Last of the red-hot models

An unknown entity quick-and-dirtied all of downtown OkC in Google Earth, so modeling is pretty moot now. I was able to get this model of the Norick Library approved mere days before the onslaught.

And since it's not quick & dirty, it gains precedent over the casual crank-out of the mass-post models. Wish I knew who did it.

In honor of the re-re-relaunch of KSPI

I madey t-shirt cuz I likey.

Stay Wierd, Japan

The Overholser Mansion

My newest model. Gettin' better at sketchup.


The short list of future models:
The Crystal Bridge
Norick Library
Civic Center Music Hall
Stage Center
Oklahoma County Jail

Right now, I've got 7 programs, a dozen tabs, twitter, blog and webserver open all related to 3D modeling. I'm not getting paid. What's wrong with me?

Buckyball

I've built a model of the Gold Dome for Google Earth.

I know sketchup is free, but it's free with many MANY limitations. I haven't used the pay-for-play version, but I feel I'm being hobbled by the lack of it. First off, building a dome was way more difficult than it needed to be. There's no way to make a sphere, so I had to build it in an offhand way. Also, there's a limitation on applying and positioning textures. In a decent 3D program, I would have made a sphere, cut down the polys, sliced it where I needed to and then laid a solid texture over the entire thing, keeping the polygons of the texture —as opposed to the model polygons— intact. The way I had to do it is apply a texture to each poly on my pieced-together dome, making it look not so great as it could have.
I know. I'm bitching about a free program. It's pretty good for free, but they want people to make content for them. I want to make content. But it's way harder than it needs to be and the results are lacking because of the limitations.
So I have three models awaiting review. I've had my OKCMOA model rejected for "Insufficient Texturing" which was wrong. The surfaces without textures had colors applied and didn't need a photo texture, which would have added to the size of the file. So I revisited the model and uploaded it again. It was rejected a second time for the same reason so I appealed and it is awaiting re-re-review at the moment. It seems it's someone at google looking at a number on a screen, not paying attention to how the model looks. It also seems that Google wants cubes with a photo slapped on it. I like to put some detail to it and don't want to half-ass a hundred cubes. I want to build as accurate a model as I can. Given the limitations of a free sketchup and model review prejudices... it just makes something frustrating out of something I do for fun.

Dead Sitcoms

Kristen Chenoweth just won an Emmy for a canceled show. No matter how great it was. TV sucks.

Do you realize?

If not for Adam getting cancer, there would be a new Beastie Boys album out now. Damn. In the meantime, you can stream the entire Flaming Lips album Embryonic at Colbert Nation for a limited time.

"Ironbeard"

For no reason at all I was reminded of a guy I met only once at a bar in Crescent, OK about 1999. I don't remember his name, but I gave him the nickname "Ironbeard" for the first words he said to me: "This beard? Like iron."
It wasn't the first thing he said to me, it was just the first words. The first thing he did was sit next to me, get in my face and growl. I liked him immediately.
The growl was a test. A challenge to the college boy sitting in his bar. I passed the test with a broad smile I could not help and buying him a beer. He softened like a huge teddybear with the worst puke-breath I had ever smelled.
I shook his gigantic hand and it felt like a cheese-grater. With that I assumed he was an oil worker and he was skunk-drunk. The bar owners had nearly run out of patience with him, as they didn't (or couldn't) handle such a huge guy that was that drunk and ready to fight or drink, whichever came first. Since he had obviously blew every bit of cash he had at the bar that night, I was a target for one. I'm not a fighter —and since I could envision him pounding me into the ground like the bulldog in a Sylvester cartoon, I bought him a beer.
We talked for a while about his beard and what I should call him. He seemed to like Ironbeard, and so did I, so that's what I know him as.
Into our second beer, some OSU kids came in to play pool. He started growling again and suggesting we go over and start some shit. I had no doubt he could handle all 4 of them, as they were skinny college frat guys and he had to be 6'4" at 275lbs. His skin was dragon scale and he was feeling zero pain. His giant arms were almost cartoonish and when he made a fist, which was often, it was like two boulders on the ends of telephone poles.
Part of me wanted to see him pound someone. Even a bunch of someones. But I played the peacemaker and told him to sit tight and he obliged, not because I had control, but because he didn't want to jeopardize the beerflow.
The conversation was fractured, of course. He was wasted and I wondered how much liquor it took to get him that way. He had been there all night, judging by the bar owners attitudes toward him, and his friend was happy I had given him some time without having to deal with him. Ironbeard was obviously a hand-full. From what I could deduce from snippet of conversation and what I could observe, he had gotten drunk, pissed off the staff and left, "borrowing" his friends car without asking or even telling anyone. His friend found him a few blocks away (Crescent is small enough to canvas on foot) and brought him back to the bar. I am convinced that he wanted him to go home, but couldn't very well stop him from doing what he wanted. There was puking involved at some point, as I could smell. While puking usually means goodnight for many people, it just made more room for ironbeard to fill with alcohol.
My cash ran out and I disengaged from his friendly... too friendly grasp and made my way out to him starting trouble and the staff yelling at him to leave. Nobody there seemed to have the ability to throw him out if they wanted to. They wanted to.
Anyway, here's a tip of the hat to Ironbeard. Just thought of him today even though I met him only once a decade ago.
I'm gonna raise a beer to you today. Here's to you, Ironbeard. What a character.

