Nobody here but us Ghosts.

I engineered my band 'GrindCity' in the studio this past weekend cutting drums, bass and guitar for 3 songs. My friend Andrew documented the setup. Any audio recording type people might dig this:

Well welcome back, Jawn-dot blogger!

We've moved the party to our new digs: http://jawndotjawn.wordpress.com/

You'll need to sign up for a Wordpress account and email one of us to get setup on the new blog!

DO IT! RUN TO THA CHOPPA!

THIS SITE WILL NO LONGER BE POSTED TO!

I think a lot of the fun of the blog is how we each have the power to edit it and customize it by changing the blog title or adding pictures, etc. Unfortunately, Blogger.com (where we are hosted) is pretty tight-assed on the customizations they provide. So I embarked on a little experiment...

I've used WordPress, Blogger's competitor, before on sites for clients. It's hands-down the best blogging software on the market.

As a test, I made an account and imported all of our posts and comments:

Check out the Worpress JawnDot in its default state

Right away you should notice a few things: a handy search option, better sorting abilities, etc. Behind the scenes Wordpress has a huge community of modders and coders so it is extremely easy to trick a Wordpress site out with new graphics/layouts and all kinds of cool gadgets.

So the question is this: Would you guys (and ladies) be interested in moving over to Wordpress? Chime in. Also I can answer questions and stuff.

-OCK/SHUN

OK, this is my last music post for a while. But this shit is pretty crazy:

http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna

I downloaded it and am playing around. Pretty nutso.

Heh, weren't we just discussing this in the NIN thread?

Wired article

Scenario 1: Low-cost digital distribution will make the summer blockbuster free. Theaters will make their money from concessions — and by selling the premium moviegoing experience at a high price.

There are videogames in Korea and the U.S., online multiplayer ones, that are given away for free. And it's not a gimped experience, these are full-fledged games. The developer makes their money by taking a slice of the virtual goods that are sold in the game, a la eBay.

This beefy Wired article (from the print mag) gives tons of different examples. I can't help but feel all media will become free at the rate we're going.

*** updated 3/17 ***


from from my buddy, Kevin Gallagher's blog
Philly Native Article

About the brilliance in Japanese Television...

*** updated 3/17 ***




The other media coverage tells the story we are
in Pittsburgh covering for Animal Planet.

** NEW ** KDKA video

Inquirer Article

AP Article

Beaver County Times

omg...so much about this is fire

the last roots record, "the tipping point" was my favorite hiphop record last year. by all indications, they are going to continue brining it.

EDIT: holy shit! here's another from the same director. pretty crazy, man!

I've updated the monkeyandweasel site,
created the structure for the rest of the media that I will eventually add,
re-edited the narrative reel and added a very rough (and long, by 18min)
assembly of some of my pay the bills, reality & doc work.
[I originally did this assembly last week for the consideration
of an Animal Planet gig which I'm now on]

I'm interested in how this compression works for you guys
loading (and playing, I hope?!?) on your various machines.
If you give it a 10-20 sec head start I've found both streams can play
through the entire clip. It seems to work for me... it's actually larger
than it appears on the page, so once it's fulled loaded or successfully
played once it could be saved to viewer's hard drive. I went for quality,
since I will most likely be evaluated for future jobs, based on some of
these clips. I really hate the idea of posting my reel(s) online, but if I
have to do it- which seems to be the expected norm these days...
a good looking file is worth waiting for.
feedback not necessary- but welcome.

One thing is super-apparent, I need a faster machine... web compression takes forever!

Thanks,
the Gtown Monkey

I'm haven't quite been able to grok this in full yet, but it seems that this guy Dmitri Tymoczko, has standardized a method for visualizing "the universe of all possible musical chords in graphic form".

More info is at his website along with the software he uses.

Wow, spent tons of time on this user's page. A lot of great stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/user/djmagtv

Henry Okah is likely someone you have never heard about. Despite that, he is one of the most important people alive today, a brilliant innovator in warfare. A true global guerrilla.

Globalguerillas has an amazing piece up about Henry Okah -- a "super-empowered" individual who recognized how modern tools like email, video and cell-phones could enable one man to establish a guns-for-oil economy and create a terror network that would disrupt drilling in the Niger Delta, leading to effects on the global economy.

Under the nom-de-guerre "Jomo," Okah (allegedly) used modern "guerrilla marketing" techniques to garner attention and to "brand" his organization, MEND (the Movement to Emancipate the Niger Delta). With an immense amount of media savvy, he alerted foreign news networks of impending attacks, engaged in online "chat" interviews without risking exposure, and, from thousands of miles away, handled a hostage crisis when journalist Sebastian Junger fell into the hands of MEND guerrillas. (Here's the video of ABC's investigative report and here's Sebastian Junger's massive VANITY FAIR article.)

There's more to the story: There's the "Robin Hood" aspect of the story. (The oil companies have long exploited the region while the residents have remained impoverished and increasingly affected by the pollutions and health hazards from petroleum production.)

And then there's the esoteric aspect where belief intersects with reality: Notoriously, some of the guerrillas employ artifacts and war paint which supposedly ward off bullets, and the Nigerian soldiers at least half-believe these tales: when the guerrillas attack, the soldiers are prone to retreat and scatter in fear. If you firmly believe you're bulletproof, you may become so -- provided your opponents are willing to entertain that belief. (Of course, if you are the Lakota Sioux, and the 7th Cavalry doesn't believe in the effectiveness of your Ghost Shirts, the outcome may be somewhat grimmer.)

However, the core things to study here are the implications for the future -- both in terms of "asymmetrical warfare," as the Pentagon and military refer to non-state actors who will increasingly have a role on the world stage... but also in terms of how all the rules are getting rewritten as the board keeps shifting underneath us.

In reference to the previous post, there are similarities to be seen between Henry Okah and Trent Reznor -- and how they have used new tools and emerging trends to put themselves at the center of a powerful network that gives them direct access to their desired audience, shortening the distance between themselves and the outcome they desire.

The apparent dichotomy between tech-savvy and superstition puts me in mind of something Aleister Crowley once wrote:

MAGICK is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.

(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" -- these sentences -- in the "magical language" i.e. that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of

MAGICK

by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will)

Or, to put it another way:

"We are the change that we've been waiting for."

Increasingly, the whole world has access to the same tools as Henry Okah. Terrifyingly, for better or worse, the fate of our world will depend on who possesses the clarity and Will to make effective use of them.

I'm not by any means a huge Nine Inch Nails fan... but I am kind of intrigued by the unique and web-friendly / fan-friendly / remix-mashup-friendly way that Trent Reznor is releasing his new album. (The Machinist at Salon.com has a more complete breakdown than I'm going to give here...)

This is a step beyond what Radiohead did -- they were accused of exploiting the fans since their initial "pay-what-you-want" release turned out to be fairly crappily coded mp3s. Better versions followed later, at a set price. Instead, NIN is offering a free download of the first nine tracks -- and a $5 download of the 2CD album in a variety of formats, including "lossless" quality FLAC and Apple files. Furthermore, NIN embraced piratebay(!) as an alternate distribution system for the free tracks when their servers got overwhelmed on the album launch date. And he's releasing the album under a "Creative Commons" copyright, allowing noncommercial sharing / sampling / remixing -- a natural move, following his battle with his former label to get the remix.nin.com site up. (And interestingly, the GHOSTS album is also available in a deluxe version that includes data DVDs with full wav files of the track elements, ready to be plugged into the major sound editing software packages.)

Like I said... I'm not much of a NIN fan... but it's kind of interesting to see Trent put his money where his mouth is after all of his much-publicized feuds with his labels over creative control, treatment of fans, etc. But I wonder how he feels about the fact that fans have already shared thousands of pirated copies of the entire album on piratebay... and I'm really interested to hear the take of the musically inclined jawns about what this means for the state of the art and the future of the industry.

(And did anybody out there notice Prince's fre e release of Planet Earth in the UK's Daily Mail newspaper? I can't find the article right now, but somebody crunched the numbers.... and posited that the losses he made on licensing fees may have been more than made up for by his record-breaking concert ticket sales.)

Just came across this particular stock audio sound. Here's some great background on the scream.

There are tons of compilations on YouTube. Here's an example:

For Neil Gaiman geeks / political junkies only: Remember the cosmic version of "rock-paper-scissors" that showed up in Sandman #4 (I believe, don't have the tpb handy to check)? Well, Some maniac has put the words of Morpheus & Lucifer into the mouths of Hillary & Obama. Weird as anything. Tho' I guess there's some underlying truth here about the disconnect in their speaking styles, reminiscent of this week's gag in Doonesbury contrasting "The Poetry of Barack Obama" with "The Prose of Hillary Clinton."

My Uncle is sort of a tech head,
musician and more recently Halloween Superfreak.
He recently posed this audio question...

"I'm trying to find a way to remove or at least suppress
a voice on a musical track. I had some success by inverting
one of the stereo tracks but not enough.
Would you know of any way to do that?"

any thoughts from the pros here?
(btw, he's PC based)

I've been meaning to write down a list of all the little cultural oddities (well, for Americans that is) I noticed while in Japan. Here's a few:

Taxi Cabs
The taxis in Tokyo and the other two major cities I visited were spotless. I mean super clean. The drivers themselves whear white gloves and a full uniform, and are very proud to be driving the cab. This level of pride was evident with every municipal job I noticed in Japan: the Japanese people take pride in their work and it's quite obvious their job is their shit and means a lot to them.

Tipping
Because Japanese take so much pride in their work, tipping is looked upon as an insult! That's right, if you try to tip for anything they will sling it back at you. Not only will they refuse but you may even offend them offering in the first place.

