Colbert '08

My hero.
Watch all three.
Now!

Looks like youtube has pulled the vids due to "copyright infringement", but crooks and liars still has some links to videos of the event.

Check out this post about the controversy on Boingboing.

Looks like C-SPAN has officially posted the videos to Google video.

Where in the world are Chad and Trish?

I made this quick little video with Google Earth and Moviemaker.
Now I just need to Trish and Chad to go on a high speed chase while I follow them by satellite. Call me Tony Scott.

Experimental Video

Watch the Video

I just posted this clip to blip.tv.
I've been wandering around the net, trying out different video services.
I'll try to post a review of the best/worst in the near future.

Here's a link to the youtube post of this vid for comparison.
The resolution isn't as nice, but I'm wondering if the flash format makes it a bit more accessible. Any thoughts from my Mac/Linux/TRS-80 running BSD friends?

Old School Thursday

Time for some Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos.
This one's going out to TT Boy.
peace,
Professor Griff

(image via wikipedia)

c -walk?

So I'm paddling through the electro surf on youtube, and I do a search for Outkast which leads me to this kid doing the crip walk in his living room which leads me to this wikipedia entry which leads me back to youtube to a whole bunch of crip walk media ( as well as blood walking ). Then I google "crip blog" and I come across this site which leads me to the postings of this girl from Indy. Her posts are this chaotic blend of gang lingo mixed with netspeak. On February 9th she posts that she thinks she's pregnant. Suddenly we see this scared teenager drop the gang girl pose. She's absent for a few months, and then posts that it was a false alarm, and the tough girl is back.

So where am I going with this?
I'm not sure.

There are a million different stories that I could follow from just this tangential journey.
-What is a gang??
-Gang subcultures and rituals
-The growth of independent viral gang media
-The connection of gangs and hip hop
-Race/class/economics...?
-How do police, parents, teachers, etc. define a gang?
-How do they define themselves?
-What about wannabe culture?
-If you post on a site devoted to promoting gang culture, make videos of yourself crip walkin', take pictures of yourself in gang colors, does that make you a gang member?

on and on and on...

Good source for a movie.
Now I just need to find a filmmaker...
Hold on a second.
What am I saying?
Gotta go.

art is toxic

I'm doing research for a possible art project and I came across this site.
I love that they have a whole section devoted to gear for pets and kids.

meltdown

Why does this remind me of Bellona in Dhalgren?
The idea that there is this ghost city in the Ukraine still glowing with poison from Chernobyl is strangely attractive in some way.
I have the bizarre desire to put on a heavy duty hazmat suit and play in the ruins of this man-made Pompeii.

Nepal

This photo just blows me away.
When was the last time you saw someone in this country who feels passionate enough about his political views to take on the police with a wrist rocket??
phalano.com is a great blog about the protests going on in Nepal.
It makes me feel kind of guilty and spoiled.
Maybe I'll write a letter to my representative.
It's a start.

(via boingboing)

vidku # 2

(Exariam ambience via Galdson and opsound)

I wouldn't leave you hanging...

End of semester is kicking my ass, but I won't forget about Old School Thursday.
Nobody beats the Biz.
And if you order now, you get this bonus.

Monster Road

Big news for documentary fans.
Bright Eye Pictures is releasing their film Monster Road on DVD.
This is an amazing film about the animator Bruce Bickford, with a fantastic soundtrack
by Sharkquest.

Disclaimer of bias... Brett Ingram was one of my professors, but I was a fanboy even before taking his class. Watching this movie encouraged me to take his class, and to think about documentary filmmaking in a whole new way. Great teacher, great filmmaker.
Go out and buy a copy for yourself and a friend.
I can't wait to see his new film Renaldo.

what's the deal?

Okay.
Fridays were going to be video haiku day, but flash wasn't playing nice with my other programs, so I leave you with this gem from the mullet haiku archive.

Sphinx standing guard
A double-wide sarcophagus
Get off my property

( mullet by mulletjunky.com )

Old school Thursday

You know the time.

