winnebago man

I watched Winnebago Man tonight. The shifting motivations of Rebney and Steinbaur made it interesting to me. I also like how Jack Rebney nails his contribution at the end. While his social and political frustrations don't get the front seat he was probably looking for, Jack delivers an example of how to attack complacency, which I think addresses many of the root causes for the societal maladies he sees. If only we could speak our minds AND form our contentions substantially. Vocalizing frustration is probably a good first step to understanding it.

an unbelieveably full day

Today has been eventful in a way that becomes difficult to process in retrospect. Underlying it all, I am working at Pixar, which is enough to keep me energized even after the second week. Today, though, has been one remarkable thing after another.

Pixar's original "1984" image demonstrating motion blur (lo-res)

At lunch I attended a talk by Tom Porter, a prominent contributor to early computer graphics research. Way back when, he produced a famous image of billiard balls that demonstrated motion blur for the first time in 3d computer graphics. The talk I attended was mainly an anecdote about the life of that image and how he almost lost it several times, only to resurrect it with the help of some cool people. I often take the portability of information these days for granted, and to hear how this incredibly significant piece of technical art traveled and was stranded was exciting. The images we make can be treasure, there's just a lot of treasure around these days. So two fun facts:
1. The original high-resolution image was effectively non-existent from the late 1980s all the way up to 2007. This is an image that is used in many college computer graphics courses, and yet always in a reprocessed, degraded form. Seeing it in its full grandeur was eye-opening in that it looks incredible for being over 25 years old.
2. The reflection map in the billiard balls was partly hand-drawn by John Lasseter, and was possibly the first piece of art he produced for Pixar even though it was mostly just as a favor to Tom Porter. I was inspired by how casual that retrospective factoid was.

great movie

Later there was going to be a lecture on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which happens to be one of my favorite movies, a statement similar to "I happen to really enjoy delicious food." As I searched for the free, pre-lecture dinner that was promised, I accidentally wandered into the new art exhibit that had just opened upstairs. Guess I need to write about that now. I will never get to this story that leads to this other story.

The exhibited art was part of a charity project revolving around a sketchbook. The sketchbook was passed in person from artist to artist, each one contributing a piece to the book. Tons of people worked on it including famous film artists like Hayao Miyazaki and Glen Keane. Case in point, this was a happy enough accident.

ilya
(approximation)

Now let's talk about serendipity, and by the way, apologies for this rambling mess (oh, it gets worse, don't worry). I got the job offer at Pixar around the same time my best friend ilya accepted an offer to start his Ph.D. at Berkeley. For the first time since high school we are now located in the same area, which is incredibly, enjoyably serendipitous.

Back to the art exhibit, I had heard that a Double Fine artist named Tasha Harris had left to work at Pixar again and was starting this week. I had been reading her web comic for quite awhile (still do, ugh, verb tense), so I was excited to be working in the same place. Add that to the list of famous people I was already seeing around who had previously been names or faces on a screen, and add that to the coincidence of my friend moving here to get a sense of the unreality I had been processing. I am going to start the next sentence with so.

Tasha Harris's first comic via Double Fine

So I am standing in front of a drawing at the art exhibit, having JUST finished admiring a drawing by Scott Campbell (another Double Fine artist), thinking "man, it's cool that Scott C. is in this show, I did not know" when I turn to see someone standing next to me who looks suspiciously like Tasha Harris. Having never met Tasha, I quickly devise a brilliant way to find out if it was indeed her without weirding out a poor woman who might not be. "Excuse me, would you mind telling me your name?" I bizarrely ask. Turns out it is Tasha, so I tell her I enjoy reading her comic and in about 30 seconds we have already covered "ha, first/second week at Pixar" pleasantries and "oh I was just looking at Scott's work over there, yeah there's a cool cowboy on a rabbit one by it too." Then I get this thing in the back of my head reminding me I am late for this film lecture on top of "what the heck is going on, I am talking to Tasha about artwork by Scott at Pixar." So I suddenly can think of nothing else to talk about and bail with a "well it was really nice meeting you," and walk off in the wrong direction. I could double back on the floor below and I ran into a friend going to the lecture on the way, so it worked out.

Scott Campbell's first comic via Double Fine

Afterward, I wished I could have communicated my interest in Tasha's work beyond "oh, I read it." I guess it would be difficult to convey what it is like to have averaged three hours of sleep a night for a couple of moths straight working on a publication deadline for my Ph.D. (a situation that happened more than once), and how for a period of time I had been escaping to the Double Fine site and the mental sanctuary of her and Scott's web comics in the wee hours of the morning. But I should have at least said something encouragingly enthusiastic like "I really hope you keep doing the comic!"

This post is already obscenely long, so I'll try to wrap up the last part. My friend Colin and I had rewatched Eternal Sunshine the night before to prepare for this lecture. We had a really great discussion about the film, which was exciting and turned out to be better in some ways to the actual lecture itself. To be fair, though, the lecture discussion did not include a full screening of the film so we were fresher and ready to skip synopsis-talk. The lecture itself provided another opportunity to geek out about the film with other people who love it and thinking critically about movies. It was a lot of fun, possibly oodles, but definitely invigorating.

Done. But... no, done.

In addition to manufactured demand, disposable products are more convenient than reusable ones, for customers and providers. I believe that reusable products can be both convenient and profitable if treated as a service (a type of industry our economy thrives on). For example, imagine if your local gas station sold clean reusable bottles of tap water and gave credit for bringing in dirty bottles. They would essentially be charging for the washing and the convenience of having a bottle ready whenever the customer is ready. However, I am not sure if such systems are practical, as they do not provide incentive to create infrastructure. In other words, no company would want to go into producing these bottles if they can only profit occasionally. This is probably where the government should step in. Unfortunately, some would attempt to convince you (with a frightening religious zeal) that the free market would take care of everything. But we have seen historically that free markets are easily exploitable or tend to converge on wasteful systems that resemble equilibrium only at the surface. Small businesses my ass.

The Village not as bad as I remember

Last night I watched The Village for the first time since my first and only viewing when it came out in theaters. The movie was much more enjoyable knowing the signature twist up front. While it is often hard to believe the characters could be so innocuous, the themes of innocence and love are fairly well executed. I like how I felt conflicted as to whether the "elders" were despicable or admirable. Every suspenseful scene became a question of whether it was ok to put duped people through such trials to keep them sheltered. Sure, even having that open for debate makes me a horrible person, but hey, in the context of the movie the people seem happy.

In my opinion, Shyamalan shoots himself in the foot with almost every movie by trying to blow your mind somehow. In The Village, I was really enjoying my second viewing up to the point where he tries to convince the audience that maybe the creatures really do exist after all. We are shown the truth before hand, and yet Shyamalan feels obligated to shoot Brody's death scene in a horror style with grating noises and spooky suspense. Showing us the blind woman's fear and doubt is great, but you don't have to try to fool the audience as well. At least, not in the one-scene cheap trick way it was done here.

Then there is the cheesy scene towards the end after the preserve patrolman has helped the woman back over the wall where the truck is just sits in the middle of the road with melancholy music playing. They might as well have put up a giant banner that said "Isn't this profound, guys?!" I feel like pulling that card required more development of the patrolman's character.

So that's my shallow criticism, even though I did enjoy the movie quite a bit. I would like to go back and watch other Shyamalan movies now. However, I am a little scared to watch Lady in the Water again, because I think I might be the only person I know who actually enjoyed it the first time. It's just ridiculous enough to be enjoyed scene for scene (minus the M. Night plays a brilliant writer who will change the face of humanity part).


And now I feel good for reviving this blog. (sarcasm)

give me some of those

After today's discovery, I see no reason to eat any other brand of beet.

will you make the cut?

For those of you feeling left out of the economic crisis, TNT brings the excitement home!


Saw this on facebook today. Another victim of the play button icon.

contra proven to be a good time

I cannot believe this blog is getting a post. Can you?

I decided that my recent contra adventures would be worthy of communication, remarkable, and otherwise noteworthy. Hence the writing. And no, I did not go off in the jungle to help a rag-tag team of soldiers fight the establishment. I am talking about contra dancing. You have surely heard of it even if you don't know it by name. Think big community dance where people line up and a person is yelling things like "swing your partner do-si-do!"

Some friends of mine have been enjoying contra for a year or so now, and I had been avoiding invitations to dances until a couple weeks ago when peer pressure reached critical mass. So I stopped being a lump and decided to join them.

I was told over and over that you don't have to know anything going in, and that the caller will tell you what to do when. The caller is basically a person with a microphone who directs each dance by yelling out the right dance move and combination of people at the right time. Think of it as recipe and ingredients. What I wasn't told was that the dance moves all had names like 'swing,' 'do-si-do,' and 'gypsy.' Imagine that you are standing in a line of strangers, a person yells "women start hey for four left," people start zig-zagging, and you are expected to do something that doesn't mess everyone else up.



Luckily, we got to the event after the first dance had started and I was given a short crash course in all of the basic moves. It is actually pretty easy as long as you know a handful of these. At the beginning of each dance, the caller will walk everyone slowly through the sequence of moves without music. People are accommodating to beginners and will be able to teach you steps you don't know at this time.

The idea of the dance is that everyone lines up into two lines with partners across from each other. Typically, over the course of a dance, the odd numbered couples will progress down the line and even numbered ones will progress up. This means that you will be shifting and changing partners a lot, but that every so often you will magically end up across from your partner again, only at a different place in the line. Some dances change this up, but they all have some sort of periodic progression.

My first dance had 25 couples or so in attendance. You are supposed to ask someone new to dance after each one finishes, so I ended up dancing with a lot of different people ranging from little girls to old ladies. It is funny how everyone has different styles. Sometimes you get people really into it who exaggerate movements and like to swing with a lot of force. Other people just want you to move along and be in the right place. Some, especially many of the older gals, tend to want to dance a little slower. It can be hard to read. I tend to try to be gentler with older people, but occasionally they will take a fast lead and I will realize they prefer to be more lively. It's fun to progress to the end of the night when people are more used to each other.

The second turned out to be weird even for the regulars. Only 3 couples showed up (plus one person who left early), so there were actually more people on stage than on the dance floor. The caller experimented with some dances designed for 6 or 7 people that she had never done before. We ended up working it out with her, step by step. Before the night was over I was speaking the contra lingo with reckless abandon. I was kind of amazed.

So now I am officially a fan. Last weekend was my third and most populated dance yet. One of my favorite parts was when the caller said "ok we're going to take a short break. After the break there will be a waltz, but in the meantime there are some eggs from Jim's farm up here if anyone wants to buy any." My second favorite part was when an old lady told me I was really good for a beginner.