Last night I attended Stomp in Calgary at the Jubilee Auditorium with Kelli and her parents. It was pretty amazing to see and hear the variety of rhythm and music composed from the sounds of brooms, chairs, PVC piping, and match boxes, just to name a few. The biggest surprise came when I began to realize it’s as much a visual narrative as it is about the sound.
Here is my sneaky snap shot that I took at the end of the show (photographs are discouraged). I assume it’s because flashes and LCD screens are distracting, so I made sure to turn both off.
Titan the robot is the new and unique entertainment concept that has taken the United Kingdom by storm. Titan is equally at home in almost any arena and switches from street theatre to corporate hospitalty with ease. In fact the events Titan has previously appeared at have spanned almost every possible genre including large outdoor events, product launces, celebrity partes, trade shows, shopping centres, music festivals, fashion shows, and even several TV appearances and has even been used in a national advertising campaign by one for the UK’s largest holiday companies.
Titan’s allure spans all age groups, ethnic backgrounds and languages, he really does have a universal appeal; we have yet to find an event where Titan doesn’t fit in.
Clever illustration and animation guy Rich Cando created this Simpsons/Star Wars mash-up that I think you’ll enjoy. Accept for maybe a touch of tweaking in the animation itself, I don’t think Groening and crew could have done it much better themselves.
For the first time since 1989, Harrison Ford dons the familiar costume on Thursday, June 21, 2007, as the upcoming Indiana Jones adventure begins production under the direction of Steven Spielberg. The new Indiana Jones movie is set in the 1950s and stars Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, John Hurt, Ray Winstone and Jim Broadbent. The Lucasfilm Ltd. production will be released by Paramount Pictures worldwide on May 22, 2008.
Check out the top ten best 8-bit games as rated by the Game Trailer Countdown. A couple of my favorite 8-bit games, Tetris and Excitebike, didn’t make the cut, but the GT list does have some classics.
When I took a stroll around the presidio while in San Francisco last January, I stumbled upon the LucasFilm compound—the place where they make so many of the world’s great special effects.
Today I came across a humorous Conan O’brien clip in which Conan visits the studio, checks out some of the movie memorabilia and he even gets suited up in mo-cap gear. His tour was a lot more extensive than mine.
It was interesting to see him interacting in some of the places I had photos, like these ones of Darth Vader andBoba Fett. I also got one outside with a similar background of the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts.
The American version of Deal or No Deal is airing its 100th episode. When I first watched the show, sometime close to it’s premiere, I was quite bothered by the fact that the game doesn’t really have much strategy to it. You don’t have to know anything, you just pick random cases—something that anybody could do.
Nevertheless, despite the aggravating stalling and the fact that I judged most of the contestants to be greedy morons, I found myself compelled to watch, at least for the first few weeks—each episode hoping that tonight would be the night someone goes home a millionaire.
The greed aspect used to bother me because at a certain point the risk involved in continuing far outweighs the statistical chance of gaining more money. I suppose that’s what makes the show so compelling and I have to admit that within every negotiation, there is a time to get out and a time to stay in, and success hinges upon selecting that sweet spot between too early and too late. I tend to admire those with the sense to get out early more than the romantics who go for it, because I’m not a high roller. Betting tens of thousands of dollars, even when the odds are on your side, is astonishingly reckless. I suppose though, either way it turns out, the suspense is very good for ratings and allows us at home to play vicariously—wondering what it is we would do when put in that same situation.
The following is a YouTube clip from British version of Deal or No Deal that aired last January. The host, or presenter, is a man named Noel Edmonds. The differs from the American version in that there are no lovely models to open cases. Instead they bring in 22 contestants and each choses a case at random. Then one person is selected to play the game and, like the American and Canadian versions, choses cases to open to eliminate from play.
It’ll all become clear in the clip but the main thing you need to know is that the folks opening the cases in lieu of the models are contestants who weren’t selected to play this round. Also, of course, the top prize is in pounds—it’s £250,000.
As of this morning the British pound was worth a hair under two bucks in American money so 250,000 of them is the equivalent of just under half a million US. If that seems horribly lower than the usual top prize in Canada and the States (a million dollars in our respective currencies), remember that on the North American shows, the top prize is in one out of 26 cases, not 22, so the odds are a little different.
Also note that, unlike the States, the winnings in the UK and Canada are tax free.
If you missed the first episode of This American Life on Showtime last night, you can catch it online on Showtimes website. Or if you’re in a country other than the US of A, you’ll have good luck with a bittorrent search. I just finished watching it, and it really is as good as the radio version.