Spidermouse –or– Spatireman

Finally, something to make fun of after weeks of slow news. Instead of saying something snarky, I'll do it in Q&D photo manipulation.

Vive Ztarz

My model of the Skirvin for 3d warehouse hasn't been accepted for google earth yet, but it seems the model was good enough to get the highest rating it could be given by a person named Shane. Thanks, Shane.
Meanwhile, I am sitting on two models and a powerless camera with no charger. Until I get power to that battery –or another camera that works– the models are in limbo.
It is for fun, but it is also for a chance at a job with Skyline Ink, of which I also have a 2D short standing in half-completion. I figure I'm not going to get much play with only one model in my collection, which is really no excuse to not complete the short to be able to send when I the other elements come together.
Anyone have a working camera I can borrow for the weekend? It doesn't even have to be a good camera.

Goodbye I say hello

With nothing really to post in the last week, I went looking for content. Since It's all about me –and it is– I looked up the year of my birth and culled the info to pertain to what I find interesting.

Jimmy Hendrix and Janis Joplin die and the Beatles break up.

Some famous people were born on the same year as me.
Uma Thurman • Ethan Hawke (Uma's hubby) • Beck • Genndy Tartakovsky
Minnie Driver • Simon Pegg • Tina Fey • Kevin Smith • Jay Mohr
Claudia Schiffer • Ani DiFranco • Kelly Ripa • Sarah Silverman
Jennifer Connelly • Matt Damon • Christopher Nolan • Alex Ross
Zack de la Rocha • Vince Vaughn

and oddly these pro wrestlers:
Yoshihiro Tajiri • Chris Jericho • Rob Van Dam

Famous People that died the same year I was born
Mark Rothko - Painter
Max Born - Physicist
E.M. Forrester - Author
Edward Everett Horton - Actor (Rocky & Bullwinkle)
Charles DeGualle - President of France
Eiji Tsuburaya, - Director of Godzilla and Ultraman

The Skirvin

When I was in my late teens and driving around a deserted downtown and listening to The Cure late at night –when Bricktown only had 2 clubs and 1 streetlight– I've had a fascination with the Skirvin hotel. Not because I thought it was haunted –but because it was a dark, Gothic mass of ancient architecture right where I liked to feel dark and gothic. There was history there you could feel in the air. Especially since it was built when there weren't cars and since it saw the city grow around it.
It was born of an oil boom and died of an oil bust. Nearly a century after the oil boom that birthed it, another oil boom brought it back from the dead.
It was a pleasure to not only see it restored, but to build a virtual representation of it. I tried to keep as much of the excellent brick-work as I could and give it the best representation I was able to, even though this is my first official Google Earth building. It is pending approval at this point, but I have every reason to think it will be accepted. Meanwhile, here's a 2D version of the 3D model.

Addendum: from what I can see, there are only 3 people currently building models for Oklahoma City and exclusively downtown. What's more, I seem to the the only one from the 405. I want to think there's a way to make money off of this, but I'm unsure how. Maybe a few more models and I'll figure it out.

Robots love women

From the works of Mike Mitchell, Illustrator

There's plenty of great stuff there, this one was just robot-flavored.

Directors and their villians

It's only an observation I have about the nationality of evil depending on director.

Lucas = British
Spielberg = Germans (Nazi's)
Gilliam = French
Cameron = Extraterrestrials/Robots



Just an observation. What director has Americans as evil?

Get Rich Slow Scheme

Well crap. Another great get-rich-quick-idea took a whole 5 minutes to be dashed to pieces.
I was thinking I needed to pick back up the trombone. Not to play Sousa and Beethoven —which drove me screaming from the practice— but to start playing Ska, which I really enjoy.
Then I thought about my old bone and how I knew right where to put the tuning slider without checking to make it in tune. At that moment an idea came to me:
We had digital chromatic tuners when I was in high-school. Why couldn't I build an iPhone tuner app? Well, an ultra-quick search immediately lit on the Cleartune Chromatic Tuner app which really looks good.
George Carlin once said, "I'm ahead of my time. Problem is that I'm only an hour-and-a-half ahead." Looks like I've got the same problem only an hour-and-a-half behind. Dang.

