Audio	Commentaries
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Note: We do NOT rip existing director/actor/producer commentaries from source material & post on the web. Don't ask.

29^th December, 2011

Well… what can I say – this was a year of great change. I changed employers, moved twice and got married. Also, this year, my now annual offering is ‘La Zona’ – definitely a film that was overlooked here in the USA, since I don’t think it ever had a theatrical release. It is well worth a look if you are a fan of Sci-fi, particularly 1984 or other such films. I like to think of this as an good version of M Night Shamalyan’s ‘the village’. Maybe in 2012 I’ll have more time for this website, but don’t count on it.

22nd December, 2010

Ok, time for the year in review, and I must be more brief...  gattaca commentary is posted  i still have a job in this bad economy  Fire pages.  IN PROGRESS... yes still in progress  Happy new year to all!!!

31st December, 2009

Ok, time for the year in review, and I must be brief...  In September I posted a news bit about some things that are forthcoming.  1 -- a new commentary by years end.  DONE.  Audio for "The Sixth Sense" is now available. 2 -- Fire pages.  IN PROGRESS.  (Actually it's nearly done, just needs to get posted.) 3 -- A semi-regular 'rant' with an RSS feed. IN DEVELOPMENT.  I have a script outline for the first one, still need to take the time to make it happen, then to figure out RSS.  In other words, don't hold your breath too long. A bit about the site -- I've recorded the latest commentary on November 1, but it took from then until now to get the audio uploaded.  It hasn't been easy -- I'm using a new software and it was making HUGE mp3 files.  This has been corrected with reduced bit-depth settings.  In military/police parlance I'd say I'm coming in about 3x5. The larger issue was a disconnect between DNS and web services.  My current hosting site (websitesource) is doing a decent job.  My former host (bluedomino) remains in business despite my every conception of how a good business should be run.  I was two days late in paying the renewal for the domain name 'hurricaneandy.com' and they immediately deleted the link that forwards traffic to the current host.  I paid them but then they wouldn't put it back. At least not unless I told them what it was... and how should I know?  I was able to resolve it once I found a way to contact the support team for my current host, but that was not easy either... I still don't know why they (bluedomino) couldn't just resume normal service after payment.  It is like if you were two days late to pay the power company and they flipped a switch in their sub-station to turn off your power. Then when you get them paid, they say you have to just flip the switch back on, but they can't tell you where it is because they forgot. Anyway, enough ranting (for now)  in addition to audio rants, I want to pursue another project - A self-published book of non-sequiturs.  This could be fun if it were personal - e.g. these are the non-sequiturs that I say and what they mean in the context of me.  In that regard, every person could someday develop their own list/collection/book. Happy new year to all!!!

CONTACT US: Andrew can be reached via e-mail and he does answer all of his messages.

