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Oh yeah baby, the day is almost upon us! The MindFlesh world premiere at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) in London, UK.
It's on Saturday May 3rd at 6:15pm. And you can book tickets & find directions by clicking this link :)
Hope to see you all there!
Just finished watching the Bullitt movie - oh man, what a superb film. Now my favourite film set in San Francisco is The Conversation but having just watched Bullitt I felt the urge to find out where in the city the various locations were or are - something I've never cared about doing before for any city.
Thankfully lots of other people have already done the hard work for me :) Here's a list of some cool sites:
Last Friday my friend, the author William Scheinman, lead the meditation at the San Francisco Buddhist Center and after a period of quiet meditation he read from a book of Zen poetry by the renowned Ryokan. It was a wonderful session and since then I've been left with an intense feeling of wellbeing and connectedness with the universe.
After the session Bill and I followed our usual *cough* "ritual" for Friday nights and we talked a little about Christianity's original sin vs Buddhism's original goodness. It kick-started several days of reading for me as I sought to refresh and deepen my understanding of Karma, Rebirth, reincarnation and original goodness.
At the same time, as if synchronicity were at work, this week's Start the Week podcast from BBC Radio 4 carries an excellent discussion about the mind and its life in the body :) I've just ordered my copy of the book The Kingdom of Infinite Space: A Fantastical Journey Around Your Head which appears only to be on the Amazon UK website and not the US?
More soon....
I'm at the gate waiting for my flight back to San Francisco from New York and I thought I'd try out the iPhone facility of Typepad, the blog host I use. Yeah, it's pretty cool :)
I always loved NYC but never thought it to be too different to London in terms of energy and general buzz. But boy, coming from San Francisco and not having been in London for many months, NYC is alive - what a kick it's been this weekend. I love SF but it feels positively sleepy compared to NYC.
There's a few things that need improving of course - like the lack of wireless outside of Starbucks. It feels weird not to have constant Internet access!
For anyone that might have missed it, check out this throught-provoking essay of Buddhism and Horror from author and Buddhish William Scheinman: http://billscheinman.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/buddhism-horror.html
I've finally finished the dialog list for MindFlesh. Not that it should have taken very long to do but it's just a dull job so I kept doing other things in between! :)
I thought other filmmakers might be interested to see how my spotting list is formated. I can't remember how I got hold of the format but it's one we've used for London Voodoo (and sold successfully around the world and now on Amazon Unboxed!) so I'm hoping it's still good for MindFlesh. Click the thumbnail below for a snapshot of the sample output.
If you right-click and "save as" on this link. You can download the Excel spreadsheet I used to create it. The idea is you can quickly and easily enter the timecode & dialog on the INPUT sheet ( it's quick because you don't have to worry about formatting) and then the OUTPUT sheet is what you print.
One small thing to note is that I've made the formulas as simple as possible so when a timecode flips over a minute (e.g. start 1:59 and end 2:01) you'll get a negative duration - just do the math yourself and over type the formula. It's much quicker this way than having to code (end_hour*3600+end_mins*60+end_secs)-(start_hour*3600+start_mins*60+start_secs).
The last time I was back in the UK I hooked up a SlingBox to our Sky box so that I would be able to watch UK TV while in the US. Now, it's not that I'm a TV junkie - I've hardly watched it (honest... well maybe the occasional Newsnight). But yesterday The Kooks sent me an email saying they were on at the Later with Jouls Holland show at 10pm. Now I had a real reason to go remote!
I'm pleased to say that the Slingbox works like a dream! Not only could I see & hear the band live but I could also set the Sky planner to record the performance on the UK DVR - nice. Oh I'm so excited about the new Kook album....
Ok, so while on the subject of hifi, back in January we bought a large, flat Sharp HD TV - it's great and I love it. Very satisfied. My problem comes with the Sharp Blu-ray DVD player - the Sharp BD-HP20U - or lack of it. Firstly, the blu-ray player was offered as a package with the TV and I was told that it would be in the store a week after I bought the TV. Yeah.. I know you know what's coming! I could have guessed it myself but I didn't know that the wankers at Video Only, 1199 Van Ness Ave would still be lying to me in April. Every time I call I get a different excuse as to why the player isn't in stock yet - there's going to be a delivery; there's not going to be a delivery; the Sharp rep said "x" now he says "y"; the format wars.. blah blah blah. The bottom line is I'll never again be shopping at Video Only, 1199 Van Ness Ave because they can't be trusted. I should have known and trusted my instincts because another customer was in the store complaining about something else as I was paying for the TV. Agghhhh.
Anyhow, a couple of weeks after having the TV at home (back in Jan) I popped across the street to Circuit City and bought the damn Sharp player. BUT the bloody thing didn't work out of the box! I checked the firmware - I had the latest version - and then I called the Sharp support. Some disinterested, lazy agent told me to mail it in to them. Oh, what like it says on the inside box lid "don't return to the retailer"? Come on! I wanted to watch a DVD that afternoon - I'm not going to mail it in. I took it straight back to Circuit City - who were fantastic. They allowed me to swap the Sharp for a Panasonic - which is superb - and I saved a couple of bucks.
So, I'm wondering if the delay in receiving my Sharp DVD player is due to the fact that the damn things just don't work?!
Just got back from the World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City. As cons go, this was my 4th WHC and I still felt like an outsider - which I think is a big shame. Still, I had a nice time renewing old acquaintances and meeting a few new people.
It was fun to have my niece Heather with me too and we made sure to check out the local sights rather than stay locked up in the hotel. Here's a couple of photos of the salt lake of SLC :)
One small nuisance was the local drinking laws: On the first evening we went into a bar and ordered two diet cokes. I was asked if Heather had ID - ?! "What, for a diet coke?" I asked sarcastically :) To which the barman replied that everyone had to be over 21 to even just sit in the empty bar. What a ridiculous law. So, banished from the bars we discovered that we were able to at least be in a restaurant together.. where I was free to drink alcohol and she was free to drink cranberry juice.
