John Textor keeps amazing audiences with his talent and leadership in creating extremely realistic digital humans and other digital effects for feature films and videos. One of these creations that he is famous for it the extremely believable digital human actor in the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He received the Achievement in Visual Effects award in 2009 and the CLIO advertising award for this work in Benjamin Button. John Textor, along with his companies, was also behind the visual effects for a large number of films, 25 of which were made during his company leadership including Pirates of the Caribbean at World’s End, Flags of our Fathers, and Transformers.

John Textor is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pulse Evolution Corporation. As Chairman he is responsible for Pulse Evolution’s special projects, strategic partnerships, vendor partnerships, rights aquisition, and relationships with major media companies. His recent projects include Ender’s Game, where he was both Producer and Executive Producer, and the new animated feature film Art Story, An Original Animated Film, where he is producer and working with Aaron Blaise of Disney who is currently developing the film. Art Story involves the characters in the film jumping into famous works of art and their adventures inside the artworks. John Textor was previously Chairman and CEO of Digital Domain Media Group and Digital Domain Productions.

John Dextor is very active in the development of a variety of modes of entertainment that reach across a broad range of technology platforms. He has branched out to many projects and venues including his creation of the digital Tupak Shakur at the 2012 Coachella Valley Music festival. He has also created “digital resurrections” of Michael Jackson and the Mets baseball players. John Dextor is truly a pioneer in digital effects and realism in the digital human form.

As The Who announces their 2015 North American tour commemorating their 50-year history and called by lead singer and founder Roger Daltrey “the beginning of the long goodbye” in a recent interview, Rolling Stone has revealed an early bootleg recording of the band performing at a hotel venue. This recording allows fans an audio glimpse back to a time “before The Who were anyone.”

Today, with the band’s influence firmly evident in so much of the pop and rock music that followed, it’s hard to remember that there was a time:

before they were branded as a mod band –

before the growling rebel rail of “My Generation” –

before they would set the world on fire with their performance of Pete Townshend’s awe-inspiring rock opera Tommy as the sun rose at 1969’s Woodstock festival –

before Townshend topped his own composing genius with the magnificent work Quadrophenia, which he called his “masterpiece” –

before he made famous the widely copied pinwheeling guitar-god arm and his onstage “auto-destructive art” antics (which even Jimi Hendrix imitated at 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival) –

before creating three of the best albums of all time (Tommy, Quadrophenia and Who’s Next) –

before Townshend’s signature innovative combination of synthesizer and rock were introduced as TV show themes to further generations –

before all that, they were just four young kids who got together to play cover music and get a feel for how to fit themselves into this world of music, for which they were so clearly destined.

As The Who prepare for their upcoming tour, they still court controversy. Some comments smirk, “Too old – give it up!” But no fan of The Who wants to give up The Who. They are, quite simply, still one of the best live bands ever.

Roger’s mic-swirling antics still thrill audiences and fill the stage, but nowadays instead of glowering with the anger of their punk-like anthems, he grins in fun and nods at the audience, clearly having the time of his life. Pete may no longer jump five feet in the air, but he still caresses the chords of his cherry red Strat with finesse and precision that elevates rock to true art. The heritage of supreme drummer Keith Moon lives on in the inclusion of Zak Starkey – son of Ringo Starr, with whom Keith was great friends. And in recent tours the band has cleverly and seamlessly included performance footage by deceased members Moon and the incomparable, influential bassist known as “The Ox” and “Thunderfingers” – John Entwistle.

But before all that – they were just four kids, playing in a hotel, that would go on to change the world, and get fans like Torchin and I to support them for our entire lives.