I would like to visit this blog more, but every time I visit I feel compelled to respond to some completely fucking idiotic post by Ari (this time his lauding of Hugo Chavez below). I know I'm not going to convince Ari that he's misguided, and vice versa, and I'm sure it bores everyone else.

So how about we delare a no politics rule on this blog?

I participate in much more interesting political discussions elsewhere, and Ari is welcome to start his own blog full of radical leftist tripe and see how many people are interested enough to post or comment.

Ari responds -- rather than submit to rules on freedom of speech, how about observing a gentleman's code of conduct? I'm waiting a sincere, posted apology for your insult, not just a comment hidden on a post.

Underground pot farm, complete with secret hyrdraulic door. I want to party with that guy.

Also, check out this video clip. Anyone know what this is from? Great editing on an action sequence, so we know it isn't George Lucas.

Messages from Beyond -- by Ari

Spirits rise up from the digital world.
They whisper through glowing light frames
secrets of plenty, vast volumes
data piles that spin endlessly
magnetic records playing through the night.

Eyes stuck on flashes, locked on the explosions.
Pixels, these fireworks of data blasting
images burn into retinae
messages pushed in
a torrent of information
flowing powerfully into the mind.

Closed eyes can still read the screen.
What can that mean?
Conversations with machine?
Subconscious angular programming?

Forgot that other people look back roundly.
Boxes are all input with no mouths
cables tangled to devices
moving darkness on a white screen
move dark on white
there is no night inside this digital dream.

Who is that on the other side of the window?
So hard to see clearly through it
to other dimensions of paper and forms
patterns that place themselves on frames
words that tell words how to expose themselves
machines that sort and file endlessly
catagorizing experience
so minutely
.000001

We discover we have been filed.

Google takes another shot at making a kick-ass technology 'commonplace' with frappr. I didn't like it at first, but it's an amazing software. Feel free to add me as a friend on frappr. I'm using frappr to meet w/other filmmakers in Bay Area and also to find a ShadowRun group ... speaking of which:

A true gamer-nerd joy was discovering the awkward CCGWorkshop.com (ccg = collectible card games), which lets you play a few free games a month -- after you dload their small but awkward softare and learn how to use it. I'm a sucker for the ShadowRun RPG and they made a unique and fun ShadowRun CCG awhile back that I bought too much of.

And for Comic Book fans, a cool short that will never see the theaters, but is available for dload on the internet --> Grayson, a story about what Robin does when the first Batman dies. The most impressive part of the film to me is the really high production values, while the film was shot on a shoe-string budget.