INTERVIEW DATING

It's been no secret. I've been very vocal about how much I can't stand the gig that I'm in right now. There was a time when things looked promising. We had a great team. I felt challenged by them. Even though being in the design industry is kind of congenial, you know, we all hang out together, share all the new tricks we've discovered in flash or photoshop or whatever. It's still really competitive. Anyway. I've been sending out resumes like a fiend over the last few weeks. Yes I know it's the end of the year and everything is slow but I don't think I can take it here much more. At first I was just sending to anyone. I had 4 interviews set up last week. It didn't take me long to get the lay of the land. I skipped out on the last one at the last minute. I just knew after thinking about it that this place wasn't for me. I sent a polite email saying that I found something else and would be taking my career in a new direction. Ever since then this recruiter has been stalking me. It's extremely bizzar. Some companies I can't even get them to call me back even after they've expressed interest in me. But this one, oh man. It's starting to take on the tone of "why am I not good enough for you". Four days after I declined I got a message on my voice mail almost pleading for me to consider coming in. I have no idea how to respond. It's just so awkward. It's like dating. Too much interest too soon... Bad news.... Too little? Too late. It's a delicate balance.

HERE HE COMES!!!!!

Ok i'm still really really jet lagged from my trip to Hong Kong last week. I will have all that crazy video and picture stuff up here soon. I took five 85min HD tapes of us out there and have to go through it all and import it into final cut yadda yadda..... BUT this really woke my ass up!

I've only been a fan of one Wachowski brothers film. That, of course would be the first Matrix. The other two sequels were too much poop to wade into right now and V for Vendetta, while not directed by the brothers, was poop as well. I am cautiously optimistic about the latest Speed Racer adaptation. A new batch of images just came out that kind of blew me away. Click to enlarge the image above or go HERE to see some more pics and learn more about the film. It will all come down to story. They definitely have the wacky pop anime style down. I just hope they don't have another ponderous poopy script like their last three outings. Could this be a fresh start for the brothers? I hopes so!!!!!

Solty Rei is the shit

I ABSOLUTELY AM IN LOVE WITH THIS SERIES. Many of you know that I am nearly 100% against anything that Disney does and hate that America treats animation as if it's for kids only. I'm sick to death of talking animals and fuzzy moralistic nonsense. I've been a fan of Anime ever since I was a kid. I remember watching Astro boy, Marine Boy, Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets (aka Gotchamon) and Star Blazers (the wave motion gun is THE best weapon of all time). I would rather watch these shows than Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry. Why? BECAUSE THEY HAD PEOPLE doing really cool PEOPLE things. I've never been the biggest Manga fan tho. I really do prefer American comics. Even though American comics have so many of their own issues. I don't know where to start. It's obsession with super heroes is just way too limiting. But I feel the artwork in American comics are... well... just better. And more diverse. ANYWAY, I digress.... ANIME has always been a source of inspiration simply because the Japanese deal with characters and themes in comics/Anime that are just wicked cool. Solty Rei reminds me a lot of Trigun mixed with Leon The Professional. This mix of extreme innocence and maturity represented by the two main characters is very effective. Your first impression may be to write it off. Admittedly the animation is not Ghost in the Shell or Animatrix standards. It's not even Samurai Shamploo, and once you get past that, you have to deal with Solty herself. I can see how most people will scratch their heads and ask, "What the hell IS this?" but if you stick with it for a few episodes.... It's absolutely infectious. Because Solty's innocence is so disarming you immediately write it off as a kids show, and that's exactly what they want you to do. Because this show is as Cyber Punk as they come.

Right or Left brain

click here and find out which are YOU?

Great iPhone skit

Sadly, It didn't air on SNL.

Death of a diner

A little over a week ago the humble little ad agency that I work for decided to lay off about 15 people (of a staff of @ 70). It wasn't so surprising, we had lost a few key accounts but I couldn't help but feel a little freaked out due to my experience over the "dot com" days. The days when they lined us up by the hundreds gave us a fond farewell and returned to our desks to learn that we were locked out of our machines; often with our belongings already kindly packed in boxes. So, needless to say, I kicked it into high gear and started covering my ass by handing out the resumes. By the end of the week I started to relax, knowing that I was proactive in taking fate into my own hands, and decided to visit my good good friend The Rob in my favorite favorite place Philadelphia.

