Tuesday, February 28, 2006

one red paperclip

Recent internet-money-making is done with crazy methods:
selling pixels, home-made crap or just plain begging.

latest method: trading.

One red paperclip is a blog by Kyle MacDonald who tries to up-trade his red paperclip; trying to end up with a house. That's trading 1 (one) red paperclip for a real house.

Don't believe he'll succeed? Well, he just traded his one cube van for a record deal!!!

Monday, February 27, 2006

brokeback parody

videos

Some more amazing videos

Roundabout scratching

Ukelele player

German coastguard

German de-pimpin' part 1, 2 and 3

the wonder of accommodations....

There's a bunch of tourism & accommodations videos on google video. They're 2 minute long advertisements for little towns and cities made by (or published on google video by) elocallink.tv. They're meant to be promotional, but the lack of quality and the blandness of the subjects gives them a bittersweet look perfectly suited for beautee-tristesse...

While watching a few I noticed some strange phenomena:

1: the editing of the video is the same for most of the clips.
2: the voice-over is the same for most of the clips.
3: the length of the video is mostly the same.
4: the subjects they promote in each video are the same.
and now for the big one:
5: the imagery they show in videos is the same for most clips!!!

There's probably one firm that makes all these videos. It uses stock footage of children fishing, elderly having a good time in a pub, hotel rooms, bed and breakfasts etc....

Check out these two videos: one for augusta, virginia and harrisonburg, virginia. Notice their bed and breakfasts. That's an incredible coincidence! The same name, the same sign, the same room, the same visitors!!!! Incredible!!!!!!
But there's more: clarksville, tennessee has the same b&b, and so does lynchburg, virginia.


I wonder what local governments have paid pay for these videos.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Cheney's got a gun

So Dick shot the poor guy in the face.

Cue all comedy and parody:

the Aerosmith song, and another one.

Great comedy here from the today show via onegoodmove.
That site is great btw...

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

improv everywhere

They did it again!

After numerous pranks involving no pants, suicide jumpers, mcdonalds bathroom attendants and very good subway scenes;

* breath pause *

The cellphone prank!!! with video.


Improv everywhere, check them out!

Sunday, February 19, 2006

change your surroundings

You all know the television commercial with thousands of colorful balls bouncing through san francisco streets.

Different setting, same music here:

Graffiti research lab did this experiment with "magnetic leds".
Great effect!

some more videos

It seems people like the videos i've put up here, so here's some more stuff!
If you want more, add a comment and i'll try to find it.

low passing jets: this f14 flying ultra low, ultra fast.

mid air collision between two f15's. spectacular cockpit view.

don't fly in a jet's wake if you're filming a bombing run...

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

loftcube

Nice website, great concept.

Loftcube by Werner Aisslinger.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Don and Murph vs. Zanger Bob

There's more than one connection...

Look at the D&M's valentine special, then check Zanger Bob's page and listen to "als de zon weer gaat schijnen"...

We're talking internet heroes here!!!

Monday, February 13, 2006

rocketboom

NYC daily vblog (videoblog):

rocketboom

new matrix movie

Check out the trailer for the next matrix sequel:

matrix goes balkan!

And if you don't know Kusturica, go and watch black cat, white cat.

Friday, February 10, 2006

dutch design

Dutch (product) design studios seem to like adding humor to their products.

We all know droog design for their minimalist yet funny approach to lighting.

Designer / architect / inventor Joep van Lieshout develops ideas and products that shock people. First looked upon as a joke or insult, they turn out to be hyper-intelligent approaches to (design)problems.

OOOMS is a company that designs furniture, objects, jewelry and art. They know how to mix humor with practicality.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Architecture of the Chinese dream

Visited a lecture on China's growth (esp. in cities).

What struck me was the positiveness and absence of fear about the future.
The young professionals (about 3,000,000 university graduates each year) are eager to "build" their country.

It could be seen as a post-communism wake of socialism and altruism, but the country's fairly rapid change to capitalism (and it's introduction to individual wealth) also shows it's effect on modern living.

Cities, mostly new, are booming.
Shenzen, next to Hong Kong, has grown from a little farming village to a megacity with 10,000,000 inhabitants. In 25 years. That's what I call growth.
City or town planning is something else too: mega cities are built from scratch.

During communism, cities were seen as a concentration of factories with their dormatories and services. These days cities are seen as centres of modernity: hi-tech, clean, fun, flourishing.

At least, that's what planners want them to be.
In reality, cities are modern from level 2 upwards. Street/surface level shows China's struggle to keep up with the fast modernization. Glass and steel skyscrapers have a ground floor occupied by dirty, small, self-made shops / workshops. The stairs leading from ground level to higher levels, lead from 3rd world to 1st world.

An interesting lecture by journalist / scientist Drs. M. de Waal.

Flickr has greatest potential in my view to show the latest on changing China.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

coffeemania

I found the website of coffeemania (a coffeebar in moscow) ploughing through the vast internet...

Love it!

google maps secrets

We've all seen the famous spots on google maps.
The statue of liberty, the white house, the golden gate bridge...

But what about strange/unique/secret images, glitches or just plain funny stuff?

Here's some interesting things:

god

planes

strange perspectives (don't even start about the strange frog)

the moon (and try zooming in on that one)

The site that has all: google sightseeing.

And if it's just a bit too 2d for your likings: Bill's come up with windows live local

Sunday, February 05, 2006

NYC real estate / architecture blog of note

NYC blog curbed has all the latest on the real estate market as well as the latest gotham architectural gossip.