Barcelona and NYC, Something Different

I could go on and on about why I haven't been writing much (the short of it is that I'm busy working), but instead I'll post this itinerary, because looking forward to a trip motivates me. I'm going to be doing something different with the video blog I produce in Barcelona and perhaps in NYC. I'm also very open to suggestions on things to do, both touristy things and more avant-garde video blog suggestions. Anything you'd like me to do while I'm there?

Download This Song and Enjoy

Jason Kottke linked to a $3.99 album, "LP" by Discovery on Amazon the other day and I bought it simply because it was so cheap and he referred to Postal Service in his one-sentence review. I've really been enjoying the album LP by Discovery the last two days, so I wanted to share this track (free download) I was listening to as I drove home from the midnight screening of Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince, which, by the way, was a great movie.

(By the way, that is by no means the best song on the album.)

Fake Artificial Intelligence Poses A Real Moral Problem

I have this idea for a robotic art-piece. I think it would make for a truly sensational work of art, but I don't actually have the skills to make it, so I'll just go ahead and tell you about it, and free the idea.

Picture this:

A robot, with big cute eyes, puppy-like, extremely large, with pupils that dilate. Imagine the cutest puppy you've ever seen, looking up at you. Now imagine that puppy as a type of beautiful little monkey, infant like. Under the skin of this furry little baby monkey with giant white eyes and dark dilating pupils, is a robot skeleton wired with an outer mesh of pressure sensors. When you stroke the creature's fur it "coos" and "purrs" and tells you, "I love you SO much, don't ever leave me, I love you, I love you," in the voice of a human toddler. It is programmed to cuddle gently when it comes in contact with a human. However, if the creature is struck with a hand, or a stick, or if it is dropped, the pressure sensors under it's fur prompt a response of a cry of pain and the creature looks up at the human who struck it and says, "oww, I thought you loved me, why would you do that?" And it "wimpers," until it is stroked again. On the back of the creature is a big, red, switch, it is an on-off switch. While the switch is in the "on" position the creature is animated and performs the tasks for which it was programmed. However, if the switch is switched to the "off" position, the creature will turn off and will never be able to be turned on again. Once the switch is switched to "off," all of the circuitry of the robot is shorted and fried. If the creature senses that you are reaching for the switch, a response is prompted by the robot, to say, "NO! Please don't kill me, please don't touch my switch, I love you!" As the switch is switched to the "off" position, the robot will "cry" and "choke" until it's circuits are fried.

While the robot is not sentient (it is only a machine made of wires and mechanics with a fuzzy fabric outer shell), it will no doubt prompt human emotions, because it is so life-like. Could this creature then be considered a living being?

Reminder For Tomorrow

I wrote a short story, and before that, I got in an argument with a bunch of people who deny climate change, not only do they deny climate change, they deny human involvement in any kind of environmental crisis. So many things to discuss. Coming soon.

Oh The Comments Are Going To Be Nasty On This One

It's the video I shot in Masai Mara, Kenya, where the lion picks up my camera and tosses it in the grass. Yes, the title is sensationalist. Yes, the camera survived. But hey, Lonely Planet spotted the video and bought the rights, so there you have it. Check the Lonely Planet Youtube page for the video and read the comments, they're sure to be vile.

You've gotta have thick skin to be a filmmaker.

Rough Intro To Show Pitch - "Backpacker's Guide"

Rough Cut - Opening Sequence from Jonathan Nicholas on Vimeo.

Jonathan Nicholas, our talented D.P., edited this together in Los Angeles. We're currently working on putting together a show-pitch using the footage we gathered from our trip to Australia. More to come soon.

(P.S. I feel like saying something in my defense, because this could easily appear narcissistic. There were two of us, one held the camera, the other was in front of it. It's that simple.)

All Over The Internet These Days

Two different times, once in 2007 and once in 2008, I traveled to Kenya and India to shoot a television pilot for Tammy Lane Productions. They're still working on putting together the show and recently sent me a promo for the first episode. Also, my face is all over it.

Solving The Global Environmental Crisis

(click image to make larger)

Please give us more Bill, we miss you.

Alluded to Show Pitch

Here is a little video that Jonathan (D.P.) put together as a test of a style he's working on. It looks really good in my opinion!

Multi-Exposure Test from Jonathan Nicholas on Vimeo.

25 Was A Good Year

I tend to think of years, not New Years to New Years, but my birthday to my birthday. I don't think this is solely egotistical, I think it has to do more with the programming of my brain by elementary school summer vacation. You see, my birthday is in early June, nearly perfectly coinciding with the start of summer. It also meant that school was always out before my birthday, so there was never any mention of my special day in class. This has nothing to do with anything other than me wanting to vent about the injustice of never being celebrated for being born whilst in school. It made me a more humble person. Thank God for that.

