Download the MP4 here. Flash video above, click "fullscren" icon inside player to view large. YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video.

Today on Boing Boing Video, another game-related feature we shot during the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco: a conversation with Konami CEO Hideo Kojima at the San Francisco Apple Store, about his latest creation -- Metal Gear Solid Touch for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

* Jane McGonigal on Emotion, Gaming, and Dance.

* Jane McGonigal - Games Can Change the World.

* Jane McGonigal's Game Developers' Conference talk on Making Your Own Reality

* BBV @ GDC live stream archives, at Ustream.tv

* Boing Boing Video and Offworld.com Live at GDC09: offworld.com archive

* Boing Boing Video and Offworld.com Live at GDC09: boingboing.net archive

Download the MP4 here. Flash video above, click "fullscren" icon inside player to view large. YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video.

Today on Boing Boing Video, more of the interviews we conducted during the recent Game Developer Conference in San Francisco, and ran on a marathon streaming video webcast. Today, part two of our conversation with Jane McGonigal of Institute for the Future.

In this episode, Jane talks with us about the responsibilities of designers who create virtual worlds, and how the emotional and human exchange within gaming worlds has the potential to change life in the "real world."

* Jane McGonigal on Emotion, Gaming, and Dance.
* Jane McGonigal's Game Developers' Conference talk on Making Your Own Reality

* BBV @ GDC live stream archives, at Ustream.tv

* Boing Boing Video and Offworld.com Live at GDC09: offworld.com archive

* Boing Boing Video and Offworld.com Live at GDC09: boingboing.net archive

[ Credits and props for BBV Live @GDC09: Production Team -- Jolon Bankey, Derek Bledsoe, Daniela Calderon, Eddie Codel, Xeni Jardin, Allison Kingsley, Matty Kirsch, Alice Taylor, Wesly Varghese. Special thanks to Wayneco Heavy Industries (accommodation and studio facilities), Virgin America Airlines (air travel), Celsius (thermogenic energy beverage), Ustream.tv (streaming video host). Moral support, production assistance, additional talent, and good vibes provided by: Domini Anne, Scott Beale, T.Bias, Jeremy Bornstein, Brandon Boyer, Chris The Van Guy, Peter S. Conrad, Marque Cornblatt, Wayne, Bre, and the entire de Geere family, Marcy DeLuce, Cory Doctorow, Joel Johnson, Kourosh Karimkhany, Jim Louderback and the Revision 3 team, Karen Marcelo, Rocky Mullin, Alicia Pollak, Jackie Mogol, Taylor Peck, David Pescovitz, Micah Schaffer, and Teal. ]

Download the MP4 here. Flash video above, click "fullscren" icon inside player to view large. YouTube channel here, subscribe on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are blog post archives for Boing Boing Video.

Today's episode of Boing Boing Video is the first in a series of featured interviews conducted during the recent Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. All last week, we ran a marathon streaming video webcast from a friend's loft near the conference site, and tons of interesting people stopped by. Today, we present a conversation and Katamari Damacy Cosplay Dance-off with Jane McGonigal of Institute for the Future.

Jane talks with us about her research into emotion and gaming, and her project "Top Secret Dance-Off," which explores how we respond to online interpersonal reactions -- and, what kind of "play" activities make us feel good about ourselves and each other.

For instance, she says that the experience of humiliation -- say, the embarassment you might feel dancing in front of a streaming video camera -- involves a brief blip of happiness. Jane explains why, in this 10-minute clip that melds neuroscience, sociology, and funky Katamari choreography.

Don't miss the very end. Jane and Xeni test out the theories in a not-so-top-secret Bollywood dance-off.

[ Credits and props for BBV Live @GDC09: Production Team -- Jolon Bankey, Derek Bledsoe, Daniela Calderon, Eddie Codel, Xeni Jardin, Allison Kingsley, Matty Kirsch, Alice Taylor, Wesly Varghese. Special thanks to Wayneco Heavy Industries (accommodation and studio facilities), Virgin America Airlines (air travel), Celsius (thermogenic energy beverage), Ustream.tv (streaming video host). Moral support, production assistance, additional talent, and good vibes provided by: Domini Anne, Scott Beale, T.Bias, Jeremy Bornstein, Brandon Boyer, Chris The Van Guy, Peter S. Conrad, Marque Cornblatt, Wayne, Bre, and the entire de Geere family, Marcy DeLuce, Cory Doctorow, Joel Johnson, Kourosh Karimkhany, Jim Louderback and the Revision 3 team, Karen Marcelo, Rocky Mullin, Alicia Pollak, Jackie Mogol, Taylor Peck, David Pescovitz, Micah Schaffer, and Teal. ]

Today is the final day of Boing Boing Video's live coverage of the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, with  Killscreen TV + Offworld. We're streaming live video around the clock on our new Ustream channel. Tune in for conversations in our BBV@GDC studio with hosts including Matty Kirsch from Killscreen TV and Xeni from Boing Boing, visits from fellow Boing Boing bloggers, and the following special guests today, Friday March 27, 2009, the final day of GDC:

* Keita Takahashi, creator of Katamari Damacy, talking about his most recent game, Noby Noby Boy (note: previously recorded on-site at GDC)
* A planned interview nearby with Hideo Kojima, CEO of Konami. He's the creator of the recently released Metal Gear Solid Touch game for the iPod touch and iPhone (it's currently available on the Apple App Store). He's doing a talk at 3pm at the San Francisco Apple Store, if you're in SF, you should try to go!
* In-studio visit by game developer and researcher Jane McGonigal, whose amazing GDC talk Cory blogged about here.
* Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music, talking about music and video games, and hopefully demoing some music-making gizmos!
* Vlad Micu, "Videogame Visionary" from the Netherlands
* Alice Taylor, game researcher, blogger, and developer, of Wonderland and Channel 4
* Tracy Fullerton of the USC Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab

For BB Video + Offworld's complete video and blog coverage of GDC09, visit offworld.com/gdc09.

Chat room after the jump, or you can hop directly to our Ustream page to view chat + video stream side by side.

Day 3 of Boing Boing Video's live coverage of the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco with  Killscreen TV + Offworld. We're streaming live video around the clock on our new Ustream channel. Tune in for conversations in our BBV@GDC studio with hosts including Matty Kirsch from Killscreen TV and Xeni from Boing Boing, Jolon Bankey and Daniela Calderon from Mysterious Development, visits from fellow Boing Boing bloggers, and the following special guests today, Thursday March 26, 2009:

Alice Taylor of Channel 4 and Wonderland

John Seggerson of Telltale Games

Derek Johnson of Chalice Games

Troy Gilbert of Mockingbird Games

Sebastien de Halleux of Playfish Games

and our pal Kevin Kelly from Joystiq

For BB + Offworld's complete video and blog coverage of GDC09, visit offworld.com/gdc09.

(Special thanks to our live stream host Ustream TV, to Wayneco Heavy Industries, and to our transportation provider at Virgin America. Video Crew members in the house this week: Jolon Bankey, Wes Varghese, Derek Bledsoe, Xeni Jardin, and Killscreen TV's Matty Kirsch and Allison Kingsley).

The entire Boing Boing Video crew (Xeni Jardin, Wes Varghese, Derek Bledsoe, and Jolon Bankey) is in San Francisco this week, along with a number of the bloggers from Offworld, BB Gadgets, and Boing Boing, to cover the 2009 Game Developers Conference. And this time, for the first time ever, we're doing it with live video broadcasts on our new Ustream channel. Tune in for conversations in our BBV@GDC studio with hosts including Matty Kirsch from Killscreen TV, Jolon Bankey and Daniela Calderon from Mysterious Development, Xeni and Joel from Boing Boing, visits from Brandon, Cory, and Pesco, and lots of game biz guests and happy mutants throughout the world, all week long!

For BB + Offworld's complete video and blog coverage of GDC09, visit offworld.com/gdc09.

(Special thanks to our live stream host Ustream TV, to Wayneco Heavy Industries, and to our transportation provider at Virgin America.)

The entire Boing Boing Video crew is in San Francisco this week, along with a number of the bloggers from Offworld, BB Gadgets, and Boing Boing, to cover the 2009 Game Developers Conference. And this time, for the first time ever, we're doing it with live video broadcasts on our new Ustream channel.

Tune in for conversations in our BBV@GDC studio with special guests from the gaming biz, Tuesday through Friday.

Above, a little segment we shot en route to GDC, aboard a Virgin America flight -- because if you're flying to a gamer con, you really do need to be able to play DOOM on the way, on the inflight entertainment system. In this episode, we climb way inside the guts of the plane, beneath the seats, and actually get our hands on the little servers where they store the DOOM cheat codes.

Our live video stream and all of the video episodes we're cranking out this week will all live at offworld.com/gdc09.

Flash video embed above, click "full" icon inside the player to view it large. You can download the MP4 here. Our YouTube channel is here, you can subscribe to our daily video podcast on iTunes here. Get Twitter updates every time there's a new ep by following @boingboingvideo, and here are the archives for Boing Boing Video.

(Special thanks to Boing Boing video's hosting partner Episodic, and to Wayneco Heavy Industries, and to the kind folks at Virgin America who let us goof off on their planes.)

A special treat from Boing Boing tv for your New Year's eve revelry, we're gonna sneak this one last episode in before the clock strikes 2009 here! Enjoy this music video for Sydney, Australia-based band The Herd, directed by the phenomenally talented Mike Daly. More about the band's
"glam/folk/tropical" music here. Every time we played this one in the BBtv editing bay, we all ended up dancing around the Final Cut windows. Mike Daly did incredible work here, there's not a frame of this I'd do differently, and it says so much about the year we're ending tonight, don't you think? Dig it, TRY not to dance, keep the faith my fellow mutants, and Feliz Año a todos ustedes, from all of us at the Boing Boing blogs, and the Boing Boing TV team! Peace.

* A Morning at Intelligentsia Part 1

* A Morning at Intelligentsia Coffee Part 2

Snip from the original post:

Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea is based out of Chicago, Illinois and has recently opened up a new store in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Kyle Glanville, head of research and development at Intelligentsia and winner of the 2008 US Barista Championship shows Mark how they acquire and roast some of the finest coffee in the world.

The word intelligentsia derives from the Latin word intelligentia, meaning a group of people engaged in complex mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture. Kyle Glanville has been laboring to promulgate a new coffee culture with Intelligentsia to combat the "get up and go" mentality, and Mark is along for the ride to learn the careful art of roasting coffee.

Intelligentsia is located at 3922 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90029 and is open 7 days a week.

Part one is embedded above, parts two and three below, and here are direct MP4 links to all: one, two, three. Snip from the original post:

In part one of Boing Boing tv's multi-part exploration of Tcho, we begin in the lab, and learn about the origins of chocolate: it's a weird looking fruit with biological roots in faraway tropical lands. How this fruit is cultivated, harvested, and cured determines the flavor of the final product, and we learn about the hedonics -- the sensual nuances -- of this exotic and temperamental element.

Blog posts with more chocolicious background on all that we experienced there:

Continuing in our retrospective of favorite Boing Boing tv episodes, we revisit the fun we had checking out TechShop, an open-access public workshop that's kind of like a health club with heavy machinery and sparks instead of treadmills. Tinkerers, inventors, and hackers pay a membership fee, and in turn receive access to professionally-maintained gear, workshops, mentors, and a community of like-minded makers.

Currently there is only one site in Silicon Valley, and it opened in 2006. But founder Jim Newton (a lifetime maker, veteran BattleBots builder and former MythBuster) plans to open a number of locations around the US -- and eventually, the rest of the world.

John Todd, who you'll meet in this episode, wrote this article about the membership-based machine and fabrication shop in a recent edition of Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools zine. Snip:

I've been a member since before TechShop really even started, back when it was just some guys passing out flyers trying to gauge interest. For $100 a month, members can use any tool in the shop on which they've received training. MUCH cheaper than buying your own gear. The list of equipment is pretty extensive, too, and new items are arriving frequently (like a new hot-wire foam cutter).

TechShop is unusual in the way it's funded - community members are the financial backers. To date, TechShop has been funded by taking loans from members and repaying them at a nominal rate. Typically backers contribute $25k and up, and are then paid back over several years. There is an "A" round being raised now to fund the nationwide expansion, and the first funding source again is going to be the community instead of focusing on traditional VC sources. It's an unusual way to keep members excited about what they do at TechShop, and to keep them focused on making the whole experience better. Jim Newton (CEO) and Mark Hatch (COO) are looking for additional interested people who want to become members and funders - contact TechShop for details.

This short work is a music video he created for the Swedish electronica band Minilogue. The track is "Animals," and the video features colorful critter-blobs wreaking hyperfun havoc all over an urban real-life-scape.

We asked Kristofer to tell us a little about how this came together, and he explains:

In late 2007 we (me and the band Minilogue) started talking about making a followup to the very popular "hitchhiker's choice" video. At the same time I was doing some VJ-ing for them and found that those little animations i made for that could be characters in their next video. So I started producing a lot of loops of creatures. I hooked up with bart yates, nicholas wakeham and erik buchholtz, and our first thought was to put them all in an animated world... but i didn't really feel it. Then Erik showed me a test of my characters motion-tracked onto some footage -- and there it was. So he went out shooting some spots, rough cuts without the creatures, then we added those little fellas in the footage. Voilá! A longer version will be found on the minilogue DVD, coming this fall, finally! The longer version of "hitchhiker's choice" will be on there too. Some other stuff can be found on our temporary web site: http://varelsen.com.

Link to Minilogue's YouTube features. (Special thanks to Claire Jones, and to Cocoon.)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/26/bbtv-08-retrospectiv.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/26/bbtv-08-retrospectiv.html Fri, 26 Dec 2008 12:00:45 -0800 Happy holidays from Boing Boing tv! Continuing in our retrospective of favorite episodes from our first year:

Each year, David Silverman (director of the Simpsons Movie, and longtime director of the TV show) illustrates holiday cards for friends and family. Xeni visits him in his home studio for a re-enactment of the craziest years in holiday cheer, complete with tuba carols.

( Flash embed above, and here's a direct MP4 download link. )]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/25/david-silvermans-hol-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/25/david-silvermans-hol-1.html Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:59:57 -0800 This week, the Boing Boing tv crew is taking a week off, and we've been revisiting some of the episodes that mean the most to us over the past year.

For me, for many reasons, the three episodes we produced from a K'iche Maya pueblo in the Guatemalan highlands were the most personally important. I'll embed one above.

It's about taking a traditional sweat bath, which is something they might well be doing today there during the holidays, provided there's enough water -- that only comes every few days.

Here are all three:

(1) BBtv WORLD: Through the eyes of the pueblo.
(2) BBtv WORLD: Migration, and a Mayan Sweat Bath.
(3) BBtv WORLD: El Molinero.

And other episodes of "BBtv WORLD" about Guatemala are here. But I also wanted to take this opportunity to share something else that means a lot to me. Last night, I scanned some of the hand-drawn Christmas cards from participants in an international non-profit I work with there, and uploaded them to Flickr. These were private cards, sent from folks in the pueblo to project participants in the US (in other words, they weren't for sale or anything, they were just heartfelt communication from one person to another).

I'm sharing some of them here with permission. They're beautiful and very meaningful to me.

Some of the cards refer to the old Mayan gods (for instance, references to "Ajaw", or "Tzaq'ol and Bit'ol", primordial entities who were present at the creation of all things), other cards refer to to Christianity. Some were created by children, others by adults, and the one with the Mayan house and the big Christmas tree and the volcano, thumbnail above? That man is considered the best painter and illustrator in the town. Every one of the cards, all in a stack next to me on my desk here right now, every one reflects soul, kindness, and hope.

To really appreciate them, click on "all sizes" and look at the larger size. The one I received personally read, "Feliz Navidad, y Paz a Todas Las Naciones Del Mundo." I know the woman who drew it, and she's survived so much.

On behalf of the Boing Boing tv team, and my colleagues in the nonprofit that works in that village, I extend that greeting to each of you who reads this blog post today. Friends we know, and friends we do not.

Flickr set: Christmas cards from a K'iche Maya Village in Guatemala

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/24/christmas-cards-from.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/24/christmas-cards-from.html Wed, 24 Dec 2008 10:35:05 -0800

Continuing in Boing Boing tv's "Road to CES" series, Joel Johnson at Boing Boing Gadgets sez:

Although we didn't bother with CES last year, this year the Boing Boing team will be out in the cold Las Vegas desert, sifting through piles of sadness incarnate to find the precious products that might actually make our lives — if not truly better — a little happier in the coming year.

I'm more excited about going to CES as I have been in a long time. (Thanks in large part to your suggestions.) We try to keep it positive around here, but sometimes that's easier to do when everyone else seems so down in the dumps.

At least that's how I think it'll be at this year's show. Perhaps the convention won't be quite as bleak as I imagine in this "Road to CES" video we've put together.

Join the discussion thread with Joel, Brownlee, and Beschizza over at Boing Boing Gadgets.

Flash embed over there, and here's a direct MP4 link if you'd prefer to download.

Previously -- here was Xeni's video installment: The Road to CES: What do you want? (BBtv + Boing Boing Gadgets)

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Sponsor shout-out: Boing Boing TV's coverage of CES 2009 is sponsored by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is intended to be a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside."

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]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/23/joel-johnson-on-the.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/23/joel-johnson-on-the.html Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:59:11 -0800 Continuing in our retrospective of favorite Boing Boing tv episodes from 2008, we return to zero gravity today.

With me on the Zero-G weightless flight featured in this episode are Intel Chairman Craig Barrett; my friend Sean Bonner from metblogs; and a bunch of science teachers from grade schools and high schools throughout the United States who were on board to conduct microgravity experiments for the kids back home.

As you watch, keep an eye out for the floating lego robot, a flying pig, and the barfing guy who is totally barfing for reals -- the rest of us did not, btw, I don't get sick in space.

What you see in this episode is what it really feels like, and it feels awesome.

(Special thanks to Peter Diamandis, and George and Loretta Whitesides)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/23/best-of-bbtv-in-2008.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/23/best-of-bbtv-in-2008.html Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:31:49 -0800 (Flash embed above, and here's a downloadable MP4.)

Happy Lazy-Time on Boing Boing tv! We're slowing down for the holidays, and taking a few weeks to gloat over all the fun stuff we produced together in 2008. Come join us in the seasonal gloating! Right here, under the genetically engineered mistletoe, by the warmth of burning fuel cells.

Today's installment: Remember when we flew out to the Mojave Spaceport to hang out with astronaut and American hero Buzz Aldrin, Virgin Galactic (and Virgin America, and Virgin everything) founder Sir Richard Branson, Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan, and other space luminaries for the Virgin Galactic launch? Well, why don't we just revisit that moment of glory here. It was a lot of fun. And we're hoping a future episode of our video hijinks will actually take place on the spacecraft. That's what we want for Christmas.

Original blog post here:

BBtv: Virgin Galactic and WhiteKnightTwo with Buzz, Branson, and Rutan.

Why revisit this episode today? Snip from a blog post on spacefellowship.com:

Earlier this week images were appearing on the internet showing that the WhiteKnightTwo craft had been doing some tests in Mojave, the earliest tests showed perhaps two of the engines being used, while a later test showed all the engines working and some further testing. Today we finally saw the four Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308A engines carrying the craft into the air and a huge milestone being reached by Virgin Galactic.

The maiden flight of the craft lasted just shy of one hour and happened today at around 08.15 at Mojave air and spaceport. Rumours suggest that a Beechcraft King Air was used for a chase plane. (...) This key event now leads us into an interesting 2009 when we should see the SpaceShipTwo craft being unveiled.

Read: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Mothership Makes Maiden Flight.

And, you may also enjoy revisiting this related Boing Boing tv episode, another one of our faves from 2008: Xeni kicks the tech tires on Virgin America (Flash embed below, here's the downloadable MP4 Link).

In case you're joining the party late -- you can watch Boing Boing tv while you're on Virgin America airplanes, we think they're about as awesome as an airline gets, and I believe the Galactic episode above is actually playing on seat-back rotation right now.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/22/flash-embed-above-an.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/22/flash-embed-above-an.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:31:50 -0800 Happy Hols from Boing Boing tv! In this week's Friday Unicorn Chaser episode, Sculptor Chris Yates creates laser-cut robots for the holidays, based on the Diesel Sweeties webcomic by R. Stevens.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/19/unicorn-chaser-diese.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/19/unicorn-chaser-diese.html Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:27:38 -0800 Longtime Boing Boing tv contributors monochrom have brought us Soviet terrorism training videos, improvisational urban fires, and highfalutin economic philosophy from the mouths of sock puppets.

Monochrom sock puppets Kiki & Bubu return to us today, for a very special holiday-themed episode: Kiki & Bubu & The Feelings. The yuletide song they perform for us is sure to be an instant classic -- Killing Capitalism with Christmas. You can grab it from iTunes, on the 2008 album "Monochrom: Carefully Selected Moments".

Bonus: Watch this behind-the-socks footage, from the secret filming location in the Austrian alps.

SYNOPSIS (some spoilers):

Yes, it is a time of crisis, but it is also a time of Christmas. Slovenian hackers crack CNN's hologram thingie, and bring us the avatar of gender-ambiguous singing sensation Enron Hubbard. Enron sings a hypnotic call to reject holiday consumerism and replace malls with meaning. Or if not meaning, post-internet nihilism and the ironic use of MySpace smiley-gifs. Online porn monster shows up after Enron is finished singing his holiday song, then Kiki and Bubu scamper off for eggnog frappucinos.

