Archive for August, 2011

Random Goodness: Don Cheadle is Captain Planet

(Language NSFW) Just last night, Bryan, Andrew and I had a conversation about the Captain Planet series and I honestly don’t remember being a fan of the cartoon. I always figured that he was a cheap Superman knock-off and a poorly veiled attempt to get me interested in recycling. Bah… BAH!! Now if they would have injected a little bit of Don Cheadle into the series back then, I may have been WAY more inclined in watching. Now as bad ass as dude was in the War Machine suit, his rage filled human tree-ification has nothing on a shoulder mounted mini gun. Make the planet beautiful again, Cheadle!

Bonus Cross Streets

Join Roque and Bryan as they explore the city of Fresno one cross street at a time in this ongoing web series.

Past Episodes:
#1 – First & Shields, #2 – Fresno & G, #3 – Belmont Loop, #4 – Willow & Friant, #5 – Kings Canyon & Peach, #6 – Fresno & Belmont, #7 – Fulton & Divisadero, #8 – Herndon & Blackstone, #9 – Fresno & P with the Mayor of Fresno, #10 – Cedar & Shields

SWAG! Win Fresno Tweetup Goes Wild 2 tickets

UPDATE: Our Randomator 3000™ has choose Mejia as the winner of the tickets! Congrats to him and thanks to everyone who entered. See y’all tomorrow at the Zoo!

Dumb Drum has been doing Tweetups before Tweetups even had a name! But leave it up to the master bloggers over at the Fresno Beehive to take community gatherings and take it to the next level with their Fresno Tweetup Goes Wild 2 going down this Saturday, August 27th from 5 p.m to 8 p.m. at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Here’s what’s going down:

Fresno Tweetup Goes Wild 2 (or #wildfresno in hashtag speak) is the second local Twitter gathering organized by Chaffee Zoo and fresnobeehive.com. It’s an after-hours party inside the zoo with all sorts of fun planned: A Twitpic Scavenger Hunt, a live performance by ultra hip indie band Fierce Creatures, an ”Amazing Race” style competition that will crown a Fresno’s top Twitter team, a photobooth, carictures and, of course, lots of animals.  Anybody who wants to attend can RSVP on Twitter to @fresnozoo or @fresnobeehive. Adults cost $5. Kids 10 and under are free with adult admission.

For more details, head on over here and here to ingest all the info on the event but lets get to the point of why you’re here: FREE STUFF! The kind peeps at the Fresno Beehive blessed us with a pair of tickets to give away to our readers and it’s really easy to win. Just leave us a comment on this post aswering this question: The zombie apocalypse has finally happened and all animals have been wiped out EXCEPT for those at the Chaffee Zoo and you can save but one. What animal would you take with you on your journey to salvation and why?

It’s that simple. Just as a reminder, you need to have a Twitter account (which is free to get over at Twitter.com) to attend and you must RSVP to @FresnoZoo or @FresnoBeehive in order get your name on the list for the event. Be sure to leave your email or Twitter handle when you leave your comment or else we won’t be able to contact you if you are chosen as our winner. The deadline to enter is 10 a.m. on Friday, August 26th so get to commenting!

Random Goodness: Portal – No Escape

I’ve spent my share of hours playing through the original Portal video game and although I found it quite addicting, I haven’t been privy to the INSANE love that a majority of the gaming community has for the game. That being said, this short film, directed by Dan Trachtenberg does an excellent job of translating the Portal world over to the film landscape. If you can do afford the bandwidth, I suggest checking out the film in full 1080p to fully immerse yourself. One can only wonder if Mr. Trachtenberg has more of these films in him to continue the storyline in this medium. I truly hope so.

Cross Streets #10 – Cedar and Shields

Join Roque and Bryan as they explore the city of Fresno one cross street at a time in this ongoing web series.

Past Episodes:
#1 – First & Shields, #2 – Fresno & G, #3 – Belmont Loop, #4 – Willow & Friant, #5 – Kings Canyon & Peach, #6 – Fresno & Belmont, #7 – Fulton & Divisadero, #8 – Herndon & Blackstone, #9 – Fresno & P with the Mayor of Fresno, #10 – Cedar & Shields

Save the date: Swede Fest 8 is set for Saturday, November 5!

It’s that time again, Swede Fest returns for its eighth installment on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. at Full Circle Brewing Company in downtown Fresno. Admission is still FREE and open to all ages. So now that we have a date, we need YOUR creative juices to start flowing. The deadline to submit your sweded film is Tuesday, November 1 at 11:59 p.m. Of course, we have some simple rules and here they are:

• Due to the overwhelming response at our last event, we will only accept the first 20 entries we receive this time around. This is to ensure that the show stays at a comfortable pace. So get those swedes finished early folks! However we will still put all the entries we receive on our website, SwedeFest.com.
• Entries must not exceed 4 minutes in length, this includes end credits!
• Entries must not use any obscene, vulgar, hateful or sexually-orientated language, or any other material that may violate any laws. Swede Fest is an all-ages event, please keep that in mind. Feel free to swede films like Pulp Fiction, but creatively find ways to cut out the bad stuff.
• We’ll need your entry on DVD or preferably a digital file (.mov or .avi). Please email us at info AT swedefest DOT com prior to the deadline to make arrangements for submitting.
• We ask that participants DO NOT upload their entries to YouTube, Vimeo, etc. before they screen at Swede Fest 8.
• High school teachers: if your students are working on swedes, that’s awesome! We’ll gladly display all of their hard work on our website, but we can’t only accept 2 entries per school for screening at Swede Fest.
• If you have any questions, concerns or need to contact us for any reason, please email us at info AT swedefest DOT com. As a courtesy, let us know if you’re planning to submit and what film you will be sweding!

If you’re looking for some inspiration, you can check out all our past entries at the official Swede Fest website. Gather up your friends, families, and pets, make a list of your favorite movies, bust out your camera (even your cell phone), and get your swede on! It’s a fun experience and there’s nothing like seeing your sweded film on the big screen in front of an audience! As the writer/director of Be Kind Rewind Michel Gondry once said, ”You’ll like this film because you’re in it!”

Dem Trailers: Red Tails

George Lucas. The name conjures up mixed emotions for people. Some praise him as the Nerd God for creating the Star Wars universe. Others lambaste him for taking something sacred and proceeding to shit on it’s holy scriptures. Either way you look at it, the man definitely has never been one to pay heed to those outside his circle and for that you must respect the man for sticking to his ideals. For his next Lucasfilm project and his first outside of the Star Wars or Indiana Jones universes since 1994′s “Radioland Murders”, the world’s richest independent filmmaker has decided to take on the Tuskegee Airmen story in this film directed by Anthony Hemingway (HBO’s “Treme”). Now I have to say, I’m a sucker for a World War II film but this one just looks exceptionally dope, in strictly an action film perspective. I’m sure having Papa Lucas’ ILM at your full disposal helps and it really shows. The Winter release date scares me as well as the amount of reshoots happening late into to film’s production but I’ll still very much looking forward to this. So what do you think of the trailer? Leave us your comments and let us know.