Take me back to the commentary page

NEWS ARCHIVES

11th September, 2009	What is wrong with this picture?  Well, as far as storytelling goes, this is bad... three+ years since my last site update. In this time, many significant events have transpired.  We of the US elected a new president. Some people say he is black, others say he is half-black, and the PC crowd say he is African-American.  It makes little difference to me, except that this election made many of my fellow Americans profoundly happy, and I was glad for that. More important news to me comes from the UK, where it seems my associates at Renegade Commentaries have given up the works.  I was looking forward to posting another review of the SFiFF there this year, only to find their site defunct. It's a shame too about SFiFF as I didn't see two films this year that were together as enjoyable as "The Hangover". (Although to be fair, 500 days of Summer did play at the festival, and I didn't get 'round to seeing it until later in the year) Maybe my tastes have changed, but perhaps more it was just a down year for foreign cinema. It's a down year in the US economy as well.  I've held on to my job (see the previous news ha was posted a scant six weeks after I started this gig, now it is a bit more clear why it's taken me three years to get back to this)  We are holding our own at Anshen, after failing to win a new large project this year we had to endure some rather painful layoffs, even my direct boss fell to the axe.  Those who remain, such as myself, have endured pay cuts, so the salary doesn't go as far as it used to.  The depressing thing is that there isn't really an end in sight. The world of healthcare design is small, and very few new clients are out there now appropriating large bond funds for hospital renovations. I've remained optimistic however.  After all, if things don't turn around and I end up on the breadline, at least there will be more time for site updates.  As it happens, I'm writing this on the first full day of my first proper vacation since last Christmas. I hope to use the time writing, but there are also some new projects for this site in the works. First off, my amateur fire performing has reached a critical mass.  No, I remain amateur, but now have enough photos and videos of my performances that it seems worth posting it all here.  Look for the new page soon.  Second, I am working on a new sort of commentary project.  This is to be a sort of spoken-word performance, a series of shorter audio clips, one that will inspire me to finally set-up an RSS feed for you all. I make NO PROMISES about the frequency of postings, you'll just have to continue to be patient.  And, lastly we come to the subject of Audio Commentaries for films. These shall not die.  They haven't been left for ages either, if you'll notice I posted the commentary for "Closer" in '07 and for "Factotum" in '08  I will not let 2009 pass without a new commentary offering. I will not let this website expire, I will not stop making audio commentaries for films that I enjoy (or truly despise). Best, - AF
20th April, 2006	All this week there have been parades, festival booths and other events in San Francisco to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and fire. I find it a bit odd that someone would put on a parade to commemorate a natural disaster. (Can you imagine a 'Hurricane Katrina' parade as part of Mardi Gras each year?)  However, I do believe in remembering our history and where we came from, to truly appreciate where we are today. In that vein, I've decided to make use of the added storage space here at the new webserver and as of today the commentary ARCHIVE is available! About a dozen old commentaries are now available again (in zip format). My desktop PC is working again, I hope to have a page on that up and running soon....also, I'm a working man again. I've landed a sweet gig in SF, which is why I happened to witness the 1906 memorial parade.
9th April, 2006	April 9th, 2006 - a day that should live in... well not infamy, but perhaps some sort of dubious honor is due in celebration of the successful transfer of hurricaneandy to a new service provider. The move just happened last night, and already I've loaded mp3 versions of (Almost) all of the current commentaries to the new provider website. The Easy Rider tracks will remain zipped as there are many individual segments. Also, I discovered some issues with my earlier LOTR commentary data, so I am working on recovering one of those tracks from backup data. Sadly, this weekend I also had a minor catastrophe with my desktop PC and I'm not sure how long it will take to get old glory up and running again (if a new BIOS is required, it will take some time) For now, enjoy our recent commentaries w/o the hassle of unzipping...and look for the archives to be open in the very near future. (the files are uploaded, I just need to slap together a front-end page for them.)

9th March, 2006

Serenity commentary is now available for download.  I decided that I loved the film so much that I had to record my thoughts, even though its been done a few times already. I did take the time to listen to the others first, so as to keep from regurgitating their comments. Honestly though, it probably made me more likely to copy them since their words were still in my head. I'm hoping to get some more audio out soon...also been thinking about switching to a new host that would allow for more bandwidth. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my Serenity comm.

28th February, 2006

Thank God the MARATHON is over. Unfortunately, the job ended less than a month after, and now I'm unemployed. Since the last update, only two commentaries have been added Oceans 12 (hosted at the renegades site) and just today the final chapter of 'my' Lord of the Rings trilogy. This latest really was a poor outing and I recommend it only for my most loyal fans. If I felt that I could skip it I would have. Thankfully, it is in the can and I've returned the long overdue rental disc that I used for the commentary.  Along with 'The Village'  and 'Magnolia' I've received a request for 'Oldboy' and I've also got my eyes on 'Serenity' and a few others. Depending on how the job hunt goes, you may be seeing a lot of change here over the next couple of months.

2nd September, 2005

Thanks to some prodding by LukeProg I have quit procrastinating and posted the links for the remainder of the commentaries currently offered on this site. (except for the 13th warrior - I intend to revisit that film with an improved, tighter commentary) Other commentaries to look for later this year include; The Village, Return of the King, Oceans 12, Magnolia and perhaps an collaborative effort with other commentators. The real big news right now is my impending MARATHON

7th June, 2005

Has it really been nine months since the last new commentary was released? Fear not loyal fans, for while certain demographic factors have prevented yours truly from making new commentaries (read: loud roommate makes quiet background and concentration impossible) this soon will be a thing of the past. First, he's moving out of our apartment and into the heart of SF, and even if he somehow changes his mind, I'm not one to stick around much longer here as there are better options for getting my own place closer to work...and once that happens there'll be no limit to what I can do and when I do it. Well, in the meantime I'd like to invite you all to check out Wik and the other games available on the Reflexive arcade: (see the March news below for more info)

