PIXAR For Sale?!

Got an extra 6 Billion dollars sitting around? According to this article from CNN Steve Jobs is considering selling Pixar to Disney or whoever the highest bidder out there may be. Honestly I highly doubt the veracity of the report but its interesting none the less...

Video Podcast Dedicated to Animation!

Well I said it was going to happen and it has begun. As predicted in this previous post, Video Podcasts are popping up all over the place now. Fortunately for us there is already one dedicated to the world of animation! It’s somewhat of a showcase for animated shorts created by students, enthusiasts, and studios. You can find out more and subscribe to the Podcast for free here: http://channelfrederator.com/

Dressing a Galaxy: FIDM Star Wars Exhibit

I had the good fortune to attend an exhibit being held at The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in LA this Saterday. It's called Dressing a Gaxaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars. This is the first time ever that these costumes have been displayed to the public. I had such a great time and my wife who is not as into Star Wars as I am said she enjoyed it as well. It's really neat to see all the craftsmanship and talent that went into making these wonderful costumes upclose. If you have time I would highly recomend seeing the exhibit. You can find out more about the show here:
http://starwars.fidm.edu/

The Wizard of Oz DVD

I picked up the new Wizard of Oz DVD that came out on Tuesday. I finished watching it last and had the chance to watch some of the special features. Its a nice set for those who don't have the film already. There was also a three disc set released on Tuesday as well but I didn't feel the need to pick it up. I didn't remember a lot of the film from my childhood. I only recall certain iconic images and situations from the film. I enjoyed watching it again after all these years. The word Charming comes to mind when I try to describe the film. It was a very enjoyable experience and it has a great story. The overall look of the film has a quaint quality compared to the digitaly polished films of today. This is definatly a classic film in every respect and I look forward to sharing it with my daughter in the years to come.

The New World Poster

Above is the new poster for Terrence Malick's upcoming film The New World. I am very eager to see this movie. I loved The Thin Red Line and have been catching up on his older stuff slowly through Netflix. He's a great filmmaker and is under appreciated by the public at large. From the trailer for this film I think its going to be great. I'm not too excited about Colin Ferrell in the film, but I am confident that the film will deliver regardless. You can find out more about the movie here:
www.thenewworldmovie.com

I LOVE ANIMATION!!!

Ok so I had a somewhat good day at work today but more than that I read some inspiring things online that make me so giddy inside about animation again that I can hardly contain it. I Love Animation!! I love everything about it! The creativity, the teamwork, the Art, I love it all!! First I read this Q&A with Pixar animator Carlos Baena:
forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=286290&page=1&pp=15
Very inspiring!! Makes me consider taking another shot at actually animating?! :0)
Next up was the Blog from a student of the online Animation school animationmentor.com
http://www.wik-id.com/reb/AM/
She has some pretty cool work but most exciting for me is seeing the learning process all over again. I've been out of school for a while and its easy to get tunnel vision when working 50 hours a week. A big thanks to her for sharing her in progress work online. And best of luck to you in the industry.
Lastly there was this interesting post on the Sweard Street Blog.
jrhull.typepad.com/seward_street/2005/10/computers_dont_.html
It is an interesting and well articulated, even though it's not an entirely new, take on the 2D Vs 3D debate that won't die. It's worth a look if you have a second.

More Fun Furniture

I saw this bookshelf online and the first thing I thought to myself was why? Why would you have a bookshelf if it can't even hold anything? Boy was I wrong, this thing is amazing! Check out this link for the reason why: Broken Shelves. This is ingenious. I love it! It took a lot of thought to come up with something as uniquely brilliant as this.

Toyota Prius

A friend of mine from work got a Toyota Prius this weekend. I have to say I am totally impressed with this vehicle. It looks great, feels great, and drives great! If you have never seen one or ridden in one yourself I'd strongly encourage you to check them out. I have a strong feeling that when we get a new car for my wife in the next couple of years that we will be getting one of these! :0)

You can find out more info about the Toyota Prius and the future of cars in general in this article from WIRED:
http://wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/hybrid.html

New Look

Okay, so I haven’t had this Blog for long but being the creative person I am (its hard for me to call myself an “Artist” for some reason) I wasn’t content with just using the template for this site. But since I don’t know HTML I could't just make my own so I decided to modify the existing template. I created my own Banner for the title of the Blog and added the white band in the top right corner. It’s nothing huge but it is enough of a change for now. I hope you like the changes.

By the way I would encourage anyone reading this to click on the MakePovertyHistory band and check out their website. This is not an organization looking for handouts. It’s actually a group of organizations who have united in taking action against the extreme poverty that is plaguing our world and killing tens of thousands of people a day. It’s a call to action. Don’t just throw money at the problem, but honestly look at the situation and see do what you can to help. Take a second out of your busy life and consider emailing a congressman or organization and make your voice be heard. (The site is based out of the UK but there is no reason we cannot demand the same of our government here) If you’re not ready to take a step like that I understand, but please take a look at the website to see what it’s about. Thank you.

