Macha - Between Stranded Sonars

Castlewood Canyon Run

Here's a little vid of our run at Castlewood Canyon State Park yesterday , southeast of Castle Rock, Colorado. We had never been there before, and it is a very cool place. The rugged little canyon is filled with lots of conglomerate rocks and older growth trees, but it also has a dark history. The canyon contains the ruins of the old Castlewood Dam. Built in 1890, the dam broke in August of 1933 sending a wall of water down Cherry Creek. It remains one of Denver's worst floods as it sent a foot of water into Union Station. (I didn't know about any of this until yesterday. Read all about it here, and here.) I dropped the audio because the wind made it sound terrible (plus the narration was silly), but I replaced it with some Beethoven.

The Best Cross-Country Race on the Planet 2006

This was supposed to be so much better. I went over to the Best Cross-Country Race on the Planet (only a mile from my house) to shoot some video. I used a low quality (mpeg) camera mounted to a tiny tripod six inches off the ground as my stationary cam. I also had a handheld better quality (miniDV) camera to try to get motion shots. Well, the miniDV camera malfunctioned and I got nothing from it. What you see here is what I could salvage from the day - all stationary, low quality video. But, the Beastie Boys and Fugazi give it a little life. It's all I've got - and I'm sharing it with you.
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The Subway Challenge

I love this. The challenge: get off the Glasgow subway at one stop, go above ground, race the train (however you want - break the law if you want), and get back on the same train at the next stop. This Scot has a plan and a little help, and the fun ensues.

Let the Dreaming Begin (Continue)

Apple Computer released its MacBook Pro yesterday at the Mac World Expo. I have a 6-year old iMac that hangs in there and does almost everything I want, I scam the use of the school's Macs (G5 PowerMac and G4 iBooks) for other purposes, and the iPod is the only portable music player worth having. But, this new MacBook Pro has me dreaming. $2K is a lot of money though.

Speaking of a lot of money for fantasy toys, Bianchi's OETZI carbon frame with an XT/XTR combo groupo is the mountain bike I have my eye on. My current bike, while once great, literally disintegrates beneath me on every ride. It's getting to the point where I don't enjoy riding it - continually frustrating. This little toy would set me back about $3K. Again, a lot of money.

But our house has at least $10K worth of work that absolutely needs to be done (our house is now a monument to entropy), so these toys will likely stay in fantasy world, along with the other $80K of work we'd like to do on the house. Why didn't I become a soulless lawyer or a drug-pushing doctor or a weasel of corporate America? This teaching thing doesn't yield me many cool toys. I do get to sleep well at night and feel like my life has more of a positive than negative effect on the world - but, geez, these toys are cool. To bitch, call 1-800-waaaaah. As long as I can afford $85 running shoes once every six months, I'm happy. Oh yeah, food too - I like food.

Abbey

I introduce you to one of my kitties, Abbey (aka "Bee"). She is named after one of my favorite authors, Edward Abbey (cool website). Even though she is female, the name worked out well for her because, just like ol' Ed, she is fiercely individual. In this vid, she shows who she is.

My Favorite Album of 2005

Everyone has their year-end lists (best of, worst of, etc.). Pitchfork has it's top 50 albums, and Radio 1190 will have it's top 100 albums posted very soon. I'm not playin' that game (I have not listened to, or even heard of most of them - What? You think I have time to sit around listening to music all the time?). I'll just tell you the single album that infected me more than any other this year. Ready? Here we go:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's self-titled debut album

Not only do their tunes grab you like a virus, but also I respect their DIY approach. And, they have a Talking Heads / David Byrne feel, which can't be bad.

Links:

• band website
• Wikipedia entry
• NPR story
• KCRW radio performance
  

Top 50 Music Videos of 2005?

Some dude with a blog (there are only like a billion of us out there) has linked to what he thinks are the top 50 music videos of 2005. While some of these videos are gems, I must disagree with some of his choices. Some great songs are sullied by a rather boring videos, yet some boring songs are saved by brilliant video work. What is nice is that his choices are out of the mainstream. Jack Johnson's "Sitting, Waiting, Wishing" was one of the coolest little vids I've seen in a while, but it's absent from this list (too mainstream?). The number one pick, Aphex Twin's "Rubber Johnny", is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen.

South Park's "Bloody Mary"

South Park, one of the funniest shows on television, continues to push the buttons.

From Wikipedia:

This episode was aired on December 7, which is the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Catholic observance related specifically to the Virgin Mary. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights condemned this episode for its treatment of the Virgin Mary. They demanded an apology to Roman Catholics and that the episode "be permanently retired and not be made available on DVD." In particular they also demanded that Joseph A. Califano, Jr., a member of Viacom's board of directors and a practicing Catholic, issue his own statement of condemnation. Califano did later release a statement calling the episode an "appalling and disgusting portrayal of the Virgin Mary," and pledged to have it reviewed by Viacom's president and CEO, Tom Freston. When Comedy Central reaired all the episodes from South Park's Fall 2005 season on December 28, Bloody Mary was noticeably absent from the broadcast. Also missing were screen captures from the episode on Comedy Central's press site and the South Park section of comedycentral.com.

