this is my Book Cover assignment for illustrator...
i like it...its blu
jess3 blogs,
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PIMPIN !
http://www.jamiroquai.co.uk
this is my new favorate site... check out ther bee hive interactive flash menu.... pimpin !!!!
Jay-Z, surrounded by security, is escorted to the auditorium at Cass Tech High School, in Detroit Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002 where he was principal for a day. The students won the visit, sponsored by 105.9FM Jamz radio station, due to the school's good attendance record. About 1200 students who earned a 3.0 or better were allowed to attend the rally.
Jay-Z And His Mom To Appear On '60 Minutes'
Jay-Z will appear on CBS's news magazine program 60 Minutes Wednesday (November 13). The segment, hosted by correspondent Bob Simon, will capture the rap mogul (born Shawn Carter) in his old neighborhood in New York's Marcy Projects, on tour, with his mother, and during a meeting with leading music retail company TransWorld.
In related news, Jay-Z recently released the video for his song "'03 Bonnie & Clyde," a duet with Destiny's Child member Beyonce Knowles who is also featured in the video.
"'03 Bonnie & Clyde" is the first single from Jay's album, The Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse, released Tuesday (November 12), that also has tracks with Lenny Kravitz, Latoiya Williams, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G., OutKast's Big Boi, Killer Mike, M.O.P., and other Roc-A-Fella acts.
http://www.BuildingTheWeb.com/html/flash/flsh_gallery.htm
Tari's Fabulous Flash Adventure
- A Gallery of Great Sites -
[ - prepare to be amazed and astounded - ]
http://www.BuildingTheWeb.com/html/colour/216color.htm
The Official 216 Cross-Platform
Browser-Safe Colour Chart
Creating A Blurred Background
The trick is to shoot a subject with a distant background. We are going to create the effect of focusing on the subject.
http://www.planetphotoshop.com/tutorials_effects.html
Creating A Blurred Background
by Josh Spivey
Let's just do something really simple this week. I have had the task of taking a number of photos for work these past few weeks as we ramp up the launch of our new web site. I wanted to take photos without a ton of work, so I worked this simple little trick to make it look as though I know what I am doing.
Now I am by no means a skilled photographer. In fact, I would say I am terrible at it. However, with Photoshop, that's just fine with me. I can often make things look much better inside the computer than I ever could with a camera alone.
The trick is to shoot a subject (a person, a dog, a car etc…) with a distant background. We are going to create the effect of focusing on the subject, but having the background be blurry as though we were taking it with a real SLR camera. I have a Nikon Coolpix 995 that I am in love with, but any old camera will probably do.
Take a shot of something you like with a nice distant background. See the image below as an example.
Now you should take out your blur tool. See the image below if you don't know what that is. It is the object on the top that is shaped like a drop of water. It is in a flyout menu that is on the middle left of your tool palette.
With a decent size brush and the pressure set to about 50%, brush the blur tool in the areas around your subject.
Now I have to admit that this is not the best example I have ever done, but for simplicity's sake, it will do. Basically I just brush a bit and then if it looks bad go back in your history palette a bit and try again. It always pays to go back and do things over again. That's part of the fun of Photoshop.
Try a few. You can probably find tons of photos around the house that you can use. Hopefully you have a scanner around, but if not, stop by a Kinkos or something and have them run them for you. You probably have a friend that can help you, or maybe you have a scanner at the office. Or you can use the old digital camera to do all the work for you. That's my personal approach and I like the instant satisfaction.
The trick is to shoot a subject with a distant background. We are going to create the effect of focusing on the subject.
http://www.planetphotoshop.com/tutorials_effects.html
Creating A Blurred Background
by Josh Spivey
Let's just do something really simple this week. I have had the task of taking a number of photos for work these past few weeks as we ramp up the launch of our new web site. I wanted to take photos without a ton of work, so I worked this simple little trick to make it look as though I know what I am doing.
Now I am by no means a skilled photographer. In fact, I would say I am terrible at it. However, with Photoshop, that's just fine with me. I can often make things look much better inside the computer than I ever could with a camera alone.
The trick is to shoot a subject (a person, a dog, a car etc…) with a distant background. We are going to create the effect of focusing on the subject, but having the background be blurry as though we were taking it with a real SLR camera. I have a Nikon Coolpix 995 that I am in love with, but any old camera will probably do.
Take a shot of something you like with a nice distant background. See the image below as an example.
Now you should take out your blur tool. See the image below if you don't know what that is. It is the object on the top that is shaped like a drop of water. It is in a flyout menu that is on the middle left of your tool palette.
With a decent size brush and the pressure set to about 50%, brush the blur tool in the areas around your subject.
Now I have to admit that this is not the best example I have ever done, but for simplicity's sake, it will do. Basically I just brush a bit and then if it looks bad go back in your history palette a bit and try again. It always pays to go back and do things over again. That's part of the fun of Photoshop.
Try a few. You can probably find tons of photos around the house that you can use. Hopefully you have a scanner around, but if not, stop by a Kinkos or something and have them run them for you. You probably have a friend that can help you, or maybe you have a scanner at the office. Or you can use the old digital camera to do all the work for you. That's my personal approach and I like the instant satisfaction.
Windows Media Center Edition lets those of you in one-room apartments and dorms watch and record TV on your PC.
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
Full review
Unless you're planning to spring for a whole PC, don't start jonesing for Windows Media Center Edition (better known by its former code name, Freestyle). This new build of Windows XP Professional, which delivers remote-controlled audio, video, live TV, and the ability to record live TV to the PC, can be found only preinstalled on select PCs--at least, for the moment. You'll love Media Center if you need one of these new all-in-one PCs for your tiny dorm room, say, but Microsoft needs to work out a few rough edges before this edition is good for everyone.
PC turned TV
In practice, Media Center Edition (MCE) lets you use an infrared remote control to play TV, music, DVDs, and photo slide shows on your PC. Technically, the OS augmentations include just a set of application controls and interface elements built on the core of Windows XP Professional, with simpler navigation conventions and--more important--the potential for your PC to use networking features such as Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to distribute music and video to other systems in your home and to handheld devices.
As first-generation software, MCE delivers about what you'd expect: it adds no new capabilities to Windows, just a different way of accessing the old ones. And currently, it's tightly tied to hardware, too. In order to get the full experience, you must have a PC equipped with a personal video recorder (PVR) card and a remote control. That package is available now in only one PC: the HP Media Center PC.
My, my, my
Media Center Edition is part enhanced operating system, like the XP Tablet Edition, part application that runs under Windows XP. Media Center opens as a separate window where you control the various entertainment components of your hardware. When the Media Center window is maximized, it looks little like Windows; you don't see the Windows Start menu or desktop, for example. MCE provides a start menu when you first launch it (on its so-called splash screen) that you use to access its main functions: My TV, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, Play DVD, and Settings. You can navigate through each module with the mouse if you want or just use the remote. If you minimize MCE, you're in plain old Windows. It's a bit disorienting to have different interfaces running on a single system, but it makes sense if you divide your tasks clearly between computing and potato couching.
The My TV module is certainly the most interesting of the modules. Through it, you can watch live TV, either full screen or in a window; look through the Program Guide of available shows; schedule shows to record; and play back recorded shows, (á la TiVo). You can also hook up your cable descrambler to your PC through this module, and setup takes about as long as setting up a satellite dish--30 to 45 minutes, if you're adept. MCE walks you through selecting the right remote settings for controlling your cable box, then finding the appropriate cable lineup to download into the Program Guide.
Program Guide info is supplied for free--no subscription necessary--by Tribune Media Services, but it's less detailed than some guides, such as the Time-Warner digital cable guide that's available in New York City. As with the digital cable guide, Program Guide lets you surf the listings while a show plays in a corner of the screen. However, in our tests, scaled-down video stuttered quite a bit; Microsoft claims that this is a hardware problem, not a software issue. Regardless, My TV is very easy to use; for example, to schedule the recording of an entire season of a show takes about two button presses on the remote. The software also allows you to pause live TV, then fast-forward through the buffered file. As a personal video recorder solution, My TV is less buggy than alternatives such as SnapStream but is also less feature-rich than standalone players such as TiVo.
