I haven't even posted pictures from my son's birthday party 3 months ago! It's been almost 5 months since my last blog post. I haven't even read any of my friend's blogs lately.

It comes with having a life, a job, a family, and running Windows XP on my home computer. I spent my "free time" for the last several weeks chasing down an overheating CPU, a copy-protection dll identified as a trojan horse, a crashing DVD player, and a digital converter that simply refuses to install. All of you Mac-olytes can giggle all you want. I've seen and heard all about the nightmares of upgrading any Mac over 2 years old.

If one of the three people who read my blog decided to post a witty retort to my weak stab at the Mac, they'd be out of luck. I've completely removed any commenting features from my blog. It has left the building. Not ONLY did I disable it, I removed it from the code altogether. Why? Today I found over 4,000 blog-spam posts from my tiny blog of 22 posts! All of them pushed 1 of 4 things: drugs, games of chance, a bigger penis, or a lower mortgage.

I even had comments from these blog-spammers on "draft" posts that a normal surfer would never see! How'd they do that? Write an application that "posts" millions of messages on thousands of blogs each day and hope a couple actually post. These people have to be the lowest form of techno-life. We can't venture forth unto the vast internet unknown without updating spam filters on our email accounts and blogs, installing popup killers, maintaining firewalls and virus scanners, hunting down and squashing spyware. It's like having to wear a kevlar condom just to go to the grocery store.

Closing the cheap seats to the public will at least buy me back a spot of time every couple months to post some pictures of my kids, or better yet... create moments with them worth taking pictures of.

oh yeah... and maybe I'll actually blog about something worth reading ;-)

- Lito

John Varvatos hosted his 3rd Annual Stuart House Charity Benefit at his Melrose Avenue store. Since my wife recently began employment at Stuart House, she received an invitation... not an invitation to "work" the event, but as a guest. A totally surreal experience; driving up to valet in my Honda Hybrid, confirming we were "on the list", waltzing nonchalantly past the paparazzi prior the arrival of someone actually worth photographing, and joining the crush of humanity in the small boutique.

It was an intriguing collision of "be" attitudes-- the beautiful people, queen bee's, wannabe's, has-been's, and 'cause we gotta be here's. We were obviously part of the looky-loos, trying to figure out if that red-head is someone we should recognize, or craves recognition. Jesse Malin performed while trays of mushroom tarts, petit fours, goat cheese profiteroles, and Izze Sparkling Juice floated through the crowd. There were almost 100 nifty items up for silent auction (none of which we won) and several big-ticket items auctioned off by Eric McCormack and Garry Shandling.

David Schwimmer sang mighty praises of Stuart House to the audience, while Henry Simmons did the same for the news crews along the velvet rope. We heard from others that Dennis Hopper, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jeffrey Katzenburg, Brendan Fraser, and a slew of others were among the crowd, but we never picked them out. Regardless of the overly beautified people and house-hold names, the atmosphere on the other side of the rope was nowhere near as stand-offish as I expected. These were people willing to donate their time, money and celebrity for the efforts of my wife's employer. Events like this make it possible for Stuart House to offer their services free or charge, without the bureaucracy of state or federal funding.

Aidan was delighted with the story tellings by,

Jennie Garth, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and Brooke Shields. But he was done with the whole affair shortly after and pleaded with us to go home, so we didn't actually see Jackson Browne perform (although we nearly stepped on his foot while attempting to navigate the human mass).

We drove off from valet, sandwiched between luxury SUV's and Porsche Boxsters to the next intersection, where my wife spotted Meg Ryan in her brand new Toyota Prius in the next lane. I must admit, at first glance I thought, "hey! isn't she... uh, you know... that girl from that movie!?"

- Lito

ps. The dark, blurry photos are my own. Check out some shots by the pros at Daily Celeb and London Features International.

... or does it?

If you haven't already heard about it, then you're either living under a rock... or, well... living in the real world with genuine concerns and issues to address. No problem, there's plenty of us to contribute to the free publicity Warner Bros enjoys with their latest announcement--
WB seeks revitalized cartoon franchise with new look for Bugs Bunny and friends

Get this. They're not really trying to redo the same shorts with the same characters in a new, gritty style. It's worse. They want to bank on the recent success of Teen Titans and place amped up versions of the classic Looney Tunes characters in a dark future as... ugh (stomach pains)... super heros. How I wish I were joking. Check out this clip.

Anyone remember the last time a star icon underwent a major 'make-over' in order to attract the younger consumers? No, no! Not that one!

In April 1985, the Coca-Cola Company introduced a "New Coke" in response to Pepsi's "Taste Challenge." The public backlash to the change was so vocal, Coca-Cola admitted they "goofed" and returned the original coke to the shelves as "Classic Coke" in July of the same year. Do I expect Warner Bros. to say "oops! That really didn't happen!" in a couple months and quietly sweep these ink stains under the light table? Nope. Bad news and frothing bloggers are still great publicity. Warner Bros NEVER gave a hare's ass about the Looney Tunes characters. Why should they start now? They own the characters and haven't been able to do SQUAT with them in over 50 years. Oh sure, they parade them about every once in a while like a pretentious pimp with his "girls" on the street. Only this pimp is a market-driven, focus group testing, merchandising, overseas out-sourcing, written and directed by committee, mega-million dollar machine.

As Amid Amidi at Cartoon Brew pointed out, "To display anger over LOONATICS means that Warner Bros. has won yet again. The executives love hearing affirmation that people still care about these characters; when somebody likes the cartoons enough to voice concern, they know their job is safe."

The flamboyant, Leon Schlesinger managed the animation department at Warner Bros in the 1930's. Responsible for the creation of "Looney Tunes" and "Merry Mellodies", Leon had a nose for business and an eye for talent. He was a tightwad with the budget and a tyrant with production schedules. However, he knew just enough about quality animation productions to know he knew NOTHING about animation production! He gathered the talents of Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Robert McKimson, Michael Maltese, Virgil Ross, Ken Harris, Mel Blanc, Carl Stalling, scores others and gave them a deadline. The convergence of inspired writing, endearing personalities, outrageous animation, ingenious vocal characterizations, and masterful orchestrations was possible primarily because they were LEFT ALONE TO CREATE!

Yet even this collection of crazy geniuses couldn't keep Bugs and company as fresh and inspired after 30 years of "What's up, doc?" There's only so much yarn to spin from the golden fleece. Chuck Jones went on to MGM to respin the same tired routine of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote in the form of a re-vamped Tom & Jerry. While Jones managed to breathe some new life into the classic duo, MGM could see the writing on the screen scrapped all production of animated theatrical shorts in 1967.

I'm exstatic Warner Bros is releasing the multiple volumes of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection. Certainly, many complain about the exclusion (or inclusion) of one or another short from the first two volumes. But, come on! I've NEVER seen any of these with the colors and details so lovingly restored. Every video release prior to this collection had undergone the "tender" mercies of a mafia surgeon in a back alley office, hacking pieces of one short into another in some vain attempt to frankenstein together a full-length title. These volumes are complete and beautifully done.

What more does everyone want from the rabbit, anyway? The suits at Warner Bros have proven several times over that no amount of "star" power and cash can turn the clock back to recreate the same magic. It's a fool's errand to take 12 minute gag reels created by legends and attempt to make it work 50 years later in a 90 minute feature farmed out to multiple studios in 4 countries with more thought put into product placement and ancillary product lines than the story itself. Bugs, Daffy, Elmer, and the rest have earned their place of honor and prestige in cinematic history. Let them retire without the cliche of Hollywood "extreme makeovers" and ever crappier sequels.

Instead, how about the suits learn from history and bring together a slew of burgoning talent, give them a huge stack of blank paper, and keep the GQ PM's from the Consumer Products Division the hell away from them! They just might create something worth animating about for the next 50 years.

I don't know how many of you actually read the article linked at the top of this post. The bottom line behind this folly? David Janollari, president of the Kids' WB said "both boys and girls enjoyed the new action figures in test runs of the show. Their parents may be a little surprised, however."

no... you think?

- Lito

What intrigues me the most about this exhibit is how many people find it absurd. Cartoon characters aren't "real." How else is Roger Rabbit able to endure so many takes of refrigerators smashing his head, if there were a "real" skull under those ears? But the really good animators understood long ago, that the only way to get the audience to invest in a character and believe in them, is to make the characters more-- real.

Every animation studio worth it's salt provides their animators ample opportunity to closely study human and animal form and movement. The 'guru' of life drawing for animators, Glenn Vilppu gives frequent seminars while teaching at The American Animation Institute. "The bed rock of drawing the figure is the ability to draw the figure in any position from memory. Constructing the three dimensional figure from simple volumes is as important today as it was 500 years ago to the artists of the Renaissance."

