Brief Bio for Friends from Virginia

 

This is a very brief non-bio bio for friends and classmates from Virginia.  It is just a way to keep things concise and not have to repeat myself too much and I doubt anyone else will be interested.

I left Collegiate after 10th grade, spent one year at a high school in LA (public, it was awful) and then spent a few years at UCSB and graduated from UCLA in Math and/or Economics.  From there I went to the RAND Corporation which was wonderful, and worked in early computer graphics for visual effects which was "not pleasant" although I did meet some nice people.  Did some early films with the technology, wrote some of the early technology (for which I received an Academy Technical Achievement Award) and worked on some innovative, very early, projects.  I briefly helped run my own production company, deGraf/Wahrman, inc, and when that was over worked on a variety of consulting projects.  Some of these were lots of fun, like the rebuild of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.  If only they could all have been that fun! 

I have lived in Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Hollywood, Colorado and New York City.  I am currently living in Los Angeles with Jill Fraser, a noted pioneer and composer in electronic music.  

I am thinking about going back to school to make something of my life.

Now its your turn.

Other notes: 

-- email sent to kent hudgens, linda linkins, bruce mckenney on 5/7/24

-- I have heard from Paul Sikorovsky, Bucky Neal, and Linda Linkin, Ed Jones, Bob Siff, Chuck Rogers, Charles Strauss and David Clough

What About "What-About-Ism"?

 
I have recently been accused of using "what about ism" as a rhetorical device and I am told in no uncertain terms that it is an unacceptable technique.  This blog post will discuss some of the issues as I attempt to understand what my position will be on this matter.  I may have to change my position after this exercise.

There are several types of "what about ism", I propose, and each of these deserves their own discussion.

In the first case, someone argues "what about <blah>" where <blah> is an assertion of some fact that turns out not be true.  Someone might excuse Donald Trump's criminal activities by saying "What about Hillary Clinton?  She had non-consensual sex with children in pizza parlors".  Obviously this did not happen and so this kind of "what about ism" is or should be invalid.

The second case might be called "the false equivalency".  In this case, someone might argue that sure, Donald Trump abused women but "Hillary Clinton once got a traffic ticket for speeding.  What about that?".   It may be that Hillary was once caught speeding, I have no idea, but it is irrelevant.  Again, easy to dismiss.

The third situation is more problematic.  In this case, the case is made that whoever is making the accusations are guilty of the same crimes or worse and has no moral right to make the accusations.  I see this kind of problem every day of the week, and it is a variation of the aphorism "Let those who are without sin throw the first stone".   In some cases, it might be best if the accuser led by example.

There are far too many examples of this.  It would be tiresome to go over them. 

So what is the conclusion about "what about ism"?  My conclusion is that when used correctly it is a valid way to point out hypocrisy.  Others wont like that and think that it is just a technique for deflecting from the issue at hand.  Both may be true.

Picture courtesy of Mid Journey

On Valerio Street, They Wait for a Customer

 
God forbid, LA or Van Nuys would do anything to help the women who hook for a living on a cold night.  Maybe a coffee shop where they can wait in warmth and have their customers vetted for VD and other issues.  No, not in LA, LA doesn't give a fuck.

Pictures courtesy of MidJourney

Notes on "The Mind's Eye"

In 1987 I was the Producer of the pioneering computer animated short “Stanley and Stella in Breaking the Ice.” It was a showcase for storytelling in the fledgling medium of computer animation. It also featured the recently developed “boids” model of flocking/schooling, and demonstrated the capabilities of graphics products from Symbolics, Inc. A 2023 remastered video can be seen here (https://archive.org/details/stanley-and-stella-in-breaking-the-ice-original-symbolics-tapes-restored-remastered-1080p).

Our animation premiered at the Electronic Theater of the SIGGRAPH 1987 conference. (This was the same year as “Red's Dream” from PIXAR whose “Toy Story” would come out eight years later.) Narrative computer animation was in its infancy.

Then in 1990, a modified version of our animation appeared in a collection called “The Mind's Eye: A Computer Animation Odyssey.” I was reminded of this by an upcoming 2024 screening and presentation in San Francisco: The Mind’s Eye with Steven Churchill (https://grayarea.org/event/the-minds-eye-with-steven-churchill-screening/).

I recalled being surprised back in the 1990s finding our animation included in “The Mind's Eye”, re-titled, re-scored, and stripped of its credits. To the best of my knowledge (and of the rest of the production crew, and Symbolics’ management) the producers of Mind’s Eye never sought nor received permission to use our animation in their compilation. Tom McMahon, General Manger of Symbolics Graphics Division at the time, and Executive Producer of the animation said: “This is water long under the bridge, but back then, we were all astonished to see that without permission, someone had taken our work, repackaged it, and then resold it.”

