I haven't written about what I've been listening to lately and since I've been listening to some very different things lately, I thought I'd provide some recommendations. And yes, I'm putting my reputation on the line by encouraging you to listen (and perhaps even buy!) this music ;)
In the "Most Spinned" category is The Bravery. I first heard about these guys on New Year's Eve last year as one of the DJs on Live105 was spinning some tracks by artists he though would break out during 2005. I loved the track he played at the time, but it took me a while to remember the name. So it was at least March or April before I even listened to it again. Well, I'm glad I found the info since I've been listening to this album at least once a week for the past 3 or 4 months. If I had the CD, I'm sure it would be all worn out by now! Thank heavens for digital music ;) So what's The Bravery like? Well, they're definitely part of the 80's throwback crowd like The Killers, but The Bravery seem to do it much better. They seem less conscious about trying to sound 80s-ish and in my opinion, just have a better sound. Their tracks are a bit more dance-y than Franz Ferdinand or The Killers and that be part of the reason I like the sound - it gets my energy going. But here's the odd thing...they also remind my of Joy Division. In fact, when the Live105 DJ was introducing the band last year, he referenced Joy Division and how The Bravery were one of the few bands who could harken back to them without sounding like rip-offs.
Anyways, the album is great from beginning to end. There's an amazing remix of "Honest Mistake" which really harkens back to 80's 12" remixes building up sounds, then breaking them down, and then back up. Great stuff all round. Give it a whirl.
Next album to throw in the cart would be M.I.A.'s Arular. I won't go into the love affair that Sepia Mutiny has with her. Not to say that she doesn't deserve it, but there's no need for me to rehash it all. Anyways, M.I.A. caught my attention first simply because there was buzz about some South Asian chick. I don't normally follow-up on this buzz since there's only a small chance of anything coming of the buzz. In this case, however, I actually liked her first single and decided to give her a chance. I've since listened to her album and have found it to be very listenable. Now, let me say that many people will not like her music simply because of the genre. I don't know if it's official or anything, but I would place M.I.A. in UK-garage. It's a genre which I like, but it's something that many people wouldn't ever want to listen to.
So anyways, it's a good listen. The buzz about her seems to be growing and it's well deserved. Some random examples about growing buzz: she's opening for Gwen Stefani on part of her concert tour and she's got "Galang" playing during a Honda Civic ad.
I may post a little more about music I've been listen to lately, but for now, you should have some fun with these two albums.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Thursday, October 27, 2005
On the Line
Ok, so I promise to cut back on the post about business and some of the things I've learned while starting up this photography thing...for the time being though, here's something I've thought a lot about:
I heard something interesting a few weeks ago at work about customer satisfaction. You can ask customers a million different questions about how satisfied they are with you, but there's a single question you can ask to really find out how you're doing: Would you refer us (to friends, family, colleagues, etc)?
Why is that such an important measure of success? Because it's asking if your customer is willing to put their reputations on the line. Why is it putting their rep on the line? Because they're essentially telling their friend, "I had a good experience with this and you should trust me on this recommendation"
If the friend does indeed have a good experience, then they'll trust future recommendations from that person even more. If they have a bad experience, then maybe future referrals will be taken with a grain of salt.
Personally, I don't want anyone to take anything I say with a grain of salt! Unless I'm just joking around, I expect people to believe what I'm saying and trust recommendations I make. If I don't have a specific recommendation, then I might tell them about someone or somewhere they can get a rec from, but I'm not going to give them a random referral because I don't want to lessen the trust that person has in me.
Soooo...bringing this back to the photo business...I want every client of our's confident enough in our work that they will provide referrals to their friends, family, and anyone that asks.
In creating a customer satisfaction survey, we may be asking several questions of our clients, but for me, the one response I'm most interested in is whether our client would refer us in the future. That answer alone tells me so much.
And we remind our clients about that. Our goal is not only to satisfy them in their experience with us, it is to give them enough confidence to tell their friends and family about us.
What's more, this whole "my reputation is on the line" thing goes both ways. Our clients ask us about referrals for other services, like mendhi, event coordinators, etc. Generally, we don't refer many people simply because we haven't found other vendors whom we can trust enough to put our own business's reputation on the line. As we spend more time in this industry, I'm sure we'll have a nice list, but at this point, we don't. And if people ask us, we tell them.
So it's nice to know if we're easy to do business with, or that our style of photography is lovely, or we're really professional, but if I don't hear that our client is willing to refer us, then we've failed in our goal of satisfying our customer.
Nuff said.
I heard something interesting a few weeks ago at work about customer satisfaction. You can ask customers a million different questions about how satisfied they are with you, but there's a single question you can ask to really find out how you're doing: Would you refer us (to friends, family, colleagues, etc)?
Why is that such an important measure of success? Because it's asking if your customer is willing to put their reputations on the line. Why is it putting their rep on the line? Because they're essentially telling their friend, "I had a good experience with this and you should trust me on this recommendation"
If the friend does indeed have a good experience, then they'll trust future recommendations from that person even more. If they have a bad experience, then maybe future referrals will be taken with a grain of salt.
Personally, I don't want anyone to take anything I say with a grain of salt! Unless I'm just joking around, I expect people to believe what I'm saying and trust recommendations I make. If I don't have a specific recommendation, then I might tell them about someone or somewhere they can get a rec from, but I'm not going to give them a random referral because I don't want to lessen the trust that person has in me.
Soooo...bringing this back to the photo business...I want every client of our's confident enough in our work that they will provide referrals to their friends, family, and anyone that asks.
In creating a customer satisfaction survey, we may be asking several questions of our clients, but for me, the one response I'm most interested in is whether our client would refer us in the future. That answer alone tells me so much.
And we remind our clients about that. Our goal is not only to satisfy them in their experience with us, it is to give them enough confidence to tell their friends and family about us.
What's more, this whole "my reputation is on the line" thing goes both ways. Our clients ask us about referrals for other services, like mendhi, event coordinators, etc. Generally, we don't refer many people simply because we haven't found other vendors whom we can trust enough to put our own business's reputation on the line. As we spend more time in this industry, I'm sure we'll have a nice list, but at this point, we don't. And if people ask us, we tell them.
So it's nice to know if we're easy to do business with, or that our style of photography is lovely, or we're really professional, but if I don't hear that our client is willing to refer us, then we've failed in our goal of satisfying our customer.
Nuff said.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
It's the Quality Stupid!
Starting this photography business has been quite an experience so far. It's been less than a year since we started and we've signed up many more clients than we could have hoped for. Let's leave the reasons for that for another posting, but I'd just like to focus on one part of our running our business: Quality.
From the start my partner and I have always said that we want to be proud of the work that we do and we want our clients to feel the same way. Generically, this should probably be true of any work that a person does, but the reality is that quality can sometimes be forgotten when time is short.
So it's nice how things have worked out between my partner and me. We tend to focus on different aspects of quality, although we don't necessarily focus on just that area. I tend to be most concerned about the technical quality of our work. So that includes the camera bodies, lenses, data workflows, archiving, etc. My partner tends to remind me about the creative quality of our work. And in this business, that is so much more important than what I'm used to in my day job. I would say the quality of relationships with our clients is just as important, but I'm just going talk about the creative aspect right now.
Creative quality isn't just a matter of "being creative", it's a matter of having guidelines for ourselves around what we want to do, what we'll do to satisfy clients, and what we'll decline because it's outside of the realm of things we want to focus on. It includes ensuring our "style" is evident in all of our work. Style is obviously a vague thing, but it's one of those "I know it when I see it" things, and even more striking, it's one of those "I know it when it's not there" things. So it's very important to keep mindful of.
To be honest, we talk about our style and how we love to take certain types of photos, but we're really growing into it and understanding it better as we go along. And that's probably true of any person. Because it's such a vague thing, I don't think someone can define style in advance and fulfill the definition at each step. We can set up guidelines for ourselves about what is and isn't our style, but those guidelines take better shape as we get more experienced.
And that's what keeps this stuff so interesting. If one of us tries something out (either while taking the photos or while editing them) and we both like it, we'll try it out more often, and eventually it may become one of our hallmark things - a calling card if you will.
So back to my original point: keeping an eye of the quality of what we do is something I'm so much more mindful of than I've ever been. And I didn't expect to think about it so often a year ago. Sure I've aimed to do quality stuff at my day job, but if I slack now and again, it's not really a huge deal. But with our business, it's very difficult to get away with anything but the best. Each client of our's has so much riding on our work that it would be a huge letdown for them if we didn't put our all into. Afterall, they're not just paying us to take photos, they're paying us for something very specific. And that's our quality.
From the start my partner and I have always said that we want to be proud of the work that we do and we want our clients to feel the same way. Generically, this should probably be true of any work that a person does, but the reality is that quality can sometimes be forgotten when time is short.
So it's nice how things have worked out between my partner and me. We tend to focus on different aspects of quality, although we don't necessarily focus on just that area. I tend to be most concerned about the technical quality of our work. So that includes the camera bodies, lenses, data workflows, archiving, etc. My partner tends to remind me about the creative quality of our work. And in this business, that is so much more important than what I'm used to in my day job. I would say the quality of relationships with our clients is just as important, but I'm just going talk about the creative aspect right now.
Creative quality isn't just a matter of "being creative", it's a matter of having guidelines for ourselves around what we want to do, what we'll do to satisfy clients, and what we'll decline because it's outside of the realm of things we want to focus on. It includes ensuring our "style" is evident in all of our work. Style is obviously a vague thing, but it's one of those "I know it when I see it" things, and even more striking, it's one of those "I know it when it's not there" things. So it's very important to keep mindful of.
To be honest, we talk about our style and how we love to take certain types of photos, but we're really growing into it and understanding it better as we go along. And that's probably true of any person. Because it's such a vague thing, I don't think someone can define style in advance and fulfill the definition at each step. We can set up guidelines for ourselves about what is and isn't our style, but those guidelines take better shape as we get more experienced.
And that's what keeps this stuff so interesting. If one of us tries something out (either while taking the photos or while editing them) and we both like it, we'll try it out more often, and eventually it may become one of our hallmark things - a calling card if you will.
So back to my original point: keeping an eye of the quality of what we do is something I'm so much more mindful of than I've ever been. And I didn't expect to think about it so often a year ago. Sure I've aimed to do quality stuff at my day job, but if I slack now and again, it's not really a huge deal. But with our business, it's very difficult to get away with anything but the best. Each client of our's has so much riding on our work that it would be a huge letdown for them if we didn't put our all into. Afterall, they're not just paying us to take photos, they're paying us for something very specific. And that's our quality.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Overheard...
I know you're all looking for a great way to waste away your day. Let me afflict you with the most time-wasting activity known to humankind: Websurfing.
Here's the latest time waster: Overheard. There are two sisters sites, one for comments overheard in the office and the other for comments overheard in the New York. The idea is that people say the oddest things, and they sound even more odd when taken out of the context of the larger conversation. Of course, that's what makes the comments so fun to read. Mind you, these comments aren't for the faint of heart.
Here's an example of one of the tamer comments from Overheard In The Office:
The two sites can be found here:
OverheardInNewYork
OverheardInTheOffice
Also, while these two sites are great, I must give major props to the originator: In Passing. Eve, the site's owner, started posting comments she heard in passing in Berkeley while she was a student there. She has since graduated and gotten very busy with her chosen career. Even so, it's great to read the archives for a great idea of the insanity (and inanity) that is Berkeley.
Here's the latest time waster: Overheard. There are two sisters sites, one for comments overheard in the office and the other for comments overheard in the New York. The idea is that people say the oddest things, and they sound even more odd when taken out of the context of the larger conversation. Of course, that's what makes the comments so fun to read. Mind you, these comments aren't for the faint of heart.
Here's an example of one of the tamer comments from Overheard In The Office:
Co-worker #1: So, do you get Columbus Day off from school?
Co-worker #2: No, we only get holidays for black people and Jesus.
The two sites can be found here:
OverheardInNewYork
OverheardInTheOffice
Also, while these two sites are great, I must give major props to the originator: In Passing. Eve, the site's owner, started posting comments she heard in passing in Berkeley while she was a student there. She has since graduated and gotten very busy with her chosen career. Even so, it's great to read the archives for a great idea of the insanity (and inanity) that is Berkeley.
Car Rental blahs...
I haven't been travelling much lately so I haven't had to deal with a rental cars in quite a while. I've never really had big issues with rental car companies and have never had anything remotely similar to what is shown on rental car company TV commercials.
The only reason I had to rent a car was because my Audi was in the body shop getting repairs to the front fender. I'm not going to talk about the process of renting and returning the car, because it was pretty straight forward. I just want to mention a few things about the car I drove for a week: the Chevy Equinox
I didn't really care which car I ended up with, but since they gave me a choice, I picked a car which I hadn't driven in the past. So how was the car? Well, there was nothing really wrong with it. But then again, there was nothing really right with it either. My comment to the rental car guy when returning it was "Too big on the outside, too small on the inside."
In fact, the Equinox is a pretty small SUV, but it seemed to take way too much space in the garage. I always had to squeeze out of the car whether in the garage or in a parking spot. And what did I get for all that space taken up? Well, not too much. I'm not talking about luxury & creature comforts. Since it's a rental car, I don't really epxect that. But in terms of conviences that should be included as part of the car, it just didn't feel as useful as our Honda Pilot. From simple things like sturdy cup holders (there were enough cup holders, but they were all rather flimsy and I had to keep glancing at my cup to make sure my coffee wasn't spilling out. I never feel like I need to do that with the Pilot or my A4. Shopping bag hooks in the cargo area are so useful and obvious in our Pilot that I was surprised when there weren't any built into the sidewalls of the Equinox. Overall, things seemed a bit flimsy on the inside. I'm not referring to the level of luxury, I'm just referring to the sturdiness of what is included. The biggest issue I had with the thing was the turning radius. I had trouble pulling into every parking spot I tried, no mater how much space I had. I ended up taking 3 and 4 point turns just to get the thing into a spot. I never have to do that with the Pilot and the A4.
So my take on this is that the Equinox isn't designed for the main thing people do with it: Drive it around town.
This is an issue with most SUVs. Clearly most people who buy SUVs aren't going to be driving down dirt roads any time soon, if ever. So I still don't get why car companies don't design their SUVs to perform better in the situations where they're used most often. SUV ads now claim they're great for city driving, but I think that's just marketing spin without any real changes to how the SUVs have been designed.
I feel like our Pilot is quite a bit better designed for city driving: great turning radius, lots of obvious conveniences inside, and generally drives likes it's much smaller. It could, however, certainly be improved.
Anyways, net-net on the Equinox: Don't bother. If you like Chevy's just go for the Tahoe since it's better designed. If you want something small for suburban life, there's much better out there from Toyota, Honda, and the like.
I'm much happier to have my A4 back and much prefer driving the Pilot when I need something bigger.
The only reason I had to rent a car was because my Audi was in the body shop getting repairs to the front fender. I'm not going to talk about the process of renting and returning the car, because it was pretty straight forward. I just want to mention a few things about the car I drove for a week: the Chevy Equinox
I didn't really care which car I ended up with, but since they gave me a choice, I picked a car which I hadn't driven in the past. So how was the car? Well, there was nothing really wrong with it. But then again, there was nothing really right with it either. My comment to the rental car guy when returning it was "Too big on the outside, too small on the inside."
In fact, the Equinox is a pretty small SUV, but it seemed to take way too much space in the garage. I always had to squeeze out of the car whether in the garage or in a parking spot. And what did I get for all that space taken up? Well, not too much. I'm not talking about luxury & creature comforts. Since it's a rental car, I don't really epxect that. But in terms of conviences that should be included as part of the car, it just didn't feel as useful as our Honda Pilot. From simple things like sturdy cup holders (there were enough cup holders, but they were all rather flimsy and I had to keep glancing at my cup to make sure my coffee wasn't spilling out. I never feel like I need to do that with the Pilot or my A4. Shopping bag hooks in the cargo area are so useful and obvious in our Pilot that I was surprised when there weren't any built into the sidewalls of the Equinox. Overall, things seemed a bit flimsy on the inside. I'm not referring to the level of luxury, I'm just referring to the sturdiness of what is included. The biggest issue I had with the thing was the turning radius. I had trouble pulling into every parking spot I tried, no mater how much space I had. I ended up taking 3 and 4 point turns just to get the thing into a spot. I never have to do that with the Pilot and the A4.
So my take on this is that the Equinox isn't designed for the main thing people do with it: Drive it around town.
This is an issue with most SUVs. Clearly most people who buy SUVs aren't going to be driving down dirt roads any time soon, if ever. So I still don't get why car companies don't design their SUVs to perform better in the situations where they're used most often. SUV ads now claim they're great for city driving, but I think that's just marketing spin without any real changes to how the SUVs have been designed.
I feel like our Pilot is quite a bit better designed for city driving: great turning radius, lots of obvious conveniences inside, and generally drives likes it's much smaller. It could, however, certainly be improved.
Anyways, net-net on the Equinox: Don't bother. If you like Chevy's just go for the Tahoe since it's better designed. If you want something small for suburban life, there's much better out there from Toyota, Honda, and the like.
I'm much happier to have my A4 back and much prefer driving the Pilot when I need something bigger.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Appreciative
Ok...for the people that read my blog frequently, you're going to be tired of this since I occassionaly go off on this....but can I just say I'm appreciative of the life I've been given?
For once I won't mention my wife, dog, and friends in this context. I'll mention the people I work with. While there are many folks who say the right things (and don't neccessarily add much more), I rarely reflect upon a colleague and think that I'm better simply for having the person on my team. On the way home from a work dinner tonight, I reflected upon some people like that this evening. And no, it wasn't the wine talking. I've already thought highly of said people. It's just that this evening, I've had the chance to step aside from the work situations and really appreciate what these people bring.
Ok, go ahead and tell me how tired you are of hearing about the good things in my life. Now go back to reading about the latest iPod. It's much cooler than I could ever be anyways :P
For once I won't mention my wife, dog, and friends in this context. I'll mention the people I work with. While there are many folks who say the right things (and don't neccessarily add much more), I rarely reflect upon a colleague and think that I'm better simply for having the person on my team. On the way home from a work dinner tonight, I reflected upon some people like that this evening. And no, it wasn't the wine talking. I've already thought highly of said people. It's just that this evening, I've had the chance to step aside from the work situations and really appreciate what these people bring.
Ok, go ahead and tell me how tired you are of hearing about the good things in my life. Now go back to reading about the latest iPod. It's much cooler than I could ever be anyways :P
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Relationship Building
I'm not one to meet and talk to new people all the time. However, I definitely recognize the utility of building relationships with an ever expanding group of people. Not just to serve some end goal of mine, but simply to know these people....
Tonight was one of those nights where I was reminded of the importance of getting to know people. We had a happy hour with colleagues after an all day meeting. The idea was for folks from San Jose and folks from other offices to get together after a long day of presentations and business speak. It turned out that most of the folks from San Jose didn't come to the happy hour since they plan on coming to dinner on Wednesday evening.
I actually ended up spending a lot of time at the happy hour. I sort of feel bad for this since my wife was at home while I was out having drinks. But this situation helped put into perspective why I came to the happy hour in the first place. It wasn't to get a few free drinks (afterall, what's $10 in the scheme of things?). It wasn't to get to know more about the issues my colleagues were facing in their jobs. That's what the daytime meetings were for. It was really to build relationships with them. These relationships may help me in my day job and they may not, but I wasn't so concerned about that over a pint of beer.
To be honest, I could care less about our day jobs since I really have no desire to stay in my current job in the long run. But at the end of the night I found a lot of value in simply knowing my colleagues apart from their jobs. It's nice to know that one of my co-workers moved from Ireland to Brussels and hopes to never move back to the place he grew up in. It's nice to know that another of my co-workers had to convince her parents to live near her home after their retirement.
Will this knowledge ever help me in my day job? Probably. Do I care if it doesn't? No.
And that's the point. I rarely make an effort to meet new people. But when I do, I find such great fulfillment in knowing more about those around me. It makes me wonder why I don't do such things more often. I guess I have to be satisfied in simply being thrown into positions where I don't have to make much effort. In such cases, I go full bore and take advantage of the situation. Unfortunately my wife had to sit alone at home in this case, but did I find something to gain out of it? Yes.
Now I'll just have to spend a little more time at home :)
Tonight was one of those nights where I was reminded of the importance of getting to know people. We had a happy hour with colleagues after an all day meeting. The idea was for folks from San Jose and folks from other offices to get together after a long day of presentations and business speak. It turned out that most of the folks from San Jose didn't come to the happy hour since they plan on coming to dinner on Wednesday evening.
I actually ended up spending a lot of time at the happy hour. I sort of feel bad for this since my wife was at home while I was out having drinks. But this situation helped put into perspective why I came to the happy hour in the first place. It wasn't to get a few free drinks (afterall, what's $10 in the scheme of things?). It wasn't to get to know more about the issues my colleagues were facing in their jobs. That's what the daytime meetings were for. It was really to build relationships with them. These relationships may help me in my day job and they may not, but I wasn't so concerned about that over a pint of beer.
To be honest, I could care less about our day jobs since I really have no desire to stay in my current job in the long run. But at the end of the night I found a lot of value in simply knowing my colleagues apart from their jobs. It's nice to know that one of my co-workers moved from Ireland to Brussels and hopes to never move back to the place he grew up in. It's nice to know that another of my co-workers had to convince her parents to live near her home after their retirement.
Will this knowledge ever help me in my day job? Probably. Do I care if it doesn't? No.
And that's the point. I rarely make an effort to meet new people. But when I do, I find such great fulfillment in knowing more about those around me. It makes me wonder why I don't do such things more often. I guess I have to be satisfied in simply being thrown into positions where I don't have to make much effort. In such cases, I go full bore and take advantage of the situation. Unfortunately my wife had to sit alone at home in this case, but did I find something to gain out of it? Yes.
Now I'll just have to spend a little more time at home :)
Monday, October 17, 2005
Mac and Me
No, I'm not talking about the 80's movie. I'm talking about my foray into the world of macintosh computers. With the new photography business we had to buy new desktop machines and we decided to go with Macs since we'd have to do video and other more multimedia oriented tasks.
It's been about 4 months since I started using the Mac so I guess I should give an opinion on it...
I should start out by saying that I'm a fan of Apple, but I'm not a fanatic. I don't own an iPod and I don't plan on getting one any time soon (although my wife loves her pink iPod Mini).
I've always heard about the advantages of OS X and the iLife apps, but wasn't sure if I'd actually use any of them without the excuse of the business.
So first things first...Apple is very concerned about the experience of owning a Mac right from when you bring the box home. Upon opening the huge box which our PowerMacs came in I found one sheet of paper with 5 steps on it to get started, two cables, a keyboard, and mouse. For some reason, this seemed really easy to me. Especially after I opened up the HP printer box and there was a ridiculous instruction sheet just to set up the printer.
Second, the look of the OS X desktop is mesmerizing. Maybe it's the calming blue of the default desktop or maybe just the idea of owning a "cool" computer. Either way, the screen still sort of hypnotizes me and helps me shut out other distractions and get down to work.
My first dislike about the Mac came pretty quickly and that's with the mouse. I don't so much mind the single-button, but for some reason, the mouse just doesn't seem sensitive enough. I mis-click and over shoot my target often enough that it's annoying. And this isn't just about getting used to a new mouse, I've since switched to a multi-button microsoft mouse similar to what I have at work and I still have problems. What's the deal with that? At this point, it's not just annoying, it's really frustrating especially when using Photoshop (which I use a lot) since the palettes line up right next to the dock (which I have along the right side). I feel like trying out a few different mice just to see if there's any way around this issue. Maybe I'll try fiddling with the mouse sensitivity settings again...
My first love about the Mac came with iDVD. It's funny because I don't use iDVD as much as iMovie or iTunes (I never use Garageband). I'm used to iTunes from Windows and I think it's really powerful and the fact that every competitor is copying the organization method is a sign of how well designed iTunes is. iMovie is great, but I'm used to Windows Movie Maker (which is truly a rip-off of iMovie). So using iMovie is really satisfying but I didn't drop my jaw. I did, however, drop my jaw an inch when I first used iDVD. First of all, it's well integrated with iMovie so you can create a DVD menu and burn it very simply after you're done in iMovie. This can't be said about Windows Movie Maker since there is no MS app which will create DVD menus and render discs for you. 3rd party DVD software on Windows has always underwhelmed me so just the fact that I can click a single button in iMovie and have iDVD open with a ready-made menu with all of my movie chapters ready to roll is reason enough to smile. But let's talk about the menu templates which iDVD comes with. Actually, I'm a bit speechless. To say the least, they're very slick. Very slick. I feel bad taking credit for a nice DVD experience (which our clients always compliment us on) since it's really iDVD which makes the experience so nice from the moment you pop in the DVD. Apple done good with iLife, integration across apps (iTunes and iPhoto are well integrated with iMovie too), and iDVD especially.
Speaking of iPhoto, I'm greatly disappointed by it. Picasa is much better for general photo management. iPhoto does have the ability create photo books and the integration with iMovie is useful, but Picasa has so many more useful features that the two can't compare. When a pro photographer recommends Picasa to anyone who'll listen (which I any time I'm asked for a rec), take that as a good sign. For the average person, Picasa can replace Photoshop without problems. iPhoto is just a hindrance for us in many ways. If I could, I'd switch it out with Picasa on moment's notive (Google are you listening?!)
Dashboard is one of the new elements of OS X Tiger and it's pretty useful. I like the implementation better than Konfabulator (Apple should really acknowledge that they ripped off Konfabulator like a mutha) since I don't like how Konfabulator defaults to showing widgets on top of everything. That's just a personal choice though since I can see how having certain widgets on top of all windows would be useful. The fact that Dashboard widgets are only visible when you bring up the whole Dashboard is kind of lame and Apple should add the ability to see widgets without having to bring up the whole dashboard. In any case, I don't use Dashboard too much, but when I need it, it's nice to have for a quick calculation, map look-up, or date check, etc. If you don't have a Mac, I highly recommend checking out Konfabulator. Since Yahoo! bought them, it's a free download now and definitely worth trying out.
The bigger functionality improvement in OS X Tiger is probably Spotlight, which lets you search for anything and find results quickly. I find Spotlight very useful. Rather than create shortcuts for everything, I can just type in something quickly and get simple, organized results quickly. I tend to use spotlight more often than dashboard.
One quirk about OS X I still can't get my arms around: when you click the red X button in the top left of application windows, some apps actually quit while others just close the window even tho the app is still running in the background. I actually like the latter since it's nice to have certain apps running all the time but not have them waste space. But the problem is that some apps don't follow this rule. I thought Apple were sticklers for how applications should interact with the user and certain actions should always have the same effect? So what's up with this?
Same goes for switching between windows within the same application. In OS X you can click "Apple-`" to cycle between windows within the same application, like multiple browser windows, etc (just like "Apple-tab" switched between apps). This is quite useful, but the problem is that it doesn't work in all apps. ESPECIALLY Photoshop! Photoshop is where I need this functionality the most! Alas, I must click through the various windows to get to the photo I need.
There are quite a few other interesting things in OS X, but I'll leave it be. This post is getting rather long.
Oh, one last item...the keyboard commands for home, end, jump one word at a time, and jumping to the beginning/end of a line are all different in OS X. Since I'm used to Windows for such keyboard navigation, I find this really frustrating. I've tried to remember to use the appropriate Mac keystrokes, but the Windows versions are totally motor memory for me, so it's been tough. Oh well.
And can I say that the Mac keyboard looks cool, but it gets dirty as hell? White may look nice, but it doesnt stay clean at all!
It's been about 4 months since I started using the Mac so I guess I should give an opinion on it...
I should start out by saying that I'm a fan of Apple, but I'm not a fanatic. I don't own an iPod and I don't plan on getting one any time soon (although my wife loves her pink iPod Mini).
I've always heard about the advantages of OS X and the iLife apps, but wasn't sure if I'd actually use any of them without the excuse of the business.
So first things first...Apple is very concerned about the experience of owning a Mac right from when you bring the box home. Upon opening the huge box which our PowerMacs came in I found one sheet of paper with 5 steps on it to get started, two cables, a keyboard, and mouse. For some reason, this seemed really easy to me. Especially after I opened up the HP printer box and there was a ridiculous instruction sheet just to set up the printer.
Second, the look of the OS X desktop is mesmerizing. Maybe it's the calming blue of the default desktop or maybe just the idea of owning a "cool" computer. Either way, the screen still sort of hypnotizes me and helps me shut out other distractions and get down to work.
My first dislike about the Mac came pretty quickly and that's with the mouse. I don't so much mind the single-button, but for some reason, the mouse just doesn't seem sensitive enough. I mis-click and over shoot my target often enough that it's annoying. And this isn't just about getting used to a new mouse, I've since switched to a multi-button microsoft mouse similar to what I have at work and I still have problems. What's the deal with that? At this point, it's not just annoying, it's really frustrating especially when using Photoshop (which I use a lot) since the palettes line up right next to the dock (which I have along the right side). I feel like trying out a few different mice just to see if there's any way around this issue. Maybe I'll try fiddling with the mouse sensitivity settings again...
My first love about the Mac came with iDVD. It's funny because I don't use iDVD as much as iMovie or iTunes (I never use Garageband). I'm used to iTunes from Windows and I think it's really powerful and the fact that every competitor is copying the organization method is a sign of how well designed iTunes is. iMovie is great, but I'm used to Windows Movie Maker (which is truly a rip-off of iMovie). So using iMovie is really satisfying but I didn't drop my jaw. I did, however, drop my jaw an inch when I first used iDVD. First of all, it's well integrated with iMovie so you can create a DVD menu and burn it very simply after you're done in iMovie. This can't be said about Windows Movie Maker since there is no MS app which will create DVD menus and render discs for you. 3rd party DVD software on Windows has always underwhelmed me so just the fact that I can click a single button in iMovie and have iDVD open with a ready-made menu with all of my movie chapters ready to roll is reason enough to smile. But let's talk about the menu templates which iDVD comes with. Actually, I'm a bit speechless. To say the least, they're very slick. Very slick. I feel bad taking credit for a nice DVD experience (which our clients always compliment us on) since it's really iDVD which makes the experience so nice from the moment you pop in the DVD. Apple done good with iLife, integration across apps (iTunes and iPhoto are well integrated with iMovie too), and iDVD especially.
Speaking of iPhoto, I'm greatly disappointed by it. Picasa is much better for general photo management. iPhoto does have the ability create photo books and the integration with iMovie is useful, but Picasa has so many more useful features that the two can't compare. When a pro photographer recommends Picasa to anyone who'll listen (which I any time I'm asked for a rec), take that as a good sign. For the average person, Picasa can replace Photoshop without problems. iPhoto is just a hindrance for us in many ways. If I could, I'd switch it out with Picasa on moment's notive (Google are you listening?!)
Dashboard is one of the new elements of OS X Tiger and it's pretty useful. I like the implementation better than Konfabulator (Apple should really acknowledge that they ripped off Konfabulator like a mutha) since I don't like how Konfabulator defaults to showing widgets on top of everything. That's just a personal choice though since I can see how having certain widgets on top of all windows would be useful. The fact that Dashboard widgets are only visible when you bring up the whole Dashboard is kind of lame and Apple should add the ability to see widgets without having to bring up the whole dashboard. In any case, I don't use Dashboard too much, but when I need it, it's nice to have for a quick calculation, map look-up, or date check, etc. If you don't have a Mac, I highly recommend checking out Konfabulator. Since Yahoo! bought them, it's a free download now and definitely worth trying out.
The bigger functionality improvement in OS X Tiger is probably Spotlight, which lets you search for anything and find results quickly. I find Spotlight very useful. Rather than create shortcuts for everything, I can just type in something quickly and get simple, organized results quickly. I tend to use spotlight more often than dashboard.
One quirk about OS X I still can't get my arms around: when you click the red X button in the top left of application windows, some apps actually quit while others just close the window even tho the app is still running in the background. I actually like the latter since it's nice to have certain apps running all the time but not have them waste space. But the problem is that some apps don't follow this rule. I thought Apple were sticklers for how applications should interact with the user and certain actions should always have the same effect? So what's up with this?
Same goes for switching between windows within the same application. In OS X you can click "Apple-`" to cycle between windows within the same application, like multiple browser windows, etc (just like "Apple-tab" switched between apps). This is quite useful, but the problem is that it doesn't work in all apps. ESPECIALLY Photoshop! Photoshop is where I need this functionality the most! Alas, I must click through the various windows to get to the photo I need.
There are quite a few other interesting things in OS X, but I'll leave it be. This post is getting rather long.
Oh, one last item...the keyboard commands for home, end, jump one word at a time, and jumping to the beginning/end of a line are all different in OS X. Since I'm used to Windows for such keyboard navigation, I find this really frustrating. I've tried to remember to use the appropriate Mac keystrokes, but the Windows versions are totally motor memory for me, so it's been tough. Oh well.
And can I say that the Mac keyboard looks cool, but it gets dirty as hell? White may look nice, but it doesnt stay clean at all!
Monday, October 10, 2005
Hitting the Sweet Spot
Sorry for not posting. I really did mean to post more often since I found the urge a few weeks ago (man, has it been that long?!). To give you an idea of how busy I've been and how tired I've become.....we went to watch the Wallace and Gromit movie yesterday and about 2/3 of the way through I actually dozed off! During a Wallace & Gromit film! Since I've loved every short film of their's, it's a real surprise to find myself so tired that I can't stay awake. In any case, it's a good movie, you should go see it. I'm also going to try and stay awake :)
So anyways, to the topic at hand...
I mentioned the photography business in an earlier post and one of the things we wanted to do is target the Indian market with something unique and (we hope) much needed. We have a photo-journalist type of approach to our work and we think it shows in our samples. We've received comment to that effect from friends, clients, and some others who've seen our work in detail.
However, yesterday was the first day that we got tons of comments from person after person. We attended a bridal fair yesterday targeting the Indian market and we seemed to be one of the few vendors meshing two worlds and hitting that sweet spot.
What's the sweet spot you ask? Well, in this case, it's something which is really unique and high quality for the people you're interested in. The photojournalist approach which we have is actually not at all unique in the world of wedding photography, but it's very new to the Indian community (at least on the West Coast). We've had that feeling all along, but that was really validated yesterday by many former brides and even more brides-to-be.
So for us, it's nice to know that we've got many potential customers who've seen our work and want to talk to us. More importantly, for them, they've now got a resource where they can have the style of photography which can make their events all the more special. And just important is that they can get that style without having to explain every last detail about Indian ceremonies and traditions. Many of the prospective brides mentioned that they it would be wonderful if they didn't have to worry whether their photographer knew about the important moments during their wedding ceremonies or worry about explaining how a garba works, etc. Granted, most good photographers can figure such things out pretty quickly, but sometimes, in the time it takes to figure things out, the special moments have already passed.
So for us, I feel like we're hitting a sweet spot where our clients really want what we have to offer not just from a quality perspective, but from an overall experience perspective.
That being said, what I was even happier to see yesterday was that there were other vendors at this fair who seemed to be taking the same approach as we are. I'll call out one vendor specifically: a wedding coordinator. Now the idea of a wedding coordinator is obviously nothing new, but it's an idea which is still catching on amongst Indians on the West Coast. We talked to this woman who was just getting started in her business targetting the Indian market along with her sister. In speaking to her, I really realized how the trend in Indian marketing is shifting focus onto a new generation of clientele. Makes sense since there's a huge number of 2nd generation Desis coming of age now.
I feel like we're on the leading edge of this trend here in the Bay Area Indian community. And that's the sweet spot. If we changed our location to New York, we'd be middle of the pack since the trend has been moving in that direction for years. If we changed our market to the general wedding community, we'd again, be middlers since wedding photojournalists have been around few years and years.
But we're focusing on the Indian market in California. And we'll stick to this market until we own it...then we'll move onto the rest of the world :)
So anyways, to the topic at hand...
I mentioned the photography business in an earlier post and one of the things we wanted to do is target the Indian market with something unique and (we hope) much needed. We have a photo-journalist type of approach to our work and we think it shows in our samples. We've received comment to that effect from friends, clients, and some others who've seen our work in detail.
However, yesterday was the first day that we got tons of comments from person after person. We attended a bridal fair yesterday targeting the Indian market and we seemed to be one of the few vendors meshing two worlds and hitting that sweet spot.
What's the sweet spot you ask? Well, in this case, it's something which is really unique and high quality for the people you're interested in. The photojournalist approach which we have is actually not at all unique in the world of wedding photography, but it's very new to the Indian community (at least on the West Coast). We've had that feeling all along, but that was really validated yesterday by many former brides and even more brides-to-be.
So for us, it's nice to know that we've got many potential customers who've seen our work and want to talk to us. More importantly, for them, they've now got a resource where they can have the style of photography which can make their events all the more special. And just important is that they can get that style without having to explain every last detail about Indian ceremonies and traditions. Many of the prospective brides mentioned that they it would be wonderful if they didn't have to worry whether their photographer knew about the important moments during their wedding ceremonies or worry about explaining how a garba works, etc. Granted, most good photographers can figure such things out pretty quickly, but sometimes, in the time it takes to figure things out, the special moments have already passed.
So for us, I feel like we're hitting a sweet spot where our clients really want what we have to offer not just from a quality perspective, but from an overall experience perspective.
That being said, what I was even happier to see yesterday was that there were other vendors at this fair who seemed to be taking the same approach as we are. I'll call out one vendor specifically: a wedding coordinator. Now the idea of a wedding coordinator is obviously nothing new, but it's an idea which is still catching on amongst Indians on the West Coast. We talked to this woman who was just getting started in her business targetting the Indian market along with her sister. In speaking to her, I really realized how the trend in Indian marketing is shifting focus onto a new generation of clientele. Makes sense since there's a huge number of 2nd generation Desis coming of age now.
I feel like we're on the leading edge of this trend here in the Bay Area Indian community. And that's the sweet spot. If we changed our location to New York, we'd be middle of the pack since the trend has been moving in that direction for years. If we changed our market to the general wedding community, we'd again, be middlers since wedding photojournalists have been around few years and years.
But we're focusing on the Indian market in California. And we'll stick to this market until we own it...then we'll move onto the rest of the world :)
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Comment Spam
One of the changes to the blog world between the time I stopped posting in April and now is comment spam. I'm referring to random posts that are advertising some product or website.
I had seen some spam in the comment section of some other blogs, but not on blogs hosted by blogger. Well, apparently, they made their way to the blogger.com hosted blogs. How annoying!
After clicking submit on my first post in a long time I immediately got a couple of comments (they get emailed to me). I thought, wow, someone's already reading my blog again! You know that feeling you get when you come home and there's a message on your answering machine? (well, we don't even have a land line any more, but you know what I mean) Well, that's the same feeling I get when I get comments on my blog. It means someone cares!
Well, how naive I was to think someone cared to leave their very best within 30 seconds of my post. Actually I should have known better...how the hell is someone gonna read my post and leave a comment within 30 seconds?!
Anyways, I checked the comments and there were both spam! I deleted them and let it be, but then I got another spam comment later in they day. I had to nip this nonsense in the bud since I really don't care about reading the Fox TV schedule for tonight (all of the spam talked about the Fox TV schedule for some reason)
So now I've got this image verification function turned on so when people leave a comment they've gotta type in the letters/numbers which appear in the image. I guess that makes it difficult for bots to post spam. Seems like it's working since I haven't gotten any spam since turning it on. Hopefully it's not a pain to everyone else that may want to leave a comment (all 2 of you!)
How about the other bloggers in the bunch? Are you getting much of this spam?
I had seen some spam in the comment section of some other blogs, but not on blogs hosted by blogger. Well, apparently, they made their way to the blogger.com hosted blogs. How annoying!
After clicking submit on my first post in a long time I immediately got a couple of comments (they get emailed to me). I thought, wow, someone's already reading my blog again! You know that feeling you get when you come home and there's a message on your answering machine? (well, we don't even have a land line any more, but you know what I mean) Well, that's the same feeling I get when I get comments on my blog. It means someone cares!
Well, how naive I was to think someone cared to leave their very best within 30 seconds of my post. Actually I should have known better...how the hell is someone gonna read my post and leave a comment within 30 seconds?!
Anyways, I checked the comments and there were both spam! I deleted them and let it be, but then I got another spam comment later in they day. I had to nip this nonsense in the bud since I really don't care about reading the Fox TV schedule for tonight (all of the spam talked about the Fox TV schedule for some reason)
So now I've got this image verification function turned on so when people leave a comment they've gotta type in the letters/numbers which appear in the image. I guess that makes it difficult for bots to post spam. Seems like it's working since I haven't gotten any spam since turning it on. Hopefully it's not a pain to everyone else that may want to leave a comment (all 2 of you!)
How about the other bloggers in the bunch? Are you getting much of this spam?
Monday, September 19, 2005
Blame Game
The blame game continues in New Orleans:
Nice to see politics taking a back seat to good leadership ;)
UPDATE: 9/19/05 2:45pm
So the story to which I linked above has been updated indicating that the re-population of NOLA has been halted due to tropical storm Rita (are we already to the R's?!). All of the comments above still stand, but let's see what further political gamesmanship occurs before people actually get to go back to NOLA.
Oh, and one other thing a friend and I agree upon: Nagin is a little crazy and should simply refrain from speaking when he's too emotional. Like I said, he doesn't have much experience and probably gets too caught up in things. I do believe he's still making the decisions he thinks are best, but Bush & Co are and will continue to use his strange comments against him. Thank god we get to see such leadership in our times :|
NEW ORLEANS - Residents began trickling back Monday as part of a plan by the mayor to reopen New Orleans one ZIP code at a time, despite repeated warnings from the top federal official on the scene — and President Bush himself — that the city is not ready.
Mayor Ray Nagin defended his decision to let people back in, and suggested that the federal official in charge in New Orleans, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, had made himself “the new crowned federal mayor of New Orleans.”
AP - Sept 13th, 2005
Now, I'm not saying that Mayor Nagin is completely correct in his decision to allow some people to move back into New Orleans. I'm also not saying that the Feds are wrong to disagree. In fact, I think Mayor Nagin is a little crazy and not the best leader under the immense pressure he's been under over the past few weeks. My main problem with this whole situation is that all of this is happening in public...
There's clearly a lot of blame to be passed around in this situation from top to bottom. And everyone is trying their darndest to cover their asses as best possible. I fully expect the Bush Admin to disagree with just about any major decision made along the Gulf Coast. If nothing else, it covers their asses so they can say "I told you so" if things don't work out. I fully expect local authorities to push for faster recovery than might be recommended so they can display their leadership in tough times. If nothing else, it covers their asses so they can say "I tried" even if the decisions aren't the perfect ones.
These two ways of thinking tend to conflict with each other, but I think they can be worked out for the best results. The problem here is that each side wants to be seen as right at the cost of the other side being wrong. And this is not just a matter of being right while the other side is wrong. This is a matter of doing it all in public.
And that's what pisses me off the most about this. This is probably my bias coming in here, but I think this makes the Bush Admin come off as the petty ones in this argument. They're the ones with the experience (supposedly) so they should be doing their best to ensure that agreements can be made for the benefit of all. To be honest, I think Mayor Nagin is in over his head. He really doesn't have much experience and it shows. That being said, I give him a little more benefit of the doubt since he's clearly trying his hardest for the benefit of the people of New Orleans. While I'm sure he's trying to save his rep (what little there is of it given his lack of experience), he doesn't come off as petty; he simply comes off as trying to make decisions under pressure.
My thoughts on all this?
- It's probably naive to think that you can let people into portions of NOLA and still be able to block off other portions of the city (ostensibly to prevent looting, etc).
- Mayor Nagin is in over his head, but he wants to try to get his city back to some semblance of normalcy sooner rather than later.
- Bush & Co are being petty by making it public that they disagree with Nagin's decision. They could have figured out a way to make this all work out and perhaps delay NOLA's re-population be a week or two.
- Bush & Co would have found a way to make it work if local leadership was GOP and not Dem.
Nice to see politics taking a back seat to good leadership ;)
UPDATE: 9/19/05 2:45pm
So the story to which I linked above has been updated indicating that the re-population of NOLA has been halted due to tropical storm Rita (are we already to the R's?!). All of the comments above still stand, but let's see what further political gamesmanship occurs before people actually get to go back to NOLA.
Oh, and one other thing a friend and I agree upon: Nagin is a little crazy and should simply refrain from speaking when he's too emotional. Like I said, he doesn't have much experience and probably gets too caught up in things. I do believe he's still making the decisions he thinks are best, but Bush & Co are and will continue to use his strange comments against him. Thank god we get to see such leadership in our times :|
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
I Am.
So it took me a while to get around to actually posting again. In fact, there have been many moments since April when I've wanted to post, but never actually loaded up blogger. The most recent moment is what I decided would be my step back into the fray...whenever that happens.
Well, I've finally loaded up blogger and that moment is now so let's jump in with something that really filled my heart with "gladness" and put a grin on my face.
A few weeks ago I saw this foreign film called "L'Auberge Espagnole". Literally, it means "The Spanish Inn". It's about an French exchange student who goes to Barcelona for a year as part of the Erasmus program. Don't ask me what that program is, since I don't know. It seems like a program to bring various foreign students together to experience a new country. As one would imagine, the film is really about learning new things, opening oneself up to the various opportunities out there, and simply exploring life for what it's worth (It's definitely a film worth watching as it's not too "out there" in the way some foreign/artsy films can be, but it's definitely more fulfilling than most of the crap that put out there)
Now, I've watched a lot of foreign films in my day. Many of them have this same sort of message. While watching these films I generally end up thinking "I wish I could do something like that"
But you know what? For the first time, while watching a film like this I actually thought "I Am"
I Am exploring new opportunities.
