Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Picard - Make it So (Let It Snow)



Published by superchief64, Dec. 3, 2013 on YouTube

Popularized by George Takei on facebook, this is the original "Make it So" song set to the music of "Let It Snow" written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in July 1945.

[view at YouTube: http://youtu.be/KeaehxEdpgo]

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Disney Parks Blog - Banner Headers: Country Bear Christmas Special

Currently, Disney Parks Blog has over 50 different holiday themed images in rotation for their banner headers. Curiously, yet to my personal delight, five amongst those are from the “Country Bear Christmas Special” (Disneyland 1988-2000, Walt Disney World, Magic Kingdom 1988-2005) also known as “Jingle Bell Jamboree” at Tokyo Disneyland.


13 years before the Haunted Mansion and 9 year before it’s a small world first got their holiday themed overlays, the Country Bear Playhouse (Critter Country/ Bear Country, Disneyland Park, and Frontierland, Magic Kingdom Park) was transformed with a Christmas show full of jingly standards performed by audio-animatronic singing bears.





The Christmas Special (yes, “Christmas,” not the generic “Holiday”) premiered two years following when the Country Bear Playhouse was updated with the “Vacation Hoedown” show.

Alas, the Playhouse was replaced by the “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” at Disneyland, and the Magic Kingdom hasn’t run the Christmas Special for nine years.

Full-show audio for all three Country Bear shows are included in the six-disc collection “A Musical History of Disneyland” released for Disneyland’s 50th anniversary.

Read more about the Country Bear Christmas Special...

All images ©Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

8-Bit Fantasmic! / Walt Disney World / Disney Parks


Published by Disney Parks December 16th, 2014
Relive the epic battle of Mickey Mouse vs. Maleficent in this 8-bit version of Fantasmic from Walt Disney World! Come see Mickey Mouse vs. Maleficent for yourself: http://di.sn/pxg

http://youtu.be/8Ys3oMzTXes

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Noel Cruz

In what could be described as photographic retouching, but on dolls, artist Noel Cruz has mastered photo-realistic painting on doll heads.

From Cruz’s website:
Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Noel Cruz came from a less than affluent family to say the least. Being the third oldest of 6 brothers, Noel began working as a child doing house cleaning to help support his family. Though hardship defined their way of life it played an important role to Noel's future. Being a child with no toys nor the freedom to be with other children, Noel discovered another outlet for his creative young mind: art. 
Several years later, after having immigrated to the United States with his wife and young son, Noel began collecting dolls for his wife.
While looking on ebay for a doll to further add to his wife's collection, Noel discovered repainted dolls. Seeing how unique and beautiful a repainted doll's face could look, Noel was curious and excited to make his own. 
Currently, Noel still repaints dolls and draws portraits. He one day hopes to model dolls of his own.


[explore the artist’s site: http://www.ncruz.com]

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Big Hero 6

Big Hero 6 [PG] - Animation/ Action/ Adventure
November 7, 2014 - Disney
Directed by Don Hall, Chris Williams

Grade: A
Up-graded from B

+1: Disney’s Pixar-looking Marvel movie.
+1: Main character, Hiro’s complex, emotionally journey.
Par: Team of likable characters with distinct, narrowly defined personality traits and talents.
+1: Big, white, huggable, care-giving robots: Baymax.
Par: Inconsistent behavior of near-infinitely versatile nano robots and the questionable process of making them one at a time.



Note: Bonus epilogue sequence following the end credits (+1).

Feast, the short preceding Big Hero 6 is pretty good too.

Interstellar

Interstellar [PG-13] - Adventure/ Sci-Fi
November 7, 2014 - Warner Brothers
Directed by Christopher Nolan

Grade: B-
Up-graded from C

+1: Cast including Matthew McConaughey, and Jessica Chastain.
Par: Science.
+1: IMAX worthy sequences in space and alien planets.
-1: Weirdness and nonsense as pseudo-science inside a black hole’s event horizon.
+1: Intelligent robots that are like refrigerator-sized Swiss army multi-tools.



Sunday, November 30, 2014

Super Flamands - How Would Superheroes Have Looked in the 16th Century?

Posted by Dovas on BoredPanda
November 17, 2014


French photographer Sacha Goldberger has created a quirky photo series that perfectly expresses the timeless quality of some of our favorite superheroes and villains – by re-imagining them as 16th-century Flemish portrait models.

What if Superman was born in the sixteenth century? 
What if the Hulk was a Duke? 
How might Van Eyck have portrayed Snow White? 

Goldberger — known best perhaps for his superhero photos of his grandmother — set out to answer these questions about two years ago. 24 months later, with the help of about 110 people, he managed it.

