I’m in chicago right now and starting today the new Four Eyed Monsters DVD that comes with a free CD and the new episodes is in Borders nationwide.

Please support our filmmaking and come out and get this jam packed DVD/CD set!!!!!

Also I’ll be doing an appearance at at Borders in Chicago. The plan is to project episodes 9 to 13 but the borders location doesn’t have a projector so i’ll be making some calls tomorrow to line one up (any leads welcome). Also Ben and Bruno will be attending and performing a few songs. They are an amazing band that did the music in Episode 13.

Time: 6:30 pm

Location:

Borders Book Store
595 Central Avenue
Highland Park, IL 60035

After this event I’ll be going with Ben and Bruno over to their show which is taking place at a bar called Quenchers. It’s on the corner of Western and Fullerton. That show is at 9:30 pm.

Come to both these, should be a lot of fun!

Here is their flyer for the 9:30 show:

If you have a film you are self distributing you should strongly consider coming to the workshop that susan and i have been asked to put on at Boston University in the last week of May and first week of June.

Details and registration here.

Come to one of these talks, they should be fun and educational and I’ll be giving away Four Eyed Monsters DVDs!

April 21st, 1:00pm
Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design: Drexel University
University Crossings Room 028
N. 32nd St. and Market St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104

April 23rd, 1:00pm
University of Miami School of Communications
Studio A
5100 Brunson Dr.
Coral Gables, FL 33146

April 28th, 4:00pm
Northwestern University – Radio, Television & Film
Louis 119
1877 Campus Dr.
Evanston, IL 60208

I’ll be at all of the above talks and Susan will be at this one:

April 18th, 2:00pm
Department of Radio-Television-Film University of Texas @ Austin
Studio 4d in the CMB Building
W 26th St. and Guadalupe St.
Austin, TX 78705

submit films | watch films | learn to make films | fest news | fest streamGet the special Embed code or quicktime download links here. This is a video about how film festivals are suppose to function as a filter to decide which films are seen by distributors and therefor end up getting in front of audiences. It details some examples of how filmmakers have become empowered to side step that system and find audiences directly.

We want to share with other filmmakers the opportunities we’ve had with our own films so we’ve banded together a growing team of filmmakers, web developers and distribution partners to create From Here to Awesome.

If you have a film you want the world to see or if you want to see films outside of the standard hollywood status quo then Subscribe to From here to Awesome’s Video Channel.

*Do you plan on being at SXSW? Which talks do you think would be good to attend? Do you know of any good parties? Do you know of a place we could crash? Do you want to participate in our round table dinners discussing the media revolution. Do you know of any bands playing you think we’d like. Do you know of any films in the festival that seem good? Please post comments below…

Susan and I are on a panel at SXSW this year called ‘Independent Film Distribution: It Takes an Online Community‘ that will be moderated by Micki Krimmel.  It’s on Monday March 10th at 5pm in room 12AB.  Friends and FHTA collaborators Lance Weiler (Head Trauma) and Bret Gaylor (Open Source Cinema) are also on the panel.

They’ve asked us to talk about the DIY distribution effort of Four Eyed Monsters and we plan to also go into how the internet is evolving past a film marketing tool and becoming an actual filmmaking tool.

We also will discuss From Here to Awesome.  How creating a discovery and distribution film festival can further empower filmmakers to create direct connections with their audiences.  We’ll also talk about the open source technology we’ve designed and are currently looking for partners to build that will provide the film industries missing links that are keeping us stuck under old media’s control.

I plan to check out some films including my friends film thats in SXSW called Nerd Core Rising. There is also a full schedule with times and locations and below are all the panels I think look interesting. 

SOCIAL:     

10 Ways to Green-ify Your Digital Life (Jennifer Schlegel)

Visualizing Sustainability (Jon Lebkowsky)

Green Software. Really? (Kim Laama)

Textbooks of the Future: Free & Collaborative! (Jimmy Wales)

Building Portable Social Networks (Jeremy Keith)

BUSINESS:

How Piracy Will Save the Music Industry (Jason Schwartz)

Lost in Translation? Top Website Internationalization Lessons (Stephanie Booth)

CONTENT:

FM 2.0: The Future of Internet Radio (David Hyman)

GAMING:

Let’s Get Serious: Should Video Games Replace College? (Michael Anderson)

You Are Here: Gaming and User’s Geolocation in Web 2.0 (Ryan Sarver)

MARKETING:

The Art of Self-Branding (Lea Alcantara)

Friend Me! Vote for Me! Donate Now! (Julie Barko Germany)

Judo Moves for Defending Your Reputation Online (Thor Muller) - emailed about filmming

MISCELLANEOUS:

Body Optimization: Why Stop at Health & Fitness? (Tantek Celik)

Building a Worldwide Climate Movement (Bill McKibben)

FILM/INTERACTIVE:

Blogs, Buzz, and Buddy Lists (Paul Harrill)

Digital Cinema for Indies (Scott Kirsner)

Independent Film Distribution: It Takes an Online Community (Micki Krimmel)

Thick as Thieves: What Have My Fans Done with My Movie? (Ben Cote)

Video Production for the Web & Mobile Devices (Hank Blumenthal)

CODING:

Considerations for Scalabale Web Ventures (Joe Stump)

Content Management System Roundup (George DeMet)

Creating Findable Rich Media Content (Jennifer Taylor)

Creative Collaboration: Building Web Apps Together (Paul Hammond)

A Critical Look At OpenID (Jason Levitt)

Building Developer-Friendly Web Service APIs (Ben Vinegar)

Client-side Code and Internationalization (Jon Wiley)

Getting There Faster By Using Open Code (Jack Moffitt)

Scalability Boot Camp (Jakob Heuser)

MOBILE WIRELESS:

Take Municipal WiFi Back (Joanna Rees)

Bio-Networks: Using Mobile Technology to Impact Healthstyle (Kate Bauer)

Transforming Hospital Systems: The Digital Future of Healthcare (Grace Lanni)

Mobile Phones: International Devices of Mystery (Michael Sharon)

SPONSORED:

The Insiders Guide to Angel Investing (David S. Rose)

Knowing the Audience: Improving Communication Between Artists and Fans (Stephen Stokols)

KEY NOTES:

Opening remarks by Henry Jenkins (MY HERO)

Mark Zuckerberg Keynote on Sunday, March 9

Frank Warren Keynote on Monday, March 10  

CORE CONVERSATIONS:

Managing Media: Is Your Music Collection About to Become Extinct (Daniel Raffel)

Record Labels — What Were They? (Raymond McGlamery)

Adult Conversations: Sex, Intimacy & Online Relationships (Twanna A. Hines)

Breakups 2.0 (Kevin Cheng)

Do You Have to Disappear Completely to Get Things Done? (Ryan Freitas)

Online Identity: And I *Do* Give a Damn About My Bad Reputation (Christian Crumlish)

Perma-Live-Vlogging: Vicious or Victory, Hell or Sweet? (Hank Jones)

The Web Standards Confession Booth (Jenifer Hanen)

BOOK READINGS:Lisa Sabin-Wilson (WordPress for Dummies)

Jason Beaird (Principles of Beautiful Web Design)

