Harry Potter Tour

My daughter is a HUGE fan of Harry Potter and I own all the movies.  When we first heard about the new Harry Potter attraction, we were stoked.  Now that it is finally completed, it is now of the bucket list of family vacations.  Thank goodness I have a timeshare in Daytona Beach every Christmas week.  Orlando is just about an hour from there.  

 

Before I went into the Army, we lived in Florida for 10 years as a family.  Every Christmas we go to Orlando and "feed the mouse or the whale" as we called it.  That was the big family gift.  The tour looks like a blast and based on the visit to Universal Studios in the past, this attraction will not disappoint I am sure.

There is a huge money franchise in Harry Potter that will feed the imagination of children for years to come.

 

Screening Room - Mark Osbourne's "More"

"More" is a touching short film that took Mark Osbourne nine months to create in his garage. It was nominated in 1999 for Best Short Film.  It is a stop motion short about a man looking for happiness and inventing what looks like "Google goggles" that create a visual world of bliss. 

 

The downside is once he has it the fire within him is gone.  His chase of the memories of his blissful childhood and the subsequent invention change him into the person that he least wanted to be.  Now everyone can see beyond the drab colorless world that they drone through every day.

It is very touching six minute short film.  The concept and execution were spot on.  Definitely something everyone will enjoy.

The Warner Brother Virtual Tour

I love me some "The Big Bang Theory".  For that alone, I would go on the tour.  It makes geek sexy and the humor is awesome.  Finally us science nerds get some "cool" attention.

 Holy crap to hear Bernadette's real voice, wow and it is cool that Mayim Bialik actually has a PhD.

Yes, Ellen and Colin Firth video was super cute.  So glad that there is going to be a Dory movie.  Can't wait to see.

The Weather Channel Virtual Tour

Okay, it's great that the Weather Channel decided to build green when building their new studio.  But the virtual tour was not as crisp and user friendly as the New Times Virtual Tour.  That virtual tour was better orchestrated, which is funny since the Weather Channel deals with visual media and broadcasting far more than the New York Times does.  Maybe it is the whole New York thing, gotta do things bigger and better.

None the less, hats off to Weather Channel for being Eco-friendly.  

The New York Times Virtual Tour

Nicolai Ouroussoff is correct about the institutional exterior feeling of the New York Building with the rods, steel beams, and grayness of it.  But I did find the atrium to be rather beautiful with the birch trees and green mossy ground cover.  It added a bit of serenity to the interior and made it feel a bit organic.

The interior design colors are not user-friendly to me.  Why make the stairs a focal point?  Red is not one of my favorite in interior design.  My new house came with a red dining room wall as a focal piece that I immediately painted a lovely cilantro green.  In the cafeteria it is fine.  Red does induce a sense of hunger in a person.  But not the stairs..... you are paying attention to those more than you are the action and buzz of the newsroom,

The building does look a bit "sexier" at night with the lights gleaning off of the structure and surrounding area.  I'm still partial to the original building.  Neo-gothic to me is way cooler than urban sleek.

Recording Studios Tour

Okay, that was a LOT of fun.  Music is my passion and karaoke is my playground.  I have even sung in a local band and laid some tracks for friends who produce their own music.

The tour of Pachyderm Studio introduced me to a new band that I have never heard of but am now an instant fan..... Indigenous and their song "Little Time".  The sound just makes you move in your seat.  Very infectious.  It sounds a lot like my cousin's music in Metairie.  Very cool indeed.

But the trivia about Blue Jay Studios and how Aerosmith, while laying tracks for Night in the Ruts, tested how  soundproof the walls really were.  Very assume!  But one of the partners of the studio is none other than Kevin Richardson of the Backstreet Boys.  Oh how I was subjected to their music when my daughter was growing up.  The background jazz infusion music playing as you tour the website was way too cool.  

Makes me want to make a personal pilgrimage to one of the studios.  Who wants to join me?











 

State of the Media

Well it is good to know that I'm not in the "in crowd" in television viewership.  

I'm a ABC kind a girl.  I think some of that was formed because of my time overseas and exposure to Armed Forces Network (AFN).  Much of the news coverage was ABC with a sprinkling of other news affiliates here and there.  Also my childhood was spent watching Joan Lunden on Good Morning America.  My mom watched every morning when I was a little girl.

I was surprised by how popular NBS Nightly News was and I knew that the Today Show dominated as it has for decades.  Poor CBS trailing in the pack.  But I still watch CBS Sunday Morning like clockwork.  Another one of those family traditions instilled in me.

What I am not surprised by is the surge of online media taking command as the traditional outlets of newspapers, magazines, and television slowly losing ground.  What I was surprised by was the strength that radio still has.  But then I thought about for a moment and remember all the road trips to my folks' house in Texas and how I am a captive audience for 12 hours in my Suburban flipping through radio stations until I can find one that I will enjoy.  Makes me wonder if Sirius or Pandora is worth the money?

