Lego versions of famous photos
I’ve probably posted these before but they’re still neat: iconic photographs recreated in Lego.
The original version of the above can be seen here. (via @matthiasrascher)
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kottke.org posts about remix
Redrawn European map
The Economist redraws the map of Europe with some countries in new places.
In Britain’s place should come Poland, which has suffered quite enough in its location between Russia and Germany and deserves a chance to enjoy the bracing winds of the North Atlantic and the security of sea water between it and any potential invaders.
Pomplamoose covers Lady Gaga’s Telephone
Love it. Robin Sloan has previously discussed this type of “production as performance” video on Snarkmarket but Pomplamoose has started using the term “VideoSong”:
This cover is a VideoSong, a new medium with 2 rules:
1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).
2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).
As NPR explains, the band is actually making a living from their covers…they sold 100,000 songs last year. Here’s their album of covers on iTunes.
Video games attack NYC
Pixelized video game characters lay waste to NYC.
Give it a few seconds to get going…things get good right around Tetris time.
Ruth Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain’s potty mouth + Ruth Reichl’s Twitter account = the luxuriously rude Twitter stylings of Ruth Bourdain.
Have you ever smoked tangerine zest in a bong? Incredible! Me and the cat are sky high
Omar Little Richardson
For the ten of you who watch The Wire *and* know who Terry Richardson is, this is for you.
Upside down celebrities
I would very very much like to unsee this image.
From a collection of upside down celebrities…the Adam Sandler one might be even freakier.
The world’s tallest building, out of time
Martin Becka and Cedric Delsaux are a pair of photographers who feature Burj Dubai in their work. Becka’s Burj comes from his Dubai, Transmutations project in which he uses the photogravure processing technique to make images of brand-new Dubai that look as though they were taken in 1880.
Delsaux’s Burj image comes from a project called The Dark Lens, which features images of Star Wars characters populating the circa-2008 Earth. I believe that’s the Millennium Falcon docking at the Burj:
Many more of The Dark Lens images are available on Delsaux’s site.
The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, live in NYC
Working quickly, the DMTheatrics theater company has put together a stage performance of The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski beginning March 18 in NYC. The Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, if you don’t remember, is the what-if-Shakespeare-wrote-it version of The Big Lebowski that I linked to last week.
Two Gentlemen of Lebowski
What if The Big Lebowski had been written by Shakespeare?
It was of consequence, I should think; verily, it tied the room together, gather’d its qualities as the sweet lovers’ spring grass doth the morning dew or the rough scythe the first of autumn harvests. It sat between the four sides of the room, making substance of a square, respecting each wall in equal harmony, in geometer’s cap; a great reckoning in a little room. Verily, it transform’d the room from the space between four walls presented, to the harbour of a man’s monarchy.
Yep, it’s the entire screenplay. The Knave abideth, indeed. (thx, conor)
Enhance your hyperspace
A bunch of clips from movies and TV that show people enhancing things on computer screens:
And a more artful collection of hyperspace scenes from movies:
Both are via Andy, Mr. Supercuts himself.
Imagining Earth with Saturn’s rings
This video of what Earth would look like with Saturnine rings is pretty ho-hum, yeah, there’s a shot from orbit of the Earth with Saturn’s rings around it, and then BAM! here’s what it would look like at night in NYC:
The view from Ecuador is pretty great too.
Update: Greg Allen wants an iPhone app that adds in Saturn’s rings to any shot you take with the camera.
With the combination of GPS and orientation data that’s baked in to so many digital photographs, it should be possible to create a filter — I hear the kids call them apps now — that automatically inserts properly positioned Saturn rings into any sky you want.
An augmented reality app would be nice too.
Lady Gaga + typeface = awesome
Jesus, this is nerdy (and hilarious): a Lady Gaga parody about a typeface.
(via @caterina)
A world flag
What the world needs is a great flag, a flag of pure bliss. Here’s one of the intermediate steps to the finished product; it’s an average of all the world’s countries’ flags weighted by population.
New York destroyed in movies
Scenes from several movies that depict New York being destroyed (Day After Tomorrow, Ghostbusters, Independence Day, etc.) accompanied by George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which famously accompanies a similar but less violent montage at the beginning of Woody Allen’s Manhattan.
