And now, for something completely different…
Oh well, I thought about shying away from political commentary here, but it’s gotten so bizarre, I feel the need to at least poke it with a stick. Katie Couric interviews Sarah Palin on the current economic situation and it’s downright laughable how uninformed she is. And by “laughable” I of course mean “scary.” Do with that what you will.
I’d embed the video, but I won’t subject you to auto-playing anything. Dancer David Elsewhere doing his thing for a Motorola campaign. Highly enjoyable.
Bridgette Semler’s Bon Iver Cover
YouTube math: Ukulele + weirdly-engaging voice + Bon Iver cover + doubletime = Bridgette Semler’s cover of Flume
Bon Iver themselves did a lovely rendition of Flume on Conan O’Brien this week, too. If you haven’t given them a fair listen yet, I highly recommend you do.
And while we’re on the topic, how about a spontaneous acapella version of For Emma?
I.O.U.S.A. Motion Infographics
Quite a few of the infographics from the upcoming documentary I.O.U.S.A. have made their way online. YouTube has a few clips like this lovely one. Motion graphics designer Brian Oakes is responsible and his portfolio is full of equally-well-executed work.
Related: Univers Ultra Condensed is apparently the font of choice for info graphics these days. Design accordingly.
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Aspiring super-villain Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) wants to join the Evil League of Evil and win the girl of his dreams, but his nemesis, Captain Hammer… oh, just go ahead and block out your lunch break to watch the newest offering from Joss Whedon and Co.
I’m enjoying the slightly odd musical stylings of Francis and the Lights, especially the toe-tapping video for A Modern Promise.
Wired tells you where to watch the 2008 Beijing Olympics online. We don’t have a TV, so this pretty much the only place I’ll be watching the Olympics this year. I love the internet.
Big. Man. Japan. Really, there’s not enough weird Japanese film culture that makes it stateside. It’s unfortunate.
I don’t care if it’s a crappy camcorder bootleg from Thursday’s ComicCon, this teaser trailer for Tron 2 has me completely nerding out.
Feist on Sesame Street
If the amount of sleep I’ve had in the past few days was the theme of a video, it would be this one.
And if said video doesn’t make you smile, you have no soul and your childhood most likely consisted of pure evil. (Link shamelessly pilfered from Michael Eades)
Channel 4 Creative Services has a brilliant one-take commercial from the director’s point of view on the (recreated) set of The Shining promoting a series of Stanley Kubrick films they’ll be showing. Details, details, details.
Aside from the somewhat silly-sounding name, the teaser trailer for the next James Bond film Quantum of Solace looks extra tasty. I’m loving the renewed direction they’re taking the 007 franchise.
Season 1 of the AutoDesk-sponsored, PBS-produced, Brad Pitt-narrated series e2 - The Economies of Being Environmentally Conscious is available for free viewing on Hulu. The series delves into a variety of case studies and interviews about sustainable architecture and building initiatives and it’s stellar.
Andrew Pile reports that Vimeo recently played 1,007,116 videos in 24 hours. They’ve essentially quadrupled in size in the last six months. Vimeo trumps every other video sharing site in pretty much any category that matters.
YoutTube is trying out full-length videos here and there in an effort to see if they’ll be more marketable for advertisers. If the content is compelling, sure, I might sit in front of my computer for long stretches of time (Hulu proves this consistently). But I certainly won’t watch a horribly compressed YouTube video for that long. Maybe I’m in the minority?
One-Man-Band Omnichord Cover of Back in Black
Things that might provide still yet more context for the complete and total awesomeness of the slightly NSFW video:
This is Matt Mahaffey using a drum kit, an old Suzuki electronic instrument called an Omnichord (here’s a PDF of the Omnichord84 user manual) and what I’m guessing is a Big Muff distortion pedal.
Matt plays in a band called sElf and, along with his brother, also wrote the Expedia.com theme jingle.
Quote, “It’s hot, steamy food in your face right now.” Wearable feedbags for fast food.
The Democratic Primary in 8 Minutes
In case you haven’t been keeping up, here’s a recap of the entire ‘07/08 Democratic Primary race condensed down to 8 minutes of well-edited and narrated video.
I wish political coverage was this succinct and engaging on television.