Freyburg

Despite being identified with cutting-edge effects, rampaging dinosaurs and menacing tripods, Steven Speilberg is at heart a throwback to the old school of filmmaking. In an interview with Ain’t it Cool News and a bevy of other sites sent down to the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Spielberg explained how he refused to shoot the film digitally, how he says “No” to George Lucas, and how he still cuts his films on a Movieola. Having said that, he does concede that the film’s effects will be “70 percent practical and 30 percent digital.”

Author and filmmaker Jim Munroe was in Vancouver on September 23rd for Vidfest, a digital/new media conference. He was here to show Infest Wisely, a “lo fi sci fi” movie that replaces expensive special effects with ideas, and yelling crew members with collaboration between seven teams to create one feature film. On a personal note, I tried to cut this with Final Cut Pro at first, but then I realized I was unnecessarily adding B-Roll and other holdovers from my TV editing days, when all anyone really wants is to hear what Jim has to say. So I dipped into iMovie and got this video done in about an hour. While I’m going to stick with FCP for documentaries and shorts, iMovie would seem to be the way to go for fast videoblogging.

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I love it when people get away with sneaky living arrangements that don’t really hurt anyone but get tighter-sphinctered folk bent out of shape because rules aren’t being followed. So I was quite pleased to read about a bunch of artists who built a loft apartment on the sly inside a Providence, RI mall and lived there for years. Of course, calling the squat “art” is kind of a dodge, but it’s still pretty impressive that they were able to pull it off in the first place. They also documented their shenanigans on a website.

I love it when people get away with sneaky living arrangements that don’t really hurt anyone but get tighter-sphinctered folk bent out of shape because rules aren’t being followed. So I was quite pleased to read about a bunch of artists who built a loft apartment on the sly inside a Providence, RI mall and lived there for years. Of course, calling the squat “art” is kind of a dodge, but it’s still pretty impressive that they were able to pull it off in the first place. They also documented their shenanigans on a website.

A high watermark for both the classic and new series, Utopia is an hour of top-rate Who, and the Three comment on it mightily, including some off-color joking about by Warren (Mr. Jacobi, the remark was meant as a joke, so please call off those lawyers, there’s a good fellow.) Listen to us gush over Utopia…and oh yeah, a bit or two of news might get covered as well. (feed, web, direct download)

Update: Chris caught a glitch at the end of the original recording, so I’ve fixed that now.

A high watermark for both the classic and new series, Utopia is an hour of top-rate Who, and the Three comment on it mightily, including some off-color joking about by Warren (Mr. Jacobi, the remark was meant as a joke, so please call off those lawyers, there’s a good fellow.) Listen to us gush over Utopia…and oh yeah, a bit or two of news might get covered as well. (feed, web, direct download)

Update: Chris caught a glitch at the end of the original recording, so I’ve fixed that now.

Rolf Potts is an excellent travel writer and a advocate of vagabonding. On a recent trip back to Tahiland, he heard tell that an old Burmese friend of his may have died, which launched him into this article about how adventure travel that’s sponsored by some Western company is more about fancy gear than actually understanding a place or culture. Living somewhere remote and exotic takes a whole lot more gumption, but barely ever gets covered by the media.

According to Seymour Hersh, the Bush Administration has gotten it through their heads that the American people aren’t buying the “OMG they has the nukes” argument a second time around, and have shifted their strategy to surgical strikes on Revolutionary Guard facilities in Tehran and elsewhere. I guess that beats tactical nukes being lobbed all over the country, but it’s still going to unleash a torrent of terror throughout the Middle East and elsewhere. Way to go, Cheney!

Rolf Potts is an excellent travel writer and a advocate of vagabonding. On a recent trip back to Tahiland, he heard tell that an old Burmese friend of his may have died, which launched him into this article about how adventure travel that’s sponsored by some Western company is more about fancy gear than actually understanding a place or culture. Living somewhere remote and exotic takes a whole lot more gumption, but barely ever gets covered by the media.

American forces might have had Osama Bin Laden pinned down in Tora Bora, again, and lost him, again. This could all be speculation and conjecture on the part of intelligence analysts, but…c’mon, America! You have the same guy cornered in the same place, and you lose him twice?