"Transformers" Preproduction Starts

Given my esteemed beginnings in computer graphics (my first ever credit was as an 'animator' on the all computer generated television series Beast Wars: Transformers) I thought this news deserved a post!

(From Dreamworks Fansite) Most film producers stay pretty aloof, one however not afraid to comment and let his feelings be known is Don Murphy. The man behind a slew of recent Alan Moore comic adaptations, he is now one of the guys responsible for the upcoming "Transformers" movie. Today, Dreamworks Fansite has assembled the man's collective thoughts on the film from dozens of posts that he has put together over recent weeks.

In the first draft of the script there were four main Transformers on each side but the plans are to expand that to five on each side in the next script revision. The characters of Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ratchet, Bumblebee and Arcee for the Autobots and Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream for the Decepticons. The remaining 2 Decepticons are yet to be determined.

The story is set in Southwest, USA and will be about Autobots who have been on Earth for a long time, (possibly as far back as biblical times) and are engaged in hidden war with other Transformers. It will told from human perspective. There are currently no plans for a second or third film but if the first film does well, two more are likely to follow.

The script is expected to be done by July 1st, preproduction begins September 1st and filming begins December 1st. A PG or PG-13 rating is expected, as is a November 17th, 2006 release date.

Quaffable But Far From Transcendant

Click here for a hilarious rant derived from the hubbub surrounding the film Sideways. "Quaffable, but far from transcendant" has got to be the best line in that film when it comes to ridiculous, verbose, nonsensical descriptions of wine. Yet, it does mean what it means. Hilarious. I have to admit that the film does grow on you like a fine wine. The first time I saw it I thought it was another "fine, well crafted, but far from transcendant" piece of film making from Alexander Payne. On a second viewing, however, I really thought that the film hit on some marvelous character definitions and a certain creeping banality that really roots the film. The reality of these couple of mid-life idiots is all too telling and a great slice of American life as it is for many in the middle classes today. These characters, so embedded in their banal lives, are struggling to accomplish things that are anything but banal - the fanatical appreciation of Pinot Noir, writing a novel, starting a vineyard, etc. Throw in that classic down beat sense of humour present in all of Payne's films and you have some compelling film making.

Mandeville Canyon Road

Last weekend one of the dudes I was riding with out on PCH told me to check out Mandeville Canyon Road as a regular midweek "value ride." Value because of the fact that it is a comparatively secluded canyon road in the Hollywood Hills, thus having less traffic and better air quality, and it has a gradually increasing uphill grade for about 7 miles. Perfect for the 90:00 minute out and back before work. So, today I decided that Meg and I should check it out. Great idea. It was just as billed. A strangely secluded groove in the hills that allows the avid cyclist a little choice uphill canyon action (and downhill fun for that matter on the way back) super close to home if you live in the north west of the city. Lots of posh houses and hidden driveways no doubt housing garages full of vintage sports cars line the road and provide plenty of distracting eye candy. It is the regular haunt of the whole range of cyclismos in Los Angeles f from the 50kms per weeker all the way up to the 300kms per weeker. You get to see the full cross section of cycling society on this road. By the way, I am thinking of joining Velo Club La Grange while I am in Los Angeles. They run regular rides in my area and have a good following with competitive and non-competitive (that's me!) riders.

The Birthday Pie!

Yesterday I became "closer to 40 than 30." Yep, I crossed the 35 year threshold. I have firmly shut the door on "youth" and moved headlong into "the middle years." This birthday definately feels like a door is closing on a chapter. I am officially outside of the key fashion/sales/marketing demographic of 25-35 years of age. No longer a trend setter, etc. What will the world do without Donnie Walsho leading the charge? I am sure that the "Echo" kids will pick up the torch...

I woke up early to get on the bike and start the day off on the right note. A lovely little 90:00 minute jaunt taking in Santa Monica's beach front, and few of the "posh hills" as I have been calling them, and then a spin down to Marina Del Rey and back to the flat. Little did I know I would find my beautiful wife serving up a special turkey and chipotle chile spiced sausage breakfast on my return! Some toast and eggs, and diced cantalope on the side as well. Que fantastico! I definately had a spring in my step as I headed off to work.

When I arrived home after work I was greeted by a couple of big "Happy Birthday" signs and a beautiful sausage pasta dinner. What's more there was a magnificent blueberry birthday pie as well! Cojonudo hombre! "What great fortune do I have today!" I thought, gawdzukes! Sausage for breakfast and dinner with pie for desert! And in the immortal words of J.C. "Jack" Walkey "I think it was the best goddamned pie I have ever had!" Meggi presented me with a great little book about riding in the area around San Luis Obispo north of Los Angeles, and tickets for us to take in a couple of key shows at The Malibu Film Festival. The Aero theatre on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica was the spot and proved to be a great old refurbished independant cinema. There is kind of a "Cambie Street-esque" strip on Montana with a lot of posh shops. We saw Mad Hot Ballroom a documentary film about the New York Public School system's attempt to teach 10 and 11 year olds the finer points of dance and a short program that included an outstanding, offbeat, animated short from Disney called Lorenzo. When you see work like that from Disney Animation it is a wonder why they produce the dreck they do so often! Amazing! This film is what animation is all about, man. Accomplishing things that live action could never accomplish and in a style you've never imagined. Really impressive.

I feel great today. I love my wife, I love my family, I love my friends, I love my career, and I am as passionate or more passionate about these things as I have ever been. Life is good, and the glass is more than half full. Thanks to everyone who took the personal time and effort to recognise my birthday! Muchisimas gracias, un abrazo tan fuerte a todos!

Coming Out of Retirement on the Pacific Coast Highway

I went for my first "serious road ride" on Saturday morning and it was a very enjoyable, although severe, shock to the system. A fast seventy-five total kilometers from my front door north on the Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu to a little place called Trancas and back. The weather was lovely and sunny, but cool by the water. Perfect for cycling. I warmed my old bones up riding to Temescal Canyon Road on the beach path, and then as chance would have it a mixed men's and women's group road by. I thought "there's a good way to learn the ropes around here." So I decided to follow along. They had about a one minute lead on me because of the light at Temescal, and so it took me 16 minutes of pretty hard riding to catch them up. By this time I had realized that I was following a far too fast, far too fit group, and I was already tired from the sprint to catch up. This thought was confirmed when I started to chat with one of the dudes at the back of the group who casually dropped the following line "oh yeah, I have been to Spain too, when I road the Vuelta de San Sebastion." This is a notoriously difficult one-day early season professional race on Spain's north coast that features prominently in the book about Lance Armstrong. So I struggled along happily keeping up to these fit folks for the "out" portion of the journey, but they removed all pretentiousness of compatibility on the "back" portion where even the women (especially the women?) showed me the meaning of "I have another gear you only dream of having big boy." But, there were so many road riders out there I had no trouble hooking up with another couple of mid-thirties grey beards like myself for the better part of the return trip. All in all a fabulous introduction to what I am hoping will be a regular event here this year - La Vuelta de Malibu!

Neil Bruder's Photostream

If you ever have some time on your hands while at the computer (like, oh, say... waiting for a render or something...) check out Neil Bruder's Photostream! Neil is an amateur photographer I know in Vancouver. I had not checked it out recently until today and again I am amazed yet again by Neil's collection of photos. I think Neil has a very bright future as a photographer. I especially love this one of Vancouver in the winter. I think it really captures the essence of what it is like to plunk a city down in the middle of a rainforest. And the city looks so amazing when you get those raking breaks of pure sun through broken cloud. Rich.

Is Your Starsucks Getting You Down?

Don't get mad! Get Even! Check out this amazingly cool website called "Delocate" devoted to offering you, the cafe aficionado, a wealth of opportunities in the non-corporate, or mom and pop, or independent cafe world. Who doesn't love selection? Personal choice? Diversity? Don't settle for that homogeneous garbage coffee milkshake you call a "vente triple shot latte frappacino!" Get the real thing! Get originality! Get uniqueness! Get life! Well, at least get a proper cup of coffee and pay someone who deserves it! Come on!

Click here for a link to the Urth Caffe website, my current cafe of choice. It is just a couple of blocks away from the new flat and they make a proper cappucino. Meg has also been ordering what they call a Spanish Latte which is a beautiful after dinner treat! Urth specializes in only purely organic coffees and teas. From what I have experienced, it is working! The stuff tastes like black heaven! Also, there is some great, straight forward dope on why chosing organic coffee is important.

Niamh Marguerite Anne Is Born!

Meg and I are Aunt and Uncle for the first time! My sister Andrea gave birth to baby Nia yesterday at around five in the afternoon and both are happy and healthy! Congratulations to Andrea and Gord who have now written page one in their new chapter together. We wish them the very best of luck as parents. My very pleased and overwhelmed parents, now proudly grandparents, gave us the news last night. I have yet to speak with Andrea and Gord as they are still at the hospital I guess, but I can't wait to hear from them! The little baby girl's full name is Niamh (the Gaelic form of Neve) Marguerite (in tribute to Gord's Mom) Anne (in tribute to my Mom) and she will go by the shortened form, Nia. Incidentally, the Gaelic name Niamh means "bright and beautiful." Oh yeah, and she will share the Aries sign with yours truly! Making here an Aries along with Julie, my sister in law, my father in law Christian, and my grandpa Bud! The Aries are taking over the family!

We Have A New Home!

