Christmas in Geekland

Quick posting from the phone to share a little holiday cheer. As a
childless couple, we have made our own little family with our
menagerie of stuffed kids, pictured here eagerly awaiting the arrival
of gifts. I've tried to tell them that the "big day" isn't for
another 15 days, but much like their impatient other daddy, they seem
to think that a constant barrage of pressure and cuteness will get me
to relent and declare an early Christmas.

When did I become the responsible one?

Night of a Thousand Lens Flares

If you've been wondering why I haven't been posting to the blog much, the picture above might give you an idea. Yes, it's that time of year. So, there are Christmas gifts to get, make, wrap, and deliver. And on top of that, we're still working on the next promosodes of Applesauce. We've finished the second one, and it's posted up on YouTube and in full high-definition h.264 glory at the internet archive.

Check out the YouTube clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSR_BzNudTc

Download the high-definition gigantic file here:
http://www.archive.org/details/golden_applesauce_2

I'll be writing more about all this as life gets less hectic. When will that be? Oh, hell, I don't know. Maybe when I'm dead?

Meantime, enjoy the thousand lens flares in the picture above. I shot it one night after work when shopping down in Union Square. About 2 minutes after I shot this, the police moved the vendor cart (and loudly protesting vendor) that had the lights which provided such a colorful frame to the scene.

More to come.

Winter Wonderland

It's been a while since my last entry, and this one is going to be
short since I'm writing it on my phone.

I had to share this image. Yes, they're ice skating, and they're in
San Francisco. Fans of old Ray Harryhausen movies will recognize the
Ferry Building in the background. (It's a landmark that withstood the
1906 earthquake, but was destroyed by The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms.)

Anyway, the City puts up this outdoor ice rink every year over the
holidays. It really does make it feel like Christmas.

And speaking of Christmas, did you hear that an Australian "Santa
Recruiting Firm" is forbidding their mall Santas saying "ho, ho, ho?"
Seems that since "ho" has a new meaning they're requiring the Saints
Nick to say "hee, hee, hee." It's just not the same.

Ah, well. Times, they do a change.

Winter is Here

OK, so winter's not really here. This is San Francisco, after all. But we've started having the cold snaps that herald the arrival of winter. Unfortunately for everyone's immune systems, we've also been having the typical hot snaps that punctuate the cold snaps. So, one day the high will be 55 and the next day it'll be 85. Makes it hard to know how to dress. Also means that probably 30 percent of my coworkers have colds.

Anyway, I could write a lengthy analysis of the weather patterns that result in the hot/cold/hot snaps because I'm that kind of guy, but I'll spare you. Leave it to say that the location of San Francisco, adjacent to the Golden Gate (over which the famous bridge spans), that results in our tempermental weather patterns. The saying here is if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes, or walk two blocks. Often, that's true.

The ultimate answer to the question of how to cope with the schizophrenic weather is layers. Leave the house bundled up with a t-shirt, a dress shirt, a sweater, a light jacket and an overcoat. Then, as the temperature goes up or down, adjust accordingly.

I've taken to carrying my little cheap HD Camcorder with me everywhere. It's small and lightweight, so it doesn't cause me trouble, but it's also high resolution, so even though it's just a snap-shot camera, it can produce some nice images. As a result, I'm taking more photos than ever before. I still prefer my DSLR (a Canon Digital Rebel) for true photography, but for capturing passing moments and events, this is great. The attached was the other morning on my way to work. Our City Hall, gorgeous on any day, looks even more beautiful and mysterious in the fog. Of course, the fog burned off about 20 minutes later.

Enjoy.

:D

Out of Town

I know that Concord isn't a foreign country, but Paul and I don't leave the City very often, so it feels like a foreign country.

