Slug Invasion

Slug Invasion from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.

This video got recommended to me today by a student at school called Sam. It reminds me a lot of something Pixar would do, the clever use of different points of view it brilliant. We get to see the dangers of a common garden through the eyes of an army of slugs and their Sergeant Major.

The description reads "As morning dawns on a Norwegian suburb, a detachment of killer-slugs, led by the notorious Sergeant Slug, prepare for a heads-on attack on a small garden – their objective? A juicy, delicious flower on the other end, deep within a flowerbed."

Drunk...

Ed Sheeran - Drunk from Saman Keshavarz on Vimeo.


"Drunk" chronicles the tales of Ed who is going through a rough breakup and turns to drink, aided and abetted by his alcoholic cat…the cat clearly wants to help but seems to be having more fun than the person he is trying to help…

Where's Wall-E

Good luck...

Raise your hand and moan...

This weekend I am at a teachers conference, so I apologise if the posts over the next few days are all education related.

Here is the first post of the weekend.  If you have ever been in a classroom, whether as a child or an adult, this will make sense. Kids are enthusiastic, not all of them, but most are and when they know something they want to tell you, by any means possible. How they get your attention is an art form in its own right. Everyone of these are true and I might even try and find some more to add to this as I am sure there are more.

Three Minute Song - Tim Minchin

Since the first time I saw Tim Minchin I was struck with the image that he was an amalgamation of comedian Bill Bailey and tub-thumper Lars Ulrich from Metallica.

According to his website "Tim Minchin is a comedian, actor, composer, songwriter, pianist, musical director and huge rock n roll megastar." and if he is to be listened to he is also "America's favourite Golden Lion Tamarin descendant."

Whatever he is, he is good at what he does. Musical comedy is a tricky business. It is easier to get it wrong than it is to get it right. A great comedic song like I'm Not Crying from the Flight of the Conchords



or Tribute by Tenacious D you can listen to over and over...



but get it wrong like Dennis Leary does here with "Asshole" and the joke wears thin very quickly.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

If you like books, you should like this. "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore" is an animation about the power of books and the words they hold inside.. The whole feel of the piece is reminiscent of cinema of old. There are many references throughout this short to the golden age of cinema like the Wizard of Oz, Fred Astaire movies and their large choreographed dance numbers and silent movies. The whole short film feels both old fashioned but new at the same time, probably due to the range of techniques used to create the work like miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation. Watch it and see for yourself.

Ten misconceptions debunked...

I like facts. I find them quite interesting. Mainly because most of what we know, it turns out, is wrong. Here's ten of them explained in a humourous manner. (via reddit.com)

The Day I Met Dave...

A fun little short film...if only this technique existed, it would make things a little quicker and easier...

Archetype by Aaron Sims

"RL7 is an eight-foot tall combat robot that goes on the run after malfunctioning with vivid memories of once being human. As its creators and the military close in, RL7 battles its way to uncovering the shocking truth behind its mysterious visions and past."

Judging by the comments attached to this video it won't be long until this is everywhere...if the words of the director Aaron Sims are true and this film was created as a "labor of love on a budget of $0" then this is a bargain. I would really like to see a full version of this made by him as it could be awesome.

The Dancing Doctors

I'm bored...got any toothpicks?

You know people have too much time on their hands when they do this...but it also begs the question; what happens if you trip over before you take out the toothpicks?

'My First Hardcore Song'...

How awesome is this? After two very serious posts I thought I would lighten the mood...and how better to do that than by listening to some hardcore...sung by an eight year old girl...

The Pirate Bay speaks out on SOPA

INTERNETS, 18th of January 2012. PRESS RELEASE, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

Over a century ago Thomas Edison got the patent for a device which would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear". He called it the Kinetoscope. He was not only amongst the first to record video, he was also the first person to own the copyright to a motion picture.

Because of Edisons patents for the motion pictures it was close to financially impossible to create motion pictures in the North american east coast. The movie studios therefor relocated to California, and founded what we today call Hollywood. The reason was mostly because there was no patent. There was also no copyright to speak of, so the studios could copy old stories and make movies out of them - like Fantasia, one of Disneys biggest hits ever.

So, the whole basis of this industry, that today is screaming about losing control over immaterial rights, is that they circumvented immaterial rights. They copied (or put in their terminology: "stole") other peoples creative works, without paying for it. They did it in order to make a huge profit. Today, they're all successful and most of the studios are on the Fortune 500 list of the richest companies in the world. Congratulations - it's all based on being able to re-use other peoples creative works. And today they hold the rights to what other people create. If you want to get something released, you have to abide to their rules. The ones they created after circumventing other peoples rules.

The reason they are always complaining about "pirates" today is simple. We've done what they did. We circumvented the rules they created and created our own. We crushed their monopoly by giving people something more efficient. We allow people to have direct communication between eachother, circumventing the profitable middle man, that in some cases take over 107% of the profits (yes, you pay to work for them). It's all based on the fact that we're competition. We've proven that their existance in their current form is no longer needed. We're just better than they are.

