2007 Pinguins!

Happy New Year : Surf's Up for 2007!
Originally uploaded by _esse.

1001 Dalmatians are so 1984!
2007 is the year of the penguin (pronounced like pin-goe-in, it'll all come clear next summer ;)).

Here's Cody and Geek surfin into a new year! Happy 2007 to y'all.

Shop Pink!

Paul Smith store on Melrose Ave
Originally uploaded by _esse.

at the Paul Smith Store on Melrose Avenue...

lemon law california

Ever heard about lemon law? Or about a 'lemon' as in 'be carefull not to buy a lemon'! A lemon is a product that repeatedly fail to meet certain standards of quality and performance. It is most commonly used in conjunction with cars, but it applies to all goods.

So.... there are lemon laws now, to protect people from buying bad goods.
Hence there are also lemon law layers and attorneys, used car and computer lemon laws. They are different per state, so there is California lemon law next to Florida Lemnon law and Ney York Lemon law.

In the end it all comes down to be able to buy stuff without looking sour.

HD vs standard DVD comparison

Someone decided to check out what all the HD fuss was about and compared classic DVD againt HD. Here is the test:

Fellowship of the Ring - HD vs DD

www.cornbread.org/FOTRCompare/index.html

Being amazed at how fantastic the HD transfer of Fellowship of the Ring looked, I decided to compare it to the transfer on the DVD. Now, the DVD transfer is among the best you can find on DVD, so this really is comparing the respective creams of the crops.

I used WinDVD 6 to capture files from the DVD, and Elecard Mpeg2 player to capture from the HD stream. Both were captured directly to BMP files and converted to JPG at very high quality so there should be almost no artifacting introduced (sorry, the BMP files were too large to use).

I used Photoshop to bicubically resample the DVD source images from 852x480 to match the 1920x1080 of the HD images. This page features the HD image sampled down to the DVD's resolution of 852x480. Surprisingly, even at DVD-resolution the HD source features more detail.

Mouseover any of the images here to see the HD downsample. You can see the full-size comparisons by clicking on the images on this page. The difference is pretty amazing.

I tried to capture identical frames on both sources, but I missed by a frame or two on some of these.

Penguins

A golden animation oldie.

The right angle.

Pictures getting an extra dimension when taken from a surprising angle.

Pros stoked by roles in 'Surf's Up'

Slater, along with professional surfers Rob Machado and Sal Masekela, voice major roles in the animated movie "Surf's Up," which is set to open in theaters in June. Sony Pictures made the announcement at a press conference Tuesday at Turtle Bay Resort, in conjunction with the Pipeline Masters Surf Contest.

"The waves are so good in the movie, you want to get into the screen and surf it," said Masekela. "The depth perception is incredible. The ocean is a character in the film and doesn't play second fiddle."

Read more on: http://starbulletin.com/2006/12/07/features/story06.html

How to not get your ass kicked by the Police

An oldie but a goodie. Chris explains what to do--and what NOT to do--when the Fuzz pulls you over. Funny video.

THE CONSUMERIST: Tekserve Ad with over $60,000 in ipods

Rally domino with iPod's.

Diet Coke and Mentos

Jolly good fun with Diet Coke and Mentos!

Cool Firefox ad.

Takes on Internet Explorer, Netscape and Safari.

Roadtrip day 2 pictures online : San Diego Zoo

., originally uploaded by _esse.

Pictures of the second day of this summer's roadtrip are online. San Diego Zoo was the destination of the day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/esse/sets/72157594275907872/

Elmo takes America.

The hottest toy aroud, people go crazy over this, shops run trough their stocks in not time, prices on eBay are extreme.

I'd rather get the dog.

The importance of choosing the right domain name (url)

Everyone knows that if you are going to operate a business in today's world you need a domain name. It is advisable to look at the domain name selected as other see it and not just as you think it looks. Failure to do this may result in situations such as the following (legitimate) companies who deal in everyday humdrum products and
services but clearly didn't give their domain names enough consideration:

1. A site called 'Who Represents' where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name... wait for it... is
www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there's the Italian Power Generator company...
www.powergenitalia.com

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales (that's in Australia):
www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you're looking for computer software, there's always
www.ipanywhere.com

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com

9. Then, of course, there's these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com

xRez.com gigapixel photography is live!

Collegue Greg Downing recently got his new site up displaying years of expertise in gigapixel photography.

