| Disney Aquires Marvel |
[Aug. 31st, 2009|10:58 am] |
In a move that caught a lot of people by surprise Disney today announced that they have acquired Marvel for four billion dollars.
While I am a big fan of both companies I am a bit hesitant about this deal. Disney has traditionally been known to put some strict rules on their creative people to insure that everything was very family friendly. The main way that Marvel comics had differentiated itself from DC comics had been that it had made its situations and characters more realistic. This would often involve things that aren't exactly family friendly.
Disney has become more lenient recently but it will be interesting to see how they handle this property. There have already been reports that Pixar (which is also a Disney property) has already been in touch with Marvel and is quite excited to be working with them.
They have said that all of the current movie deals will stay in place but in the future Disney will be planning to distribute all of the movies themselves.
That makes me wonder about the deal that Marvel has with Universal Studios for the use of their characters at their theme park in Orlando which directly competes with Disney. Universal Studios Isalands of Adventure has an entire land with all the rides themed to Marvel characters. From their statement about the movies it sounds likely that when Marvel's contract with the theme park expires they will not renew it which could end up as a huge monetary hit to the park if they have to retheme that entire area. It isn't known when that contract expires but Steven Spielberg's deal with that park was due to expire this year and his deal was signed around the same time that Marvel signed theirs.
While it would be fairly easy to retheme many of the rides such as the Hulk coaster or the Dr. Doom Freefall it is a whole other story with the Spiderman ride. It is one of the best theme park rides in the world and would be a huge undertaking to change it. While I look forward to seeing what Disney could do with this intellectual property in their theme parks I would hate to lose this ride because of the deal.
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| Driver's License |
[Aug. 21st, 2009|10:36 am] |
My driver's license expired on my birthday. I no longer drive but since I am flying to D.C. next month I went to the DPS office yesterday in hopes of getting a state issued ID..
We filled out all of the forms completely honestly. I indicated that I had a stroke since I was last issued a license and I mentioned being visually impaired.
When my name was called I went to the counter and handed in my paperwork again reiterating that I just needed the ID because of my stroke and other problems. The person behind the counter said "Well lets go ahead and take the vision test anyway." She had me look into a device much like what Spock used on Star Trek.
She asked me to read line five so it took me a moment to focus and I slowly rattled off the series of letters and numbers. I finished and after a pause she said "Okay now read the other half of the line." Of course I had thought I had read the entire line. I looked carefully and still didn't see anything I hadn't read before. I let her know and again read what I saw. She said again that I was only reading half and needed to read the other half out as well. I was getting a bit stressed and feeling a bit self concious at this point and I tried again. She sounded a bit exasperated and told me to just read line four instead. I read that one out to her. I have no idea if I got it right or wrong. She said "Good enough." signed the paper and called the next person.
I know my limitations. I am smart enough not to get on the highways and endanger not only myself but others.
If they would give me a license after telling them I have brain damage and bad eyesight then just who all else has gotten a license in a similar situation? That is what will keep me up at night.
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| Alsdead |
[Aug. 12th, 2009|12:13 pm] |
JRockRevolution.com has posted has published an interview with the band Alsdead. The images accompanying the article are all ones that I took while on assignment for them at A-kon in Dallas.
Article
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| Rodeo |
[Jul. 27th, 2009|06:10 pm] |
Boots and blood, dust and mud
Ropes and rein, joy and pain
Its a thing they call a rodeo.
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Back in the early nineties Haleigh, Claire and I were extras in the movie "8 Seconds." It was about the career of bull rider Lane Frost.
Ever since then I have been fascinated with bull riding. I would watch it on ESPN and even had a changeling character who was a bull rider but had never actually been to a rodeo in person. I live in a small Texas town and there is even a large rodeo arena a couple of miles from the house. This past Saturday I got to go to a rodeo there and take some pics.
This is my favorite of the pictures. The look in the bull's eye really sell's the image for me.
I also liked this one because this guy just has the classic cowboy look.
In this one I like that you can see the teen girls watching from the upper left corner.
This is the bull from the first pic finally getting some payback on the cowboys.
Calf roping.
Barrel Racing
The daytime pics were a lot of fun. I was able to mix it up between my long lens and wider lens and while maintaining a fast shutter speed to keep the images sharp even with all the action. With the barrel racing I slowed the shutter speed down some and followed the rider with the lens to keep her in focus while blurring the crowd in the background to communicate the speed involved.
The rodeo had started at 7:30pm so the sun went down part way through. Night made the photography a bit harder but added some nice variety to the images. My concert photography has given me plenty of experience with trying to capture action in a low light situation. Unfortunately when you can't get close to the action it is even more difficult to get a clear picture. I was still able to get some good pics but my ration of usable to unusable was worse than usual.
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| Iran |
[Jun. 20th, 2009|06:16 pm] |
My heart goes out to those losing their lives in Iran today. Neither of the candidates in their election seemed like a good choice. It seems to me that the people are protesting more than just a possibly rigged election. They talk about liberty and democracy. They talk of overthrowing a dictator.
America went into Iraq wanting to promote democracy when in truth it has to come from a will of the people. Freedom isn't something that is given it is something that a people must take for themselves. I think that both Iran and Iraq's peoples will have more freedom and liberty as the result of these actions but it is hard to say which method was better.
Twitter and youtube have really come into their own with this election. The Iranian government has desperately tried to shut them down to prevent the words and images from getting out to the rest of the world but a floodgate is open that can't be stopped. Words and images can change the world. I am proud of youtube and twitter for perservering and giving people the tools to let their views be seen.
Here are some recent links related to the elections in Iran. The standard disclaimer applies.. You are adults and should form your own opinions about what is going on. The information at these links is likely to be biased and may be innacurate or graphic. If you are old enough to be interested in the links then you are old enough to try to figure out for yourself the accuracy or validity of what people post.
http://iranianrevolution.wordpress.com/
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=iranelection
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/06/irans_continued_election_turmo.html
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| Twenty Years |
[Jun. 12th, 2009|12:42 pm] |
Twenty years ago today Haleigh and I started our journey together as husband and wife.
We had originally planned to get married on or around Halloween but after finding out that we were going to have a daughter we decided to move the date up a bit. At the time we lived in Panama City Florida. Neither of us told our families ahead of time but my Mom was pretty smart. She asked me before I left if I was running off to get married and I denied it. Of course she had eloped as had my oldest sister so while I felt a little bad about the deception it was a bit of a family tradition. (Note to my daughters that may read this, that tradition should stop with my generation.)
I can still remember the drive home the night before where it actually sunk in that I was getting married and I couldn't get that song "Going To The Chapel" out of my head.
We drove up to Tallahassee with two friends that we were going to use as witnesses. Haleigh's friend Chelaka and my friend Marilyn. Marilyn was moving away and was going to be catching a bus in Tallahassee. We got to the Justice Of The Peace office and while Haleigh and I set up the appointment Marilyn went to find a pay phone to check on the bus. Chelaka went with her and we got in line.
When we got to talk to the Justice Of The Peace she said that they were booked for the entire day. We pleaded with her and she said she had a couple of minutes free right then but that was it. We asked if we could wait on our friends but she told us that there wasn't time. So there in a small plain room Haleigh and I said our vows becoming man and wife.
Marilyn and Chelaka were surprised and sad that they missed the event. Marilyn made her bus and Chelaka went back to Panama City while we spent our honeymoon staying at a nice hotel in Tallahassee.
When we got home I fessed up to my family that we were married and they were happy for us.
I went to Haleigh's family with her and her mom didn't take it as well. Her exact words were "I'm crushed." She did come to accept it and be good with it before long. I think it was more of an issue with not being able to plan a big wedding than with having any problems with the marriage itself.
The twenty years have had some highs and lows but there is no one I would have rather been on the journey with. I am looking forward to seeing what the next twenty brings. |
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| Spring Road Trip 2010 |
[Jun. 9th, 2009|12:02 am] |
Last month I went on a road trip across the South West with my family. On the trip were myself, Haleigh, my sister Kim, my Dad and three dogs all in a mini-van. We headed out from Denver and drove over to Durango. We stayed in a nice house on top of a hill that had a gorgeous scenic view. Unfortunately it had steps to get in and out which made it difficult on my father. My sister had even specifically asked about steps before renting the home and the owner had said there were none but there must have been a miscommunication. Other than that hiccup though the house was gorgeous with a nice game room and hot tub.
On our first day we visited Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde focuses on a number of Anasazi and Pueblo ruins.
You can get up close and personal with a number of the ruins. There was a short but slightly strenuous walk to get to this cliff dwelling but it was well worth the effort to actually see how they are constructed and be able to make out the small details.
This area is known as the cliff palace. They offer guided tours but you have to climb several hundred feet down a ladder on the side of a cliff and with my balance and vision problems I elected to just get some distant shots.
One final shot to show a bit more perspective on the size and location of the ruins. You can make out a tour group in front of the dwellings. While you can't make them out in this image they have found a lot of handholds made into the side of the cliffs where the people that lived here would climb the sides of the cliff to get to their homes.
Also while in Durango we took the train to Silverton. It was a classic old west style narrow gauge train. This wasn't a theme park style ride, they had to keep the fire going in it and it spewed ash and embers as it went. We had to stop twice at water towers to refil the water for the engine.
The train ride was actually a lot more fun than I expected. The scenerey was absolutely gorgeous and the ride was relaxing.
Most of the ride was along a river, this picture was from one of the refill stops where a waterfall is thundering down the hill next to the train and the water is almost splashing through the windows.
The train arrives in Silverton in the middle of the town and while you could drive there it was obvious that most people visit the town by train because when the train pulled in many of the local store owners came out of their businesses and started waving. We grabbed some lunch at a former saloon and wandered around checking out the other stores before getting on the train for the ride back to Durango.
This waterfall is along the tracks just outside of town. You can tell we were pretty high up as there is still snow on the ground near the falls.
National Geographic Adventure Magazine rates Silverton as one of the top extreme sports destinations. Apparently it has some really tough skiing in the area. At one of the water stops the train had picked up a group of skiiers who had been in the wilderness for a while. They mentioned that they were going to sit in the open air car because it had been so long since they had a chance to shower. For those that don't feel like roughing it there is also a ultra fancy resort in the area but it is unreachable by car. The only way to get to it is by horseback or on the train.
The next day my sister and I took the younger dogs with us and headed out early in the morning to The Canyon Of The Ancients. Durango is in an area called "The Four Corners" and it is one of the richest arecheological areas in the states. The Canyon is located near the Hovenweep National Monument.
The walk with the dogs was a lot of fun. Some gorgeous landscape and it was nice to let the puppies get to have some fun.
Some of the local Flora.
Some of the local fauna. I love how colorful this little guy was.
The landscape of the canyon was quite reminiscent of a Road Runner cartoon.
We managed to tire out our four legged friends. This is my buddy Max enjoying a rest in the shade.
We left Durango and drove up to Moab Utah. This time the place we were staying was everything advertised and more. A gourgeous one story home that was really well decorated and didn't have any steps.
Moab is a small town but we were within walking distance of a number of stores and places to eat.
On the first day we went to see some petroglyphs and it really showcased the value of National Parks. To see these petroglyphs you just had to pull to the side of the road in a fairly residential area. There was a small wooden fence that came up to about knee level that was meant to discourage people from getting too near the ancient drawings but it was obviously innefectual. Vandals had carved their names into the rocks as well as their own fake stick figure art. It was a real tragedy and I hope that the local government will step in and find a way to preserve these pieces while keeping them accessible by the public. It is truly a shame that something so culturally significant could be lost due to partying teens or whoever it was that felt the need to vandalise the area.
This image intentionally left blank.
(I am intentionally not posting a picture of the vandalised petroglyph wall as I don't want to encourage people to do such things thinking they might get their work onto the internet.
Moab is adjacent to Arches National Park and that is where we spent the next couple of days. We drove through seeing all the sites one day then my sister and I also went out early one morning to do some photography.
Sunrise in Arches.
Early morning at Double Arch.
This was my favorite location in Arches, it is called Park Avenue.
On our last day in Moab my sister and I again decided to go on an early morning adventure with the dogs. We found a location that sounded fairly easy to get to with a fairly easy walk. The description did mention that the drive would have some switchbacks and a dirt road but that was it. The actual drive was pretty terrifying with a dirt road and sharp turns with "insta-death" drop offs at the edge of the road.
Once we made it to the bottom though it was worth the drive. A nice leisurely walk along a creek bed lead us to a nice view of and arch high on a cliff side.
After leaving Moab we did the drive back to Denver and I eventually flew back to Austin.
I really enjoyed the trip and even more than the scenery and excitement I enjoyed just getting to spend time with my Dad and sister building new memories. It takes a lot out of my Dad to go on these trips but getting to go on these adventrues with him really is something that I will always treasure.
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| I am a published photographer! |
[May. 20th, 2009|05:19 pm] |
One of my photographs got picked up for use in SXSWorld magazine!
It is always hard to predict what others will like. I thought this image was decent but it wasn't one of my favorites and I even felt that some of my other photographs of her came out better.
To my surprise this image was picked up by SXSW for use in their magazine SXSWorld. It is the guitarist from Stereo Pony playing Japan Nite at Elysium. I wasn't assigned to photograph the show but since I am a fan of japanese rock I was there on my own time.
Stereo Pony is best known by Americans for doing one of the closing credit songs for the Anime series "Bleach."
SXSWorld comes out four or five times a year with several of the issues being published during SXSW and the others being sent out to the SXSW attendees during the year. This issue is one of the ones being sent out.
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| New Star Trek Movie |
[May. 13th, 2009|08:28 pm] |
I have been a fan of Star Trek for a long time.
I drew the above picture when I was a kid back in the seventies.
At the time one of my favorite toys was the Enterprise Bridge play set. This was prior to Star Wars and the "action figure" craze that it started. The Star Trek playset used large sized figures which had decended from GI Joe dolls so they had actual clothes and hair. As you can see, the color scheme on it didn't look very much like the show and had heavy seventies overtones. Nevertheless it was a favorite toy.
Fast forward through a bunch of different serieses and movies to 2009. On mothers day Haleigh and I went to see the new movie. I had completely avoided spoilers only knowing the basic premise for the movie. I did see a couple of spoiler free reviews of the movie that said that it was really good. I was a bit worried that this would get my expectations up too much.
The movie didn't just meet my expectations but exceeded them. They did a wonderful job portraying all the characters and the effects weren't overdone. The plot was well written and interesting making everything seem completely plausible.
The quality of this prequel really brought into sharp focus how lame the Star Wars prequels were. Trek had cameos and characters we recognized without them being forced like they seemed to be in Star Wars.
I am looking forward to seeing where they go with these new Trek movies. Hopefully there will be a long series of new ones in this new setting.
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| Disney Star Wars Weekends Posters |
[May. 6th, 2009|02:01 pm] |
Here is a link to some really creative and funny promotional posters that Disney has put together for Star Wars Weekends at Disney World.
On a side note, if you haven't heard they have finally gone into production creating the new ride film for Star Tours. They have been talking about it for years now and it always proved to be a false rumor.
When the prequels came out there was a lot of talk of turning Star Tours into a pod racing simulator. Personally I found the pod races to be one of the most boring part of a generally boring movie.
I was quite happy to read that the Star Tours 2.0 ride will have a similar format to the current ride. It will once again involve a chase through outer space but it will be updated to include some elements from the prequels. Apparently this time the craft will be being chased by Bobba Fett and will also involve Admiral Ackbar at some point. They will also keep R2D2 and C3P0 as part of the ride. I just hope that they will still keep the original ride film operating on occasions as it really is a classic.
A bit of trivia that you may not have noticed. On the current ride the robot host is voiced by Paul "Peewee Herman" Reubens.
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| Vacation |
[May. 5th, 2009|12:25 pm] |
I am in Denver visiting my sister and father.
We are going on a road trip visiting some great southwestern parks including Mesa Verde, Arches and Canyonlands.
On the trip will be me, Haleigh, my Dad and sister along with three dogs.
I have never been to Mesa Verde but after some research on youtube I believe that the visit will probably go something like this...
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| Scary |
[Apr. 26th, 2009|10:14 am] |
This swine flu stuff is looking kind of scary.
Mexico has shut down their schools until May 6th
Here is a pretty scary article by the BBC with some insight into what is going on in the Mexican hospitals.
There have been several cases reported in San Antonio as well as a number of other US cities. I hope this is something that we can get under control.
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| CTRL And Funker Vogt |
[Apr. 25th, 2009|03:15 pm] |
Thursday night I got to photograph two bands. CTRL and Funker Vogt.
CTRL is a local Austin band that I had heard of a few times before. I would often see where they were opening for bands that I was interested in but this was my first time actually seeing them. They have been around for a good while and have a number of albums out. Their music is electronic dance with a touch of an industrial sound.
The headlining band of the night was Funker Vogt. They are an EBM/darkwave band out of Germany which also have a heavily electronic sound with a bit of an industrial edge.
I did manage to get some good shots but it was a bit harder than for previous shows. They didn't use much front lighting which made for a darker show and that combined with a lot of fast movements by the bands made it much harder to get photos that were in sharp focus.
It was a fun night over all. Both bands were really nice guys and the crowd was pretty good. By the end of the night there were a lot of drunk people in the club but while they were doing a lot of dancing they were still pretty considerate of others near them.
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| Recent And UpcomingPhotography |
[Apr. 23rd, 2009|11:36 am] |
This past Friday I got to photograph two bands at Elysium. The first band was called "Death Is Not A Joyride" and the second was "Voltaire And The Skeletal Orchestra."
I confess to having not heard of "Death Is Not A Joyride" before seeing them on the bill with Voltaire but they were quite a pleasant surprise. They had previously done well in the Austin Music Awards getting first place in the experimental category and second for goth/industrial.
Their sound was good and their visuals had a lot of interest. The whole band had a lot of energy and the lead singer had good stage charisma. I love how my images came out from this show. The colors are so vibrant and while their masks hide their eyes they do add a lot of interest and give the photographs a unique look.
The headlining band was Voltaire and The Skeletal Orchestra. I have seen Voltaire many times before. He always puts on a great show and this was no exception. This is the first time I have seen him with a full band and they did give him a much richer sound. The cost for that though was losing a bit of variety in the songs he could perform. It was mentioned a couple of times that the band had only had a chance to practice together on certain songs. That meant it was a lot less likely that we would get to hear any of his more obscure older songs. Still he did a nice mix of new material with classics and didn't disappoint.
The "orchestra" for the tour consisted of a violin player, a cello player and an accordionist. In addition to the band members Voltaire had his fiance with him whom he talked to from the stage.
The photography for the show went really well. I had contacted Voltaire ahead of time to make sure I could secure all the proper permissions to be able to shoot the show and not only did he give his permission but he also put us on the guest list which was really above and beyond what was necessary. He is a nice guy.
One of the things that I enjoyed about getting to photograph this show would be that it would be a nice contrast to show how my photography has improved over the past couple of years as I have photos of Voltaire that I took from this same club in pretty much the same positions.
Photos From June 2006
Photos from April 2009
For both of the shows this past Friday I left the flash in the bag and didn't use it once. I mixed up my shooting between shutter priority and aperature priority but after reviewing the pics it is pretty obvious that aperture priority is the way to go. If I shoot that way with the aperature set as low as possible the lens seems to be fast enough to capture the action while still getting good lighting and bright colors.
Tonight I will be shooting two bands at the same club. CTRL and Funker Vogt. They are both synthesizer heavy EBM dance/darkwave bands.
I have also arranged a shoot next month of two bands for a music website.
On the non-music front I am going on a road trip in a couple of weeks with my sister and father as well as Haleigh where I am going to get a lot of photography in. We are going to be visiting Mesa Verde and the Four Corners area of Colorado as well as Moab Utah and Arches National Park and the canyonlands. I am really looking forward to getting to spend time with my family and get in some good photography.
Tonight I will be shooting two bands at this same club. CTRL and Funker Vogt. T
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| SXSW Recap Day Nine+ |
[Apr. 22nd, 2009|12:58 pm] |
I need to bring this recap to a close or it will never end.
Day nine started out in Seattle. Well, actually it started in Austin at the SXSeattle party. Haleigh and I got there early but it was already wall to wall people. I was there to see "Natalie Portman's Shaved Head." I was able to make it to the front of the crowd and get a good spot to the side where I wouldn't be blocking anyone's view.
The band hit the stage and put on a great show. They were all dressed in plaid flannel as an homage to Seattle's most infamous contribution to music, "grunge." They had a lot of energy on stage and I was able to capture a lot of it with my photos. Prior to seeing them I mainly knew them by their song "Sophisticated Side Ponytail" that I posted here a while back. It turned out that the resto of their music had male vocals which was okay but it did give them a different sound than I expected. I still really enjoyed the show and would gladly go see them again anytime that they are in the area.
Interestingly, I hadn't sent the band any links to my photos but they found them on flickr and even favorited this one.
When I was taking this picture I actually wasn't focused on the action at all. I was hoping to spotlight the Obama watch he was wearing. Where I normally lock focus on the eyes or face, for this image I had locked it on Obama and had been trying to follow that as he moved his arms around. It was luck that I was able to capture the singer at a vibrant moment at the same time as getting the watch in focus.
This is my favorite image from the shoot. While he does have the mic in front of his face, I love the energy in the shot combined with the angle and the grunge feel. Normally the poor lighting at this venue would have been a disadvantage but in this case I think it worked well.
This image isn't an amazing concert image but I really like the emotion that you can see on her face. She sings lead on the one song and it is obvious that she had really enjoyed hamming it up for the audience.
The next highlight of the day was shooting Echo And The Bunnymen. They were playing the "Bat Bar" in the convention center which is the area set up by Directv so that they can broadcast bands live from SXSW.
Because of the live broadcasting everying was being run very strictly with crowds being shuffled in and out on a very tight schedule. With this being such a high profile venue they were also strict on photography. With a pass I was allowed to photograph the first three songs only and no flash would be allowed. We were escorted to the front and like clockwork as soon as the third song ended security escorted us to the back of the venue which is fairly standard for photography at most large shows.
The concert itself was extremely lackluster. If you have ever seen the movie Galaxy Quest you might remember the scene where Tim Allen's character is unshaven and hung over in his apartment. The aliens show up and he thinks they are wanting him to do an acting bit. He does it but puts no effort into it and acts like he is bothered by having to do it the whole time. That is exactly the vibe I got from Echo and the Bunnymen. They came out, muddled through some songs as quick as they could but had no energy. Seeing them the night before at a more intimate venue would have been a better choice but at least the lighting was good.
 
While the pictures I got are adequate I think the bands apathy shows through and brings them down.
That night was Japan Nite. All the bands did a great job
I like this image of the band Stereo Pony. They are best known in America for doing one of the end theme songs for the anime "Bleach." I shot this image looking up at her and I love the way I was able to catch her hair in motion to help communicate the movement that was going on. The angles add to the feeling of action in the image and the fingers at odd angles help to emphasize her skill on the instrument. My only regret was that I had to use flash to be able to properly stop the action and get the image. Musicly, Stereo Pony was my favorite band of the night. They have a good rock sound with lots of energy.
This was another favorite shot of the night. It is the guitarist from the band "Special Thanks." I just like the classic rock n roll pose that is reminiscent of The Ramones.
The headlining band for the night is Quaff.
They are a visual kei band from Japan with a unique and interesting look. By the time they went on their were a lot of extremely drunk people in the audience. There was a guy next to me that kept wanting to tell me how they stole their look from Hanoi Rocks and how he wanted to give them a piece of his mind. He did eventually get the attention of one member of the band between songs who he started giving a very loud drunken lecture to and of course the band member just stared at him kind of blankly obviously not understanding much english.
There was also a very drunk frat boy who was sure he was the life of the party. He had on Tom Cruise/Risky Business sunglasses and would climb onto the stage at every opportunity to raise his beer in the air and dance with the band only to be escorted off by security.
The band themselves took it all in stride and put on a great show. Their music came off a little bit glam metal for my tastes but their showmanship was great and they did know how to play to the crowd.
This image shows why many big name bands restrict photography to the first three minutes of a show. By the end they are drenched in sweat and not looking their best. At the same time this is what photographers want to get as it shows just how hard the band worked during the show.
This shot is from much earlier in the show. In this one they remind me a lot of the hair metal band from the eighties, "Poison."
I will end with my one of my favorite shots from all of SXSW. It was taken in concert but seems very portrait like.
This was the last big night of SXSW. Sunday evening we did go see the nerdcore showcase with MC Lars and MC Frontalot but I have already posted some of those pics so I won't repeat those.
SXSW 2009 was an amazing experience and I am already looking forward to next year.
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| Odd |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|08:43 pm] |
The world is an odd place. In the past year I have done two separate posts talking positively about Paris Hilton. Once about her response to McCain and then about her performance in Repo The Genetic Opera.
Well now I am doing a post about a bunch of different people that I never thought I would have in a post together.
Ashton Kutcher was on Oprah today talking about twitter. This past week he has been having a battle with Larry King/CNN to see who could get to a million followers on twitter first.
Despite what you may see of him in Dude Where's My Car or Punk'd, Ashton is quite intelligent and a savvy businessperson. As I have mentioned before I am a fan of his reality shows "Beauty and The Geek" as well as the other inner beauty one he did. His acting in The Butterfly Effect was also top notch.
