Base Jumping [Updated]

I have some friends going skydiving this weekend, so I thought I'd share a cautionary tale to set the mood.

Remember kids, always check your parachute.

[UPDATE - Turns out it's NEXT weekend... but I still figure it's good advice...]

One Of The Voices Is Gone

Yesterday, we all lost a long-standing friend; Don LaFontaine, the Voice of a thousand trailers, has died, at the age of 68.

Don was one of a handful of men who do the majority of the trailer voice-over in the US. I've had the pleasure of working with a few of these gentlemen, and they're all a bunch of pros, who can do this is their sleep. You may recognize Don's voice from the trailers for Terminator 2, Batman Returns, or Shrek. The intro to his website should seem awfully familiar, and Ain't It Cool News has a fine assortment of his greatest hits, including a nice featurette at the end of their YouTube links.

We still have Hal Douglas, among others, so we'll continue to hear great VO like this; yet Don will be missed; he is the voice of the movies, and will continue to be for some time yet.

Seeing that Hal is 84 years old (!), I'm starting to wonder... what will the next generation of Trailer Voices be like? Who will it be? I suspect they'll look for a near-identicle replacement, but those are some tough shoes to fill.

Thanks for the good times, Don. See you in another life.

Yikes x3

• The live feed from Britney Spears' mic during live performances illustrates not only why she lip-syncs at shows, but also the sheer talent (and computing power) of modern music mixers.





• Another blog featuring embarassing photo trends from decades gone by - now including the '90's! My personal favorite is here, and I had this picture taken of myself.





• Naomi Klein on the Beijing Olympics:

  When Beijing was awarded the games seven years ago, the theory was that international scrutiny would force China's government to grant more rights and freedom to its people. Instead, the Olympics have opened up a backdoor for the regime to massively upgrade its systems of population control and repression. And remember when Western companies used to claim that by doing business in China, they were actually spreading freedom and democracy? We are now seeing the reverse: investment in surveillance and censorship gear is helping Beijing to actively repress a new generation of activists before it has the chance to network into a mass movement.

Yikes.

August 12

Today, I am 27. I'm feeling more than a bit old. I'm at the point where a birthday isn't that big of a deal; and, during the course of the year, I often forget just how old I am. 26, 27, something like that?

Did you know that on the exact day of my birth, IBM released the very first PC? Or that 882 years before that day in 1981, the First Crusade ended? That on August 12, 1883, the last quagga died, that on August 12, 1908 the prototype Model T was built, that on August 12, 1977 the Space Shuttle Enterprise took its first free flight, or that on August 12, 1990, Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex was discovered?

See all that, and even more, here.

It's been a good birthday so far, and even though I'm about to jump on a red eye, it's a red eye to Maine, which makes it all worth it. It's unfortunate that the day before my birthday, our president had to go and be an asshole, again, but them's the breaks. Nobody got me this (at least not yet), but I am consoled to think that nobody has been gifted with that.

Here's a house, Clingstone, that I would love to live in; reminds me of the Barnacle, done with elegance. The New York times wrote about it the other day.

But this, right here, is my real dream home. Tracy probably won't let me make us live in this, but I fully intend on building a hobbit office once we settle down. I don't know how best to do it, my building skills are may not be that great, but it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

Time to go – I have a flight to make. I'll leave you with something that shouldn't, by any means, work at all, but ends up being almost sublime.

Enjoy.

Happy birthday.

"Tell It To Me In Star Wars"

Brilliant explanation of the Uncanny Valley.

Here's Wikipedia with a little more.

Speaking of Law School

This sounds like good advice to me, and passionately given at that – even the policeman agrees, and good-naturedly. Care to weigh in, future lawyers?

As an aside, this guy is the kind of professor a student dreams of – he cares so much he can't even slow down. Love it.

Huzzah!

So, as of tonight, Dan is done with the bar, while Kevin and Sarah wrapped up yesterday. With a little luck (and a lot of hard work), they have passed muster and become lawyers – now just waiting for official confirmation. And an additional shout-out to John, who recently smoked the GMAT, and has every reason to be proud himself.

In celebration, a brief audio grab, from a... ah, trusted authority:



I raise my glass and toast to the former, my friends. Well done!

(Say friend, you got any more of that good sarsaparilla?)

Good Luck!

This is a big week for a few friends; Kevin and Sarah are both taking the West Virginia Bar Exam over today and tomorrow, while Dan E. takes the California Bar Exam today as well, and continuing it through Wednesday.

Together, these three are some of the smartest people I know, and I have faith that they will all do well. That being said, a little luck never hurt anyone, so join me in wishing them the very best of luck with these tests, and congratulations on getting this far.

You guys makes the rest of us look bad; I'm proud to know you all!!

Break a leg!

Meta: Stay Tuned

The Stones may have said it best.

The absense was unintended, but needed. No specific reason, just the way things happened. All is good, and I am back.

I find my blogging habits and muscles a bit atrophied now; it may take some time before I get back up to speed.

But stick around, if you're still interested. Regularly scheduled programming will resume soon.

Best Review Quote Ever

Amanda Seyfried's publicist should start ordering t-shirts:

[Seyfried] is shot in such warm close-ups that you almost want to spread her face on your toast.

Ladies and gentlemen, David Poland and his review of Mamma Mia: The Movie.

Confirmed: The Clock Tower is Gone

Truly a sad day for film fans... for the clock tower has burned down.

I took that picture in the spring of 2005, when I was still relatively new to Los Angeles. At the time, I didn't think much of our visit to Universal Studios, but looking back, I consider myself lucky. I had a chance to see not just the Hill Valley Square set, but also the New York City sets I've seen in dozens of classic films, and go through the chesseball King Kong portion of the set. And now they're gone.

The LA Times has a report on what exactly burned; given how large the studios are, this was a fairly small fire. Check out the "Map" popup to get a sense for the layout, and where the fire was. According to another article, it looks like low water pressure stymied early efforts to get the fire out. Universal Studios is built on unincorporated land, so it's part of LA county, but not the city, so has less stringent regulations. I'll bet they're reconsidering those regulations after today.

To be fair, several of these sets have burned before, and been rebuilt; this story lists a few of the more spectacular studio fires, the overwhelming majority of which have taken place at Universal. Seriously, they should take a look at that water pressure.

I bet a "Save the Clock Tower" drive/website is set up in a matter of days. And when it shows up, I'm there.

Here are some fire photos I took today – my lens has a few spots, so forgive the smudges, but there was one hell of a smoke cloud. All were taken from the Herzog & Company office building. Click on any photo to see some more.

Fire Under the Mountain

Just over a year ago, I was posting pictures of a fire in Griffith Park.

Now, I'm on the roof of the office building I work in, and the Universal Studios are aflame.

I woke up to find an e-mail from my brother Ian, telling me that there was a fire. A quick trip to the LA Times confirmed it, and a look out at the hill from over our pool showed a huge smoke cloud. Crazy. The ground around our office is covered in pretty large ash, and the smoke cloud is heading northwest for miles.

I don't have any pictures to post just yet - I'm actually working today, and I took the shots with my Digital SLR, so I need to load them into my system a bit differently. But, tonight I'll get them up, and you'll see just how nuts this looks right now.

In the meantime, here's a story from the LA Times with a lot of info. Looks like the King Kong tour/set, and the New York City and New England standing sets are taking the brunt of the fire, as well as an archival vault containing "copies," so it looks like no serious history is going away. The Clock Tower from Back to Future is right in this part of the backlot, though, so who knows if it'll survive this.