Best to be viewed on multiple big screens or projected in high definition! I watched it at my desk at Sony, enjoying all this eyecandy on a double +20 inch flatpanel monitor with a superfast internetconnection. Having been to Yosemite myself mutiple times I had the feeling as if I got teletransported back by watching this amazing piece of techno art.

Here is Greg's introduction:

After a few years of work I have finally posted some of the gigapixel photography that I have been creating with my business partner and buddy Eric Hanson and I thought it would be a good time to let my friends and colleagues know about it. I used a pan and tilt technique with a motion control head to assemble 350 16 mega pixel images into a single 3.8 gigapixel 360 degree spherical panorama of Yosemite as well as some other locations. I then took the image and split it up into over 100,000 256x256 jpg tiles and used the google maps api to point at my tiles instead of googles map tiles. Now anyone can navigate them. Each time you reload the home page you will find one of 5 of our gigapixel images, and more are coming in the next few weeks.

One of the photos is taken from the same spot that Ansel Adams shot "Monolith, the Face of Half Dome" on a spot called "the diving board". From this one spot you can see 9 waterfalls, hikers in the valley below, big and little Yosemite valleys and even a rock climber on the face of half dome almost a mile away. There are 7 other images of this resolution on the site and some interesting movies of time-lapse w/ DEM integration that is interesting too.

This is our second attempt at a launch, the first one was last week. Within a few hours of posting it on a few visual effects studios internal mailing lists the response was like an avalanche. We were serving 22 gigabytes an hour and we were using our entire ISPs bandwidth, they basically kicked us off since they could not serve their other customers. We have since found an ISP with a dedicated connection with 60 times the bandwidth and are on our own dedicated server, so we should be up to the task this time around!

www.xrez.com

The last knit : cool CG short film

Pixar Animation Studios as an employer.

Some interesting figures about Pixar as an employer.

Pixar, the creator of the mega-hits Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles is more than just a computer animation studio. It stands poised to become one of the largest entertainment forces of the 21st century. Born in the 1980s as the special effects division of Lucasfilm, the company was spun off in 1986 and acquired by Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer, for a cool $10 million. The new company was dubbed Pixar, after the first 3-D graphics system (the Pixar Image Computer) developed by the computer scientists and animators that worked there.

Uppers Undisputed innovator in its field Stock options that millionaires are made of Ultra creative, cute bags

Downers Fickleness of showbiz One location

http://www.vault.com/companies/company_main.jsp?co_page=1&product_id=1006

First real rain.

This morning we woke up with rain. Real rain, more than the few drops we have seen a couple of times. It had actually begun during the night from sunday to monday. Real pouring rain. First time since we arrived at the beginning of April. Can you believe that?

Happy thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. A typical US holiday which we don't celebrate in Europe. This morning when driving to work I was struck by how big a deal it is. The city was extremely busy, similar by the madness we see around Christmas and New Year: everyone is out on a shopping spree. Traffic is congested because people visit familie and friends to devour stuffed turkey's. In the office we have a big argument (friendly be it) between the only American guy in our cubicle and 2 canadians, the latter claim their fellow country men were the first to celibrate Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving is a couple of weeks earlier too. So actually these Canadian guys take best of 2 worlds and celebrate twice. Anyways, we decided to flee the city and are heading for a hopefully quite long weekend in the Big Sur, Monetery and Carmel area. We planned a visit to the worldrenown Monetery Aqaurium, will of course stop for a coffee on Lucia Lodge's deck overlooking the Pacific and hope to spot some migrating whales from the shore since it is the time of the great trek of the whales.

Back on sunday!

Happy Feet : great numbers!

Happy Feet, aka "that other penguin flick" has opened last weekend and did extremely well. It came out first in the boxoffice ranking grossing well over 41 million dollar, beating the new James Bond Casino Royale by almost a million.

All media have rave reviews about the dancing penguins. Fingers crossed for the surfing ones that are to take the world next summer.

http://movies2.nytimes.com
http://www.boxofficeguru.com

#	Title	Nov 17 - 19	Nov 10 - 12		Theaters	Weeks	AVG	Cumulative	Distributor
1	Happy Feet	$ 41,533,432			3,804	1	$ 10,918	$ 41,533,432	Warner Bros.
2	Casino Royale	40,833,156			3,434	1	11,891	40,833,156	Sony
3	Borat	14,602,874	28,269,900		2,611	3	5,593	90,757,366	Fox

Farce of the Penguins

The quest for penguin action...

www.farceofthepenguins.com

Joshua Tree September trip photos online

Finally finished the photoset of our camping and climbing trip to Joshua Tree National park in September. Some of the picture have been online for a while, but here is the complete set in chronological order:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/esse/sets/72157594301679439/

PS: I geotagged the entire set in Flickr, so you can pretty well see on the map and satelite images where we were abouts. Click on the (map) link in the lower riht corner, in the Additional Information section.