As you can see I have updated my contact information. Meg and I have managed to secure a nice flat overlooking the beach in Santa Monica. In fact, we are only five blocks back from the water, just off of Main Street, and there is a bit of a hill, so that our third floor balcony has a nice view! I believe the area is called Ocean Park and it is nicely sandwiched between Venice Beach and downtown Santa Monica. One of our biggest concerns in coming to Los Angeles was the dreaded "drive-a-holic" culture in the city. "Everybody drives everywhere" was something that friends told us about Los Angeles much in advance of arriving here. The "405 Parking Lot" was a familiar refrain as well. We are not really driving people, so images from Steve Martin's hilarious "LA Stories" where people get in their cars to drive four or five houses away were swirling around in my head. I have preferred for years to ride to work, and Meg and I adjusted very well to using the Metro, walking and cabbing around in Madrid and London. I think that if all public transit was as easy and cheap to use as the metro in Madrid we'd all be converts! We really have only used our car as "a recreational vehicle" over the years. So, all along the plan was to perhaps pay a little more, but be in a location that allowed us to maintain a somewhat "European existence" within the "freeway city." From our new location, I will be able to bicycle commute on "bikes only" paths for about 90% of my commute to work. We will be able to walk to most major amenities including the gym, a fresh vegetable market, cafes, restaurants and a public library! In fact, the cafe that is two blocks away called "Urth" makes great cappucino and is already becoming a favorite. All in all, it was a bit of a struggle to find something, but I think what we have found will work out nicely for the year.

Want to Live and Work in America?

Click here to read a great little article on "How to Be an Illegal Alien in the United States" by Mimi a New York Village Voice writer. Funny, and too real at the same time I think. Can you imagine working for "tips only" so as to remain unknown to the authorities? In comparison to her stories related here, Meg and I's woes are quite trivial, being well-educated Canadians who both qualify for temporary work visas in The United States under NAFTA. Aside from the rather cold, neurotic, machoistic and unwelcome reception that you seem to always receive from the border guards who process your visa, coming into The United States qualified to work is relatively painless for us. You just have to be patient and put up with the crap at the border. After that, it is pretty smooth. However, there are times that most definitely confirm in your own mind your status as "a foreigner" here.

Over the past few days Meg and I have struggled to secure accommodations in Los Angeles. This has largely been due to two things: a) higher cost than we anticipated and b) complications with the "status" of our American credit. Although I have worked in The United States legally before, and I have a United States Social Security Number, a bank account, and legal employer now, I don't yet have an American credit card. So the long and short of it is that because I don't have a track record of established debt shouldering ability people are very hesitant to rent you an apartment. They think that you either won't be able to pay regularly or are a risk in that you might take off home at any time. I got Rhythm and Hues to write a letter confirming my work status and wrote up a work history and that eventually got us approved for a place, but we had to pay what I would call a "prejudiced deposit." It not that we have bad credit, we just don't have any, and they flatly refused to look at our Canadian credit history. It was touch and go for a while there, but it looks like we're in the clear now.

Spending any amount of time living and working as a foreigner, not just passing through on holiday where you don't have to deal with the realities of life, really expands your tolerance for immigrants I think. If you're never forced to see things as the foreigner, you never will. Still, our experience in the prosperous north pales in comparison to the experience of our supposed "partners in NAFTA" the Mexicans who have to deal with whackos like this: click here!

Ben Reeves at Oakville Galleries

Click here for details of Ben Reeves' new show at Oakville Galleries. There is similar work here to the work I mentioned was on show at Equinox in Vancouver, but there is additional information about the work via a curatorial piece that is worth a read if you are interested in decifering the dense layers of meaning in Ben's work. You could also just marvel at his drawings and make up your own mind what he's on about!

The Parastone Mouseion Collection

It seems like ages ago that Neil sent me this great link to a collection of models and figurines derived from famous works of art. I have just gotten around to it today as I wait for my first shot on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to arrive. Waiting for animation... What else is new!? I think that the Jheronimus Bosch and Pieter Breugel The Elder collections are of particular interest. I always thought it would be amazing to try to faithfully interpret the paintings of Mr. Bosch into 3D animations... A long time "personal project" idea that I have never found the time for... Ah yes, the illusive personal project time. Mysterious and nebulous as a cloud. I remember reading a couple of art books about Bosch and Breugel on the bus in Vancouver as I traveled back and forth to The Vancouver Film School, and that was back in 1996! When I was just learning 3D animation. Personal projects. My own personal fantasma.

California Wild Flowers

Click here to see some amazing photos of California Wild Flowers. Also, here's a link to the California government's website for the area known as the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. This year there has been so much rain in Southern California it is either the most, or second most, rainfall on record in the Los Angeles area. As a result, abnormally large numbers of poppy seeds were washed to the surface. Now that spring is arriving in Southern California they're bringing on a big show! Meg and I are going to try to head out there this weekend to snap some photos.

My First California Earthquake!

This afternoon I was sitting at work trying to wrap my head around the rendering pipeline when I could have sworn a rhinosaurus walked by just outside the door. Little did I know I had just experienced my first California earthquake!

I've Been Hasselhoffed! For Real!

Yesterday, Megcita and I went for our first "beach ride" on the bikes. We road out north from Marina Del Rey through Santa Monica and hooked up with the paved beach riding path that goes all along the beach which was packed with folks out skate boarding, roller blading and riding bikes of all sorts. We battled a wicked (and apparently rare) head wind for 15 kms north and a little hill ride up one of the canyons leading to Sunset Blvd. It was nice, although a bit of a "couch ride" do to all the "moving targets" on the path.

As we made our way back to the Marina I noticed a couple of dudes on bikes standing and chatting to a rather tall swarthy bloke. Being tall myself, I tend to notice other tall people in a crowd. I am not sure why, maybe it is just that I am used to always "looking down on folks" that I notice when I am not. Anyway, as I road by... I look over my shoulder and right at the Bay Watch champion himself: David Hasselhoff! I was hilarious! I had to turn back and ride by again, just to be sure, and there he was just crackin' bull with a couple of dudes on the beach. I nodded and said, "hey Dave, wassup?" as I went by and he pointed at me and said, no kidding, "yo, buddy, how're yah doin?"

Add to this the fact that Meg and I had a coffee sitting next to Jean-Claude Van Damme, walked past Don Cheedle and Chris Penn, and I guess you could say we have had a real Hollywood first week in Los Angeles. Although the debate about the ills of Hollywood rages on...

My first week at Rhythm and Hues

Well, it is only my first week at Rhythm & Hues, but I thought that I would jot down a first impression. The studio seems amazing... Much better than I was thinking it would be! I think I forgot what these California studios are like! The is an absolutely obvious "positive vibe" amongst the people working here. You can just feel it in the way people walk around the place. Lots of smiles and happy faces. Maybe I missed the goofball buffet and acid punch, but it all seems very sincere as well. There seems to be a lot of depth here. A huge knowledge base that allows things to "just go well." The pipeline really feels like it has evolved on an ongoing basis each and every week. I get the feeling that once you learn the tools, you can do some great work here.

What I didn't realize when I applied here is that R&H is a nearly completely proprietary studio. They have their own software written on the premises for nearly everything, with the notable exception that Massive crowd simulation software is being used in house, and that 90% of the modeling tasks are completed in Maya. But everything else in the pipeline, including the main 3D software, the renderer, the compositing software, and tons of the usual "widgets" that production requires are all written in house. This is a direct result of the company being founded by software developers from the early days of computer graphics when you "had to" build the software yourself. Thus, I have two weeks of classroom style training that will get me up to speed. It is actually a pretty cool process, because although the basic flow of work is very similar to what I have seen elsewhere, things appear fresh and interesting as a result of seeing "similar problems solved in a way that is unique to the studio." We are literally walking through the entire production process picking up a first look at the tools everyone uses along the way. I am totally impressed as this is the first studio I have ever worked at that has had such a thorough and well run orientation.

However, I have to say that the most interesting thing I have seen yet at R&H is that the head of the studio, a fellow named John Hughes, has his huge personal collection of art work hanging in the halls! It is an unbelievable assortment of production art, paintings, prints, original cels and animation sheets, etc. A really nice environment is created by just being surrounded by this work that is there just to inspire and breed creativity. Usually, you only have work from the show you are working on - concept designs, and story boards, and so forth. But this is something completely different. It is a way of overtly saying our work in feature film visual effects is part of the greater art community and the processes are not so different. I love it!

And last but not least, the food. Every day there is a catered lunch of healthy food. I am totally impressed. The salads are free and the chocolate bars are behind glass and cost you! Just like it should be! Not only that, but there is s "serve yourself" espresso machine! I am in heaven! Need I even mention how cool some of the shots are looking so far?

I am wearing green underpants!

From one pseudo-Irishman to the world: Happy Saint Patrick's Day people! I learned a while ago that the Gaelic spelling of Walsh is actually (strange though it may seem) Breathnach or Brannagh. In Gaelic, this means "Irish Foreigner" or "Welsh Irishman." I guess this is why the majority of the Walshes in Ireland are from the south - places like Millstreet, near Macroom, where my family originated. The south was the place that the Welsh came ashore to trade and what not and the folks attempting an invasion of jolly ole England staged their plans. I believe there were Spanish sailors who became permanent Irishmen when they were washed ashore at some point. I read How The Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill and I highly recommend it, though it seems I can't remember much now! Yeesh! Walsh is something like the fourth most popular last name in Ireland. The Smith or Brown of Ireland. Click here for a nice big picture of the Walsh family crest! Cheers, and drink up lads!

Getting Settled? Not really...

