MrMacca.com

My WoW UI – Version 1 Release

Thought I’d stick this up here for anyone who plays World Of Warcraft and is looking for a new User Interface.  Click the Picture for a larger version.

Here’s the full download

Popularity: 1% [?]

Adobe After Effect tests

2 videos I created whilst learning how to use Adobe After Effects.

The 1st is an attempt at replicating the effect seen in one of Radioheads music videos and is just my face slowly morphing into view.  I followed a tutorial from a great AE website at - http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/

Double click the video frame to make it play again.

The 2nd one uses Motion tracking to track the movement of my mams eyes so that the transformation effect can be applied easier.

CLICK HERE – ScaryMamWithSound

Popularity: 1% [?]

Justin Vernon AKA Bon Iver

The album ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ by Bon Iver is my favourite album to listen to at the moment.  It’s a nice album to put on and either listen to, or just have a sing along with.

Many of you might have heard the song ‘Flume’ as it was featured on the TV show Skins, and you may also have seen him perform the song ‘Skinny Love’ on the Jools Holland show.

If you are a fan of any of the following artists, i’m sure you will get some enjoyment out of the album;

Bruce Springsteen
Tom Mcrae
Ray Lamontagne
Damien Rice.

Ever since hearing his album, I also found a collection of songs on youtube that were taken from a very small release album he made originally.

Bon Iver Official Site -- http://www.boniver.org/
Bon Iver Myspace -- http://www.myspace.com/boniver
Bon iver on Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Iver

So take a listen and enjoy.

Songs from the Album -- ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’

Bon Iver -- Skinny Love (Live on Jools Holland)

Bon Iver -- Lump Sum (Live)

Bon Iver -- Flume (Live on Myspace)

Songs from his limited release ‘Self Titled’

Justin Vernon -- Pier 39

Justin Vernon -- A Song For A Lover Of Long Ago

Justin Vernon -- Hazeltons

Popularity: 1% [?]

Films to look forward to…

Here’s a collection of films that I am looking forward to seeing in 2009:

Drag Me to Hell – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127180/

Director : Sam Raimi
Cast: Alison Lohman, Justin Long
Release Date: 29 May 2009 (UK)
Genre: Horror | Thriller

A loan officer ordered to evict an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse, which turns her life into a living hell. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.

The Box – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362478/

Director: Richard Kelly
Writers Richard Kelly (screenplay) Richard Matheson (short story “Button, Button”)
Cast: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden
Release Date: 4 December 2009 (UK)
Genre: Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller more

Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger, delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. But, pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don’t know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity.

Up – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049413/

Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson (co-director)
Writer: Bob Peterson (screenplay)
Release Date: 16 October 2009 (UK) more
Genre: Animation | Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family more

By tying thousands of balloon to his home, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Right after lifting off, however, he learns he isn’t alone on his journey, since Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip.

This Side Of The Truth – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1058017/

Directors: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson (co-director)
Writers : Ricky Gervais (written by) & Matthew Robinson (written by)
Release Date: 25 September 2009 (USA) more
Genre: Comedy

Ricky Gervais directs alongside Matthew Robinson in a comedy based on the script created by the two aforementioned.

This Side of the Truth is a comedy in which everyone in the world does not know the concept of lying, creating a world where honesty is prevalent.

Ricky plays Mark, a down on his luck script writer for a film company who stumbles upon the ability to lie and begins to use it to his advantage.  Due to people not knowing what a lie is, if Mark mentions something which is a lie they take it for the absolute truth, because in their heads they do not understand the concept of a lie, therefore if he is saying it, it can’t be one.

I’ve read the script for this movie and I found it quite clever in places.  It’s quite a statement against God I must add, which is probably the effect Ricky was hoping for being an Atheist himself.  You can find it here: This Side of the Truth Script(PDF)

Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, and Louis C.K. co-star in what is an excellent ensemble cast.

Shutter Island - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1130884/

Director: Martin Scorsese
Writers: Laeta Kalogridis (screenplay) Dennis Lehane (novel)
Release Date: 9 October 2009 (UK) more
Genre: Drama | Mystery | Thriller more

Mark Ruffalo and Leonardo DiCaprio team up as a pair of U.S. Marshals who travel to a secluded island off the coast of Massachusetts to search for an escaped mental patient, uncovering a web of deception along the way as they battle the forces of nature and a prison riot in this Martin Scorsese-helmed period picture.

Laeta Kalogridis adapts Dennis Lehane’s novel of the same name, with Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures splitting production and distribution duties. Ben Kingsley co-stars as the head of the institution where the patient resided, while Michelle Williams portrays Leonardo DiCaprio’s deceased wife, whose memory haunts him during the investigation. (Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide)

The Road – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/

Director: John Hillcoat
Writers: Cormac McCarthy (novel) Joe Penhall (adaptation)
Release Date: 2009 (USA) more
Genre: Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller more

“The Road” – Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winner bestseller from acclaimed novelist Cormac McCarthy (“No Country For Old Men”), “The Road” is a post-apocalyptic dramatic thriller about a father and his son walking alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food–and each other.

Second Skin – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1183696/

Director: Juan Carlos Pineiro-Escoriaza
Writer: Victor Pineiro-Escoriaza (writer)
Release Date: 7 March 2008 (USA) more
Genre: Documentary more

Second Skin introduces viewers to the real people who populate online virtual worlds in games like World of Warcraft and Second Life.