Playstation 3 ( PS3) US launch madness.

Lat night at midnight local shops in California and throughout the United States started selling Sony long awaited and much hyped Playstation 3 console. A technological marvel which makes many gamers drool. But it will be scarce for the first couple of months. Only 400.000 units were available for the US. People have been standing in lines for days, eBay auctions at which the console get's sold (or should I say offered) at mutiple times the ticket price are popping up by the minute.

One guy in the office slept outside for a night and was able to get hold of 2! He told me that there were a bunch of trucks of news station present to get all the madness on tape.

Check some out:

Magic numbers part 1

I am writing down some magic numbers which will help me remember milestones, great moments, things worth remembering. I cannot elaborate them now, but will be able to when the project I am working on is finished.

65 anim
333 sh fin
200 Gb bbrk
21 TB >95%
+400 ft asap

Arthur And The Invisibles

Luc Besson's next movie. An entertaining story and great looking movie if you ask me. Wondering who's working on it. Anyone an idea? Is it done in Europe?

http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/arthurandtheinvisibles/hd/

New Spiderman 3 trailer

Spiderman 3 production runs almost almost parallel with Surf's Up production at Imageworks. Check out their mindblowing new trailer:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/spider-man_3/

Torn with special guest live 2006

The extremely talented mime in this video is called David Armand.

LAPD's latest toy : interactive crimemaps.

How safe is your neighbourhood? Go check it out with LAPD's latest online tool: www.lapdonline.org/crimemap/

Here is how West-Hollywood scores.

$2000 / 2br - *JIM MORRISON "THE DOORS" last U.S. home!*

I was toying around with Rentslicer. The real estate site that offers just a tad more by linking their offerings to Google maps. It allows you to discover a neighbourhood and see what the local real estate market has to offer.

While virtually wandering around are hood I discovered that Jim Morrisons last US home is just a few blocks away. It's a small world.

http://www.rentslicer.com/view-listing.html?id=771379

Rock Legend JIM MORRISON "THE DOORS" former West Hollywood apartment is available for month to month. It is located in the landmark building, Cheri Amour, known as "JIM MORRISON'S LAST KNOWN U.S. RESIDENCE" where he resided from 1970- March 1971, 4 months prior to going to Paris, where he reportedly died.
Following Jim's departure, there have only been a couple tenants, as they chose to remain longterm tenants. In 2005, for the first time in history, the building was opened up for tours, along with daily or weekly lodging in Jim's former apartment.
Only for the most discerning individual(s), Jim's former unit will be shown by appointment only. Since we provide daily tours of the property for $10 per person, in order to view the apartment you must pay the tour fee. We do not accept credit cards or personal checks. You also have the option to submit a rental application sight unseen. Only qualified applicants will be considered. (Note: the interior of the Jim Morrison unit will NOT be included in the tours, once the unit is rented.)
Recognized globally amongst rock 'n roll fans, the rental price for this special fully furnished turnkey 2 BR/ 1 1/4 bath celebrity apartment is $2,000 per month. In the case of multiple applicants, priority will be given to the best offer above the asking price.
For tour details & to learn more about this landmark building, go to our website: CHERIWOODS.COM and click on "THE DOORS" link. To schedule a tour for viewing:
Phone: (818)225-5347 daily after 10:00 AM
E-Mail: CHERIWOODS1@YAHOO.COM

Flickr retrievr Sketch tool : awesome technology

Combine a webbased sketch tool and patern recognition and you get : Flickr retrievr. An online tool that lets you draft and on the fly analyzes your dribbles and scans for similar paterns in Flickr's extensive Interestingness library.

http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/

Progressive

tip number 1 fro those who move to the US of A:

(not the music)

Shop around for car insurance. There are plenty of insurance companies and the price differences in car insurance quotes are significant. Most companies will give online quotes via their websites, which makes it a lot easier to contact many of them.

We were lucky with Progressive Insurance, but than again, it goes on a case by case basis. So others might have great deals for you as well.

Do your homework, it is worthwhile!

