Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Puerto Rico Here I Am

Landed in PR this morning and settling down while prepping up the studio
for our special live shows this coming weekend.

Stay tune tomorrow for more news and our lists.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Oscar Snubbs

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/23159/votd-snubbed-2012-an-oscar-tribute

Great mini video on snubbs that didn't get nominated for Oscars.
Wow there is a lot in this video to make you what the hell were the
thinking?

Getting on the plane tonite. Hopefully I'll be able to post in time
for tomorrow with that list I promised. See u then....

Monday, February 27, 2012

Post Oscars

I got my wish: The Artist for Best Picture and Jean Dujardin for Best Actor. Sorry George.
Nice surprise was Michel Hazanavicius for Director. So while Hugo got the Tech Awards
The Artist was the big win with the top awards.

The other surprise was Meryl Streep. While she was great in "The Iron Lady" I didn't
think much of the film itself. But she was overdue, so good for her.
And the Muppets got best song considering there was no competition from "RIO"
and no other song was nominated which didn't make sense.

Our list for Best and Worst will be coming this week due to that I'm getting on the plae tomorrow night
and heading out to Puerto Rico. Then the live shows will continue this coming weekend.

I the meantime check out our shows on Justin.tv as we started the live shows with Justin
mainly because that is the easiest to use. Ustream.tv will premiere in PR.

Livestream will be used as our tv channel when it premieres later this spring.
See you at the live shows.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

New show on Justin.tv! Pt. 2

We did our part 2 of our Oscar show and best & worst of 2011 now playing.

Our hit list and shit list is coming this week on this blog..
Also our post Oscar show tomorrow.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

New show on Justin.tv!

http://www.justin.tv/videolandexpress/b/309667335

New show playing on Justin.tv: Oscars and Best & Worst of 2011 Pt.1..

Multi Video on Oscars Winners & Losers

http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2012/02/how-they-lost.html#more
 
Multi video showing the nominees losing to the winner through the years. The expressions are priceless when you see some of the nominees lose.Great video put together by Rich from Brooklyn.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Toy Story Soldier in NYC.


Toy Story Soldier hitching a ride on the No. 4 train City Hall station in NYC.
A little out of focus as this was a last minute host. Didn't even know he was
there until others started taking pix. LOL....

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

9/11 Memorial Visit

I finally visited the memorial in NYC. The weather was great and waiting in line was not that long.
When it first opened in 2011 there was at least an hour wait if you were lucky to get tickets early that there you choose. Yes the ticket are free. But there is a check in point like the airport but you don't have to take your sneakers off. LOL.
This was special as I worked in these buildings in the 80's and in which I live less than a mile away from the location. As a matter of fact I saw these buildings from by bedroom everyday.
What makes this special is that I knew one of the victims who was there that day.
More on this and more pictures coming next month. These will also be post on my Facebook
next month once I get the bugs out on my page.
This is the first waterfall facing Church st.

Coming soon: Best and Worst of the year 2011.
Then final predictions for Oscars: The Artist all the way!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Foo Fighter Grammy Speech Pt. 2

Sorry for the delay on this but here is the rest on the speech.

As an experienced musician recording in studios on analog tape
I welcome the digital era. Tape is expensive and trying to get
everyone at the studio at the same time per the hour is also
expensive, then recording the different parts like the guitar solo
then background vocals and layering the different tracks again
is time and money.
But the experience can't be beat as it makes a great musician
n the stage. Look at bands like RUSH who are tight as hell on stage.
The way we are recording with the digital equipment is not replacing
the old methods but making use of the new tools for more practical use
The programs we use are tools and are not replacing the instruments
themselves. Adding more efficiency to the overall product.
This is really great for us songwriters who can play multiple instruments
and show the band how the final song should sound like in the end.
In another month or so you will see us work in the studio with these tools
when we go live Livetream an Justin.tv.
More on that will be posted on our site and on this blog. Stay tune for that.

Monday, February 20, 2012

I Am Legend - The Sequel?

http://www.directorslive.com/articles/update-%E2%80%98i-am-legend-2%E2%80%B2-with-will-smith-is-officially-moving-forward/

I worked as an extra during the Brooklyn Bridge scenes and couldn't believed
it cost them over $2 million over the course of 5 days to do this.
And even I'm proud of working on the film I was disappointed
on the end results. So is this really necessary? I don't think so.

