Caution! Zombies Ahead!

Anyone and everyone who knows me personally knows that my love of the zombie runs deep and true. So how excited was I when I saw this news article pop-up yesterday from Austin, Texas?

Zombie Road Signs Attack Austin!

>>>(Jan. 29) – The Austin, Texas, commute turned surreal this week after hackers replaced official traffic warnings on digital signs with some of their own.

"Zombies ahead! Run for your lives!" read one altered sign, according to KXAN in Austin.

The pranksters apparently cut the padlocks that guard the computers on each individual sign, the local media reported, and hacked the computer password. The new signs went up Monday morning. No zombies were actually sighted. The most obvious problem seemed to be rubber-necking drivers slowing down to photograph the fright-fest warnings.

The hackers didn't make fixes easy for officials, either. The Dallas Morning News reported that after changing the signs, they changed the passwords, too.

The city had to wait several hours until the manufacturer reset the passwords before the warnings could be changed.<<<

Ha ha ha! This brightened my day considerably. The article went on to say this was a misdemeanor crime and blah blah blah but come on, no one got hurt, no car accidents, it made people laugh. And it's not like crappy graffiti that can't be removed or breaking into people's cars and stealing their stuff {which has happened to me a few times and it is NOT fun}.

I don't know, this kinda just makes me want to go visit Austin.

I See I See Something White...A Polar Bear!

OMG It is SO flipping cold. I grew up in Utah so I'm not unfamiliar with cold but there is something much different about this arctic chill sweeping the state where I currently reside. It's frickin' arctic cold. It was 12 degrees yesterday, 14 degrees today. I may have lived in Utah but after that I moved to California for 15 years. I'm not used to this anymore! I can't even get the heater to go up high enough so I don't freeze near the windows or doors. I really don't know how people like in North Dakota or Minnesota do it...I had heard they were at below zero temps. What?! That's crazy. I can kind of take the cold {maybe not this kind of cold} but it's easier to take when there is lovely snow falling or snow lying on the ground in big soft white pillows of loveliness. But no snow. It is sunny and bright out. All another way to trick me. I go out to get the mail thinking, "Oh, the sun is out, it can't be that cold!" And then I'm smacked in the face with an arctic wall of ice air.

Now I am off to worry about if I have antifreeze in my ancient car and shoo away the polar bears from digging through the trash.

January 2009 ... Already Half Over!

Hello! I hope everyone had a great holiday season! Yes, I extended my vacation, but only because it has been so lovely where I live - raining, snowing, and being generally overcast and stormy - that I couldn’t bring myself to sit in front of the computer for any longer than it takes to type an e-mail!

January is always kind of a dour month, don’t you agree? Coming off the high of the holidays, starting a new year, making resolutions - it just always feels like a month of reflection, whether you want to reflect or not.

I’m editing, finishing up 2008 Layer Cake stuff and trying to teach myself how to make jewelry. Making jewelry is hard y’all! I don’t know how long I’ll stick to it but I thought I’d give it a whirl, just to see what it entails.

I’m going to be wrapping up all my 2008 client edits/films by mid-February most likely and I look forward to meeting new clients and shooting in new places for 2009! At the same time I’m working on the website to update it with films from last year. I had so many great clients and shot so many quirky fun weddings it is hard to choose which ones to showcase! I wish I could show them all but I think my web hosting company would kill me uploading all those films.

I have made myself a nifty resolution of blogging more often, but I guess we’ll see how that turns out in the coming weeks. :) ☺

Happy Monday!

Merry Christmas & Goodbye 2008!

I hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas day! I'm going to lounge around all day and eat cupcakes {of course there's tons in here...some with frosting poinsettia's on top, some with icing snowmen, some with little Christmas trees...}

Thanks again for the wonderful year! I hope everyone has a fun and safe New Year's as well! I will be back after New Year's Day {and I promise one of my resolutions will be to do more frequent blog posts}.

xo,

Michelle

Macarons Make for a Lovely Holiday

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! This month has been a whirlwind for me; I drove across the country once again {that's the 4th time this year} and am finally home {for the time being}. The entire family is here now and I cannot keep track of the days anymore. They are flying by. I was stunned to see I hadn't done a blog entry since December 4th. Sheesh! Though I didn't really mind keeping Nagi Noda up there as the top post for a while, I get sad every time I see her name...so much talent...I just want everyone to know about her.

In exciting news, for me, it seems I was a good girl this year because one of Santa's elves brought me this from London:Oh, Laduree, you are the best. Period. The delicious, light, flavorful macarons you provide the world with...sigh...thank you. And thanks to Santa's elf {that would be my sister} who braved the Christmas crowds at Harrod's just for me to get to Laduree. She also bought me my favorite caramel sucre spread, which is so expensive, and the evil Heathrow airport confiscated it! They said it could be considered a "liquid", though it is thicker than peanut butter. They took it and promptly dumped it in the garbage! For shame! I weep for my lost caramel sucre spread...sniff...sniff... I won't whine too much though, these macarons are seriously to die for. Sorry for the sucktastic photo's. I was too eager to start eating and couldn't frame the shot or focus.

Nagi Noda

{Ya, I gave up on the twelve day thing...I'm just to freaking busy!}

So, I've bet you've never heard of Nagi Noda, right? It's such a shame because she was an amazing talent. One of the oddest artists/directors/filmmakers to come along in a while and the fact that she was a woman is just insanely cool.

Nagi Noda died in September, and the only info I can find on that is that she died from complications stemming from a car accident suffered a year before. She had apparently been seriously injured and endured a lot of surgeries. I believe her official cause of death was complications from surgery. She was only 35...and an insanely innovative talent that will be sorely missed, but not by the tons of people that should be missing her.

Filmmaking has always been a man's world; that is one of the most difficult things I have personally encountered in my journey through film-land. If Nagi Noda had been a man she would have been talked about as an up-and-coming film genius in the ranks of Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry. But, not many people have heard of her, she was a shy, quiet Japanese girl who was very eccentric and did her own thing. I so envy for her that. Her vision is astounding and to accomplish even the few amazing and visually quirky things she did in such a short time is just enviable. It's a shame we will never get to see how far she would have gone.

Nagi was most famous for her music video for the Japanese pop singer Yuki. Her idea was so simple, but so visually stunning and original that I must have watched that music video a thousand times when it came out. It starts out slow but you'll get the gist about 1:40 into it. I can't find the video to embed here but you can visit this link HERE to see it {and it is worth it!} The idea was so cool that Coke hired her to do a commercial based on the look of the Yuki music video. Here it is:

I also loved this photo series Nagi created, turning hair into animals. Some of them are just beyond crazy but so inspiring. Here are a few of my favorites:

I think the one thing about Nagi Noda that is so inspiring to me is that a lot of the stuff she does just seems impossible. Something you wouldn't attempt without a huge budget and a crew of hundreds. But she had very small budgets, tiny crews, and she pulled it off. She was such an inspiring filmmaker and artist and I was so saddened to hear about her death. She will be truly missed not just for the quirky and odd idea's she had but for being a woman, an inspiring one-of-a-kind innovative woman, in a field that has too long been run by men. She was an original and she will be sorely missed.

Check out these films and videos by Nagi Noda as well:

Poodle Excercise With Humans Video
{had Michel Gondry done this you would have seen it everywhere}

The Dancing Eyes
{that's what I call it, I don't know the band}

Hearts on Fire Music Video
{her last video before she died}

Scissor Sisters Music Video

Little Robot {Toy Theatre Love}

I'm not gonna lie, I love toy theaters. And I'm not {really} embarrassed by that. I have been known to push a child or two out of the way to get a better look at a toy store window. And the windows I love most are the ones at the more cerebral toy stores, the ones that sell fancy hardback editions of classic fairy tales and carry handmade toys like theaters, marionettes, music boxes, and trains. You know, the toy stores kids don't like but adults love {because you can only look at so many Barbies and different editions of Monopoly at Toys R Us so many times before succumbing to narcolepsy}.

So Little Robot is a fab artist {I own one original piece and a few prints} who lives in Glasgow and draws wonderful, fantasical, and whimsical images of girls with long hair that house birdcages and the like. Well, she also makes art/toy theaters that I love but cannot afford {one that I've pictured is very pricey so don't be surprised}. Then she did the most lovely thing and made DIY versions you can cut out and piece together yourself at very affordable prices. I bought The Heart Revealed DIY theater and it is very simple to put together, even for the motor coordinated challenged like me. I also included Little Robot's jumping jack's and paperdolls as I love those interactivey-type toys too.