Demolition Kings

Mike and Sean from the Demolition Kings came by the studio yesterday to run through some songs and set up a recording date. I am doing guest vocals on two of their songs. We are supposed to record middle of January.  

Ice Cream & Christmas Lights

Took the family out for an after diner ice cream at Baskin Robins and then drove around looking at neighborhood Christmas lights. This corner house had a killer display. Love the Christmas lights.

New Website Design

Been slowly working on the layouts for a new Go-Kustom website design for all the various pages and sections within the main site. Learning Dreamweaver CS5 as I go. Trying NOT to use tables in this site and stick to a div-based design (for resizing etc). This is a screen shot from tonights work. The best thing about this layout is the Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Tumblr Buttons on every page.  The headers are all different for each section, but the same size, so drop in should be easy. I will revamp one section at a time.

Indoor Helicopter

Got a remote control Blade MCX Helicopter (smaller indoor version) for Christmas from my family. So cool. Wanted this as a practice 'copter to learn the basics of flying- to prep me for when I invest in a larger  'copter for arial photography using my GoPro cameras. These bad boys are actually harder to fly than you might think. Mostly orientation issues. Depending on which way the remote control helicopter is facing changes your control directions. You have to really pay attention or continually crash into stuff.

Dreamweaver CS5

Been diggin' into the Dreamweaver CS5 tutorial to get start the process of updating all my websites. In particular, I want to modify (and simplify) the basic layout and navigation on the Go-Kustom site.

Hot Rod Girls Save The World

Found these older behind the scenes pics from Hot Rod Girls Save the World by Dan Brouillard in a file folder, when I was looking for promotional stills for an article that a national car magazine was writing about me and Go-Kustom.

Christmas Tree 2011

Decorated the Christmas Tree to our traditional Ska music (The Selector, Madness, The Specials, etc) last night. This one was an el chepo, $19.99 Home Depot tree, but made up pretty nice. Makes the apartment smell good too.

Kim Jong il is Dead

Made this little tribute artwork to Official Wingnut Kim Jong il...

Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas Tree today. Going to decorate it tonight. Seven foot tall Douglas Fir from Home Depot for $19.99. Love this time of year.

GoPros

Here are my two GoPro HERO HD cameras. The one on the left (top picture) has the new flatter lens installed. It sits out of the camera body, but gets rid of the distorted, fisheye look of the original GoPro lens. The one on the right is stock. In the bottom pic you can almost see the bent pins inside the mini USB port of the camera. This happened when I wasn't paying attention and tried to jam the USB chord into the camera after installing the new lens.

How To Destroy A Perfectly Good GoPro Camera

So I decided today was the day to modify my GoPro camera with an after market lens, I purchased, to reduce the distorted fisheye look the camera naturally generates. This distortion is due to the fact that the GoPro has such a wide angle lens, made for maximum view (like when mounted to a cyclist's bike helmet). So anyway, after viewing a tutorial on the modification, I slowly took the camera apart. The screws were tiny and I almost lost several on the floor. After I had the GoPro apart and after unscrewing the original lens (a process which included the use of a heat gun to loosen the threads), I began putting the camera back together. I broke one tiny screw off in the case and then proceeded to (almost) cross thread the new lens into the camera. The threads for the lens are very fine and plastic, so it doesn't take much. After I got the camera back together, I fired it up with an external monitor and low and behold, the image was really really blurry. I watched the modification video again and realized that I had screwed the lens in too far. I unscrewed the lens just a bit and it started looking good- but just then the GoPro's battery died. I ran to my laptop and as I was plugging it in, snapped off two of the pins in the camera's miniUSB port! HOW UTTERLY STUPID! In my haste, I had destroyed a brand new camera! Well after boo-hooing around my studio for an hour, I decided the only plan of action was to buy a second GoPro (I had planned on doing that eventually anyway, for multiple angles per take), so I could use the internal USB battery charger and file reader on the new camera for both GoPro HERO HD cams. Stupid me day.

Evil Undead Girlfiend Pre-Production Movie Poster

Did the first version of the movie poster for Evil Undead Girlfiend: The Re-Animation Of Issa Kross. I have been slowly scripting this one and am considering doing it as a graphic novel and motion comic before a regular film.

Rats & Gassers Filming Pin-Up Calendar Meeting

A few more stills from the GoPro HERO HD camera of the meeting we had last Sunday for Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride.

Hot Rod Monsters Film Festival Meeting

Had an excellent sit down meeting yesterday afternoon with the Seattle Rod-Tiques Car Club about helping put together the Hot Rod Monsters Film Festival- especially the car show and help with street closures. The Rod-Tiques are a very well established club that puts on the massive Cruizin' To Colby event in Everett, Washington every year. We also discussed showing Hot Rod and Gearhead films during the Cruizin' To Colby car show at the Historic Everett Theater (which is on Colby- the same street as part of the car show).  Networking is a good thing.

GoPro Replacement Lens

Got this new lens in the mail today to replace the stock GoPro Hero HD lens and reduce the fisheye characteristics of the original. Looks like a fairly simple mod that requires the use of a heat gun. Will post some test footage when done with the modification...still reformatting and installing software on my MacBook Pro.  Having issues with Final Cut Pro and the new plugins...

500Gig Laptop Hard Drive

Just got this 500 Gig internal drive for my MacBook Pro so I can record and edit film on the go...

Rats & Gassers Filming Pin-Up Calendar Meeting

Had an excellent bit of filming for Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride yesterday afternoon. Present were Photographer Tina Tang, Rat Rod and Shop Owner Robb Newby, Models Aly Hellcat, Renee Rockwood, Kissable Kandie and Kitty Mansfield, crew Cameron Harris, my wife and myself. This was a meeting to plan a big photo shoot with cars and models that we will film as part of Rats & Gassers in January 2012.

Rats & Gassers Advertisement

Sent off a new Rats & Gassers: Kustom Kulture Takes A Ride ad to Gasser Wars Magazine. This ad is more Gasser-centric than previous promo.