A recent "innovation" in animation tools is Performance Capture. A process Robert Zemeckis and Sony Pictures used to record and translate into digital information, the body and facial movements of an actor. The process of capturing the motion of a full body is widely used in all moving media, from TV, Film, and especially video games. The holiday film Polar Express attempted to inject a more "believable" personality into it's animation by capturing not just the body, but the facial movements of the actors. The result is less than spectacular, as the audience is left with that uneasy feeling you get seeing an ultra life-like doll with dead glassy eyes... that never blink. Why? For much the same reason. Check out CNN's review-- 'Polar Express' a creepy ride.

Compare that to the overwhelming success of The Incredibles. A film that made no attempt to 'capture' the movements or direct facial expressions of the voice actors. Instead, Brad Bird and Rick Sayre at Pixar struck a balance between outrageous characters, actions, designs and believable personalities in familiar circumstances.

“I think the biggest ground that we broke was in being able to combine caricature and intentional direction, very specific things, with a base of correctness, of a physical correctness of bones, muscle, skin, all these things working on a character like Bob, so that you believe he’s alive,” said supervising technical director Rick Sayre in an interview for about.com. But it wasn't enough to make this character believable, they had to make him 'unbelievably' powerful and vulnerable enough to warrent the awe and concern of the audience. Now THAT'S "performance capture!"

If you haven't seen The Incredibles... check it out. It's going to be a knock-down drag-out battle to the top between 'The Incredibles' and 'Shrek 2' At this point, it's "too close to call."

- Lito

Those who've seen my desk at work know I'm a complete fool for mint tins. From Altoids to Starbucks, Penguin to Bawls mints-- I have over a hundred of 'em. My personal favorites are the Altoids. The "curiously strong©" flavor, the delightfully irreverent ad campaigns, everything about them is too cool.

I thought it'd be easy enough... just buy a bunch of custom tins online and hand 'em out. Unfortunately, what I found online was too expensive, unimaginative, and no telling what the mints tasted like. When I told my wife how disappointed I was, she suggested I "make my own."

So, I found well-priced empty tins sold in bulk at Specialty Bottle, glossy, round ink-jet labels and replacement ink cartridges at Desktop Publishing Supplies, and the Altoids were on sale at Sav-on Drugs and Cost Plus World Market.

I used Adobe InDesign for the layout (and a lot of influence from Altoids Sour tins).

To make sure the layout matched the pre-cut labels, I printed up test sheets and used my lighbox to tweak the alignment.

The assembly consisted of peeling labels, sticking 'em on the tins, and scooping Altoids into them over a couple of days.

The count was around 90 tins (half peppermint, half cinnamon).

The final cost, including padded envelopes and postage for out-of-town friends and family was less than the cost of most online custom shops... and the final design was much more to our liking. So far, the labels have held up to minor abuse, but they're not mass-production worthy.

- Lito

ah... it's the rank smell of a stale blog! I KNEW this was going to happen. We always get too much and start shoving things to the back of the fridge and end up forgetting all about it until the neighbors call the Health Dept over that sweaty, green cloud.

And it's not like there hasn't been anything to talk about...

- The birth of my beautiful daughter, Nadia.
- Potty-training my son, Aidan.
- The outcome of last Tuesday's election.
- anything else about California drivers that pisses me off.
- Recent movies, books I'm *sooooo* far behind in reading.
- Gearing up for house-hunting again.

Lotsa stuff the 3 (actual) people who read this blog might want to read about... or not.

Which brings me to an all too common topic... blog-spamming. I was amused and embarassed to see that my blog has dozens of comments from such upstanding contributors as "penis enlargement", "weight loss information propalene", and "teen sex." I have so few posts, it'll be an easy task to just trim and block 'em out. So far I haven't had enough reason to disable comments (even though the legitimate comments number around... 2).

more later (even if it's muuuuch later) ;-)

Peace!

- Lito

My wife, kid and I have driven the 800 some-odd miles back to our home town of El Paso several times since moving to 'trafficopolis' five years ago. On our last drive back she and I both noticed a disturbing trend-- DVD video screens within the DRIVER's view. Now, I can personally attest to the vast nothingness that spans the horizon during a 17-hour drive on I-10. I actually enjoy some of that 'nothingness' after staring at miles of tail-lights in LA every day. Regardless, what's the one thing we've all heard for as long as there's been cars? Say it with me-- "Keep your eyes on the road."

USA Today: "This year, 33 states have considered 83 bills dealing with distracted driving, Sundeen says. Though 22 of those bills focused on the use of handheld cell phones, others looked at television monitors, DVD players and other car gadgets."

They should "consider" a little faster, else court precedence absolve us of any responsibility-- Driver cleared of death crash while watching DVD.

As for all the recent gripes about SUV's, LA traffic, fuel consumption, tax breaks for WMDs (wagons of massive dimensions), driving habits, etc. Think about it-- Do you ever get as irrate with such vibrant language and gestures as you do behind the wheel? When I'm at the bank or post office, I don't start swearing a blue-streak when someone gets into the line before I do. I don't start running with my shopping cart and whip around slow-moving customers at the grocery store. Now, I'm actually pretty good about not doing that all the time in traffic. But it still happens (especially when someone takes my parking space!)

So what's up with that? Is it really about the act of driving? or is it actually about the things we can/can't control while getting where we're going? ... where we're going in our relationships, in our careers, as individuals, as a nation?

Just how much road rage is really about "something else"?

I'll ask my wife, the Psychologist to blog on this some other time.

For now, how about we just chill the hell out and not kill each other and our families with several tons of flying steel? I'd really appreciate it.

- Lito

Alas, the only place we actually submitted an offer for was not interested in anyone with 100% financing. The recent explosion in real estate prices combined with all-time low interest rates made for quite a volatile market. A lot of people jumped into the market with very risky loans right when interest rates started to bounce back. As mentioned in a recent New York Times article, The Ever More Graspable, and Risky, American Dream. Use account info
user: noneof
password: yourbusiness
to read the article.

At either rate, we decided to hold off our search until 2005. It's too close to the pending birth of our daughter and it allows us more time to save up, since our purchasing power is bound to shrink as interest rates start to climb back up.

- Lito

Andy Bowers of MSN Slate did some digging, and came to an interesting realization-- California's SUV Ban

I admit, it's not likely the authorities are going to do anything about it, but there is a certain satisfaction knowing these WMDs (wagons of massive dimensions) are at some level, banned wagons!

- Lito

I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 right after it hit the theaters. It was not a sold-out crowd. No one protested for or against it outside the lobby. It was just another showing of yet another film in "a theater near you." But it moved me. It moved me to laughter, fear, embarrassment, anger, and hope. As the film ended and the credits rolled, I noticed no one got up to leave. It wasn't until the lights came up, that people made their way to the exits. As they left, they talked. Talked about what they saw as truth and/or fiction. Talked about their frustrations at the state of the nation and foreign affairs. Talked about the legitimacy of the war. And most importantly, talked about what to DO next. As for me, I went straight home, ran upstairs, held my son and wife and wept. I bawled like a baby. Why? Because I still can. Because neither I nor Ruth are placed in harm's way at the order of this administration nor for the profit of our employers. Because my child's home and school are not suspected storage houses for terrorist weapons making them viable targets of cluster bombs, bunker-busters, or cruise missiles. Because our religious and political leaders have not indoctrinated us to believe our people's only hope is to blow our asses off in public venues so our enemies stature and security destabilize. Because my son and unborn daughter have more options than either a basketball scholarship or the military as alternatives to poverty and/or crime. Because I fear for our future in ways I could not even imagine four years ago.

My 7-month pregnant wife asked if we were both going to see it over the weekend, and I advised against it. I'm certain we'll be able to rent it soon enough. However, at the moment she's rife with hormones and unable to sit through an entire movie without at least one restroom break anyway. We can't even watch the evening news anymore, it upsets her too much. While I have strong misgivings over where we, as a nation are headed, I can't allow those misgivings to distract me from the immediate needs of my family and preparing for the arrival of our daughter.

Now, is Michael Moore presenting a true documentary with impartial, unedited footage devoid of supposition? You're kidding me, right!?! Michael Moore! It's like asking Rush Limbaugh to make an unbiased film about the Clinton administration! Moore's films aren't history, they're propaganda. Just like the propaganda we watched a year ago with embedded journalists and anchormen rolling through the desert in caravans of tanks and unarmored hummers decrying the human rights violation of televising U.S. prisoners and casualties, while "liberal" ABC New's Ted Koppel aired smoldering roadside remains the very same night.

Whew... too many tacos and Abuelitia's tortillas have taxed my soapbox's structural integrity. Anyway, my fervent wish is that this film and others like it (on BOTH sides of the aisle) mobilize the electorate to not only exercise their rights and cast their ballot, but to voice their needs, concerns... even demands to their Representatives, Senators, Council Members, School Board Members, Mayors, Governors-- the people working FOR the People!

- Lito

"Darkness cannot drive out darkenss, only Light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only Love can do that."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
- Albert Einstein

"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
- Mahatma Gandhi

"I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends."
- Abraham Lincoln

Friends and coworkers taunt me with smaller/more feature-rich/higher resolution/more expensive alternatives. I'm content enough... for now. Others aren't so. Turning to a marriage between film and digital to produce
"some of the highest-resolution landscape photographs ever made."