Robots eat children

I've been planning my halloween costume and prematurely patting myself on the back for how awesome it's going to be... then I come across this lilliputian Voltron who puts my imagined costume to shame. Too awesome not to post.

Populat3d

Since I changed my website url, I've lost all my previous links which I may or may not go back and fix. Is it worth it?
Anywhoo, I've worked on the model of the KoR and populated it with furniture. The only piece I really lack is my plycraft (Eames wannabe) lounge that I bought for $20 including the ottoman. I bought it from a neighbor after it was sitting in front of their house in the rain and figured I wanted it more than they did. Anyway, the lounge is not simple square shapes. Everything on it except the legs are rounded and since the free version of Google Sketchup has major shape-molding limitations, It's going to take me a while to do the model justice. Or someone could take pitty on me and give me an old copy of a decent 3D program they aren't using anymore, cuz there's no way I can afford one.
The people that know my house know that this is an accurate representation, except for the extraordinary lack of clutter and state of repair. Getting better.

Adrift on the Miyazaki sea

Ponyo, Miyazaki's latest feature-length film based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, is set to open in the US today. Here is a glowing review.

I will see it soon. Official Disney website with trailer here.

Sandimation

This is one of the greatest displays of artistry and animation I've ever seen. It's Ukrainian artist Kseniya Simonova. Her art and skill are incredible and her sand animations are animated images, both in creation and application. I won't spend any more time gushing about her. Just watch and enjoy.

I'd link her but she doesn't seem to have a website. Well, she'll have one soon, cuz the word is out. More on youtube.

Back to the Future.

In my admittedly biased opinion, the best prime-time animated American television show Futurama is set to return with the original cast in 2010. The story from Variety is really badly written, but you can scratch your head at it here. ("Set to bow"???)
Seems the cast was holding out for $70k an episode. The show is great, but no wonder all of television is sprinting as fast as possible towards the reality TV finished line. Jeez.
I seem to remember when Groening was all about the blue collar. Regardless of the payout (which they could have possibly avoided had they never canceled it), I'm happy it will be back.

Conan and Andy do Anime

Of course Conan isn't going to tell you he's old-hat at cartoons being the voice of Mentok the Mindtaker on Adult Swim's Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
And Andy isn't going to tell you he's old-hat at cartoons being the voice of Mort on Madagascar 1 & 2 and the Nickelodeon show Penguins of Madagascar.

But what they do do is make merciless fun at anime. Ghost in the Shell, too, which is the good kind of anime.


via: The Duty

So go ahead and act like you don't watch or understand anime, Conan and Andy. I know better by the friends you keep.

RobOpera Sauvage

Robots AND animation. Better than sex? Not quite, but it will suffice at the moment. The style kind-of reminds me of the French movie (animated in Czechoslovakia) La Planète sauvage. which blew my mind when I saw it. The dance-techno in this is meh, but the animation rocks.

BIRDY NAM NAM - THE PARACHUTE ENDING from Steve Scott on Vimeo.

Bad Anime

Wow, I have watched a lot of bad anime lately. Really bad. One was called "Claymore" which was the standard (way overused) super-hot girls fighting demons with swords and martial-art super-powers fare, in which the hot girls are part demon themselves. Claymore suffered from what I call "DBZ Syndrome" which is a severe case of chronic over-exposition. They would explain a technique, the technique used was so fast all they had to animate was a blur, and then the dying demon would ask what technique it was so they would explain in in more painful detail again. Then they would discuss the technique. All of this while standing perfectly still, just moving their mouths, no matter how dire the fight going on was supposed to be. It's a tired way of filling up time cheaply.
The second serial anime was I have no idea. I still don't know the name and I really don't care. It was the standard corporate super-soldier girls that are part demon which totally betray their corporate handlers (duh), escape and all move in together with one teenage guy despite their murderous hatred of each other. (DUH!) I was kind of encouraged at the opening title sequence which was a slow-pan over co-opted artwork of Gustav Klimpt with the main character in the kiss-pose and nicely-arranged orchestral music instead of an insipid Japanese knockoff pop song. My hopes were dashed quickly as the first few scenes featured an office girl who's schtick was always dropping the coffee she fetched for her man-boss. The animation wasn't even very good. Eviscerations and buckets of blood do not a good anime make.
With satisfaction, I did get my hands on a copy of Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, which I haven't seen in a long time. Billy Crudup plays the lead while Billy Bob Thornton does a great job playing the Monk, which is a rich role. Minnie Driver adds her sweet accent to the Lady Iboshi, which is a stronger female role than 99% of American movies ever made. (The only American female lead I can think to rival her strength is Vivien Leigh's Scarlet O'Hara.) Sure it's got teenagers fighting demons, but it's got such a good screenplay and it's filled with full frame-by-frame action with no skimp on the detail. While it's not my favorite Miyazaki movie, it is fantastic, and did well as a filling main course compared to the tastless and weak aperitif.