For couch yo-yos
The rest of Media Center's applications are extremely basic, and that's fine when you're navigating via remote. But these simple-Simon programs also make it difficult to simply sit down across the room and vegetate, the whole goal of passive entertainment. Every time you drop in a disc, for example, be it DVD or audio, you get the standard Windows "What would you like me to do with this disc?" dialog, which you have to deal with at your PC. You'll have to run back and forth unless you tell Windows to launch everything in MCE, but that, in turn, becomes annoying when you're working within Windows because nothing will launch within Windows itself.
Even playing music becomes overly complicated under MCE. For instance, My Music lets you use your remote to choose music to play, which sounds great on the surface. But first, you'll have to complete the laborious task of adding all of your digital files to the Windows Media Player library and making sure that the track tags are clean. For example, all folk music must be labeled as Folk, not folk acoustic or folk rock, or you'll end up with many different playlists, because MCE can't aggregate them the way WMP can. Even once you've added all the music correctly, MCE won't let you create playlists using your remote--no queuing up Beethoven, Mozart, and Prokofiev unless they're the only classical artists in your collection, for instance. You have to build playlists in Media Player first. Worse, if you use your remote to click, say, the Buy CD link in My Music, you'll be tossed out of the MCE environment and into your browser--so you can't keep shopping from your couch since your remote won't work in the normal Windows interface.
Future potential
We think that Microsoft might fix these awkward corners in the future--indeed, much of the benefit of MCE lies in its potential. For example, we're waiting for purchase links that stay within the MCE environment, for eventual couch-potato shopping. Third parties can add applications to the MCE start menu, and we're hoping they will because that would mean more robust versions of the basic apps at some point. Furthermore, some of the value of MCE rests in the ability to upgrade an existing system to use it, which you can't do at the moment.
Right now, MCE comes with a lot of hardware attached. For one-room apartments and dorms, kids' playrooms, or even as a lobby kiosk, a system with MCE makes sense only if the live and recorded TV support are essential to you; that's currently the only real value over Windows XP. Keep your eye on MCE, though. Future versions can only get better.
Media Center Edition's My TV module lets you record and save live television, à la TiVo or Snapstream.
Virginia beats Maryland 48-13
By HANK KURZ Jr., AP Sports Writer
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - Matt Schaub threw three touchdown passes and Wali Lundy scored three times Saturday as Virginia stunned No. 18 Maryland 48-13, ending the Terrapins' eight-game winning streak.
Virginia (8-4, 6-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), picked to finish eighth in the league in the preseason, instead wrapped up second place and likely enhanced its bowl stake with Peach and Tangerine bowl officials watching.
Schaub was 23-for-27 for 249 yards, becoming the Cavaliers' single-season yardage leader with 2,751 yards and extending his TD pass record to 26. Billy McMullen caught seven passes for 92 yards, becoming only the third player in ACC history to get 200 career receptions. He has 205.
Maryland (9-3, 5-2), which drove easily downfield on its opening possession and took a 7-0 lead, trailed 34-7 before it scored again.
The defending ACC champions arrived hoping that North Carolina State could beat No. 14 Florida State and allow the Terps a chance to share the league title. The Wolfpack won 17-7, but Maryland couldn't do its part.
A 20-point second quarter by Virginia set the tone, and two touchdown drives in the first half of the third quarter gave Virginia a 34-7 lead.
The first touchdown of the quarter was bizarre in its execution. On a second-and-7 play from the Maryland 37, McMullen got the handoff on a double reverse and ran right into the face of Terps lineman Durrand Roundtree.
McMullen somehow spun away from Roundtree, saw Michael McGrew all alone downfield and threw a leaping 37-yard touchdown pass.
On the extra point, Connor Hughes' kick banged off the left upright, just inside the right upright and hit the official, who signaled good.
The Cavaliers forced Maryland to punt but soon faced third-and-21 from the Terps' 24. They escaped when Schaub hit Lundy, who ran in for the score.
Virginia, which has won five games after trailing at halftime, used its big second quarter to take a lead into the break.
Hughes started Virginia's scoring with a 47-yard field goal, the first of his career, on the opening play of the second quarter to make it 7-3.
Then, the momentum changed in a hurry.
First, Scooter Monroe let what would have been an 80-yard touchdown pass go through his hands and off his knees. Two plays later, Jermaine Hardy intercepted McBrien's pass and returned it to the Terps' 27.
On the first play, Schaub hit Jason Snelling in the left flat and the fullback dodged tacklers and dove for the TD.
That gave the Cavaliers a 10-7 lead — and Schaub set a school record with scoring passes in 12 consecutive games.
The Cavaliers forced Maryland to go three-and-out and then drove 69 yards in 13 plays to set up a 27-yard field goal by Hughes.
Angelo Crowell forced Chris Downs to fumble three plays later and Chris Canty recovered for Virginia at the Terps' 22. Schaub then hit Lundy with a 7-yard scoring pass.
President Bush, top, looks out at reporters and photographers as he departs St. John's Protestant Episcopal Church, with a uniformed Secret Service agent keeping watch, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2002, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ken Lambert)
Harman Kardon T2587LL/A SoundSticks USB 3-Piece Computer Speakers
Created for USB-equipped Macintosh computers, Harman Kardon's three-piece SoundSticks speaker system produces high-quality stereo sound for music, movies, and gaming sessions. The 40-watt self-powered system includes two 10-watt satellite speakers and a 6-inch 20-watt subwoofer. Designed for easy plug-and-play, the SoundSticks speaker system includes a power adapter to power the subwoofer and a plug that connects to the USB port of your Mac computer. A blue LED indicator lets you know that the subwoofer is properly powered. You can adjust the volume onscreen through your computer's Control Panel. A physical control knob for adjusting the bass is on the back of the subwoofer.
The SoundSticks USB three-piece computer speaker system comes with a one-year warranty.
When the temperature drops, music lovers are often forced to choose between unzipping their jacket, thus exposing themselves to arctic blasts, and listening to the same set of songs over and over until they pray for frostbite. With the Burton AG Clone MD Jacket, you don't have to choose. Designed for snowboarders, the jacket is made with a Sony Mini-Disc and digital music player sewn right into its fabric. The player's controls are touch-sensitive fabric patches on the jacket's sleeve, so you can control the music just by pressing your arm.
Availability: December, $999
To Learn More: burton.com
The Magic Eye mosaic designed by Beatles legend John Lennon for his swimming pool, on display in Liverpool, in this August 22, 2002 file photo. A number of significant John Lennon relics failed to sell at an auction of Beatles memorabilia in London, Tuesday Nov.19, 2002, including this one
There are so many coincidences between MGM's *The Wizard of Oz© and the album **The Dark Side of the Moon© it's just plain eerie -- and as fun as all get out. All you need is a factory copy of the film (a home made copy from TV will not do unless you copied it from a channel like the American Movie Channel® or Turner Classic Movies® with NO commercial interruptions and it will need the 3 roars of the black & white MGM® lion at the beginning of the film) and CD by Pink Floyd HOW TO SET IT ALL UP
Firstly if you aren't familiar with Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon© then SHAME ON YOU! Jes kiddin' . . . For your penance you must now purchase the CD, even if you never do this synchronicity experiment, and listen to it several times and read the lyrics along with it to acquaint yourself with possibly the greatest contemporary music album ever made!
It will probably take you a few tries to get the sync lined up just right so be patient. First load the Dark Side of the Moon (DSOTM) CD into your CD player and hit PLAY (>) and then immediately hit PAUSE (II) so it is cued up and ready to roll. Be sure also to set your CD player to continuous replay. This in most CD players is done by hitting the "REPEAT" button twice. Hitting it once will usually repeat only the presently playing track so hit the button two (2) times and it will replay the CD over and over. The CD will play roughly two and a quarter times through the entire length of the movie.
