Wind Storm in Canal Park
This is my first attempt at posting video from my iPhone. I took this around 12:20 today. The winds were gusting up to 50 mph according NOAA.
October 2, 2009
July 24, 2009
Free Range Film Fest Tonight!
Black Eyed Snakes - Rise Up! from Brian Barber on Vimeo.
I'm heading to the Free Range Film Fest tonight to get my share of this year's crop of organic films without that nasty big corporation aftertaste.
July 15, 2008
Loving Doctor Horrible
Dr. Horrible is Joss Whedon's latest effort, a direct to internet show starring Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day. It's a musical about a want to be supervillain and his nemesis, Captain Hammer.
Will Doctor Horrible prove himself worthy of admittance to the Evil League of Evil? Will he be able to finish his Freeze Ray and stop time? Will he win the heart of Penny?
You can only find out, true believers, by tuning into Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog this week only!
July 1, 2008
Where the Hell is Matt?
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
Matt travels. Matt dances. Dance, Matt, dance. Dance, world, dance.
June 2, 2008
Wil Wheaton on Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show
I've never seen Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show before, but I'm pretty sure I'm a fan now. Thanks, Wil, for pointing it out to me.
April 15, 2008
Das Rad (The Wheel)
This too shall pass.
March 8, 2008
Food Fights
Here's an abridged version of the last 70 years of warfare. A veritable "smorgasbord of aggression."
Here's a cheatsheet listing all the foodstuffs and a breakdown of the battles.
And, while we are talking about food fights, remember that politics is just warfare by other means (or something like that). Here are some of campaign ads made by my pal, Fuzzy.
March 6, 2008
What if David Sedaris were a Pizza Delivery Boy?
February 24, 2008
Goodbye, Reuben Tuesday...
My friend, Carl Klutzke, appears in this episode of Across Indiana. He's a part of this group which samples Reuben Sandwiches every other Tuesday and then rates them on the Reuben Realm. I've added a few comments of my own. Just for flavor.
Here is the gang's review of the Tie Dye Grill, where you see them eating in the video. They gave it pretty high marks over all.
February 16, 2008
Peanut Allergies PSA
I've been putting my new computer through its paces today and made this little video based on this post.
February 11, 2008
Equal Time
Since I posted Yes, We Can I thought I should offer the McCain campaign equal access to my blog. Prepare to be inspired!
Yeah. Good luck with that, John.
February 6, 2008
Things
February 5, 2008
Yes, We Can
"We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."
- Barack Obama
Vote Hope.
February 4, 2008
Size Matters
Been there, done that, joined the support group.
October 18, 2007
Sounds Complicated... and Gay
This was made by some friends of Fuzzy and, just for the record, I've never done costumes. No comment on the body paint.
August 18, 2007
Dirt Bike
Fuzzy did this video of Dirt Bike by They Might Be Giants in his continuing attempts to Impress These Apes. I'm amazed that he got handed this song randomly as I know we both love TMBG. In fact, I believe it was Fuzzy who turned me on to this band back many years ago.
August 8, 2007
Fuzzy Gerdes is Totally Awesome
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my friend Fuzzy with a song about Fuzzy written by Fuzzy and performed by Fuzzy.
It don't get much more Fuzzy than this.
Why is he doing this? He's trying to impress these apes.
July 10, 2007
Music Everywhere
Musica para 6 baterias y 1 apartamento - ZappInternet
I don't really want to turn my blog into a clip joint, but I've been coming across so many I want to share of late. This is the latest and it comes from my favorite school of art - the "hey I could do that" school of art. I love art which makes you look at your world anew with wonder and possibility. While this video is a bit long at almost 10 minutes, it's definitely worth the ride.
July 9, 2007
New York Travel Tips
Mark Erickson of Infinite Solutions shows you how to pinch pennies in the Big Apple.
July 6, 2007
Brilliant!
Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri and Vimeo.
These people clearly have too much time on their hands. Cheers to that!
This is done in the offices of Connected Ventures in New York which runs Vimeo so I guess this could be considered work.
June 12, 2007
Imagining the Tenth Dimension
This video is very helpful in visualizing dimensions from 1 to 10. This is from the website tenthdimension.com which has more related material. Part Two is below.
