I review the movie Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

See the video after the break.

As many of you know I’ve been working in reality tv for the last 6 months.

It’s been a quite a ride. Read on for the journey/announcement.

Last December I got a phone call out of the blue to come and work as a PA (production assistant) the lowest of the low on the production totem pole.

But it was a job and I was very desperate for work. And there’s always a good chance that you have to work your way back up when you start a new job in production.

It was only supposed to be a few days worth of work, but it quickly ballooned into a semi-permanent staff PA job, and then quickly turned into a staff job.

Job security is a very good thing.

I ended up doing a number of different jobs as a PA, helping out with many of the ongoing projects that my company is involved in producing.

Soon after I was approached to be the “post production coordinator” on a show that we had been working on since December (the show I was first hired on to). I gleefully accepted. My new job would be to coordinate all the post production flow for the show, from dealing with people from network to dealing with our editors and animation company (more on that soon).

It was a lot of responsibility but a very good step in the right direction, clearly they saw that I was capable of handling more and trusted me with a very large chunk of work that makes or breaks a show being done on time for air deadlines.

Fast forward to now. The show is set to air THIS Saturday AND I’m now an Associate Producer on the show as my workload and responsibility has grown over the past few months of working on the post production of the show.

It’s a reality show called Celebrity Sex Tales on Playboy TV. It’s not exactly what you think of when you think Playboy. It’s different celebrities sitting down with friends telling pretty ridiculous sex stories and we animate portions of the story. I’m fairly proud to have worked on the show and really proud to have gone from a PA to an associate producer on a single show. It’s cool to see something I’ve worked really hard on actually be on TV for people to watch.

It’s actually a pretty funny show and some of the stories are pretty crazy. If you happen to have a subscription to Playboy it airs THIS Saturday May 7th (check your local listings for time) (I’ve kinda always wanted to say write that).

That’s my big news. It’s a 10 episode run for the show and fingers crossed we get picked up for a 2nd season.

I mentioned this game in my 100th Subscriber vlog, while I haven’t exactly been the biggest Rockstar Games fan in the past, this game has been catching my eye for a while. Not just for the unique visual style which I know employs some new technology to capture faces in real time and then uses that information to animate characters in a very different way than traditional motion capture.

The PR firm that is working with GameStop for LA Noire sent over some new screen captures. See them after the break.

Here are 3 screen caps from the game.
They very much remind me of film noire movies, which is the point I guess, as well as bringing a similar style to the Dick Tracy live action movie from the 90′s.

My friend Casey McKinnon (who also did a What Do You Know guest post a few weeks ago) got invited down to Rockstar games to get a sneak peek of the game, read her experience here.

Her blog really makes me intrigued as this game is not as much like the Grand Theft Auto series where violence is as key, it sounds more like a sleuthing game. We’ll have to wait and see what the game is like. I’ve pre-ordered it from Amazon, so I’ll have a review at some point.

But if you don’t order from Amazon, you can pre-order it from GameStop and get access to downloadble content as well enter for a chance to win $30,000, which is far more than the $10 back you’ll get from Amazon in store credit. Here’s the GameStop link.

I got a chance to see the movie The Beaver last night thanks to KCRW.

Video review after the jump.

Last week’s What Do You Know – Lilly Lewin – Math

First a note: If you didn’t already know the subjects that our guest bloggers are creating are chosen by me. I know them all fairly well and try my best to intro them according to what they do know and what I think they are great at. When it comes to the subjects, I pick subjects that I think will force them to think outside of their boxes. Apparently I’m 2 for 2 these last two weeks with Math for Lilly and now History for Casey. That being said, Casey was a good sport about it, and you’ll see why.

If you don’t already know who Casey McKinnon @caseymckinnon on twitter you should! Hailing from the land of maple syrup and Mike Meyers, Casey is a true pioneer. Not so much in the log cabin sense, but much of the web video landscape can be traced back to her diligence in creating content for the web. See Galacticast and A Comicbook Orange. In my little head Casey is one of the people I look up to when it comes to creating content for the web, not only her ability to be creative and fun, she’s opinionated when it comes to many of the issues surrounding what’s going on in the web community. Read her blog, period. You will be informed. I was lucky enough to finally work with Casey on a BlackBoxTV shoot that I produced. See the fruits of that labor here. I can only hope to work with her again. I’m excited for you to read her piece on “History”, not many people can marry, being Canadian with a dose of Abraham Lincoln and throw in some Dune for good measure. Read on.

