Highlights (including the best five seconds of my life):
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Showing posts with label links. Show all posts
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
22/1/84: The Dawn of Macintosh
"Hey, we were watching that!"
That famous 1984 commercial aired during half-time at the Superbowl, the first of ‘major-event’ spots. The Orwellian/Blade Runner scenery was visualised by Ridley Scott, in which Big Brother is about to have it handed to him when an anonymous young female athlete hurls a sledgehammer at the big screen. Beats talking like robots.
For the first couple of days during Easter break we went to stay at Nana and Bampa's in Port Talbot, even though Emily had the flu. It was chilly down the Mumbles, but Mum got the shoes she wanted. In Cardiff, while Mum and Mick stayed in the warmth of the Millennium Centre in the company of the children's choir, I frolicked off for a bit like I usually do. We would have spent longer there if the weather was warmer and we took the train rather than the car.
That famous 1984 commercial aired during half-time at the Superbowl, the first of ‘major-event’ spots. The Orwellian/Blade Runner scenery was visualised by Ridley Scott, in which Big Brother is about to have it handed to him when an anonymous young female athlete hurls a sledgehammer at the big screen. Beats talking like robots.
For the first couple of days during Easter break we went to stay at Nana and Bampa's in Port Talbot, even though Emily had the flu. It was chilly down the Mumbles, but Mum got the shoes she wanted. In Cardiff, while Mum and Mick stayed in the warmth of the Millennium Centre in the company of the children's choir, I frolicked off for a bit like I usually do. We would have spent longer there if the weather was warmer and we took the train rather than the car.
I saw Horton Hears a Who! last Saturday. It's a wubbulous fantabulous adaptation of the book by the warrior poet Ted Geisel. Whilst accomplished to the Seuss material (no pun intended), Blue Sky's love for animation is evident in their films. This one has the most vigorous use of squash and stretch, deformers, particles (furs! feathers! holy freaking field of clovers Oh My!), expressions, and highly stylised shapes and colours in a CG toon. Both the jungle of Nool and Whosville are marvellous; the vocal talents were equally impressive, and the sound design for the musical climax was just wicked cool. The random 2D and anime kung fu spoof sequences, created by the aptly named House of Cool, were brief, but rather lovely. One of the animators has a blog.
Also looking forward to Ice Age 3 (dinos!), as well as Kung Fu Panda (which I hear will the best thing to come out of Dreamworks since Shrek 2) and WALL*E (again it's Pixar, so no-brainer), the kids at the screening were doing spot-on voice impressions.
Because of the Local Disk's increasingly low memory, I recently had to order a 500GB external harddrive.
Friday, 29 February 2008
Cultural Exchange
My sister went to the discussion about Women in the Music Industry, where she asked Jacqui Norton if there was anyone she didn't enjoy working with. The reply was no. We were intending to see Sue Townsend but that panel was full. On the one hand I learned a lot from Paul Wells, a professor at Loughborough Uni who has published books in the animation field and screenwriting and recently scripted on soaps and even Lost. Even without Curse of the Were-Rabbit producer Claire Jennings, who was not in attendance due to Stateside commitments, the lecture was an articulate insight into the creative process of writing cartoons. He showed clips from Bob Godfrey's DIY Cartoon Kit - which looked quite Pythonesque - and the Oscar-winning short Harvey Crumpet.
As for this year's Awards, I was both happy and a little baffled by some of the winners, at least for Daniel Day-Lewis representing the Brits; No Country for Old Men, well you know the Academy loves Westerns; #Falling Slowly beating the three Schwartz/Menken tunes was a bit of a surprise. I didn't think Kristin Chenoweth's performance was as bad as others thought, but they should REALLY have done something with Amy's set. And, VFX-wise, Transformers lost to The Golden Compass? Alright I guess. Glad that Ratatouille, Peter & the Wolf, the Art Direction for Sweeney Todd, and Dario Marianelli's Atonement score each got a gong!
Construction sites, council estates, traffic jams - these are things I know, not a tremor as sudden as that! I was in my room getting changed when what sounded then felt like a row rumble of a freight or an early trash lorry hitting speed bumps, only to be FREAKING OUT as it dragged on and the shelves were shaking. It was amazing. 5.2? Come on, the house could have split! Mum was woken up by it , whereas Emily was watching The Mighty Boosh on Dave.
The sebaceous cyst below Molly's left ear is festering, weeping, sore, mottled and stinks of carrion. Our neighbour Brian needs to take her to the vet to have it removed, SRSLY. I worry about her. Her meows have been waking me up these past few mornings.
Finally, check this guy out. He's got a wonderful style.
As for this year's Awards, I was both happy and a little baffled by some of the winners, at least for Daniel Day-Lewis representing the Brits; No Country for Old Men, well you know the Academy loves Westerns; #Falling Slowly beating the three Schwartz/Menken tunes was a bit of a surprise. I didn't think Kristin Chenoweth's performance was as bad as others thought, but they should REALLY have done something with Amy's set. And, VFX-wise, Transformers lost to The Golden Compass? Alright I guess. Glad that Ratatouille, Peter & the Wolf, the Art Direction for Sweeney Todd, and Dario Marianelli's Atonement score each got a gong!
Construction sites, council estates, traffic jams - these are things I know, not a tremor as sudden as that! I was in my room getting changed when what sounded then felt like a row rumble of a freight or an early trash lorry hitting speed bumps, only to be FREAKING OUT as it dragged on and the shelves were shaking. It was amazing. 5.2? Come on, the house could have split! Mum was woken up by it , whereas Emily was watching The Mighty Boosh on Dave.
The sebaceous cyst below Molly's left ear is festering, weeping, sore, mottled and stinks of carrion. Our neighbour Brian needs to take her to the vet to have it removed, SRSLY. I worry about her. Her meows have been waking me up these past few mornings.
Finally, check this guy out. He's got a wonderful style.
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