march

03.29.01

i was at aquarius records last night, standing in line to pay for the cubby creatures cd that i had decided to buy when i bumped into brian weaver, the bass player for the cubby creatures. it was a strange moment. buy their music. it's good.

sometimes i get into a mode where i've convinced myself that i've gotten too maniacally obsessive over very little. then i run into a endeavor like the payphone project, and i realize that i'm not really that obsessive at all.

i finally got a chance to see lars von trier's 'the idiots'. it was another great example of how dogma 95 manages to prove a strong story can be presented even without tripods and light gear and effects. if you find that you enjoy the idiots, you should definitely check out his 8 hour masterpiece, 'the kingdom'.

03.28.01

i love graffiti. i'm not talking about quickly scrawled out tags that are dripping from garage doors, but rather the carefully crafted art that is found inside train tunnels and on abandoned buses. i've taken hundreds of photos of graffiti from around the world, which makes me feel particularly excited about the art found here.

is anyone else out there depressed that multiplexes are taking over the universe? i'm particularly saddened by the fact that berkeley's uc theater is shutting their doors. i've had many, many drug addled memories of watching wonderful movies at that location. ah, uc theater, we hardly knew ye.

admittedly, i'm not the biggest fan of intel. on the other hand, i think the blue man group is incredible. a few of my more talented friends recently auditioned for blue man group and i can only hope that they will become one of these anonymous superstars. it would be even more exciting if my friends became part of a blue man video game.

this site has seen my future and my future looks grim.

03.26.01

sooo... anyone out there interested in buying some uranium?? pssst! i got a deal for ya! (link via jory)

i think i should probably be disappointed that the alien abduction survey tells me that i have not been abducted. ah well, better luck next time. (via gmtplus9)

when i first knew that i wanted to work in film, i knew i wanted to work in special effects. originally, i thought it would be really cool to be a pyrotechnics artist, but when i realized that i wanted to keep all my fingers, i decided that i wanted to be a foley artist. even though i'm an editor now, i still want to be a foley artist someday. national public radio's lost and found sound series has a great history of jack foley, one of the noisiest men in film.

03.25.01

i can't decide whether i prefer to 'make love to the crowd' or 'the basic twirl,' but i never realized that learning how to dance could be so wacky.

akira, possibly the most significant anime movie ever to present itself to america, has been digitally restored and remastered to have another tour through the united states. akira 2001 will be having its world premiere in new york on march 30th! check out their spectacular website which explains the restoration process as well as the movie itself.

it is against the law to distribute an executable code which can descramble encrypted dvds. fortunately, it is not against the law to distribute the code via haiku.

i haven't made my paranoid mad cow link in a few weeks now, so, i present to you. the latest findings of mad cow incubation periods. (via reuters via drudge retort via robot wisdom)

the academy awards are today and i'm hoping that i win some money from our oscar pool at work. although, i admit that i'm afraid i've lost my two dollars to the cause. i've ranted to my friends in the academy that i'm really pissed off that requiem for a dream was not nominated for best editing, but the academy members i know admitted that they weren't eligible to vote in that category. that led me to wonder what it takes to be an academy member.

03.21.01

you should definitely come watch the shimmer kids play at the notorious werepad movie lounge this saturday night! we hit the stage at around 10:30pm and the original 1979 version of phantasm will play immediately afterwards. how could you possibly resist??? the werepad is located at 2430 3rd street between 20th and 22nd streets. and no, for some reason there is no intersection at 21st.

it sounds like an urban legend, but i'll be damned if it's true. taco bell is offering a taco to every american if their 40x40 foot floating target in the middle of the south pacific is hit by mir's core module. i wouldn't hold my breath.

03.20.01

every friday, my cow-orker plays kerpal's prank call to remind us of the upcoming weekend. i've now heard it too many times to count, but i'll be damned if it has me busting up in laughter each and every time. i think about what the people on the other end of the line must be thinking and i just can't help myself.

ummm... it's almost time to do your taxes

my favorite hunk of junk in space is about to come down in a fiery demise. fortunately, it has its own website for all of us to remember it by.

nasa has a site for mir too. i especially like the disclaimer they have about their tracking system.

ok... i know that this is going to make me sound like a sick, sick, person, but i think that this is so well done, i can't ignore it. i've decided that if i ever switch back from being a vegetarian, i will order all my meat from manbeef.com.

the truth is out. web banners suck and don't draw income. starting next month, salon will start its premium subscription service asking readers to help financially support their site. sure - i'll do it.

