Corte Madera Chronicles

A group blog; a place to share photos, thoughts, stupid shit we find on the internet, whatever. Hopefully we'll get at least one post per day from someone, and not so many posts that it's too overwhelming. Have fun!

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Ben Burtt joins Pixar

link

Where is everybody? Now that Ep III opened, no one is blogging.

Thursday, May 26, 2005

This one's for Lia...

Judge rules that parents can't raise their child as a wiccan

(from Raw Story)

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Remember TFOS?

This will probably be lame. But it brings back TFOS memories.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Laugh Now All of You

Linkt

Monday, May 23, 2005

And the numbers

Link
Showing on more than 9,000 screens, the film took $50,013,859 (�27,370,585) on Thursday, its first day of release.
The sixth film of George Lucas' epic cycle also set new two, three and four-day North American records.
However, it failed by $6m to clinch the opening weekend record - $114.8m set by Spider-Man in 2002.

On Thursday, Revenge of the Sith opened with special midnight screenings and beat the previous one-day record of $44.8m (�24.5m) set by Shrek 2 in May 2004.
Bruce Snyder, president of domestic distribution at 20th Century Fox, called the takings 'staggering'.
'It's probably 20% more than I thought we could do,' he said.

Best Sound Designer Ever

Link:
Though there are vocal dissenters, most film critics and 'Star Wars' buffs seem pleased with the last installment of the epic, 'Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.' George Lucas has received his highest praise since the first 'Star Wars' film in 1977. Some critics have even conceded significant improvement in the acting of the handsome Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker. But the member of the creative team whose contributions are largely being taken for granted is the composer John Williams. Music plays almost throughout the entire movie, and much of the emotional resonance critics are finding is stoked by Mr. Williams's surprisingly subdued and murky score, especially during the scenes of intimate human drama, such as they are. If you get involved in the fretful exchanges between Anakin and his love-struck young wife, Padm%uFFFD (Natalie Portman), or if you are hooked by the dilemma of the Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), who yearns to believe in his disciple Anakin but senses the young warrior's rebellion, Mr. Williams deserves much of the credit. Although Mr. Williams became a household name for 'Star Wars' in the late 1970's, many critics poked fun at him for the comic-book excess of his scores. True, he was no Bernard Herrmann or Elmer Bernstein. But even in Mr. Williams's pre-'Jaws' days, when he was churning out disaster-flick music ('The Towering Inferno'), his work was thoroughly professional. At a time when synthesized film music was ascendant, he re-embraced the symphonic film score. Still, with all their bombastic blather, the early 'Star Wars' scores invited kidding.

Friday, May 20, 2005

pictures

ok. ALL the pics are here. there are many.

i picked some of the best and put them on flickr, you can find those here.

christopher, this is for you.

and finally, a few of my favorites:

picture
the picture





picture of the picture
picture of the picture





darth walter
darth walter





clown tent
in the tent





sleepy steve
steve is sleepy... or is that chris?





i am your father!
i am your father!





josh enters the jedi temple
josh practices his anakin moves





sign b&w
blurry b&w





thursday
capricious fate, why do you taunt us so?!

The full-scale Millenium Falcon could actually "fly"

According to Brian Johnson, special effects supervisor on the film, the spaceship could fly - but only a few millimetres off the ground.
More on the BBC website.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

The Chronicle nails it

...in their Episode III review.

It Took Them Long Enough

It is surprising that it would take so long to see the paralells between SW and contemporary politics. Evil is on the rise here. Link
Alluding to Michael Moore's remarks about 'Fahrenheit 9/11' at Cannes a year earlier, Mr. Lucas joked, 'Maybe the film will waken people to the situation.' Apparently in all seriousness, though, he went on to say that he had first devised the 'Star Wars' story during the Vietnam War. 'The parallels between what we did in Vietnam and what we're doing in Iraq now are unbelievable,' he told an appreciative audience. Peter Sealey, a former marketing chief at Columbia Pictures, said the partisan tug of war over the new 'Star Wars' episode seemed absurd, likening the political interpretations of it to a Rorschach test. But he said Mr. Lucas was probably savvy in adding sizzle and relevance to a movie that otherwise might have earned publicity only by its effectiveness as entertainment. 'He could've come out and said, 'That's ridiculous - this is the white hats and black hats of the 1950's in space,' and quashed it,' said Mr. Sealey, who teaches entertainment marketing at the University of California, Berkeley. 'Did he do that? No, and it was probably smart. If he can get 'Star Wars' brought into the debate over unilateralism and the Iraq war, it just brings a current spin to it. And I don't think it's going to rule people out.' Indeed, it is extremely unlikely that all the online screeds and boycotts put together will leave so much as a dent in the movie's box office results. Hollywood insiders have estimated that 'Episode III' will have ticket sales of $120 million or more in its first four days. But Mr. Sealey said other filmmakers and marketers might do well to inspect their pictures for latent political messaging before the public does it for them.

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

baby nazis

this is just wrong.

r10020

Thursday, May 12, 2005

First post from me

I don't know what this is, but I thought it was way cool - got it from a friend at work.

Hi everyone! I hope to contribute at least once a week.

Moliere


.

My play opens Friday. Here's the cast. Silly Moliere.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

BBC Reviews E3

This will give stuff away.

Monday, May 09, 2005

El Cerrito High to be blown up

Why am I the last one to know about this???

Who watches...?

AICN on the latest Watchmen movie machinations

If you haven't read The Watchmen and you have any interest in the superhero genre, shame on you.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

into the wardrobe

Chronicles of Narnia trailer

Thursday, May 05, 2005

How Much Gold Could a Goldschlager Schlag?

Link

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

book recommendations?

I need books. What have you all read that's good?

I like novels with:

-lots of plot. Definitely narrative-driven.

-good characters

-good prose

-some kind of science-fiction or fantasy element, usually.

I just read "The Big U" by Neal Stephenson and really liked it. He wrote Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon and several other great books; this was his first novel and didn't get published till after he became successful with the later stuff. He's a BU grad and there are definite echoes of Warren Towers etc in this one. As well as giant mutant rats, live-action gaming, oldschool hacking, dorms gone wild; all kinds of fun stuff.

Or, any nonfiction recommendations? Especially history books with an appreciation for narrative and with writing that's not too dry.

Hook me up.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

america the music video

This might be one of the most frightening things ever. Have you seen it yet?

And this is a good commentary.

Do any of you read This guy's stuff? It's pretty funny, and often dead on.

did my links work?

Monday, May 02, 2005

like kennedy, only better

our illustrious governor explains his new health care plan.

Schwarzenegger explained, "If we get rid of the moon, women, whose menstrual cycles are governed by the moon, will not get PMS. They will stop bitching and whining."

i wonder if he's thought about how the subsequent tide changes would effect the state he governs?

that would be a great movie: "arnold kills the moon!"

Sunday, May 01, 2005

not quite as scary as all that, but still somewhat scary

Headline on Yahoo News: "First Lady's Comedy Skill Well-Kept Secret"

an example of her wit: "George's answer to any problem at the ranch is to cut it down with a chain saw, which, I think, is why he and Cheney and Rumsfeld get along so well," she said.

link

The Raw Story