Bulbous, Not Tapered

Please enjoy this special holiday video report brought to you by Fio and Uncle Mike, there’s some great footage in it. Coming to you from the Lococo household in Massachusetts, Fio’s reportage unearths a poignant story of holiday cheer that’s not to be missed.

Filesize: ~3.4M
License: all rights reserved

Christmas in Boston, Fio was a riot whizzing around in his NASA space shuttle “jetpack”. He borrowed my camera to document his favorite gifts, and took the photo of the space shuttle puzzle.

The first snowstorm with a couple inches of accumulation always announces the “real” arrival of winter in my mind. That was today in Ithaca, and Laura and I went on a winter walkabout to bring the experience to you.

This is another automated art project and a bit of a work in progress. Some time ago I wrote an FXScript for Final Cut Pro 3.0 that edited a movie to run forward and backward, interleaving the frames instead of compositing them. This is the test video I used as I was writing the script, you can still see (but not read in this heavily compressed version) the variables I was tracking on-screen while I debugged.

Someday I hope to revisit this project on a less awkward programming platform. FXScript was difficult to do automated editing with because it assumed (as of FCP3, anyway) a linear flow through the video material. I’m still on the lookout for a good high-level way to automate video editing. Quicktime Pro might do what I want in combination with Applescript or Perl/PerlMagick, but I haven’t investigated deeply yet.

I’m not providing the FXScript I used to create this, only because I think there are better ways. Contact me if you really want a copy.

As much as wish I had, I did not think of the word intertwingle.

I’m in the process of putting up lots of old junk that I’ve told people about but often haven’t been able to show them. Last time I shaved my head I kept a mohawk for a week. It’s funny to have people look at you like you’re attached to your hair, but the novelty wears off pretty fast.

Update 3/20/06: Since a few hundred folks a month seem to be finding this site searching for information about mohawks, a short update is in order. I used Rave #4 (aka mega) hairspray to hold the spikes, which is cheap and works well. Elmer’s or spraypaint will get you more cred, but it’s unlikely that someone searching for hair advice on the internet is going to last very long with folks that spike with spraypaint under any circumstances. For that reason, I recommend sticking with something you won’t have to shave out until you have your sea-legs. The process of styling isn’t rocket science, but it does take a long time while you’re figuring it out and you really want a blowdryer. The tall spikes take a few layers of spray to stand up right and waiting for half a can of hairspray to air dry is not really an option.

p.s. I’ll send a surprise gift to the first person who can figure out what the sign I’m holding is about.

Update 5/13/06: The prize has been collected. The photo is a reference to Johnny Cash’s drug arrest while crossing the Mexican border in 1965. Although Cash doesn’t have a Mohawk in his mugshot, he was punk before hairspray was king.

I saw a giant rainbow over the summer. It rocked.