• 10.26.04, 8:42pm - Start
Unspreading the News...I'm
Back: And very tired. Here are some pictures from
NYC (click on each image for a larger version):
We landed at JFK on Saturday. You can see the city skyline in the
background of this picture.
We were only in the city for about 36 hours, and we didn't get any free
time to wander around the city until the night before we left.
The rest of the pictures are from that night.
First, we went to the Empire State Building. Even on a Sunday
evening, there was a pretty long line to get to the top. But it
was worth the wait...
This is the view looking toward lower Manhattan. If you look
carefully, you can see the skyscrapers of the financial district.
Here's the skyline to the North. The bright area to the left of
the Verizon building is Times Square. In the upper middle is
Rockefeller Center.
A closer look at Rockefeller Center, home of NBC's New York studios.
One of NYC's most recognizable skyscrapers, the Chrysler Building.
Looking down at Macy's. On the street in front of the store, you
can see the painted logo of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.
After the Empire State Building, we hopped on the Subway for a quick
trip to Times Square.
The
New York Times building
(I think?). Above the Discover Card sign is the pole where the
ball drops on New Year's Eve.
The NASDAQ video board, where CNN will reveal election results next
Tuesday night.
ABC's Times Square studios, which the nework uses for many shows
including
Good Morning America
and
20/20.
We also drove through all but one of the city's five boroughs,
wandering aimlessly onto Broadway, Fifth Avenue, Wall Street, and the
Brooklyn Bridge. There was a lot more that we would have liked to
see and do, but we didn't have nearly enough free time. I
definitely want to return to New York City someday.
• 10.19.04, 10:52pm -
Something's Fishy:
Will someone tell me why Fox Sports has put a fraction-of-a-second
delay on its centerfield camera in its postseason baseball coverage?
If you haven't noticed it, turn on any postseason game on Fox (it's
happening in both league championship series). Between pitches,
watch and listen as they switch to different camera angles. Then,
just before the pitch, watch and listen very carefully as the camera
angle switches to the centerfield camera behind the pitcher. The
camera--and the audio associated with it--are delayed about a quarter
of a second compared to the other camera angles. This is
especially easy to notice if the batter is wagging the bat while
waiting for the pitch or if the crowd is chanting rhythmically.
I don't know why it's happening, but the fact that I've noticed it in
games in Boston, Houston, and New York says to me that Fox is doing it
on purpose, and it's bugging the hell out of me. It's gotten to
the point where I can tell you when they've switched to the centerfield
camera just by listening to the audio.
If you still don't believe me, read the entry entitled "No Public
Restrooms" on
this
baseball blog. It's the only reference to it that I can find
on the net, but at least I know I'm not the only one who's noticed it.
Enjoy the games!
Bah-dum-bum!
---
On Sunday, I got back from shoots at Duke University and UNC Chapel
Hill. Next, Kim and I go to New York City this Saturday. We
shoot all weekend and come back Monday morning, but we're hoping we'll
have a bit of free time to see the city on Sunday evening. We're
also hoping we won't need police in riot gear to protect us from the
Yankee fans.
Zing!
---
Has anyone else seen the trailer for the movie
White Noise? It's
about
Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP),
which refers to the dead communicating with the living through
electronic recording equipment. EVP may help to explain how Tupac
manages to release a new CD every six months even though he's been dead
for eight years.
Snap!
---
I'm writing a movie where a motion-captured Tom Hanks experiences
severe mood swings on a train. It's called
The
Bipolar Express.
Boooooo!
• 10.11.04, 10:49pm - It's a Go:
Kim and I
have set the official date and place for the wedding. Our family
and friends (and Siskow) should keep October 1st, 2005 open. The
ceremony and
reception will be held at
Indian
Creek Golf Course and Country Club in Elkhorn, Nebraska.
There will also be a separate reception at the Odebolt Community Center
in Odebolt, Iowa on a date to be determined (most likely 2 or 3 weeks
after the wedding day).
In other news, I've decided to back off of the political rhetoric on my
site, or at least on the front page. The next time I feel the
need to rant about George W. Bush or Dick Cheney, I'll do it on a
separate page that people can visit if they choose to. Even
there, I'm going to try to tone it down a bit. Reading through my
last few updates, I've realized I've become kind of rabid. So the
voting info and election day reminders will stay, but from now on you
won't have to have my political opinion shoved down your throat.
I'm headed to North Carolina for 6 days tomorrow morning. Kim and
I get to go on a short shoot in New York City in a couple of
weeks. We probably won't have much--if any--free time, but we're
looking forward to it just the same.
• 10.6.04,
10:34pm - Distortion, Part II:
Don't believe me when I say Cheney distorts the truth? See for
yourself at
http://www.factcheck.org/.
It's an independent website that evaluates the statements of both
sides. So read it for yourself, and make your own decision.
That said, I'm going to continue posting my insanely biased analysis of
the debates. I'll be gone over the weekend, so my thoughts on
Friday's debate will be posted when I get home on Sunday.
• 10.5.04, 10:18pm - Distortion:
Vice
President Dick Cheney was in full distort mode this evening.
Cheney is a mastermind at taking something that somebody says and
reshaping it into what he wants you think they said. He's one
part of the well-oiled machine that will distort what someone says to
the point that you start to question what you remember that person
saying. Confused? Good! That's what Dick Cheney wants!
For example, John Edwards this evening pointed out that American troops
are suffering 90 percent of coalition casualties in Iraq. Cheney
subsquently accused Edwards of "demeaning" the sacrfices of Iraqi
soliders fighting against insurgents. Edwards had done no such
thing. He clearly stated that 90 percent of
coalition casualties in Iraq were
American. Twice. Both times, Cheney distorted what Edwards
said and made sound as if Edwards was undermining the efforts and
sacrfices of Iraqis.
Cheney also jumped on the bandwagon that is the "Global Test"
distortion. Ever since the presidential debate Thursday night,
Republicans have been trying to get you to think that John Kerry will
submit U.S. national security issues to *gasp* France, Germany, Russia,
or the United Nations.
Here is what John Kerry actually said (as quoted in MSNBC.com's
transcript of the
September 30th debate):
"No
president, though [sic] all of American history,
has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way
necessary to protect the United States of America.
"But
if and when you do it...you have to do it in a way that passes the
test, that passes the global test where your countrymen, your people
understand fully why you‘re doing what you‘re doing and you can prove
to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons."
Sounds pretty clear to me. Senator Kerry went on to describe the
history of world leaders being able to trust American presidents
according to their word, such as French President Charles Degaulle
trusting the word of John F. Kennedy in the midst of the Cuban Missile
Crisis. Can you imagine any world leader trusting George W. Bush
according to his word? Do you think Jacques Chirac would trust
the word of President Bush in the middle of a nuclear crisis?
But Republican leaders have used "Global Test"--two of those 80 words
spoken by John Kerry--to make Americans think that if they elect Kerry,
the world would be in charge of U.S. security.
The fact is that the Republicans latch onto catch phrases like "Global
Test" and "Flip-Flopper" and repeat them over and over again.
They do this because they can't defend their own record on issues
ranging from Iraq and the war on terror to education and the
economy. George W. Bush couldn't defend himself last
Thursday. All Dick Cheney did this evening was use smear tactics
and lies to distort the record. He did not tell the truth to the
American people.
