This past weekend I met my brother Marc Williams, in Springfield Massachusetts. We were there to work with his client Bayette Gordon, the NBA hopeful, 5′6” point guard with the talent, heart and discipline to make it pro. Mark’s company Demarc Entertainment arranged a shoot at Spalding’s headquarters, where I kept my camera trained on Bayette as he showcased his amazing ball handling skills. The NBA was there, as was the local paper, which ran a front page article in its Sunday Edition (Springfield Republican, July 23).
Two weeks ago, we entered Miller Lite’s Go Pro Challenge. The rules were to create a 3 minute video testimonial showcasing your skills. Our video got a lot of buzz, from the NBA camp because it featured Rick Barry and Nate Thurmond, 2 of the NBA’s top 50 legends speaking on Bayete’s behalf. Aside from the star appearances and his dribbling dynamics, the story about the 5′6” point guard has peaked some interest from some undisclosed media outlets. Out of 400+ entries, ours was one of the 30 selected, winning Bayette a chance to try out for the NBA’s Pre-Draft Camp at Arlington, Texas, July 28-29.
The second part of the contest judges the 3 most popular videos. The top prize is $30,000; $15,000 for second ,and $7,500 for third. Today, July 23rd, Bayete is in first place. I think voting ends this Thursday. Please go to the following link below, watch the video, vote for “Bayete Gordon” and make sure to tell your friends. Vote at this NBA Go Pro Link
Bendrix is the founder and Digital Media (Brand) Strategist for Codedsignal; a portable media network featuring; 1. Beneath the Beat: Hip Hop, 2. Beneath the Beat: Electronica, 3. Digital Media Tips N Tricks.
Showbiz focuses on iTunes music reviews and IMDb movie and film reviews.
Since 1995 Pixar has dazzled us with groundbreaking award winning animation. But its not just the animation that captivates us, these films have a soul. Ratatouille follows in the Pixar tradition by delivering impressive atmosphere layered under a tabooed yet endearing story.
Lets face it, American animation films are overwhelmingly bland and mind numbingly half-assed. Here’s the typical plot: several big name actors do voice over work, for several key characters from the film. There’s lots of obnoxious potty humor and tons of cliche references from mainstream entertainment. What’s worse is that the movie trailers show just about every comedic punch-line and action sequence from the movie, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Which brings me back to Ratatouille, I saw a 30 second trailer about a year ago. I was scratching my head thinking… Another kid movie about a talking animal? A RAT at that! How distasteful can that be? Pixar has this strange formula that only seems to work for them. A year before a film is released they present a seemingly unfinished concept trailer. It would appear to be counter productive, but somehow it works! The original trailers for Toy Story (I & II), The Incredibles, Cars, Monster’s Inc., and Finding Nemo all used this tactic and each time I wrote them off as failures even before the project was complete. As it got closer to Ratatouille’s release , I saw a clip of the same rat telling the same story about his desire to be a chef. This time I was intrigued, because they really had refined the concept. This trailer was intelligent and it captured the true essence of an exquisite cliffhanger narrative.
When the movie came out, I was totally feeling optimistic about it, so a group of us went to catch an evening showing, which was packed with parents and their kids. Oh boy! {rolls eyes} Not only was the movie smart, it was absolutely hilarious, even more surprising was that the kids sat there silent and engrossed.
I was enchanted. Ratatouille captured the atmosphere and vibe of Paris. I mean it truly is a spectacle not to be missed on the big screen. The animators obviously payed special attention to the keen details that are generally overlooked by most animation studios today. The film also touched on subjects like trust, family obligation and following your dreams.
Hey! Its still Hollywood, but somehow it manages to deliver the story in such a way that even puts traditional “real people” films to task. For most of the movie you suspend the disbelief of a rodent preparing food. Its a masterful rewiring of our prejudices… maneuvering an embracing sentiment towards our accepting rodents in the kitchen. I must warn you that there are a few unsettling scenes that transport you back to reality.
I give this movie 4 3/4 stars out of 5, for the sheer fact that the film is based in France yet all the rats and the main character Alfredo Linguini spoke good ol’ American English. That was the only real weakness of the movie and to be honest its not really a distraction, its just me being nit-picky. The characters: Remy (the little chef) and Alfredo Linquini (the garbage boy) have a wonderful chemistry as chef and marionette puppet. Gusteau (the deceased master chef) is a jovial ghostly head that pops up in Remy’s mind from time to time as the voice of reason and his inspiration. The exchanges between Remy and Gusteau provides much of the comedy relief throughout the film. Colette Tatou (the tough female chef) seemingly a hardcore feminist, plays mentor and good friend to the inept garbage boy. I really dug her character she was tough man and had a spiky yet alluring spirit. Anton Ego (the harsh food critic) was an striking depiction of snobbery to the highest order; I mean you really want to hate this guy. I’m not going to spoil it, but I’ll just say that he is featured in one of the most memorable scenes in all movie history, towards the end.
Almost all Hollywood films both animated and traditional, taste like Burger King or Mc Donald’s; but, Pixar films taste more like Iron Chef gourmet meals. Ratatouille doesn’t spoon feed you, it makes you think, it entertains you, and doesn’t talk down to any generation or group. It represents the essence of a ‘true’ family movie experience because the parents can actually feel stimulated and their kids can become enriched by this dynamic moving story that interweaves artful storytelling at its best.
Visionary is the celebration of extraordinary individuals, innovations, ideas and events that offer progressive or foretelling insights. Bendrix highlights his thoughts and other lunatic fringe thinking.
On Monday July 2nd, I received a phone message about a new Google offering. I ignored it… On Wednesday July 4th I got that same message but this time in the form of an email… Still ignored it. So earlier today I finally checked both of these messages and it appears that I am a little late with the news, but I certainly won’t be the last to blog about it.
You see I have this huge Google fetish and I love it whenever they come out with a new beta application or acquire a new company. Well there happens to be this company called Grandcentral and it was acquired by Google sometime within the past week or so. This is truly awesome news because I have been testing out Grandcentral since November 14, 2006. I absolutely love the service and brag about it to friends and colleagues all the time; but don’t take my word for it, because once Google gives the stamp of approval to something then you know its got to have some value.
Grandcentral is this online application that allows you to input phone contacts and keep that information hosted on their server. Why is this cool? Suppose you loose your phone or your computer dies or you loose your little black book? If you don’t have a backup plan, then you’re out of luck. Several months ago both my computer and my cell phone died around the same time and I lost all my contact info (well I still had the business cards).
Another good reason to join, free phone forwarding. When you first sign up for the service you must choose a city and a virtual phone number… This virtual number can be linked to your home, cell, work, or any other phone you choose (up to 7 numbers). If someone calls you, you can send them directly to your virtual voicemail. You can be listen to messages on your phone, through your Grandcentral web page, or via. email. Another reason why this feature is cool is because you are no longer tied to your home or business office. Lets say you have several employees who all have cell phones, all you have to do is input all their numbers at the Grandcentral site and elect to access that number. That number can represent your main office number and any one of your employees can either answer the call or let it go to voicemail. There can be many ways to implement the technology in the home, the office, or among groups, this is just one example.
Another awesome feature is that you can record your conversations. The average person may find this an unnecessary feature, but to a podcaster or a video blogger this could be the killer interview application they have been looking for. Its an all in one solution, no extra’s or burdensome instructions. You just inform the party on the other end that you are about to record them… when they consent… just press the number “3″ button on your phone… talk, talk, talk… and when you’re done, just hit the “3″ button again. Its that easy and the audio files reside on your Grandcentral profile page in the form of a downloadable MP3 or you can listen to the steam from the page itself.
Go see for yourself. My prediction: Grandcentral will be among ‘the’ hot new web technologies for 2007.
Webbiz reviews and spotlights stuff related to online entertainment and web culture. This is part of the Beneath the Beat Webbiz Podcast.
On Monday July 1st, I was sending a clip to Zadi Diaz to show her the madness over at the 5th Avenue Mac Store in Manhattan, and she wrote back… “that’s insane! Hey — if you’d like, we can probably feature a part of it on Jetset this Monday.”
Actually its no longer called The Jetset Show, its now called Epic-Fu, but in the spirit of preserving an archived memory lets just refer to it as The Jetset Show. Jetset happens to be one of the few shows that I check out regularly. For those of you who do not know, Jetset is a show created by Zadi Diaz and Steve Woolf. They conduct interviews and showcase whats hip and cool on both online and offline. For me I watch to see coverage of the newest online applications and to see what is interesting on the web. They also touch on the music scene and there are some very funny skits throughout the 5 min episodes. Oh did I mention that Zadi is a real hottie, (oh and yeah Steve is a dashing young devil as well). But Jetset is so much more because they are an “Internet and pop culture show for young adults featuring cool, weird, fun, geeky, underground, true-to-life, curious, quirky things and people found online and off.” I also wanted to mention that Jetset has accumulated rave reviews from the online community by winning Vloggie and a Webby awards and they just have a growing number of fans world wide.
I highly recommend the Jetset Show and hope you will watch the clip below and go to the following links to support the Jetset movement: website, youtube, mix.jetset
Visionary is the celebration of extraordinary individuals, innovations, ideas and events that offer progressive or foretelling insights. Bendrix highlights his thoughts and other lunatic fringe thinking.
On Friday June 29th I traveled to the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in New York City to witness the pandemonium over the iPhone. I have been present at both the SOHO and 5th Ave Apple Store grand openings, about 9 Mac World Expo’s, and a slew of Apple product release events. Let me just say that this was a crowd that stretched a full city block and the largest police presence and gathering of news teams that I’ve ever witnessed at an Apple event. So why all the madness and what exactly is the value of this product?
Some people are interested but think the $600 price tag is steep. Others ask what’s the big deal over a stooooopid gadget that is nothing more than an indulgence. Others are griping about the exclusivity with AT&T.
The significance of this event and this device marks the beginning of a Telecom revolution. Just like the iPod+iTunes and now AppleTV are revolutionizing digital downloads and the way we view our entertainment – the iPhone will do the same. Apple will make the cellular networks and device makers step up their game - forcing them to offer services and innovations long over due. I will be blogging more on this topic over the next few weeks… stay tuned and check out the mayhem on the video clip below.
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July 23, 2007 8:06 pm | 
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