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I saw The Conspirator this weekend. I went for James McAvoy, whose career I’ve been following since he appeared in SyFy’s Children of Dune miniseries in 2003, but as a Canadian was interested to learn about the witch hunt following the assassination of President Lincoln. What I saw in the film, however, reminded me very much of the witch hunt following loyalists during the American Revolution.

It is said that history is written by the victors. When it comes to loyalists, however, they are treated differently by historical texts whether you’re looking at it from the perspective of Americans or Canadians. In the United States, loyalists were rancid people who helped preserve oppressive British order, but in Canada loyalists are held with high regard. In fact, the descendants of loyalists who fled the US to remain loyal to the crown were granted the honorific title of United Empire Loyalist with a “UE” at the end of their name. This is similar – yet completely opposite – to the American title of “DAR”, but for all descendants, not just the “daughters.”

Loyalists were not necessarily bad people. Many of them were farmers who simply believed in the order of the time and disagreed with the rebels. These loyalists… these people… got no fair trials. They were lynched by mobs in the name of revolution.

Now I’m not saying that I know all the facts. And I’m certainly not saying I don’t love the outcome of the esteemed union of these fifty beautiful states. But if Americans can watch a movie like The Conspirator and become truly affected by the unfair trials after Lincoln’s assassination, I hope that they can do the same for the unfair treatment of loyal British subjects during the American Revolution. I’m sure they would appreciate it… I should know, after all… for my full name is Casey Erin McKinnon UE.

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Casey always wanted to be an actress, but thought it was a really bad idea until she saw Clint Eastwood’s Bronco Billy and decided she needed to follow her dreams regardless of the consequences. She has won multiple awards for her work in web series Galacticast and A Comicbook Orange, and has been written up in The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, and The Guardian, among others. Suffice to say, she’s pretty darn happy she chose this path. You can find her on Twitter, at her web site, and hopefully in one of Eastwood’s future movies.

Last week’s What Do You Know – Douglas Sarine – Cooking

Many of you may not know who Lilly Lewin is, @lillylewin on twitter but if ever I had someone in my life who was my real life Qui-Gon Jinn it would be her. I see her as a master Jedi that I can always be learning from. I met Lilly a number of years ago when I was working at a church doing work with middle schoolers and high schoolers, it was at a conference in Nashville, TN and I was assigned to work with her to help her set up experiential prayer stations at the convention. We hit it off in no time. It was one of those “I know I’ve found a friend for the rest of my life” kind of moments. Lilly is seriously one of the most creative and talented and deep thinkers I know. She exudes a joy for life that is not often found in most. She has an infectious laugh and a personality 20x her size. Her ability to sit and listen and then offer up sage advice is something I completely respect of her. She’s always flying under the radar and still shaking the foundations of thoughts and beliefs in the best of ways. If you are at all interested in prayer or more specifially experiential prayer (think of it as prayer where you do more than recite words and statements) it’s some powerful stuff, check out the book she co-wrote with Dan Kimball (another amazing person) it’s called Sacred Space: A Hands-On Guide to Creating Multisensory Worship Experiences for Youth Ministry (Soul Shaper) (affiliate link).

Read on for her post about Math which truly lets her artistic side shine. And as a bonus she created some math pictures (see bottom of the post).

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So mathematics ….one of my least favorite subjects….seriously…thanks Andrew.

I’m an English major and an artist of sorts so I avoid math like the plague. Last week, my son couldn’t believe that I didn’t have my credit card number memorized. I just don’t have the numbers gift and I really don’t memorize any numbers I don’t’ have to …that’s what a cell phone is for!

My husband and my dad both have the numbers/math gift. Rob memorizes every number he needs. Rob’s mom and his sister were both math minors and my dad is a civil engineer and helped me survive math throughout school. I was much more into history, literature and art, and I would much rather exegete a poem than solve an equation.

Despite my lack of interest in math, I have many math memories. Back in elementary school I thought about being an architect, and used to design houses for fun. But when I realized that I’d need to be precise and need lots of math, I changed my career path. Even today, I don’t tend to measure things…I just eyeball them. A ruler? Who needs it!?

I did take math all four years of high school, but in college I took Italian so I didn’t have to take any math courses. And if it wasn’t for my 10^th grade geometry teacher, I would never have learned anything in algebra 2.

It’s really sad, but my brain just isn’t linear. I just never cared about a+b=c…or finding x. And I honestly, I still don’t care! And I don’t’ see why we torture students with subjects like calculus and trig…my dad the engineer says he’s only used calculus once since he graduated and he’s 82!.

My first memories of math involve singing not writing or calculation.

