I had been hearing advance descriptions of the new DCFC record, Narrow Stairs, for the past couple of months, and I must say, I had very high hopes for it being everything I already love about Death Cab with a new layer added: an edgy, raw, darker quality that promised - for me - to elevate this record to "new favorite" in their ten-year discography. I picked up my copy on Wednesday from our local independent record store, Toonerville Trolley Records in Williamstown, (props to Hal!), and listened to it in the car that afternoon on a drive to my brother's place. By the end of the second track I was ecstatic.

Past Rehearsal Space guest T-Pain is making headlines again today following the announcement of the 2008 BET Award nominees. Pain lead his peers with five nominations, topping Kanye West and Alicia Keys who each received three nods, and Mary J. Blige, Lil Wayne and Keyshia Cole who each took away two.

Writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof’s narrative feature, Iron Island, is one of the finest Iranian films ever released in the west, and his new work, Head Wind, is a no-less stellar effort, a semi-documentary about the satellite television rage currently sweeping the Middle Eastern nation, even in the face of an often violent clerical adversity.

Time to kick back, and actually laugh out loud. It's lunch time on a Friday, and what better way to enjoy the moment than by sending just the littlest bit of your sandwich out your left nostril. Try it, I did... it's fun. Oh, here's your fuel for launch. The Sun-Sentinel has put up a "vote for worst album cover of all time" feature, and well... let's just say, picking one's least favorite is not an easy task. Enjoy, and don't say I didn't warn you!

This week on Beet.TV, Magnify.net CEO Steve Rosenbaum discusses the company's new video plug-in for Movable Type and WordPress, Magnify Publisher.

I am not a photo purist. I am all for adding a personal touch to your pictures, giving them a unique look and some snap using post processing. In fact, that's half the fun of digital photography. But there is such a thing as taking it too far, and one of the most common "effects" I see, and one which I hate almost beyond description, is fake water ripples.

This recurring series looks at the communities that have sprung up to support Final Cut users. Big and small, near and far, users groups are a thriving part of the creative ecosystem.

· When did this user group start? April 2003

· Who runs the group? Rob Chinn

To recap, the last meeting between representatives from SAG and AMPTP on May 6th didn't exactly end on a high note. After 18 days of talks both the SAG and AMPTP conceded in their own ways that the two sides were still far apart from making a deal. Variety is reporting that SAG representatives have accepted the AMPTP's invitation to begin negotiations again on May 28th or earlier.

Volumetrix is a plugin for FCP and Motion made by idustrial Revolution, producing stunning light effects and transitions based on graphic card and FxPlug Technology. Volumetrix works with texts and any image with alpha channel to be transformed after few clicks, instead of keyframing and rendering for a long time.

Unlike Tribeca ‘08’s terrific New York art world doc, Guest of Cindy Sherman, The Universe of Keith Haring fails to penetrate more than cursorily (and too often annoyingly) into the brief, yet prolific career of its central figure.

Whether you like him or not, Michael Moore's name will be invariably etched into any talk of documentary filmmaking from now until forever. Moore was behind three of the top five grossing documentaries of all time and he's looking to make a sequel to the film that holds the number one spot, Fahrenheit 9/11. Variety reports that Moore will be leaving the Weinstein Co. to make his sequel for Overture Films and Paramount Vantage, which will shop the film for buyers at next year's Cannes Film Festival.

"Dance your cares away, worry's for another day. Let the music play, down at Fraggle Rock." Do you remember that theme song? I know I do. If you're tired of movie studios bastardizing your childhood memories then perhaps you shouldn't read on. If, however, you were one of the many who catapulted Fraggle Rock's DVD sales then this is the story for you. Variety reports that The Weinstein Company will turn Jim Henson's classic 80s series Fraggle Rock into a live-action musical feature film.

Google's FriendConnect is generating a lot of press for a site that doesn't exist. Or at least, that's the case now on Monday afternoon, when google.com/friendconnect returns a 404 error for anyone attempting to see Goog's latest goods.

That hasn't stopped top tech bloggers from evaluating it as much as they can.

A weekly roundup of hot topics and buzz-worthy conversation from the Logic Studio community:

Fisrt off, some Apple laptop users have been dealing with a lot of issues with audio problems as of late. It seems to be an Airport related issue. Peter over at Create Digital Music has posted some fix instructions, so if you are among the troubled, head on over for some digital relief.

 

A weekly roundup of buzzworthy tips, tricks, and topics from the Final Cut Studio community: