Universal Hub highlights today the work of eeka, writer of social justice blog 1 Smoot Short of a Bridge. She wins twice over - once for the name of her blog, and once for today’s post, titled “I’m Liveblogging the Thunderstorm”:
Awesome. Reminds me to tell you guys that there most likely will be another episode (or two) of Endless Feature tonight. The other night we watched Perfume, which is now one of my favorites of the series. Stay tuned.
I have a hunch I’m in a race with OhRyan to repost this. A bunch of my friends and former co-workers did up a series of sketches for a work project that was canned before it was ever released. I for one was afraid these comedy bits would never see the light of day. Now they’re back and better than ever as an independent release. From Evan, Taylor, Jake, Paul and Dan, here’s WowManWow:
Dedicated readers know that I run another website with three of my closest friends: Endless Feature. The premise is pretty simple - we made a pile of every movie we own that the owner has not seen, and systematically watch all of them this summer. Given our rather eclectic and varied tastes we run all over the map with movies ranging from mainstream to way underground, from dramas to comedy to horror to documentaries, from 1930s public domain treats to movies that came out this past year (including There Will Be Blood and I’m Not There).
We’re in the middle of our 27th movie as I write. Previous entries have included lost gems like Detour and High School Confidential, Criterion-quality movies like Bandé A Parte and Bonnie and Clyde, and deservedly forgotten movies like 99 44/100th% Dead and the original Prom Night. I think my favorite so far has been The Ice Pirates, an incredibly bad movie trying to cash in on the 80s space craze. We’ve got 96 on the docket, so a lot of movie watching is in my future before I move to Washington DC.
While watching we liveblog our reactions paired with movie timecode so you can create a DIY Mystery Science Theater 3000 experience. Sometimes these posts will span pages, having us tearing apart the movie on a myriad of angles. Sometimes it’s only a few sentences as we quietly watch. All include an embedded video to show an example of the movie and our recap paragraph and all important rating (which usually is just a random number and noun, that serve as some reference to the movie). It’s loads of fun, as these aren’t usually movies that would ever be played back to back. Be sure to check it out.
We’re planning on doing a whole bunch of these tonight (possibly as many as five), so keep checking back, as we update on the fly. Enjoy!
Sorry for the lack of updates today. Work and the peursuit (edit: wow, bad typo) of financing for a new web project I’m working on took me to New York for the day. I did see some fantastic things while darting between offices - most notably, this amazing billboard found in NoHo:
Go team Venture! The Venture Brothers is my Lost. Season 3 has been amazing so far.
Once I got back (a scant couple hours ago) I had the chance to begin catching up on my RSS feeds, but only got as far as this Brookline article from the Wicked Local collective.
Watch out! The Brookline Health Department has issued a Bat Advisory, warning resident[s] to watch out for the winged creatures and to contact health officials if you spot one in your home — even if it hasn’t touched you.
When I go on my gonzo journalism binge to find the meaning of America this summer, I’ll be sure to keep a flyswatter handy as I drive up Beacon Street.
The Brattle Theatre up in Cambridge has announced the return of their wildly fun Trailer Smackdown contest. The premise is this: The Brattle gives the public a title to a movie, and enterprising individuals and groups submit 2-minute trailers to depict a movie with that title. Several are nominated, and the best trailer wins. Last year’s model was entitled “Miranda,” and I’m proud to say my old high school film squad, Collective Fedora Films, reunited for the occasion and took home the silver medal. When I find a copy of it I’ll post it up here. This one came in third, but was my personal favorite (after mine, of course):
This year, the title is “86.” May the best submission win! Rules and submission details can be found here.
I’ve been waiting for this piece to come up on Sly-Fi for months. I’m so psyched that it’s finally airing. We had a chance to sit down with comedian extraordinaire, Flight of the Conchords star, and newest Daily Show reporter Kristen Schaal and chat music as part of our ongoing series “Record Junkie.” It’s pretty hysterical. She talks about her experiences driving in LA and making a mix disc to cope with the crappy radio:
It can be a little hard to hear at times, but here are some of the tracks on the disc. If you go to the full-screen episode on Sly-Fi we’ve added on-the-fly links to some of the tracks.
“Walking With a Ghost” - Tegan and Sara
“Wolf Like Me” - TV on the Radio
“Dashboard” - Modest Mouse
“1, 2, 3, 4″ - Feist
“Maps” - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“Over And Over” - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
“Marching Bands of Manhattan” - Death Cab For Cutie
Naturally, there’s lots more to see, so do check it out.
Amazing explainers Common Craft have helped us understand every new web development, from RSS, to Social Bookmarks, to Wikis. Today they debut their latest piece on Hobnox specialty: social media.
The ice cream metaphor is great for sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and MetaCafe, but does it work for us here at Hobnox?
I’d say yes, perhaps even moreso. Hobnox is a community made by artists for artists. We have a suite of tools at your disposal on top of the standard upload-and-share interface. If you come along with the videos-as-ice-cream metaphor, Hobnox is the joint where the food critics and semi-pro dessert chefs come to hang out. Sure, that’s a cheeky description, but we are talking about ice cream after all.
If you’d like to join us, comment here, and I’ll hook you up with a beta invite. We have some big news coming up with a contest as well, so stay tuned… and if anyone would like to learn more about Hobnox, come meet me at JP Licks tonight. For some reason I have a hankerin’…
Premise: nu metal was a bad time in America’s music history.
Hypothesis: original, quality hip-hop songs remixed with nu-metal sounding background underneath do a better job at nu metal than all nu metal, substandard a title as that may be.
Thank you, and enjoy the holiday. I’m off to play some wiffleball.
(side note - did you know that “Wiffle Ball” is a registered trademark? Talk about a dilution case. I’m putting that up there with Kleenex, Xerox, and Band-Aid as brands that will probably be gone in my lifetime)
For the past couple days I’ve been enjoying the long weekend by working on some experimental composition. For a while I had a variety of pedals, pads, knobs, and computer programs all laid out in a circle and started creating some rather strange loops and effects.
Being in my living room for good stretches also helps me observe the happenings on Beacon street, which runs right by my window. One thing I’ve noticed recently is that the Brookline Police have rekindled the old speed trap right outside, and have been consistently nailing people who recklessly zip by (and a note to Beacon St. drivers: slow down! It’s that speed limit for a reason. People live up here).
The police have been very clever about the trap; sometimes it’s set up at night with a car parked amidst all of the residents, sometimes it’s two cops working in tandem from both sides of the lanes, sometimes it’s just one bold cop walking out in front of a speeding car and pointing to the side. They seem to have all the latest radar gadgetry as well, making for very efficient ticketing, I’m sure.
They’re doing us neighbors a pretty nice service by keeping the traffic outside our window moving a reasonable pace, so I’d like to help them any way I can. One thing I’ve noticed is that, while the police do seem to have a great system and quality equipment at their disposal, I have yet to hear the gritty Brookline police traffic stop theme music for when they’re nailing bad guys. And so, I humbly submit this rather goofy track that I’ve tossed together over the past few days:
