Projects

Projects that I’m doing

Art-o-Matic registration this Friday

Art, Life, Projects, Randomness

I’ve sort of been the event coordinator for a group of my friends for this years show. I think I have 3 people (maybe 4) that want to show at the 2009 show. I think Artomatic is one of the best things to happen in the DC area all year. I’m sure that some professional artists look down on the event as a dilution of the Art scene in DC by inviting all of the outsiders in. But I think it just gets people excited about Art! I think it’s the perfect place for people like myself, who have training in the Arts but choose to work in other fields. It’s also great for our friends, most of who are not fruit loving art-hipsters.

Registration is this Friday at Noon. and the show starts in about 45 days.

… I need to get working on the actual art!

Into the Wild Digital Yonder. part 2.

Projects, Stuff and Things

I cant shake it. That need to buy new DVDs and products from movies. Even as I’m packing up the first shipment of DVDs to send off the that great disc buyer in the sky (buybackmadness.com) I still want new ones! I read an article about Matt Groening and the new Futurama movie coming out soon and I thought “Wouldn’t it be great to have all those movies sitting along with the series DVDs” That was my first thought, not “I hope this one is good” or “I can’t wait to see it” but “I want to have the whole set”

Is there some kind of pill that I can take that will make me slightly less OCD about this kind of thing. I still need to be a little bit obsessed in order to get all my projects done… but I just don’t want to keep collecting junk so that I can have the full set.

I’m not going to buy that dvd, mostly because I haven’t bought the others. But really because I have a plan for a cheaper, better, all-digital lifestyle.

Later!

Dear Cable, I'm just not that into you.

Entertainment, Projects, Stuff and Things, The Interweb, TV

Laurel has been pushing the idea of getting rid of the cable for some time. All the time actually. She didn’t have much more than basic cable growing up and even later in her life. I on the other hand have never been deprived of the magic of cable channels and a big library of VHS tapes. It’s not like she’s one of those people who spent their nights reading Tolkien and playing Frisbee golf. But when she moved in with me I introduced her to the wonder that is DVR.

I sort of feel like a drug dealer… telling her, “you know you need it, look how cool this is”

Cable is one of those things (like purchasing an Ipod) where you can start out wanting to spend $40 and end up with a bill that’s over $100. If cable had “A La Carte” pricing for channels I don’t think I would be having this conversation, but the cable industry won’t listen to that until it starts shedding subscribers. Even then their first reaction will probably be to raise the prices on Internet service. My biggest sticking point for keeping cable will be how will I watch sports. There’s not really that many options for live sports online. But really I don’t watch them enough to justify $100 per month.

I could just cut down on the channels and cut out the DVR, but I would rather watch nothing than watch without the ability to rewind. I’m still making the preparations for this plan (along with the DVD selling) so I’ll be updating on my progress.

later!

Dr. Boxlove or how I learned to stop worrying and go digital. part one.

Entertainment, Movies, Projects, Stuff and Things

I’m pretty savvy in the digital world. I’ve had an mp3 player since 2001 and I haven’t bought a physical CD since High School. But I’ve just realized that there’s just something scary about getting rid of physical media. It might be that I’ve moved past the time in my life where I want to have all the movies I like out on display. That is a very geeky thing to do, be defined my our choices in movies. It’s the first time that I’ve ever really felt like I’m growing up… get off my lawn kids!

This project started a few months ago when I hooked up a modded Xbox running XBMC in the living room and networked it to a file server running Linux in the other room.  suddenly it was very easy to play all the media files that I had *cough* acquired *cough* in college.  This and the introduction and acceptance of the Blu-ray format caused me to question the value of the 100’s of DVDs that I had collected over the years. I suddenly felt like a guy who had closets full of VHS tapes that were now worthless.  Well, they’re not as worthless as VHS, they wont fade over time and they take up less room. But in the coming resolution wars (lazer 3d quad HD TVs) what good is something that’s only 480p? Suddenly the “Ultimate Collectors Edition” has become no better than a Chinatown bootleg.  Couple that with the news that a co-worker at the office got rid of all of his DVDs online and made about $140 bucks and I was sold on the idea of going digital.

I’ve decided to keep some of the discs, I cannot get rid of any signed Kevin Smith movie and I think the people who design the boxes for Futurama should get some kind of award. So I developed an informal ranking system based on my love for the movie, the quality of the box, and the price I can sell it for. I have 4 ranks…

  1. Keep the DVD.
  2. Copy the DVD to DVD-R and sell the DVD.
  3. Rip the DVD to 700mb file and sell the DVD.
  4. Just Sell it.

I’m in the middle of this process now and I’ve noticed something, I really like physical media. I mean I haven’t watched some of these movies in years but I like being able to pick up the box and look through the materials.  I’m sure it’s not just me, I think it’s a geeky thing, but I appreciate a well designed box.  I’ve found myself setting aside some of the movies that I was going to sell because they had great packaging.  I never thought I’d be the guy to hang on to the media he grew up with. My brother in law has literally hundreds of cassette tapes and I thought he was crazy for keeping them.  I’ve told people before that I was going to sit out this round of media (Blu-ray) and wait for the digital revolution to come and based on the size of the Blu-ray market, I’m not the only one.  But I’m here to tell you that it is going to be hard to transition.

Also you should know that the three disc “Ace Ventura” collection has a lovely box.

Later!