I Am enjoying life for what it is.
When I realized that, I couldn't help but grin. I looked over at my wife who was sound asleep, looked over at my dog who was thinking about walking over to me for a chin scratch, and I smiled. I nodded my head.
I Am.
...
So to fill you in as to why there's this sudden change, part of the reason that I haven't posted in so long is because I've been busy with a new business venture that a friend and I are pursuing. After so many years of thinking about it and doubting myself, I'm finally following the path to becoming a professional photographer.
I can finally say that I Am pursuing my photographic passions.
Additionally, my wife and I made the big decision to start a family. There's nothing baking just yet, but just the decision alone has really changed my view on some things and created this lasting optimism that wasn't there before.
I Am going to be a father...who knows when though so don't ask and don't take this is the official announcement since there's nothing to announce yet :P
And just as a final addition, can I just say that we have the best friends? A friend got married this summer & another got engaged and, as expected, it brought all of us just that much closer. Yet another reason to smile.
So anyways, I've been very silent in the online universe, but in the past 141 days I found so many reasons to smile and be happy with where we are in life. And the next time I watch one of these films, I'll still think "I Am." and not wish I could be some place else in life.
I Am in the place I want to be.
Well, I've finally loaded up blogger and that moment is now so let's jump in with something that really filled my heart with "gladness" and put a grin on my face.
A few weeks ago I saw this foreign film called "L'Auberge Espagnole". Literally, it means "The Spanish Inn". It's about an French exchange student who goes to Barcelona for a year as part of the Erasmus program. Don't ask me what that program is, since I don't know. It seems like a program to bring various foreign students together to experience a new country. As one would imagine, the film is really about learning new things, opening oneself up to the various opportunities out there, and simply exploring life for what it's worth (It's definitely a film worth watching as it's not too "out there" in the way some foreign/artsy films can be, but it's definitely more fulfilling than most of the crap that put out there)
Now, I've watched a lot of foreign films in my day. Many of them have this same sort of message. While watching these films I generally end up thinking "I wish I could do something like that"
But you know what? For the first time, while watching a film like this I actually thought "I Am"
I Am exploring new opportunities.
I Am enjoying life for what it is.
When I realized that, I couldn't help but grin. I looked over at my wife who was sound asleep, looked over at my dog who was thinking about walking over to me for a chin scratch, and I smiled. I nodded my head.
I Am.
...
So to fill you in as to why there's this sudden change, part of the reason that I haven't posted in so long is because I've been busy with a new business venture that a friend and I are pursuing. After so many years of thinking about it and doubting myself, I'm finally following the path to becoming a professional photographer.
I can finally say that I Am pursuing my photographic passions.
Additionally, my wife and I made the big decision to start a family. There's nothing baking just yet, but just the decision alone has really changed my view on some things and created this lasting optimism that wasn't there before.
I Am going to be a father...who knows when though so don't ask and don't take this is the official announcement since there's nothing to announce yet :P
And just as a final addition, can I just say that we have the best friends? A friend got married this summer & another got engaged and, as expected, it brought all of us just that much closer. Yet another reason to smile.
So anyways, I've been very silent in the online universe, but in the past 141 days I found so many reasons to smile and be happy with where we are in life. And the next time I watch one of these films, I'll still think "I Am." and not wish I could be some place else in life.
I Am in the place I want to be.
Back
It's been 141 days since my last posting here. My next post is less than 141 days away. Hopefully less than 1 day away. Buckle up :)
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
The Sitayana
So this is old news in the Desi blogosphere by now, but I finally took a look at the Sitayana animated shorts by Nina Paley and I'm just beyond impressed! Ms. Paley has re-imagined The Ramayana from Sita's perspective and set it all to 1920's jazz music. The animation is very imaginative and the soundtrack is used as the only dialogue. If you don't already know the story of The Ramayana this makes it a bit confusing, but if you already know the story, you'll find that the soundtrack and animation fits with the storyline perfectly.Thanks to Turbanhead for bringing this to the attention of so many people.
These animations are apparently so popular now that the artist can't even afford to host them on her own site any more so read on to get the dirt on where to find these amazing videos...
Nina Paley's website can be found here: www.ninapaley.com
She refers to this site for direct downloads of the quicktime movies.
Sepia Mutiny's Manish has posted torrents of the first four shorts here.
The files are rather large, but well worth it.
If you don't have time to download who files, you can check out a streaming episode here: http://www.ninapaley.com/Sitayana/sitayanaquicktime.html
Monday, April 25, 2005
Hotel Rwanda
And that's really what makes this story so powerful. It shows us that we are all capable of such things during the worst of times. Above, I mentioned that I don't think I'd be able to do what Paul R. did during the Rwandan genocide, but the thing is...he probably didn't think he could do it either. In fact, at the beginning of the movie, it's clear that Paul R. just wanted to look out for his family, but once thrown into the situation, he ended up saving almost 1300 people! All of this being said, I really wonder how this movie didn't win more at the Oscars. Granted, the Oscars are not the end-all-be-all when it comes to stories such as this. In fact, the true test of this greatness for this movie is how many are moved to do something about similar events elsewhere (Darfur, Sudan for example). But in terms of the Hollywood crowd, this SHOULD be a hands-down favorite to win big time. Playing on the Hollywood stereotypes, the movie portrays an activist, he's non-white, he helps saves lives, he is truly a hero amongt villains. What else do you want? Ahh yes, that's right, nobody invovled in the production of this movie is on the "inside" in Hollywood. There's really no competition when it comes to competing against insiders like Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby) and current it-boys like Jamie Foxx (Ray). Congratulations on their wins, but seriously...have you seen Don Cheadle in this movie? How about Sophie Okonedo who plays Paul R's wife?
So it's been well over a month since I last posted here. I've heard it from several friends about my lacking of posting and I simply couldn't find the time nor the energy to write. Well, after watching Hotel Rwanda last night, I think it's time for me to start this baby up again.
Rarely do films move me. Forget about moving me, I rarely even get emotional during movies let alone look internally to imagine what the character must be going through. But watching the events unfold in this story really made me wonder if I could ever do what Paul Rusesabagina did to save the lives of almost 1300 Rwandan refugees. What's makes this true story even more amazing is that this man isn't someone who crusaded to change the world. He was simply confronted with a situation and dealt with it. I'm sure he felt overwhelmed at some points (they had a "fictional" scene in the movie where Paul lost it after seeing hundreds of bodies strewn across the road), but he carried on and did what he knew was his duty.
Ok, so I'll end this post without going on too much longer. If you haven't seen this movie yet, you've gotta go rent it. I haven't seen a movie this powerful in a LONG time and it's something all of should see.
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