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Visual-effects the Madagascar way
At the DreamWorks press junket for Madagascar in San Francisco, we spoke to the visual effect supervisor of Madagascar, Philippe Gluckman, and learned about the complexities of animation within the jungle setting--from 4 million leaves on 14,000 plants to crowds of dancing lemurs.
Animator Jay Ward brings us the speedy Tom Slick, a character from the "George of the Jungle" series in the golden '60s.
On their 2001 self-titled debut, the five-piece band KINKY (Gilberto Cerezo, Ulises Lozano, Carlos Chairez, Omar Gongora, Cesar Pliego) emerged from the desert city of Monterrey, Mexico with a set of world-savvy songs that belied the fact that most of the ideas were birthed in their small home studio. As musicians who not only knew their various instruments but each other for many years within the small but supportive music scene of Monterrey, a collective vision of channeling sounds across the globe was definitely within reach. To work on thier second album, Atlas, they headed deep into the jungle, uprooting their studio and taking up temporary residence in an isolated ranch in Quintana Roo, Mexico for a month. From there, KINKY traveled to a different sort of jungle - Los Angeles - in order to write a few more songs and work with venerable engineer Thom Russo (System of a Down, Audioslave). Russo helped the band bring out a more raw and rock-driven sound in comparison with their electro-pop dominated debut (though they haven't abandoned their love of the machines either). "The approach for this album was different from the first in that on this one we wanted to focus on a live, organic band sound," says Ulises. "In the first album we recorded ourselves and made loops. On this record we didn't use as many loops or samples. It was more like a live session where we'd record the whole track on tape [too], rather than just digital. You can hear all the organic sounds like guitar, drum, bass and vocals all sounding live." It's this contrast of environments - represented by the image of a fantastical grasshopper-jetliner hybrid on the album cover - and constantly being on the road that makes up the themes of Atlas. Sonically it is a clash of the organic and the digital; lyrically it roams from remembering to grab and savor the moments maybe you can ("Snapshot", which owes its rhythms to "quebradita", a northern Mexican music style) to finding something special in what most take for granted as those in-between times when you're waiting for something else to happen ("Airport Feelings"). But they start right at home in Mexico, with the propulsive single "Presidente." "We're asking, which color is our president? Green, white or red?" explains Gil. "These are the colors of our flag and they cover different ideas. Red can be very drastic or violent, or mean danger. White means peace or being clean. Green means things are growing up or developing. So each color represents state of mind or feeling and I think it's a good analogy with our flag."
This week on Crave, Veronica Belmont and James Kim rock out with speakers built for a bike, cool off with the help of a slick new refrigerator, then take a shower in a virtual jungle.
At WWDC 2008, Xavier Carrillo Costa from Digital Legends Entertainment shows off 'Kroll', a new game for the iPhone. Costa says his team built the game in just two weeks.
"The Best of the Electric Company" DVD clip: Dracula
Hey You Guys! For the first time EVER on DVD, The Best Of The Electric Company arrives in a deluxe 4-disc set! With roots in the Motown Sound, Broadway and "The Carol Burnett Show," The Electric Company became cultural phenomenon in the '70s as the wildly popular educational television show with big laughs and an even bigger message... teaching children basic reading and grammar skills, with the emphasis on fun. Now, the best episodes are all here in true nostalgic glory, for the first time ever on an expansive 4-DVD set! Impressive cast (such as Bill Cosby, Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno and many others) embodied characters and enlivened skits the whole world knows and loves: Easy Reader, Fargo North Decoder, Jennifer of the Jungle, Paul the Gorilla, The Adventures of Letterman, Love Chair, the Short Circus segments featuring Spider-Man and The Roadrunner and much more!
"The Best of the Electric Company" DVD clip: Letterman
Hey You Guys! For the first time EVER on DVD, The Best Of The Electric Company arrives in a deluxe 4-disc set! With roots in the Motown Sound, Broadway and "The Carol Burnett Show," The Electric Company became cultural phenomenon in the '70s as the wildly popular educational television show with big laughs and an even bigger message... teaching children basic reading and grammar skills, with the emphasis on fun. Now, the best episodes are all here in true nostalgic glory, for the first time ever on an expansive 4-DVD set! Impressive cast (such as Bill Cosby, Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno and many others) embodied characters and enlivened skits the whole world knows and loves: Easy Reader, Fargo North Decoder, Jennifer of the Jungle, Paul the Gorilla, The Adventures of Letterman, Love Chair, the Short Circus segments featuring Spider-Man and The Roadrunner and much more!
"Voice of the Ocean": episode 1: "New York"
New York, the city that never sleeps. In the midst of this big city jungle is the musician Douglas looking for his old pal Jeremiah. He has to find him, not only because he has promised a film producer to record a soundtrack with Jeremiah, but because above all, he has to win back his former best friend.
The chase through Manhattan develops to a journey into the depths of the soul and a confrontation with the sense and nonsense of friendship.
Gore's crusade to halt global warming
The documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" offers a passionate look at one man's efforts to help save the planet from irrevocable change. That man is former Vice President Al Gore. See the trailer for the documentary, which opens in select theaters on June 2.
A wise woman relates a legend from the Old World. Gary feels it.