Our friend Don was appearing in a production of Midsummer Night's Dream at a fabulous little community space in Concord. We've missed every play he's been in since we've known him, so we asked young Brandon, the lead from Pandemonium, to go with us. Aside from his general interest in Shakespeare, Brandon has a car. Her name is Christine, and she's painted like a pirate ship, but that's not important now. Brandon drove, I navigated using Google Maps, and Paul worried that he hadn't brought his passport. (I snapped this photo of the moon out the window as we crossed the Bay Bridge heading into the alternate universe of the East Bay.)

Perhaps because we don't leave the City very often, it was an adventure. Driving in California, particularly in the Bay Area, is always a challenge, since it seems that the Department of Transportation takes great pleasure in making the signs on highways as obscure and difficult to decipher as possible. Tiny signs indicate "freeway entrance" and huge signs with arrows point in random directions.

Don was fabulous, and if the show's run wasn't done, I'd highly recommend seeing the play. How can you go wrong with the Bard?

It's kind of a foreshadow of things to come. This December we'll be crossing a large body of water (but not in a Volvo that's older than its driver) and we'll be seeing something related to William the Wordsmith: The Globe Theater.

Ah, Christmas in London. How Dickensian.

It's not even Halloween, but I'm already getting really excited for Christmas.

Claudia Christian and me

Yeah, that's me, hanging with Claudia Christian. She was at the International Horror & Sci-Fi film festival in Phoenix, which I happened to be able to attend part of this past weekend when I was in Arizona.

Since I was a founding member of the Phoenix Film Board, I got some "VIP" access around the festival, and was able to meet the very talented actress who's portrayed several Sci-Fi genre characters, probably most famously (and fabulously) Susan Ivanova from Babylon 5. She was at the festival as part of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release of The Hidden, a science fiction action adventure cop buddy movie with freaky alien slug creatures and Kyle MacLaughlin. It was Claudia's first feature film, ever, and she played a stripper who gets possessed by one of the freaky alien slug creatures. She was awesome.

An in person she was funny and friendly and very supportive. All in all, a really cool lady. She's going to be on an upcoming episode of Nip/Tuck, so keep your eyes out for her....

Randomness

California is burning. Or at least that's how it looked from the airplane coming back from Arizona. This is a view from somewhere between Phoenix and San Francisco, looking south toward the enormous fires in Southern Cal. It looks like clouds in this small thumbnail image, but look at it in full resolution; you can see the smoke billowing up from the forested mountains below. I'd heard about these fires only by watching CNN at Sky Harbor while waiting for my flight home. That's how out-of-touch I'd been while visiting family in the Middle-of-Nowhere, AZ.

I hope damage is minimal and nobody is seriously hurt.

And on the subject of Arizona, I flew over there for a couple days and got to meet my niece's daughters. (They're a military family and currently live overseas, so, I'd never met them.) I belive that they'd be called my Grand-nieces. I don't know. I do know it makes me a great uncle, which, in turn, makes my brother a grandfather, which makes me feel old. But the kids were adorable. Here's a shot of me giving Elena, my youngest grand-niece a meal at the local hot-spot for family fun: Walmart. What a sad comment on affairs; the fun place to go and hang out in small, rural towns is a giant, globally exploitative retail behemoth.

We did have a lovely lunch at a local, very brightly colored Mexican restaurant. Mmmm... Yummy Sonoran-style Mexican food. It's the one kind of food that I haven't found in San Francisco. It's one thing I really miss about Arizona. Mmmm.

I got to see a bunch of friends I hadn't seen in years while I was in Arizona. The International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival was going on, and it was founded, well, kind of by me. Not really by me, but I was a founding member of the Phoenix Film Foundation, which hosts the IHSFFF as well as the ever-more-impressive Phoenix Film Festival. I also got to meet one of my favorite science fiction icon actors -- Claudia Christian. For those of you who don't know who she is, she played Susan Ivanova on Babylon 5, and she's awesome! She was also really quite nice. There are better pictures of her, and one of me with her, but they're on my friend's camera, and he hasn't sent them to me yet.... The guy in the picture with Claudia here is some movie reviewer in Phoenix.... He was nice, but hey, this was Claudia. I got to show her an Applesauce Promosode, and she even signed a picture for Paul. Fun time. When I get the better pictures, I'll post them.

That's it for now. I still haven't recovered from the trip, actually. Tired I am. Yes.

Coming home!

Long trip to Arizona is at its end. I will share some photos and rambling thoughts when home!

Romy and Michelle's Town Hall(oween)

Warning: This is going to be one of the most disjointed postings ever.

See, I just attended a town hall meeting about Halloween, which is a major issue in the Castro district of San Francisco this year.

But I'm also watching Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion while writing this post. So, expect deep political conversation while occasionally dropping into the goofy "I'm the Mary and you're the Rhoda" interjections.

So, Halloween has traditionally been a crazy, wild time in the Castro. I mean, the Castro is the one place in the city where people are uninhibited all year round, so when the holiday comes around that's defined by losing your inhibitions and becoming whatever you want to be for a night, where else would you want to go?

For years -- decades, even -- the party has been a blast. People who live here in the neighborhood and around the City would come together and frolic and play in an amazing celebration of everything strange that we all love about life here. Everyone used to stick together like glue.

"Well, ordinarily when you make glue, first you need to thremoset your resin. And then, after it cools, you have to mix in an epoxide, which is really just a fancy-schmanzty word for any simple oxygenated adhesive, right? Then I thought maybe -- just maybe -- you could raise the viscosity by adding a glucose derivative during the emulsification process. And it turned out I was right."

Trouble is, over the past few years, the general tone of Halloween has changed. What used to be a party where everyone participated -- ranging from someone taking off all his clothes and covering himself in glitter to the most elaborate drag dresses that looked like they were made of Tara Plantation curtains (rods and all) -- became a gawk-fest. Folks started coming in from all over the bay area, not to dress up and have fun, but to watch and make fun. And then it became less a tone of making fun and more of making trouble.

Last year there was violence. A shooting. It wasn't a gay bashing -- in fact the victim of the shooting was a pregnant teenager. So, clearly it wasn't folks coming in to cause trouble with the faggots (a phrase I can use given the fact that I am one); it was just people coming in to cause trouble. And in the aftermath of the shooting, a number of people were injured as the crowd broke and ran.

Romy sums up what I think of the people who came here and ruined the fun: "You're a bad person with an ugly heart. And we don't give a flying fuck about what you think."

Unfortunately, we do have to give a flying fuck about what these people do.

So, this year, the City is trying to cancel the Halloween celebration in the Castro. They have a plan. They will have police poised at the ready to swoop in and clamp down on illegal activity. And they are ready to do whatever it takes to protect the public. I just hope they can do whatever it takes to protect the public.

San Francisco has a history of, shall we say, civil disobedience. Are they ready if 250,000 civilly disobedient folks descend upon the Castro? I doubt it. But we'll see.

After the meeting I had a brief word with City Supervisor Bevan Dufty. I thanked him for all he's tried to do and then said, "I hope it works." He put his hand on my arm and said, "I hope so, too. And if it doesn't, we have a lot of work to do before next year."

I really do hope it works.

And one more quote from Romy and Michelle. This one has nothing to do with the post, but I just love it. After they make up for their fight, Michelle says to Romy, "You're as cute as me. You are. And in some cultures, even cuter."

I wish I could come up with some profound way to link that quote to the discussion about Halloween, but I'm not a good enough writer.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

On my way home from Merced today, I stopped at a Target store. It's still two full weeks before HALLOWEEN, and they have their Christmas stuff up. Oh, to be sure, it's not all of their Christmas stuff, but it's a lot.

Two and a half months before Christmas.

Here's a conversation I overheard between two women as they pushed
their carts along in their recreational shopping bliss.

WOMAN 1: I can't believe they have their Christmas stuff out already.

WOMAN 2: Well, if you don't get it now, all the good stuff will be gone.

WOMAN 1: Oh, good point!

At which point they went to the Christmas section and started to load
up their carts.

Kind of fills you with the spirit of the season, doesn't it?

On, wait. That's next season...