03.18.01

i've finally gotten my video 'effects of...' back online today. i don't know why i was slacking so much on that, but now it's yours to see in all its tiny glory. surprisingly enough, it's currently the top rated documentary and top rated women's issues video at the short attention span film festival's website! i didn't even realize those were the categories it fell into.

the friendly folks at my old haunts, pacific data images/dreamworks discuss the state of computer animation today. i really hope their next movie, shrek, does well. from what i've been able to see so far, the characters harken back to the old rankin-bass animation of the 70's.

03.15.01

my new cell phone allows me to download different ring tones. there's a surprisingly immense variety of music out there, ranging from film scores to hacks like eminem. now when my phone rings, it plays the muppet theme song. all i have to do now is learn how to speak like a muppet, and i'll be totally set. (via pop culture junk mail)

i remember that my parents owned 'dr. spock's child and baby care,' but based on my experience, i don't think they've ever read it. he seemed way too hip for folks like my folks. yesterday, dr. spock's ashes were spread by his widow from a surfboard in santa cruz.

here's a cute little javascript clock.

03.14.01

sorry - i'm too tired right now to update much of anything right now. instead, i'll just redirect you to this beautiful picture of the mir.

03.13.01

i've admittedly had my fair share of layoffs before, but i find it hard to find sympathy for someone who has to take a pay cut from $100 an hour to $60 an hour. salon weeps for them.

on the other hand, i've always felt a lot of sympathy for the good folks in the film industry who were affected by the house of unamerican activities in the 50's. the la times has an interesting article on the history of some blacklisted writers whose hollywood careers were destroyed by ol' joseph.

oy. the mere thought makes me shiver.

the red vic, san francisco's local co-op movie theater played a series of brothers quay movies this past weekend, including their brand new, anamorphic short film 'in absentia' - it was, of course, beautiful and disturbing. it made me think of the interviews with charles crumb talking about his insanity in the 'crumb' documentary. i wasn't able to find too many interviews with the quay twins, but this interview was fascinating.

a few eons ago, before corporations began issuing cease and desist orders to websites everywhere, the full set of simpsons icons were available for all to download. now those days of yore are gone. fortunately, here's a very cool icon site that even has toasters! (via gmtplus9)

03.11.01

i'm so excited! the museum of jurrassaic technology is about to release their first film!! personally, i think it would be even better if they released it in the super-rare 9.5mm film format. but that's just me.

now, before you watch this quicktime - you have to understand that i've never seen a frame of the pokemon cartoon in my life, but damnit, i was rolling on the floor when i saw this. (link via anastasia)

i'm very pleased with the results of this report. by my calculations, i'm going to live to be a thousand years old. excellent. (via metafilter)

when i was in high school, one of the senior pranks that someone had pulled was to steal the big plastic tree from the mcdonald's restaraunt down the street. the prank turned out to be somehwat of a dud when it was discovered that the owner of the restaraunt was the father of one of the kids. fortunately, someone else had a better idea of what to do with stolen mcdonald's property.

making me think of high school makes me think of the 80's. yikes.

i love a good japanese game show. unfortunately, i'm not very fluent in japanese, so i'm glad that there's at least a synposis of some japanese game shows.

every now and again, as i'm flipping the record from side a to side b of peace and love, i'll wonder whatever the hell happened to shane macgowan? (via robot wisdom)

have you been getting more headaches lately? wondering if you're going to have brain cancer? maybe you should see how your cell phone ranks on the cell phone radiation chart. i'd hate to admit it, but i'd really like to see graphs.

