Browsing the archives for the Very Cool! category

OnLive.com – Instant Access Gaming…Interesting

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observations, technology, Very Cool!

So somewhere along the way I must have signed up for some info on this… I don’t recall, but today I got an email about it, so I thought I’d check it out… It’s called OnLive and according to the site it’s basically cloud gaming… I was pretty skeptical and I’m not exactly on the world’s speediest laptop, but I thought I’d give it a shot. It’s free to signup and there’s tons of free demos. Oh, and it looks like there is an iPad app as well…

Surprisingly, it actually runs real well… And the Demos are time based (30 minute chunks…not bad) at which time you could either pay a small fee to play for a longer time (I believe 3 hours) or in larger chunks (some I believe you can buy unlimited time)… It’s an interesting idea to say the least, and based on how it ran during my quick hour of experience, I’d say if they can get the word out, there’s probably a market for it… So if yer bored and looking for something to kill some time that could actually interest you further (especially if you’re like me and your most modern gaming system is the original X-Box), this is worth checking…

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David Lynch Video Contest Winners – Genero.tv

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music, Very Cool!, VIDEO, websites, weird

A month or so ago, David Lynch announced a video contest on Genero.tv for two new songs he’d recently released. (I so want to enter one of these someday – eventually I’ll get the needed equipment, software & time…).

Well, fast forward to January 3rd and the winners have been announced. Both the videos are ‘really’ impressive, especially given the relatively short timeframe. I’m sure anyone who’s a fan of Mr. Lynch already has some quirky visual ideas in their head, but both the winning videos (in their own way) capture both the mood of the chosen song as well as meshing nicely with the style and mood we all expect for anything related to Lynch’s creative body of work… I had some trouble getting the genero.tv video embeds to work, so you’ll have to click the images below to view the videos (and I highly recommend you do… I mean, it’s 9 minutes total that will enrich your day, that can’t be bad, right?)

GOOD DAY TODAY – David Lynch

Directed by Arnold de Parscau, this video is simply described as “A little boy is having dinner with his family.” Of course, there’s much more than that here. I love the slow paced shots and the transitions into the mind/imagination of the boy was very well done. The settings/environments are smothered in a beautiful darkness. The ending (I won’t spoil) felt a little forced but still works well.

I KNOW – David Lynch

Directed by Tamar Drachli (and shot solely on a Canon 7D!), this video is my favorite of the two. The story is a little more subtle (listed as “A man obsessed by the woman that left him tries to bring her back through the remote control”), but is still very captivating. Great use of natural lighting, nice cuts and shadows, striking close-ups and compelling pace.

All in all it looks like this was a successful venture for Genero.tv, and it looks like they’ve already got some new video contests running (for Duran Duran & OMD to name a few). A nice way to generate some stunning user content. I hope to get the chance later to browse some of the other contest submission and this will definitely be a site I’ll keep my eye on…

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Best Flick of 2010 – Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

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movies, observations, Very Cool!, VIDEO


Well it took until just a few days left in 2010, but I’ve just finished watching the best movie of the year -- hands down… Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

This movie has just about everything you can ask for in a movie. Great story, fantastic soundtrack, a cohesive cast, crazy action, hilarity… the list goes on. But above all, the motion graphics and cinematography absolutely blew me away (and I was watching on a crappy old-school 32 inch tube TV…).

I won’t go into the history and backstory of the whole Scott Pilgrim thing aside from mentioning it’s origins as a comic book… With that said, it’s this comic background that is the driving force behind all the subtle and overt uses of crazy motion graphics and special effects… The movie is filled with it, but because of the way its shot and the way the story flows, it’s stunningly not distracting at all.

Did I mention the movie has a “Bass Battle”?  How can you go wrong with that? Actually, this little clip along with the trailer (below) is a great example of the integration of the motion graphics and the style with which this movie is put together and paced…

The editing is fantastic. The cuts and transitions (of which the variety was insane) also really helped to fill in and push the energy and flow the story needed. This is a movie I’ll be rewatching for sure, and at some point I’d love to break it down and really take a deeper look at scenes/cuts/colors/effects/etc. I know I’m rambling a bunch of complimentary adjectives together, but fresh off watching it, there’s not much more I can say besides grab the DVD or hit it up On Demand at your earliest convenience….

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[adult swim] : IVC – Robot Chicken – Star Wars Episode III

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comedy, TV, Very Cool!, VIDEO, websites

[adult swim] : IVC – Robot Chicken – Star Wars Episode III.

Not a whole lot to say except that if you haven’t watched the latest Robot Chicken Star Wars (an hour long episode that is absolutely “wizard” by the way), then now you have no excuse… Throw in commentary and interactive features and I’m not understanding why you haven’t stopped reading this and clicked the link already to start enjoying your RC experience in its fullest!

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Art of the Title (Sequence)

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movies, TV, Very Cool!, websites


Art of the Title.

Wow, what a fantastic site. Stumbled onto this while surfing for ideas for a title sequence to a little piece I’m working on at work. Incredibly deep, this site takes stunning title sequences from Movies and TV and dives into the process of their creation; be it through an interview with the creator or production company, audio or video snippets of the process, and in some cases detailed breakdowns of each step in the life of the project (see the Dexter sequence breakdown). Quite a site to get lost in and the depth of information and visuals is superb. Bookmark this, favorite it or “like” it NOW…

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Pretty Hate Machine (2010 Remaster) – A Review

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music, observations, Very Cool!

So I’ve always wanted to do a comparison review, and what better opportunity than the fresh release of Nine Inch Nails classic Pretty Hate Machine… What I’m doing here is I’ve quickly listened to the original, (and really, I’ve heard each song like 2600 times; I mean it’s been 20 years ya?) and now as I listen through the whole remaster, I’m going to type some comments… Simple enough… So here ya go…

Head Like A Hole: Fuller, more bass (in a good way). The mid section breakdown has a tighter feel through the percussion with more pop and separation in the bass drum. The guitars have lost that ‘tinny’ feel. Nothing sounds “redone” (because it’s not), but its definitely richer…

Terrible Lie: The whispered “Hey God” mixed into the percussive beats in the intro can now be picked out much better. There’s some rolling percussive sound in the second verse that although I hear it now in the original, I never noticed till the remaster. It’s that separation again. The mid “Don’t take it away from me” (2:10) building portion is much more powerful (building sounds I don’t recall at all can be heard…).

Down In It: I expected the bass to be what impressed me on this one, but it’s really how much better the high’s float above everything.. There’s a subtle snap to the kick, and and the keyboard melts nicely into the full pounding bass. There’s an overall sense of stereo playfulness but just enough to have you on your toes without feeling like the song is trying too hard to swirl around your head… The last 20 seconds tighten up that stereo range in a growing peak.

Sanctified: Here the new ‘fullness’ really comes into play. This song always seemed to be shallow to me (from a production sense), but the dancing keys, popping bass line and rolling swells now seem to create a fantastic swirl around your head. There’s lots of whispers and new noises here (again, I’m sure they were just more buried in the original)… The breakdown around 3:20 is now a robust basket of weird swells and sounds. Building through the third verse, these accent noises play an even stronger role. This song is now really way more powerful to me than it ever was… The transition into the next track is much more powerful as well…

Something I Can Never Have: Always was a powerful tune… Around the 2:40 mark more stuff I don’t recall (birds & airplane noises?)… But it works, real subtle… Reznor’s ability to truly spend the whole five minutes building the emotion is really accentuated here… There’s just a subtle increase in the soundscape, the level of the underlying bass, that really gives that emotional build… Again the third verse it feels like there’s extra attention to spatial separation of all these background elements… Fantastic…

Kinda I Want To: Feels again like the old version was mono compared to this… This song always kinda of jumped up and down sonically because of the drastically different samples in the verse portions. Now there is much more balance in the levels of these sections so it’s less distracting and more effective… The recall at 2:19 of sample bits from ‘Down In It’ seem to be much more active… Because of the more stereo feel, the break at 3:00 that basically goes mono is pretty impressive… Great cacophony of sounds to end the song leading into Sin…

Sin: Same as last song. The intro makes you feel like you always heard this through crap speakers before. You can now make out every element of all these intro samples… The verses sound fuller… More bass and I definitely find myself focusing much less on the vocal line because I’m caught up in all that’s going on in the stereo field… New clicks I never noticed in the ending…

That’s What I Get: Fuller, fatter right off the bat. This is really the first song where it seems some more attention might have been paid to the vocals. I don’t know if that’s because there’s a little less going on around the vocal lines in this song than others, but there seems to be a little more reverb maybe? Instrumental mid section (3:01) very clean… Ending instrumental build sounds great (key swells, percussive…).

The Only Time: The effect on the bass drum here in the intro sounds new? When the chorus kicks here, a change of pace where I’m not really bombarded with lots of stereo stuff happening and instead it’s very crisp but controlled… The bass feels to be more off to the left here than in the other songs where it filled the soundscape. Lots of push and pull between quiet and loud in this song and it’s much more effective with the remaster…

Ringfinger: Separation is the first word I think of here… The intro sounds like you’re in the room as it’s just Trent and the keyboard… Vocals dead center into second verse… Super bass thump and the key pattern hyper jumping between the ears… All the percussive effects are super tight contrasting the key/guitar/vocal reverb that can be heard real subtly… The whole break part following the ‘Jane’s sample is pretty sweet. The bass kinda sits behind your head while all the samples, keys and percussive effects jump around the sides and front…

Get Down Make Love: Tougher to compare because I didn’t listen to this song nearly as much as all the other tracks… First impression is this one almost seems extra loud and compressed. Kinda cleans back up after the sample intro… Vocals kinda swimming under all the heavy sounds… Second verse there’s some new samples introduced in there that are kind of cool… Second chorus more crunchy…

Overall: Right out of the gate, there’s a greater clarity… And as soon as Head Like A Hole kicks in, it’s clear, this is mastered at a higher volume. But it’s not purely a volume boost by any means. There’s an immediate sense of a greater spacial soundscape. It’s very natural and fluid, but things are definitely placed more precisely throughout the stereo range. It’s fuller, but clearer at the same time… Really exciting listening to this all the way through like this for the first time. I’ve never really paid enough attention to other remasters in this way before, but there is truly a significant difference. And it doesn’t feel forced or weird. This remaster doesn’t try to make you think this album wasn’t created 20 years ago (and that’s a good thing). It just gives a clear picture into what Reznor was probably really thinking with the extra bonus of 20 years experience under his belt… I HIGHLY recommend if you’re at all a NIN fan…

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Cool App – Cleveland Historical for iPhone

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iPhone, observations, Very Cool!


Cleveland Historical for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.

Nice app developed by the Center for Public History + Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University. Easily browse many historical areas, get photos, watch videos & information, etc… 100+ historical locations in here so far with updates planned…

Slick job done here with some really great info… It’s good to see a local app popping up in the app store…

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GIRL TALK – ALL DAY – ILLEGAL ART

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music, Very Cool!

GIRL TALK – ALL DAY – ILLEGAL ART.

It’s been a while in the making but Girl Talk has just released his latest album… It’s a free (although tough to get because of server demand) download from the illegal art site…

So far (just a few tracks into it), it’s very much as expected… (and for the most part that’s a good thing…). A nice mash between hip-hop lyrics flying over 80′s and classic rock snippets and bits. I’d say so far it feels a little more subdued and a little less hectic than the past few albums…

Still worth a grab….

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