Saturday, October 30, 2010

Interview with Toy Story 3 Screenwriter Michael Arndt

My fascination with screenwriting is rooted in my love for movies. I love hearing all about the process of how movies are made. The Creative Screenwriting podcast consistently delivers on this aspect of filmmaking in droves. Jeff Goldsmith is an excellent interviewer and his knowledge of film and the business of Hollywood always shines through in his questions.

Once a new Pixar film is released, I immediately look forward to when Jeff posts a podcast with the screenwriter. It is always a treat to hear about the inner workings of Pixar and get a little glimpse of their process and what goes in to making such great films. In the past, Jeff has interviewed Pete Docter and Bob Peterson for Up and Andrew Stanton for Wall-E.

This week Jeff interviews Michael Arndt who is the screenwriter of Toy Story 3. Michael talks about his start as a script-reader for Matthew Broderick and how he quit his day job to write screenplays full-time. This paid off when he sold Little Miss Sunshine and soon after that movie started to get made, Pixar called him in to work on Toy Story 3.

If you love movies and love hearing about the process that goes into creating them from the page to the screen, this podcast is for you. You can listen to this episode here.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Off the Griddle

Tucked away in the new food cart pod on 50th and Division, you will find Off The Griddle. OTG is a solar-powered cart specializing in vegan and vegetarian burgers made with locally-grown produce.

Always excited to find new vegan burger options, I was anxious to try out this cart. I have had both the “bacon cheese” burger and the OTG burger. All their burgers are served on Dave’s Killer Bread usually with lettuce, tomato and grilled onions. I believe the OTG burger also had avocado and the bacon cheese burger included homemade tempeh bacon and Daiya cheese.

To accompany the burgers, you can order a Veggie Volt. The Volt is a spiral-sliced potato that is fried and served on a stick. It comes out to be a cross between a french fry and a potato chip texture. It is 100% delicious and a perfect complement to the burgers.

According to their Urban Spoon entry, their specials and new patty recipes are rotated out each month. So head on down there and see what they have in store for you today.

Off The Griddle 4926 SE Division St #7 A La Carts Food Pavilion Portland, Oregon 97206

Friday, October 08, 2010

Dan Cederholm On The Big Web Show

As their site says, ‘The Big Web Show features special guests and topics like web publishing, art direction, content strategy, typography, web technology, and more. It’s everything web that matters.’ This week’s guest was none other than Dan Cederholm. Dan has been a long-time proponent of standards based design and his site, “Simplebits”:https://www.simplebits.com, was one of the first sites I discovered when learning about web standards and has been a big influence on me professionally.

Check out his interview and, while you are at it, check out the other great shows available on 5by5.tv.