Thursday, July 21, 2005
Third Wedding Anniversary!
Last night I took Meg for dessert at Primativo, a posh tapas bar on Abbot Kinney, to celebrate our third wedding anniversary! We "reflected" on the great times we have had the fortune to experience over the past few years and especially our recent time in Europe. It was tough at times with things like our separation due to lack of work for me in Madrid, which forced me to got to London, and then the bombings in Madrid... But it was also exhilarating to be in two amazing cities and to really experience them in a way that you only can by living and working! there... In much the same way as we have gotten to know Los Angeles of late. If you'd asked me on our wedding day "Walshman, where do you see yourself in 3 years?" There's no way in hell I'd have been able to say "yeah, in 3 years time, I see myself sipping an Oloroso made by the great sherry bodega of Pedro Ximenez in Jerez, Andalucia, coupled nicely to sampling of peach torte, at a posh Los Angeles tapas bar while reminiscing with my wife about our adventures." Crazy. Not to mention the fact that we'd be celebrating Meg's 14th week of pregnancy as well! Meg had made a beautiful meal at home prior to the desert - fish tacos! which is another new addition to our menu for which we have Los Angeles to thank. So all in all it was a tasty way to celebrate our good fortune. We also looked ahead to our impending move back to Vancouver with real excitement - Meg going back to work at Stratford Hall School, and me finding a studio to hang my hat, and then the arrival of "el niño" in January surrounded by family and friends. The year ahead looks spectacular and next year will be celebrated with an additional member of the family! Wow! It all seems to have happened so fast...
Monday, July 18, 2005
The Assault on Encinal Canyon
This past week saw The Walshman grind out a total of 331 kilometres on his beloved Cramerotti road bicycle (referred to affectionately as his "Lil' Mule"). The highlight of the week was a 125 kilometre tour of Encinal Canyon in Malibu that featured an hour plus accent through dense fog and then a screaming descent back to the Pacific Coast Highway via the Mulholland Highway (and a new record top speed of 72.1 kilometres per hour no less!). Terrific stuff all around. As we climbed up from the ocean through the coastal fog, and emerged onto the winding ridge top back roads, a burning sun shone down revealing a tremendous view of the coastal Santa Monica range. The Mountains appeared like giant serpents lumbering through a strange sea of clouds. I reflected that my riding had come a long way since my arrival to Los Angeles in March. Back then, this ride would have done me in for certain. The climb was an agonizingly consistent killer that didn't show any signs of relenting until you had almost overcome it's height. That's one of the great things about riding I find. The simple feeling of accomplishment when you reach a goal. And it can be something so unannounced and spontaneous in our otherwise regimented lives. Somebody in the group just says "who feels like giving Encinal Canyon a go?" And you're off to see yourself up to the top. Just like that! This one was really worth and I imagine I will do it again prior to leaving Los Angeles this fall. Especially if it includes the essential "coffee and muffin stop" on the way home.
Friday, July 15, 2005
A Race At Two Speeds?
Read below an interesting, yet a bit deflating, article about doping in cycling. Thanks to Paul for sending it my way. Where "The Lance" is concerned, I guess I just am a sucker for the "why, as a cancer survivor and generally accepted hero of the people, would I risk throwing all that away?" theory... He can't be doping, he musn't be doping, because there is too much to lose? Right? No? Especially since he does have a "proven medical track record" of off the charts physiology. Perhaps I need to be more skeptical? Who knows...
A "race at two speeds?" Doping continues to haunt Tour
By Justin Davis
Agence France Presse
This report filed July 15, 2005
Following the expulsion of one rider and the arrest of another, talk of doping at the Tour de France has re-emerged as the doctor of one of France's top teams said the race is still being "contested on two levels."
For Gerard Guillaume, the doctor of the Francaise des Jeux team of Bradley McGee and Baden Cooke, his riders simply can't keep up with a peloton whose speeds have amazed everyone in the first 12 days of the race.
The Tour, which American Lance Armstrong is bidding to win for a seventh consecutive time, has so far been raced at a punishing pace, leaving some complaining they are not all racing on the same level.
Although that can partly be explained by the fact the peloton benefited from favorable wind conditions as they raced from west to east in the first 10 days, speeds on the race left many, otherwise good climbers
struggling to hang on in the tough Alpine cols.
"At the Dauphine Liberé I had no problems in following the best climbers. At the Tour, I just can't," said Frenchman David Moncoutie after he won the 12th stage Thursday - a medium-difficulty climbing day. "It's
like that every year, but all I can say is 'too bad.'"
For Guillaume, there's only one explanation.
"There's two Tours de France being raced at the moment. We're not in the same race as those who are at the front, that's for sure," he said in French daily L'Humanite Friday.
"Our best rider for the general classification, Sandy Casar, is already 15 minutes behind."
