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Record Tripping

I spent some time with the new Bell Brothers game Record Tripping yesterday and I suggest you do the same today. It's an incredibly well designed game that involves using your scroll wheel to reach the level goal - a concept that would be overly simplisitic if it weren't for the great sound design involving music from Gorillaz, Beck, Spoon and Alice in Wonderland narration. It's not too challenging but it's worth the time spent playing; often the best game combo you can ask for.

Via WAXY.

Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman

I openly admit to my enjoyment of the second season of NBC's Parks and Recreation; it's a huge step up from the first season and light years beyond what The Office is offering; despite being very similar on paper. A big part of that enjoyment is thanks to the perfectly executed dry wit of Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson. Turns out he's married to Megan Mullally and they've got a great interview up over at NY Mag. And yes, the image on the site is a bit more revealing than the one shown in this post.. so be prepared to shield your bosses eyes.

CHDK

I had heard of this before but never seen a centralized depot for the goods. If you are the owner of a Canon Powershot, you can hook yourself up with CHDK - the Canon Hack Development Kit. It lets you "upgrade" your camera by unlocking and adding a number of features previously stinted by the Canon team. I'm sure it breaks your warranty but you can churn out images like this with a simple point and shoot... and that's an endeavor worthy of investigating.

PTARMAK

It took me a minute to get used to the browsing experience of the design portfolio of Austin based PTARMAK but once I did there were many treats to partake in. I'm a sucker for taxidermy so I was, obviously, quite enamored with their photo series The Rather Curious Afterlife of Southern Animals but browsing through the other works - Eat, Andy Warhol and Honest Don's in particular - I was just as intrigued. It's a great portfolio and blog, so spend some time with it.

The Mighty Boosh App: The Mighty Decider

The Mighty Boosh have released an official iPhone app called The Mighty Decider that, in theory, helps you make decisions when stuck in rut. In truth, it's just an amusing click through of a bunch of favored Boosh characters saying new and amusing things. Is it worth $1? That all depends on your level of Boosh enjoyment.

Via Trey.

Flash vs HTML5

While not a super fascinating read for everyone I did enjoy this Flash vs HTML5 discussion put forth in an attempt to waylay some of the debate about HTML5 being the Death of Flash. It is, by no means, the definitive work on the subject but the table breakdown is a great way to compare and contrast.

Via Will.

Weird Movie Weekend: The Electric Grandmother

The Electric Grandmother is a made for TV movie based on the Ray Bradbury short story "I Sing the Body Electric" - a story that I really should read to make some sense out of this tale. The story as put forth by the movie is this: three children lose their mother to some unknown sickness, days later they receive interlocking keys airdropped from a helicopter owned by the Fantoccini company. They go to visit this company in an insanely creepy warehouse and find that they've been given the opportunity to build their own grandmother. The robot is delivered in a sarcophagus complete with traditional burial mask and attempts to win their hearts. You can watch the entire movie on Youtube and I suggest you do so.. it's less than an hour and then maybe you can tell me what lesson it is supposed to teach children. As far as I can tell it's intention is to let you know that Grandmothers never die and will care for you your entire life.. and eventually outlive you. Bizarre but enjoyable in its own way.

Weird Movie Weekend: Hausu

Over the weekend I hit up the local art house, Belcourt, and their showing of the Japanese film Hausu (aka: House). It is, without a doubt, one of the craziest films I've seen in a long time. While firmly rooted in horror film mythos it is far too silly, absurd and ridiculous to be the least bit scary. Without giving too much away just let me say that if you find yourself with a copy you'll be treated to: Devil Cat, Deadly Piano, Banana Man and some of the most baffling editing and music choices put to film. Just watch the trailer and then immediately set out to find a way to watch this movie.

Friday Videos - Feb. 5th, 2010

Slight snafu this afternoon with my site getting exploited / hacked in some way. I guess that's what you get for running a near 10-year old version of Moveable Type to power your blog. Guess who'll be writing some PHP scripts this weekend? This guy! Anyway, enjoy the playlist, albeit a bit paltry this week.