Here are the individuals speaking at SXSW 2008 we’ll be in company with:Lea Alcantara (Lealea Design) Kevin Alderman (Eros, LLC) Kristin Alexander (Microsoft) Micah Alpern (Yahoo!) Lux Alptraum (thatstrangegirl.com) Heitor Alvelos (University of Porto, Portugal) Shahed Amanullah (altmuslim.com) Michael Anderson (University of Texas) Mouna Andraos (missmoun.com) G. Kofi Annan (Annansi LLC) James Archer (Forty) David Armistead (Social Web Strategies, LLC) Heather Armstrong (dooce) Omid Ashtari (Creative Artist Agency) John Athayde (Hyphenated People) Wagner James Au (Author) Andrew Baio (Upcoming) Skip Baney (Apple) Rich Baraniuk (Rice University) John Bartleson (Island Def Jam Music Group) Simon Batistoni (Flickr) Kate Bauer (theovu.com) Glenda Bautista (agendacide.com) Jason Beaird (jasongraphix.com) Andy Beal (MarketingPilgrim.com) Justin Beals (Roundbox Global) Lane Becker (Get Satisfaction) Rhea Becker (The Boomer Chronicles) Jeff Beckham (AT&T) Jen Bekman (jenbekman.com) Gavin Bell (gavinbell.com) Veronica Belmont (veronicabelmont.com) Rich Bengloff (A2IM) Jared Benson (Punchcut) Angela Benton (blackweb20.com) Heather Benz (MLB.com) Damon Berger (Revision3) Artur Bergman (Wikia) Erik Bethke (GoPets) Allen Beuershausen (Allen Asset Strategies) Rohit Bhargava (Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide) Monish Bhatia (Left Lane News) Zaheda Bhorat (Google) Gina Bianchini (Ning) Matt Biddulph (hackdiary.com) Lauren Bigelow (WeeWorld) Mark Bixby (markbixby.com) Johanna Blakley (USC Norman Lear Center) Kimberly Blessing (kimberlyblessing.com) Violet Blue (tinynibbles.com) Hank Blumenthal (Schematic) Paul Boag (boagworld.com) Ana Boa-Ventura (University of Texas) Steve Bocska (Hothead Games) Jina Bolton (Sushi & Robots) Silona Bonewald (League of Technical Voters) Stephanie Booth (Climb to the Stars) Jonathan Boutelle (SlideShare.net) Jennifer Bove (Huge) Douglas Bowman (Google) Michele Bowman (Global Foresight Associates) James Box (Clearleft.com) Adam Boyden (Xfire) Bryan Boyer (bryanboyer.com) Corey Bridges (Multiverse) Jeremy Britton (ZURB Inc) Ben Brown (benbrown.com) Carlos Brown (Seton Hospital) Avi Bryant (DabbleDB) Todd Bryant (NetCast HD) Michael Buffington (Grockit) Susan Buice (Four Eyed Monsters) Lia Bulaong (lia.bulaong.com) April Burba (NCsoft) Daniel Burka (deltatangobravo.com) Doug Busk (gosinglepoint.com) Michael Cai (Parks Associates) Lindsay Campbell (Wallstrip) Alonzo Canada (Jump Associates) Stuart Candy (Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies) Bryan Caplan (author) Brandon Carson (Sun Microsystems) Will Carter (hauntedcastle.org) Jamais Cascio (WorldChanging.com) Mike Cassidy (michaelcassidy.com) Tantek Celik (tantek.com) Ben Cerveny (Stamen Design) Heather Champ (flickr) CC Chapman (Managing the Grey) Corey Chandler (eBay) Emily Chang (Ideacodes) Heather Chaplain (Author) Neil Chase (Federated Media) Sande Chen (Writers Cabal) Kevin Cheng (OK/Cancel) Leslie Chicoine (Get Satisfaction) Ro Choy (RockYou) Neil Churcher (Orange Global Design & Usability Group) Frank Cilluffo (George Washington University) Alan Citron (TMZ) Naomi Clark (gamelab.com) Rachel Clarke (Behind the Buzz) Keith Clarkson (Xenophile Media) Ford Cochran (National Geographic) Mack Collier (The Viral Garden) Tony Comstock (comstockfilms.com) Adam Conner (Facebook) Tamara Conniff (Billboard) Blaine Cook (Twitter) Henry Copeland (Blogads) Kevin Corbett (americaneagle.com) Ben Cote (Stage 6) Jim Coudal (Coudal Partners) Jeri Countryman (Techbridge) N’Gai Croal (Newsweek) David Crow (Microsoft) Arin Crumley (Four Eyed Monsters) Christian Crumlish (Yahoo!) Joseph Crump (Avenue A | Razorfish) Edward Cruz (Bootstorms) Leah Culver (Pownce) Patrick Curry (DePaul University) John D’Addario (Fleshbot) Christie Dames (TechTalk) Dawn Danby (barkingcrickets.org) Liz Danzico (Bobulate) Anil Dash (dashes.com) Drew Davidson (Carnegie Mellon University) John Davison (whattheyplay.com) Colin Delany (ePolitics) Marta Sylvia Del Rio Guerra (University of Monterrey) George DeMet (Palantir.net) Erin Denny (Techsoup.org) Shaila Dewan (New York Times) Dustin Diaz (Google Inc.) Zadi Diaz (smashface.com) Lisa Donavan (LisaNova) M dot Strange (wearethestrange.com) Don Downie (scenepartnerscinema.com) Natalie Zee Drieu (Craft Magazine) Michael Duffy (mikeduffy.com) Jake Dunagan (Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies) Andrew Dupont (Prototype) Adam DuVander (duvander.com) Jeska Dzwigalski (SecondLife) Derek Eagleton (dallascowboys.com) Jeff Eaton (viapositiva.net) James Eberhard (mobileaccord.com) Andy Edmonds (Smart Marketing, Inc) Brendan Eich (Mozilla) Suzy Eilers (American Eagle) Michael Eisner (Tornante LLC) Diana Eng (Project Runway) Michael Epstein (untravelmedia.com) Mike Essl (essl.com) Jeremy Ettinghausen (Penguin) Tiffany Farriss (palantir.net) Katie Fehrenbacher (GigaOm) Samuel Felder (samfelder.com) Jeff Ferrell (TCU) Tim Ferriss (Author) Ken Fisher (Ars Technica) Pliny Fisk (CMPBS) Mary Flanagan (Tiltfactor Laboratory) George Fletcher (AOL) Bill Flitter (Pheedo) Mark Forker (DIVE) Celia Francis (WeeWorld) Mark Norman Francis (Yahoo!) Carl Franzblau (Medhost) Jennifer Fraser (Corel) Ryan Freitas (Adaptive Path) Jason Fried (37Signals) David Friedman (Ironic Sans) Thomas Fuchs (Scriptaculous) Liz Gannes (GigaOM) Steve Ganz (steve.ganz.name) Jason Garber (sixtwothree.org) Susannah Gardner (Hop Studios) Blair Garrou (DFJ Mercury) Brett Gaylor (Basement Tapes) Susan L. Gerhart (apodder.org) Julie Barko Germany (The Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet) Rodney Gibbs (Amaze Entertainment Austin) Becky Gibson (IBM) Matt Gierhart (thenewcelebrity.com) Aliza Gold (Digital Media Collaboratory) Heather Gold (subvert.com) Dan Goldman (dangoldman.net)) Patty Goldman (March of Dimes) Anastasia Goodstein (Ypulse.com) Bijoy Goswami (Bootstap Austin) Chris Gottschalk (Kulabyte) Will Graham (The Onion) Josh Green (Emerging Pictures) Jim Greer (Kongregate) Johannes Grenzfurthner (monochrom) John Gruber (Daring Fireball) Tim Guest (Author) Dan Gutknecht (InHouse Assist) Michaela Hackner (kalabird.com) Melissa Hagemann (Open Society Institute) Cliff Hall (Ripcode) Justin Hall (PMOG) Steve Hall (Adrants.com) Naz Hamid (weightshift.com) Merci Hammon (GameLayers) Paul Hammond (Flickr) Jenifer Hanen (blackphoebe.com) Quentin Hardy (Forbes) Paul Harrill (Lovell Films) Phil Harvey (Light Reading) Len Hause (MashBrain) Chere’ Heintzmann (Disney Mobile) Eric Hellweg (Harvard Business Review Online) Cal Henderson (flickr) Shawn Henry (W3C) Andrei Herasimchuck (involutionstudios.com) Catherine Herdlick (Come Out & Play Festival) Erik Hersman (WhiteAfrican.com) Chris Heuer (theconversationgroup.com) Jakob Heuser (Gaia Online) Lea Hickman (Adobe) Didier Hilhorst (IDEO) Alex Hillman (weknowhtml.com) Twanna A. Hines (funkybrownchick.com) Jennifer Hinkle (Washington Redskins) Evan Hirsch (Microsoft) Max Hoberman (certainaffinity.com) Rusty Hodge (SomaFM) Robert Hoekman, Jr (Miskeeto, LLC) Marcy Hoen (Austin Art Start) Brent Hoff (Wholphin DVD) Dan Hon (Six to Start) Souris Hong-Porretta (hustlerofculture.com) Daniel Hope (MotivateMedia) David Hornik (August Capital) Amy Hoy (Hyphenated People) Tony Hsieh (Zappos.com) Jameson Hsu (Mochimedia) Kai Huang (Red Octane) MIke Hudack (blip.tv) Andrew Huff (Gapers Block) Ben Huh (icanhascheezburger.com) Tara Hunt (Citizen Agency) Kami Huyse (Communication Overtones) Chris Hyams (B-Side Entertainment) David Hyman (MOG.com) Jeremy Irish (Geocaching.com) Steve Jang (imeem.com) Jeff Jarvis (BuzzMachine) Sandy Jen (meebo) Henry Jenkins (MIT Comparative Media Studies Program) Leslie Jensen-Inman (morellc.com) Scott Jensen (Google) Lynne d Johnson (FastCompany.com) Bronwyn Jones (presentimperfect.com) Brewster Kahle (Internet Archive) Beth Kanter (bethkanter.org) Alan Kasindorf (Six Apart) Guy Kawasaki (Alltop.com) Karen Kaushansky (TellMe) Sheku Kef-Kamara (Silverstreetz Entertainment) Christie Keith (Pet Connection) Jeremy Keith (Adactio) George Kelly (allaboutgeorge.com) Tim Kendall (FaceBook) Philip Kerman (phillipkerman.com) Sulaiman Khan (hadithuna.com) Max Kiesler (ideacodes.com) Min Jung Kim (minjungkim.com) Ryan King (theryanking.com) Susan Kirkpatrick (kitykity.com) Peter Kirn (createdigitalmusic.com) Scott Kirsner (CinemaTech) Erin Kissane (Happy Cog) Martin Kliehm (namics deutschland gmbh) SJ Klein (OLPC) Marty Kline (Imageworks) Carol Kolb (The Onion) David Koontz (Rising Tide Software) Therese Kopiwoda (ThePetFoodList.com) Kevin Koym (kevinkoym.com) Jeff Kramer (Polycot Consulting) Micki Krimmel (Mickipedia.com) Kris Krug (Raincity Studios) Bruce Krysiak (brucekrysiak.com) Patrick Kwiatkowski (Microcinema Intl) Daphne Kwon (ExpoTV) Kim Laama (kimlaama.net) Sarah Lacy (BusinessWeek) Joshua Lane (Urban Outfitters) Tim Langdell (National University) Grace Lanni (Motion Computing) Nicole Lapin (CNN) Kevin Lawver (lawver.net) Gary Leland (Podcast Pickle) Gez Lemon (Juicy Studio) Serge Lescouarnec (sergetheconcierge.com) Jason Levitt (austinsushi.com)Alison Lewis (SWITCH) Cali Lewis (Geekbrief TV) Ronald Lewis (ronaldlewis.com) Charlene Li (Forrester Research) Cindy Li (designrabbit.com) Rebecca Lieb (ClickZ.com) Mark Linder (PodShow Island) Alex Lindsay (Pixel Corps) Ian Lloyd (accessify.com) Alison Lewis (iheartswitch.com) Karina Longworth (Spout.com) Amy Looper (MindOH!) Michael Lopp (Apple) Lance Loveday (Closed Loop Marketing) Peter Ludlow (secondlifeherald.com) Chris MacDonald (Libsyn) Darla Mack (darlamack.blogs.com) Rich MacKinnon (Austin Wireless City Project) al-Husein Madhany (Islamica Magazine) Brian Magierski (BSG Alliance) Dan Manco (4Kids Entertainment) Ynema Mangum (BMC Software) Merlin Mann (43 Folders) Alison Mao (Indecent Exposure Productions) David Markus (Tee Bee Dee) Zoe Margolis (Girl With A One Track Mind) Alice Marwick (tiara.org) Stu Maschwitz (The Orphanage) Bryan Mason (Adaptive Path) Margaret Mason (Mighty Girl) Charles McCathieNevile (Opera) Dave McClure (500 Hats) Jonathan McCoy (perceptionlabs.com) Brian McConnell (Worldwide Lexicon Project) Scott McDaniel (SurveyGizmo) Michael McDerment (FreshBooks.com) Fay Foley-McDunnough (Cancer Survivors Group in Second Life) Ellen McGirt (Fast Company) Raymond McGlamery (BuddyLube) Jane McGonigal (Avant Games) Dianne McGunigle (Creative Artist Agency) Jake McKee (communityguy.com) Casey McKinnon (Galacticast) Mark Meadows (boar.com) Jason Meil (Current TV) Lionel Menchaca (Direct2Dell) Allen Mendelsohn (Plank Desgin) Carl Mercier (Defensio) David Merkoski (frog design) Douglas Merrill (Google) Marian Merritt (Symantec) Tom Merritt (Make Your Audience Love You) Chris Messina (factoryjoe.com) Ted Mico (Universal Music) Kerry Miller (BusinessWeek)< Sean Mills (The Onion) Mark David Milliron (Catalyze Learning International) Jack Moffitt (Chesspark) Dr. J Strother Moore (University of Texas) Jonathan Moore (Software Privacy Specialist) Assaf Morag (Intel) Randal Moss (American Cancer Society) S. Joy Mountford (Yahoo!) Ian Muir (customscoop.com) Kelley Muir (BarCampManchester) Matt Mullenweg (WordPress) Carol Muller (MentorNet) Thor Muller (Get Satisfaction) Ted Mundorff (Landmark Theatres) Noelle Murata (ninjapixie) Chris Muscarella (Mobile Commons) Thomas Myer (Triple Dog Dare Media) Ted Nadeau (dotline.com) Eric Nail (Author) Eric Nakagawa (icanhascheezburger.com) Lizzie Nastro (IFC Films) David Neff (American Cancer Society) Tom Negrino (negrino.com) Sarah Nelson (Adaptive Path) Annalee Newitz (Techsploitation) Rebecca Newton (Mind Candy) Mingyeow Ng (discoverio.com) Sandra Niehaus (Closed Loop Marketing) Paul Nixon (nixonnow.org) Chris Noessel (Cooper Interactive) Tim Nolan (Firstborn) Craig Nulan (subrealism.blogspot.com) Jason Nunes (Adobe Consulting) Conleth O’Connell (Vignette Corporation) Patrick O’ 

