Hornet piece

Nice piece by HORNET INC. for Wendy’s. I love the use of archival Beatlemania footage mixed with the hand-cut feel of modern faces. Nice touches when the original hands pass over the new faces. Well integrated, and different from the norm.

And there’s lots of bacon in there.

The Eschaton

Now this is a creative blog theme. If only it were on a Mac. But still, The Eschaton is built like Windows Notepad. The File menu even works. Very clever.

*** UPDATE – you can make it Mac-friendly. Look under “View” for the Mac theme. Ahh, there you have it. And yes, it’s funny to see him slam the commenter.

Human CD Holder

I’ve been buying more CDs as of late. I know you can get the whole thing cheaper at the iTunes store, but I just really love the packaging. I’ll rip it and put it on my iPod. But I still love to buy a physical product. I think it makes me respect it more. And I tend to follow the philosophy that if I can’t respect the entire album an artist makes, I shy away from their music. There’s so much music out there, I’d rather invest in an artist who I can fully get on board with. Maybe I should invest in some of these Human CD Holders. Clever.

Grey wedding

This past weekend, Meg and I headed down to the coast for Steven and Pattie (now both Grey)’s wedding. It was awesome, fun, and I’m honored to be a part of it. It was the second wedding I’ve performed. I got the call from these guys a few weeks ago.

Them: “Uh, are you at church today?”
Me: “yep”
Them: “Can we talk?”
Me: “sure”
Them: “OK, we’ll explain then.”

Now we’ve been talking about this wedding for a while. It was going to be in September. So I was curious as to why we were discussing it, and why all secretive. Turns out, these two made it several months into preparing the perfect, standard, traditional wedding. And they weren’t enjoying it. They were creating what they thought was expected (standard fare, local location, etc.). They decided to drop back, punt, and try something different. Why waste money on something just because it’s expected?

Honestly, it’s the thing that most engaged couples say they’d like to do, but no one ever has the guts to follow through. (me included).

So, they canned the traditional idea, rented a couple of houses down at Edisto (on the SC coast below Charleston) and 20 or so of us (wedding party, couple, family, photographer, minister) headed out for a low-stress, fun weekend.

The ceremony last right at 15 minutes. No music. Just the couple, me, and two pairs of bridesmaids and groomsmen. It was timed to start about 8 minutes before sunrise. Just light enough to see.

Afterward, we ascended on the beach house where they prepared a huge, wonderful breakfast. The wedding cake? Oh yes, it was cooked on site… two large stacks of pancakes (sweetened with molasses and some nutmeg), covered in a very stiff whipped cream. Amazing concept, and a great use of wedding funds. Instead of hiring an expensive caterer, the best man and the family pitched in to cook. And it was fun.

Instead of a wedding that will be hazy in a few weeks, these guys had a memorable weekend we’ll not soon forget. Thanks for letting us be a part of the festivities. Here are a few other select images. The rest you can see on my Flickr.

The groom, at about 5:30am before the wedding.

Will and Kelly Rodes did a great job with the photography (I’ve seen a few of the 8GB of photos taken, amazing).

We’re not nervous here, we’re just really sleepy.

(Wedding) Party on the beach

The house they used had an awesome 3rd level crow’s nest that overlooked the island. If I could get wireless, I’d move my laptop up there and never leave. It was amazing. I’m trying to figure out how to install a room like this in my house. The view wouldn’t be quite as nice, but I’d be able to get a clear line of sight to my neighborhood.

(Chairs in the crow’s nest, or where my office should be)

(Meg spotting seagulls from the heights)

Fake-LOMO

I was reading up on this Lomo-style Photoshop script. Read up at Flickr: Discussing Fake-LOMO Adobe Photoshop Script in Technique. The results:

Before:
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After:
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Why is it that contrasty, overdriven images please the eye so much? And by the way, I married way out of my league.

ProLost: Color Makes the Movie

Why color correct? (or, what is color correction?) Also called grading, it’s the process of changing the tones of video (or film) to create a mood. Read about it on wikipedia. ProLost has a nice article (with pictures!) on the color correction used on Transporter 2. Good flick, and looking at the amount of color correction you really get a sense of how important this task really is. Tedious, yes, but it’s the extra layer of detail that goes into larger pictures that helps to make them great. I use After Effects for this mostly, and Final Cut has some tools for color correction, and especially with the release of Color, their new grading suite, it really justifies the time that should be put into grading an image.

Super Mario Papercraft: World 7-3

You played it back in ’85, now you can make your own. Super Mario Papercraft: World 7-3.

The Wall Piano

Fascinating, it’s a wall piano. It appears to be microphones that detect the force of your hit, and changes the pitch of the piano accordingly. It’s creative and innovative, and causes me to ask the question, how can the church use this? Often, we (and I mean me) limit ourselves to the media outlets we’ve already established. Video, print, spoken work on stage, musicians in a rock band. Ingredients that work very well. But can we push them further to create a more lasting impression on someone.

I guarantee that anyone who played with that piano went home talking about it. And by the nature of its interactivity, people around it are intrigued.

Designgraphik

Designgraphik just uploaded a boatload of images from the youworkforthem days. Awesome.

virb / grey wedding

I’m still not into the social networking lifestyle, but I feel compelled to follow it. Therefore, I borrowed a theme and cleaned up virb.com/avclub, included some Twitter and Flickr (and avclub.us) integration. So now, all of my virtual presences are in one place. I guess I should have know there were themes you could use out there. I’ll try and rebuild the graphics to make it more avclub like in the future.

On another note, this weekend is the wedding of Steven and Pattie, my second to officiate. If you come to NewSpring, you’ve seen Steven’s work, as he’s one of our directors.

It’s going to be a very casual deal on the beach at sunrise, followed by a massive amount of pancakes in a nearby beach house. Now, I know I didn’t get to take a camera phone photo of the last wedding (ie. Preacher-cam)… too many new variables. But this time, it may happen (I think Steven’s encouraging it). If nothing else, he’s pushing for pyro.

Watch the Twitter feed for the play-by-play.

Welcome to Google Calendar

Google Calendar is now available for mobile use. Point your mobile web browser to that address and view remotely. My mind is officially blown.

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OK X: A Tribute to OK Computer

Stereogum posts a tribute to one of my favorite all time albums, OK Computer. stereogum presents…OK X: A Tribute to OK Computer. All mp3s are available for download. As I’ve heard, you can’t touch the genius of the original, but I’m at least spending the bandwidth to download and try it out.

HOA

MK12′s History of America is finally ready! Can’t wait to see what the 4 year fuss is all about.

photo catch-up

I’ve been doing a lot lately, and as you would expect, have documented it all with image. I now give you my past 7 days, in picture.

Visited the offices of Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. This place is the epitome of high style. Look at their waiting area:

I discovered that if you microwave a half-boiled egg to finish it up, it sounds like a shotgun.

We made falafel:

My church now contains a fountain (and cowboys, for our Summer Blockbuster for the kids):

I’m teaching Gardner how to box:

In cleaning out my gmail, I dug up a nice classic picture of the McD, taken by Shua:

Last Sunday at NewSpring, the Production Team created a new game with magnets and the metal production whiteboard. The name is still undecided, but we’re leaning towards “widget toss.” The rule book is officially being written. Expect a tournament sometime around Fall of 2007.

Finally, this one takes some explanation. We were hanging out with friends the other night and someone noticed this bear in the corner. It’s TJ Berrytales. (think a modern Teddy Ruxpin). He talks, moves, sings. We found that he has an opposable thumb (er, paw) where you can put accessories. We thought, sure, why not add a butcher knife? Great idea. As he got to talking, the knife starts swinging around. It’s like a little furry Chucky. (ps, no one tell Gardner, I don’t want him getting any ideas).

Starz Bunny Club Exclusive: Napoleon Dynamite

Happy Tuesday. Now go enjoy Napoleon Dynamite enacted by bunnies.

updates

I updated the sketchbook today. Why? I say why not? And I’m updating my Illustrator skills with some spare minutes I have.

Tun3r

Don’t you love sites with improper grammar as their URL? I just came across Tun3r. Always looking for a new method for digesting web music, it may come in handy.

1-18-08

After watching the Transformers this past week, there was a trailer that intrigued me. I’d almost forgotten it in the aftermath of the movie. It was a strange piece, with no title. They did mention it’s release date, and that it is from JJ Abrams. On the web today, I found that there is a Lost-like network of sites that shroud some vague details about it. 1-18-08 is a strange flash site that I’m sure will evolve over time.

Then there’s this peculiar blog. Who is this Ethan Haas guy?

Gunslingers open

We launched the Gunslingers series today. It came together well, and integrates with the western-themed Summer Blockbuster our kid’s group is putting together. Please enjoy the opener:

Gunslingers open (quicktime, 1.4MB)

Special thanks to Sandy Gibbs, our resident cowboy, and to Wal-Mart for still selling toy cap guns (amidst the plethora of Nerf sponge dart guns)

Gunslingers, starts tomorrow

I had the chance to work in an old favorite to the Gunslinger’s open. Lightwave, you’ve found your way in to just a few pieces lately, and I promise you’ll see a few more. 3D is something I’d love to use more often, but as with anything, I have to justify the time spent vs. the payoff. 3D, great as it is, is a serious time vacuum. And you thought After Effects renders were long. But it’s one of my stated goals this year to utilize Lightwave more, therefore I’ll make it a point to make it happen.

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