Or…
The Matrix in Lego
This is amazing: a stop-motion recreation of the Neo-dodges-bullets-on-the-roof scene from The Matrix done entirely in Lego.
Video mixtape
Somehow Ricardo Autobahn has constructed a coherent mix-video song from all sorts of movie and TV clips. It’s just flat-out awesome; watch it:
See also Christian Marclay. (via fimoculous)
The Hood Internet Mixtape Vol Four
Just out. Haven’t listened yet (downloading now) but if the last three are any indication, this is gonna be a great Monday for listenin’. Sample tracks:
5. Lil Wayne (feat. Babyface) vs Royksopp - Comfortable Up Here
15. Michael Jackson vs Ratatat - Billie “Wildcat” Jean
19. R. Kelly (feat. Keri Hilson) vs Sally Shapiro - Number One Christmas
31. Ghostface Killah vs Beirut - Save Me Concubine
Beyonce’s Single Ladies covered by Pomplamoose
A good example of what Robin Sloan calls the production-as-performance video.
What I love about the approach is that it’s showing us a complicated, virtuoso performance, but making it really clear and accessible at the same time. It’s entertaining, but it’s also an exercise in demystification — which of course is exactly the opposite objective of every music video, ever. Their purpose has been to mystify, to masquerade, to mythologize in real-time.
Carl Sagan Auto-Tune (feat. Stephen Hawking)
Maybe you’re tired of un-pop-music-like things being run through Auto-Tune, but I’m not quite there yet. This Auto-Tuned Carl Sagan mix is very nearly sublime.
From sketch to photo instantly (this is insanely awesome)
Wow. With PhotoSketch, you just draw a sketch, label each item, like so:
and then the system goes out, finds photos that match the sketched items and their labels, and automatically pastes it all together into one composite image:
The site is down right now but the paper is available for download and this video gives you a taste of how it works:
Again, wow. (via migurski)
Update: I’ve seen many references to Photosketch saying that it has to be fake (here’s a sampling). But it’s pretty obviously real. For one thing, here’s the source code; try it out (Windows only). It was presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2009; here’s the listing of papers presented. The authors all have web pages on university sites and have published work using similar techniques and technology (Ping Tan and Ariel Shamir for example). And is what it does really that unbelievable? At the most basic level Photosketch is just find me a man that’s sorta shaped like this, a dog that looks like this, and paste them together with a background that looks like this. That the results are so impressive (especially for a demo) is a testament to the team’s execution and attention to the small details. Even if it turns out to be an elaborate hoax, I have no doubt that someone could actually build a working version of Photosketch…I mean, look at TinEye and Photosynth.
Barack Obama, Jedi Knight
The President recently hosted a rally at The White House in support of Chicago’s bid to hold the 2016 Summer Olympics. Some members of the Olympic fencing team were there. Obama was given a plastic sword. Photos were taken. Photoshop (with an assist from me) did the rest.
Here’s our President attacking an unseen Sith Lord or perhaps someone condemned by a death panel:
And having finished them off to the delight of the assembled, a victory pose.
Update: See also the Japanese Obama action figures. (thx, myles)
Auto-Tune the News (feat. T-Pain)
It took Auto-Tune the News only eight episodes to get T-Pain on board.
Celebrity GPS voices
I had no idea you could get celebrity voices for your GPS navigation device. There’s Mr. T (“what does he say if you need to go to the airport?”), Yoda, KITT from Knight Rider, Michael Caine, Kim Cattrall, the Star Trek computer voice, Homer Simpson, Gary Busey, and Dennis Hopper.
And then of course you’ve got the mashups like Mr. T navigates Mr. Bean, Mr. T navigates Frogger, and Mr. T navigating in Mario Kart Wii.
You may even be able to get a Bob Dylan voice soon.
Harrison Ford, family guy
Harrison Ford is concerned about his family. Like in every movie he’s ever been in. (via cyn-c)
The mighty flat mountains
I love JK Keller’s Tatamount project.
Photographs of mountains are computationally altered to flatten the mountain’s elevations, while an ocean horizon is altered to mimic the mountain’s original topography.
In the comments, he mentions that the effect is done with a combination of JavaScript and Photoshop…which I didn’t even know was a thing. (via today and tomorrow)
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