Friday, September 16, 2005
Great bunch of Werner Herzog quotes.
"Someone like Jean-Luc Godard is for me intellectual counterfeit money when compared to a good kung fu film.""Coincidences always happen if you keep your mind open, while storyboards remain the instruments of cowards who do not trust in their own imagination and who are slaves of a matrix... If you get used to planning your shots based solely on aesthetics, you are never that far from kitsch."
"I invite any sort of myths [about myself] because I like the stooges and doppelgangers and doubles out there. I feel protected behind all these things. Let them blossom! I do not plant them, I do not throw out the seeds. I advise you to read Herzog on Herzog because there you see a few clarifications."
@ 10:35 PM CST [Link]
Video can be extracted from mammal brains. And using only 8 pairs of cells no less. Hard to believe, really. Old article from 1999. What's the opposite of futureshock? Nostalgiapinch?
@ 10:33 PM CST [Link]
Thursday, September 15, 2005
How long has ign.com been reviewing comics? Handy, but limited to mostly superhero stuff.
@ 09:42 PM CST [Link]
Fujitsu's "polite" robot now on sale. Not much to say here, other than that is just a great photo.
Dammit! I said call my wife, not kill my wife!
@ 09:38 PM CST [Link]
New PBF New cat and girl too:
@ 09:27 PM CST [Link]
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Apple and NeXT designer cracks the iPod design code.
“I know why everyone says the iPod looks clean!” he exclaimed.The iPod has become—in the minds of most of our clients—the example of great product design. We found ourselves constantly trying to figure out why everybody we asked perceived the iPod as being “clean.”
Of course, we were aware of the obvious cues such as minimalist design; the simple, intuitive interface; the neutral white color. But these attributes alone inadequately explain this seemingly universal perception. It had to be referencing a deeper convention in the social consciousness… so, if a designer claimed that he had the answer—we were all ears.
“So… as I was sitting on the toilet this morning” (this is of course where most good ideas come from), “I noticed the shiny white porcelain of the bathtub and the reflective chrome of the faucet on the wash basin… and then it hit me! Everybody perceives the iPod as ‘clean’ because it references bathroom materials!”
I can never look at my mini the same way again. It really does look like it belongs in the bathroom, perhaps mounted next to my toothbrush holder or hanging somewhere in the shower.
@ 10:13 AM CST [Link]
Monday, September 12, 2005
Ad blocker updated. So long theonion.com ads.
@ 10:30 PM CST [Link]
Worth1000: Aliens everywhere. There's a new player in the secret war between the Raelians and the Scientologists:
@ 10:29 PM CST [Link]
Long list of sci-fi cliches. Or as I like to call it, "story ideas." It's a really long list, but here are a few I liked and have noticed before.
The government bans music, painting, dancing, or some other art form; only the hero seems to care enough to do anything about it.
A technological innovation prompts a large portion of society to violently suppress it.
The less technologically advanced a culture is, the more spritually advanced it is.
An entire society is run by a computer. Maybe it goes beserk.
An being is sent to earth on a mission of assassination or genocide; it changes its mind after getting to know (and perhaps fall in love with) one or more humans.
Superheroes wear primary colors (red, blue, and yellow).
Supervillains wear secondary colors (green, purple, and orange).
All alien females, galaxy-wide, use cosmetics the same way that Western women do.
An alien tongue is translated into perfect English, except for gratuitious use of alien units of time and distance.
Aliens who are vastly more intelligent and advanced than we are, but we beat them anyway by "ingenuity," plain guts, or exploiting an Achilles Heel.
Explorers are greeted as gods by the natives, who cling to this belief in spite of everything the explorers do and say.
When the Evil Overlord dies, none of his surviving henchmen move into the power vacuum; instead, his empire collapses.
@ 10:24 PM CST [Link]
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Fantasy landscape gallery. Lots of good work in here, especially this Tim Burton looking building. I also dig this retro-future vision of ecological harmony. Its very Fuller-esque.
@ 02:00 PM CST [Link]
E-sheep.com artist's righteous indignation. Good, but, some new e-sheep content would be better.
@ 01:46 PM CST [Link]
Director of original Wicker Man movie angry at remake. Oh please, these guys sign their rights away to hollywood and expect some kind of fine art to be produced? When has there ever been a good re-make? I can think of 2 or 3, maybe.
In the original, Woodward's character was a virgin, making him ideal for sacrifice. That element has been ditched from the remake, because it was thought that while audiences would accept the idea of an American community that practised human sacrifice, the idea of a grown-up virgin was just too farfetched.Instead, Cage's character has acquired a serious allergy to bees and travels with a bee-sting kit, as well as rosary beads and self-help tapes.
In an attempt to give the story a feminist slant, writer-director Neil LaBute has turned the island into a matriarchal society, headed by Burstyn.
Christopher Lee, who regards The Wicker Man as his best film, has been critical of the remake plans.
"What do I think of it being played by a woman, when it was played by a man in 1972, as part of a Scottish pagan community, and now it's played by a woman with the same name? What do I think of it? Nothing. There's nothing to say."
A spokesman for the production company Emmett/Furla in Beverly Hills refused to discuss the film beyond confirmation of the casting.
@ 01:36 PM CST [Link]
Scottevest commercial. I don't think that e-clothing will ever catch on, and thankfully so, but their makers do make funny commercials.
@ 01:29 PM CST [Link]
