Former Ren and Stimpy artist William Wray has an art show at the Just Looking Gallery in San Luis Obispo opening December 9. His urban plein air paintings are incredible. Link
Naked man smokes crack and gets attacked by an 11-foot aligator.
This morning in Florida, a large alligator tried to eat a naked gentleman who was smoking crack.
Link (Thanks, Ryan!)The alligator had the man in his jaws when deputies arrived at Lake Parker in Lakeland about 4 a.m. today. They were called by nearby residents who reported hearing a man yelling for help.
[Adrian J.] Apgar, 45, of Polk City, suffered a broken arm, partially amputated left arm and trauma to his left leg.
Pillows that look like giant anti-depressant pills
Sandra says:
LinkSci-artist Laura Splan created these nifty pillowy pills.
"Prozac, Thorazine, Zoloft is a group of large pillows crafted out of hand latch-hooked rugs, which have been sewn together and stuffed. These soft, oversized anti-psychotics and anti-depressants provide a different kind of comfort than their prescription counterparts. The time consuming nature of the latch-hook process provides a sufficiently mind-numbing effect. Latch hooking is a simple but tedious craft that has traditionally been used to depict idealized and romanticized images from domesticity and nature."
Go see the many other fantastic works displayed on her site, including neuroart. I also like Blood Scarf, a scarf knitted from vinyl tubing that fills with blood from an IV in the wearer, warming the body as it depletes it.
Instructables has a great recipe (!) for crafting a gigantic and delicious 20-sided gaming die out of pecan pies. They call it a pie-cosahedron. Why pecan pies? Because they are the most inherently 20-sided of all pies.
Audio from Seth Schoen's USC talk last night
Here's the audio from last night's USC talk by Seth Schoen, the final talk of 2006 in my USC Public Diplomacy Center Fulbright Chair lecture series. Seth is staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and he gave a wide-ranging lecture on trusted computing, the economics of freedom, and the ideology of engineering. Due to a technical screw-up (mine), we only got the first half of Seth's talk on tape (argh), but it's a great hour!
Link
Ghost hunting van on eBay
This 1986 GMC G30 was apparently used on Miami Vice and Nash Bridges and later tricked out by the American Institute of Parapsychology to investigate hauntings. The current owner is auctioning it on eBay with a starting bid of $3,000.
From the auction listing:
From the auction listing:
Comes with working pan/tilt mounted on roof (camera removed), deep cycle battery bank-(all hold full charge), a 250gig 4 channel DVR which also records 4 channel audio and acts as a quad.You could record audio and video remotely for a month. Huge power inverter to run everything you need on 120v AC. Like new Samsung 17" Flat Screen monitor. 2 smaller swivel LCD Monitors. Pan Tilt Controller, dash mount flip out LCD monitor and rear mount infrared camera for backing up easily. I also have the 20 watt low frequency tx/rx set which is like new,used with the van and already mounted antenna. You can recieve and record clear audio and video for many miles with this setup. Integrated sound system in the back along with a video effects board. All equipment works very well. Four swing out chairs and a practical work area in the back. Even has a huge xray flourescent light table viewer mounted to wall. Windows are mirror tinted. Has a very solid tow bar section for towing another vehicle(see pic). Van has been in everything from childrens books on ghosts to above mentioned tv shows...Link (via Fortean Times)
Not a show vehicle but absolutly awesome potential with a huge number of uses: Surveillance/Spy, Parapsychology,Police, Military,Camping, Ghost Hunting, etc.
Blip Festival -- art and music made with low-bit video consoles
Jeremiah says: "I thought this might be something the BoingBoing readership would be interested in: a HUGE 4-day chiptune / lo-bit music festival taking place in NYC that kicks off tomorrow (Thursday) and runs through Sunday.
"This looks like its going to be quite the gathering with nearly 40 international musicians and visualists from all over the globe.
"For anyone that has been curious about people repurposing old NES consoles, Game Boys, Ataris and C64s to create completely original music -- this looks like the event to check out."
LinkTHE TANK and 8BITPEOPLES are pleased to present the Blip Festival, a four-day celebration of over 30 international artists exploring the untapped potential of low-bit videogame consoles and home computers used as creative tools. Familiar devices are pushed in new directions with startling results — Nintendo Entertainment Systems and Game Boys roaring with futuristic floor-stomping rhythms and fist-waving melody, art-damaged Sega hardware generating fluctuating and abstracted video patterns — and that's only the beginning. An exploration of the chiptune idiom and its close relatives, the Blip Festival is the biggest and most comprehensive event in the history of the form, and will include daily workshops, art installations, and nightly music performances boasting an international roster larger and more far-reaching than any previous event of its kind. Small sounds at large scales pushed to the limit at high volumes — the Blip Festival is an unprecedented event that is not to be missed.
Paper/Deitch Art Store at Art Basel Miami
If I were fortunate enough to be attending Art Basel Miami Beach next week, I bet the best value for my limited art dollars would be found at the Art Store presented by the Deitch Projects gallery and my friends at Paper Magazine. (Seen here is a Jeff Koons skateboard and Tobias Wong's 24 karat coke spoon inspired by the McDonald's coffee stirrers that stirred up controversy in the 1970s.) The list of represented artists is incredible. Hopefully the shop will move online after the event. From a blog post about the store by Kim Hastreiter who is curating the collection of goods for sale:
Link
I have always been an art shopping maniac, collecting toys, sneakers, skateboards, refrigerator magnets and closets full of artist products since Keith Haring made his first transistor radio. (I even have some Salvador Dali perfume bottles that are amazing.) The recent art and commerce feeding frenzy has led many artists to collaborate with numerous brands over the past ten years. On my office shelves I have Damien Hirst Becks beer bottles, Futura CK One fragrance bottles, Jeff Koons skateboards, Tom Otterness bookends, Stephen Sprouse fabric covered pillows. In my closets I have Phil Frost sneakers, Murakami Vuitton bags, Kenny Scharf magnets, Jeff Koons vase, Barry McGee and Margaret Killgallen dolls, Os gemeos sneakers, and LOTS more. I think of this stuff as my 401 K.
And so I thought it would be SO fun to survey what's out there, pull it all together and open an ART STORE for four days in Miami. My inspiration is the 99 cent store so we're going to sell stuff priced from 99 cents to 9,999,999 dollars!! The interior of the store is being customized by the wonderful artist Jim Drain (of Forcefield fame) and the sign for the front of the store is being made by the amazing artist Tauba Auerbach.
Artists represented in the store include Futura (clothes, skateboards), Kaws (toys), Ryan McGinnis (toys) , Thomas Campbell (wallets, T Shirts surfboards), Jeff Koons (skateboards), Tracey Emin (Longchamp Bags), Jean Michel Basquait (sneakers, Valentino purses), Tom Otterness (toys), Jo Jackson (DC sneakers), Shephard Fairey (watches, clothing), Lisa Yuskavage (shower curtains), Kiki Smith (rugs, toys), Keith Haring ( Jeremy Scott sneakers sweatsuits, bathroom tiles), Alex Katz and Marilyn Minter (the most amazing TARGET produced beach towels for The Art Production Fund!!! See photo of glittery eye.), Assume Astro Vivid focus ( Le Sportsac bags) , Kenny Scharf (mini mannequins, watches, Bic lighters, magnets), Artist Network Program (RVCA Tshirts), Neckface (jackets and skateboards), Ed Templeton (skateboards), John Baldessari and Sol Lewitt silk scarves, Karen Kilimnik, Jack Pierson (see photo of dish) and John Waters dishes, Skullphone (T shirts and bags), Sol Lewitt (china), Andy Warhol (watches, soap, mousepads), Tobias Wong (bongs, 18kt cokespoons, necklaces), Dalek (cameras, dolls), Barbara Kruger (pillows mousepads), Hugo Guiness (Kate Spade bags), Leanne Shapton (Jack Spade bags), Andrew Andrew (cookies, magnets, jewelry), Skullphone (bags, T shirts), Donald Sultan (playing cards), Claw Money (pillows, jackets), Threeasfour (bicycles, scarves)! PLUS we will have little pockets of representation from a couple of our most favorite likeminded shops like ALife, aNYthing, and Colette.