Watch it (episode 914 - "Bloody Mary") at MrTwig's net, as well as every other South Park episode.

30 Seconds of Christmas Eve in the San Luis Valley

Video of the world without the air pollution and without the light pollution (except for some Xmas lights). Sunset behind the La Garita Mountains, clouds, Venus, wind, wind chimes, children laughing, Christmas lights, and the blackness of space.

USATF Joins Google Maps Craze

A couple weeks ago I blogged about Google Maps, Google Maps Mania, and the mashup craze. USA Track & Field (USATF) has joined the fray - letting you map your own running routes or search for routes already mapped. This is fun, but don't get too sucked in - remember to actually run once in a while.

Video Made From Still Photos

"Between You and Me" is a video shot entirely with an SLR still camera. Oh the possibilities...

Cool Plan B Video (And Tune)

UK grime-grunge-hip hop-whatever act Plan B has a sweet stop-motion video for the tune "No Good". I love when everything in the kitchen is moving around. The tune is awfully infectious too.

Trans-American Car Trip

I remember seeing this video a couple years ago; I found it again. It's video of a cross-country car trip skillfully edited to show interesting cities, landmarks, and stops along the way.

The 180 Mashes Up The Toxins

the contrabrowser 180 has done a neat mashup of the media seen here on the toxins. I think I've found my marketing firm. Many thanks to KJ and the crew at the 180.

White Rocks Run

Footage shot on a run at White Rocks east of Boulder - I did not set out to make a creepy chase film - it's just the output of freestyle filmmaking.

"Baghdad-in-Boulder" Reconstructed

Here in Boulder, they ripped down the mall - only to build another mall. I liked it best last year when it was just a mountain of debris - a place I called "Baghdad-in-Boulder". This vid is a brief drive-by surveying the reconstruction.

Alternate Commute

Most of us have done it - driven through town tuned to NPR News - but this is PR News. Very interesting audio editing here - well done. It sounds so familiar, but.....

Backcountry Ski Vid From Last Season

I tried to shoot a little video when we went up to Peaceful Valley last weekend, but nothing turned out - all junk. I was trying to get some motion shots like this one, shot last winter in RMNP (Rocky Mountain National Park). It's just a mellow, gentle, long descent on x-country skis - 2:23 - just long enough to lull you to sleep. At the bottom of this hill we turned around and climbed back up.

Google Maps Mashups

Everybody loves Google Maps, right? (Just give the Big Brother paranoia a rest for a bit and check out some of the cool things that ol' bro can do.) Maybe you use it for driving directions like MapQuest, maybe you zoom in on your house to see if your car was parked there the day the satellite image was taken, or maybe you click the mouse around to follow your favorite trail. It's a tool - it's a toy. And that's just plain ol' Google Maps. Over at Google Maps Mania, they track "the websites, ideas and tools being influenced by Google Maps". There are a lot of people out there who take Google Maps and build on it - creating what some call "mashups". All of a sudden, a very useful tool gets customized to map specific information. Perhaps you wish to track the International Space Station or the Hubble telescope, track in realtime the commuter trains in Dublin, track the hurricanes of 2005, see all of the fast food joints in the U.S. (oh my god!), or figure out the distance of your favorite run. There are thousands of these tools (mashups). Maps always were cool, but now they're even cooler.

C-C-C-Cold

Here's a little vid that I shot this morning from the back stoop. It shows some of Monday's wind damage and today's thermometer reading. Yes - it was cold. But, we're already into the twenties (as I type this), and I predict that this snow will be gone in a few days. Then it will be time for a little fence repair.

"That Guy" Makes Interesting Videos

"That guy" is Jerry, and he does neat work with photo collage and animation to create video. Visit It's JerryTime! and see the two episodes he has done so far. I am curious what software he is using to do this - any guesses? A great video technique and an interesting sense of humor. I'll be going back to see the third episode.

Building Demolition Botched

On Saturday in Souix Falls, SD, the demolition of a 200 foot tall building did not go so well. The video of the botched demo job is funny, but not as funny as the onlookers' reaction.
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My Running Blog

I have started a running blog, called earth runner. It is mainly for my benefit, but you can look in if you wish. I was getting to the point where I could not remember what I did last month, four days ago, or even yesterday. I needed some kind of log - so I made a blog, because it's so easy, and I can update it from anywhere with an internet connection. I'm definitely back into the "base-building" phase again - just getting in easy miles while the weather is cold - nothing too taxing until Spring Break. I simply need to stay in shape, and get in many hundreds of miles, so I can continue feeling awesome and fast and tough next Spring. LSD (Long Slow Distance), with plenty of fartlek, all winter long is the recipe.

Panama Canal Time-Lapse Video

- a man a plan a canal panama -
Palindrome or not, this video compresses one week into eleven minutes. Day and night the locks process the ships in a hypnotic rhythm.