JAN 13 2017
The Way He Sees It
MUSICBED released an interview they had with Carl Sprague, a art director/designer in the world of film. The easiest, most recognizable way to say, “This guy did that.”, would be pointing out his abilities shown in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.
With a brief stint in directing, Sprague details his preference and love for set design based on the relationship he found and built with it. Reading through the interview, you get a tangible sense of the passion he has for his work in the way he speaks and describes matters. With all the push back furthering his career from working his way up and through various industries to the [now] day-to-day chaos that exists despite the amount of know-how and experience he has, it’s almost an unrequited love, one he won’t quit. After all, he goes on to express quite a bit to justifiably add the weighty statement, “Because he hasn’t yet.”
Sprague life and story sound to be pretty incredible. At the same time, it’s strange. In my ignorance, I’ve always assume a big break is all you need; the rest just comes to you. There’s a laughable moment where he alludes to a change in duties in working with Anderson that I would have never thought to be the case, or possible. Apparently, it is. The best part, though, is that Sprague barely skips a beat before grinding his way back into matters and where he wants to be.
As you’ll find, the end of something was never the end of his career. Sprague continued to press on and persevered. The fruits of his labor are abundant as well, claiming responsibilities for other Oscar award winning films such as 12 Years a Slave and The Social Network along with many other credits and with many great directors and producers at the helm.
Takeway: Let downs are not the end. They simply pull you out of the clouds and onto the ground to remind you to keep running.
If you’re not familiar with MUSICBED, you should familiarize yourself quickly. Based out of Fort Worth, TX, they’ve done an incredible job expanding the scope of music and composition included in film, tv, radio, and the like. They’ve created a platform that allows musicians, artists, and composers, ones you most likely would’ve never come across, to gain exposure to (1) make a living being supported through licensing and, as I’ve found, (2) simply be heard. As much as it is a place to find music for your project, personal or commercial, it’s also a great way pile onto your playlists. I suggest you head over to take a gander for yourself and sign up for their newsletter; this is only one of many gems to be found.
I’m sure you do, but if you do not know the world of Wes Anderson, dive in. The spectacular creativity doesn’t end with Sprague. Every piece and person involved is Anderson’s work is masterpiece in and of itself.
Hockey Dudes, Man…
I couldn’t do it. Vice Sports has the best write up on this, but it’s worth a re-share no less.
Not Quite Skynet, but Close!
Home automation, or really any automation, is great. I owned two devices hosting Amazon’s Alexa, and I use them daily. Along with that I have lamps and my entertainment center tied with Alexa along with IFTTT, which is another whole post of its own. The one deficiency, a lazy deficiency I will admit, that exists is the ability for it follow you around.
There are mobile options like Siri, Cortana, and the Amazon Tap; however, each require the pushing of a button. There is no “always listening” factor. Obviously the Amazon Echo, Dot included, and Google Home have speakers that can reach, but if you’re across the house, refusing to own a device in every single room, you may not be able to cleanly/clearly hear the response to your command. A similar issue exists with whole house audio, you either pay for it or you don’t have it. Leasing a home right now, I’m having to wait on outfitting a house, so we have a Bose Soundlink Mini that we move from room to room. Because we have to do that, we hardly ever do, so it sits on a bookshelf near the middle of the house. I’ve considered throwing it on our Roomba…
…but the roomba knows not what it does. It’s bad enough to be away from the sound; the sound moving further away would present a problem.
Enter Kuri.
Kuri has been brought to us Mayfield Robotics, and acts as a mobile version of the aforementioned. He’s even a friend. As it mentions in a series of clever marketing videos, he won’t do some things like judge you, repeat an explicative like a parrot, or destroy humanity [yet]. Who would needs friends or family when you have this guy? He can even follow you around, wake you up, and greet when you come home from work. Why not?
This little guy is outfitted with some pretty intense guts, and as you can assume with a robot, he is incredibly intelligent and learns more by way of mapping sensors, including the layout of your house and the ability to avoid obstacles. This means, and as one of their video shows, you won’t hear a crashing of sorts because Kuri fell down the stairs. The drive system allows it to roam no matter the terrain, be it carpet or solid flooring. It goes without saying that charging is involved, so there is also a nap pad where Kuri will head back to when a snooze beckons.
Acting as a home monitoring system, he comes with facial and vocal recognition by way of HD cameras and four microphones. It not only sees and hears you; it knows who you are. Those “watching” skills include sensitivity to loud noises with the ability to alert you via phone. Whether because of an alert or out of simple boredom, you also have the ability to live-stream what Kuri is seeing.
His head includes capacitive touch sensors, allowing a gentle touch on the head to illicit a look up in pride. This latter bit there is due to programmed gestural mechanics, which give Kuri flui, life-like movements of the head and the eyes. This will help you sell it to visitors that he actually is a friend, not just a robot programmed to love you. Furthermore, he’s capable of showing emotional subtleties by way of a “heart light”, glowing to express the likes of happiness or being in a moment of thought.
Kuri doesn’t just stop at function. He’s also packed with a bit of fun. The appearance is strikingly similar to the lead of Disney Pixar’s Big Hero 6, which works out great as my little guy loves Baymax. The benefits go beyond aesthetics with speakers built-in to play music as well as, pulling a quote from their website:
You can even send her into your kids’ room to tell a bedtime story.
Woah. Better yet, speaking from the nerd in me, his language is much like that of R2D2. Having this thing would be like re-living my childhood, believing the Star Wars was real. I’d have all the bleeps and bloops to keep me entertained.. I mean, my kid entertained.
Keep It Spicy, Folks
Northwestern University released a short study on spicy food. Most specifically this is about capsaicin, a capsaicinoid, or “the reason for the burn, man.” Your tastes buds have no ability to taste capsaicinoids. Instead, you get a sensation, closely related to a high. I love [most] spicy foods, and I love the internet. It’s only natural this is included. The interaction that takes place when eating spicy foods on a molecular level is very interesting. The post isn’t long, so I’ve opted to leave out any quotes or more information; give it a read.
Spoilers: You cannot get addicted to spicy foods, which I somehow find sad.
It’s a’Me, Shigeru Miyamoto!
The creator of one of the most believe items of the 21st century spoke to Vox about what his thought process is when creating a game. Shigeru Miyamoto is responsible for a few names you’ll recognize regardless your involvement in the gaming world: Donkey Kong, Zelda, and a little guy called “Mario”. What I find most interesting here is the way that, really overall, technology has evolved. As Miyamoto points out, “early on, the people who made video games, they were technologists, they were programmers, they were hardware designers.” when alluding to how the process used to be creating the story as the game was developed; however, this changed with Miyamoto, who created the story before the game went into development. He helped the shift for video game creators to be “designers rather than technologists.”
Vox goes on to address the brilliance that exists in the first level of Super Mario Bros. It’s essentially a how-to for the game while playing the game. It’s not the foreword even; it’s a chapter of the story. This was/is a part of Miyamoto’s philosophy, which is to do things different. Reading more into his history, this has always been the case and is the reason he didn’t buy into the online gaming trend. Trend, you’ll find, is the word he uses, though it’s panned out to be more of a multi-billion dollar industry. Despite that success, he’s clearly done more than well for himself and has likely jumped over an understated several other actual trends that would’ve been terrible opportunities.
Have a good weekend.