Lately he and his wife Demi Moore have been very active on twitter and have let their geeky sides show through. They communicate with their fans on a regular basis and have been working to use their celebrity for good purposes.
Another surprise from twitter is that P Diddy actually comes off as a pretty nice guy. All of his tweets are very positive and he really seems to care about people and trying to make a difference.
It was also amusing recently to see gossip blogger Perez Hilton going toe to toe with Miley Cyrus. He has criticized her extensively and she has stuck by her guns saying that he needs to be nicer to people and not so critical. It is interesting to see how some celebrities act when they aren't being filtered by any sort of PR person. It is obvious that many of them do their own twitter posts and you get to see more of their real personality than what their people want you to see of them.
Back to the Oprah episode today, Ashton did a good job of discussing the democratization of media. How a single person using social media can command as much audience as a media giant such as CNN. Oprah tried to credit him with that change in the way things work and he quickly pointed out that he didn't start this concept that he joined in late. He even mentioned Kevin Rose and digg.com. It wasn't long before Kevin Rose twittered that him getting mentioned on Oprah finally got his mom to be proud of him. :)
Oprah herself did her first twitter today and she fell for the classic n00b trap of using all caps. Of course, Shaq's reply was equally annoying.
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| Britain's Got Talent |
[Apr. 14th, 2009|01:17 am] |
I am not a fan of American Idol. I will occasionally watch it and every now and then I will like one of the singers but not often enough to watch the show on a regular basis.
Of course everyone knows who Simon Cowell is and part of the charm of the show is how hard it is for a singer to please him. He gives out insults left and right with compliments only occasionally coming out later in the season.
Simon is also a judge on Britain's Got Talent which has a similar format in the uk.
This clip is from the most recent episode of that show which aired this past weekend.
I am not going to give away anything about it but just trust me that you should watch the clip. It is well worth it and be sure to watch all the way through to see Simon's comments after the performance.
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| SXSW Recap Day Eight |
[Apr. 13th, 2009|11:11 am] |
For day eight I was assigned to be back at the Scoot Inn. This time it was to be for the entire night shooting all of the bands. The club was hosting the Ubiquity/Wax Poetics showcase.
The night started off with dj sets from Chicken George and J-Boogie. At first I hadn't realized they were part of the showcase, I had thought the club just had a DJ but fortunately I was chatting with the stage manager and she mentioned that they were showcasing so I was able to get pics of them. Otherwise I might have just enjoyed the tunes they were spinning while waiting for the bands to come on.
The first band was called The Juggs. They had a bit of a bluesy sound which I don't particularly go for but they put on a good show and the lighting was good.
Another highlight of the night was Mayer Hawthorne. The crowd really got into their show. By the time they came on the club was packed and there was a lot of dancing. They had a nice classic look and the hipsters were out in force to check them out.
There was a rap group on the bill called HSID. They had a lot of energy but because of the constant movement were a bit difficult to photograph.
Other bands on the bill were Chin Chin, Brownout and 9DW. Chin Chin was a lot of fun. They had good stage presence and really got the crowd energized. Brownout was a huge band. They had over a dozen people on stage playing a variety of instruments. They were a local Austin band and I have to wonder if they added some people to their band just to get them into SXSW.
I had high hopes for the last band, 9DW. They were a japanese band but again their musical style was something I wasn't into. They did a sort of jazzy style that I would classify as elevator music. I did like their stage show okay but I would have enjoyed their sound more if it had a bit more energy. I can't really criticize them much though. I was there cause I had to be, there were plenty of people that showed up because they were fans and I am sure they got what they were expecting.
The showcase ended and I waited for Haleigh to come pick me up. The venue emptied and slowly everyone cleared out. The bands left and the other SXSW workers headed home until eventually it was just me. Finally after about an hour Haleigh showed up. Her final showcase had lasted longer than normal and traffic had been bad. She had tried to call but my phone battery had given out earlier so I hadn't gotten the message. We headed back to Elgin glad to be able to get some rest. This was my final full assignment day but there were still two days of SXSW to go.
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| Happy Easter |
[Apr. 11th, 2009|09:56 pm] |
As usual The Big Picture has a nice set of photographs up. This time they are covering holy week around the world.
To round things out here is a clip from a 1995 production of Jesus Christ Superstar produced here in Austin starring The Indigo Girls.
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