Sound Wave eMotion Gun

The guys from Daft Punk commissioned Interstella 5555 from animator Leiji Matsumoto, the man behind the legendary Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers) and Captain Harlock, cuz like all awesome nerds, they loved his stuff as kids.
I was going to post each individual vid separately, as only a few months ago I could only find them that way.
But I've found it's all there in one glorious click for over a year and 400k views. I re-post it here. It's got everything you like. A willowy blue girl, space ninja and a flying V spaceship. An hour well spent in animationmusiccloudland.
Feel free to full-screen that baby... or go buy it and watch it with me.

He really is magic

My one HP post. If Harry's glasses are so magic they don't need lenses, can't he just lose the glasses all together?
Or are the frames a construct to hold the magic that allows them lenslessness perfect-vision? Magic is confusing.

and... is that a beard?

Gratuitous

Turn it WAY up.
The Dead Weather

Robots don't wear t-shirts

Not yet anyway, but if you're looking for a gift for me, any of these will do... except any transformers themed shirts. I wouldn't even burn a transformers shirt as it's a waste of perfectly good fire.

Check it out.
101 Robot T-shirts!

Ah. Max's VF-1D Valkyrie Veritech in full armor. Guardian mode would have been preferable, but superawesome.

Posterization

I have a new favorite poster designer. His name is Martijn Van Dam and his style is something I'm going to be homage-ing very soon. You better believe there's robots.

Champion Sound - Spacecraft Illustration from Super Silo on Vimeo.

Ego's Review

For the first viewing of Ratatouille (and second following closely afterwards) I was amazed and inspired. Not only by the spectacular animation, but by the exceptional writing which has differentiated Pixar above Disney.
The wrap-up is particularly noteworthy, as it not only speaks truth to creatives, but to bloggers who bitch about crap but never seem to produce anything of their own. It hit close to home:

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new... needs friends. [...] Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere."

raise 3D roof -or- 3Dreams

I can't afford a 3D program and I have wanted one ever since I lost my irretrievable copy of Studiomax in a hard-drive crash nearly a decade ago. (Has it really been that long?)
Since then, It's been like riding a bike, apparently. I discovered Google's free download of Sketchup, a fairly nice and easy-to-use 3D drawing program. I found it in response to my recent interview with the OKC Chamber and the discovery that downtown OKC only has 4 buildings in 3d on Google Earth. One was from Google itself, and the other 3 are from some guy in Austin, which is something I will rectify.
Of course Sketchup is extremely limited, even compared to my 2000 copy of StudioMax. There's no rendering. No lights (except the sun). No bells or whistles. Not even a lathe tool or basic booleans, which seems a little counter-intuitive for a 3D program.
But it was free and in the 24 hours since learning of it's existence and downloading it, I built my house.

It isn't exact-exact, but it's close. I didn't have my blueprints to work from so I had to physically measure with a tape, which took more time than actually building it. Despite Sketchup's for-free shortcomings, it's super fun and just gave me more of an itch to get back into 3D modeling and animation. Guess a big-ol flat-screen HD will have to wait.
In the mean-time, I will begin building downtown with Google's foresighted help to get the public to add to their content, which is our content too. Whether the credit goes to me or to the OKC Chamber is up to them at the moment, as I feel the interview for the position of Interactive Media Manager went very well... but you don't know how well until you know.

Hot Sawesome

Woots for guys my age!
First, new Beasties soon... Sept 15th to be exact.


Then, Green Day.
Green Day - "21 Guns" - HD

I recently re-met someone who(m?) was in my graduating class. The only thing she said to me that stuck was "Slippery When Wet was the greatest album of all time." Now I don't really have a leg to stand on when telling people to stop living in the past, but stop living in the past. And no, it isn't. Never was. Not even close.

The Brave Wierdo, The Spark and the Tipper

A video of social interaction via:
Pixelmaverick.com's blogpost
and
Funnel Design's tweet.

Air Conditioning makes you weak.

Get a swamp cooler.