Hard drive recovery 101

It had to happen. My laptop external 160 GB USB hard drive died. With it it took numerous pictures, an entire iTunes library (crippling my iPod) a slew of video's and who knows what more files. In these situations one only get's to know what's lost when you need something, you search for it and realise that it was on the particular hard disk that crashed.
Will start to look for some hard drive recovery service. Hopefully some expert can bring my data back. Fingers crossed.

Couleur locale of Nouvelle Cuisine?

Couleur locale of Nouvelle Cuisine?, originally uploaded by _esse.

The local Los Angeles restaurant guide can be found at the reception desk of most local restaurants. It made me laugh big time when I entered the sushi place around the corner. The waitress was clueless.

Surf's Up on Wikipedia

Sony Pictures Animation's upcoming surfing pinguin movie has got it's page on Wikipedia.org:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surf's_Up_(film)

Hilde's Clematis picture made it into Flickr Interestingness

Great news, Hilde's picture is doing realy well and made it into Flickr's Interestingness category of October 24!

Clematis. Beauty lies in the details.

Clematis., originally uploaded by fuxiafun.

Hilde took this beautifull picture last weekend in the garden of the Getty museum. A marvelous oasis of peace and nature in the middle of a megapolis.

Penguins. The real deal.

Today there was a press conference at Imageworks to introduce the press to Sony Pictures Animation upcomming Surf's Up animated feature.

Not the tradtional red carpet, but a better suited for the occasion blue carpet was rolled out to welcome the press.

Some extra palmtrees, a hammock and last but not least a couple of real penguins were present to establis the setting of the movie.

No picture unfortunately, that's the policy.

Laser etched Powerbook!

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/11/laser_etched_powerbook.html

CG in India : India's growing role behind Hollywood

$1.35 an hour, that's what entry level artists in the CG industry in India get paid. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/03/12/yourmoney/movies13.php

Darth Vader tries to clean the Black Sea with Brita Filter.

Blinded!

My camera died. Well, sort of, the least I can say is that it got seriously handicapped. The wide angle lens' USM motor is broken so I need to focus manually.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the tele-photo 28-200 started acting strange too. Lot's of autofocussing issues, plenty of over exposed pictures. No patern in the errors which makes it really hard to diagnose.

To be contiued...

Trailer's out !

The Surf's Up trailer is out.
Go watch it on Apple's site:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/surfsup/

Or on the official Sony Pictures website:
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/surfsup/index.html

Joshua Tree National Park : rock climbing

Rock climbing, originally uploaded by _esse.

Last weekend we headed for Joshua Tree National Park with a merry bunch of 16.
It was our second visit to the area, first one was a quick drive through with an occasional
stop on our August SoCal road trip. Our first impression than was nice, but not standing out
like the other National Parks we had done that far. More like a blend of some of the other
more spectacular parks.

This time however we had more time to spend and as a bonus, Tim, Nathalie and Christophe,
all seasoned rock climbers were in our party.

After setting up camp Saturday at noon we did some reconnaissance for good climbing spots,
which is a bit... well euh, superfluous, cause Joshua Tree is scattered with rocks, all of them
making sweet climbing opportunities of various levels of difficulty.

Saturday night we were lucky to join a stargazing party, organized once a year by a local club.
So the computer graphics geeks went to check out the stargazing geeks and their toys.
We got to see all kinds of constellations, nebula and even a comet, tail included.
Because of the remote location and the absence of any artificial light for thens of miles
JT is a sublime setting for all that.

Sunday we went for the real work and most of us went rock climbing under the great
guidance of Tim. Lots of fun. Beats indoor climbing by far. At the rock we met a crazy
free climbing dude which was almost

After breaking up camp around 14.00 we headed for the Cottonwood area of the park
to top of the day with a last hike. We got a bit surprised by the fast setting sun which
made we had to find our way back in the dark.

A smooth ride and a couple of hours later we were back in the entertainment capital
of the world. (?!?)

Pictures to follow soon.

Surf's up Surf Day : pictures and more

Last week Tuesday (september 19.) was Surf's Up surf day. The entire team headed for Malibu beach to do some serious field research. Boards, wetsuits, instructors, beach babes, food and beverages, a sandy beach and a gnarly wave, all ellements were present. Icing on the cake: the directors (Chris and Ash) and part of the cast (voice actors) + the amazing surf pro Rob Machado (www.robmachado.com) were there too.

While Rob Machado was surfing circles around us we were trying to survive one of the nastiest waves of Southern California. Not and ideal place for beginners, a while ago a pro broke his neck at that very beach, sets of waves were rolling in a very irregular pace. On top of that the wave was very violent, standing up out of nothing and breaking just seconds after, washing away all in it's path, each time resulting in a barage of surferless surfboards popping out of the wave like colorful popcorn.