Ho ho ho.

No Muss, No Fuss

It was another time. It was another place. I lived in a tiny, fifty-dollar-a-month apartment in Tucson, Arizona. I earned money doing whatever odd art-related jobs I could get, but mostly painted and drew. It didn't take much in the way of sales to pay the rent and keep food in the pantry, so I had a pretty free life. I paid my rent for several months on one project -- a woman hired me to draw her an original tarot deck. I'm not sure what she was more interested in -- getting her deck or getting mine. So to speak. She tried any number of times to get me to sleep with her.

She was barking up the wrong tree. Sorry, hon, wrong gender....

But I digress. I wanted to write about the image in today's post. Take a look at it. Go ahead. Click on it. Look closely at it. Yeah, it sure looks like a painting, doesn't it?
And it is a painting. Just not one done with oil, acrylic, gouache, watercolor or tempera. This was painted in the computer. (And it's based on a creative-commons licensed photograph by one Thomas Hawk.)

But I used brushes. And brush strokes. And color blending techniques. And even smeared the paint around once it was on the canvas.

I painted this in a natural media simulator. It's actually an inexpensive software package called ArtRage. And it feels like painting with real brushes on real media. I also use a Wacom tablet, so that enhances the painting sensation.

But mostly, working with this stuff is fun. And it doesn't make the house stink of turpentine and gesso.

So, it's nice to get to do some painting again. Even if it's only painting with pixels, it's still painting.

If you're into paint, give ArtRage a try. It's a hell of a lot of fun.

That's My Family

Just a quick post from the phone to share a cute photo of my honey and the kids. You may think they're just a bunch of stuffed animals, but you'd be wrong. Oh, so wrong!

They are our kids.

Don't make fun of them, or the bear will have to whack your kneecaps.

Don't think he wouldn't!

Confessions of a Mac Murderer

Originally Posted October 9, 2007
(I'm moving my old posts, so the dates are off -- this is the last of the old ones.)

My name is Dex, and I kill Macs.

I'm not to blame, really. It's the Mac's fault. Sitting there, all beautiful with its gorgeous interface. Sleekly designed monitor. Powerful tower with lots of ways to vent its excess heat. And the out-of-box experience -- so effing cool. So, how could anyone blame me for knocking something so perfect down a notch or two? Really, it's asking for it.

In truth, I used to kill Macs just by walking in a room with one. My old roommate Alek can attest to the time his Mac shut down when I was just standing in the doorway of his room. (OK, that may have has something to do with the ill-advised use of a power outlet that was connected to the light switch that was near the door, but still, I just stepped into the room and POOF! down went the Mac with Alek's research paper on it....)

Then there was the Mac I used to edit in Arizona. Crashed on average of once every 17 minutes. The repair guy came out and scientifically dropped the external hard drive from precisely six-and-one-quarter inches above the floor. It worked. For a while.

Then there was the brand new Mac at my new job in San Francisco nearly seven years ago. "Is it working?" I asked. "Perfectly," I was assured. Within 45 minutes I had that machine locked up and begging for mercy.

But when Paul introduced Macs into my life again a couple years ago, I decided to give them a go. And they work. They're gorgeous machines with fabulous interfaces. They just work. Except when they don't. The lovely photo above is what the Mac we affectionately call the TARDIS spewed across its screen while I was doing something not even very complicated. It's the second time it's done something like this since we got it back from repair for doing exactly the same thing a year ago.

So, this is my plea for help. Someone, help me, please, before I kill again.

Oh, and this blog was --

Created on a Mac

Naked Progress

Originally Posted October 7, 2007
(I'm moving all my old posts here, so the dates are off)

That's what's happened today. Raw, unadulterated, naked progress.

So, I'd been out of town for a while, and when I got back, I had a major deadline at work, which meant I couldn't be working on the side projects. You know, the important ones. Like Applesauce.