Got a vintage one for $20 last year and it's great. It's a 1.5 feet tall and moves with me. While not as cool as an air conditioner, it uses about 1/10th the energy (and 1/2 a gallon of water an hour) to operate. It's literally green. Army green in fact. You will have to put a cap-full of bleach in it every couple of days to keep the algae down, but easy to do. No compressor to break down and no expensive freon to destroy the ozone.
Ah, simplicity.

Animator Spotlight - Pete Docter

Director of Pixar's Up and Monsters Inc. This time I will let him speak for himself. Apparently, Every animator's roots are Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Not that I would argue, but I've only seen Chaplin's movies. The only eyes I've looked at Buster Keaton with are the eyes of a Jackie Chan connoisseur, being that Jackie is a Keaton devotee. Guess I will have to see them again with animation in mind instead of mindless entertainment.
He does give props to Miyazaki, who is my favorite animator of all time. Why wouldn't you give props to Miyazaki?
Here is the hour long interview with Terri Gross on NPR. Be warned. Almost the entire interview is one big spoiler. I did wait to see the movie before I listened, but if you haven't see it, go see it first. If you listen or not, go see it.

More life-sized giant Robots

This time, Autobot Bumblebee, made from a real Volkswagen.

Via: Dailystab.com

What I'm up against.

Being a freelance designer, the salesman stuff really gets me down. I love to design. I hate to sell. I guess you have to do both if you're a ronin.



via: Bryan Clark

Elements of the past...

elements of the fewcha!
I know it's early summer, but man this gives me the Halloween itch.
The Mighty Boosh

or if you want to slow things down a little...

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh my ribs!

laugh not cry.
via: AIGA

On animation.

So I've had an animated short stuck in limbo for a good long while now. It's a bit of crazy to talk about, but I feel I need to cast off the demons.
And that's just it. There shouldn't be demons, yet there are. It's always: "What if it isn't good enough?" or "Maybe I should redo this bit." and it stacks up to never getting done. (I've even tried to revisit it in the last few days and now my Flash has gremlins and won't let me publish for reasons currently unresolved.)
There's also the factor of it being a mirror. It's personal, you know? If it isn't great and well received... and it's a reflection of my psyche like art should be, then wham. Not the funnest punch-in-the-face.
I remember a day when I took a old girlfriend to Dallas to meet with the Peace Corps. She was going to go away and I knew I would probably never see her again, no matter our relationship at the time. I wasn't going to stop her from going just because of me. So she went to the interview and I went looking for a bar... at 10am in the morning. By the time she got out at 1pm, I was drunk, trying to drown AND hide my fear. She didn't go. I lost her anyway. The fear was not unjustified. I just didn't look both ways before crossing that street.
So the blind-side hit causes me to not get this short done. Not deciding is a decision. But the indecision is keeping me from finishing it and moving on to bigger things, because I can't move on until I complete it.
The skills need to be honed. They seemed sharp as a razor last winter when I had myself convinced I would finish the short by the deadcenter deadline. I didn't. Not because I couldn't, but because I couldn't face the finished product and what that could possibly mean. It's all me. Nobody did a lick of it. Maybe that's part of the problem. Maybe I need to find other animators to bounce ideas off of and get some collaboration going.
Meanwhile, I've got 1.2 minutes of a 2.3 minute short in the can. At 30 fps, that's only 4,140 frames to go.
In a paraphrased quote attributed to Chuck Jones, "Everybody has 10,000 bad drawings in them and it's best to get them out as soon as possible."
Since I won't post it if it isn't complete, I can only give this screenshot to offer any proof at all, if it's any proof at all.

Giant Robo

You did it. You finally did it. You blew it up. To 1:1 scale you magnificent bastards.
Life Sized Gundam

via: Danny Choo

Sometimes it's a wonder...

that some human beings ever have sex at all. Too funny not to post. I know nothing about this video except that it's true.
Somebody failed their charisma roll.

Yes. Have some.

Written by Harold Ramis and Dan Ackroyd. Voiced by Ramis, Ackroyd, Murray and Hudson.
Did they get Annie Potts? I sure hope so.

I remember going to the original movie for the first time and being so pumped... and then my sisters boyfriend got pulled over for an expired tag which made us so late we had to see it another time. Bob was right. That cop did have good eyes.

Send the Space Girl up here right away.

Awesome awesome awesome.
Babzark, robot of the 405. I'd call him a Ronin, but he definitely has a master.

You can't be hypnotized, you're a robot, silly.

Do you realize?

Time-lapse of the galactic center from this year's Texas Star Party.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

>Okay City
>William Castleman

"You get paid for that sorta thing?"

