In My Name

The imbalance in the world between the rich and the poor is a topic that I really get passionate about. And yet I am complicit, and trapped, in an economic system that relies on that imbalance to maintain the standard of living for those of us lucky enough to be on the receiving end. I've heard many say, "we've always had the rich and the poor, and we always will." I've also been told,"if you're not liberal when you're young, you don't have a heart; and if you're not conservative when you're old you don't have a brain." Are these wise words or a cop-out for maintaining status quo in a society that operates on exploitation? I think we have a ways to go, and things are about to get really crazy with the economy. But we're also building communication links exponentially around the planet, so who knows what the power of grassroots can do in the new environment? In My Name...hell yeah.

Short Film Inspiration

Been trying to come up with something for the short film project. This Rodriguez (The Desperado / Grindhouse) short uses a simple story line and alot of sound effects, as well as fun camera angles and action sequences. Maybe some good ideas for a project.

Free Running aka Russian Ninjas

The camera work is a little rough sometimes in this video, but the dude is phenomenal. A good buddy of mine who likes to run up walls himself showed me this a couple years ago. I do like alot of the camera shots, the variety, and the way they combine everything to make a story. All you really need to make a video like this is a friend who's a ninja, or at least a gymnast. Unfortunately, people say this guy has died since making the video - dangerous stuff.

Choose Your Own Adventure

This is a pretty entertaining Choose Your Own Adventure skit. I like the format - a little different than YouTube. Shows you can do alot with one scene, a few props, and some good dialogue. The video doesn't embed for some reason, but here's a link.

http://www.pandasmash.com/video.php?epi_id=104

Flying Cat

This clip is a classic, but I still laugh every time I watch it. I've always wondered if they staged it and used a dummy. You never know what you will catch when you're filming your pets or your everyday life.

Land of Confusion

I like the anime-style cartoon in this Disturbed cover of Genesis' "Land of Confusion." It's slightly melodramatic, but they get their message across clearly using image and symbol - no dialogue except for the lyrics. When you add the video to the song, what they're really giving us is a call to revolution.

The Forest is Alive

This guy put together some of the time-lapse clips of rainforest plants and mushrooms that inspired me on the Planet Earth series. It seems that he sped up the footage even faster, probably so it would synchronize with what is apparently the Xena soundtrack. But it's definitely too fast in a couple places. Sure, it's no secret that if you sit there long enough you can watch the grass grow. What I like about the shots is that you can watch how plants grow. Did you know that leafy plants flap their way together toward the sun, pulling their way up in a race for the light? Or that fungi and mushrooms grow with a pulsating energy?

Emergence

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Ants, fireflies, our brains, neighborhoods, and Google all demonstrate this phenomenon dramatically. I thought the example of the peasants guessing the weight of the oxen and the students guessing the number of jellybeans was particuarly striking. Collectively we are smarter than any single individual. This seems obvious, but it is good to see it confirmed in a real life experiment. And I think it was a legitimate comparison they were drawing between the meanderings of ants and humans, leaving random trails (swerving) to reach a common goal. I think wasps leave pheromone trails too; when I was filming a nest this weekend I started getting buzzed more and more frequently by guard bees as they discovered my location.
The ultimate question Radiolab was trying to answer in the Emergence episode is, "What is behind it all?" What or who is the coordinating consciousness in all of this? Who am I and who are you? Science is really no closer to answering these same basic questions that humans have been asking for millenia. I am excited by the exponential, technological evolution that is allowing us to connect as a race to an unprecedented degree, though wary also. This radio episode reminds me of the theory I ascribe to, that somehow we are all connected in a very real, almost physical way. I am literally you, you are literally me, Gandhi is President Bush, and Mother Teresa is Hitler - one collective, enduring consciousness. The way I think of it is like a human body, so Mother Teresa would be a white blood cell and Hitler a cancer. Of course this is just as unprovable as any world view, but I really enjoyed the episode from this perspective.

Hotshot Propaganda

This video is painful to watch. Journalism is my primary interest and I feel that it is important to represent people in the spotlight honestly and fairly. Of course this video isn't journalism in the classic sense, but it does claim to be a "Hotshot Documentary." While most of the facts stated are partially or even mostly true, many are exaggerated for effect. Do shots really often work 32 hour shifts? Occasionally, but certainly not frequently. This statement may have had more truth 30 years ago (I don't know when hotshot crews actually started, but the fire world was very different a generation ago). Do they really hike forever, "no matter how far?" This video is cheesy and takes itself a little too seriously - from the pretty boy working out shirtless for the camera, the Lord of the Ring-esque music, and the exaggerated claims ("the best of the best", c'mon guys). I don't know if this is a propaganda film for the crew, hoping to inspire young, overly testoseroned recruits or what. But it certainly helps to reinforce stereotypes and misconceptions that the general public has of firefighters and the wildland firefighting community.

Wildland Firefighting Hotshot Crew

My crew buddies had downtime recently and found a bunch of hotshot videos on YouTube. Hotshots is the name assigned by the Forest Service to Type 1 wildland firefighting handcrews, for whatever reason. I feel that this video is a good representation of what a hotshot crew does in the summer, in contrast to the next video I'm going to post. The Wyoming shots keep it simple and let the video do the talking. I probably would have chosen a different song for the soundtrack, but it's not bad. Short, sweet, and simple.