Crap of the Future
PeaceLove sez, "'Surly media nerd' Annalee Newitz has posted some hilarious predictions about the lame holiday crap of the future. Her DRM prediction rawks!"
DNA DRM: The latest solution to the problem of media copying is a digital rights management (DRM) scheme that relies on identifying the DNA of the consumer. When you purchase a piece of media, your licensed copy is encoded with 13 unique sequences of nucleotides from your genome. Each time you hit the power button on your new DNA DRM Zune media player, a hair-thin needle painlessly pierces your flesh and feeds a drop of blood into an embedded genome sequencer. If you are the registered owner of the media, you are permitted to play it. If you aren't, the media is deleted from your device and a record of your transgression is reported to the central media certification authority. You will be forced to pay an extra "unlicensed play penalty tax" to license it next time. The only thing good about this system is that biohackers can take the DNA DRM Zune apart, remove the embedded sequencer, and use it to figure out if they have cancer.Link (Thanks, PeaceLove!)
Open classical music repository
David sez, "This is a new online repository of public domain classical music. What's really cool is that Aaron tells me it's okay to sample/remix the music into new compositions as long as you provide attribution."
This site takes music that is in the public domain, meaning a work that belongs to the community, and has it recorded by individuals and college/community orchestras throughout the United States and stored online so it can be accessed for free through this website. This would do the following:Link (Thanks, David!)1. Provide free unlimited access to music in the public domain to anyone with internet access.
2. Allow obscure works, for example some Baroque music, to be recorded for the first time that would otherwise not be recorded because of its small profit potential.
3. Community - being a community driven project, this can create an online music community, perhaps leading to future cooperative projects.
4. Add usefulness to all the untapped talent in our nation\u2019s orchestras. Think of about how many college orchestras perform to diminishing numbers of audiences. Now, every performance adds to the online repertoire, adding another reason to perform and perform well.
5. Create the first organization devoted to giving the public access to musical works which belong to them.
Jones Soda ditches high-fructose corn syrup
Jones Soda is ditching high fructose corn syrup (toxic waste in liquid form) in favor of cane sugar -- not that I eat either, but if you're into poisoning yourself with soft drinks, this is a lot less bad for you.
The change at Jones Soda comes at a time when high fructose corn syrup, which became a common sweetener for sodas in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has received negative publicity as being linked to obesity and diabetes.Link (via Megnut)
IHOP's "no ID, no pancakes" policy
An IHOP restaurant has been forced to abandon its practice of requiring diners to surrender their drivers licenses before ordering. They'd instituted the no-anonymous-pancakes policy to prevent dine-and-dash, but as with all security measures, what made one party more secure made another less secure. In requiring all diners at the pancake house to produce ID, IHOP opened their customers up to identity theft.
Russo said a security guard at the restaurant had "at least 40" licenses in hand when he arrived to eat.Link (via Schneier)"Identity theft is rampant. I wouldn't want to give my license, with my address or Social Security number to anyone that I'm not familiar with," Russo said. "I'm going just for breakfast."
Street Tech holiday gift guide
bOING bOING senior editor Gareth Branwyn and the crew at Street Tech just issued part one of their annual holiday gift guide. THe contents range from Herbie the Mousebot to Operation Damocles AT-43 to my grooming weapon-of-choice, the HeadBlade. From Gareth's introduction to the holiday gift guide:
LinkWhile we make a lot of noise here at Street Tech about consumer responsibility, environmental awareness, living lower on the hog (or forgoing the hog altogether), truth be told, we love buying shit just as much as the next conspicuous consumer. And we won't even try to deny our unwavering interest in new gadgets and cool tools. That said, we're also obsessed with high quality, intelligent design (of the non-theocratic kind), and products that perform as they're advertised. On top of all this, we love the act of gift-giving, showing our love and appreciation for people, in ritual gestures of exchanged beads and baubles. Combine all this: Great goods that are well- and responsibly made, that you get to buy and then give away to make fellow, beloved meatbots happy? Well that just sounds like a whole lot o' good times to us.
Urban light pillars above cities
is of Ath, Belgium, snapped this photograph during last week's Leonid meteor shower. According to physicist Les Cowley, the strange lights that Bavais captured so beautifully are urban light pillars. From SpaceWeather.com:
(Cowley) explains:
Link (no permalink, view archive of November 28) (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)(Joel Bava) explains: "That night above Ath there was an icy fog full of flat plate crystals. The tiny crystals mirrored the lights of the city beneath into sets of light pillars. The higher the crystals, the closer the reflection glints approached the zenith making the pillars appear to converge overhead: illustration. Why the breaks in the lines of light? There were several layers of ice crystals with gaps between them."
Dept. of Defense investigating sadistic "water bottle" soldiers
Yesterday I posted a video of a sicko jackass soldier in the back of a truck, taunting an Iraqi boy with a bottle of water. It made me sick to see this US soldier laughing derisively at a little kid running as fast as he could for some water. Apparently, the U.S. Department of Defense is just as disgusted, and it is investigating the incident, along with another incident caught in video that shows a soldier complaining that he can't shoot children who throw rocks at his vehicle. Link
Waltz of the Polypeptides sculpture
Seen here is Waltz of the Polypeptides, an eighty-foot long, ten-foot high sculpture by Mara G. Haseltine that was recently installed at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New York. From a CSHL press release:
Link to press release, Link to more about the Waltz of the PolypeptidesThe sculpture depicts a subcellular protein factory called a ribosome caught in the act of producing the BLyS protein, which stimulates the production of infection-fighting antibodies in the body...
The sculpture is comprised of seven structures, each of which is derived from that of the actual biological forms, observed using scanning electron microscopy, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography.
Geisha Asobi makes long false eyelashes from her hair
When my favorite Japan-based blogger, Geisha Asobi, cut her hair, she made hair gloves and extra long false eyelashes from the cut hair. Link
Wilhelm Scream - Hollywood's favorite scream
A single scream, recorded for the 1951 film "Distant Drums," has made its way into dozens of films, games and TV shows. Afficianados call it the "Wilhelm Scream" and have cataloged many of the films in which it appeared, from Hercules to Pirates of the Caribbean, The X-Files to the short "Golden Dreams" film at Disney California Adventure.
Link, Link to video (Thanks, Matthew!)One person who noticed the same distinctive scream reoccurring in so many movies was sound effects fan Ben Burtt. Ben and his friends in the cinema department at USC, Rick Mitchell and Richard Anderson, noticed that a scream was popping up in a lot of movies. One of the films they made together, a swashbuckler parody "The Scarlet Blade" (1974) included the scream - which they borrowed off another film's audio track.
A few years later, when Ben Burtt was hired to create sound effects for Star Wars (1977), he had an opportunity to do research at the sound departments of several movie studios. While at Warner Bros. looking for sound elements to use in the space adventure, he found the original "Distant Drums" scream - which he called "Wilhelm" after the character that let out the scream in "Charge at Feather River."
The Geek Wreath is a simple and powerful idea: take a strand of lights and weave it around a wreath of all the goddamned power cables, spare USB cables, obsolete SCSI cables and whatever else you've got cluttering up your home.
the latest
latest episodes
