Unofficial Tex Murphy

Alright this is more or less a jumble of thoughts as I thought each would be unworthy as a post. However once brought together, they are still unworthy of a post. Oh well I haven't said anything in a while so here's what's on my mind.

-- Lake Superior is friggin’ HUGE! I never realized it but I recently went on a video shoot and it dawned on me from one end of the lake to the other (Canadian side) it's almost a full 9 hour drive! That's at highway speed! At 90 kph (55 mph for our American friends) it took 9 freakin’ hours just to drive from one end of the lake to the other! That's a whole day (work day anyway)!

I have lived in the area my whole life and have never really thought about how big it was. I was more worried about keeping moose off my bumper to care about duration. Oh, for the record there are a TON of moose on this highway. Usually this results in a ridiculous amount of accidents and deaths yearly from tourists unaware of the danger. Some even want to see the moose, but I warn everyone I see that, “no you don’t,” at least not on the highway anyway. Everyone thinks that they are like a deer and will just do moderate damage to a vehicle but these things are HUGE. Imagine a bull . . . except taller (they even call them bulls and cows). Now imagine hitting that at highway speed. I’ve driven this highway so much that I have seen accidents almost everyday, and the vehicle is usually not salvageable afterwards. Basically the reason is that a moose’s legs clear the entire hood of your car and that leaves the whole heavy part of the moose to go through your windshield. Wipers just don’t help at that point.

Here I will share some of the only images of a moose that I have. They were taken by a buddy last winter, it’s some shots of a pack of wolves taking down a moose, which is also impressive. I’ve never seen that before. Warning it’s a little graphic. Also noteworthy our wolves are bigger than the average dog too so if that helps a little with the issue of scale. Oh wait here's a better example, I almost hit a wolf with my car once and it was over the hood of my car in height too but just slightly.



Now, where was I? Oh yeah the lake is big. If you don’t believe me check out an atlas and compare it to wherever you live.

-- Next topic. Does anyone have sounds from the Tex games? I saw the sound program file in the competition thread but I was just wondering if anyone has sounds of the speeder or of anything in the sound effect department. I am making a 3D Tex video which I doubt will make it in time for entry into the contest but I am gonna finish it regardless just as a test for myself. Basically I am making a video to the Bay Chase song so I need speeder sounds and anything else that would go with that. Right now I am building San Francisco and it’s eating a lot of time, especially considering that I have never even seen the place. Thank you Google Earth.

-- St. Vivus, I have to put the trailer/song on hold for a bit. I attempted to re-shoot my video but my crew left me high and dry so for the time being I have cancelled the project. I will eventually edit a trailer together from existing footage but for the time being I am bitter and don’t even wanna look at it right now, but I will get back to you at a later time. I may have another project in the meantime if you’re interested. I will keep you posted when I know what is going on myself.

Those pics tell it the way it is in your neck of the woods, Stu. I've been a fan and many time visitor to Michigan's UP and the Superior coastline is nothing short of spectacular. Never been on the Canadian side, so thanks for the pics.

I'm like JTOG. Been to the U.P. many times, but not north of Superior. I have a friend with a cabin on the north side, but he hasn't been able to talk me in to going up there yet. Part of the reason, as you well know, is that it takes so dang long to get there!

By the way, it wasn't clear from your note which direction you were going. From West to East or East to West. Where abouts in Canada do you live? If you don't want to get too specific, which province?

Actually it's funny you ask. Ontario encompasses the entire lake. Actually all the great lakes, except for Lake Michigan. Keep in mind the provinces are fairly large. It both has polar bears yet shares a latitude with California. Just barely but it does. I came from Northern Ontario. My hometown is Wawa Ontario. I grew up there and opted to leave as there are not many movie opportunities in a town of 3700 people. Which is also kind of ironic as the same year that I left to go to college they decided to shoot a movie there starring Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman and Carrie-Anne Moss. *cough* People were trying to convince me to come back and help out on the movie but I wasn't gonna buy that. I left for a reason and I am sticking with that. If anyone is interested in seeing the trailer for the movie they can check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvOryJTjAKM

This will give you an idea what my home looks like. Literally, they have a shot with Sigourney and Alan just outside my friggin' apartment. Had I lived there still I would have been IN the movie (afterall I WAS the film industry in Wawa). If you watch you will see a Greyhound bus parked outside a store called "Mariette's" and my old apartment was above there. It's a tad surreal to see Hollywood outside my doorstep. Anyway take a gander at the trailer and you will have an idea of what the hometown looks like. If anyone is interested I have a funny story to go along with that after they watch it.

Oh and for the record I haven't seen the movie yet so if you have, don't let me know anything about it. Also the statue of the goose is because Wawa means flying goose or land of the flying goose (can't remember) so we have a statue pointing out that fact. If you have ever driven the Canadian side of Lake Superior you've gone right by it. Oh yeah and there is no McDonald's in Wawa so I would really like to know how they worked that into the script.

Oh Yeah for the record I drive a 95 Ford Taurus so if you're REALLY interested in how tall that wolf was it just slightly came over hood by the driver's side wheel well. Not much of a car buff but I am sure someone is and can figure out that height. Either that or someone is a detective and can figure it out. It was perhaps the biggest wolf I'd ever seen, however it was also the closest to one that I had ever been too.

Ha ha ha ha, I'm a loser, I'm the only one responding to my own post. Meh, if people are at least checking it out here's some shots from the movie in case you didn't check out the trailer. Also I included shots of their arguably most famous characters from other films. There are some other shots of my home town and old apartment along with some of the shots from the movie. Alright just 2 shots. I didn't feel like making any more.





So there's:
Alan Rickman - Die Hard & Harry Potter Films
Carrie-Anne Moss - Matrix Films
Sigourney Weaver - Alien Films & Ghostbuster Films

All of which were in my home town, in some cases directly outside my front window. Surreal I tells ya, surreal. Also you can see my old crappy car in the driveway covered in road salt. I miss that car.

Great stuff, Stu. Matrix trilogy is my all time favs with Star Wars and Back to the Future a close second & third.

Outside your front door? How cool!!! The only thing of interest outside my front door is grass (the green kind, not the smoking variety) and I have to cut it this AM before it rains.