Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.
--Twyla Tharp

performed by Bailey Coppola

It was on a night like this
a little babe was born

the Shepards gathered 'round
to guard him 'til the dawn

Above them shown a star
A star so wondrous light

that never since in all these years
have we seen one half so bright

shining so truly
shining so brightly
guiding their footsteps
from above

It lead them through the night

a path to love and brotherhood
by following it's light

Oh come with us tonight
and join us on our way

for we have found again that star
to greet a better day

For though throughout our land
men search the skies in vain

yet tender glance within in their heart
they would fine that star again

Shining so truly
Shining so brightly
Guiding their footsteps
from above

It lead them through the night

A path to love and brotherhood
By following it's light

English translation as sung by
PETE SEEGER

Christmas gift suggestions:

To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.

--Oren Arnold

Can't do it...I lost my voice. I am thinking about how I need to conserve my energy so I don't burnout...I am thinking how we all need to do that for ourselves and our planet. But that's obvious, right?

A southern Italian Christmas Eve meal.

THE MENU

This is the meal I make every year...I do mix up the 13 seafoods depending on what I can get fresh...for example, no periwinkles then I will do green mussels in a sake dill broth.

1st Course:

Calamari, black mussels, conch, eel, monkfish, blue crab, giant prawns, fennel smothered in a thick Sicilian style red wine sauce, then baked.

Steamed whole octopus with white wine and garlic

Whole medium size prawns in Italian beer and butter.

Periwinkles in garlic and oil.

Plenty of sour dough bread for dipping in sauces etc.

Cipollini onions boiled with sea salt and balsamic vinegar.

Broccoli rabe fried with Italian sausage.

2nd Course:

Linguine with little necks, cockles, pignoli nuts, Italian parsley in a white wine sauce.

3rd Course:

Whole lobsters on a bed of large spring onions slowly smoked over chunks of Mesquite wood.

Asparagus with lemon, butter and parmesan cheese

4th Course:

Radicchio, endive, arugula, pomegranate seed, caper, escarole salad with tarragon champagne dressing.

Desert:

Italian lemon ice with fresh mint and cassis.

WINES:

Coppola Pinot Noir
Coppola Chardonney
Davinci Chianti

Millikan Middle School Senoir Band.

Deadfall was not a film making experience I care to remember, but I do enjoy seeing these foreign posters occasionally popping up. This one looks like I did some sort of Russian Svengali Mafia picture. Cool.

Damian used Seb's latest 3D CRC head for this winter wonderland extravaganza.

End of 2007 and predictions for 08:

2007 had some incredible products come out, some of our favorites from Apple were the iPhone, Final Cut Studio 2, iPod Touch, and the new operating system Leopard. How will Apple top itself in 08?

2008 is the last year for Analog TV. This means that the price of HD TV's will drop significantly. Please go to my green electronics to find out how to recycle your old analog TV. It could possibly be the end of broadcast TV as well. More and more people are turning to the Internet for content, and TV's connected to the Internet will be the norm.

2008 will also be the last year of the Desktop PC. I have said it before, the laptop will become the new home PC and mobile Internet devices such as the Nokia N800 Internet tablet will become your new portable PC.

2008 will be an interesting year in the technology race. Everyone will have to upgrade to an HD TV or get a converter box, and most people have some sort of tech gadget that they use everyday. Technology is becoming more and more of a staple in everyday life and no foreseeable future of it slowing down, so embrace it, learn it, and share it with the world.

What is on your Tech gadget wish list?

ONLY BREATH

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam or Eve or any

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved.

--Rumi poem.

Sebastian Pelan's 3D BikerCHEF tests.

When we launch the show next year, I am very interested in having a 3D character as a fun transitional gimmick between scenes. I'd also like to use it as a marketing tool on the internet. I like Seb's work. We just have to make BC look less like a kidney bean, though I am very fond of kidney beans. I think trimming down the fat cheeks and a doorag will help. I do like that I look a tad Mongolian though. Feel free to give Seb some additional feedback as he continues to develop this concept. Remember, SEB'S THE MAN!

A memory of Alice Ghostley. I was saddened to hear she passed away this year. Besides giving me great comfort from her rolls on television as a boy, she was a fantastic singer and musician. She worked with my great Uncle Anton who conducted numerous musicals and operas. She agreed to play a small part in my bizarre, apocalyptic comedy "Palmer's Pickup:an American Roadshow Odyssey", which I consider sort of my "It's a Mad, Mad, World" for the millennium. Her sense of comic timing was virtuosic...it was a great honor and privilege for me to have worked with Ms. Ghostley. I am grateful to have had the experience.

The Nintendo Wii:

The game Wii Sports is not only a fun game for the family but you can actually get some exercise. In this game you can do fitness test to determine your Wii age and if you don't exercise your character gets fat. The interesting thing is this gaming system is not just for kids; you can host a bowling party or play a game of tennis or my favorite, baseball. I had a chance to play against my son and the DigiPostle and while my son plays a lot more than me, and the DigiPostle grew up during the boom of video games, I still knocked more balls out of the Wii park then those two combined. When gaming systems first came out the only thing that you exercised were your thumbs, but I recently read an article about a girl that lost 80 pounds because of Dance Dance Revolution. While you should not let your children veg-out on video games all day, it is nice that they get some exercise during their gaming sessions.

No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.
--Ansel Adams

for more info on the the family restaurants go to the CAFE ZOETROPE webpage.

SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE ARE BIG IN JAPAN, I GUESS I'M BIG IN TURKEY.

OTTO, MICHAEL, IAN...the boys from the past.

They started in my garage working on "Creature of the Sunnyside Up Trailer Park." They convinced Elyse and myself that we should create a post house for the people. They have done so in a very impressive manner. And we are all very proud of them. Congratulations on the HD POST FACILITY open house this upcoming Thursday.

The One Laptop Per Child Program:

In 2002 Nicholas Negroponte a MIT Professor had a vision that if every child in the world had a laptop they could learn and educate themselves. He started in a remote village in Cambodia where in just one year the enrollment in school went up 50 percent, because children were excited about learning. This project sparked the idea for One Laptop Per Child. Negroponte found that it was expensive to supply the children with a laptop each, so he set out to find an economical way to make this happen. He quit MIT and worked tirelessly to create a fully functional state of the art laptop for one hundred dollars. The XO laptop is designed specifically for children, it is durable, water proof, and impervious to the elements. The program is in place in several different countries, and the best part of it is that the children take the laptop home and teach their parents how to use the computer. In many cases the laptop was the only source of light in the house, and they can connect to the Internet.

You can support and learn more about Negroponte and his program by going to http://laptop.org/. There are others doing similar efforts out there such a Microsoft, the difference however is that Microsoft is doing to tap into the 2 billion "potential customers". Negroponte is doing it for the love of educating children all over the world.

The most important thing is, that even if Microsoft is doing it for potentially selfish reasons and Negroponte is doing it for the love, that a lot of children will be getting laptops.

God picks up the reed-flute world and blows.
Each note is a need coming through one of us,
a passion, a longing pain.
Remember the lips
where the wind-breath orginated,
and let your note be clear.
Don't try to end it.
Be your note.
I'll show you how it's enough.

Go up on the roof at night
in this city of the soul.

Let everyone climb on their roofs
and sing their notes!

Sing loud!

--Rumi, great Sufi mystic.
(one of my personal favorites)

the big bang.