Quite a few years ago, my good friend Witold shared a surreal little photo with me that he had taken from one of the upper floors of the Woolworth building of the World Trade Center and some other surrounding building. It was noteworthy because is looked so fake – almost like a miniature model of the architecture. It made it into his 600×250 photos collection so you can judge for yourself. Spectacular photo, ans if I am not mistaken, taken with simplest of fixed lens point and shoot cameras, the Leica Minilux 35mm.

This afternoon, I followed a simple link provided by Andy Baio a whole new world of appreciation has been opened up to me. I thought I would share.

Italian photographer Olivo Barbieri takes aerial shots of famous cities and architecture that look like miniature models and train sets. It is absolutely amazing, and in many of the examples, a little hard to believe. You really have to see it. He uses a “tilt-shift lens” – a method, he says, that ‘allows me to choose what I really like in focus: like in a written page, we don’t read [it as an] image but one line at a time.’ I don’t really understand, but he goes on to say it is ‘the city as an avatar of itself.” Stunning, stunning work. BLDGBlog has a nice description and some examples, but the collection on Metropolis Magazine is even better. Some more examples can be found on Art Net here.

I also read all the comments from readers of these other stories and found mention of work from another photographer who achieves a similar effect, though I have no idea if the technique is the same. Tom Merilion took incredible picture of Birmingham, England that have to be considered along with Barbieri’s work. This stuff is so much fun to look at.

Some people have wondered how this technique would work with portraits of real people. I would love to see photos like that. If know what the hell these guys were doing, I would try it myself. For now, we have the very beautiful work of Loretta Lux to keep us occupied. It’s not quite the same effect, but its chilling nonetheless. Some of her work is on display here in NY at the Guggenheim, and I will be sure to go soon to check it out. This collection on her website is incredible.

UPDATE 1/29/06: There is a fantastic Japanese photoblog by “the bitter girls” that looks like it is dedicated to tilt-shift photography. I can’t read or understand a thing, but the images are amazing. Like this one…

Also found this great article one how tilt-shift lenses work. I sort of understand it. But not really.

It seems that Canon makes some relatively inexpensive tilt-shift lenses that are even available on Amazon. I am sure there is a cheaper place, but I haven’t even looked around anywhere else yet. Most of the photos by the bitter*girls seem to be taken with either the Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 or the TS-E 45mm f/2.8. Amazon also has a 24mm. I may save up for the 45mm. I have to do a little more research.

[followed a long trail starting with Waxy.]

I have never seen this Chappelle Show clip of Black Bush before. It is uncensored, and I have no idea where it is from, since I thought I had seen every episode of the show. Dave proposes in standup intro clip before the skit that President Bush would never have gotten clearance for the War in Iraq if he were black because everyone would have asked too many questions. This skit may only be second best to famous Rick James bit. I promise, you will enjoy it. Dave Chappelle is a frigging genius.

[via screenhead.]

Wordress 2.0 broke Ecto and sucks at image handling. I am working some stuff out now.

Here’s one to boost ‘dem clicks.

Brittany Daniel (fame of ‘Sweet Valley High’ in her early years, to ‘Joe Dirt’ with David Spade in 2001) has been, to me, one of the hottest women alive on the planet today.
That said, I’ve always wondered when she would get naked.
It seems that she chose not only to be naked, but to be naked and making out with a fellow ‘lesbian’ in a movie called Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders
God help me.

Watch the video. (NSFW)

This video of a Japanese Yo-yo tournament shows some amazing kids with sick sick Yo-yo trick skills.
Some of the stuff doesn’t even look like it should be possible.

Go watch.

Having a bit of an issue with image uploading.
Sorry about not having a screencap.
Just go watch the video, pick a frame you like, and pretend it was the screencap I had in this post somewhere.

I received this just a few minutes ago:

The excitement and the small exertion had caused Major Smythe to pant, and he felt the old pain across his chest lurking, ready to come at him. He put his feet down, and after driving his spear all the way through the fish, held it, still flapping desperately, out of the water. Then he slowly made his way back across the lagoon on foot and walked up the sand of his beach to the wooden bench under the sea-grape. Then he dropped the spear with its jerking quarry on the sand beside him and sat down to rest.

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But she had moved across the room and was admiring one of the upright mummies close up. “Wait till Daddy sees all this,” she said, suddenly sounding as excited as me.

WTF??!!

What do you do with 45 foot long, 8 ton, stinking, dead whale carcass that washes up on the beach in your small town in Oregon in 1976? Cut it up? Bury it? Burn it?

How about blow it up with 20 cases (a half ton) of dynamite? At the time, it seemed like a good idea, like most ideas of this nature. This news reporter who narrates the story is absolutely fantastic. His dry, ironic, straight-faced storytelling makes this video even more enjoyable. Too fucking good. I ‘heart’ the 70’s.

This reminds me of a story an old friend once told me about trying to remove a huge tree stump from a old general’s backyard using primacord. Needless to say, overzealous soldiers used too much of the explosive, and the 6 foot diameter tree stump launched a hundred feet in the air, sending experienced Army Rangers running in all directions for their lives. The general’s brand new pickup truck didn’t have the luxury of scrambling and was crushed beneath the stump a few seconds later. The hole left in the ground was like 12 feet deep and 10 feet across. Hooo-ah!

[via the best of google video.]

I don’t know where these people are from, but the fishing is incredible. In fact, you don’t even need a fishing pole if you have a flashlight and a rowboat. Just go out there and do your best to protect your face from the catapulting fish. Seriously, the boat fills up with insane fish in just a few minutes.

The best part of this whole thing is the Top Gun theme music. Too fucking good.

[via owen winkler.]

This nerd built a replica Leaning Tower of Pisa out of 12,000 blocks, without any adhesive, over the course of 2 weeks. It was to be reviewed for the Guinness Book of World Records. Then the reporter came to interview him…

He even WARNS the guy about the cord. He WARNED him. He told him to be careful. I would have choked him to death, on camera.

[via manny.]

Honda just released the new Civic in Europe.
It’s a drastic change from the previous versions.
I haven’t done any research on Honda’s plans for US release (or lack there of), but I ran across this awesome awesome commercial for it. Honda’s been known to have some great commercials (well, at least one other one Chris posted about.
This one isn’t as ‘Oh my god!’ worthy, but it’s brilliant, nonetheless.

Enjoy.

I am a little worried about this upgrade. I am about to shut down all the plugins and do the install. Everything might be fucked for a while. Please be patient. Wish me luck.

UPDATE: Wordpress 2.0 is now up and running, but as you might be able to notice, a bunch of shit is broken. I am working on it.

I just made and ordered the greatest stamps in the history of postage. .39 cents my ass. I paid $35 for 40 stamps, but they were worth every fricken penny. I don’t know if you remember this dog from way back when, but I never forgot him. Now he’ll be on my postal mail for the next 6 months.