Now start the video and fast forward past all the preview junk (about five minutes worth on the THX version) at the beginning and watch for the THX Digital logo to pop up. Now get the tape to the very beginning where the BLACK & WHITE MGM lion roars. After the BLACK &WHITE MGM Lion roars for the THIRD (3rd) time IMMEDIATELY hit the play button on the CD player.
Be sure to turn down the sound on the TV because the dialogue and original soundtrack are not necessary for this experiment -- neither should they even be considered. The DSOTM CD will provide all the sound you need.
T h e D e f i n i t i v e L i s t
1) The first indicator that everything is going right is the change from Speak to Me to Breathe which coincides exactly with the fade-in appearance of the name of producer Mervyn LeRoy.
Note: In the prologue the word "Time" (one of the songs on the CD) is written with a capital letter even though it isn't at the start of the sentence. Also you will find the word "Heart" capitalized in the middle of a sentence (a sound particular to The Dark Side of the Moon).
Note: (OO) As the camera is panning across the landscape and following the path of Dorothy, a large tree is seen and from the lower, main bough of the tree hangs a triangle. The position of it hanging and the horizontal slats of the fence lining up beside it is strangely similar to the cover of DSOTM.
2) "Leave, but don't leave me ..." Auntie Em appears to say "... Leave ..." to Dorothy and then Dorothy turns to leave looking a bit down in the mouth.
3) Right after the words "... Look around ..." Dorothy looks around.
4) "... Smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry ..." Two men above (Cowardly Lion and Tin Woodsman) are smiling and the man below (Scarecrow) is crying. This one is sort of not on time but worth the mention.
5) "... All you touch ..." Dorothy touches the man (Cowardly Lion) holding a bucket on his arm.
Note: "All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be" Dorothy's life will only really be all she touches and all she sees in her Kansas home because Oz exists only in her pretty little head.
6) "... When at last the work is done ..." the farmhand (Scarecrow) hits his finger with the hammer (to the beat of the drum no less) and is done with his work.
7) (Y) Right after "... Dig that hole ..." the farm hand (Scarecrow) points to the ground as if telling Dorothy to dig a hole.
8) "... Balanced on the biggest wave ..." Dorothy is balancing herself on the fence.
9) "... Race towards an early grave." is said at the moment just before Dorothy falls off the fence rail. ["... Down in the pig-pen sayin' 'keep on diggin' ..." Lyrics from Pigs (Three Different Ones) by Roger Waters on the Animals CD]
Note: "... Race towards an early grave ..." Perhaps a reference to Judy Garland's untimely death?
Note: (E) Judy Garland died in 1969, the same year we put a man on the moon ... "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon."
10) (C) Song shifts from Breathe to On the Run at the same time (actually just slightly before) Dorothy falls off the fence.
Note: (D) At the moment Dorothy falls off the fence rail and the switch to On the Run occurs, the music in that song has an allure of danger as it matches to the mood of the scene and emotion of the other characters as they are concerned with Dorothy's well being and it matches the scene very well.
11) Auntie Em shows up and starts talking exactly at the same time as the woman's voice begins talking during On the Run. I wonder if anyone knows just what the heck that female voice is saying on the album. It sort of sounds like the overhead voice in an airport to me. I also wonder what kind of cookies Auntie Em has on that plate? "I've got a clan of ginger-bread man. Here a man, there a man, lot's of ginger bread, man. Take a couple of you wish. They're on the dish ..." (Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd from Bike)
Note: (EE) The voice heard in the background of this portion is indeed someone in an airport (I don't know what the proper title of that person would be -- any help out there?) and can be heard giving flight information. This audio footage was apparently taken from stock reels in the Abbey Road Studios which Roger rifled through and felt useful. More information on this and the entire creative process of the DSOTM album which started as a free-form jam and developed into the slick and fabulous album we all know and love. For a song-by-song description and more see the March 1998 special edition of the Biritish music magazine MOJO in which extensive interviews are given with band members as well as Alan Parsons for the 25th Anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon. I haven't read it myself but have a sneaky suspicion it may be the exact same interview I have on MP3. If I had the room I'd add that interview to this web page but the thing is 33MB! However I have included some valuable clips from the interview in MP3 format which you may download and listen to by clicking here and then clicking on the article Planned or Coincidence?.
12) (C) During the On the Run sequence as Dorothy is singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow, the effects sound sort of like helicopters and airplanes are flying overhead & Dorothy's gaze seems to follow one across the screen.
Note : Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Well, we all know what is found on the infamous cover of DSOTM (a rainbow!) and here Dorothy is singing about one. Also there are a few fun little rhythm syncs during this piece such as Toto wagging his tail in time to the clicking sound effect and Dorothy pulling her head towards Toto's during another sound effect and swinging around to another, etc. And then the sort of rumbling sound at the end of the song that for some reason goes along with the sun piercing the clouds in the sky scene. It gives the feel of a passing thunderstorm. For more thoughts on the relation to the cover read Deep Thoughts - Section A.
Note: (II) Just before Dorothy begins to sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow she is talking about a place where there is no trouble. She says ". . . You can't get there by boat or train, it's far, far away, BEHIND THE MOON . . . " and of course that would be the DARK side of the moon!
Note: (VV) Somewhere Over the Rainbow as compared to the lyrics, "... Over the rainbow, he is crazy", from The Trial on Pink Floyd's The Wall. The Dark Side of the Moon evolved into a concept album centering on the subject of madness, and being "over the rainbow" is synonymous with going crazy.
13) (AA) At the end of On the Run it looks like Toto is laughing at Dorothy.
14) (ZZ) The rumbling sound at the end of On the Run lends itself nicely, as thunder, to the clouds in the sky and the shafts of sunlight piercing them.
15) The chimes in Time go off at the appearance of Elvira Gulch (Wicked Witch of the West) on the bicycle and the chimes stop when she gets off the bike. >>>> "I've got a bike. You can ride it if you like. It's got a basket, a bell that rings and things to make it look good ..." (Syd Barrett /Pink Floyd from Bike)
16) (WW) Notice the paint brush that Uncle Henry is holding and that he raises it and drops it as if he is ringing a bell and with each movement, a bell indeed rings.
17) At the first bass chord of Time the scene changes to inside Auntie Em's house -- really cool!
18) (C) Dorothy and the rest of the cast appear to move and react to the rhythm and mood in particular of the music.
19) "... You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way ..." Seems to describe the kind of frittered away life that the old maid /witch, Ms. Gulch has if getting rid of poor little Toto is what it takes to make her day.
20) "Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town", This is said just a little before Toto jumps out of the basket and onto the ground where he kicks off to go back to Dorothy in his hometown. So it's not exact but worth the mention.
21) "... Waiting for someone or something to show you the way ..." Toto pops up in the window (perhaps to show Dorothy the way?).
22) (Q) "... Tired of lying in the sunshine ..." as Toto is lying on the bed with the sun shining in on him wittle fuzzy body.
23) "... You are young and life is long ..." a reference to Dorothy's youth?
24) "... and there is time to kill today ..." There certainly is time to kill and Dorothy will be present at the death of not one but two people (witches).
25) "... Ten years have got behind you ..." You see Dorothy's back. (Hence, you are behind Dorothy).
26) "... No one told you when to run ..." Dorothy is running away from home.
27) Guitar solo in Time begins as scene changes (It's so cool when that happens).
Note: (YY) Dorothy and Toto cross a bridge shaped like a triangle which of course is reminiscent of the cover of The Dark Side of the Moon.
28) During the guitar solo of Time the words "Past, Present and Future" are seen on the sign of Professor Marvel.
29) (D) "And you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking; Racing around to come up behind you again!" First think about this: "Time is a predator which stalks us all our lives." --Star Trek: Generations . . . Now take a look above the door mantle as Dorothy enters Professor Marvel's wagon. What do we see but a skull . . . a reminder of time and the shortness thereof indeed. Kinda funky eh?
30) (X)+(BB)"... to come up behind you again ..." as Professor Marvel is coming up behind Dorothy.
31) "... But you're older ..." referring to Professor Marvel's old age?
32) "... Or half a page of scribbled lines ..." referring to perhaps the photo that Professor Marvel sneaks out of Dorothy's basket? Ok so it's not scribbled lines, but it's a page.
33) "... Hanging on in quiet desperation ..." as Dorothy quietly and desperately listens to the words of Professor Marvel.
34) "... Home, home again ..." as Professor Marvel tells Dorothy that she needs to go back home.
35) (G) "... Hear the softly spoken magic spell ..." as Dorothy is leaving the "magic" wagon of Professor Marvel.
36) Song changes to The Great Gig In the Sky the moment Dorothy reaches down and grabs her bag. This begins what is probably my favourite scene in the whole sync -- with the tornado and all.
37) (voice says) "... And I am not frightened of dying ..." as the tornado heads towards a house.
Note: (U) At the scene of the tornado there is a sound (slide guitar) strangely reminiscent of the old air raid sirens during wartime -- perhaps warning of impending doom via twister (and we ain't talking about a Milton-Bradley® game either)?
38) The drums kick in as a tree is uprooted by the winds of the tornado.
Note : Right after the tree is uprooted, Clare Torry begins her operatic style wailing which keeps time with the mood and intensity of the tornado scene. Nifty rhythm syncs are seen during this piece such as the door flying off its hinges and the piece of furniture or appliance falling over on the porch as Dorothy enters the house, etc.
Note : (QQ) During this turbulent scene, the vocals of Clare Torry at times match the emotional gestures of Dorothy especially when she is screaming in hopes that her folks in the underground storm shelter will let her in.
39) After Dorothy gets bonked on the head with the window Clare Torry's wailing calms down and Dorothy begins dreaming.
Note: The song playing during the entire tornado scene and especially while the house is up in the air via the tornado is The Great Gig in the Sky (TGGITS). Get it?
Note: (PP) During TGGITS the instrument being played in the foreground is a Hammond B3 Organ which uses a Leslie speaker. Coincidently, the Leslie speaker makes the sound that it does by spinning inside it's box, using the "Doppler Effect" to make it sound so cool. So we have a spinning speaker inside an organ playing music to a tornado scene. Funkadelic man!
40) The "cha-ching !" of Money is heard as Dorothy steps out into colourful, and wealthy looking Munchkin Land. Money would be associated with colour and better living as is apparent to Dorothy.
Note: (BBB) Cryptic language in the song Money? Take a look at this bit of interesting word work:
M oney, get away.
G et a good job with good pay and you're okay.
M oney, it's a gas.
41) (V) "New car, caviar, four star daydream; I think I'll buy me a football team" Now granted that what an Englishman like Roger would call "football" is what we in the States call "soccer" but bear with me a second and notice that the yellow brick road bears a striking resemblance to the spiraling helmet symbol of the NFL Ram's (Los Angeles, Anaheim or St Louis depending on what time warp you are in).
42) (A) "Don't give me that do-goody-good bull___." as Glinda the (do-goody) good witch (!?) comes a-floating like an angel in her big bubble. Roger just has to throw in a dirty word on each album, now doesn't he?
Note: (UU) Take a gander at this (the orb from the "Welcome to the Machine" cartoon by Gerald Scarfe played in Pink Floyd concerts on the big round screen behind the band) and note the similarity to both Glinda's bubble and the Wicked Witch's crystal ball.
43) "... I think I need a Lear Jet ..." as Glinda appears from the bubble. Maybe she'd prefer a jet over traveling in a bubble? "Big Bubbles . . . No Troubles." (Hubba-Bubba® Bubblegum)
Note : (H) The way Glinda is holding her wand it looks like she's playing electric air guitar during Dave's solo. (Just for a second ... sort of)
Note: During the guitar solo of Money the Munchkins appear to move somewhat to the music. When the solo is sort of "plucky" they move about in a halting and almost cautious manner -- but after the Munchkin with the tall, gray hat jumps out the solo goes wild again and all the Munchkins start dancing away. The soldiers also appear to march in time with the music.
44) (CC) "... Share it, fairly ..." As one of the Munchkins shares some flowers with Dorothy.
45) During the beginning of Us and Them it sounds like funeral parlour music and the Munchkin Coroner shows the Certificate of Death.
Note : (N) A little before the Munchkin Coroner comes up some officials come out of one of the buildings and are talking back and forth about their new arrival and in the background you can hear a man say "... I was really drunk at the time ..." which could be a reference to the drunken and carousing little people who played the Munchkins. Then you can hear a woman say "... He was cruisin' for a bruisin'..." which according to rumor Judy Garland said the little actors got drunk and at least one tried to hit her up for a date. So the latter voice could be considered as Dorothy saying that particular Munchkin was "Cruisin' for a bruisin' ".
46) (DD) At the beginning of Us and Them voices of assorted people talking can be heard and at times it appears that the Munchkin officials are the ones doing the talking.
47) During Us and Them the ballerinas from the Lullaby League enter to "Us ... Us .... Us ...".
Note: (F) Just think about this for a sec ; "Us, and them . . . And after all we're only ordinary men. Me, and you . . . God only knows it's not what we would choose to do." Perhaps the little people actors playing the roles of the Munchkins prefer NOT being exploited for their stature by the folks at MGM i.e. it's not the kind of thing they would prefer to do. After all they are only ordinary men. Well, they're not really ordinary now are they? Realistically speaking though they could be glad since there aren't that many movie roles for little people -- so the money's nice when it's rollin' eh?
48) (XX) The fellows from the Lollypop Guild kick and jerk their little dance to the rhythm of the music.
49) (S) "Forward he cried ..." It looks like the Munchkins all shout "Forward!" to Dorothy.
50) (R) "... and the lines on the map moved from side to side ..." as the munchkins move to two separate sides at the appearance of the Wicked Witch.
51) "Black and blue ..." as it shows the witch who is wearing black , and "blue" when it shows Dorothy who is wearing blue.
52) "... And who knows which is which ..." (Witch is Witch ... or ... Which is Witch)?
53) "... Up and Down ..." On "up", the Wicked Witch of the West is holding her broomstick up high and on "down" she lowers it down.
54) (RR) Also on "down", the Wicked Witch of the West is bending down to retrieve the ruby slippers from her dead sister's now curling and retreating feet.
55) (D) "Haven't you heard? It's a battle of words ..." as Glinda is whispering in Dorothy's ear and then returns to her battle of words with the Wicked Witch.
56) "... And in the end it's only 'round and 'round..." As Glinda points to Dorothy's feet which are now turning 'round.
57) (W) Then it says "... and 'round ..." as there is yet another shot of the ruby slippers.
58) (X) "... said the man with the gun ..." as the Wicked Witch points her long finger at Dorothy in the shape of a gun!
59) "Down and out ... " as Glinda leaves in her bubble (she's out of here).
60) (L) "... But there's a lot of it about ..." Oy! There certainly seems to be a lot of coming and going in the Land of Oz with the house and the Wicked Witch going under the house and the other Wicked Witch coming and going and the good witch coming and going .
61) (LL) "...With ... Without ..." Dorothy starts on the Yellow Brick Road with Toto in her arms and then puts him down and he is walking beside her but without her. And after all, at least twice in the film Toto is what the fighting's all about.
62) (J) "... Get out of the way, it's a busy day, I've got things on my mind ..." as Dorothy passes through the Munchkins and leaves Munchkin Land.
63) Scene changes at the same time that Us and Them changes to Any Colour You Like
64) "... The lunatic is on the grass ..." The Scarecrow isn't on the grass but he is made of grass and he is certainly dancing around like a lunatic.
Note: ( A) The song Brain Damage is playing as the Scarecrow is singing If I Only Had a Brain.
