Friday Linkage

Three things that make me happy:

1. Kittens falling over and being cute
2. Stevie Ray Vaughan
3. Jeff Beck

So here's a coupla videos then...

Too Good Not To Post

Public Service Announcement

I've now taken the link to my crappy MP3, mentioned here, down. I'm assuming anyone foolish enough to want to download it now has. If you feel like you've missed out on something then e-mail me and I'm sure I can send it to you direct.

That is all.

Making Some Noise (Silently)

More of the apologetic, sorry for not writing more, blah, blah ,blah, but once again work has conspired against me and any kind of free time this week. It's my birthday a week on Sunday and Tinseltroos and I are taking a long weekend then in the countryside. At the moment that's the main focus for maintaining my sanity as I'm working on two projects simultaneously as well as trying to write an advanced lighting course for the company. Yesterday was made worse by the two leads I'd had on getting a guitar falling through, so I'm back, once again, to square one in my search. It's very interesting that early '80s type super-strats seldom turn up on eBay in the UK. I know that the whole LA rock/glam metal scene was never as big here as it was on the other side of the pond but I'm pretty amazed at how massive the difference in availability of the sort of guitar I want as opposed the sort that I don't is. Once again more eBay searching will have to be done.

In better news I did finally get around to connecting up my Line 6 Pod guitar amp emulator thing to my laptop so I can record electric guitar fun straight into Garage Band. I did a quick pastiche of "Runnin' With The Devil" on Monday night as a proof of concept. It worked a treat so now, when I have time, I can actually record some music. The Pod is great. Not only does it mean I can play guitar without upsetting any of the neighbours, I can also download other people's presets for matching other players' tones. As you might imagine, Eddie Van Halen's tone is a popular one for people to try and match and there are some really good ones. If any of you have a Pod and want a Van Halen "brown sound" tone then I can very much recommend the "Edward Van Whalen" preset on Line 6's website.

Well that's about all I have for you now, let the rest of Thursday be productive and let the clients like what I've just sent them. Fingers crossed.

In cross-posting fun I did write a piece for Tinseltroos' blog about Tom Ford's new fragrance for men here because it made me so cross.

More Brigstocke

Glad Tidings

It may be nearly 9 p.m. on a Saturday which I have spent entirely at work and I'm still here but at least after a single game of the new football season, Crewe are on top. You may now sit back and watch their gentle slide down the table to the inevitable relegation crisis as the season progresses.

What I Did Not On My Holidays

Here's a brief overview piece about the visual effects on "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix". I even get a name-check which is pleasing even if it shouldn't make any difference really. My mother will be proud. If she had the internet. Which she doesn't.

Brigstocke Hits The Nail On The Head Again

Good Press

The Times has its review of "Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix" up and the review concludes with the following:

"But the unexpected charmer is Hagrid’s half-brother, a simple, sad giant who takes a fancy to bossy Hermione. Although entirely rendered in CGI, the giant outacts several of the supporting cast members with a moment of pure pathos – seeking to impress Hermione, he roots around in his pile of junk and comes up with a bicycle handlebar which he passes to her, gently ringing the bell and scanning her face for approval."

Thank you Wendy Ide, it's nice to have our work appreciated. Given that single scene took us a year and half to make it's really appreciated when someone likes it. I'm a bit buzzy now.

Update:

From the Ain't It Cool review :

"The effects are also fantastic. Both Grawp, Hagrid's brother (a full-blooded giant) and Kreacher (the twisted house elf who calls Sirius Black master) make you forget how poorly Dobby and the Troll were handled earlier in the series. Of course, the effects worlds have made big leaps since the first film, so I won't crap all over the early ones, but I will say that the effects in the new film struck me as being fantastic."

Yay.

Look, My Baby all Growed Up

It seems that the cat is well and truly out of the bag. This Harry Potter making of documentary has been airing world-wide and has now hit youTube. It's in three parts but the section which covers the part of the film I worked on is here from about 7 minutes in:

So there you are folks, I, along with a bunch of amazingly talented people, spent 18 months making Grawp and although the documentary only shows the first part of the process we went through, that of capturing Tony Maudsley's performance, you can see a whole load of the shots I made. I really like the first close up, there's a gentleness to the performance there and, although you can't tell in the youTube video, Grawp's skin had months of work put into its detailing and surface properties. There's also some lighting on him of which I'm very proud. Anyone who gets to see the film before I do (this Sunday) I'm keen if you can let me know how it all looked, it seems quite dark to me but that may just be the video on youTube.

Misanthropebook

I finally received one too many Facebook invitations and decided something had to be done. I've made this spoof website to show an idea of what an anti-social networking site might look like:

www.misanthropebook.com

I got the idea of doing a one page spoof website from this fantastic Second Life satire:

www.getafirstlife.com

Alan Moore Article on Pornography

A superb article. Normally I don't just post links but I shall make an exception for this.

My Eyes Have Exploded

Work is hell. I'm here pretty much day and night, but this video has helped. I think it might have shattered the Cute Event horizon™.

Demotivation Poster

From the roll your own section of www.despair.com.

Stevie Ray Vaughan AND BB King AND Albert Collins

Roll of Honour

It's about time I posted a link to some of the fabulous people whose thoughts I am lucky enough to get to read when they post, since I don't maintain a blogroll on this site for resons of laziness and trying to keep the sidebars full of ever-changing content.

In no particular order, here are a few of the folks whose blogs provide insight and entertainment, and some of whom I feel as though I know and understand a little now despite never having met them in person. That's one of the most magical things about these online communities is how we can construct these personalities for ourselves and then interact with others from around the world from every walk of life that can access a computer. That's a first in human history and I feel very fortunate to be a part of it. And to all those listed below, thank you, and please keep writing.

http://www.poor-little-me.blogspot.com/

http://www.custom-deluxe.com/

http://www.churlishfigure.blogspot.com/

http://www.mandapanda191.blogspot.com/

http://www.ellielabelle.livejournal.com/

http://www.pimplomat.blogspot.com/

http://www.meetmeinataxia.blogspot.com/

http://www.sistermargaret.blogspot.com/

http://www.suckitalextrebek.blogspot.com/

http://www.themeparkexperience.blogspot.com/

http://www.weedemon.com/

http://www.thelongdivision.blogspot.com/