Ok, this is cool. Full disclosure: I'm working on this site through Trellon, but this is creative and inventive enough to warrant a post.

Ironweed is a progressive film club thats trying to help the growing market for documentary film become a catalyst for social change. That's nice and all (and I'm happy/proud to be helping to build this site), but it's the little things that make something sail. Check it out:

Ironweed Films: Don't Drink The Water

With each issue of Ironweed, we throw in a little special surprise that's somehow connected to our films. This month, we're bringing the border to you in honor of Wetback, our premiere feature.

This film is about undocumented workers - the dire circumstances they face in their home countries, the perils that await them on their journeys northward, and the situation they find themselves in once across the border in the US. We feel that it’s time to "come out" and admit that virtually everyone in America benefits from illegal immigrant labor. From lower prices at restaurants to fruits at the supermarket. We're making a statement that it's time to come out from the shadows -- and that people of conscience should be honest and public about it. So, we worked with the San Francisco Day Labor Program, an organization that makes sure undocumented workers receive fair treatment, to find workers to help bottle our water.

They also used Craigslist to find a family in El Paso to go get the water from the Rio and send to to the Ironweed offices in SF. There's a nice little video that explains it all. Pretty frickin' neat.

Ok, this is cool. Full disclosure: I'm working on this site through Trellon, but this is creative and inventive enough to warrant a post.

Ironweed is a progressive film club thats trying to help the growing market for documentary film become a catalyst for social change. That's nice and all (and I'm happy/proud to be helping to build this site), but it's the little things that make something sail. Check it out:

Ironweed Films: Don't Drink The Water

With each issue of Ironweed, we throw in a little special surprise that's somehow connected to our films. This month, we're bringing the border to you in honor of Wetback, our premiere feature.

This film is about undocumented workers - the dire circumstances they face in their home countries, the perils that await them on their journeys northward, and the situation they find themselves in once across the border in the US. We feel that it’s time to "come out" and admit that virtually everyone in America benefits from illegal immigrant labor. From lower prices at restaurants to fruits at the supermarket. We're making a statement that it's time to come out from the shadows -- and that people of conscience should be honest and public about it. So, we worked with the San Francisco Day Labor Program, an organization that makes sure undocumented workers receive fair treatment, to find workers to help bottle our water.

They also used Craigslist to find a family in El Paso to go get the water from the Rio and send to to the Ironweed offices in SF. There's a nice little video that explains it all. Pretty frickin' neat.

Ok, this is cool. Full disclosure: I'm working on this site through Trellon, but this is creative and inventive enough to warrant a post.

Ironweed is a progressive film club thats trying to help the growing market for documentary film become a catalyst for social change. That's nice and all (and I'm happy/proud to be helping to build this site), but it's the little things that make something sail. Check it out:

Ironweed Films: Don't Drink The Water

With each issue of Ironweed, we throw in a little special surprise that's somehow connected to our films. This month, we're bringing the border to you in honor of Wetback, our premiere feature.

This film is about undocumented workers - the dire circumstances they face in their home countries, the perils that await them on their journeys northward, and the situation they find themselves in once across the border in the US. We feel that it’s time to "come out" and admit that virtually everyone in America benefits from illegal immigrant labor. From lower prices at restaurants to fruits at the supermarket. We're making a statement that it's time to come out from the shadows -- and that people of conscience should be honest and public about it. So, we worked with the San Francisco Day Labor Program, an organization that makes sure undocumented workers receive fair treatment, to find workers to help bottle our water.

They also used Craigslist to find a family in El Paso to go get the water from the Rio and send to to the Ironweed offices in SF. There's a nice little video that explains it all. Pretty frickin' neat.

Talking Narnia to Your Neighbors

I wasn't aware until someone (think it was Julia) told me that the Narnia books were somehow Christian. I loved 'em as a kid, just like I loved the Redwall books (which in hindsight probably also have a nominally "Christian" message) and the works of Tolken (who actually converted C.S. Lewis, so there you go). It seems to me that all these are moral and spiritual allegories -- no doubt written by Christian people who wanted in some part to share their vision of the universe in a fictionalized context -- which have broadly applicable lessons about responsibility, honesty, courage, friendship, etc. In short, they're good mytic tales.

It's interesting though because some people sort of seem to shy away from that once they learn they might have a Christian subtext. In understand people don't want to be preached at, especially subliminally, but it's not as though Harry Potter is going to make you into a Wiccan, and it's not as though watching a frickin' movie about a talking Lion is going to convert anyone.

