Five Questions for the cast & crew of the new film Robot & Frank

I had an opportunity to talk with actors Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon as well as director Jake Schreier and screenwriter Christopher D. Ford from the upcoming film Robot & Frank about a retired cat burglar in the near future who is given a robot to aid him with his daily life and increasing memory loss.

The robot in the film seems pretty close to what would soon be possible. Where did you get the inspiration for the actual robot and how did you make it? It’s a character that becomes emotionally important. How do you work with a robot in making it an important character?

Jake Schreier: Yeah, it’s not easy. I mean our inspirations were the ones they’re building for old people [which] tend to follow this kind of spaceman motif and we just kind of followed along with that, and the level of reasoning it’s capable of we may not see in the very near future, but I mean I think you will start to see things that look like him and for that purpose. Even right now there are like these little seals

Oh yeah I’ve seen the robotic baby harp seals, I saw them online.

Jake Schreier: They give them to old people just to watch them form an emotional connection and it helps keep them more active and engaged and just kind of go along with that.

This doesn’t really feel like a film from a freshman director. I know you have commercial experience, but what was it like working with luminous actors like Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon?

Jake Schreier: It’s very easy, you just sort of sit back and they do really good acting and then say ‘that was good’. I remember the first two days on set it was Frank and Susan’s scenes, Susan did three days on the movie and those were the first three, and I just like forgot to direct for the first day and a half cause I was just like “wow, that was really good. I guess do that again” and I was like “I should probably do my job at some point and adjust these things” but yeah I don’t think there’s any way we could have gotten it done without [Frank and Susan].

Frank Langella: Well, he had to put a lot of work into convincing me that it was going well because I kept saying “this is a disaster, this is never going to work, nobody will understand this, this, this plot point doesn’t work, I’m lousy in this, my accent’s changing” he had to keep telling me “no you’re good, come on out” that’s what he had to keep doing.

Frank, this movie is really about memory and I know you get really into character. What was it like dealing with the fears of losing your memory, as a person who is of that age when it becomes a possibility?

Frank Langella: Well, I don’t have that fear yet, I haven’t had any trouble with it yet. I was once in an award ceremony where an actress said I wanted to thank my hairdresser and my makeup man for getting me out there and I had already gotten my award but if I had to follow her I would have said I’d like to thank my ego but I don’t have any memory troubles yet- other things are going, I just had cataract surgery so I can see you really clearly but so far I can still remember my address and all the essential things. If it starts, I’ll stop acting, if I don’t have breath and I don’t have energy, I won’t work in the theater anymore [but] you can do very well in films for a long time even if you are decrepit, they can wheel me.

Frank, you wrote the book that everyone’s afraid to write (Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them) and it was fascinating with that kind of honesty but did you get a big backlash from it?

Frank Langella: You know, I must say I was prepared for it, it’s four months practically today, I kept waiting for an angry letter from Mel Brooks, nope, not a word. It’s all been “God I wish I said that,” “I knew him when he was like that,” “you had the courage to say things about people.” I didn’t mean them in a mean way I just said those are my perceptions, so no I haven’t had any backlash.

Susan, I wanted to ask you about marriage. As someone who’s been in a long term relationship, it seems like not getting married is becoming more of a trend. I know that you’ve spoken out and said you didn’t really believe in marriage anymore.

Susan Sarandon: No I believe in marriage for other people, I just never have really liked the idea of institutionalized religion, but I mean I think if it means something, I think it’s great. I think everyone should be able to get married and if you know I think it’s a good party. For me, I just think it’s nice to wake up- now he’s in relationship, (speaking about screenwriter Christopher D Ford), I shouldn’t say this, but he’s engaged so you can ask him, why are you engaged?

Christopher D Ford: Because I want to be married.

Susan Sarandon: Why do you want to be married?

Christopher D Ford: Because I want to be in a family with my girlfriend.

Susan Sarandon: Which means being married. Yeah I think it depends on what it means to you.

Do you think it’s changing, because gay marriage certainly brought up a lot of different issues?

Susan Sarandon: I think more people are getting married more not less. I was married in my 20’s for a brief period of time so as not to get kicked out of school. When I had my first child out of wedlock, I wasn’t married to any of the guys I had children with. That at the time was a major, major thing. Now it’s not such a big deal so I think that has changed. It seems to me more people are interested in getting married younger and I think it’s a really great way to publicly discuss your commitment and it’s a great party. I think the trap of a long term relationship is taking each other for granted and some people when they seal the deal kind of stop trying, they’ve done it, they’ve caught the person, they’ve found the person, they’ve made the contract and then it takes so much work to be in relationship for a long time. It’s just so wonderful to be in one, I’ve always been in committed relationships for long periods of time and if being married makes you commit to trying to improve your skill set and keep that going I think it’s great.

Robot & Frank Opens in Theaters August 17, 2012.
From: Short & Sweet NYC

Interview with actor/director Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner started acting early in the footsteps of his father Carl and eventually landed the role as Michael ‘Meathead’ Stivic on All In The Family, which earned him two Emmy awards. He went on to develop into a writer and director with a string of Oscar-nominated movies such as: This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, Stand By Me, and A Few Good Men. His new film, The Magic Of Belle Island stars Morgan Freeman and opens in theaters this week.


So I have to start off by asking about Nora Ephron who passed away recently, you are so associated with her because of your work together on When Harry Met Sally so I just wanted to ask you about what it was like working with her and how she’ll be remembered.

Well, she’s going to be remembered as one of the greatest most brilliant observers of men and women and that awkward wonderful dance we do with each other. She was a joy to work with. I mean she’s funny and aside from the fact that she’s brilliant and added so much to all of the work, she was also fun to be with. I mean she made every meal an experience. She ordered just the way Sally did in the movie and she did it one day [while] we were working on the script and we were at lunch and she was ordering like that and I thought- Nora do you see yourself? Look at how you order? I said we gotta put that in the film. I said we gotta make that part of the character and she said ok and we put it in there. When Harry says she orders a meal in a way the chef didn’t know how good it was going to be, that is the way Nora was. She loved to have dinner parties either at her house when she was cooking or at a restaurant and she always loved to order things for people and she loved their reaction to eating them because she got such pleasure out of life. She loved to almost orchestrate each meal, you know, and so you had a great time and a lot of fun and the food was great and the conversation was always good. It was always fun and smart and one of the great thrills was getting an invitation to a Nora Ephron dinner party because you knew you were gonna have a great time and so I miss her for all those reasons.

Ah, that’s fantastic! You know you mention that famous “I’ll have what she’s having” scene from the film, which made an iconic place even more iconic.

Oh Katz’s, you know, you can go to that place, you can sit at that table, there’s a sign there that tells you that table that Harry and Sally ate at.

Yeah, I was there the other day and everyone still comes in and takes pictures with the sign, what made you choose Katz’s?

Oh, I don’t know, it was one of the most famous delis. We always thought we’d do the scene in a deli, you know, just the idea of her faking an orgasm in a public place, and so you know Katz’s is a great famous deli and so we thought we’d do it there.

That’s great. Well one of the things you’re particularly good at is romantic comedies with equal parts romance and comedy and as a man I never feel embarrassed walking into one: When Harry Met Sally and The Princess Bride. Your new movie The Magic of Belle Island is a lot like that, I was wondering, you have a major star in Morgan Freeman and a great young actress Emma Fuhrmann and it seems like it would have plenty of appeal, I was just wondering why it’s an independent film?

Well because this is the kind of movie that studios are not making at all right now. Studios are only interested in big action franchise tent pole kind of movies, comic book type movies with a lot of visual effects and R rated raunchy comedies. I mean basically those are the only two types of films they make, so everything else you either have to finance independently, very low budget like this one was or go and try to sell foreign presales for like, thrillers. You know, the next one I’m gonna do is a thriller and we’ll have to sell all the foreign rights ahead of time to finance it because the studios are not interested in these kind of films anymore, but they get made and people like them. You know for me as a filmmaker I just wanna tell stories and whatever the best way to finance, that’s what I try to do. I’m not trying to say okay, well studios are only interested in this kind of movie so therefore I’m going to make that kind of movie. I would do it if the story was something interesting to me but I like this story because it’s very similar to what I did with The Bucket List. It’s about you know, embracing life when you don’t have, when you think that that’s all life has to offer. It’s about a guy who’s given up and just like the guys in Bucket List, they realize we only have a short time left, so let’s try to live it as best we can. That’s what this is, it’s about a guy who’s given up on life and he learns to live again because he finds these people that live next door to him in this lake side community. To me, when I turned 60, I started becoming very aware of my own mortality and you have to embrace life and unless you’re Shirley MacLaine, you don’t get another shot at this, so that’s why the story interested me and I didn’t really care whether or not studios would make it because to me, I just wanna tell the stories that I want to tell, you know.

Thanks to Netflix I was watching the first season of Saturday Night Live the other day and you’re in one of those first episodes, and it made me realize that you were like “Mr. 70’s” between All in the Family and I know you wrote the first episode of Happy Days and you had all that stuff going on. What was it like at that time? Did you embrace that tremendous fame?
 
Well, I’ve always tried to. I learned this from my dad and from Norman Lear. They found a way to express themselves through their work and also to, you know, express political ideas and social ideas through the work and outside the work and have the work inform your real life and have your real life inform the work. That’s what I’ve always tried to do and I was lucky to get with All in the Family. You know we did a lot, we got a lot of people talking.

Yeah, that was an amazing show and then you went on into the 80’s to the 90’s with a string of successful films that are just tremendous: Spinal Tap, A Few Good Men, Misery, The American President, and one of my all-time favorites, Stand By Me.

Oh thank you, that’s my favorite of all the ones that I’ve done.

Is it really? I know that you named your production company Castle Rock after Stephen King’s town. What was it like working with Stephen?

You know, he was a pleasure because once we had done Stand By Me he, at the time, he said this was the best thing that had ever been done of his work [and] he was more than happy to work with us and we did Misery after that. We did seven Stephen King movies and he would always go to us first with his projects because he felt it would be in good hands. We did a couple of supernatural things, but most of the pictures we did of his work were more character based you know, Stand By Me and Misery and even though it was a thriller it was more of a character thriller and certainly Shawshank Redemption and Dolores Claiborne and so on. He’s such a brilliant writer, I mean he’s so underrated because you know, I think people get tricked by the fact that there’s horror or there’s supernatural but if you look underneath it all he writes great characters. I mean the dialogue is sensational and the characters are great so we always had a great relationship because he always respected that we were not going to mess up his books.

That’s terrific. That one book of novellas with Stand By Me and Shawshank Redemption is amazing. Those are two of the best films of all time.

And they both come out of the same collection of short stories; those two stories were both in a collection called Different Seasons.

Yeah it’s pretty tremendous. So I wanted to ask you, looking back on your career, you’ve done all these things, you’ve won Emmys, you’ve had the number one TV show, you’ve had all these successful films, what’s your thoughts looking back on your career now, what is your advice?

Well you know, for anybody, try to find something that you really love to do that you are good at and it can’t just be one or the other. In other words, if you are really good at something but you don’t enjoy doing it then don’t do it and you really enjoy doing something but you are not good at it then don’t do it either because you’ll ultimately be unhappy. Find something that you really love doing and your good at it and just do it and follow your own instincts about things, I mean, you can’t look at other people. That’s never going to help. You just have to go your own way. Always find your own way but find the thing that you are really passionate about that you care about and that you are good at and it doesn’t matter what it is and it doesn’t have to be show business, it could be flipping pizzas, I don’t care what it is, if you really enjoy it. Ultimately it is all about process, about the time we spend on the planet, it’s all the journey, it all the getting to, you know, there is no end result to any of it except death you know? So it’s all process so when I make a film or do anything I just want to enjoy what it is that I’m doing, because the experience of making the film is what you look back on. You don’t think about is this good or bad or what is it, did people like it, didn’t like it, the critics they liked it, they didn’t like it, did it get an award, it didn’t get an award. None of that stuff matters because it’s all the process of doing, just doing it, getting up every day and doing this thing and enjoying it if you can, then that’s all there is and then at the end when you’re done then you won’t be doing that anymore.

You know you work as an actor, a director, and as a writer. How different is the process as a creative person? Is it similar in a sense or not really?

Well, I try to take my experiences as an actor, I started as an actor, and try to inform all the work that I do. I don’t ever put an actor in a position that I’m asking him to do something that I knew I couldn’t do. I’m not the best actor in the world, I’m not the worst but I know if I can do it then I know another actor can do it so when I’m working on a script it’s always with that in mind and how it’s ultimately going to be performed. I mean the thing about being a director is you’re like a jack of all trades, a master of none- kind of good at a lot of little things, not great at anything because there’s somebody who can shoot it better, there’s people better with music, there’s people who are better actors, better whatever, but you have a good sense of all of it. You bring your entire life’s experience and all of your abilities to bear on the job and hopefully you have some good instincts and you can make some decisions because that’s what it is, you have a million decisions to make and if you have good instincts then you can do it, you know, you don’t have to be great at any of these things but you have to be kind of good at it or at least have a working knowledge of all these different aspects of film making. I try to bring them all together when I do it and for me acting is just fun, I mean it’s just a fun thing to do, but directing is more all encompassing.



For: Short&SweetNYC

Interview with Actor and Director James Franco

From the short-lived series Freaks and Geeks to the blockbuster Spiderman trilogy to his surprising role on the soap opera General Hospital, actor James Franco has kept audiences entertained and interested over the past decade. That’s aside from gaining multiple Master’s degrees from different prestigious universities and his work as an artist and writer. I recently sat down with the prolific 33 year old to discuss his theatrical directorial debut The Broken Tower about the gay poet Hart Crane as well as his process and fears and here's the result, the full interview can be found on Short&SweetNYC.

This American Life Live 5.10.2012

 Thursday night's This American Life live show at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City exceeded all expectations and that's saying something because the expectations were pretty high but host Ira Glass assembled an amazing show featuring guest such as: the amazing Monica Bill Barnes & Company and Snap Judgment host Glynn Washington as well as two of my favorite writers ever David Sedaris, who showed up in a clown mask, and David Rakoff who turned the tragic loss of his arm into a wonderfully brave moment as he broke into a choreographed dance while performing his new piece.

Comic Tig Notaro also had a wonderful moment after telling a great story about meeting singer Taylor Dayne who then stepped out onstage and sang to her.

The band OK Go performed one of the coolest audience participation songs I've ever witnessed after creating an iPhone and Android app that the audience downloaded we played along with them following cues on the screen.

Also comic Mike Birbiglia presented a terrific short film by featuring NPR icon and Fresh Air host Terri Gross which you can watch below, I love the premise!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!

5 Questions for the director and star of Kill the Irishman

I recently had a chance to talk with some of the director and star of the new film Kill the Irishman. Here’s a short interview with director Jonathan Hensleigh who produced films such as: Gone in Sixty Seconds and Con Air and was the screenwriter for films such as: Jumanji, Die Hard with a Vengeance, and Armageddon and actor Ray Stevenson who you might know from his roles as: Titus Pullo in the HBO series Rome, Frank Castle/The Punisher in Punisher: War Zone, or as Roger Wesley, the private security guard who strips Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg of their weapons and shoes in The Other Guys. Both of these figures have had a good deal of success despite getting into the industry late so I spoke to them about the experience, their future, and the film which opened this weekend in New York.

Jonathan Hensleigh
I read that you started out as a lawyer and segued into a writer, how difficult was that process? Had you always wanted to be a screenwriter and director?

It’s been so long since I made the transition, I wanted to write professionally but when I was 18, 19, 20 I lacked the courage and I didn’t, I knew it was hard to break in and I didn’t want to spend those years of my life trying to do that, I didn’t follow my calling out of fear so I took the easier route. I practiced law for a couple of years and then I reached a stage of maturity and a financial state that I could make the transition and I did.

It’s really amazing, very encouraging.

Oh, well cheers!? I did it a little later in life.

Do you think that makes a difference in your work? That you were ready for it?
Yeah, absolutely. I think that I was, I broke in when I was 31 and I didn’t go to film school, I didn’t do anything, I just sat down and started writing scripts and screen plays. I had written a novel, I had written a three act stage play but I had not written screenplays. I just immersed myself and went after it.

How much did you think about the genre of gangster films while working on this because this film sort of fits in the genre in an interesting way? When I was thinking about the movie Goodfellas certainly came to mind but Kill The Irishman has its own place in this blue collar, “soda bread gangster” way that I haven’t seen before. Did you think a lot about the genre?

Yeah, you can’t not think about it, it’s impossible to make a picture like this and not have it in the back of your mind and it has been dominated by Martin Scorsese for good reason, you know the pictures are extraordinary. The pictures that Marin Scorsese has made about organized crime in this county are considered some of the finest films ever made in America so it’s daunting, it’s challenging you know but you gotta make a move so if I did anything to create a movie that stands on its own, I’m proud. I do think that Kill The Irishman does have, has a unique tone, I do and I think that it has a very, very nice set of performances by all the wonderful ensemble cast that you don’t see every day.

In this film was there a concern at all that you might have glorified Danny Greene too much?

Yes, yes and that was part of the internal debate and because there were a number of people in Cleveland, remember this didn’t happen that long ago so there are people that Dan Greene’s violent actions harmed who are alive and well in Cleveland, and Danny Greene was a violent man, he was a murderer but there is a duality to the human character at times. He is also a man who did subsidize the education of orphan children in Collinwood, he did pass out 50 turkeys on Christmas and 50 turkeys on Thanksgiving, it sounds quaint but these were acts of kindness that were very appreciated in those impoverished neighborhoods, so it really happened, you know, these are historically confirmed facts and we just tired to strike a balance I guess.

Ray Stevenson
You started acting a little later than most people, how hard was it to break in for you and how much does that change your mentality when approaching a role?

Well, it was the right time for me, I think early on when I would go to some audition meetings and I’d recognize everybody I lost jobs to people who are more recognized and indeed it still happens now where the money people will say “yeah but we want Nick Cage for this job because he’s going to bring us the box office”. That’s the nature of the business you know, you just gotta maintain your faith and know if it’s right. Acting is not a competition, it’s just got different rules and any business is the same- businesses make decisions for one reason or another, not [always] because this is the right product, like beta max, beta max was a far better system than VHS, but VHS won the war, you know it won the marketing campaign and now where’s VHS? But the people made their money from it so if you were a DVD back in VHS days, you’d [say] “why can’t they see how brilliant I am?” One day! Just suck it up and get on with it and enjoy your career that you’re having, cause that’s the one you’re having not the one you think you should be having
But you gotta be happy now, I mean this movie really showcases your talent.
Oh yeah, I’m very happy, it’s great, I’ve been able to keep myself busy for the next couple of years and I have a good body of work behind me. I’ve worked with some great people which it’s all about and I’ve got the biggest production happening in 3 weeks time, my second boy, yeah so talk about productions, that’s a big production, boom!

What other new projects do you have coming?

Three Musketeers in 3D is coming out at the end of the year, Paul Anderson directed it and it’s going to be a lot of fun, all sorts of flashing swords and everything and I get to bring my poor-thoughted- sexiness with a tendency toward violence. I know it sounds cliché, we’re fielding a few things at the minute, I’m at that position now where, it’s who I work with next and what we get involved with, it’s nice, it’s a great position to be in. I’ve got enough work now where people can see that I can change between- it’s not like in the next movie he wears a blue suit- Ken Branagh said (while filming Thor) “I know you’re a big strapping lad but I’m going to put you in a big fat suit you’ll be great!” My agent’s going “you know people won’t recognize you, what if they don’t recognize you?” I said, “I don’t give a damn!” I said who else is going to give me a chance to put on a big fat suit and ham it up! Right? It’s what we’ve been aiming for, now the industry out there in LA, they know me, moviemakers know me, it’s seeing what’s going to come next, who knows? I could play a midget, I’m classically trained, if they make everyone really big around me, it could be done. Will Ferrell played Elf, you never know, it could be a lady, a very tall, deep voiced lady, who knows, but it’s been great, it does veer from feast to famine that’s the nature of the beast. It’s good, I support my family and do what I love to do and that’s sort of the biggest complement you can ever get from life, that you get to do it.


For: Short & Sweet NYC

Tim Needles: Renaissance Man (366 Days of the Year)

Here's a three part article that was recently written about me by Louis Lasser IV, a very creative artist in his own right, for the Long Island Examiner. It's strange to see you life in third person but it's cool so I thought I'd share.

Tim Needles: Renaissance Man (366 Days of the Year)

Tim Needles: The Oak Tree Metaphor

Tim Needles Loves Art (and Art Reciprocates)


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The Best Music of 2009 according to Tim Needles

It's coming to the end of another year so here's a little wrap up of some of my favorites. of 2009:

Top 5 Music Videos of 2009


1)Beast- "Mr.Hurricane" (dir. Ben Steiger-Levine)
The only thing I hate about this video is that I didn't make it


2)Oren Lavie- "Her Morning Elegance" (dir. Yuval and Merav Nathan with Oren Lavie)
I teach pixilation, I love pixilation


3)Chairlift- "Evident Utensil" (dir. Ray Tintori)
One of the most innovative music videos in a long time, a long time...


4)Grizzly Bear- "Two Weeks"(dir. Patrick Daughters)
The shots are just so strange, it works


5)Bob Dylan- "Beyond Here Lies Nothin'" (dir. Nash Edgerton)
Who who think of such a violent, loving side of Dylan?

Top Songs of 2009
1)“Daylight”- Matt & Kim
2)“Nothing To Worry About”- Peter, Bjorn, & John
3)“My Girls”- Animal Collective
4)“The Rake’s Song”- The Decemberists
5)“Baby Boomer”- Monsters Of Folk
6)“Hanuman”- Rodrigo y Gabriela
7)“Snookered”- Dan Deacon
8)“Shampoo”- Elvis Perkins In Dearland
9)“What Would I Want? Sky”- Animal Collective
10)“Animal”- Miike Snow
11)“Stand By Me”- Playing For Change
12)“Fangala”- Here We Go Magic
13)"Make Her Say"- Kid Cudi (feat. Kanye West & Common)
14)"Relator"- Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
15)“Fitz and the Dizzyspells”- Andrew Bird
16)“1901”- Phoenix
17)“Birds Fly Away”- Theresa Andersson
18)"Two Weeks"- Grizzly Bear
19)"Kandi"- One Eskimo
20)"Party in the USA"- Miley Cyrus
21)“Just Breathe”- Pearl Jam
22)“Run This Town”- Jay Z (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West)
23)“I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight”- U2
24)“My Night with the Prostitute from Marseilli”- Beirut
25)“Home”- Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
26)“Cousins”- Vampire Weekend
27)“You’re a Cad”- The Bird & The Bee
28)“The Trapeze Swinger” - Iron & Wine
29)“Ain't No Rest For The Wicked”- Cage The Elephant
30)“Bad Fever” - The Asteroids Galaxy Tour
31)"Pink and Glitter”- Tori Amos
32)“Islands"- The XX
33)“Mean Monsoon” - Dan Auerbach
34)“Dog Days are Over”- Florence & the Machine
35)“Darling”- Zee Avi
36)“Satellite Skin”- Modest Mouse
37)“Empire State of Mind”- Jay Z (feat. Alicia Keys)
38)“One Love”- Playing For Change
39)“Thunder” – Matisyahu
40)“Say Hey (I Love You)”- Michael Franti & Spearhead (feat. Cherine Anderson)

Tim’s Top Albums of 2009
1) Merriweather Post Pavilion- Animal Collective
2) Monsters of Folk- Monsters of Folk
3) Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix- Phoenix
4) Songs Around The World- Playing For Change
5) March of the Zapotec/Holland- Beirut
6) Bromst- Dan Deacon
7) Elvis Perkins In Dearland- Elvis Perkins In Dearland
8) Grand- Matt & Kim
9) 11:11- Rodrigo y Gabriela
10) Up from Below- Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
11) Veckatimest- Grizzly Bear
12) Together Through Life- Bob Dylan
13) Noble Beast- Andrew Bird
14) I and Love and You- The Avett Brothers
15) Break Up- Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
16) Hummingbird, Go!- Theresa Andersson
17) Hold Time- M.Ward
18) Living Thing- Peter, Bjorn, & John
19) Miike Snow- Miike Snow
20) The Hazards of Love- The Decemberists

My first music video...

Watch more Yahoo! Music videos on AOL Video

Here's the very first music video I worked on for Walt Mink back in 1997 complete with my "big college hair" cameo.

Tim Needles Project 366- 10 Days Left

There's only 10 days left of the year and my photographic experiment, Project 366, is nearly over. I've been taking a picture using only my point and shoot Nikon Coolpix everyday this year and posting them to my website. It's taught me to be a better photographer while occasionally driving me a bit mad. I was honored to have a few of the photos published especially having one chosen to be included in the Photographer's Forum 2008 Best of Photography Annual. Check out the results here and let me know what you think- I'm almost there!: Tim Needles Project 366

Illustration Friday: Balloon Monster

Fresh Art Show Preview

Sunday is the last big Fresh art show of the summer at Painters Gallery and Restaurant in Brookhaven and here's a short preview of the new pixilated film I'll be showing. There are a huge number of cool local artists and musicians so come stop by and check it out!

Jaymay live at the Bowery Ballroom 6.10.2008

I reviewed Jaymay's solo show earlier this week for the indie-rock blog Kevchino. If you haven't heard her stuff yet make a point to listen to saome of the tracks off her new album here: Jaymay music

New York to Norman Rockwell

I've been out traveling lately and going into the city quite a bit. Here are a few of my latest photos- Colin Meloy of the Decemberists was pretty entertaining in Brooklyn, I bumped into a silent rave in Union Square, and the rest are from my trip through the Berkshires. I made pit stops at the Norman Rockwell museum, Cooperstown to see the baseball hall of fame, and to Wookstock. I'll be putting up a new travel story on my website about it this week. The rest are up on my project:366 on my website.

Project 365

I started a project 365 (taking a photo everyday in 2008.) You can check it out on my website here: Project 365

A Winter Wonderland

I love the holidays but I hate the stress... here's the holiday card I was working on.

Tim

Illustration Friday: (re) Discovery

Often the nature of discovery is actually re-discovery.

New England

I traveled on the New London ferry back to Orient Point last night on my trip back from Boston . It was a beautiful trip across the Long Island Sound at sunset. It brought out the nostalgia in me. I love New England: the places, the smells, the food, the people. Living on Long Island can be all suburbs sometimes but some of that New England spirit still resides here and I love it.

Dirty Water

I just returned from a week long trip to Boston. The city has changed a bit from what I remember when I went to school there in the nineties but it was fun to be back. I was working with Adobe on their Youth Voices program and I met a bunch of terrific artists and educators. There were a few visitors from London in the group and one of them actually went swimming in the Charles river. She survived and lives to tell about it.

Illustration Friday: Geek

I always think it's funny when I see people's out of focus photographs.

(P.S. - Sorry to drag you into this Stan, I love your work)