Willo O'Brien

Ok all you with digital cameras and your guerrilla digital video making skills – listen up!

Do you find yourself taking videos sideways and then realizing you can’t rotate the movie?

Well, I do. And what I’ve been doing is going all the way into After Effects and doing it, but it’s such a hefty program – and honestly I could use a lesson! So it’s labor intensive to me to rotate the darn video & reexport it – but guess what?

I opened QT tonite – and I don’t even think I have my pro registration working, or maybe I’m just not used to this v 6.5, but I couldn’t find Get Movie Info so I clicked on Movie / Get Movie Properties and in there under Video Track / Size you can rotate your movie!! woohoo!

So if you didn’t know already, Blogger just announced a redesign and access into thier revamp – finally! I’ve been using it for awhile now and I think it’s quite nice!!

So if you haven’t signed up for a blog yet, now’s the time cuz they have a bunch of great new templates and stuff.

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I’m loving my mac right now. Today I installed iView Media Pro, and so far I like it. As long as I can get used to the catalogs idea, and really set it up and keep it organized, it could be a good thing.

I also updated my Launchbar app, got a key code for Synergy (woohoo), researched SSH and GPG for a possible solution to my worries about wireless security. (aka, I want to go to a cafe & work!)

And how’s this for geeky? I updated the firmware on my wireless router, and had to reset it all. I’m on full power now! woohoo

I installed AutoHide – which I am *loving*. It keeps my desktop so clean. The only problem is that I forget what I was doing cuz it’s all minimized. HA!

I have clean dishes and 6 loads of clean laundry. I uploaded 3 or 4 different albums and used Cleaner and batch optimized and resized a bunch of videos that I’m getting ready to post – wooohoo!!

Which leads me to my tip…

…from the GAMH show from a couple weeks back with The Evening/The Killers/StellaStarr*… they start here – and in that same album you’ll find photos, from almost 3 weeks ago now, from Kat’s BBQ/Happy Hour with cutie little Ella baby!

I also just posted the photos from the Schmidt/Obana going away party at the end of this album (the start at #17).

I’m catching up!

Now if I can just get some of these videos posted, I’ll be really caught up! :)

update: Videos posted

So I realize I’ve not given ya’ll a proper wrapup of the AMAZING weekend we had down at Coachella… well here it goes :)

Jem, Tania, Rick & I all cruised down on Friday night. With a mean set of tunes at our disposal we had fun on our *first* road trip together! woohoo!!

We arrived in Palm Desert (after an 8 or 9 hours trip, with a few stops) around 11:30 or so and Jem & Tania dropped us of at Susan’s house where we were staying with Cameron & crew for the weekend. Susan was an absolute sweetheart and had already set up a tent with an air matress in it for us – WOW! Soo sweet! She is Cameron’s half-brother Jared’s Mom. Got that?

Well we couldn’t have asked for better place to stay.. with air conditioning and a fridge stocked with food for us, we were in heaven!

We crashed out Friday night since none of the other peeps had arrived yet, and we wanted to be well rested for our weekend ahead.

Saturday: Day 1 of the Festival

After seriously lathering up with the SPF45, we hit the polo grounds for our first day of music and fun in the sun!

We got there around 2 and hit Sahara Hotnights first. We’re big fans of their CD Jennie Bomb, not to mention the fact that they’re 4 hot swedish chics! If you like Sleater Kinney, The Donnas, or (one of my absolute fav’s) Seagul Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her (SSKHKH), then you’ll dig this CD.

They were good, but they didn’t play enough off Jennie Bomb… I think they either played new stuff or really old stuff.. either way, we wanted to hear more of what we knew. And honestly even what they did play of what I knew, didn’t sound as good to me as the CD… but it was still WAY kick ass to see them live.

Next up was StellaStarr*, who we’ve now seen 4 times! The first time I fell in love with them when they opened for The Raveonettes last September, then we saw them at SXSW (albeit not much of them cuz it was packed! but it still counts :) and then 2 weeks ago right before Coachella and then AT Coachella! I’m a big fan!! :) I think people who are discovering their “big hit” on MTV or whatever will be pleasantly surprised to find out the ENTIRE album totally rocks. Their big hit isn’t even the strongest track IMO.