It's like Sun Ra, George Clinton, and Kraftwerk had a love child.

(image via wikipedia.org)

Don't worry be happy was a number one jam

Damn if I can say it you can slap me right here!
or
Why I hate acapella...
Well, not these guys.
You have to give them credit for being able to rock those old school chops and wear those straw hats.

But everyone else is on notice.
I'm declaring a 10 year moratorium on this scourge.
I'm not banning it completely.
We just need to give it a rest.
I don't want to hear any more versions of the Super Mario theme mashed up with Jesus Christ Superstar mashed up with Hey Jude.
It's cute for about 5 minutes, then it makes me want to smash things.
Wow.
It feels good to finally get that off my chest.
Carry on.

What the hell is a vidku?

I've decided to make Fridays my video theme day.
This Friday is going to be video haiku day.
Video because... because it's on video.
Haiku because it's a short... kinda poetic...
Just trust me.
It's a video haiku.
17 seconds = 17 syllables
That's about as close as I could come this week.
I'll be a bit more strict about the rules in the future.
Feel free to submit your own vidkus.
I'll post the best.
Enjoy.
j

fire pretty!

(via boingboing)

It's like a jungle sometimes...

...it makes me wonder how I keep from going under.
It's time for old school hip hop video Thursday.

Let's get in the time machine.
Set the dial to 1983.
I'm sitting in my mom's car listening to a best of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five tape I just bought at Jamesway.
Playing The Message and Survival over and over and over...
Like Biggie said-
I let my tape rock '’til my tape popped.

For a 13 year old white kid from rural PA, this was like a bomb going off in my brain.
Wannabe? Sure, I'll own up to that title.
And I so wanted to be.
Anything.
Anything but what I was.
What kid doesn't want to be someone else for a bit?
A trip on the wheels of steel helped me see the world in a different way.
Thanks Flash.
j

The job market is a sucking abyss...

Oh man.
How many job applications for how many McJobs did I want to answer the questions like this?

The Nihilist Job Resume

Work Experience

Lead Sales Representative, Howard Brothers Trucking Co. (June 2003 to present) As the leading sales representative at Howard Brothers, I implemented a new invoicing database lauded by my maudlin, foolhardy management team as "wonderfully efficient and surprisingly self-explanatory." Why any of this mattered, I don't know or care. As far as being a "leader" goes, I wasn't leading anyone or anything. Death is the great leveler, leading us all. Or not. Again, who cares, really? Sales Clerk, Hot Topic (January 2001 to June 2003) Employee of the month 29 consecutive times.

(via Boingboing)

Copyright comic book

The Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain released this comic book on fair use and copyright.
(via detritus.net)

(image used under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license)

copy cut paste

Here are some ways to educate yourself and get involved in the copyfight.

If you're looking for a much more flexible alternative to the current copyright model-
http://creativecommons.org/

A model based on the open source movement-
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/

A Stanford Law School professor who has done a great deal to help shape the arguments against the current model-
http://www.lessig.org/

Music activism
http://www.downhillbattle.org/

Helping to fight for citizen's rights in a digital age-
http://www.eff.org/about/

Exhibition of art that pushes the boundaries of sample culture-
http://www.illegal-art.org/

This is just a small sample of interesting links to get you started.
Go on.
Educate yourself.
Create something and share it.
Support those artists who do the same.
Encourage those who don't.
Lather, rinse, and repeat.

(image licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5)

Notorious

Tofuhut has a great piece about the Sinatra/Biggie mashup and the recent court case that stopped sales of Biggie's '94 album Ready to Die.
This kind of stuff makes me ill. Who benefits from these suits? Let me see... record companies/lawyers?!? The line between protecting the artist and stifling the creative process has been erased a long time ago. This goes way beyond hip hop and music sampling. Can anyone point to one art form that doesn't borrow from something else? Art is cannibalistic.
I'm all for protecting the artist, but we have to figure out a new way to deal with the issues of intellectual property. The techno-genie is out of the bottle. We better focus on our three wishes. And no, we can't wish for unlimited wishes.