Geek Chic

I’m not quite sure what to say about this, but I think it actually looks pretty good:

In the same vein as Being John Malcovich, Van Damme plays himself — a past-his-prime action star, returning to his home in Brussels, and playing out his remaining career shooting more and more questionable B movies.  Until one day he runs out of money.  And finds himself in the middle of a real-life bank robbery.  Comedy and drama ensues.

I know what you’re thinking — Jean-Claude Van Damme? From Universal Soldier?

I know.  I had the same reaction.

The amazing part is — at least in the trailer — Van Damme’s acting is actually pretty good.  He’s actually funny and compelling — and overall the film – JCVD – looks really good.  It comes out on DVD on 4/28, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Thanks for the tip VSL!

This is fun:

Slagsmålsklubben – Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Thanks VSL!

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.

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.

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

This had me rolling on the floor laughing.  It’s funny because it’s true:

Oh man.  I have died and gone to nerd-tertainment heaven.

Michel Gondry is apparently directing an upcoming episode of Flight of the Conchords (airs Feb 15th — the valentine episode).  You should be dying of excitement, just as I am.

Here, tide yourself over with this (Michel Gondry directs Radiohead’s video for Knives Out)

And this (one of my favorite FOTC songs from the first season):

Ok… You talked me into it. You can have this one too:

Thanks VSL