Don't Touch Those Doors!
Every taxi in Japan's major cities have doors that automatically open and close. I fucked up one time trying to manually close it, and got yelled at by the driver. lol. Don't touch the cab doors! They will open and close for you.

Japanese Girls
If you come to Japan thinking you're a big, bad American mack daddy and gonna pimp on some skinz, think again. Japanese girls are generally shy. But they're extremely hesitant to even attempt to speak Engligh because they do not want to look dumb. So you may meet a Japanese girl that speaks a little English (it's taught in all the schools as a 2nd language) but to get her to attempt to speak it and risk looking "foolish" will be much harder than getting in those panties.

Check, Please
Hold your hand out in front of you, and cross your middle finger over your index finger, and fold all your remaining fingers down. These two fingers in this crossed position is the symbol for, "Check, please" in Japan. I read it somewhere and was like, "Yo baby, watch this" to my girlfriend and threw the sign up in the air. Sure enough, I received an acknowledging head nod from the waiter.

Come Pay, Muhfucka
You may think you're fly with your "Check, please" gang sign but that doesn't mean the waiter's going to bring you the check. In fact, he'll be waiting for your ass at the register because they don't bring checks to you. Nope, you need to go get your check and pay for that shit. So be sure only to cross the fingers when you're absolutely ready to go, otherwise your waiter will be waiting for you at the register for hours.

The Money Dish
Speaking of paying for things in Japan, everywhere you go you will be presented with a rectangular dish when you are ready to pay for something. Even in the taxi cabs, this is true. The dish is intened for you to place your cash or credit card on, followed by a receiving bow from the recipient. What's interesting is the dish is always presented to you with two hands, as if it is a most honorable thing to receive your patronage. So it's: 2 hands on dish, present dish with bow, you place money on dish, another bow and an "arigato arimasu" (thank you very much).

Arigato Arimasu
This means "thank you very much". You'll hear it everywhere you go. You'll also pick up saying it all the time if you have any hopes of blending in. And you'll be bowing a lot. A lot. Other key words:

Hai - Yes. You'll be saying this a lot.
Sumimasen - Excuse me, also used for "sorry" when you are speaking to older people
Ohayo Gazaimasu - Good morning
Konichiwa - Good afternoon
Kombanwa - Good Evening
Oishii des - What a great meal! (Say this to impress your cook, they love it)

You could get around Tokyo on these few words alone, along with a lot of pointing to order your food from menus with images.

Ordering Food
The joke is when we arrived in Tokyo our first nite, we were so cultured shocked we entered a traditional Japanese den/bar with some old Japanese heads cold-chilling in there. We got the stare-dwon and stumbled over to a table. The patron comes over to us and goes, "Hai!" Confused (and American) we reply, "Hi!"...This happened two or three times: "Hai!", "Hi!". When we figured out we were in Japan and Hai means "yes" we left in great defeat. It was very embarrassing. Unfortunately, ordering food in Japan is extremely, extremely difficult. We ended up going to McDonald's a few times on some pure survival shit. We generally looked for restaurants with pictures on their menu which we could point to.

Vending Machines
Vending machines are EVERYWHERE in Japan...I used to see them littered around in my videogames, but just thought they were repeating bitmaps or something. No, they are literally on every corner. Beer, cigarettes, food, coffee, toys. It's crazy. One nice thing they have is outside of some restaurants you order your food through a vending machine and go inside and put your ticket stub on the counter and they bring you the food you ordered outside. This is true with a lot of curry and noodle houses. This was essential for our non-Japanese speaking asses: we could just order by picture, no fuss. And the food is generally good and cheap.

Male Purses and Handbags
OK, this is just a trend, but all the dudes were rocking purses. Like, straight up women's purses. Even our friend that we met, it was irresistible to laugh when walking behind him. Also, all the guys have anime haircuts. Seriously, they all looked like this. In Tokyo, you'd be hard-pressed not to see some Little Bo Peep sheep herding girls. It's crazy.

Clean
I can honestly say the first thing I noticed about Japan was how clean it was. I stepped out of the airport to smoke a cigarette, and when it came time to ash my butt I looked at the ground and was SHOCKED I couldnt find a bit of trash anywhere...ANYWHERE. I was then faced with a dilemma: what do I do with my cigarette butt?? Japan has designated smoke stations every few corners. You'll see people huddled and that's where you're allowed to smoke. People smoke while walking, but it's rare to see. It's really the cleanest city I've ever been to. It's rude to eat something while walking down the street as well.

Convenience Stores
Lawsons, 7-11 and AM/PM *RUN* shit in Tokyo. These three stores are so ubiquitous. They're also your essential "power-up" stations. They have all kinds of crappy food for you when you're about to peel-over and collapse because you can't speak a lick of Japanese and therefor haven't eaten all day.

You Get the "X"
This shit had us rolling: if you want to articulate you do not particularly want something, or to simply say "No" you make an "X" symbol with your arms by crossing them over. I would be in McDonalds ordering something and if they would point to "Super size?" I would give them The X. It's a common thing, it's hilarious.