One of the most striking things about the “Super Flamands” photo series, other than the brilliant idea itself, is the fact that it isn’t Photoshopped (though we aren’t sure about Yoda). Those super-hero costumes, which manage to stay faithful both to the hero and to the historical period, are real, and so are the heroic look-alike models wearing them. Judging by the credits for the project and by Goldberger’s photos of the exhibit, this was a massive undertaking!

[read the article on BoredPanda.com]

[more found on FashionBackwards.wordpress]
... including Yoda and Wolverine.

[more found on PetaPixel.com]
... including Alice.

[more found on GeekxGirls.com]
... including Boba Fett and Storm Troopers.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Disney Parks After Dark: Holiday Wall Papers

Here are eight holiday themed shots from the Disney Parks Blog photography series, “Disney Parks After Dark” re-framed as desk-top wall papers.









Disney Parks After Dark is a series of photos that the blog usually posts on Thursday evenings. The series began in July 12, 2012 taking inspiration from a 1962 Wonderful World of Disney episode titled “Disneyland After Dark” in which Walt Disney hosted a look at events around the park after the sun set and the lights come up.

These were composed for no greater reason than the same as drove the creation of desk-top wall papers featuring the blog’s banner headers — which is, I wanted something pretty on my computer screen.

Happy holidays.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Boxtrolls

The Boxtrolls [PG] - Animation, Adventure, Comedy
September 26, 2014 - Focus Features
Directed by Graham Annable, Anthony Stacchi

Grade B+
Up-graded from B

Par: Art direction (Curt Enderie).
+1: Stop motion animation (Laika Entertainment).
Par: Story.
Par: Trolls wearing boxes.
Par: Cheese obsessions.



Bonus: Behind the scenes sequence in credits.

In a World…

In a World… [R] - Comedy
August 9, 2013 - Roadside Attractions
Directed by Lake Bell

viewed on Netflix

Grade B-
Up-graded from C

+1: Cast including Lake Bell (Carol) and Ken Marino (Gustav).
Par: Story (Lake Bell).
-1: “B” story about infidelity.
+1: Voice actor industry talk.
+1: “Amazon Games” trailer.



Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The Book of Life

The Book of Life [PG] - Animation, Adventure, Comedy
October 17, 2014 - 20th Century Fox
Directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez

Grade A-
Up-graded from B.

+1: Art direction (Paul Sullivan).

+1: Mariachi interpretation of “Creep” performed by Diego Luna (voice of lead, Manolo).

Par: Cast including Ron Perlman (voice of villain, Xibalba) and Ice Cube (Candle Maker).

Par: “Play from the heart” lesson.

Par: Story structure with bandit battle in last third to motivate characters’ actions.



Lucy

Lucy [R] - Action/ Sci-Fi/ Thriller
July 25, 2014 - Universal
Directed by Luc Besson

Grade A-
Up-graded from B.

+1: Scarlett Johansson (as Lucy), lead actress.

+1: Super-hero movie structure.

Par: Movie science.

Par: Almost random application of an array of abilities.

Par: Fight choreography.



Saturday, October 18, 2014

It's Madden Season


Published by EA Sports on Aug 15, 2014

3 minute and 36 second extended advertisement for Madden NFL ’15 video game starring Kevin Hart and Dave Franco. Featuring Conway. Rejoice, it's Madden Season. Don’t ask why.


http://youtu.be/-DL0W9AUCuY




http://youtu.be/-DL0W9AUCuY

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

In 1947, Ten Comic Strip Artists Were Asked to Draw Their Characters Blindfolded

posted Sept. 22, 2014 on BoredPanda.com


A comic strip artist will end up drawing the same characters so many thousands of times, that you’d figure they could draw them with their eyes closed. But could they really? In 1947, Life magazine decided to find out by challenging 10 contemporary comic strip artists to do just that – draw their characters with their eyes closed.

[read the whole article]

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

posted by Mark Busse on IndustiralBrand.com


In the late 90′s, a little known Canadian designer named Bruce Mau published his Incomplete Manifesto for Growth outlining his beliefs, strategies and motivations. His 43 points spread like wildfire throughout the design industry and are still regularly quoted by designers.

[read the IndustrialBrand article]


1. Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you: You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth are the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.

2. Forget about good. Good is a known quantity. Good is what we all agree on. Growth is not necessarily good. Growth is an exploration of unlit recesses that may or may not yield to our research. As long as you stick to good, you’ll never have real growth.

3. Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we’ve already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we’re going, but we will know we want to be there.

4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view, and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

5. Go Deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value.

6. Capture accidents. The wrong answer is the right answer in search of a different question. Collect wrong answers as part of the process. Ask different questions.

