Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

Going into 2006 not all things will go well. There will be problems to solve and unforeseen obstacles to face. Your path is full of danger, risks and rewards. Therefore, practice going to your happy place, find your song, and keep smiling.

I’ve been out of touch with many of the multi-talented, creative folks I met and worked with on Shrek 2 at PDI/DreamWorks. So, it was with great surprise and delight that I read a front page San Francisco Chronical news story about the friendly, energetic software engineer Reid Gershbein writing and directing an independent film Broken Arrows. The Chronicle knows that eyeballs are attracted to Google, so the headline is more about how the Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are involved in funding roughly 50% of the making of Broken Arrows. Turns out Reid knows them and successfully pitched his story.

The Broken Arrows trailer looks very promising and I’ll be looking forward to seeing Reid’s first film when it comes out later in 2006. Maybe I’ll even be fortunate to get a pre-screening…. hello, Reid?

Here is what Google’s home page artwork looks like as an animated GIF sequence.

There are few places on Earth where the stars in the sky can be seen in all their glory. In most civilized or inhabited regions, the stars’ powers are diminished by the many particles and pollutants in the air. As the population grows greater, the stars grow dimmer.

One would think that with a greater talent pool, there would be greater star actors. But alas, and alack, the stars fade to black.

What I am talking about is the Oscars ain’t what they used to be… they are headed the way of the Miss America pageant. Take a look at this Road To the Oscars list of the Top 25 Stars of 2005 at the Internet Movie Database. Paris Hilton at #5? Perhaps this explains the confusion…

rankings were not based upon critical assessments or box-office performance, but the actual search behavior of over 30 million users of IMDb.com.

Clark Griswold would envy the rockin’ Christmas lights of this highly decorated home, and its matching audio track. A top online video worth a look and listen.

Download and play this Windows Media File of a 3D Santa and his reindeer flying with NORAD guidance systems at work.

Not to be missed is the creative JibJab team’s retrospective of President Bush’s year of 2005, one he’d like to forget!

Recently I’ve received requests from 2 different music CD publishers for usage of my Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band photos. Both of these requests came from Great Britain, although one is a major label’s UK office.

Beefheart apparently has a big following in Europe, as does Frank Zappa.

From the Sports section, a troubled ex-field goal kicker, Cole Ford told his psychiatrist…

while watching Siegfried & Roy he realized “what was wrong with the world was linked to the illusionists’ treatment, dominance and unhealthy intimacy” with their animals.

“He felt they threatened (the) world, and he began trying to figure out how he could stop them.”

Then in September 2004…

Ford drove past the sprawling Jungle Palace estate owned by Siegfried & Roy. Obscenities poured out of the slow-moving van, then blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun sprayed the entrance.

An obstinate Ford later appeared in a Las Vegas courtroom, demanding to plead guilty to the shooting. Instead, the judge ruled he was incompetent to stand trial and sent him to the state’s mental facility in northern Nevada.

“I’m perfectly competent,” Ford told the judge in January.

Although there is strong evidence that Siegfried and Roy’s DreamWorks 3D TV show Father of the Pride lowered the bar for 3D computer animated entertainment, that is no excuse for Cole Ford’s violent response.

The lighting and shading on the above image is unforgivable, enough to throw any respectable 3D artist into a tantrum. Most folks just changed the channel.

Cole Ford may have perceived part of the world’s problems while watching Siegfried and Roy’s live act. DreamWorks’ choice to outsource their FOTP 3D animation to China is yet another problem. So far no news of California 3D animators morphing into Yosemite Sam and going postal.