Hey guess what? It is like 20 degrees here today! It is so weird to get up in the morning and it feels like early summer in Vancouver and we are still in March. Meg and I are trying to get settled into life here in La Ciudad De Los Angeles (so far I have refused to pronounce the "G" without a Spanish "JEH" accent!) So much to do... finding a nice two bedroom apartment pretty close to the studio and in a nice neighbourhood is going to be difficult and more expensive than I thought! Meg and I have seen a couple that are great - in the "Miami Vice" style circa 1983! But as I said, expensive. It seems that whomever promised me that LA prices were cheaper than SF was not really in possession of all the information because as far as I can tell right now things are much the same here as there. Okay, maybe a few percentage points less, but overall, not too much different. Especially seeing as we will probably not venture out of the Santa Monica and Venice Beach areas. I don't doubt that we will find something nice, I just think it will cost us a few hundred bucks a month more than we thought! We are actually waiting to hear about a flat. It is a largely "perfect" place. If we get it, which depends on a secondary credit check because we are Canadians, it will be equidistant between Santa Monica and Venice Beach in a neighbourhood called Ocean Park. There is tons of shopping and amenities nearby in walking distance and I will be almost exactly 10kms away from the studio (less than 30mins by bike). I can ride almost the entire way on bikes only path. The apartment is in an older building that is heritage and has been redone - we will have new bathroom and kitchen! With a view of the ocean! Pretty ideal! Anyway, wish us luck -- we should know by today or tomorrow. Meg has made some in-roads into teaching opportunities and with some patience and luck I think there will be tons of opportunity for her, and she is happy about that! although not looking forward "having her hands tied" with respect to getting through the credentialing process. She has seen some posts for summer classes in Spanish at a posh school in Santa Monica even! Now, in the meantime, she is looking for sub/short term which apparently doesn't take much to get going... she will have to spend some serious study time as the exams she needs to pass are kinda tough. Personally, I can't imagine having to pass grade 12 algebra again!

The Ultimate Grudge Match: Walshman Versus Renderman!

Well, the Pixar interview went pretty well I think, and the feedback seemed to be all positive. There were some tense moments afterwards waiting to hear if they were going to offer me a job straight away. When they called later in the day as they said they would, it turned out they were not prepared to make an immediate offer, which I completely understand. The whole interview arrangement was pretty rushed. I don't imagine that Pixar hurries into anything, let alone a contract with Donnie Walsho! So, I said thanks for the interview, and that I looked forward to the next step in the process. That is a face to face interview apparently. They said they would like to set that up for later in the year! So, understandably I am excited about that!

Sunday, the day before the interview, I headed to The Kino Cafe just to collect my thoughts. I just needed some time to myself to let a little stream of consciousness run out. At times I find this really helps and this case was no exception! I wrote something like ten pages of long hand notes on my thoughts about my work, film in general, also as it applies to lighting in particular, computer graphics, why I do what I do, why working at Pixar would appeal to me... all the things that randomly popped into my head when contemplating probably the biggest interview of my career. I felt a lot better after that, a lot more together and calm, and I hope that came across in the interview.

The interview was really interesting and engaging as one would expect. What I didn't expect was how much interest they showed in my pre-film work experience. So many questions relating to doing things on a smaller scale, without support of a major pipeline. How had I progressed to the stage of my career that I am at now, why had I succeeded in certain situations, etc. That really threw me off guard. I was expecting that they would be much more interested in my recent higher profile work.

What was amazing was listening to two lead lighters talk about what they expected from the lighting team at Pixar and how creative the job can be. They are trying more and more to remove the technical hurdles and really just get lighters to focus on the art. Something that live action lighters have been doing for years.

Overall, I left the interview feeling like I really had a great goal to shoot for and had passed the first crucial test on the way to "one of those jobs people talk about." What a blast. Here's hoping I hear from them later in the year!

Stop The Presses!

Last Friday was the craziest day I have had in recent memory. In the morning, I woke early to head out and coach the The University of British Columbia Novice Men's Rowing Crew. I rushed back home to meet the moving company people who were arriving to prepare all our stuff for the trip south of the border. That was hectic, but fine and went according to plan. So in the afternoon Meg and I went out to see the accountant (again) and the car insurance people and generally run some errands that we had to tie up before leaving for California. When I got back in the late afternoon, I was expecting an email from Rhythm and Hues about the hotel arrangements. What I found was a request for and interview from Pixar Animation Studios!

Meg says I let out some sort of primordial scream and then I just sat there staring at the screen. What did this mean? What kind of flukey timing is this? I was stunned! and I didn't really know what to do. I had thought that my application was "borderline at best," as I guess all those applying to Pixar for the first time do, and that I would for sure need to reapply again after more work "before I was good enough." I guess not. My joy at receiving a request for interview with arguably the greatest animation studio in history, which I think I rightly regard as an accomplishment in itself, was completely overcome by what I would describe as professional dread about the fact that I had sincerely verbally agreed to start at Rhythm and Hues in just a week's time and had in fact just received my TN Visa application that afternoon! That feeling of "oh man, these people will hate me, even though it was not my fault" was all consuming. I felt an immediate professional obligation to let them know I might not be showing up to work on monday, but I was handcuffed by the weekend and the fact that I didn't have an offer from Pixar yet!

Well, eventually I collected my thoughts and said well I had better call Pixar and see what's up! I was thinking it could be just a pre-interview, or an opportunity they had coming up in future. But no, when I got on the phone, sure enough the opportunity was immediate and they wanted to interview on monday. I was dumbfounded, but got my act together and told them I could interview immediately on monday morning. I hung up the phone and said to Meg, "god, I need to get drunk!" and went out to The Kino Cafe! It surely was a crazy day. Well, we'll see how it goes!

Ben Reeves at The Equinox

Click here to see some of Ben Reeves' recent work shown at the Equinox gallery in Vancouver. Meg and I stopped in recently to check out some of Ben's painterly affairs, and as usual, we were blown away by his tremendous creativity and determination to produce inspiring works of art. He has pulled off yet another stunner. When you walk into the gallery you see what appear to be faint abstract grey fields on white backgrounds. But as you approach the works you realize that you are looking at relief drawings of... Paintings. Thus the title of the show : Drawing Painting. Ben has literally drafted in accurate relief each and every brush stroke as though the painting that he was drawing was in fact a still life. He has with graphite and charcoal described in the drawings the complex patterning of brush strokes that effectively build the paintings up from the blank canvas. The works are at once abstract and respresentational and it is this curious dialogue that I think Ben is interested in. If all paintings are in fact "built by brush strokes" which taken on their own, one by one, are completely abstract, then at what point is any work more abstract than representational? Or vice versa? It takes some time of viewing to make any sense of this dialogue, but your patience is certainly rewarded. I really liked the show, but that's not saying much, as Ben is definitely preaching to the converted with me! I whole heartedly encourage you to go see the show! If anything, you will simply marvel at Ben's mental fortitude to have stuck with a project that must have required some painstaking hours of near meditative concentration.

Coach Walsh

This week I have been helping The University of British Columbia Men's Rowing Coach, Mike "Fierce" Pearce drill the current crop of top University athletes in the program. Actually, I was trying to give the Novice Men's Crew a helping hand just prior to the spring racing season. I really enjoyed the three mornings I was on the water this week and experienced a healthy dose of nostalgia for the old days when I was super-keen and super-fit! Such fun to see a new crop of dudes out there training like mad and trying to get going fast. It was however, a classic novice rowing shmazzle! The first practice the guys showed up with only 7 rowers, not the requisite 8. What this means is that the boat is always lop sided and difficult to row. So, as a result we sent the remainder of the practice doing "drills." Really annoying if you are new to rowing and just want to get going and pull hard man! The next practice we had a full crew, but before we could get going we managed to knock the fin off (the rudder on a crew shell) and bust a rigger (the thing that holds the oar in place) during some sloppy rowing. So what did that mean? More drills. The guys were learning an essential lesson: show up with all the dudes and don't break the boat, otherwise rowing can really suck! Finally friday rolled around and we had a great "pre-race" practice. The dudes went out there and did their level best to make like Mercury motors and haul ass. All the effort had little to no effect on hull speed, but hey, that never stopped The Walshman! Thanks to Mike for letting me get involved and "give a little back" to the program. With the prospect of the new U.B.C. crew shell house being built this year, it has certainly given me pause to think about all I gained in body and mind from my formative years on the crew. It is a relationship based on pure love of the sport that brought me so much and I hope to continue it for some time to come!

Going Wild At The Kino Cafe!

Last night we had a great outing at the Kino Cafe on Cambie Street in Vancouver. Meg and I had invited a random group of friends to come to meet us at the cafe for some "bebidas, musica y charla." The Kino Cafe is a special spot in the context of Vancouver I think because in my experience it is a rare room with all the atmosphere of a great cafe in Madrid, Barcelona, or any little Spanish town for that matter! Just transported half way around the world! Its simple low stage offers live music, it has a casual tapas menu, and drinks or coffee, dinner or desert attitude. I love the place, and especially on "Flamenco Nights" when it is packed with poeple and local purveyors of the craft take to the little stage. Last night was exceptional. A solo male vocalist, a single guitar and a single stunning and talented female dancer. They lit up the room with three impassioned sets of songs and some seriously heart warming stomping. Some of the folks who had not been there before went nuts for it and it was great to see. It was just amazing to see a sampling of people for all corners of our lives meeting together and having an amazing, fun and casual time. Although at one point, as my buddy Jeremy Mesana craftily pointed out "it looks like freakin' high school in here man! All the hot chick teachers are sitting together chatting while us chump computer nerds are stuck in the corner talking about work!" After that, he slide over to the "girl's side" and said in a sly voice "I try to pretend I am interested in what these nerds are talking about, but I am actually bored out of my mind..." What a jerk! Buckley showed up sick and left drunk and before he realised one of the hot chick teachers had the hots for him! You snooze, you lose Bucko! Miko stayed out far past his "father of two" bedtime and looked none the worse for it! Bucket (et entourage) showed up, thus completely dashing all hopes that THE G would grace us with his presense. Those two are like oil and vinegar. Bucket and Mesana insisted that we should close the place down, but after a couple of shots Bucket was slurring his words and mumbling "I gotta go home man, look at me, I am old! I should be in bed!" We had no choice but to agree! Thanks to everybody who showed up and made the night enjoyable! Here's hoping we do it again sometime soon!

Walshman V.5.1 Released

Just a note to say that The Walshman has released a new version. This one is a slight upgrade from the last version and includes parameters for advanced realization of lions, witches and wardrobes as well as the possibility of large scale mythic warfare! So version up people!

VFX SOUP Website

A special "gracias amigo" goes out to THE SUPER G for hooking me up for a chat with local Vancouver visual effects celebrity Mark Breakspear, who is currently toiling as a Visual Effects Supervisor at Rainmaker. Mark put me onto his website called VFX SOUP where he hosts an informal forum all about our ridiculous obsession! There are some excellent resources there and I encourage you to drop in and take a look! Okay, okay, I am a total geek... come on! It's OSCAR night! Gimme a break!

Los Brasilenos Versus Les Quebecois

Last night I met some of my old friends from my days at Mainframe Entertainment. Animation directors Andrew "The Monkey" Duncan and George Samilski, production designer Casey Kwan, and Uber Technical Director Steve "Grapes" Sauers. The occasion was that Mr. Sauers was visiting Vancouver from San Francisco (where he does some dodgey work for some dude named Lucas) and George thought that it might be a good idea to meet at this Brasilian place called "Samba." I knew something was up with the place when I arrived ahead of the other guys and took a seat at the bar. I was greeted by three gorgeous women with over-the-top carnival outfits featuring all the feathers and what not. Let's just say that there was a whole lot of shaking going on!!! They were accompanied by this cheesey DJ with a thin felt marker mustache and eye-liner. He was saying things like "here's one for all you beach mommas ready to strut your stuff!!!" And then he played this crazy samba music so loud you could hear it on the moon! When the boys showed up we dug into the salad bar and all-you-can-eat Brasilian meat barbeque. Basically what happens is the waiters come around with huge skewers with all manner of grilled meats. Organic beef, ostrich, lamb, venison, etc. You name it, they had it! I kept wondering what my Brasilian friends Andre "El Camaro" De Souza and Roberto "The Hunk 'O Burnin' Love" Hradec would think of the place. I decided they'd love it! how could they not! So we proceeded to geek out talking all about "the good old days" at Mainframe, and pig out on Brasilian barbeque! When we left I couldn't help yelling "falou tchau!" at the tops of my lungs! Later on, I met up with Megcita and her friends Carmen and Silvana at a Quebecois Cafe called La Zidanie where they were soaking up a little live music and Maudite. In fact, by the time I got there they were looking like they'd had a healthy sampling of all manner of the fine Quebecois ales that they have available at the cafe. Not to mention a helping of "poutine!" Fortunately for me, I didn't arrive too late for the desert! Tarte du sucre and crepes avec le sirop d'erable and coffee. Amazing! I was thinking that this was what I should have mentioned as an answer to that frequent question while I was in Europe: but, what is Canadian food anyway? Adding to the amazing atmosphere were a couple of crazy Quebecois improvisational musicians who were playing some great tunes on an acoustic guitar and totally rocking the house! As we left I thought to myself that this kind of night was a great example of what is so amazing about Vancouver. Where else in the world can you pig out on Brasilian barbeque and follow up with tarte du sucre?

Los Angeles Bound

So looks like we are going to have to brush up on our Californian! Watz crackin yo? We ain't kickin like dat no mo! Pho sho!

We are off to Los Angeles and I am going to work at Rhythm and Hues. I picked up a lighting technical director gig on "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe." I am really excited since it is a nice project (one of the big three Christmas films for 2005 along with the fourth Harry Potter film and Peter Jackson's take on King Kong), and it will take me through to the end of October at least. The people at R+H told me that they would be busy right the way through to May 2006. So, it looks like a grand opportunity to take advantage of all that Los Angeles has to offer. With luck, we will score a pad somewhat near the beach and within bicycle commuting distance to and from work. Pretty cool, given the "drive-a-holic" culture down there.

I was really hoping that we'd land in San Francisco this year, but it looks as though we will have to delay that for a little while. I just think that Meg and I are more San Francisco type people (to say nothing of the fact that we are very Vancouver type people!). I am much more enamorate of the hippie-geek style of San Francisco than the Hollywood-smaltz of Los Angeles. That being said, I know that we will find the best of what Los Angeles has to offer. I am still pretty disappointed that I got not so much as a whisper in the wind from the San Francisco studios. I sincerely hope that this will change with the ILM move getting settled, even though it may mean less jobs, perhaps they will be more stable ones. Perhaps 2004/5 will go down in the visual effects industry in San Francisco as "the malaise before the move."

Meg is excited too. Especially about somehow getting herself some quality exposure to the Latino community in some way - teaching English, continuing to work doing translations, or even perhaps teaching Spanish in the school system. She has been talking about wanting to watch "Stand and Deliver." I am sure we will both enjoy the weather, and the lifestyle for a while, but I am sure we will miss the north in a year's time and move when opportunity strikes! Not too mention our friends and family in Vancouver and Victoria. At least we will only be a few hours away by plane! Anyone interested in a visit and some time on the beach?

The Night of the Egg Shaped Latrines

There was one night in particular during my last few weeks in Soho that was absolutely surrealistic. Well, it didn't begin that way, but it certainly ended that way! It was a the "Leaving Do" for Christoph Mattheisen my friend and fellow computer graphics world traveller from Germany who was leaving The Moving Picture Company for some down time in Germany and parts unknown after that. Anyway, it began as most leaving do's do with the consumption of alcoholic beverages and much chatter at a pub called "The Market Place" near Oxford Circus. Things were fairly normal there -- the French were snobbishly frowning on the food, the English were slobberingly smashed, the Italians were sitting in a corner by themselves gawking at a hot waitress until she figured out they, like her, were Italian and came over and said something in Italian that made them all go white, and the Spanish were wondering why their Italian cousins were such mama's boys... Normal pub stuff, you know the deal, until... Andre "El Camaro" De Souza and his devilish little Swedish/Chinese buddy Jafe showed up with two Japanese clients from Glassworks Studio. Then things got a little whacko... By this time, the place was shutting down, mi hermanita Eli was getting a little tipsy and becoming beligerant by spontaneously yelling things like "those phackin' Italian ffffaggots!" and Andre was having some strange Indian dude threaten him for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and the Italians were beconing distraught about the next day's football match in the park and so I thought "right, time for the bus..." when at this exact moment Andre (having extricated himself from the weird little Indian guy who was now threatening the gigantic bouncers on the door with physical violence) says to me "Walshman, we're goin' ta posh it up mate. Come on." What ensued was a delightfully disorganized drunken stumble to a posh Regent Street after hours club. What none of us realised at the time was that we were following the crazy Japonese guys! Don't ask me how, but somehow they managed to not only get us into this posh after hours club but straight to the back of the club and directly into a UFO-shaped VIP room. The kind of clientel in this room ranged from a Lenny Kravitz look-alike to a woman who insisted on showing the whole room her ass while asking in a thick accent "it's good isn't it?" Meanwhile, I remember seeing Andre attempting to buy a drink from a midget waiter in this sunken bar while a weird "skater boy" rubbed shoulders with him. I decided to take a back seat to the festivities and found myself having a decidedly "Lost in Translation" Bill Murray-esque moment with one of the Japonese dudes. An then, Eli walks over and starts speaking fluent Japonese to the guy! I couldn't believe it! The next moment Andre was being accused of "not being Brasilian" by some egregiously tall black woman from Brixton - he is from Sao Paulo and just stood there staring up at her with a blank expression on his face. Sooner or later the place started to shut down while some booze-hound yelled at the midget waiter "I must have more booze!" As we headed out of the club I decided to take a leek and followed the directions to the loo only to find myself in a room full of human-sized glowing eggs. It took me a minute to figure out that these were the washrooms! Thankfully the night ended with a nice walk through Soho to Bar Italia on Frith Street and there we found ourselves in an abundance of fine cafes and panini after Andre produced a 20 quid note and proclaimed "this here is some faggot quids I got for my smile." Apparently, the skater boy had taken a shine to him and slipped him a bill. We all agreed the goodies at Bar Italia were worth it.

Lo Siento Gente Estaba Incomunicado!