Note: Check out these lyrics from The Scarecrow by Syd Barrett with The Pink Floyd on their album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, " The black and green scarecrow as everyone knows, Stood with a bird on his hat and straw everywhere. He didn't care. He stood in a field where barley grows. His head did no thinking, His arms didn't move except when the wind cut up rough and mice ran around on the ground. He stood in a field where barley grows." Notice what colour Scarecrow is in the movie?
65) (M) "... Got to keep the loonies on the path ..." Dorothy and Scarecrow are the "loonies" on the Yellow Brick Road (path).
66) "... You raise the blade ..." as the Toucan in the tree raises his bill which resembles the blade of a knife.
67) (I) "... There's someone in my head but it's not me ..." The Appletrees have someone inside who makes them move around and look alive.
68) "... Thunder in your ear ..." as the Appletrees are thundering in Dorothy's ear for snatching an apple.
69) "... And everyone you meet..." As Dorothy meets yet another interesting character in this Land of Oz, the Tin Woodsman.
70) (CC) "... all that you touch and all that you see ..." Once again Dorothy is holding a man's arm at the word "touch" as it was at the beginning of the movie (see #5) but then she and Scarecrow look up to "see" the oil can which is something that Tin Woodsman would like a "taste" of in order to "feel" better.
71) Dorothy listens for a heartbeat (or lack of one) in the Tin Woodsman's chest as the heartbeat goes on to the end of the album.
Note : When the CD starts back with the heartbeat, the Tin Woodsman is singing If I Only Had a Heart still in keeping with the idea of the heartbeat.
Nothing is quite as good as the first play-through of the CD but the subsequent play-through and partial are rather fun. Results as this point will vary due to return speeds on your particular CD players. So with that said, on we go . . .
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Second Play-through
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72) (MM) At the transition from Speak to Me to Breathe the Tin Woodsman gets his leg straightened out and begins dancing -- dancing to the music.
73) "... and high you fly ..." As the Wicked Witch stands on top of the house with her flying broom.
74) "... Run, rabbit , run ..." as the Wicked Witch throws a fireball at Scarecrow.
75) During the second play-through of On the Run it works out pretty well with the Cowardly Lion scene in several instances which lose something in the translation so you will have to see them for yourself.
(TT) Possibly one of the most profound of them is where there is a sort of scary sounding laugh and Dorothy, Scarecrow and Tin Woodsman jump back as if scared out of their wits.
Side Note: If you have a slower return response on your CD player (which I don't but have seen it on friend's CD players that do), during the scene where Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman and Cowardly Lion are walk/skipping to the Wizard, they do so to the drum score at the beginning of Time . . . really cool even though I can no longer achieve this effect with my CD player!
76) "... And there is time to kill today ..." as the Wicked Witch seeks to kill Dorothy with the deadly Poppies.
77) "... Shorter of breath and one day closer to death..." as Dorothy and Cowardly Lion appear to be dead.
78) During this segment the little cries from Clair Torrey seem to go along with the sad hopelessness that Scarecrow is experiencing with Dorothy and Cowardly Lion asleep or dead in the Poppies.
79) (G) "... Home, home again ..." As Tin Woodsman is once at home in being frozen in his rusted state from the snow just as he was when Dorothy found him in the first place.
80) (DD) "Far away across the field ..." As the Fearless Foursome are in a poppy field and can see, far away, the Emerald City across it.
81) (AAA) "... The tolling of the iron bell ..." This one is actually a reverse. As will be seen later in the sync, there is indeed a bell in the direction whence Dorothy and the gang are being called, although it is out of order and so they have to knock. It seems to have a silent toll which draws the Fearless Four to its great greenness.
82) "...Calls the faithful to their knees ..." as Scarecrow falls to his knee upon exiting the poppy field.
83) (NN) "...To hear the softly spoken magic spell." Not really on time, but after the magic spell is softly spoken by Glinda, Dorothy and Cowardly Lion are awakened from their deadly slumber.
84) "Cha - ching !" when the message SURRENDER DOROTHY is seen in the sky written in the Wicked Witch's smoke.
85) (GG) Money is playing while in the Emerald City -- a reference to the colour of money (American at least) and to the higher standard of living (once again as in Munchkin Land) than that Dorothy is accustomed.
Note: During the scene where the Fearless Four (and Toto too) are entering the Temple of the Wizard of Oz there is "religious" sounding music playing. In fact the working title to this portion of the album, later titled The Great Gig in the Sky was called the "religious track" by the members of the band while recording DSOTM.
86) (G) "Black and blue ..." The Wizard is seen in the midst of the smoke and in this instance the smoke appears blue.
87) "... round and round ..." as we read the sign pointing to the home of the Wicked Witch that says "If I were you I'd turn back". Maybe they should turn 'round (?).
88) (B) "Listen son, said the man with the gun ..." Scarecrow is carrying a gun.
89) "... Down and out ..." the flying monkeys swoop down to capture Dorothy, and then fly out of the woods with her in their hands.
90) "... With ... without ..." Dorothy is with the flying monkeys, but Tin Woodsman, Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow are without Dorothy. . . And who'll deny she's what the fighting's all about?
91) "... You raise the blade ... You make the change..." as the blade of the Lance is raised by Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Woodsman after they have changed into the uniforms of the three unlucky witch's guardsmen.
92) "... All that you hate and all you mistrust ..." during which the face of the wicked witch is seen. Certainly a mistrustful face if ever there was one.
93) (J) "... And everyone you fight ..." as Tin Woodsman drops the chandelier on the Guardsmen.
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Third Play-through
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94) (voice says) ..."Live for today, gone tomorrow ..." as the Wizard hands Tin Woodsman his clockwork heart, and then we hear a strange noise that sounds like a rusted metal hinge. Perhaps a prophetic utterance of Tin Woodsman's ultimate demise?
Note: (E) During this "rewards" scene when Cowardly Lion receives his badge of courage, it sounds like military helicopters and war planes flying about. (sort of)
Note: (SS) After Scarecrow is handed his "Doctorate of Thinkology" he says "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles TRIANGLE is equal to the square root of the remaining side." Of course the triangle being a recurring theme in this synchronicity as well as the image we find on the cover of DSOTM.
95) (JJ) Just as Glinda appears in her bubble the lyrics to the song Time are sung. It's not necessarily a thematic synchronicity but rather a dramatic one with no "hidden meaning".
96) (WW) "... Waiting for someone or something to show you the way ..." Glinda is there to show Dorothy the way back home.
97) "... Home, home again ..." after Dorothy has awakened back in her home in Kansas.
98) (P) "... Calls the faithful to their knees ..." as Auntie Em comes to Dorothy with water and is on bent knee.
99) (Z) "... To hear the softly spoken magic spell." and then Dorothy speaks the magic spell that brought her back home which is "There's no place like home".
MYSTERY MUSIC??? (HH) Chris Hart reminded me of the music at the end of DSOTM CD. After you hear "There is no dark side of the moon really. As a matter of fact it's all dark ..." you can faintly hear some music playing. Strangely enough it's an orchestral version of The Beatles' Ticket to Ride. Both Pink Floyd and The Beatles recorded at Abbey Roads Studios, and at times, contributed to each other in one fashion or another. According to interviews that I've seen of George Martin concerning tapes, quite often the tapes would have been erased and reused. I just can't figure out what the heck an orchestral (it sounds more like MUZAK [elevator music] to me) rendition of Ticket to Ride would even be for -- unless there is some part of one of the Beatles movies that has this music in it. Does anyone have a clue as the to true use of this music? If so it would be nice to know. Meanwhile for your convenience ol' Chris recorded the mystery music so you don't have to mess around with reducing the bass on your stereo to avoid blowing your speakers from the heartbeats. Click here to Listen To The Music (MP3 Format).
NEWS FLASH ON THE MYSTERY MUSIC!!!
