so there's a few new videos today, but the two in question are the trailer to a movie called 9, and the short film on which the upcoming movie is based on. when i saw the trailer (the first of the two) i thought it was cool, but i lumped it in with just about everything else tim burton has been involved with such as sweeney todd, corpse bride, batman, edward scissorhands, nightmare before christmas, coraline, and sleepy hollow, just to name a few.
while these were all good flicks, they all had an unmistakable consuming stench of tim burtons black beret. while they had different stories and character elements, i couldn't help but think for the majority of these movies that i was going to see cameos of other tim burton characters show up miraculously as if they were all part of some twisted halloween movie marathon (the scores for the majority of these movies being composed by danny elfman doesn't help either).
but when i found out that it was based on a short film written, directed, and animated by shane acker i couldn't help but get a little excited. you'll see what i mean when you watch the short film directly below the trailer. while ultimately i'm disappointed that tim burton is even involved in this movie in any other way than simply writing a check, the fact that acker is directing the movie is a definite plus.
i feel like this could also be a semi-redeeming role for elijah wood who voices the title character. i say semi-redeeming because it seems for the last 5 years he's pretty much stayed behind the camera doing voice-overs for characters like spyro, animated frodo baggins, and other such nonsense. on the other hand this character seems like it could bounce him out of the kiddie category (barely) by at least voicing a character with some cojones, allbeit animated and made of cloth, but cojones nonetheless. overall i must say i'm pretty excited about 9, and as long as acker keeps the reigns and holds true to his short film, i think he can stave off the monochromatic tones that make up the doldrums of tim burton and his movies.
p.s. i realize there's still time, but as of right now, i'm extatic to say that johnny depp is nowhere near this film.
3.23.2009
3.22.2009
how to win friends = common decency
in forced awkward intimate situations, people tend to revert back to certain established and learned comfortable phrases to keep the conversation going. why we do this is something altogether confusing, considering if you're not even 30 seconds into the conversation and already can't think of something to say, babbling through the small talk that consists of pre-recorded questions and pre-recorded answers to those questions isn't going to get anybody anywhere.
ever heard this one before?
"hi i'm ____"
"my name is ____"
"so what do you do?"
"oh i'm a ____, you?"
"yeah i work in ____"
"cool"
and you're back to square one, the only thing we've established is how we pay our respective bills. following this little opener, we realize that we now actually have to try to get to know this person, and the conversation continues as if our opener had never happened in the first place, but for some reason we have to have that boring intro into our lives on the off chance you might have a similarity in job description or you know someone in their field, either of which would put you in exactly the same place you'd be anyway, having to actually converse.
while i realize this isn't exactly the circumstance under which normal interactions begin, i thought it noteworthy enough to mention. while accompanying my girlfriend to church this morning there was the typical 'take a minute to greet those around you' time period to kick things off. while most of the patrons were simply turning round in circles shaking hands with those next to, in front of, and behind them, i witnessed one woman walk across the aisle and 2 rows back to greet some friends sitting next to me. the interaction went as follows:
woman approaches with unnaturally large smile
shakes the hand of someone while telling them her name
upon hearing their first name, without waiting for a last name, immediately asking "what do you do?"
end of conversation
now i wouldn't have really thought twice about it if she hadn't done it to three people in a row, as if it were an interview or some sort of public survey. the manner in which the question was asked couldn't have been less personal, and the question itself isn't exactly heartwarming or eye opening. getting to know your fellow man, or woman in this case, isn't just about going through the motions. it takes effort, time, and a genuine willingness to learn. there is certainly, as this case holds to full example, a difference between allowing someone else to talk about themselves, and actually divulging no information about yourself and immediately moving on.
so if you plan on making the giant leap to actually interacting with strangers, as scary as it may be, please put in some effort.
ever heard this one before?
"hi i'm ____"
"my name is ____"
"so what do you do?"
"oh i'm a ____, you?"
"yeah i work in ____"
"cool"
and you're back to square one, the only thing we've established is how we pay our respective bills. following this little opener, we realize that we now actually have to try to get to know this person, and the conversation continues as if our opener had never happened in the first place, but for some reason we have to have that boring intro into our lives on the off chance you might have a similarity in job description or you know someone in their field, either of which would put you in exactly the same place you'd be anyway, having to actually converse.
while i realize this isn't exactly the circumstance under which normal interactions begin, i thought it noteworthy enough to mention. while accompanying my girlfriend to church this morning there was the typical 'take a minute to greet those around you' time period to kick things off. while most of the patrons were simply turning round in circles shaking hands with those next to, in front of, and behind them, i witnessed one woman walk across the aisle and 2 rows back to greet some friends sitting next to me. the interaction went as follows:
woman approaches with unnaturally large smile
shakes the hand of someone while telling them her name
upon hearing their first name, without waiting for a last name, immediately asking "what do you do?"