This project is so very interesting to me and challenging on many levels. First, there's just the understanding level. Paul has written these episodes with such density and speed that it's tough to figure them out. A typical episode script is 8 pages. The end notes on the typical script is about 12 pages. So, to watch these things, you're going to have to do a lot of thinking. Or reading. Or something.

But my part in this is to make them as interesting visually as they are intellectually. So, there's lots of color. Motion. Dynamic compositions. All in all, it's challenging me on every level.

And the naked progress? We posted the first "promosode" today. The promosodes are a chance for us to get our feet wet with the technology and techniques we're using, and they're a chance for you to acclimate your brain to the crazy pace and obtuseness that this show will bring.

And other progress? I finally got the soundtrack for the first episode of Star Trek: Odyssey posted. Folks over at the Odyssey forums have been politely asking for months, so I'm glad to finally get the tracks up and available for download.

Let me know what you think of them, eh?

Making Music

Originally posted October 2, 2007
(I'm moving posts from my old blog)

Christmas of 1975 is one that I’ll remember forever.

My family was not well off, but my parents scraped together the money to get me a gift I absolutely loved. It was an “Air Organ.” An Air Organ is kind of across between a harmonica and a cathedral pipe-organ. It has a little fan in it that blows across reeds that drop into the air flow when you press the keys. The sound it made was something like that which a cow makes, but melodic. I loved it.

And, in no small part because I knew that my parents had stretched the budget beyond what they should have, I spent hours, days, weeks, months in front of that thing, learning to play, learning to make music.

Fast forward to the mid 1980’s. My hair was big and my collars were narrow. I was in a “band.” It was called “Structure and Method.” (Alek and Paul -- the other members of the band -- got the name off the back of their algebra book.) We so wanted to be Depeche Mode. And we weren’t. But we did have fun, and we did write some cool songs. Around this time I also worked with some friends and wrote some novelty songs and parody songs. (One that got some airplay nationwide was “Squirrels,” a parody of the Beastie Boys’ song “Girls.”)

In the 90’s I thought I’d be the next Alan Parsons Project, though until the second Austin Powers movie, nobody knew who the Alan Parsons Project was. Not that that mattered to me. I recorded an album of "adult contemporary" music that ranged from ballad to orchestral, with a heavy dose of synth pop.

Throughout my musical career, if you can call it that, I’ve maintained a sense of the dramatic, and in the mid 00’s, Paul, my partner in life and in movie production, convinced me that I had what it took to write the score for a feature film. Well, I really didn't have much choice; either I wrote it, or it wouldn't have any music at all, since we couldn't hire anyone to write it. So, I cranked out the score for Pandemonium. And it wasn't bad. You can judge for yourself, soon enough, when I post the soundtrack on my music pages here, or you can check out the movie on YouTube or at the Internet Archive (see the "Other" page for details). Then I got involved with the folks who produce the fan series Star Trek: Odyssey, and have created some stuff that folks really seem to like.

It pleases me no end, and I know that if they were still here, my parents would be very proud.

At least I hope so.

Moon Over Monterey

Originally posted on October 1, 2007
(I'm moving my posts, so they'll all be dated today, even though they're a couple weeks old)

So, a couple weeks ago, I splurged and bought a new camcorder. It’s one of those hybrid camcorders that records to a digital card in high-definition. (Aiptek A-HD 720P hybrid camcorder for the geeks out there. It’s quite cheap and quite cool.)

About a week ago I was flying down to Anaheim for a conference for work. There were some lovely clouds out the window long about the time we were over Monterey Bay, which I decided to shoot some video of. This is a still from that video. (OK, I added the moon from a photo I took a year or so ago, but it was a full moon the day I was flying. Just not on the horizon at the time I was flying. But the moon looks so damn pretty there, doesn’t it?) I

’ve been shooting a fair amount of video with this new camcorder from moving vehicles. There’s some from the MUNI train here in the City, some from the plane. Some from an escalator. Maybe I’m working on a project I didn’t realize -- some sort of Planes, Trains and Automobiles video essay.

We’ll see what comes together.

Meantime, welcome to my blog.