Now, this is not the official reason as to what the music was made for, which was the question that I asked above, but for purely entertainment reasons -- a reason suitable for The Definitive List -- and one which helps to add to the whole mystique, we have one that comes from Daniel Benke (danielb@cits.br) who suggests that Ticket to Ride alludes to Dorothy's ticket to ride back to Kansas from Oz -- namely her Ruby Slippers. And while that is a very good and fun answer, the truth be known concerning Oz stories, Dorothy would have a "ticket to ride" back and forth between Kansas and Oz as she would have many other adventures in the Oz novels by Frank Baum and by many subsequent authors as well, to this very day.
Just a little something to think about:
Didja ever notice that Dorothy's Uncle Henry plays absolutely no part in the Land of Oz? Everybody else gets some sort of appearance in the Land of Oz but not ol' Uncle Henry. Not that this has anything to do with the sync . . . just a casual observance.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=573&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/20021115/od_nm/life_sweden_seat_dc
Fast-Food Customer Loses Appetite Over Toilets
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A customer in an international hamburger chain outlet in western Sweden lost his appetite when he discovered the restaurant's toilet seats were being washed in its dishwasher alongside the kitchen utensils.
The man noticed on a visit to the bathroom in the restaurant in Arvika, Sweden, that all the toilet seats had been removed.
When he asked staff about the missing seats, an employee took them out of a dishwasher where they had been cleaned together with trays and kitchen utensils, the Swedish TT news agency reported on Thursday, quoting the regional newspaper Nya Wermlands-Tidningen.
The employee tried to reassure the customer by saying that the freshly washed toilet seat would be warm and pleasant to sit on.
A senior representative of the restaurant chain said the incident was a mistake and not standard company procedure. Arvika's environmental and health inspector later visited the restaurant.
You're looking at the future of data storage—the Sonnet Piccolo™ USB flash drive. No cables to connect, no drivers, software or adapters—just plug it in. Your computer sees Piccolo as a drive, but you'll view it as a small wonder. Portable and reliable, it's about the size of a car key, and has no moving parts, making this product a great medium for moving files between system or for keeping projects secure. Offered in four capacities—32MB, 64MB, 128MB, 256MB
Dark Side of The Rainbow
"Every audience member will be given 'Special Synchronicity Sheets' ..."
WAY BEFORE 'SYNCHRONICITY' was an album by The Police, it was a phenomenon defined by Carl Gustav Jung as "The acasual relationship between interconnecting events."
It happens all the time, whenever a New Zealand politician opens their mouth to speak, simultaneously somewhere in the world a sheep drops its guts. However strangely synchronicity seems to occur more frequently to those under the influence of certain mind-altering substances.
The apocryphal legend behind the eerie interconnecting events that occur in this special presentation are shrouded in a thick cloud of ganja. A far time ago, in a galaxy a long long away, a stoned Pink Floyd fan slowly and carefully placed the stylus on his quadraphonic vinyl LP of DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, melted into his leatherette beanbag as THE WIZARD OF OZ played silently on his 14" TV.
"Whooooa dude ... this is heavy!"
The album and the movie became one, a cosmic connection of lyrics and images that could only be the result of karma or chaos ... or .. "Whoooa dude my head hurts just thinking about it."
It's like when two great works of Art meet, they join hands across the universe and give birth to the DARK SIDE OF THE RAINBOW. Don't take our word for it; the synchronicity is spun throughout by the hands of an invisible dream weaver. A stoner secret for ages, now it's your turn to experience this one-of-a-kind never to be repeated supercalisyncronistic treat on the BIG screen in decibelicious digital stereo.
Every audience member will be given 'Special Synchronicity Sheets' that help you to follow and witness all the hundred odd incredible coincidences.
It's impossible to describe in print the incredible fusion that results, when two masterpieces separated by time and space meet as one. So join us for this unique experience where you, the audience become one with the cosmos, holding hands and skipping along the galactic yellow brick road with the distant strains of a song replaced but not forgotten ... "Somewhere over the rainbow, way up HIGH ..."
useit.com
Nielsen, whose weekly musings on the Web can be found at www.useit.com, is a usability engineer and Web-design consultant given to strongly held ideas and sweeping statements, like "fast response times are the most important criterion for Web pages." His certitude might be insufferable if he weren't right so much of the time.
The basic principles of good design, according to Nielsen, are very simple: If your pages don't load quickly, your customers won't wait. If customers can't find what they want, they won't buy it. If your pages are confusing or hard to read, customers will look elsewhere
just think...this could be you...
Available exclusively at Amazon.com
Segway Human Transporter
Price: $4,950.00
How much does shipping cost? Are there any other costs?
The Segway company will charge $99 for shipping to the continental United States. For customers in Hawaii and Alaska, shipping will cost $150. The Segway company takes responsibility for damage during shipping. Also, you will be charged applicable sales taxes on the entire purchase price. Training is included at no additional cost.
Who can ride the Segway HT?
The Segway HT is designed to be operated by a wide range of people and no special skills are required. The rider must be able to step on and off the Segway HT without assistance, which requires physical abilities similar to climbing and descending stairs without assistance. The rider's weight must not exceed 250 pounds and the rider must be able to operate the steering control with his or her left hand. Segway recommends that riders be 16 years or older. It is important to note that the Segway HT has not been designed, tested, or approved as a medical device.
How safe is the Segway HT?
The utmost care and research has gone into ensuring that the Segway HT is safe and fun to ride. The Segway HT's balancing technology is truly revolutionary and provides an exceptional riding experience. The Segway HT has redundant systems and sophisticated alerts built into its design and many thousands of hours of use have demonstrated that the Segway HT is safe when used appropriately. It is important that Segway HT riders understand the responsibility to ride safely. Proper skill level and understanding of the Segway HT prevents injuries caused by loss of control or misuse. Keep in mind that the Segway HT has not been designed, tested, or approved as a medical device.
How will I learn how to use the Segway HT?
The Segway company will provide training for each purchaser. The Segway HT is engineered to be easy to ride, but, in order to ensure that you are prepared for safe and enjoyable riding, a Segway specialist will show you how to properly operate the Segway HT. You may bring one friend to the training session for no extra charge. Your friend must be 16 years or older to receive the training from the Segway company. Between February 1 and July 31, 2003, the Segway company will host training at least once each week in Bedford, New Hampshire, and Los Angeles, and at least once each month in Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Atlanta, New York City, Baltimore, and Orlando, Florida. The Segway company will e-mail you a training schedule approximately 30 days before your Segway HT is scheduled to ship. You will be responsible for scheduling your attendance as well as for arranging transportation to and from your training session. If you don't attend scheduled training within 30 days after you receive the first notice, the Segway company will send you a second e-mail notice and you must attend by the date you are required to complete your purchase. (See "When will I get my Segway HT after I place my deposit?" above). Note: You must complete a Segway HT training session before Segway will ship your Segway HT.
Where can I safely and legally ride the Segway HT?
The Segway HT will transport you over any surface on which the wheels can gain traction, such as pavement, sidewalks, grass, and dirt. Remember, you must step off the Segway HT and use the power assist mode to go up and down stairs (and elsewhere where riding would not be safe or appropriate). In many cities you'll be able to take the Segway HT any place you are allowed to walk. Some areas, however, have restrictions on where you can take the Segway HT and some areas require that you wear protective gear.
Eminem Wins Big at MTV Europe Awards
Eminem was the big winner at the MTV Europe Music Awards, taking trophies for best album, best male singer and best hip-hop artist.
Kylie Minogue, Linkin Park and the Red Hot Chili Peppers each won two prizes Thursday night. MTV Europe said the ninth annual show was broadcast to a billion people around the world.
Some 13,000 fans gathered in Barcelona's Palau Sant Jordi arena to see live performances by Eminem, Pink, Christina Aguilera, Robbie Williams and other musicians.
The ceremony offered few surprises because Eminem was the clear pre-show favorite. He performed a selection of his most popular songs to a screaming crowd, but left out the expletives.