"Mountain I, a 5-foot-by-10-foot color photograph captured by that camera, is on display at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York through July 30.

Details of the mountain's snowcapped peak -- 7 miles from the camera -- are in sharp focus, as are individual blades of grass only 100 feet away. When sections of the image are magnified nearly four times, other details are clearly visible: the shingles on a barn 4,000 feet from the camera, a red bird in the grass 150 feet away."

Now, if only Ross could make a pocket-size version....

wow. Even after dismal failures, like 'The Black Cauldron' and 'Oliver and Compay', Disney still came back to produce some of the most stunning animated features seen in generations. Hell! 'Beauty and the Beast' was even nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 1992! But check this out... 'Beauty' banked some $25m at the box office... 'Treasure Planet' made $38m and it's considered a flop. Well, yeah! When you spend some $100m to make a movie, you expect at least $100.1m back!!

So how much money is the general public willing to spend on animation? The current animated golden child is 'Finding Nemo' which net (pun intended) some $340m at the box office ALONE. Throw in rental, DVD sales, secondary marketing-- toys, clothing, games, etc and you're looking at massive-sick money. As with any film, the gamble is how much money do you spend to make money?

Disney is known world-wide for hand-drawn animated features. They don't have to try and out-do themselves every turn. They could've pulled back production from 1 to 2 films a year to 1 every 2 years and keep costs below $20m. Gee... who'dathunk? workin' on a budget! Like the rest of us stiffs!

But Eisner has sported a mad-on to bury the animation division since he took the throne. And since Pixar declined to renew partnership productions with them (woo hoo!), Disney is on their own to try and compete with them. The worst of Pixar's films still made a huge profit and buried the best of Disney's recent attempts. My hope is Pixar provides enough competition for another legendary Disney comeback.

Until then, maybe more people will plunk their hard-earned cash down to see the fantastic new animated features from far-off lands, like France's The Triplets of Belleville, Japan's Spirited Away and Spain's forthcoming El Cid.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ponied up a cool mil for the first unmanned vehicle to navigate a 210 mile race from Barstow, California to Primm, Nevada... in under 10 hours. The actual path won't be announced until a few hours before the race.

CalTech, Carnegie Mellon University, and even a HIGH SCHOOL are in the running for the big bucks.

I love my new car.

No, really. I love the way it drives. I love how quiet it is. I love how responsive it is. I love how much less gas it burns. I love that city, state and federal legislative bodies reward me for conserving energy--

Federal:
More Honda Vehicles Certified for Clean-Fuel Vehicle Deduction
Woo hoo! I get money back for buying a hybrid! "Under the law, the one-time deduction must be taken in the year the vehicle was originally used. The taxpayer must be the original owner." .... crap.... I bought it used. BUT! If I bought a new $85,000 Hummer for my business... then with enough creative accounting, I could write THE WHOLE THING OFF!

State:
Doesn't California knows better than to allow such a loophole in the State Tax Code? nah uh--
Bill to Close Luxury SUV Tax Loophole Fails on Assembly Floor

What about State tax incentives?
The Efficient Vehicle Incentive Program has no more funding available for hybrid vehicles.

But I can at least drive solo in the carpool lanes, right? .... nope....
Why can't the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight get a carpool lane sticker?

Local:
Any love from Los Angeles?
Alternative Fueled Vehicles Consumer Incentives
"Because the State does not issue DMV HOV lane access stickers to hybrid vehicles, they are not included in the City's Program allowing free parking at City Meters."

But if I lived in San Jose--
Clean-Fuel Vehicle Purchase Incentive Program

::sigh::

If you've considered purchasing an alternative fuels vehicle, don't let any of this discourage you. I'm still saving a bundle on gas and loving everything else about my car. Just because the much touted consumer incentives we hear about have absolutely no teeth, doesn't mean Hybrids aren't good investments to consider.

And did I mention I love my car?

- Lito

Gas prices out here are already hitting $2.50/GAL and projected to reach over $3 by the end of the year. Driving my 1991, straight-six, 4WD Jeep Cherokee in rush-hour traffic through the "worst freeway bottleneck in the nation" at 12 - 15 MPG costs me up to $200 a month in gas.

This Honda will cut that by up to 75%.

This Honda will cut that by up to 75%. That, PLUS the $1,500 tax deduction I'll receive next year, puts me in the green in more ways than one!

- Lito