From Youtube user AndyRehfeldt, a video featuring a version of Metallica’s hit that’s different than we’re used to hearing. I love that he mixes two completely opposite genres and creates one really interesting piece. Two others in his Youtube channel were particularly interesting as well that deserves to be checked out: a Disney version of Slipknot’s “Wait and Bleed“ and a death metal Jonas Brothers song. I thought these three were his best. Some of the other ones he posted weren’t as good. But it’s amazing how cross genre remixes completely changes the dynamic of the songs.
Category: Videos
One of my favorite music videos of all time. Released months before his death, Johnny Cash chronicles his entire life into four powerful minutes. Not only is it a tributary montage to Cash, but it presents him at the final fragile moments of his life. This video is a great example of how images that already have influential meanings on their own can be grouped together and edited in such a way to create an even stronger, more emotional statement. I can’t think of a more appropriate way for a music legend to literally close the piano lid on an amazing career.
via Youtube
This video is from the silly guys who brought you “Here it Goes Again”. This time, the band OK Go presents an amazing music video shot in one take. The video features a giant Rube Goldberg machine built in a two-story werehouse. A quote from wikipedia says that “once the machine was completed, the filming, using a single Steadicam, took two days to complete on February 11 and 12, with an estimated 60 takes for the machine to properly function; many of the takes ended only 30 seconds into the process, where a tire would fail to roll properly into the next section of the machine. Syyn Labs had a group of 30 people to help reset the machine after each failed take, a process that took upwards of an hour.”
On a side note – before they made this video, they actually created another version featuring a marching band.
via Youtube
Roger Ebert is a well-known film critic. He is probably most remembered as one half of the duo ‘Siskel and Ebert’ that appeared on television reviewing the current films that were out. His battle with thyroid cancer was featured in a recent issue of Esquire magazine. In 2006, Ebert underwent surgery to remove cancerous tissue in his jaw. This meant removing sections of his jaw bones completely. Since then, he has lost his voice and his ability to drink and eat. In place of his voice, Ebert had a computer in which he could communicate through an electronic voice by typing on a keyboard. While this method was sufficient, it wasn’t his voice. Recently, Ebert appeared on Oprah to show off a new system in which the computerized voice sounded very much like his own.
Cancer surgery may have cost film critic Roger Ebert his speech, but his familiar voice was resurrected in a much-anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey this afternoon. Ebert debuted a synthesized voice, developed by a Scottish company that compiled Ebert’s DVD commentaries, singled out specific words, and crafted a computer program that delivers what he wants to say.
“It still needs improvement, but at least it sounds like me,” Ebert said through his computer as his wife, Chaz, choked up beside him. “In first grade, they said I talked too much. And now I still can.”
I’ve been a fan of Roger Ebert since I was in high school, when I really started to gain a passion for film. While some people may check rottentomatoes.com or imdb.com to see if they want to watch or rent a movie, I always check out Ebert’s reviews first through his website and his television show. Needless to say, I was very moved when I heard that his face had been dramatically altered – someone I had watched on television frequently. The use of technology nowadays always astounds me…I’m always asking myself “how can they top that?” And just when I think every idea in the book has been used, a new one comes along. Using digital media to restore a person’s voice is just one amazing example of how far technology has come since Alexander Graham Bell’s invention revolutionized the way the world communicated.
I end this post with an inspirational quote from Ebert’s Esquire interview.
“I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state. What I am grateful for is the gift of intelligence, and for life, love, wonder, and laughter. You can’t say it wasn’t interesting. My lifetime’s memories are what I have brought home from the trip. I will require them for eternity no more than that little souvenir of the Eiffel Tower I brought home from Paris.” – Roger Ebert, Esquire Magazine, Feb 2010
via PopEater
Here is a video featuring a homemade portable Super Nintendo created by YouTube user Brian Henderson. You’ll find that this is actually the third and latest version that he’s created of a portable Super Nintendo. If you look at his YouTube channel, you’ll see that he’s also created a portable Playstation (One). It’s amazing to think how simple gaming technology was back in the 80s and 90s relative to now, being reduced to something that fits in the palms of your hands.
via YouTube
A very interesting look at what Earth would look like with Saturn’s rings using digital technology. It’d be interesting as to how cultures would have been effected and what kind of changes it would make in the way people behave today. As mentioned in the video’s description, it would have greatly had an effect on religion, mythology, and sciences. What’s even more intriguing is that no matter where you are in the world, you would have a totally different view of the rings than someone else in a different country.
via YouTube
An inspiring poetry reading from Taylor Mali. Entering college, I had flirted with the idea of being a teacher but nothing really compelled me to pursue it. Nonetheless, teacher’s definitely deserve respect. Watching this makes me think most about my teachers in elementary school and how they’ve made me who I am and are a major reason why I am in this course right now and pursing my art degree.
via Youtube
This was the first YouTube video I ever favorited. You may have seen this already. The creator of the video used scenes from multiple movies and cleverly cut them together and manipulated the clips into a legitimate-looking, hilarious movie trailer for a Titanic sequel. (I don’t approve the use of Trajan, though).
via YouTube
A couple of weeks ago in my Basic Typography class, we were talking about trends in design today. The discussion led to the film industry, where movie posters and DVD covers have been using the same exact font for YEARS. That font is Trajan. This includes movies such as Sex and the City, The Last Samurai, and Final Destination. Even blockbuster classics like Titanic fall victim to Trajan. The use of the font isn’t limited on the film industry, however. Even the “KU” that the Kansas Jayhawks use as their official atheltics logo is, in fact, Trajan. So the next time you are in the movies section, take notice to how lazy the designers for Hollywood are nowadays.
This guy explains it very well:
via Youtube
A recent article from the Journal Star highlights a newly opened exhibit at the Strategic Air & Space Museum featuring machines that Leonardo da Vinci had envisioned. The exhibit includes machines such as a wooden bicycle with wooden wheels, a 10-barrel gun that could be fired all at once, and a giant wooden tank.
“Made almost entirely of wood with tools and materials common in the 15th century, the full-scale machines are based on designs da Vinci made in his notebooks. About 6,000 pages, representing one-fifth of his total writings, survive today.
Visitors will be encouraged to touch and operate many of the machines. Kids and adults will be able to turn cranks and make things move. They will see and operate primitive devices that can lift water from wells and marshes and grind glass into lenses and mirrors.”
Many of these exhibits are interactive, enabling visitors to see up close the inventions of a man that was well ahead of his time. I found this fascinating that the machines aren’t just models but are actual working machines. This is especially related to our latest assignment in which we create an unconventional device. The exhibit runs through May 9, 2010.
Article via Lincoln Journal Star.
Video via SAC Museum website.