If anyone knows of any evidence that Symbolics granted permission to use “Breaking the Ice” in “The Mind's Eye” I would be quite interested in seeing it.

One of the awards our film received:

Collegiate Reunion Redux

I sincerely hope that this post and related emails do not annoy my fellow alumni.  If it does, well accept my apologies.

If you attended Collegiate in Richmond, VA then this post is for you.  If you didn't please do us both a favor and go away. 

The reunion at Collegiate last September was a complete screwup for me because I arrived in Richmond (for the first time in REDACTED years) with COVID.  This is not good because I really wanted closure on this part of my life that would only come from 1 on 1 interaction with people who I havent seen for REDACTED years.  This bums me out not least because the organizers worked so hard and with such diligence.

So what I want to do is as follows:  1. Get in touch with whoever I can via the bold new internet and have some minimal interaction, 2. Maybe even have a zoom call with one or two of you, 3. Try to get some answers about some mysteries / questions that I have, 4. Find out what happened to a bunch of our instructors, and finally 5. At some point come back to Richmond and see a few of you as available.

For those of you who wonder what took so long, when I came back from Richmond I was (a) sick, (b) about to enter a medical disaster because of my incompetent doctors (c) about to move from Santa Barbara to LA to move in with my girlfriend, and (d) processing what had happened and what I thought about it.  At the same time, not everyone was willing to reply to my (pathetic?) emails.  And I started processing the Torch and discovered that I remembered all the guys, did not recognize most of the girls, and was completely baffled by a time skew between the boys and girls classes, and was shocked to see I recognized all the instructors.

What happened to them?  Where are they now?  Are any still alive?  And where are you, my fellow students?  What city(-ies) do you live in?  What do you look like?  Married?  Children?  Dogs?  Anyone still in prison?  What?  

So far I am in touch with Chuck Rogers, Chris Conlon, Janie Katzenberg Asch, Ed Jones, Bob Siff and Mary Ellen.

The tag below marked Reunion should link you to any other posts about this.

Please contact me at michael.wahrman@gmail.com and let me know.

Thank you,

MW

Moderate reunion success: email has been sent to Charles Strauss, Lewis Little, Paul Sikorovsky, Buzzy Northen and of course Bob Siff, Mary Ellen, Ed Jones and Chris Conlon.  More to follow.  Let there be a non official official reunion in september.

Knight's Templar and my Friend Speer

 Not everyone who is a right wing Trump supporter is a nut, but Steve Speer sure is.  Stay away from him is my advice.

This is an image of the Knight's Templar courtesy of Midjourney.  That was our topic of discussion.

Drone and Child in Graveyard

 
I tried to get Midjourney to create a picture of a drone using facial recognition on a statue of a child in a graveyard.  I spent very little time on it and I did not get what I wanted.  Still for the amount of time I spent it is not too bad, I think.

Ancient Roman Frescoes with MidJourney and AI

Here are some examples of "ancient roman frescoes" as created with Midjourney.  One is of an inscription foretelling doom, two are of sea creatures, and one is of a Cthulu-like creature from space.  I find that one is much better off to tell MidJourney what kind of style or artist's work to use as a template than to let it default to its own banal choices.

Doom is foretold

Roman fish of some sort

Cthulu, where are you?

My Friend as a Seat Filler at the Academy Awards (tm)

So you attended the Academy Awards(tm) ?


"Yes. As a seat filler. There must have been 100 of us. So to keep the seats full for the camera. 4 of us were assigned the front row center seats where Jack Nicholson always sat, and watched the awards for hairstyling and makeup. They moved us around during commercials as members would go out for a drink or restrooms. My last seat was in the third row next to DeNiro and his wife, and Scorcese was right behind. I had to say hi to both. Jodi Foster and Annette Bening were 2 rows in front and Tim Robbins was right behind. Across the aisle were Billie Eilish and Ryan Gosling, who switched to a pink sequined outfit for his I am Ken extravaganza where he led like 80 men in a synchronized dance. What a strange and transient experience."

Picture by Midjourney

No More Comments on a Facebook Group

I made some pithy comment on a facebook group about "Virtual Beings".  And my comment was removed by the administrator who didn't like it.  So I removed myself from that group and the lesson is learned.  No more comments on Facebook groups.  Total waste of my time.