Result: 1 stiched arm, 2 broken toes and 1 ripped out toenail. Word goes that the producers canceled all further events till the entire flick has been canned.

Nevertheless a wonderfull day with a magnificaent crowd. Who else get's paid to go surfing in Malibu except for Surf Pro's? And than again they don't get to work on the first animated surf feature.

Thank you Surf's Up production team for making this all happen!

Some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikborzi/sets/72157594292117506/
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/litow2nd/album?.dir=/1bb8scd&.src=ph&.tok=phEz_hFBSJePfltL
http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/davidstodolny/album?.dir=/ac1fscd&.src=ph&.tok=phy5BiFBs_w7fLGP








Rob Machado ripping it up on Sony Surf's up Surf Day.
(picture by Daniele Tosti)

Sunset over Two Harbours

sunset, originally uploaded by _esse.

Just a view we wanted to share with all of you guys. This was the sunset over Two Harbours (Catalina Islands) this weekend.

If yuo like the picture and you want to support it, please go 'fav' and comment it on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/esse/248020389/

Hollywood self-relativism

Hollywood self-relativism, originally uploaded by _esse.

Found this quite funny base line of a hotel around the corner:

If we were any more Hollywood, our pool would be shallow at both ends.


www.sunsetmarquishotel.com

Chakra Cleansing

Chakra Cleansing, originally uploaded by _esse.

Spiritualist Sandra is pushing through a big marketing campaign. I found this under my windshield wiper in the parking lot of Traders Joe in Culvercity.

I wonder if she could cure my camera which behaves like it's under a voodoo-spell.

Why go to work...

--------------------start email excerpt------------------------------------
subject: Why go to work...

body:
when you could go surfing!

Mark your calendars for next Tuesday (9/19/06) for Surf's Up surf day. This will be an employee only event (sorry, no guests) with surf instructors, boards, wet suits and lunch all provided. Details on the location to follow.

--------------------end email excerpt-------------------------------------

The Surf's Up crew received this email.

YAY!

Octopus eats shark...

Never put and octopus in yor shark tank is the lesson we learn from this one!

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=2f3eee6e-6ed5-444c-8a74-6a0899fa0b85&f=06/64&fg=copy

Party Time!

Tonight there was a Surf's Up crew party because we are doing ... well. Cannot disclose how well, cause that's classified, but all's well. So the producer decided to throw a little party with food and drinks in the garden.

Concidentially today also was the day the trailler got fininished. Now don't rush off to Quicktime movies yet. We finished it, but it still needs to go through postproduction to make it webready. That might take another couple of days, but no worries, I will post the link the very minute the trailer is on the Apple website and other places.

Stay tuned!

Burning Man as seen from above.

Satelite's view on Burning Man camp in the middle of the desert. Everyone we heard was wild about the Belgian camp, "great architecture!" This year 40.000 people gathered to build and burn in the middle of the desert.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man

It's coming up, It's coming up, It's coming up...

It's bear!!!
Today we saw our first black bear (Ursus americanus). We have been longing to see one since we arrived in California in april. Despite several trips to national parks and forests and being on the look out like eagles for mice we hadn't been lucky so far.

When we arrived in Kings Canyon the numerous warnings, way more numerous and explicit than in Yosemite, didn't leave much doubt: this was bear country. When cooking food on the campfire on Moraine Campground saturday night we all of a sudden noticed a bunch of park rangers. They were scanning the environment with one of these antennas one often sees in wildlife documentaries. We hurried to them to hear that there was a female bear that had been scouring the campground lately for food. Since the bear was tagged with a radio device they were able to track it.
We stored all our food, toothpaste and anything that could attract a bear carefully in the bearbox, took the video camera and digital camera into the tent... hoping for... But no luck.

A hike on sunday and a night on a fairly remote campground at pretty high altitude, a perfect setting for a bear encounter, didn't bring any luck.

Monday we went for a last hike to Weaver Lake, high and remote enough, for... you guessed it, a bear sighting. But again, despite a beautifull and rewarding hike, no joy :(

When driving home we were chatting about how nice the weekend, even without spotting a bear. On the winding roads that take you out of Sequoia National Park we all of a sudden had to break because of a bunch of cars that had stopped in a bend. A couple of people were standing at the side of the road, gazing into the woods. One guy whispered 'bear... bear...'. Hilde grabbed the camera and jumped out of the car before I could stop. By the time I got out of the car I had spotted a big dark blob of fur making it's way towards an oak tree. A bear! In no time it made it's way high into the tree. From high up it was casually looking down while ripping off some twigs and eating them. Quite a sight seeing an animal of that size playfully hopping around in a tree. Minutes later it came down and continued it's way through the shrub.

