"Fly" the Coop

I have finally come up with a name for my new Mini Cooper. Her name is Fly (can be spelled in a more "hip hop" manner if personal preference dictates, but I stick to proper grammar; ask your girl's favorite rapper). So in tribute to my baby "Fly" the Coop I present some killer wingsuit videos.

The doozey on Biertijd.com is the best I've seen, but I can't find a way to embed that bad boy so your fingers will have to do the walking.

A YouTube search yields some more blog friendly results:

Drunk History

Witness history as it's never been told befor; Drunk.

On August 6th 2007, Mark Gagliardi drank a bottle of Scotch...
and then discussed a famous historical event.

That night history was made... Drunk History


Derek Waters Presents: Drunk History vol. 1
Directed by: Jeremy Konner
Starring: Michael Cera, Jake Johnson, Derek Waters, Ashley Johnson
Created by: Derek Waters

*personal note*
I've had a soft spot for Michael Cera since "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." His star is going to be fun to watch; I'm thinking possible futre Ferrell status with this one.

For more Cera charm view Impossible is the Opposite of Possible, a parody of Impossible is Nothing (by the now internets famous Aleksey Vayner).

Hospitality

I stumbled upon this at passiveaggressivenotes.com and had to share it. The commentary that follows reminds me of the same conversation I have with some d. rocket on a seemingly daily basis.

New Favorite Flickr

lolsheviks

Tom Sachs

Skull, 2003
Foamcore and hot glue

New York born artist Tom Sachs is something of a troublemaker on the art scene. Focused on critiquing fashion and street cultures, he manipulates our ideas of consumption, branding, commercial imagery and objects of money and power. Addressing the mania around fashion and attempting to change viewer's perceptions of precious items and revered brands. His pieces have a very "do-it-yourself" quality, made from mundane materials: foam core, Sharpie markers, duct tape and hot glue.


Chanel Chainsaw, 1996
cardboard and glue




Chanel Guillotine (Breakfast Nook), 1998
Mixed media



via

Chanel Sports

Chanel’s founder Coco Chanel was an avid cycler and to commemorate her and make an environmental statement Chanel have released a bicycle as part of their Spring/Summer 2008 collection. The Chanel bicycle is covered in their signature quilted leather and has a quilted leather bag on the back. The bicycle has eight speeds and will be available exclusively by order from certain Chanel stores in December.

I might be able to afford the tennis racquet, but I know I would just feel guilty about not using it... and then probably feel like a jerk if I did. I also have the sneaking suspicion that the fancy flower would just jack up my spin.

Serial killer breaks into song? You had me at Johnny Depp.

The story of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street first appeared in the 1830s in England and was soon adapted for the London stage. When Stephen Sondheim saw a version of the play in London in the mid 1970s, he asked Hugh Wheeler to collaborate with him on a musical adaptation. When the new Sweeney Todd opened on Broadway in 1979, it became an instant hit and later walked away with that year’s Tony award.

Although successful on Broadway, the film adaptation for the play turned musical has languished in development for decades. Alan Parker (Evita) was said to be interested in the '80s. Burton himself took a stab at it in the early '90s, but he says it came to nothing because there wasn't a script in place. Sam Mendes worked on a version for several years with Gladiator scribe John Logan before making 2005's Jarhead instead. Then, in the summer of 2006, Burton suddenly had an opening in his schedule after his Jim Carrey movie, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, fell apart. He pounced on Sweeney, and quickly persuaded Depp to join him.

Is there a large overlap between fans of Stephen Sondheim and horror movie aficionados? Paramount Pictures must be banking on it, because director Tim Burton's R-rated feature-film adaptation of the Broadway musical Sweeny Todd, one of the season's highest-profile offerings and an Oscar aspirant, includes moments that are bloodier than anything ever seen in the show's various Broadway and West End stagings.

Burton, who is still working on his final cut, brought 17 minutes of footage to New York on Wednesday evening for a sneak preview hosted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where the film's realistic depictions of throat-slashing murders sent a few audience members cowering in revulsion at the onscreen splatter. The event, which showed off three scenes, marked the first time any of the film had been unspooled for a North American audience. The film goes into limited release on Dec. 21.



Set in 19th-century London, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street stars Johnny Depp in the title role of the vengeful barber who, after serving 15 years in Australia on a wrongful conviction, returns to London to find his wife dead and his daughter the ward of the judge who sent him away. When a killing spree results in more corpses than he can easily hide, his love-struck landlady Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) grinds up his victims for use in the meat pies she sells at her downstairs shop.

The film also stars Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin and Sacha Baron Cohen as the competing barber Signor Adolfo Pirelli.

During one scene shown on Wednesday evening, Sweeney Todd slashes the throats of four customers while singing an ode to his lost daughter, Johanna. After killing the men, Todd sends their suddenly lifeless bodies sliding like sacks of wet cement down a chute to the basement, where they land with a horrifying head-first thud on the stone floor.



Burton felt Sweeney should be deliberately grotesque; a Mario Bava gorefest with ballads. "It just goes with the story," he says of the geysers of plasma. "I'd seen different Sweeney Todd productions on stage, and when they skimped on the blood, the production lost something. Everything is so internal with Sweeney that [the blood] is like his emotional release. It's more about catharsis than it is a literal thing." Shot in a muted palette of smudged Victorian browns and blacks, blood red is the most vibrant colour. (via)

Never Forget, Never Forgive


For further reading: Johnny Depp: Cutting Loose in ''Sweeney Todd''; a Q&A by EW.

If you enjoy a bloody musical every so often, may I suggest:
Eating Raoul
Repo! The Genetic Opera
Blood Brothers
Bat Boy
Evil Dead
Cannibal!
Carrie
Little Shop of Horrors
The Rocky Horror Show
Jekyll and Hyde
Lestat
Dance of the Vampires | tanz der vampire

* Feel free to comment if you have a musical to add to the list!

Death Watch

Dating back to 1810, the Memento Mori Death Watch is a particularly dark reminder (even more so than most timekeepers) of our inevitable demise. Designed in the shape of a miniature skull with hinges, this pocket watch tells the time when you peel back the upper dome of the cranium. Made from 18K gold, enamel and diamonds, the fusée skull sold for $16,000.







via The Watchismo Times

Mori ex Cacao

Modern Alchemist Douglas Little & Confectioner Valerie Gordon, drawn together by a mutual admiration for the quality and beauty of each other’s creations, are pleased to debut the MORI EX CACAO COLLECTION. The genesis of DL & Company’s gastronomic collaboration with Valerie Confections is the belief that any modern luxury brand should appeal to all of the senses.

Based on DL&Co’s Memento Mori Collection, the exquisite skulls are rendered in bittersweet chocolate, filled with one of three delicious centers, then individually painted with colored cocoa butter to achieve the pristine, disturbing result.

Loosely translated, MORI EX CACAO is Death by Chocolate – dangerously overwhelming indulgence. These marvelous and macabre chocolate skulls are among the most extravagant confections made today, notable for the excellence and purity of their ingredients and the intricacy of their design. A single skull will set you back 40 bones, and the three piece gift set is nearly a Benji at $95.00.



Scorched Caramel
Organic cream is slowly combined with sugar over an intense flame, until the deep amber confection appears. Decadent.

Bitter Brandied Cherry
An exquisite and unusual confection of indulgent bitter chocolate, Kirsch-perfumed ganache and succulent sour cherries steeped in liqueur, finished in porcelain white cocoa.

Curious Chili
An eccentric array of chilies and spices are combined with the deepest chocolate into an exotic and exciting sensation, with a heat that lingers long after the chocolate is gone. An extraordinary experience.

Skulladay

To commemorate my Father's Birthday (Halloween) and the Día de los Muertos, I thought I would post an image yanked from Skulladay; my new favorite treat loaded with links and updated daily.

TankBooks

Tank (a creative agency and publishing company based in the UK) has designed a series of classics to take our breath away while the smoking ban takes hold of our major (and not so major) cities. Packaged in flip-top cartons with silver foil wrapping and sealed in cellophane, I garautee they are just as addictive are their similarly designed counterparts.

Heart of Darkness is my personal favorite and biased suggestion, although you can rarely go wrong on a Kafka kick.

Hand Soap

While browsing online for a birthday gift for a Virgo friend of mine, I came across the coolest, and possibly creepiest item I've seen since the shrunken head jewelry that I fell in love with over a month ago.

Actual soap, shaped like tiny little hands. Using molds made from dolls, each "hand" is handmade and cared for like the doll it came from.

Brought to you by foliage.

Paper Cuts

The work of Peter Callesen, who lives and works out of Copenhagen, has been catching my eye as of late. His sculpture is bewildering.

He writes:

"My paper works has lately been based around an exploration of the relationship between two and three dimensionality. I find this materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form almost as a magic process - or maybe one could call it obvious magic, because the process is obvious and the figures still stick to their origin, without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is as well an aspect of something tragic in most of the cuts".



What I find so smart and compelling about it, beyond the obvious mastery of the technique, is the fact that the process of making is revealed by leaving what's cut. Not only do we see the amazing composition and story of each piece, but we also get to see what's taken away to make it. The connection between the two parts is not severed, which makes each piece a bit more tense and provacative.

He also creates large scale installations that boggle the mind.

Valerie

The Zutons (2006)


Mark Ronson & Amy Winehouse (2007)


The one thing I can't seem to figure out is how Ronson scored top billing when it's obvious that Winehouse makes this song worth revisiting...

Amy Winehouse Live


take THAT, Steve Winwood and 80's television.

Monster Maker

Sharkey and C-Rayz Walz are... Monster Maker
(click to download album)

01 Birth Of Ratto Di Laboratorio
02 This Ol' Twisted World
03 My Way
04 Pain To The Picture
05 Jumping Off At The Jumpoff
06 Electric Avenue
07 Might She Shoot
08 We Speak Animal
09 Forgotten
10 Loss Of Niche ft. Zooks
11 The Moment Before Crazy ft. Vast Aire
12 Slim Chances

I know that I am getting a late pass on this disc, but chances are you haven't given it a spin yet either. Check out the official site for more info and a taste of the concept.

Gangster Rap Explained via Illustration

Airline Sacrifices; this time the goat gets it.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday.

Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircrafts, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due the problem.

The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.

"The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," said Raju K.C., a senior airline official, without explaining what the problem had been.

Local media last week blamed the company's woes on an electrical fault. The carrier runs international flights to five cities in Asia.

It is common in Nepal to sacrifice animals like goats and buffaloes to appease different Hindu deities.

Through the extraordinary investigative prowess of my friend Bryan (catch him with Detachment Kit), I am able to present a second hand Arabic technical service bulletin full of recondite information.

Good Life

I'll admit a small spot in the guilty pleasures zone of my heart that enjoys just a lil' T-Pain every so often. What can I say? I'm not made of stone. Kanye has released a video for the third single from Graduation, and it's a song that I have been listening to every day on my way to work for the past month or so. There's still time to help Ye crush fiddy, so go BUY that album (downloaders, I'm looking at you).

Find Your Way Home

Roma di Luna will be celebrating the release of their new album entitled "Find Your Way Home" at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, MN. They will be joined by local singer/songwriter JoAnna James, as the Cedar Cultural Center kicks off their season with this FREE, All-Ages event scheduled for September 6th.

416 Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis MN
7:00pm Doors | 7:30pm Music
1.612.338.2674


Roma di Luna is an acoustic duo whose music recalls early 20th century folk and country set to modern times. As husband and wife, Alexei and Channy Casselle co-write songs that are plaintive, sometimes dark yet “hauntingly soothing” noted for “simple instrumentation along with piercing, emotively beautiful vocals.” The songs are presented in a stark manner, keeping them true to the influence of Americana roots. Lyrics soaked with confessions and hard truths pay homage to the storytellers and spiritual revelations of the folk and gospel tradition.

Alexei Moon Casselle is better known in the underground hip-hop scene as an MC under the alias Crescent Moon as a former member of Oddjobs and current member of Kill the Vultures, occasionally touring with Atmosphere as Slug’s hype-man. Channy Moon Casselle is a classically trained violinist who has played with various bluegrass groups and has already blossomed into a talented singer/songwriter.

Roma di Luna first emerged on the scene through weekly busking performances at the downtown Minneapolis farmer’s market beginning in 2004. They played traditional numbers from Alan Lomax songbooks on a corner next to meat vendors and vegetable farmers, eventually working more of their original songs into their spirited sets. Their first visit to the recording studio in Spring 2006 resulted in the track “These Tears Ain’t Mine” which was featured on the Twin Town High 2006 compilation CD and has gone on to garner a local buzz and regular airplay on local radio.

aline_aux_usa provides the video feed from a show at the 400 Bar.

Roma di Luna releases are available on iTunes
JoAnna James can be found online at CD Baby

Crouching Aircraft Factory Hidden Airplane Terminal

During World War II the Army Corps of Engineers needed to hide the Lockheed Burbank Aircraft Plant and Terminal to protect it from a Japanese air attack. The entire area was covered with camouflage netting and trompe l'oeil to make it look like a rural subdivision from the air.

before

after








Historical Perspective
Los Angeles metropolitan area during WWII

No Reservations Cleveland Comic Book

The Travel Channel recently aired an episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations featuring Harvey Pekar. Flip through the No Reservations Cleveland shoot comic book to read Tony's take before and after meeting Pekar. Then read Pekar's take on the 'No Reservations' shoot. Enjoy!



Prologue by Anthony Bourdain


Epilogue by Anthony Bourdain


The Shoot of No Reservations by Harvey Pekar

Murray's Revenge

MURS and 9th Wonder bring us Murray's Revenge: the video. Speaking from personal knowledge, this man really does love video games. I thoroughly enjoy the classic Nintendo reset moment before the seccond verse jumps.

Don Hertzfeldt

Hertzfeldt's films often feature hand-drawn stick figures acting out dadaist combinations of slapstick, absurd, and black humor along with heavier existential themes. I like to think of him as Kubrick incarnate with some seriously simple pen skills. He uses 16mm or 35mm film cameras to create his animations without the aid of computers and often employs old-timey special effect techniques such as multiple exposures, in-camera mattes, and experimental photography (seen to large effect in The Meaning of Life, and "Everything Will Be OK"). This lends a more organic feel to his works, most evident in occasional stop-motion animation sequences (as in the Intermission in the Third Dimension trilogy), as well as in the use of the celluloid and drawing mediums themselves as part of the visuals (as in Rejected and Genre).

Hertzfeldt has photographed all his films to date on an antique 35mm Richardson animation camera stand, believed to be the same camera that photographed many of the early Peanuts cartoons in the 1960's and 70's. It is reportedly one of the last remaining functioning cameras of its kind left in America (if not the world), but Hertzfeldt finds it to be a crucial element in the creation of his films and their unique effects. *
Rejected

Rejected was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It received 27 awards from film festivals around the world and in 2004 was ranked by the Internet Movie Database as the 3rd best short film of all time.

Although the film is fictional and Hertzfeldt never did any commercial work, he received many offers to do television commercials after his short Billy's Balloon garnered international attention and acclaim. In public appearances, he often tells the story that he always wished he could just make a cheap, nonsensical commercial to give to the company intending to hire him, make off with their money, and see if the terrible cartoons would actually make it to air. Eventually this became the germ for Rejected's theme of a collection of cartoons so bad they were rejected by advertising agencies, leading to their creator's breakdown and, presumably, his demise.

An Aqua Teen Hunger Force Rejected homage: "Broodwich"
(watch ATHF: Episode 34 in entirety.


* via

Blog Bounce

Sometimes I stumble upon blogs that make me sit here for a minute. I visited Nah Right tonight, and after watching their video embed, the heads in The Real gave me pause and left me smiling.

Hip Hop is the Single Most Destructive Force in Society

Site contributor Jeff Rosenthal has made his way onto Funny or Die's "Choices" series hosted by Jessica St. Clair and posted by This Just In. "Real Jobs" be damned.

Choices: Bullies Vs. Sissies
Choices: Technology Vs. Communication
Which lead me back to a recent conversation about a particular Boondocks intro and argument(right before I was scolded via my mobile telephone unit by a former stranger for sitting under a bridge). I thought it somehow fitting for this soliloquy.

The Boondocks: Rummy explains technology

Gregorius: NMKY

Gregorius: NMKY (Finnish YMCA cover). They tried, but they're still no more gay than the Village People.

Google Sky

The heavens are only a few mouse clicks away with Google Inc.'s latest free tool. A new feature in Google Earth, the company's satellite imagery-based mapping software, allows users to view the sky from their computers.

The tool provides information about various celestial bodies, from stars to planets, and includes imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope and other sources. It also allows users to take virtual tours through galaxies, including the Milky Way, from any point on Earth they choose.

"By working with some of the industry's leading experts, we've been able to transform Google Earth into a virtual telescope," Lior Ron, a Google product manager, said in a statement.

The new software also promises users the ability to see planets in motion and witness a supernova.

Via AP Writer Dan Nephin

Hip Hop Via Rapidshare

Jeru The Damaja - The Sun Rises in The East 1994


Da Bush Babees - Ambushed 1994


Deda - The Original Baby Pa [Produced by Pete Rock] 1995


The Roots - Game Theory 2006


Jedi Mind Tricks - Servants In Heaven, Kings In Hell 2006


Vakill - Worst Fears Confirmed 2006


Kidz In The Hall - School Was My Hustle 2006


Polyrythym Addicts - Break Glass 2007


Consequence - Dont Quit Your Day Job 2007


X-Clan - Return From Mecca 2007


Busdriver - Roadkill Overcoat 2007