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CES 2014: Michael Jackson One Review

DV Dude decided to catch a show this time in Vegas, and the newest, hottest show is the Cirque du Soleil production "Michael Jackson One." How is it? If you like Michael Jackson, and you like Cirque du Soleil, you will absolutely love it. If you are not a fan of either, then this show won't make you a believer.

As with any Cirque du Soleil production, the visuals are absolutely stunning. Imaginative sets and costumes, a fantastic lighting design, and the music turned up to 11 so that the bass rattles your sternum.

But also, as with any Cirque production, the storyline that strings together the various set pieces is flimsy and paper-thin, and follows the long-used device of a group of people who fall into the magical world, and are chased through-out the production, and then are accepted. Every Cirque production I've seen follows this formula, and it hasn't worked in anything I've seen yet, and doesn't work here either.

While the visuals are stunning, and they are, they are also a bit of a mess. It seems the belief system at Cirque is to throw as much visual noise out there, have a million things going on at once, and maybe you'll catch 20% of it. The visuals suffer from too much ADHD - let's throw everything, including the kitchen sink, and hopefully it will work. The designers really need to study Bob Fosse more closely, and see how you can do a group of people and make it powerful. Or study Micheal Jackson for that matter - his visuals were a lot more focused and clean, and in the end, more powerful. "Michael Jackson One", to use the old cliche, is a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

One exception to this is the number for Billie Jean. It is a masterpiece. Just a group of dancers, dressed in black, with lines of lights on their bodies. The lights change intensity, colour and direction. Simple, yet stunning. It got one of the biggest rounds of applause of any number.

A lot of the visuals just seem like Cirque noise - people doing Cirque gymnastics for no other reason than this is what Cirque does - the visuals and stunts don't necessarily have anything to do with the content of the song.

There is obviously some very talented people putting this together, but the shame is they do not go further with the material. The life of Michael Jackson was a rich and ultimately sad one, with a lot of pathos and joy and a whole lot of weirdness on all sides. Cirque hints at it occasionally, but they then run away from it. There is so much one could do here, make the production more meaningful and emotional, but they don't. Which really is too bad, because it would make it so much better.

The performers work so hard, the production is so intricate, and there is so much to praise, so it feels terrible to not give a glowing review. A lot of people worked very hard to make "Michael Jackson One," and you see it every single moment. It is not a failure by any means - just a missed opportunity to make something better.

I should note that the audience loved it.

CES 2014: Bits and Bytes

The long-sought after, much-requested CF reader with thunderbolt prototype was shown at CES this year, with a targeted retail of under $100. This company normally does OEM work, but they might market this under their own name. Ready to go, just waiting for the higher ups to approve production.

nVidia was showing off this 3 screen 4K game environment with some new super-duper video card. A lot of ohhs-and-ahhs on this.

While the world awaits the Apple iWatch, a lot of other companies were showing their versions off at the show. Personally, DV Dude has no interest in this, but others seem to. People were talking about them.

And this is the first thing DV Dude saw at CES this year - a Dalek made out of speakers. Located in the Massive booth in the automotive section, this was a big hit with all the Doctor Who fans. It was working, using that sultry voice that the Dalek is famous for. The joke was the Dalek was uttering things about being peaceful and one with the universe, and famously screamed "Exterminate stress! Exterminate stress!" Made my day.

CES 2014: Camera Round-Up

CES was slow on new camera announcements this year, but a couple caught DV Dude's eye. This tiny little Canon Mini X not only looks cute, it actually has really nice picture quality. They were also showing a low-cost pan-and-tilt mechanism as well.

Last year, Panasonic was showing a prototype 4K camcorder. This year, they were showing a prototype 4K DSLR that is rumoured to be coming out fairly soon. 

Sony showed this consumer 4K camera that had nice picture quality. Will be shipping late March/early April. 

 

SteadyTracker Set Up and Balance Tutorials

Great demo from PRoTogPhotographic Australia. Learn more about the SteadyTracker here.

CES 2014: TV Edition

The thing everyone wants to see at CES is the incredible display of mind-blowing televisions. This year, a lot of 4K TVs from every manufacturer. My count - about 50 billion 4K TVs on display. Last year, I waxed poetically about this Samsung 110" beauty, which was shown as a prototype. The good news - it is shipping now. The bad news is the cost - $150,000. Well now. A TV that costs more than a Lexus. Shockingly, Samsung is not expecting to sell too many of them. Their market - the guys who buy multi-million dollar yachts.

Curved TVs were the rage this year, with every company showing curved models. Samsung was even showing bendable TVs that you could change to be either flat or curved. On some level this just felt wrong - TVs should not bend... This 105" Samsung got the most attention, but for me the OLEDs had a better picture. I tried really hard to see the difference between flat and curved, and it was really hard. What they told me in the Samsung booth is the curved was not getting a good reaction, but we'll see what happens. 

Gamers were drooling over the various 4K gaming demos. This was one that was in the Panasonic booth. Needless to say the detail was amazing. 

So while Toshiba had 4K TVs on display, they upped the ante with a widescreen 5K model, with a pixel display of 5120 x 2160. It matches the widescreen 2:35:1 of anamorphic motion pictures. I must say, it did look pretty nice. If only I had a wall that I could put this on...

But those sneaky guys at Sharp just had to poop on everyone's parade, showing a prototype 8K 85" model. I mean, 4K is for wimps. They showed one last year, but this year it seemed to get more attention. The most common thing people did was go right up to the screen, within a foot, and stare at it. And yes, it passes that test - at 8" it is absolutely sharp and crisp and detailed. Blows the mind. 

CES 2014: The Robots Are Still Coming!

CES always has a large selection of robots, and it is surprising how many of the ones I have blogged about in previous years are still around. Never saw this one though. This is treading into Terminator territory.

Men came, stopped and just stared at this one. A robot BBQ cleaner. I can see this being successful.

These robots were zipping around the convention floor, interacting with people. The robots are remote controlled, and have a live feed to a real person, who remotely controls/drives the robot, and can have conversations with you. Sort of cool, sort of creepy.

This robot had a camera and could take a picture of you, and then put it as the "face" of the robot. Mmm - insert joke here.

CES 2014: Audio Bits & Bites

These have to be the biggest headphones I have ever seen. And yes they worked. At the Turtle Beach booth. 

CES always has a lot of speakers, and this was the coolest looking ones I saw this year.

Here is something unique - it looks like a very glittery clutch purse, but in fact when you open it, it is portable speakers for your iPod. The company is Stelle, and this unit actually sounded half-decent. Retails for under $400. The only drawback - it is heavy, which means it has good speakers, but it will get heavy if you drag it around all day. You can pick it up at Sak's Fifth Avenue, amongst other places. They also have a very good sounding stand-alone speaker, called the Pillar, which also has very good sound quality.
 

CES 2014: Toyota Loses Their Mind

Toyota showed off a number of concept vehicles at CES 2014 this year. The one above is the FCV. What makes this car notable is it uses hydrogen fuel cells. Toyota is now joining Honda and BMW in exploring this.

Rear view of the FCV.

This wild concept is a three-wheeled commuter car named i-Rop. 

Here is proof Toyota has jumped the shark and completely lost its mind. I don't even know what to classify this concept FV2 as. The outer shell changes colours (they showed something like this at the last Toronto Auto Show, except as a full-sized car). The car is supposed to understand you "emotionally," so it can sense if you had a bad day, and if so, play your favourite song. No really, I'm not making this up - this is what the Toyota presenter said. It has three wheels, but no steering wheel - you move your body and the car moves with you. You and the vehicle are one. The Zen-moblie.

Don't expect this anytime soon. 

CES 2014: The Audi Booth

CES has become a trendy place for car companies to show off, and this year was no different. Audi was displaying their concept Sport Quattro, a nice looking car I must say. 

Rear view of the Audi Sport Quattro concept.

Really cool headlights.

This is my 3rd CES, and the Audi booth is always packed. Interesting little detail - it's hard to see, but the floor of the booth is white. And yes, there is a guy with a bottle of windex and a mop, who just goes around and cleans the floor all day long. Worst job at CES.

Sunset, Malibu Edition

 
Ended the day in lovely Malibu, and was able to catch the sunset on the Pacific Ocean. 

These were taken in the El Matador State Park in Malibu, with the Nikon D610.
 

There are certainly worse places in the world to be.

Sunrise, Los Angeles Edition

Before heading off to CES in Las Vegas, DV Dude took a side trip to Los Angeles for a little R&R and do some photography. With his Nikon D610 in hand, DV Dude headed up to the Griffith Observatory for 6 a.m. to catch the sunrise.

Sunrise getting closer. It is about 30 minutes before sunrise that the colours are the most intense.

And we have an L.A. sunrise.

DV Dude strongly recommends a trip up to Griffith Park if you ever visit L.A. Up in the Hollywood Hills, it overlooks the city with stunning views.

And yes, DV Dude feels your pain Toronto. He couldn't have planned a better week to be away. But he is suffering as well - with temperatures of 25 degrees Celius, he has to run the air conditioning in the car, and take his coat off, and just wear a T-Shirt. Oh, the suffering.

We Can't All Be Steve Jobs...

When the teleprompter fails, you better be ready to improvise...