7. Study. A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.

8. Drift. Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.

9. Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

10. Everyone is a leader. Growth happens. Whenever it does, allow it to emerge. Learn to follow when it makes sense to do so. Let anyone lead.

11. Harvest ideas. Edit applications. Ideas need a dynamic, fluid, generous environment to sustain life. Applications, on the other hand, benefit from critical rigor. Produce a high ratio of ideas to applications.

12. Keep moving. The market and its operations have a tendency to reinforce success. Resist it. Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice.

13. Slow down. Desynchronize from standard time frames, and surprising opportunities may present themselves.

14. Don’t be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort.

15. Ask stupid questions. Growth is fueled by desire and innocence. Assess the answer, not the question. Imagine learning throughout your life at the rate of an infant.

16. Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

17. ____________ . Intentionally left blank. Allow space for the ideas that you haven’t had yet and for the ideas of others.

18. Stay up late. Strange things happen when you have gone too far, have been up too long, have worked too hard, and are separated from the rest of the world.

19. Work the metaphor. Every object has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Work on what it stands for.

20. Be careful to take risks. Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future.

21. Repeat yourself. If you like it, do it again. If you don’t like it, do it again.

22. Make your own tools. Hybridize your tools in order to build unique things. Even simple tools that are your own can yield entirely new avenues of exploration. Remember, tools amplify our capacities, so even a small tool can make a big difference.

23. Stand on someone’s shoulders. You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better.

24. Avoid software. The problem with software is that everyone has it.

25. Don’t clean your desk. You might find something in the morning that you can’t see tonight.

26. Dont’t enter awards competitions. Just don’t. It’s not good for you.

27. Read only left-hand pages. Marshall McLuhan did this. By decreasing the amount of information, we leave room for what he called our “noodle.”

28. Make new words. Expand the lexicon. The new conditions demand a new way of thinking. The thinking demands new forms of expression. The expression generates new conditions.

29. Think with your mind. Creativity is not device-dependent. Forget technology. 

30. Organization = liberty. Real innovation in design, or in any other field, happens in context. That context is usually some form of cooperatively managed enterprise. Frank Gehry, for instance, is only able to realize Bilbao because his studio can deliver it on budget. The myth of a split between “creatives” and “suits” is what Leonard Cohen  calls a “shining artifact of the past.”

31. Don’t borrow money. Once again, Frank Gehry’s advice. By maintaining financial control, we maintain creative control. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it’s surprising how hard it is to maintain this discipline — and how many people have failed to do so.

32. Listen carefully. Every collaborator who enters our orbit brings with him of her a world more strange and complex than any we could ever hope to imagine. By listening to the details and the subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world onto our own. Neither party will ever be the same.

33. Take field trips. The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet — or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer-graphic-simulated environment.

34. Make mistakes faster. This isn’t my idea — I borrowed it. I think it belongs to Andy Grove.

35. Immitate. Don’t be shy about it. Try to get as close as you can. You’ll never get all the way, and the separation might be truly remarkable. We have only to look to Richard Hamilton and his version of Marcel Duchamp’s large glass to see how rich, discredited, and underused imitation is as a technique.

36. Scat. When you forget the words, do what Ella did: Make up something else (but not words).

37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.

38. Explore the other edge. Great liberty exists when we avoid trying to run with the technological pack. We can’t find the leading edge because it’s trampled underfoot. Try using old-tech equipment made obsolete by an economic cycle but still rich with potential.

39. Take advantage of coffee breaks, cab rides, and greenrooms. Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces — what Dr. Seuss called “the waiting place.” Hans Ulrich Obrist; once organized a science-and-art conference with all of the infrastructure of a conference — parties, chats, lunches, airport arrivals — but with no actual conference. Apparently, it was hugely successful and spawned many ongoing collaborations.

40. Avoid fields. Jump fences. Disciplinary boundaries and regulatory regimes are attempts to control the wilding of creative life. They are often understandable efforts to order what are manifold, complex, evolutionary processes. Our job is to jump the fences and cross the fields.

41. Laugh. People visiting the studio often comment on how much we laugh. Since I’ve become aware of this, I use laughter as a barometer to measure how comfortably we are expressing ourselves.

42. Remember. Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us ware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and as such, a potential for growth. itself.

43. Power to the people. Play only happens when people feel that they have control over their lives. We can’t be free agents if we’re not free.

Oddly, all traces of the manifesto have been removed from Mau’s website, leaving broken links spread across the Interwebs like doors to nowhere. 
[Bruce Mau Design]

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Disney Parks Blog - Banner Headers, part 10

In this tenth and final posting of this series, I present the special banner headers for two of this year’s events which coincidentally occurred in May: 1) “Rock Your Disney Side” 24-hour event; and 2) the grand opening of “Seven Dwarfs Mine Train” attraction.

