Blog Archives

Seeing the World Like Kids

OneRepublic has given fans a view unlike any other.

“Kids,” the latest single of off OneRepublic’s newly released album “Oh My My” is fantastically addictive. The lyrics and the beat alone are enough to capture the imagination of the listener. And yet, the band from Denver, Colorado has, quite possibly, elevated the musical game to a height a mile high with this hit. The band released two seemingly identical musical videos for “Kids,” with the difference summarized in one word:

Experience.

The following version of “Kids” is three-wait for it-D! Yes, the music video is in 3-D with 360-degree flexibility for the viewer. It was filmed using the stat-of-the-art Nokia OZO Camera. Personalized storytelling/virtual reality, as evidenced by the OZO Camera, has the incredible potential to adapt the “choose your own ending” books to multi-media platforms for all genre’s of music, movies and TV. Not to mention our own recordings on our smartphones. The stage, whatever that is, reveals itself to be virtually everything within sight.

(While the video will slowly move along without you doing anything, please click you mouse on the directional icon in the top left corner of the music video or click on the video, hold and drag in the direction you want and enjoy the view from every angle!).

Didn’t you feel like a kid again, exploring around every corner?

Oh my my, that’s cool.

The Weight of History

If Usain Bolt (9.58 seconds) or Andre De Grasse (9.91 seconds) ran the 100m at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, how would they’ve fared against the legendary Jesse Owens (10.3 seconds)? Too bad we’ll never know.

Well, as Marty McFly would say, “This is heavy, Doc.”

https://youtu.be/jas9ff0hdFI

The time traveling dash took place shortly prior to this year’s Olympics.

The natural inclination for sports commentators and analysts is to hype current athletes and achievements with superlatives. At times, the compliments fly at a slightly exaggerated rate. How quickly we forget the results of the past…or even just the last year. Still, there are athletic performances (individual and team) that warrant lightning-in-a-bottle fanfare. But it’s important to introduce perspective whenever possible. The fact is that Usain Bolt is a sprinter we may never see again in our lifetime. If you were to design the perfect sprinter, that final concept would look a hell of a lot like the 6’5″ Jamaican.

Witnessing Usain Bolt sprint today is the closest feat of running dominance and wow factor fans can experience that compares to the “Buckeye Bullet” people saw take flight 80 years ago.

Mr. Bolt’s achievements are undeniably laudable. However, as the phrase, “The greatest of all-time” is being cemented with his legacy, the video above shouldn’t necessarily deny that illustrious label. Instead, the struggle and significantly slower time produced by the 2016 Olympic 100m bronze medalist Andre De Grasse (9.91 seconds) should provide historical perspective and weight to the conditions, resources and technological advances made between 1936 Germany and 2016 Rio.

Usain Bolt is a once-in-a-lifetime sprinting legend and one of the fastest runners ever.

That’s an accurate statement at any point in track & field history.

A Stellar Experience

(The Hollywood Reporter)

(The Hollywood Reporter)

“Wow…just, wow.”

That was my initial reaction while walking out of an IMAX theater in Columbus, Ohio on November 7th following a nearly 3-hour space journey that, like many of the great artists of the modern era, requires only a single name: Interstellar. The director and co-writer, (we could go with one name, but since brothers are involved) Christopher Nolan is famous for his incredible physical sets/playgrounds, realism and grit, amazing, star-studded casting and complex stories that have more satisfying twists and turns than one can ever hope to imagine.

Interstellar fulfills all these “Nolan prerequisites” and manages to take it one step higher…if not two.

The science in this science fiction epic is based on work by renowned theoretical physicist Kip Thorne of Caltech, who also served as an executive producer. The science and intergalactic travel juxtaposed with the emotional relationship of farmer Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) and his two children Tom (Timothée Chalamet) and his relentlessly inquisitive daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) will pull and tug at your heart strings.

FYI – I firmly believe in maintaining movie plot secrets, so, therefore, the intent of this review of sorts is not to reveal any spoilers, but to attempt to put this film into some concise perspective, which for anyone who has seen it, is no easy task.

Interstellar is a movie about exploration, desperation, family, the unknown, love, adventure, solitude, scientific theory, hope, the dynamics of space travel, heartache and pushing oneself to a myriad of limits. Plus, a perfectly placed surprise here and there…Set in the near future, the broad-ranging inspiration for the story and main character Cooper is something he says while sitting alongside his father in-law Donald (John Lithgow) on their dust covered porch late one night: “We used to look at up at the sky and wonder about our place in the stars…now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.”

From the metaphorical curtain rise to the curtain close, this movie is a cinematic labyrinth that will launch its audience through a wormhole of expected and unexpected visuals and circumstances that ultimately gels into an unforgettable experience that is genuinely out of this world, yet deeply rooted in this one. It will hit seemingly every nerve you’ve got for 3 hours for something that feels real and surreal at the same time.

And bridging the real and surreal on the silver screen is, in essence, Christopher Nolan. He does this with the help of his superb wife and business partner Emma Thomas, their production company team (Syncopy Films Inc.) and we cannot forget about Nolan’s screenwriting partner and television producing brother Jonah Nolan. Interstellar was a Nolan family film through and through. Add in a brilliant, cosmically pulsating musical score from good friend and composing partner Hans Zimmer and you quickly realize you are part of something supremely grand.

Quick takeaways: Interstellar is an epic journey, every actor and actress’ performance is the real deal, Mackenzie Foy will damn near bring you to tears and this is a visual and audible experience that showcases what making and seeing movies is all about.

After processing everything featured on Earth and in the film’s multiple galaxies, my verdict (after two IMAX viewings) is simply this:

Wow…I love it.

Don’t Reach for the Horizon…Redefine It

A Departure.

Is this a genuinely fascinating word, term and concept or what? There are not only multiple levels, but infinite levels of departure one can engage in and invest their time, money and breaths. Why are there boundless levels? Because life is limitless, even when impossibility stares us in the face with its inhospitable, starry atmosphere in the space above. If there is a glow, our instincts incredibly (and sometimes dangerously) point us due north, south, east and west to horizons before unexplored or thought unattainable.

The intriguing aspect of a random, mysterious departure is the lack of assurance or guaranteed safety. But, when reflecting on the inexplicable thrills of wild and crazy adventurers of today and of past generations, there in lies the rub. Anybody can walk on the sidewalk adjacent to a busy street. However, only a few will voluntarily walk across a tightrope, high above the circus, one gentle sway away from disaster.

Uncertain reactions are at the heart of the rush. Adrenaline isn’t taught, but felt instinctively.

And whether or not you believe it, true serenity cannot be known until one has felt the stinging sensation of the wisdom that states that, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” You can thank Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for that inspiration.

Astonishingly, we are only bound to our own imaginations. Our pursuits will change, evolve and intensify. Maybe there are too many variables to make a living out of jumping out of a plane and skydiving, but hey…it sure does look like fun (well, only if there is a rocket strapped to your back).

Wonderful is what is discovered internally when such a leap is taken. Whether it is a terrifying jump or a life-altering giant step, the rewards are boundless. It’s almost as if a light’s been turned on that has been dark all these years. Perhaps you never thought you could or should turn it on in the first place.

A capacity of magnificence maximizes adventurism,

Necessary to ourselves is the thrill of that moment, when our hearts are pounding out of our chest. In those seconds when we think we must be in a cartoon with the roadrunner with an actual heart pounding in and out of our chest, there is a surreal sensation. The realization of what the distinction between being alive and living is is clearly defined. The pulse is unmistakable.

Experience, which represents the 3D lens of life, elevates everything around us to another dimension and forces a new outlook on the people, places and things we thought we knew. There is a vividness in this environment that pops and reveals almost unlike any other medium we can imagine. It contains within itself a life of its own, ready to collide with its curious spectators.

We may look to the sky and the stars or to the depths of the oceans or to the road not taken just steps away, but seeing what’s around the corner is difficult to spot unless one is willing to walk, not look.

Live, or die, in relative terms of course. This reference is for the mind, which ultimately determines what gets done and what doesn’t. Even with a harness, would you walk the tightrope on and to the unknown?

For all of us to fully experience the world on our terms that will fill our own oasis of excitement, we must be willing to react and not think for a second. Just for a second. Just once.

A journey is only ambiguous and limiting until you take it and see what your mind and imagination wanted you to see all this time.

In a couple days, don’t forget to thank your wild curiosity. It just may thank you back with something truly unforgettable and even unbelievable…that is until the moment when you can tell everybody one hell of a story.