end of conversation
now i wouldn't have really thought twice about it if she hadn't done it to three people in a row, as if it were an interview or some sort of public survey. the manner in which the question was asked couldn't have been less personal, and the question itself isn't exactly heartwarming or eye opening. getting to know your fellow man, or woman in this case, isn't just about going through the motions. it takes effort, time, and a genuine willingness to learn. there is certainly, as this case holds to full example, a difference between allowing someone else to talk about themselves, and actually divulging no information about yourself and immediately moving on.
so if you plan on making the giant leap to actually interacting with strangers, as scary as it may be, please put in some effort.
3.19.2009
frack
while i have the utmost respect and empathy for people who work in customer service and call centers, i must say this has been one of the most frustrating afternoons i've had in a long time. i spent just over two hours today on the phone with people at newegg, western digital, and ontrack trying to figure out just wtf is wrong with my new hard drive. ok, it's not that new, i've had it since christmas, and it's had its share of transfers so far . . . probably upwards of 800 GBs of movies, shows, music, and whatnot. at the end of almost every single one of these phone calls, right before they transferred me to someone else, something to the effect of "wow, that's wierd" "i've never even heard of this before" or "you must have done something wrong" was uttered by these so called customer service professionals. granted, i for some reason have the talent of coming up with computer problems that gill bates himself couldn't fix, but please dont try to make a joke about the 700+ gigs of entertainment that your drive miraculously lost and you have no utterly idea as to where it might have gone.
this brings me to the outrageous internet robbery that is data recovery. i was on the phone with bill at ontrack, who was quite polite, and spoke very good english, something i would normally consider a moot point except for the fact that my tally for the day was now 1/4. bill very plainly explained what might be wrong, the procedures that would take place, all the logistics of shipping and packaging, where they were located, where he lived, how long it would take to get it back to me, that they would run free diagnostics, his wife's name, you know, all the pertinent information for a data recovery case. then after all this, he dropped a number on me that hit like hiroshima. "with a drive your size and the fact that i haven't an idea of what might be wrong with it, i'm gonna put you in the $1500 - $2000 range" . . . i think i just pooped my pants a little bit.
now i'd always been told the importance of backing up your documents, which is why i bought my first external drive. so now that i'm on my third external drive and all i've lost are 700 gigs of movies music and tv shows, i suppose it's not the ugliest puppy in the litter, but i'm still a bit burnt on the fact that a glorified geek squad wants to charge me $2000 dollars to run a diagnostic program and perhaps do some spring cleaning on my hard drive in a dust-proof room looking like dustin hoffman in outbreak . . . or sphere. so i had to say to bill what i have been telling netflix, gamefly, and christie's cabaret, "i'm poor and i can't afford your services . . . no, not even on your finance plan".
so i've decided to drink a redbull or seven, have a few hotpockets at the ready, and begin re-downloading all my ghosted data. this means that apparently comcast and i will enter another 4 month battle as they throttle my bandwidth and i repeatedly call them telling them they are throttling me. of course this doesn't really get anybody anywhere considering they're normal response is "uhh everything looks fine on our end sir, perhaps your firewall settings are inhibiting proper port flow through you're router and/or modem" which i'm pretty sure is written down somewhere on a big poster at comcast because not only does that phrase come up a lot, it comes up from different people, in different counties, and most of them don't seem to know what half those words mean.
so here i sit, making a que of all the 400+ movies, 30+ concerts, 20+ install files, 15 audiobooks, and 70 seasons of shows that have been lost somewhere between two very tiny spinning disks of aluminum alloy.
this brings me to the outrageous internet robbery that is data recovery. i was on the phone with bill at ontrack, who was quite polite, and spoke very good english, something i would normally consider a moot point except for the fact that my tally for the day was now 1/4. bill very plainly explained what might be wrong, the procedures that would take place, all the logistics of shipping and packaging, where they were located, where he lived, how long it would take to get it back to me, that they would run free diagnostics, his wife's name, you know, all the pertinent information for a data recovery case. then after all this, he dropped a number on me that hit like hiroshima. "with a drive your size and the fact that i haven't an idea of what might be wrong with it, i'm gonna put you in the $1500 - $2000 range" . . . i think i just pooped my pants a little bit.
