Yusef Lateef 1920 - 2013

Yusef Abdul Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston, October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.

Although Lateef's main instruments were the tenor saxophone and flute, he also played oboe and bassoon, both rare in jazz, and also used a number of world music instruments, notably the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, Xun, arghul, sarewa, and koto. He is known for his innovative blending of jazz with "Eastern" music.

From the album "Eastern sounds". Yusef LATEEF (T sax, oboe, fl), Barry Harris (pno), Ernie FARROW (db, rabat), Lex Humphries (dr).

Cordkillers!

Become a patron. I did. Support Tom & Brian. This is a gonna be a great show!

http://cordkillers.com/

Tom and Brian kick off the very first Cordkillers with special guest Justin Robert Young. Netflix is leading the charge for 4K, Hulu has millions but is it enough, and why Atari's famous ET game failure could help Xbox.

Coppola

1463983_10152113085175917_1028931689_n.jpg

While this is an old photo, circa 1978, it's my favorite image that I came across this year. Coppola is a genius and a true American original. When people talk about great artists, he is the first person that comes to my mind. I love this image taken on the set of Apocalypse Now. He looks pissed but equally determined. His manic and obsessive pursuit of his vision always serves as an example of the best in creativity. Apocalypse Now is possibly the greatest American film since Citizen Kane (2001 is close).

When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you're life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again. - Steve Jobs

I hope 2014 is a banner year for all my pals out there.

Get pissed, get creative and make it happen.

Transcendence

Transcendence, due out on April 18th, 2014, will be the directorial debut of longtime Christopher Nolan cinematographer Wally Pfister. From the trailer below it looks pretty interesting and explores ideas around artificial intelligence & the Singularity that seem like science fiction now, but may soon become a reality. I'll go see it. 

Kon Tiki Visual Effects Breakdown

In the summer 2011 ILP was awarded a massive sequence for the Norwegian feature film "Kon-Tiki" directed by Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg. The film is about the legendary explorer Thor Heyerdal's epic journey crossing the Pacific on a balsa wood raft in 1947. Their sequence takes place during a major emotional peak of the movie, as the crew struggles with internal conflicts while facing a critical situation involving white sharks. ILP delivered 58 shots in total, with plenty of hero shots and some extremely complex fully computer generated scenes. This is a VFX breakdown giving you a closer look at some of shots they made. Read more at http://www.ilpvfx.com

Kon Tiki

I just watched the film version of the "Kon Tiki" directed by Joachim Roenning & Espen Sandberg. The film is phenomenal and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The film makes fantastic use of visual effects as well in several key sequences throughout. A hearty congratulations to production visual effects and animation supervisor Arne Kaupang and the whole crew. Also, the musical score by Johan Söderqvist is great. I loved this movie.

Synopsis:

On the 28th of april 1947, Thor Heyerdahl leaves his wife and children behind to cross the Pacific Ocean on a balsa wood raft called ‘Kon-Tiki’, with five inexperienced crew members. The Norwegian anthropologist and adventurer travels on the raft from Peru to Polynesia to prove that people from South-America settled in Polynesia instead of people from Asia, as was believed at the time. The crew did not pack any modern technology on board of the raft, except for a simple radio, and were companied by only each other and a parrot. With the world media watching, the crew navigates the Kon-Tiki across the Pacific Ocean using the stars and being driven by the currents and wind.

While taking on thunder storms, sharks and the dangers of the wide open sea, it’s six brave men against nature trying to get the Kon-Tiki across to the Polynesian shore. After gambling all he has, including his marriage, Heyerdahl is determined to succeed. Thor Heyerdahl’s documentary over the journey won an Oscar in 1951 and is the only Norwegian movie to have won an Oscar to date. The book Heyerdahl wrote about the Kon-Tiki expedition was translated into 70 languages and has sold over 50 million copies over the entire world. 

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY - DOCUMENTARY

Follow Soundtrack Specialist on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/soundtrackspecialist facebook blog post: https://www.facebook.com/soundtrackspecialist/posts/618303501544605 tumblr blog post: Coming Soon. Open Culture Link #1: https://www.facebook.com/openculture/posts/10152355595414129 Open Culture Link #2: http://www.openculture.com/2013/11/the-making-of-kubricks-2001-a-space-odyssey.html Stanley Kubrick - 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - A Look Behind the Future [Vintage Featurette] Music composed by Various. Released in 1968. For information purpose only.

VFX SHOW #173: RUSH

Mike Seymour, Matt Wallin and Jason Diamond go racing with Ron Howard’s Rush. Plus an exclusive video breakdown of Double Negative’s visual effects for the film.

 Please note – we are still experimenting with Google Hangouts. Once this is ‘out of beta’ for us, we will publish ahead of time when you can join us. For now we are recording the audio from the test Hangouts, and we will continue to publish the vfxshow as a podcast regardless. Thanks for your support.

Click on the images below to listen online at FX Guide or subscribe for free in iTunes.

VFX SHOW #172: ELYSIUM

Mike Seymour, Matt Wallin and Ian Failes discuss the visual effects in the new film by Neill Blomkamp, Elysium.

Click on the images below to listen online or subscribe for free in iTunes. 

The Raven searches over the city of Los Angeles at night.

The Raven searches over the city of Los Angeles at night.

The Raven makes an unexpected landing on Elysium. 

The Raven makes an unexpected landing on Elysium. 

An older work by designer Syd Mead that echoes his later actual work on the film Elysium.

An older work by designer Syd Mead that echoes his later actual work on the film Elysium.

CINEFEX CLASSIC KICKSTARTER

Mark Christiansen & New Scribbler Press are hard at work. They've launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring the entire back catalog of Cinefex magazine, THE journal of visual effects, to the Apple iPad. This is no small feat.

 They need your help to complete the project. If you love movies please do what you can to support this project. I did. You can get more info and learn how you can help by clicking the image below to visit their Kickstarter page. 

© Matt Wallin. All rights reserved.