Ok, I’m testing Zoundry Raven. Looks simple enough. But i loose lots of my thesis options, I think!

I don’t see much advantage – expect I could choose different blogs without having to open each blog. Loose all the image tools, too.

I’m working with CIO’s new intern, Kim, on computer projects around the office. She’s pretty sharp on computer hardware and software, but floored with with some Kim-isms today. I have to share them!

“Avatar was visually satisfying”

“Avatar’s story is just a different version of Pocahontas ”

“Windows is hateable!”

- Kim Ta

In Feb, 2010 I spent a week in San Francisco working on a video shoot. I managed to escape for a late afternoon, and wound up walking over the Golden Gate bridge. Got to catch sunset from the bridge! Here’s some pictures – click on them to see the full image -

Occasionally I stumble across really cool things while surfing the net. CriticalPast.com is one such thing! A collection of royalty free archival footage and stills. The images can be searched and previewed for free, but there is a charge to download “professional” versions. I’m looking forward to doing some research in this archive for a couple of my long term projects!

I stopped in Denver on a trip back east last month, managed to get some video of the Rockies with the Kodak 9 video camera. Here’s the video – shot out the window at 36366 feet!

Click on the map below for a larger map of where I took this shot from.

In June I stopped at the Tillamook Air Museum, near the Oregon Coast, to take some pictures and video of the Mini-Guppy, a super-sized air cargo ship based on a  Boeing 377. (Or perhaps several Boeing 377’s ) This plane was built in the 1960’s, and flew to the mid 90’s, when it was parked outside the giant blimp hanger that is now an aircraft museum. Not as big as a the Boeing Dream-Lifter, but perhaps even more strange looking!

When I first saw Erickson Mini-Guppy, it was parked some distance from the Museum Hanger, and almost hidden behind a chain fence — not that you can really hide this place. Today the plane is sited right next to the hanger. Now you can get “up close and personal” with the plane — for an extra $3 admission, you can even go inside!

I can’t count the times I’ve been to Tillamook, but have almost never been there on a bright, sunny day. (This is the Oregon Coast, after all!) The sun made for an interesting shot of the cockpit!

I wish I had been able to get some video of this plane taking off and landing – but I doubt it will fly again. Take a look of my video of the 747 Dreamlifter taking off from Portland and you can get some idea of how the Mini-Guppy looked!

I will be uploading a You Tube video soon with more shots of the Mini-Guppy!

Some pictures from my mini-vacation on Orcas Island.(Click on the image to see the slide show!)

Last Sunday the Great Northwest Bookstore burnt down. I stopped by today to take a few pictures . I will update this over the next month. Click on the picture above to go to the slide show.

Or, in English, I was Nineteen. (1968) A film by Konrad Wolf

Some morning when it is raining and I don’t have a dozen tasks waiting,  I’ll write about this film – Konrad Wolf’s autobiographical tale as a German ex-pat returning with the Soviet Army to “finish off” the Nazis. He was nineteen at the time. Hauntingly effective Soviet-era piece of anti-war propaganda.  You can still feel the anger of the Soviets (which included a number of Germans) at the Nazis.

Buy DVD at Amazon

I love foreign films.  I was hooked by the Clinton Street Theatre in 1970’s, just about the only place in Portland you could see such fare back then. Of, course, since then, VHS, DVDs, BlueRay and the Internet plus a host of local independent theatres have come (and in some cases, gone…)

A Taste of Cherry, by Abbas Kiarostami,  reaffirmed this love. About all knew was that it was an Iranian film. I picked it up at the new Kenton Library on a whim. Sometimes that’s the best way to approach a film. (See my yet-to-exist review of What the Bleep!) The story can unfold magically, leading to vistas you never expected. Sowith Mr. Badii, as you slowly realize he is on a quest — that is not fully revealed till the end. You wonder what he  is really up to, even as you’re mesmerized  by the harsh beauty of the Iranian countryside. The lives that are intersected by M. Badii’s quest are both exotic and familiar at the same time. There is very little of the “language of movies” here, telegraphing the story in universal terms. Just amazing cinematography, and an ever deepening revelation of Mr. Badii’s journey. As the film draws to a conclusion I felt profoundly depressed by the story,  yet in a unusual twist to the ending, left wondering about the power of cinema.