QuickTime News: October 19, 2001

In past issues of QuickTime News, we’ve sung the praises of the terrific products for multimedia developers from Totally Hip Software—such as LiveStage Professional and LiveSlideShow.

Now we’re excited to tell you about Totally Hip’s new, informative, and entertaining website. “Blue Abuse” provides both a showcase of innovative uses of QuickTime on the web and free tutorials useful to anyone who creates multimedia content using QuickTime.

Every Monday, Blue Abuse publishes new features, including:

	•	the multimedia website of the week
	•	a new tutorial
	•	a new Macromedia Flash article

And once a month, Totally Hip posts an in-depth profile of a multimedia developer on the Blue Abuse site.

Starting this Monday, October 22, Blue Abuse focuses on “Locus” (a web-based game developed in France) and features a tutorial on QuickTime detection. Take a look at all they have to offer.

WGBH Explores Evolution
Even today—almost 150 years after Charles Darwin and A. R. Wallace first published their respective theories regarding the way life evolved on this still changing planet—evolution remains a subject not only of almost universal interest but of sometimes heated debate.

Currently, WGBH in Boston is airing a seven-part series on evolution, which is available on local PBS affiliates. The series began with an exploration of Darwin’s contributions, continued with an examination of the incredible diversity of life on Earth, and is now exploring how the phenomenon of mass extinctions.

You can watch previews of the fourth and fifth shows in the seven-part series on the WGBH site now. You can even check local listing to see when “The Evolutionary Arms Race” and “Why Sex?” will be televised in your area.

Halloween’s Just Around that Dark Corner
Do movies like “Psycho” grab you? Does “Nightmare on Elm Street” hit you where you live? Then you’ll love watching the short horror films on urbanchillers.com, a new website that dubs itself “The House of Fear.”¹

Wait, there’s more. Since scary movies and Halloween go hand in hand, urbanchillers.com thought this a perfect time to stage their Halloween Thrillers competition. Submit your 60-second scary movie before October 31, and you could win a digital video camera and a book on urban legends. The top ten horror movies will air on urbanchillers.com for one month.

¹ You will need to register on this non-Apple site to view the films.

Get Your Motors Running
The 2002 cars and trucks are rolling in, and Motor Trend is in the driver’s seat with video road tests and glimpses of an important German auto show.

From October 21-23, see highlights of the enormous Frankfurt Motor Show, including views of more than 40 production and concept cars. From October 24-26, their coverage of the show continues with a focus on Ford, showcasing the company’s new Focus-inspired Fiesta, its advanced-technology Fusion Concept Wagon, and the high-performance Focus RS.

What will be Motor Trend’s SUV of the year? Find out October 27-29, when this 2002 Sport/Utility vehicle will be revealed.

Even military vehicles don’t escape Motor Trend’s scrutiny. From October 30 through November 1, watch Truck Trend put a light armored vehicle through its paces.

Earning a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival last January and rave reviews from critics, director Richard Linklater’s “Waking Life” is a dreamlike ramble that follows a young man through a series of offbeat vignettes, reminiscent of Linklater’s 1991 classic, “Slacker.” The important difference is that “Waking Life” is an animated film.

Each vignette was created by a different artist who painted over the filmed images using a specially created animation program running on a Macintosh. The result is a fascinating form of distorted reality that is based on the actions of real life actors but includes fantastic and surrealistic touches added by the artists.

Considered the first full-length animated independent film, Linklater’s “Waking Life” was produced for less than the cost of an average feature-length movie—remarkable for an animated film.

“Waking Life” opens in U.S. theaters today, October 19.

Digital photographer Dennis Biela is back, leading “The Nuts and Bolts of QuickTime VR,” a series of free seminars presented by Apple. During the next month or so, Biela will be holding seminars in North America, Australia, and the Far East.

Multimedia content developers are invited to learn what it takes to make 360-degree panoramas for the web or CD-ROMs. Create virtual tours of a single room or an entire building. Design panoramas that let viewers select and rotate objects and preview them on all sides, all while accompanied by narration.

You’ll also find out how you can build a business based on QuickTime VR. So if you’re in Richmond, Toronto, or Montreal in Canada; in Brisbane, Sydney, or Melbourne in Australia; or in Singapore, Maylasia or Thailand; be sure to take a look at the Apple Business Seminars web page for more information. Register early, as seats are limited. (Please note: US customers interested in the seminars should check our seminars website again next week, when additional dates are expected to be added to the schedule.)

Of the hundreds of entries, three short films vied for top awards in the Nike Young Directors Awards 2001. You can watch all three finalists in QuickTime and judge for yourself whether “Tunnel Vision” indeed deserved the Gold.

Lego My Ham and Jam
Where do people eat ham and jam and spam a lot? In Camelot, of course. It’s an even sillier place these days since a version of this classic scene from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” has been made using—get this—animated Lego characters.

Thank you for reading this issue of QuickTime News.
Look for your next issue on November 2.

Tori Amos’s unique new CD, “Strange Little Girls,” is an album of multiple personalities.

Take, to begin with, the songs. Each was written by one of a dozen male rock musicians, including such distinct personalities as Eminem, Lou Reed, John Lennon, and nine others.

Then there’s the way Amos has chosen to cover them. Rather than sing them “herself,” Amos performs them via a series of female alter-egos created to offer unique interpretations.

Like to hear Amos’s “Strange Little Girls” in its entirety? Then plan on attending a special listening party hosted by Warner Bros. through the end of the month.

One of the Ten to Watch
Rolling Stone named New Jersey-born singer/songwriter Pete Yorn as one of “Ten To Watch In 2001.” Yorn’s debut CD, “Musicforthemorningafter,” earned a four star rating by the magazine and was described as “atmospheric; gently lit by sunlight and regret.”

Take a few minutes to watch the full-length video of Yorn’s new single, “For Nancy (‘Cos It Already Is).”

Get Ready for a New Order
Offering their own special brand of dance floor pop, the legendary U.K. group New Order has just released “Get Ready,” their first full-length CD in eight years.

If you’d like to listen to band members Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook discuss the creative history behind their new CD (and hear cuts from the new album during the interview), plan on attending an exclusive QuickTime listening party scheduled to be available through October 30 on the New Order website.

A Bright Star
from Nashville
After two successful CDs, three Top Ten hits, and a nomination for New Male Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music, singer/songwriter Chad Brock is fast becoming one of Nashville’s brightest stars.

From now until October 26, you can check out all the tracks from Brock’s new album, “III,” at this QuickTime listening party.

More Country Tunes
from Tracy Lawrence
Over the past ten years, country artist Tracy Lawrence has sold more than 8 million albums worldwide and hit the top of the country singles charts 17 times with such memorable hits as “Lessons Learned,” “Sticks And Stones,” “Alibis,” “Texas Tornado” and “Time Marches On.”

Now you can hear Lawrence preview his new CD, “Tracy Lawrence,” through October 31.

Some “Instructions”
from Jermaine Dupri
When Jermaine Dupri’s first solo album, “Life in 1472,” was released in 1998, he proved he was as talented a rapper as he was a top R&B record producer. His new CD, “Instructions!” will be released on October 30th, but you can get a taste of it today.

Check out his first single, “Ballin’ Out Of Control,” and be sure to come back October 29th to hear the rest of “Instructions!” online for a limited time. (For the uninitiated, the title is hip-hop lingo for “spending money like there’s no tomorrow.”)

New Music Video from V2TV
V2TV presents a new music video from their selection of the world’s most interesting musical entertainers. See London singer/songwriter Heather Nova’s new music video, “I’m No Angel,” marking the first single from her new album, “South.”

New Music Mondays
Over the next two weeks, Epic Records features Ozzy Osbourne’s “Gets Me Throught” (October 22-29) and B2K’s “Uh Huh” (October 29 to November 5) on its New Music Mondays site. Until Monday, you can enjoy Michael Jackson performing “Cry” from his upcoming album “Invincible.”

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