Categories
Internet History

Selfies in the 2000’s: Remembering Daily Mugshot 2009-2012

video via Daily Mugshot YouTube, video made by Mary Miracle using Daily Mugshot

Do you remember dailymugshot.com? It did what apps on our phones can do now. You would use your webcam to take one still photo a day, or less frequently.

Forgotten pieces of the internet like this can show us how our lives have changed but stayed the same.

According to founder Keith Gould’s about.me page, Daily Mugshot was created in 2009. Gould’s LinkedIn describes Daily Mugshot as “a free service which helps you chronicle daily images of yourself and share them as an animated sequence”. This website featured over 1000 mugshots per day and over 600 result pages. This was a lot in 2009.

According to the now-defunct Daily Mugshot About page, Keith Gould was inspired to create the site because “The Daily Mug shot began when I came across a dude who took a picture of himself every day and turned it into a video. He had taken pictures of himself every day for years, and the video was amazing. I thought: I want to do that too! Then I began thinking about what sort of system would make the entire process as easy as possible, and furthermore, what would be the most fun and easy way to show these videos to friends on the net.” 

In 2010, Gould told the Tampa Bay Times that “People are so much more attuned to adjusting how they look in front of a camera,” and that “Now they make precise decisions about every part of their face and angle of their head.” when referring to the use of Daily Mugshot.

In 2009, users could use Daily Mugshot or Daily Booth to perform this service. In addition to taking and posting a photo of yourself, you could add comments to your pictures or share them with others. Functionality was fairly limited. This CNET article makes light of this by comparing the two sites to Twitpic, “Twitpic they ain’t, but they are fun”.

As of 2017, Twitpic is another now-defunct site. Twitpic was used to upload photos that were then shared on Twitter because at that time it was not possible to upload photos directly to Twitter. Twitter took over the domain and archive in 2014. DailyBooth.com shut down in 2012.

While the URL for Daily Mugshot still exists, it is now bizarrely closer to an actual mugshot website. It says that it can be used to locate mugshots, perform inmate searches, and locate court records. This seems to be for a very limited number of areas and does not seem to be very functional. I recommend sticking with government websites for those types of searches.

The above video is a collection of my webcam selfies taken and then uploaded to Daily Mugshot from July 1, 2009, to January 6, 2012. Yes, between working on this website and ChaCha, I was online a lot during that time.

What are my personal thoughts on my selfies from then? That’s a lot of hats and hairdos. So, it was pretty accurate.

Reminiscing on these sites is nostalgic, but not sad as we now have cameras on smartphones in our pockets and numerous social media apps to share them with each other. However, there was something about the simplicity of sharing a photo just because, not to make a social media website money off our “content”.

How often do you take photos of your everyday life in 2022? Is it daily? What is the purpose? How often do you get them developed into physical photos?

Categories
Film/TV Movie Reviews

Movie Review: Project Almanac

2 out of 5

When I first started seeing trailers for Project Almanac, I was definitely curious. This time travel flick about selfish high schoolers looked pretty darn good. The trailer sucked you in with a group of friends using time travel for their own gain. Then it turns kind of creepy when you see that time travel can, oops, screw things up.

Unfortunately, the movie didn’t live up to the trailer for me. I thought maybe it was one of those instances with two many writers and/or directors, nope. One director and two writers. I’m currently exhausted and didn’t even feel like writing this review. I thought I’ll find a review by someone with similar views and share that. I can’t find one! What? So, basically, others have issues with the science behind the film but embraced what disappointed me. My views are a bit different.

Yes, there are times that I thought, no, just no, that doesn’t make any science. Keep in mind, that I’m not scientifically minded. I’m pretty likely to not know if someone is using the correct piece when they are building something. I also don’t mind shutting off my mind to enjoy something fun, to an extent.

Project Almanac from Paramount Pictures

However, unlike others, I don’t believe that you need to see this JUST because it’s a time travel movie. As if, a dearth of movies means that poor ones should just exist to fill the void.

Have you seen the trailer? No?

Project Almanac Official Trailer

Okay, now you have. You don’t even need to watch the movie. That is everything that you need to know and it doesn’t have to work because it’s a trailer. You are supposed to want more.

What happens? Okay, a guy, his sister, and his likable friends build a time travel machine based on his late father’s plans. Later, a “hot”, popular girl joins their group and decides that she’s an integral part of it. IMHO, she is not.

At first, everything seems fine, the kids get money, popularity, and sex. I’m not gonna lie, some of those scenes are amusing. They even get to see Imagine Dragons live. That’s super fun.

Imagine Dragons in Project Almanac

Then the lead decides to start jumping around through time solo and disasters happen. If I were one of the kids, I would have rationalized the hell out of being at fault for huge disasters though, as one does. This is when the illogical time travel starts really bothering me. Now, it’s not just for fun. He has to fix things, but with the way that things have been going, I can’t buy what follows. Plus, even if I tried, it’s like he intentionally mucks things up.

I did enjoy his friends, but they didn’t get enough screen time. His love interest is annoying and the sister wasn’t onscreen long enough for me to form an opinion. 

Yes, I’m impressed that this movie was filmed for around $3 million and earned about 10 times that much, but going into it, I didn’t know that. As a casual viewer that shouldn’t concern me. Although, I’m sure producer Michael Bay is thrilled. Another plus is that the film wasn’t overly long. Some found the fact that it’s set up as a found footage film to be a detractor. It slightly enhanced it for me, making the creepy scenes a bit creepier. Maybe, my biggest issue is that the lead becomes unlikable, but not annoying enough to completely hate. I like to have some strong feelings one way or another when I’m watching someone’s story. I’m only giving it 2 out of 5 stars for the initial premise and fun section of them just goofing around for personal gain.

Categories
Conventions Film/TV

An Interview with Huff’s Elina Madison

Over the summer, I had the opportunity to attend the Philadelphia Wizard World Comic Con as press along with my sister and fellow writer, Donna Allis. While there we had so much fun and were able to learn more about our favorite films as well as be introduced to new films, such as Huff. 

Huff is an independent horror movie that offers a new take on the old tale of The Three Little Pigs. It’s about a cash-strapped, abusive stepfather played by Charlie O’Connell with three teen daughters. When he gets involved with a drug deal things go from bad to worse. Unfortunately, we were unable to catch the screening of the film that was held at the con because we were in Atlantic City that night but I’m looking forward to viewing it when it’s released. According to the official Huff Facebook page, the current estimated release date is April 5, 2013. 

Mary Miracle and Charlie O’Connell by Donna Allis
Donna Allis and Charlie O’Connell by Mary Miracle
Mary Miracle and Huff producer Terry James

At Wizard World, the team involved in the filming of the flick was on hand to give everyone a scoop on the picture. Charlie O’Connell (Sliders, Dude, Where’s My Car?) was even posing for photos and signing autographs for free. 

We were fortunate enough to meet Charlie as well as producer Terry James, in addition to interviewing Elina Madison (1000 Ways to Die). Elina Madison plays Lorelei in Huff. Please enjoy the following interview with her.

Elina Madison by Mary Miracle

Elina Madison will next be seen in Creep Creepersin’s Dracula. Charlie O’Connell will next be seen on the new TV series Zombie Family. Terry James’ next endeavors are as a stunt coordinator for The Last Duane and a stunt driver in Feed the Dog.

Press Passes to the convention were provided to us gratis from the awesome PR team at Wizard World.

Categories
Film/TV Movie Reviews

Movie Review: Ewan McGregor in Perfect Sense

Warning: Spoilers Abound

4 out of 5 stars

Yet another movie that I wouldn’t know existed if it weren’t for the amazing, VideoETA.com. You see VideoETA is a great resource for finding out both theatrical and home release dates of movies. Often while checking to find the date of a film I know about I discover hidden gems. These are often films that had a limited or direct to DVD release.

That was the case with Perfect Sense, also known as The Last Word. It is a perfect case of this, as the film was released in only 1 theater for 1 week. It was directed by David Mackenzie and written by Kim Fupz Aakeson. It was shot and set in Glasgow.

If you only saw the film’s cover you may just go in thinking that it’s a standard romantic drama but it’s so much more. This 2011 drama is the most disturbing movie that I’ve seen this year.

Ewan McGregor in Perfect Sense, screencap by Mary Miracle
Eva Green in Perfect Sense, screencap by Mary Miracle

The movie is about a horrifying disease that individually steals humans’ senses. As the film progresses, we gradually see and feel the characters lose their senses of smell, taste, sound, and finally sight. It’s implied that they will eventually lose touch as well.

Although the movie shows how this would affect large populations of people in various countries (most likely using stock footage of actual riots, etc, which is also incredibly disturbing) it mainly focuses on how this would affect us as individuals.

The movie focuses on Michael (Ewan McGregor), a chef with intimacy issues, and Susan (Eva Green), a scientist who is sick of men mistreating her.

Eva Green in Perfect Sense, screencap by Mary Miracle

Despite her annoyance at the interruption of a phone call, Susan first meets Michael when he bums a cigarette from her. Their meet-cute takes place easily since he is a chef at a restaurant right across the alley from her apartment.

Ewan McGregor and Eva Green in Perfect Sense, screencap by Mary Miracle

Despite her initial reticence at getting involved with a player, Susan decides to dine one night after hours with Michael. This is during the beginning of their loss of senses. This causes a very close connection between them as they simultaneously lose their sense of smell.

Perfect Sense, screencaps by Mary Miracle

As they lose more and more senses they rely on and fall for each other. This is incredibly romantic and seductive. They let down their defenses and tell each other things they’ve never told another soul because they can feel everything ending and need something honest.

Ewan McGregor and Eva Green in Perfect Sense, screencap by Mary Miracle

Want to go dancing?”
“Sure”
“Get drunk?”
“Sure”
“smoke cigarettes?”
“Always”

Despite the interspersed footage of riots and the horror of the situation, including the fact that as someone who has been studying this epidemic from the beginning, Susan admits that no one really knows what will happen next, for a while things are going better than normal for the characters. Why? LOVE, of course.

Perfect Sense, screencap by Mary Miracle
Perfect Sense, screencap by Mary Miracle

Unfortunately, before the loss of each sense, humans experience a heightened sense or emotion. So before the loss of hearing they become very angry and violent. This is when Michael scares and drives away Susan after yelling terrible things at her and then wrecking his own home.

This causes them to be apart during the horror of losing their hearing. However, they both try their best to enjoy life as they can. Michael eventually goes back to work and Susan learns to love her sister’s family (instead of just being jealous of them).

Ewan McGregor and Eva Green in Perfect Sense, screencap by Mary Miracle

“…and if there had been anybody left to see them, then they would look like normal lovers, caressing each others’ faces, bodies close together, eyes closed, oblivious to the world around them…”

With the impending loss of sight, our lovers realize how important love and being with those you love is. So they reunite as the darkness closes in.

Ewen Bremner (Spud in Trainspotting!) and Ewan McGregor in Perfect Sense, screencap by Mary Miracle

In addition to love overcoming the worst, we are also repeatedly presented with the idea that life goes on and humans learn to adapt. This is often shown to great effect at the restaurant where Michael works. For instance, when people lose their sense of smell, which is tied to taste, the chefs decide that they must increase the spiciness of the dishes to really give the customers flavor. Later as taste goes dining out is more about texture and feeling special as you spend time with a loved one and are waited on.

Perfect Sense is most definitely not an easy film to watch. In fact, you may cry. However, it’s incredibly touching, interesting, and innovative. It is a must-watch!

Note: I think this is an amazing movie. I just reserve 5 stars for movies with rewatchability. That rarely includes dramas, especially ones this heavy. I can’t see me watching this over and over.