Geek Chic

Just saw this on Vulture — It’s pretty lo-fi and he basically looks like a kid in his parents’ basement.

But here he covers Pearl Jam’s ‘Why Go,’  and he’s pretty damn good:

How awesome is this Puma ad:

Not that this is uncharted territory (it’s building off of Michel Gondry’s work, and most likely countless others before him), but it’s definitely pushing the boundaries further than I’ve ever seen them pushed before.

What’s amazing about this, and the kind of work that Gondry does in ‘Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground‘ is that the spectacle itself is theatrical in nature.  It’s not something that could only be done on video and edited together in post.  It’s something you could experience live — but which you happen to be watching on film.

This ad takes the theatrical paradigm a step further — it’s a very post-modern interaction with video, complete with Noh theater style invisible stage hands (Kohken) moving the projection surfaces on and off the stage.

This is the kind of work I want to do in terms of using projections and video in theater.  It seems like a pretty limitless frontier.

Now I just need a little bit of money… and I should be all set. :)

Thanks DesignNotes for pointing this one out.

UPDATE: I just changed out the video embed code.  For full effect, switch to HD and watch it in full screen.  It’ll blow your mind.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this too, but every time I’ve seen a blog post over the last week that mentioned the upcoming release of IE8, it was paired with an ad for Google Chrome:

Now of course, this makes sense.  Google owns AdSense, the ad-trafficking network on all of these pages.  And they certainly have a right to send their own ads wherever they’d like.

But…

Doesn’t this verge a little bit on an anti-trust issue?  Google can control the flow of ads to pages that mention the text ‘IE8’ — so that they basically own all ad space next to talk of Microsoft’s product.  Within their network, of course.  But since they bought DoubleClick, their network is huge.  And while they might not be able to put their ads on commercially sold properties (AOL, NYT, etc), I’m sure they’ll send some of their bulk AdSense ads to those pages.  And I’ll bet that if there’s a mention of IE8, there’ll be an ad for Chrome in that AdSense spot.

I’m sure it’s nothing.  Google only recently started advertising for their own products, so I’m sure they’re testing the waters a bit.  And there’s no way the Justice Department will ever figure something like this out until years after the fact.

But it does show a huge potential for abuse of power in Google’s ad network, no?

Only time will tell.

There’s been a lot in the news lately about the Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer interview on the Daily Show.  I just watched the full interview, and I honestly don’t know how to feel about it.  It’s pretty clear that Jon Stewart was trying to make a case that CNBC could have worked harder to defend its audience from the financial sector.  And Jim Cramer basically said ‘Yes! But you see, I run an entertainment program too!’ back to Stewart.

I honestly feel like the interview was editited to make it more salacious than it actually was.  What it was was two men at an impasse.  And I honestly feel like neither of them came off looking much worse than when they came in.

Watch the Full Interview at Comedy Central and decide for yourself.

I really like the idea of this: PolitiFact has dug through the archives and tracked down all of the promises that Obama made on the campaign trail, and are basically tracking the progress on them in real time.

At first this seemed unfair and unrealistic, but if you recall, Obama actually asked the American people to hold him to the promises he made.

Answering the call, PolitiFact made the ‘Obameter‘ which tracks Obama’s progress on each and every one of his 500 campaign promises.

It’s fascinating to see numbers and ratings on these things.  And honestly, looking at the numbers, he’s doing quite well.  Check it out for yourself.

Thanks VSL

So the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store isn’t your bag, eh?  You’re more inclined towards activities which could be described as, shall we say, evil?

Say no more, I’ve got just the thing for you:

No your eyes do not deceive you.  You are indeed just one click away from Henchman’s Helper — a site consolidating all of the tools and gadgets you might ordinarily stock in your lair into one convenient web site.

Now you can keep an eye on all of your normal sophisticated surveillance equipment from the comfort of a Starbucks.  Or your living room.

Thanks VSL!

My uncle just sent around this talk given by Hans Rosling about a year and a half ago.  It’s pretty amazing, and a very different way of looking at the world than I think is generally accepted.  Have a look-see:

Click to Watch on Ted.com