Women-only Train Cars
Don't get caught out there: If you're waiting for the train and notice some pink iconography printed on the floor, and there's nothing but women around you, you're standing in the women-only designated part of the train. Apparently Japanese businessmen are prone to copping a feel once and awhile on the crowded trains. And if you even attempt to hop on the woman cart, they WILL beat you down (the women, that is).

Well, there is plenty more to say but I have to cut this one there for now. I been meaning to get this list down for some time. Thanks for reading.

I have a 2.5" hard drive I just took out of an old laptop...Think my 18v Dewalt drill will puncture this summabitsch? I'm thinkin' 3/8th bit...

Local Film Producer Jeffrey Erb discusses
the planned production studios / sound stages
to be built in Norristown, PA. Ground is slated
to broken this spring and the facility is scheduled
to be completed in the Fall of 2009.

There is a competing facility planned for
Aston, PA. Groundbreaking for that
project is also slated for later this spring.

The question is...
Can this "continuing push" for major film projects
in the Delaware Valley (through tax incentives)
really support not only one, but two large
production facilities?

Philly.com Video Interview
other Philly.com article Interview

(Props to JOHNPAUL 215 for sending me the link to the interview)

I present our bizarre and slightly "off" entry into last year's 48 Hour Film Project.
( I finally got around to You Tubing this - man, did it take a long time to encode).
Multiple hats were worn...
I Co-Directed & Produced. My Magic Weasel Produced & Production Designed,
her sister, Jennifer, Acted, Wrote and Produced, The Count shot it
with Bnjmn Operating and JOHNPAUL 215 recording the audio.
There were many many others involved... but those would be the key players
you Jawnsters would probably know. See creditroll for all da whos & whats.
My first attempt at directing since college and there's considerable
room for improvement. It's not gonna win any awards but I'm proud of what we
all were able to accomplish in two days.

Shot on 2x GY-HD110U's (HDV format), edited on Final Cut Pro 5.1
March 2007.

48 Hour Film Project
The mission is to conceive, shoot and edit a complete film in only 48 hours.
Teams are assigned a genre via a random drawing.
All teams receive a character name, prop and line of dialog
that must appear in the finished film. The contest is open to anyone.
If you're interested in participating, be sure to add your name to the mailing list
and register as soon as announced. There's a limited number of teams admitted
and it fills up quick. I've worked on 3 so far. It's crazy madcap fun and
has always been a great experience and education for me.

Official 48 Hour Film Challenge site

http://www.zshare.net/audio/77540433240b0d/

The original Knight Rider pilot movie was way better.

Haha

This is a rather shady low budget video that The Count and I worked as
camera assistants on back in the summer. I had almost forgotten about this,
but was reminded this evening, as I ran into the guy who's camera we used.
I don't know about anybody else, but watching it makes me feel creepy.
Enjoy or not...

I think this is evidence that The Count has, in fact, been
the one manipulating the temporal streams.
If you know him by sight- you'd find this Edwardian version's
resemblance rather uncanny.

(Sorry, I would have put this in my comments for the last post...
if it were possible to do that.)

Why?

So the dreaded Philadelphia Parking Authority
is now the star of it's own cable show...
and it's really quite amusing. Parking Wars
has been produced since 2001 in different cities.
This past summer it was Philly's turn.
It aires on A&E and Comcast ON-DEMAND.

Watching Parking Wars reminded me of
some of my own totally random
Parking Authority misadventures...


this was just this past monday-
the second broken meter The Count and I
encountered on the same block.
unfortunately we didn't record our silly conversation
with 3 PPA enforcement officers following this.


"Ty gets the Boot"
(we were shooting something else entirely
and this just happened. Cira '02 or '03)

HE LOVES THIS SHIT!

uhhhhh.... yeah.....

- and -


Alright... discuss.

Speaking of Pentecostal Christians...

After a long, pitched battle, comicbook writer Steve Gerber finally succumbed to his failing lungs yesterday. Most of you out there in Jawn-land probably have no idea who the dude was... but Gerber reinvented comics writing in the early '70s with a unique gonzo approach that prefigured the reinventions of the Vertigo generation of comics scribes (Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison all owe a debt of gratitude to Gerber.) Gerber turned the muck-drenched horror comic Man-Thing into a psychedelic postmodern romp where the backwater bayou became "the Nexus of All Realities." In The Defenders, he transformed the standard issue superhero team into an encounter group, where superpowered misfits worked out their aggressions and "issues" in Dr. Strange's upstate New York retreat. And with his most famous creation, Howard the Duck, he gave us a candidate for our times. The notoriously dreadful movie version has nought to do with Gerber's sardonic, satiric and unapologetically strange work with the character. (During his brief, blistering run, Howard ran for President, battled vampiric cows, went insane, suffered from hallucinatory visions of the band KISS, endured demonic possession, fought a nine-foot-tall Frankensteinian gingerbread man, faced off with his arch-nemesis Dr. Bong and, through it all, maintained an inter-species relationship with a hot young human thang.) The wretched movie was the lowest blow in Gerber's long, doomed battle with Marvel to retain control of the character. In addition to his brilliantly offbeat writings, Gerber's other legacy lingers: a champion of creator's rights, he never relented in a world dominated by media giants where every idea is just an intellectual "property" waiting to be seized, stolen and squatted upon. More here and here.

Over at the Hammer Horror Posters gallery, they've got an insane treasure trove of '60s and '70s schlock/shock art, an interview with Hammer's main man with a paintbrush, Tom Chantrell, and best of all "sell posters" for movies that were never actually made.

As an advertising hack, I've been involved in more than a few of these projects... creating a one-sheet for a movie that doesn't exist yet in order to drum up pre-production financing or to secure distribution. Hammer did this pretty frequently... one of the un-produced films was the aforementioned Zeppelins vs. Pterodactyls.... and another one was Mistress of the Seas -- a saga of cutthroats 'n' cleavage that was slated to star Racquel Welch as real-life piratess Anne Bonney. Alas, it never made it to the silver screen... and subsequently, Piracy as a film subject instead remained cursed for decades.

(According to the G-Town Monkey, The Count might have a few words (or pix) to share on this subject....)

uhhhh..... yeah.

this popped up as a related video to okshun's mario cussing youtube. i really didn't want to like this, but i ended up laughing my ass off.

With typically cracked vision, Jack Kirby anticipates the "Real Doll" by over two decades... and posits that they will be made out of real girls.

Super Lego Mario (Level 1)

Add to My Profile | More Videos

I was never really a Nintendo Kid, but...

I really enjoy these movies (and of course the original 1960 flick).

Sat down and watched Ocean's 13 last nite and thought perhaps one of my component cables were loose...Or is it a bad DVD transfer, I asked? Why is this film so over-saturated?

Anyone seen it? Once I figured out it was intentional, I was fine with the color saturation. I suspect Soderbergh was trying to match the opulence of Vegas' early days...or something...There was a lot of grain too throughout the film.

I'm interested in what you guys thought? Some of the scenes -- one in particular with Pacino -- it was just flushed red. The scenes shot outside were fine, but most of the film took place in a very red, Asian-themed casino.

These Emergency Broadcast System tests are kindof interesting, aren't they? I thought of them while reading about the 700mhz auction going on right now, which will essentially reside where UHF television once did.

The more I read about the 700mhz band, the more references to the "public safety network" were being dropped. For example:

Due to its broadcast-attractive physics (like its ability to penetrate walls), this spectrum is desirable for both broadband communications in general and public-safety uses in particular.

They're gripping up something like 23mhz just for public safety. But what is public safety? Does anyone recall any emergency broadcast signals during the whole 9/11 thing? I don't think I had a TV at the time, so I don't know...

In any case, emergency broadcast signal tests were somewhat scarce on youtubes...

JACK KIRBY
Aug. 28, 1917 - Feb. 6, 1994

Wakin' up, I watch another sun go down
Another day spent underground
In my world of pills
And I was thinkin' how the world should have cried
On the day Jack Kirby died
I wonder if I'm ill
I'll never trust myself again
But I don't care
Just set that plastic soul on fire
And watch it melt

- "Melt" by Monster Magnet

There are a lot of good ones:

More photos here

and here...

Interview here

"Shut your scuzzy mouth, fat body, and listen up. I am going to give you the straight skinny, because you are the biggest shitbird on the planet. Your job is to stand around and stop the bullet that might hit someone of importance. In Viet Nam nice guys do not finish at all and monsters live forever. We are teenaged Quasimodos for the bells of hell and we are as happy as pigs in shit because killing is our business and business is good. The only virtue of the stupid is that they don't live long. The Lord giveth and the M-79 taketh away. If you're lucky, you'll only get killed. There it is. Welcome to the world of zero slack."

Get your ass over to gustavhasford.com, the online tribute to the legendary library-thieving mad motherfucking genius who survived Vietnam and fought Stanley Kubrick to a stand-still. Author of The Short-Timers (basis of Full Metal Jacket) and its sadly forgotten sequel of sorts The Phantom Blooper. Both books are long out of print but are available on the website in their entirety, along with interviews, remembrances, letters and a whole junk drawer full of the flotsam and jetsam of a chaotic, misspent life. For my money, his spare, ghoulishy funny, evocative style represents some of the finest muscular prose this side of Raymond Chandler. His words rip through the sky like tracer bullets and penetrate slightly deeper... Highly Recommended.

Solar, with lyrics. from flight404 on Vimeo.

I especially like the veiled threat of adultery.

Came across this clip from the movie by the same name. Pretty on point:



There's torrents floating around. I downloaded the whole documentary and am about to watch. Check it out.