Ethics Decision Making

Okay this touches very close to home for many reasons.  

The first case about "Miracle Match" and whether accuracy plays a key in journalism.  At my job, I see various individuals every day struggling with life "speed bumps".  Monikers that they carry because not everyone in society is felon forgiving.  This was a very touchy story about the gift of life and about a man who is legitimately trying to turn his life around.  Yet I would agree with the letters to the editor, that Alton Rowe Jr didn't need his "dirty laundry" aired to the American public.  Yes, journalism is supposed to be unbiased but how relevant were his arrests to the article?

Plagiarism:  Stolen Words: How One Paper Responded... that was a clear case to me having signed so many ethics code agreements in college.  Michael Kinney probably had as well during his studies and would have been keenly aware of what he was doing and the consequences involved.  His race should have no merit in this discussion.  What he did was wrong and the result was he was fired which was a just reaction.

Privacy: I agree with the article "Brave Girl Now Victim Without A Name", everyone was eager to put the young girl's name out there to save her life but to retract because of the circumstances of her abduction and resulting capture and charges of her abductor.  I am a recent victim of rape.  I am going through the painful process of the court system.  My rape does not make nor does it make her less of a person.  We are brave enough to stand up to our attackers and have them held accountable.  Do not lessen us making us feel invisible.  Hear us scream, see how we are taking to steps to heal, admire our courage, but DON'T ignore us.

Internet Safety

Okay, I know that I am dating myself with this blog but when the internet first became popular in the early 90's, this topic was hot on a young mother's mind.  My children were in grade school and internet was the "coolest" thing out there.

My ex-husband and I would monitor what sites the kids could go on and who they were chatting with.  Back then it wasn't much of a problem as it is today, but it was still a problem none the less.  

I wish the games that the games that Professor Baltrip had mentioned were available back then.  As an adult, they were a bit corny.  But of the two I enjoyed the AT&T Safety game more even though the background music as a tad on the ridiculous side.

The Bad Guy Patrol was a little too cheesy for me.  But then again, I'm not a kid anymore (well maybe one a heart).  The whole capture the flag concept reminded me of summer camp and those aren't the best childhood memories I have.

I know at work when customers bring children in, we will let them use the computers to play games on the Disney or Nick Jr websites.  But even with those you still have to be careful.  Parents should monitor where their children are on the internet and to whom they speak too.  It's not about trusty them, it's about loving them and being a responsible parent!
 

Banning Profanity

This is a very difficult topic, a double edge sword as it were.  On the one hand, I agree that internet should not be censored.  As a former member of the military, I fought for the rights of freedom of speech.

But as a parent, I do feel that there is some responsibility on my part to ensure that my children are not exposed to material that is not age appropriate.  They are adults now and free to make their own choices.

The internet was a gift and free to all users.  But that gift should not be abused.  Government already interferes in my aspects of our lives that they didn't thirty, fifty, or even one hundred years ago because someone did not USE common sense.  If only everyone was issued common sense like the military issues uniforms.  Alas, that's only in a perfect world.

Responsible adults should be making the choices and those who are offended can simply click the mouse and move on.  Or better yet, unplug the computer.

The chroma key aka "green screen" processing is the latest development in the special effects imaging world.  The process is a relative to the original bluescreen technique developed in the 1930's by RKO Radio Pictures as a travelling matte.  This process allowed cinemaphotographers to layer images enabling actors to appear to be in places or scenes that truly did not exist.

 

Oz: The Great and Powerful is a beautiful example of how Chroma Key technology excels.  The film starts off in black and white and layers period styling to the film.  When James Franco's character crosses into the Land of Oz, the film explodes with color and creatures of wild varieties.  China Doll, who is one of my favorite characters, has the appearance of china.  None of this would have been possible without the green screen special effects.

The technology continues to grow.  I remember films like the original Star Wars trilogy and how we were all amazed at the special effects in 1977.  Then George Lucas reimages the films to add the ideas and visions had originally envisioned but he was unable to achieve because the technology just wasn't there yet. 

It will be very interesting to see how films will look in another 20 to 30 years.

The Great Train Robbery

It is amazing to think that the invention of the motion picture camera was only six years ago when this film was made. It must have seemed very advanced to the average movie watcher. The special effects were realistic for that time frame even though they appear very corny to us today.

 

Thomas Edison was very proud of all his achievements and I am sure this was definitely one of his crown jewels.  I wonder if he was even thinking about the longivity that this film may see. 

Today it is one of the oldest motion pictures in existence. a time capsule as it were into early 20th century.  The Library of Congress has it registered in their directory as a piece of cinematography. 

On a lighter note, Edwin Porter made a parody of his film in 1905 called "The Little Train Robbery".  The cast was made entirely of children.  Interesting little fun fact.