Another Famous Canadian

It looks as though the space station is getting a robot. I think I should make some sort of Wall-E reference, but even that's a stretch, this really isn't an animation post, I just think it's cool:

"Now I wouldn't go as far to say that we're worried it's going to go run amok and take over the space station or turn evil or anything because we all know how it's operated and it doesn't have a lot of its own intelligence," Reisman told The Associated Press last week.

"But I'll tell you something ... He's enormous and to see him with his giant arms, it is a little scary. It's a little monstrous, it is."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080308/ap_on_sc/space_shuttle_robot;_ylt=AkWeaA6I3uY.IetvFEYq6LwEtbAF

Again I'd like to welcome our future robot overlords to our humble planet.

An argument for Barack Obama

I don't know which side you lean politically. But Lawrence Lessig (a man who's intelligence I respect) gives a 20 minute argument for Barack Obama. It's a damn good one Barack has had my vote scenes I saw his speech at the Democratic convention in 2004, and he still has it today.

New Mechanical sculptures/pupets from François Delarozière and Pierre Oreficee

The artists who put on the puppet show in London: "The Sultan’s Elephant" have done it again. But this time they've creased an installation of gigantic mechanical animals in the Machines de l'Ile Nantes in Nantes France. I don't know if you'd call them puppets or machines, what ever they are they're certainly cool looking. In any case check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzyWja6vg3I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuSoZKjPpGE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1ylXR-iY8I

You can find more pictures here:

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/01/machine-animals-of-nantes.html

Take a look, it's truly amazing work.

The Death Of HD players

The only thing that strikes me as untrue is that it depicts HD as the Nazis. I'm one of those people who believe if you buy something, you own that thing. So if I buy a Blue-Ray player and some movies, I shod own them. Sony doesn't agree with this. The way they set up their Blue-Ray players is if Sony decides that they don't like how your using it, they can destroy or change it. They do this by sending software, through the web or inside the latest movie release that will scramble or change the software on your player. Before you write this off as some sort of conspiracy theory, Sony has a history of doing this. It's more then just an anti pirating technique. Sony could also decide that you've owned that Blue-Ray player for too long and destroy it so you have to buy a new one. Or they re-release a new Blue Ray disc of Harry Potter and they decide you need to upgrade, even if you don't like having Jar Jar added to the movie. They can do this and they have a history of doing things just like it. &#*$ nazis.

Nazis who I'm going to buy a Blue Ray player from anyway (I love my gigantic plasma TV.) But Nazis none the less!





Can you Nazis release Iron Giant on blue ray please.

Pervasive Persuasion

Over the weekend I attended the Pervasive Persuasion panel. It was a panel where Gary Baseman, Simone Legno, and Tim Biskup talked about their work. It was cool hearing Tim Biskup talk about what he thought each of his paintings. My wife was able to capture a video of it, you can see that here:







Here's a picture of me and a graffiti artists that I like. Still don't know his name but, I've seen his stuff all over Culver City, (apparently he's not even from LA, or America for that matter.) His line quality is super sharp and clean it was amazing to see him work. Someone snagged that picture behind us just seconds after we moved away from it. Wish I was that fast.

Anyhoo it was a good time.

Batman Done Right! ?

It looks like they're starting to do Batman right. The new trailer for the next Batman movie looks great. I hope it holds up through the whole film. I like Morgan Freeman, but I'm not so sure about his roll in this film. Anyhoo, check it out:

http://atasteforthetheatrical.com/deathtrap/default.htm

The Hard Sell

So you might notice this isn't an animation related post, but it's my blog so I can do what I want:)

Over the weekend I got to see DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist do their thing with 45's A few years ago these guys got together for a concert called "The Brain Freeze". A CD and a DVD was made of this concert, unfortunately a soundboard recording was never made and only a crappy audience copy exists. But better then noting this CD is really amazing. The DJ's restrict themselves to only origanally pressed 45 records, these spin faster then full size records and are limited in selection. When I heard they were going to do that again I jumped at the chance at seeing them live.

This concert was called "The Hard Sell," it wasn't as good as Brain Freeze but it was definitely enjoyable. I took a couple videos and posted them on You Tube. After I posted them I found other people had videos that looked better then mine. I used a crappy point and shoot camera that kept changing focus (it was too dark for it to focus on anything). But it should give you some idea what the concert was like.

My Video 1:


My Video 2, this one was great they DJs pulled out portable turntables and strapped them around like guitars and walked around scratching like it was an electric guitar solo:



Better Look Part 1


Better Look Part 2