It's a phrase that has found a resurgence in my everyday speech when I see someone doing something ridiculously inane for money. It's from a National Lampoon recording (I still have the audio tape) of "That's Not Funny, That's Sick" starring very young versions of Bill and Brian Doyle Murry and Richard Belzer. (NSFW of course)
The track where I was introduced to it can be heard here and it has stuck.
Where I've used it is in things like underwater UFO hunting where dudes float around the Bahama Islands in a decent boat with expensive sonar equipment while going scuba diving, working on their tans and slinging a lot of bull.
They get paid for that sorta thing? Enough to pay for all that gear plus bills and mortgage and drinks afterward?
It just makes me sad sometimes.

Robusteza Solitaria

Oh yea. If I had a movie, this would be in the soundtrack somewhere.

EELS - That Look You Give That Guy - from HOMBRE LOBO from EELS on Vimeo.

Holmes in the House

I've never watched House. I am a big fan of Sherlock Holmes, and I've been informed that the title character Dr. Gregory House is based off him. He is even played by a British actor, Hugh Laurie.
Dr. House lives in apt. 221B. His only true friend is Dr. James Wilson. Wilson, Watson. House, Holmes (homes). Hmmm. According to wiki, "both House and Holmes are forensic geniuses, musicians, drug users, aloof, and largely friendless."
As a precedent, I enjoyed Frazier not only because it was a spin-off of Cheers, but because I was already a fan of the Jack Benny show (I had eclectic tastes when I was younger. Not like now at all) and could see clearly that Frazier was a modern rework from the characters down to the signature Benny "cheek-take."
With a new Sherlock Holmes movie coming soon and several seasons of House to take in, I hope to enjoy months to come of Arthur Conan Doyle-inspired non-canon.

ambigramagain

here's another go. Not as successful as the last try, but it's a lot more involved.

I may cry.

via: Everyone on the internets.
Be sure and watch it in full res.

More The Beatles: Rock Band News & Previews

Oklahoma Light Rail project

Here's something I put together as an initial logo to the Oklahoma Light Rail. The project is called "Trails" right now, but it's superfluous and it's only in the concept stage anyway. It should be shortened to "Trail"

It's meant to be instantly recognizable, even at long distances. It's two color, reducing printing cost. Printed on white, it will suggest a patriotic flavor. The arrows and the skew on the "i" dot insinuates movement. The "i" with the red dot mimics the path and destination of this map by Dr. Jim Watson.

I haven't shown it to anyone, so if you want to give some criticism, honest brutality makes me and the logo better.

That thing that everyone is doing.

Back in the day, Billy Corgan once said of crowd-surfing, paraphrasing: "If it's in a beer commercial, it's over."
Now I'm on Twitter. I waited till 2004 to get a cell phone and I don't regret waiting or getting one. As long as you use it as a tool and not make you one. So follow if you want.
https://twitter.com/RoninRobot
It just seems like more flotsam in the ocean right now and as we say in the FPS gamer world, "I don't want to stick my dick out too far" but there's got to be something to it.

Speaking of FPS Games, I've been playing Left 4 Dead and oh man did Valve do a great job. Valve is like Pixar... they've never had a miss. As a designer, their attention to detail is awe inspiring. The game even has a commentary section where the Valve team gives copious information as you play.

Robot Defense Corps - Meatbag edition

Cuz the only thing that separates man from robots is the ability to imagine making a robot army.
Or I guess there's making music.
From: Teh 573v3.

Magnificent.

Matthew Alvin Brown will be the guy in the middle of this photo in 30 years.

Robot Defense Corps - Lesson 6

MSNBC has expounded on the subject and talks with Daniel Wilson, the author of "How to Survive a Robot Uprising." He gives you the same advice I have, which in a nutshell is "go for the eyes." You can visit Wilson's site here.
To give you a little extra bit of skin-crawl, here's a video of BigDog. Imagine hundreds of these armed to the teeth advancing on your position. Good thing they sound like a chainsaw so you have plenty of time to throw up in terror. Thanks, DARPA.

Thank you for your service.

It's Memorial Day weekend. I spent part of yesterday visiting the graves of my family.
Next to my Grandfather is the grave of his brother, Edward "Ted" Lincoln McCracken. PFC 1st class of the 90th Div. 357th Infantry. Killed in action in Normady, 1944.
Not knowing any more than that, I did some research on the 357th, which landed on Utah beach on D-Day +1.

Not having the exact date of his death, probability indicates he was killed near La Fiere, France on June 10th or 11th, 1944, as it was the battle with the heaviest casualties of the 357th before moving out of the Normandy region.

The 90th Division was known as the "Tough (h)Ombres" which was taken from their insignia of T-O, meaning Texas-Oklahoma.

Thanks for your sacrifice.

