Gadfly Rumor #1

I wasn't sure how Gadfly's protest would play out or if anyone would care. Now that the deed was done and Gadfly is in hiding in China it looks like he has stirred up some buzz. You know a lot of people are talking about a certain topic when you hear humorous rumors being spread.
One rumor I heard was that Gadfly is hiding in the air above Beijing. Somehow I don't think Gadfly has the financing to be hiding on planes for 16 days nor would it be very practical. I am glad that people are talking though. If anyone has any other rumors about the Gadfly to share please comment them to this posting.
Please spread the word. The people in those prison camps need people on the outside to care. The people of Tibet need others to care. The human race needs China's government to have a change of heart and start putting human life and the quality of human life at the top of their priorities.

Gadfly Project on NBC4 Los Angeles Pt. 2

Gadfly Project on Channel 4 Los Angeles

Project Gadfly Press Conference

The press release regarding Gadfly's protest in Beijing has been posted on Exodus8one.org. You can watch it here, but I encourage you to visit persecutionandtheolympics.com to find out who and where you can send letters to asking for justice in China. Please be a voice for those who are silenced by torture and bars.

Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation

Today on CartoonBrew.com Amid posted thoughts on how the future of TV animation is found on the internet.
"The paths that both of these properties have taken (Making Fiends and Daily Monster video podcast) offer a view into how new TV animation ideas will be discovered in the future. The dysfunctional system of pitching and development in TV animation still exists, but it is on the wane and being dismantled by the Internet."
-Amid
To read his posting click on the link below.
Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation

Posted using ShareThis

Protests in Beijing

There have been a few protests in Beijing, China over the past few days. I have to admit that I've been sleeping on what's been going on in China pretty much all of my life. Recently one of our church's leaders has awakened me to the deteriorating status of human rights in communist China. Among many other atrocities citizens of China don't have the freedom of speech or the freedom of religion. The result is many of my Christian brothers and sisters are either dead or in prison labor camps because of their faith.

The issues and the details go much deeper than I have time for in this blog, but I've noticed some interesting protests in Beijing now that the Olympic games are about to start. One of these peaceful protests hits really close to home for me.

The first protest involved a young British man named Iain Thom climbing a lightning rod near Tiananmen Square and hanging a large banner that read, "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet" and "Tibet will be free." Another activist named James Murray hung a similar banner over the River Thames in London that read "Beijing 2008: Make Olympic History: Free Tibet." Both of the campaigners and their other fellow activists were said to be from a group called Students for a Free Tibet. To my understanding they wanted to use the popularity of the Olympics in Beijing as leverage to bring China's occupation of Tibet to light.


Late last night some videos were posted on Youtube.com of another protest happening in Beijing. An activist named "Gadfly" turned two luxury hotel rooms into what looks like murder scenes complete with human sized dummies made out of pillows. On the walls he painted murals and Bible verses such as Proverbs 31:8-9 "Speak out for those who have no voice." The murals included the symbol for the 2008 Olympics and a hill side scene that reads, "Beijing 2008 Our world our nightmare." On the walls Gadfly also asked for the release of 5 prisoners in China. Each prisoner listed is a leader or prominent figure in either their respective religion or in the freedom movement in China.
1. RELEASE Pastor Zhang Rongliang
2. RELEASE Xu Na, Falun Gong
3. RELEASE Hu Jia, Buddhist / Activist
4. RELEASE Shi Tao, Journalist
5. RELEASE Guo Feixiong, self-trained “barefoot” lawyer.
He also asks for the People's Republic of China to "ratify ICCPR." ICCPR stands for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In other words, Gadfly is asking China to adhere to this treaty enacted by the U.N. in 1966. Right now Chinese citizens do not enjoy freedom of speech or the right to believe and worship what they want in public. To learn more go to Exodus8one.org.
You can also watch the videos of the Gadfly filming himself transforming the rooms below.
So far I agree with both of these protests. Everyone deserves the right to choose their own religion. Free will is God given. I pray that my people in China will remain strong and hold fast to God's promises.

Team Report After Brooklyn

Our team has been home in L.A. for almost two days now. I'm still processing what happened in Brooklyn, New York, so this posting will just skim over the highlights.

When we arrived in Brooklyn on July 27th we had to find the church that we would be serving/sleeping in. The walk from the subway station to 2nd Evangelical Free Church of Brooklyn was really cool. The neighborhood is mostly inhabited by Chinese immigrants, so the streets are filled with markets and people. Already we had entered a great environment for our team to be introduced to a culture many of us had never experienced before.

2nd EV Free of Brooklyn was very much like our own church in LA. The church serves mostly immigrant families. They have a sort of community house next door that houses much of their staff much like our Nehemiah House. Most of our time was spent in their S.A.Y. Yes! tutoring program which we also run in Pico Union. These similarities allowed our team to fit the needs of the church very quickly. I was very impressed with our youth who jumped right in with the kids and poured so much of their energy and love into them. Along with a visiting team from Two Rivers Church in Tennessee we spent five days with kids from pre-K up to 5th grade. We tutored them in math. We colored with our kids, and sang worship songs with them. There were geography lessons, and trips to the park. On Thursday we took the kids on a field trip to a Biblical Art Museum and to Central Park. Once 1 o'clock hit we ran a Vacation Bible School for them and performed skits and Bible lessons. By the time Friday came around we had to say good bye to these precious kids. Our youth cried that night already missing the children we became friends with. Many on our youth team told us how good it was to be in our shoes at a S.A.Y. Yes! and experience how much we loved them. By the end of the week I asked if any of them felt more confident in being a part of ministry in our church now that they've completed this trip, and they all raised their hands. I couldn't have asked for a better experience for our young leaders to go through.

Our nights in Brooklyn were packed with taking in the sights, smells, and sounds of our surroundings. Remember that many of our youth have never been outside of California so this was incredibly beneficial to them. Above you see some of us eating at a traditional Chinese restaurant. The food was great, but very different from the Latin and American food that we are used to.

We also took the team to see the sites. On Sunday we took the ferry past the Statue Of Liberty. On a free night we walked around Times Square. We also saw the Empire State Building, and Rockefeller Center, but the most memorable site out of all of them was ground zero. We all had different emotions running through us as we prayed for our world over the site of one of our generations greatest tragedies. It seemed appropriate to pray with younger people in hopes that times will be better for them and their kids.

Over all this trip was about God showing us what kind of leaders we are as individuals and as a team. It seems to me that short term missions is not as much about teaching the people you visit as it is about what you learn and bring home with you. Pray with me that our youth will realize their role in God's body. Pray for our staff to be able to encourage and challenge them to commit to their roles and minister now rather than waiting for some undefined moment when they'll feel as though they are old enough to do something about the gospel.

Pray For The Children of Brooklyn

Our team landed back home in Los Angeles at about 8:30 Sunday night. It is good to be home, but it was also pretty hard leaving Brooklyn. While we were on this trip we were in the hands of our living God. Every moment was designed for us to either learn something about: ourselves, each other, or about others around us. Our hearts bled for the children we met. All of them

There was a little girl we called Lin Lin who liked to ride on my shoulders as we walked to the park. She always wore dresses and had her hair in pig tails. One look at her and you know how precious she is in God's sight. When I met her she came up to me and asked if I liked her little red buckled shoes. I told her that I did, and asked her if she would hold my hand as we walked back to the church. She was always very concerned that I only had sneakers to wear on such a hot day. She thought I should be wearing open shoes like her to stay cool. Lin Lin made it her mission every day to teach me how to count to one hundred in Chinese. I could only remember up to the number four. It was so fun to laugh with her, and receive corrections from her on how to pronounce fifty nine in her language. At only five years old she was a very giving person, and extremely intelligent. I often wondered how she will turn out ten or fifteen years from now. What choices will she make? How will life and circumstance effect her? Will she remember the things she has learned about God? Maybe the songs they sing about Bible stories will stick with her. I don't know, but please join me in praying for the lives of these kids. Almost all of them had tragic stories of broken families, deaths, abuse, rejection, and poverty. There was so little we could do in Brooklyn. Thank God it wasn't about us, but we had our brief moment in their lives. Prayerfully God made it something they could grab on to.

Please pray for Lin Lin and the other kids of Brooklyn. Pray that they meet Jesus, and that their families do too. God Bless.

Micro Loans

In our community a few of us have been talking about setting up a system to provide micro loans to people who might want to start a business. There are plenty of people in our neighborhood who have a craft or skill-set, but there aren't enough opportunities them to acquire or create jobs for themselves. We've also noticed an increasing number of pay-day loan establishments and department stores that essentially exploit their customer's lack of knowledge in how loans or credit works.
We thought it would be great to provide micro loans and also set up an accountability system with our clients that will not only educate them on loans, but will also invest in community. Each client could be assigned to meet with a small group of other clients each week, and everyone's approval of their next loan will depend on if they've all made their payments or not. This isn't a new idea. The Grameen Bank is not only a great model for this, but their founder, Professor Muhammad Yunus, won a Nobel Peace Prize for the success of this concept.
A few of us talked to a group of businessmen about our ideas, and one of them informed us of Kiva.org. We can pretty much set up the system that we need through this amazing website in the event that we become one of their field partners. Kiva.org allows you to create an account on their website and then find impoverished entrepreneurs across the globe. You can then lend small amounts towards their individual goals helping them start or continue their business. I'm pretty excited about this idea, and will be looking into it further. If anyone has any other ideas please leave comments.

BUMP Trip to NY

My church, First EV Free of Los Angeles, is organizing a missions trip to New York with our youth. The Evangelical Free Church has a program called BUMP where EV Free churches across America bring their youth to an urban EV Free church for service projects and ministry. In our case, we will be one urban church visiting another urban church on the opposite side of the country.
We will live in and serve in the Second EV Free Church of Brooklyn from July 27th to Aug 3rd. A big part of our mission is to organize a summer vacation Bible school (VBS) for the neighborhood kids in Brooklyn. It's our responsibility to perform a skit every day, and to lead the kids in worship. The theme for the VBS is "The Pirates of Pizazz" which I'm sure is a spin-off from the popularity of the Pirates of the Caribbean.
For the past few months we've been gathering our team of students together every Sunday to practice the songs and skits. You can view some pictures of last Sunday's meeting at the Nehemiah House below.

(Thank you John Freiberg for letting me steal these off of your Facebook without you knowing it)

Edberg translating for John Freiberg as he speaks to the parents


Making sure we're all on the same page


Nehemiah and I going over the script

Kool DJ Herc Tribute part 1

After completing my illustrated tribute to Gil Scott Heron I wanted to pay homage to another godfather of Hip Hop. I found the picture below on the net of Kool Herc messing around with an old record player. This picture is a great gem of Hip Hop history so I wanted to incorporate it into my piece.

I took the picture into Art Rage and started painting Herc. As I was painting, I decided that I wanted the graininess of the old picture to show through, so I put the picture behind my painting and finished the remainder on top of the photo. I was careful to leave some parts unpainted so the photo could show through. I also set my painted layer to multiply so the painting had some transparency.

I continued painting Herc in selective places over the photo until I was satisfied with the texture and the rendering. The piece was supposed to feel like a quick loose sketch/painting so I incorporated some over-lapping brush strokes, and some sketchy pencil work.
At this point I was looking for a sweeping design element to add in the background leading upward. I was thinking of the B-boys wearing Adidas and Puma track suits and shoes back in the day. I added three stripes, but I later abandoned this idea once I took the piece into Photoshop. I'll cover that process in the next posting.

The Shooting Of Dan McGrew

Another UPA animation that I love is called "The Shooting Of Dan McGrew." This is another UPA production based on a poem. Again, the bold designs are intriguing. An interesting element to this piece is the fact that their character design is so interesting that they can get away with painting some of the background characters one color and still focus on them for reaction shots.

The Tell-Tale Heart

Old UPA cartoons have been growing on me lately. I love their bold design, and quirky animation. Below is a UPA production of The Tell-Tale Heart by: Edgar Allen Poe. Note the composition throughout this animation. They did a beautiful job of incorporating shapes that will remind your subconscious of the old man's eye.

Don't Ever Call Me Stupid

This is one of the refining passes on my latest assignment. I'm really excited because this is my first dialog piece ever.

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes

My boss listens to National Public Radio (NPR) all the time and he told me about a show called "Talk of the Nation" that was going to be discussing Hip Hop artists and the image they portray to the world.
Listen to it here

The guest for the show was a film maker by the name of Byron Hurt who's documentary "Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes" will be debuting on PBS tonight. He went around and asked many prominent artists about their content and what they thought of the many ways "hip Hop" can be viewed as destructive. It sounds like Mr. Hurt was pretty much confronting these guys in front of a camera. I believe the film has interviews with Fat Joe, Busta Rhymes, Jada Kiss, and a host of other artists in the lime light.

I think Mr. Hurt is doing great work. I also think he's doing exactly what many of us in the underground have been doing- transforming Hip Hop in order to prayerfully transform individuals.

Check it out tonight on PBS, and support. Peace.

B. Hurt's Myspace

Ballie's Final Turn

I tweaked the splining on Ballie's turn around for what will most likely be the last time. This animation is nowhere near the polished stage that I want, but it'll have to do. I'm moving on to other animations and projects. Farewell Ballie.

Purple and Brown

Aardman studios has really gone back to their roots with a series of shorts called Purple and Brown. The animations are simple and very well done. Below are some of my favorites, but they've posted a lot more on this youtube channel.

This Is War Tour Videos

Enoch "Who" Live


Jupiter 7 with B.I.G.P, Heavensake, and J Werley on the turntables


B.I.G.P. "Something Must Be Done" Live


Chef "Get Down" Live


Insomniaddicts "Fear and Self Loathing In San Francisco" Live

Linear Pass For Ballie's Turn

SketchCrawl #12!!!

Time for another world wide SketchCrawl! If you're in the Northern California Bay Area, we'd love to have you sketch with us. If you're not in our area, go to SketchCrawl.com and search the forums for a Crawl near you. (Don't worry. We have groups all over the globe)

Creature Comforts

Aardman Animations Ltd (Wallace & Grommit, Chicken Run, and Flushed Away) sent AnimationMentor.com some previews to their series entitled "Creature Comforts." They gave us permission to share them with the public so I posted them on youtube.com here. Keep your eye open for these animations on CBS in 2007. Below is one of my favorites.

Scary Mary Trailer

I don't know about you, but I have a lot of fond memories of Disney's "Mary Poppins." As a child there was nothing more entertaining than watching a witch haunt little Brittish children in the London fog.

Week 10

Look. Ballie's fat and happy!

Week 9: My first successful walk cycle

AnimationMentor.com beats out any training that I've recieved from my other schools by far. But in regards to training in animating the dreaded walk cycle, AM has completly obliterated their competition.
At the Academy of Art in San Francisco they showed me the "skating technique" in my 3D classes. This included a 10 minute demo before they threw us to the wolves. Things like weight, hip movement, overlapping motion, and timing weren't even discussed. (with exception to my intro to 2D animation class at the Academy taugh by the Awesome Cora Craig)

Anyway, here's my first successful walk cycle. It's a little weak in the knees still, but I'll be polishing it up in the weeks to come.


This is the second assignment. We had to pose STU in a concerned gesture.

Week 8 Pose

They wanted STU to show some power this week, so this is what I came up with. I kind of added a bit of a feminine spin on this one because I realized I haven't really created any feminine poses. Hey, I'm an equal opportunity animator alright?

Week 7 Revision

This is an animation demonstrating overlapping motion with the tail. It might seem boring now, but just you wait till I incorporate all of these principles in a scene. Yeah, then you won't complain...

Week 5

So I turned in my week 5 assignments a few days ago. I thought I'd post them up in an attempt to stay consistant for once in my life.

The pose assignment was to make the STU character look devestated. So without further ado here's STU winning an emmy for best performance...
















The next part of the assignment was to bounce a ball through an obstacle course they gave us. (I cheated and modified the course a little) This assignment was exciting despite it's bland appearances because this marks the first time they allowed us to use squash and stretch on the ball. Check out the Path of Action sketch I used to plan the animation first. The animation will be below it.

I need a new video host

This photobucket video hosting thing isn't working. It won't play my videos on a loop, and it seems to be playing them slightly too fast. Maybe I'll break down and buy QuickTime Pro.

Weighted Ball Test

It needs a few slow outs on the drops of the lighter ball, but you get the idea...

A Cryptic Visit

Monday October 16th Chris and I visited Cryptic Studios in Los Gatos, CA. If you don't know already, Cryptic Studios made one of the most popular online MMO's on the market today "City Of Heroes." The follow-up "City Of Villains," has also done very well, and boasts one of the largest fan followings in the online gaming industry. Cryptic is currently working on "Marvel Universe Online." An MMO based on the popular Marvel comic book universe.

One of my fellow classmates at Animation Mentor is Stephen Stacy. He's an animator at Cryptic, and he was gracious enough to invite the local students to his place of work for a tour.

I have to say our visit was great from start to finish. Everyone at Cryptic was friendly, and more than willing to answer any questions we had about their company and the industry. Stephen was gracious enough to even give us a few pointers on how to build a successful demo reel for a game company such as theirs.

We were wined and dined, not to mention both their art director Shayne Herrera, and CEO/President Michael Lewis took the time to stop by and field a few of our questions.

I was thouroughly impressed not only with how we were treated, but also with their mentality and working environment. Cryptic usually has a 40 hour work week which is pretty good considering most studios ask atleast 50 hours/week. That's not to say they don't have crunch times, but they are a family oriented company, and it shows by the number of employees who are actually very awake.

Probably the most impressive point of the day was learning that City Of Heros was their first game, and it was a smash hit. This has allowed them to be in the position of already obtaining large properties and franchises for their next games and they are in the process of tripling the size of their company in the next year. Needless to say things are looking up for Cryptic, and I know i'm going to be submitting my demo reel once it comes time. Why not? I've already been invited to do so by their staffing manager.

Animation Mentor Week 3

STU is excited this week...

Sketches

















Final pose in Maya


















My bouncing ball excersise

Animation Mentor Week 2

I'm in week 2 of my first class at AnimationMentor.com We just had our first assignment where we were to go somewhere public and do quick observational drawings of people as they passed by. Not being a noob to the whole drawing unsuspecting victims in public game I chose the mall's food court and sat down facing the mall with my back to the court. This way I could at least capture people's various walks. Many people made the mistake of sitting in Starbuck's where everyone's sitting, and there's no room for people to get up and do anything interesting. That's ok, I made the same mistake when I started.

Here's a page of gestures I captured that evening.





















Here's the sketch that I chose to finalize





















and here's the pose in Maya
















The theory behind assignments like this one is that animation is just a long series of poses. Learning how to build a successful pose with concepts like: line of action, asymmetry, and silhouette is a darn good place to start learning the craft.

I can't tell you how much better Animation Mentor is than my previous alma maders. The environment is so comfortable and everyone wants to help you. This is real character animation instruction created by animators for animators. I wouldn't recommend anywhere else over this beautiful institution.

IdeaMechanics.net

I just finished the main page banner for IdeaMechanics.net

Old School

Remember this classic piece of rotoscope animation?

We the People feat. Gil Scott Heron

My small tribute to Gil Scott Heron

Uncle Sam, I want a water car.

Modified water spark plug

Herman's Green Machine Water modified Chevy Cavalier

Stan Meyer's Water powered dune buggy

Imagine how nice it would be to run your car entirely off of tap water you get from your kitchen sink or your lawn hose. Imagine if everyone's toxic car emmissions were replaced by billions of gallons of water being released into the air every hour around the world. What would that do to the Ozone layer or to global warming? I don't know the science behind it, but it sounds soo good to me that I have to wonder if it might even heal both problems. Imagine NASA launching rockets into space with no explosive compounds running through the shuttles' engine.

What would this world look like? Well I know we'd have far cleaner air for one. I know we would all love the cost of this new source of fuel. I know this new source of fuel would create an entirely new industry around the world thereby creating jobs for billions of people. Now what if I told you this could all happen now? What if I told you there have been people who've already made these cars and drove them long distances, and they worked? Look at your last receipt from the gas pump, and tell me if you would want this water powered car in your garage. Would you buy it? I sure as heck would.

Waterpoweredcar.com is a site dedicated to the research and findings of a handful of Scientists and inventors who have made the water powered fuel cell a reality. I don't know about you, but I want this car soo bad that I'm willing to push for it to be manufactured and sold across the globe. The challenge is that the human powers that be on this planet have their interests in running the oil industry into the ground. they want us buying their oil until there is none left and they'll stop at nothing to shut out alternative fuel research. The people have to stand up and be aware of this. Depleating the Earth of oil isn't natural, and it definately isn't the answer. Coal isn't the answer for the same reasons, and for mining safety reasons. Water is an infinately renewable resource, and it is natural. Water is supposed to be released into the air anyway.

What can we do about it? Start demanding it. Write your congressman/woman. Make people aware of the alternatives. Educate yourself on the alternatives by visiting sites like Waterpoweredcar.com. Go to the Mythbusters' fan site message board and reply to my post about making a water powered engine on the show. Here's the URL. http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9701967776/m/4911930838
Make sure to reply to the post and also give it a rating so the producers will take notice.

Please demand a better life for yourself, your fellow man, and for generations to come. Join us in the revolution. A better world is possible, and it's already started. Be the answer to the chaos.

The Indian Givers

In my last post I mentioned a guy named Smyles in one of my keystyles. He's in a band down in LA called The Indian Givers. They have this song called Something Is Better. It's a great song, and very catchy, but the music video is pretty funny too.



The band didn't ask for permission, they just went to Chuck E Cheese's and started shooting. The Staff didn't have a problem with it untill they threw the bra. That was the last straw.

Freestyles

When I talk to my friends online I sometimes get the urge to freestyle or, in this case, "keystyle." This is usually because I'm listening to hip hop while I'm online. Here's two "keystyles" that I rattled off from the top of my head while talking to Shannon.

I was talking about what I did last night so this came out. I call it RISK:

Playin Risk is risky business. Most play to win never settle for less. It's like stirring up a bee's nest. It was hot in the kitchen. Some had to get out. Last 4 standing in the final title bout. Some lookin to knock a brother out. That's ok, this will only last 2 rounds. That's when I took Alaska. When I wanna hear your smart mouth I'll ask ya. Smiles had a cannon and he'll blast ya. Matt took an axe now he's actin like ya masta. Chris swept South Asia. Then he took the continent Australia. Next Smiles dominated the Americas. The ability to do that depends on how your momma raised ya. Battle for Europe while I sat pretty in the snowy Canuck city eating maple syrup. Hey Matt you're up. Too many sour heads now he wants ta throw up. While he's in the bathroom up chuck I'll take your armies and set up then next big blow up. Gang signs exchanged now yous about to get tore up. Turned in a book, got 20 units now I move across the board like a rook. Stealin countries like a crook. This is the game of world domination so don't be shook. Look it's all in the rule book. Like I said, this is a hot kitchen- you better know you're gonna cook.

Then Shannon said something about how she was eating a rice crispy treat. So this one came out:

Takes a bite of a snap crackle pop square. Good thing she just did her hair. Always good to prepare so as not to get caught unawares. Light fluffy marshmallows taste like air. Empty calories, but I-don't-care. I think I'll even eat 'em rare. Lickin crispy batter while everybody stares. Some think I'm mentally impared. I am, but it's not like that. I was dared. Got no hair like my head was naired. If you paint it green I'll look like I was drawn by Peter Laird. (TMNT creator)

Turkey Pesto

King Josiah

The story I'm about to tell you is true. This is an ancient story, one that many don't know about or don't pay a lot of attention to. It's a story of how God works with the smallest of probabilities, and reforms an entire nation with one unlikely person.

Generations after King David "the Giant Killer" had passed on, the nation of Israel was lost in darkness. The Kings of the line of David forsook the God that performed soo many miracles for their people and delivered them from their enemies. They were, infact, some of the most: wicked, evil, demonic, and violent Kings to ever rule a nation on Earth. For 300 years the temple of God was persecuted by it's own kings and people. The sacred scriptures were outlawed and destroyed. God's temple was more of a museum of an ancient religion long gone, and the current dark King Amon had just been assassinated.

Amon's son Prince Josiah was crowned King of Jerusalem at the age of 8 in light of his father's young death. Many would expect Josiah to carry on his blood thirsty heritage, but Josiah was nothing like his more recent forefathers. Against all expectations, Josiah was a man of morals, and though he might not have known it, he was also the man God would use to reform His chosen people.

Josiah saw his people worshiping in temples dedicated to false pagan gods. He witnessed the: baby sacrifices, the unnatural sex between people of same genders and even with animals, and the corrupt blasphemous teachings. These things disgusted him, and he saught a place to start looking for something better. What he found was the run-down temple of the Lord God, and it's last remaining followers. Josiah appointed a team to rebuild and clean the temple, and the high priest Hilkiah found an old copy of the holy scriptures hidden within the temple as he was cleaning. Hilkiah read these sacred words with astonishment for these scriptures hadn't been read by anyone in over 300 years, and were thought to be lost forever. What Hilkiah found in one passage struck him soo much that he had to give these scriptures to Josiah's secretary Shaphan to read what he had found.

Shaphan came to King Josiah for his report on the temple's progress. He gave the king all of the information that he was seeking, but he had to show the king the scriptures and what amazing passage the priest Hilkiah had found. Shaphan proceeded to read outloud to the King every word of the Bible. When the King heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his robes in deep repentance. Once the King received God's disgust with the actions of Israel, he called together the elders, and read the words of the Scriptures found in the temple to the people. All of the false gods and idols and all of their shrines were destroyed. The artifacts of God's church were preserved and restored. A holy prophet of old's bones were left as they were in respect. The priests, soothsayers, witches, and false prophets of all silent and fruadulent gods were slaughtered.

It is written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah that God loved Josiah for he walked in the ways of the Lord as did David before him. Josiah had renewed the covenant God made with the Israelites. His story can be read in II Kings chapters 22 and 23: 1-30

Those who have heard this story have often wondered many things. How was it that such a righteous man could come from such terrible fathers? What passage was it in the Holy Scriptures that made Josiah tear his robes and repent so actively?

Well I think it's important to realize that anyone who calls upon the Lord can perform bold righteous acts that can change countless lives. It doesn't matter what kind of family you've come from or what you have done before. God works within impossibilites where we would see no hope otherwise. To do God's work, one must be broken first in order to see that God is their true father, and God is mighty and perfect. Those who have already been hurt by broken homes need only call upon God, and amazing things can happen right where they stand.

As for which verse finally struck Josiah, and moved him to such radical action? None of us were there, and it can only be speculated, but one very good guess has been presented to me. The following passage from the Holy Scriptures were written somewhere around 270 years before Josiah's birth.
"1 By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. 2 He cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD : 'O altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: 'A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.' 3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: 'This is the sign the LORD has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out."
Put yourself in Josiah's place. Imagine that you have not been able to read the Bible all of your life. A copy has been found and the very first time you read the Bible you find a prophecy about you with your very name in it describing exactly what you will do. Awestruck wouldn't begin to describe what you would be feeling, and I'm sure you would be moved to action just as Josiah was. But what if your name is in the Bible? I believe that if anyone believes in the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ and calls upon the Lord as their God, that phrase "who soever" will be transformed into their name. All of the rest of the Bible will suddenly become relevent to that person on a very personal level. They will be able to transplant their name into many promises made by God throughout the Bible, and their name will be written in Heaven where they will become heirs to the Kingdom of God. They will be called High Priests and Saints- even a friend of God and a brother to Jesus.

Maybe we should be moved to action just as Josiah was. Maybe we should see our names in the Bible and take the cross upon our shoulders in the name of righteousness thereby destroying the powers and principalities of darkness on this Earth and in the air.

Caricatures

These are a few quick caricatures I did the other day. I hope you enjoy them.

Myspace Addiction Rekindled

Today I had a lot of fun searching for old long lost high school friends on Myspace.com. Incase you didn't know, you can search for people according to the schools they've attended in myspace. All you have to do is click on "search" and find your school in their data base, and the website will list all of the members who have attended that school. I found about 6 different people from back in Illinois that I thought I'd never talk to again, and I'm eagerly awaiting them to see my request and add me to their friends list. I think it will do me good to get in touch with my past and the people that influenced me years ago. A few of them apparently made it out of Rockford, IL which is a good surprise. Not many people make it out of that black hole city. When I was reading one of my old friend's profiles, I found that she is either married or about to be married. Interestingly enough that kind of jarred me, and I felt a little sad. I don't know exactly what that means. Maybe I hold feelings for that I didn't realize I had. Or maybe I'm just kind of sad that those days are long gone and we've both moved on so far from them. I've never been good at letting friends go, and she happened to be someone I really admired then, and I still do now.

By the way. The picture above is my current profile picture on Myspace. It was taken on St. Patricks Day to show off my first annual St. Patricks Day Irish beard. You can barely see it because it's soo thin, but that's half the fun. The serious look is comedic for those who know me since I'm never without a large smile on my face.

V For Vendetta

B


V For Vendetta is film adaption from the popular graphic novel of the same title created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd in the 1980's. Evey (Natalie Portman) is a young woman living in fascist England who is saved from a band of crooked cops by V. (Hugo Weaving) V is a brilliant, perhaps even crazy, man who believes the govenrment in which they currently live in is highly corrupt, and that he is the one to break the chains of opression for the people in order to create a better world. Because of his bold actions to revolt against the Supreme Chancellor, V is labelled a terrorist by the government, and becomes number one on their hit list. Evey is forced by V to live with him in his hideaway, but she soon sees the cause for his actions, and joins him. Together, they work towards giving the people a voice, and V sets off a complex plan of strategic action to accomplish their lofty goals.
I thought the movie succeeded in capturing one of my favorite graphic novels of all time fairly well with a few exceptions. I thought the pacing at the beginning was a little too fast to take everything in, but it became more satisfactory about half-way in. The action was great. I had no issues with the acting. I do wish that two scenes from the graphic novel would have made it into the film, but maybe I'll get into that sometime later. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone.
I was left with sort of a bad taste in my mouth after the movie was over eventhough I thought it was well executed. While others disagree with me, I saw a strong commentary against religion in this film. All of the main villains in the film are described as "religious conservatives," yet they never touch on correct religion- the kind that helps people rather than enprisoning those they don't agree with.
The film tends to defend the homosexuals that were oppressed by he government more than anyone else, while the graphic novel spoke against a more broad range of biggotry like racism, and attacking those of other religions. There are scenes of: two women kissing, two men sleeping together in a bed, and one of the heroes in the story was portrayed as a gay man contrary to the original novel. It seemed like this film was designed to be a bit of a platform for those that think homosexuality is ok. I will admit that the original graphic novel did defend homosexuality, but it didn't single it out like the film did.
I did enjoy the fact that someone in hollywood made a film to say something meaningful even if I didn't neccessarily agree with all that it was saying. This is not a common practice in our current film industry, and not only would I like to see more of it, but I am also planning on making my own voice heard through this medium. Like I say, This film was a pretty good adaption of the original graphic novel, but I'm not willing to end the story where they left it. I don't want to say that the people need to control the government, and then say nothing of how the individual person needs to change themselves aswell. This film reminded me that I want to push the medium even further, and I want to get down to the real problems of this world, and not end half-way to call it a day.

Listener/Odd Thomas Tour Of Homes 2006

Listener and Odd Thomas came to Mountain View, CA for the second Tour Of Homes last night. The show ran a little short, but it was a great time to hang out and listen to some great Hip Hop performed live by two great artists. I also met a few other fellow believers in Christ at the show, and Beat Rabbi of DeepSpace 5 crew was in the crowd.









Picture taken after the show.
From left to right: Odd Thomas, me, Listener, and Beat Rabbi

Listener's Tour Of Homes

After having the first location fall through due to UC Berkley's strict rules, THE TOUR OF HOMES MARCHES ON!! A new venue has been secured and the show will go on as planned! This show promises to be a great time with some real quality underground Hip Hop by both Listener and Odd Thomas. Please come out and show some love.

We don't need no edgumacasion

So I have a new way of perceiving the trials and tribulations of art school which illustrates why I'm in such a cynical and bad mood during the semester.
Imagine, if you will, that you have just been given 70% of the work that an entire animation studio does to create an animation. You are the: storyboard artist, the writer, the director, the character designer, the modeler, the rigger, the animator, the lighting technician, the editor, and the sound editor. You are doing the work of 20 to 200 or more people, and you have to complete all of this work in 15 weeks. Not only that, but you are not paid to do any of this; INFACT, you pay $20,000 (plus lab fees, text books, transportation into the city, and media costs) for the privilege of going through this torture, and you have to do this twice a year for going on 7 years now. Well that's what it means to be an animation major at the Academy of Art University. Think about it. I am taking: Nonlinear Editing, Intro to Storyboarding, Maya 2, and Character Design1. Each week I put on about 10 different hats.
The really frustrating part is that every instructor claims that they are creating a "professional environment," in every class. This, of course, is a joke because if it was anything like a professional environment, you'd be working as a member of a team, and not doing everything on your own. You would be getting paid, or atleast gaining experience for your work. I know what you're thinking, "Aren't you gaining experience in your classes?" The answer is little to none.
My focus in the computer animation major is Character Animation. All, save two, of my classes over the last 6 years (2 Art schools) have had nothing to do with character animation. The few classes that do allow me to animate a character are classes that focus on modeling and rigging and lighting and designing backgrounds first; THEN during the last two weeks or so of class we get to animate a character. For those of us that struggle with rigging and modeling have it really rough because that always puts us behind, and we have to rush the character animation part to get the final project in.
My other grievance is that a diploma of any kind means absolutely nothing when you're looking for a job in the art field. You could be a high school drop out and get hired as long as you have a killer portfolio. Well I don't have a killer portfolio because I'm not a high school drop out. Because I'm in college, I have no time to develop a portfolio. All of my projects in class take time from each other so everything is rushed or pushed aside for other projects. I can't focus on doing a good job in anything because if I did I wouldn't get it done in time, and I would fail. I do all of this for what? A diploma that is as good as toilet tissue.
All of this leads me to believe that our educational system is set up all wrong. What happened to the days of apprenticeships? Everyone hates school because school isn't what you want in life. You want a career. That's what we all want! Why isn't school set up like the industry? Why can't all of our classes be set up as team environments where character animation majors team up with modelers and writers and directors?
If you really think about it, our school system is too abstract to make any sense. Information is presented to the student as separate subjects. Well doesn't all information coincide with all other information in life? Life isn't broken up into subjects entitled Mathematics, Science, English, P.E. or whatever. It's all blended together.
We need reform in our system desperately. That's why other country's students can kick our students butts.
If you agree with me; I promise to think about and act upon this problem if you will.

C+

I've just finished watching this movie, and I'll say it was pretty solid, but I was dozing on it a little too much. The action just didn't deliver as I thought it should being an animation based on comic book super heroes. The production quality was grade A as far as aniamtion, and effects, but I would have liked to have seen a little more creativity in set design, and character design.
I was told by a trusted source that Captain America is really cool in this movie, I didn't see what he was talking about at all. His story was pretty good, but I think they could have done a lot more with his combat abilities and the cool shield slinging action that he does in the comics. I realize this is supposed to be kid friendly, but I think they could have juiced it up a little more without warping any minds. It's the same for pretty much all of the other characters. Good character development, not enough showing off of powers and abilities.
The backgrounds were very "Saturday morning cartoons." I think they could have been far more creative with color layout to help them set the mood of each scene. I wanted to see eerie shadows and lighting around the villains, and warm strong colors for the heroes- that sort of thing. Everything was just flat and read the same through every scene.
The character design wasn't especially bad, but I would have loved to see them push expressive design with their characters. These are super heroes. Why not have more fun with straits against curves, and over exagerated proportions? It's too bad Bruce Timm only works exclusively with DC/Warner. Someone like him could have brought a little design magic to the table.
Other than that: the story was solid, the animation was pretty good, and I did have a descent time watching it. Let's hope they put more bite into it for the sequal.