Google Earth

If you have Windows 2000 or later, and a high speed internet connection, and you wanna have a little fun, try Google Earth. If you thought Google Maps was fun to play with, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Google Maps is sort of built into this, a little bit. You type in an address, and yet get satellite imagery of that location, and you can zoom and pan and everything. This is all done with an external program, not within your browser. Then, you can overlay roads, restaurants, banks, etc.

Although it's really fun to play with, I'm not sure yet how useful it will be. It might be nice when deciding to buy a house or something. And I think cities might have a lot more detail, than the locations I looked. So, depending on the address you type in, it may be more useful than other places.

Google Personalized Search

A while back, I wrote about Google now having a search history. Well, now, they are experimenting with tightening up an individual's search, based on what they have searched for before. This is called Google Personalized Search.

This is kind of a grand experiment, and I'm not really sure if it's a good idea. I have a search history going, and it's all over the map, searching for all kinds of different things over the last month or so. But, when I search, do I want my search limited by what I searched for before?

If I was researching with books, would I want to keep looking for my information in the same isle? Or would I want to search the whole library?

I don't think anyone really knows if this will help someone have a better search, but without some serious testing, how does anyone know? As always, I'm impressed that Google keeps trying to make things better...

iTunes 4.9 with Podcasting

iTunes 4.9 has just been released, with podcasting support. Apple's take on it is "Radio reborn".

There has been a lot of talk in the TV world about "TV on demand", which is kind of the niche that Tivo and other DVRs went after. Podcasting is sort of the same thing, but for audio only. Anyone who produces any kind of sound file, can publish a podcast on their web site. In a nutshell, you are downloading audio content to play on your iPod or other digital music player.

Read more about podcasting on Wikipedia.

Now that Apple is endorsing it directly in the iTunes software, I expect that more people will become aware of what it is, and why it's important.

Bagelized!

This was just a cute little short, about 4 minutes long, called Bagelized!. Here is what the Waterfront Film Festival booklet said:

"A comedy about a Brooklyn bagel maestro reluctantly compelled to share the secrets of his craft with a pretty and mysterious trainee."

I know that I should probably describe this short, in my own words, but it is only 4 minutes long! How do I do that without giving away the punch line? It's very funny, and unexpected...

Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing & Charm School

Yes, this is a very long movie title, and I apologize that I can't seem to find the official web site, so I linked to the IMDB page.

This movie was the best movie that I watched at the Waterfront Film Festival. In fact, it was the last movie that I watched, because I felt like I wanted to leave the festival "on top".

The script was good enough to attract many big name actors, many of them with very small roles. The actors are Robert Carlyle, Marisa Tomei, John Goodman, Mary Steenburgen, Danny DeVito, Sean Astin, and Donnie Wahlberg. The director was at the film festival and told us that many of these actors worked for free, because of the script. There is actually a short by the same name, same director, that was incorporated into the new feature as a historic flashback. One of the child actors in the flashback also had a role as an adult in the bigger movie. He was also at the film festival.

I'm sure that this movie will be playing on the big screen sometime this fall, so please look for it. It was a really great film!

Tacklebox

One of the great things about going to a film festival are the amazing shorts. I don't understand why more shorts are not played on cable television, or even network television. Although, I guess it might be hard to squeeze a commercial into 5 minute movie. I know the Sundance Channel does have short programs, so at least there is one place.

Anyway, probably the best short at the Waterfront Film Festival is called Tacklebox. As I recall, there are no words spoken, the entire story is told through visual only. From a technical point of view, I can appreciate how much easier this might be, to simply play music for the audio track, but it really works well for this story. It works well for the Road Runner too. OK, maybe I'm getting off track.

Now, the problem with a short, is that I can't really tell you much about it, or it would give away the story. So, I'll just quote exactly what was in the Waterfront Film Festival program:

"An elderly woman's passion in life is passed on after her death through strange circumstances to a group of unsuspecting young thrill-seekers."

I know that this maybe doesn't sound too exciting, but visit the web site and look at all of the awards. It's really a great little short!

Novem

One of the cool movies that I saw over at Waterfront Film Festival this year is called Novem. I've always been a fan of nearly any movie with a great soundtrack, and this movie falls into that category.

Basically, a college kid buys this box of stuff at a garage sale. Inside is an old movie reel about some kids in the 70s cutting some songs, along with the actual music recordings. The band is composed of 9 college aged kids, who go to a studio in the country, sit around campfires, practice music, and of course, record it.

The whole movie is set up like a documentary of an actual event, which completely caught me by surprise. The music is good, and the entire movie idea is very original. The music is all free on the web site, which is really setup to promote the indie film.

So, download and enjoy! It's even legal!

Waterfront Film Festival

I recently attended the Waterfront Film Festival, located in Saugatuck, Michigan. This year was the 4th year that I've attended, and the festival started 7 years ago.

I have to say first that the festival just gets better and better. This year, it was a little humid at times, which was tough in one of the venues, but otherwise the weather was really pretty nice, much better than rain.

If you live in Michigan, Indiana, or Illinois and you like movies, you might want to check out this festival next year. I even met someone who flew up from New Mexico, and it was her 3rd year of going to the festival. Saugatuck is a very nice little town, with lots of restaurants, shopping, and B&Bs to stay in.

You might see a celebrity or two, and better yet, you might see a really good movie! I'll review a couple of the best, in my next posts...

Killer Angels

Lately, I've been reading about the Civil War. I started with the book, Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. This is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, and a very excellent book. It was written about 30 years ago, and was the basis for the movie Gettysburg.

Michael's son, Jeff, wrote a prequel and sequel to Killer Angels. The first book is named Gods and Generals. The sequel book is named Last Good Measure. I read all three of these books. Although Killer Angels was the best book of the three, the others were pretty good. Gods and Generals has been made into a movie, and I believe Last Good Measure is supposed to be made into a movie as well.

The books focus on only parts of the Civil War. These books are fictional, about real events, but giving the reader an insight as to what a General or other character may have been thinking about at various times during the way. So, these are not history books. They are a fun read, even when we pretty much know the outcome, there are surprises along the way.

I'm interested in reading Gone For Soldiers as well, which is about the Mexican War, having many of the same people involved as the Civil War, but in their younger days.

Serenity and Firefly

For those of you who enjoy science fiction television and movies, I'm pretty excited about the new movie Serenity.

This is a real movie, spun off from the series called Firefly, by the creator of Buffy and Angel. If you haven't seen this series, check out the full DVD set. It was only on for one season, and 3 episodes never aired. It's a Western, set in the future, complete with settlers, civil war veterans, saloon shoot-outs, and so-on. It is a pretty cool vision, and now it's coming to the big screen!

Also, the series is coming to the Sci Fi Channel, so if you missed it the first time around, and you don't want to rent/buy it, look for it there very soon! There is a lot of speculation that the movie might spark a new season of the series...

Sorry about the big gap in my posts, by the way. I guess writing in a daily blog is sort of like trying to read every day or excercise every day -- once you stop, it's easy to stay stopped. But, now I've got a few topics building up in my head, so the writing should be easier, right?