02.19.09
Posted in Culture, Good Stuff, Media at 11:39 pm by thomas
We saw Coraline this week and I have to say I throughly enjoyed it.
The film is done in stop-motion and for the first few minutes it seems to be very obvious, almost as if the filmmakers attempted to point out the fact that this is not another mass-produced CGI film of the kind we’ve seen a lot lately. But once the story gets really going that feeling disappears, to be replaced by an overall sense of wonder and awe at the craftmanship of the model builders and puppet animators.
Much of the movie is utterly beautiful and at the same time often infused with a very adult sense of twisted humor that I enjoyed a lot. The movie is rated PG, and I thought that towards the end it turned a liiitle bit scary for younger kids.
But foremost in my mind is the artful design and craft that went into this movie. Here are five short features showing how the movie was made. Update: Doh! Missed the YouTube features while writing this post – don’t miss them if you are into stop-motion animation!
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02.12.09
Posted in Culture, Modern Life, Science at 10:28 pm by thomas
Whenever I think I have too many too complicated projects I find something like this on the web… here is the Toaster Project. Thomas Thwaites is attempting to build a toaster from scratch, starting with iron ore, crude oil and other raw materials.
It’s an interesting project, based on some very interesting and deep thoughts around our way of life and our complete disconnect from how the things in our lives are made.
Most of us have only a very basic idea about how everyday objects are made and I’d guess that 95% of the average population in a typical high-tech society could not build the first thing in their own house from scratch. A toaster is actually very ambitious. Yes, you can buy one for ten bucks down the street, but just because it is cheap doesn’t mean its manufacturing isn’t complex.
Our way of life is based on very complex machines that were made through amazingly intricate processes with materials that are far removed from anything found in nature. We all are resting on the shoulders of giants, with just the barest knowledge of how we got here.
I know that I will follow Thomas’ progress in making his toaster, if for no other reason than to learn a little bit more about how all that stuff around us is actually made.
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02.09.09
Posted in PhotoBlog: Street Copy at 7:06 pm by thomas
The moon rising behind the old ferry boats and the Bay Bridge along the Embarcadero…
Photo taken and post created with Palm Centro
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