How three graphic designers re-created D-Day on a shoestring budget for the Timewatch program “Bloody Omaha”. Due to interest in the “making of” video, the complete program will be repeated January 27 on BBC television. In the U.S., the full production of BLOODY OMAHA will be shown on the Smithsonian Channel HD in May, 2008.

Amazing what can be done with just three actors, some props, a camera, four days and some amazing cgi (computer generated images), isn’t it?

In recent years there has been growing competition between the world’s major cities as to who can lay claim to the title of best New Year’s Eve fireworks extravaganza, and 2008 was no exception. Travelburner has assembled the best displays they could find captured on video. Turn your speakers up, grab a drink and watch as these major cities quite literally blow up our taxes!

It’s still the beginning of the new year, so I decided to post a video that somehow fell through the cracks before the ball dropped in Times Square.

Leon Redbone used to be a regular guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and one year helped Johnny welcome the new year by singing Auld Lang Syne. Merv Griffin was also a guest that night and the cutting up between these three great entertainers was nothing short of classic.

Johnny and Merv are gone now but will certainly never be forgotten. Leon, however, is still touring. For his schedule, check his website.

It looks like David Watanabe’s accidental discovery (see my September 12 post) a few months ago was right on the money. Three weeks before Steve Jobs’ annual keynote address at Macworld, someone - perhaps Rupert Murdoch - just stole his thunder. If reports this morning in Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal are true, Apple and News Corp have struck a deal for a new video-on-demand service that could change the way digital movies are distributed, viewed and paid for.

According to this morning’s Wall Street Journal, the two companies signed an agreement that would allow customers to download the latest 20th Century Fox movies through the iTunes store and watch them for a limited time. No pricing details were available, but earlier reports suggested that Fox and Apple were talking about charging $2.99 for 30 days viewing. That’s considerably cheaper than competing services from BlockBuster and NetFlix, neither of which work with iTunes, Macs or iPods.

Disney is the only other studio that makes new releases available on iTunes, but only to buy, not to rent. Paramount, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Lionsgate sell older library titles. But the tide may be turning, and Apple is reported to be in talks with Sony, Paramount and Warner Brothers

In a related move, Fox also plans to release DVDs that use Apple’s digital rights management system, a move that would allow consumers to make legal copies of the disc that could be played on an iPod or other device, such as a computer. The moves were reported by the Web site of the Financial Times ….More

This is good news for everyone. Now, before you X-box and Zune users start chirping how you can do some of this already, recognize that the iTunes Store rules (legal) entertainment downloading and the iPod/iPhone devises are used by more people for mobile entertainment listening/viewing than others. This will ultimately benefit everyone, especially if/when other movie studios climb aboard.

This video should help ignite your Christmas spirit. It features the original members of Straight No Chaser, Indiana University’s premier men’s a cappella group, performing their comedic version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” at the Musical Arts Center in Bloomington, Indiana, December 7th, 1998. Since its founding in 1996, the group has performed at universities and auditoriums all across the country.

I should probably mention that the race car driving in Las Vegas a few weeks ago was Sisko’s birthday gift from Michael last year. This year, on the heals of the dinner celebration at Marrakesh, he procured a limousine and whisked us all — he and Sisko, friends Larry and Pat, and Dawn and me — off to Arco Arena to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. To make the evening even more special, we had the use of a suite, and Dawn and I provided food and wine services. So we nibbled, sipped wine and enjoyed the performance in grand style and supreme comfort!

Of course, we enjoyed champagne in the limo to and from the stadium, even snapped photos of one another (ours didn’t come out too well) during the drive. This is definitely the way to go to a concert! Our driver dropped us at the door and returned after the concert to pick us up. Doesn’t get any more convenient than that.

If you’re not familiar with Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO), it was formed in 1996 by composers Paul O’Neill and Robert Kinkel, and Savatage lead singer Jon Oliva, not as another progressive metal band but more as a rock opera orchestra. It transcends the term “concert” by combining great musicians and writers into a seasonal musical journey. It tells a story and keeps the audience mesmerized and amazed as it builds to its dramatic conclusion. A laser show, smoke and pyrotechnics serve to emphasize parts of the story rather than simply provide visual and sound effects. It’s a highly orchestrated and coordinated movement that can only be described as an amazing experience. And perhaps that’s what separates TSO from traditional rock and metal bands. You don’t go to a TSO concert; you experience TSO!

The production company was very specific about cameras. They’re not allowed, and they check before allowing you entry so we left ours in the limo. It’s not surprising; they don’t want you using images of their performances for commercial purposes and this is the only way to assure that control. They do allow cell phones, though. I guess they recognize that little 2-megapixel cell phone cameras won’t produce commercial quality images. So I grabbed this one with Dawn’s iPhone. It’s not great, of course, but tit gives you an idea of the scale and spectacle of the performance.

This is our second concert - Michael and Sisko go every year - and we hope to make it an annual outing as well. It’s a one night annual gig in Sacramento and sort of kicks off the holiday season for us. Catch it next year if you get the chance!

Good friends and good times. It’s a good life!

Dawn and I had dinner a couple weekends ago with friends at Marrakesh, a Moroccan restaurant on Fulton Avenue. We were celebrating Dawn’s and Sisko’s birthdays and so someone decided that sitting on the floor and eating with our fingers would be fun. Did I mention they had belly dancers?

                 Click to enlargeIt’s not that I don’t enjoy Moroccan food - I’ve eaten monkey in the Amazon jungle for Pete’s sake - but my old bones don’t bend as easily as they once did, and sitting on a cushion on the floor was, shall we say, challenging, at least the getting up part and the turning around to watch the belly dancer. Did I mention that? There was a belly dancer!

Anyway, we were among friends, twelve of us altogether, so stuffing couscous and shish kabob into our mouths with our fingers was acceptable and the resulting snickering was in jest. But there was at least one in our group who couldn’t quite get into it. I won’t mention any names, but I think the idea of couscous and lamb fat under her freshly French-manicured nails and the whole “messiness” of it all may have harpooned her appetite.

                 Click to enlargeI should mention that the Casablanca Moroccan beer was good as was the floor show! Belly dancing, can you believe it? And it was a little different than I remembered from last time. I guess the establishment wants their dancers to be a little more classy - belly dancing is, after all, an art form - than they used to be, so tipping is now done in a special head-balanced tip jar rather than dollar bills being strategically tucked in the dancers’ costumes by drunken male diners. How tacky, right? They’re not strippers, after all! Was I disappointed? A little. What can I say, I’m a creature of habit.

I’ll have to do a little research to understand why they sprinkled rose water all over us after our meal. Kind of a surprise when you don’t see it coming. Maybe it’s customary in the desert to help distinguish you from the camels. Anyway, it was a delightful evening with dear friends who, no matter how messy the food may get, will always be there to wipe your chin for you. It doesn’t get any better than that.

It’s Friday and I feel the need…the need to boogie!!!

This session was filmed live at Storyville Hall in New Orleans, June 5, 1986, and features Ray Charles, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis. That’s Late Night’s musical director, Paul Shaffer (with hair!) running things and Ron Wood on guitar. And if you look closely, I think you’ll spot Carl Perkins on guitar, drummer Steve Jordan and Buck Dunn on bass. If this doesn’t get your feet tapping, there’s just no hope for you! Sit back, turn up your speakers and enjoy a jam session with some legendary performers.

We were delayed getting home Monday night by a movie production crew that was filming on our street and at our neighbors home a couple doors down. Seems they’ve been shooting around the county all month.

Setting up for a movie scene is a pretty involved and elaborate procedure, and the one being filmed at the time required a gigantic “cherry picker” with a huge light that lit up the house and yard, a firetruck and firemen to hose down the street, a team of paramedics in case someone got hurt, several “movie” police and other cars, and the usual trucks filled with assorted cameras and movie making equipment that spilled onto the adjoining street. Various hoses and cables crisscrossed the road, and movie and security personnel with walkie talkies were everywhere. While waiting for the scene to wrap, we chatted with movie people about the film.

The title, we learned, is “Chain Letter,” a film “similar” (that’s movie double-speak for, “I can’t tell you”) to 2003’s “Thirteen” that starred Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed and Holly Hunter who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The film, which won numerous awards, is about a teen who befriends the “popular” girl at school and becomes involved in drugs, petty theft and piercings. Sounds like a shallow plot, but it was apparently a good movie about teens coming of age, at least those on the more extreme end of the scale. And apparently at least one of the female stars of “Thirteen” is in “Chain Letter” (which may be, as is sometimes the case, a “working” title.)

I’ll be interested to see how much of our street and neighbor’s home show up in the film when it’s released, I’d guess sometime in late 2008 or early 2009.

It was the Columbus Day weekend, so Dawn and I joined friends Michael & Sisko and Doug & Candy and headed off to Las Vegas to celebrate Sisko’s birthday. It was a “big one” so Michael had arranged for her to drive an Indy-style race car on the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a long-time fantasy. We were all invited to be part of the event and I brought along my camera to photograph it all.

Needless to say, Dawn and I took lots of photos, too many for one album, so I’ve divided some of my favorites into two groups. The first album, linked to this post, contains images taken in the hotel (Paris) and along the strip; at the Wynn where we enjoyed 6th row center seats for Spamalot, a hilarious musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail; and at dinner after the race as guests of friend Doug Roberts at Lowery’s Prime Rib. The next post will link to images taken at Las Vegas Motor Speedway before, during and after Sisko’s 143 mph streak around the track!

In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the American Film Institute revised its lists of the 100 greatest American films and 100 greatest movie songs of all time (Registration required to download.) In the venerated #1 song spot was Judy Garland’s soulful and iconic rendition of Over the Rainbow from the beloved family classic, The Wizard of Oz, and it would be hard to argue with their selection.

A close second, though, and one of my all time favorites, was As Time Goes By from the movie Casablanca. Surprisingly, it wasn’t written for the film and the movie version was never released as a single. Still, it’s hard not to associate the song with “Rick’s Café Américain. “  For me , it will always belong to Bogie and Bergman.

I’m sure most of you know at least some of the lyrics and will appreciate this video clip edited from the movie and featuring As Time Goes By. It brought back fond memories for me. You too?

Here’s an interesting tidbit. It seems that while David Watanabe was trying to report a potential problem via iTunes, selectable options for “Movie Rental” appeared in the list as shown on the above screenshot. Are rental movies coming to iTunes? I wouldn’t be at all surprised, would you?

David adds that “Engadget … confirmed the veracity of this screenshot, saying that at the time of writing, they ‘verified that these options are still viewable’. These options have subsequently been removed, since there presence was clearly a mistake. However, this third-party verification should remove any doubt as to the validity of this screenshot.”

Now, this could simply have been a few Apple guys testing theoretical functions and inserting humorous test data. Or not. Movie rentals via iTunes would certainly be nice, especially if they’ll stream via iMovie to your big screen…

The California State Fair came and left with lower total (but greater daily) attendance than last year owing, officials point out, to a run that was six days shorter. In addition, it was hot - really hot - and the wonderful delta breezes we usually rely on to cool things down brought little relief.

Dawn and I go to the Fair at least a couple times every year to “take it all in,” but this year, because of the heat, we decided once was enough. We’d gone one weekday right after work and stayed until closing so we could enjoy the evening fireworks. We watched The Temptations perform, toured the exhibit halls, took in some of the livestock and finished on the midway. As has become our custom, we even rode the giant Ferris wheel. It was a lot of ground to cover in too little time and, with the heat, we were exhausted (I was drenched!); I think it was still pushing 90 degrees when we left!

One of the things we love but missed seeing this year was the judging of the 4-H kids with their livestock. Bidders pay top dollar at the after-fair auction for the hand-raised quasi-pets. We also missed the horse races, the herding dog demonstrations, the pig races (oh yeah, pig races!) and the corn husking competition (Dawn’s even entered a couple times over the years!) And no, I didn’t allow them to launch me 180 feet into the air with a giant rubber band this year. Good thing, too, because there was a mishap. A “rubber band” snapped and left the two riders stranded 80 feet in the air (thank goodness for the safety cable) and a bit shaken up!

We finally received word that Canon has repaired and shipped Dawn’s new pocket camera, but not in time for the Fair. So I took my Nikon and a “walk around” lens to try, in one visit, to capture at least some of the flavor of the event. I’ve posted 40 images… Enjoy!

A reminder: All the album images are clickable; once in the album, clicking on an image enlarges it, clicking again returns you to the regular sized image.

For those of you who didn’t catch this season’s America’s Got Talent, you missed perhaps the best ventriloquist act I’ve ever seen. Terry Fator went on to win the $1 million contest and will be appearing in Las Vegas before the year is out. Give this video a watch. It may just reshape your perception of ventriloquists…

Want more? Watch all of Fator’s America’s Got Talent performances on YouTube.

I suppose you’ve all had a chance to chuckle (wonder?) at Caitlin Upton’s convoluted answer to her pageant question (see yesterday’s post) - half of the top vids on YouTube are either of her, about her or making fun of her.