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  1. ultra hi-tech circa 1992

    April 5, 2008 by jjosh

    While working I came across this fantastic clip from Sneakers, the 1992 team-caper film with the dream cast of Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, Dan Ackroyd, that guy who was the main bad guy in The Bourne Identity, and Mary McDonnell as the love interest — amazing to contrast her there (young, 80’s sexy, flirty) with her character now on Battlestar Galactica (older, wiser, still flirty).

    Also, they’ve got Ben Kingsley(!) as the bad guy, who’s also some kind of computer genius with a weird accent that I think is supposed to be Brooklyn. In this amazing clip, he reveals to Redford how he started his life of crime in prison. Kingsley is pouring on as much menace as he can, and then it gets to the hi-tech bit where he sort of demos how he did what he did. Using the terrible! power! of! spreadsheets!!!

    (I especially love the sound of the keyboard when he hits the keys…clak!)

    [flv:/video/sneakers_spreadsheet.flv 480 320]

    Category films | Tags: | 2 Comments

  2. steve ditko

    April 5, 2008 by jjosh

    Walking back from yoga today, Maxine and I stumbled into a new sort of graphic arts store on 3rd st, right in the middle of Gowanus. Called Picturebox, it looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere, but there were a couple of people in there when we were there, and from talking to the guy who was working there we learned that it’s been a small art and comics publisher there for a year and a half. The art was very cool, graphic, psychedelic — just my style.

    I picked up a Dr. Strange treasury from 1975 that looks absolutely amazing, and reminisced with the guy working there about how cool it was that Dr. Strange lived in Manhattan on Bleeker Street! I love it.

    From looking at the art, by comics legend Steve Ditko, it got me thinking of this great doc that I read about a while ago and tracked down (with quite a bit of effort). It’s by Jonathan Ross, who is a sort of British late-night talk guy, but gets a bit more respect than our Leno/Letterman dichotomy.

    Called "in Search of Steve Ditko", it’s about Ross’s fascination with Ditko, and his attempts to track down the camera-shy artist. It’s really fun and tough to find, so I’m putting it here for you to download and enjoy. It’s about 600MB, and I’ve no clue what speed my server will go to, so maybe set it going overnight or something. If it’s not working, let me know in the comments and I’ll work out some other way to host it…

    I originally read about it on Neil Gaiman’s blog, because he shows up at the end to help Jonathan Ross out, so if you’re a Gaiman fan, it’s got that too. And Alan Moore, in all his crazy beard, crazy rings glory.

    Jonathan Ross’s "in Search Of Steve Ditko"

    (right-click to download; left click to open as QT)

    Category comics | Tags: | No Comments

  3. ex ex ex change!

    April 1, 2008 by jjosh

    Panda Bear of Animal Collective released a solo album last year that hit the top ten in many many critics’ best of 2007 lists. And the album is kind of great…all Beach Boys gone psychedelic freak-out but still sunshine-y. I especially love the first track, Comfy In Nautica…it’s like a weird gentle industrial-style rhythm with a Brian Wilson sunshine vocal, I love it…

    Panda Bear – Comfy In Nautica

    [audio:Comfy_In_Nautica.mp3]

    I saw Animal Collective in a tiny DC venue, The Warehouse Next Door…I only went to the show because an old high school friend of mine was in the opening band, Antelope (they’re on Dischord, neat-o). Antelope and Animal Collective — nice, right? Anyway, Antelope were pretty good, but Animal Collective blew the lid off, all yelping and mask-wearing. In the middle of their set my high school pal leans over and says "Pretty fresh, huh?" and it had been ages since I’d heard "fresh" used. Since then I’ve been using it liberally.

    Fresh is a great word for this remix of Comfy In Nautica that I came across over at the fantastic blog Analog Giant. The Giant posts liberally, and even the tracks I’m not that into are still interesting. This remix is done by XXXchange of Spank Rock. I’m sure he pronounces his name "triple x change," but I like to imagine him pronouncing it "ex ex ex change." I don’t know much about Spank Rock, except for the Baltimore guys make good! angle. I’ve hung out with some people who went to school with the MC, Naeem, and say that he used to be this total geek, and how amazing it is that now he’s this feted MC.