PS follow up to past previous posts are coming this week.

PSS Oscar final Predictions and my personal favs of the year also coming.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Box Office Weekend Feb. 17-19

http://boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

So Safe House took over No.1 switching plaes with The Vow but...
Ghost Rider 2 came in at No. 3 but if you took away the 3D prices
it's actually No. 4 where Phantom Menace Premiered last week.
Now Phantom is No. 6 meaning it'll crash to the bottom top 10
next week and adios Jar Jar...Yep Lucas screwed up again....

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Show today on MNN at 5 PM.

Yep, new show today at 5 pm. Hope you tune in.
Best and Worst and what I'm looking forward to next year.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Phantom Menace 3D

That Grammy article Pt. 2 will be posted later this weekend.

The tumbleweeds were Photoshop out of the photo.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Foo Fighter Grammy Speech Pt. 1

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/dave-grohl-on-the-foo-fighters-grammy-success-and-going-analog-20120215?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter
First, sorry for these part 1 and 2 as I'm trying to catch up with different projects that
soon will be under one umbrella.
But for now I'm getting a lot of e-mails asking what I think of this speech.
Most of you know I recorded back in the old days with 4 track adn then 8 track
when home recording became available. And now we are working with Protools and
Garageband.
Samd as the old days we used old Sony Editing Videos machines and now we have
Avid, Premiere, Final Cut going digital as film is disappearing along with film for pictures aka
Kodak.

So what do I think? Well read the article and I'll give my response tomorrow.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

BAFTA Awards 2012 Pt. 2

As I said in the previous blog "The Artist" deserves all the major awards
as it took the biggest challenge and made a silent movie and black in white.

As far as for the other catogories...

Animation: Rango ..all the way
Documentaries: Why wasn't Being Elmo nominated?
Visual Effects: Potter over Apes? Of course, the english gotta protect their own.

And last but not least I'm still scratching my headover Best Screenplay;
The Artist..and I'm like ..Whaaaaaaaaaa?

Best and Worst coming this weekend of February 17 or so...

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

BAFTA Awards 2012 Pt.1

http://www.imdb.com/oscars/nominations/baftas

Here is the list and winners of the English verion of the Oscars.

I have to agree with "The Artist", for Best Picture and Actor. Sorry George.
But Best Screenplay which took away form Woody Allen's win.
Ain't this a silent movie. That one I can't figure out.
I've seen this twice already and can't wait for the Blu-ray release.
So I'm glad this one th major awards. Sorry Marty.
As much as I love Hugo I have to give "The Artist" the nod.
Again they are both a tied for me. Apples and Oranges.



As Best Actress goes, I live Meryl Streep but the film
was disappointing and I felt it took away from her performance.
Of course this is ignored since Streep honored one of their own.

Part 2 tomorrow.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Grammy Ratings

http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-post/grammys-draw-second-largest-audience-ever-35332
Let's be honest. If Whitney did not passed away the ratings would have been so so..
Even with Bruce opening and nobody knew about the Sir Paul ending. I myself would have
turned off the Grammy's once Sir Paul did his Valentine song.
And everyone Knew that Adele was going to sweep the awards.

And look at the sales at Amazon and itunes ofr Whitney's hits.
Hate to say it, in this industry your worth my dead than alive.

But man she had a voice, what a shame.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Star Wars 3D

Phantom Menace is going to come in at less than $30M at the Box Office and the bad reviews
on the 3D conversion is not helping matters. And reports with half filled theaters is basically a death sentence especially the Romance movie The Vow is going to be No. 1. Ouch.

Yes I'm curious but knowing that this is just a cash in on the 3D wave is really bothering me fro me to see this. Being a SW fan I would have been at the midnite showing but we all know this is the worse of the bunch and not a good start for the Franchise. He should have started with SW:New Hope. Well Lucas screwed up again.

Will I still go? I don't know. We'll find out by Monday I guess. LOL....

Friday, February 10, 2012

Godzilla Blu-ray Criterion Edition Pt. 2

So far:
While you get both the Japanese and English versions you also get:
New print that corrected the Master Print with those scatches and cuts.
New commentaries from the Classic Media series. Those old commentaries are not on this disc.
New booklet which differs from the Classic Media veersion.


All this on one disc with new supplements discussing various parts of filmmaking,
this has a great filmmaking 101 that only Criterion can deliver adding new features that
the Classic Media doesn't have.
And to top it off it has a cute pop-up of GZ when you open the case. The one peeve is that
the booklet doesn't have a sleeve to hold so you have to keep it in the casing to hold it.

So is it worth for the double dipping. Yes this get 5 out of 5.
But still hold on the the Classic Media version for the old features and commentaries.
I wouldn't be surprise if down the road all these will be put together for the Ultimate collection.

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Godzilla Blu-ray Criterion Edition Pt. 1

Great job on this re-issue of the original Black and White classic.
Details on this disc will come tomorrow but for now...

1. Brand new transfer which is 90% better than hte frist release on blu-ray a few years back.
That was horrible as it was just a transfer with no clean up whatsoever. All scrathes and dirt
and cut frames were all there. Very annoying to say the least.
Even tho it's not perfect, some scracthes do show up due to how old the film is, it has gone thru
the latest umpter techniques and tools. The sound has even been put thru Pro Tools and you can
tell the difference from the previous releases. 

2. The previous Blu-ray release was just the original Japanese version with a few features
even tho it does have a commentary from Steve Ryfle. That came from the Classic Media series
of the 1950-60's Godzilla collection which included Godzilla - The Original Japanese Masterpiece.
A 2-disc collection which included both the Original Japanese version and the American cut.


3. Now if you have that 2 Disc collection DO NOT get rid of it. The commentaries on that collection are complete different from this new Criterion collection. Again this is for Godzilla Purists. Trust me on this one. The first Blu-ray callec Gojira sucked and cost way to much money. For me I have the 2 Disc collection from Classic Media and this new Criterion and both share the the shelf as the perfect bookends for my collection.

Next in Part 2: More on the commentaries and the features.

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Monday, February 06, 2012

Transformers 3 VFX

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/news/headlines/13659.html

Talk about getting lots of awards and nods VFX Supervisor Scott Farrar.

Note: To mysurprise there's no commentary by Bay on the new
Special Edition. Guess that Bay didn't want to talk about that accident on the
set when one of the stuntmen died. Ummmmmm.

Sunday, February 05, 2012

Saturday, February 04, 2012

Transformers 3D Special Edition

http://www.directorslive.com/videos/will-academy-voters-learn-anything-from-the-transformers-3-oscar-campaign/
   

Who knew this would get Oscar nominations for sound?

There is a 8 minute section devoted to this topic. Checked out all all 4 hours and just
like the previous Blu-ray release with behind the scenes you get a lot of cool stuff.
Still have to get to Bay's commentary. This will be mentioned on the live shows.

Star Trek Next Generation Next Level Blu-ray Review PT. 2

1. Farpoint: Besides the Enterprise getting a makeover so do the creatues at the end. Nicely done.
But Data picking up Wesley and smiling still looks creepy.

2. Klingon homeworld gets the details and the reds are ever so brught.

3. Picards makeup Looks great even it was done so many years ago. Not even Leo in J. Edgar looked this good with todays technology. Actually that looked like crap compare to this.

So I'm convinced on the great job they did with these episodes and looking forward to the box set.
Yep the saw me coming.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

Soul TRain

Soooooouuuuuuuuulllll Train!

Don Cornelius was legendary. Favorite moment from what I remembered:
Elton John being the first "White Artist" to appear on the show doing
"Benny And The Jets"
And why is that? Of course Sir Elton has been an influenced on me but
so has the R N B of the 70's along with the Philly Sound which Sir Elton has
mentioned but also the Motown sound that Sir Paul has also mention as influences.

More on this on the liveshows later this month.

PS Final review of STNG will be on the show...But for you die hards it's worth it
for your collection but to be honest wait for the box sets. I spent my $20 bucks and
they saw me coming but then again what a Geek I am...It's still fun...

Star Trek Next Generation Next Level Blu-ray Review PT. 1

Great preview of whats to come for the Blu-ray release.
So much to say but one thing for sure. The Enterprise
never looked better.

1. Opening Credits:
The sound mix for the orchestra theme was beyond belief.
So that's what the cellos were doing.
And of course that big WHOOSH with the ship passing by.

And the Enterprise got a complete makeover with details
on the hull and other parts of the ship.
This will come in handy when I go back home and start
building the actual model which will be shown on my facebook page.

Pt. 2 coming tomorrow...on the shows themselves...