In kindergarten we had a performance with the entire school, which I think meant that all K-8^th graders got to sing together this one song.

“INCH WORM”

written by Frank Loesser

Inch worm, inch worm

Measuring the marigolds

Could it be, you’d stop and see

How beautiful they are

(Chorus:)

Two and two are four

Four and four are eight

Eight and eight are sixteen

Sixteen and sixteen are thirty-two

Inchworm, inchworm

Measuring the marigolds

You and your arithmetic

You’ll probably go far

 

(Repeat Chorus)

 

Inchworm, inchworm

Measuring the marigolds

Seems to me you’d stop and see

How beautiful they are

My second memory of math involves first grade and a boy. I was really mad when the boy I liked, Bob Carlton, and my friend Mary Martin worked ahead of me in their math workbooks.  You know, the kind with pictures and fill in the blanks and pages that could be torn out and turned in. I was doing an art project for our teacher Mrs. Settle and thus I was getting behind! And Mary and Bob were getting to work together. (yes you remember your first grade teacher, your first grade boy friend and your first kiss that happened on a dare on the playground, same boy)

Next math memory that may have sealed my mathematical fate were time tests in second grade. The teacher would pass out Xeroxed sheets of problems, addition one day and subtraction the next, and then she would give us a timed test…how many problems can you do and get right in three minutes?

Can you say pressure? Can you say competition? I was a performer and I didn’t like getting any thing wrong, but I sure didn’t like being timed!!! And in third grade when we had to learn Roman numerals…and I was out sick and missed most of it, I gave up on math. That’s what calculators are for! And I don’t’ mean a Texas Instruments graphing calculator…they didn’t’ exist back in the dark ages when I was in high school!

I really do believe that we are either wired to like and “get” math or we are not…

And it’s really sad to me that we have to get graded and judged by how well we do in subjects that we don’t really “get” or even like….

Wouldn’t it be great if we could choose to study our passions and our strengths and only have to have a basic understanding of the other things?

There’d be a lot higher SAT scores if you only had to take the math test if you liked math!

So this spring…I’ll be stopping to see how beautiful the marigolds are…taking a photograph or writing a poem about them, but definitely not measuring any of them!

all photos by Lilly

(can’t see the pics above? click here)
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Lilly Lewin is the founder of Thinplace: a pilgrimage of discovery and creativity. Her passion is helping people engage God and His story , taking individuals and communities outside the box of worship, beyond singing, through multi-sensory prayer and experiential worship, contemplation and art. She leads workshops, retreats, and creates Sacred Space worship and prayer rooms throughout the country. She is the author of Sacred Space: A Hands-On Guide to Creating Multisensory Worship Experiences (see link in intro) with Dan Kimball.

Lilly and her husband Rob and their boys are currently on pilgrimage in St Helena, California along with Fred the wonder spaniel. lillylewin.com

Last week’s What Do You Know – Christine Taylor – Toys

Let me just say Doug Sarine @douglassarine on twitter is probably the funniest guy you might know that you’ve seen before. He’s one half of the Ask A Ninja team who was blowing up YouTube before YouTube was a household term. I’m not going to tell you which 1/2 of the Ninja team he is but at this point if you can’t figure that out then you don’t deserve to be on the internet. I met Doug back when I was doing a stint in journalism and the Ninja team was going to be at Comic Con one year, as I recall it was a great interview but those tapes have gone the way of (insert some ninja reference here). I also have a cool connection to Doug through his better half, Sarah Atwood @sarahatwood on twitter who was one of the first people I met on twitter that I didn’t already know, it was so long ago I can’t even remember how I started following her but we got along well enough. Sarah herself has been a part of the video blogging landscape from time to time (I wish she’d do more) and is always a fun person to be around. But back to Doug. It’s always a pleasure running into Doug around at events and functions in LA, he’s not the type of guy who’s in your face which is a juxtaposition to his onscreen presence which consistently makes me pee my pants a little when I laugh too hard. I was really intrigued when I got his entry for this blog series, here’s a very funny man who can make you think quite deeply about the mysteries of the egg.

Enjoy Doug’s post on Cooking.

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Declaration of Food – by Douglas Sarine

When in the third course of hungry events, it becomes necessary for one person to dissolve the waist bands which have restrained their growth, and to consume among the foods of the earth, the separate and equal satiation to which the Laws of Eatin’ and of Eatin’ Good entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of The Food Network requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the ingestion.