So just to give you an idea of how incredibly hot it is, we’re in these tents for some of the shows, which is great, because the sweltering sun is off of you… but it’s also a bit of a sauna. In a lot of my photos you’ll see the good ol’ Heineken fan, which was a savior!! We’d drip water on eachother & fan eachother the whole time to keep cool :)

After StellaStarr* we decided to find a spot of shade & listen to Trail of Dead. We shared a little ice cream and enjoyed the quality people watching. We tried to head over to the Beck tent, but it was packed – so we caught a little of Deathcab for Cutie while we were grabbing a quick bite to eat, and then cruised over to The Black Keys.

These guys are talented! It’s very bluesy, and it’s just a 2 peice with the lead guitar/vox guy, Dan Auerbach (who I think will be around for a long time, he’s got a great voice) and a kick ass drummer, Patrick Carney. And Rick will have you know – they’re from Ohio! :)

It was fun to see them live, but with being pretty close and in the middle, I got hot fast & didn’t last to the end of their set, but we saw a great deal of them, which was cool cuz we missed their show here last fall.

After that we went & hung out with the peeps in the beer garden till the Pixies came on. We had just been drinking mass amounts of water all day, so now that it was cooling down (under 106 that is), it was nice to have a cold beer.

The Pixies were totally the highlight of the weekend for me. They sounded AMAZING and it was just awesome to hear them kick out so many of our favorite songs. AWESOME!!!!!

After that we caught a little of the Rapture, which sounded great – I’d like to go see them in a smaller venue sometime, their whole CD is a lot of fun. And then Radiohead!! was awesome!!!

And then we all headed over to Kool Keith, then Kraftwerk and then Phantom Planet! woohooo!!

SUNDAY: Day 2

We partied at the house for awhile and didn’t end up getting over there till quite a bit later. Then we tailgated and had a blast running our own obstacle course for all the passers by :) *video of that coming soon* The parking lot was a lot less insane on Sunday – apparently Day 1 had oversold to thousands more people, and you could tell the difference on Sunday. I hadn’t minded the crowds at all though on Saturday.

Anyway so we finally made it in, hit the beer garden with the peeps and then headed over to catch Bright Eyes where we ran into Jem & Tania. We all hung out & listened to a little AIR and then headed over to the beer garden before Flaming Lips.

I wanted to try to get close for Flaming Lips, but that meant taking a good 1/2 hour to spider up through the crowds, before we just hit a wall around the 125th row. Much closer, but still so far away compared to our 3rd row shows here in small venues :) But it was cool … Wayne Coyne was on fire as always and he talked a ton about how f*d up our government is, namely George W. – and at one time had us all chanting F* Bush! F* Bush!! It was awesome.

He’d walked out on the crowd in a plastic ball in the beginning, but I think we missed that part on the way there and into the crowd. We did however get to see them play the 3 songs they did play (yes, only 3 since the whole plastic ball/wayne coyne jabbering took up so much time :) and it was epic as always. I love them!!!

Last show on tap for us that night was The Cure. I had been really psyched up to see the Cure, I couldn’t believe it honestly. I used to listen to them in H.S. aall the time, so seeing them live was so exciting!

We went down in the crowd to get closer on that one, and here’s how it went:

“oh my god, we get to see the cure play!”

to

“wooohooo, the cure!!!!!!”

to

“wow…. Robert Smith, your songs really *are* depressing”

to

“awww, can you please play something off of “Staring at the Sea“?

to
“zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”

Talk about not goin out strong, it was a bit of a dud ending to such a kick ass weekend… I know it’s selfish, but I just wish they woulda played more hits for those of us who had their cd’s on repeat 15 years ago! But oh well… It was still cool to see Robert Smith all white, bloated and with his gelled up curly hair everwhere, up on those big screens. :) And I’m sure serious serious die hard fans had a good time, so that’s cool!!

We said goodbye to our peeps (who had once again set up camp in the beer garden, hilarious! :) and Rick & I then went & rounded up Megan & Chris who were already crashed out in the car waiting for us – and we all headed back to the house to try to get 4 hours of sleep before our taxi arrived the next morning to take us to the airport!!

We had SUCH a fun weekend!!

And now as a reward for your actually reading through that entire post, check it out:

> Photo’s Posted!
> Videos Posted

My kitty is sprawled across my lap as I type. Actually he’s lying in my arms like a baby… and somehow I can still type. I wish I could grab the camera, but I know he’d move. Any time I move and it wakes him up a little, he puts his paw on my face as to say “please keep still momma”.

I was gone a lot this weekend, so he’s been quite the loverboy today. He’s almost 3 years old you know! His birthday is comin up in 10 days! he’s a big boy. Then my birthday is coming up shortly after that – I think it’s time for a party!

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SO, I’m just going through some of the great suggestions that were given to me way back when I first got my mac.

I just installed AutoHide and CleverKeys – thanks Leen! and I’m checking into ToyViewer.

I’ve been wanting a better photo management tool. iPhoto is cool for some of the features… I like how easy it is to quickly auto-levels photos and such, but I dont like how it puts my photos into folders by month & date – I am used to being able to put photos in a folder by event, and I like that better. Plus, it doesn’t even download the videos off my card… lame!

So now I’m just pluggin my camera in & dragging all the files into a new folder myself. I’ve tried to use my ACDSee for the mac, but it’s not as nice as it is on the PC at all… and I was even using Graphic Converter for awhile, too – but really that offers more than I need. And it makes all the images have that icon instead of being able to see a little mini thumbnail of the photo (anyone know how I can change that?)

My wish list for a photo management tool:

I just want something that is an easy tool to navigate through folders, viewing thumbnails, maybe batch rotating some photos, selecting them & dragging them into another folder, and when I open one I’d like it to automatically be a slideshow type (not necessarily full screen) where from there I can click back & next within the folder. Also, ideally it would let me customize a list of editors, so that I could choose the editor I want to take it into. However, I realize I can do this just as easily by having those programs in my launchbar so that I just drag them onto the program icon… but thought I’d add it while I’m making requests. And/or it would be as convenient as iPhoto to edit quickly, cuz I do like that one feature. Oh & it’d be great if it previewed movies too!! Basically just have it perform the way ACDSee on the PC does!!!

Let me know if you have a suggestion and/or a preferred program/method you’ve tried & tested. I would think there’s something out there that does what I’m wanting!

Also, I’ve been using Launchbar, but am now debating between Butler and Quicksilver. In that last post I’d gotten 2 votes for Butler, but maybe since then Quicksilver’s gotten more robust?

Oh & I’ve been using Fire, and I’ve tried Proteus, but now I’m hearing great things about Adium? Need to go check that out.

Anyway – thought I’d break out the geek talk with all of you.

Saturday was a lazy day, and I was so happy that it was! I worked so much last week that I needed a break this weekend!!!

At the end of last week I had even been fighting a weird sore throat, so I needed sleep and rest! What’s that mean? MOVIE NIGHT!

Thursday night was even a movie night, too, but it didn’t even start till 10:30 or so. We watched The Cooler – Did you see this yet?

It was much more of a love story than I thought it’d be… I really thought it was going to be a lot more about gambling, but then again I dont pay much attention to trailers on purpose so that I can be surprised. The girl in it was cute and refreshingly normal for the most part… and tell me you’re not pleased as punch you finally get to see William H. Macy’s lil’ bum! No kidding! :) And you want to *hate* Baldwin’s character.. so I guess that means they did a good job there. Anyway – it’s a cute story.

Friday night’s movie: Swingers! Can you believe I’d never seen this movie? I wasn’t getting the inside joke when Brian was calling me and repeating over and over “Vegas, baby, Vegas!” Now I get it. :)

See, we technically “should” (that is if we were moderately more wealthy and active than we already are) have been in Vegas this weekend. Rick’s buddy Bruno (who has a new blog!) has a house there and returned from his job in Korea for a weekend of insane partying. No doubt we missed a good time – but we watched Vegas themed movies in tribute and we’ll get there this summer for sure. (I haven’t been there in like 10 years!!!)

So a bottle of wine and Swingers and sleep! Just what the doctor ordered! Saturday consisted of sleeping in, hiking up the awesome hill behind my house and then having breakfast up on Cortland. Then we cruised back by my old place on Lundys and peeked in to see if my neighbors were around.

Sandy and Jim are awesome. They’ve both been in bands over the years and they continue to be actively into music, they rock! They hit shows here & there and I love chatting to Jim about new music. He’s a huge Super Furries fan, and they were at the Grandaddy/Super Furries show last fall I went to (and LOVED!)

Sandy sings backup in Tom Jonesin‘ right now – and Jim’s preparing for a reunion gig in LA for his old band, in which he played: THE DRUMS!! woohoo!! Over the last year I have seen his basement recording studio become a dream little room, padded to keep the sound hidden from the neighbors, painted with awesome inspiring cool colors and FULL of his instruments. Piano, keyboards, guitars, recording gear and the latest addition for practicing: His drum set!! I was psyched! So for the first time in years I sat behind the drums and played around for awhile. It was so fun!! That’s twice this weekend I had drum sticks in my hands. awww yaaa, it’s coming! :p

So we chatted with them a ton – I told then they *cannot* miss the Wrens show coming up, and that he should check out Broken Social Scene – they’d like them, I think.

