april

04.30.01

'endurance: shackleton's legendary antarctic expedition' was the last film that i caught at the san francisco international film festival. it's a terrific documentary by none other than george butler about the shackleton expedition to the antarctic. back in 1914, ernest shackleton and his 28 man crew set out to cross antarctica. somewhere along the way, the crew became stranded on the ice and spent the next two years trying to get back to land. it's really an incredible adventure and there's some amazing motion picture footage from frank hurley, the ship's photographer. hopefully this film will get theatrically released in the near future because it really must be seen by everyone.

like get smart, i love the idea of shoes that can be used for other things, so these seem like a really cool concept. i just wish the game boy wasn't so exposed though.

mmmm... personal aircraft. much better than tying balloons to a lawn chair.

04.26.01

i'm giddy!

the shimmer kids site has been updated! just in time to announce our next show in the east bay this friday night (that's tomorrow, for all you interdimensional time travellers) at the stork club, located at 2330 telegraph in oakland. it'll give you a lovely opportunity to buy me drinks and watch my drunken theremin master moves. i'm warning you now, some theremin techniques can prove to be lethal.

and if your soul needs more music to placate your lovin' heart, you should definitely go see my good buddies, soapbox, play at the portlite (also in oakland!). power to the people! hallelujah for the spectacle! music in the east bay!

i just got back from watching luigi pirandello's 'enrico iv' at the american conservatory theater here in san francisco. this 1922 italian play is a brain twisting, thoroughly entertaining story about identity, madness and fantasy. if you were at all interested in these ideas in recent movies like the matrix or existenz, you must go see this play. it's only playing for three more days, so hurry!

no, there are no monsters under your bed (but if i were you, i'd double check the closet just to be safe).

04.24.01

i think it all started with shonen knife, but for some reason i'm totally enamoured about japenese broken english. one of my favorite phrases being "it is the cool and smart! you must check it!" jory points out that i'm not the only one who's entertained.

04.23.01

i saw a tiny animated gif of this once, but it doesn't compare at all to the really amazing flash version. now, mind you, i generally think that most flash animation is a tremendous waste of time. as luck would have it, these kung fu stick figures are entertaining and well done examples of tremendous wastes of time.

i have to admit, that i'm not particularly impressed with the guerillagirls style, but they have some really fascinating information about the (lack of) successful female hollywood filmmakers. go ahead, name five nationally recognized female directors off the top of your head. email me if you can come up with a list and in a few days, i'll post who the most popular are.

here's a hint for ya - one director got her start while starring in a popular 70's sitcom. there's this great site that lars showed me which tries to pinpoint the exact moment that sitcoms go bad. you can vote on certain moments in the series and see what got the most votes. jumptheshark.com is named after the episode where the fonz jumps the shark. this is a great, great site.

04.22.01

my co-workers are convinced that monkeys are guaranteed comedy. being the sucker that i am, i'm inclined to believe them. so here i give you, instant monkeys online!

and for your friends who might not be hooked up with that whole internet thing, there's even an analog monkey available to you at monkeyphonecall.com. i know you can't resist.

they all remind me of my junior high school teachers. do i have to just pick one?

i went to the national stereoscopic association's annual northern california chapter meet this week and it was very, very cool. there's some pretty incredible 3d art that's out there and if you ever get the chance to check it out, you definitely should.

if you happen to have your red/blue 3d glasses next to your computer, you should take a gander at this 3d picture of a wacky theremin player at a jewish wedding in the 50's. what more could you possibly ask for?

if you're asking for more, here's a 3d picture of a big briar etherwave theremin - which, coincidentally, happens to be the same model that i play.

my sister in helsinki tells me that she unfortunately does not get a good view of the aurora borealis sightings that have been happening in finland. fortunately, she sent this really great link which tracks sunspots and other changes in space weather.

i've always been amazed by how many people complain about how poorly the san francisco international film festival is organized. i volunteered some time at the festival several years ago and it really opened my eyes to what an incredible job these folks do with limited resources and limited staff. personally, i think they do a pretty kick-ass job.

i just got back from seeing my first film at the festival this year. dora-heita is directed by 86 year old kon ichikawa based on a script he co-wrote with akira kurosawa back in 1969. if you happen to be near the kabuki theater on monday at around 3:30pm, you should try to catch it. it's a great samarai film not to be missed.

