A Scanner Darkly

I have to say, I think I'm one of many film buffs who admire Richard Linklater more than I actually enjoy his work. From Slacker & Dazed and Confused to Before Sunrise to School of Rock to the Bad News Bears remake, that's an interesting career to me. While I really enjoyed School and liked the faithful Bears, I'm excited to see his latest, a sort of live-action/animation hybrid called A Scanner Darkly.

Waking Life did absolutely nothing for me as a film. But of course, the animation style had real promise and was amazing to watch. I think I even muted the DVD and just watched it for a while.

Check out the trailer for Scanner HERE.

Then be sure to read the WIRED magazine article for the background HERE.

Podfading

This is a phenomenon of which I'm sadly a part and now it has a name. Podfading.
Check out this WIRED article: PODFADING TAKES ITS TOLL

As I've explained in this previous post, podcasting is great if you've got the time. Unfortunately I don't anymore.

Matthew Davis Townley

This is Matthew Davis Townley. You can see from the previous post the moment he was born on Valentine's Day. He's home now and doing well. He was 8lbs. 7.6 oz. at birth.

Here he is...

Mother and son are well. More soon.

Why My Wife Is Not An Olympian

"You know, I think if I won a gold medal, I'd wanna win a silver and a bronze too. You know, just so I could have all three, all different colors."

New Online Calendar

I've been waiting for Google to release a calendar that works well with gmail. I'm sure it'll happen at some point, but until then, I'm happy to tell you about 30 BOXES, a new online calendar that's very easy to use and allows sharing with friends & family. Best of all, it's free. I've set it up as a tab on FireFox, so whenever I launch it, I'm signed in and I can take a look at my calendar immediately.

I suggest you try out the sample calendar they've got HERE.
Then, sign up, HERE.

Google...Film Distributor

Before the Super Bowl, the "popular" selections on Google Video were largely homemade. Web-cam karaoke, an audio-enhanced Robert Tilton clip reel called "farting preacher", and matrix pong (see it) often placed in the top spots. Post-Super Bowl, it seems the split is currently about 50-50 between big-budget (Pizza Hut, Budweiser) / no-budget productions.

I imagine Google Video will eventually go the way of podcasting. More companies will realize they can freely advertise directly and easily to the public.

What will be really interesting though, is the young man or woman who creates a digital film (short or feature length) and decides Google Video is the ideal distributor. The day is coming when word of mouth will spread worldwide on a film that might cost a viewer $2 per download. If I'm told it's an amazing film, I'd gladly skip a night's rental at Blockbuster to spend a couple bucks to support a new distribution model. From there, the sky's the limit.

Track Jack

This is fun. If you're a fan of "24" and have been watching this season, you might enjoy checking out this Google Maps project featuring locations from the show.

JackTracker!

I'm back

Boy, it's been a while since I posted. I've been working a lot and trying to get the house ready for our new addition. He should be here anytime in the next couple of weeks, so we're excited and anxious for him to come.

A tip for you film lovers out there, go to Turner Classic Movies this month for their annual 31 Days of Oscar. I TiVo'd Shampoo the other day. Good film. I'd never seen it. I can't understand why Lee Grant won a best-supporting Oscar for it though. Sometimes it just depends on the other nominees in the category, I guess. Anyway, some of my favorites are coming up this month:
2001 (2/10 at 10pm) & Dr. Strangelove follows at 12:45am
The Graduate (2/11 at 8pm)
12 Angry Men (2/13 at 11:45pm)
Coal Miner's Daughter (2/21 at 10:15pm)

and one that I'm anxious to see for the first time,
The Conversation (2/28 at 8pm)