iFilm has made a deal with Comedy Central and is hosting a bunch of clips from their popular shows including Daily Show and The Colbert Report. (It’s updated daily)
Category: Art
Water Polo Champions
Those of you that know me well, know that I love water sports. Last night my water polo team won the U of L intramurals finals in a victory so decisive, I didn’t actually find out the final score.
I’m not going to say it was easy. For one thing, we were missing a lot of players last night. One had bus trouble and wasn’t back from her swim meet in Vancouver, another had a concert to perform in — one that if he missed he would fail his music class. There were a couple other players that just sort of, stopped coming to the games, so that left us a person short and no subs.
It was 6 on 7 for the first half and we actually did really well, despite being short handed. However, near the beginning of the second half, our goalie swam up out of the water to make a save and then fell back under the water shaking with pain. Nobody could figure out what happened to him. I swam over as did a couple others and it turns out that he had one of the worst cramps in his calf that I’ve ever seen. It was pulsing up and down.
So that left us down to 5 players. I have to be honest — I was a little worried.
It turns out my fear was misplaced because it was at this point that we really started to pull ahead. It’s games like this one that remind me why I love water sports so much.
Update: Check out this great water polo flickr set by my friend John Lapins.
Mr. Citymen
Mr. Citymen is a series of five wonderful short animated pieces by Eric Lerner. It seamlessly combines computer rendered characters inside live action environments.
Coupled with the avant garde soundtracks, these animations work on a variety of levels and evoke various responses from the viewer. Also the combination of live action and animation is incredibly effective.
Moo Cards
Last month a company called MOO Print Ltd gave out ten free “moo cards” to any Flickr Pro subscriber. Since I didn’t have anything to lose, I ordered up my ten free cards and was pleased that there really are no strings attached and the cards look great.
I was excited to jump on the “take pictures of my moo cards and post them on flickr” bandwagon, however, at the time I got mine in the mail, my camera happened to be inconveniently getting a free massage by the nice people at Nikon. (They replaced the shutter and aperture, not to mention gave it a nice software upgrade—it fixed the problem so despite the wait I’m happy again).
Anyway now that I have my camera back and without further ado, here are a few of my moo cards:
The thing on the left is a roll of magnetic tape. I’m in the process of turning the cards into magnets moo-gnets.
Why is it easier to make friends than to keep them? Check out this great 3D animated short, Potapych.
Modern Day Robin Hood
A modern day Robin Hood was giving out free money and almost causing riots in New York. They claim it’s all in the name of making people feel good.
From the BBC story:
Three Britons dressed as Robin Hood and his Merry Men caused a small stampede in a park in New York after throwing $4,000 (£2,110) into the air.
The pranksters—from Sheffield in England—said they hoped their stunt would encourage New Yorkers to be more polite and “give something back”.
However, the plan reportedly back-fired after passers-by pushed and pulled at each other to grab the free cash.
The men who called themselves the Modern Day Robin Hoods, threw the $4,000, made up of $1, $5,$10 and $20 notes, into the air, sparking the frenzy. Even children were reportedly stepped on, although no-one was seriously hurt.
I love this short cartoon on YouTube, and I think you’ll like it too.
Watch here:
It’s a Master’s thesis animation by Dony Permedi of The New York School of Visual Arts. He used Maya, After Effects, and rigged it using The Setup Machine by Anzovin studios. So far it’s had over 2 million views on YouTube, which, as Cartoon Brew points out here, means there is a good market developing for short animations online.
The Shopping Penguin
Check out the video of a fourteen year-old king penguin from Japan that likes to go shopping — no joke. For more penguins see Miss Cellania’s Penguin Post.
Lethbridge on the Simpsons
The city of Lethbridge, Alberta (the place where I live) was featured in a gag on the Simpsons. The Simpson family was watching a show called, “Hunch” and Lethbridge was the “filming location” for the City of New York.
From the episode: 17×22 – Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play
Rabbit is a creepy remix of old graphics from 1950s illustrations that have been rendered into animation in Adobe After effects. It’s a beautifully creepy story—just in time for Halloween.
Update: PingMag has an interesting interview with director Run Wrake.