    Anyway, XXXchange’s remix shoots an already great song into the stratosphere…I’m listening to it on repeat!

    Panda Bear – Comfy In Nautica (xxxchange remix)

    [audio:Comfy_xxxchange_remix.mp3]

    (If you care, you can stream an Antelope track at Dischord’s download page here.)

    Category music | Tags: | 3 Comments

  4. transcendent boredom

    March 31, 2008 by jjosh

    Welllll well well.

    Last night Chris B and I went to Terminal 5 to see Boredoms (apparently not "the Boredoms", just "Boredoms").

    You may not know Boredoms, but perhaps you know that one of their dummers, Yoshimi, is the Yoshimi from the Flaming Lips record "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots."

    I tried to see them last July when they did their storied 77 drummers playing for 77 minutes on 7/7/07 at Brooklyn Bridge park (link to youtube clip), but the line was absolutely insane, literally the biggest line I’ve ever been in for anything in my life. If we’re ever walking around in Dumbo I’ll show you, it was crazy, it stretched literally for blocks!!…

    So when I saw that they were going to be playing in NYC I snapped up a ticket. It was advertised that they’d be playing "in the round" and that sounded kind of great too. Chris got a ticket as well and we headed out last Sunday night.

    It was one of the most amazing concert experiences I have ever had.

    Top 5 easily.

    Before we go any further, let’s get a sense of what exactly Boredoms sound like. Because saying "japanese noise band" doesn’t really do them justice. Here is a track off their masterpiece Vision Creation Newsun…the tracks on that album don’t have any names, just symbols, so this track’s name is actually a little heart symbol…try to make it at least 11 seconds in so you can get a sense of the drums kicking in…

    Boredoms – (heart)

    [audio:_heart.mp3]

    I know, I know, not music I would necessarily recommend to everyone. But last night it was mindblowing.

    A little more context first, let’s have a look at my other top 5 mindbuggling concert moments: 

    Other events in my top 5:

    yes! tell me more!

    Category music | Tags: | 7 Comments

  5. raw as botulism

    March 29, 2008 by jjosh

    So I’ve been doing an Upfront tape for Sundance Channel (an advertising tape) and since it’s not going on-air, we can use any music and any clips from movies to make it. I wanted to use a shot of some slo-motion dancing, like at a rave, and I remembered that there was such a scene in the film Human Traffic.

    Described by imdb as “five friends spend one lost weekend in a mix of music, love and club culture,” I saw HT a while ago, and skimming through it again I was really enjoying it…

    At some point I’m going to sit down and watch the whole thing again, but for now I wanted to share a couple of clips that I grabbed to use in the tape I was working on. They both feature the main character’s best friend, Koop, who is played by an extremely charismatic actor, Shaun Parkes.

    A number of the scenes have really inventive staging, so here’s a scene of Koop doing some bedroom DJ’ing, and working his job selling records…so much energy…I’m using a couple of the shots of him dancing in my tape and they make me smile every time I see them…

     

    A quick look at Parkes’s CV on imdb shows he was also in a series based on Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. What the heck is that?! Seven 1-hour episodes…good buzz in reviews…hmmm, I may have to check that out…

    Category films | Tags: | 1 Comment

  6. Kings of Power 4 Billion %!!

    March 28, 2008 by jjosh

    This is an animated film, done in the style of old 8-bit video-game animation. If you ever went to an arcade or played Nintendo, you’ll recognize the style. It also tweaks the conventions of those old games, coming from Japan and full of "what-the-sh*t?!?!" moments that might have made sense in Japan but make no sense in our culture.

    It’s done by Paul Robertson, downloaded from his Livejournal page — he did an earlier film that was like Street Fighter but I didn’t like it nearly as much as this one. Even though this one feels like it gets in my head and dances like a bumblebee telling where the honey is.