We couldn't have wished for a better end to our weekend.

Luck often lure's just around the corner.

more pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/esse/sets/72157594273103014/

We're off to Kings Canyon National Park

Memorial day weekend, monday september 3 is a day off.
We head for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park.
http://www.nps.gov/seki

Site's up

www.surfsup.com

No content yet however.

Surf's Up first previews...

Last week was Comic-Con in San Diego, Surf's Up had some first exposure to the public, here are some results:

http://www.movieweb.com/news/54/13654.php
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-comicconnotes,0,2017917.story
http://www.movieweb.com/news/39/13639.php

Diggers in town.

Vanavond was master Digweed in town. We hebben de gast al op meerdere plekken aan het werk gehoord en telkens met volle teugen van genoten. Dus toen we hier een paar maand geleden aankwamen en affiches zagen hebben we gelijk tickets gekocht voor deze avond.

Plaats van de afspraak was de Mayan. Ik vermoed een oude cinemazaal die ze hebben omgebouwd tot een danstempel. www.clubmayan.com

Zoas gewoonlijk onmogelijk om te blijven stilstaan als je van dit genren houdt, al heb ik Diggers al in betere doen geweten. Op de dansvloer ook nog Amber tegen het lijf gelopen, een collega uit het Alias tijdperk. Komt een mens naar LA en loop je nog oude bekenden tegen het lijf.

Binnenkort een paar foto's.

Cars

Vandaag met een bende collega's om 11u30 in de voormiddag als eersten de cinema naast Sony ingedoken om Cars te gaan bekijken. (cinema gaan valt onder de categrie werken in deze stad). Een redelijk verhaal dat naar mijn zin iets te lang wordt getrokken (denk dat de film 120 minuten duurt), maar animatie en visuele kwaliteit zoals niemand anders dan Pixar ze brengt. Eyecandy in overvloed! Gaat dat zien!

Off to Yosemity

Wijle weg... naar Yosemite.

Morgen om 15u een vroege stop bij Imageworks. Iedereen krijgt 3 uur betaald vrijaf. Dan gaat het richting Yosemite voor 4 dagen hiking in de wilde natuur.

http://www.nps.gov/yose

Fingers crossed for bear sightings!

Where I work

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=9050+Washington+Blvd,+Culver+City,+CA+90232&t=k&om=1&ll=34.024888,-118.390785&spn=0.001934,0.004222

Geen foto's... absoluut camera verbod :(

Where we live...

Our new home in West Hollywood:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=
en&q=1361+n+laurel+ave,+hollywood,+ca&om=1

To the movies and back...

Avondje cinema in Santa Monica. An Inconvenienth Truth, de kruistocht waarin Al Gore de wereld bewust probeert te maken van het broeikaseffect en zijn gevolgen.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount_classics/aninconvenienttruth/

Best interessant om dit te zien in het land dat meer dan 25% van alle aardolie verbruikt. Reacties in de zaal, die eerder lijkt op een toneelzaal dan een 'movie theatre'.
Anyhow, de film is een aanrader. Gaat dat zien en sleur iedereen mee die je kent.

Na de film droppen we Tom af, hij woont net een blok verder dan wij en rijden we nietsvermoedend een 2e film in.

We rijden de garage onder ons appartements blok in. De automtatische poort sluit een 30-tal seconden na ons. Terwijl ik achteruit in onze parkeerplaats manouvreer merkt Hilde op dat er precies glas naast de auto ligt die voor ons geparkeerd staat... Zij stapt al uit omdat de parkeerplaats nogal smal is en gluurt even in de auto voor ons. Tegen dat ik uitstap is ze terug en fluistert ze dat er iemand in de auto ligt.
Verwarrend want in de auto hangt aan de spiegel een gehandicapten kaart. Is er iemand onwel geworden in de auto, en heeft die in paniek een venster uitgeschopt? Ik stap stil op de auto af en merk dat er iemand met het gezicht naar onder over de bestuurders- en passagierszetel ligt. Het achterste raam van de auto was gebroken. Hier klopt iets niet... Ons eerste vermoeden blijkt het juiste te zijn: inbraak in auto. We proberen zo gewoon mogelijk te praten om de inbreker in de waan te laten dat we niks opgemerkt hebben. Ons plan is naar boven te gaan, 911 te bellen, de inrijpoort aan de straatkant en het toegangspoortje van de garage naar de binnentuin in de gaten te houden in afwachting van de LAPD.