And the funny part is that our rules are very similar to the founding ideas of the USA. We fight for freedom of speech. We see all people as equal. We believe that the public, not the elite, should rule the nation. We believe that laws should be created to serve the public, not the rich corporations.

The Pirate Bay is truly an international community. The team is spread all over the globe - but we've stayed out of the USA. We have Swedish roots and a swedish friend said this: The word SOPA means "trash" in Swedish. The word PIPA means "a pipe" in Swedish. This is of course not a coincidence. They want to make the internet inte a one way pipe, with them at the top, shoving trash through the pipe down to the rest of us obedient consumers. The public opinion on this matter is clear. Ask anyone on the street and you'll learn that noone wants to be fed with trash. Why the US government want the american people to be fed with trash is beyond our imagination but we hope that you will stop them, before we all drown.

SOPA can't do anything to stop TPB. Worst case we'll change top level domain from our current .org to one of the hundreds of other names that we already also use. In countries where TPB is blocked, China and Saudi Arabia springs to mind, they block hundreds of our domain names. And did it work? Not really. To fix the "problem of piracy" one should go to the source of the problem. The entertainment industry say they're creating "culture" but what they really do is stuff like selling overpriced plushy dolls and making 11 year old girls become anorexic. Either from working in the factories that creates the dolls for basically no salary or by watching movies and tv shows that make them think that they're fat.

In the great Sid Meiers computer game Civilization you can build Wonders of the world. One of the most powerful ones is Hollywood. With that you control all culture and media in the world. Rupert Murdoch was happy with MySpace and had no problems with their own piracy until it failed. Now he's complaining that Google is the biggest source of piracy in the world - because he's jealous. He wants to retain his mind control over people and clearly you'd get a more honest view of things on Wikipedia and Google than on Fox News.

Some facts (years, dates) are probably wrong in this press release. The reason is that we can't access this information when Wikipedia is blacked out. Because of pressure from our failing competitors. We're sorry for that.

THE PIRATE BAY, (K)2012

This is why we can't have nice things...

So after yesterday's internet blackout in response to SOPA and PIPA, which to me sounds like a comedy cartoon duo, the back track seems to have started. At least 10 senators who has pledged support have withdrawn since yesterday. Well it is a start but I think this will not be the end of it...this is the calm before the storm...

Happy Inside

I have been looking at a lot of adverts recently, teaching means you end up looking at some random stuff...and I found this...

I like the idea of being let into a large space when you shouldn't be there...and I can totally imagine the fun that the cats must have had being in there and having free reign over the place...as cats do wherever they go...

2011

2011 from hey_rabbit on Vimeo.

2011 is a year in the life type video. Madeline Schichtel created this video by filming everyday and then choosing a clip edited down to one second. The whole thing was shot on a Canon Powershot over the year that was 2011.

It creates a great reminder of the year, almost like watching it in a rapid series of flashbacks.

I might try this...

Bill Bailey plays Metallica...

I remember playing this song in a band I was in when I was a teenager...just as we got to the end of the intro the second guitarist begins to play and someone had messed with all the settings on his pedals and turned them all up to 10, so instead of rocking out we deafened the audience with feedback....not a good opening number...this would have been better...

Moonrise Kingdom - the new Wes Anderson Movie

Firstly what a cool cast...Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and where would a Wes Anderson movie be without Bill Murray.

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965. Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two twelve year olds who fall in love, make a secret pact and run away together into the wilderness.

Sounds like a typically off-beat Wes Anderson plot...Should be fun...

The Holstee Manifesto Lifecycle Video

"The Holstee Manifesto is a call to action to live a life full of intention, creativity, passion and community."

When you notice something and start to think about it more, you see it everywhere. Creativity is a word I have been captured by recently. Creativity and passion. 

So a question for you; What is your passion? What is the thing you do that makes an hour seem like a minute? 

Please do leave an answer in the comments box below.

The Future Belongs to the Curious

"From the moment we open our eyes it fuels our existence"

Thirsty?

Schloss Reinhardsbrunn bei Friedrichroda/Thüringen

(click on the pictures for a slideshow type deeley)

The Ramshackle Union Band

The Ramshackle Union Band - Overboard from Arran Shearing on Vimeo.

I like videos like this as I find it a challenge to work out how they did it. With this one I am not sure. 2000+ pieces of paper were used in the video, and recycled after, but how they were actually used is still a mystery to me. Apart from that I wish I could come up with ideas like that and actually pull them off. Guess I should just try harder.

Five musicians and one guitar

I have never heard the original of this song and I am not sure it will come anywhere close to this cover. I think this is the most people I have seen playing one guitar at the same time. Well done people, well done.

The New Year

so this is the new year.
and i don't feel any different.
the clanking of crystal
explosions off in the distance (in the distance).

so this is the new year
and I have no resolutions
for self assigned penance
for problems with easy solutions

so everybody put your best suit or dress on
let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once
lighting firecrackers off on the front lawn
as thirty dialogues bleed into one

i wish the world was flat like the old days
then i could travel just by folding a map
no more airplanes, or speedtrains, or freeways
there'd be no distance that can hold us back.

there'd be no distance that could hold us back

so this is the new year