Outdoor Movies and Open Air Cinema with an Inflatable Backyard Theater Screen
The Turlock Recreation Department starts its season of outdoor movies Friday with a showing of “Madagascar 2: Back to Africa.”
Families are invited to bring blankets and a picnic dinner.
The movie will be shown at dusk at the Turlock Regional Sports Complex; gates open at 5:30.
Admission is $2 per person, with children 3 and under free.
The sports complex is at 4545 N. Kilroy Road.
Source- http://www.modbee.com/2010/04/14/1128316/outdoor-movies-begin-in-turlock.html#ixzz0lEqMeTAe
Among the venues at which the Film Independent-run LAFF will show films and host panels are Regal Cinemas, the Grammy Museum, the Orpheum Theatre and Nokia Plaza, with L.A. Live serving as its flagship venue. The festival will continue to hold outdoor screenings in Hollywood, at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater. (The Times is a presenting sponsor of LAFF.)
The move continues a pattern for Film Independent, which also runs the Spirit Awards, of moving its events downtown. The Spirits’ switch last month, to L.A. Live, met with mixed results, but festival director Rebecca Yeldham said that the new spot would be more central and also tap into the neighborhood’s emerging cultural identity.
“Our new location will continue to pave the way for LAFF to realize its potential as an international destination event, and unites our filmmakers and audiences with the diverse arts community that exists downtown,” she said.
Steven Zeitchik
Each year brings a new crop of audience members who “discover”Cinema Under The Stars. This off-the-beaten-path, outdoor Mission Hills movie theater has existed since 1991—in a larger incarnation at times, and sometimes in dispute with neighbors and zoning laws. But always with an entrepreneurial joie de vivre.
“Sure we have a group of regulars,” says convivial owner Doug Yeagley, who lives about 50 feet away from the theater and his adjacent Tops Hair Salon. “But we see new faces every year.”
Traditionally, Cinema Under The Stars (CUTS) opens its season in May, and shows an assemblage of the classics: Rear Window, Rebel Without A Cause, Some Like It Hot. This year, the showings are already underway, and the marquee holds the names of new movies like The Blind Side and Sherlock Holmes (the remake with Robert Downey Jr.).
“Every year we get antsy to open the doors, so this year we opened earlier than ever,” says Yeagley. “And we wanted to test and see if people would come see the blockbusters as much as the classics.”
Test results: Sellouts nearly every night thus far.
There are just 62 seats facing a 20-foot screen. The movies roll Thursday through Sunday nights. Doors open at 6 p.m. and shows begin at 8 p.m. You can buy tickets ($13.50) at the door starting Thursday night at 6, for any show that weekend. Only club members ($75 annual fee) can make phone reservations.
Count me part of CUTS’ discovery class of 2010. Unclear of the rules, we showed up at 6 p.m. on a Saturday, thinking we’d beat the crown and get day-of tickets, go get dinner and come back for The Blind Side. We were fourth in line, and got the last two seats (anti-gravity recliners, at that) but only because the party in front of us needed six tickets or none (and walked with none). Note: People really come earlier in the week and buy tickets for the weekend.
Just before 8 o’clock, my date and I stopped at the snack bar and ordered popcorn. When the Orville Redenbacher’s “smart butter” popcorn bag was put into a microwave, I was asked to watch the timer and hit the stop button at the 1:30 mark. I was happy to essentially pop my own, since the bill for the corn, a hot chocolate and a bag of peanut m&m’s totaled just $6. (You can order three toothpicks at a mainstream theater and expect to pay $7.50).
The recliners were cozy, and each seat comes with a blanket. These weren’t necessary under the glare of industrial-strength heat lamps that emanate heat with the efficiency of small suns.
As billed, there were visible stars—in the sky, not just the onscreen visage of Sandra Bullock. The ambiance is familial. And The Blind Side was moving. I was never, however, transported beyond my surroundings. There was a mild sound disturbance when a neighbor seemed to be dragging bottles across concrete. I smiled when a real moth flickered in front of Cathy Bates’ 15-foot onscreen mug.