(I’m getting off my soapbox now)

UPDATE: After doing a little poking around of my own I found the US site. Check it out here: http://www.one.org/

Update #2: I replaced the UK Banner in the corner with the US one. If you would like to see the UK site you can find it here:
http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/

Curious George Poster & Trailer

A 2d animated feature?! Yes thats right folks it's still alive and kickin'! I just saw the trailer for Universal's Curious George and I couldn't be more excited about it!! It looks fantastic. I heard that Eric Goldberg was involved, but I looked at IMDB and it doesn't indicate any involvement by him so I may be mistaken. Anyway Will Ferrell is heading the cast of voice tallent and Jack Johnson is creating new songs for the film! The animation and desgin look great, I hope that the story will hold up just as well. See the trailer for your self here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/curious_george/

This & That

Before I start in on the random stuff I wanted to share my excitement over my daughter discovering her vocal chords. Its great! Before this she could cry which was the only vocal feedback we got. Now she is cooing and aweing up a storm. It makes me so happy to hear her. My wife calls me at work randomly and when I pick up the phone all I hear is Sydney (my daughter) making a bunch of nosie. Its amazing and everytime I hear it it makes my day. I can picture he face with that big smile just happy to be hearing her own voice. Fatherhood is so great!! :0)

Ok So I thought I'd just say a few things about stuff I'd heard or come across today...

The new James Bond was announced today. His name is Daniel Craig. I'm not really excited about it. We'll see how they do with the new film, but who really cares about Bond anymore when we've got Jason Bourne now!! :0)

It seems Apple is on a rampage. They announced another special event for Oct. 19th. Thats three of these things in a little over a month! Its expected that they will release new PowerMacs and PowerBooks. You can read more here: http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2005/10/20051014161141.shtml

Steven Spielberg announced plans to produce three original video games with mega game publisher Electronic Arts. I guess well have to wait and see if he can bring is particular brand of magic to the interactive medium.

I'm looking forward to picking up Batman Begins on DVD this tuesday. I thought it was a great movie and felt one of the best takes on the Batman mythology yet. Right up there with the Jim Lee HUSH series and the Animated series from the 90's.

I saw a trailer for the upcomming movie "Syriana" online last night. It's produced by Steven Soderbergh, one of my favorite filmmakers. He is responsibe for such films as Traffic, Ocean's Eleven, & Solaris. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one. You can can find out more about the film and see the trailer here:
http://syrianamovie.warnerbros.com/

Well thats it for today. Take care...

More iPod Rambling...

So I tinkered around with the new iTunes music store last night. I bought the first episode of LOST to see what all the hype is about and also to check out this new service. I think the idea of this kind of serialized portable entertainment has the potential to take off. I think Apple approached this new venture from the right point of view. They aren’t charging any more for the new video iPods and the video feature is somewhat of a bonus if you will. Its still first and foremost a portable music device which is why I think it will be extremely successful. I think that’s part of the problem with the Sony PSP. Its being sold as a portable movie player which is cool and in some circumstances handy or at least nice to have around like say on a long trip but as a whole people don’t watch movies on the go. (Plus you have to rebuy the movies you want in their UMD format which makes it prohibitively expensive in my opinion) Anyway back to the iPod… this is what makes “television shows” (can they be called that if they aren’t viewed on a television?!) the perfect fit for this kind of device. I think the next big thing though will be video Podcasts. They could be called vCasts or vPodcasts or something. For those who are unfamiliar, a Podcast is similar to a radio program but they are available online in .mp3 form so you can take them with you and listen to when ever you want. The majority of Podcasts are news related, be it sports, editorial, business, technology, and so on. These podcasts are available for free on iTunes. You “subscribe” to which ever ones you want to hear and new podcasts are downloaded to your computer as they become available. I don’t think it’s a big leap to see this sort of thing happening with video. For example you could potentially download a daily News report and watch it on your lunch break or something. Steve Jobs said something like “this is only the beginning” at the end of his presentation of the new iPod yesterday and I believe that he is totally right. It won’t be life changing, but it sure will make things more interesting. Apple started a revolution in the way we take music with us when they introduced the original iPod and I believe they are doing it again…

Space

Well, while I wait here at my desk for this huge scene to load I figured I could submit another entry to this new fangled blog thing that I got myself into. I am really linking it. It’s fun and while it’s quite possible that nobody out side my circle of friends and family may read it I still find it worthwhile. (My Mom sent me an email about how she enjoys it which brought a big smile to me face, thanks Mom!) I doubt however that I will update it with the frequency I have been lately, but who knows I may just keep it up for some time. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