Visibly moved, the rapper thanked the audience and fans for their support, saying: "Thanks a lot. I couldn't do it without you guys."
American singer Pink won in the best song category for "Get the Party Started."
Australia's Minogue won best pop and best dance.
Aguilera performed a dance-intensive version of her song "Dirrty," wearing a revealing, skintight leather outfit.
Sean "P. Ditty" Combs was the master of ceremonies, displaying an extensive wardrobe including several three-piece suits. He was nominated in the best hip-hop category but lost to Eminem.
Winners were decided by fans voting online, by mobile phone and at special MTV voting booths.
___
On the Net:
MTV Europe Music Awards: http://www.mtv.com/onair/ema/2002/
Uncle sells a piece of Eminem's past
One of the Detroit-area homes that helped spawn rap star Eminem's famed alter ego Slim Shady was sold Thursday and likely will turn up on eBay.
"This is a very emotional thing for me, because this house has been in our family for 50 years," said Todd Nelson, whose sister, Debbie Nelson, is Eminem's mother. "I didn't want to sell it, but I had to because my finances won't allow me to live here any more."
The cash-strapped Nelson said his nephew, who lives in Macomb County and is preparing for the release of his film, "8 Mile," was upset when he learned two months ago that the house in south Warren was up for sale.
The home is where Eminem first began writing the gritty rhymes that would later make him famous in the hip-hop world.
Nelson would not reveal the sale price, but St. Clair Shores lawyer Sebastian Lucido said he and his partner, Macomb County commissioner and real estate developer Roland Fraschetti, bought it for $45,000.
"We'd like to put the house up for sale on eBay sometime in January," Lucido said. "I think we'll have a minimum bid of around $120,000 -- the house appraised for $91,000 -- and go from there. If we don't get any bids, we can just rent it out."
The two-family home in the 8400 block of Timken -- not far from the real 8 Mile Road -- was purchased by Eminem's great-grandmother, Bessi Viola Whitaker, in 1952, Nelson said. The five-bedroom house has sheltered members of the clan ever since, he said.
Nelson said Eminem, also known as Marshall Mathers III, lived there off and on as a young child and when he attended Lincoln High School in Warren.
Eminem liked to draw while sitting at the table that still sits in the kitchen, Nelson recalled.
Detroit Free Press
The Ball Chair - or Globe Chair as it's called sometimes - was designed by using one of the most simple geometric forms - the ball. Cutting of a part and fixing it at one point Eero Aarnio comes to a remarkable result - a completely unconventional shaped chair:
A Ball Chair is a "room within a room" with a cozy and calm athmosphere, protecting outside noises and giving a private space for relaxing or having a phonecall. Turning around its own axis on the base the view to the outer space is variable for the user and thus he is not completely excluded from world outside.
http://www.naqoy.com/
Na-qoy-qatsi: (nah koy' kahtsee) N. From the Hopi Language.
A motion picture experience beyond words, NAQOYQATSI merges the power of image and music to plunge into the heart of the hyper-accelerated, globally wired 21st century. Mesmerizing images plucked from everyday reality, then visually altered with state-of-the-art digital techniques, stream across the screen in synch with a hypnotic score by Philip Glass, featuring the passionate cello work of Yo-Yo Ma. Despite the film's nonverbal nature, the ultimate effect of its starkly futuristic, computer-enhanced visual fabric is to get people talking about how technology is altering everything: media, art, entertainment, sports, politics, medicine, warfare, ethics, nature, culture and the very face of the human future.
NAQOYQATSI is presented by Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh, who was drawn to the film's vision of a brave new globalized world in which the coming battles include humans versus computers, money versus values and life versus its simulation. "Godfrey Reggio has created yet another landmark film," says Soderbergh. "NAQOYQATSI is an explosion of ideas and imagery; a riveting, rigorous, provocative, and breathtaking exploration of how we've allowed technology to infiltrate our everyday lives."
Nearly every image in NAQOYQATSI is a special visual effect. Some 80 percent of the film's footage is culled from stock footage (from such sources as scientific and military films, newsreels, corporate videos, sports documentaries, cartoons, television shows and commercials), most of which has been radically altered with digital technology. Images have been colorized or de-colorized, stretched, slowed or speeded up, re-patterned, re-textured and "re-animated," turning the familiar into something startlingly new. By using the cutting edge in filmmaking technology, NAQOYQATSI provides a dizzying view of today's world as seen through the lens of the very machinery that has created it.
NAQOYQATSI is the third and final feature film in "The Qatsi Trilogy" which began with the groundbreaking "KOYAANISQATSI," a revelatory, kaleidoscopic view of clashing urban and natural landscapes in North America, and continued with "POWAQQATSI," a journey around the world unfolding primal traditions and the influx of new technology. The films have been described as cinematic "head trips" that take audiences into a realm of pure sensory experience. Together, they have also become a rare artistic chronicle of the turbulent transition between the 20th and 21st centuries and its as-yet-unseen consequences. NAQOYQATSI now leaps ahead to capture the essence of globalization as barrier-breaking advances in robotics, quantization and digital communications spread like wildfire across the planet. This final part of the "Qatsi" series presents one man's vision of what we are hurtling towards in a world where technology reigns: unprecedented extremes of promise, spectacle, tragedy and finally, hope.
Like a concert, NAQOYQATSI unfolds in three movements. MOVEMENT ONE explores the newly wired world and the ongoing evolution from human language to numerical code. MOVEMENT TWO delves into the realms of sports, competition and gaming, which have become worldwide addictions. MOVEMENT THREE takes off on a journey into sheer speed and the breakneck acceleration of 21st century life -- pondering what it is like to remember the future and truly experience the present.
NAQOYQATSI is written and directed by Godfrey Reggio, with an original score by Philip Glass featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Jon Kane is the editor and visual designer. The executive producer is Steven Soderbergh and the producers are Lawrence Taub and Joe Beirne. The co-producer is Mel Lawrence, and the director of photography is Russell Lee Fine.
THE MAKING OF NAQOYQATSI
"To the degree that he masters his tools, [man] can invest the world with his meaning; to the degree he is mastered by his tools, the shape of the tool determines his own self-image." --Ivan Illich
With the third film of The Qatsi Trilogy, director Godfrey Reggio turns his attention to the explosive phenomenon of globalization - a world held in unity through the vice of technological homogenization. While his acclaimed films "Koyaanisqatsi" and "Powaaqatsi" revealed the final battles of nature and native cultures, with NAQOYQATSI, Reggio acknowledges that globalization and lightning-paced technological change are remaking the world in their own image and likeness. In a conscious embrace of contradiction, he has chosen to use cutting-edge filmmaking techniques to pose powerful new questions about the global order: what does our ultra high-tech future look like now that it is inevitably approaching? To respond to this question, Reggio offers his viewers the themes of technological happiness, civilized violence with war as ordinary daily living and sanctioned aggression against the forces of life. From the point of view of NAQOYQATSI he stands with Illich in saying that freedom is the ability to say no to technological necessity.
NAQOYQATSI presents Reggio's essential vision of the newly wired world: of human beings on the brink of a shift that will bring us closer to the melding of mind and machine, language and numbers, pleasure and simulacra, meaning and marketing, life and war -- and asks questions about what it will mean for the human experience.
Alternately breathtaking and shocking, digitally "re-animated" images from the hum and roar of modern life - from psychedelic fractals to athletes shattering the limits, from roiling tidal waves to frenetic riots, from primal infant smiles to G-force grins - stream across the screen set to and against the rhythms of Philip Glass's hauntingly melodic score. The result is a sound-and-image adventure that goes somewhere unexpected: into a direct experience of this high-tech moment in history, with all of its potential for both breaking new barriers and accelerating out of control.
"In NAQOYQATSI, technology is not so much something that we use any longer as something that we live, that we breathe like the very oxygen around us, that is transforming us without our awareness," says Reggio. "But what price do we pay for the pursuit of this technological happiness? I see NAQOYQATSI as a film about an event that is unnamable. It is my deep feeling that we no longer have the language to describe the world in which we live. So this film without words is an attempt to re-animate that old adage 'a picture is worth a thousand words.' Only in this case, hundreds upon hundreds of images add up to its meaning."
