This week I invited up and coming CGI artist Brandon Mitchell. He has quite an extensive portfolio: "CCDHS Donuts Rendering Project" and "Pizza Parlor of Your Dreams" are his two prestigious works. Brandon says he's dropping out of high school and heading to Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville. He's planning to start out picking up trash and then work up the ch to be the new head animator of Pixar replacing now-ousted sexual-harasser John Lasseter. He makes himself out to be a very busy person, but I am grateful that he made room in his day to come to my house and record the podcast with me. So here it is:
Exclusive Interview with Brandon Mitchell I learned how to add sound effects with the normal podcast stuff much easier than my past method. Overall, it should have made a better podcast.
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Above is Brandon's most recent exemplary work: Pizza Parlor of your Dreams. Posted with permission from Brandon Mitchell.
The cake Brandon mentions from the site Brandon mentions | |
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Even though the main focus was on Brandon, there was enough snow last Monday for me to go on a cross-country skiing adventure. I made sure to take photos along the way.
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| Now some may ask, Alex why didn't you a timed loop? |
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| To that I respond, it's a lot more fun when I just mess around while skiing. |
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| Afterall, I've never approached running practices seriously. I might stop and do some Geocaching along the way or stop at a pond and slide around. |
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| Even if it's reckless, I always feel like I got more out of it than if I were to do three miles at six-minute pace. |
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| It was kind of windy out. This isn't a blurry image, that's snow blowing. It didn't bother me though, I feel invulnerable to all conditions in my layers. |
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| One of the advantages of not trying to best my time is that I get to explore. So I saw this trail leading from the golf course and went down it. |
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| It eventually led down to the Tongue River. I typically cross the river when it's frozen here, but as you can tell it wasn't even close to being frozen. |
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| I plopped down here and chilled for a minute; thinking about podcasts, books, shorthand, life. |
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| I then went on a deer trail requiring me to crouch fairly low to go under bramble. |
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| I didn't know where it would take me, but I believe that's where most of the fun comes from cross-country skiing. |
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| Eventually, I was led to a clearing. I didn't know where to go from there. |
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| Trees in all directions surrounded me. |
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| I decided to follow my sense of direction and not act lost. I found this case. I would sit there and contemplate what am I doing with my life. |
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| It took me a while, but I found the original trail that got me there. |
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| I then took this last photo with me beginning my trek home. Subsequently, the camera died after taking this last image. |
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All in all, a good trek. I'm making progress on my shorthand. I've been applying some of the phonetics of shorthand to my interview, but not the characters yet. Next week should be a solo podcast and it should be of much higher quality. I've got a greater perspective on what I exactly should be doing.
An improvement over the previous indeed. Your voice sounded more natural and I the content kept me interested.
ReplyDeleteJust out of curiosity, are you taking a jab at TSIS with this:
"Now some may ask, Alex why didn't you a timed loop?" and, "To that I respond, it's a lot more fun when I just mess around while skiing."
If ever there were a newspaper headline custom-made for Jay Leno's monologue, this was it. Alex doesn't take a chance to mock "They Say I Say." Isn't that like the Three Stooges looking at a pie and subsequently discussing Aristotelian philosophy?
DeleteThanks for the comment Kyle. It genuinely means a lot to me that I'm not the only one thinking that it improved.
This blog was pretty dang funny, as was the music at the beginning of your podcast. It seems like you go on very long skiing trips considering it was dark by the time you got out of the woods.
ReplyDeleteThanks Heather, I wasn't sure if the way I organized the blog would actually be enjoyable. I really should add more humor to the blogs now that I think about it, but I got to maintain the focus being on the podcast. It's a delicate balance that I still need to improve.
DeleteI suppose I go on pretty long trips but it never feels like I am really out that long. Just this weekend I was out for two and a half hours, but it really didn't feel that long. Maybe I am incorporating the mindset that I have with my 20+ mile runs, where the running is autonomous and my mind just wanders and discusses with myself. I can't complain though, as even after a long trip like that I feel pretty refreshed from the trek.
I can't wait for our duo podcast. The only bad thing about you getting better is that you'll make me look terrible.
ReplyDeleteI am hyped up Steven! I'm thinking that we can record us making some mumble rap and show how easy it is to make a mumble rap just to mock all those trash mumble rappers. Or we could mumble along to some mumble rap just to show how easy it is. It should be more fun to have someone who actually wants to podcast, instead of Brandon who just wanted to go home.
DeleteLet's both play characters for the podcast by the way. I'm going to be a more zealous self who loves podcasting. You could be Steven John Ray aspiring musician, expert podcaster and struggling calligraphist. That sounds fun to me.
I really enjoyed this blog that was following your adventure. I wish i could have tagged along. In my opinion that is what cross country skiing is all about, seeing new country and exploring. I hope you accomplish what you want but if not, I am sure you will learn something new along the way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading the blog Garrett! If you have skis and everything I would love a skiing partner. In the past I've at least seen skiers' track in the golf course, but this year it is only my tracks that I am following sadly. I think Chase Drange has skis, but currently that's the only person who I know who even has cross-country skis. Probably a lot more have downhill skis, like you do, (I remember you going on skiing trips in the past) and I can't blame them, it's a lot more exciting than cross-country skiing. However, I find the exploration aspect of cross-country skiing to almost compare with the adrenaline rush of downhill skiing.
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