03.08.01

damnit. i can't believe that someone tried to steal my record car. what i don't understand, is how far the would-be thieves thought they were going to get in that thing. what really makes me sad is the $250 i had to shell out to the locksmith to get the ignition replaced. it's like getting ripped off twice for the price of one.

i was watching the latest episode of futurama the other evening and thought that the storyline about penguins unlimited was way too ridiculous. about halfway through the episode, i remembered a 16mm film that i had stumbled upon a few years ago about ducks unlimited. this memphis nonprofit "conservation" organization breeds ducks on hunting grounds so that they can shoot them later. of course, they don't mention anything about the shooting part on their website, but i'd be willing to show you the film if you doubt me. does anyone else out there think that this is horribly, horribly wrong or is it just me?

i was looking for some information on "serial experiments: lain" (probably one of the best anime i've seen in years), but instead i found this. once you start thinking "wow... this is really weird" the picture of the girl in the dog suit appears.

etoys is finally out of business! long live etoy!

03.06.01

lars dared anthony to eat a 4x4 at in 'n' out burger today and the next thing i knew, i found myself witnessing the behemoth that is 4 patties of meat and 4 slices of cheese all nestled between two buns. i've always known about the bread burger and grilled cheese options which aren't available on the menu, but apparently there's more. apparently there's a hidden menu.

right now, the only thing keeping the digital cinema revolution from occurring, is the finances. in an attempt to promote its satellite technology, boeing aircraft is trying to fuel the fire by helping to finance the analog to digital conversion of theater houses across america. now all they would have to do is get all those theater chains out of bankruptcy.

meanwhile, on the bigger screen, haunted castle will take you on an imax roller coaster to hell where rockers are tortured by satan. fortunately, i've had the opportunity to watch two hours of experimental imax films and am confused as to why there are no more fictional and experimental imax releases out there. (via robot wisdom)

while we're on the subject of movies - it looks like jackie chan has a new movie coming out this year.

one of the first times i celebrated new year's eve in san francisco was at hamburger mary's. i'm sad to report that hamburger mary's is going the way of radio valencia, another san francisco classic eatery. no more chili fries on folsom.

03.05.01

wow! i'm a model! dominiwear of tel aviv showcases some of her latest designs in her 2001 collection. all that and i didn't even have to look like i was on heroin.

ladies and gentleman, generalissimo francisco franco is still dead. i can't even begin to tell you how excited i was to stumble upon the saturday night live transcripts. it's more exciting than a dessert topping and a floor wax all in one!

speaking of chevy chase, i just found out that chevy chase is cockney rhyming slang for face. go figure.

i could make that joke about being a witty linguist, but i won't. instead, i'll point you to another interesting dialect. i've been told that boontville in anderson valley has been speaking their own dialect for about a century. they're lesser known for speaking boontling than they are for making anderson valley boont amber ale. by the way, the bear with the antlers on his head, means that it's a beer. hah!

03.03.01

nuts to aibo -once i get my own sony dream robot, i'll have it dancing to japanaese pop songs and making me whiskey sours to my heart's content.

unfortunately, the facial features available to the oddcast host generator are as limited (if not more) than stortroopers. i wonder why all these avatar generators are always so square-jawed and anglo? (via metafilter)

there used to be this burnt out crack church across the street from my house. now they're putting a four story loft in our neighborhood and i find myself wishing that the crack church was still there. if you'd like to watch san francisco gentrification on your desktop, check out my housemate's loft construction cam. (via dominodigital)

i absolutely love my co-workers - one of them bought me a jackie chan action figure!! now i have to buy more - i think this will be the first time that i'll have stepped inside a burger king in at least ten years. i'm a little scared.

03.01.01

my theory is that the seattle earthquake was caused by bruce lee returning from the grave.

i just finished watching my friend's 16mm print of william shatner's 1974 classic "impulse" at the parkway theater this evening. i can't remember the last time i laughed so hard - this is definitely a william shatner like... you've never... seen him... before.

speaking of william - it appears possible that william shakespeare might have been one to smoke pot every once and again. it's humorous how defensive one professor gets regarding the findings - you can almost hear his feathers bristle. (link via star)

speaking of the parkway theater - if you've never been, you should definitely give it a visit. it's the only movie theater in california with a liquor license! it's almost like being in france - except everyone speaks english and the wine is bad.

my housemate dave has been a tried and true source for some great links here at filmfatale industries - which is why we are happy to report that dave now has a website! check it out - my favorite part is the dig dug guy.

this can't possibly be serious. i mean... i'm just speechless.