I went with the “Tacos” – Chili seasoned jackfruit in corn tortillas with onion, cilantro, lime and micro greens served with black beans, gazpacho and sliced mango. – $7.95
I wanted to go back for every meal and have these tacos over and over and over and over and over again. They were so amazing.
The staff was friendly and the service was right on.
Other items I wanted to enjoy: Black Bean and Plantain Focaccia, Smoked Soyrizo Burrito, Macaroni and Cheese…
Be sure to go when you’re in the area and let me know what you think.
More info about Sage: www.sageveganbistro.com

To conclude, my trip to LA was fantastic. Thanks to everyone that helped to make it a successful one.
[from - www.duanefernandez.com]

The client needed a photo in 24 hours. The building wasn’t done yet and they needed to send a photo to a publication. It would eventually be used as the cover shot for an architectural magazine. The facility was littered with construction debris, tools and workers. The perimeter of the building was closed off by a chain link fence, taking away the best vantage point. I made my way around a ton of concrete pavers to find this little spot, I actually pushed the entire fence line back about a foot to get enough room to capture the entry way of the building. I wanted people to know what it was going to look like as they walked into the venue. Greeted by this incredible glass curtain. I had no time to edit the photo, so this photo is straight out of the camera, using an extremely dark filter to create a dramatic frame. This photo, although not perfect, is still one of my favorite and most published photos of all time. Knowing you don’t have time to edit, makes you really think and be creative.

I’ve been a huge fan of Jamie Foxx for over 20 years – as a stand up comedian, as an actor and as a musician. What he has been able to accomplish is rather remarkable. Getting a chance to meet him was insane. To have the opportunity to create something for him – even more insane…
He really loved it.
He was digging on the box and when he saw the cuff he was absolutely stoked on it! He put it on immediately and wore it the rest of the night…
Pretty rad.
I couldn’t do this without Nate and Greg over at Spexton – with every project they go above and beyond. Thank you for all your hard work.

Title: The Kids
This is a video we produced for the American Cancer Society.
We focused on the kids and how vulnerable they and their families are when cancer strikes.
Produced by: Black Ops Studio
Producer / Director: Duane Fernandez
DP / editing: Wes Kane

I saw this first thing this morning and I can already see it’s going to cause a media frenzy. Read here: “Why it’s time to say goodbye to free Wi-Fi” I understand that scare tactics are good for press and even for driving traffic to your blog, but please do us all a favor and report all the facts. It’s not that hard. But that wasn’t his mission in writing this “piece.” From a brief look around his site and the ABOUT page, the dude is far from being a journalist or a writer – even though he authored [I use that term loosely]: Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work And Why Your Company Needs Them – WOW, that sounds awful. Any book title with “?!” in it has to be quality.

You have to question any article/blog whose head line is “If you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS Feed. Thanks for visiting!” Or take a look at the way he shares his article on facebook: “If what I wrote in my blog this morning (above) scares you, please repost it – And please be careful out there.” Sadly, millions will re-post this and paranoia will ensue. Just what we Americans need. I’d rather not give the dude any more attention by sharing my thoughts, but I feel it is important.
Sorry for the jabs, but do your job.

If you didn’t read the article, let me give you the run down: He slams free Wi-Fi networks for not being secure and that you should go out and purchase your own $50 portable hot spot from “Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, whatever”.
*Boom done in less than 30 words.

It’s true, free Wi-Fi networks are not safe. I think everyone knows that. Usually your device will even warn/remind you. If it doesn’t, you should change your wireless network settings.

But more importantly, when dealing with a free Wi-Fi network, you should be connecting to these things using https.
Or VPN or proxy (via https) back to a known safe machine, and http from there.

In regards to Firesheep, who happens to be the villain in Shankmans’s blog, one of my associates pointed out:  “Check the blogs, I haven’t seen one where someone reports having got Firesheep to work (other than grabbing a connection from another browser on the same puter).”

Interestingly enough I found this from the author of Firesheep:

“It’s extremely common for websites to protect your password by encrypting the initial login, but surprisingly uncommon for websites to encrypt everything else. This leaves the cookie (and the user) vulnerable. HTTP session hijacking (sometimes called “side
jacking”) is when an attacker gets a hold of a user’s cookie, allowing them to do anything the user can do on a particular website. On an open wireless network, cookies are basically shouted through the air, making these attacks extremely easy.

This is a widely known problem that has been talked about to death, yet very popular websites continue to fail at protecting their users. The only effective fix for this problem is full end-to-end encryption, known on the web as HTTPS or SSL. Facebook is constantly rolling out new “privacy” features in an endless attempt to quell the screams of unhappy users, but what’s the point when someone can just take over an account entirely? Twitter forced all third party developers to use OAuth then immediately released (and promoted) a new version of their insecure website. When it comes to user privacy, SSL is the elephant in the room.

Websites have a responsibility to protect the people who depend on their services. They’ve been ignoring this responsibility for too long, and it’s time for everyone to demand a more secure web. My hope is that Firesheep will help the users win.”

The concern is there. Your phone and ipad applications are vulnerable, which is why I password protect all important/sensitive applications and I dig into each app independently to find out how I can further protect myself. When surfing, use these free forced HTTPS add-ons that I’ve tested and use:

Firefox users: Force-TLS – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12714/

Chrome users: KB SSL Enforcer https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/flcpelgcagfhfoegekianiofphddckof

Other browsers? *Sorry, you should really only be using one of those two browsers.

Best comment on his blog:

Don’t scare people just for your own selfish reasons, give people information and offer ways to protect themselves.
Long live Free Wi-Fi!

There are many ways to protect your info, be proactive and do some research!
*I apologize for misspellings or grammatical errors, I don’t have time to edit this.

I still think the dude has major problems, but Nike and W+K did a great job of approaching the problem, dealing with it and they almost make you feel bad for Lebron. Then I snapped out of the marketing magic and realized that I now dislike him even more. How did that happen? Probably because the “poor me, why does everyone hate me” approach doesn’t sit with me very well. I would also recommend that Lebron’s people stop retweeting every positive comment about the commercial. Just be humble dude. No one likes you. Deal with it. Own it.
Side note: Becky did notice the funniest comment on the youtube in response to the commercial:
“Should I call Delonte dad?”
[if you don't find the humor in this statement - read this]

But seriously, what do you think of the commercial? What do you think of Lebron? What do you think of what transpired with the Heat?

This is a photo taken from an editorial shoot a few weeks back. More on this at a later date. However, the Black Ops photography team is excited to introduce our newest member of the team – the phenom make up artist: Lindsay Hartley. *applause*

Time Management: The ability to quickly process and synthesize information and turn it into actions is one of the most emergent skills of the professional world today. Organize email in file folders. If the message needs more thought, move it to your to-do list. If it’s for reference, print it out. If it’s a meeting, move it to your calendar.
Take action on an email as soon as you read it.

Did you know it’s October? I can’t believe it. It’s the 7th of October, 2010 to be exact. Soon it will be January 2011. That’s just insane. We’ve been busy here at Black Ops. Between design, video/photography production and post production, we have been working to get the Left Field Project book off the ground. With a solid production schedule in place, we are hoping and praying to get it on shelves by early 2011. That would be a fantastic way to start the new year.

Does anyone else feel like the Cheez-It “mature cheese” commercial is insanely racist? I do. Watch it again and let me know what you think.

Currently listening to: B.o.B. – KIDS [cover of MGMT] It’s rather incredible.
Side note: If you haven’t seen MGMT in concert, I recommend it. It’s a unique show that all heads should experience.

Have a great weekend
- duane fernandez

1. Unprepared for the job & Bad habits. If you don’t have the proper management skills going into the job and If you don’t have a great* mentor assisting you in developing the proper skills to manage your routine, you will only develop bad habits. Like any habit, bad habits are hard to break. Take the necessary time to sharpen the right tools.

2. Self importance. Creatives can be divas. Most are. Being “busy” and “stressed out” and “frustrated” all the time are all signs of a great artists making “magic.” Bullshit. That’s what those creatives think and it’s incredibly childish. Unfortunately, those behaviors are passed down to interns and new hires. If you are a student/recent grad and you just witnessed the creative director have a melt down in a meeting, go with your initial gut feeling – it’s absolutely ridiculous and uncalled for. Don’t become that. I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the most brilliant creative minds in the world and one thing I have learned is: Enjoy what you.

3. If you have the skills required to do your job properly, but you find that your agency/studio is under-resourced. Which ultimately means that you are over worked. You have two options:
a. Quit
b. Suck it up and make it work.
Make the decision and follow through. Either way, you are in control and you are making a conscious decisions to do what YOU want.
Before going with option [a.] I recommend addressing the problem immediately, voice your concerns to the decision makers and be sure that when you bring these issues up, you have possible solutions.
If you go with [b.] congratulations, you are fighting a good fight. But know that you’ve made this commitment and your are going to stick to it. Wavering will only bring stress into your life. I could give you a few ideas to make your work day more manageable if you would like – just shoot me an email.

Those are my three [main] reasons why people in this wonderful industry are so uptight.
I wish I had more time to discuss, but I have to get back to my lists. I enjoy your emails/questions – thanks!

- duane fernandez

* Don’t settle for anything less than a great mentor. Great mentors are around, maybe not in your immediate team, but there is at least one in your organization. I promise.

As some of you may have noticed on twitter, I didn’t get to the painting portion of this project until late last night. May have been a little too close for comfort, as the concert is tonight, but I’ve been working on a handful of video projects as of late and didn’t have the time. Anyway, it’s complete, it’s delivered and I’m stoked on it. I ended up really distressing the jewelry box this time around. I used a high grit sand paper to create a lot of texture. Painted the box. Sanded. Painted the box. Sanded… etc. [You get the point.] I used his heartbreak logo on the top and a simple MAYER stencil around the side. John Mayer will receive the piece tonight in Tulsa just before his concert.


The wooden box is 4.5″ x 4.5″ x 3.5″

We’ve been transitioning from one dwelling to another. So pardon my lack of posting. Along with moving, I’ve been wrapping up a series of projects and starting a series of new ones. I’ve had a lot of time to think in between and I really wish I could dump it all right here in this “post.”

As it turns out, sports and politics are some of my favorite things to think about when I am packing/moving. Another thing is: punctuation and pronunciation. [this is a new hobby I have discovered]

Back to the madness. Be back soon.

Re: The image associated with this post.
I wanted to see what “google” thought “silent” looked like, so I searched. Perhaps the most frightening photos I have ever seen. Don’t do it. Since that didn’t work out the way I had hoped, I decided to search a word that I knew would produce some gems: eames

The last set of photos from WoodyFest. Photos of our dude Maurice Baker [from Newcastle], Annie Guthrie, the incredible David Jacobs-Strain [take a look at his tour schedule, if he is coming to a town near you - be there], the wonderful and extremely talented Rachel Davis, Jess Klein, John Wort Hannam and Sam Baker.

Photo info:
One photo of Maurice Baker – If you missed my thoughts on Maurice, read more here.
One photo of Annie Guthrie
Two photos of David Jacobs-Strain - The kid is incredible. I mean, absolutely incredible.
Four photos of Rachael Davis – Looking back at the festival, Maurice was our favorite story, David Jacobs-Strain was an impressive musician, but Rachael Davis was my favorite overall artist. She was adorable. She was accompanied on stage by her husband who played the upright bass. She was a great story teller. Her song selection was on point. Loved them!
Two photos of Jess Klein
One photo of John Wort Hannam
This next photo is of Radoslav Lorkovic‘s Accordion transport case.
And finally one photo of Sam Baker

Main photo: Our favorite artists from a couple years back – the Broken Wing Routine