Chinese Zodiac Sign: Year of the Horse

What do you think? Is it close...?

Thank goodness for open spaces, because the Horse needs plenty of room to roam! Energetic, good with money and very fond of travel, Horses are the nomads of the Chinese Zodiac, roaming from one place or project to the next. All of this Sign's incessant activity and searching may be to satisfy a deep-rooted desire to fit in. Paradoxically, Horses feel a simultaneous yearning for independence and freedom.

Horses crave love and intimacy, which is a double-edged sword since it often leads them to feel trapped. Love connections tend to come easily to Horses, since they exude the kind of raw sex appeal that is a magnet to others. This Sign tends to come on very strong in the beginning of the relationship, having an almost innate sense of romance and seduction. Horses are seducers in general; check out any A-list party and you're bound to find the Horse in attendance. This Sign possesses a sharp wit and a scintillating presence; it really knows how to work a crowd. Surprisingly, Horses tend to feel a bit inferior to their peers, a misconception that causes them to drift from group to group out of an irrational fear of being exposed as a fraud.

An impatient streak can lead Horses to be less than sensitive to others' needs. These colts would rather take a situation firmly in hand as opposed to waiting for others to weigh in or come to terms with it. The lone wolf inside the Horse can at times push others away, but this also makes this Sign stronger and is a key to its success. Horses are self-reliant and, though they might lose interest fast in a tedious, nine-to-five day job, are willing to do the work necessary to get ahead.

Horses tend not to look much at the big picture; instead they just follow their whims, which can result in a trail of prematurely ended relationships, jobs, projects and so on. This Sign really knows how to motivate others, though, and get a lot accomplished. Once they find some peace within themselves, they can curb their wandering tendencies and learn to appreciate what's in their own backyard.

http://chinese.astrology.com/horse.html

Lata

Left LA behind once again, this time I wasn't nearly as anxious or pensive as when I first left to go work with Disney in Hong Kong... of course, then my passport didn't have a single stamp in it. Now, the 15 hour flight is child's play. And well worth it. Here the smog is worse than LA and the streets smaller, but the head-room and clarity of the projects I'm working on have increased infinitely. Hard for 9-to-5ers to understand that sometimes you need 10 hours of time to zone into what needs to be said and how to say it. I'll be back soon... in the meantime, I'll be working on my own commentary on life and not really keeping up with this blog. Hope you all are finding the time to laugh and love and talk to yourself, too... crazy what you'll find when you aren't looking...

Rockstar Style

As much as I loved working at Disney - brilliant people, inspiring projects, enviable budgets - now that my contract has ended, I'm loving the luxury of waking up at 8:00am and working til 2:00am (fitting in my at-least-4-hours-of-sleep promise to myself!)... one film completed, two others well in to post.

So I'm packing up my life again and seeing where it takes me... and as much as I longing look at the pictures I'm putting back in boxes and wish I had a home to hang them in - life is about living. And for me that means keeping moving while keeping those you love close in your heart...

love,
S

New favorite blog...

A Yinzer who timed his exodus from the .com sector in a brilliantly-timed $6 million maneuver and now owns the Dallas Mavericks and Landmark movie theatres, and he is credited with with the largest single e-commerce transaction" when he spent $40 million on a jet... a true playboy: Mark Cuban. Loses points for being a yinzer, gains points for creative thinking and offering Howie Mandel on his website: "Howie, if you can get Mr Trump to pull a rubber glove completely over his head and blow it up on your show, not only will I watch it, I will donate 1 million dollars to the charity of your choice."

Read his thoughts on how Bob Iger has saved Network TV:
http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000617063228/

"How ?
By completely changing the economic model.
When a show is produced for primetime network TV, its traditionally sold to a network at a given license fee. More often than not, particularly for non reality shows, that license fee is less than what it costs to produce the show.

The hope by the production company is that if they can produce good ratings for the network, not only can they increase the license fee after the first deal ends, but they can also sell the episodes in the future as part of a syndication deal and maybe even make some money back with DVD sales.

So for instance, shows like Law and Order, CSI, and all their different versions can fetch more than 1mm dollars per episode. Most other shows fall in mid six figure price ranges and can go as low as 50k to 75k for hit reality shows like Survivor. The reality shows go for far less because everyone knows the winner already.

But what if CBS sold Survivor episodes the day after it aired like ABC is with Lost ? What if they sold them not just on ITunes Store, but through CinemaNow, MovieLink, Netflix, Walmart Online, wherever.

Think some people would buy them to keep up with the action ? Possibly to sample the show ? Think they might sell more than 75k downloads at $1.99 each ?

Could this move have created a new market that could be comparable in size for some shows and more money for others than the current syndication market ?"

You may say I'm a mover, but I'm not the only one...

I might not set any fashion trends, but this - THIS I can handle:

"Whereas the rule of thumb for changing apartments used be every seven years, Ms. Seidner said it seems to have shrunk to something like two years among a larger swath of clientele, resembling a fashion trend. "

"Serial movers seem motivated by everything from a desire for exploration, to the perpetuation of habit born in childhood, to a hunger for drama and excitement, to a fondness for extreme housekeeping. And these days, such appetites are stoked by a smorgasbord of aggressively marketed new buildings engaging in a constant battle of one-upmanship. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/realestate/26cov.html

Academy Nominated Shorts

Saw the Academy nominated short films last night at the Academy - a great score since it was overfilled! My votes go to:

Animated: One-Man Band
Backed by Pixar, so it definitely had the resources to be the cleanest animation film... that aside, at 4 minutes this was not only the shortest but the most well-thought out and enjoyable piece. It used music for its storyline - two street performers compete for a small child's last coin. Energetic, fun, and cute.











Live Action: Six Shooter
From the UK, here is a twisting, turning short where everyone just keeps dying. But as an audience member you find yourself cringing at the gruesome deaths for only a split second before laughing... oh that is so wrong. I love it. Witty and funny, and it has a bunny with its head shot off - what more could you want?!

Internal Monologue

Seems like this blog is becoming more of a place where I can share my internal monologue than a recap of LA adventures... after all, my LA adventures are like most people's, I suppose, so there's nothing quite as exotic or exciting about them. For example, this weekend:

Thursday - After work head out with Mark and Jody and manage to spend the night dancing with a one-legged guy and playing name-that-tv-star looking around the crowd.

Friday - Last day at work! I get hit by a car while walking across the street in Burbank, and later have dinner with my roommate before heading out to Eddie's birthday party which starts at The Chalet, and continues in a downtown drum-n-bass club. Turn down the 5 a.m. "we're still going, come back out!" calls...

Saturday - Meet with music composer for one of my films, go to the volleyball net and find no one is playing, head down to the Beach Haus Boys pad and find them playing and filming a wack live version of the old Oregon Trail game, help them out and head home for a nap before Dana's birthday party closes The Cat N' The Fiddle. Decide not to go to the after-hours party.

Sunday - Katie's Carnival-themed birthday party has the afternoon filled with recent college grads, which inevitably means: beer-pong and jumping around in one of those inflatable kiddie bounce houses. Go 3-0 in straight wins in pong and escape the bounce house all together. Meet some new friends and set up a friendly pool match for tomorrow...

I mean really... it's quite boring.

80 degrees and sunny.
All weekend long.
Again.

LA anyone?

NY Post says it all... (click to enlarge)

View

...got lost in this picture as i was browsing the web...