Adds producer/technologist Joe Beirne who collaborated with Reggio and editor Jon Kane on the film's extreme look: "I feel that NAQOYQATSI reveals how the material of our globalized culture might look to an alien being, to someone with a completely different set of criteria for evaluating it. Godfrey uses the means of our hyper-image-oriented culture to reflect the strangeness and awesome wonder of that culture back to us."
* * *
Godfrey Reggio has thought deeply about the nature of image and spectacle in contemporary society. "The image is approaching the point of omnipresence," he says. "It is reality, it is location, it is idea. And now, with digital technology, image has become pure illusion. There are no limits to the images we can create. But images become iconic to culture in that they become so familiar, and so resonant they're not even seen. They have enormous control and power over our lives. What we see without question we become. But there is ample reason to question each image in NAQOYQATSI."
Reggio has also long been concerned about the impact of technology not only upon the environment but also on human happiness, and has researched a wide variety of philosophical and scientific viewpoints on the subject. Among the inspirations for NAQOYQATSI are two seminal books about the future of the technocratic society: Ivan Illich's Tools of Conviviality, in which Illich critiques modern industrial society and suggests rethinking technology on a human scale; and French sociologist Jacques Ellul's The Technological Society, in which Ellul explores how human beings sacrifice their humanity to efficiency, the ultimate law of technology. Both Illich and Ellul express concerns that technology has become our master, rather than the other way around.
But NAQOYQATSI is not about theories. It's about experience. So Reggio asked the question: "If we are so bound up inside this 24-hour, non-stop, all-pervasive technological life, how can we see what it looks like or what its effect is upon us?" To get a better look at things, he began assembling a catalogue of images from everyday reality in our millennial times - images which, removed from their everyday context, become exotic, alien and surprisingly impactful.
For his previous films, Reggio traveled throughout the world, capturing original images. But this time, he decided to picture our world in a different way. Instead of going to locations, he made the decision to "use images as locations," giving stock footage entirely new meanings by manipulating and dissecting them in startling and emotionally provocative ways.
Reggio: "The iconic images of today are images of consumption, of the good life, images that are like wallpaper of the world we live in, images that we see everyday and that blend into the background of life itself. So the idea of this film is to take these iconic images and make them the 'location' for this film. We didn't so much 'shoot' this film, as 'create images' that are re-contextualized from the way you normally see them."
Reggio began by creating a most unusual "script," which was more of an outline of the images he would seek than anything resembling scenic directions and story line. The script provides insight into the themes behind each of the three movements. Briefly stated (in Reggio's words) they are:
MOVEMENT ONE/NUMERICA.COM: Human language, real place gives way to numerical code and virtual reality; metaphor is consumed by metamorphosis; body to disembodiment; natural to supernatural; many to one.
MOVEMENT TWO/CIRCUS MAXIMUS: Competition, winning, records, fame, "fair play" and the love of money are elevated to the prime values of life. Life becomes a game.
MOVEMENT THREE/ROCKETSHIP 20th CENTURY: Electronic acceleration can best be described as 'exit velocity,' an event that blurs all perception, shatters all meaning, drains all content, breaks the bonds to earth, producing a world that our language can no longer describe. The resulting explosive tempo of technology is war, is civilized violence.
Reggio: "My films have no screenplay per se because there are no spoken words in the film. Instead, I write the equivalent of a dramaturgical shaping of the film that serves as the point of view of the project, which serves as a way to get us off the platform. From there, each person involved in the film brings their own creativity to the event."
For Reggio, intense creative collaboration is part and parcel of the style of his films, especially NAQOYQATSI. "This project was predicated on a collaborative mode wherein each person was considered an artistic player," says Reggio. "I brought a feeling, a motivation, a point of view and intention but NAQOYQATSI was way too complex to be realized by just myself. Only collaborative energy could pull it off." * * *
The creative process of NAQOYQATSI began over a decade ago when Godfrey Reggio first began discussing the idea of a third and final "Qatsi" film with his friends and colleagues, including composer Philip Glass, who provided the acclaimed scores for "Koyaanisqatsi" and "Powaqqatsi." For a long time, the project existed only in discussions and in lists of ideas, images and sounds - and these lists and discussions constantly evolved.
Recalls Philip Glass: "For years, I was absorbing the concepts, intuitions and visions that Godfrey had. I wasn't writing, I was just listening. And over time, our idea of the film changed because Godfrey changed, I changed and the whole texture of the world changed."
Meanwhile, through all these changes, bringing the film to life at times seemed a far-off dream. Desperate for the funds to make the film a reality, the filmmakers began seeking what they called "an angel." After the New York Times ran an article about Reggio's quest to make NAQOYQATSI, Academy Award-winning director, writer and producer Steven Soderbergh stepped forward. "Soderbergh said he was astonished that we couldn't find funding for the project. He had one word for us," remembers producer Larry Taub, "and it was start."
Once production began, Reggio brought the entire NAQOYQATSI team, many of them like himself and his long-time producer Lawrence Taub natives of New Mexico, to a small studio in Lower Manhattan where they could be close to Philip Glass and respond to his creative process while providing him with images and research to inform his score. Here, a close-knit team of researchers, animators and technicians, together with editor/visual designer Jon Kane, spent two intensive years searching out and culling images from stock houses and film archives across the world, evolving a distinct vocabulary of digital manipulation while weaving picture with sound.
It was difficult, seemingly endless, sequestered work. Then, in the midst of the process, the September 11th, 2001 attack struck a few blocks from their studio. "I think the events of 9/11 certainly had an impact on this film," says Reggio. "When the crew returned to work, I think everyone was in a deep state of shock, but I found that within one week many people, in particular Jon Kane, ended up totally revved, because now more than ever the importance of the film's subject was crystallized."
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To bring a bracingly unfamiliar view of the images that surround us to NAQOYQATSI, Reggio brought on board media technologist and co-producer Joe Beirne, who creating the production's state-of-the-art digital production facility and oversaw the film's extensive array of computer-generated effects and visual manipulations. More than mere eye candy, these experiments with visual effects led to some of Reggio's most emotional, otherworldly and uplifting images.
Producer Joe Beirne estimates that about 20% of NAQOYQATSI is made up of original photography (including much of the prologue). The rest of the images were culled from scientific laboratory and military films, old newsreels, recent news coverage, commercials, television programs and documentaries - then digitally transformed in myriad ways.
Explains Beirne: "We broke down the scope of potential visual transformation of every image into color, contrast, image layering, grain structure and resolution, pattern and texture, aspect ratio, scale, speed and transition dynamics and used a comprehensive battery of these techniques in the film. Most of the images in NAQOYQATSI are presented in a transformed state, but it is the dynamic interaction of images that is most transformed. The fluid character of this transformation was achieved through manipulating the degree of image-upon-image across the screen and over the duration of the shot or sequence of shots. This was often achieved by masking parts of the image and then evolving those masks to change with the internal structure of the image. Editor/visual designer Jon Kane is fluent in this visual language, and it evolved into the basic visual vocabulary of the film."
Even the original footage shot for the film utilized transformational techniques, including an extensive use of slow motion and other techniques such as thermal photography.
Beirne describes NAQOYQATSI this way: "This is a film made of everything except pure motion picture film. Even the portion of 35mm film that was shot for NAQOYQATSI was super high-speed, making it very different from the normal elements you knit a movie out of. I've never worked on a film before where you had 90 minutes of opticals; where the whole movie is a visual effect from beginning to end, but that was Godfrey's challenge to us."
Despite the fact that Reggio massively distrusts technology and feels it is the most misunderstood reality in our world, Beirne found the director had a vast and open-minded curiosity and creativity when it came to experimenting with new techniques. "Sometimes I think y