Do your ducts seem old fashioned, out of date?

Central Services' new duct designs are now available in hundreds of different colors to suit your individual tastes...

When Apple went Intel, the haxx0rs of the world went to work at getting PCs to run OS X. There was one version I saw that involved a bit of leg work on your end, and I wasn't really into it. Now, that same team has made the entire thing plug-n-play. Lifehacker has an easy step-by-step:

Haxx0rtosh lul lul lul

The author setup a great little Newegg wishlist with all the parts you'll need. The cost as of today is $777 (last week it was ~$650 with sales, drats!).

Apparently the most important part is the motherboard, which the author catered his install instructions to. The rest of the parts are apparently open to customization. While other motherboards will work, the hardest part of the install is optimizing your bios for OS-X. Since the author already made those modifications to this particular motherboard, there's no guess work on your end if you choose to go with that piece of hardware (just copy his bios screenshots).

He ran some benchmarks, but they are pitifully setup: He doesn't have anything common in the units by way of ram, video cards, etc and clockspeeds are all mis-matched and shit.

STILL, this is nice to know. I grabbed a copy of the install disc for the archives. If anyone decides to build a Haxx0rtosh, let me know. I unfortunately don't have the room for another box at the moment.

Brilliant Photoshop tutorial/cry for help from My Damn Channel. There's a whole series of these things to help max out yr skillz/document the sad, sad life of one PS user… Enjoy.

Ok check this out guys...was in Mobile Alabama last week filming and shooting stills for our Friend Bitonti's websight draftdaddy.com, I get on the chinatown bus thursday morning at 9:30 and put my bag under the bus, get on, and head back to new york. When I get to new york dude opens the compartment under the bus and my bag is gone. Looks like a friendly man or woman who frequents the corner of 11th and arch decided to take my bag for themselves before the retarded bus driver closed the compartment under the bus. I had my computer, hard drive on my person so they are ok, But I had a lot of gear which I couldn't all cary around my neck, so i put my video camera and my canon 20d along with 2 lenses in my bigger bag so they are gone. ya, know at this point in my life I understand that getting upset and or depressed is futile and in fact a waste of time, so i am not really upset, but i will need to get another video camera soon which brings me to the second part of my post. I was due to upgrade cameras anyway, I had a Panasonic pv gs400 which was cool but i have been craving a really nice 24p camera for a while. So i have been scoping out cameras and this is the one I have my eye set out on. Maybe someone can tell me if this camera is good or sucks. its the Sony XH A1:

http://www.canondv.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=175&modelid=14061

Its an HD camera and although I dont really have an immediate need to be shooting in HD i feel like i would be kind of stupid to to not get an hd camera. Really, what I am most concered with is rich color and getting really nice 24p video , that is to say really filmic looking video, or at least the most filmic 24p video I can get for spending about 3 grand on a camera. Anyone know anything about this camera or have any suggestions about others? Also, now that I think about it, I shoot a lot of low light video, and my old camera got mega grainy as soon as the lighting got dim. I guess it would be nice to have a camera that could hold it together a little more in low light, you know not loose al its richness and look really thin. Anyway I guess I have laid out my case, if anyone can lend a little info and let me kow if I am on the wrong or right track with the Sony XH A1 I would be seriously appreciative. Thanks all and if you ever take the china town bus DO NOT PUT YOUR SHIT UNDER THE BUS...haha peace

One of the things I absolutely love about my Xbox 360 is being able to stream movies from my PC over to my TV. A while back I downloaded "Paprika" after someone suggested it, and I just got around to watching it...Wow...I had no idea what the movie was about or who made it or anything.

To my delight, it's a movie by Madhouse; one of the world's leading edge animation studios (and a personal fav). The last thing I saw from them was Paranoia Agent in 2005 which was a television series. It's absolutely brilliant. Up until this year, it was the last-best anime series I have seen (since surpassed by the likes of GITS: 2nd Gig, Samurai 7 and Gurren Lagann.

Madhouse specializes in these alternate/reality-bending dramas. Be it as far back as 1997's Perfect Blue (a must see. "reminiscent of the works of Alfred Hitchcock and Philip K. Dick; reality and fantasy spiral out of control." as the Wikipedia entry states it), or 2001's "Millennium Actress"; another title that skews the line between reality and disassociation.

Paprika is no different. There were a few scenes that recalled a Ketamine-powered trip, or a disassosiated PCP experience. This is what Madhouse movies are known for: this skimming between reality, and in Parika's case, Dreams.

Part Ghost in the Shell, part Philip K Dick, part Freudian psycho-drama. Rent it. Or download it. Just check it out. If simply for the animation alone. It's a very realistic -- "natural" -- looking anime: no big-eyes, blonde heair nonsense. Between this and the previously suggested Tekkon Kinkreet, there has been a lot of quality anime coming out recently (mature anime). Don't sleep.