now i'd always been told the importance of backing up your documents, which is why i bought my first external drive. so now that i'm on my third external drive and all i've lost are 700 gigs of movies music and tv shows, i suppose it's not the ugliest puppy in the litter, but i'm still a bit burnt on the fact that a glorified geek squad wants to charge me $2000 dollars to run a diagnostic program and perhaps do some spring cleaning on my hard drive in a dust-proof room looking like dustin hoffman in outbreak . . . or sphere. so i had to say to bill what i have been telling netflix, gamefly, and christie's cabaret, "i'm poor and i can't afford your services . . . no, not even on your finance plan".
so i've decided to drink a redbull or seven, have a few hotpockets at the ready, and begin re-downloading all my ghosted data. this means that apparently comcast and i will enter another 4 month battle as they throttle my bandwidth and i repeatedly call them telling them they are throttling me. of course this doesn't really get anybody anywhere considering they're normal response is "uhh everything looks fine on our end sir, perhaps your firewall settings are inhibiting proper port flow through you're router and/or modem" which i'm pretty sure is written down somewhere on a big poster at comcast because not only does that phrase come up a lot, it comes up from different people, in different counties, and most of them don't seem to know what half those words mean.
so here i sit, making a que of all the 400+ movies, 30+ concerts, 20+ install files, 15 audiobooks, and 70 seasons of shows that have been lost somewhere between two very tiny spinning disks of aluminum alloy.
3.18.2009
signs
the above video is positively glorious (it may not actually be above, i may have moved it, but i promise it's somewhere on here). there's really nothing else i can say on the subject other than it makes my mind race. i'm not really sure any of them are complete thoughts, perhaps more questions than answers. let's see where we end up, shall we?
in a time when instantaneous worldwide communication can tell you what ninja warrior obstacle is the favorite of miss olivia munn, or exactly where to meet shaq for free tickets to tonight's game, a 12 minute video who's only interpersonal communication takes place on 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper is refreshing to say the least. this makes me think back to when i was sitting in my parent's basement doing homework and talking on aim. my dad implored me to give him a valid reason to be on the newfangled instant messanger. "to talk to people . . . ?" i said tentatively, to which he always responded "just call them on the phone and get it over with. but that's kind of the point isn't it? not to get it over with.
the constantly changing methods of interpersonal relationships are forging new paths for media to follow shortly thereafter, and that's why we do it, because it's new, it's cool, and just by using it, we're helping to form the infrastructure for the next wave in new media. these milestones such as the phonograph, the nickelodeon, the telephone, the video phone, instant messenger, cellular phone, podcasts, text messaging, video messaging, xbox live chat, twittering, every single one of them has made a step forward and allowed us to communicate faster and more efficiently with one another, and each across a more inclusive spectrum than before, narrowing the geographical gap between friends, colleagues, family members, and complete strangers.
but back to the video for now... the concept was put up by publicis mojo, a creative branch of the worldwide publicis group, these particular branches being located across australia. while i'm not really sure if this video was put up for a particular client, it certainly says a lot about a society that has limitless avenues of communication and allows people to go on being alone in a city of thousands.
this tragedy goes on for nearly 4 minutes showing how in every part of his day our hero is surrounded by people and still feels completely alone. such a common human feeling in a digital age, and one that is tackled by an unadorned, guileless and classic idea, pen and paper. this speaks volumes to me personally about how we are always going to be able to step back and have these personal relationships, and that no matter how digitized and instant our communication is, or how insensitive some people think it may be, we will always have the potential for these relationships, and those are the relationships that form friendships, partnerships, businesses, marriages, and all the things that make us human. so keep talking, keep twittering, keep texting, but remember that the avatar, screen name, or phone number you're talking to has a face, a brain, a mind, and a heart.
live well, love better, good night.
in a time when instantaneous worldwide communication can tell you what ninja warrior obstacle is the favorite of miss olivia munn, or exactly where to meet shaq for free tickets to tonight's game, a 12 minute video who's only interpersonal communication takes place on 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper is refreshing to say the least. this makes me think back to when i was sitting in my parent's basement doing homework and talking on aim. my dad implored me to give him a valid reason to be on the newfangled instant messanger. "to talk to people . . . ?" i said tentatively, to which he always responded "just call them on the phone and get it over with. but that's kind of the point isn't it? not to get it over with.
the constantly changing methods of interpersonal relationships are forging new paths for media to follow shortly thereafter, and that's why we do it, because it's new, it's cool, and just by using it, we're helping to form the infrastructure for the next wave in new media. these milestones such as the phonograph, the nickelodeon, the telephone, the video phone, instant messenger, cellular phone, podcasts, text messaging, video messaging, xbox live chat, twittering, every single one of them has made a step forward and allowed us to communicate faster and more efficiently with one another, and each across a more inclusive spectrum than before, narrowing the geographical gap between friends, colleagues, family members, and complete strangers.