Ron Donoho
Alice in Wonderland finally arrived at the Mission: Tiki Drive-In Theater in Montclair, California last weekend. Much to my dismay, it was only being presented in glorious shades of 2D digital. The Mission: Tiki is a state of the art outdoor cinema. Because of that, their revolutionary screens, which are capable of providing an in-theater picture, aren’t easily moved. It cost a lot of money to get them in the ground, but the arena isn’t conducive to our new 3D technologies. While the modern day Drive-In is experiencing a strong resurgence, there isn’t enough of a demand to convert the present screens over. The Drive-In theater screen needs to be white to project a clean frame to all areas of the car lot. The silver screen, which is needed to support 3D imagery, would cut the viewing peripheral by at least twenty-five percent. Add to this the night sky, the near-by street lights, and the oncoming train, a lot of cars aren’t going to see the film at all, let alone in 3D, if these screens are converted to silver. (Granted, a lot of folks parked at the far corners of the Drive-In aren’t necessarily there to see the movie anyway; but when that last slurp has been dripped from the side door, those nasty sex fiends will want something to watch too.)
What difference does it make? Why not just see Alice in Wonderland or Avatar at the multiplex? Well, because the Drive-In Theater is the only true place film fans can go on opening weekend to experience the magic of modern day cinema without having to deal with the rudeness of the encroaching audience that surrounds them. The Drive-In is a wonderland where seat kickers and isle talkers don’t exist. If you’d like to add a running commentary to your movie without anyone telling you to shut up, you can do that here, too. Most importantly, you can sip whiskey, beer, or wine and toke a joint and not have to worry about getting kicked out of the theater. Have you ever caught a buzz while watching a 3D movie? No? Well, you probably won’t be able to for a while. As none of the currently operating Drive-In theaters across the country are in a hurry to install these precious silver screens. It costs too much money and it’s not worth the effort.
The Orange County Performing Arts Center (OCPAC), site of Colaboration
Inside Segerstrom Hall pre-recorded video footage shot by McIntyre was displayed during the onstage performance of “The More I See You.” A live camera feed captured the dancers making their way offstage to the plaza as the last dancer invited the audience to join them outside for the continuation of the ballet. Video Applications provided a Video Director and two HitachiZ4000 SD cameras for the transition, to follow the dancers as they left the stage, moved through the lobby and then entered the outside performance space.
Outside in the plaza Video Applications projected McIntyre’s content 30′ tall on the side of the building surface as well as onto 10 custom screens raised on truss and configured in a circle. After performing in the center of the plaza each dancer positioned himself or herself in the ‘booth’ formed by the truss under the screens where the performance continued as video played over their heads. The audience was invited to join the troupe in the middle of the plaza and to mingle as the dancers performed in the booths.
“The content was all designed by Trey and was synchronized to the dance,” Oatey explains. ”Shane Zinke was our Video Applications EIC for the project, and he designed an elegant but simple solution for controlling and routing signal to each display location.
“Two Christie Roadster S+16 projectors
displayed content on the side of the building andPanasonic 7700 projectors were rigged to a specially-designed truss to project on each of the booth screens.
A variety of options were explored for the booth screen surfaces before Video Applications determined that spandex would be the best medium for the screens which needed to remain outdoors between performances and be resistant to the plaza’s wind corridor. The custom spandex screens were fabricated by OCPAC’s wardrobe department to Video Applications’ specifications. The booth structures were built by Accurate Staging and Brite Ideas provided lighting support on the plaza.
“It was a real collaborative effort all around, and everyone was very happy with the outcome,” Oliphant declares. ”Without Video Applications we felt it wouldn’t have happened,” adds McIntyre.
Oatey points out that “The More I See You” was “different from the typical event we do. It was an exciting piece of performance art, and it was a thrill to be able to contribute to the realization of Trey’s vision.”
SPECIAL EVENTS
Still from "Surf's Up"
“A New Generation of Spike and Mike Animation” —- After a three-year absence, the “Spike and Mike” festival of animated shorts returns to La Jolla with an all-new program of short films; 7:15 and 9:30 p.m. Feb. 27, and March 13 and 20; 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. March 5; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla; $15; 858-459-8707 or www.spikeandmike.com.
Civic Center Screen Movies —- Free family-friendly weekend movies shown at sundown on an outdoor screen in the Civic Center shopping plaza; February’s theme: Underdogs Under the Stars; Feb. 26, “Surf’s Up”; Feb. 27, “Step Into Liquid”; 133 N. Twin Oaks Valley Road, San Marcos or civiccenterscreen.com.
“The Voice of King” —- In honor of Black History Month, Oceanside Public Library presents Dennis Brown in his one-man tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Brown depicts the life and works of King, performs his speeches and sings songs from the civil rights era; 11 a.m. Feb. 27 at the Civic Center Library Community Room, 330 N. Coast Highway, Oceanside; free; 760-435-5600 or oceansidepubliclibrary.org.
Winter Poetry Slam —- Full Moon Poets presents its winter slam, where the public can vote on the winner of the best spoken-word presentation; 6 p.m. Feb. 28 (poets should arrive by 5:15 p.m. to compete); La Paloma Theatre, 471 S. Coast Highway 101, Encinitas; free; www.fullmoonpoets.org.
International Film Series —- MiraCosta College presents its 2010 International Film Series, featuring “My Best Friend,” “Il Divo,” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “Departures” and “In July”; screenings are at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. March 5 and 19, April 9 and 23 and May 7; 10 a.m. screenings at the MiraCosta Comuninty Learning Center, 1831 Mission Ave., Oceanside; the 1 p.m. screenings are at the San Elijo Campus, 3333 Manchester Ave., Cardiff; and the 7 p.m. screenings are in Room 3601 on the main Oceanside campus; free; 760-757-2121, Ext. 7737.
San Diego Jewish Film Festival —- The 20th anniversary festival features 51 contemporary Jewish-themed films, 21 filmmaker forums and special guests in five locations around San Diego County, including the UltraStar La Costa Cinemas (Feb. 18 through Feb. 21); festival runs through Feb. 21; tickets start at $6; for full schedule, locations and tickets, visit lfjcc.org/sdjff or call 858-362-1348.
Italian film screening —- The San Diego Italian Film Festival presents its monthly screening, this month of “La Scorta,” about a judge murdered by the Mafia; 7 p.m. Feb. 19; Museum of Photographic Arts, Balboa Park, 1649 El Prado, San Diego; $5; sandiegoitalianfilmfestival.com.
“A New Generation of Spike and Mike Animation” —- After a three-year absence, the “Spike and Mike” festival of animated shorts returns to La Jolla with an all-new program of short films; 7:15 and 9:30 p.m. Feb. 20 and Feb. 27, and March 13 and 20; 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. March 5; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, 700 Prospect St., La Jolla; $15; 858-459-8707 or www.spikeandmike.com.
Chinese New Year Fair —- Chinese New Year celebration with live entertainment and a food and crafts fair; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Feb. 20 and Feb. 21; free to attend; Third Avenue and J Street, San Diego; 2010.sdcny.org.
Civic Center Screen Movies —- Free, family-friendly, weekend movies shown at sundown on an outdoor screen in the Civic Center shopping plaza; February’s theme: Underdogs Under the Stars; Feb. 19, “Bend it Like Beckham”; Feb. 20, “Better Off Dead”; Feb. 26, “Surf’s Up”; Feb. 27, “Step Into Liquid”; 133 N. Twin Oaks Valley Road, San Marcos or civiccenterscreen.com.
A San Marcos shopping center with an outdoor movie screen has resumed its nightly entertainment schedule after suspending it for a few weeks to accommodate equipment upgrades.
Managers of the Civic Center Plaza said Friday that they also plan to expand the entertainment lineup to include more live acts and events, group movie nights and classic 3D films.
“The overall facility was designed to add an attraction for our community,” said Ed Engle, president of Oceanside-based Asset Management Specialists Inc., which manages the property. “The goal is to have a presence in the community.”
Entertainment has been a part of daily life in the Civic Center Plaza since it opened about two years ago at 133 N. Twin Oaks Valley Road.
Home to an L.A. Fitness center, a food court and two other buildings, the center has an outdoor courtyard with the movie screen, a small stage and a large fireplace. The McDonald Group, a Rancho Bernardo-based development firm, owns the property.
The management company oversees the center’s entertainment. The lineup includes cartoons and short films shown on the movie screen from sunset to 10 p.m. five nights a week.
Family-friendly theatrical releases start running on the outdoor screen at 6:30 p.m. every Friday and Saturday, with a few dozen people typically pulling their chairs close to the fireplace to watch the movies.
A Pizza Nova restaurant in the center also sponsored replays of Mission Hills High School football games on the outdoor screen last fall.
The entertainment was temporarily stopped around Christmas so the center’s video and audio equipment could be improved.
Engle and Nick Zynda, co-director of programming for the center, said the changes improved the clarity of images shown on the screen and made it possible for technicians to adjust individual speakers independently so their sound was audible to viewers but doesn’t bother customers in outdoor eating areas at some of the food court’s restaurants.
The center successfully hosted a November student film festival that showcased films made by local high school and college students. The event was such a success, Zynda said Friday, that the center will hold a second film festival at the end of June.
“We will begin accepting student film submissions for the festival as early as February,” he said. “As always, all entertainment is free to the public and begins at sundown every day.”
The popular time-travel movie, “Back to the Future,” is scheduled to be shown on the screen Saturday night, weather permitting.
Andrea Moss
source-http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/san-marcos/article_8112ce15-11c1-5693-9e1b-e332203424ff.html
A two-day outdoor cinematic event that wraps a San Francisco landmark in projected images of Native Americans began Wednesday and will start again at dusk on Thursday. It will continue until 7 A.M. Friday morning.
In a work of public art that will be visible in much of the city, Ben Wood and David Mark will again project films onto Coit Tower, the 210-foot landmark on Telegraph Hill. The event, “Indigenous Renewal: Alcatraz Occupation Remembrance + Ohlone Presence Celebrated,” is a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Indians of All Tribes occupation of Alcatraz Island.
Wednesday night’s program featured a special live broadcast with accompanying audio on radio. There were about 60 minutes’ worth of false starts and technical glitches on one or more of the three 1200-lumen projectors. But all were up and running a little after 7 P.M. On Thursday, you will have to appreciate the films without the benefit of sound.
Here is a list of the films that will be shown and the filmmakers:
-Alcatraz Is Not an Island (James Fortier)
-Rendezvouz with Alcatraz (Ben Wood & David Mark)
-Welcome to Ohlone Territory (Marlo Mckenzie and Neil Maclean)
-
Ohlone Families (Charlene Sul, Anthony Sul
)
-San Bruno Mountain (Keith Moreau and Sam Ellis Moreau)
-Native America segments by Lorenzo
The projection coincides with an event Thursday morning at which some of those who took part in the occupation will climb into boats to make the same trek to Alcatraz they made decades ago.
Mr. Wood said:
As the people wait at Pier 33, when they get in their boats to cross the bay, the projection of these films will be visible to them—video portraits of their Ohlone ancestors and the remains of shell mounds. This project is especially relevant on Thanksgiving, a day when Americans remember or think about their heritage and how we all came to be here. So the idea of the projection is to raise awareness about the local people specifically in the Bay Area.
Ana Bloom
source-http://bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/movie-on-the-outside-coit-tower-tonight/
There’s nothing quite like a colorful tree twinkling in the crisp winter air to usher in some holiday cheer. If you missed last weekend’s tree lighting events, you’re in luck. There are still several Christmas tree lighting ceremonies planned around Long Beach.
From now until December 17, the Queen Mary, Good Neighbor Park and Rose Park Neighborhood Association will all host celebrations centered around that shimmering, green Christmas icon.
On Wednesday, December 9, join the Mayor of Long Beach at the Queen Mary’s annual tree-lighting party starting at 4 p.m. The program will feature holiday entertainment, a holiday sing-a-long, and refreshments. For more information, call (562) 435-3511 or read about the Queen Mary Tree Lighting in Long Beach.
Bring your family and friends to Good Neighbor Park, 2800 N. Studebaker Road to celebrate the holiday season. Get in the spirit by donating an unwrapped toy to the Long Beach Firefighters “Spark of Love” Toy Drive. The tree lighting ceremony will take place Sunday, December 13 at 4:45 p.m. followed by a special showing of the movie “The Polar Express” in 3D featured on a 29-foot inflatable screen.Bring lawn chairs and blankets. There will also be a special appearance by Santa.
Editor
source-http://www.everythinglongbeach.com/christmas-tree-lighting-events-in-long-beach/
HALLOWEEN — SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31
11am-1pm—Halloween Spooktacular Open House at the Montebello Library. Get your picture taken in spooky surroundings. Costumes optional. Fun activities and surprises. The library is located at 1550 W. Beverly Blvd. Montebello. Free admission. For more information, call Vicki Delson at (323) 722-6551.
Noon-6pm—Dia de Los Muertos celebration presented by The Olvera Street Merchants Association. Event continues through Nov 1. Each day enjoy face painting, street theater performances, strolling mariachi bands, Aztec dancers, art workshops, puppets, ballet folklorico, piñatas and other fun family activities. Free admission. El Pueblo is located at 125 Paseo de la Plaza in downtown Los Angeles (across from Union Station). For more information call (213) 625-7074.
1-4pm—Halloween Moulage Festival at Hermon Park. Learn how to make realistic wounds, bleeding, etc. and dress up for Halloween all at the same time. RSVP by e-mail if you plan to attend or have any questions, to: hermon.cert.team.coordinator@gmail.com .
3-6pm—Trick or Treat at Atlantic Square. Costumed children and their families are welcome to gather candy from any merchant displaying a pumpkin “Trick or Treat Here” sign in the window. There is no cost to participate. Atlantic Square is located at Atlantic Boulevad and Riggin Street in Monterey Park.
4-10pm—Celebrate “Howl”-oween in Bell Gardens at Veterans Park, located at 6662 Loveland Street, on the athletic field. The event will feature kids carnival games. Visit the ‘Monster Challenge’ game booths to compete in the longest pumpkin roll, the Halloween skull toss, pumpkin bowling, the pumpkin seed spitting contest and tons of on-stage contests for kids and adults. Take a scary picture with friends in the photo booth. Plenty of free candy for young trick-o-treaters and lots of tasty food for sale. Enter your home decorated or carved pumpkin in the “Best Pumpkin” contest. Costume contest open to all kids, adults and pets! The night closes with a Halloween themed, outdoor movie starting at 8 pm – so, bring your blankets and lawn chairs! For more information, visit www.bellgardens.org
5-9pm—Hermon Church Harvest Festival at 5710 Monterey Road, Los Angeles (the open property 2 doors south of the Church). There will be games, candy, food and all kinds of fun. This is a community-wide event to offer a safe, supervised alternative for area children. Your kids will have a blast (and you will too).
6pm—All City of Commerce parks will be hosting Halloween activities, including costume parades, and a mini-carnival with fun and games. Pets on leashes can join the parade.
source-http://egpnews.com/?p=13352
She drives elderly neighbors to their doctor appointments. She invites families over for Sunday dinners. She shows movies in her backyard, inviting everyone and anyone. This San Diego native is the Mother Theresa of her little cul-de-sac neighborhood in Kensington.
“I don’t think there’s a person in our area that hasn’t been touched by her kindness and her love and her care,” said Zoa Winter, Barrett’s neighbor, who has lived in Kensington on and off since 1945. “I’ve never met anyone like her.”
Barrett is involved with community activities and also busies herself with her own philanthropies to better her neighborhood. She is the chairwoman of the Neighborhood Watch program, she organized a neighborhood electronic newsletter, and she runs the neighborhood’s fire safe council. She has an open house party and bike ride every New Year’s Day, she holds outdoor movie nights during the summer, she gets the neighborhood kids on a float in Kensington’s Memorial Day parades, she throws ice cream socials and kids’ talent shows, she takes care of people’s pets while they’re away, she brings food to nearby seniors, organizes block parties and makes sure every new resident is pleasantly greeted.
Bev – the name everyone calls her – grew up in Hillcrest and graduated from San Diego High School. She retired five years ago after working in public education as a special education teacher, a high school principal and, lastly, a director of public personnel service. She raised four children and has been married to her husband, Terry Frey, for 11 years. They moved into their current house in Kensington 10 years ago.
When Barrett steps into her front yard, neighbors walking their dogs stop to talk to her and children ask her if she can play with them. She’s popular, lively and her neighbors want to voice their gratitude for her sacrifices.
“She is just the most loving, giving, big-hearted person I’ve ever met,” said Winter. “The whole neighborhood feels the same way.”
What may be the best thing about her? She’s tirelessly modest.
“It’s not really about us, it’s the people in the neighborhood,” Barrett said. “If you need anything, they’re always right there.”
She said the neighbors as a collective group are what make their neighborhood such a great place to live. “Maybe I’ve instigated some things, but the neighbors carry them off,” she said. Barrett said her neighbors are the heroes because they’re the ones who donate, show up and help arrange activities and events.
“She doesn’t take enough credit,” said Frey, who is a biology professor and chair of the biology department at San Diego State University. “If she wasn’t here, nothing would happen.”
