like it? click it!
ella, elle l'a:
the perfect way to start the new year: keep looking up, my friends...
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the new year's blue moon eclipse
like it? click it!
ella, elle l'a:
the perfect way to start the new year: keep looking up, my friends...
VOTD: Headlock
I am not sure what to say about this video, but enjoy it and Happy New Year!
(flat-tops, dancing girls in uniforms, streets, uk)
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(flat-tops, dancing girls in uniforms, streets, uk)
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Clothing Of The Future - Clothing in The Year 2000
A hilarious clip depicting what designers in the 1930's thought fashion in 2000 would look like. Watch for the headlight hair accessory.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, HORRORTHONNERS!
deep
like it? click it!
enjoy your blue moon -- if you can see the partial eclipse tonight, enjoy that too.
enjoy your family and your friends and your home and being awake and conscious in the cosmos.
happy new year to us all.
This is quite a relaxing video... You may enjoy this. Similar to Cat Power, Mazy Star, Bat For Lashes, Emilian... ♫ http://blip.fm/~iizds
it's the last day to donate...
to the richard dawkins foundation for reason and science... and dawkins will match your amount, doubling it!
the initial goal was $100,000 and it's just over $140,000 now. c'mon, help it hit $150K.
If you do not remotely enjoy this, I will cast a spell in your general direction! This one goes out to King Br... ♫ http://blip.fm/~ih5af
Man Sought By Police For Sniffing Butts In Supermarket
From huffingtonpost, According to The Daily Telegraph, there's a man in the UK going around sniffing people's behinds. He trolls the supermarket, looking for candidates (or "victims") while they shop. Then, when they reach for the peanut butter, he casually drops down for a sniff and continues on his way.
Police are currently on the hunt for this deviant, but while there is surveillance footage of the man, his identity is unknown. The only description available is that he's "white, clean-shaven, and of medium to large build." Perhaps they should add that his height varies, depending on the height of the butt he's sniffing.
[JPX] Credit goes to JSP for discovering this gem!
what's the right thing to do?
from harvard university:
i've heard these scenarios before... i'm eager to hear the thoughts further on.
i'm sorry.... i saw this somewhere on my rss feed today but can't find the source now. if you know what it was, let me know.
i've heard these scenarios before... i'm eager to hear the thoughts further on.
i'm sorry.... i saw this somewhere on my rss feed today but can't find the source now. if you know what it was, let me know.
Crossing the "Uncanny Valley"
[UPDATE: I added "behind the scenes" images from Digital Domain; scroll down.]
I haven't seen Avatar yet, so I can't comment, but I've noticed that everyone's giving James Cameron's team credit for "finally" solving the problem of creating expressive digital faces that look photorealistic and genuine, without being creepy...since nobody else has done this.
Really? As with all digital effects, the audience only thinks to comment on them when they're aware of them...which is when people start pointing out how "obvious" they "always" are. In reality, most of the time, viewers have absolutely no idea that they're being fooled, unless there's no other way to explain what they're seeing. My Dad turned to me during Gollum's first appearance in The Two Towers and whispered, "Is that a digital effect?" Point being that it couldn't possibly have been makeup or a puppet or anything else, so he deduced what it was; deprived of the opportunity for deductive logic, people totally miss what's in front of them. (Everybody knows there aren't any ten-foot-tall blue people with cat faces, so, ergo, "it's digital.") I'm not claiming to be any different, either: I know enough about digital images and animation to know that I can't trust my own eyes at all.
To illustrate my point, here are some frames from David Fincher's sublime The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which the actual Brad Pitt doesn't appear for forty minutes, and the audience isn't complaining about any "uncanny valley," because they're completely, blissfully unaware that they're seeing millions of pixels. Check out the (imaginary) old and young Pitt (and some "behind the scenes" pictures of the process Digital Domain used):
pixellated christmas
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and three more:
click any shot to embiggen
i know everyone's probably overdosed on christmas images by now, but i spotted these outside a restaurant as i was driving yesterday -- hung on the tree and bushes in front of the place. of course, i stopped and shot a few.
must've been quite a party.
in other news, i'm nearing the end of my 365-day project. does anyone have any ideas of what to do next?? i fear i'll become lax and stop taking pictures if i'm not forced to by this kind of commitment.
blades
like it? click it!
we went to see 'it's complicated' with meryl streep, alec baldwin and steve martin. i can't say i enjoyed it a whole lot, although there were some funny bits. it felt too contrived and unrealistic -- what planet do the creators live on? these characters lived way too well, had no real need to work, some scenes were completely unrealistic (her three grown kids so overwhelmingly upset they have a sleep-in) and some were token (the silly girl talk sessions with streep and her pals). [oh brother -- rolls eyes] the main character has a huge house, a garden, a vegetable garden, a swimming pool, yet still feels she needs to build a proper kitchen?