04.20.01

today is a holiday in santa cruz.

04.19.01

ok... it's all under control now... everything's fine, ladies and gentlemen, nothing to see here. move along. move along.

i think my favorite special guest appearance on the simpsons has to be stephen hawking as a superhero who flies away in his super roboticized wheelchair. i love the fact that they actually got stephen hawking to read the lines himself instead of feeding it through their powerbook's speech synthesizer. alas, if all the rumors are true, stephen hawking will be changing his accent.

welcome to professor stephen w. hawking's web pages.

"no, my son is also named bort."

04.15.01

it breaks my heart that joey ramone has passed away. the ramones and dead kennedys were definitely the loudest music in my house growing up and my parents hated, hated, hated it. joey, thanks for all those three chord songs - i wouldn't have survived high school without it.

i hope everyone out there had a pleasant easter. here's an interactive jesus to make your day complete.

if your intereactive jesus is not enough, here's a great story about a lawn gnome that has travelled the world.

in case you need it for the above link, here's a picture of the earth at night.

you know, if it weren't for this list, i wouldn't have known that i have zemmiphobia. thank you, internet! (via metafilter)

i've recently discovered that there is some horrible, horrible extension conflict between apple's itunes and adaptec's toast. the buggers at apple have made it so that itunes and disc burner disables toast. i've tried everything under the sun to try to fix this, including disabling the extensions, removing the extensions and re-installing toast after removing itunes and nothing is working. so... i must venture into the world of the clean system install. cross your fingers for me - i'll see you on the flip side.

04.12.01

i've been in love with john and john for years and years. it made my heart a-flutter when i saw this article on cnn. i'm swooning, i tell you. swooning!

to add even more excitement to the excitement, tmbg is releasing new music with the latest mcsweeney's quarterly! there are also songs by phillip glass as well as the regular irregularities that you'll find in the mcsweeney's journals.

ok... i've decided that i'm going to quit my job as a film editor so that i can work here. i feel that i am qualified for the job and i have a lot of experience maintaining a driving a super vehicle! the 8.6 second things sounds a bit tough, though.

04.10.01

robots! robots! robots!!

it might be because i'm working on that robot movie, but i'm obsessed with robots today. here's a good selection of walking bots.

and of course, there's my favorite weblog, robot wisdom.

my robot makes sushi.

filmfatale industries didn't realize that honda was into making humanoid robots. after we cut the check to buy the latest gasoline/electric hybrid honda insight, the honda robot will be the next item in our budget.

robot babes.

baby robots.

i know i'm such a dirty girl, but i couldn't possibly resist the robot porn. you know you want it.

04.08.01

justin forward the link of this site to me and i can't figure out what the hell is going on here. i think there's a coke bottle and a record that's in love with a hat, but... i'm not sure.

there's this friend of mine who collects doggie diner heads. they're these beautiful gigantic daschund heads with chef hats that used to stand as icons for an old san francisco diner chain. now that the last remaining public head has fallen, john law stands up in their defense.

typically i ignore any request to sign an electronic petition - but when i saw this one to apologize for our stupid fucking president, i thought i should at least check it out.

my co-workers and i were surprised and a little bit offended when mike myers made fun of the sound and sound editing categories at this year's oscars. apparently, we weren't the only ones.

when i first saw the toaster that burns an image of a dinosaur onto a naked slice of bread, i thought that it was the coolest thing on earth. but now i know what's even cooler than dinosaurs! toast that tells me the weather. (via metafilter)

04.04.01

i'm excited to announce that the bbc site has an excellent explanation about theremins! not only that, but you can download their virtual shockwave theremin and give it a go! as much as i like the site, i have to admit that i prefer my big briar etherwave theremin over the downloadable virtual theremin.

i think betty bowers is my next idol. i know i shouldn't covet false idols, but sometimes i just gotta wonder... what would betty do?

gosh, you know, for the longest time i wondered what i should do the next time i go to lithuania. now i'm relived to know that i should be going to stalinworld! what more could i possibly ask for???

04.03.01

ok... it's april 3rd. the internet is still here. is michael tchong... wrong?!?! (insert gasp here)

for the longest time, i thought that gamera was a toho studios monster. after watching 'gamera 3:revenge of iris' last night, i am delighted to say that the inventive folks at daiei studios are just as super! this is probably the best rubber suit/computer graphics marriage that i've had the enjoyment to feast my eyes upon. i can't decide if my favorite dialogue was in the 'monster defense' office or if it was about the really popular video game that simulates weather systems. get out of my way, global warming! my typhoon will kick your drought with terror!

i drove to work via a new route yesterday and stumbled upon this billboard on the freeway. having never taken that route before, i didn't really notice anything out of the ordinary, but i wondered why the pennies looked so weird. billboard liberation front, thank you for all your hard work!!!

as long as we're on the liberation front - thank god for the wonderful people at the barbie liberation organization! in 1989, blo soldiers took 'teen talk' barbie dolls from toy store shelves and switched their voice boxes with talking duke g.i. joe dolls. after performing the procedure, they would put the barbies and g.i. joe dolls back onto store shelves. the final product resulted in barbies who screamed "vengeance is mine!" and g.i. joe dolls who admitted that 'i love shopping!' if you ever get the chance, there's a great five minute documentary on san francisco filmmaker craig baldwin's 'sonic outlaws.' now that i think about it, sonic outlaws also has pretty extensive coverage of negativeland's battle with u2 over 'i still haven't found what i'm looking for.' (see yesterday's links).

ok, i know that this is only going to show how pathetically nerdy i am, but i have to admit that i thought this was really cool. the obsessive folks at cyberden.com have decided to scan every 5.25" floppy disc sleeve that they can lay their hands on and make the archive available to us, the adoring public. (link via dan herrin)

04.02.01

wow! i've always wondered what was inside the magic 8 ball! (via cruel site of the day)

i went to the audium the other night. this 40 year old san francisco institution is a small theater where you sit in complete darkness and listen to a live performance mixed through 169 separate speakers. if you're at all interested in sound design you should definitely check this out.

if you find that you really like the audium, you might also like the exploratorium's tactile dome as well. better yet, if you can find a willing victim, you should blindfold them for the day and take them to the audium then the tactile dome!

my cow-orker has a spoken word record by jimmy swaggart titled "what the bible says about drugs" but he never had a chance to play it because it's recorded in a bizarre 16rpm format. as it turned out, my portable turntable that i have at work plays 16rpm - so we all huddled around the speakers to listen to jimmy swaggart ranting about hippies on acid. it was awesome. since then, i've wondered about the 16rpm format and where it came from. wouldn't you know, that it all started in a car? (via cardhouse)

sometimes i wish aquarius records wasn't so goddamned cool. if it weren't for them, my wallet wouldn't experience the brutal carnage that i put it through. on the other hand, i was more than excited to be the proud owner of 'nick bougas presents: celebrities at their worst!' - a collection of recordings where various celebrities either don't know, or don't care that the microphone is on. it has the infamous casey kasem track that negativeland uses on their recalled single of 'still haven't found what i'm looking for' (one of which i hoard at home) and also some great stuff by orson welles, jerry lewis and tom brokaw.

04.01.01

michael tchong, ceo of iconocast, is afraid that the net will implode on april 3rd. ringo, of ringosoft, thinks that he can fuck off. fortunately, michael will have sex with you as long as you buy him off ebay. uhhh... does anyone else out there think that mr. tchong has probably gone nuts? (link via scott beale)

my housemate now works for ebay. now he can spend all his time watching disturbing auctions all day. and i thought the uranium was bad... (via pop culture junk mail)

when i told my harvard mba friend that i was a member of of iatse local 16, he asked "are you a part of the union because you hate your boss or because you're a commie liberal?" i told him it was both, of course. no use telling him about knowing that i have the best health benefits available if i ever got sick or knowing that i will be justly paid for any overtime i work in my already crazy 45 hour work week. personally, i think it's awesome that recording artists are joining together to unionize.

sometimes when i read articles like this, i think i should worry. on the other hand, if i were taking ecstacy 10 times a month, memory loss would probably be the least of my problems.

...for example... something like this might happen.

you're going to think i'm joking, but i used to be seriously involved with a clown. he wanted to run away and join the circus, but i didn't think it was a good idea. anyway, enough of my past, here's everything you wanted to know about teaching your elephant how to ride a tricycle. (via 50 cups)

does anyone out there have any recommendations on a professional photo lab that will print digital pictures? i'm looking for something which would be a step above sites like shutterfly and ofoto. any advice would be much appreciated.