. The mountains to the distance are Mt. Disappointment and Mt. Wilson and over to the far left of the screen you can see some of the burnt out hills of Griffith Park. Weather! Supposed to see snow at low elivations (below 4000 feet) over the next couple of days...we shall see.

I was standing in line (queue) at Costco the other day... I looked up, and I saw this....I gawked and gawked and then I thought to pull out the trusty iPhone and snap a photo.

This a 25-30 year old adult male, ADULT (he had his kid with him, who seemed able to pull up his pants to a normal hip/waist height).... It was amazing watching him get stuff out of his pockets. He probably could have used an Augbesian (follow link for definition).

Folks, maybe I'm old, too old...but really, what? WHAT?!? WTF! 

ps. not to mention the backwards ball cap... ::rolls eyes::

All I had growing up for teen "dramaedy" was John Hughes films....sigh. SO at least in my 40's I can enjoy movies that I wish I could have seen in my youth. "Superbad" would have been a much better film for me in my teens than "Weird Science".

That said... I'm on my usual wintertime movie jag and this evening I watched Juno. It is some mighty good stuff. Go and see it, smart, funny, very touching without being schmaltz.

 

 

 

Some of my favorite character actors are included, J.K. Simmons, Allison Janney and Jason Bateman (not so much a character actor but still a favorite). Directed by Jason Reitman (son of Ivan) who's last film, Thank You for Smoking was another favorite.

 

Finally got into see "There Will Be Blood" last night. With only one theater in Los Angeles showing it, getting tickets to match you schedule was tough.

 

 

This film opens wide very soon. See it for many reason, some of which I will outline now:

• great story told well by Paul Thomas Anderson
• fine acting from Daniel Day-Lewis
• fantastic score by Jonny Greenwood
• Superb Cinematography by Robert Elswit

Too many fine points to get into the plot, but the gist of it is this: oil, people, church, money all mix as well as the first to water.

My son and I went down for our monthly visit and I took my camera along again. Here is some of what we saw. 

OH, Nelly! This is good stuff... If you are a Mac OS X user, have a love for great photography, and want to give yourself something to look at on that new 24" screen of yours... Check out the new public beta of FlickrFan

It's not a "double click, install" application, but with a few screens on your web browser you should be able to install and setup this very cool application. Basically a RSS reader for photos, it loads up folders on you Mac with pictures from RSS feeds of your choice, then using the built in photo screen saver on OS X to display the photos. Simple yes, super cool double yes!

PC folks are excluded at this time, but don't worry stuff like this will always trickle over.

Lucky was kind enough to share his new 24" purchase and I though I would throw in my pics (you asked).

It's a Gateway FHD2400, it is replacing a 3 year old Dell 24" display with simular specs, biggest improvements being in a 92% color gamut, HDCP compliant, 1000:1 contrast, 3ms response time and also includes a HDMI input.

 

This monitor is also a pivot monitor in that it will rotate on it stand to allow for you to work in portrait mode, big with publishing folks.

Faroudja scaling chips and PiP round out the nice video features. It has a built in 4 port USB 2.0 hub, two in the rear and two on the side.

Ergonomicaly this thing shines, it has a great feel. The stand is very sturdy and weighted, also a FAB feature is that the stand has ball bearings in the base to allow you to move the stand from left to right with great ease.

She's a classy dame... I do luvz my rectangular headed girlfriend. 

Happy <insert holiday here> everyone. This is a favorite of mine and I'm sending it out to all my Jewish friends and family.

 

w00t! New Batman film "The Dark Knight" opens this coming summer, finally they have released a trailer with footage from the film.







You can also download a HD version here

 I only have 1 PS3 (see ref), and really like it. The PS3 is not nearly as paranoid as a XBox360 with all of it's DRM and such.

Around the time my son was born I found myself going back to the game systems. I had not had one since the SNES (1990?) and I went a little hog wild. Got a XBox 360, then I picked up a used xbox from Craigs List hacked it all up, threw in a huge hard drive, ect.  then I got a PS3, then a Wii, then a PSP and then a Nintendo DS lite.

I have never been one to camp on single brand, I have always had a PC and a Mac around the house, I had a SNES and a Sega Genisis back in the day, why should my OS platforms be any diffrent.

I run XP, Vista, OS X and now Ubuntu. It makes the sexy little PS3 at under 500 bucks a pretty nifty desktop machine too.

If you have a toe in the PS3 world I point you to this post, so you may join in on the fun. 

Hank giving an interview over at LateNet with Ray Ellin.. He is my hero, what a great voice actor.

**update** I have sifted the interview...Dag found it on the YouTubes.

Breathtaking, organic computer generated animation