Sunday, June 29, 2008

it felt like a celluloid hug

Amanda and I just got back from watching Wall-E. I can't recommend it highly enough. Besides being simply a beautifully touching movie, it's so great to see Pixar continue to show the entire rest of the world how to make an animated film.

There's a reason they're the best. They focus on heart without taking the easy way out and descending into fart jokes. They focus on timeless stories without getting tied down to predictable plot lines. They continue to push themselves in every sense - whether artistically, technologically, or the gray area between where they seem so at home - each time they make a movie, never for once seeming to take their audience for granted. They seem to understand that making a movie is an art form, not a marketing-driven cash cow, and that art is meaningless unless you can connect with the audience and make them feel something.

And that's where their strength lies. I have the same feeling watching a Pixar film as I did when I was little watching the worlds of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Jim Henson. It's this deep, warm feeling of benevolent, kind, intelligence - this safe sense that someone who has been to the boundaries of the unknown is telling me that the world is vast, life is worth living, and that the human imagination is the greatest treasure ever in the history of history.

Kind of a lot to get out of a 2 hour G-rated movie. But that's their genius. Check it out when you can.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

update fail

I've been bad at updating again. Mostly due to a whole mess of vacation time. Amanda and I have spent about a month traveling around to various states - some by choice, some not by choice (thank you very much, American Airlines - more on that later).

Anyway, Ry and I were recently sitting down together and showing each other random crap on YouTube and Break.com that had made us laugh. Ry mentioned his new-found love for FAIL videos, videos that are full of pictures or video clips of people doing something badly.

So, anyway, this post is mostly for Ry. Ry, I found FailBlog.org today. Again, just a repository of FAIL pictures. My favorite so far is this one:

fail-owned-pwned-pictures

Although, this one is pretty damn good too:

fail owned pwned pictures

Anyway, Ry. Enjoy.

Friday, June 06, 2008

still standing

Kotaku is full of reports today about LucasArts layoffs. Obviously, I can't talk about what's going on; but for anyone curious, I'm still employed.

Sunday, June 01, 2008

we're back!

Well, we're back from Hawaii and I'd say fairly well relaxed.

Photos and details to come, but for now a quick summary:

- Plane
- Car
- Feet
- Car
- Car
- Boat
- Plane
- Car
- Submarine
- ATVs
- Car
- Car
- Helicopter
- Car
- Plane
- Plane

Edit:
Manda has a much better summary.