Sorry for not posting anything too relevant or interesting recently. Not to say that ever happens here, but... My life has been blowing by like a gail force wind these days. I have bearly been aware of the relevance of time. Which in and of itself is both a good and a bad thing. I am back in Vancouver after 6 final frantic few weeks in London finishing up my work for The Moving Picture Company on Sir Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven." It feels great to be back in Vancouver largely because the weather has been so stunning. Perfect February weather! Cold at night, down to minus 5 degrees at times, and warm and sunny in the day, up to 12 degrees. I have been out for a road ride nearly every day since coming home. This is what can be so great about Vancouver. I realise now that the past 6 weeks was a tough time emotionally for me since I was away from Megcita for much longer than we had planned, and it was not at all an ideal end to our time in Europe - with her here in Vancouver and me stuck at a desk in Soho. But, I was enthusiastic about going back to Soho to finsh the project and in the long run I think I will be glad that I did. I had a great time seeing some of my work finalised (well, sort of, a couple of my shots were still in compositing when I left!), and I had some fun times outside of work. I suppose I was lucky in that the time went by very quickly due to being so busy, and it did give me a chance to say a proper farewell to friends and colleagues that I did not have before Christmas (including a Gilliam-esque short film lampoon of my working life at MPC which was a hoot to do!). A highlight had to be the last two weeks spent living in Brixton with Jordi and Eli, my Spanish friends from Barcelona who were so gracious and kind for putting up "pobrecito yo!" It was quite hilarious to learn that my aquaintence from Madrid Luisma Lavin (who is coinsidentally also a friend of Jordi and Eli) was also visiting for a few days while he applied for work in London. This lead to some very fun times with Eli, Luisma, and also Pablo El Tufarisimo who was back from Argentina to work at The Peerless Camera Company, and of course his chica bonita Noe. There was a couple of very fun nights "charlando sobre Noe's bebidas fuertes!" at Bradley's Spanish Bar. All in all I am very gald to be back home of the west coast of Canada, and getting in touch with friends and family here. Not to mention my lovely wife who seems a bit of a stranger given recent events. Time to put an end to that! I am sure I will miss Soho in some funny ways, and of course I instantly miss all of the people who made living and working there worth it!

F/X GODS?

Here's a link to a pretty interesting survey on www.wired.com on the leaders in the visual effects for feature film industry. I like the fact that it includes the old guard, like Dennis Muren, but also highlights some of the up and coming folks about town, including smaller vendors like The Orphanage. The obvious fact that there are more and more visual effects in feature film, most of them being so called "invisable effects" that no one even notices, and that the budgets for such work have steadily risen gives me some hope that the industry will continue to trundle along at a good clip for some time yet. Yahoo!

SOFTIMAGE XSI London User's Group

Oye geezer... I went to this presentation last night given by my friend Jordi Bares, and his colleague Jan Walter - both of The Mill. They were showing off the Mill's proprietary pipeline (which Jordi and Jan have developed) that allows a seamless rendering solution for XSI with not only Mental Ray... But PRMAN, Air, and 3DLight!!!

Anyway, the whole philosophy was really interesting, and a very appealing one because they have managed to alleviate some key technical issues - and I love them for that!!! You work as you would normally in XSI using Mental Ray, setting up the scene, gathering (or referencing-in assets) and working with the Render Tree using Mental Ray as your visualizing tool. Then as you approach final rendering you begin to make the hard decision about which elements of your shot are better handled by what render engine. Huh? Yeah, no kidding. You are about to "choose a renderer." And basically, (because I don't really understand how they did it) you don't have to worry about shader parity, or anything because they have developed a "set of 16 matched shaders" which will be nearly identical in all the renders!!! Anyway, the cool thing is that you can just work artistically, incorporating whatever tools you like (XSI, Massive, etc.) and the use this XtoR exporter to sort out your rendering issues when the time comes, thus alleviating the necessity of getting locked into a particular way of working from the get-go due to the fact that "you will eventually be rendering in PRMAN" (or whatever renderer). Pretty hot off the wizzle shnizzle. This was easily the most interesting rendering demonstration from a "pure user value" aspect I have ever scene.

Here's a link to some photos from the evening. As you can see the SOFTIMAGE XSI London User's Group isn't shy about admitting that there's a little booze fueling the creative fires. Not that that's out of place in Soho, UK!!!

Homer visits Winnipeg to save some d'oh!

I remember a late 80's interview with Matt Grenning about the "meaning of the Simpson's" where he said something along the lines of "Americans are stupid." He was surely being inflamatory, but perhaps this is a sign that the Canadians have not escaped the critical eyes of the writer either!

Homer visits Winnipeg to save some d'oh!

Tuesday, January 18th, 2005

Bartley Kives

ONE of the biggest Hollywood celebrities to ever visit Winnipeg got in
and out of town this weekend without being accosted by a single
photographer.

Simpsons family patriarch Homer Simpson spent a sizable chunk of
Sunday's episode in Manitoba, buying up massive quantities of one of our
province's most popular exports -- prescription drugs, which sell here
for a fraction of the retail price in Springfield.

In case you missed it, Homer, Grandpa Simpson, neighbour Ned Flanders
and convenience-store operator Apu drive up to a surprisingly un-snowy
Winnipeg after Mr. Burns cancels his nuclear-power plant's employee drug
plan.

Along the way, the Springfield residents pass an almost photo-realistic
Trans-Canada Highway East sign. Some playful Canadian on the Simpsons
writing team knew enough about Manitoba to tease the local geekdom with
a Gimli turnoff -- on the wrong side of the road.

Another road sign proves the writers have us nailed.

"Welcome to Winnipeg. We were born here. What's your excuse?" greets
Homer, Grandpa, Ned and Apu as they head into town. They quickly land
counterfeit health cards from a trio of hosers who promise "enough drugs
to make Regina look like Saskatoon."

Flanders also meets his Canuck doppleganger, who speaks the same
iddly-diddly language but scares Ned with marijuana.

"Would you like to puff on a reeferino? It's legal here, you know."

After loading up on pills of every colour, Homer and his buddies get
busted by Mounties on their way back into the U.S. Turns out Apu is
suspected of "expressing his faith" in public, a no-no in secular Canada.

The cross-border drugs are seized and the citizens of Springfield cut
off, leading Homer, Grandpa and a repentant Mr. Burns to fly a smuggling
mission to "somewhere In Manitoba."

After loading up on more drugs, Homer offers to pay back his Canadian
co-conspirator by taking him to see the execution of a mentally
challenged prisoner, something that happens "four times a week" in the
U.S. It's a clunky line, but not uncommon in a show that often holds up
Canadian values as a model for a kindler, gentler America.

When the Simpsons visited Toronto in 2002, there was a barrage of
advance publicity. But with most of Canada's TV critics in Los Angeles
for the annual winter TV tour, there was no warning the most lovable oaf
on television was coming to our town.

The first time Winnipeg was name-checked by the show was during the
1995-96 season, when Bart, Nelson, Millhouse and Martin pull up
alongside a bickering family on a road trip to Knoxville, Tenn. After
the father tells his kids to stop fighting, Nelson hits him in the back
of the head, leading to the locally immortal line, "That's it! Back to
Winnipeg!"

Series creator Matt Groening, who has family in small-town Saskatchewan,
would later suggest Homer was born in Winnipeg. But his offhand comment
to a Montreal audience is not interpreted as canon by obsessive Simpsons
fans.

Sodaplay Madness

I just added a really cool art link to my sidebar under "Hella-Cool Art Links." Be careful, because Sodaplay is an amazing time waster. Whole hours seem to pass in mere nanoseconds. The incredible thing is... I don't even know how to describe it! A little bit of Flash and some physics programming I think? Whatever it is, it sure as hell qualifies for my sidebar!!! Try it! I did and I am still stunned!!!

Back To The Big Smoke... Again!

I am back in Soho to finish my work on Kingdom of Heaven. I should be on my way back to Vancouver by the middle of February, however, if all goes according to plan. So, it will be a short stay in England for me in 2005. There are just 6 weeks remaining for this production and it is beginning to feel as though we are in the final rush to get this pig through the pipe! It is not the most enjoyable part of the production as it is quite stressful, but at least we are firing on all cylinders and getting things done. It is a very fulfilling feeling when you know a project is on the eve of departure after a lot hard work and long hours.

I am exhausted at the moment though. Jet lag is the culprit. It is so much worse when traveling in this direction (west to east). Traveling home to Vancouver seems to not even affect me. You leave London say at noon, and arrive the same day in Vancouver at 2pm, after 10 hours flight time. You try to stay up as long as you can that first day back to the coast and that's it. The next day you're a little tired, but not really fatigued. Coming from Vancouver to London is a different story. I believe it has something to do with missing a whole day. Since arriving last Thursday, I have been regularly exhausted by mid-afternoon, but unable to sleep until past midnight, and then up like a light switch before 6am. This morning, instead of lying awake and failing frustratingly to fall back to sleep, I got up and went to the gym. I had to do something to break the cycle. I felt like a block of cement while there, but I think it might have done the trick. For the moment, I am even more exhausted than yesterday afternoon! Perhaps I will sleep through the night tonight! When will the insanity stop?

Computer Graphics Year In Review

Click here for an interesting selection of highlights from the computer graphics community this year. It is a well rounded list of items that includes projects large and small, and also news items and hardware/software innovations as well. Click here for an article outlining which projects are in contention for the prestigious (yet ultimately meaningless) Academy Award for Visual Effects. Industrial Light and Magic once again leads the pack in terms of films recognised.

That's the way the Van-cookie crumbles...

I thought that this was a "classic" piece of Vancouver "news." Culled from the CBC today.

VANCOUVER - A British Columbia woman who makes and sells ginger snaps laced with marijuana has been acquitted of trafficking for a second time, after prosecutors failed to prove the treats contain cannabis resin.

Mary Jean Dunstan, also known as Watermelon, was arrested twice and charged with possession of cannabis resin for the purposes of trafficking.

But analysts who used samples of the resin police seized to mix and bake the same kind of batter Dunstan uses for her ginger snaps have not been able to prove the extract is still present in the finished product.

"The judge found a reasonable doubt at the end of the Crown's case as to what was in the cookie," said Dunstan's lawyer, John Conroy.

"If the cookies or the brownies or whatever ... have been made in a batter so nobody can identify leaves, sticks or stems through a microscope, then the only way the Crown can get a conviction for possessing a prohibited thing would be if they charged her with possession or trafficking of cannabis [alone], without adding resin or marijuana," he said.

Analysts are able to chemically detect cannabis in Dunstan's cookies.

Trafficking in cannabis is a more serious drug offence that could lead to a jury trial and carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and Conroy doubts the authorities would choose that route over a few ginger snaps.

The resin-trafficking charge is a lesser offence that carries a lighter sentence.

"My lawyer and I are saying, like, if you can't prove it's there, how can you measure it?" said Dunstan, who hosts a Pot TV internet show when she's not selling the cookies at places like Vancouver's Wreck Beach.

She too doubts the Crown would opt for a more serious charge, given the kind of reaction she said she has gotten from her fans and drug opponents alike.

"The court of public opinion is not interested in paying their tax dollars any more, it's quite clear," she said.

The Crown is appealing her acquittal on the resin charge, however.

Kingdom of Heaven

Here's a link to the official website for the film I have been working on as a member of the visual effects post-production crew. It is called Kingdom of Heaven, directed by Ridley Scott, and The Moving Picture Company is the sole visual effects vender on the picture, so we are all pretty excited. I have been doing technical director chores again (lighting computer graphics elements like armies, seige machinery, catapults, flaming balls of fire, etc.) like the last couple of gigs. I believe it is the most visually sophisticated project I have yet to work on and a few of my shots rival those I worked on for The Matrix: Revolutions in terms of brute force and complexity. The principle photography is nearly unanimously gorgeous, which makes lighting to "match the plate" a real pleasure. You can learn so much about lighting computer graphics well when you have such amazing source photography. As evidenced in the trailer, the film seems to borrow some of the "Ridley Scott look" of his previous films, which makes it feel a little derivative, but it works in this case, so all power to him! For once, I think the majority of "me mates" may actually want to see the work I have been doing... I don't think there was a lot of support for the toilings of the Walshman in the case of Alien Versus Predator! I have had a real blast on this one.

Christmas in Vancouver

Happy Holidays everyone! As we say in the local, all-inclusive, non-discriminatorial, vernacular in Vancouver. I love "the holidays" but I think in a kind of conflicted way. After all, this time of year has its origins in the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Being a non-practicing Irish-Catholic Canadian Agnostic such as myself there are some issues. Meaning that I was raised going to Catholic church services with my Dear Ole Dad (my Mom never attended and I am still not sure exactly why) and later decided on my own that I would not continue in that Walsh family tradition. It was not that I was opposed to the idea of a god, in fact I quite liked the idea, but I was altogether unenthused by what I saw at church (the hypocrasy in the messages, the lack of observation of the most simple of the tenants of the Bible like "judge not lest yeh be judged," etc.). Nor was I jumping in the aisles about the definitions of god that Catholocism proposes. At the time, my adolescence, I was becoming aware that my intuition was on the level of something more mystical and less dogmatic... some kind of flakey "mother nature knows best" or "the cosmos is all around us all the time," or "I am but a speck of sand in the hour glass of time" sort of thing, as opposed to a formalised set of rules written down by a bunch of dudes with no connection to my world and vested interests of their own at the time of writing. I remember very fondly some of the aspects of the church services I attended at this time of the year, but entirely on the level of sight and sound and not at all in terms of religious significance. And emphatically more the familial house born celebrations and happy traditions of a most resoundingly positive experience. My mom's incredible contributions to the season from the kitchen and her quirky ways of recognising those around her for their gifts, my Dad making eggnog and playing some gorgeous LP on his stereo and amping up his usual penchant sentimentality, my sister getting up hours before anyone else in giddy excitement at what Santa Claus may have brought her, stupid gifts for the cats, Christmas Ice Hockey tournaments, and Lego, always more Lego, etc. So nowadays, I look forward to the season of gift giving in a very secular way. I see it as THE important break in everyone's schedule. A pause in everyone's year that puts family and friends in the focus. The time to take time so to speak. I guess I do tend to reflect a lot more at this time of year, and I wish in a secular kind of way that I could do something more tangible to "help people" and think less of myself which is all good, but I don't ever get a chance to act on it, so around we go again. This is something I sincerely hope to change in the future. To quote a great trubabdor of our age "so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun." I guess I just think that there will be a another stage of life for that. Like how Meg's Mom and Dad now spend a lot of time voluteering now that her Dad has retired. Something like that. I guess I am saying is that Christmas to me is all a bit warm and cozy, secular and ambiguous, fuzzy and family, and I love it. So, Merry Christmas All!

The Famous People

This year, largely as a result of living and working in central London, I have seen a lot of famous people. Just the other day, Meg and I literally ran into Kenneth Brannaugh, for example. As always when you run into a leading man, he was shorter, and not as good looking as you'd expect. Earlier in the year, I ate pizza at Spiga on Wardour Street sitting next to Emma Thompson and some pastey English chap. She was I would say, as she is - quite stunning, but very comfortable looking as she does. I was so hungry that I didn't even notice it was her until she got up to leave. I had noodles sitting next to Jason Statham, best known as Turkish from the movie Snatch, and he looked like he'd been run over by a five gallon vodka martini. But it could have been for effect, who knows. A little while later Ralph Fiennes jumped into a cab on Wardour Street, looking suspiciously like someone "trying not to be noticed" in a big Woody Allen style "hide me" hat. Michael Palin popped into Patisserie Valerie on Old Compton Street for a croissant on the go looking smart and healthy and like he'd stop to give anyone directions if they had the guts to ask. There was the rumour of Madonna at the Dog and Duck that I was not able to corroborate. The capper to all these sightings however was the other night when Meg and I were walking home along Drury Lane having jumped off a bus near Aldwych. We were passing by the theatre where "The Producers" is playing when we heard a little commotion. Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles were exiting the theatre to their car. Meg and I were no more than 5 or 6 meters from them. I couldn't believe how polite and respectful everyone suddenly got in their presence. People actually backed up and gave them room. There was one paparozzi guy who spent a roll of film, and I thought to myself how odd that seemed given that in my experience, most Londoners are quite comfortable being "amongst the famous."

Working for a Knight on a film about Knights

As you may or may not know I have been doing some "digital cinematography" work (fancy stuff, huh?) on a little film called Kingdom of Heaven (formerly called The Crusades). I have had the chance to run into Sir Ridley Scott (he was knighted), the film's director, a couple of times. Not to say that we've had a pint down the pub and chatted about the good old days, but you know I have seen him in the studio when he arrives with his entourage to look at the work and so forth. He gave me a "hey wassup?" nod and wink the other day. Famous people like him have a hilarious effect on people. Sir Scott is definately one of those people with gigantic character who "fills the room" when he comes in. He is very comfortable in the studio though, and doesn't seem put off at all by all the geeks and computers. In fact, he just seems a little grumpy and bored most of the time! He'd probably rarther be down the pub. Anyway, pretty fun to be around when he is in the studio. Quite a thrill to be working on a film by the man who made "Blade Runner." I can remember thinking when I first saw that film... "Man, if I could do that..."

Click here for an early seak review of a test screening. It is probably malarky, but there it is!

Typical Posh Londeners We Are

Today Meg and I had what I think comes pretty close to a typical posh Londoner day. We began the day by a simple little gourmet breakfast at home cooked by yours truly. Just a nice little omlette with some great cheese from Neal's Yard, some crusty baguette and coffee and tea, but when done well it is all you need to start the day right! Then straight away we walked from the flat all the way to The Borough Market where we picked up some lovely fixings for the coming week. This is my favourite thing to do in London on a saturday morning. To be out in the city, taking in the Thames Waterway and all the various things you can see along the way, and ending up at this great market full of such great food, is a real sophisticated pleasure that is free to all. I love things like this. Things of quality, available to all. Unfortunately we had to scarf our Organic Wild Boar Sandwiches and hot-foot it back to the flat beacuse as luck would have it, Meg was able to pick up some cancellation tickets for The Producers at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane during the week. So we poshed ourselves up and headed off to see the matinee show. We have not had the chance to get to see a show all year, so this was our one opportunity. We figured that if you're gonna see one show all year, you should bust the bank and see a very well reviewed one. In fact, our reviewers were none other than Claus and Michelle who saw the show during the fall and said it was basically the best show they had seen in London in 3 years. Afterwards we just walked up Drury Lane to the Lowerlander Grande Cafe for dinner. At this cafe they have some spectacular Belgian beers on draft and some of the best reasonably priced pub fare I have had in London. It was so nice to just chill at the pub, and chat about the show. I had Moules Frites and Meg had an organic Scottish beef burger. The chips (French Fries) were amazing as usual. We floated home arm in arm, and as if the stars were alligning for us to create the perfect end to the typical posh London day we sat down to find Notting Hill on television. So if you're ever looking for a schedule to put together your own typical posh London day just follow this theme: market, show, pub, and film. I guess you should try and stuff a museum in there somewhere. Oh well, we'll have to give it another go!

The Third Chimpanzee

Click here to read an article about a 13 million-year-old fossilized skeleton of an ape that is possibly a common ancestor of humans and great apes, including orangutans, bonobos, chimps and gorillas that was found recently in Spain. Pretty exciting news for me as I have really developed an interest in getting to know more about the theories of the development of early man since recently reading Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13000 Years." A great book and a real "page turner!" I simply couldn't wait for the next revealing anecdote of our development. I was thrilled. And so much of the book seemed to make such simple elegant sense in a non-biased way, as if to say "how can we determine anything else when we are presented with this evidence?" So now, I'd like to read his other preceding book "The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal" (the theories of which are apparently proven by the Spain discovery!) but, I have recently seen that Mr. Diamond has published still another volume on the subject called "The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee: Evolution and Human Life." So, now I have to find some serious down time in order to get caught up! Also, if anyone knows of any good reads along these lines, please let me know! I find the idea of the theory that we are descendants of great apes so appealing in its unifying nature, as if to say, really these are the facts, we are one of them, that I am beside myself with expectations of the implications when the vast majority of humans begin to see themselves really as they are: terrestrial! I can't see how anything but good can come from this knowledge, but I suppose if you're a "bible thumper" you'd find it all a tad disturbing! Ha!