So I read on the BBC news website this morning that China successfully launched a manned spacecraft into space for the second time! Congratulations to the people of China, you must feel really proud! You should, you are only the third county in history to send to a man into space on your own! I know I was so excited when I heard NASA is planning on returning to the moon by 2020. That’s right a man on the moon again, IN MY LIFETIME!!! And what’s cooler than just going to the moon again is that the missions are taking place as preparations to launch a manned mission to Mars!!All this techie stuff makes gets me so excited. :0)

You can read more about it here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4333158.stm

and here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4260396.stm

Object of Desire

So Apple pulled a fast on everyone and announced new hardware only a month after they announced the iPod NANO. Boy am I excited about this stuff again. I love Apple and the attention to detail they put into their products. Well the one of the new gadgets announced and my object-of-desire of the moment is the new iPod that can play back video! How cool is that?! Music and Movies!!! They also announced iTunes 6 which offers the ability to download music videos and TV shows. A cool idea I’ll admit, but the pricing seems a bit…well…off I guess you could say. Both cost $1.99 each. So what this means is a music video which usually runs about 3-4 minutes costs the same a TV show which lasts about 45 minutes (Hour long show minus commercials). That doesn’t seem right somehow. But regardless I think the new iPod is awesome! You can put your own home videos on it and I’m assuming that you can rip your own movies and play them back on there as well. I am looking forward to checking one out at the local Apple Store as soon as they get them in. This is definitely going on my Christmas list! :0)

http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html

Life In Slow Motion

Well I figured that since I said that my blog is about Movies, Music, Family, Life, Love, and Me that I should talk a little about music now. David Gray is by far my favorite musician for many reasons. Most of all though it’s that his lyrics say so much about how I feel and when I hear him sing them I think to my self that I wish I had written that. I am by no means a poet/songwriter so I am content admiring people like David Gray who are great at it.

At this moment in my life the song Slow Motion from his newest album is the one that means the most to me. Ever since my daughter was born I have this overwhelming sense of Joy and Love particularly for her and my wife, but also for everything else in my life as well. The lyrics are very lean, just a few phrases, but it’s the feel of the song and the way in which he sings it that are so meaningful to me. Its pace and they way he sings between the lyrics a non lyrical melody. It’s totally how I am feeling at this point in my life.

Here are the lyrics:

While I was watching you did a slow dissolve
While I was watching you did a slow dissolve
While I was watching you did a slow dissolve

Did I imagine or do the walls have eyes
Did I imagine they held us hypnotized
Did I imagine or do the walls have eyes

Life in slow motion somehow it don’t feel real
Life in slow motion somehow it don’t feel real
Life in slow motion somehow it don’t feel real
Snowflakes are falling I'll catch them in my hands
Snowflakes are falling I'll catch them in my hands
Snowflakes are falling now you’re my long lost friend

You can hear a sample of the song here:
http://www.davidgray.com/mp3/lifeinslowmotion05.mp3
Sorry I can’t provide more of the song for you to listen to. It would be illegal to do so.
If you like the song I’d encourage you to buy it on iTunes or better yet go out and buy the whole album!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Wallace & Gromit made their feature film debut this weekend and it looks as though the movie going public has embraced it. It was #1 at the box office this weekend and been extremely well reviewed. Congratulations to Aardman and DreamWorks on a job well done. I look forward to seeing the movie sometime soon.

Here's the bad part. Aardman's studios burnt down over the weekend taking with it some important artifacts from the history of Animation and Cinema. :0(

There really isn't an ugly unless you count the fire mentioned above. I just put it in the title 'cause it sounded good...

Fun Furniture

I saw this online and thought it was too cool not to share. It’s a bookcase with an integrated chair and stool. Isn’t that ingenious?! It was designed by Charles Trevelyan and he calls it Shelflife. You can find out more here: http://mocoloco.com/archives/001532.php#more

4 Movies

So my friends and I were talking this weekend and the topic of movies came up, which is not uncommon for us. We always ask these sort of hypothetical questions when are together and this time I asked, "If you could see only four movies in theaters this fall what would they be?" I love these kind of things! After a little thinking I decided on my four. Here they are in no particular order:

Chicken Little (in 3D)
The New World
Elizabethtown
Jarhead

Most of the others unanimously had Harry Potter 4, Chronicles of Narnia, and King Kong on their lists. Not bad choices and I would love to see those as well but for some reason or another the ones on my list seem more appealing to me at the moment. Just thought I'd share. :0)

1st Post

Well Here I am!! :0)
I'm new to this whole Blog thing and have been following a few blogs for a while now so I decided to do my own and share my thoughts and ideas with the world.

Welcome to everyone who visits my Blog. I hope you enjoy it and
maybe even learn something new?!