Blogblah!!! » YouTube

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!

February 16, 2009

John Long — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 03:04:38 +0000

UPDATE:

TV Network Founder Beheads Wife?

And you think your divorce was bitter? This guy founded a Muslim television network to bridge cultural gaps for Muslims in the United States. He called police to tell them where the body was: at the office. I find this kind of Sharia culture attitude towards women offensive from my cultural perspective. In fact, I find it mind-boggling. So much for steak and blowjob day for you, mister.

Gotta lite?

SMOKE ‘EM IF YA GOT ‘EM
My packs of Winston cigarets FORMERLY said “no additives”. It doesn’t say that any more. Neither do other cigarets, like American Spirits. The government made them put chemicals in my smokes. Yeah, that’s right. The government made them put chemicals in my cigarets. So the cigarets will go out. If you don’t keep puffing on them until the end, they just go out and you have this half a cigaret roach stub sitting in the ashtray. It’s so the old duffers like me don’t go to sleep with a cigaret in our hand and burn up the house. Meanwhile, zillions of us who will never burn down any house or bed have been forced to consume additional potential carcinogens and pathogens on top of the already risky product we consume. The Nanny State gone wild! Almost enough to make me a libertarian. Oh, and the tax on each pack increased just in time for the Great Depression. What the hell are we supposed to do for our noir films about this era if everyone stops puffing? Can you even imagine a Beat Generation without cigarets, even if a lot of them actually were clove? If they want millions of us to give up our ciggies, they better legalize pot first. Just sayin’.

Chariman of the Bored

SINATRA SPEAKS!
OMG, Muffy, the house smells so bad I can’t stay inside most of the time. My human has this little fire he carries in his mouth and it leaves stink everywhere he goes. It scares me when he coughs because who will feed me if he croaks? I guess I can always eat his face and that’ll get me through a little while, but after that? Can you imagine a cat dumb enough to carry a smoking fire in their mouth that makes them cough every morning and night? We are so obviously superior beings to the humans.
More proof that cats rule the world.

GROWNUPS BEHAVING BADLY

In this YouTube hit video, a Chinese woman throws a hissy fit when she misses her flight out of Hong Kong airport. The kicker: it worked! She got a free flight to Los Angeles.

I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY

Historian rank presidents; W = 36/42

Bashing the Arts via Stimulus Bill

TODAY’S THOUGHT

Blogblah says: Never turn down an opportunity to be kind.

February 11, 2009

John Long — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:10:08 +0000

Blogblah!!!

STORMY WEATHER
The television weathermen in this town knock me out. They DO get excited. There was more to get excited about than usual today — all those Oak Tree Homes! — so the weathermen got more excited than usual. WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM FOR AN ANNOUNCEMENT: THE WORLD IS GOING TO END! WE MEAN NOW! GRAB YOUR ANKLES AND KISS YOUR ASS GOOD-BYE, IT’S ALL OVER FOLKS! MOVE UNDERGROUND AND REMEMBER YOUR NEIGHBOR JUST WANTS YOUR FOOD AND AMMO.
Very valuable service and all that. I’m grateful for the technology and the early warning systems we have here. Blah blah blah.
But get a grip.

It’s not like any of us can actually do anything to change the weather. There’s really not much you can do if a tornado actually hits the structure you’re inside.
Personally, I like thunder and lightning and extreme wind.
I’ve stood out on my front lawn to try and experience reported 100 mph winds. Rain stings like a BB gun and you get paranoid that some branch will come out of the sky and kill you, but you hope it lands on the mean old lady that lives … nevermind.
Even if your structure stays stable, I’ve seen big trees driven through walls.
You can’t be in the news business in Oklahoma City without having covered the weather. I think it’s some kind of rite of passage and maybe even a law that all journalists, no matter how ill-equipped, must speak to someone who has just been uprooted by a killer storm that took baby brother.
And, no, you don’t feel great because you’re getting a “scoop”, you feel like shit. You feel awkward and rude and cruelly compelled by the nature of your job to do something you would never ever do under “normal” circumstances.
“Tell me, miss big sister, did you and baby brother ever argue in the back seat of the car over who was touching whom?”
“What?”
“Well, DID you?”
“I g-g-guess so, why are you bringing it up?”
“It’s all your fault he’s dead, isn’t it?”
“Don’t say that!”
“Admit it! Admit it! You killed baby brother! Didn’t you?!?”
“Mister, there was a terrible storm and the tree just come through the wall … ”
“Sure, big sister, sure. I’m sure that’s EXACTLY how it happened. Didn’t you also shove him in a closet and hold the door shut when you were supposed to be looking after him?”
“We were playing! We were just playing! Why are you bringing this all up?”
“And didn’t you also let him take the blame when YOU were the one who spilled the milk?”
“That was years and years ago, before he could talk!”
“So, you admit that your torture of baby brother took place over many years, do you?”
Did I mention that it’s the full of the moon?
My mind is so gassy that I can’t stop the brain f@rts and Pepcid isn’t helping.
I SEEM rational, but there’s something off kilter.
Shut up!