April 16, 2007
Wear Sunscreen
With the passing of Kurt Vonnegut I was reminded of this piece that was falsely attributed to him. It was actually written by Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune. Anyway, I landed upon this short video and I liked it. So I put it up. Why? It's my blog, that's why.
March 10, 2007
We call him "Steve"
I may not have a jetpack but, by golly, I have a robot.
February 28, 2007
Big Brother's Pizza
Would you like surveillance with that?
February 26, 2007
Twelve Moons on Gichigami
This is a short film edited, conceived, and scored by Mark Ryan. The footage is from the Lake Superior Marine Museum Association webcam from April 2004 to April 2005. The museum is just next to the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth, Minnesota. Brilliant!
February 21, 2007
Continuous Warfare
Skating on Lake Superior
Starfire took a camera out on Lake Superior on another perfect Duluth day and went skating.
February 13, 2007
Dixe Chicks, I Salute You
December 24, 2006
Merry Christmas
December 16, 2006
LOL!
Promoting grammar, punctuation, and spelling on the internet is a little like promoting healthy eating at a fast food convention, but one lives in hope. I have come to accept that in netspeak people don't always capitalize their sentences. Sometimes a return replaces a period. Sometimes (and I shudder at the thought) people even substitute the letter "u" for the word "you."
But more than all of these things what annoys me the most is the capricious and wanton use of "lol."
Now, I'm not a purist. I use this abbreviation myself... when I'm laughing... out loud. I don't stop to write, "Oh, Beatrix! How witty you are! I am beside myself with laughter. I can hardly control my bowels I am chortling with such ferocity." No, if I laugh when I am IM-ing someone, I zap off a quick "lol."
What I can't stand is when "lol" is used as a kind of punctuation. An example:
pnk1323: hi lol
ironic1: Hello, how are you?
pnk1323: good lol u?
ironic1: I'm fine. What can I do for you?
pnk1323: lol I dunno lol
I mean, I'm a pretty funny writer and I consider myself to be passingly witty, but no one is that funny.
So, let me add my plea to that of the above video. To all you compulsive lol-ers out there... Stop it, for the love of God! Please, stop! It's not funny. It's not cute. It's as annoying as hell.
November 8, 2006
You did a hell of a job, Rummy...
Donald Rumsfeld was finally fired today after a long record of gross incompetence. But I liked his poetry. Maybe he has a literary career in his future. I will say farewell with one of my favorite poems, er, press briefings of his.
Epistemology
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know.
February 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing
And here's a recitation!
October 17, 2006
Fuzzy on Ze Frank
Fuzzy is on The Show with Ze Frank for about one tenth of a second. See if you can spot him! Or you can watch the complete uncut extended intro version.
October 10, 2006
Happy Powers of Ten Day
I've posted this before, but I thought it was worth revisiting since this is Powers of Ten Day.
October 6, 2006
Friendly Fascism
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
Any guess who said this?
September 18, 2006
It Be Talk Like a Pirate Day!
September 19 be International Talk Like a Pirate Day and here be an instructional video fer ye land lubbers who don't be knowing how ta talk like a pirate. Yarrrrr!
September 7, 2006
Unity
Some thoughts on September 11, 2001 five years later from a Brooklyner...
That pretty much sums it up for me. Thanks, Ze, for saying it so I don't have to.
August 27, 2006
Play it again, Sam
One of my favorite things in theatre is to take familiar plays of one period and set them in another period and see how they work there. We see this a lot with Shakespearean plays adapted into movies - Hamlet in modern day New York, Taming of the Shrew as a High School Comedy, Romeo and Juliet as feuding gangs in Florida just to name a few.
Lately, I've been impressed with musicians taking tunes I know well and resetting them. Here are a couple I've found - the Star Wars theme on a banjo and Smells Like Teen Spirit on ukeleles. Send in your own favorites.
August 14, 2006
Powers of Ten
Videos by vMix Member:mondo
I remember seeing this short film, Powers of Ten, as a child in a science museum and it profoundly changed the way I looked at the world around me. It is such a simple premise and it speaks deeply to both my scientific and spiritual understanding of the universe. The film's website has some interesting commentary and additional resources.
August 1, 2006
I'll Never Look at Treadmills the Same Way Again
25 Years Ago...
Now it's crap. Then it rocked my 14 year old world.
Oh, Martha Quinn... how I long for your sassy ways.
July 28, 2006
Free Range Film Fest
The Free Range Film Fest is this weekend in Wrenshall, Minnesota. Farm fresh films to compete against those stale factory grown movies.
And if you missed it or are nostalgic you can still see one of the short films that was shown there.
July 18, 2006
Space Invaders
Remember Space Invaders? Yeah, it's a little like asking, "Remember the Model A?" or "Remember 8 Tracks?" Well, apparently a lot of people are hankering for the good ol' days. Here is a smattering of artists and enthusiasts who are memorializing the classic arcade game.
Check out this rug. Polish artist Janek Simon used projection television, an actual rug, and old world, low-res design to create this playable Space Invaders rug.
Invader is a Paris-based artist who puts little (and sometimes big) pixelated mosaics of space invaders all over the world. You can track the invasion on his site.
July 11, 2006
Conversion Van
Here is a short film made locally by Mike Scholtz and Humble Fling for the 48 Hour Film Project. You can see it on the big screen at the Free Range Film Festival in a couple weeks. Many of the organizers of the film fest are to be found in the film and the barn in the film is where the festival is held.
Note in one shot the "Adopt-a-Road" sign for the "Parker Posey Film Society."
June 30, 2006
Parody Bloody Parody
George W. Bush singing U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday. It doesn't get much more ironic than that. Thanks thepartyparty.com!
June 7, 2006
It ain't Pop Rocks and Life Cereal but...
It's still pretty explosive and amazing. Hats off! Check out other Diet Coke and Mentos experiments at EepyBird.com.
May 24, 2006
Happy Birthday, Bob
Hey Bob, happy birthday. Ya get a street named after ya. Sweet!
By the way, do you know who that is standing in the background? I didn't! But I found out.
May 23, 2006
I'm no Lloyd Bentsen
Senator, Treasury Secretary, and former Vice Presidential Candidate Lloyd Bentsen died today, but mainly I knew him for the biggest political debate knock out punch ever given on prime time television. I was a college student and living in Oregon at the time. It was the first time I was old enough to vote in a presidential election so I was following it fairly closely.
On the evening of October 5, 1988 a bunch of fellow students and I gathered in a professor's living room and we watched the debate live. Bentsen's debate opponent was the very easy to ridicule Dan Quayle - but looking back on it, Quayle's political obituary was written that night when Bentsen retorted to Quayle's predictable comparison of his youthfulness with that of John F. Kennedy -
May 17, 2006
My Friend God
I found this today while I was looking for something else. I love it when that happens.
Those who know I'm a pastor might think I'd be offended by this film. You'd be wrong.
Those of you who really know me might think I doubled over in laughter watching this. You'd be right.
This film mocks everything I hate about the triumphalist/fundamentalist branch of Christianity and it brings up some great questions about how the church talks about God. Enjoy!
May 16, 2006
Nope, Not Militarizing the Border...
George Bush said last night that he is sending 6000 National Guard troops to the Mexican border but that he is not "militarizing the border."
Oh yes, and Black is White, Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace, and Ignorance is Strength.
As the years go along I am coming to believe that the best practical preparation for the real world, or the world as it has come to be, I got in public school was from reading George Orwell's 1984 in Sophomore English. At the time I thought it was a ridiculous novel and that no one would be dumb enough to fall for the bald faced lies of the state. Welcome to 1984, folks.
The Ministry of Reshelving seem to agree with my general assessment and are going to local bookstores moving Orwell's book to Current Events.
May 8, 2006
Lives in the Balance
Jackson Browne released this song in the 80's when we were knee deep in Central American blood. Eerily, the song is more relevant today than ever.
I submitted this video to videobomb and you can see it there too.
Procrastination
Thanks to Rocketboom for bringing me this great little web gem. I love the deadpan deadpan delivery and the lowtech nature of this short film. It, and others, can be found on Tales of Mere Existence. Thematically, it's a perfect start to this blog that has been on the drawing boards for about... oh... 3 years. Thanks to Fuzzy for helping me get this blog off the ground.
By the way, half the people I've shown this short to have said, "That's my life." Including me.
[Edit - October 27, 2006: The orginal film has been taken down, so I have added the YouTube version to this post.]