Here's a blog all about designs being copied from some other source:

you thought we wouldn't notice

It ranges from webstites, to novel covers, flyers, to t-shirt designs, etc. Very cool.

Although, it gets a little depressing the further back you trudge through the archives. So much jackin' eye-wtinessin' wears you out.

Just a friendly tip: your eleven bucks would be better spent if you hired some itinerant ruffian to repeatedly shake your head, belt you in the stomach and box your ears for half an hour.

That way you could experience all the nausea and permanent hearing damage while avoiding the painfully awkward "character development," the contrived devices to deliver exposition, the jaw-droppingly dim maneuvers intended to "keep the camera running" long after it makes any goddamn sense... and most of all, you'd get to avoid the relentless hope-crushing in the name of grim & gritty keepin' it realness.

Seriously: fuck this movie, and the Blair Witch it rode in on.

Truth be told, I was ready to leave in October: I had requested a huge amount of time off to travel to Japan, and if they had given me any shit about it I was prepared to leave. But they didn't. In all, the experience at the job was great. It was a good ride.

So here I am, in the final stages of finishing my record. Most of the music was produced while still in Philadelphia. I spent the past year and a half+ recording and mixing the album. I had a horrible session today. I haven't had much luck with this particular song since its inception. In fact, I believe I made a post about it months ago doubting my seemingly flailing ability to decipher quality within my own works.

This album is a huge departure for me as an artist. I have worked with tons of collaborating musicians, as opposed to just myself or one other person which has been the case for my entire career (since 1997). I have come to realize I want to continue in this path of collaboration; the excitement of receiving files from the collaborating artists has proven to be a steady stream of highlights over the past two years. My inability to play any music instrument is a huge shortcoming. I want to sample less and less. This has been the hardest transition for me as an artist: cease sampling, but still incorporate memorable melodies. Fortunately with the advent of the internet, etc. this can be remedied through collaboration with ably skilled musicians. In contrast, my skills as a drum programmer and a "producer" in the classical sense of the word are my strong points.

But creating the music is the easy part. It's packaging and selling it which is the hardest, in my opinion. And while I have a vision I am surely (in typical Virgo fashion) to see through, the journey has only yet to begin for this new album and fresh alias.

So for the time being I am back to my freelancing roots. A first, mind you, as a resident of San Francisco (Oakland rent is a different story). I am confident I'll be fine: My resume has broadened dramatically in the 2 years I was at the ad agency. Right now, my mind is on the music. And oh what a predicament that is.

-Ock

My long awaited review of the Aiptek A-HD mini
HD Camcorder is posted HERE to save Jawnspace.

I think of this find as a sort of a modern day
Fisher Price PXL camera
It's kind of refreshing to use a very basic tool like this-
it forces you into accepting some variables and limitations.
In some ways this ends up being kind of liberating-
bringing me a lot closer to the craft again.
Rather than being bogged down with so many
options, considerations and concerns
(as is so often the case with shooting Pro HD formats)
- rather than just shooting.

It reminds me of the freedom of working in film and
something I had forgotten but which I got the chance to
do again recently.

This will give you a rough idea of quality-
but keep in mind this re-compressed and
down-converted for the web.

A larger, higher quality, quicktime also exists at the above link.

Nice ones too

Link here

were the 'recent posts' listed chronologically by title back on the sidebar a day ago? they are gone now.

this shit is janky. what in blazes is going on?

Tom Cruise Is Crazy

Add to My Profile | More Videos

from my friend sean,

"This video's been passed around privately by reporters and writers investigating Cruise's ties with Scientology. Most reporters have been wary of taking on the Scientologists, because they have a history of both litigation, and the harassment of critics (including shutting down 36215321532165321321 websites including the infamous anon.petit.fi - which was the used by millions of people as an anonymous remailer in 1995. Someone using their free service started publishing deep scientology secrets and they had the FBI raid and shutdown the servers IN FINLAND!) . The publication of Andrew Morton's biography of Tom Cruise, which claims he is the second most powerful person in the cult, has seems to have opened the floodgates. Several indoctrination videos were available on Google Video, on Sunday, and showcased on Gawker, before being removed by the person who had originally posted them. Yesterday, for a few hours, the clip of Tom Cruise discussing his beliefs as a Scientologist appeared on Youtube, and was republished by Radar and Defamer. That video is no longer available, most likely after the Church of Scientology sent in a copyright infringement notice.

This video was shown at an insider Scientogist award show....

Pay attention to the "SP" reference - SPs are the enemies of Scientology whose suppressive actions stunt and destroy the movement"

note the trippy foreground images and ultra repetitive soundtrack. very seductive.

More info and pix here.

I made this about 3 and a half years ago while still in art school. Its called "Quatroslim", an explanation of "the Quatroslim Lifestyle." It never got past a rough cut stage but what the fuck. Grimies all the way... Notice my cameo as the character of Fred.


Quatroslim

Add to My Profile | More Videos

10 dogfights in a fighter plane before you parachute out the muthafucka for $2G's? Excitations has your back, man!