All of a sudden our day was pretty much gone (sorry rick!!!) and with a few hours left in the day I dropped Rick off & made it over to a going away party for my old bosses and friends who are moving to Japan!

> update: photos posted at the end of this album.

It was great to see everyone, including the hosts who are so darling. And I caught Jan & Layne, who it was great to catch up with as well. Layne & I can geek talk it up for hours, I love it!! We talk cameras, software and Saturday since I was fresh from beatin on the drums – we talked instruments! sweeeet! He was tellin me about the Roland V Series (i think that’s the one he mentioned) that his brother has and it’s sweet. And it would fit in my little place should I want something to practice on down the road and use headphones as to not wake the neighbors. ya!!

We’ll see if I get that hard core… but it would be pretty cool and I’d definitely learn faster if I had something to practice on. We’ll see :)

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Saturday night the R guy and I had a nice dinner (despite a temporary grumpy willofit). But then thanks to a little attitude readjustment, we proceeded to have a *GREAT* time after several drinkies at The Hemlock. woohoo! My buddy Stig was there with his friend Kim – and she’s so nice!

We went to see the A-Frames play, and I was psyched to see them – but after poppin them in that day, I thought the show could go either way so I didn’t have my hopes up. I did however have my hopes up to see Ajax there, since it’s his fault I love that band in the first place! Thanks a lot Ajax! But good news – he was!! Him and his drunken coworker – woohoo! Suburbia can make you a light weight – don’t let it happen to you! You can read his story about that night here.

After many a tasty Tom Collins and bathing in the most wonderful love and adoration a girl could ask for, from a certain sweet someone I can’t stop hanging around, we went & rocked out to the A-Frames!! WOOHOOO!!!

It wasn’t too crowded at all (considering the Hemlock’s show area is the size of a shoebox), and we danced and enjoyed their small set. They were great! They were totally just as good as the CD if not better! I love the sound of the bass on their tracks. Short and sweet set – they didn’t play the Nobot song, much to my dismay – but hey! Atleast they didn’t suck!

So we said goodbye to Ajax and his drunken friend and headed home. A very nice Saturday night indeed!

I had wanted to go down the peninsula and see my friend Nancy‘s Open Studio… even if it was just us popping in for a bit to say hello. I know her from my days at Care2, and she has had a few of these that I haven’t made it to yet, so I wanted to go down and support her.

ROADTRIP!!

We got up & ate a TASTY breakfast at East Coast West Deli on Polk. OH. MY. GAWD. You HAVE to go get their breakfast, because the home fries are to die for!!!! Seriously the BEST I’ve ever had in my LIFE!! I was looking around at other people’s plates and I couldn’t even believe some people had left a few behind – are they crazy!?!? They were the best. I can’t wait to have them again!

Ok, so then we hit the road… 280 is beautiful with lush trees and mountains most all the way down to Sunnyvale. And of course, we’ve got a mean music selection for road trips :)

We popped into Nancy’s studio and chatted it up with her & her studio mate, Photographer Susan Prather.

Then we headed over to a friend of Ricks who just bought a new house a few months back, and they’re expecting twins!! wowie!! And he’s a gadget feign (like us) and he knocked our socks off with his sick speakers, total THX theatre set up!! WOW!

Then Rick & I went & played mini-golf!! woohoo!! 18 holes, and quite possibly the best mini-golf I’ve ever played. Besides those cursid little volcano type holes, those’ll rack up the points every time!! In the end we were close, but then Ricky pulled off a Hole in 1 on the last (and most incredibly difficult hole EVER)!!! I tried and tried, but since it was so hard there was quite a bottleneck when we got there – and after a few embarrassing attempts and knowing Rick had already kicked my butt, I swallowed my pride and gave up. Let’s hear it for quitters!! Hey, atleast I did really good the rest of the game!

ARCADE TIME! We’re huge fans of the air hockey… and fairly well matched at this game, Rick & I… it’s a heated game. He gets a point and BLAM! I’m right behind him… 1-1… then 2-1, then 2-2… I keep catchin up – but he is pretty good :) I love air hockey!!