I'm currently working with a collaborating partner on a new television concept. Can we agree that TV has taken a turn for the worse in the last decade? Do you remember Mister Wizard, Jaques Costeau, nature documentaries without a sensationalist agenda? Where has this programming gone? While there are obvious exceptions - Planet Earth, LOST, Arrested Development; there are good shows being made, but there are hundreds of new channels streaming worthless moving images with tinny audio. We have a strong concept for a classic kind of show, a global show. And we have interest!

We shot a movie and it is being edited. It's a short film, but it's epic in scale. The hope is to take the short and use it to sell the feature-length script. And then to be given the opportunity to direct it.

I'm writing, short-stories, essays and screenplays. I'm editing the hours and hours of footage from around the world that I've accrued over the past few years of traveling. I'm learning how to be a better filmmaker. And I'm working with clients who I enjoy, who challenge me and who provide me with an income.

I'm also working out, running, tanning, watching movies and informative videos and reading, a lot. I hate to be too positive here, but it feels great to be human!

Fascinating Documentary On Japanese High-school Baseball

Three years ago, I wrote about a documentary called Kokoyakyu, the story of hundreds of Japanese High school baseball teams competing against each other in a national tournament. It is a beautiful and well-crafted documentary and I've never been able to see if in it's entirety, until now! It's currently streaming for free on Hulu.com. If you love documentary films and you have time, check it out, it's fantastic.




If you watch nothing else, forward to the last five minutes, it's beautiful.

Well, I'm Going To Barcelona

Last month, my older brother got married in Barcelona. My parents went, but I was in New Zealand, so I didn't get to attend the wedding. His wife is Catalonian, so he will eventually become a citizen and is getting a Spanish work-Visa. Before he starts work, he wants me to come and visit him since right now, he just sits at home or rides his bike aimlessly around the city during the day. So, using 80,000 airline miles, I booked a 10-day trip, July 27 - August 5, to Barcelona. I'm excited to go see my brother and get a peak into his new life as a Spaniard.

I hope that LonelyPlanet.tv will accept my video pitch and commission me to make a fabulous video while I'm there *wink-wink*.

Rock Paper Scissors Competition In New Zealand

It's far too late on a Friday to write anything, or for me to expect you to read anything. So here is a story that tells itself. When we were in New Zealand in May, we went to a Rock Paper Scissors competition at a pub called "The Bog" in Christchurch. I thought this was a swell idea until all of us lost in the first round.
Not on did I get beaten, she rubbed it in my face. Ah sweet humiliation.

(Special thanks to the referee, Andy Farmer for letting us use his house as a location on More Than It Is.)

Joining Infinite Summer

For some reason, I made a snap decision to purchase David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" on my Kindle tonight. I was going through some posts on Kottke.org and I came across a reminder that an online book club had just begun called Infinite Summer. Here is the mission statement of the website:

THE CHALLENGE

Join endurance bibliophiles from around the world in reading Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009, June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages¹ ÷ 92 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.

I'm a notoriously slow reader, but I'm diving in headfirst.

Are We Doomed?

The leading climate scientist in the world (NASA’s chief climate scientist), James Hansen, claims that it's almost already too late to do anything to curb the devastation to come from climate change. He's the leading scientist on the matter and he says we're doomed if we don't shut down all coal power plants in the world within two decades. I assure you, this is not the plan (immediate shut-downs of these plants) of our government, nor many other governments who use coal-fired plants to generate their electricity. James Hansen is supposed to be our authority on this matter and he's saying the next few generations are doomed if we don't make immediate drastic changes. And yet very little is being done.

My question is why do most of us not feel very guilty?

Running Goal Update #3

Running is one of my favorite mind-clearing activities. Last year I was running up to twenty miles at a time and up to forty miles in a week. After a strange achilles injury in the early Spring of 2009, I shifted my workout focus and decided to put on as much muscle-mass as possible before acting in our movie in May of 2009. For two months, I stopped running and focused on weight-training. I ended up putting on about twenty pounds of muscle in two-months. Now that the movie is over and done with, I'm getting back on my running regimen, except that this time around, I'll be focusing on more speed work and less distance and endurance. So far, the longest I've run is two miles, coming in with a time of 15:58. My last five, first-mile times, were 7:35, 7:55, 7:30, 7:23 and 7:27. My goal is to run a 3.2 mile race in under eighteen minutes before 2010.