Barrett became the self-appointed chairwoman of the Neighborhood Watch program because no one else took the job. She designed a special greeting game for new residents, in which she surprises them with a plastic flamingo or a lawn fairy decoration and a welcoming letter. She makes black-eyed peas and greens every New Year’s Day (which she got from her grandmother’s southern tradition to bring in luck and money for the new year) and invites the whole neighborhood to feast. She even saved a neighbor’s wife from choking, because she knows CPR and was able to get there before the ambulance.
Barrett said she and Frey will never move away. “It’s such a great place to grow old,” she said. “We’re entrenched.”
It’s not only because of the couple’s beautiful home — which has a large backyard garden and two spacious balconies with a deep canyon view that would keep anyone from moving — but they adore the friendly and caring vibe of the neighborhood. Barrett said there were neighbors who made sure the elderly residents had a place to go during the 2007 fires, and another neighbor leads Sunday morning bike rides for whoever wishes to join him. One neighbor once jumped multiple fences to save her grandson from being attacked by wasps.
Barrett feels her neighborhood is unique because of the variety of ages, ethnicities and socioeconomic groups. Although there are about 200 houses in her corner of Kensington, Barrett said there is only one way in and out of the neighborhood, so it stays separated from outside traffic.
In front of Barrett’s home is an herb garden that is helpfully labeled. It has a sign that tells passers-by to take whatever they’d like. She grows fruits and vegetables in the backyard and passes out the surplus produce to her neighbors. Barrett’s garden is symbolic of her character: it is there for the neighbors’ gain and ensures they won’t leave empty-handed.
If you pass on Barrett’s Sunday dinner offer, she’ll make sure you leave with a paper bag full of her plump, homegrown tomatoes. Then expect Frye to smile at you and say, “That’s just how she is with everyone.”
Amanda Strouse
source-http://sandiegonewsroom.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=36236:-beverly-barrett-kensingtons-super-citizen&catid=216:kensington&Itemid=241
Photo by Greg Barnette Grant Elementary School student Peyton Barker, 13, watches "Twilight" at school Saturday.
At outdoor movie nights over the weekend, the real stars were the high-achieving students at Grant Elementary School in west Redding.
However, for the girls at Saturday night’s showing of “Twilight,” their star of choice was teen heartthrob Taylor Lautner, who plays Jacob Black in the romance-vampire film based on an equally popular book series.
Grant Superintendent John Krinkel, who knows Lautner personally and hoped to have him make a campus appearance, last year promised a free movie night for the preschool through eighth-grade students if they hit at least 900 in the Academic Performance Index (API) tests.
Teachers encouraged their students to do their best and “look at each question and make an intelligible answer,” Krinkel said.
The students responded with an API score of 901, up from 892 in 2008, making Grant the first school in Shasta County to break the 900 mark.
“They deserve it,” said Jill McKinley, the mother of three Grant students, about the weekend movies. She and other helpers were dishing out free refreshments including popcorn, sodas and candy at the Saturday night showing for the older students.
Ninth-graders who were part of last year’s graduating class also were invited to the private showing.
The G-rated Dr. Seuss film “Horton Hears a Who” was on the program for the kindergarten through fourth-grade students.
More than 100 students and family members brought lawn chairs or blankets to watch “Twilight” on the grass in front of a large, inflatable screen supplied by James Mazzotta of Enjoy magazine. The portable, 45-by-35-foot wall and sound system was used in charity showings for the Enjoy Movies in the Park series around Redding last summer.
Lautner, who also starred as Sharkboy in “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D,” was a fan favorite among the predominately female audience on the school’s lawn.
“He’s a good actor,” said 12-year old Amanda McKinley. “And she thinks he’s hot,” she said, pointing to one of her friends.
Amanda, daughter of Jill McKinley, also loves the movie and “Twilight” books.
“I’ve watched the movie like 50,000 times and read the books many times,” she said.
Superintendent Krinkel had hoped to make the occasion extra special for students, but wasn’t able to contact Lautner to pass along an invitation.
Krinkel was principal of Rio Norte Junior High School in Valencia when he knew Lautner as a thin, slightly built adolescent.
“He wasn’t built like a Greek god when I knew him,” Krinkel said.
One thing that impressed Krinkel was Lautner’s willingness to visit with special-needs students who attended the school.
“He was a well-rounded kid … good looking, not snobby,” Krinkel said.
Mike Chapman
source-http://www.redding.com/news/2009/oct/19/grant-students-rewarded-with-movie-nights-for/
This past Wednesday, Open Air Cinema and Swank Motion Pictures hosted a free screening of Transformers 2 at the National Parks and Recreation Association (NRPA) national congress in Salt Lake City, Utah. The screening was a blast, and everyone really enjoyed watching the movie on the huge 30′ screen. It was really great because everyone was able to see the screening on a brand-new system. The sound was amazing, and the projection was stunning. National Parks and Recreation administrators from all over the place came to see the screening: Alabama, Texas, Utah, California, New York, Colorado, Arizona, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and many other places. Here is an excerpt of a review from io9:
“Critical consensus on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is overwhelmingly negative. But the critics are wrong. Micheal Bay used a squillion dollars and a hundred supercomputers’ worth of CG for a brilliant art movie about the illusory nature of plot.
Oh, and I would warn you that there’ll be spoilers in this review — except that, really, since I still have no idea what actually happened in this movie, I’m not sure how much I can spoil it.
Since the days of Un Chien Andalou and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari filmmakers have reached beyond meaning. But with this summer’s biggest, loudest movie, Michael Bay takes us all the way inside Caligari’s cabinet. And once you enter, you can never emerge again. I saw this movie two days ago, and I’m still living inside it. Things are exploding wherever I look, household appliances are trying to kill me, and bizarre racial stereotypes are shouting at me.
Transformers: ROTF has mostly gotten pretty hideous reviews, but that’s because people don’t understand that this isn’t a movie, in the conventional sense. It’s an assault on the senses, a barrage of crazy imagery. Imagine that you went back in time to the late 1960s and found Terry Gilliam, fresh from doing his weird low-fi collage/animations for Monty Python. You proceeded to inject Gilliam with so many steroids his penis shrank to the size of a hair follicle, and you smushed a dozen tabs of LSD under his tongue. And then you gave him the GDP of a few sub-Saharan countries. Gilliam might have made a movie not unlike this one.”
Read more at http://io9.com/5301898/michael-bay-finally-made-an-art-movie
IA woke up at 3:15 Friday morning to — what else? — watch NASA blast a crater in the moon’s tuchus. We even woke our kids for this one, what with the promise of a brilliant plume of lunar detritus visible with a mere 12-inch-diameter telescope. (Yeah, we’re geeky that way.)
And even better was the invitation to roll out a blanket on the lawn at Moffett Field and watch the show with a community of science celebrities and fellow geeks.
Though actually, we only counted one dude dressed in a Spaceship Enterprise get-up. And somebody spotted Sergey Brin’s Tesla.
That wasn’t the only disappointment.
Note to NASA: Next time you spend $79 million on a space mission, scraping together bargains from Northrop Grumman’s discount shelves, set aside a few million for a scriptwriter and better-than-B-movie production crew.
Watching the LCROSS satellite on the giant inflatable screen just steps from NASA Ames’ mission control felt a bit like enjoying an Ed Wood film festival. The only thing missing was Bela Lugosi’s stand-in with a cape covering his face.
After hours of NASA TV interviews, ever-zooming close-ups of the moon (in black and white, and infrared!) and riveting look-ins on Ames’ mission control — was that really the same extension cord IA just bought at Home Depot? — it was time for the big show.
With all eyes trained on the moon, sleepy grade-schoolers wrapped in sleeping bags and grown-ups
reminiscing about Walter Cronkite’s narration atop the grainy footage of Armstrong’s first footsteps, LCROSS gave us … white.No plume. Just a fuzzy screen of white.
Then, like the awkward pause between movements of an experimental symphony, IA and the rest of the crowd didn’t know whether to clap or politely wait for more.
Poor NASA Ames didn’t even get the celebration right: The biggest response from the crowd after impact came when one scientist offered an unreciprocated high-five to the flight director one who apparently didn’t notice.
Great science? Yes. But generations inspired? IA appreciates NASA’s thriftiness with taxpayers’ money.
But next time throw in a second camera angle — one that doesn’t get blown to smithereens — to capture the moment so it’s worth waking our sixth-grader at 3 a.m. on a school night to watch.
source-http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_13530257
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