Previously:

• Best of Boing Boing tv: we love monochrom. - Boing Boing
• BBtv - Monochrom: Campfire At Will - Boing Boing
• BBtv -- Terrorist training video from Soviet Unterzegersdorf ...
• Boing Boing tv: Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets - Boing Boing
• Boing Boing tv: monochrom - MyFaceSpace, the musical - Boing Boing
• BBtv: Orwell's 1984 deconstructed by puppets (monochrom) - Boing Boing
• BBtv: Monochrom - "Bye Bye" (a short film) - Boing Boing
• BBtv - Monochrom: Economic Recession Wisdom from Sock Puppets ...
• BBtv - Google's "Great Firewall of China": Fun with the Billboard ...
• BBtv: Monochrom's "Kiki, Bubu, and the Self" - Boing Boing
• BBtv - Monochrom: Fisch Interview - Boing Boing
• BBtv: Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor - Boing Boing
• BBTV: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial - Boing ...
• BBtv: Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig ...
• BBtv: Falco Stairs/Fuji Apple - Boing Boing

(Special thanks to chief executive sock puppet overlord and awesome guy Johannes Grenzfurthner!)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/killing-capitalism-w.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/killing-capitalism-w.html Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:36:06 -0800 (Flash video embedded above, here's a downloadable MP4.)

Today's episode of Boing Boing tv is an OFFWORLD feature -- this time, Joel and Rob visit the annual chiptunes music gathering Blip Festival 2008, better known as "blipfest."

Joel interviews several artists in this episode who create music inspired by the aural texture of old-schoold video games: Mr. Spastic, Jellica, and Nullsleep.

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Join the conversation about this episode over on Offworld.

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Previously: Blipfest 2008: Joel interviews chiptunes artist Bubblyfish.

(Special props to Beschizza for doubling as director of photography for these episodes! Holy Brother of Mario, what can't that guy do. Seriously. )

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/blip-festival-2008-j.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/blip-festival-2008-j.html Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:13:45 -0800

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Watch video here, in Flash or downloadable MP4.

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In just a few weeks, Boing Boing TV will be traveling to Vegas for The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show with the Boing Boing Gadgets guys -- Joel, John, and Rob. We're planning to broadcast video reports from the show floor. We're also bracing ourselves for lots of casino umbrella drinks.

To get us started in planning our coverage on the blog in text, photos, and in video, we thought it might be cool to hear from you, our audience. So we asked BB commenters and peeps who follow us on Twitter -- what do you hope or expect to see more of, or less of, at the world's largest electronics show this year. What exactly do you want us to bring home from CES?

In this episode of BBtv, we share your responses. They include:

♦ Find weird things on the fringes -- BE BOING BOING.

♦ OH WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!!! (capture that on video.)

♦ Better netbooks, notebooks -- mobile computing.

♦ The most impractically ginormous flatscreen television ever.

♦ mobile gaming! laptops and mobile devices that allow me to get my game on out in the world.

♦ What notebooks or a/v devices are attendees themselves using on the show floor?

♦ Do not cover gadgets at all. Cats are better than gadgets. Also, they are an emergency food source during times of economic crisis.

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Sponsor shout-out: Boing Boing TV's coverage of CES 2009 is sponsored by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is intended to be a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "could influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside."

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Previously:

• I Dream of CES: Your Input Requested, With or Without Kitteh ...

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/16/the-road-to-ces-what.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/16/the-road-to-ces-what.html Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:30:57 -0800
(Flash video embed above, downloadable MP4 link here)

Today on Boing Boing tv, the first in a series of gaming/gadget features with Joel Johnson from an annual celebration of 8-bit/videogame-inspired music. Joel says:

Last week found us at Blip Festival 2008, the megalocus of live chiptunes music, where Game Boys met Atari STs with Amiga visuals for four evenings of square wave fun.

We were out in Gowanus in Brooklyn at the event, at least until Rob and I got tired and had to go home and rest our widdle heads. But until then, we got to speak to several of the artists just after their sets, and the BBtv crew is taking our drunken, blurry footage and actually making something worth watching out of it.

First up: Haeyoung "Bubblyfish" Kim

Here's the comments thread over at Boing Boing Offworld.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/16/bbtv-bubblyfish-at-b.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/16/bbtv-bubblyfish-at-b.html Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:13:17 -0800 In this week's edition of our weekly Boing Boing tv update...

♦ We take a sneak peek at the images in Imaginary Foundation's gallery show, which opened this week in LA, and we watch their iconic "astronaut drummer" guy rocking out IRL.

♦ New BB guestblogger Susie Bright checks in with a video report! (NB: she consults Brian Eno and Eric Schmidt's Oblique Strategy cards when in doubt -- and she shows us the Mac desktop widget version here).

♦ We take a look at the groups featured in Cory's "Boing Boing Charitable Giving Guide"

♦ Boing Boing is blogging over at GOOD Magazine, and we preview Pesco's first contribution -- about the psychological impact of Twittering/vlogging/lifecasting/Facebooking everything you do.

♦ At the end of this episode, BBtv remixes the already-excellent "Best Viral Videos of 2008" montage curated by our pals at Videogum. Enjoy. Crunk makes everything better.

---

Previous Weekly Boing Boing Updates from BBtv:

* Boing Boing tv Update: Econopocalypse, Julie Amero, Holiday Gifts, Mumbai.

* Boing Boing tv Update: Virgin WiFi, Obfuscated Code, Comment Poetry, Downfall Housing Remix

* Boing Boing tv Update: OFFWORLD, YES MEN, and THIS IS THE FIRST.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/15/bbtv-update-best-vir.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/15/bbtv-update-best-vir.html Mon, 15 Dec 2008 12:45:08 -0800 BBtv presents this week's Friday "Unicorn Chaser" -- the goofy truth behind Xeni and BBtv's UK music correspondent Russell Porter's reports from the SF Outside Lands music festival. Summer concert season is long gone, and the gaffer tape that once spelled "Boing Boing tv" on our tour bus has long since faded, along with our concert sunburns. So we figure it's safe to reveal how much dorking out took place between story tapings and band sessions. Besotted joyrides on stolen Segways, the snatching of sunglasses from complete strangers, and improvised pickup lines like "I'm the drummer from Radiohead. Really." Russell? You really are "special." We love you, man, and we miss "working" with you.

BBtv Reports from the 2008 Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival:

• Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." - Boing ...
• BBtv: Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music ...
• BBtv: Andy Gould, rock band manager, dances on the labels' graves ...
• Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." - Boing ...
• Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter ...
• Boing Boing tv: Cafe Tacvba -- Interview and Performance (Music ...
• Interview with Cold War Kids frontman Nathan Willett (music ...
• BBtv - Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni ...
• BBtv - Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music) - Boing Boing
• BBtv: Roots Reggae Legends Toots and the Maytals (music) - Boing Boing
• BBtv: Broken Social Scene interview and live performance (music ...
• BBtv: Galactic's "Modern New Orleans Funk" with Xeni and Russell ...

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/12/unicorn-chaser-the-g.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/12/unicorn-chaser-the-g.html Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:00:51 -0800

(Flash video embedded above, MP4 Link here.)

Today is the final installment of Boing Boing tv's three-day special series in partnership with the video network WITNESS commemorating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

In this episode: the story of Jesus Tecu Osorio, a Maya Achí man who witnessed one of the most horrific massacres of Guatemala's 36-year internal conflict, when he was a child -- and what he is doing to preserve the memory of victims, and the rights of survivors.

Here is a snip from the Wikipedia article about that massacre:

In 1978, in the face of civil war, the Guatemalan government proceeded with its economic development program, including the construction of the Chixoy hydroelectric dam. Financed in large part by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, the Chixoy Dam was built in Rabinal, a region of the department of Baja Verapaz historically populated by the Maya Achi. To complete construction, the government completed voluntary and forcible relocations of dam-affected communities from the fertile agricultural valleys to the much harsher surrounding highlands. When hundreds of residents refused to relocate, or returned after finding the conditions of resettlement villages were not what the government had promised, these men, women, and children were kidnapped, raped, and massacred by military officials. More than 440 Maya Achi were killed in the village of Río Negro alone, and the string of extra-judicial killings that claimed up to 5,000 lives between 1980 and 1982 became known as the Río Negro Massacres. The government officially declared the acts to be counterinsurgency activities.

This video is narrated by REM frontman Michael Stipe, and is presented with the music of composer Philip Glass. For more on WITNESS, and how they are using video to draw world attention to human rights abuses throughout the globe, visit the recently launched Witness HUB website.

Related: earlier here on Boing Boing, I shared a report I filed for National Public Radio about the group that conducted the exhumations mentioned in this WITNESS video. The Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala (FAFG) are technologists, anthropologists, and archaeologists who unearth these mass graves. They work to identify the dead and return the remains to their families for dignified reburial. The process begins with the hard work of the exhumation itself, but they also use DNA forensics and software they develop themselves, so they can identify a greater portion of the remains, and preserve evidence that could be used in criminal trials. FAFG staff routinely deal with death threats from those who do not support their work. Listen to "Group Works to Identify Remains in Guatemala ," and here is the entire NPR special series, "Guatemala: Unearthing the Future." (Image below: Xeni Jardin)

Previous BBtv + WITNESS episodes on video and human rights:

• (BBtv + WITNESS) A Duty to Protect: Child Soldiers in the Congo ...
• BBtv WORLD + WITNESS.org: 60 Years of Declaration of Human Rights ...
• BBtv: Xeni interviews WITNESS.org digital archivist Grace Lile...

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/12/bbtv-witness-a-massa.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/12/bbtv-witness-a-massa.html Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:38:21 -0800 More than 20,000 children have been abducted and forced into armed service by warring factions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1996. Many of these children are sexually exploited; many are forced to participate in or witness atrocities, as a way of life.

In day two of Boing Boing tv's three-day special series in partnership with the video network WITNESS commemorating the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, we present this special feature on the lives of the child soldiers in DRC.

In this episode, we'll hear from Bukeni Waruzi of the Child Soldier Project (AJEDI-Ka/PES), who are working to demobilize the boys and girls and provide them with protection, rehabilitation, and psychological care.

If you'd like to support the work of the Child Soldier Project, here's more info on how to assist (they are accepting donations, but there are other ways to help, too).

For more on WITNESS, and how they are using video to draw world attention to human rights abuses throughout the globe, visit the recently launched Witness HUB website.

Previously:

• BBtv WORLD + WITNESS.org: 60 Years of Declaration of Human Rights ...
• BBtv: Xeni interviews WITNESS.org digital archivist Grace Lile on ...
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights, animated - Boing Boing
• Audio of UN Declaration of Human Rights in 21 languages - Boing Boing

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/11/bbtv-witness-a-duty.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/11/bbtv-witness-a-duty.html Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:51:26 -0800 Boing Boing tv is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week in partnership with WITNESS. Founded by musician and activist Peter Gabriel in 1992, the group uses video and online media to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.

Today, we present this interview with the organization's digital archivist, Grace Lile about video as a tool to fight human rights abuses at home and abroad. She tells us about how WITNESS gathers videos from human rights activists and "citizen eyewitnesses," and why collecting and preserving this footage matters. She also tells us about the recently-launched hub.witness.org, which is a sort of gathering place for people who want to get involved.

(Special thanks to Yvette Alberdingkthijm, Sameer Padania, Martin Tzanev, Matisse Bustos Hawkes, and Bryan Nuñez of Witness, and BB Patron Saint Joi Ito.)

Previously:

• BBtv WORLD + WITNESS.org: 60 Years of Declaration of Human Rights...
• Audio of UN Declaration of Human Rights in 21 languages - Boing Boing
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights, animated - Boing Boing

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/11/xeni-interviews-witn.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/11/xeni-interviews-witn.html Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:33:46 -0800 (Warning: the video embedded in this post contains graphic content that viewers may find disturbing.)

Boing Boing tv commemorates the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week in partnership with WITNESS. Have you read the declaration lately? You can do so here. It is as timely and essential to our world today as it was on December 10, 1948, just after the end of World War II.

WITNESS was founded by musician and activist Peter Gabriel with other human rights groups in 1992. They use video and online media to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations. We'll be airing reports from the WITNESS archives this week, and tomorrow Boing Boing tv will present an interview with the organization's digital archivist, Grace Lile. She spoke with us about how WITNESS gathers videos like the one I'm embedding here, and why collecting and sharing this footage matters. She also tells us about the recently-launched hub.witness.org, which is a sort of gathering place for people who want to get involved.

Today, as a special edition of BBTV WORLD, we present a video from WITNESS that was produced by Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI) and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL). With this video, they sought to "prevent continued unlawful acts that threaten the rights to life, liberty and personal security of two boys, Jorge, age 18, and Julio, age 17, and 458 others detained in the Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital of Paraguay." The two boys were detained in approximately six-by-six feet isolation cells, naked, and without access to bathrooms. Hospital staff said the boys have been detained in these conditions for the past four years.

The video is deeply disturbing. I found it very painful to watch. But the producers, and the people behind WITNESS, hope that by documenting these abuses and making the documentation available to the world in this explicit form, we will be inspired to stop the abuse -- in this case, and in others around the world.

Here is a direct MP4 link, if you prefer to download.
Below, a video from WITNESS commemorating the Declaration of Human Rights, and what it means to us today.

(Special thanks to Yvette Alberdingkthijm, Sameer Padania, Martin Tzanev, Matisse Bustos Hawkes, and Bryan Nuñez of Witness, and BB Patron Saint Joi Ito.)]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/10/bbtv-world-witness-a.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/10/bbtv-world-witness-a.html Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:00:16 -0800
Boing Boing Offworld editor Brandon says,

Clearly still struggling through Infinite-Jest-esque urges to purchase beauty-enhancing video phone masks and the anxiety of talking to yourself while staring into a tiny, lit, terrifying Hal 9000 eye-hole, I've made my official non-gnome deathknight debut on BBtv.

In it I recap what we've been doing on the site (most notably, the debut of Monster Mii), recommend Dr. Awesome, the first game that's felt to me like a proper 'iPhone game,' versus a game that's merely been made for the iPhone, and let you know what's happening on the site in the coming weeks.

Bonus points for recognizing any of the ephemera in the background, and, as usual, a direct download link so you can blow it up full screen and shoot suction darts at my scruffy mug.

Join the comments thread on this episode over at Offworld blog.]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/10/bbtv-offworld-update.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/10/bbtv-offworld-update.html Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:50:27 -0800 Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson writes:

The Philips Norelco Bodygroom ($50) is a shaver for men, specially tuned to the harmonic frequencies resonant with the hexagonal shafts of masculine hair for a shave that doesn't just cut your hair — it shatters it. (Or it's just a fancy double-edge electric clipper specifically marketed for men.)

Either way I tried one on various bits of my body, including, I discovered to my horror after I had already uploaded the video to the BBtv crew, what was to end up to be my exposed cock. Thankfully due to the magic of editing you can enjoy my aimless rambling without getting a flash of the juniors, which have been replaced with the soothing softness of a harmless kitten.

You can get an idea of how the Bodygroom works in the video, but here's a quick spoiler: I think the new Bodygroom is a pretty great, especially with the new attachments, although I don't know that it does a whole lot that you couldn't do with any other rechargeable clippers. Still, recommended.

Special thanks to fofurasfelinas for her very needed kitten pictures. And if you want a direct MP4 download, we have the technology.

Do let the fellas know what you think of this episode over in the Boing Boing Gadgets comments thread.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/09/post.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/09/post.html Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:37:16 -0800 In this week's Boing Boing update on BBtv (Here's a direct MP4 Link, 05:33 duration)...

♦ Remember that project we blogged about a few weeks ago -- Donate Your Used Digital Camera to LA's Skid Row Photo Club? Well, many of you did. The gadgets went to good use at the Skid Row Photo Club, and project participants join us today, live from the heart of Skid Row, to tell you why it mattered (and still does). They're still accepting used camera donations, and project founders Michael Blaze and Dave Bullock encourage likeminded nerds to start similar clubs in other cities.

♦ Clay Shirky is guestblogging on Boing Boing, and they've been terrific, debate-inspiring screeds.

♦ Mark is into all things "down home" of late -- including chickens. He shot a time-lapse video of his chickens frolicking around in the back yard, and we did what any responsible viral video producers would do. ADDED YAKETY SAX.

♦ Pesco found some awesome Claymation Splatterpunk movies from a guy in Japan named Takena. He's a genius. Enjoy the montage in today's ep.

IMAGES BELOW: Courtesy Skid Row Photo Club.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/08/update-used-cameras.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/08/update-used-cameras.html Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:28:26 -0800 If it's Friday, and, why, yes it is, it's time for a Unicorn Chaser on Boing Boing tv. Today: SPAMASTERPIECE THEATER bloopers, out-takes, and oblique lulz from the amazing John Hodgman, minor television personality and author of More Information Than You Require (Amazon link). Direct MP4 Link, if you prefer download.

Update: proof they are the REAL THING.

Previously:

• (BBtv) John Hodgman: More Information Than You Require. This is ...
• (BBtv) John Hodgman: More Information Than You Require. This is ...
• John Hodgman in BBtv's SPAMasterpiece Theater. - Boing Boing
• John Hodgman in BBtv's SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol II: "Wuthering ...
• John Hodgman in BBtv's SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol III: THE ...
• John Hodgman in BBtv's SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol IV: V1V4 M3X1CO ...

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/05/unicorn-chaser-john.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/05/unicorn-chaser-john.html Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:56:42 -0800 I hope you are sitting down when you hit "play." Joi Ito, the host of today's special Boing Boing tv episode from Tokyo, explains what you're about to witness:

This year, the Digital Garage New Context Conference and Ellen Levy's Silicon Valley Connect worked together on a program for visitors from Silicon Valley to Tokyo. Silicon Valley Connect is a program that Ellen runs which brings executives and visionaries from Silicon Valley to various parts of the world. This year, we organized a group to visit Japan.

As part of the "cultural program" we decided to take a tour of Akihabara, the mecca of all things otaku, anime and electronic in Japan. I asked a very special friend, Danny Choo, son of the famous shoe designer Jimmy Choo, to lead the tour. I call Danny "The Prince of Akihabara". He is one of the world's experts on Japan's otaku culture and has one of the most popular English language websites about Japan.

One of his favorite things is to dress up as a storm trooper and spread his love and happiness in Akihabara. He is often accompanied by his side-kick Darth Vader, played by Hector Garcia who also has a super-popular blog about Japan. (Danny on CNN talking about this hobby of his.)

When I talked to Xeni Jardin about this, we decided that this might make a good Boing Boing TV episode... and I think we were right.

Thanks to everyone who participated and helped.

Participants from Silicon Valley included Ellen Levy (LinkedIn), Ken Glidewell, Loic Le Meur (Seesmic), Geraldine Le Meur (Le Web), bunnie Huang (Chumby), Jean-Marie Hullot (Fotonauts), Matt Flannery (Kiva), Julie Hanna Farris (SocialText) and Chamath Palihapitiya (Facebook).

Update: Danny "Prince of Akihabara" Choo has blogged his thoughts about the stormtroopin' hijinx on dannychoo.com. He has a wonderful photo gallery from the tour here.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/04/stormtrooping-akihab.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/04/stormtrooping-akihab.html Thu, 04 Dec 2008 08:41:37 -0800 We interrupt our regularly scheduled weekly programming (Brandon from Offworld is taking the week off from Boing Boing tv duties) to bring you a short, sweet, retro-tastic little video from Bill Barminski, one of our favorite filmmakers and multimedia artists. This piece is a music video for his music side project, the SubAtomic Nixons. Direct MP4 download here (Duration:00:01:32). You can view previous BBtv episodes featuring his work right here.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/03/bill-barminski-video.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/03/bill-barminski-video.html Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:13:54 -0800 A career milestone for Joel Johnson on Boing Boing tv -- his very first shower scene. The naked gadget reviewer explains:

What hath videoblogging wrought? It is my honor and personal shame to present my video review of the Freestyle Audio Soundwave underwater MP3 player. Using the miracle of not showing you my junk, this is my first nude videoblog, but remains safe for work. Except for my dancing, which if everything goes to plan, will induce crippling nausea.

If you'd like a direct download — I'm looking at you, my furry fanbase — then here is a direct MP4 link.

Might I suggest you wander on over to the viewer comment thread on Boing Boing Gadgets blog, where the words "cheapish," "fap," and "natural urge to want to see the entire shot" have recently been typed? And don't worry, I swear the video is totally worksafe. Also, the ending is quite funny, so do stick around for that.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/02/boing-boing-gadgets-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/02/boing-boing-gadgets-1.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:08:44 -0800 Embedded above, and in glorious technicolor downloadable MP4 here: this week's Boing Boing update on Boing Boing tv.

---

♦ We begin with a video chat about O'Reilly Media cofounder DALE DOUGHERTY's guestblog post on why television networks, including CNN, seem to be struggling to cover "The Economic Panic." Why is the current "this great-or-not-so great depression" such a difficult story for TV? Dale believes part of the challenge is that it's big, slow-moving, and abstract. There are no videogenic focal points, no crash scenes or hurricanes for which to don yellow jumpers, no perp mugshots (well, okay, there was this, video here.). We're also in the middle of "a peculiar period inbetween an election and an inauguration," Dale says -- more from him in today's video review, and don't miss the comment thread on the post, either.

♦ Next, we speak with JULIE AMERO, the 41-year old Connecticut schoolteacher accused of showing porn to students on a classroom computer when a computer with malware displayed popup windows with sexual content.

