NEW - Star Trek XI (2008) - Movie Trailer - High Quality

Just saw this on the Cloverfield DVD.

Okay, so YouTube doesn't do the clip justice because of the dark lighting. You can see a better version on Apple / Trailers:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/startrek/hd/

Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good

If you are thinking of starting a Web 2.0 company, you should probably read Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 by Sarah Lacy.

The book shows how the rules have changed since the crash a few years ago. Thanks to open source technology, broadband and more net users, companies like Facebook didn't need a ton of VC money to get started. The book covers how people like Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) and others had the advantage of mentors who made many mistakes back in the 90's and were determined not to let them suffer the same fate.

Besides Zuckerberg, the book covers several other entrepreneurs of past and present. It seems that you can't keep a good entrepreneur down. Marc Andreessen of Netscape fame is back with Ning, as well as Max Levchin of PayPal who is now running Slide.

The Nontrepreneur

"Evan simply didn't know if he was up for it. He was part of this new breed of creative Web nontrepreneur. He wasn't the world's best coder. He didn't like being the CEO. He just liked coming up with the idea ..."

Besides the enterpreneurs, I found the chapter titled The Nontrepreneur fascinating. It covers people like Evan Williams (Blogger - the software I'm using to post this) who is the total opposite of Zuckerberg. It sounds like he'd like to live comfortably like the rest of us, living off his creations. But he doesn't have the need to build a multi-billion dollar platform. Kevin Rose of Digg fame is somewhere in between. This contrast of personalities helps round out the book.

Director's Label Series Boxed Set - The Works of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry

Björk - All is Full of Love
Directed by Chris Cunningham

Since several well known directors got their start doing music videos, I decided to do a little research. While surfing Amazon I found a great resource: Director's Label Series Boxed Set - The Works of Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham, and Michel Gondry.

The video above is by Chris Cunningham. He is best known for Madonna's Frozen video, as well as the "orgiastic" Aphex Twin video Come To Daddy (not for the timid!) - both on his DVD. The DVD also contains a behind-the-scenes look at the Björk video as well as some other "video installations."

Spike Jonze is best known for directing Being John Malkovich. He also directed a couple of infamous Fat Boy Slim videos. One video features Christopher Walken dancing to "Weapon of Choice". Another features a dance troupe from Torrance dancing outside a theater to "Praise You." The DVD also contains a behind the scenes look at the Torrance group getting ready to perform at the MTV Awards.



Chemical Brothers - Let Forever Be
Directed by Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry is best know for directing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. His videos will leave you scratching your head wondering "How did he do that???"

With a large collection of music videos, commentary, behind the scenes and extras - I found the DVD's a great resource.

scriptable.ning, writerdirector.ning

I decided to give Ning a second look since they seem to be adding new features and gaining in popularity. So I've decided to keep writerdirector.ning.com and flesh it out.

I've been also debating what to do with scriptable.com - I almost let the domain expire the other day. But I've had it since 1999 and couldn't part with it. Then what to do, ... oh what to do ... ?

I knew I wanted a site for programmers that focuses on "scriptable" languages, like PHP, Python, JavaScript, ActionScript and scriptable extensions for products like Maya and After Effects. I was thinking it would be a great place for a social network for programmers.

Since I didn't see any point in trying to build the components of a social network from scratch, that brought me back to Ning again. So I've created scriptable.ning.com. Eventually I'll map scriptable.com to be a front door for it.

The one annoying thing is that Ning won't let me create groups without giving them an icon first. So some icons may seem lame until I have time to create better ones. My day job is killing me, which doesn't leave me with a lot of free time to flesh things out right now. But eventually I hope to break out more groups for the sites and add more content.

I still think indie bands and fledgling podcasts are better served by sites like MySpace. But nerds are more prone to go where the code is. ;) If it doesn't attract a lot of users, at least I have a place to store a library of articles.

Wyclef's freestyle performance at the Hilfiger Sessions

After reading Fashion and music combine for Hilfiger's TommyTV on reuters.com yesterday, I finally got around to checking out TommyTV. I like it. I like it alot. The sites a little buggy because it's still in Beta - but the content is great.

They have a site on YouTube where bands can upload audition video. The main YouTube site is located at: http://www.youtube.com/tommytv and contains a pointer to the audition site: http://www.youtube.com/group/hilfigerauditions.

Alex Dragulescu, Art Code (digicult.it)

I found a detailed article on Alex Dragulescu, an artist recently feature in a snippet on wired.com (See: Visualizing Viruses wired.com).

"Alex Dragulescu: In the university I studied Cinema and Photography, Art and Art History. I actually shot only two films on celluloid. My first was a silent film shot on a 16mm camera used in World War II. The second one was a hand-drawn animated film shot with a 16mm animation stand. After that, I taught myself computer animation. I realized I could work much faster by myself with just the computer. Plus I had this nice feeling as if I was still working in my sleep, since I would leave the computers rendering at night. Maya and Flash were the tools that transitioned me towards the procedural side of animation and design. After graduating I worked for two years as an interactive designer/developer in Internet companies. There, I started using web programming and relational databases. In graduate school, the transition towards the procedural was complete"

You can read the full article on digicult.it:

http://www.digicult.it/digimag/article.asp?id=680

RS-0021 - The Final Episode

Click to Play

In this final episode of Rockosphere.TV we take a look back at the bands we've interviewed over the past 2 years. Then we close it out with a song from our friends in ANTI-HERO. For more info on the bands featured in this episode, see our friends list on http://www.myspace.com/rockosphere