• Patrick Stewart on Twitter - or, rather, why he's not on Twitter. His love of the iPhone and email is astounding tho.
• Lasagna Cat Minus Lasagna Cat - as if the original weren't weird enough, the redux without Lasagna Cat is ridiculous.. but sort of perfect in its own way. Especially the soundtrack.
• The Fountainhead in 5 Seconds - absolute perfection.
• 30 Rock: Laser Shield - I am sure everyone who reads this site already watches 30 Rock but I've found myself rewatching this scene over and over and over. It's one of their silliest moments but it's hysterical because of the deadpan delivery.
• Jon Stewart on Bill O'Reilly - not so much "funny" as it is admirable. Jon Stewart is incredibly smart, amusing and pulls no punches when confronted about his opinion on things. It's silly that The Daily Show could be viewed as a source of legitimate news but he really plays no favorites.. he may be left leaning but he is the most "balanced" of them all when it comes to calling out shenanigans.

Bonus Alaska Nanooks 2010 Hockey Intro - how have I not posted this yet? I saw this last week and it is, easily, the most outrageous and entertaining pieces of video work that I've encountered in some time. I absolutely love that this team mascot destroys the Earth as part of his journey to get the crowd hyped. Yet another stub in my "Why I Don't Understand Sports" book... but it is truly epic and worth at least 5 viewings.

Have a great weekend.. hopefully the site stays intact from here on out!

Whiskerino 09: The Great Beard Ship

I am proud to present the Whiskerino 2009 Tee; designed by Andy Vastagh.. aka BOSS Construct. The image is simple, a magnificent ship sailing on a Sea of Beard. I think it's fair to say that captures the essence of the journey of Whiskerino. We're taking pre-orders now so, if you're interested, get in there and order one and we'll start shipping next week. This really is the final Whiskerino, so if you've always wanted a beard tee vaguely referencing the event, this is your last chance.

→ Whiskerino Tee: The Great Beard Ship.

100 Abandoned Houses

I've said it dozens and dozens of times before and it continues to hold true - the simplest concepts work the best. Such is the case with 100 Abandoned Houses - a gallery of images showcasing, abandoned houses. The homes themselves are intriguing enough but the giant empty lots that seem to surround the majority of them are even more interesting.. how are these, somewhat grandious, houses built with no neighbors in a seemingly urban area? Baffling!

Alumi Icons

Last night I nerded out and hunted down a proper Harddrive Icon replacement for my machine. Tired of looking at the weird, literal, drive icon on the desktop I knew there had to be a slicker option. Enter the Alumi Set by Joy Vincent. You may not be able to get the full preview of the icons from that link but trust me, they're legit. Is it absurd that I'm posting about some new icons that I found and love? Yes. Is it appropriately nerdy and, secretly, you love it too? You bet.

Archer

I remember seeing teasers for the new FX series Archer a few months ago and loving that H. Jon Benjamin was voicing the role of an egomaniacal / mostly inept spy. The concept and look reminded me of Adult Swim's Frisky Dingo in the best of ways.

Now having seen a few episodes I can't recommend it enough.. the cast list is outstanding. H. Jon Benjamin, Judy Greer, Chris Parnell and Jessica Walter just to name a very few. In other words, loads of Arrested Development alumni, SNL members and other vetted comedians. Make a note on your calendar to watch some full episodes but, in the meantime, hit up the shows video page for a taste.

The Day After

A successful birthday celebration often equates to oversleeping and getting a slow start to the following day. Such is the case today... so here's a list of things to check out while I get my head back together for the remainder of the day.

• Using GridFox to align your websites - could be a handy little tool.
• Accidental Contemporary Art - the intentional contemporary art is, unsurprisingly, often way better than the accidental but there's still a level of appreciation there worth taking note of.
• App.itize.us - a well curated App store blog. I've not spent enough time here yet to really dig into the content but it looks promising. Via WAXY.
• Four Four - apparently a platform for website building that is tied directly into ArtistData. I imagine it's maybe not robust enough for a regular developer but it could be a good place to start.

Delightful Treats

Today is my birthday, so I bestow this blog post to myself and the entertainment that it brings me.

• The Curse: Sergio - yes, it's an SNL Digital Short you've probably seen 30 times over already but it's new to me. Jon Hamm is not so great at comedy in my opinion so it's great to see him cast in such an absurd role that works so well. Plus, saxophone playing. How could I not enjoy the ridiculousness of that??
• Business Cat - some people may be perplexed by my love of animal videos (or at least find it stereotypical of Internet users) but I don't see how you can watch that video and not love every minute of it. It's a cat on a business trip and every detail of it is delightful. Delightful I say!!

Phantogram

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a pre-release copy of the forthcoming Phantogram album Eyelid Movies and I can't believe how much I've been listening to it. I'd put forth an attempt at describing the sound contained within but I am sure I would fail miserably and regret trying to box it in. In short, it's a great album - top to bottom - that I can't imagine you not enjoying. You can listen to the entire album here, courtesy of NPR and pick it up in stores next week.

SublimeVideo

Please take a moment to fire up your WebKit browser of choice (Safari / Chrome) and check out this Sublime Video Player. This is the first usage of HTML5 video that has really grabbed my attention. It's a bummer that it doesn't work in Firefox yet (or that Firefox doesn't support mp4 video) but it will get there and it will be fantastic. I realize this only appeals to the nerd / code crowd that reads this site but everyone else should also take a look and realize that player is just using native browser commands and some javascript - no additional plugin needed. It will be some time before this sort of thing becomes the standard over Flash but it's on the way, and it's going to be real interesting.

Tech Ponderings

A few technical links / ponderings for your consideration:

• HipHop for PHP - Facebook developers have released an open source project for PHP that compiles the code directly into C++ before running; making execution times and CPU stress much improved. It's about the worst name you could give a project but the idea behind it is rather appealing.
• Last.FM Recommended Radio in iTunes - why does this require a hack-y Python script? Why is there no standard M3U stream to snag? Anyone have insight on this?

Bill Watterson Interview

I've always had the utmost respect for Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson. He created, in my opinion, the greatest / most timeless comic strip known to man and he never tainted the experience by licensing their likeness for profit. In this interview he speaks to what life is like for him after 15 years of the strip being done; and 10 years of not really taking any interviews. It's a rather short piece but this struck a chord with me:

It's always better to leave the party early. If I had rolled along with the strip's popularity and repeated myself for another five, 10 or 20 years, the people now "grieving" for "Calvin and Hobbes" would be wishing me dead and cursing newspapers for running tedious, ancient strips like mine instead of acquiring fresher, livelier talent. And I'd be agreeing with them.

I think some of the reason "Calvin and Hobbes" still finds an audience today is because I chose not to run the wheels off it.

Somehow I respect the man even more now than I already did.

yk mix: The Grip

It's been awhile since I've put up a mix of all the stuff I've been listening to lately and, turns out, a lot of that stuff is the same adorned goods that most of the Internets are digging. Thats to say, there's not a ton of obscure stuff on here - this ended up being a collection of recent heavy hitting indies mixed in with some other goods I've been enjoying.

It should also be noted that I intentionally put Phantogram and Beach House next to each other because I am personally convinced that the Phantogram album is superior to Beach House, despite not getting anywhere near the same press. It's more diverse in its execution but similar in style. Both are great but I wish Phantogram would get the credit it deserves.

Please don't let the presence of so many familiar names get in the way of enjoying the mix as a whole - it's a nice balance of familiarity and newness. I hope you enjoy.

→ Download 'The Grip' Mix

London: 1940's: Kodachrome

Retronaut has, among many other intriguing items, a small series of photos taken in 1940's London with color Kodachrome film. The Picadilly Circus images are particularly worthy of note.

Elizabeth Weinberg

Really enjoying the portrait work from Elizabeth Weinberg. There are a few familiar faces in the mix and every image properly tells a story (love the Jeff Barnett-Winsby shot.. go find it).

Also spend some time with the other portions of the site - Musicians, Lifestyle, Reportage, etc... lots of goodness to see throughout.

Via Jeremy.

Out of Print: Book Tees

Out of Print celebrates the world’s great stories through fashion. Our shirts feature iconic and often out of print book covers. Some are classics, some are just curious enough to make great t-shirts, but all are striking works of art.

It's unclear why these Book T-Shirts are so alluring but there is no denying it, they absolutely are. It's probably a bit unfortunate that my favorite is not a book I've actually read but there are plenty of other candidates worthy of note and possible purchase.