February 20, 2009

John Long — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 05:57:23 +0000

Friday night blogger

AMAZING VIDEOS
I happened to run across some amazing videos and thought I’d share.
The first is a five minute video that is composed of 6,000 painted images by a graduate student named Reza Dolatabadi . If you follow the link, you’ll see a lot more info about how the film was put together and about the artist. The video is cool all by itself, but it has the added bonus of being a complete work of art at any point at which you pause the video.
The second video is about technique and not the video and not the soundtrack. It’s a technique called “datamoshing”, and I’ve linked to that term below so you can see some before you decide to follow up. It somehow reminds me of my friend The Oz’s paintings, a sort of dreamlike quality of reality. About a year before this so-called “music video” (you may enjoy the artwork better if you just turn off the speakers and I’m not the only one of that opinion), there was another artist, Takeshi Murata (link on page 2) who used the technique in a more contemporary art/experimental kind of way and used what I can only call a disturbing soundtrack.
I’ve put both after the “jump” so you don’t have to go there if you aren’t interested in video.
Also at the bottom of this post is the Google Earth “discovery” of Atlantis and a Proverb for my daughter.

This is the video made from 6,000 paintings:

Khoda from Reza Dolatabadi on Vimeo.

These are the links and videos using the datamoshing technique and the websight’s review where I first found it.

Datamoshing is how you call the video technique in this music video “Evident Utensil” for the band Chairlift. I would still call it digital glitches, but datamoshing sounds better (than the music in this video). So no, this video is not f*cked up, Ray Tintori of Court 13 who directed it, did it on purpose.

Today and Tomorrow blog

For an example of an earlier use of this technique in a very contemporary video with what I can only describe as a disturbing soundtrack, try Takeshi Murata‘s videos.

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY

Here’s a Map of the projected High Speed Rail projects under the Stimulus Bill. One goes through OKC to Tulsa and down to San Antonio through Dallas.

Did Google Earth Find Atlantis? The New York Times reports that there seem to be folks who don’t think so, including people at Google, but others say it’s just gotta be. I’ve embedded the coordinates below for you to look at and decide.

View Larger Map

TODAY’S THOUGHT

Since RebL liked the last Proverb so well, here’s one that makes me think of her.

Proverbs 17:6

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged,
And the glory of children is their parents.

Yeah, baby!

January 27, 2009 (updated)

John Long — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 18:25:55 +0000

My yucca plants covered with ice and snow

THERE’S SNOW BUSINESS IN OKC

Since the courthouse is closed today due to the weather “emergency”, I thought I’d take time from being bored at the house and maybe do a little blogging since I’ve not really written anything since the Inauguration on the 20th, a week ago. Before he tells you all about it, I’ve got to admit to a tiny bit of cruelty: I laughed and laughed and could not make myself come to the rescue of Sinatra late yesterday afternoon when he found himself in the middle of an icy driveway and couldn’t get any traction. Have you ever seen a cat lose its footing? I don’t think that happens often, or at least I don’t see it often, and watching my “snow cat” floundering just struck me funny. So funny, as it happens, I couldn’t keep my own footing well enough to go rescue him. When I finally got to him to pick him up and carry him back inside, he was PISSED. Fortunately for me, it was nothing a good petting and a little canned food wouldn’t assuage.

LongRydeHome's Earth/Sky/Water sculpture at my house, now improved and new with SNOW added!

While I was outside taking pictures, I snapped a shot of the sculpture that is installed in my front yard. This work is by my blog buddie, LongRydeHome, who graciously commends and refers to my Jan. 20 post, and I thought I’d plug her work. It’s not really set at such an angle, by the way, that’s just my bad picture taking. The small ball represents the earth and the semi-circle around it is the sky; the dangling piece is obviously waves of water if you ever get a chance to look at the piece. Now, of course, it’s new and improved with not just earth, not just sky and more than water — introducing the new and improved WITH SNOW version of KO’s work! I love the way the sculpture works with the arc of a wall just behind it and the rocks that provide the setting.

The view down 61st Street, looking east from my house

Just so that Nojackla, Mom-A-Tron and MindOverMary, living in New Orleans, Tucson and Charleston respectively, can remember what Oklahoma winter weather is like, I thought I’d let ‘em see down my street why their hometown is shut down. As I write this at midday, just about 11:30 a.m., the weather report says it’s 20 degrees (F) and snowing on top of the ice we got on the streets last night. A few good and brave folks, including Muffy, are out on the streets, but an old guy like me knows better than to even try.

New Avatar?

When I run out of cigarets, I’ll either stop or put on a lot of warm clothes because it’s pretty toasty here in my little studio and it just looks miserable outside with it snowing/sleeting hard enough for me to hear it hit the bushes even through my closed window.
John X was wearing a hat at the RC the other day when I tried to take a snapshot of him, but he turned the tables and took a picture of me wearing his hat. What do you think? Better or worse than the black and white “GQ” picture? Does this look like the sort of man who’s blog you’d like to read? Better yet, does this look like the kind of lawyer that could get you divorced? Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.

A lonely blogger types his fingers to the bone

I’ve been playing with my computer and i-Phone during this bad weather and picked up some nice free “apps” for the phone: Shazam, which will listen to a few notes of any music and then tell you what the song is, who sings it and refers you to the YouTube where you can see the video or refers you to the i-Pod/i-Tunes download; Stanza, which lets you download free books from the public domain and read them on your phone; and also Google Earth, with which most of you are familiar from your laptop or desktop. Does the thumbnail on the right look more “bloggish”? I think this is the best picture Sinatra has ever taken of me, but that may be a matter of taste.

TODAY’S THOUGHT

Just because you’re in the driver’s seat doesn’t mean you have to run over people.

The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY!

$100 Civil Fine for Pot Debated

Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

SINATRA SPEAKS

Chairman of the Bored

Muffy, he laughed at me. I am the most fearsome hunter in the territory and a ruler of the universe and he laughed at me. I’m humiliated. When he sees the heating bill from opening and closing the door and window to let me in and out 50 times today, he won’t be laughing then, oh, no. He’s been extra careful to keep his closet shut so I can’t get to his shoes and poo in them, but I’m watching and waiting and he’ll forget one of these days and then!…shoe poo!
Muffy, you just wait and see if I don’t.

Blogblah!!! » Google Earth

February 20, 2009

January 27, 2009 (updated)