Like falling in love with the wrong woman over and over.

I'm in love with the 405. I can't help it. And since I can't work for pixar, I'll do the next best thing.
I'm going to get a job with Skyline Ink and animator Brian Eyerman.
I believe a job that you love is like getting a woman that you love. You've got to be persistent and awesome at the same time. So I'm implementing an animation-a-week campaign to until they hire me or file a restraining order.
And the Lamborghini Murciélago they feature so promeniently as the McGuffin in their animations... I've seen the actual thing around town, (and actually on the same street it shows below) so I believe it's got something to do with the company. Hopefully I can parley that into useful information, I.E. I'm doing my homework. Plus I love their penchant for ultra-mod interior design.
Look for the first animation in a week, which I will link here. Until then, have a look at what I want as a future employer, which has it's offices less than 4 miles from my abode.

Midtown Oklahoma City Animation - by Skyline Ink from imagiNATIVEamerica on Vimeo.

The only thing is that I haven't done any significant 3D modeling or animation since 2001 because I can't afford that kind of program. Anyone have a old mac version of Maya or Renderman they wanna lend me?

Am not am Spock

Abrams saved it... and it's even a time-travel episode. Hmmmm...
The Corvette is a metaphor. New Jim jumps clear as the antique plummets to its destruction.


They set it straight, that Watergate.

Zen thought of the day

You can't see the stains on the coffee pot if it's full of coffee.

As seen on TV!

A poster in the background of a scene of Futurama and it's great. Somebody else saw it too and put it on them internets.

Heh. Manhole.

Dom of the Dead

Cya, Dom. You were loved.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, guy who owns dude@gmail.com. I really am. But it's the price you pay, isn't it? You made your email so easy as for me to use whenever I need to put a fake email somewhere. But it isn't fake, is it? It's yours and you are real, whoever you are. I'm sure I'm not the only one who does it, and your inbox must be jammed with junk as to make it unusable. It's as much your fault as it is mine. You picked the name and gobbled it up before anyone else, which was probably the day gmail became available. I can't see dude@gmail.com lasting more than 5 minutes in the open registry. You were so proud. Now you aren't.
Still, I'm sorry.

Yes Maybe.

I've got my preliminary idea for my Halloween costume. Yes, I take Halloween seriously.
I'm not going to disclose what it is, of course, but it does meet my criteria:

Pretty cheap and relatively easy to make.
Of course I can spend a lot of time and money on making it really cool and super-close to the original, but I don't have to and it would still turn out great.

No mask.
I don't really like masks. I had one last year and the creepy anonymity was pretty fun, but it gets in the way of drinks and Halloween kisses...and candy I suppose...if you like that sort of thing.

I've never seen anyone do it and everyone will get it immediately.
It's great when people go "Awwww!" and "Sweet!" when you walk in. On a related note, the best room reaction I've ever witnessed is when Eric Green went as superman in a wheelchair. That thing you're thinking now? Everyone did that simultaneously out loud.

No depictions of guns
Not that that's my rule, but to be in the parade, you can't have a gun. I can understand that.

Nearly perfect body type.
I will have to bulk up a little, but I'm close now and have 6 months to do it. Just another reason to get a little more awesome.

I have the perfect hair for it.
Not that I want to give anything away.

I may be down to change it to Ultra-Man to have a float with a b-movie Japanese-monster character theme, but more people have to commit.

You're an original, aren't you?

Cowboy Bebop Movie
Tulsa, Circle Cinema, 12 S. Lewis Ave., (918) 585-FILM, 8:30 p.m., $5-$8.
I've attempted to get the Art Museum theater here in the 405 to show it, but nothing came of it. Tulsa is a different story.

No, I'm not going... but I would if I were in Tulsa. When I saw this film on the big screen, my eyes started to see the world animated. It really hasn't stopped since as per the comments on Day-n-Nite below.
"This blue eye percieves all things conjoined. The past, the future, and the present. Everything flows and all is connected. This eye is not merely seeing reality. It is touching the truth. Open the eye of truth... There is nothing to fear."

And yes. It's true. Keanu is signed as Spike. To be released in 2011.

Back to the Drawing Clipboard

I've updated my business website with some of the newer stuff I've had the privilege to work on. The update includes a background song that has been described as "porn music" (thanks for the classy, supportive input) that while neat and fun to do, just doesn't quite go with the show.
There are also a lot of other problems that are so ingrained, an entire redesign is in order which will take me a while. Maybe I'll take the opportunity to teach myself PHP, which will need to be undertaken anyway.
I've still got my short film to complete, which seems to be in constant update hell as well. I need to learn to do something, make my mistakes and move on to something new, instead of being unhappy with the current project and constantly try to make it better.
Still, I do so love the self-flagellation of it's-not-good-enough.

and you will know us by the trail of bills

In all your bills there's these little lines representing a graph of usage.
For an entire year afterwards, I have a visual monthly reminder of a relationship that has ended and how long it lasted.
It's like a graph of my love life.

New Website up

The latest is BenPendleton.com and I rather like it. This one shows a lot more elegance to it than previous websites I've done.
There's many revisions to be made on this one, but it's hosted and posted. Go take a look at Ben's work and drop him a line.

One degree of separation -or- brush pallet with greatness

Here's Pushing Daisies (yes, and Wicked) star Kristen Chenoweth smiling broadly in the same photo as a crappy logo I did. Now I'm fantasizing that Olive Snook is reading this blog in her PJ's with the fuzzy slippers and the top two buttons undone and forgetting all about kooky Ned.
No, I didn't photoshop my logo design in the photo. That would be just sad. Plus I just woulda shopped my head on the guy holding it.

Sweet threesixty

There's a new bricktown website out and it's so super sweet. I want to work on stuff like this. Guess I need to start doing my research. I hope someone in town did it, cuz at this time, I don't know who did.

Just a couple of Robots robotting it up.

How could I not post an MST3k clip about robots being ridiculed by robots and using a futurama line to title it with? Robots!

[I] just feel like I’ve been young a lot longer than most people.

The only New York Times columnist I've ever had personal correspondence with has another column in the New York Times... about drinking.
If you don't believe that I've had the pleasure, just google search my name and thepaincomics booleanlike.

bedeep

From Adam Phillips.

I dreamt a 70's movie

It starred Charles Grodin who played a brilliant botanist/biologist who was working to save a diseased and dying rain forrest. Not because he wanted to save it, but because it got him acclaim and funding. It also allowed him to treat his porters like slaves, his support staff like idiots and screw and endless supply of coed research assistants.
It also allowed him to unabashedly repeat the known fact that he was going to win a Nobel Prize for his work.
That is until his guide quits because of his arrogant megalomania and his replacement guide is a disarmingly beautiful jungle-woman who turns out to be completely in control. With his desire for her, the Nobel and his inability to do his work without her help, she disciplines his mercilessly like a dog, letting him know that not only would he fail in his academic endeavors without her, he would fail to survive in the forrest, explaining in vivid detail how he would die horribly when left at the mercy of the forrest for which he could not care less about if not for the attainment of his own glory. She reminds him forcefully that he is weak, and he knows it.
It culminates in a psycho-sexual ritual in which a humiliated and naked Grodin, covered head-to-toe in mud being invited to couple with the witch-guide (and the forrest itself) on the ground in front of all his staff and servants in order to complete his final, triumphant step in his quest for immortality and glory.

Then I woke up.
My guess is that he doesn't get to that final step, but does attain (ahem) immortality.
I would have liked to finnish that movie to know for sure.

Clense your Pallet

Wash away the saccharine coating of Monsters vs. Aliens with some post-apocalypse from Tim Burton.

Monster disappointment

Don't waste your money on Monsters vs. Aliens unless you have 7 year old kids to occupy for a standard hour thirty.
The most standard of boring story. The most one-dimensional characters ever given three dimensions.
Steven Colbert was even upstaged.
General W. R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) should have been the focus of this movie. Instead it's about the personal growth (see what I did there?) of a flat, but cute Susan who finds she's strong only after she becomes a platinum blond.
Her fiancee is a self-centered jerk. Big surprise. Seth Rogan plays the (thinly veiled) stoner. Big surprise. The straights are scared of the monsters while seemingly oblivious to an impending alien invasion. A giant robot does nothing but walk aimlessly until Susan shows up, and then walks toward her. Yawn. The alien is meglomaniacal and... nothing else. Not even funny. From the moment he came on screen, I thought how much better it would have been to give the role to Steve Martin and let him ad-lib the entire thing. Way better movie right there.
Nobody dies. The only landmark destroyed is the Golden Gate Bridge. In fact, the whole movie takes place within a few square miles. Alcatraz obliterated? Nope. Chinatown crushed? nu-huh. Haight-Ashbury hallucination joke? Nuthin. Full-house Family flattened? No dice.
Seth's stoner blob does eyeball tricks and falls in love with jello. Yawn. Insectasaurus turns into butterflyasaurus. Zzzzzzz. Boy Susan sure is cute, though. Isn't she friends? LOOKIT! SHE's CUTE! Don't worry that there's nothing else to see. Give us your money.

Lindsay Lowlife logo

New band logo I've been working on.