    All this is a way of saying that this film is completely messed up. Especially by the time you get to the end. There’s this pig, and Buddha gets involved, and then these Violence Kings appear and so on.

    It’s called Kings of Power 4 Billion %

    I was going to suggest getting intoxicated in some way before watching it, but having watched the whole 12 and a half minutes I don’t think you’d make it.

    So stay in your right mind for this one, ‘cuz it’s going to make you feel like you drank a gallon of anti-freeze or something…good luck…

    [flv:/video/kop4b.flv 500 312]

    If you’re digging it, you really should go to his site and get the hi-rez version, because it looks amazing in crisp clear hi-rez…

    Category net | Tags: | No Comments

  7. next battle: black hole vs. lawsuit

    March 28, 2008 by jjosh

    Thanks again to Pat G, without whom we wouldn’t be aware of the impending black hole-ness of Spring 2008. Pat sends a link to a new article about that Large Hadron Collider we’re keeping an eye on in Sweden. Here are a list of the questions they think they might be able to solve once they fire that thing up:

    Is the foundation of modern physics right or wrong? What existed during the very first moment of the universe’s existence? Why do some particles have mass while others don’t? What is the nature of dark matter? Are there extra dimensions of space out there that we haven’t yet detected?

    Well hey that all sounds good. It would be good to know the answers to those questions right? Especially about the extra dimensions…

    But there’s this other group that’s more nervous about the following questions:

    Could the collider create mini-black holes that last long enough and get big enough to turn into a matter-sucking maelstrom?Could exotic particles known as magnetic monopoles throw atomic nuclei out of whack? Could quarks recombine into "strangelets" that would turn the whole Earth into one big lump of exotic matter?

    Bit of a conflict. So they’re suing to get enough time to make sure none of the bad stuff will happen. As Pat wrote me in his e-mail:

    This is pretty funny, some people are suing to prevent the earth getting sucked into a black hole.  Of course then again, who will be laughing as we get sucked into a black hole?

    Category science | Tags: | No Comments

  8. slow news day

    March 27, 2008 by jjosh

    Now I’ve never had a bar mitzvah, but I’ve been to a couple, and I don’t remember this particular part of the Torah: 

    [flv:/video/mitzvah.flv 320 240]For some reason this video makes me feel nervous. And for those of you who didn’t make it through the whole thing, I don’t blame you.

    Category net | Tags: | No Comments

  9. que es mas macho?

    March 21, 2008 by jjosh

    Somehow, website UGO.com, which describes itself as "the ultimate online entertainment playground for people with “Gamer DNA,” has lined up a huge roster of celebrities to answer this question: who would win in a fight between a minotaur with a trident and a centaur with a crossbow?

    The Onion does this one well with "Who Could You Take In A Fight?", but there’s something great about how UGO makes it so specific to the Minotaur and Centaur.
     
    Also I am stunned at how many people they have in their list…Helen Mirren, Jack Black, the cast of The Wire, Nicholas Cage, GWAR…unbelievable! Here is one from Tom Hanks and one from Will Ferrell to whet your appetite…

    [flv:/video/tom_hanks.flv 320 240]

    [flv:/video/will_ferrell.flv 320 240]

    Not to mention the comments section from the metafilter post that I got this from has a good ongoing debate about the question…people quoting D&D rules, methods of re-loading crossbows, etc.

    Category net | Tags: | 5 Comments

  10. amazing work, nerds

    March 19, 2008 by jjosh

    O.k., this is officially described as:

    "Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI."

    Nice. What you need to know is that the music is actually somehow generated by the sounds of the sparks themselves, and not through any kind of speaker. More info:

    The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software. These coils were constructed by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson. Video was captured by Terry Blake. What is not obvious is how loud the coils are. They are well over 110dB.

    As someone in the youtube comments section put so eloquently, amazing work, nerds.

    [flv:/video/tesla_mario.flv 320 240] I also love hearing the nerd audience delight in the spectacle. Right when it starts one guy can’t help it and unleashes an unbridled "Yeahhhhhh!"

    Category science | Tags: | No Comments

  11. don’t get her started on her bada-boom-booms

    March 17, 2008 by jjosh

    more pop? well o.k. sure, maybe it’s a little bubblegummy, but this stuff from Robyn is so fun…I know the blog-o-world has been geeking out over Robyn for a while, but I only saw the video for Konichiwa Bitches a month or so ago, and it blew me away with its weird acid-fried scandanavian pop hip hop energy…

    [flv:/video/robyn.flv 320 240]

    and then I caught this video today for With Every Heartbeat while searching for music to use in a mainstream-advertisers type video piece…she’s like some weird version of madonna from an alternate universe!

    [flv:/video/heartbeat.flv 320 240]

    Category music | Tags: | 4 Comments

  12. a chicka-boom-a chick

    March 14, 2008 by jjosh

    I was worried that the dolphin stuff below was a little too cute, so thank the internet gods I’ve been rescued by a truly brutal Ernie and Bert music video.

    The song is called “A Divine Proclamation for Finishing the Present Existence” and it’s performed by the band Last Days of Humanity. I love how Ernie & Bert still retain their central muppet-ness despite the shift in tone…and the ending is great. Crank it up!

    Category music, net | Tags: | No Comments

  13. dolphins save the whales

    March 14, 2008 by jjosh

    O.k., it’s (finally) time to post about dolphins.

    First, this great BBC story about a dolphin saving a couple of beached whales. My favorite line:

    "I don’t speak whale and I don’t speak dolphin," Mr Smith told the BBC, "but there was obviously something that went on because the two whales changed their attitude from being quite distressed to following the dolphin quite willingly and directly along the beach and straight out to sea."

    Also, some dolphins have been blowing bubble rings and then swimming through them and playing with them. According to the youtube info, this behavior "is a phenomenon that has intrigued scientists watching dolphins in the wild and now is fascinating millions of guests at SeaWorld Orlando."

    Dolphins just seem smart, don’t they?

    [flv:/video/dolphin.flv 320 240]

    Category nature | Tags: | No Comments

  14. this blog post is getting you high right now

    March 13, 2008 by jjosh

    There’s a nice article in the WSJ about how there might be a part of the brain that triggers an opioid hit when we are given new information that we need to absorb and interpret. That in the past we would need to gather this type of information in order to survive, so we’ve evolved to feel good when we get it, much like eating lots of fats and carbs. 

    In today’s info-saturated world though (like our food-saturated world), we are able to get so much information that it’s a bit like the monkey pushing the pleasure-stimulating lever until it dies (although this oft-cited experiment might be fake?). This accounts for why it’s so fun to cruise the web for info, to read blogs, to forward links, to post to blogs.

    From the article:

    In other words, coming across what Dr. Biederman calls new and richly interpretable information triggers a chemical reaction that makes us feel good, which in turn causes us to seek out even more of it. The reverse is true as well: We want to avoid not getting those hits because, for one, we are so averse to boredom.
     
    It is something we seem hard-wired to do, says Dr. Biederman. When you find new information, you get an opioid hit, and we are junkies for those. You might call us ‘infovores.’ "
     
    Now didn’t reading this post make you feel good? You want more, right?
    Well I’ll get you more, you better believe it.
    And it’s all free…
     

    Category net, science | Tags: | No Comments

  15. dial it up

    March 12, 2008 by jjosh

    this is amazing to me:

    "Meanwhile, more than nine million people still pay $10 to $25 for AOL’s dial-up service when faster broadband service is available in most parts of the country, often at comparable prices. Dial-up is a rapidly declining business, but it is not an insignificant one. After all, it accounted for most of AOL’s $5.2 billion in revenue last year."

    it’s from an NYT article on slow tech adopters…

    Category net | Tags: | No Comments

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