the comic relief was wonderful, provided not by steve martin as one would expect, but by john krasinski who played streep's son-in-law. completely brilliant.
after the movie, we noticed a very small makeshift ice skating rink for fun outside. i tried shooting the skaters but they were coming out way too blurry. so i shot the ice instead.
richard dawkins on BBC radio 4
richard dawkins reflects back on a year celebrating the 200th anniversary of darwin’s birth, and 150 years since on the origin of the species. but with polls suggesting that half the population in the uk don’t believe in evolution, how do experts engage the public in science?
listen here!
listen here!
bertrand russell on god
see how old these arguments are? 'new atheists'? only for people who are just starting to think about this.
via RD
via RD
battlestar rhapsody
BSG was good while it was still good. here, paired with one of my all-time favorite tunes, parodied:
via io9
via io9
Box office report: 'Avatar' makes $75 million on Hollywood's best weekend ever
From ew, Hollywood gave itself one heck of a Christmas present this year: the single best day in the history of the box office. The weekend’s slate of movies racked up a record-setting $278 million overall haul, with James Cameron’s Avatar ($75 million) leading the charge. The sci-fi epic dipped an incredibly slim two percent in its second weekend, bringing its 10-day domestic total to an impressive $212.3 million.
Not that newcomer Sherlock Holmes (no. 2, $65.4 million) had a bad weekend, either. The action-adventure pic from director Guy Ritchie scored the best-ever Christmas weekend debut, adding another notch to star Robert Downey Jr.’s box office belt. The weekend’s other new wide releases, the animated Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (no. 3, $50.2 million) and the Nancy Meyers rom-com It’s Complicated (no. 4, $22.1 million) connected soundly with two very different demographics. While the Chipmunks got kids and families dancing into theaters, Complicated stars Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin drew adults in the mood for a (tastefully) R-rated romp.
Results were mixed for the two Oscar contenders that expanded into wider release this weekend. Up in the Air (no. 5, $11.8 milion) flew straight to the top five by adding 1,720 new theaters, but the awards-bait musical Nine (no. 8, $5.5 million) only mustered a so-so $3,926 per-site average. Meanwhile, Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus opened well at four sites, earning $130,000.
called by the universe
a conversation with neil degrasse tyson:
click pic to video source
on the science network. the page includes a transcript.
click pic to video source
on the science network. the page includes a transcript.
Your Complete Guide to Saving Movie Theater Seats
From Defamer: "I'm laying down some ground rules about movie theater seat saving, because I'm sick of having the film ruined by you assholes...If you can not follow them, then you have to sit in the aisle or wait for everything to come out on DVD and leave the theater for civilized folk."
The rules (click here for full text explaining each item):
The party for whom the seat is saved must be in the theater.
A seat with a coat or bag on it is taken.
The only acceptable place to go is to get popcorn or use the toilet.
You can only save one seat at a time.
No, I will not move over.
No, I will not watch your stuff.
Don't ask me if a seat is free.
When the previews start, any save is voided.
Again, read the complete list (recommended).
Where am I? What have I become? Can you find me or yourself? Where are we? (mood of sounds) Just saw Dr. Parna... ♫ http://blip.fm/~icvik
Horrorthon gathering
Tonight come for a very rare meet-n-greet with Horrorthon's very own JSP. The doors open at 6 although I'm assuming that people might wish to drift in a little later, say 7:30-8ish?
Come one, come all!
the manhattan beach project longevity summit
this is a playlist of videos i have not listened to yet... but am slowly working through them.
via next big future shared by jonathan shock
via next big future shared by jonathan shock
catch the light
like it? click it.
i stood on a bench and looked down -- the catchlights are from the sky peeking through the trees.
i know one eye's blurred. i know it's not supposed to be.
i don't do supposed to be well.
i also have no idea what i'm doing, photographically, but i like it.
Merry Christmas!
Pictures from our trip to Disneyland a few weeks ago. There was Disney-sized holiday finery.
Merry Christmas, Horrorthonners (and lurkers).
Xmas Eve Absinthe Party featuring Magic, Music & Food-n-Drink
Join us!
Xmas eve for orphans, jewz, buddhists & other cool folks.
Rejoice @KungPaoKitty (Hollywood & Wilcox)
Kung Pao Kitty 6445 Hollywood Blvd. 90028 on Corner of Wilcox & Hollywood
More information: http://bit.ly/absyxmas
Chinese Food, Music, Absinthe served by
LA Absinthe Company (Erika & Christian)
$3 beer & sake all night
Special $10-$12 Absinthe drinks
Bring your mp3 player & playlists or cds to share tunes!
Adrienne & I will share tunes as well.
Special guest Magician/ Illusionist, Wayne Phelps will knock your socks off with his ledger domain!
NO COVER. See me for more details ;)
Looking forward to seeing you!
---Shok
http://scr.im/shok (email)
http://mylivetube.blogspot.com
Xmas eve for orphans, jewz, buddhists & other cool folks.
Rejoice @KungPaoKitty (Hollywood & Wilcox)
Kung Pao Kitty 6445 Hollywood Blvd. 90028 on Corner of Wilcox & Hollywood
More information: http://bit.ly/absyxmas
Chinese Food, Music, Absinthe served by
LA Absinthe Company (Erika & Christian)
$3 beer & sake all night
Special $10-$12 Absinthe drinks
Bring your mp3 player & playlists or cds to share tunes!
Adrienne & I will share tunes as well.
Special guest Magician/ Illusionist, Wayne Phelps will knock your socks off with his ledger domain!
NO COVER. See me for more details ;)
Looking forward to seeing you!
---Shok
http://scr.im/shok (email)
http://mylivetube.blogspot.com
Bill would turn down volume of TV commercials
Washington (CNN) - It's after dinner. You're tired. You ease yourself into a comfortable place to watch your favorite TV show. Suddenly you're jolted from your couch potato demeanor by a commercial break.
It's an ad for insurance or rum or a credit card - and it's blaring, invading your calm and boosting your blood pressure.
Marketers want the loud commercials to grab viewers' attention.
A California congresswoman, however - and her fellow politicians in the House - find them more annoying than effective.
In her crusade to eliminate the nuisance, Rep. Anna Eshoo authored the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM, which mandates that TV commercials be no louder than the programs in which they appear.
Representatives unanimously passed the bill last month and sent it to the Senate for consideration.
Yeesh.
From thesuperficial, "Redbox, which operate DVD kiosks around the US, are dispatching teams to remove the Deadline box art from kiosk displays."
fluff
these days, i've been listening to carl sagan's a pale blue dot: a vision of the human future in space while driving ... it's a new kick i have of listening to favorite books, helping me to deal with unbearably long drives through heavy traffic and being inspired along the way.
today i reached chapter six: the triumph of voyager. it's fascinating to hear about the life of these two robots, their discoveries and technical problems... and sagan's hope that we would continue receiving information for a long, long time.
over twenty years later, the voyagers are still making profound discoveries and, when i saw the following article about 'fluff', i felt that two moments -- when sagan first wrote this chapter, and this news -- come together, as if time were warped and the two moments touched.
click pic to source
'december 23, 2009: the solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. in the dec. 24th issue of nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.
"using data from voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system," explains lead author merav opher, a NASA heliophysics guest investigator from george mason university. "this magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all."'
and
'NASA's two voyager probes have been racing out of the solar system for more than 30 years. they are now beyond the orbit of pluto and on the verge of entering interstellar space—but they are not there yet.'
... more at at NASA...
today i reached chapter six: the triumph of voyager. it's fascinating to hear about the life of these two robots, their discoveries and technical problems... and sagan's hope that we would continue receiving information for a long, long time.
over twenty years later, the voyagers are still making profound discoveries and, when i saw the following article about 'fluff', i felt that two moments -- when sagan first wrote this chapter, and this news -- come together, as if time were warped and the two moments touched.
click pic to source
'december 23, 2009: the solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. in the dec. 24th issue of nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.
"using data from voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system," explains lead author merav opher, a NASA heliophysics guest investigator from george mason university. "this magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all."'
and
'NASA's two voyager probes have been racing out of the solar system for more than 30 years. they are now beyond the orbit of pluto and on the verge of entering interstellar space—but they are not there yet.'
... more at at NASA...
visions of moons danced in our heads
this is a wonderful series of videos offered as holiday gifts from the cassini imaging team... moons dancing around saturn:
click any image to source
' "as yet another year in saturn orbit draws to a close, these wondrous movies of an alien place clear across the solar system remind us how fortunate we are to be engaged in this magnificent exploratory expedition," said carolyn porco, cassini imaging team leader at the space science institute in boulder, colo. "it is reason enough for celebration. so, from all of us on the cassini imaging team to all of you, happy holidays!" '
read more about them here.
click any image to source
' "as yet another year in saturn orbit draws to a close, these wondrous movies of an alien place clear across the solar system remind us how fortunate we are to be engaged in this magnificent exploratory expedition," said carolyn porco, cassini imaging team leader at the space science institute in boulder, colo. "it is reason enough for celebration. so, from all of us on the cassini imaging team to all of you, happy holidays!" '
read more about them here.
it's another december sunrise
click image to source at apod
i adore anthony ayiomamitis' photography ... and especially how he manages to combine two of my favorite subjects -- our sky and poseidon's temple at cape sounion near athens.
my humble pictures of this inspiring location, on my sounion set on flickr.
my humble pictures of this inspiring location, on my sounion set on flickr.
