Blog has moved

As Blogspot no longer has FTP access to put our blog on our website, we have moved our blog to AccidentalBavarian.com.

Race Cars in Leavenworth?

I found an interesting link the other day.

To advertise their toy race cars, Hess gas stations had a video created that transforms the streets of Leavenworth into the site of a road race for their toy race cars.

According to the company that created the video, "Speedshape created CG animations, matte paintings and 3D renderings, delivering a total of 23 full CG shots, 17 CG live action integration shots, as well as all compositing and finishing... Traversing amid CG snow-capped mountains and icy tunnels, the racecars finish the race in a jubilant town square filled with children gleefully awaiting their arrival... CG Supervisor John Ikera traveled to Leavenworth, WA for a shoot that would be used to re-create the Christmas village via image modeling the entire town."

Here's the video. About halfway through, you'll see "Leavenworth: The Miracle Town".

You might want to turn the volume down... it's pretty loud!)

Is It Live or Is It Memorex?

Sorry, it's been a busy time and we've been off-line for a bit on the blog. Here we go again.

Some of you will recognize the title of this blog. For those who are younger, this was the punchline of an advertising campaign for cassette tapes. OK, you ask what's a cassette tape? It was like reel-to-reel tape but smaller and self-contained. Scratch that. It was like an 8 track, but not continuous. OK, not that. Um, like a CD, but analog instead of digital.

Oh, never mind!

Suffice it to say that it was a way to record sound, and the claim was that it was so good that you couldn't tell if it was live music, or recorded on Memorex-brand tape.

Anyway, what does this have to do with Leavenworth or traveling?

When I was in Bavaria in October, I mentioned already that I was really surprised how much it was like Leavenworth, WA. When Leavenworth transformed itself into Little Bavaria, they really did their homework.

So I thought it would be run to play a little game of "Is It Live or Is It Memorex?"

I'm going to put up some pictures from Leavenworth and some from Bavaria and you can try to guess which is which. At the end I'll tell you what the answers are.

OK, #1
A	B
#2
A	B
#3
A	B
#4
A	B
#5
A	B
#6
A	B
#7
A	B
#8
A	B
#9
A	B

You see what I mean? It's not easy is it?

OK, here are the answers. How did you do?

#1
A = Bavaria
B = Leavenworth

#2 (OK, that was kind of a gimme)
A = Leavenworth
B = Bavaria

#3
A = Bavaria
B = Leavenworth

#4
A = Leavenworth
B = Bavaria

#5
A = Bavaria
B = Leavenworth

#6
A = Bavaria
B = Leavenworth

#7
A = Leavenworth
B = Bavaria

#8
A = Bavaria
B = Leavenworth

#9
A = Leavenworth
B = Bavaria