Last week, she accepted a misdemeanor plea deal to avoid felony charges, despite proof she was innocent, and that her case was mishandled. The deal allows her to avoid a previously-imposed jail sentence, but means she has to surrender her teaching credentials. A forensic report showed Amero was not responsible for the infection of porn pop-up windows on the PC in question. There is also ample proof that the school district's IT manager, detectives and prosecutors misled the court.

Here's last week's post by Rob at Boing Boing Gadgets about the plea bargain reached in her case, and here are earlier Boing Boing posts by Mark, starting back in 2007: one, two, three, four, five. I'll be posting the full audio and transcript of our phone interview this week on boingboing.net.

♦ Also in today's BB Update: my co-blogger Cory has been posting some HOLIDAY GIFT ROUNDUPS (so far: DVDs and CDs, kids' stuff, fiction, gadgets, comics and nonfiction.)

♦ And finally in today's episode, eyewitness snapshots from the MUMBAI TERRORIST ATTACKS, shot by 27-year-old amateur photographer Vinu Ranganathan. He lives in the Colaba distict, near the attack sites. WIRED's Threat Level blog has an interview up with him. Snip: "For hours [on the day of the attacks], his graphic photos of the destruction wrought by the terrorists in the Colaba district on the photo-sharing site Flickr seemed to be the only relevant ones available online." Related Boing Boing posts: Mumbai Attacks: Day 1, Mumbai Attacks: Day 2.

---

Previous Boing Boing updates on BBtv:

* Boing Boing tv Update: Virgin WiFi, Obfuscated Code, Comment Poetry, Downfall Housing Remix
* Boing Boing tv Update: OFFWORLD, YES MEN, and THIS IS THE FIRST.]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/01/boing-boing-update-e.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/12/01/boing-boing-update-e.html Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:05:10 -0800

As is our newly minted tradition, Boing Boing tv ends the holiday week with a Unicorn Chaser.

In today's edition, Boing Boing Gadgets' Joel Johnson, who trekked out into the wilderness for this previous episode, returns there to perform the nerdcore anthem embedded above -- UHHHH. (MP4 Link).

Not a single one of these grunts was repeated. All were taped in the order they appear in this remix, the morning after Joel was nearly bitten by a snake, doing a gadget review out in the wilds.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/28/unicorn-chaser-joel.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/28/unicorn-chaser-joel.html Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:22:38 -0800
Today, the Boing Boing tv crew takes the day off for time with family, friends, and food. We revisit one of our favorite good-vibe animation episodes, a lovely video from Bill Barminski. Perhaps you missed it? Do watch now.

---

Butterflies, wah-wah pedals, and one-eyed yeti, ahoy! The Boing Boing tv crew is proud to return to the work of one of our favorite multi-media savants, Bill Barminski of Walter Robot Studios. The filmmaker, composer, illustrator and animator shares this new video work, a hypnotic flight of fancy for his music project, the Subatomic Nixons. Enjoy the "Hazy Day," and happy weekend, everyone. Special thanks to Barminski and Christopher Louie, and all of the Walter Robot team. Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring their work.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/27/happy-thanksgiving-f.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/27/happy-thanksgiving-f.html Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:20:51 -0800 Over at Offworld.com, Brandon "Shiny-Eyed Death Gnome" Boyer says,

While we here at Offworld gather exclusive content for future editions of Offworld's BBtv transmissions, our second update is a status report, telling the wider world what we've been getting up to over the past week (including the rapid growth of our Boing Boing Steam group, as we all gather for Left 4 Dead extended plays), and a quick rundown of the new things coming to the site in the following weeks.

As usual, here's the direct MP4 link, if you prefer a downloadable rather than the Flash.

VIDEO RUNTIME: 3:14.

Let Brandon know what you think of this week's video report from the slums of Azeroth here in the Offworld comments thread.

Previous BBtv/Offworld video updates: Offworld BBtv premiere: What's Offworld?

(Special Thanks to the PROJECT LORE düdes, namely SaintGermain. Big Orc-hugs, guys!)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/26/bbtv-offworld-status.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/26/bbtv-offworld-status.html Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:03:52 -0800 In this week's Boing Boing Gadgets review episode on Boing Boing tv, Joel Johnson reviews the T-Mobile Cameo Picture Frame, which displays digital photos but also sort of works like a phone. Joel's thumbs were neither decisively up nor down, but rather pensively wrapped around a bourbon tumbler. Link to Boing Boing Gadgets post with discussion thread.

Below, a slide show of images submitted by Boing Boing Gadgets readers to Joel, for use in preparing this video review of the Cameo Picture Frame.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/25/boing-boing-gadgets.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/25/boing-boing-gadgets.html Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:30:33 -0800
In this week's Boing Boing TV update:

* VIRGIN AMERICA LAUNCHES IN-FLIGHT WIRELESS: Our wireless tech reporter pal Glenn Fleishman was on the first Virgin America flight with airborne WiFi service. BBtv caught up with him over video chat from a Virgin America Airbus A320 aircraft (named "My Other Ride Is A Spaceship") 35,000 feet above San Francisco. Also joining us: Jack Blumenstein, the CEO of Aircell, the company providing the "GoGo" air/ground 3G connectivity. The bottom line: no content filtering on Virgin, so you can visit any blogs you like, and they will not block streaming content or video. But, voice over IP will be blocked because the general consensus among airlines and travelers in the US seems to be that nobody wants other people on the plane to be talking on the phone when you're all confined to close quarters. Disclaimer: we really like Virgin America, in part because they carry Boing Boing tv in their in-flight entertainment system.

* BB COMMENT THREAD POETRY CONTEST: Teresa Nielsen Hayden, aka She Who Disemvowels, announced a fun game/contest recently -- write some poetry inside the comment threads using "natively BoingBoing" themes. We can has a winner.

* OBFUSCATED CODE CONTEST: here's Joel's blog entry announcing the Safari Books / Boing Boing contest. The idea: write a string of "obfuscated code" that generates the words "Boing Boing." Here's the winner, and here's another example we thought was rad.

* DALE DOUGHERTY IS GUEST BLOGGING: He's been checking in from Banff, and I've particularly enjoyed his posts from there about snow, glaciers, and snowman newlyweds.

* DER UNTERGANG HOUSING BUBBLE REMIX: Mark spotted it last week, and lulz rang out throughout the land. One of many we dug.

---

Special thanks to Q Burns Abstract Message for the track that appears in today's ep, UNCERTAIN T, courtesy Eighth Dimension Records.

Below: a snapshot from that Virgin America WiFi flight. I spy Brian Lam of Gizmodo, and Glenn Fleishman, and a few other familar blogging faces!

UPDATE: Hey, what kind of sites exactly was Gizporno's Brian Lam websurfing on that plane? Zoom in a little... wait.. there we go. AHA. Below, the reveal.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/25/boing-boing-tv-updat-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/25/boing-boing-tv-updat-1.html Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:30:45 -0800 In Boing Boing tv's inaugural Friday Unicorn Chaser, we reprise our OFFWORLD debut episode with a special extended dance remix of editor Brandon "Dirty Dancing Death Dwarf" Boyer, funking out in Azeroth.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/21/unicorn-chaser-offwo.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/21/unicorn-chaser-offwo.html Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:04:06 -0800 In this special episode of Boing Boing tv, Xeni interviews Tibetan sovereignty activists Lhadon Tethong and Tenzin "Tendor" Dorjee from Students for a Free Tibet, over a Skype video chat. They're in Dharamsala, India, the home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government In Exile, and they're attending an historic week-long meeting taking place this week to determine the future of the Tibetan independence movement.

Snip from a New York Times story by Edward Wong about the "Special Meeting":

The conclave is the first of its kind since 1991. The Dalai Lama has called for hundreds of Tibetans to gather in the Himalayan town of Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, to help decide on a new strategy for Tibet.

In a statement released Monday, the government in exile sought to play down speculation that a significant shift in its approach to the issue of Tibetan independence might be near.

“A change in policy need not come from this meeting,” the statement said, according to Reuters. “If a change in basic policy is considered necessary, there is a way that is democratic and which has the mandate of the Tibetan people.”

Lhadon and Tendor are updating the SFT blog here, and they suggest that people interested in following the story check Phayul.com, and the High Peaks Pure Earth blog, with commentary from Tibetans inside Tibet and China. Here is a statement on the "Special Meeting" from the Dalai Lama, who is not personally attending. The Tibetan Government in Exile is producing video reports from the Special Meeting here. Tibetan poet Woeser has published her thoughts on the meeting here. (Special thanks to Laird Brown, and Phuntsok Dorjee)]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/20/tibetan-sovereignty.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/20/tibetan-sovereignty.html Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:34:10 -0800 Here's the debut episode of our regular video updates from OFFWORLD, Boing Boing's new gaming blog. Editor Brandon Boyer says:

After an oxygen fire knocked our interstellar video link temporarily out of commission, we bring you our Boing Boing TV premiere via Azeroth, where my spiritual Death Knight equal gives you a little background on where we're is coming from and where I hope to steer the ship. As usual, here's the direct MP4 link, if you prefer a downloadable rather than the Flash.

Offworld bonus fact: in real life, my eyes and sword glow a much more vivid shade of blue. That is indeed, though, almost exactly how I shake a tail feather.

Like this episode? Tell Brandon and the Offworld gang what you think over at offworld.com: the comments thread is here.

(SPECIAL THANKS to the Project Lore guys, who showed us around the 'hood -- namely, Charles Ottaway.)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/20/bbtv-welcome-offworl.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/20/bbtv-welcome-offworl.html Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:12:41 -0800
This week, Boing Boing tv is debuting regular product reviews produced with Joel and the crew, and we'll blog 'em here on Gadgets first. What better way to kick the series off than a lulz-filled analysis of the Lippi Selk Bag, a sleeping bag with arms and legs that makes our Joel look like a bespectacled Gumby? The funky-chunky "sleepwear system" ranges in price from $169 to $399. I imagine they'd really come in handy at one of those outdoor all-nighter raves, unless you get lucky -- interpersonal intra-bag intercourse might be logistically difficult in these.

---

Tell Joel what you think of his Gumby impersonation in the Boing Boing Gadgets comment thread for this video. And
here is a direct MP4 link, if you prefer a downloadable video to the Flash embed above.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/18/bbtv-selk-bag-boing.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/18/bbtv-selk-bag-boing.html Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:19:53 -0800 In this week's Boing Boing TV update, we discuss what's ahead with the launch of BOING BOING: OFFWORLD, and we speak with the YES MEN about their EPIC STUNT last week in which they printed and distributed lots and lots of copies of a New York Times fantasy-edition, with the headline IRAQ WAR ENDS. Mark blogged about this last week, with video.

We speak to three of the guys who made this event possible over a multi-channel iChat session that gets kind of melty sometimes. They are: STEVE LAMBERT FROM the ANTI ADVERTISING AGENCY, ANDY BICHLBAUM form the YES MEN, and SCOTT BEIBIN from THE LOST FILM FEST. Some of those names might be aliases, who knows, caveat lector.

They say they received a cease and desist over email from HSBC over a parody HSBC ad that appears in both the print and online editions of their Faux NYT, but oddly, the C&D (they showed us a copy) is addressed to the REAL New York Times. We have not yet been able to confirm the lawyergram's validity with HSBC, but the email headers suggest it's legit.

In this Boing Boing TV update, you will hear music from Q-Burns Abstract Message and Eighth Dimension Records, and you'll hear me talk about BBtv's new programming changes. (Special thanks to Eddie Codel, Sean Bonner, and Scott Beale, who covered the Yes Men item early on).

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/18/boing-boing-tv-updat.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/18/boing-boing-tv-updat.html Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:01:27 -0800

Today, we announce some changes over at Boing Boing tv -- the good kind. The show completed its first year of Boingsistence on October 2, 2008 (remember our very first day back in 2007?), and we've spent some time in recent weeks thinking through new things we'd like to explore, and how to stay nimble and consistently fresh during a time when many online video shows are, to be frank, having a rather hard time of things.

Here's what we're doing.

---

Each MONDAY, we'll post a brief update of goings-on around the mothership blog, hosted by me, including iChat Video or Skype interviews with folks we've blogged about recently. Kind of a fast news update, and a way for us to keep you in the loop on things that Cory, Mark, Pesco and I have posted here on Boing Boing that have taken on a life of their own. We're posting the first one of these momentarily (yeah, I know it's Tuesday, but we're kicking things off today.) UPDATE: Here's our first Boing Boing tv Weekly Update episode!

TUESDAY, expect a Boing Boing Gadgets item. We're producing a bunch of short electronics/tech stuff reviews from Joel Johnson, and we hope to include BB Gadgets co-editors John Brownlee and Rob Beschizza, soon, too.

WEDNESDAYS, we'll feature stuff from Brandon Boyer and crew at Boing Boing Offworld, the games blog we launched yesterday. Check out offworld.com for a hint of how this will feel: gaming seen through a wide lens that encompasses the art, culture, and human experience of gaming, not just a buying guide.

THURSDAYS, we'll continue to bring the engaging original programming that we love to produce, and you, our audience, seem to love just as much. We’ll keep bringing you reports from around the world; mini-documentaries about tech and culture topics with me, the other Boingers, and other brilliant people around the world (Kyle Glanville doing coffee treks in Brazil, Joi Ito galavanting around in Tokyo, Sean Bonner hunting monsters, Monochrom herding inebriated Vikings, John Behrens and the Omega Recoil Tesla Coil builders); and all the other brain exploding material we have yet to find!

FRIDAYS? The return of the Unicorn Chaser. This will surprise and delight you. It will be super awesome. You will thank us all weekend long.

---

So, that's the plan. And on behalf of my Boing Boing partners, a very special THANKS to everyone who made the first year of Boing Boing tv possible, including, but not limited to, and in no particular order...current crew members and alumni Derek Bledsoe, Rob Bergsma, Keith Carunida, Dana Devonshire, and Wesly Varghese; our jungle-dwelling consigliere and creative consultant Jolon Bankey; our production advisor Matt West of DECA; DECA co-founders Michael Wayne and Chris Kimbell, and the entire staff and management team of DECA, George Ruiz at ICM; our attorney Rob Rader of MSK; the good folks at Creative Commons and the EFF, to Sarah Milstein, and the teams at Castfire and Episodic, our sysadmin Ken Snider ("The Man in the Jeffries Tubes"), and the management and sales superheroes at Federated Media -- John Battelle, Chas Edwards, Bernie Albers, Jason Weisberger, Mugs Buckley, Neil Chase, Jennifer Tamez, James Navin, Josh Mattison, Jackie Mogol, Alison Marino, Jason Ratner, Mac Delaney, Lester Lee, Leona Laurie, Matt Jessell, Sacha Lien, Cindy Murphy, James Gross, Ivan Kanevski, Liam Boylan, Eric Amsden, and Jonathan Schrieber. A very special thanks to the many friends who've contributed talent to the show, including John Hodgman, the MAKE (event and magazine) folks, Johannes and the team at monochrom; Matt and Hiroko, Todd Lappin; Bill Barminski; Syd Garon; Russell Porter; Eddie Codel, Jason McHugh, Charis Tobias, Adam Koford, EBOY, Mister Jalopy, and many others. Thanks to the guys at Virgin America, Apple/iTunes, and YouTube, for help with distribution. And much gratitude to Boing Boing tv's past and present sponsors, including: Intel, Dell, Samsung, Verizon, Microsoft, Crowdfire, Toshiba, BMW, IBM, T Mobile, Amazon, Adobe, SanDisk, and JCPenney. [gasps for breath]. Also, God, and our moms. Thank you and good-boing.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/18/boing-boing-tv-were.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/18/boing-boing-tv-were.html Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:28:29 -0800

The organizers of the annual online video event NewTeeVee Live invited me to join them yesterday to talk about Boing Boing tv's first year on the air, on the intertubes. Here's a video of our "fireside chat," which was in fact, actually by a fire of sorts. Video is about 15 minutes long. NewTeeVee Live Star: Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin (GigaOm, and thanks, Om Malik, Liz Gannes, and Chris Albrecht)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/14/boing-boing-tv-and-x-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/14/boing-boing-tv-and-x-1.html Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:51:55 -0800 I'll be joining a number of other internet video creators and network folks at NewTeeVee Live, tomorrow in San Francisco. My session is 4pm, and we'll be talking about Boing Boing tv's first year, and some of the fun stuff we have planned. Tickets are still available if you'd like to attend, and the lineup is great -- lots of solid internetelevision. NewTeeVee kindly included Boing Boing tv in their NewTeeVee Top 10 Breakout Video Stars of 2008.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/12/boing-boing-tv-and-x.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/12/boing-boing-tv-and-x.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:29:52 -0800 Walter Robot, aka Bill Barminski and Christopher Louie, produced this video for Gnarls Barkley's new track "Mystery Man." Here are previous Boing Boing tv episodes featuring Barminski's work.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/11/gnarls-barkley-anima.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/11/gnarls-barkley-anima.html Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:58:34 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv we reprise our ongoing SPAMasterpiece Theater series featuring author, PC, and minor television personality John Hodgman. His new book, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE was released just a couple of weeks ago.

Hodgman himself describes this series as the dramatization of "true tale[s] of romance, adventure, infamy, and low-cost prescription drugs, all culled from the reams of actual, unsolicited emails, received here by us and people like you -- what we call SPAM."

Today's installment: V1V4 M3X1CO., in which we explore supply chain management solicitations with the help of luchadores, mariachis, beautiful black-n-white señoritas from the silver screen of our abuelitos, and GIANT NARCO-KITTEHS WITH UZIS.

A note from our musical director: The adaptation of Jean-Joseph Mouret's "Rondeau: Fanfare" (1735) which opens today's episode was remixed in flagrante 8-bit by Hamhocks Buttermilk Johnson.

Also: a special and hearty thanks to the talented and generous Ehrich Blackhound (previously boinged here) for creating our new, typographically-correct opening slates for this parody series.

Previous SPAMasterpiece Theater episodes on Boing Boing tv:

* SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol. I

* SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol. II

* SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol III

And more Hodgman on Boing Boing tv:

*
More Information Than You Require. This is not a book trailer, part 2.

* More Information Than You Require. This is not a book trailer.

* More Information Than You Require.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/04/john-hodgman-in-bbtv-3.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/11/04/john-hodgman-in-bbtv-3.html Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:09:59 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv we continue a series of transmissions from Tokyo by our monster-hunting comrade Sean Bonner, who vanished mysteriously while seeking a legendary shrine devoted to the Kappa, a water-dwelling, ninja-turtle-like, child-sized creature who is fond of cucumbers and human colon meat, which it may access by grabbing up your butt.

In yesterday's installment, Sean hooked up with Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda, authors of the previosly-boinged book Yokai Attack: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide, and the quest began. But the team vanished mysteriously, and we haven't been able to reach Sean for a week.

Today, he reappears, with proof that he has touched the mummified hand of the cucumber-loving amphibious prankster. He also brings us irrefutable proof that some of Japan's greatest manga artists found a source of inspiration in Kappa art. Also on the streets of Tokyo, just outside the shrine, BBtv's yokai squad discovered MONSTER KITTEH.

Here are some photos from Sean.

Previously: Hunting for the Kappa Monster in Tokyo, part 1

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/31/hunting-for-the-kapp-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/31/hunting-for-the-kapp-1.html Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:15:17 -0800 Oh, man, this is weird. How do we explain this? So, the Boing Boing tv team planned a series of episodes about Japanese monsters for Halloween, and for this purpose, we sent Sean Bonner to Tokyo, armed with a video camera. The plan was: meet up with Matt Alt and Hiroko Yoda, authors of the previously-boinged book Yokai Attack: The Japanese Monster Survival Guide, and hunt down the truth about mythical monstrous creatures from Japanese folklore.

We'd planned to start our Japanese monster series with a hunt for the Kappa, a water-dwelling, ninja-turtle-like, child-sized creature who is fond of cucumbers and human colon meat (I'm not making this up). Legend says the Kappa will reach into your butt to eat your colon, which is grosstastically awesome.

Anyway -- Sean made it to Tokyo, and shot evidence of the Kappa on Japan's urban streets (signs, blow-up Kappa dolls, stickers). But then, suddenly, the raw footage he was FTPing to us nightly just STOPPED. Bam. Just like that. And with it, all evidence we had of Sean's whereabouts and well-being.

Today's BBtv episode is part one of what we hope will be a two-part series on Kappa Hunting in Tokyo. IF HE SURVIVED. Sean, I hope you were armed with cucumbers, because the alternative is too horrible to imagine.

Previously on Boing Boing:

Japanese monsters, and how to survive their wrath: YOKAI ATTACK

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/30/hunting-for-the-kapp.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/30/hunting-for-the-kapp.html Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:55:57 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, we reprise our ongoing SPAMasterpiece Theater series, featuring author, PC, and minor television personality John Hodgman, whose new book, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE, has just been released.

Hodgman himself describes this series as the dramatization of "true tale[s] of romance, adventure, infamy, and low-cost prescription drugs, all culled from the reams of actual, unsolicited emails, received here by us and people like you -- what we call SPAM."

Today's installment: The Stomatologist, in which we answer a lovelorn Russian woman's age-old question, "Why I cannot find my special the man?"

A note from our musical director: The adaptation of Jean-Joseph Mouret's "Rondeau: Fanfare" (1735) which opens today's episode was remixed in flagrante 8-bit by Hamhocks Buttermilk Johnson.

Also: a special and hearty thanks to the talented and generous Ehrich Blackhound (previously boinged here) for creating our new, typographically-correct opening slates for this parody series.

Previously on Boing Boing tv:

* SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol. I

* SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol. II

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/28/john-hodgman-in-bbtv-2.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/28/john-hodgman-in-bbtv-2.html Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:37:31 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, a music video about life and death in the New Depression: Mom and Pop Killer, by Bay Area "intelligent hip-hop" artist The Grouch. (Special thanks to director Isaac Klotz.)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/23/a-song-for-the-new-d.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/23/a-song-for-the-new-d.html Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:19:39 -0800 Author, minor television personality, and Boing Boing guestblogger John Hodgman returns to BBtv for more heretofore unrevealed spoilers from his large new book of fake knowledge, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE.

In today's episode, we answer questions posed by Boing Boing tv fans via The Twitter, including one from Annalee Newitz of i09 blog which pertains to the subject of nude self-portraits. You really should watch this episode all the way to the end.

Here are previous Boing Boing tv episodes featuring Mr. Hodgman.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/21/bbtv-john-hodgman-mo.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/21/bbtv-john-hodgman-mo.html Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:10:47 -0800 Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter speaks with Ben Lamdin, founder of the nine-piece, alt-jazz ensemble Nostalgia 77 Octet (MySpace). Here's how one reviewer described their music:

Imagine Breakstra hanging with Cinematic Orchestra, or DJ Shadow teaming up with Elvin Jones and you're close to the sound of Nostalgia 77. A dark and stormy clash of breaks n' beats, moody bass lines, and cosmic jazz. Also includes the heavyweight cover of The White Stripes' "7 Nation Army". Hard to resist whether you're a hip-hop head, music lover, or jazz freak. For fans of Bonobo, Quantic, Cinematic Orchestra, Radio Citizen, Portishead, Polar Bear, Poets Of Rhythm, and Sleepwalker.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/20/nostalgia-77-octets.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/20/nostalgia-77-octets.html Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:16:46 -0800 Butterflies, wah-wah pedals, and one-eyed yeti, ahoy! The Boing Boing tv crew is proud to return to the work of one of our favorite multi-media savants, Bill Barminski of Walter Robot Studios. The filmmaker, composer, illustrator and animator shares this new video work, a hypnotic flight of fancy for his music project, the Subatomic Nixons. Enjoy the "Hazy Day," and happy weekend, everyone. Special thanks to Barminski and Christopher Louie, and all of the Walter Robot team. Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring their work.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/17/hazy-day-subatomic-n.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/17/hazy-day-subatomic-n.html Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:47:49 -0800

Café Tacvba (MySpace, Wikipedia) are one of the most, if not the most, imaginative and recklessly experimental indie rock bands ever to come out of Latin America. They formed in near Mexico City in the late '80s, and have been happily mutating ever since. I'm always kind of surprised when non-Spanish-speaking American friends don't know who they are -- they're sort of like the Radiohead of Mexico. Anyway, Boing Boing tv caught up with the tacubos backstage after their set at the Outside Lands festival, and our UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter asked them important questions about their excellent shoes, and why lots of ladies run screaming to stage-rush them during shows (Answer: because they're awesome).

---

Sponsor Note: This episode, and other BBtv music features this month, are sponsored by the Crowdfire live music social media project. You can find images, video, and audio about the band featured in today's show at Crowdfire -- here's the search link for fan-uploads related to Café Tacvba.

Related Boing Boing tv episodes from Outside Lands:

* Roots Reggae Legends Toots and the Maytals (music)


* Broken Social Scene: interview and live performance (music)

* Galactic's "Modern New Orleans Funk" with Xeni and Russell (music)
* Interview with Cold War Kids frontman Nathan Willett (music)

* Andy Gould, rock band manager, dances on the labels' graves.

* Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music)

* Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni (music)

* BB Gadgets' Joel at Outside Lands: Crowdfire deconstructed

* Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." (music)

* Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music)

* Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter)

(Special thanks to Wayneco for the magic bus, and to Virgin America for air travel.)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/15/boing-boing-tv-cafe.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/15/boing-boing-tv-cafe.html Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:33:14 -0800
John Hodgman's new book MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE hits the streets on October 21, but by no means is today's episode of Boing Boing tv any sort of, oh, how do the marketing people say it -- it's not a book trailer, and it is by no means a promotional vehicle for said book.

No, we just noticed the star of Apple ads and Daily Show hijinks wandering aimlessly in the streets outside the BBtv studio this week. We invited him in for scotch and cocoa, and shared questions posed to him by BBtv viewers through the popular internet messaging website known as "The Twitter."

We don't know how all those books managed to stack themselves from studio floor to ceiling. We are not holding those books in front of our faces in the first 10 seconds of this episode so that you might see the cover -- we're doing low-impact pilates.

HEY LOOK, IT'S A CONTEST: If you would like to receive a Hodgmanically autographed copy of the book for which this episode is not a promotional trailer, reply to @xenijardin on The Twitter with the answer to this question:

What area of expertise does Hodgman credit Boing Boing tv for on page 592 of this excellent book?"

We will select a winner randomly. Friends, spouses, love-slaves, and business partners of Boing Boing and Boing Boing tv are not eligible. (Serious face: this episode isn't an ad, we're just ridiculously hardcore fans of Hodgman. Watch our trufan-trailer here, then, seriously, go buy the book).

Previously on Boing Boing tv:

* John Hodgman in BBtv's SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol II: "Wuthering Wire Transfers."
* John Hodgman in BBtv's SPAMasterpiece Theater.

* John Hodgman: More Information Than You Require.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/14/john-hodgman-more-in-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/14/john-hodgman-more-in-1.html Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:21:53 -0800 In today's episode of Boing Boing tv, our UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter interviews Adele, who describes her sound as "heartbroken soul." Adele's new album "19" was nominated for a Mercury Prize (think: Grammys, sort of, for the UK), and Russell caught up with her at the awards show backstage. Adele will be the musical guest on the October 18 edition of Saturday Night Live! The video for her song "Chasing Pavement" excerpted in today's BBtv was directed by Matthew Cullen.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/13/adeles-heartbroken-s.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/13/adeles-heartbroken-s.html Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:22:16 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, we continue our SPAMasterpiece Theater series, featuring author, PC, and minor television personality John Hodgman, whose new book, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE launches next week.

Hodgman himself describes this series as the dramatization of "true tale[s] of romance, adventure, infamy, and low-cost prescription drugs, all culled from the reams of actual, unsolicited emails, received here by us and people like you -- what we call SPAM."

Today's installment: Barrister Abbey and Diana Khan in "Wuthering Wire Transfers," a tempting tale of financial transactions and naked lust that requires your soonest response.

A note from our musical director: The adaptation of Jean-Joseph Mouret's "Rondeau: Fanfare" (1735) which opens today's episode was remixed in flagrante 8-bit by Hamhocks Buttermilk Johnson.

* Previously on Boing Boing tv: SPAMasterpiece Theater, Vol. I]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/10/john-hodgman-in-bbtv-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/10/john-hodgman-in-bbtv-1.html Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:34:20 -0800 Today's Boing Boing tv is an installment of our ongoing BBtv WORLD series, in which we bring you first-person glimpses of life around the globe.

From the 17th to 19th centuries, millions of African people were sold
 into slavery, transported on ships 
to the Americas. With them came spiritual traditions 
including Voudun, which we now 
know as “voodoo.”
 Its roots are in the Dahomey kingdom 
on the West Coast of Africa, now the country of Benin.


In today’s episode, I 
travel to Benin’s port city of Ouidah,
 one of the most important slave trade ports, 
and a center of the Vodoun religion.

We visit the Temple of Pythons and learn about Voudun religious practices, and witness some of the most important sites in the history of the slave trade.

We walk along a beach that was the single most highly-trafficked embarkation point for West African slaves headed over the Atlantic to the Americas. One million people were forced on to ships here, many transported to Haiti and Brazil, where Voudun transmuted into voodoo and Candomblé.

Outsiders called this region the Slave Coast. Ouidah's residents today call the former boarding platform on this otherwise idyllic beach the Gate of No Return. -- XJ

(Photos: Xeni Jardin, CC license)]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/09/bbtv-world-roots-of.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/09/bbtv-world-roots-of.html Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:24:56 -0800 Boing Boing tv's global coffee correspondent Kyle Glanville is looking for the perfect bean, and you're invited along for the ride. You may recall his earlier appearances on the show when the 2008 US World Barista Champion introduced us to coffee roasting and espresso brewing at Intelligentsia.

Today, we debut a series of episode featuring Kyle on a world coffee tour, and we join him as he visits plantations to learn about the growing, harvesting, and processing techniques of Intelligentsia suppliers around the globe.

In this first episode, Kyle visits the Fazenda Conquista plantation in Minas Gerais, Brazil where Ipanema Coffees grows, dries, and roasts their goods, with lots of weird gadgets and machines you probably haven't seen before -- some low-tech, some high-tech, but all really cool to watch. This plantation is one of the largest in Brazil, with 12 million coffee plants spread out over about 25 square miles of varying terrain.

One of the most fun things about producing BBtv is working with people like Kyle, who share their expertise and life experiences with us in video through their own eyes. I learned so much watching this first installment with the BBtv team -- I especially loved the giant machines that look like AT-AT walkers, lumbering through the neatly trimmed rows of coffee plants. Also, for someone who drinks as much espresso as I do -- how did I never know that coffee beans are surrounded by an edible, sweet fruit, that when dried intact with the bean, make the flavor richer?

Oh, and you have to check out the aerial tour of the plantation, which you can do in Google Maps or Google Earth: Link to Fazenda Conquista / Ipanema Coffees .kmz.

Get ready for more of these java adventures with Kyle -- we're working on more, as he wanders the planet, looking for the perfect bean.

Previous BBtv episodes featuring Kyle Glanville's Coffee explorations:

* A Morning at Intelligentsia Coffee Part 2
* A Morning at Intelligentsia Part 1

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/08/looking-for-the-perf.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/08/looking-for-the-perf.html Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:48:09 -0800 Toots and the Maytals are true reggae legends (more: Wikipedia, MySpace). Founder Toots Hibbert is credited with coining the word "reggae" in the band's 1968 single, "Do the Raggay." They've had more number one hit songs in Jamaica than any recording artist ever, and received a Grammy for Best Reggae Album of the Year in 2005.

He was a contemporary of Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff, and was featured in Perry Henzell's seminal 1973 reggae movie "The Harder They Come" (Amazon link).

I joined BBtv's London-based music correspondent Russell Porter for a visit on the venerable Mister Toots' tour bus after an amazing set at Outside Lands, and we sat down with him for a conversation about the history of reggae, and what Toots thinks about contemporary hip-hop and dancehall -- and where his legacy leads. The generous vanity intro he did for BBtv is a thing of beauty, we can all die happy now.

---

Sponsor Note: This episode, and other BBtv music features this month, are sponsored by the Crowdfire live music social media project. You can find images, video, and audio about the band featured in today's show at Crowdfire -- here's the search link for fan-uploads related to Toots and the Maytals.

Related Boing Boing tv episodes from Outside Lands:

* Broken Social Scene: interview and live performance (music)

* Galactic's "Modern New Orleans Funk" with Xeni and Russell (music)
* Interview with Cold War Kids frontman Nathan Willett (music)

* Andy Gould, rock band manager, dances on the labels' graves.

* Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music)

* Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni (music)

* BB Gadgets' Joel at Outside Lands: Crowdfire deconstructed

* Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." (music)

* Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music)

* Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter)

(Special thanks to Wayneco for the magic bus, to Michael Cacia, and to Virgin America for air travel.)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/07/roots-reggae-legends.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/07/roots-reggae-legends.html Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:08:19 -0800 When Led Zeppelin founder Robert Plant teamed up with Nashville mama Allison Krauss, critics compared the musical collaboration to a hookup between King Kong and Bambi. But their album "Raising Sand," produced by T-Bone Burnett, earned the odd duo widespread raves.

Boing Boing tv's London music correspondent Russell Porter caught up with Plant and Krauss backstage at the Mercury Prize, an annual award for the best album from the UK or Ireland.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/06/robert-plant-and-all.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/06/robert-plant-and-all.html Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:23:14 -0800

Boing Boing tv is wrapping up the work week with a music feature on Broken Social Scene, a Canadian indie rock music collective with about 20 members. Like a giant litter of hipster kittens! Together, they create a sound best described as Baroque Pop. Each musician contributes their own unique style into an fusion of rhythm and ambience.

They’ve won two Juno Awards (sort of like Canada’s Grammys) for Alternative Album of the Year. BBtv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter caught up with Brendan Canning, one of the band’s founding members, at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco.

Note: this episode, and other BBtv music features this month, are sponsored by the Crowdfire live music social media project. You can find images, video, and audio about the band featured in today's show at Crowdfire -- here's the search link for fan-uploads related to Broken Social Scene.

Related Boing Boing tv episodes from Outside Lands:

* Galactic's "Modern New Orleans Funk" with Xeni and Russell (music)

*
Interview with Cold War Kids frontman Nathan Willett (music)


* Andy Gould, rock band manager, dances on the labels' graves.

* Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music)

* Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni (music)

* BB Gadgets' Joel at Outside Lands: Crowdfire deconstructed

* Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." (music)

* Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music)

* Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/03/broken-social-scene.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/03/broken-social-scene.html Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:26:41 -0800 Today's Boing Boing tv is an installment of our ongoing BBtv WORLD series, in which we bring you first-person glimpses of life around the globe. Today: an ambient exploration of the creatures rustling around in a West African wildlife preserve at dawn.

I traveled to Benin not long ago, and I shot this video on a small handheld digital camcorder. This episode of our daily show is a little experiment in trying to convey what this place feels like, first-person, without too many words.

The Pendjari Biosphere lies in Benin's remote rural northwest, along the border of Burkina Faso. Despite poaching and environmental damage, it's still home to a diverse number of species -- elephants, lions, monkeys, cheetah, and around 300 species of birds. We traveled here during the dry season, when animal spotting is easiest. Here is what we saw at dawn (the time of day when critters all come out to the watering holes and rivers).

Poaching is still a big problem in this area, and organized trophy hunting for foreign tourists is still legal and in demand here (mostly visitors from France; Benin is a former French colony and French is the official language). Lion hunts are a lucrative trade in this extremely poor region, where most people are subsistence farmers.

But eco-tourism and less-invasive safari experiences are becoming more important to the local economy here, and offer a more sustainable future.

Note: don't miss the epic baboon ball-grab at 0:35, and the mama elephant ripping tree branches off and getting ready to kill us around 1:50. We were too close to her kids, and we were having a hard time leaving quickly. Do not taunt happy-fun elephant.

Related BBtv WORLD episode:

BBtv World: Green tech and internet at the Songhai Center in Benin (Africa)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/02/bbtv-world-elephantb.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/02/bbtv-world-elephantb.html Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:22:26 -0800 BBtv is launching a series of episodes featuring author, PC, and minor television personality John Hodgman, as the world waits breathlessly for the launch of his new book, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE . We have read it, dear viewer, and it is splendid.

Today, the debut installment of Boing Boing tv's SPAMASTERPIECE THEATER, which Hodgman himself describes as the dramatization of "true tale[s] of romance, adventure, infamy, and low-cost prescription drugs, all culled from the reams of actual, unsolicited emails, received here by us and people like you -- what we call SPAM."

We'll be releasing more of these in the coming weeks. Each one is composed exclusively of actual, unadulterated, unsolicited email. Like virtual raw foodists, we would not think of cooking perfect fruit that falls so gracefully from the internet's tree of life.

We hope you enjoy. { fade to black, fade in Hodgman in the library chair, surrounded by spam ephemera}

A note from our musical director: The adaptation of Jean-Joseph Mouret's "Rondeau: Fanfare" (1735) which opens today's episode was remixed in flagrante 8-bit by Hamhocks Buttermilk Johnson.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/01/john-hodgman-in-bbtv.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/10/01/john-hodgman-in-bbtv.html Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:40:07 -0800 New Orleans is a lot of things to a lot of people, but to the guys in the band Galactic, it's the motherland of funk. In today's Boing Boing tv episode, Xeni and Russell catch Galactic's Crescent City Soul Crewe live at the Outside Lands festival, and speak to them about the band's homage to this birthplace of jazz and its ancestral influence on many other forms of modern music. The band's newest release, From the Corner to the Block, is potent stuff, and pulling in rave reviews all over.

( Sponsor note: Crowdfire is sponsoring this series of music features on BBtv, and you can find crowdsourced snapshots, audio, and video about this band at crowdfire.net. )

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/30/galactics-modern-new.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/30/galactics-modern-new.html Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:47:56 -0800 We're kicking off the week at Boing Boing tv with a visit from our London-based music correspondent Russell Porter, who sits down with Rachel Unthank & The Winterset, a experimental folk-roots ensemble from Northumberland, UK.

Rachel and Becky Unthank are sisters, and Russell caught up with them at this year's Nationwide Mercury Prize, where they are up for high honors.

In his "best albums of 2007" review, Paul Morley of Observer Music Magazine described the band's work as "tough as it is gentle, as ancient as it is modern, and as coldly desolate as it is achingly intimate. They might not end up being the best-selling British all-girl group of all time, but they're well on their way to being the most charismatic and imaginative."

The girls are currently on tour throughout the United States and Europe. Their 2007 album The Bairns is lovely, and you can pick it up at Amazon, iTunes, and elsewhere around the web.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/29/russell-porter-with-15.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/29/russell-porter-with-15.html Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:33:47 -0800 In today's episode of Boing Boing tv, we float around in zero gravity. With me on this Zero-G weightless flight are Intel Chairman Craig Barrett; my friend Sean Bonner from metblogs; and a bunch of science teachers from grade schools and high schools throughout the United States who were on board to conduct microgravity experiments for the kids back home. As you watch, keep an eye out for the floating lego robot, a flying pig, and the barfing guy who is totally barfing for reals -- the rest of us did not, btw, I don't get sick in space.

What you see in this episode is what it feels like, guys, and it feels awesome. -- Xeni Jardin. (Special thanks to Peter Diamandis, and George and Loretta Whitesides)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/26/floating-in-zero-gra.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/26/floating-in-zero-gra.html Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:39:21 -0800 Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter catches up with Cold War Kids frontman Nathan Willett for a brief chat about the band's new record, Loyalty to Loyalty, just as Willett and the band finish a set at San Francisco's Outside Lands fest.

(special thanks to Virgin America for air travel, and to Wayneco for the magic bus)

Related Boing Boing tv episodes from Outside Lands:


* Andy Gould, rock band manager, dances on the labels' graves.

* Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music)

* Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni (music)

* BB Gadgets' Joel at Outside Lands: Crowdfire deconstructed

* Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." (music)

* Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music)

* Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/25/interview-with-cold.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/25/interview-with-cold.html Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:13:55 -0800 In this installment of Boing Boing tv's ongoing BBtv WORLD series, I travel to the West African nation of Benin to visit the Songhaï Center, a green tech project designed to develop a new generation of "agricultural entrepreneurs," and foster economic sustainability.

Benin is nestled between Ghana, Togo, and Nigeria along the continent's midwest coast -- this shore was historically known as the "Slave Coast," and Benin was a major center in export of slave labor to the Americas. Today, Benin's people are struggling with a cultural shift from a traditional, mostly agrarian society, to a more urban, industrialized economy -- and the largely impoverished country depends on foreign aid.

The Songhaï Center was founded in the mid-'80s by Father Godfrey Nzamujo, a Dominican priest and Nigerian native, on a few acres of swampland granted by Benin's former president. What began as an experiment in small-scale sustainable development to fight poverty has since become a popular institution, and a symbol of Africa's potential for self-determination and prosperity.

Aid creates dependence, but small businesses foster independence, the group's logic goes -- and unlike other anti-poverty projects, this one exports more than it imports: specialty food and beverage products produced here (cashew butter, cookies, fruit beverages) are sold and shipped to France and elsewhere around the world.

In this episode, we walk through the main Songhaï Center in Porto Novo, a coastal town near the Nigerian border, and we witness a variety of projects in action -- "integrated farming, biomass gasification, microenterprise and IT for rural communities." Here, agricultural and technical pursuits merge in uniquely African ways.

We see women hulling cashew nuts; mango soda whooshing into bottles in a soda bottling factory; barnyard critters (including the furry and tasty bush critters known as "sugar cane rats"); people sifting maize flour and baking fresh bread for sale; workers harvesting manioc, papayas, and giant mushrooms; and buzzing activity in the adjacent internet "telecentre."

Each of those parts interlock to form a massive, carefully-engineered, green tech puzzle: scrap metal is welded into parts that would cost too much to buy from overseas. Insects grown on scraps from the restaurant feed fish cultivated in the aquaculture area; water hyacinths at the edge of those pools help filter "black water" in the sewage system; solar panels power the internet cafe; coconut husks discarded in food production serve as a base on which to cultivate giant mushrooms. One area's waste becomes another component's fuel input, and the resulting products cost less than they would through contemporary, Western means.

There are 6 Songhaï Centers throughout Benin, and plans for opening more tech/agriculture hubs in Nigeria, Gabon, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. They offer voice over internet and wifi at current sites in Benin, and plan to expand into rural telephone and ISP services, as the project grows.

-- Xeni Jardin

(Xeni shot the video footage, and the stills in this blog post; special thanks to Leonce Sessou, the center's head of technology.)]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/24/bbtv-world-green-tec.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/24/bbtv-world-green-tec.html Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:24:17 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, our UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter sits down with legendary rock band manager Andy Gould for a chat about crazy, historic rocknroll hijinks he's witnessed in his decades in the biz. We caught up with Gould at the Outside Lands Music and Arts festival, near the Crowdfire tent.

Gould is presently the manager for Primus, Morrissey, and other acts; past and present clients include Linkin Park, Lionel Ritchie, Rob Zombie, Pantera, Kool and the Gang, Damien Marley. Together with Irving Azoff, he manages Guns and Roses. He explains that he was there during the early days of "fur coat and cricket bat," band managers, tough guys who "walked around with suitcases full of hundreds of thousands of dollars when the band walked offstage."

"What's really really great now is that the record companies have gone out of business," he says -- why would a music manager be dancing on the labels' graves? And how is a pilfered pre-release MP3 like a box of Chicken McNuggets? Watch and learn, grasshoppers.

If you dig this, check out our previous BBtv episodes from Outside Lands. And there's tons of fan-made footage and photos of Primus on Crowdfire.net (they're a BBtv sponsor).

(special thanks to Jason McHugh; to Virgin America for air travel, and to Wayneco for the magic bus)

Related Boing Boing tv episodes from Outside Lands:

* Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music)

* Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni (music)

* BB Gadgets' Joel at Outside Lands: Crowdfire deconstructed

* Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." (music)

* Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music)

* Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/23/andy-gould-rock-band.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/23/andy-gould-rock-band.html Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:00:30 -0800 BBtv's UK music correspondent Russell Porter interviews British modern "post-jazz" group Portico Quartet about the eclectic influences behind their sound -- and how it felt to be nominated for this year's Mercury Prize. Here are previous BBtv episodes with music features from Russell. Listen to Portico Quartet at Last.fm, and you can pick up their new album Knee Deep in the North Sea (just released a few weeks ago!) on iTunes or Amazon.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/22/russell-porter-with-14.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/22/russell-porter-with-14.html Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:15:05 -0800 Update: Complete and unedited transcript of our interview here.

In today's episode of Boing Boing tv: One year ago, a 19-year-old MIT engineering student named Star Simpson got dressed to go pick up a friend at Boston's Logan airport. She pulled a hoodie out of her closet, a wearable tech design she'd made with a light-up LED-circuit on the chest. In her hand was a small pink rose she'd crafted from hardened clay, a gift for her friend.

A few hours later at the airport, after an airport employee mistook her sweatshirt for a bomb and the rose for an explosive implement, Star found herself surrounded by 40 armed police who believed she was a suicide bomber. She was arrested for "possessing a hoax device," and an unprecedented media frenzy ensued. Here was the Boing Boing post from that day.

A year later, after a long series of court dates, a Boston judge ruled that Star must perform community service and make a public apology. Star says she intended no harm. She believes the authorities were unfairly harsh with her long after it was obvious she posed no threat, and that legal proceedings were unduly influenced by a prevailing atmosphere of anxiety over terrorism (this just months after a similar case in Boston).

She has since dropped out of MIT, and says the school's reaction felt like "being disowned." She moved out of Boston in part because of recurring threats and attacks from strangers.

Star has finally come forward to tell her side of the story publicly, and she does so on Boing Boing tv today.

If you'd like to make your very own LED breadboard hoodie, the folks at Instructables have just published Star's plans here. They're too graceful to say this, but I will: do not wear this to airports. Make a Breadboard Sweatshirt (Instant Wearable Electronics!)

MAKE will soon be publishing a related article.

Previous Boing Boing tv episodes :

* Star Simpson's fuzzy logic, MacGyver, MIT lasers, and trippy glasses: Maker Faire with Phil Torrone

Related Boing Boing blog posts:


* MIT student arrested for entering Boston airport with "fake bomb"

* Improvising electronic devices is not a crime


* OK Go's LED Jackets

* ATHF LEDs all over Boston today

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/19/star-simpson-once-mi.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/19/star-simpson-once-mi.html Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:03:21 -0800
Boing Boing tv caught up with Les Claypool and Larry "Ler" Lalonde of Primus at Outside Lands for a hyperdelic, transdimensional conversation about inflatables, Maker Faire, South Park, weird home-made electronic instruments, and more.

Les also made his film directing debut this year with Electric Apricot, a faux-cumentary feature about a fictional jam band in search of the ultimate music festival.

If you dig this, check out our previous BBtv episodes from Outside Lands. And there's tons of fan-made footage and photos of Primus on Crowdfire.net (they're a BBtv sponsor).

(special thanks to Jason McHugh; to Virgin America for air travel, and to Wayneco for the magic bus)

Related Boing Boing tv episodes:

* Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni (music)

* BB Gadgets' Joel at Outside Lands: Crowdfire deconstructed

* Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." (music)

* Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music)

* Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/18/primus-xeni-intervie.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/18/primus-xeni-intervie.html Thu, 18 Sep 2008 09:33:22 -0800 One of the artists Boing Boing was excited to "discover" at the recent Outside Lands festival had in fact already "discovered" us. Today on Boing Boing tv, we present singer-songwriter Kaki King.

Pesco says the prolific multi-instrumentalist "plays like a mofo," and boy is he right. The BBtv crew and I caught her live performance at the festival, and chased her down for an interview backstage (literally: our legs were sort of hanging off the side of the platform while guys hauled drums and amps off). We learned that (1) she's a fan of the Boing Boing blog! and (2) she hates comment trolls. Boy do we love her.

Kaki has a new record out, "Dreaming of Revenge," and she's touring the world as I type, with show dates in Europe and the US through 2008.

Rolling Stone named her one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time,” describing her style as "Van Halen Meets Bootsy." You'll witness why in today's BBtv episode.

We talk with her about life on the road, how IM and social networking help keep her from getting homesick while touring, and how she managed to go from busking in NYC subways to jamming with the likes of the Foo Fighters and hypnotizing crowds of tens of thousands with her rich, distinctive sound.

Speaking of Outside Lands -- you can find lots of crowd-submitted video, audio, reviews, and cameraphone snapshots of Kaki's performance at Crowdfire.net (the project is a BBtv sponsor).

Related Boing Boing tv episodes:

* Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music)

* BB Gadgets' Joel at Outside Lands: Crowdfire deconstructed

* Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." (music)

* Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music)

* Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter)

(Special thanks to Bre and Wayne for the bus; to Virgin America for generously providing air transportation)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/17/kaki-king-guitar-her.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/17/kaki-king-guitar-her.html Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:28:55 -0800 Today is animation day on Boing Boing tv, and we're super proud to present a new work from one of our favorite young animator/directors -- Kristofer Ström of Ljudbilden & Piloten, based in Sweden. Here's their blog, and this has to be the most lovely Facebook graffitti ever.

This short work is a music video he created for the Swedish electronica band Minilogue. The track is "Animals," and the video features colorful critter-blobs wreaking hyperfun havoc all over an urban real-life-scape.

We asked Kristofer to tell us a little about how this came together, and he explains:

In late 2007 we (me and the band Minilogue) started talking about making a followup to the very popular "hitchhiker's choice" video. At the same time I was doing some VJ-ing for them and found that those little animations i made for that could be characters in their next video. So I started producing a lot of loops of creatures. I hooked up with bart yates, nicholas wakeham and erik buchholtz, and our first thought was to put them all in an animated world... but i didn't really feel it. Then Erik showed me a test of my characters motion-tracked onto some footage -- and there it was. So he went out shooting some spots, rough cuts without the creatures, then we added those little fellas in the footage. Voilá! A longer version will be found on the minilogue DVD, coming this fall, finally! The longer version of "hitchhiker's choice" will be on there too. Some other stuff can be found on our temporary web site: http://varelsen.com.

Link to Minilogue's YouTube features. (Special thanks to Claire Jones, and to Cocoon.)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/16/animals-an-animated.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/16/animals-an-animated.html Tue, 16 Sep 2008 07:36:42 -0800

"Britain is overflowing with new ideas and imagination, especially when it comes to music," says our UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter in today's BBtv episode. Russell is reporting in from the 2008 edition of the Nationwide Mercury Prize, where up-and-coming artists get a chance at instastardom, alongside established headliners like Radiohead or Coldplay. After a brief introduction to the history of this prize (about 3:00 minutes in), Russell introduces us today to the alt-folksy sounds of 19-year-old British singer-songwriter Laura Marling.

Below, a beautiful animated video for the song she performs live during our BBtv ep -- "Ghosts," directed by James Copeman. The song appears on Marling's newly released "Alas I Cannot Swim." Her album is offered in a really cool box set with original artwork.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/15/russell-porter-with-13.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/15/russell-porter-with-13.html Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:36:19 -0800 Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson checks out Crowdfire, a sort of real-life social media experiment at the Outside Lands Music fest. The experiment allows concertgoers to upload, share, remix, and "favorite" photos, audio and video they shot themselves... during the event. Some of that media was projected on the stage where bands played, and all of it was made available online.

Crowdfire (with Windows) is Boing Boing tv's sponsor this month, and the project was the brainchild of BB partner and FM founder/CEO John Battelle and Rick Farman, the festival developer who created Outside Lands.

Crowdfire is sort of like an event-centric Flickr or videosharing site, but on a very large scale -- some 60K+ people attended the concert each day, and as Battelle said, probably 59,000 of them were carrying cameraphones.

Related Boing Boing tv episodes:

* Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music)

* Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni (music)

* Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." (music)

* Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music)

* Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter)

(Special thanks to Bre and Wayne for the bus; to Virgin America for generously providing air transportation)]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/12/bb-gadgets-joel-at-o.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/12/bb-gadgets-joel-at-o.html Fri, 12 Sep 2008 07:45:25 -0800 Today's dose of Boing Boing tv is an experimental rock animation oddity featuring one of our favorite directors, Syd Garon. It's a music video for To My Surprise, a band led by The Clown (Shawn Crahan) from nu-metal heavyweights Slipknot.

The video was directed and animated by Syd Garon and Eric Henry with illustrations by Doug Cunningham (of Morning Breath), Lee Ballard, Cristie Henry and The Clown's daughter, who was 6 years old at the time.

Part of what makes this so interesting to us is the crazy backstory. Syd explains:

The record was produced by Rick Rubin and had some pretty good Beatles-inspired tunes on it if memory serves.

The Clown had a bizarre list of things -- completely unrelated to our treatment -- which we were required to have in the video. The items were so strange we decided not to even try to fight it. That is why the final video has a pilgrim and a turkey, a rubber dog head, and a rat eating a taco among other oddities.

In addition to "the list" we had to incorporate a bunch of black and white drawings made by his 6 year old daughter. Oh yeah, the drawings had to be playing dodgeball.

We actually had a conversation with an assistant at the record label and spoke the words, "yes there is a rat eating a taco in the video".

One of the band members refused to have his cartoon likeness anything other than completely realistic. That is why a goddamn imaginary band has a robot with bunny ears, a three eyed Rastafarian and one totally fucking normal guy.

In retrospect, having one normal guy makes the band even stranger in a way I never would have thought of. So, hats off to you, normal guy.

To our surprise the video didn't totally work. The kids drawings were actually awesome and if I had a time machine I might go back and try making a video just around them instead combining our ideas with The Clowns.

We made this video with the mighty Doug Cunningham at Morning Breath and it was fun to get the Wave Twisters crew back together again.

Also: Previous BBtv episodes featuring the work of Syd Garon.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/11/to-my-surprise-music.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/11/to-my-surprise-music.html Thu, 11 Sep 2008 10:42:25 -0800 BBtv presents a performance and interview with Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, purveyors of cut-up street talk and fine electro-glitch-funk. Their new album, Angles, was just released in the United States, and our UK music correspondent Russell Porter digs in.

The duo consists of Dan Stephens and David Meads, both of whom are natives of Stanford-le-Hope in Essex, England. Their band's name -- "Scroobius Pip" -- is an intentional botch of the Edward Lear poem, The Scroobious Pip.

The second half of today's episode (at about 7:00 in, after the midroll ad, and the stuff about Pip's lip tat) is the music video for Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip's "A Letter from God to Man," directed by Steve Glashier of NTSH. The song is constructed around a short, sweet Radiohead sample (Planet Telex) from the 1995 album, The Bends. The still you see in the flash embed above is from this music video.

Here are previous editions of Russell's interviews with up-and-coming indie artists for Boing Boing tv.

Their 2007 song "Thou Shalt Always Kill" was featured in this previous Boing Boing tv episode, embedded below.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/10/russell-porter-with-12.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/10/russell-porter-with-12.html Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:35:40 -0800 Today's edition of Boing Boing tv is a new installment of our ongoing "BBtv WORLD" series, in which we bring you first-person glimpses of life, culture, and human expression from around the planet.

Today, I visit the honeycombed, limestone caves at Drak Yerpa, an ancient religious and historic site near Lhasa, Tibet.

Tibetan Buddhists consider Drak Yerpa (pronounced sort of like “tra-YER-ba”) with its more than eighty meditation caves and temples, to be the “life tree” of Lhasa. In 1959, the Chinese military demolished most of the temples here. Signs of that destruction are etched into walls pockmarked with bullet holes. The few artifacts that saved from that destruction have been hidden for half a century, only recently reemerging for worshippers.

Songsten Gampo, the founder of the Tibetan empire, is believed to have meditated in the very cave we’re walking through in this footage -- way back in the 7th century. A hundred years later, the dark assassin-monk Lhalungpa Pelgi Dorje hid here after killing Tibet’s non-Buddhist king with a bow and arrow (he shot the guy in the eye, then he sped off on a horse covered in black soot). The assassin's black hat was enshrined in a cave here until 1959, when the communist army came in to ransack the site. And Padmasambhava, the holy figure considered “the second Buddha” meditated and practiced tantric yoga with his yogini consort here. She is Yeshe Tsogyal, and devotees refer to her as "the bliss queen."

The pilgrims who walk praying through these ruins are ethnic Tibetans: citydwellers, tribal nomads, traditional monks and nuns. They come to worship at shrines of historical figures and deities, and they pay homage with donations that help cover upkeep of the shrines and to feed the monks who tend to them.

Traditional religious practice is evident here, but ethnic Tibetans and human rights advocates argue that true religious freedom does not exist in Tibet. Displaying a picture of the Dalai Lama, for instance, is a crime that brings harsh penalties. Tibetans who revere him as a spiritual leader don't hear news of him on state-run media, unless it's portraying him as a sort of terrorist.

When we went to these shrines at Drak Yerpa and others throughout Tibet, we were clearly foreigners, and had just come from the part of India where the Dalai Lama lives in exile. Monks would often pull us aside into quieter corners and ask in hushed voice, "Dalai Lama, have you seen him?," motioning to their eyes, asking for word. -- XJ

---

Related episodes of Boing Boing tv:
* BBtv WORLD (Tibet): Inside Lhasa
* Vlog (Xeni): Tibet report - monks forced to participate in staged videos.
* Vlog (Xeni): Tibet's uprising and the internet
* Beijing: interview with pro-Tibet videobloggers in hiding, in China. ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/09/bbtv-world-ancient-h.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/09/bbtv-world-ancient-h.html Tue, 09 Sep 2008 09:29:17 -0800 John Hodgman is known throughout galaxies far and wide for transcendent wit and bookish LOLs. You may know him from the Apple ads, the Daily Show hijinks, his blog, or his book, Areas of My Expertise (Amazon link), which begat the Internet Hobo Craze of The 21st Century.

What you may not yet know about him is this: he has a new book coming out October 21, 2008, titled More Information Than You Require (Amazon link).

The new compendium will include mole men. And, frankly, it's pretty sweet. We visited with him during a hotel hole-up at the Chateau Marmont, and interrupted his writing flow. He forgave us, and offered us a ham sandwich with some Soylent Green. Please to be watching.

(Ed. note: We aired a mole-man-centric cut of this visit late last year, but we're revisiting again to reveal more undiscovered Hodgmanic goodness. Stay tuned for all-new fun with this guy, planned soon.)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/08/john-hodgman-more-in.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/08/john-hodgman-more-in.html Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:37:25 -0800 BBtv's London-based music correspondent Russell Porter brings us a performance and interview from the Rumble Strips (website | MySpace | Wikipedia). They're currently on tour throughout the USA, and they're named after a UK-English term for the "small, continuous lines of bumps along the edge of a road." Their music is described as " Soul / Regional Mexican / Powerpop;" a fine, rockin' way to close out a short Labor Day work week. Previous BBtv music features with Russell Porter are here.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/05/russell-porter-inter-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/05/russell-porter-inter-1.html Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:35:49 -0800 When the BBtv team and I were covering the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco, a lot of interesting stuff happened. Case in point -- today's episode, in which members of the "rock / blues / French pop" band Carney (MySpace / band website) wander into our giant blogstar tour bus (generously loaned by Wayneco). They perform an amazing acoustic set, after zany hijinks.

Those hijinks include phoning the "president of show business" on a dishwashing hose, and an unintelligible deconstruction of jazz music with our UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter. The live set aboard the bus begins around 4:40, and it was electrifying in person when it (most unexpectedly) happened.

All of this happened because a BBtv team member taped the letters "Boing Boing tv" in blue gaffer tape to the side of our ginormous motorcoach, which was parked just behind the festival's main stage. The Carney dudes were wandering around in the dust around 2am looking for their drummer's lost jacket (more on that later), spotted the bus, and because they're fans of the blog, they peeked in to say hello. We're sure glad they did.

---

You can check out more of Carney and the many other acts that performed at Outside Lands at the CROWDFIRE website, where folks who went to the fest uploaded photos and video they shot themselves.... during the event. It's a really cool project. We contributed a bunch of clips and stills there.

---

(Special thanks to Bre and Wayne for the bus; to Virgin America for generously providing air transportation; to BBtv field producer Jason McHugh; to BBtv production assistant Ilana Shulman, and to Windows and Crowdfire, for sponsoring our Outside Lands coverage.)

Related Boing Boing tv episodes:

* Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music)

* Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni (music)

* BB Gadgets' Joel at Outside Lands: Crowdfire deconstructed

* Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music)

* Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/04/carney-at-outside-la.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/04/carney-at-outside-la.html Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:38:18 -0800 Our retrospective of favorite Boing Boing tv editions concludes today in a visit with music legend David Byrne, at the launch of his musical installation Playing the Building. This episode was a blast for cast and crew alike, and we're revisiting it today to remind you that Byrne is about to start a Fall US tour to support his recently-released collaboration with Brian Eno, Everything that Happens will Happen Today. Snip from that project's website:

Byrne and Eno began their artistic relationship in the late seventies with 3 Talking Heads albums, followed by their groundbreaking album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

The album is their first together in 30 years, and is available in deliciously DRM-free digital download. It's beautiful.

Photos from the BBtv "Playing the Building" shoot, below -- and in the episode -- by Clayton Cubitt. (Special thanks to Danielle Spencer, and Jason Wishnow).

Previously on Boing Boing: David Byrne and Brian Eno's kick ass new album in a million downloadable and physical formats

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/03/best-of-bbtv-david-b.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/03/best-of-bbtv-david-b.html Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:17:16 -0800 Boing Boing tv's "best of" retrospective continues, with a look back at some of the episodes we dig most. One of the things that makes me (and the whole BBtv team) happiest about our daily video project is the opportunity to collaborate in new ways with creative, fun, insane friends of the blog -- like Johnannes G. and the monochrom crew in Vienna. Their wonderful video contributions have become part of the fabric of our show, and no "favorites" review would be complete without their madcap art-tech-philosophy hijinks.

Above, this one's probably the all-time fave of the BBtv staff and crew -- Campfire at Will.

Below, runner-up: the Soviet Underzegenergjakdfjgndorf terrorist training video, shot at *actual* nuclear history sites in the American Southwest, with help from BB pal Sean Bonner.

Monochrom is: Johannes Grenzfurthner, Evelyn Fürlinger, Harald List, Anika Kronberger, Franz Ablinger, Frank Apunkt Schneider, Daniel Fabry, Günther Friesinger, Roland Gratzer, and international ambassador Jacob Appelbaum.

More monochrom archives on Boing Boing tv:
* Bye Bye
* Monochrom: Economic Recession Wisdom from Sock Puppets.
* Monochrom's "Kiki, Bubu, and the Self"
* Nazi Petting Zoo
* Fisch Interview
* Orwell's 1984 deconstructed by puppets
* Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets
* Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical
* Monochrom: Falco Stairs
* Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial
* Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor
* Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig
* Google and China's "Great Firewall": Fun with the BLF and monochrom
* Terrorist training video from Soviet Unterzögersdorf
* Nikita Chrusov of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf crashes Disney party at ETech
* Dead media and living light

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/02/best-of-bbtv-we-love.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/02/best-of-bbtv-we-love.html Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:35:43 -0800 Our retrospective of favorite Boing Boing tv episodes continues. I'd actually planned to post something else today, but this is what feels appropriate, while our friends in Louisiana -- and expats from there -- cope with Hurricane Gustav. So above and below, an encore presentation of BBtv's two-part feature on the Hot 8 Brass Band of New Orleans, with our UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter.

A little background on the band:

The members of the Hot 8 were all born and raised in New Orleans; many of them began playing together in high school. In 1995 they came together and began playing traditional New Orleans brass band music professionally.

Founded by Bennie Pete, Jerome Jones, and Harry Cook in 1995, the band has played in traditional Second Line parades hosted each Sunday by a Social Aid and Pleasure Club ever since. The Hot 8 are famous for playing all day in the sun, then hopping to a club gig and playing through the night. But even more than their boundless energy, what makes the Hot 8 special are the sounds they coax from their well-loved, well-worn horns.

(...) Following Hurricane Katrina and the devastation wrought upon New Orleans, The Hot 8 became the featured band in the SAVE OUR BRASS! relief project, which brought music to evacuee shelters, temporary trailer parks, and communities that have reached out to New Orleanians.