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During the first 15 years of my life I was lucky in food.  Firstly, I had it.  Having food is a big part of eating and eating is a big part of staying alive.  Many people in the world are not lucky in food.  Over 30,000 people everyday die from starvation, the majority of them are children.  As a child, I had food.  I am thankful for that fact and that I had people in my life that desired to feed me healthy foods.  My mother, as it must come as no shock whatsoever, was the person who took the main interest in my diet for those years.  She kept sweets and fats to an absolute minimum.  A freshly washed apple-au-natural was dessert in our home.  She encouraged me to eat the abhorrently healthy items, like steamed spinach, with a technique called the I Love You Helping; which consisted of three spoonfuls (I, Love, You).  Consuming those spoonfuls proved that, although I hated the offering, I still loved and respected the woman who had worked tirelessly to bring it to my plate.  If I didn’t eat it, it meant I didn’t love my mother.  Health through guilt.  I ate that spinach.  I was a healthy child.

When I was 15 I got a job.  I had my own money. I immediately turned my back on that lucky and healthy youth and entered a phase of malcontent mastication.  I ate very poorly for the next 15 years…on purpose.  I feigned nutritional ignorance and devoured the forbidden fruits of my youth like a glutton (none which were actual fruits, unless you count deep-fried apple pie as a fruit).  It started with tater tots at the high school cafeteria.  Tots are of course a gateway starch that leads to McDonald’s French fries when you’re allowed to go off campus for lunch during senior year.  At university I became a culinary werewolf, except instead of being man most of the month and a beast on one day, I was a cheap eats beast on most days and a seemingly normal man only when I was home visiting my folks and doing laundry.  After college, I became a full on werewolf.  Every meal included several I Hate Me Helpings of sugars and fats in whatever form was available…for cheap.  I was an unhealthy young adult.

Now as an adult who is at least 30 and at least 30lbs overweight, I find myself searching through the fat for the healthiness of my youth.  I have a hazy craving for the childhood that I strangled with a Twizzler.  I’m awkwardly working at redefining a conscious awareness of what I put in my body as it pertains to all that I need from food.  Nutrition.  Taste.  Experience.  I enjoy experiencing food.  I watch Food Network all the time. I love going to new restaurants.  Discovery of cuisine is a genuine passion of mine.  But, I struggle with the balance between nutrition and taste.  To me, it’s a battle between good and good.

The stomachus firma that I’ve found to eat on is cooking.  I find that cooking makes me immensely aware of the content that I am putting in my body, both in terms of flavor and nourishment.  If it’s bad for me, it’s my fault.  If it taste bad, that’s my fault.  I’m responsible for what goes in me from start to finish.  That makes me care.  It is up to me to create meals with I Love Me Helpings. Through cooking for myself I hope to find harmony between my brain and my belly.

So far, I’m really good at eggs.

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BIO

Douglas Sarine is a content creator.  To say anymore would be confusing.

Let’s Do the WaRP Time Again: Wendy Pini and Richard Pini— Wendy Pini (Elfquest, Masque of the Red Death) and Richard Pini (Elfquest) are the W and R in WaRP Graphics. Join them for an unscripted progress report on Elfquest: The Final Quest, the Masque of the Red Death graphic novel (and musical), and last but not least, the Elfquest movie. 

A little background first. I knew that my friends Stephanie Thorpe and Paula Rhodes had set out to do a fan made trailer for Elfquest that all got started after a conversation on twitter one day. I was super excited for them and watched their fundraising campaign take off and exceed their goal meaning there was a TON of fan support for this to happen. It was more or less an all female cast and crew, so there really wasn’t an opportunity for me to go out and play on set with them. So I was uber excited when I got a call about working on something “secret”. Brett Register who is also a friend of mine, was editing the full trailer, but had been booked on something else and wasn’t going to be able to edit the “tease” that Steph and Paula were going to be showing at WonderCon. So here I am a part of all this magic. I play such a small part of all this goodness but it feels exciting. So I decided to take a quick trip up to SF to watch people react to the tease in person. See the tease at

ElfQuestFanTrailer.com 

I’m not 100% sure what time the tease will be live, but keep checking back It’ll be live around 10p. And dont’ forget to go over on April 6th to see the full trailer. It’s rad. I promise. Kudos to all those who have been involved and to Paula and Stephanie for all their hard work.

Last week’s What Do You Know – Bernie Su – Music

This week we get to hear from Christine Taylor also known as @mousewords on twitter. I first met Christine on twitter, I actually can’t remember how I first started following her, but within days it was quick to tell she was someone who was full of passion and creativity, her love of writing and painting and staying up into the wee hours of the nights doing eccentric things, be it geeking out or writing to watching Murder She Wrote, it was always easy to tell that Christine was fully of life and wisdom. She was a perfect fit when I began to think of people to ask to create something for this series. She’s got so many stories to tell that are fun and deeply personal, ask her about her experience with Carbon Monoxide poisoning, it’s such a inspiring story. I did finally get to meet her IRL a few years back at a book signing for Gary Vaynerchuck’s 1st book “Crush It” (affiliate link) (also pick up Gary’s 2nd book “The Thank You Economy” (affiliate link)) she and her sister @stacyjmt are everything I had to come to expect from my interaction with them on twitter.

Read Christine’s piece on Toys.

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So there I was–about eight years old, on a family trip to Disneyland. As if cross-country travel and the Wonderful World of Disney weren’t enough to overload my “Awesome” circuits, I stepped into a Fantasyland collectibles shop and encountered the most stunningly amazing sight I had ever seen:

Dolls–hundreds of colorful, beautiful dolls. Not your normal, everyday miscellaneous figurines, either. I had a doting grandfather, I was pretty much an expert in the area of mainstream toys and collectibles. But these I had never seen before. Dolls of a higher order, Victorian ladies with slender 12-inch-tall bodies and dreamy, heavy-lashed eyes; a dichotomy of grown-up curves and childishly large faces. Their sweet expressions were all the same, but seemed characterfully different, painted upon silk skin under crowns of soft hair, every shade known to womankind. And the costumes! I gaped in awe at the variety of patterns and textures and fashions–daytime dress, evening dress, riding outfits. I knew I could think of a story to go with every one of them, if given the time. Perhaps after all there were only a couple dozen of the saucy misses, but to a dazzled kid they looked like hundreds, lined up row above row on a central display, ascending to a pyramid point of rainbow-hued elegance.

“Do you want one?”

Did I!! The question from my parents astounded me. Even at age eight I knew this was an impractical purchase. The dolls probably cost $30 by today’s standards. That’s a hefty price for a toy anytime, let alone on vacation. At least a lunch, to a family of six. And the delicacy of design! How could I pack it safely enough for travel?

But Mom and Pop brushed my questions aside and made my year by saying, “Go ahead, pick one.”

Not an easy task. If I could only have one, though, I knew instantly who it should be. She was loveliest of all: brown hair swept up in a soft Gibson (to a brunette girl in a world of Barbies, brown-haired dolls were a luxury), dressed in a rich rose velvet suit that could have carried her capably through cross-country travel or a cityscape adventure. Like Emily to Sara Crewe, this doll and I could imagine many stories together.

I often wonder how my life would have been different if I had chosen her.

Because, at the last, I reasoned myself into selecting a pretty sunshine-blonde in a blue-sprigged daytime dress and parasol. She looked uncannily like my mom, and I thought it would make Mom feel loved if I chose a doll that looked like her.

Mom was unaware of this sacrifice; I still remember the surprised look on her face when she asked, “Are you sure?” Even she could see which choice was a better match for me. But I stuck to my decision; and went forth into the rest of my childhood with a femininely French-named, blonde-blue-and-white debutante for a companion.

Debutante Doll and I would remain politely distant through the years. She didn’t match my pink-walled room very well, and never took to intrigue…ended up spending most of her time at countryside picnics. But despite our differences, she taught me a lesson that shaped my life.

Follow your heart.

Years later, the toys have changed, but the principle is still the same. Mac vs. PC; Blackberry vs. Droid; History Channel vs. HGTV. Even beyond toys, into life choices–at every turn I’m faced with an opportunity to either express myself, or express my respect for someone else. 99.99% of the time, “someone else” is unaware of, or has no emotional investment in, my quandary. Like my mom at the Disney shop, the people who care about me the most would vote for me to be as authentically myself as I can possibly be.

Whenever guilt tempts me to turn away from what I really want, two images flash into my thoughts. A blue-and-blonde doll set incongruously against a pink wall; and a rose-and-brown opportunity forever left behind on a store shelf. Both whispering, “Follow your heart.” Two precious lessons I’ll always remember.

Don’t you forget them, either.

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Christine Taylor (aka mousewords) is a California writer and artist who believes life is filled with mystery, adventure, and dreams come true. After surviving carbon monoxide poisoning, Christine and her sister Stacy used their experience to inspire a mystery novel, The Rosewood House. Christine Twitters at @mousewords and blogs at mousewords.net, where she rarely writes about herself in the third person.

Well there’s not a lot to say until Friday but I’m really excited about it. Take a look at the video after the jump for *slightly more info.