Pretty Much Exactly How It Went Down

Once again, Life imitates Taiwanese Television News Anime: Wendy Davis' Texas Filibuster

London. 1927. Color.

London in 1927 from Tim Sparke on Vimeo.

Wringing Out A Washcloth In Zero-G

Just what I said:

The Robots Have Risen, And They Are Here To Rock

Four-armed robotic drummer and robo-guitarist cover AC/DC. Nothing more need be said:

Zoochosis: Case 5 - Fate

I like the original title better: Mousocracy. But Patrick Scott ended up using rats. Rats! I'd like to take more credit for co-writing this, but in truth Patrick came up with most of this on his own. And even more in post production. The whole Mouse Kingdom? That was Patrick. Bomber that turns into a croissant (favorite part!). Patrick. In fact, the only thing I wrote that ended up in the final cut was the scientists taking notes. I wrote that. And I'll gladly take an oscar for that, thankyouverymuch.

Check out the rest of his crazy work here.

National Crystal Meth Hallucination League

From the Comedy Central and the Onion.

Langer: 562  Snakes: 1



Totally awesome.

That's Nature: Ever Seen An Actual Meteor Strike?

Me neither. But here's a comp of the meteor that struck Russia. This is totally amazing/scary/beautiful:



Not to make light, mind you. More than a 1000 people were injured from the impact. More here.

Woman Has Orgasm In Restaurant For No Reason

You may remember the befuddling little film I mentioned previously, called UFO: Target Earth (1974). Well, what I didn't mention then was that about half-way through the film this scene happens:

Now, what first got me was the music. Right off the bat, that tune, "Country Love" caught my ear. Probably because I can't believe anyone would let themselves be recorded singing like that. Second, the lyrics. Let's review:

I wish I had a hundred dollar bill
Just one for ever'day
I would spend them all aw'my true love
But their not send her away
Cause it's that Country Love
Country Love, get while you can
It's only Saturday Night in the country, boy
And it's Christmas everyday for the city man.

Those people pretending to act are yapping over this classic song, so that's as close as I can get the lyrics. There's something in there like "Whatchu going do when the well runs dry?" But that's enough for our discussion, which is: This Fucking Song Rules.

A hundred dollar bill. Really? Just a hundred dollar bill? That's all you wish for? I know, it's 1974. That's a lot of money back then. My little online inflation calculator says that $100 is about equal to $488 in 1974. But, still, not a $1K? Or a $1M? And I have no idea what "But their not send her away means." I mean, I might have heard it wrong, but take a listen, you tell me.

And why exactly is it Christmas everyday for the city man? Cause, as a city man lemme tell you: it's not Christmas everyday.

Now, after all that, this woman has an orgasm, which three onlooking dudes apparently can sense a mile away. They're just gawking at her! And let me state: I didn't edit this in the least. The music, the dudes gawking, the painful acting, the inexplicable orgasm, the little boy crying out for no reason, it's all just as it was presented in the film. I even kept the cut to the next scene in there just so y'all could see the craziness. 

Anyhow, enjoy. 

Blade Runner Convention Reel: Drool.

Wow, this footage makes the movie look even older. It also makes it feel more gritty and real. For Blade-heads:

"Unidentifying Object" Sigur Ros / UFO Target Earth Mash-Up

For this other project I'm working on I did this little mash up of Sigur Rós's "Refur" (B-side of "Sæglópur") with footage and voices from this incomprehensible 1974 movie called UFO: Target Earth. It's a pretty amazing piece of cinema, as the movie lacks all plot, character development, comprehension, and sense. That being said, these people, their voices so flat and non-actory, I think they sound beautiful. I've already used these people speaking in another piece, but right here was the first. Be sure to turn it up and Check It Out:

And if you really want to see the movie it's available from the Internet Archive right here.

I need a stagecoach - Hipster Thanksgiving

This... is hilarious. And I've been to this Hipster Thanksgiving. Spot. On.



And now I'm off to delete my Facebook account.

In Norway Kids Are Freezing

Interesting take on international aid from the prospective of those who feel exploited by images of starving children. From their website:

Imagine if every person in Africa saw the “Africa for Norway”-video, and this was the only information they ever got about Norway. What would they think about Norway?

So they made a parody video:



Best comment on YouTube from fellaciousderp:

the radiators will just be stolen and fuel their viking tribal warfare.  They'll have a population explosion and then they'll just need more radiators. By interfering, you're just going to increase the misery. Let them freeze, that's their way of life.

You Are Warrior Dreams. Wait, That Doesn't Make Any Sense

This is just kinda AWESOME.

Birds from Tree of Life

You seen the Tree of Life? It was good. Very good. Though the last twenty minutes kinda blew. Sean Penn walks through the set of what looks like an 80's music video. Doesn't ruin the film, but sorta drops the ball, because before that point, galaxies, fatherhood, dinosaurs, water effects, the birth of the universe (man that sequence was beautiful/amazing), it was pretty awesome. One thing I really liked is that for all the grandeur the movie is really made up of  small, quiet (sometimes loud), intimate moments. Like this sequence of birds flying.

The Tree of Life - Birds Sequence from Hugo Hollmann 

My favorite moment is when they're mostly obscured behind the building, and yet, I can still feel them moving, flowing. If this is special effects then it's brilliant. If it's real and just a moment captured on film, it's magnificent. 

When All Is Said And Done, It Makes Good Toast

Hrm. Perhaps this sheds some light on why Florida is so fucked up. Satanic Toast.



Satan Lives!

Thanks to Gen for bringing this into my life.

Hyperlapse

Though I think the term is a bit off, the technique is not. Hyperlapse basically is moving the camera while taking hi-definition stills at regular intervals, what we call normals call "timelapse". Not sure where the hyper- comes in, as not all of these shots done by video artist Ben Wiggins involve movement and not all of them are of large intervals either. In some hours go by in two seconds (the sunsets), while in others only scores of seconds go by in seconds (people walking on the street; might actually be minutes, but to me it looks like ~30 seconds). None of this detracts from the fact that this piece is hyper-fucking-good. And the music by DeVotchKa doesn't hurt.

Watch:

Very Little Stars from Timelapse, Inc. on Vimeo.

Originally spotted over at the Atlantic.

Flight of the Conchords: "Gotta stop blowing all the money on couches"

I mean, this is just just pure genius. Flight of the Conchords' charity song.



"We all just want to be bubbles."

What I Did Last Sunday

A few weeks back I was introduced by a friend of mine (Genevieve Brennan) to a gorgeous camping spot in the Marin Headlands right across (right across) the Golden Gate Bridge: Kirby Cove.

En route to Kirby Cove

She organized and cooked up a outdoors dinner, on the beach, under redwoods and cypress trees, with raccoons. She served vegetable tarts, lentils, fresh grilled asparagus, some kind of quinoa deal. It was delicious and magical. Take a look at the spread:

Like out of a magazine, right?

You can read more about it from her post here.

Anyhow, on the way to the cove I came across an old abandoned battery, them forts they built to take pot shots at ships coming into the San Francisco bay. It's between Battery Spencer and Battery Kirby (nee Gravelly Beach Battery). Various links online say this was Battery Wagner, but I couldn't confirm that with the GGNRA/Marin Headlands maps, and it appears from one source that Battery Wagner is closer to Battery Wagner road deep in the Headlands (whoduh thunk?). At any rate, this cool old battery has been repurposed as an outdoor mural space by a bunch of graffiti artists.

View of Battery Wagner (?) from above.

If You Want To Know About The Future, Ask A Fifth Grader

Work, shop, research, play, talk, chat, watch. Yeah, those sounds like obvious/safe guesses of what the internet would be in ten years from the island of 1995, at least looking back from here. But do you even remember what the internet was like back then? Or rather, do you remember what society was like in regards to the internet in 1995? 56K Dial-Up anyone? IRC Chats? Bulletin Board Systems? Pictures took minutes to download. And videos? Forget it, just pixelated messes on a any consumer machine. Speaking of which: desktops. And AOL (oh jeez!). Oh, and the elite video gaming system, which was unveiled in November of 95 but didn't even go on sale until 96, was the Nintendo Ultra 64, which became the Nintendo 64. Anyhow, check out these fifth-graders in this time-capsule PSA from 1995 (recorded on VHS, I'm sure):

Perhaps 5th graders are in a perfect spot developmentally, still filled with imagination but with sophisticated analytical skills they can extrapolate future trends, and haven't yet been fenced in by hormones, high school, and social distractions, and still young enough they haven't become jaded by years of watching the Man crush hopes and dreams. Or maybe they got William Gibson to write their copy.

And cat food cupcakes? Are those for cats or for people? Oh right, it's 2012:

(Slate's got some more coverage and PSAs)

360 Degree View From the Red Planet!

This interactive panorama, stitched together by Andrew Bordov over at 360cities.net (original post here) from photographs beamed back from NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover. It's pretty awesome. Check it:

 
(Source: The Verge)