Couples who have fallen in love without meeting, disabled players whose lives have been given new purpose, those struggling with addiction, Chinese gold farming sweatshop workers, wealthy entrepreneurs and legendary guild leaders – all living within a world that doesn’t quite exist.

Popularity: 64% [?]

90’s House for Summer 2009

Here’s a collection of some old school House music that makes for perfect listening this Summer.  Lot’s of female vocals mixed with funky bass topped off with either a soothing melody or a hands in the air euphoric feel.

If you’re reading this website with laptop on your knee sat out in the garden/park/field then just browse each one and enjoy! I’ve created the full list here for you so they should play one after another -- CLICK HERE FOR THE PLAYLIST

• Masters at work -- To Be In love

Smooth female vocals from India, hypnotic bass line makes for a perfect summer tune.

• Nuyorican Soul -- Runaway

Ultimate starting tune to any DJ set this, sets the scene early slowly introducing people to the vocals of India and then kicking a funky bassline guaranteed to get your feet tapping.

Nuyorican Soul -- Black gold of the sun

• Byron Stingly -- Get Up

Released in 1997 this is a soul house with energetic lyrics. I’m pretty sure that anyone enjoying listening to house music in the 90’s knows this tune.

• Duke -- So in love with you

Male vocals on top of a slowly ascending beat that translates into a floor filler.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks_JHHn6NEA

• Full Intention -- I Love America

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn1Y1RPAHYQ

• Gisele Jackson -- Love Commandments

• Heller and Farley -- Ultra Flava

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-kZr8lmWJI

• Nalin and Kane -- Beachball

Chilled to the bone, this song is a perfect description of life on the beach.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-ZRs6AoJ0

• Sandy B -- World Go Round

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79xNOgEl_Is

• Grace -- Not Over Yet

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y62L_qlefHU

• Rozalla -- Everybody’s free to feel good

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Xb2a7KOz8

Popularity: 69% [?]

My movie quiz

To see the answers then click after the jump!

Popularity: 62% [?]

Random Websites

• Sesame Street -- Un-necessary Censorship
  

• Proof there is a God and that Creationism is real…using a Banana?

• Freaudian Slips on TV
  

• It is Jesus – LOL
  

• Eye for an Eye – Iran court Allows victim to blind culprit

“He will lie in front of me drugged. I will feel my way to his eyes and then drop 20 drops of acid in each eye,” Ameneh (30) explained.

• I am Maru – Funny cat
  
• How Benjamin Button got his face – amazing
  
• The Design of the Universe

Astrophysicist George Smoot shows stunning new images from deep-space surveys, and prods us to ponder how the cosmos — with its giant webs of dark matter and mysterious gaping voids — got built this way.

• Dog Friendly Dog Training

• Penn and Teller – Explain one of their tricks

• 10 Signs you need to go on a diet

Popularity: 64% [?]

Faithless – If Lovin’ You Is Wrong

Recently uploaded the following Video to Youtube, so thought I may as well link to it on here also

Popularity: 72% [?]

Classical Music

Here’s a collection of Classical pieces of music that I feel everyone should have listened to once in their life. Some of it you will already know as they are quite mainstream, however I still feel you will appreciate listening to them again.

If you use SPOTIFY.com, I have also included Spotify links, so just click the name of the song and it should take you to the correct song in Spotify. Enjoy!

Samuel Barber – Adagio for Strings - Click for Spotify Link

Original broadcast from the Albert Hall in London September 15 2001. Leonard Slatkin conducts the BBC Orchestra.

From Wikipedia -- Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” originated as the second movement in his String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11, composed in 1936. In the original it follows a violently contrasting first movement, and is succeeded by a brief reprise of this music.

Max Richter – On The Nature Of Daylight

A modern classical. Haunting violins that slowly develop into an even harrowing sound. Definitely gets the hairs on your neck standing up when it starts at 1:44.

Ava Maria (Latin for Hail, Mary)

Beethoven – Moonlight Sonata

Mahler: Symphony 5

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- Piano Concerto No. 21 – Andante

Camille Saint-Saëns -- The Swan

Popularity: 82% [?]

Explosions In The Sky

Official Website - http://www.explosionsinthesky.com/

Myspace – http://www.myspace.com/explosionsinthesky

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosions_in_the_Sky

Explosions in the sky are a delight to listen to. The emotions that their music contains is exactly like that of other post rock artists such as Mogwai and Followed By Ghosts. Epic tunes that will lift you up. It’s perfect driving music in my eyes. No vocals to distract you, just music to take you from the road your on.

Taken from Wikipedia:

Explosions in the Sky is an American instrumental post-rock band from Texas. The band has garnered popularity beyond the post-rock scene for their cinematic, elaborately developed guitar work, narratively styled instrumentals, what they refer to as “cathartic mini-symphonies,” and their enthusiastic and emotional live shows. They primarily play with three electric guitars and a drum kit, while band member Michael James will at times exchange his electric guitar for a bass guitar.

Explosions in the sky – Your Hand in Mine

Explosions in the sky – So long, lonesome

Explosions In The Sky – Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean (Live)

Popularity: 77% [?]