A TED presentation on Filter Bubbles and how they are changing our world in ways you never imagined. You will want to know about this if you spend anytime on the web using Google Search, or Facebook. 9 minutes. – Robert
CLICK HERE to watch the video.
Thanks to Kevin W. for bringing this link to our attention.
Here at Pixel Harbor, we celebrate the “good stuff”. After the tragedy in Florida that has saddened our country this week, here’s a different kind of story. It is important too. This story comes from my father’s home town of Picayune, Mississippi. – Robert
(CBS News) PICAYUNE, Miss. – In Washington Thursday, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts honored 10 teachers for their power to inspire. CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews spoke to one of them as well as the student whose life she changed.
CLICK HERE to watch the three minute video.
Thanks to Carolyn T. for bringing this story to us.
Jason Mraz’s new song, I Won’t Give Up, speaks to us as individuals and as a Nation. — Robert
CLICK HERE to visit YouTube for his video.
Thanks to Cathy B. for bringing this link to our attention.
A few YEARS ago — I recommended the music service PANDORA to you. Pandora is still great. Still useful. So is iTunes. 220,000,000 active members proves it. And NOW I want to point you to a new service that is an alternative to the first two — it actually compliments iTunes because it includes your current iTunes Library in the player controls. You see the details at their web site.
Try it out. It’s FREE. There’s a lot to explore on their web site.
This is not a paid endorsement. I just like it a lot!
-Robert
Sometimes a picture / video is worth a million words. I’ll let “Kara” speak for herself. – Robert
Jackie Gleason once said “What is a Critic? A Critic is someone who relaxes on the rim of the valley and watches all the effort that goes into fighting a battle below and when it is finished, the Critic rides down and kills the survivors.”
So many movies are trying to get made. Green lighted, funded, etc. If you survive the first steps, then actually making the movie has been compared to war. The Producer and Director move an army of production people through all the steps up to release of the film.
Making good movies is hard. Making good movies takes all the elements which include story first and foremost, but then all the craft work such as acting, directing, sets, music, ALL of it.
So my experiment today was this: I bought a ticket to see the movie John Carter. After I watched it, I bought another ticket and watched Safe House. Both were roller coaster rides. Both were lavish with locations and action. Both made me care about the outcome and the lead characters.
Tin Tin and Hugo — which I admit were brilliant productions — were a feast for my eyes. I marveled at the effects and construction of the films. But I DID NOT CARE about the lead characters nearly enough to FORGET the world outside the theater.
I want to suspend time and stop the noise of everyday life and enter a theatre and be taken away for just a couple of hours. Then I want to be returned safely to my home and remember the films that suspended time for me.
Remember how you felt after seeing Avatar, and latest Star Trek remake, and The Matrix and you said silently to yourself – Wow! that was something really different. And then you remember how you felt seeing the first Star Wars and now years later, you realize that George Lucas is a master of visuals and sets and effects and has absolutely NO plot writing skill. He steals every plot element and has stilted characters deliver the lines instead of letting them “act”. Star Wars is a money machine (and was a visual treat for every science fantasy lover out there in the 1977). Lucas’ Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark was the exception.
So what I got out of my experiment today was this: I’ve read a lot of pre-release reviews about how the Disney Movie (PG-13) John Carter is going to fail at the box office. It might. Simply because of terrible marketing. I just read one review in the LA Times. (Don’t read it if you hate spoilers.) And so I’m here as ONE SINGLE ticket buyer to tell you this: IF you decide to take a two hour break from life this weekend, John Carter is every bit as much fun as you can have at a movie and it delivers that suspension of time in grand, magnificent style.
I recommend it to you NOT as a “must see” film but as a genuine good use of your movie dollar.
Celebrate the excellent. A lot of people worked very hard to create this two hours and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Everyone’s a critic. Your mileage may vary. -Robert Barnes
PS: In case you wondered… Safe House was excellent as a Bourne Identity style action movie. But John Carter was “Fun” and exceptional and really benefits from the big screen. Don’t wait for this one on your TV. John Carter is based on the series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs who later wrote Tarzan.
Robyn shares her personal story and how it inspired her current path as a “Real Food” evangelist. Grounded in a successful Wall Street career that was more interested in food as good business than good-for-you, this mother of four was shaken awake by the dangerous allergic reaction of one of her children to a “typical” breakfast. Her mission to unearth the cause revealed more about the food industry than she could stomach, and impelled her to share her findings with others. Informative and inspiring.
About this speaker
Robyn authored “The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It.” A former Wall Street food industry analyst, Robyn brings insight, compassion and detailed analysis to her research into the impact that the global food system is having on the health of our children. She founded allergykidsfoundation.org and was named by Forbes as one of “20 Inspiring Women to Follow on Twitter.” The New York Times has passionately described her as “Food’s Erin Brockovich.”
CLICK HERE to go directly to the video.
Thanks to Kevin W. for sharing this very relevant link with us.
Last May, Jetman achieved a beautiful and memorable flight in the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA… and here’s the official souvenir video! Many thanks to all who were involved in that adventure!
CLICK HERE to view the flight.
Excellence comes in many forms with levels of danger and difficulty. In your heart of hearts, who wouldn’t want to do this just once. (assuming you lived through it) — Robert
Thanks to Dr. Jones for the link.
