N O V E M B E R 0 4
John Kerry unfortunately loses the US election. Dave sees the members of Train, birds flying into windows, moulding and robot dinosaurs. The sad story of Hug-Me Bear's decapitation.
Uh, Treasure Protector
Going home for Thanksgiving was a much-needed calm before the storm of studio and critique weeks. We saw the critically-panned but actually highly entertaining National Treasure. In every Nicolas Cage movie, he has to correct someone about what his job is. This time it was "You're a Treasure Hunter." "Uh, Treasure Protector." In Matchstick Men it was "You're a Con Man." "Uh, Con Artist." And who could forget "You'll be gone in a minute." "Uh, gone in 60 seconds."
Only a few weeks to go this quarter. The final projects this time around are a Kennedy Center brochure packaged with a poster and postcards, an elementary school lunch bag series, a treasure map poster, the Miyamoto interactive symphony game, a holiday promo ad for Cartoon Network and the beginning of Cadence of Seasons. It seems to be a good balance of traditional print design and new multimedia stuff. Back to work...
Tuesday, November 30 at 6:58 PM
Pass The Cranberry Sauce, Peeteeweewas
Miyamoto: Interactive Symphony is a new project I'm working on that is an extension of Concrete World. In our Surrealism class, we had to read a newspaper article, cut out ALL the words and piece it back together to form a new story. Now we're taking the general emotions/issues of our pieces and using them to create an updated version of a classic game like Operation or Monopoly. My article was about the positive aspects of digital music, and the game I'm updating is Super Mario Brothers (using Flash and After Effects). It will be similar to CW since you click objects to play musical themes, but everything will be in one enormous retro video game level and all the musical themes will be based on video game music. There will be many more secrets, an end boss, and the ability to select various background beats. There will also be different paths to take, such as clicking on a green warp pipe to get to an underground section. God willing, it should be finished in about a month.
I'll be home in Burke from Tuesday evening through Sunday for Thanksgiving.
Sunday, November 21 at 6:36 PM
Window To Nature
Yesterday I was walking upstairs and noticed a ladybug on my shoulder. So I cupped it in my hands, went outside, and let it free. Then today I was working in my room and heard a faint buzzing noise at my window. I looked up and, no kidding, there were over FIFTY ladybugs crawling on my windows. A sign of good karma? I sure think so. I've seen a lot of bluejays and cardinals outside recently; I guess they've all been flying south. One bluejay actually flew into my window a few days ago, and I just happened to be filming a robin with my digital camera when it hit. You don't see the smash but you hear the loud thud and my reaction. And if you look closely once the camera drops, you can actually see the bluejay flying away at the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Watch it here (Quicktime required).
Wednesday, November 17 at 6:34 PM
Switcharoo
After experiencing problems with my Portfolio Center email, I recently made the switch to a Gmail account (Google's email service) and it's beyond great. 1000 MB of space, great archiving and search systems, and an automatically-updating address book. But you can still reach me at my other email addresses. I've only received one spam message so far in the three months I've been using it. Right now Gmail is only on a testing basis with closed signups, but I have 6 invitations if anyone is interested...just use the mailbox.
Tuesday, November 16 at 11:47 AM
Robot Dinosaurs! Really!
Two interesting things today:
1) Tom Hanks might star as Robert Langdon in the movie version of The Da Vinici Code. Not exactly who I pictured Langdon to look like...but the more I think about it, Hanks seems like a great fit (with Ron Howard directing).
2) Disney's Animal Kingdom will unveil a small audio-animatronic dinosaur next year that actually walks freely around the park. Sounds pretty radical and a far cry from It's A Small World. Here's hoping that the robot dinosaur goes haywire, like a mixture of Jurassic Park and The Terminator, and starts devouring kids.
Monday, November 15 at 8:28 AM
Hug-Me Bear's Accident
Andrew and I had lots of stuffed animals growing up. Little Doggie and Big Doggie, Sticky (a dog with velcro ears), a musical Giraffe and countless Care Bears made by Mom's incredible pattern-stitching skills. My favorite one was called "Hug-Me Bear", a cotton-stuffed teddy bear with the words Hug Me written on his shirt. Andrew and I were playing with him one day and got in a little argument, pulling back and forth on Hug-Me Bear until...his head ripped off. We both started yelling and crying and my Mom ran upstairs, thinking we had seriously hurt ourselves due to the extreme amount of noise. But no, it was because of my beloved, albeit headless, teddy bear. Mom came to the rescue; Hug-Me Bear soon got stitched back up and received a blue bandana to hide his scar. Today, Hug-Me Bear joins most of our stuffed animals sitting on a railing in our basement.
Finally got to see The Incredibles this weekend. This is one film you have to see in a theater packed with enthusiastic kids; it's a great experience as they cheer on the good guys and laugh at all of the jokes. The movie is unbelievably awesome and surprisingly exciting with lots of high-speed chase scenes, explosions, and epic robot battles.
Sunday, November 14 at 8:40 AM
Unruffled Tailfeathers
I almost always enjoy genre-bending musical collaborations, but that new Nelly and Tim McGraw song Over and Over is so ridiculously bad that I'd rather listen to 50 Cent and Toby Keith cover M.C. Hammer's Have You Seen Her?.
Or I could eat a hornet's nest. Same effect. Whatever would be most convenient.
My weekend plans include illustrating a poster-size treasure map, building a cardboard robot and animating a snowman. Kindergarten or grad school, you be the judge.
Friday, November 12 at 2:00 PM
Bob Vila Hanging His Head In Shame
Today I edited interview videos about moulding products for a freelance project. Yes, moulding; the decorative stuff you put around doors and walls. Having only rented places in the various cities I've lived in, I have so much to learn about home improvement before I get a place of my own. LP moulding and Pergo floors seem pretty sweet.
Thursday, November 11 at 3:12 PM
Chugga Chugga Choo Choo
I saw the members from the band Train (Meet Virginia, Drops of Jupiter, Calling All Angels) a few days ago. I was leaving work and saw a seemingly familiar face in my rearview mirror, which I quickly recognized as the lead singer. Lisa apparently lives next to one of the members. I contemplated asking him the meanings behind their oh-so-deep lyrics like "can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken", but I just shrugged instead and drove off.
Wednesday, November 10 at 5:55 PM
Yikes Bikes
Things are overwhelmingly busy here; not much time to write anything fun. I missed all my classes last week for an outside project, which was a great experience but now has me playing catch-up in school. I'm currently running on a strange combination of carbonated drinks, hot chocolate, magic marker fumes and music. I'll write more next week.
Tuesday, November 9 at 6:41 PM
Dropping Pajama Commas Like Barack Obama
Like many people worldwide, I'm visibly upset from the outcome of Tuesday's election. What's most depressing to me is living in a country where the majority of people agree with the President's policies and portrayal of America. I came into this election with an open mind. Voting democratic in past elections, I started listening to Rush Limbaugh and conservative radio while driving around Atlanta. I read the commentary that pointed out faults in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11. I watched all three debates and both primary speeches. I even caught the occasional Fox News program. And in the end I simply can't understand how a rational person with a good conscience could vote for Bush. When a German friend told me that he thinks World War III has already begun, I can see where he's coming from.
To any readers from countries outside the US: I would love to hear what you think about the election results. Please drop a comment in the mailbox section if you have a few seconds.
Thursday, November 4 at 6:05 AM
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