Avatar (IMAX 3D)
(2009) ****1/2The most relevant thing to tell you is that this movie is an ass-load of fun. Fantastic action, an unreal setting with incredible depth, a tight pace, and a complete feast for the eyes. I'm going to try to do this in bullet points.
The bad: The story contains few surprises, the expected share of boilerplate characters, and with them an array of unfortunate dialogue. At some point Sigourney Weaver says "so much for the quiet life" or something like that, and you'll roll your eyes. It won't be the only time, but in the end you probably won't care.
But: the characters are likeable, and the love story is not belabored.
The Na'vi: look great. Some are better than others, but the main characters are handled with an exquisite amount of attention and skill. To me it seemed less an achievement of the images' photorealism than it was the remarkable believability of the Na'vis' facial expressions. I'm sure it was a combination, but the point is I've never seen better.
The forest: is rich and exotic. One of my doubts since they started releasing stills was that planet Pandora didn't look all that different from Earthly forests. But when you get on the ground, when you see the colors in the corners and the wonders in the sky, it's a whole different story. One of the best cinematic alien planets ever.
The scale: I'll get to the 3D in a moment, but whatever dimension you see it in, see it on the biggest screen you can. It pays off very quickly.
The action: even when we're hatin' on James Cameron, we all know his actions scenes pump adrenalin. The level of pure spectacle in this is jaw-dropping.
The 3D: What I've been saying all along is that I'm still not convinced 3D is the next big thing, at least not to the extent that it's being shoved down our throats. And I say this because of claims that 3D will be as significant to movies as special effects themselves (perhaps these claims weren't made, but I believe they were).
My feelings about Avatar's 3D went like this. At first I noticed certain shots in which too many elements were in play, resulting in large parts of the onscreen image being blurry. Perhaps the eye just can't focus on too much at once, perhaps it's a natural effect of 3D. Perhaps "blurry" is the wrong word, and it's natural motion blur that was throwing me off. It seemed to happen in shots containing a lot of movement close to the camera. It wasn't a big problem, like a low grade shaky-cam sensation, but it did make me wonder about the effectiveness of 3D.
Well, maybe all the shots like that were just clustered at the beginning of the movie, because not too far into the story I noticed I wasn't having that problem anymore. In fact, I wasn't even noticing the 3D at all. That just cemented my opinion; if 3D is either going to be a problem on one hand or negligible on the other, why bother with it?
But tonight I was discussing all this with my friend Bruce, who has worked on most of Disney's recent 3D efforts, and he said some things I've been thinking about. One point was that 3D images can broadcast textures in a way 2D can't because you are actually getting two slightly different perspectives on every surface. I thought of how that might augment the experience of seeing Pandora's forests. Unfortunately I was trying to police a toddler-eating-yogurt situation in the chair next to me, and our conversation was cut short.
But I have to consider: I haven't seen Avatar in 2D, so I don't know how I'd rate the two experiences. Maybe saying that I wasn't noticing the 3D is just like Jason Reitman saying he "gets" 3D after 20 or 30 minutes, and in truth I am enjoying the effect even if I'm not consciously grooving on it. Maybe not noticing it is just getting acclimated to it. After all, a LOT of cinematic effects depend on the viewer not knowing what they're looking at. Much of my work building miniatures is about fooling the audience.
As for the "blurry" shots, Bruce pointed out that with any kind of effect you might get shots that don't work. Hmm. For now I draw no conclusions, but I must say my skepticism about 3D has taken a serious hit.
Because it's such a great sci-fi movie! A really good sci-fi action movie! For Christmas! Woo!
Oh, and that lame-ass song doesn't happen until the credits roll.
are you following me?
i started feeding my blog posts, flickr images and shared notes in google reader over to my twitter account a while ago... and it just dawned on me that i should maybe mention it here. i've added a twitter button to the right sidebar on the blog. i guess the most interesting part will be the shared notes... stuff that makes an impression on me but i don't have the time to blog about.
i do not bore anyone with trivia about my daily existence.
i do not bore anyone with trivia about my daily existence.
the first principle
like it? click it!
the first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.
richard feynman, caltech commencement address, 1974
i shot this a month ago -- it's got flaws, but i don't want it sitting in my hard drive.
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