— ROCK YOUR DISNEY SIDE —
May 23 -24, 2014

It is/was exactly as was advertised as an extension of this year’s “Show Your Disney Side” campaign: namely the opportunity to stay and play in the parks for 24 magical hours - 
your choice on either the East coast or West. 



— SEVEN DWARFS MINE TRAIN —
May 28th, 2014

The crown jewel of Magic Kingdom’s New Fantasyland opens marking the completion of the Florida Park’s major area expansion.


Disneyanadocious rating for all 10 parts: (9/10): D D D D D D D D D -


All images ©Disney Enterprises, Inc. 

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy [PG-13] - Action/ Adventure/ Sci-Fi
August 1, 2014 - Marvel Studios
Directed by James Gunn

Grade B+
Up-Graded from B

+1: Talking “raccoons” with anger issues and big guns: Rocket (Bradley Copper).

+1: The Legend of “Footloose”, Kevin Bacon and soundtrack, A.K.A. “Awesome Mix, Vol. 1”.

par: Low altitude space ship battles.

-1: Bad guys waiting (Ronan, Thanos, Nebula).

par: movie science and physics (space guards un-trained for zero gravity, flying a detached prison command bunker, interconnecting hundreds of space fighters as a defense).



par: Bonus scene within end credits.

Disclosure: Bryan works for Walt Disney Consumer Products, part of The Walt Disney Company of which Marvel Studios is a division.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Magic in the Moonlight

Magic in the Moonlight [PG-13] - Comedy/ Drama/ Romance
August 15, 2014 - Sony Picture Classics
Directed by Woody Allen

Grade B+
Up-graded from B.

par: Cast including Colin Firth (Stanley), Emma Stone (Sophie).

par: Story (Woody Allen).

+1: Colin Firth’s Professor Henry Higgins-esque (My Fair Lady) Stanley.

par: Dialogue.

par: Period costumes and setting,



Monday, August 11, 2014

Planes 2

Planes: Fire and Rescue [PG] - Animation/ Adventure/ Comedy
July 18, 2014 - Disney
Directed by Robert Gannaway

Grade: B
Up-graded from B.

Par: New characters including Blade Ranger (Ed Harris, voice), Lil’ Dipper (Julie Bowen).

-1: Story structure including “hero’s reward’ happy ending (Jeffery M. Howard, writer).

Par: Racing and fire fighting flying sequences.

+1: Art direction and design (Toby Wilson).

Par: Franchise serial installment.



Disclosure: Bryan works for Walt Disney Consumer Products, part of The Walt Disney Company. Disney Toon, producer of “Planes: Fire and Rescue,” is also a division of The Walt Disney Company.

Discloser 2: Bryan fell asleep for about 5-10 minutes in the middle about the the beginning of the sequence where Rusty begins his fire fighting training and the crew is introduced.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Disney Parks Blog - Banner Headers, part 9

If you know the date when something started, then you can mark or celebrate its anniversaries. For example, Disneyland’s official opening date is July 17, 1955. Every 17th of July, Disneyland celebrates its birthday with at least special cake at specified restaurants and ribbons or pins for Cast Members which proudly declare “It’s Our Birthday.”

Consider the fact that Walt Disney Pictures has been producing filmed entertainment for over 80 years while introducing hundreds of beloved characters, and Disney has opened 7 theme parks* since Disneyland each premiering new attractions every now and then. All those characters, films, Parks and attractions had starts and all of them have anniversaries. Disney Parks Blog (DPB) will celebrate anniversaries with special one-day sets of themed banner headers and some times accompany them with specially designed Blog logos. They do this for two reasons: 1) the blog format makes it easy to do so with virtually no additional overhead; 2) its fun to do so.

This year Disney had a number of celebration worthy anniversaries.

— Muppets —
10th Anniversary of Disney’s acquisition, Feb. 17, 2014

— Typhoon Lagoon —
25th Anniversary, June 1, 2014
Walt Disney World

— Donald Duck —
80th Birthday, June 9, 2014

— The Lion King —
20th Anniverary, June 15, 2014

— The Twilight Zone® Tower of Terror —
20th Anniversary, July 22, 2014
Disney’s Hollywood Studios, WDW

— Haunted Mansion —
45th Anniversary, August 9, 2014
Disneyland Park, Disneyland Resort

Disneyanadocious rating so far: (9/10): D D D D D D D D D -


*Although included in the count, Tokyo Disneyland is own by The Oriental Land Company.


All Images © Disney Enterprises.