Part one of the interview and live musical performance above, part two below. -- XJ

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/01/best-of-bbtv-hot-8-b.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/09/01/best-of-bbtv-hot-8-b.html Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:55:32 -0800 The Boing Boing tv crew continues their hard-earned snooze in the sands of a swingers' resort on the south shore of Mars today, but we're revisiting the best of the show while we slack off in outer space. (Robot! Bring me another red Rover martini.)

Today, we feature the work of animator, filmmaker, and music video director Bill Barminski, a longtime Boing Boing fave.

Above, "Drive In," a soothing ambient work I like to watch before bedtime.

Another beloved Barminksi joint is below,
S.E.X.Y. R.O.B.O.T.: Pinker Tones music video by Walter Robot.

Here's a link to all of the BBtv episodes which have featured Barminski's work.

My favorite appears in the second half of this BBtv episode: the "Fuji Apple" animated short from Barminski's production team Walter Robot, with music by Boards of Canada (song: Roygbiv, from "Music has the Right to Children.") I could just watch that over and over again, and I often do.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/29/best-of-bbtv-bill-ba.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/29/best-of-bbtv-bill-ba.html Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:53:42 -0800 Boing Boing tv is taking a week off for organic yak-yogurt wrestling on a private Himalayan island; we leave you to enjoy some of our crew's favorite past episodes in the meantime.

"Gem sweater diva" and midwestern maven Leslie Hall has appeared twice on our show. The video featured above is a tour diary she recorded just for us. If you like that, check out our backstage visit with her during a stop in San Francisco, below. "With these shoulder pads, I have the strength to destroy villages, homes and crops."

Original BBtv posts:
* Leslie Hall: Dear Diary
* Leslie Hall: ceWEBrity, gem sweater diva, jammer of jams.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/28/best-of-bbtv-leslie.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/28/best-of-bbtv-leslie.html Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:07:05 -0800 The Boing Boing tv crew is taking this end-of-summer week off from production, so we're revisiting some of our favorite episodes from the last couple of months -- fun stuff you may have missed.

Today: John Behrens and "Omega Recoil" build giant Tesla Coils. Their work explores how electronic fields can be excited in the environment, and their creations become the centerpieces of interactive public art performances.

Some of the tinkerers and performers in this SF Bay Area-based collective were previously associated with Dr. Megavolt, an electrical art project which...

[featured] a person in a metal mesh suit
interacting with artificially generated lighting. The Doctor sets
objects on fire with electricity originating from large Tesla coils,
spars with the electric arcs and exhorts the audience to worship the
elemental force of electricity.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/27/best-of-bbtv-omega-r.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/27/best-of-bbtv-omega-r.html Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:29:26 -0800 The Boing Boing tv crew is taking this end-of-summer week off from production, so we're revisiting some of our favorite episodes from the last couple of months -- fun stuff you may have missed. Today, one of my personal all-time favorites: takenoko (竹の子), young bamboo shoots, with Joi Ito and original music by Ryuichi Sakamoto. -- XJ

You may know Joi as a serial entrepreneur, a twittering globetrotter VC, a World of Warcraft junkie, or the CEO of Creative Commons, but he has a more traditional side, too.

In this video, Ito welcomes us into his back yard in Japan, where he and his partner Mizuka teach us how to hunt for and prepare this traditional seasonal delicacy from a lush bamboo forest.

The episode is accompanied by an original score composed by Grammy, Academy Award, and Golden Globe-winning composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto. The legendary electronic music pioneer is also an outspoken environmental advocate. His recent reforestation initiative, “More Trees,” supports the planting of trees around the world to help offset carbon emissions. To-date, 2 billion trees have been planted mostly through work with country governments including Turkey, Ethiopia and Mexico. Link to English-language PDF with more info on the project.

Sakamoto co-founded the seminal synthpop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, and has scored or contributed to movie soundtracks including The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas Mister Lawrence, Babel, and the work of director Pedro Almodóvar. Boing Boing tv thanks him for generously contributing this beautiful, evocative score.

After the jump -- Joi Ito's family recipe for yummy takenoko just like mom used to make. Special thanks to the Ito family for sharing their traditions with us.

Here's Joi's blog post about his background with Ryuichi, and here's Joi's post from today about how this video came together.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/26/best-of-bbtv-cooking.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/26/best-of-bbtv-cooking.html Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:57:40 -0800 Team Boing Boing tv was live and in effect all weekend long at the first Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate park. The event was a blast, and we interviewed many amazing artists here. BBtv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter hopped across the pond to join us for hijinks and great music, the first of which is this conversation with David Hinds, the frontman of legendary roots reggae band STEEL PULSE.

(special thanks to Wayne and Bre for use of their magic bus; air travel generously provided by Virgin America.)

Related Boing Boing tv episodes:

* Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music)

* Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni (music)

* BB Gadgets' Joel at Outside Lands: Crowdfire deconstructed

* Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." (music)

* Boing Boing tv backstage at Outside Lands: (Xeni + Russell Porter)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/25/russell-interviews-s.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/25/russell-interviews-s.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:02:17 -0800 Last week, eight American citizens were detained in Beijing for participating in pro-Tibetan sovereignty protests near the site of the 2008 Olympics, with Students for a Free Tibet. Two videobloggers who documented those protest and guerrilla art installations evaded detention, and spoke to Boing Boing TV on Friday Beijing time about why they were there, what they witnessed, and why it mattered.

Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson of Ryanishungry.com spoke to us over Skype from a hostel in Beijing. One of the actions they documented in photo and video was the hanging of an "LED throwies" light banner, below, which read "FREE TIBET." We agreed to hold this Boing Boing tv episode until after we received word that they'd safely left the country. They have returned home, so I am posting the piece today.

Correction: Yesterday, we posted news that 6 Americans who'd been detained were now released and on their way to Los Angeles. Turns out that in fact, a total of 8 were detained -- the last two, from a later protest, a photograph of which is posted below (Thanks, NF and Students for a Free Tibet).

Previously on Boing Boing blog:

* UPDATE: US citizens detained in Beijing over Tibet protests are released, returning home.

* Beijing and Tibet: GRL's James Powderly, Brian of "Alive in Baghdad, 4 other US citizens receive 10-day jail sentence

* Beijing update: New detentions, 6 US protesters missing, Tibetan protesters in Tibet reportedly shot dead.

* Beijing: "Alive in Baghdad" videoblogger among US citizens detained in pro-Tibet protests

* Beijing: Five US activists detained after lighting up "Free Tibet" LED Throwies banner near Olympics site
* GRL's James Powderly detained in Beijing for planning pro-Tibet "L.A.S.E.R. Stencil" art protest

Related episodes of Boing Boing tv:

* BBtv WORLD (Tibet): Inside Lhasa

* Vlog (Xeni): Tibet report - monks forced to participate in staged videos.

* Vlog (Xeni): Tibet's uprising and the internet

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/25/boing-boing-tv-proti.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/25/boing-boing-tv-proti.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:25:44 -0800 Boing Boing tv is live and in full effect at the Outside Lands Music and Arts fest in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The gates haven't opened yet, but when they do, some 180,000 people are expected to pour in over three days to see bands like Radiohead, Beck, Wilco, Primus, Tom Petty, Manu Chao, Black Keys, Ben Harper, and dozens of others, plus some cool tech-art experiments we'll be digging into.

I'm here with our UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter, and the entire BBtv crew over the next 4 days. We're posting this episode from inside a giant rock star tour bus *very* generously loaned to us by friends of the blog

We ran around yesterday in a golf cart with the guy who created Outside Lands, Rick Farman of Superfly Productions. We spoke with him for this episode about the idea behind this festival, and what it takes to put together something this huge and complex. Events like this are a virtual world of sorts -- only with lots of real live breathing humans.

We're parked about 100 feet away from the main stage. It feels strange to be so close to something so big before the gates open. All night long, production vehicles and golf carts full of loading guys buzzed around; as I type this there's an eerie quiet before the opening chords explode. This is going to be fun.

Tech notes: the tall eucalyptus trees next to our bus (this is a gorgeous park, remember!) are blocking our satellite dish, so no WiFi in the bus right now -- instead, we're jacked into EVDO cards on MacBooks, on which BBtv editor Wes and segment producer Derek edited this piece last night. I'm pleasantly surprised at upload speeds on this card (it's a Verizon Rev-A). Stay tuned for more video from the BBtv bus at Outside Lands!

(special thanks to Wayne and Bre for use of their magic bus; air travel generously provided by Virgin America.)

Related Boing Boing tv episodes:

* Primus: Xeni interviews Les and Ler (music)

* Kaki King, guitar hero: performance, interview with Xeni (music)

* BB Gadgets' Joel at Outside Lands: Crowdfire deconstructed

* Carney at Outside Lands - a "Boing Boing tv Bus Session." (music)

* Steel Pulse founder David Hinds at Outside Lands (music)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/22/boing-boing-tv-at-ou.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/22/boing-boing-tv-at-ou.html Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:04:53 -0800
Klaus Pierre, a French/German actor-waiter-whatever, aspires against all odds to become America's next great action hero. Today, in the final chapter of our observational documentary of this Hollywood hopeful, we witness his final challenge -- the American immigration system. His green card has run out, and that is a dilemma no amount of drop-kicks or ninja-punches can solve. Goodbye Klaus. Auf wiedersehn or whatever. Ciao. See you on the laptop screen.

Previous Klaus Pierre episodes on BBtv:

• Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero, works out.
• Klaus Pierre: Big Party


• Klaus Pierre: Super Pretty Action Hero Star
• Klaus Pierre: The Beach
• Klaus Pierre: Red Carpet Botox Dreams
• Klaus Pierre: Pirate Musical of Epic Fail
• Klaus Pierre: Savate
• Klaus Pierre: Coffee Shop.
• Klaus Pierre: Swordfighting
• Point Break and heartbreak
  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/21/klaus-pierre-i-want.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/21/klaus-pierre-i-want.html Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:13:04 -0800 Today's episode of Boing Boing tv is a new installment of our "BBtv World" series, in which we bring you first-person accounts of life around the world. In this episode, I travel to Lhasa during an annual Tibetan Buddhist festival.
  

  
  ~ ~ ~ ~

  The first thing that hits you when you arrive in Lhasa is just how close to the heavens you are. Literally. The average elevation in Tibet is 16,000 feet. The fact that this place is known as the “Roof of the World" makes sense as your newcomer lungs and blood struggle to adjust to the altitude.

  Beijing says Tibet is historically part of China, not a sovereign nation. China’s army invaded Tibet in 1950. Years of bloody conflict followed. In 1959, Tibet’s traditional spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled into exile in India. China has governed over Tibet since then.
  

  
  During the fourth lunar month in the Tibetan calendar, ethnic Tibetans celebrate the annual festival of Saga Dawa. Tibetan Buddhists believe that on the full moon in this month, in various years of his life, the Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment, and died.
  

  A large armed police presence surrounded the festival during the year I shot the footage you'll see in this episode. When we asked one pilgrim why, she said “Because when too many Tibetans gather in one place, they are afraid we’ll rise up.”
  

  
  In 2008, Saga Dawa fell on the heels of a violent government crackdown on pro-independence protesters throughout Tibet, during the run-up to the Olympics. Thousands of armed troops filled Lhasa and outlying towns, and large numbers of "suspects" were rounded up and jailed. Widespread reports of human rights abuses filtered out, despite a virtual communications blackout. This year’s Saga Dawa festival also fell near the anniversary of the Tiananmen democracy protests, and authorities cited fears that this would inspire more protest in Tibet.

  While first-person accounts were hard to come by, there were many reports of ethnic Tibetans being blocked from the traditional pilgimage route around Lhasa in the name of state security.

  
  

  Previously on Boing Boing tv:

  
  * Vlog (Xeni): Tibet report - monks forced to participate in staged videos.
  
  
  * Vlog (Xeni): Tibet's uprising and the internet
  

  Previously on Boing Boing blog:

  
  * Hacking the Himalayas (Xeni Tech / NPR)
  
  *
  Tradition vs. Change in 'Lhasa Vegas'

  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/20/bbtv-world-tibet-ins.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/20/bbtv-world-tibet-ins.html Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:55:14 -0800 Astronaut and space hero Dr. Buzz Aldrin speaks with Xeni about his belief that America -- and that means you! -- must return to the moon, and soon. His nonprofit, Sharespace.org, seeks to provide "affordable space travel opportunities for all." Buzz believes that commercial space vacations should not be available only to the wealthy elite.

  
  Editor's note: the comment trolls really are taking over around here. One of them invades this very BBtv episode. Teresa, why doesn't disemvowelling work in video? We'll have to get our hamster-engineers right on that. (cameo by BBtv Production Assistant Rob Bergsma)

  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/19/xeni-interviews-buzz.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/19/xeni-interviews-buzz.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:00:45 -0800 Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter interviews singer-songwriter Candie Payne. The "atmospheric" chanteuse hails from Liverpool, and her brand of indie-pop draws fans the world over.
  
  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/18/russell-porter-inter.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/18/russell-porter-inter.html Mon, 18 Aug 2008 07:50:52 -0800 A short film by monochrom about a man who dies, is reborn, and sprouts gills. Created by Harald Homolka List, Johannes Grenzfurthner, Evelyn Fürlinger (link to monochrom site for this film, here are other short films from them in German).
  

  
  Previous work from monochrom on Boing Boing tv:

  
  * Monochrom: Economic Recession Wisdom from Sock Puppets.
  
  * Monochrom's "Kiki, Bubu, and the Self"
  
  * Nazi Petting Zoo
  
  * Fisch Interview
  
  * Orwell's 1984 deconstructed by puppets
  
  * Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets
  
  * Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical
  

  * Monochrom: Campfire at Will
  

  * Monochrom: Falco Stairs
  
  * Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial
  
  * Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor
  
  * Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig

  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/15/monochrom-bye-bye-a.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/15/monochrom-bye-bye-a.html Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:24:15 -0800
  Klaus Pierre, a French/German actor-waiter-whatever, aspires against all odds to become America's next great action hero. In today's episode, he heads to the hills above Hollywood, where scrub brush and aspiring starlets bask in the sun, to work out with a really mean personal trainer. Warning: episode contains cucumber masks masques and pushups.

  Previous Klaus Pierre episodes on BBtv:

  • Klaus Pierre: Big Party
  
  
  • Klaus Pierre: Super Pretty Action Hero Star
  • Klaus Pierre: The Beach
  • Klaus Pierre: Red Carpet Botox Dreams
  • Klaus Pierre: Pirate Musical of Epic Fail
  • Klaus Pierre: Savate
  • Klaus Pierre: Coffee Shop.
  • Klaus Pierre: Swordfighting
  • Point Break and heartbreak
  
  
  
  
  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/14/bbtv-klaus-pierre-fr.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/14/bbtv-klaus-pierre-fr.html Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:42:40 -0800 BBtv guest teen haxxor correspondent 5t311a teaches us how to do guerilla t-shirt silkscreening, as described in Cory Doctorow's novel Little Brother, and as detailed in a recent series of Instructables posts. (Thanks, Charis Tobias!)
  

  

  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/13/howto-guerrilla-tshi.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/13/howto-guerrilla-tshi.html Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:49:01 -0800 Boing Boing tv's retro-tech correspondent Todd Lappin of Telstar Logistics submerges us in WWII history on the supersized submarine USS Pampanito.

  This Balao-class ship was built in 1943, and today one of her younger volunteer caretakers schools us on all the gadgets, gizmos, and old-school technology that kept this baby cruising to Pearl Harbor and back.

  Did you know that subs like this couldn't submerge for more than 24 hours back then, because they'd run out of battery life? Think of it like this, Gen-Y-ers, that's like when your iPhone 3G slides into "red" mode, because you've been twittering too much. Only with people inside. And big guns to shoot bad guys.
  

  Pampanito trivia: she's named after this little fishie, prized as a seafood delicacy. Wait, a sushi ingredient? Doesn't sound like a great idea for a WWII military ship!
  

  Shot for BBtv by Eddie Codel, during the Long Now Foundation's Mechanicrawl.
  
  

  Previously on BBtv:
  

  * Multi-millenial Mechanical clocks (Long Now Mechanicrawl pt. 1)
  
  * WWII Boatpunk: Aboard the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, with Todd Lappin (pt. 2)

  
  PS: extra-special thanks to Scott Beale of Laughing Squid for hooking BBtv up with Eddie Codel!
  

  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/12/wwii-boatpunk-aboard-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/12/wwii-boatpunk-aboard-1.html Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:43:18 -0800 Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter interviews -- and coaxes an epic street performance from -- Beardyman, the human beatbox from Brighton. This dude is a totally unassuming normal guy who can flip a switch in his brain to make crazy perfect funky human beatbox sounds come out of his mouth. The ladies dig it, as you'll see around 08:13, when he lets loose on the mic with a flock of blonde birds surrounding him.

  I blogged about Beardyman in 2007 when this crazy cooking video hit the 'tubes.

  
  

  If you're in the mood for still more of him doing his thing, below is a popular YouTube video in which Beardyman shows up at some stuffy academic conference, and poses as a lecturer before breaking out into beats.

  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/11/russell-porter-with-11.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/11/russell-porter-with-11.html Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:17:45 -0800 In this final installment of our TCHO Chocolate trilogy, Xeni and Pesco go on a magical mystery taste test tour -- think Willy Wonka meets The Trip.
  Former NASA software developer Timothy Childs founded the tech-minded chocolate company, and was joined by WIRED co-founder Louis Rosetto.

  In previous BBtv episodes we learned about the hacked-together, home-tinkered machines and high-tech wizardry that keep their factory humming. Today we dive in to the genetics of chocolate plants, and the hedonics -- the tasting experience -- of the finished product, where science meets sensuality meets sugar.

  
  Oh hell, who are we kidding, you guys? We sat around and GOT HIGH on neuroactive cocoa alkaloids. We freebased theobromine and we LIKED IT. We liked it a LOT.

  Warning: this episode is NSFC (not safe for chocoholics).
  

  Previously on Boing Boing tv:
  
  * TCHO, part 1: chocolate origins.
  
  * TCHO, part 2: magical machines, mysterious molecules.

  
  

  Related: read a feature about TCHO by David Pescovitz in the current issue of MAKE Magazine, Timothy and the Chocolate Factory.

  
  

  Here are some iPhone snapshots from Xeni on Flickr: TCHO, Boing Boing tv.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  (Special thanks to Amy Critchett, and Wayne & Breanna)

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/08/tcho-chocolate-pt-3.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/08/tcho-chocolate-pt-3.html Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:16:22 -0800 BBtv guest correspondent and blog pal Todd Lappin of Telstar Logistics takes us inside a steam-powered World War II "Liberty Ship," the SS Jeremiah O'Brien.

  
  We marvel (!) at the cool old retro-technology that kept this behemoth boat running to and from the beaches of Normandy, and we meet the volunteer caretakers -- obsessive nerds just like us, only with white hair! -- who keep her ship-shape today. Did you know that shipyards in the San Francisco Bay Area once churned out Liberty Ships like this in 4 days or less, during the heat of the war? Watch and learn, li'l skippers.
  

  
  Todd has a rockin' photoset of images from the ship, too.

  Shot for BBtv by Eddie Codel, during the Long Now Foundation's Mechanicrawl.

  Previously: Multi-millenial Mechanical clocks - Long Now "Mechanicrawl" pt. 1]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/07/wwii-boatpunk-aboard.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/07/wwii-boatpunk-aboard.html Thu, 07 Aug 2008 07:27:29 -0800 Today on BBtv, Austrian art collective monochrom return with a new episode of their subversive puppet show: "Kiki and Bubu and the Good Plan." Our socked crusaders explore the connections between Michael Bay, the military-entertainment complex, Web 2.0 business cocktail parties, and the impending collapse of the American economy.

  * BBtv: Monochrom's "Kiki, Bubu, and the Self"
  * Nazi Petting Zoo
  * Fisch Interview
  * Orwell's 1984 deconstructed by puppets
  * Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets
  * Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical
  * Monochrom: Campfire at Will
  

  * Monochrom: Falco Stairs
  
  * Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial
  
  * Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor
  
  * Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig

  
  Update: monochrom's own "director's cut" of today's episode is here.

  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/06/monochrom-economic-r.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/06/monochrom-economic-r.html Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:44:41 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni is joined by astronaut and American hero Buzz Aldrin, Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson, Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan, and other space luminaries for an exploration of private space travel -- the technology, the science, and the human experience.
  
  

  We fly to the Mojave spaceport to witness the unveiling of WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft that will carry SpaceShipTwo and passengers on Virgin Galactic suborbital space flights.
  

  
  Related: All about "Eve": Virgin Galactic mothership unveiled.

  ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/05/virgin-galactic-and.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/05/virgin-galactic-and.html Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:27:23 -0800 Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter interviews the young experimental jazz band EMPIRICAL, from London. Today's episode includes an extended musical interlude, to ensure the mellowest possible Monday for all the peeps out there in BBtv-land. The band's "influences" roster says it the best:
  

  
  Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Booker Little, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Johnny Hodges, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Steve Coleman, Branford Marsalis, Ray Brown, Jimmy Garrison, Bob Hurst, Ron Carter, Paul Chambers, Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Ben Riley, Thelonious Monk, Jason Moran, Wynton Kelly, Keith Jarrat, Herbie Hancock, Ali Farka Toure, Oumou Sangare and to many others to list.

  
  Previous PORTER REPORT episodes on BBtv:

• Russell Porter: Hot 8 Brass Band of New Orleans, pt. 1
  
• Hot 8 Brass Band, pt. 2
  
• Russell Porter: Transgressive and rockfeedback.com, pt. 2
  
• Russell Porter roundtable: Transgressive Records, rockfeedback.com, pt. 1
  
• Russell Porter with Alice Russell, pt. 2

• Russell Porter with Alice Russell

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 1.