Net op dat moment komt een andere buur binnengereden. We vragen zo stil, doch zo onopvallend mogelijk aan onze buur, die Tim blijkt te heten, of hij weet wie de eigenaar van de auto is. We leggen Tim de situatie uit, hij neemt een ijzeren staaf uit zijn wagen en schuifelt voorzichtig dichterbij om vast te stellen dat het wel degelijk niet de gehandicapte buurvrouw is die in de wagen ligt maar 'a tall black guy'.

Hilde haast zich naar boven om 911 te bellen en de concierge (hier heet dat 'manager') van het gebouw te verwittigen. Tim en ik blijven om de wagen in de gaten te houden. Intussen probeer ook ik 911 te bellen, dat lukt niet omdat we in een half-ondergrondse garage zitten en de kwaliteit van het gsm-netwerk in de States slecht is. Ik ga dichter bij het toegangspoortje staan en krijg verbinding. Intussen komt de manager de garage binnen.

Omdat ik op de 911 on hold wordt gezet en Hilde intussen met de flikken aan het praten is hang ik op en ga terug de garage binnen.

Daar staan de manager en Tim intussen aan de auto en fluisteren waaruit de inbreker probeert te ontsnappen. Tim verkoopt hem een stevige tik met de ijzeren staaf en de man duikt weer de auto in. Deze keer probeert hij het langs de passagierskant. Als ik bij de auto aankom staat hij reeds recht tussen de auto en het portier. Omdat het ons veiligst leek dat hij in de auto bleef tot de flikken er waren schop ik tegen de deur. Die gast schreeuwt keihard als zijn ribben en scheenbeen tussen deur en auto gekneld geraken. Hij wordt heel erg aggressief en grijpt onder zijn vest terwijl hij zich los wringt. Tim en de manager roepen iets van een mes en indereen deinst achteruit. Luttele seconden later staat hij vlak voor ons en roept dat het allemaal niet is wat het lijkt. Hij zegt dat het een 'scavengerhunt' is en dat hij zich gewoon verstopt. Yeah right! In een afgesloten garage, in een auto met een gebroken ruit... De manager, die duidelijk niet vooraan stond toen het verstand werd uitgedeeld, vraagt wie de organisator/verantwoordelijke was van de scavangerhunt. De man kan niet antwoorden, blijft ons verwijten dat we hem sloegen en drukt intussen op de afstandsbediening van de automatische poort die hij gejat had. Hij zet het op een lopen, nog steeds bewerend dat het om een 'spel' gaat. Nog steeds niet zeker of hij gewapend is of niet volgen Tim en ik hem op een afstand. Een aantal voorbijgangers vragen verbaasd wat er aan de hand is. Aan het kruispunt met Fountain Ave neemt hij wat voorsprong en loopt verder richting Santa Monica Boulevard. Terwijl Tim en ik voor het rode licht aan het kruispunt staat draait de eerste 'black and white' onze straat uit. Binnen de minuut zijn er 4 aangekomen en beginnen ze de straten in de buurt te doorkruisen. Inmiddels ondervraagt de flik uit de eerste wagen ons en brieft het signalement van de inbreker door aan de centrale. De flik komt

's Anderendaags komt ieman de auto 'dusten for fingerprints'. Even later komen 2 detectives aan voor bijkomende verklaringen van Hilde en andere buren. Zij vertellen dat 1 uur na de oproep een man is opgepakt in de buurt. Ze hebben een foto bij, Tim die op dat moment thuis was herkent de man als onze ongenodige gast. Ze bedanken Hilde, Tim en iedereen die bij het voorval betrokken was voor alle hulp, want ze hadden de man intussen kunnen linken aan 5 inbraken die in de laatste weken in de buurt gepleegd waren.

De flikken laten hun telefoon nummer na voor mij omdat ik de man uit een 'line up', yep, as seen on tv, zal moeten proberen herkennen.

De buurt blijkt overigens zeer rustig te zijn getuigen buren, flikken en voorbijgangers. Vandaar dat iedereen door dit voorval toch wat uit zijn loog geslagen was.

Anyhow, alles opgelost. We voelen ons weer op ons gemak. Al geef ik toe dat we nog steeds grondig rondkijken als we de auto in de garage parkeren.

Die andere film met vetganzen...

Surf's up gaat niet de eerste animiatie film zijn met pinguins. Happy Feet zal ons voor zijn, al doen er reeds geruchten de ronde dat hun release date van November 2006 niet gehaald zou worden.

Check it out: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/happyfeet/

Ik kan enkel zeggen dat onze troeteldieren er sympathieker uitzien.

Feiten en cijfers

aka Facts and Figures.

Omdat ik er niet steeds in slaag om voldoende tijd vrij te maken om te schrijven hou ik klads-gewijs zaken bij die ik zal posten onder 'Feiten en cijfers'.

Hier komen de eerste:

- sinds 10 april aan het werken op Surf's up.
- burootje op het gelijkvloers met zicht op de vijver in de binnentuin
- overal in het 3 verdiepen tellende gebouw staan 'random' potten snoep, koeken, fruit, noten, ... for grabs. Luv it! Ben nu al 7 kilo verzwaard.
- als een collega naar zijn skateboard grijpt gaat hij naar het toilet
- als meer dan 1 collega naar zijn skateboard grijpt... dan is er een meeting
- ondergrondse parking van Sony heeft parkeerplaatsen gemarkeerd met 'Oversized vehicles', mijn Toyota Corlolla staat op een 'Compact' plek.

Alive and kicking.

I know, a long period of radio silence. But that is how it goes... Starting a new job, finding a place to live, decorating the house, buying a car, getting to know Lala-land and the surroundings, welcoming our first homies... Busy busy bee... that is how it was and will be.

Anyhow I will try to post more often, promise.

Fundacion LA

Yesterday we and a bunch of other dancing bunnies went to see Sasha in Avalon. We picked up Ann and Tom at their place and headed for the crossing of Hollywood and Vine. Pretty hectic to get there. Hollywood Blvd on saturday night is busier than a beehive in midsummer.

We had to wait at the entrance because the tix were booked by a Tomo and a friend of hers and only the person that booked them can get hold of them. Once Tomo and Hide arrived we could get her 4 tickets... but ... problem, we were 6 (Ann, Tom, Hilde, Tomo, Hide and I)...
Tom and I volunteered to wait for Yuko (Tomo's friend that booked the other 4 tix), since it was pretty cold and starting to rain we went to a bar on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. The doorman was generous enough to let the both of us in for 20 USD, whereas normally it would have been 20 USD each (ahum). The place had a videoclip-esque athmosphere and was packed with 50 Cent standins and polerubbin suggas.
Corona's at 6 USD.

Definately a no no!

Don't have any pictures because we left the camera in the car, thinking we wouldn't get it past security anyways. Eventually we walsed past security without any problem. Ah well, too bad, we enjoyed every second of Sasha's set.

Definately a yes yes!

In a couple of weeks Digweed is in town, guess who has tickets!

Sci Fi channel on "Surf's up"

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=35424

We are here...

We arrived last thursday after a long flight. NYC was covered under snow hence our connecting flight to LA got delayed. While walking to the luggage pickup and joking about the drivers holding up signs, we suddenly discovered a Mexican guy holding up a sign saying 'mister S Contreras'. Oops!

30 minutes of waiting only resulted in 2 out 4 bags, up to baggage claims to report. The spotless service of American Airlines traced our luggage within 5 minutes and promised it would be delivered on our doorstep within 10 hours. Fair enough.

Our Mexican friend and his companion drove us to the parking lot, had us fill out some forms and we were all set to hit the road to Oakwood, our temp housing in Marina Del Rey.

finally having a ball

How long will it take Stefaan to beat the existing belgian hi score of 11.200 RPM?
Set your stakes, bets are on.

Posted by Wim 'dansen in de regen' Neyt

How it all began...

Once upon a time 2 lovely colleagues from DGC produced an amazing penguin movie for Oriflame. Stefaan came, saw, was amazed, and even more amazed, and became jealous of the great non-polish artwork ... Now he decided to go and make a penguin movie himself. We're rather curious to see in 2007 if the sequel can beat the orginal... :
http://212.3.247.207/upload/essefan/pen.mpg

Are you an avocado fan too?

Then sign up for the one and only fresh california avocado fan club!
http://www.avocado.org/avocadorecipeclub/

On the cover of a magazine

Just can't get enough of them.

Hey baby ... how are you doing?

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