This may be hard to believe but the video below is all completely CGI.  All computer animated.  That includes the elements that you don’t eve see such as the light and the wind.  This just blows me away.

I recommend watching this in full screen!  It wont be as ‘sharp’ but you gotta see the detail in this thing.

The artists name that created all of this is Alex Roman.  Here’s his description..

A FULL-CG animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal.  [Done with 3dsmax, Vray, AfterEffects and Premiere.]

These pics are from some time ago back in the mid 90′s.  I’ve been scanning some old film prints in lately and just had to share these.

This was an abandoned field worker housing area right next to Lake Paris, CA.  Check the MAP->http://bit.ly/9XGx2e

I can’t remember who discovered this place but it was seriously awesome, and even the cops didn’t mind us playing there. A couple of times we had some actually pull up and watch us play!

My favorite story = One time we showed up on a Saturday morning and found an abandoned car parked right in the middle of the main alley.   We screamed out and even checked EVERY house and no one was there.  So someone yelled “LIGHT IT UP”…and we did.  That car looked like Willy Wonka vomit by the time we were done splattering it with color.  About 2 minutes after we ceased fire, some drunken meth head comes crawling up out of the bushes, stumbles over and gets in.  He fires it up and starts to drive away but only gets about 50 yards until he has to get out and use a handkerchief to try and make a peep hole to see through the caked on paint.  None of us said a damn word for a good 60 second count after he finally got back in and took off.  We ERUPTED with laughter for at least 15 minutes solid before any words were spoken.

I seriously miss that place.  About 6 months after these shots were taken the county came in and bull dozed the building and cleared it completely out. 

View photos at SmugMug

Or check them out on my SmugMug site!  [GO]–>

Ok, so if you don’t know, I’m a huge fan of MMA…which stands for Mixed Martial Arts if you don’t know.  And if that still doesn’t help, how about UFC?  Now you know what I’m talking about?  I won’t go into the sport right now so if you don’t really have any interest in it, please don’t worry about.  My thoughts on it sure won’t get you any more interested!

We consistency have UFC viewing parties and I’ve kind of gained a reputation for being…well, the “annoying play by play commentator” as seen in this article on 6 People Who Ruin UFC Parties.  So Ashley said, why don’t you start an MMA blog since you like to squawk about it so much.  So what the hell….I’ll write some stuff, why not.

If you were one of the ‘interested’ hop on over and check it out.  Leave some comments to tell me what you think and be sure to subscribe.  Any recommendations will be eagerly accepted.  Please!
[GO] –>  Dicks ‘MMA’ Dwelling

After watching this I now know that I tie my shoes exactly like I shoot a basketball.  Granny style.

Why did you steer me so wrong grandma!!!!

Reef Knot FTW!

My mom sent Royce a lil Christmas gift this year. As you’ll see towards the end…he just hates it. Note, he played with it for another 15 minutes after filming until he was tired and panting like Michael Jackson outside a Kindercare.  Oh, too soon?

It’s Christmas time again!  You know what that means!  The kids get a TON of toys and we get wine and spirits aplenty!  We had a great dinner and a great time over at my sisters house.  Here’s some pics from the night…hit the link at the bottom to see the rest!

Ok I read ‘motorcycle’ and ‘rocket launcher’ and I’m in!!!

Sometimes when driving in a car I would reach out the window and throw an ice cube forward (or what ever biodegradable food object I might have handy) and it would feel like a rocket launching away from the car at my enemy who merged in front of me without signaling!  Of course, with my weak ass arm our car easily caught up with the cube and would crack onto the windshield.

Well not for this guy!!

Practical and legal?  Meh, not so much.

Bad ass?  YES PLEASE!

For this years Thanksgiving Ashley & I jumped into a flying metal tube and headed out to her family’s in Michigan!  We stayed with her parents in a lil town called New Boston.  Which is “down river” (from Detroit) as they say.  We relaxed, we partied, we ate, and by god we got to see some hockey!  Not just the Red Wings (pro team) but also her nephew Brendan’s little mite team which is actually coached by her brother, Mark.

All in all I had a fantastic time and was overwhelmed by the hospitality from everyone…well except that one drunken outburst during the rowdy Apples to Apples game.  Yeah, you know who your are!    That was a lot of fun!

Here’s all the VIDEOS:

The rest of the VIDEOS are here:
Me getting a turn.
Dropping the sweet potato’s into the fire!
Brendan’s hockey game:  Period 1 / Period 2 / Period 3

Enjoy!

In the right hands, a picture camera with HD video functionality….can make the crappiest places look like somewhere you NEED to visit.

There’s been a ton of HD video’s coming out of the recent SLR type camera’s and most have them have been amazing.  Then there’s this one, shot by Khalid Mohtaseb using a Canon 5D Mark II.  It’s a montage that he filmed in Egypt & Lebanon and quite frankly it ranks in my new top 3!  Enjoy…

Egypt / Lebanon Montage from Khalid Mohtaseb on Vimeo.

Ok, WOW!  Look how gorgeous this sci-fi\samurai movie looks! It comes from a new Irish, yea I said it, Irish director named Gary Shore. He apparently hasn’t done much besides tv commercials and other tid bits, but it looks like he really wants to wow us with his first feature film. The trailer has indeed wow’d me, so mission accomplished there. Now we’ll just have to wait and see if this movie flows well enough with a descent story and hopefully some acting beyond just flying around on wires in front of green screens.

The Cup of Tears film trailer. Dir. Gary Shore from Gary Shore on Vimeo.