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 2.

• Russell Porter with George Pringle

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 1

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 2
  

• Russell Porter with The Futureheads
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Guillotines
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Peggy Sue and the Pirates
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dockers MC
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip
  
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/04/russell-porter-with-10.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/04/russell-porter-with-10.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:14:58 -0800 Recently on Boing Boing tv, we aired an animated music video by Bill Barminski and Christopher Louie for the Pinker Tones' song "S.E.X.Y. R.O.B.O.T" We loved the band's vibe, and couldn't get enough of the song, so we reached out to this Barcelona-based electronica duo for more. Today on BBtv, a remix of that song, with an alternate video featuring actual real live sexy robots (director: David Lopez). And in part two of today's show, another delightful and new video for their song "Working Bees" (director: The Magical Thinking studio). You can catch the Pinker Tones on tour throughout the USA, including spots on the WARPED tour.

(Special thanks to Paul Dryden of Nacional Records) ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/01/pinker-tones-sexy-ro.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/08/01/pinker-tones-sexy-ro.html Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:06:04 -0800




BBtv WORLD is our recently-launched series on Boing Boing tv featuring first-person views of life around the globe. This third episode in our series is the last of a three-part report I filed from a K'iche Maya community in Guatemala.

Few foreigners come to this village at 10,000 feet in the highlands. Most glimpses we have of remote indigenous communities like this are through the lenses of outsiders -- like myself. But how better to see their story than through the eyes of the people themselves?

Before I left the US for this pueblo a few weeks ago, we asked two companies that produce small, inexpensive, USB camcorders -- Pure Digital (makers of the Flip) and RCA (makers of the Small Wonder) -- to donate a few devices. I brought them to the village, so that some of the adults and young people here could explore what is possible with the tools of video storytelling in their own hands.

Today's BBtv WORLD is the result: stories shot by the K'iche people in this village. The world they see around them, through their own eyes and in their own language.

Some of what the children shot really surprised me. They caught on right away, faster even than the adults, and quickly taught each other how to record and play back video. Some of them seemed to transform into instant YouTube stars -- new alter-egos showed up out of nowhere. One boy we'd come to know as quiet and well-mannered over the course of many previous visits here shot himself throwing gang signs against the sunlight, like shadow puppets, while he walked a path that leads to a Mayan altar. Another girl who was very shy with us in person recorded video of herself making outrageous silly faces, and speaking in a boisterous, confident voice to her new handheld lens.

When I downloaded the footage from their devices, I felt as if I were seeing this place, and these people, for the first time.

LINK TO VIDEO on Boing Boing blog.







]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/31/bbtv-world-through-t.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/31/bbtv-world-through-t.html Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:29:13 -0800
Klaus Pierre, a French/German actor-waiter-whatever, aspires against all odds to become America's next great action hero. In today's episode, he attempts to conquer the greatest challenge ever -- his first big Hollywood party. Drinks, hijinks, and embarassing dance moves ensue.

Previous Klaus Pierre episodes on BBtv:

• Klaus Pierre: Super Pretty Action Hero Star
• Klaus Pierre: The Beach
• Klaus Pierre: Red Carpet Botox Dreams
• Klaus Pierre: Pirate Musical of Epic Fail
• Klaus Pierre: Savate
• Klaus Pierre: Coffee Shop.
• Klaus Pierre: Swordfighting
• Point Break and heartbreak




]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/31/klaus-pierre-frenchg-3.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/31/klaus-pierre-frenchg-3.html Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:27:11 -0800 What would Japan look like through the eyes of a drifter camped in a shantytown near one of Tokyo's trendiest zones?


Today on Boing Boing tv, we debut Dowa Mondai: Assimilation Issues, an experimental short film by Bob Jaroc which attempts to provide an answer. The director explains:

In the run up to the launch of the 2006 av album Greedy Baby, Plaid (Ed Handley) and myself were on tour in Japan. On a day off in Tokyo I visited a small shantytown in Shibuya I had seen from a train the day before, tucked away in a kids playground. My translator Nick Stone and myself introduced ourselves to a friendly group of people and negotiated permission to pry into their lives and film, in exchange for some food/ cigarettes and wine.

My intentions for the piece were to stay clear of making a patronizing "cry/be angry for the homeless people" thing or a romanticized view of that life. I wanted to distill the experiences of the people who took the time to talk to me and question myself why I ended up going there in search of something to film.

This was filmed on Kodak vision2 200 super 8 stock with a Beaulieu 6008pro. The neg was cut into 1000 strips and was given away with the 1st 1000 copies of Greedy Baby. Dowa Mondai: Assimilation Issues was made from those rushes/recordings.




The short was shot, directed, and edited by Bob Jaroc, with music from Ed Handley (Plaid). Jaroc's past work includes work with other recording artists such as The Go Team and Leila. He has collaborated with artists Chris Dorley Brown, Blast Theory and Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich. Jaroc has appeared at the Queen Elizabeth hall, the Los Angeles Natural History Musem and the London IMAX, and he is currently working with the dance company Random Dance on a piece that will be headline the main stage at the UK festival The Big Chill.


More selected shorts by Jaroc here.


Plaid, whose music you hear in the piece, recently remixed a song by Bats for Lashes featured previously on Boing Boing; the 12" of that remix will be out soon.

(special thanks to David Pescovitz)


]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/30/tokyo-through-the-ey.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/30/tokyo-through-the-ey.html Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:07:39 -0800




In episode 2 of our new BBtv WORLD series, Xeni reports in from a K'iche Maya village in the Guatemalan highlands, and we step inside a traditional Mayan steam bath, or "tuj."




This pueblo began as a settlement camp for "environmental refugees" -- people who became displaced after mudslides and floods caused by Hurricane Mitch made their ancestral village unsafe. Survivors packed what belongings they could on their backs and walked miles to a bare patch of cold, windy mountaintop nicknamed "Alaska" for its extreme microclimate.




Nearly ten years after the disaster and the subsequent loss of their homes, these people are still struggling for survival. Their traditions are a source of strength, and today we experience one of them -- a small brick hut filled with hot volcanic rocks, steam, and herb branches gathered from nearby mountains.



WATCH THIS EPISODE ON BOINGBOING.NET. (Or, download MP4 here)


Previously on BBtv WORLD:






• Episode 1: El Molinero (Guatemala)



(image: Xeni Jardin)




]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/30/bbtv-world-migration.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/30/bbtv-world-migration.html Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:52:06 -0800
Boing Boing tv guest correspondent Todd Lappin (R) and cameraninja Eddie Codel (L) trek to the Long Now Foundation's first-ever Mechanicrawl event, and bring back tales of early analog computing, fantastic timepieces, and impossibly eccentric mechanical things.


First, Todd speaks with the Long Now Foundation's Alexander Rose about a 10,000-year mechanical clock dreamed up by supercomputer designer Danny Hillis.


Next, we listen to a prototype chime mechanism that will ring ten bells in a different sequence each day over the next 10,000 years. Brian Eno and Danny Hillis came up with the algorithm, and a team of tinkerers crafted the contraption to tap out time on a series of Tibetan bowl gongs.


Todd has a photoset with snapshots from the Mechanicrawl adventures. See also this previous Laughing Squid post.

(Special thanks to Karen Marcelo for image shown in video still)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/28/multimillenial-mecha.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/28/multimillenial-mecha.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:10:46 -0800 Today Boing Boing tv presents part two of our UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter's interview with the legendary Hot 8 Brass Band, from New Orleans.

Band leader Bennie "Big Peter" Pete explains the history of second line, the roots of New Orleans jazz, and what it took to survive as jazz band in the French Quarter.



Today's episode is a little longer than usual, so we can include an extended musical number live from the streets of Brighton -- the Hot 8 Brass Band performing their Louisiana-style cover of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing." The band is currently on tour throughout the USA. Enjoy!


Previous PORTER REPORT episodes on BBtv:

• Russell Porter: Hot 8 Brass Band of New Orleans, pt. 1
  
• Russell Porter: Transgressive and rockfeedback.com, pt. 2
  
• Russell Porter roundtable: Transgressive Records, rockfeedback.com, pt. 1
  
• Russell Porter with Alice Russell, pt. 2

• Russell Porter with Alice Russell

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 1.

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 2.

• Russell Porter with George Pringle

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 1

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 2
  

• Russell Porter with The Futureheads
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Guillotines
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Peggy Sue and the Pirates
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dockers MC
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip
  
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/27/russell-porter-hot-8-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/27/russell-porter-hot-8-1.html Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:49:03 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, we are proud to share the sneak-preview of a television pilot, the AQUABATS! SUPERSHOW!, a live-action and animation program featuring the popular superhero ska band, The Aquabats (MySpace).


Jon Berrett of Yo Gabba Gabba explains:

This spring the Aquabats completed a pilot for a new television show based on the misadventures of rock and roll's greatest super dude men. The Aquabats have been a band for over a decade, have toured the world, and put out 5 full length studio albums.

The AQUABATS! SUPERSHOW! TELEVISION PILOT will have a special screening at the San Diego House of Blues show on July 25th, 2008 [during Comic-Con].. If you already have tickets, you are STOKED!

The excerpt we are world-premiering on BBtv today is an animated portion of the show's first episode, and includes angry mushrooms, vengeful unicorn princesses, and a subterranean paradise with lakes of hot pink lava. The AQUABATS! SUPERSHOW! also includes live performance and real-world hijinks. We think it's pretty awesome.

(Huge thanks from all of us at Boing Boing to Jon Berrett and the crew at Yo Gabba Gabba, and to The Aquabats for allowing Boing Boing to share this first with the non-subterranean world!)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/25/aquabats-supershow-s.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/25/aquabats-supershow-s.html Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:55:39 -0800

Continuing in the Blade Runner theme of our most recent Boing Boing tv episode, today BB Gadgets editor Joel Johnson speaks with artist and futurist Syd Mead about this rare treasure -- the only one in the world! -- spotted during a BBtv shoot in Mead's home and studio.

So what is that, Joel?

A one-of-a-kind official LEGO version of Mead's "Spinner" flying car from Blade Runner, presented to Syd by LEGO when he attended a design summit in Billund. Syd let me pick it up and swoop it around my head like a child.

LEGO and Blade Runner, two great tastes that taste great together. More on the story in this episode, and more iPhone snapshots from the shoot here.

If you like this BBtv episode, you might want to pick up:

• BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT [Amazon]
  
• VISUAL FUTURIST: The Art & Life of Syd Mead DVD [sydmead.com]
  
• And more Syd Mead books on Amazon.

Previous episodes in BBtv's Syd Mead series:

• Syd Mead with Joel Johnson, part 3: BLADE RUNNER

• Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 1.

• Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 2.
  
  




(Footage from the movie Blade Runner courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment / Warner Home Video; Artwork courtesy of Syd Mead Inc.)


]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/23/blade-runner-lego-sp.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/23/blade-runner-lego-sp.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:38:25 -0800 The 1982 cyberpunk cinema classic Blade Runner remains one of the most influential science fiction movies of all time, and tops many a nerd's favorite films list.


Today on Boing Boing tv, Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson visits the studio of artist and futurist Syd Mead, who designed the film's dystopian look and feel. We learn about the "erotic machine" he dreamed for the replicant Zhora (this breast-shaped dreampod was cut from the script when director Ridley Scott ran out of dough), the 1 2 3 *4* alternate opening scenes designed by Syd (one of them, which involved shoveling dead bodies, was deemed "too Holocaust"), what really lights up those building facades, and many more secrets.


Syd explains he envisioned the world of Blade Runner as a place "you wouldn't want to be for too long," and describes the challenges of designing for "a love story with moralistic underpinnings... if we could actually make people, would we treat them like dishwashers? Just use them up and throw them away?"


If you like this episode, you might want to pick up:

• BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT [Amazon]
  
• VISUAL FUTURIST: The Art & Life of Syd Mead DVD [sydmead.com]
  
• And more Syd Mead books on Amazon.

Previous episodes in BBtv's Syd Mead trilogy:

• Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 1.

• Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 2.
  
  



(Footage from the movie Blade Runner courtesy Warner Bros. Entertainment / Warner Home Video; Artwork courtesy of Syd Mead Inc.)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/23/joel-johnson-intervi-2.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/23/joel-johnson-intervi-2.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:07:56 -0800




On behalf of all my Boing Boing and Boing Boing tv colleagues, I'm excited and proud to announce the debut of a new series within our daily video program: BBtv World. This ongoing series will feature first-person glimpses of life around the world, told through the lenses and voices of Boing Boing editors, guest collaborators -- and through the people in these places, their own stories, their own way. When we can, we want to place the camera directly in the hands -- literally -- of the people whose lives, cultures, and lands we're visiting.



We're kicking this off with an episode I shot during a recent visit in a K'iche Maya village in the highlands of Guatemala, where I go a few times a year to work on sustainable development projects with an international project managed with local indigenous leaders.


"El Molinero," the title of this debut piece, refers to the corn mill where young girls go every day to grind soaked, hulled corn ("nixtamal") into soft dough for tortillas or tamales (in K'iche, "k'osh").

The old machine -- hacked together by local craftsman from various components -- is extremely loud, spews smelly fuel exhaust, and like many aspects of daily life and work here, is dangerous.


The K'iche girls you see in this episode helped me shoot some of what you see. In future episodes, they'll tell their stories themselves, and we'll visit other places -- Tibet, Africa, Mexico, China, India, and Japan, to name a few of the destinations planned.



WATCH THIS VIDEO ON BOINGBOING.NET.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/22/bbtv-debuts-bbtv-wor.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/22/bbtv-debuts-bbtv-wor.html Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:43:00 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni and Pesco dive deeper into the magical chocolate factory founded by a NASA software developer.


In this installment of BBtv's 3-part series on TCHO Chocolate, we learn more about the hacked-together, home-tinkered machines and high-tech wizardry that keep the factory running. The philosophy is "scrappy, not crappy," as founder Timothy Childs explains.


TCHO's R&D lab contains such diverse components as Space Shuttle tape, a modded RONCO turkey oven, stone grinders used in Indian restaurants, and deconstructed space heater parts from the local hardware store.



Next, we zoom in to the molecular-level science behind this most delicious confection. Science buffs, rejoice! This episode is as fun for your eyes and brain as the "obsessively good" chocolate is for your mouth -- Polymorph fun for the whole family. Warning: this episode is NSFC (not safe for chocoholics).


Previously on Boing Boing tv:
* TCHO, part 1: chocolate origins.





Related: read a feature about TCHO by David Pescovitz in the current issue of MAKE Magazine, Timothy and the Chocolate Factory.


Here are some iPhone snapshots from Xeni on Flickr: TCHO, Boing Boing tv.








(Special thanks to Amy Critchett, and Wayne & Breanna)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/22/tcho-chocolate-part.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/22/tcho-chocolate-part.html Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:47:04 -0800 Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter of "Porter Report" fame interviews the legendary Hot 8 Brass Band, from New Orleans.

Band leader Bennie "Big Peter" Pete explains the history of second line, the roots of New Orleans jazz, and what it took to survive as jazz band in the French Quarter.



Today's BBtv episode is a little longer than usual -- 9 minutes -- so we can share with you an extended musical segment, with the Hot 8 performing their song "What's My Name" live on the streets of Brighton. Their performance is breathtaking, and quite possibly the funkiest, most soulful sounds you've ever heard on Boing Boing. The band is currently on tour throughout the USA. Enjoy!


Previous PORTER REPORT episodes on BBtv:

• Russell Porter: Transgressive and rockfeedback.com, pt. 2
  
• Russell Porter roundtable: Transgressive Records, rockfeedback.com, pt. 1
  
• Russell Porter with Alice Russell, pt. 2

• Russell Porter with Alice Russell

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 1.

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 2.

• Russell Porter with George Pringle

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 1

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 2
  

• Russell Porter with The Futureheads
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Guillotines
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Peggy Sue and the Pirates
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dockers MC
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip
  
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/20/russell-porter-hot-8.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/20/russell-porter-hot-8.html Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:51:31 -0800 Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow visits his favorite comic book store in all the world -- Secret Headquarters, in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. With shop owner Dave Pifer, Cory walks us through some of the graphic novels and comics he loves, everything from manga to zine howto manuals to Jodorowsky to Warren Ellis. Cory is particularly fond (as are all of us at BBtv) of the shop's awesome simultaneous tribute to Stan Lee and the Sex Pistols in this t-shirt, "God Save Stan Lee."







]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/18/cory-doctorow-visits.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/18/cory-doctorow-visits.html Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:56:16 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, a music video for the Pinker Tones song "S.E.X.Y. R.O.B.O.T." produced by Bill Barminski's "Walter Robot" studio. The whole album ("Wild Animals") is great: Amazon link, iTunes.


Previous BBtv episodes featuring Walter Robot Studios and Bill Barminski:


• Bill Barminski animation: "Drive-In"

• Mark makes a mini amp / Funky cowboy (BBtv's 50th!)

• Roachbot / Walter Robot
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/17/sexy-robot-a-pinker.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/17/sexy-robot-a-pinker.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:05:00 -0800
Today on BBtv, part 2 of Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson's interview with his hero, futurist and artist Syd Mead, on the evolution of conceptual design.


In this installment, we go inside Syd's studio in Pasadena, CA, and learn more about the creative process behind his work for movies, television, and automobile design -- both Hot Wheels and life-sized -- and how Syd feels about design in the video game industry.





Mead is a former designer for Ford Motor Company and US Steel. His designs have appeared in many movies, including Aliens, Tron, and Blade Runner.

Previously on Boing Boing tv:


• Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 1.





]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/15/joel-johnson-intervi-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/15/joel-johnson-intervi-1.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:51:29 -0800

Today, part two of Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter's conversation with Toby from Transgressive Records, and Tom from the alternative music news and community website rockfeedback.com.

Transgressive was founded by two 20-year-old music fans who wanted to create a company that was "ethically sound and would release the best records in the world." Bands represented include The Young Knives (featured in previous BBtv episodes with Russell Porter, part 1, part 2), The Subways, Ladyfuzz, Jeremy Warmsley, and the Noisettes. Snip from the Transgressive manifesto:





It would be a label not linked to a style or genre, but one which would be represented by a logo that would be simply a stamp of quality on each perfect disk.



After a couple of pints in a Holborn boozer (not too far away from where Andy Gill would later record the classic debut LP from the Young Knives – although neither of the Trans twins knew it at the time) they had planned the first three releases and strove to grow the label to the stage where they could fund and make records that otherwise would not be released, and build a community of like minded people who could realise that anything is possible…



Previous PORTER REPORT episodes on BBtv:




• Russell Porter roundtable: Transgressive Records, rockfeedback.com, pt. 1
  
• Russell Porter with Alice Russell, pt. 2

• Russell Porter with Alice Russell

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 1.

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 2.

• Russell Porter with George Pringle

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 1

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 2
  

• Russell Porter with The Futureheads
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Guillotines
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Peggy Sue and the Pirates
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dockers MC
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip
  
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/15/russell-porter-trans.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/15/russell-porter-trans.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:30:59 -0800 Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter takes a break at the recent Great Escape festival in Brighton to discuss the state of the Brit indie music scene with Toby from Transgressive Records, and Tom from the alternative music news and community website rockfeedback.com.

Transgressive was founded by two 20-year-old music fans who wanted to create a company that was "ethically sound and would release the best records in the world." Bands represented include The Young Knives (featured in previous BBtv episodes with Russell Porter, part 1, part 2), The Subways, Ladyfuzz, Jeremy Warmsley, and the Noisettes. Snip from the Transgressive manifesto:





It would be a label not linked to a style or genre, but one which would be represented by a logo that would be simply a stamp of quality on each perfect disk.



After a couple of pints in a Holborn boozer (not too far away from where Andy Gill would later record the classic debut LP from the Young Knives – although neither of the Trans twins knew it at the time) they had planned the first three releases and strove to grow the label to the stage where they could fund and make records that otherwise would not be released, and build a community of like minded people who could realise that anything is possible…



Previous PORTER REPORT episodes on BBtv:

• Russell Porter with Alice Russell, pt. 2

• Russell Porter with Alice Russell

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 1.

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 2.

• Russell Porter with George Pringle

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 1

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 2
  

• Russell Porter with The Futureheads
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Guillotines
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Peggy Sue and the Pirates
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dockers MC
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip
  




]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/13/russell-porter-round.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/13/russell-porter-round.html Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:13:18 -0800 Xeni and Pesco visit TCHO, a homebrew chocolate technology startup hacked together by a space shuttle technologist, Timothy Childs, and the founder of Wired, Louis Rosetto.


In part one of BBtv's multi-part exploration of Tcho, we begin in the lab, and learn about the origins of chocolate: it's a weird looking fruit with biological roots in faraway tropical lands. How this fruit is cultivated, harvested, and cured determines the flavor of the final product, and we learn about the hedonics -- the sensual nuances -- of this exotic and temperamental element.



Related: read a feature about TCHO by David Pescovitz in the current issue of MAKE Magazine, Timothy and the Chocolate Factory.


Here are some iPhone snapshots from Xeni on Flickr: TCHO, Boing Boing tv.








(Special thanks to Amy Critchett, and Wayne & Breanna)


]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/11/tcho-part-1-chocolat.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/11/tcho-part-1-chocolat.html Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:12:57 -0800 Austrian subversive art collective monochrom present an all-new installment of the philosophical sock puppets Kiki and Bubu on today's episode of Boing Boing tv.

