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Showing posts from 2016

Angelina and Brad

I worked with Angelina for almost two years on a script and she was open, honest and remarkably frank with me. I still remember her first call, early one morning in Laurel Canyon, when she said, "It's Angelina," (she was calling from England) and I said, "Angelina who?" I also met Brad Pitt and liked him tremendously. He was sweet and kind and funny...and he gave me a Cadbury's Chocolate Flake! Very sad that they're splitting up. I wish them both well, and all the family.

Hudson, Bunny Quest and Unity Pro

Hudson celebrating at F50/Google's Founder World in San Francisco in October 2015, where he was the only child to have a stand...for Bunny Quest. Photograph  copyright © 2015 Alexander Chow-Stuart. Congratulations to Hudson for gaining the support of Unity Technologies for his Kickstarter-backed game, Bunny Quest. Unity is granting Hudson a free license of Unity Pro to build the game in Hudson's favorite game engine, as he was not satisfied with the results using his original game engine, Stencyl. Hudson has a good deal of experience with Unity, having built his first game, Wolf Escape, using it when he was nine years old.  Hudson used the free version for Wolf Escape. Unity Pro is the top of the line version and has many more features. We really appreciate the support from Aline Tosini and all at Unity . You may also like to read:  Hudson in the Santa Cruz Sentine l Yay! Hudson has reached his Kickstarter target! If you enjoyed this post

Happy 4th of July!

My little #4thOfJuly gallery. Love not racism or bigotry. We are all equal. Enjoy! 🇺🇸 #DefeatTrump #Hillary2016  It's also our beautiful lovebird Miso's eighth birthday today. Born on the 4th of July! He is such a part of our family. Happy Birthday Miso!

Dash Robotics' new robot bug

In the middle of preparations for our house move, this Kamigami robot bug kit arrived yesterday from Dash Robotics. Hudson, our eleven year old son, had contributed to their Kickstarter campaign (and they, very kindly, had contributed to his for the computer game he's creating, called Bunny Quest ).  We had also toured the Dash Robotics' facility in Silicon Valley last year, after meeting the team at Get Geeked in San Francisco. Hudson's Kamigami is one of the first 50 they've shipped! This is the skin for the robot bug: It took Hudson about an hour to put the robot bug together.  And this is Kamigami in action, surprising one of our dogs...and dancing! You may also like to read: Dash Robotics' Bio-Inspired Bugs Lenovo's Amazing Gift to Hudson at getgeeked San Francisco If you enjoyed this post, please follow me on Twitter  @alexanderchow .   And please  subscribe to this blog via email by clicki

Plants Peace Gardening

Some of my babies. The Elephant's Foot Palm in the foreground is well over ten years old and used to grace our pool in Topanga Canyon 🌱🌵🎍

Beyoncé and Lemonade: What's Going On

Really blown away by Beyoncé and the truly remarkable work she's created with the film and music of Lemonade. Such a feeling of power, of powerlessness overcome, such a beautifully introspective work, yet joyous and celebratory. I'm a white boy but it makes me feel more connected with a long line of strong black women and at least some understanding of the history of oppression and suffering they endured (still extant: the mothers with the photographs of their dead sons provide a chilling and respectful moment) than pretty much anything I've seen or heard. Beyoncé has grown so massively as an artist. This is such a strong use of her abundant talents, her power from celebrity, of what can be done with music and media. This may be her What's Going On, and I don't mean to diminish her work by comparing it to a man, simply that she captures something universal and true and urgent in the same way that Marvin Gaye did. Beyoncé is totally her own woman but just to

Bunny Quest

Hudson has been working hard on his game, Bunny Quest, on all levels - the complexities of the narrative and the myths surrounding it (and the games Hudson intends creating in the future that encompass Bunny Quest), as well as the different levels of the game and different technical approaches to various aspects of it. This is the very first part of the opening sequence. The green gem is the magical core of the story - sent back from the future, it will be stolen from the bunnies by Nox the Coyote. Hudson has fully envisaged both the opening and closing sequences of the game, and we're really excited by them.  We were knocked out by this opening animation Hudson created. He just made it and showed it to us. He's eleven. (There is more to come with the opening sequence, these are just the first few seconds.) You may also like to read: Hudson in the Santa Cruz Sentinel Our son Hudson launches his Kickstarter campaign for Bunny Quest Hudson, Bunny Qu

An Englishman in Havana (from my book, Life On Mars)

View from Coco Cab Havana. Photograph copyright  © Darcie Goldberg www.darciegoldberg.com When the Rolling Stones played their historic concert in Havana on Friday , it marked, for many Cubans, a major turning point: “This will be one of those weeks that people will use to measure other events. In the future, they’ll ask, was it before or after the Stones played,” predicted Tania Livia, a businesswoman attending the concert. “This is the biggest moment in my life,” said tattooed club owner Ferrer Castillo, who had travelled 200km by bus and taxi to see his heroes. (Quoted in the Guardian article, Pleased to meet you: Rolling Stones treat Cuba to spectacular and historic gig ) Likewise, President Barack Obama's visit of the preceding days - the first by a sitting United States president since Calvin Coolidge in January 1928 - underlined the huge changes in the US-Cuba relationship that Obama's policy toward Cuba has brought about: “Obama is doing this no