So then we look around for another game and GET THIS: There’s an arcade game to play the drums! woohoo!! This kid is on it and he’s kickin butt. He’s even doin the crossed arm thing with the snare and the tom-tom. Nice!

So we get on – and it was so fuN! It’s a game from Japan, so all the songs are in japanese, which is funny.. but I think I did pretty good! woohoo! Drumming career, here I come :p

We were hoping we’d build up an appetite for Chef Chu’s Chinese (wow, nice site, chef chu!) and we did!! By that time we were nice & hungry and headed over for some tasty chinese food. It’s apparently always packed there, and this being Mother’s Day didn’t change that. But it was well worth the wait. Hot & Sour Soup for starters, and then Candied Pecans with Prawns & Kung Pao Chicken – yummm!!!

I know I haven’t blogged it up in FOREVER – so maybe I’ll start backwards?

And only a few of you know this, but I’ll out myself right here and now and admit I’m pasting [most of this] review from where I wrote it somewhere else. So sue me :)

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lastnight’s performance = braaavoo!!!

lastnight rick & I were so tired – i will tell you why later, but it’s a wonder how we actually made it to “The Smallest Show in Town” at The Hemlock. I wanted to go to support my pink & meatysweet friend, Ajaxxx (with the triple x, cuz he’s that cool) (and for all you peaches fans: I’m only double a, but I’m thinkin triple x)

So we were driving up from down south (again, that story later) and we were debating… “what should we do?” “oh we’re so tired” … “can we make it?” “no, i’ll just drop you off”, I say – but then I think “I might pop in, but I sure would like you to come with me” – so finally we decided, let’s just stop by and HOPE that Ajax is miraculously going on shortly after we walk in the door otherwise we’d just say hi, break a leg and take off.

Well, luck was on our side! cuz literally we parked, walked in & no more than 5 minutes later Jaxx got on stage! woohoo!!! We got to see his full 20 min set and it was delightful.

He first took us all back to the fond days of summer camp in true “word to your mother” fashion. (uh, it was mother’s day, you see)

Everyone was sitting and behaving very well… and ajax soothed us with his voice and then dedicated a a song to his momma: Oh What A Night by the Four Seasons. Very sweetand we all hurrah’d cuz it was so good and fun!

And he’s so damn funny. shiiit is that man funny (if you read his blog you’d know that :)… as Ian says, we have a love for his “brand” of funny. Well I’m here to tell you, he’s funny and talented! (but if you’ve been fans of the A-Man for awhile now, I wouldn’t have to tell you that either. He was in both Granfaloon Bus and some crazy rocker band . Now *that’s* talent!

(update, that other rock band was called: Thunderbleed A.K.A. Blind Vengeance. What a great name eh?)

So ya, I was psyched to see him play guitar and sing. awesome!!

Then on the second song he did a clap along!! woohoo! we all clapped so good – ajax was proud and a guy near us even turned around to give us extra props for our “section” of pro-clappers in the back. oh ya, that’s right! only the best for the meaty.

The last song was Ajax singing a darling tribute to his friend chris, who you may recall from his slaving away on jaxx’s tardwork and not even complaining – and then he whom put on this grand event and twisted Ajax arm into performing. So Ajax sung’em a song – and we were standing next to Chris… and I think he was teary. I mean – who wouldn’t be!?! Ajax singing you a song all about you and how much he thinks you’re the greatest. Chris Leone is MY hero now.

Bravo Ajax! You did great and you should do more! We’ll show up – even though we’re really tired from drinking with you the night before. (which I will attempt to blog about in a second)

If I used LiveJournal (lovingly referred to as LJ for those who use it regularly), I would have a little emoticon that showed me as PROUD! (if they even have that one)

I’m beaming proud and even on little sleep I’m near the end of this project and I’m PSYCHED!!!!

I feel like an actionscripting WIZARD!! woohoo!!

more later :)

I’m wiped out. As soon as I got home and got that call on Monday, I’ve been behind my desk ever since… only to go out and enjoy a short sushi dinner with the ever so rockin rick, jem & tania (at godzila sushi – mmmm!) and then today at BAM for a few hours.

Anyway – I’m tired! I need to clean my house and wash all my dusty desert clothes and post all my photos and update my concert/event calendar (!!!!) and all that fun stuff!

anyway – that’s what I’m doing. So ya, hopefully tomorrow afternoon I’ll have a little more time. I can’t wait to go to bed!

signed,

temporary complainer