BuddhaCatFilms.Com

Wow. Hi there, It's been awhile. Thanks for coming back for BuddhaCatFilms.com look at 2015. 

Well, 2015 was a real mixed bag for us here at BuddhaCat HQ, with lots of ups and downs, and our fair share of disappointing setbacks and exciting victories.

Of course the most notable event of 2015, at least as far as the BuddhaCat-verse is concerned, is the creation of BuddhaCat Studios, later renamed BuddhaCatFilms, back in March. BuddhaCat Studios was just my name for the spare room I used as my office when we moved into the new house. But soon I was writing more, filming more, teaching myself Final Cut Pro X and Logic, learning the fine art of directing and DSLR Filmmaking.

Our first short film release, The Calling, went live in May on our YouTube channel. Blackout, Blackout 2, and other shorts soon followed.

In September, I turned my attention to Twitch and the  growing streaming community. While learning about the differences of that new world, the new skills I needed to develop, the new gadgets I needed to buy, and the different approach I needed to take towards that audience, I found myself sidetracked.

Filmmaking took a bit of a backseat while I familiarized myself with this new (to me) and exciting world of immediate, live content generation. I found myself in a constant state of envy for those with faster internet upload streams, better coding skills and, frankly, better personalities in this arena, and became more and more discouraged and disappointed with my own output and felt I couldn't continue to create content until I had the best hardware, the best software, the best camera, and that was never going to happen. Adding to my anxiety and frustration was the discovery of a channel that was basically already doing their version of what I thought was an original channel concept; and doing it better than I would have too. Filmmaking stopped and streaming never really got started as I stepped back and tried to re-group.

However, what came out of the wreckage of was the project that I still think has the most mileage left in it, the official Podcast of BuddhaCatFilms.com, the Buddha Cat Chat. This is the project that I think I can put the biggest part of myself into, and actually deliver on a regular schedule. But, that project was not without its own set of problems and setbacks. Scheduling conflicts between myself and my wife/co-host, Amie, caused almost immediate delays in the release of additional episodes.

We managed to get one more episode released, nearly a month later, before all new content released by BuddhaCat Films stopped entirely. A couple links popped up on our social feeds here and there, maybe a picture or 2, but nothing else has been released since Mid October.

There are a few reasons for that. Some personal, some professional. Like I said at the beginning of this post, 2015 was a hard year for me through and through. Some medical problems took me offline for the bulk of the late fall/early winter seasons. A few personal issues compounded this difficult time for me and made it that much less likely that anything else was going to be released before the end of the year. And since I don't make any money doing this, my day job also needed my attention. My own personal issues were causing problems for me in my day job, and I just couldn't get it together enough to then come home and generate hours of digital content for release each week on top of everything else.

And that pretty much brings us to now, January 1st 2016. I want to thank those of you that have stuck with us while we find our way in this complicated new media landscape, those of you that have taken chances with our new content as we skipped from short films, to Twitch streaming, to geek news updates, to podcasts last year.

Thank you all for your continued support.

What will happen with BuddhaCatFilms.com in the coming year? I have some ideas, some of which I will reveal in our 2016 Look Ahead next post, some of which I am keeping secret for now and some ideas which are still too early in their conception to reveal now. But stick with us, 2016 is going to be an exciting, unpredictable year for the BuddhaCat-verse! Keep your eyes on our social media outlets for all the latest news and updates.

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www.BuddhaCatFilms.com www.twitter.com/BuddhaCatFilms www.facebook.com/BuddhaCatFilms www.youtube.com/BuddhaCatFilms www.twitch.tv/BuddhaCatFilms

That's right kiddos, the Buddha Cat Chat is back with it's long awaited second episode! 

In this second episode of Buddha Cat Chat, your hosts Jeff and Amie re introduce themselves, talk about what a bad idea it was to eat McDonald's breakfast for lunch, The Flash TV series, and why Jeff is 2-0 in recommending new shows to Amie, why Amie is gaga for Lady Gaga in AHS: Hotel, Cat News and discuss the future of the podcast! 

Send us your feedback and topics that you want to hear to [email protected], subscribe on iTunes and spread the word about the podcast...

Hey Guys, Jeff here, BuddhaCat #1,

Just wanted to drop in and let everyone know I'm working on show notes for next Buddha Cat Chat episode! I expect to record it tonight or tomorrow... 

Im so sorry for the delay; I will explain why there was such a gap between releases in more detail in the episode. 

But don't worry, the Buddha Cat Films podcast network is still happening, just coming together a little bit slower than we expected. We will be committed to working harder to get content released in a more consistent manner going forward. 

I expect to have Buddha Cat Chat episodes released weekly starting next week, and The Buddha Cat Files, my new occult and weirdness podcast will follow soon.

GRANT MORRISON...SUPERGOD

Grant Morrison in SPACE!!! 

The music isn’t really my taste, check it out at your own discretion, but if Grant got involved then there must be something to it that I am missing. Either way, there is some great imagery of Grant, placing him in the cosmos, appearing to be the Supergod we all know him to be. 

All Hail THE MORRISON!!!

I updated the design of the website, hopefully it is a little more user friendly, and lightens the load on your system to view it. Check out the new B.L.O.O.G page, to see all of the posts that are live, with out having to scroll through them all to see older posts. I did the same thing with the Films page, just a little more user friendly now. 

I cannot wait for this show to come back. I was blown away with how violent and real the first season was; the best way to do a Daredevil story. The connections to the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe are there if you are paying attention, bolstering my hopes for a Daredevil appearance in the movies at some point, but because they are doing this on Netflix instead of the movies or traditional network TV, they are able to get away with so much more than they would normally be able to.

There has been so much discussion around the one shot halfway fight scene from the first season and that truly does sum up what the show is: a hardcore, brutal marathon that takes the wind out of you and leaves you feeling like these characters are in jeopardy and could be killed at any point. The stakes are high for Matt and his allies, and he isn't invincible or a god; he is a blind man in a mask who, most importantly, has the desire to do good, and the drive to do it inside or outside the confines of the law. With the Punisher showing up this season, I feel like Matt is going to be challenged on how his take on right and wrong, crossing the line and how far he is willing to go to do what you feel is the right thing when he finds another vigilante that is willing to go further. How Matt will handle that has to be the thread we follow through out the new season.

Great news for Star Wars Battlefront devotees like myself. The open beta for the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront will be available for download in XB1, PS4 and PC starting tomorrow October 8th through October 12th. 

I was a huge fan of the original Battlefront and played it regularly despite my normal inability to play first person shooters. THIS was the game that got Star Wars right in my opnion and many a day and night were spent blasting stormtroopers, rebels and other intergalactic cannon fodder on my original Xbox console.  

I never got into the subsequent games, and felt that the formula was perfected in the initial offering, but the upcoming release looks too good to pass up, and seems to be poised to take the world by storm when the final version is released on November 17th. In a move I never make, I've been so caught up in the excitement over the new version that I actually pre ordered a copy, if only so I can get in on the first real glimpse we will get of the planet Jakku, which we will see in the form of the first DLC release on December 1st; a week earlier than the general public who didn't pre order the game. The planet Jakku, for those of you who are not aware, is a new planet created for the upcoming (and can't come out soon enough for this nerd) Star Wars The Force Awakens, helmed by JJ Abrams, and seems to be ready to become the new Tattooine if any of the pre release hype can be believed.

So I am terrible at FPS games, but I am really, really enjoying this so far, my abilities to do well at it aside. The visuals are fantastic, more crisp and clear than anything I have played before on the Xbox One. I don't know how it would work, but its on par with 4K on my 1080p tv, and can only imagine it looking better from there. Only a couple of modes are available right now; a single player mode where you face 6 waves of enemies (the game promises 15 in the prime release), and 2 multiplayer modes, one capture the flag variant and my favorite, an all out brawl set during the Battle of Hoth. I've included in this post a highlight of me getting a Hero Pick Up Power Up while playing as the Empire, allowing me to become the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, Darth Vader. If I were better at the game, it would probably be more impressive to watch, but still, great fun and I cannot wait for the full release. See more this weekend on and off on my twitch page, www.twitch.tv/buddhacatfilms, follow me on twitter, which is also now www.twitter.com/buddhacatfilms and see any highlights you missed on www.youtube.com/buddhacatfilms.