The Time of Year for Work and Flu

Seems to me this time of year is always filled with a ton of work, and many folks struggling through illnesses small and large.

I have a moutain of work at the moment, but I am enjoying it. There is always a sense of relief when the crunch comes, because at least you know "now its the crunch." Sometimes waiting is worse. Just getting down to it is a welcome relief from the anticipation of all the work to come. And then, of course, after pinning it for three weeks or so, you end up asking yourself "just exactly why did I want this again?"

I got a bit of a sore throat this week. See what I mean? That's the last thing I need. To go through the run up to Christmas horrendously busy at work, with Meg arriving to London in a few days (thank god) and be ill! No way man, not gonna let it happen! So it is home I go to dose myself with some kind of tranquilizer and drift off to sleep listening to the gorgeous tones of Michel Nyman's score for the film Gattica.

Electronic Arts Criticism Goes Mainstream

Click here for the New York Times article about the recent criticisms of Electronic Arts as an unfair employer. The chain of events that lead to this story began by the combination of a web log written by a disgruntled spouse about the life of an Electronic Arts employee, and the class action lawsuit currently underway in the United States brought by a current Electronic Arts employee seeking back pay for unpaid overtime. It will be interesting to see how Electronic Arts responds as it will no doubt set a huge precedent in the still very immature games development industry. Personally, I am shading kind of positive, and I believe that EA (in California anyway) will eventually choose to conform to the feature film post production model. Which, for most folks, is: a 50 hour work week, 10 hours of which are paid at 1.5X rate. Anything above that - 2X rate. Here's why.

First, paying for talent. At the moment, the high-end of talent (as a gross generalisation, of course) remains in the film industry today. Principally, this has to do with the fact that film production typically pays more as a result of requiring a higher level of visual sophistication. Although this is changing, it is still true for the most part. EA continually has trouble recruiting out of the film industry (and continues to try to!!!) as a result of your average 3D operator putting 2 and 2 together and saying "why should I open myself up to potentially unlimited hours, when I currently have the fall back that the longer I work, the more costly I am, and therefore there is a natural drag on the hours I work." Doesn't make much sense. When EA decides to make the "payment method" mirror what is already the status quo, the operators will no longer see the kinds of distinctions they currently see. It is all about parity.

Second, if they don't choose to, they will be litigated into it. The labour laws are quite clear, and they are not obeying them. The only potential hick-up is... how many of your colleagues have kept accurate, provable logs of their hours worked? Uh, yeah... oh, and you'd better not vote for Campbell if you want EA to be compelled to obey the law in British Columbia! Most conservative governments will just roll over in the face of an industry giant like EA.

Third, avoiding unionisation. The quickest way for EA to avoid a painful unionisation process is to do what most film studios do - pay the higher rates. As long as rates remain high, and there is relative parity of hours worked and pay for those hours (including benefits) there really is very little incentive to unionise. Personally, I think unions are totally necessary for those employees deserving of protection - nurses, police, teachers, miners - those individuals who are obviously providing services that we "can not live without." I don't think "Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas" counts as that, so unionisation is really just about pay (and a bit about treatment). In fact, at places like ILM, the union has often been a drag on increasing wages industry-wide rather than a catalyst!

In terms of the situation in Vancouver. Canada will always represent a cost advantage to EA. Principally in the exchange, but also in the fact that Canadian salaries are typically lower as a dollar figure (as a result of this, when I have worked in CA, I have made roughly 2X what I was making in Vancouver in "real dollars" though I didn't ever work for EA). In reality, if you compare say an annual percent growth curve charting revenue in games, versus average annual salary increase, I am willing to bet my next royalty bonus (I don't actually have one!) that revenues have out performed salaries by percent growth. What does this mean? The work force is cheaper than ever. That's why they will continue to expand the Burnaby campus. Games are getting more expensive to produce, but when compared to the increase in revenue, they are cheaper in real terms. Take a look at Halo2 just out. It is pretty clear. What is also clear is that the games production model of "generating block busters" and nothing else, is also conforming to the film model. Independent game studios are going the way of the Dodo!

A Run in the Park

Yesterday, as has been customary for me recently, I used a portion of my one day off from work per week to go for some exercise. This meant a jog in Regents Park. Just north of central London, Regents Park houses the London Zoo, and nearly the only natural elevation inside the city borders, Primrose Hill. So, I usually jog up there and run through the park to the top of the hill for a quick view before retracing my steps. It can be really pretty, as it was full of lovely flower beds and colour this summer, or like yesterday when the "atmospherics of the London fog" played with the light in such a way as to delineate objects and foliage into a patch work, kind of like a card board cut out animation. I was wishing I had my camera throughout my jog. I guess I will have to plan to walk up there in the morning before work or something. I always seem to see something or someone interesting there. As I entered the park, and stopped to stretch out a bit, I saw this middle aged woman and a younger man with a dog sitting on a bench. The dog was a great little boxer who was having a blast with a ball. It wasn't long before I realised that they were drinking. I was thinking to myself, when was the last time I saw a couple of "regular enough people" getting smashed at 11 o'clock in the morning in a park in Vancouver? Uh, yeah...

U.K. Showcase Spotlights VFX

Click here for an article about a recent showcase in Los Angeles featuring the Soho (London, UK) studios. It is interesting that the article ends on a rather down note.

"Thanks to tax incentives and a wave of young talent, London has become a major global vfx player, and there’s a very collaborative environment in Soho, since they all must divide the work. However, there is a feeling among some that the current vfx boom may not last much longer, what with the low exchange rate and new requirements that U.S. productions be shot in the U.K. to take full advantage of the tax breaks."

This seems to be the consensus feeling from where I am sitting. Even though the total workforce in Soho still only represents a fraction of the American work force in visual effects, the boom in work here has breathed great life into British post production. However, eyes are now turning to the problem of perpetuating the phenomenon in a more stable form. The tremendous growth in the feature film visual effects business in London over the past five years (mirrored by the growth of The Moving Picture Company where I work which did not even have a feature film department five years ago) has been largely due to a handful of factors. First of all there is the financial incentive. The bean counters in Hollywood were simply able to make the numbers work well here because the lower bids, combined with the tax breaks (in the form of a lease-buy-back scheme) made a lot of sense. Especially when the studios cast aside their previous English eccentric appeal and not only adopted a more American style visual effects development pipeline, but actually pursued and catered to the needs of American producers as clients. At times, producers and supervisors have told me that this simply meant visual effects supervisors and producers "using certain catch phrases" and "lingo" familiar to the American clients with the sole purpose of making them feel at ease. It was key to have these clients "feel as though they were getting the same process as in the Untied States" and therefore the same end result from the Soho studios as they would in America. The reality is that I think that the work in such films as the Harry Potter franchise have somehow benefited from a more European perspective, and "feel English" as a result. Never mind that some of the more impressive work was completed as usual at ILM and SPI. What remains to be seen is how the trimming of the financial incentive, with greater restrictions on what kind of projects are eligible, and the ever increasing rates operators have been charging in an environment starving for legitimate talent, will transform the landscape in post production. Will the Harry Potter franchise continue to pulse along as the life-line for feature film visual effects production in England?

Time for a Little Update

I thought I would just give everyone a little update on how things are going over here seeing as I have not had a lot of time to post any "life stuff" over the past few weeks. Things are getting "right busy mate" at work and will be so until we are finished the film sometime mid-February.

Meg was here this weekend! Gracias a dios! I really miss her these days! And although it was of course amazing to have her here and to have fun seeing some of London, it is always depressing when we part. I am really coming to the end of my tether with our "separation" business. It has been of necessity, but it is for the birds. I think we are both looking very much forward to moving on to our next local "together." More on that in a second!

Originally, we had planned a weekend away from London, but things being the way they are now, with me becoming more and more busy towards my Dec.17th interim deadline, and Meggi only really here one full day on Saturday, we thought it best to postpone that trip until early in December when she is back in London for longer. So we decided to do some "London things." That usually means a walking trip to one of the London markets, a movie, dinner. That kind of thing. We thought that perhaps we will have the opportunity to see one of the shows this time -- which we still have not done! But, it did not come to pass. Oh well, maybe when she is back in December. There is so much to see and do in London, sometime it is hard to imagine! I still have not really fully explored the British Museum - AND IT IS ACROSS THE STREET!!! From my flat.

Meg's fall seems to have been a fruitful and enjoyable one for her. It is a true testament to how much she loves Madrid that even with her marido in London, she still has a pretty grand time - GO FIGURE! She has remarked several times, that although there is always something to improve when learning a language, she has finally felt that she has made some great strides in her Spanish. To me it is more than obvious, but I think that for her it took that "extra little bit" that she has gained from these few more
months to really feel that she has attained a new solid level. I think she is really prepared to move onto the next stage, whatever that is... (even though she constantly says 'I need two more years' no matter what stage she is at) I think most probably some more translation and part-time language instruction - but you'd best ask her!