These fuzzy logicians ponder the true nature of individual identity in capitalist societies, and connect the dots between Star Trek fandom, Sesame Street characters, Broadway musicals, and racy jpegs.

Previously:


* Nazi Petting Zoo

* Fisch Interview

* Orwell's 1984 deconstructed by puppets

* Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets

* Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical

* Monochrom: Campfire at Will


* Monochrom: Falco Stairs

* Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial

* Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor

* Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/10/monochrom-kiki-and-b.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/10/monochrom-kiki-and-b.html Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:44:04 -0800 In today's episode of BBtv, Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson meets with his hero, futurist and artist Syd Mead, to discuss the evolution of conceptual design.

Mead is a former designer for Ford Motor Company and US Steel. His designs have appeared in many movies, including Aliens, Tron, and Blade Runner.]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/09/joel-johnson-intervi.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/09/joel-johnson-intervi.html Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:44:02 -0800 UK-based Russell Porter chronicles alt music culture in the Porter Report with aggressive wit and offbeat charm.


Today, part two of his exclusive two-part interview for Boing Boing tv with the soulful Brit singer-songwriter Alice Russell, whose musical influences include Chaka Khan, Jill Scott, Aretha Franklin, and Minnie Riperton. Here's the Brighton beauty's Wikipedia entry (with a decent discography); here's her MySpace page with tons of music clips, and gig dates.

Previous PORTER REPORT episodes on BBtv:

• 
  Russell Porter with Alice Russell

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 1.

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 2.

• Russell Porter with George Pringle

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 1

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 2
  

• Russell Porter with The Futureheads
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Guillotines
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Peggy Sue and the Pirates
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dockers MC
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip
  
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/08/russell-porter-with-9.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/08/russell-porter-with-9.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:20:36 -0800 UK-based Russell Porter chronicles alt music culture in the Porter Report with aggressive wit and offbeat charm.


Today, part one of his exclusive interview for Boing Boing tv with the soulful Brit singer-songwriter Alice Russell, whose musical influences include Chaka Khan, Jill Scott, Aretha Franklin, and Minnie Riperton. Here's the Brighton beauty's Wikipedia entry (with a decent discography); here's her MySpace page with tons of music clips, and gig dates.

Previous PORTER REPORT episodes on BBtv:

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 1.

• Russell Porter and Cadence Weapon, pt. 2.

• Russell Porter with George Pringle

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 1

• Russell Porter with The Young Knives pt 2
  

• Russell Porter with The Futureheads
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with The Guillotines
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Peggy Sue and the Pirates
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dockers MC
  

  
  

• Russell Porter with Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip
  
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/07/russell-porter-with-8.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/07/russell-porter-with-8.html Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:17:51 -0800 (Update: By total coincidental timing, the VA executive featured in this episode, Charles Ogilvie, announced today he's moving on from VA to do something that sounds equally cool with tech and entertainment. Details at the bottom of the post.)


[Xeni Jardin]: Last week, the Boing Boing tv crew was in San Francisco shooting a few upcoming episodes, and our friends at Virgin America (BBtv is shown on the in-flight entertainment system) invited us to come wander around behind security, and peek at the nuts and bolts that are the tech underpinnings of this airline.

They're about to launch in-flight wireless internet soon, and they're holding a competition for open source games, the winners of which will be available for people to play in-flight (entries are still being accepted).

Virgin America's head of in-flight entertainment, Charles Ogilvie, brought us on board a plane that was empty and at rest between flights. We poked around with the computers and displays (all Linux!) and we tried to IM our friends using the pilot's controls in the cockpit. This did not work so well.

My favorite part of this shoot: driving a VA pickup truck around between the resting airplanes, and peeking into the giant abyss where your bags are shuffled around on giant conveyor belt systems, hopefully towards your plane and final destination.

(Disclaimers: BBtv is an in-flight entertainment partner with Virgin, but BBtv doesn't receive compensation for this. VA once asked Boing Boing to name a plane, and we did, but we weren't paid for this, either. VA has previously been a paid sponsor on Boing Boing the blog. This episode isn't an ad, and we weren't paid to produce it. All of us at BBtv sincerely thought this stuff was cool, and that Charles Ogilvie is a cool guy with interesting ideas, and we had a blast goofing around where the TSA folks generally do not permit one to goof. )





- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Update, 07-03-08: BBtv learned today that Charles Ogilvie is moving on from Virgin America. We're bummed we won't be working with him there anymore! The timing of this episode and his move are totally coincidental, we weren't aware. Here's the note from VA CEO David Cush, after the jump, and congrats on your next adventures, Charles!


]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/03/xeni-kicks-the-tech.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/03/xeni-kicks-the-tech.html Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:23:18 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, "Nazi Petting Zoo," a new piece of political theater by Austrian art prankster collective monochrom, who explain:

In 1938 Austria joined the Third Reich. Millions cheered Hitler and in the referendum 99.75% said 'yes' to 'Greater Germany'.

But after World War II, many Austrians sought comfort in the idea of Austria as "the Nazis' first victim". Factions of Austrian society tried for a long time to advance the view that it was only annexation at the point of a bayonet(te).

But it's time to embrace history. It's time to remember the feel-good days of 1938. It's time to let our real feelings out! It's time to hug the Nazi, Austria! Finally!

Previous Boing Boing tv episodes featuring monochrom:

* Fisch Interview

* Orwell's 1984 deconstructed by puppets: monochrom

* Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets

* Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical

* Monochrom: Campfire at Will


* Monochrom: Falco Stairs

* Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial

* Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor

* Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/02/monochrom-nazi-petti.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/02/monochrom-nazi-petti.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:30:53 -0800 Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow performs a reading from his new novel Little Brother. This reading (from chapter 3, part 2) is the second in an ongoing BBtv series.


Previous installments: Part 1, Part 2

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/01/cory-doctorow-a-litt-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/07/01/cory-doctorow-a-litt-1.html Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:54:21 -0800 UK-based Russell Porter chronicles alt music culture in the Porter Report with aggressive wit and offbeat charm.


Today, part two of his exclusive interview for Boing Boing tv with the rap / IDM / hiphop / house / genre-bending artist Cadence Weapon, aka Rollie Pemberton, who hails from Edmonton, Canada.


Cadence Weapon, who is 22 years old, is touring Europe and US throughout the summer. Dates are listed -- where else? -- on his MySpace, along with various blinky things. His newest record Afterparty Babies was just released on Epitaph, and is, as the kids say, fierce.


]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/30/russell-porter-and-c.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/30/russell-porter-and-c.html Mon, 30 Jun 2008 01:20:45 -0800 Klaus Pierre, a French/German actor-waiter-whatever, aspires against all odds to become America's next great action hero. In today's episode, he takes his skills to the beach, and encounters a true Hollywood action hero, Matthias Hues.


Previous Klaus Pierre episodes on BBtv:

• Klaus Pierre: Super Pretty Action Hero Star

  
  

• Klaus Pierre: Red Carpet Botox Dreams
  
• 
  Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero in Training in America: Pirate Musical of Epic Fail
  
• Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero in Training in America, studies Savate
  
• 
  Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero in Training in America at Coffee Shop.
  


• Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero in Training in America, studies Swordfighting
  


• Point Break and heartbreak
  
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/27/klaus-pierre-the-bea.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/27/klaus-pierre-the-bea.html Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:06:43 -0800 Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow performs a reading from his new novel Little Brother. This reading (from chapter 3, part 1) is the second in an ongoing BBtv series.
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/26/cory-doctorow-a-litt.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/26/cory-doctorow-a-litt.html Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0800 UK-based Russell Porter chronicles alt music culture in the Porter Report with aggressive wit and offbeat charm.


Today, part one of his exclusive interview for Boing Boing tv with the rap / IDM / hiphop / house / genre-bending artist Cadence Weapon, aka Rollie Pemberton, who hails from Edmonton, Canada.


Cadence Weapon, who is 22 years old, is touring Europe and US throughout the summer. Dates are listed -- where else? -- on his MySpace, along with various blinky things. His newest record Afterparty Babies was just released on Epitaph, and is, as the kids say, fierce.




* Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring Russell Porter. Hot fire. (special thanks to Jolon Bankey).

Update: Russell Porter episodes featured on Boing Boing tv get a nod in Rolling Stone. Journamalists: Do not make fun of his hat, it is awesome.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/25/russell-porter-with-7.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/25/russell-porter-with-7.html Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:26 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, two short works from the young Paraguay-born animator and web designer Joaquin Baldwin, now a student at UCLA in Los Angeles. First, Papiroflexia, "An origami tale of a skillful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands." Next, Placenta, an "autobiographical film using photography, motion graphics and rotoscoped video."

Previously on Boing Boing tv:
Joaquin Baldwin's short, "Sebastian's Voodoo."

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/24/animation-placenta-a.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/24/animation-placenta-a.html Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:27 -0800




I just set up a Twitter feed for Boing Boing tv, so Twitter users can receive a ping when we air a new episode (once or twice a day, depending on how productive our hamsters are). Ten! Ten followers already! Take that, Scoble and Calacanis, we're comin' to getcha.

There's one for Boing Boing, too. And if you're really feeling follow-y, I'm on Twitter and I update regularly; Mark has an active profile as well. ]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/23/boing-boing-tv-now-h.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/23/boing-boing-tv-now-h.html Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:39:48 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv -- a sneak preview of Heavy Load: A Film About Happiness, a new documentary about a UK punk band whose members include people who have developmental disabilities.


'70s punk star Wreckless Eric describes them as "a triumph of dysfunctionalness," and even Kylie Minogue (they've covered a hit song of hers) has become a fan.

The band says their mission is...

...to demonstrate that disability rocks. There are few genres left in music that have yet to be defined. Heavy Load have unwittingly created a brand new one.

The band is also behind a campaign called "Stay Up Late" which advocates for the right of cognitively disabled people to be allowed to go out, supervised, to live music shows and -- well, stay out late enough to actually see and hear the show. Again, from the band:




We play gigs all over the country and we have noticed that something strange happens at 9.00pm – people start to go home. Heavy Load are fed up with people with learning disabilities leaving club nights and gigs early because their staff finish their shifts at 10pm. This means they are missing out.



If this happens to you: You need to talk about this with your friends, support workers, family and advocates. Our ‘Stay Up Late’ campaign is to make managers and staff know that we want them to plan ahead and talk to us about what we want to do...

The full-length documentary premieres on the US cable network IFC on June 23rd, 9PM ET/10PM PT, and again on 24th June. (Special thanks to BB's Mark Frauenfelder, and to the film's director, Jerry Rothwell)

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/23/heavy-load-uk-punk-b.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/23/heavy-load-uk-punk-b.html Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0800 A couple of weeks ago we came across a lovely YouTube video from London-based, Japan-born ukulelist Clara Belle. We posted it to Boing Boing, and her performance was such a hit with readers that we asked Clara to make another video so we could premiere it here on BBtv. Clara kindly agreed and just sent us this brand-new video of her song, "Summer Face."

After the jump: Clara also sent the following note, which answers a few of the questions Boing Boing readers asked about her...

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/20/clara-belle-performs.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/20/clara-belle-performs.html Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:00:00 -0800 In today's episode, Mark Frauenfelder brings his own espresso machine to US Barista Champion, Kyle Glanville, to learn how to make the perfect espresso. Kyle also gives a hands-on demonstration of the "ultimate nerd's way to make coffee."



This weekend, Kyle will be competing against the best baristas from around the globe in the 2008 World Barista Championship. The final round and awards ceremony are on Sunday, June 22nd, and streaming video of the competition can be seen now and through the weekend at worldbaristachampionship.com.

Previous Boing Boing tv episodes featuring Kyle Glanville and Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea:
*A Morning at Intelligentsia Part 1]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/20/a-morning-at-intelli.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/20/a-morning-at-intelli.html Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0800
In today's episode, Austrian subversive art collective, monochrom , presents the job interview video of one applicant, "Mr. Fisch." We don't know exactly how the tape was smuggled out past corporate security, but it somehow ended up in the BBtv mail room. We present it to you here to enjoy in all of its awkward and uncomfortable glory.



Previous Boing Boing tv episodes featuring monochrom:


* Orwell's 1984 deconstructed by puppets: monochrom

* Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets

* Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical

* Monochrom: Campfire at Will


* Monochrom: Falco Stairs

* Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial

* Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor

* Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/19/monochrom-fisch-int.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/19/monochrom-fisch-int.html Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0800 Today, BBtv is proud to share a sneak peek at the new "Improbable Research Collections" internet tv series.


The Improbable Researchers are a group of scientists who collect and conduct research to provoke both laughter and thought. They publish a bi-monthly magazine, "Annals of Improbable Research;" they award the coveted " Ig Nobel Prizes;" and they oversee the exclusive and ridiculous Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists ("for scientists who have, or believe they have, luxuriant flowing hair").


They launch an online series of offbeat videos this week, and like all they do, these 'net shorts are an amalgam of science, technology, and history with Monty-Python-esque irreverence.



In the Researchers' own words:


Each collection — each episode — is about three minutes long, composed of bits and pieces and people from the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, from Ig Nobel Prize lectures and ceremonies and other live events, and from many other sources. We have been collecting this material for almost twenty years.

Bonus (or punishment?) at the end: real scientists in real lab coats singing real bad musical comedy.


Like Boing Boing tv, the Improbable Research Collections videos will be released under a Creative Commons license (Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives).

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/17/improbable-tv.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/17/improbable-tv.html Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:15:00 -0800 John Behrens and "Omega Recoil" build giant Tesla Coils. Their work explores how electronic fields can be excited in the environment, and their creations become the centerpieces of interactive public art performances.


Some of the tinkerers and performers in this SF Bay Area-based collective were previously associated with Dr. Megavolt, an electrical art project which...

[featured] a person in a metal mesh suit interacting with artificially generated lighting. The Doctor sets objects on fire with electricity originating from large Tesla coils, spars with the electric arcs and exhorts the audience to worship the elemental force of electricity.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/16/omega-recoil.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/16/omega-recoil.html Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:30:00 -0800 In today's episode, BB co-founder and Make editor in chief Mark Frauenfelder heads out to Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea for an exclusive tour. Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea is based out of Chicago, Illinois and has recently opened up a new store in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles.


Kyle Glanville, head of research and development at Intelligentsia and winner of the 2008 US Barista Championship shows Mark how they acquire and roast some of the finest coffee in the world.



The word intelligentsia derives from the Latin word intelligentia, meaning a group of people engaged in complex mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture. Kyle Glanville has been laboring to promulgate a new coffee culture with Intelligentsia to combat the "get up and go" mentality, and Mark is along for the ride to learn the careful art of roasting coffee.



Intelligentsia is located at 3922 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90029 and is open 7 days a week.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/15/a-morning-at-intelli.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/15/a-morning-at-intelli.html Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:46:00 -0800 UK-based Russell Porter chronicles alt music culture in the Porter Report with aggressive wit and offbeat charm. In today's episode, Russell has a sit down chat on a stoney beach with eclectic melodramatic pop musician, George Pringle.



Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring Russell Porter.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/13/russell-porter-with.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/13/russell-porter-with.html Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:14:00 -0800 Rockabilly accordion vampire Count Smokula was born 496 years ago in Smokesylvania. Herbal remedies and excellent squeezebox tunes have empowered him with eternal life. BBtv caught up with him at a recent accordion music shindig in Los Angeles to explore the mystery behind his miraculous powers of entertainment.
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/10/count-smokula.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/10/count-smokula.html Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:18:00 -0800 Music legend David Byrne transforms an entire NYC building into a giant musical instrument, and Xeni joins him inside for a BBtv tour.

Playing the Building is Byrne's latest sonic innovation, and morphs the century-old Battery Maritime Building into a clanging, vibrating sound sculpture. In this installation, the former Talking Heads co-founder blurs the boundaries between the creators and consumers of culture. He explains:




Devices [have been] attached to the building's structure — to the metal beams and pillars, the heating pipes, the water pipes — and are used to make these things produce sound. The activations are of three types: wind, vibration, striking. The devices cause the building elements to vibrate, resonate and oscillate so that the building itself becomes a very large musical instrument.



Byrne sees music as deeply embedded within the natural sounds that surround us every day, and believes "anyone can be a writer, artist, or musician if they want to."


Playing the Building continues through August 10, 2008 at 10 South Street, New York, NY; open every Friday through Sunday, noon - 6pm. Admission is free of charge.

(Photos used in this episode: Clayton Cubitt. Special thanks to Danielle Spencer, and Jason Wishnow).

Update: Byrne will receive a lifetime achievement award at the Webby Awards tonight.]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/10/david-byrne-and-xeni.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/10/david-byrne-and-xeni.html Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:00:00 -0800 UK-based Russell Porter chronicles alt music culture in the Porter Report with aggressive wit and offbeat charm. Today, part two of his exclusive interview for Boing Boing tv with the English geek rock / pop punk band The Young Knives, whose name came from a bandmember's mis-reading of the phrase "young knaves", while leafing through a book.

From the All Music Guide:

Hailing from Oxford, England, the Young Knives feature Henry Dartnall (vocals/guitar), Oliver Askew (drums), and Thomas Dartnall (bass) (aka House of Lords). These snarky post-punk revivalists initially started out playing Ned's Atomic Dustbin songs while living in their hometown of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, but a move to Oxford in 2002 gave the Young Knives their big break. An appearance at the Truck Festival led to the band issuing The Young Knives...Are Dead mini-album for Shifty Disco in 2002. Three years later, the trio was playing shows alongside the Futureheads and Hot Hot Heat while readying their debut EP for Transgressive. The limited-edition Junky Music Make My Heart Beat Faster sold out quickly; "The Decision," which was produced by Gang of Four's Andy Gill, followed in December 2005. In the new year, the Young Knives' growing popularity seemed unstoppable. Both "Here Comes the Rumour Mill" and "She's Attracted To" made the U.K. Top 40.

* Link to part 1 of BBtv's Young Knives interview with Russell Porter.
* Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring Russell Porter.

(special thanks to Jolon Bankey).]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/09/russell-porter-with-6.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/09/russell-porter-with-6.html Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:37:25 -0800 Sock puppets (real, not metaphorical) deconstruct the symbolism of George Orwell's 1984 in the latest BBtv afterschool special from Austrian subversive art collective monochrom. Kiki and Bubu explore the age-old question of whether sexuality exists on the internet, and the soft-sculpture proletariat struggle continues.

Previously:


* Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets

* Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical

* Monochrom: Campfire at Will


* Monochrom: Falco Stairs

* Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial

* Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor

* Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/06/orwells-1984-deconst.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/06/orwells-1984-deconst.html Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:03:02 -0800 Xeni checks in with the authors of the forthcoming O'Reilly HOWTO book "iPhone Hacks" (David Jurick, Adam and Damien Stolarz) for a demonstration of how to unlock and jailbreak your iPhone or iPod Touch. The authors promise to teach you how to coax more out of these devices: little-known features, performance tweaks, and tips on great web-based apps to install -- video game emulators, IM and VoIP apps, and media players that can handle a wider range of filetypes.
]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/05/iphone-hacks-with-xe.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/05/iphone-hacks-with-xe.html Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:21:45 -0800 Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson heads out into the mean streets of Brooklyn to test-drive a language translation gadget used by US military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The voice response translator is produced by Integrated Wave Technologies, and is used in both combat and peacetime missions, with the ability to translate commonly used warnings, interrogation points, and commands into many different languages.

Joel, who describes himself as "an ignorant white doofus," says:



Some of the phrases were really quite violent, commanding people to get on the ground and put their hands over their heads. The guy who sits outside the five-and-dime all day on a folding chair thought those were especially funny.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/04/joel-johnson-iraq-vo.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/04/joel-johnson-iraq-vo.html Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0800 Today on Boing Boing tv, ambient animation from the prolific artist and filmmaker Bill Barminski. Drive-In is part of an ongoing series of immersive experiments by Barminski that re-create childhood memories of night skies, thunderstorms, and fireflies, as he remembers them. Link to previous BBtv episodes featuring Barminksi -- and coming soon on BBtv, interviews with the artist about the technical and creative process behind his work.



Music in this episode by Residential Sails.

]]> http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/03/bill-barminski-anima-1.html http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/06/03/bill-barminski-anima-1.html Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:58 -0800 UK-based Russell Porter chronicles alt music culture in the Porter Report with aggressive wit and offbeat charm. Today, the "professional chancer and well known layabout" brings Boing Boing tv an exclusive interview with the English geek rock / pop punk band The Young Knives, whose name came from a bandmember's mis-reading of the phrase "young knaves", while leafing through a book.

From the All Music Guide:

Hailing from Oxford, England, the Young Knives feature Henry Dartnall (vocals/guitar), Oliver Askew (drums), and Thomas Dartnall (bass) (aka House of Lords). These snarky post-punk revivalists initially started out playing Ned's Atomic Dustbin songs while living in their hometown of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, but a move to Oxford in 2002 gave the Young Knives their big break. An appearance at the Truck Festival led to the band issuing The Young Knives...Are Dead mini-album for Shifty Disco in 2002. Three years later, the trio was playing shows alongside the Futureheads and Hot Hot Heat while readying their debut EP for Transgressive. The limited-edition Junky Music Make My Heart Beat Faster sold out quickly; "The Decision," which was produced by Gang of Four's Andy Gill, followed in December 2005. In the new year, the Young Knives' growing popularity seemed unstoppable. Both "Here Comes the Rumour Mill" and "She's Attracted To" made the U.K. Top 40.

Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring Russell Porter. (special thanks to Jolon Bankey<