Partly Cloudy: A Lonely Cloud Creates Hazardous Babies for His Stork-Partner

Partly Cloudy is a delightful animated short film by Pixar Animation Studios, which was named as one of 10 films to advance in the voting process for the “Animated Short Films” category for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.  The list is international, with movies representing production companies from Australia, France, America, Canada and other countries.

In Partly Cloudy, the storks get their babies from way up high in the stratosphere, where cloud people sculpt babies from clouds and bring them to life.  However, in this story there is a real dilemma.  Gus, a lonely and insecure gray cloud, is a master at creating “dangerous” babies: crocodiles, porcupines, rams and even much worse.  Gus’s beloved creations are truly works of art, but they’re more than a handful for his loyal delivery-stork partner, Peck.  As Gus’s creations become more and more rambunctious, Peck’s job gets harder and harder.  How on earth will Peck manage to handle both his hazardous cargo and his friend’s fiery temperament?

Partly Cloudy: A Lonely Cloud Creates Hazardous Babies for His Stork-Partner

Please Share This:

John Mayer: Just Half of My Heart

Seven-time Grammy Award winning musician John Mayer’s new album Battle Studies was released on Tuesday.  And if Mayer has ever been successful at putting all of his pessimism about romance into a single album, then Battle Studies is the one.  “It’s one record about one thing,” Mayer said.  The underlying emotional tone that runs throughout the songs in the album is one of discomfort with close relationships and a relatively pervasive dark, dysphoric  mood.  Most of the songs in his album convey a sense of skepticism about love, lovers and anyone looking and passing judgment from the outside in.

Mayer was interviewed by Steven Daley this week in Details Magazine:

Daley wrote, “From the opening track, the U2-redolent Heartbreak Warfare, it’s clear that the musician who ingratiated his way into the nation’s heart with soft-serve hits like Your Body Is a Wonderland and Daughters has entered a new phase.  The record revives the spirit of that most maligned of 20th-century art forms, adult-oriented rock, channeling the likes of Peter Gabriel, Sting, and Dire Straits, and reflects how assured Mayer has become.  Battle Studies may well force some of his detractors to admit that the man they used to view as Dave Matthews’ cocky little nephew has grown up some.”

Mayer described his own thoughts about having to cope with his public face as a celebrity and with his detractors in the media, as opposed to Mayer the musician: “What do you think is stronger: a dozen press articles that say I’m this guy, or a record with 10 songs on it that you enjoy?  Which has greater staying power?  At the end of the day, all I owe the world in exchange for my dumb face being in their lives are the 10 songs every couple years that are hopefully of greater magnitude than somebody’s press story about me.”

John Mayer: Who Says (Battle Studies)

John Mayer: Heartbreak Warfare (Battle Studies), The Beacon Theatre, NYC

Please Share This:

Dreaming of Lucid Living: A Fascinating Performance/Animation Mash-Up

Dreaming of Lucid Living is a short film that’s a remarkable, beautiful performance/animation mash-up by the award-winning animator, designer and multi-media artist Miwa Matreyek. The film is a performance/installation piece constructed like a shadow puppet theater, integrating Matreyek’s solo live performance, nicely composed visuals and animation in a way that is both poetic and quite quirky.  It combines live performance with both pre-made animations  and semi-autonomous, rule based animations that appear to update based upon what a camera is viewing.  The film’s presentation of deceptively simple, deliciously playful illusions, a high-spirited sense of wonder, and creatively unexpected mixtures of live action and animation is just incredible.  I’ve never seen anything quite like this ever before.

Dreaming of Lucid Living: A Fascinating Performance/Animation Mash-Up

Please Share This:

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Jess, Bend, Oregon, 2009

Photography by:  Jeff Sheng, Los Angeles

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Jess, Bend, Oregon, 2009 is a photograph by the award-winning Los Angeles photographer Jeff Sheng.  Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is his new photography project, which consists of a series of photographs of closeted men and women in the United States military. The photographs represent Sheng’s interest in the intersections between public and private spaces, and the government’s ever-intrusive policing of our most private spaces.

Please Share This:

Happy Thanksgiving: An Impish Alfred Hitchcock Carves Your Holiday Turkey!

Photography by:  John Rawlings, NYC (1956)

Pick a Hitchcock of opulence rather than corpulence,
just pleasingly plump, with a snug silhouette,
To embellish the board when the places are set.
For the ultimate test, more closely examine it.
The Hitchcock supreme has a wide streak of ham in it.
-Ogden Nash

Please Share This:

Susan Boyle: The Story So Far

The worldwide success of Susan Boyle’s debut album, I Dreamed A Dream, released on November 23rd, is the latest milestone for the Scottish church volunteer from Blackburn, West Lothian.  She stunned audiences with her rendition of I Dreamed A Dream on Britain’s Got Talent.  And even though Susan placed second in the final competition, she won the hearts of fans around the world, including celebrities such as Demi Moore and Elaine Paige.

Susan has had an undoubtedly interesting and busy life since first appearing on Britain’s Got Talent, whether it be becoming an overnight worldwide sensation on YouTube, or traveling to America to perform on the hit television show America’s Got Talent.  In the candid interview presented below, you can now see and hear from the lady herself.

Susan Boyle: The Story So Far

Susan Boyle’s Debut Album: Susan Sings “Wild Horses” on America’s Got Talent

Susan Boyle Sings “Wild Horses” on America’s Got Talent 2009

An Upbeat Susan Boyle Performed Before an Excited Today Show Crowd on Monday

A confident Susan Boyle wowed a large Today Show crowd in Rockefeller Center on Monday, as she performed songs from her hot-selling debut album entitled I Dreamed a Dream.  Before launching into her stirring signature tune, which made her a worldwide phenomenon, the 48-year-old Scottish woman playfully waved her cheery red scarf to the enthusiastic crowd.  Susan’s mini-concert included her bracing version of Mick Jagger’s Wild Horses and I Dreamed a Dream.  She’s come a very long way.  On Thanksgiving night, Susan Boyle will be featured in Matt Lauer’s People of the Year television special.

Susan Boyle sings “Wild Horses” on the Today Show Nov. 23, 2009

Susan Boyle sings “I Dreamed a Dream” on the Today Show Nov. 23, 2009

Please Share This:

Tiny Wofford College Goes On the Road, Defeats SEC’s Univ. of Georgia, 60-57!!

As the fourth-smallest school in the nation that plays NCAA Division I basketball, Wofford College, from The Southern Conference, knows that going on the road into tough environments is unavoidable. Two weeks ago, Wofford opened the season with a heart-breaking 63-60 loss to the Big East Conference’s University of Pittsburgh at the Peterson Events Center in Pittsburgh.  Wofford held a ten point lead with ten minutes remaining in the game, but the Panthers took the lead after an 8-0 run with just 1:33 left in the game.

After losing to the University of Georgia in overtime last season, Wofford held on in the final seconds to take a 60-57 victory over the Bulldogs on Tuesday night at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens (GA).  Leading 58-56 with just 6.1 seconds remaining, the Terriers (1-1) could only stand and watch as Georgia’s Dustin Ware had two chances to tie the game at the foul line.  But Ware missed the back end of a 1-and-1  and Wofford’s Cameron Rundles made both ends of a subsequent 1-and-1 on the other end with 3 seconds remaining, putting the Terriers up by 3 points.  Georgia (1-1) managed to get one final shot, a 3-point attempt with 1 second left by Trey Thompkins near the Bulldogs’ bench, but it didn’t fall, as Wofford saved the win.

Wofford continues play on the road, facing Bradley in Peoria (ILL) on Nov. 22, the University of Illinois in Champaign (ILL) on Nov. 24, and Seattle in Las Vegas (Nev.) on November 28.

Video Highlights: Tiny Wofford College Defeats the University of Georgia,  60-57

(Please Click Image to View Video Highlights)

Viewers can access a video of the full game here.

Please Share This:

And Just Who Did What to Whom? Surprise!!

Surprise is a 1 1/2-minute stylish short thriller directed by Ben Dodd, which was commissioned for a special showcase at the Tate Modern Museum in London. The film tell a very tragic story as it unfolds from the end to the beginning.  It’s a “Hitchcockian” dark film-noir, where a  vengeful romantic murder is not at all what it seems. The dramatically circuitous and shadowy film leaves you wondering about just who did what to whom…Surprise!!

And Just Who Did What to Whom? Surprise!!

Please Share This: