Roughgroove

Back from hiatus - iPhone Requests

2008-08-11T10:56:00.003-05:00

Long time, no blog.

The real reason I wanted to post is to get a semi-public voice about a couple things and figured this was one of the best places to do it. (Finger's crossed that Apple searches blogs for notes about what to do.)

I have an original iPhone and like it and have held out upgrading to the 3g. But I really want them to improve the reception - and while improved, I think they can (and need) to do better. So while the 3g gets on average one more bar than I have out in the boonies, I think I will wait to see if they revise the phone.

Also, I have heard rumors that they they are going to potentially add a real keyboard. Which is a big deal for me. Despite having it for a long time, I still can't accurately type on the touchpad keyboard. It is annoying to constantly have to backspace.

But I do love me iPhone.

New Work: Colton Ford, Bud Light

2008-01-08T19:47:00.000-06:00

I have updated the "reel" to include a music video that I did for Colton Ford. It was a ridiculously low budget but a lot of fun to do. Serious thanks goes out to Tom Lazarevich, the director of photography for the job. He worked like a dog and deserves a lot of credit.

People who put their sweat and blood into it:
Joe Oppedisano - the director. Good, solid vision.
Josh Bodnar - Editor, extraordinaire.

I am pretty happy with the final product - it looks terrific.

Dexter Main Titles Win Emmy!

2007-09-11T11:36:00.000-05:00

Woot!
We won!

We had great competition -- Path to 9/11 and Lost Room are both standouts -- but we managed to win the 2007 for Outstanding Main Title Award.

Woo!

I did a photo album up on Facebook...

You can catch a telecast of the ceremony this Saturday at 7 / 8pm on E!. The program is called (at least according to their website) "Award Shows The 2007 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards". They announced that every award will get shown, just not every acceptance speech. So expect us to scramble up on stage and then pop off. Look for David Boreanaz for when our category is up.

Oil of Olay and Resident Evil - Separated at Birth?

2007-09-04T13:47:00.000-05:00

As a new by product of working out a gym with TV monitors is that I am now watching a lot more commericals. And I saw these two commercials from Oil of Olay back to back. Which made me remember the Resident Evil commercial...

The packaging, the product demo, hell, even the product names: Regenerist and Regnerate?! Doesn't anyone at Oil of Olay pay attention to pop culture?

Evidence:
Watch these in this order. Keep in mind the Resident Evil one is about 2-3 years old

Resident Evil

Oil of Olay - Regenerist Commercial
Oil of Olay - Definity eye Goop

Fiber consumption

2007-08-14T20:19:00.000-05:00

Well, not technically fiber. More like the audio version of books. I have been on a binge recently.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows. Shockingly good. Kudos to JK Rowling. So good, I am even starting to re-read it again.
Soon I will be Invincible. Fun read, but uneven. A gift of the golden Patito.
After Dark. BAD. I was really excited by the premise but the execution was really underwhelming. Perhaps it was the translation.
Lamb. Fun. Sacrilegious. Chris Moore takes on the Jesus tale. What more can you want?
You Suck. Chris Moore's fun style does vampires. Still not as good A Dirty Job. But still entertaining.

Other recent purchases worthy of note:
The new UNKLE album is outstanding. Pick it up -- the electrobeat and vocals are particularly outstanding.

New Work: The Company

2007-08-14T20:16:00.000-05:00

Added a new piece of work that we did with TNT / Scott Free (yes, Ridley Scott) / John Calley productions. I took over about half way through -- the job was a little long but looks great at the end.

Distance - Night Vision

2007-08-13T15:46:00.000-05:00

Just finished off a new music video with Noah, Nick and Josh (no website for him). All of us are DK Peeps... but this was a side project made the with support of Essanay, Vision Research(thanks Toni!) and American Signs by Tomorrow.

Quite proud of it actually...

Distance - Night Vision - 18mb QuickTime, 640 x 360.

Credits:
Noah Conopask: Director
Nick Campbell: Camera / Tech
Josh Bodnar: Editor
Colin Davis: Producer / Tech
Lights: Essanay
Camera: Vision Research
Break Dancers: Chicago Tribe
Background / Surface: American Signs By Tomorrow

Bubbles!

2007-08-06T10:14:00.000-05:00

During the time when we had to play around with Phantom Camera, I worked on this short with Nick and Benny. One of the takes involved me beaning Benny with a water balloon, but it didn't make it into the final cut. Oh well. I still love it though.

Watch Bubbles, directed by Nick Campbell at Nick's Site, Creamy Orange

Giving up Yahoo

2007-07-27T13:06:00.000-05:00

I have long been a Yahoo fan. I have customized MyYahoo and used it as my homepage for a very long time. But recently they have started deactivating modules in favor of new, re-written AJAX Web 2.0 ones. Which would be fine -- if they worked well and didn't bring my browser to a crawl.

As an example, the previous TV listing page was a simple table with text. The new list an AJAX nightmare that takes 5 seconds to load and makes it hard to scroll the page. The new page layout is wonky so it squishes or stretches modules making them hard to read.

I have poked around and decided to switch over to Google's version it -- iGoogle. Text and RSS feed based...

buy bye Yahoo.

New Work: Finish Line

2007-07-24T11:04:00.001-05:00

Posted a new spot on the reel -- Finish Line.
I am pretty proud of this spot...

Dexter Nominated for Emmy!

2007-07-19T09:43:00.000-05:00

Woot!

Here are the complete list of nominations for Emmys that came out this morning.

Dexter � Showtime � Showtime Presents in association with John Goldwyn Productions, The Colleton Company, Clyde Phillips Productions
Eric Anderson, Creative Director
Josh Bodnar, Editor
Lindsay Daniels, Designer
Colin Davis, Main Title Producer

Hu$tle � AMC � A Kudos Film & Television Production for BBC
Joe Berger, Main Title Producer/Animator
Pascal Wyse, Designer

Standoff � Fox � Twentieth Century Fox Television
Dan Meehan, Title Designer
Michael Riley, Title Designer
Brad Simmons, Title Designer
Bob Swenson, Title Designer

The Lost Room � Sci Fi Channel � Lions Gate Entertainment
Robert Bradley, Title Designer
Thomas Cobb, Title Designer
Patrick Loungway, Director of Photography

The Path To 9/11 � ABC � Marc Platt Productions in association with ABC Studios
Lindsay Daniels, Designer
Colin Day, Designer
Dave Molloy, Editor
Matthew Mulder, Creative Director

Ugly Betty � ABC � ABC Studios
Yolanda Santosa, Art Director
Garson Yu, Creative Director

You can check out the main titles in case you missed 'em.
Dexter Main Titles

The Path to 9/11 Main Titles

Discovering facebook

2007-07-17T10:52:00.000-05:00

Mostly due to Joe's review of facebook, I re-ignited my account. I set up an account a while ago, as a U of C alum, but didn't really do anything with it. Most of the stuff I saw was slightly better formatted version of MySpace (which despite it's popularity is completely annoying in its illegibility and user-unfriendliness to the point of user hostility).

Well, I have gotten back on, mostly as a way of trying to circle back with college pals that I have really lost track with. I am surprised at its well organized features -- kind of the anti-MySpace.

Time will tell if it is sticky enough for me, but so far so well.

Digital Kitchen Updated

2007-06-10T22:31:00.000-05:00

We have finally updated the work site. Clean lines, and for golly's sake QuickTimes.

Digital Kitchen

Oh, and check out our alter-ego:
Designer/Model

More hi-speed shenanigans

2007-05-07T13:30:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more movies of high speed hijinks.

The famous Davis Nose is in good form in the slap videos:

Slap video 1
Slap video 2

Reel Update

2007-05-04T09:31:00.000-05:00

I know - three posts in three days! What is the world coming to?

I have been bad about updating my reel, but I just added five new spots. I really like the Eggo spot and Electrolux...

Hmm. I probably need to figure out a new navigation structure, eh?

High Speed Shenanigans

2007-05-04T09:18:00.000-05:00

We recently had the Phantom V10 in our office and over the weekend, we got to play around with it.

Me + Water Balloons + Phantom Camera =

Water Balloon Take 1
Water Balloon Take 2

Travis - Closer

2007-05-02T10:09:00.000-05:00

I have found a pretty good quality of the new video from Travis for the song "Closer." For some reason, the sweetness resonates with me.

Here is the link to the lower quality YouTube Version:

Download the higher quality version: AVI (in XVid format) -- 40 mb

(If you are on a Mac and are having problems viewing the video, you can download Perian to update QuickTime to view the video.

Dexter 3rd

2007-03-23T13:58:00.000-05:00

According to the Onion, Dexter main titles were named the third best titles that fit the show.

Woot! Some other great options were missing (6 Feet Under, A-Team, etc.) but it is great company to be in.

Bunny death

2007-03-20T21:39:00.000-05:00

Near where my car is parked, I saw this mangled, stuffed bunny. I took a photo (right after I took a photo of a live rat). Click for the whole pic.

Items I Love

2007-01-21T20:16:00.000-06:00

Over the past few months I have thought about all the items that I use on a daily or near daily basis that I really love. Yeah, it is a very capitalistic whoring thing for me to do, but if I convince someone else to find the joy in Veronica Mars or Shure headphones, it will be worth it.

Here is a quick run down.

1) Shure E4g Headphones. Pricey. But it is just like having the audio beamed into your head. They take a little while to get used to, but once you do, the noise isolating factors are really terrific.

2) KEXP Song of the Day Podcast and Indie Feed They are my new alternatives to radio. One song at a time, exposure to a ton of new artists that -- most of them are available at eMusic.

3) Pear Lyrics. A software widget that automatically downloads the lyrics to songs as they play in the background. I love my music; I love embedding the artwork into the tracks. Pear lyrics almost works like magic and saves the lyrics into the file. Too bad they made him discontinue it.

4) iPod Nano The Nano holds no special love in my heart over the other iPods, but given that I use it almost every single day, it is one of my most beloved gadgets. I have hopes for the video iPods, but I will wait for the non-Cingular version (be it a phone or standalone device).

5) HDTVs1080p goodness. Bright colors. I don't have the cash for plasma TVs but those are pretty amazing. It is nice to see all the TVs (DLPs, LCDs, etc.) all reaching the HD perfection so you pretty much can't go wrong. Combine all that technological crispness with the ~~decline~~ fall of manners in movie theaters and you have my deep, undying love.

6) Under Armour Underwear. I am supremely picky about my underwear. I have even go far as to work up a spreadsheet with variables such as comfort, bunching, durability, etc. Noth much has competed with Under Armour for comfort and durability.

7) Launchbar Command-space is all it takes to get anything at your fingertips. Hard to explain coherently, but it indexes everything and uses predictive abilities to get you from point a to b with no mousing and lightning speed.

8) Synergy is an iTunes control widget that allows you to float the album artwork over your screen and control your music through a menu bar add-on. Simple, but works really well.

9) Veronica Mars is a modern tv sleuth, kind of what you would imagine a sassy Nancy Drew would be if she had pre-marital sex and a taser. The third season has really fallen flat, with a much darker and uncharmingly cranky Veronica, but I am still a die-hard fan. I. Am. So. Gay.

10) Nikon D80 I just got this for Christmas and my photography-fu is weak but I love it. The pictures are amazing and I hope to become a better photographer with it.

Wolf Retreat

2007-01-14T19:56:00.000-06:00

I didn't feel it when the wolf peed on my leg. Wolf-woman Susan scolded Dakota "How rude!" and the wolf trotted off. She assured me, "No. Really. Being peed on signifies you are part of the pack."
"Yeah. Right. His bitch." I looked down at my cargo pants, now slick with piss.
Tanya Anna Annette Moonquest Spirit Littlewolf (She is half Cherokee / Half Sicilian) hobbled over to a different wolf and liad down next to him. "He's my spirit healer" The wolf blinked. And then yawned. Then rolled over onto the his side and went to sleep.
Susan reached for my new camera. She took it from me after I had just taken the first few pictures -- I just got the camera for Christmas. "Ooo! This is nice!" she cooed. Click. Click. Click-click-click. I think my head is in a couple of them, but most of the 137 other photos are of the same wolf blinking and staring off into space.

Here are a few pics:

Phil with wolf

Me and Marty with Dakota.

Wolf howling.

1080p Goodness - when you need it

2006-12-09T09:31:00.000-06:00

I am a nut about my television viewing experience. I was a projectionist at the movie theater in college and after that, I have avidly followed all of the technical minutia of movie technology. Dolby Digital, DTS, HDTV, etc.

I have finally found a good technical write up of when resolution differences can be viewed and calculating optimum viewing distances. The short answer is that if your TV screen is small and/or the distances far away, you can't resolve any pixel differences between resolution. However, in that area of 50-70 inches and 5-9 feet, the differences are noticeable.

All of this is getting more and more important to me as I don't find myself enjoying going out to movies as much as the crowds are more and more unruly. Talking, cell phones, poor framing (when the film is not aligned in the projector so you see too much top or bottom of the frame) or masking (the black curtains are not in the proper place to border the picture) all distract me from the immersion experience....

Disco Holiday!

2006-12-04T17:15:00.000-06:00

We just completed this new piece for Screenvision:

Disco Holiday:

It has a ton of little gems in it -- too bad YouTube Video quality blows.

UPDATE: There is a much better QuickTime at DK's site:
http://www.d-kitchen.com/discoholiday/

Advil leads to decreased muscle growth

2006-11-26T21:53:00.000-06:00

I have long suspected (with no real scientific backing, mind you) that Ibuprofen somehow inhibited muscle growth. My simple, pea-brain somehow connected taking the pain away would also take away the benefits from it. (No, I am not Catholic. Or Jewish).

Well, I saw a blurb in a fitness magazine that aluded to this a while ago, and I decided to hunt down the scientific paper for the source.

Here is the gory abstract from the shortly titled paper "Ibuprofen inhibits skeletal muscle hypertrophy in rats"

PURPOSE: We sought to determine whether cyclooxygenase (COX) activity is necessary for overload-induced growth of adult rat skeletal muscle, and whether nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity is involved in upregulation of COX messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in skeletal muscle. METHODS: Unilateral surgical removal of the gastrocnemius and soleus was performed on the right hindlimb of 16 female Sprague-Dawley rats (approximately 230 g) to induce chronic overload (OL) of the plantaris for 14 d, with sham surgeries performed on the contralateral leg as a normally loaded (NL) control. Half of the rats were treated with the nonspecific COX inhibitor, ibuprofen (0.2 mg.mL(-1) in drinking water; approximately 20 mg.kg(-1).d(-1)). In a second experiment, the plantaris was unilaterally overloaded for 5 or 14 d in male rats (approximately 350 g; N = 16 rats per time point) and half of the animals were treated with the NOS inhibitor, L-NAME (0.75 mg.mL(-1) in drinking water; approximately 90 mg.kg(-1).d(-1)). RESULTS: Ibuprofen treatment inhibited plantaris hypertrophy by approximately 50% (P < 0.05) following 14 d of OL, as did L-NAME treatment (P < 0.05). COX-1 and COX-2 mRNA did not differ between any groups at 5 d. At 14 d, however, L-NAME caused a 30-fold increase in plantaris COX-1 mRNA expression independent of loading condition. Additionally, OL induced a 20-fold increase in COX-2 mRNA expression compared with NL (P < 0.05) at 14 d, without affecting COX-1 mRNA level. L-NAME treatment significantly inhibited OL-induced expression of COX-2 mRNA. CONCLUSION: COX activity is important for in vivo muscle hypertrophy, and plantaris overload is associated with NOS activity-dependent COX-2 expression.

From Wikipedia, here is a definition of COX:

Cyclooxygenase (COX) is an enzyme (EC 1.14.99.1) that is responsible for formation of important biological mediators called prostanoids (including prostaglandins, prostacyclin and thromboxane). Pharmacological inhibition of COX can provide relief from the symptoms of inflammation and pain; this is the method of action of well-known drugs such as aspirin and ibuprofen.

Sadly, it took me about 6 reads of the abstract to put it all together (my bio-goggles are pretty damn rusty).

Here's my interpretation:
They wanted to see whether inflammation is needed to create new muscle. Or phrased an even simpler way: The pain / soreness you feel after working out is a necessary step to building muscle -- and specifically, taking ibuprofen (e.g. Advil) stops that. In their study, the muscles were 50% smaller on the rats on advil. That is HUGE.

Good news though: Tylenol doesn't work on the same chemical paths as Advil so it shouldn't be part of this pathway. I would recommend staying away from Advil if you want to build big muscles. It is only one study though. Time will tell if this holds up under other studies.

Vietnam in one easy post

2006-11-13T11:22:00.000-06:00

I have fallen off the blogging wagon... I seem to be in good company, though. My pals Casey, Mike and Joe haven't been regular bloggers recently either, but that really isn't an excuse.

I figured I would try to post the pictures from my recent trip to Vietnam recently.

Vietnam 2006 Pictures

I think this one pic summarizes a lot of what we saw there: Beauty from rubble. This is a close up of "tile" in a wall, composed of broken ceramic pieces.

The Vietnamese have been kicked so many times over the past thousand years that all the historical artifacts have largely been destroyed. But they take the fragments and build it back up again, resilient as any culture. They have resisted domination for a millennium -- their language, race, food and culture remains remarkably intact for being occupied by the Indonesians, French, Chinese, Japanese and of course, Americans.