Wanna ride a bull or go into shark-inhabited waters in one of those metal cages and provoke the fuckers? Excitations has your back, man!

Wanna ride around your city on a Segway like a ponce? Well, you can do that too!

Excitations has all the hot shit!

Stop by!

PS - It's in multiple cities! Even Philadelphia gets love!

Is there an image missing or am I just not seeing it?

I have to confess to being a complete Macgeek.
Every year I tune into Steve Job's Keynote address
to hear and see what new Apple offerings I won't be able
to afford for 6-12 months or more.
Sometimes there's drama or even horror- like the year when
a giant Bill Gates appeared on the screen behind Jobs,
announcing a deal between the two titans- which met
with boos and razzing from the crowd...

So there I was this afternoon... was it me or did this year's
offerings seem less plentiful and slightly less impressive.
Am I spoiled from years of seemingly MAJOR Apple
announcements as Job's speaks to the loyal and faithful Mac users?
Probably. ...but maybe I'm just not as into gear, as I used to be,
perhaps I'm content with what I can do with my current hardware,
at least until the next upgrade bumps up the processor
requirements on me.

Here's the short version:
1) in addition to the archiving functions called
Time Machine, already built into the Leopard OS,
there will now be a separate wireless hub appliance called
Time Capsule [digging on the HG Wells shit?]
with a built-in "server grade" harddrive that can
be configured to wirelessly archive you machine's business.
The thinking being that if you delete something important
or suffer a major meltdown of some kind... recovery is a snap.

2) the new Apple TV box now works to distribute
programming of HD movies and tv / cable series without
the need for a computer, just a broadband connection and
a monitor (HD or otherwise).
This is kind of a nice alternative if you don't have or want cable.
All you need is an iTunes Store Account or itunes credit
and are satisfied with selection of media available on the
itunes store... which is as good as any pay-view or
on-demand via cable that I've seen. It may even rival some
smaller video rental chains. Excepting NETFLICKS...
for the time being.

3) Some new updates are available for the iPhone.
Like, I know anyone can afford one
(well except for the Count that is).
Apparent there are a lot of ifags out there and Job's made
a point of saying how many billions of iPhones have been
sold to them. Yeah, I'd like one- but my Blackberry Pearl
will have to get me by until Tmobile offers them.

4) "The world's thinnest notebook (at this moment)"
or the easiest to break? Weighing in at about 3lbs...
a new feather -weight laptop called the Macbook AIR,
which is a very thin and stripped down laptop with a fast internal
hard drive and a (non-accessible) 5 hour [!] battery will be
available less than 2 weeks from now.
NIKE's lawyers apparently had no comment about the name...
after all you can't own air can you?

The idea here being most laptop activity is writing / email or internet /
wireless based- refer back to Time Capsule-like
wireless storage devices which I'm sure there will be plenty of soon.
A Superdrive optical disc reader/ burner is now separate device
as option ($99) on a USB 2 interface. The trackpad is improved
with a new figure gesture allowing you to zoom in and out.
There was something mentioned about wireless sharing of Apps
both Mac or PC... but I am unclear about this right now.
There is also the option for a 64GB Solid State Drive
with no moving parts. Something akin to memory cards or IC media
I'm guessing. All the available specs on Apple.com.

I think there is a market for this machine- somewhere
between the standard Macbook and Macbookpro.
I'm probably not the target audience with my Terabytes
of video storage, high sustained data rate and current bandwidth
requirements. As a second / traveling machine , maybe... although
portability is sort of why I've been using Powerbooks instead
of DT machines as my main device since 2001.
A second machine for me would either be a comparable
Macbook Pro (to replace my aging 1.67 PB 15") or
a 23" 2+Ghz iMac as an HD video machine to keep up with
growing speed requirements of pro apps like
Final Cut Studio 2, Photoshop, Aperture and After Effects.

I imagine most of the power users doing audio or graphics will
find this laptop of limited value right now, but fortunately
Apple still sells plenty of other machines to satisfy our needs
(esp last year's models).

It's funny, I've been waiting for Apple to come out with the
Cupertino version of the TOUGHBOOK... a laptop made to take
abuse, ash, orange juice and coffee spills (!), adverse conditions
and rugged enough for most humans. I would think there
would be a bigger market for that type of computer. Something
that, in a pinch, could stop most projectiles up to a hollowpoint.
I DO NOT NEED IT TO WEIGH LESS THAN 10lbs

So rejoice! If the Mac AIR is for you, your bag and your
wallet just got a little lighter.

The Job's 2008 Keynote can be found here. If link dies...
search Apple/quicktime...

KEYNOTE STREAM

Yes, it was inevitable: The Danger Diabolik thread. Share thoughts, experiences, influences, etc.

First up:

The intro/credits song I ripped right from the DVD (aka, "Deep Deep Down"):

Download MP3 here

Trailer:



Opening Credits video: