WHOA!!!

I totally haven't blogged about anything in a minute. Checking my list of followers, not many people missed it. But all is good. The four who are there, I love you guys! :)

Here's the shit... unemployed robot ... is totally employed now! Werd. Having a job is alright. Money helps live life. And there's lots of it to be lived.

I'll still be posting shit up for those who actually read this. Meaning, myself. I'll start off with this video that I just saw on funny or die. Hilarious!

Peace, love, and bicycles, ya'll.

How To Be Tight (Episode 1) - watch more funny videos

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.