Cycling has been one of the sports to make the most progress in fighting doping since the 1998 Festina doping scandal almost brought the Tour to its knees.
After years of dubious performances, it was finally revealed that crafty, illicit methods were being used to administer the banned but very effective blood boosting hormone EPO (Erythropoietin).
EPO benefits athletes' by boosting the red blood cells, thus allowing more oxygen to be pumped into the muscles. The result is that riders can last for much longer and, more importantly on the Tour de France,
recuperate quicker.
Even before the 1998 scandal better controls have been introduced, including the UCI blood test to check riders' hematocrit (red blood cell) levels.
The average hematocrit level for normal healthy adult athletes is around 45. The UCI permits riders to compete with levels up to 50, before declaring them "unfit" to ride and requiring a two-week "rest" break.
Some people are born with abnormally high hematocrit levels and the UCI does allow cyclists to prove it with an extensive medical history.
But despite the progress in catching cheats, there are widespread suspicions that new, improved methods are being used to elude the drugs controllers.
EPO was once detectable for up to six days, but now it is suspected that athletes are using micro doses of the drug. It ultimately lets them slip through any drug controls.
"Detecting EPO used to be much easier - there was a five or six day window in which to act. But I think now because of different methods and micro-dosing the window of detection is only 24 hours," said Guillaume,
who also suggested that growth hormones - a test for which is supposedly being used on the Tour this year - could also be widespread.
"The cheats now have got more chance of not getting caught than getting caught," he added.
The first controversy of the race came a few days ago when Russian Yevgeny Petrov, of Lampre, was thrown off the race after his red blood cell count was over the permitted threshold of 50.
On Tuesday Fassa Bortolo rider Dario Frigo, who had been sacked by his team for doping in the past, was also thrown out.
His expulsion became automatic when he was questioned and held by police after his wife Susanna was caught by customs officers with banned substances in her car, believed to be vials of EPO.
French veteran Didier Rous has in the past admitted to using banned substances when he was with Festina. He suggested Wednesday that cheating on the Tour was evident - and called for it to stop.
"There has to come a time when you say, 'right that's enough'," said Rous, a former national champion who raced with Festina when the team was thrown off the Tour in 1998.
"One minute we're able to keep up with the best, then all of a sudden we're not. I can't hold my hands up and say what's going on at other teams. I've got no proof."
A "race at two speeds?" Doping continues to haunt Tour
By Justin Davis
Agence France Presse
This report filed July 15, 2005
Following the expulsion of one rider and the arrest of another, talk of doping at the Tour de France has re-emerged as the doctor of one of France's top teams said the race is still being "contested on two levels."
For Gerard Guillaume, the doctor of the Francaise des Jeux team of Bradley McGee and Baden Cooke, his riders simply can't keep up with a peloton whose speeds have amazed everyone in the first 12 days of the race.
The Tour, which American Lance Armstrong is bidding to win for a seventh consecutive time, has so far been raced at a punishing pace, leaving some complaining they are not all racing on the same level.
Although that can partly be explained by the fact the peloton benefited from favorable wind conditions as they raced from west to east in the first 10 days, speeds on the race left many, otherwise good climbers
struggling to hang on in the tough Alpine cols.
"At the Dauphine Liberé I had no problems in following the best climbers. At the Tour, I just can't," said Frenchman David Moncoutie after he won the 12th stage Thursday - a medium-difficulty climbing day. "It's
like that every year, but all I can say is 'too bad.'"
For Guillaume, there's only one explanation.
"There's two Tours de France being raced at the moment. We're not in the same race as those who are at the front, that's for sure," he said in French daily L'Humanite Friday.
"Our best rider for the general classification, Sandy Casar, is already 15 minutes behind."
Cycling has been one of the sports to make the most progress in fighting doping since the 1998 Festina doping scandal almost brought the Tour to its knees.
After years of dubious performances, it was finally revealed that crafty, illicit methods were being used to administer the banned but very effective blood boosting hormone EPO (Erythropoietin).
EPO benefits athletes' by boosting the red blood cells, thus allowing more oxygen to be pumped into the muscles. The result is that riders can last for much longer and, more importantly on the Tour de France,
recuperate quicker.
Even before the 1998 scandal better controls have been introduced, including the UCI blood test to check riders' hematocrit (red blood cell) levels.
The average hematocrit level for normal healthy adult athletes is around 45. The UCI permits riders to compete with levels up to 50, before declaring them "unfit" to ride and requiring a two-week "rest" break.
Some people are born with abnormally high hematocrit levels and the UCI does allow cyclists to prove it with an extensive medical history.
But despite the progress in catching cheats, there are widespread suspicions that new, improved methods are being used to elude the drugs controllers.
EPO was once detectable for up to six days, but now it is suspected that athletes are using micro doses of the drug. It ultimately lets them slip through any drug controls.
"Detecting EPO used to be much easier - there was a five or six day window in which to act. But I think now because of different methods and micro-dosing the window of detection is only 24 hours," said Guillaume,
who also suggested that growth hormones - a test for which is supposedly being used on the Tour this year - could also be widespread.
"The cheats now have got more chance of not getting caught than getting caught," he added.
The first controversy of the race came a few days ago when Russian Yevgeny Petrov, of Lampre, was thrown off the race after his red blood cell count was over the permitted threshold of 50.
On Tuesday Fassa Bortolo rider Dario Frigo, who had been sacked by his team for doping in the past, was also thrown out.
His expulsion became automatic when he was questioned and held by police after his wife Susanna was caught by customs officers with banned substances in her car, believed to be vials of EPO.
French veteran Didier Rous has in the past admitted to using banned substances when he was with Festina. He suggested Wednesday that cheating on the Tour was evident - and called for it to stop.
"There has to come a time when you say, 'right that's enough'," said Rous, a former national champion who raced with Festina when the team was thrown off the Tour in 1998.
"One minute we're able to keep up with the best, then all of a sudden we're not. I can't hold my hands up and say what's going on at other teams. I've got no proof."
Thursday, July 14, 2005
"Anyone, he said, can make a transforming robot..."
Click here for a Yahoo News article on the upcoming "Transformers" movie scheduled for release July 4th, 2007. Seeing as I got my start in computer graphics as an animator on "Beast Wars: Transformers" the television series, I have a sort of "looking back on the golden days" type of attitude towards this film... maybe I'll have to do a stint on this one!? Hardly likely, but it could be fun... what was great about the series is how solid the characters were. Sure, the stories were corny as hell, the characters were very well defined and that made for a fun project. That, and non-stop 80 hour weeks at Mainframe for 2 years straight... yeesh, what am I thinking?
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
The Stupid Venice Beach Drum Circle
So there is this thing in Venice Beach, California called "The Venice Beach Drum Circle." It is one of those things that people who have only ever lived in Los Angeles County (or the United States outside of San Francisco and New York) call "an amazing cultural experience." I can only describe it as the following: a bunch of people (including some with very questionable musical talent) arrive to the Venice Beach board walk with percussion instruments both traditional and otherwise, and proceed to pound, whack, and hit on them synchronously and asynchronously for hours on end making a hell of a racket for little or no apparent reason or artistic Merit. And this is "culture?" Well, of a kind I suppose. The people are of all walks of life, but frequently look like this guy who has shown up to wield that most sophisticated of percussion instruments - the cow bell! "Freaks upon freaks" as my friend Rob once said as we walked the board walk... It goes on and on, pounding away into the wee hours, and is miraculously tolerated by the locals. I suppose they might all be out there pounding on their own instruments of sonic torture. I admire the shear chaos of the event, the complete and total lack of organization, and refusal to submit to any sense of "marketing" that is so ever present in the United States. It is a real relief. Just a bunch of people doing something for the sole reason of doing it. However, that being said, I still can't get myself past the fact that the sum of the parts that is The Venice Beach Drum Circle... Is well, just kinda stupid. Then again, maybe I just need to assimilate!
Oliver Stone's 9/11 Movie
My word... Someone please shelve this project!!!
"Just when you thought the summer couldnÂ’t get worse for Hollywood, Paramount has announced that Oliver Stone will be directing the first major feature film about 9/11. The movie will star Nicolas Cage as Port Authority police sergeant, John McLoughlin. The sergeant and fellow officer William Jimeno were the last two men to be pulled alive from the rubble of the World Trade Center. The film will be released next year - thus guaranteeing another summer of bad box office returns. (Memo to Hollywood: Why not “The Passion II: The Afterlife”?)"
We all know that Nicolas Cage is clearly nutso, especially since dumping the lovely Patricia Arquette in favour of Elvis's lunatic daughter, but Oliver Stone at least has some measure of street credit for being a "challenging director." So, in this case, the "powers that be" will surely force this into some sort of American Imperialism propoganda vehicle. Truly embarassing. I guess you get what you deserve after making "Alexander."
"Just when you thought the summer couldnÂ’t get worse for Hollywood, Paramount has announced that Oliver Stone will be directing the first major feature film about 9/11. The movie will star Nicolas Cage as Port Authority police sergeant, John McLoughlin. The sergeant and fellow officer William Jimeno were the last two men to be pulled alive from the rubble of the World Trade Center. The film will be released next year - thus guaranteeing another summer of bad box office returns. (Memo to Hollywood: Why not “The Passion II: The Afterlife”?)"
We all know that Nicolas Cage is clearly nutso, especially since dumping the lovely Patricia Arquette in favour of Elvis's lunatic daughter, but Oliver Stone at least has some measure of street credit for being a "challenging director." So, in this case, the "powers that be" will surely force this into some sort of American Imperialism propoganda vehicle. Truly embarassing. I guess you get what you deserve after making "Alexander."
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
More of the Good Stuff from Gorillaz
Click here to see some "wicked-awesome" in the form of a new Gorillaz music video... What's really impressive to me about the music videos for this group is the way in which animation pushes boundaries. The timing is odd, the look is deceptively simple, there is a kind of "multi-media approach" that I really love... Things like that! Just the sort of mad-cap way that the 2D animation is integrated with the 3D is a real pleasure to see because it is so loose and not overworked like so many things you see these days. It just "feels right" nonetheless. See it, dig it, love it!
The Greatest Music Video...
Ever in the history of the medium!!! Click here to see it! And wait for the flying fish!
Monday, July 11, 2005
Smart Parts
Click here to check out the promotional website for "Smart Parts" an independent feature film written and directed by Derek Franson. A friend of mine in the Vancouver visual effects industry, Mark Benard, is serving as VFX producer on the project and I thought I would shout-out a shameless plug! Actually, I think Mark is splitting his time between growing beets in the Comox Valley and forging ahead with his guerilla visual effects business otherwise known as Lost Boys Studios, but that's beside the point... Take a look at the promo on the website and you'll see that the work is right off the whizzle shnizzle!
Friday, July 08, 2005
Baby Nia and The Vangroovey!
Last weekend featured a visit home to Vancouver and a trip to Victoria to meet my niece Nia for the first time! It really was quite incredible to "look the next generation square in the eye." A totally astounding experience. Seeing my sister and her "pal" Gord caring for an infant was a mind blower and they looked as impressed with themselves as they were with their little offspring Nia. I can only imagine what my mother and father must be feeling as the importance of the arrival of baby Nia will most definitely be exaggerated for them... Little Nia was just a true pleasure hangin' with the old folks and very well behaved! I'd have to say that she's just gonna be a little peach of a kid. Meg and I indeed had a lovely couple of days just hanging out with our now slightly expanded family! It even included picking fresh Tay Berries from my mom's backyard and eating them in a pie the very same day! How's that for down home treatment? Not so bad indeed!
As well, I can only say that it felt amazing to be back in Vancouver. I just love the place and I didn't want to leave! It feels so diverse and interesting compared to Los Angeles! Why did I ever leave? Just kidding, the past few years have been a wonderful, though stressful, experience. Lately I have really realized that for me, I do not need the "ego" of being in a place like Los Angeles, working at a big name studio or whatever... I mean, it is great and Rhythm and Hues has been wonderful exposure to a cool studio with an amazing vibe (as was ESC Ent. and The Moving Picture Company), but to me, if I am interested in what I am doing and struggling to do nice things at work, and I am with good people who respect each other, and there is a balance in my life... This is great and the most desirable thing. A lot of people who may be in London, or in Los Angeles, will never achieve this in my opinion... It is just impossible. These "centers" are incredible places to go to experience the pinnacle (if you are so lucky) of your field, but not places to call "home" necessarily. There are just too many demands and complications.
That being said, I don't think I could have gotten to this phase in my life/career without going far away to
work on these big projects, because I had to "go through it." This is a real personal truth as well. This knowledge comes after working at some big name studios. Also, what I have learned is that when I do get frustrated, or I feel the need for the "big time" Meg has the will to travel and we can do it. I am going to love being back in my home city eventually, and I feel very grateful that it is Vancouver, more than I ever have.
As well, I can only say that it felt amazing to be back in Vancouver. I just love the place and I didn't want to leave! It feels so diverse and interesting compared to Los Angeles! Why did I ever leave? Just kidding, the past few years have been a wonderful, though stressful, experience. Lately I have really realized that for me, I do not need the "ego" of being in a place like Los Angeles, working at a big name studio or whatever... I mean, it is great and Rhythm and Hues has been wonderful exposure to a cool studio with an amazing vibe (as was ESC Ent. and The Moving Picture Company), but to me, if I am interested in what I am doing and struggling to do nice things at work, and I am with good people who respect each other, and there is a balance in my life... This is great and the most desirable thing. A lot of people who may be in London, or in Los Angeles, will never achieve this in my opinion... It is just impossible. These "centers" are incredible places to go to experience the pinnacle (if you are so lucky) of your field, but not places to call "home" necessarily. There are just too many demands and complications.
That being said, I don't think I could have gotten to this phase in my life/career without going far away to
work on these big projects, because I had to "go through it." This is a real personal truth as well. This knowledge comes after working at some big name studios. Also, what I have learned is that when I do get frustrated, or I feel the need for the "big time" Meg has the will to travel and we can do it. I am going to love being back in my home city eventually, and I feel very grateful that it is Vancouver, more than I ever have.
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