but back to the video for now... the concept was put up by publicis mojo, a creative branch of the worldwide publicis group, these particular branches being located across australia. while i'm not really sure if this video was put up for a particular client, it certainly says a lot about a society that has limitless avenues of communication and allows people to go on being alone in a city of thousands.
this tragedy goes on for nearly 4 minutes showing how in every part of his day our hero is surrounded by people and still feels completely alone. such a common human feeling in a digital age, and one that is tackled by an unadorned, guileless and classic idea, pen and paper. this speaks volumes to me personally about how we are always going to be able to step back and have these personal relationships, and that no matter how digitized and instant our communication is, or how insensitive some people think it may be, we will always have the potential for these relationships, and those are the relationships that form friendships, partnerships, businesses, marriages, and all the things that make us human. so keep talking, keep twittering, keep texting, but remember that the avatar, screen name, or phone number you're talking to has a face, a brain, a mind, and a heart.
live well, love better, good night.
happy st. patty's day!
so my girlfriend and i walk in the door after a good night of st. pattying, i sit down to unwind with some TV the interwebz and a beer, and i look up at the clock and i realize it's not even 1 AM. first thought: holy crap i'm getting old. second thought: wait a second, i started my celebrating at 4 PM. this brings me to quite the conundrum. while i'm quite proud of myself for celebrating my irishness despite the fact there's not a bit of irish in me, i am pretty disappointed that on the drinking night of all drinking nights i can't muster a night that stretches more than 45 minutes into the AM. while it may be quite easy to point a finger and say i am getting older and therefore less cool, i blame this night on a lack of planning. my original plan was to run some random errands during the day, and hang out at the house with a few beers while i wait for plans to be made for me. at the time it seemed like a wonderful idea; you know, drink a little, get some things done, have the night planned out for you. only problem was, apparently everyone else had the same idea. this is when i came to a personal realization, it's one thing to be open minded and accept whatever the night brings you, but when everyone is playing the 'open minded' card, it's probably best just to buck up and do what you want to do. not that i had a bad time, i enjoyed my green beer quite well, especially when topped off with waffle house to finish off the night (always a pleasant ending point). but i've found more and more lately that people are being more conscious of their surroundings and the people with which they socialize, not only does that mean a more inclusive time for all, but it just might mean the most indecisive night for everyone as well. while most people never want to be 'that guy' that drags everyone around by their coat tails while secretly everyone wants to be at home watching grey's anatomy, if you're the only one playing tour guide, chances are you have everyone's undivided attention. some groups already have a 'tour guide' character in place, others may select a character depending on the particular night, but if you're group goes out with a purpose but no one waving the red flag of courage, be ready for an evening full of "what do you feel like" "oh i don't care" it doesn't matter to me" "i'm good with whatever". now i am completely aware that most socially interactive groups are composed of people in leadership roles and those in more of a follower role, and it would be quite selfish to assume that the same person should lead the charge all the time, however to allow everyone accountability, the situation must be made open for those who typically find themselves in following roles to feel comfortable taking the reigns for a bit. while i realize that this responsiblity may rely more heavily on those in the leadership roles, it will probably be worth it to actively pass on control to a less participatory friend than to passively wander aimlessly around downtown while everyone complains about how cold and wet it is outside. no real point to this one, just some personal thoughts taken down to remember later.
good night to all and a happy st. patty's day.
good night to all and a happy st. patty's day.
3.16.2009
some traditions are dumb . . .
while i sit here watching will farrell impersonate the dubya on HBO, which by the way is quite hilarious, i'm contemplating my next major purchase, a new laptop. i think it may just about be time for a new one considering my current dell latitude 9200 is about 5 years old, has been completely formatted 3 times, currently refuses to operate such programs as windows media player, internet explorer, adobe anything, along with several other problems that seem to fit no categorical heading. while i chalk most of these up to who knows, i still find it hard to let go of my pc ways. even though advertising as a whole is almost completely a mac dominated industry, the processing speed, battery life, and environmental consideration are all top notch, and pc's are becoming more and more unreliable, i still can't seem to . . . . oh wait.
yes it seems that my next laptop will be a new macbook pro, as a very tiny part of me dies inside. but that will probably only last until i get it home and realize that absolutely everything is smaller, faster, sleeker, and overall more efficient. man i'm stubborn sometimes . . .
yes it seems that my next laptop will be a new macbook pro, as a very tiny part of me dies inside. but that will probably only last until i get it home and realize that absolutely everything is smaller, faster, sleeker, and overall more efficient. man i'm stubborn sometimes . . .
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