Download this Song: Mp3 | AAC | .FLV | iPod Video | Apple TV

Bookmark this Video: DIGG

This is a mash up of real hate comments and hate mail I got in reaction to my last video. The 4 places I collected the hate comments were Williamsboard, Gawker, YouTube comments and my own blog post.

In addition to a parody video, a confession video has also appeared in which the creator anonymously claims to have met me at the party introducing himself with his real name and shaking my hand. According to a commenter on this guys profile posted back in August, the individual behind this account might be named, “Adam Pearse”.

Going through these comments looking for leads on the stolen bike and coat was sometimes hilarious but left me feeling kind of depressed. Until I had the idea for this song which has made me feel way better. To create this song I pasted any good lines into a document that I then tweaked to add rhythm and rhyme. Here are the lyrics and chords.

Tech Notes: I filmed on the HVX-200 with a soft light above the camera and a back light you can see hidden just behind the de-popper. I always try to use a fast shutter speed for web video because you don’t want motion blur, compression doesn’t like it. So I went with 250 or 120, I forget. I used a Shure KSM27 Microphone hooked up to mic input 1 and a 1/4 to XLR cable to go out of my guitar straight into the cameras mic input 2 of the video camera. I recorded in 720pn making sure I had the entire song down in one single take, which took a few tries, most of which I deleted after trying it. Also I re-wrote the lyrics slightly after each take to fix what was tripping me up. Then I used, “log and transfer” function in FCP to get the footage in. Then a color correction filter to crush blacks, boost mids and drag the color temperature towards a cooler less red tone. Then I used sound affects provided in Sound Track Pro for the gun shots and bullet landing on the ground. But I didn’t use soundtrack Pro, I just found those files on my drive and pulled them into FCP. Then I added a slight delay using an audio plug-in to my singing voice and compression using an FCP default plug-in on my voice and guitar. That just generally smooths out the volume change as I’d move closer and further from the mic. Then I chose export to compressor and selected iPod 640 by 480. Because the video was 16:9 compressor knew to actually make a 640 by 360 video and I double clicked on the settings to insure that was the case. Then I hit “submit” and waited for it to encode and then I posted to YouTube. Then I used senduit.com to get a copy over to susan and she suggested i take out one extra line I had at the intro and I agreed so I re-exported the same way and posted to YouTube. Then I used compressor to make an Apple TV version which I posted to TubeMogul.com which cross posts to all my other video accounts including blip.tv which means this video is freely downloadable in iTunes and Miro in HD.

I’ve been exploring the macrobiotic diet since my friend Isis Masoud brought me to the Kushi Institute Summer conference in August 2007. I’ve recently been getting it down pretty good and making meals for friends.  As a result people have started to turn to me for advice about diet and health. Below is a correspondence on MySpace replying to a friend who was overwhelmed with macrobiotics.

Oh my goodness.

To be honest, I’ve not looked at or followed a single macrobiotic recipe yet. I’ve just read instructions on how to use the pressure cooker and read the general descriptions of what to eat and also I ate for two solid weeks on two different trips where ever meal was prepared by a macrobiotic chef. So from that I kind of figured out what was going on and have just tried to mimic it and have experimented a lot.

The challenge with a hard start date is stuff might not be perfect from day 1.

I think you should read the hip chicks guide to macrobiotics and as you read just make a list of ingredients you’ll need. Everything you find in the book can be found at Whole Foods. Also a lot can e found at Tops or Sunnac in Williamsburg. But you really have to go up and down every single isle to find all this random stuff. But once you’ve done it, it won’t seem random and you’ll go straight there the next time and it will become normal. Also you can always order stuff online from the kushi store.

The whole foods on Houston st in manhattan has a few more things I’ve noticed.

And a general rule is to get everything organic and everything local if possible.

Oh, and once you’ve bought things like sea vegetables, read the instructions on the back and they’ll tell you ways to prepare. Or some organic azuki beans and on the back they’ll say how long to soak for before pressure cooking.

But there are millions of ways to prepare things and it’s really kind of up to you and your own experimentation.

And in terms of quick breakfast. Brown Rice Miso can be used to make a quick soup with some boiled carrots, onions or other vegtable and left over from the night before grain (Millit or short/medium grain brown rice). Take the soup to work in a coffee mug and it will still be warm when you get there.

Hope that helps,
Arin

—————– Original Message —————–
From: Eugina- Joie de vivre!
Date: 30/01/2008

My macrobiotic book only have a few recipes in it! And they all list so many ingredients! I tried searching for recipes online but it seems like so many people are trying to get away with making macrobioitc versions of other things… i’m looking for well balanced recipes that doesn’t require alot of time or ingredients! i really want to keep things as simple as possible, which is the whole point right?? do you know any websites that have recipes? i’m looking for a meal plan. let me know please! our diet starts feb 8th and we are going food shopping soon so we need to know what to get ..especially since they are putting me in charge of cooking the food.

If you know any good, quick well balanced breakfast recipes please let me know , because i only have an hour to get ready for work and i plan on eating my breakfast at my job!

peace brother!

This evening I was asked by Thomas over at Williamsboard.com what I think about the WGA strike.

I shared a video I posted a month before the strike began about the opportunity creators have right now to make their own content. Then I gave him this answer as well:

We are in a time where writers can completely leave their positions if they want to. Then write their own content using small digital video crews to produce low cost shows to self-release online. Blip.tv, Brightcove, Revver and youtube’s content partner program all provide ad revenue and are looking for well written content. So thats the real strike in my mind. At that point a creator of a show can write what truly inspires them rather then being confined by the parameters of a mainstream TV Show. Plus instead of 4 percent they’ll be getting 100 percent.

Also it would be cool if then audiences jumped on board and could actually “boycott” mainstream media by simply not watching it and instead subscribing to independent shows they like and getting them free on what ever device they want to watch them on. Now and then there would be a thanks to a sponsor or some kind of ad model that gets the creators paid but it wouldn’t need to be nearly as obtrusive as annoying 30 second spots.

Even right now there is enough independent media out there to not have a TV and to do screenings of independent films at friends houses rather going to movie theaters. So I imagine this will only get more and more practical as things like the writers strike pull us into a new era.