11th March, 2005

Among other things, Andy has been busy with the first draft of his second screenplay. (and no the first one was never sold. thanks for asking) Also of note is the recent Independent Game Developers conference that was held in San Francisco. Andy was on hand to crash the party and even went up on stage when his brother's company won the McNally award for best overall web game. In case you haven't heard, Wik is a game that centers on a little frog-like person who manipulates the world around him with his tongue. One final update -- the problems with the Minority Report tracks is due to the fact that Andy never bought the program that he used to record these with. This will be corrected just as soon as he gets around to buying the software. [something he really ought to have done long ago]

29th September, 2004

Two updates in the same month? Well, I hope this is a sign of things to come...in the past I've been lucky to get two updates a year...anyway without further rambling: NEW COMMENTARY AVAILABLE NOW!   Go Go Go I'm relatively proud of this one. Relative in the sense that I finally did another commentary and didn't have too much trouble recording and posting it. My throat s still killing me three days later, and there's always a few other things I can think of that I wanted to say, but it's all good. Hope you all enjoy it and maybe notice something about the film that you didn't see before. Oh, btw, I've been meaning to post my film script. If you want to read it, download here.

5th September, 2004	Ok, so obviously it's been a while since my last update. At least since the last one you all have ever gotten to read... unfortunately my web host did something to switch from a static IP assignment to something a bit more nebulous. imagine my confusion when I posted files to the site in the normal way but the web pages did not change! And of course when I contacted them [coffeecup.com] for support they told me to login via the site name instead of the old IP, insisting that something was off with my FTP program. Those clowns... anyway, I'm still hosting with them for the time being. Time will tell - if something else comes along I'll have to jump ship. For now, I hope you enjoy the new site (which is, unfortunately, under construction at the moment) and a NEW Commentary coming very soon. The next hurricaneandy commentary will be for the film : Minority Report
January 1, 2004	New Year, New Site... Well, probably not a "new" site but at least a more active one than what you saw in the latter months of 2003. In September I got a new JOB and my personal life has been as busy as ever. I am anticipating an even more hectic 2004 but have made a resolution to keep this little website project very much alive. Coming this month will be another guest commentary, followed shortly thereafter by one of my own. You may be wondering what has become of  the DVD Barn ad banner. Well the long story short is that they still owe me about 90% of the residuals I've earned from the advertising on this site. Also, their service sucks and you could do better with Netflix or Greencine or probably just about anyone else. I've left an ad banner below if you still want to check them out, but I encourage you to click on just to spite them. (it means they owe me another cent even though I'll never see it) Anyway, I'm looking forward to 2004 and all the commentaries I hope to bring to you. God bless you all in the coming year.
August 27th, 2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has arrived! I completed uploading my commentary files last night and they are now available for download. This particular commentary follows in the same vein as my earlier Fellowship of the Ring commentary - I wasn't as concerned with serious analysis of the film as much as I was trying to have a few laughs at the expense of the film. This is what I did with Fellowship and some complained about it, including one Toronto news man who criticized me in print. There are still a number of commentaries that are in various stages of the process, including Magnolia, Ladyhawke, and the other requested commentaries. All of these however are taking a back seat to the collaborative project I mentioned last month, and that is taking longer than previously anticipated. Q. Why do you zip up your mp3 files? You don't make them that much smaller by zipping them, so what's the deal? A. My web server does not allow me to post files with the .mp3 or .exe file extensions, so I could either zip the mp3s or just rename them. I am now taking advantage of the zip format (beginning with the two towers) to include a small text file containing technical details about the commentary.
July 18th, 2003	Thanks to all of you who have visited this site. A look at the site statistics shows that this little project has been far more popular than I imagined. Rest assured that hurricaneandy commentaries are not going away any time soon. While the demands of life and work have kept me from posting new commentaries as often as I have intended, I have not forgotten my loyal fans. There are still several commentary requests that are unfilled. The Magnolia commentary has been in process now for quite a while (since March) but is yet to be completed, mainly due to schedule conflicts among the commentators. There will be another installment of lord of the rings mockery out next month, with the DVD release of The Two Towers. Additionally, I may be posting another guest commentary soon. I'd like to say more about it, but until it's for sure, I won't. And finally, there is an exciting side project I've been working on, along with George Davis and the folks at Renegade Commentaries . This is getting much closer to completion and I do expect to have it out before the end of the season.

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