This is The Rob:



The Rob just learned that is is going to be a daddy and I wanted to come down from the Lawn of Brook and drink some nice nice wine. I have much love for the illadelph and the minute I got off the train I felt like my old self. All the places I use to hang out at came flooding back into me bean and The Rob is always very patient with me while he takes me around to all my favorite old haunts. The minute I got into his car we went out and grabbed a beer at a new neighborhood bar and immediately I'm reminded of why I love this cozy little city. The small streets and brick houses are brimming with neat little eateries just waiting to be discovered. After that, another treat as we went to THE BEST little italian joint in northern liberties called il cantuccio. During our scrumptious meal and with my eyeballs starting to float from the bevy of yummy yummy vino The Rob declares that we must depart or we'd miss The Australian Pink Floyd Show, the only world touring Pink Floyd tribute act. They even played for David Gilmor whom I can only suppose gave them a little pink pig stamp of approval. I was skeptical. wouldn't you be? but they were GREAT! Sounded just like em. I was shocked.








They had it all. Great sound Great light show. In true philly style The Rob and I showed up late to the Tower but got prime seats anyway. As we walked out I was struck by how long it had been since I'd been to the Tower to see a show. Was it Primus with Fishbone when I had the chicken pocks and my friends didn't want to touch me? NO it was Jane's Addiction during the Ritual tour! We were all tripping our balls off and Perry got really pissed that the crowd wasn't getting up off the seats and decided to walk off the stage before the show was over. Of course there was a riot. I remember stumbling out into the street just in time to watch 50 or so people tipping over this huge tour bus while the scene quickly filled with dozens of patrol cars. Lights flashing, Ah the good ol days. The Rob and I headed over to another old place that's trying to make a bit of a revival but we quickly left in lieu of checking out the newly refurbished Silk City. Now, Silk City diner is a STAPLE of philly night life. At least it was in my day. At 2 am there would be about two places you'd go to get some grub before heading out to the Black Banana or Revival (Two long gone after hours clubs). One was the south street diner the other was Silk. When I left the illadelph it was just starting to undergo some huge changes. JC Dobbs turned into the Pontiac Grill. They opened a Johny Rockets on SOUTH STREET (ugh). They were going to close the Troc and micro breweries were popping up EVERYWHERE. ONE thing I thought would NEVER ever change was Silk. But it did. and that makes me feel:



They turned it into another hipster hideaway. no more gravey fries. I ordered a BLT. They now make it with wild boar bacon and fried green tomatoes. It was way too greasy and the neon red lights they have in there now don't make it go down any easier. Next to the diner was something I guess you could call a club. just a tiny dance floor with a little bar. And it was really nice to. They kept the two areas separate from each other. But now it's all one. They blast the muic in the diner now and you can't even hear your friends talk. You use to be able to use the place as a great little club house. A little rest bit where you could rendezvous with all the other philly party people as you chow down quickly on some good old diner food before moving on. You can get Wild boar bacon bits with shee shee crap anywhere. give me back my gravy fries. An era has passed.

Past to Present

I wanted to post some links in case anyone has missed what I've been up to. Most of you should know that I like to make little movies and from now on this blog is where I will be posting them. But for now let me get you up to speed:

This is a link to my tokyo05 vid

This is a link to my montreal07 vid

this is a link to a little short film I did with my friend dave

aaaaand last but not least, me and some key members of the green tea express entered the AAFilmlab 72 hour film shootout this year and finished 11th out of 72 (I think). I was quite pleased that we did so well considering that we had no idea what we were doing... The rules of the competition: you have 72 hours to make a short film of at least but not more than 5 min. They tell you on a Friday what subjects or themes you must include in the short and you must submit the product that monday. It was great fun and I can't wait to do it again.

This is a link to DELGADO

Tokyo Stormtrooper

Hi boys and girls. I just had to share this with you all. eeet made me laugh.

Radiohead

OOOOOOOK so I do like radiohead. They've put out some really really great stuff. Can't say they've really had a single bad album. But I'm kind of lukewarm about this outing. In Rainbows kind of disappoints. BUT I'm absolutely addicted to this song! There are about 3 maybe 4 other tunes that are kind of remarkable but the rest seems phoned in. The great thing about it is that they released it online first and you can pay whatever you think it's worth. Very cool business model if you ask me. Sadly, I wish the content was better. You can get the album here

My first post of blah

This isn't going to be monumental by any stretch of the imagination. I'm at work right now listening to the new Radiohead download. I have to say it's kind of blah. I should be working on my portfolio but I am also kind of blah about that as well. It's getting dark out early now and that makes me feel kind of blah and there's nothing good online right now which makes me wonder if the interwebs are feeling kind of blah too. SO if i'm going to start this off on the good foot I should introduce you to the crew I've been hanging with since I've moved to NYC. Below is the first video I made of everyone in action. This was a while ago mind you and I shot it on my Treo 650. The focus of the evening was Tony as he was doing a photo shoot as a Bond villain for an office party. The Green Tea Express as I like to call this brilliant group is quite a talented bunch. I'll be posting more of our exploits later.