I wish I spoke Turkish so I could understand exactly what’s going on here. Wait a second, no I don’t.

Wayyyy better than Oprah.

I don’t really know what to say. It looks like everyone officially loves this song. Watch.

[via thedw.us.]

The Beatles edition of Rock Band opens with this brilliant animation. I don’t play Rock Band or Guitar Hero, but I would watch any show with animation this good.

[via toplessrobot.]

In case you haven’t already heard, Kanye West is a complete dick. Basically, this is what happened.

Taylor Swift won the VMA for Best Female Video, and Kanye did this:
<a href="http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2009/" target="_blank">Kanye West Storms The VMA Stage</a>

Then Beyonce wound up winning the VMA for Video of the Year, and she graciously handed the microphone over to Taylor who has apparently been crying backstage. There is no embeddable video, by the way, because MTV, once the center of popular culture is now lame and irrelevant, but more on that another time…

Then President Obama said this, off the record:

’nuff said…

I have been wanting to write about District 9 (IMDB) for days, but have been distracted by other things. I saw District 9 on opening day with high expectations because I have been a fan of Neill Blomkamp for years. I wrote about some of his work back in January 06, but most of the people I discuss the movie with lately have no idea who he is.

First of all, District 9 is an extraordinary work of science fiction. Definitely one of my all-time favorites, and if you care what others think, is getting great reviews from the professionals. This is a story-driven work of compelling political importance, though that aspect is not subtle and the comparisons to South African apartheid are obvious and occasionally overdone. Special effects are flawless, seamless, and understated. Aliens and technology blend into the documentary-style shooting as if they are real. For only $30 million, Blomkamp, along with the brilliant Weta Digital Studio (Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings), have created the most believable science fiction setting I’ve ever seen. The gauntlet has been thrown in the direction of Hollywood, all the way from New Zealand. There are no superheros in this film, and the only selfless characters are an alien named Christopher Johnson (yes, the same exact name as my friend and roommate) and his son. The bumbling, racist, selfish protagonist is painful to watch in the absolute best way. He is stupid, but nothing stupid happens. Let me repeat that. Nothing stupid happens. There is no moment where you think to yourself, “That’s makes no fucking sense at all,” like when you are watching Terminator Salvation or The Dark Knight. This movie is fucking awesome and deserves all the accolades and financial success it is sure to receive.

Now, for the actual purpose of this post. For those of you unfamiliar with Neill Blompamp’s previous body of work. He has done several amazing short films, one of which is obviously the seed of District 9, and another which is a hugely squandered opportunity.

I’ll start with my introduction to Blomkamp’s work. Here is a Citroen commercial he directed, where a Citroen C4 transforms into a robot and dances for a few minutes. This looks like the transformers movie should have. Animation, lighting, camera work, are all flawless, and the robot itself looks as if it is actually made of car parts, not at all like Michael Bay’s flawed vision. Somebody should put this guy at the helm of the next Transformers.

Ok, next is a fantastic short film about alien refugees in Johannesburg called Alive in Joberg. Sound familiar? Well, that’s because it is exactly the same premise as District 9. Obviously the aliens in this short are created with masks and simple animatronics, unlike the beautiful CG of District 9, but they are almost identical. I am glad they ran with this idea.

Tempbot is another amazing short film. This one follows a lonely new-model robot assigned to boring cubicle office jobs to do temp work. Again, we see CG elements seamlessly integrated into documentary-style filming that create an amazing effect. You forget you are looking at CG and become totally emerged in the story. This is exactly true of District 9 as well.

And last, but certainly not least, is Blomkamp’s amazing 3 part short film of Halo. This was done as a promotion for the launch of the XBox 360 game, Halo 3. It is interesting not only because it looks amazing and is filmed beautifully, on what I presume was another tiny budget, but because a Halo film is being kicked around Hollywood and Jackson, Blomkamp, and Weta Digital were kind of screwed out of participating. You can read a summary of the status of the Halo movie here. You’ll understand how tragic that is in a minute. Here is a compilation of all 3 parts in high quality. It is fucking amazing.

So, there’s your introduction to Neill Blomkamp. No, I don’t know how to pronounce his name, and I learned how to spell it writing this post. Now go see District 9. I promise you, it is absolutely brilliant.

I was just blown away when I watched this trailer on Joystiq for this new independent game called Machinarium. You play a robot making his way through this gorgeous city and appear to be solving puzzles along the way. It is absolutely one of the most beautifully designed games I’ve ever seen. Just watch.

[via joystiq.]

I’m literally in the middle of a complete re-architecting of this stupid website. This time for real. It’s about to get ugly around here.

Does this thing know how to break my post in two?
Read the rest of this entry »

Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod, this was originally titled “Globalization & The Information Age”, I think, now “Did You Know 3.0“. I am too lazy to do any real research right now, but I think McLeod is a high school teacher and he put this together for a class presentation. Anyway, it is now being updated every year because it became so popular online. I have used it in business presentations several times. It is an excellent, thought provoking presentation describing how population, technology, education, and globalization are changing the world, rather quickly. If you haven’t seen it already, watch the latest, 2008 version now.

[thx youtube.]

A Slow Loris pet in Russia.

I would kill most of you to have him as a pet. Then I’d kill him by crushing his little fucking face.

Now that you’re hooked, you might want to watch this Slow Loris that loves to be tickled, or this baby one messing around.

[via MissCellania.]

This video is making the rounds, and I kind of ignored it until I saw it in context and realized how genius it really is.

Han Solo, P.I. is a remix version of the intro credits of Magnum, P.I. using footage of Han Solo and friends from Star Wars. Watch it first:

Maybe you think that was pretty funny, or cool, or whatever. But wait until you watch it side by side, frame by frame, shot by shot, with the original. It is absolutely genius. Amazing work. I love this shit.

[via laughing squid again.]

I’ve posted a few of these before. Here is a genius literal lyrics version of Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart.

[via laughing squid.]