January 26, 2004
Star Wars 3 online
A new snippet from the latest installment of the Star Wars saga has now become available on the Internet here. But the servers are overloaded so you can watch it here. It doesn't really show much (sort of a DVD extra) but it shows the basic style Lucas is going for in the latest movie, which is due in theaters by Summer 2005. And if you're missing the original trilogy on DVD, Lucas is preparing for a September release. Read about it here.
Meanwhile, if you think Queen Elizabeth is whoring, you might be more convinced by her latest knighthood of none other than Bill Gates. Michael Caine is fine, even Mick Jagger or Stephen Spielberg . . . but BILL GATES?!? Shoulda given it to Captain Kangaroo instead. I guess all of his Dungeons & Dragons buddies are going to be jealous. Bollocks.
"Lost in Translation" won a Golden Globe for Best Comedy and Bill Murray's speech was hilarious when he won for Best Actor ("There are so many people trying to take credit for this, I don't know who to thank . . . I just fired everyone . . .").
January 21, 2004
Sundancing
If you're not in the film business or you're not a big fan of films, you're surely not aware the Sundance Film Festival is happening right now in Salt Lake City. If you're a nobody, it can still be fun, but if you're someone like Ashton Kutcher, you get a free Escalade to cruise around in while you're there. And if you're Paris Hilton, you get a loaner G-Wagen and don't bother to return it so they have to come after you to reposses it.
Apple's iMovie was the big star of this festival. It was used to create the movie "Tarnation," which had a total budget of $218.32.
Fark has to be one of the best sights on the Internet. If you've never been there before, it's a veritable potpurri of links to the wackiest news stories (and other miscellaneous insanities) around the web . . . like this woman who claims to have the smallest dog in the world Or a judge who dozed off during closing arguments of Britain's biggest robbery trial. Gotta love it.
January 14, 2004
Subbing it...
Josh just sent me this picture he took on the subway while on our trip to New York. Click on it to see it full size in the New York gallery. Those damn film cameras take such nice photos. Just wait until my digital camera catches up!
My Umax 5470 scanner just died when I decided to scan some stuff. It's actually OK because that scanner was such a piece of shit. The specs were great when I bought it at MacWorld a few years back (back when Umax was making Heidelberg's low-end scanners under the Heidelberg name). And I was still hopeful when they promised my order within 2-3 weeks and it turned out to be 3 months. But when they renigged on their promise to support Mac OS X, that was the last straw. I will never buy another UMAX product again. So I bought the Epson 3200 and I've been scanning like crazy to test it out. It's very nice but the software crashes and freezes a lot on OS X. If you get one, get Silverfast or VueScan.
My sister, the geologist, just sent me a pre-invitation for her wedding on October 16th.
January 7, 2004
Chillin' with Jonathan Ive
If you're a designer and you don't know who Jonathan Ive is, crawl out from under that rock and read this. Not only did he design the iMac and iPod, he was voted Designer of the Year.
For the Mac users, you already know that MacWorld has just begun at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. You also probably know that there were new iPodminis, new Xserves, FCE2, and the new iLife suite featuring GarageBand- an easy-to-use application for creating your own music. Check out the keynote (with the demo by John Mayer) here. MacWorld is about the same size as it was last year so it appears there is still a strong committment to the Mac as well as a sign the economy hasn't worsened. There are tons of good deals to be had on the showroom floor.
If that same rock you've been living under has prevented you from seeing the latest Mars images, check out the first color image. NASA says people have download about 15 terrabytes of images and info so I guess that rock is feeling a bit heavy right now.
January 1, 2004
New York, New York
Everyone, in their life, should make the pilgrimage to New York for New Year's Eve. It's a great time of year to be in New York, if you can handle the chilly weather (which actually wasn't too bad--warmer than California right now) and the masses of people everywhere.
I'd have to say one to the highlights of the trip was our day spent at the Roudabout Theatre on Broadway watching Patrick Stewart and Kyle MacLachlan in Pinter's "The Caretaker". We stopped off at the legendary Stage Deli beforehand to have a Mel Brooks.
Afterwards, we took a trip over to Brooklyn to Milan's Slovak Restaurant. We had some "bryndzove halusky," the Slovak national dish consisting of sheep cheese and gnocchi-like dumplings. Cut the heaviness with some serious Slivovica and you've got yourself a raucus good time.