The car that FLIES!!

New Simpsons 20th Year Anniversary poster

click to enlarge

Matrix re-created in Lego's

You guys know I love Lego art. This is some next level 'ish.

Pulp Fiction Remix

4 Minute Avtar Featurette

Five minutes of 2012

This is looking quite intense...

I love this type of art...

HILARIOUS! I would watch this!

BUSCON is an official selection at the Milan Film Festival in Italy!

I'm proud to announce that BUSCON, a documentary directed by Anthony Alcalde that I helped produce is an official selection at the 27th Annual Milan International Ficts Festival in Italy (http://www.sportmoviestv.com/home.asp?l=0). 

This is a project that has gone through many stages and it's great to see it in it's prime form. Cogratulations to everyone involved!

Here's a link to the film's website and synopsis:

Web: http://busconthemovie.com/

Synopsis:

BUSCÓN - n. 1. searcher 2. swindler 3. baseball scout

Buscón shows us the faces of Major League Baseball's search for young talent in Latin America.  As impoverished children with few resources, young latino players are left vulnerable to identity and birth certificate fraud, bonus skimming and child abuse at the hands of a system that can offer great opportunity, but at a considerable cost.

Carlos Perez is a buscón who takes us into the world of Major League Baseball hopefuls in Nicaragua.  Cheslor Cuthbert is the top 16 year old prospect from Corn Island, Nicaragua and is expected to be signed by a Major League team in July 2009.  Carlos provides us an inside look at how buscónes seek out kids and then hold on to them until they are ready to be signed.  Dwight Britton is a prospect whom Carlos trained until a rival buscón moved in and signed Dwight to the Seattle Mariners.

Carlos wants to see the system improve by establishing standards and practices for baseball in Nicaragua, both to protect the kids who dream of playing in the big leagues as well as the informal infrastructure of amateur coaches, trainers and buscóns who help young players compete with players from wealthier Latin American countries.  He sees a corrupt system that is in need of change.

Roman Polanski Arrested

After about 30 years on the run from U.S. authorities, legendary director Roman Polanski ("Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown," "The Pianist") has finally been arrested in Zurich, Switzerland by authorities there, who decided to take matters into their own hands, with the possibility of being extradited to the U.S. It's been that long since Polanski was accused of having sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. After being arrested at the time, Roman Polanski, out on bail, bounced to his secret hide-out in France never to return.

This is a pretty sticky situation for the 72-year-old maker of films who has been ditching this matter while living it up lavishly making movies and drinking wine. But now we're left with a dilemma: does our justice system brush this under the carpet? Would it be right for this man to not pay his dues to society? The bottom line is that he drugged and raped a 13-year-old, who is now in her mid-forties and has actually forgiven him.

I dunno. In one hand, there are way worst things happening in this world. But on the other hand, the man has been on the run and the only reason why he's getting any sympathy is because he's a famous director of films. We'll have to wait and see just what happens. Will his case of "hey, it happened over 30 years ago" hold any water? Isn't there a statue of limitation law or something?

I dunno. All I know is that he's in a bad spot and it's just a weird situation in general. While the answer is moralistically obvious (the man raped a 13-year-old child) how will his stardom weigh in on this? And should it?

Where The Wild Things Are character posters

I'm loving how this is looking!

New Technology Aimed at Stopping Movie Piracy

Dear bootleg DVD lady,

Your solicitation of unlawfulness material is not welcomed. We don't want you around! You may look like a nice old lady on the outside but I can see through that devilish smile. You're a criminal! A low life criminal.

Maybe this little bit of Japanese news will have you thinking twice about the next movie you decide to rip off into your digital camera. A new technology has been introduced where pulses of infrared light gets emitted through the little wholes on the movie screen, which will turn your crooked video recording into a mesh of blurry imagery that will form the face of Sloth laughing at you saying "HAHAHA! You can't see me!"

Don't believe me? Read it all yourself by copy and pasting the link below to your web browser. It's all there:

http://www.getthebigpicture.net/blog/2009/9/22/new-technology-aimed-at-stopping-movie-piracy.html

Sincerely,

The Unemployed Robot

Udachi and Jubilee - Smoke Rings

Udachi (aka my good friend Greg from college) and Jubilee get techno-funky with this one. This song is also featured in my short film LOVEBUG, which is ALMOST DONE! WHOOO!

Anyway, here's the vid:

100 years of Special Effects...

How far we've come.

LOVEBUG Trailer is HERE!

Here's the trailer to my short film LOVEBUG, which will be finished and off to festivals next month. Here's the synopsis:

A man and woman rely on a neuro software to decide their emotions for each other. When a glitch in the system alters this technological reality, the line between love and choice becomes distorted.

Produced by Geovanni Salas

Cinematography by Saro Varjabedian

Music by Izzi Ramkissoon

Trailer for AVATAR

The new James Cameron film that we've been waiting like FOREVER for! I'll def be checking this one out...

Dope Ass Movie Poster!

Sandra Bullok movie from 2007. I may be mad late but this poster is sick!

Bike of the future!

Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman introduced this new bicycle design that is possible to make but won't be financially feasible for the next 20 years. Some of the fun features in this bike includes a built-in computer system with fingerprint recognition that allows only the owner of the bike to use it. It is also has a calorie counter per pedal and has a solar-powered motor so the bike can keep moving even though you get tired. Here's what the article from dailymail.co.uk says

Spoke-less wheels make the bike more aerodynamic while the tyres will be puncture-proof with self-inflating tyres. 

'The tyre (and rim) rotate around the doughnut shape which is fixed, a bit like having a bangle on your wrist - it can spin on your wrist without your wrist turning,' Mr Boardman explained.

Owners of the bike, which is still being designed, won't even always have to pedal  -  a battery-assisted motor run by solar panels takes over if they get tired.

Plus the frame is made of carbon fibre, making the bike strong and lightweight.

Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1205714/Bike-future-stolen-puncture-proof-tyres-play-music-ride.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0OXxqOFVS

Movie Review: "District 9"

"District 9" delivers what "Cloverfield" tried to last year minus the nausea. This alien sci-fi is like a kick-ass YouTube clip that deserves many hits.

The story takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa where an Alien spaceship rests hovered over the city for the passed two decades. Why they are there? Doesn't matter. Alien invasion movies have been made since the 1950's so we get the concept of extraterrestrials coming down to pay us a visit. 

In this mothership, they discover an entire society of aliens that are in bad shape physically, so they designate a certain portion of the city where these cricket-like aliens may be housed and nurtured. This area is called district 9.

We are then introduced to our "hero" of sorts, Wikus Van De Merwe, played by South African television producer Sharlto Copley in his first acting role. Wikus is hired to lead the charge in transporting the 1.8 million aliens in district 9 to the new district 10. Then things go terribly wrong for him when he stumbles upon an alien-engineered specimen that does damage to him biologically.

I thought this film had a lot of genuine textures that really brought out a new, realistic angle to the alien invasion film. The first twenty minutes of the film is shot documantary style with "experts" as well as village people talking about the alien craft that has shaded their town for so long. They managed to pull some nice performances from the village people (haha, the village people) that really gave the film it's texture. The hand-held style wasn't jarring or unnecessary. It worked! And the aliens walking around didn't look cheesy. I couldn't tell if any of them were puppets or if they all were digital. I'm gonna have to look that up. And the transition between the documentary-style introduction to the "actual movie" portion of the film was seamless, which I liked.

I found the direction of the lead character, Wikus to be interesting. Copley's comic, almost douchebaggy portrayal of this character reminded me of the lead character in 2004's "Kung Fu Hustle" where he is sort of like the cowardly idiot who you would never expect to actually care for by the end of the film. That could either be a weakness or a strength as it does offer a new take of what a "hero" is. He or she doesn't always have to be the good-looking, smooth-talking person who we all wish we were. We all have faults and there's always room for redemption.

The only other negative thing I would say about this film is that I found it difficult to fully sympathize with the alien characters. I mean, I did like the little boy alien in the film. He was cute, I guess.

But all in all, "District 9" did it right. I think that director Neill Blomkamp has introduced a new style of filmmaking that is worth looking out for in the future.

"Where The Wild Things Are" Trailer

@ Yahoo! Video

Sotomayor confirmed as the 11th Justice on the Supreme Court...

I love her cause she can totally pass as one of my tias. Congratulations.

read more about it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/us/politics/07confirm.html?hp

Typewriter art from artist Jeremy Mayer

www.jeremymayer.com

New Poster for James Cameron's AVATAR

SICK!

First Double Front Flip in BMX History

WORD! This is sick!

EMBED-First Double Front Flip in BMX History - Watch more free videos

Latino Film Festival 2009

The New York International Latino Film Festival went strong last week with their tenth annual film-screening and partying event. Co-founder, and friend of mine, Juan Caceres was blowing it up all over facebook the weeks leading up to it and all that promotion served well cause the fiesta was a success.

Good friend of mine George Ruiz acted in a short film playing there called "Dead In The Water" which was pretty good. Directed by Marco Aguilar and DP'd by Saro Varjabedian.

At the awards ceremony this past sunday, held at El Morocco in NYC, the winners were announced. So with no further ado, here they are:

Best Domestic Feature

INSIDE A CHANGE
Domestic Feature
Dir: Rik Cordero
Writers: Rik Cordero and Aaron F. Schnore
Key Cast: Ephraim Benton, Donte Bonnor, Karen Chilton, Consequence, Darrell Vanterpool, Seth Stewart

Chris Price is about to serve six months in prison for a first-time offense. When his mother invites him back home for her birthday, he finds his younger brother following in his footsteps and his older brother disowning him. Now, on his last night of freedom, he is forced to re-examine his life and find a way to bring his family together before it is too late.

Best International Feature:

CineLatino Audience Choice Award: Best Picture
EL REGALO DE PACHAMMA
Internatonal Feature
Dir: Toshifumi Matsushita
Writer: Toshifumi Matsushita
Key Cast: Christian Huaygua

In the Salar de Uyuni, there is a 13 year-old boy, Kunturi, who lives a life much like any other boy in his village. But when his grandmother dies and his best friend moves away, he decides to embark on a trip with the llama caravan. For three months, he travels throughout the "Ruta de la Sal," exchanging salt for other Andes products, reluctantly bearing witness to an animal sacrifice in the snow-covered peaks and interacting with the indigenous cultures seemingly untouched by modernity.

But when the caravan arrives at its destination, the town of Macha where the “Tinku” Festival is taking place, Kunturi’s life will be changed forever. There he finds the most beautiful girl he could have ever imagined, Ulala. Kunturi and Ulala share the same dream: “to run together across the immense white sea that is the Salar de Uyuni, until they reach the end of the horizon

and my favorite category...

Best Short:

Best Short:
LALO
Dir: Daniel Maldonado

Lalo, a NYC Mexican delivery worker on the brink of losing his job, is given one last run to prove himself. Naturally, a series of mishaps ensue. When his bike is totaled, he steals a little pink one belonging to a 10 year-old girl, who enters in hot pursuit to get it back. The next thing he knows, Lalo finds himself in a race to the death against a Chinese delivery-man and a pimped-out punk rock bike messenger.

word! Sorry for the late posting. All work and no play is definitely making me a FUCKING loser! I'll check you guys later!

Why you never forget how to ride a bike...

This is an article that I found interesting from physorg.com.

I just went ahead and copied and pasted the whole thing.

Here's the link to the actual article:

http://www.physorg.com/news167053363.html

Their research, published this month in Nature Neuroscience, has identified a key nerve cell in the brain that controls the formation of memories for motor skills such as riding a bicycle, skiing or eating with chop sticks.

When one acquires a new skill like riding a bicycle, the cerebellum is the part of the brain needed to learn the co-ordinated movement.

The research team, which includes scientists from the Universities of Aberdeen, Rotterdam, London, Turin and New York, has been working to understand the connections between nerve cells in the cerebellum that enable learning.

They discovered that one particular type of nerve cell -the so called molecular layer interneuron - acts as a "gatekeeper", controlling the electrical signalsthat leave the cerebellum. Molecular layer interneurons transform the electrical signals into a language that can be laid down as a memory in other parts of the brain.

Dr Peer Wulff, who led the research in Aberdeen together with Prof. Bill Wisden at the University's Institute of Medical Sciences, said: "What we were interested in was finding out how memories are encoded in the brain. We found that there is a cell which structures the signal output from the cerebellum into a particular code that is engraved as memory for a newly learned motor skill. "

It could pave the way for advancements in prosthetic devices to mimic normal brain functions, which could benefit those who have suffered brain disorders, such as a stroke or multiple sclerosis.

Dr Wulff said: "To understand the way that the normal brain works and processes information helps the development of brain-computer interfaces as prosthetic devices to carry out the natural brain functions missing in patients who have suffered a stroke or have multiple sclerosis.

"Our results are very important for people interested in how the brain processes information and produces and stores memories. One day these findings could be applied to the building of prosthetic devices by other research teams."

Daft Punk x Tron Legacy = Smooth Electronica

Daft Punk's theme song for the "Tron Legacy"

If you haven't seen the trailer, it's SICK! You can view it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6jfm0hq0bk

(sorry, they ain't letting nobody embed. Like it's such a sacred thing))

Can't wait for this one!

Tron Legacy Theme by tuxboard

Jay Electronica: Dear Moleskine

This is a rough trailer to a short film starring rapper Jay Electronica directed by Jason Goldwatch, shot by Rob Gilbert of DECON Media

www.deconmedia.com

What Is That?

It's Hollow Man!

Made with fencing material, here's a good way to scare the shit out of your friends during a camping trip. Not sure who the artist behind this is but you can find more crazy illusion tricks here:

http://www.moillusions.com/

"Tron Legacy" Trailer

I know, I'm on a real video posting binge here, but this looks awesome!

"Alice In Wonderland" Trailer

Mystery Of Chessboxing in LEGO!

Wu-Tang Lego: Da Mystery of Chessboxin' from davo on Vimeo.

This is why the upcoming G.I. Joe movie worries me

Any graphic designer can tell that these graphics are pretty amateur for the kind of budget it was made with

Wu-Tang Demo Tape from 1992

copy & paste this link to download:

http://www.zshare.net/download/62995681fc21705d/

The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist

Five Reasons To Believe That The Moon Landing Really Happened

Happy Moon Day peoplz!

Today marks 40 years since astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history for all of mankind when they set foot on the Moon. We as a people put our spirit of adventure and creative minds together to accomplish something that was literally out of this world. Granted it was driven by egotistic greed as we were in a race with the Russians, who had put the first man in space just 8 years before that. It was during the Cold War and congress was more than happy to fund anything that would oppose Russia. Hence, a well-funded space program that resulted in a successful universal outreach.

Now obviously there will always be people who will counter this accomplishment. The haters. In this case, it was people who speculated that the moon landing was fixed and that we never actually put a man on the moon. Weather or not you belive this is up to you but here I found an article from askmen.com that might hinder your opinion on this.

Here are 5 reasons we should all believe and be proud of the fact that we landed on the moon.

Click on this link to read:

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/top-5-proofs-that-the-moon-landing-happened.html

Back To The Future Comparison

OMIGOD!

The Dark Flash Camera

A camera that takes photos with an invisible flash of infrared and ultraviolet light points to a smarter way to take photos in the dark.

Dilip Krishnan and Rob Fergus at New York University created the camera in an attempt to do away with intrusive regular flashes.

To make their "dark flash" camera, they modified a flashbulb to emit light over a wider range of frequencies and filter out visible light. The pair also had to remove the filters that usually prevent a camera's silicon image sensor detecting IR and UV rays.

Pretty phat. I'd like to see this come to the consumer market. For more on this check out this link:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17468-invisible-flash-takes-photos-without-the-glare.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

Classic movie scenes recreated in LEGO!!!

R.I.P. Walter Cronkite

Thanks for reporting the world to us.

The full cast of Star Wars

Here you have Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and R2D2. Word... late night posting, why else would this be amusing to me ... HAHA!

First CGI test for "Where The Wild Things Are"

I'm pretty stoked about the new, Spike Jonze helmed, "Where The Wild Things Are" movie that's about to come out. But apparently, this isn't the first attempt to turn the classic childrens book into a movie. The clip below shows an original animation test from 1983 when Disney had the rights to the film. Animators John Lasseter and Glen Keane were trying something totally new (at the time) when they tried to combine hand drawn animation with computer animation. Disney didn't approve of the idea citing that it would cost too much so this clip never saw the light of day. 

Legend has it that Mr. Lasseter was fired from Disney for trying to start the CGI animation revolution. Apparently Disney was too scared of job losses for their veteran sketch artist staff who sketched some of Disney's classic characters for decades. But Lasseter never gave up. He would go on to make "Toy Story" and co-founded Pixar. He is now Chief Creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. How the tables turn.

Anyway, here's the screen test from 1983 which I found through Latinoreview.com

New artwork

In case you haven't noticed, there is new artwork right up above. Take a look... I'll wait. 

The very talented Julia Durgee is responsible for this. To see more of her work, check out her website:

http://www.juliadurgee.com/

Robo Insect

This picture shows an experiment conducted in Tokyo where they took a silkmoth and attached electrodes from it's brain to the vehicle. I guess the idea is to make the car move according to the patterns of the insect's brain. Pretty dope but scary the things they're trying to do with neuroscience. Makes me wonder what could be next. Imagine a world where you can control things with your mind. A world where everyone will truly have the force within them. 

My upcoming short film "Lovebug" deals with these sort of issues. Shameless plug :-P Stay tuned for more updates on that.

Teenagers like going to the movies, but don't really care what movie they see...

A new study from Morgan Stanley (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aG2UIb23pNQ0) shows that teenagers like going to the movies but really don't care what movie it is. The good news is that it seems like the movie industry is here to stay. Despite rough economic times people are still going to the movies. Thank God for escapism. It is what has kept the movie-going experience so strong: the big screen spectacle that people will always be willing to pay good money for this.

The bad news is that many bad movies will get top box office results because of this. Morgan Stanley also reported that going to the movies for teenagers is more of a social gathering. The movie itself isn't really an issue. Which means to me that if the actors are cute, and the lighting and sound is good, people will be easily entertained.

This same report showed that the opposite goes for the music industry unfortunately. Besides concerts, teenagers don't really buy music anymore. It is so easy to download a song or listen to it on an online streaming site like Pandorra.

The movie going experience is meant to be fun so I don't really mind the fact that bad movies get made and make back money. Hey, you need the bad in order to justify the good. This can only leave room for surprise hits to come through.

Go Hollywood!

What Charlie Brown would look like in real life...

Artwork by Tim O'Brien

for more of his work copy and paste this link: 

http://www.drawger.com/tonka/?article_id=8259

Deleted scene from "Watchmen"

Apparently some "Watchmen" fans were pissed because many scenes from the original comics weren't present in the film. Turns out that many of the scenes were shot but didn't make it into the theatrical cut. You can see them now in the DVD that will be out next Tuesday (July 21st) along with some more. Here is one of them:

Crazy 4 Cult Artwork

I thought these pieces of classic cult films were pretty cool. This is a part of an event called Crazy 4 Cult which will be showing newer work from different artists at the 1988 Gallery in LA starting this Thursday, July 16th.

For pics and info copy and paste this link:

http://crazy4cult.com/

"Buscón"

This is a documentary directed by Anthony Alcalde that I helped produce. Told through the eyes of a baseball buscón (scout), this is an ambitious story with beautiful imagery that deals with dream exploitation in the impoverished country of Nicaragua.

For more here is the website: 

http://www.busconthemovie.com/