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Spike Jonze Lost Film

Nov 16, 2009

Part 1 of 2 – A film by Spike Jonze

An intimate look at Al Gore and his family during the former Vice President’s 2000 Presidential campaign.

Part 1 of 2 – This film by Spike Jonze shows an intimate look at Al Gore and his family during the former Vice President’s 2000 Presidential campaign.

Movember is the month given to November where men start clean shaven and commit to growing a Moustache to raise funds and awareness for men’s cancers – specifically prostate and testicular cancer. While growing a Mo is left to the guys, Mo Sistas (women who support their guys) form an important part of Movember by recruiting Mo Bros, helping to raise funds and attending the highly anticipated Gala Partés.

50 Years of Space

Oct 17, 2009

Inspiration

The beautiful infographic “50 Years of Space Exploration” [nationalgeographic.com] shows exactly the content denoted in its title. A delimited line on the bottom shows the relative distances in interstellar space, and the current positions of our most distant spacecrafts, such as the Voyager 1 and Pioneer 10. However, the most persuasive part is the nice visual accumulation of fly paths of historic space missions, which clearly shows our past interest in Mars, the moon, the sun and Venus, and the relatively few visits to asteroids, comets and other, more distant, planets.

The image is also available in a more user-friendly and downloadable format on Flickr.

The beautiful infographic “50 Years of Space Exploration” [nationalgeographic.com] shows exactly the content denoted in its title. A delimited line on the bottom shows the relative distances in interstellar space, and the current positions of our most distant spacecrafts, such as the Voyager 1 and Pioneer 10. The most persuasive part is the nice visual accumulation of fly paths of historic space missions, which clearly shows our past interest in Mars, the moon, the sun and Venus, and the relatively few visits to asteroids, comets and other, more distant, planets.

The image is also available in a more user-friendly and downloadable format on Flickr.

Coco Caroline

Oct 09, 2009

Happenings

Coco Caroline Raykovich opted out of the Matrix and into the real world yesterday, October 7, 2009 at 7:26 PM. She weighed in at 8lbs, 13oz.

Inventing LA

Sep 29, 2009

Inspiration

There is a great new documentary on KCET called Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times, a documentary by Emmy-winning filmmaker Peter Jones, tells the story of the Los Angeles Times and the city’s most powerful family. For four generations, the Chandlers wielded unique influence through their newspaper. In their pursuit of personal agendas and civic ideals, they built the city of the future, but also exposed the dark side of the American dream.

The fim interviews many local historians and scholars including CalARTS and Art Center College of Design MDP thesis advisor Norman Klein.

The National Parks

Sep 29, 2009

Inspiration

THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA’S BEST IDEA is a six-episode series directed by Ken Burns and written and co-produced by Dayton Duncan.

I was amazed by the awesomeness of this documentary series. Having lived and worked on a National Park one summer, I could identify with the passion of the people involved and the importance what was created for us.

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Perfect Pitch

Sep 28, 2009

Inspiration

Demo or die, as they say. Perfect Pitch – The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business by John Steel. This book is a must read for people who regularly create pitches for business of any kind. As someone who’s created many presentations, it’s refreshing to read someone who really understands both technical and psychological perspectives of the pitch.

Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot defend themselves or run away. And few destroyers of trees ever plant any; nor can planting avail much toward restoring our grand aboriginal giants. It took more than three thousand years to make some of the oldest of the Sequoias, trees that are still standing in perfect strength and beauty, waving and singing in the mighty forests of the Sierra.

John Muir

Sep 28, 2009

Quotes

LA Fires

Sep 25, 2009

Some crazy photos from the LA Times of my cousin Keith fighting the fires here in So Cal recently. As Captain of his unit he was asked by the press a few years ago what it was like to fight these big fires. “Like staring into the mouth of a dragon”. Supposedly his crew teased him for months about his rather poetic response after which he vowed never to give any more future statements. But looking at all the photos from the last couple of weeks, you could say it illustrates the intensity pretty accurately.

When I lived at the edge of the mountains in Altadena, my dog and I explored every canyon and waterfall possible on our weekend biking and hiking trips. The rains, flooding and mudslides of 2005 massively changed the topography up there, in a good way. I’m afraid it won’t be the same for a very long time.

Photos by Francine Orr, Luis Sinco.

It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them... You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.