So far "Kingdom of Heaven" has been a fairly well run, and interesting film for me to work on... I am doing more or less the same job description as I have on past films - digital cinematography. I am responsible for the "look" of computer generated imagery in the shots I work on. I am so pleased at times that I have finally found something that I like so much. I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I think "I am working on a Ridley Scott film" as a Lighting Technical Director. It is indeed too bad that as a result of the "photo-real nature" of the work, no-one in the audience will know what I did! For this reason, London remains a thrill. The studios here are quite interesting and challenging places to be. However, as a dyed in the wool west-coaster, I have the overwhelming sense now that "London is great for a time," but that you shouldn't wear out your welcome! So I feel like moving on... Even though I know that for some reason, I will be back. It is the nature of the work. The proximity to Europe, which I still have not seen nearly enough of and the history you can access here is amazing, but the smog, high cost, and busy nature of life here can get you down!!! The very best thing about Vancouver I think is the way you can create a such an amazing routine that includes work and healthy play. It is a hard thing to do here.

I have been asked by MPC to continue in January, until the completion of this film, in early February. I asked that I have a couple of weeks off to come home for Xmas, and that they pay my way back. We are working out the details. They have also offered me a slightly more senior position on the next installment of the Harry Potter franchise (meanwhile, I struggle to figure out what I am doing right!? Har, har...) In the meantime, I am applying to companies in California. Things look encouraging there, but also a bit delayed. So, with all things considered, and some luck, I should be able to arrive there mid-late February, and have everything sorted out for the remainder of 2005. Meg will likely stay behind in Vancouver when I return to London, if I am to return for such a short period of time, and she will do some contract work from there. There are some things happening in Vancouver as well, but overall, they look to be less stable, or something that I am not interested in doing. Them's the breaks! I am certain that the situation will always be changing.

Well, that's about it, I hope everyone is well, and I am very excited to be home in: 34 DAYS!

The Return of Signore Iozzi

As much as we had hoped differently, Marco "Il Italiano Desastro" Iozzi has returned to London, and The Moving Picture Company. He has come running back to us from his native Italy with his tail between his legs. Apparently, his countrymen couldn't stand his pugnacious, self-agrandizing and posturing, and have kicked him out on his ear. We are all very sad and disappointed that he has returned. Now, we will have to deal with him. Oh, god. We were all hoping that he would be stranded in the woods near his new multi-million dollar country villa, but alas, he has returned to London to make our lives miserable with his incessant chatter. His Italian friends are especially depressed about the news.

Truth be told, we are very happy to have Marco back amongst us, lightening our days at the studio with his great sense of humour and voracious talents. Ciao Marco! Welcome back to London dude!

Bonfire Night

For our friends and colleagues (and that includes yours truly!) who are puzzled by Bonfire/Fireworks/Guy Fawkes night celebrated here in England on November 5th, click here for an explanation. You will see that in all this business of weapons of mass destruction, terrorist cells, enemies within, torture of suspected opponents, whipping up of rabid religious popular opinion against a convenient hate figure etc etc etc - George Dubbya and the neo-cons are about 400 years behind us Brits!

Your IQ Means Nothing, Yeah Right...

Click here to see a breakdown of the average IQ of American citizens by State and the coresponding Presidential Candidate who won that state. Is it really so surprising that those States with the highest levels of academics, technology development, and international links voted Democrat and have the highesy IQs? Somehow, I don't think so! Or perhaps, according to this guy it is all actually a hoax. Oh well, we still have hope...

Build a Better Bush!

Click here for a quick and easy way to extol some private revenge on El Stupido himself, and notice how all permutations somehow remain viable... truly scary!

Some Pictures from Meg's Birthday Weekend

Click here for an up close and personal look at our "Fin de Semana Frances" in Spain. Andre has kindly done a bit of photo-posting for us for all to enjoy. Thank god for his skills with the photo-sticher man! One of my big tasks when I finally get some time to myself is to mount a serious effort at getting some of my lovely photos od Spain up on a website. A chore that will be for certain, but it must be done!

Meg's Birthday Weekend

I have just returned from a fabulous weekend in Spain. Jean-Paul, Andre and I flew to Madrid together to celebrate with Megcita on her 31st birthday. Meg did her usual fabulous job planning everything for the weekend, so that our trip included visits to the towns of Salamanca, Avila, L'Aberca, and Patones. These Castillian pueblos are situated within a reasonable driving distance of Madrid amongst the Sierra mountains. It would of course be much better to see them by bicycle, as the roads and views are most spectacular, but having a rental car is a very efficient way to get to some of the more out of the way places and we were obviously limited to the weekend.

Friday, we arrived from London in the late morning and met directly with Meg in La Plaza Santa Ana, one of our favourite lunch spots in the Spanish capital. We had a lovely lunch of some traditional Spanish favourites. Chopitos, chorizo al vino tinto, patatas bravas, and settas. And of course, some cervezas! Then we bolted to Atocha train station to pick up our rental car. The drive to Salamanca was easy enough and quite enjoyable, aside from the traffic in Madrid, caused by the Madrilenos running for the exits anticipating the long weekend rush. We booked rooms at The Parador of Salamanca which turned out to be a very modern, stylish hotel overlooking the city and its two magnificent cathedrals. What a view from the lobby! We freshened up a bit and headed out to check out the centre of this amazing old city at night. We began with a look at Spain's largest contiguous "plaza mayor." This old central square was absolutely impressive lit up at night and filled with people heading out for tapas. And that is exactly what he did next! We went into a great little wine bar, got stuck into a corner table, and ordered some of the local favourites and a fine copa de vino tinto del Ribiera del Duero. Following our tapas, I absolutely could not resist the temptation to find a restaurant to consume a gorgeous piece of Spanish beef. Very little hunting revealed a place where I could order "Solomillo de Ternera con Salsa de Roquefort" (Filet Mignon with Blue Cheese Gravy) in a quaint dining room built for Spaniards from the Middle Ages. I managed to avoid the ceiling beams just long enough to enjoy a fabulous dinner! And the meat was some of the finest I have had in Spain.

Saturday, we woke up late, following the most spectacularly restful sleep I have had in years (the tranquility was astonishing in the Parador, especially so I think for having lived in central London for nearly a year now). Breakfast was a Spanish smorgasbord of breakfast specialities. Croissants, danishes, queso manchego, zumo de naranja, cafe and chocolate caliente! What a feast! Meg focused on opening some birthday presents and I just focused on the food! Ha! Following breakfast we walked back to central Salamanca to have a better look at the cathedral. There is a great view from one of the upper balconies that we climbed up to take a look across the Castillian plain. It was really pretty, and a great start to the day. We were side-lined for a little while when Andre became obsessed with locating "la rana de Salamanca." There is local folklore that says that to those who are able to locate this little carved stone frog, perched atop a skull, somewhere on the immense facade of the cathedral, it will bring them good luck (and especially for students, good grades)! Needless to say, the only place we found it was on a postcard! Andre was upset. We had a quick cafe and headed out in the car for a lovely drive to L'Alberca for lunch. L'Alberca sits in the cozy confines of the Sierra de Francia. Nestled into a kind of trough in the mountains, it's craggled hand-laid stone streets and facades, and cooler climate make it a big draw during the summer months. As a result it is a bit touristic, although at this time of year, a very worthwhile journey. The buildings themselves are quite unique and almost look as though they have been transported from the French Alpes or somewhere similar due to their odd construction. We made away with haste from out little mountain retreat and wound our way through the Sierra de Francia back toward Avila as it was getting fairly late. The ride back, some three hours or more, was painless enough and yielded some absolutely gorgeous vistas of the sierra and countryside around. If that wasn't already an action-packed day, when we arrived back to Madrid we had a full night ahead all planned out! Suffice to say, after 4 tapas bars and a restaurant, and with Meg still urging us on, we called it a night (or a morning, depending on how you want to look at it). Pedro and Jordi came along for the fun, and so as it turned out Meg had her husband, and four of her "male entourage" to celebrate with her on her 31st birthday!!!

Sunday featured a big sleep-in after our late night out, and then a quick one hour blast out to Patones for a long, late lunch with Vicky, Pablo and Pedro. Andre and Jean-Paul stayed in Madrid to check out the city by foot. Patones was incredible. The most "Tim Burton-esque" place I think I have ever been. And I was really kicking myself that Patrick and I did not venture out in this direction during the year on our bikes. It would have been epic! Again, some amazing food, and a walk around in the town were enjoyed by all. Now, Patones is simply known as a great weekend getaway for Madrilenos, but the town has the unique distinction of having once been a kingdom. The story goes something along the lines of Napolean, having been unable to receive taxation money from the people of the area that is now referred to as Patones (actually simply the last name of the largest family in the area) he sent out his troops to "find them." Well, they couldn't. They had hid themselves away in the sierra for so long, no one knew where they were! So, as a face-saving maneuver during his control of Spain, he granted them their own kingdom, thus exempting them from taxation in the capital (or something like that!). Patones was an extremely enjoyable spot and I am sure we will be back on day - hopefully on a bike!

Monday was a bit of mad scramble to get our bikes into their boxes in preparation for our return trip to Vancouver at Christmas, and see a few folks I wanted to see before leaving Madrid. After accomplishing the packaging of the bicycles, we rushed like mad to see Elen and Bart, and the new addition to their family Sana! Meg's friend Merve joined us there, and then we rushed back to La Plaza Santa Ana to meet Jordi and Andre for lunch before bolting to the airport! A botched attempt at taking the bikes with us left me a bit stressed out, but we managed to make it back to London quite comfortably! I was nice to have Andre along for the return tripped as we recounted the events of one of my best Spanish experiences! It was just a great weekend, enjoyed immensely by all!