A friend of mine, Robb Wolf, also happens to be one of the top experts in the nation on Paleo nutrition. If you haven’t heard of it, it also goes by the name, “Cave Man Diet,” and essentially includes eating foods that our bodies are genetically adapted to eating and digesting. I just completed a simple interview with him shot on green screen to help promote the book.

I really enjoy producing public service announcements for the Butte Environmental Council. Each one has been effective,  creative and fun. And the folks that work at BEC are passionate about the campaign and keep coming up with great ideas for new ways to get the message out about the dangers of using common household chemicals and how easy it is to replace them with effective (and cheaper) alternatives.

This one, titled, “Toxic Trails,” highlights the problem of using both outdoor and indoor chemicals for common chores such as weed control and floor cleaning. In fact any chemical, such as aerosols and surface cleaners, leave residues that can harm young children who spend the better part of their day wiggling around on the floor (ah, the good old days).

Thanks to our wonderful actors who hit their marks and cried on cue; Candace, Ryan, Cadence, Oliver and Maggie (the Great Dane).

Michael Agliolo is one of the country’s (if not the world’s) most creative image makers, and I’m very lucky to call him my friend.  He’s just put together a few of his provocative images in a short montage that I had to share here. In fact, he’s looking into providing a new type of online interactive instruction where people interested in learning how to create this type of cool concept art can learn from the master himself instead of an inflexible tutorial. I’ll let you know when he does…I’m signed up already!

I had the opportunity to review the groundbreaking  new suite of media tools from Adobe, CS5 Production Premium, for Videomaker Magazine. For the last month I’ve been testing what I really believe is a revolutionary upgrade. For certain key tasks, like editing multiple layers of HD video, I’m seeing between five an ten fold increases in performance. When was the last time THAT happened in a mere dot upgrade? Check out my full review at Videomaker.

For the past several years, I’ve been working under contract providing both photography and videography for one of the country’s largest water infrastructure projects. The Freeport Water Authority is a joint agency that has been coordinating the development and construction of an intake facility and pipeline that will provide both the greater Sacramento area and East Bay Municipal Water District customers with new access to fresh water from the Sacramento River.

Today was the ribbon cutting and I was hired to shoot stills of the grand opening featuring speeches from local, state and national dignitaries. In fact, if anyone was counting, I think there were about 14 speakers. Yes, this was a big deal and the media coverage was impressive. I haven’t been in a news gaggle like this since my reporting days in the ’80s.

In the thick of it (in middle, wearing watch) shooting the FRWA news event

As part of their ongoing Alternative to Toxics campaign, the Butte Environmental Council hired me to create a 30-second PSA that simply illustrated a startling fact; that the household cleaning products we use everyday are not tested by the government like most of us believe. The EPA does not, in fact, test everything we use. It’s actually left up to the manufacturers themselves! Sound like a fox/hen house deal to you? Yeah, me too.

So I was happy when they asked me to do this ad. There are a good deal of arcane facts that we could have spewed in 30-seconds, but most would quickly be forgotten. What struck me was that by leaving the toxics testing up to the manufacturers all of us (the consumers) effectively become little white mice in a lab. So that’s the thinking that drove the development of this creative. Show a mouse on a wheel, as if during a trial of some sort, cut this with alternating shots of pseudonyms of popular  household cleaning products (those were fun to make), and sparsely pepper with a few key facts.

I think we did it. Although, if seeing cute mice close-up  makes you at all queasy, you might want to skip this one!

PZ Myers gives a small group lecture and Q & A

Prominent biologist, prolific blogger and advocate for free thought, PZ Myers, arrived in Chico yesterday afternoon to energize local skeptics and, at the same time, kick back a couple fine local beers. His visit was coordinated by CSUC’s Secular Student Alliance and about 20 people attended, including several members from the Chico Skeptics. The location and time of the informal visit were not made available until earlier the same day so attendance was much lower than a celebrity of PZ’s caliber would normally draw. That meant, however, that everyone in attendance got an incredible opportunity to rub shoulders with, and ask question of, one of the world’s leading popularizers of science and critical thinking.

During his talk, PZ answered questions about his upcoming book that will likely be available before the end of the year. Of course, he covered topics ranging from creationist arguments, politics, evolution, insights into biology and much more.

The meeting took place at the Graduate, a locale not known for high-profile lectures or great acoustics. So after asking the management to turn the music down just a little, and getting his permission, PZ graciously allowed us to record his Q&A session with professional audio gear. Despite the distracting noise surrounding him, we were able to select the right microphones and Sound Design field recorder to make PZ even more intelligible than he was live. Link to the file is below.

Give it a listen!

PZ Myers Talks in Chico .mp3

Lou finished his incredible 108.5 hour all out performance this past Monday evening, just shy of the world record by 11.5 hours.  He played all the songs as they were meant to be played rather than just tapping out a light rhythm to make a goal. The result was what has to be the longest REAL drumming performance in history.

As part of his support team, I quickly put together and participated in (part 2) a live USTREAM broadcast where Lou explained all the work that went into his herculean effort as well as giving away some behind the scenes secrets. The broadcast is in two parts if you missed the live show.

Part 1

Part 2

A friend of mine, Lou Mars, not only operates SmartWebSales.com, but he also is a professional drummer. In fact right now, he is attacking the world record for marathon drumming right here in Chico, CA. You can follow his progress and cheer Lou on here; http://www.ustream.tv/channel/lou-mars-world-record

Or check out some pics of his continuing attempt:

http://www.brianpetersonphotography.com/Client_Proofs/Lou_Mars_Record/

The drum set on the right (the gray one) will be raffled off at the end of the attempt. Tickets are only one dollar and all proceeds will go to the charity Little Kids Rock, an organization that gives instruments and music lessons to needy children.

Lou and I met again today to discuss the challenges of getting the word out about raising awareness of the Little Kids Rock charity portion of this record attempt. This is an incredible effort to bring music back into budget-stricken school curriculums. We’ll soon be looking at developing public service announcements as one method of letting people know how they will be contributing to this cause by purchasing raffle tickets for the chance to win a new  Dixon drum kit.

Dixon Drum kit Prize for Charity

If you’d like to purchase raffe tickets to support Litte Kids Rock, contact Lou Mars or me.