On the other hand, the investment money behind the film reportely may have a missionary edge, so there's that to consider. Seems to me though that people on the right may have taken their own dire, and in my thinking innacurate, predictions about "the power of the culture" to control people's minds to heart, and are trying to fight fire with fire, so to speak.

I dunno; it seems strange and sort of unfortunate how touchy people are about faith, how hard it is to actually talk about. My experience of being brought up agnistically is pretty un-ordinary, so maybe I'm missing out on the power that religion can have when you're raised within its context. Maybe its easy for me to take my own value from these stories because they can't hook or touch me in certain ways.

Religion is a strange thing. I don't practice in an organized fashion, but I have my own set of beliefs and ways of making peace with the unknown, with telling right from wrong. But I've lived a very lucky life; not much tragidy or hardship to tell about. I'm priviledged in a whole lot of ways.

Yeah, anyway, I don't know what the point is here, but I'm curious what other people might think.

I've enjoyed the little "Leave it to Bush" animations. Peep episode three. The original (with Busey) was a work of pomo genius; the sequels a little less so, but still worthy.

I've enjoyed the little "Leave it to Bush" animations. Peep episode three. The original (with Busey) was a work of pomo genius; the sequels a little less so, but still worthy.

Amazing; via Atrios, two great links about Scott Stapp, aka the singer from Creed.

Quoth Stapp, "311, I'm ready to fight"

And also, Floridian kids pulling a booty-call prank. A desparately horny ex-faux-christian rock start prowls a Ganesvills Denny's... Too strange to be made up.

It's friday!

Slashdot | EA To Sell Game Music on iTunes

Those who doubt the hit potential of video game theme songs probably haven't seen Billboard's Hot Ringtones chart lately, where Koji Kondo has sat right near the top for 55 weeks. Who's Koji Kondo? He composed the theme for 'Super Mario Bros.,' which ranks this week right between the Black Eyed Peas and Bow Wow featuring Ciara.

I had a similar thought last night when my random iTunes shuffle put on one of the songs from Halo. Video games are an outlet for a type of creativity (musical composition) that's had its traditional showcases all dwindle in popularity -- the symphony, the musical comedy -- or else become crowded with pop music -- e.g. motion picture scores. Seems to me that as the gaming industry expands, it will provide more and more opportunities both to showcase and to subsidize creativity. That's cool.

I also got to thinking about how the intelligent interweaving of music into gameplay has a lot to do with the value of a game. Sunday I played a little of Rockstar's The Warriors with A-stock. A rockin' good time. The gameplay is fantastic, but very different from GTA. I see it as a logical extension of the Double Dragon, Final Fight side-scrolling beat-em up. Very well done, and it has context-sensitive music which is often used to clever/ironic effect.

Yeah, I think if I ever get rich, I'll invest in making video games. Not coding them, but directing. Get some smart people to do the nuts and bolts (or more likely license a kick-ass engine) and really run wild with the creativity aspect.

Slashdot | EA To Sell Game Music on iTunes

Those who doubt the hit potential of video game theme songs probably haven't seen Billboard's Hot Ringtones chart lately, where Koji Kondo has sat right near the top for 55 weeks. Who's Koji Kondo? He composed the theme for 'Super Mario Bros.,' which ranks this week right between the Black Eyed Peas and Bow Wow featuring Ciara.

I had a similar thought last night when my random iTunes shuffle put on one of the songs from Halo. Video games are an outlet for a type of creativity (musical composition) that's had its traditional showcases all dwindle in popularity -- the symphony, the musical comedy -- or else become crowded with pop music -- e.g. motion picture scores. Seems to me that as the gaming industry expands, it will provide more and more opportunities both to showcase and to subsidize creativity. That's cool.

I also got to thinking about how the intelligent interweaving of music into gameplay has a lot to do with the value of a game. Sunday I played a little of Rockstar's The Warriors with A-stock. A rockin' good time. The gameplay is fantastic, but very different from GTA. I see it as a logical extension of the Double Dragon, Final Fight side-scrolling beat-em up. Very well done, and it has context-sensitive music which is often used to clever/ironic effect.

Yeah, I think if I ever get rich, I'll invest in making video games. Not coding them, but directing. Get some smart people to do the nuts and bolts (or more likely license a kick-ass engine) and really run wild with the creativity aspect.

Transportation Alternatives' Parking Spot Squat:

Very cool, not to mention edgy for TA. They're trying to showcase the fact that on-street parking can be put to all sorts of other uses.

Frank made the giant cut-out car. Go Frank!