If nothing else, we will always know that Bill O'Reilly knows how to get a party started. I can see the hands flying up in the nightclub air right now... And just in case you missed the original, here you go.
[Via Steve Garfield / Chuck Olsen]
French director, Romain Gavras, directs Justice's newest music video for the song Stress. If you could epitomize what stress would look and sound like in a music video, I think this would be it. Romain and Justice take you to that place that gets the heart pumping with frustration and anxiety. I love how this video really grabs hold of the beat and just doesn't let go. A great marriage of video and sound.
[via mdfsmash.com]
Reformat the Planet is a documentary about the "chiptunes" music scene and its premiere event -- the annual Blip Festival in New York. Chiptunes music is inspired by video game and computer soundtracks of the 80's and 90's -- when music was synthesized in real-time by a sound chip capable of only a limited number of sounds.
In this interview, Zadi speaks to Paul Owens, the director of the film, and Chris Burke, one of the most recognized chiptunes artists in the scene. Chris also gave us a private live performance, which you can watch in its entirety.
Just before we spoke with Chris Burke and Paul Owens about the Blip Festival documentary, Chris (AKA Glomag) gave us the pleasure of an impromptu live performance in an atrium of a hotel. Aside from being a pioneer in the chiptune scene, Chris is also the creator and host of the Halo machinima talk show This Spartan Life.
Over the next week I'll be posting a few segments that didn't make it on the show. In this first installment, Zadi sits down with the creators of the new film Super High Me, which follows comedian Doug Benson as he pledges to smoke pot every day for 30 days.
This cartoon never gets old. I remember watching it as a kid, but it was already retro by then (the toon was released in 1969). Classic pwnage at its finest.
(via shey.net)
Brooklyn's Santi White (AKA Santo Gold) is often compared to fellow proghopper M.I.A. The video is an homage to the 1973 cult film The Holy Mountain. I expect to see more dancehall/reggae influenced hip-hop artists rise up over the next few years.
Because when you look down at cars passing by on the highway of life, you totally think of guitar hero! I do! :)
4.11.08. we all belong. from paul dateh on Vimeo.
Paul Dateh recounts his personal experience with friends who were victims of gang violence. I wanted to pass this on because in this online web 2.0 world of ours, these are stories we often times don't get to hear (or speak about), but are all too familiar. These are the stories we need to share with each other.
M83's forthcoming album Saturday = Youth is supposed to capture the essence of teenager angst in the 1980's. The band's sole member, Anthony Gonzalez, has specifically referenced John Hughes movies like The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. Watch the video for Graveyard Girl and tell me you don't see a Molly Ringwald resemblance.
(via Stereogum)
Just received a message from Vance (Behold the Mundane) alerting me to these super cool Super Mario Drum Pads for Rockband! He and his friend/co-creator Jennifer toiled long and hard on these, so show some love. There are also Flickr pictures.
[Thanks Vance]
Ouch.
Our friends at Moblogic did some interesting street interviews in New York to see what people thought of Martin Luther King, Jr's legacy today.
How do you think his legacy is doing today? Seems to me it's a mixed bag. I don't know if it's progress, but economic factors seem to be the most dividing elements of today's world. There's more tolerance on the surface between the races, but if you scrape your fingernail along the surface of America, what you find underneath is pretty ugly.
We were watching this yesterday at Epic-Fu HQ and almost forgot to post it.
Here, the boys of South Park end up at the Department of Internet Money attempting to collect the riches they've made from their successful web video: What, What in the Butt. In the end, they learn a valuable lesson.
If you scrub to about :53 you'll see that we're now forever stamped in Rick Rolling history. Later in the video you'll see Tim Shey from NNN who was Live Rick Rolled by Rocketboom. LOL.
Is it finally the death of the Rick Roll -- or does this now mean I'll start getting Rick Rolled by my mom? Ooh boy...
Whether or not you're a fan of singer/songwriter Ryan Adams' music, I'm sure you can appreciate the honest, provocative, and insightful nature of his Tumblr posts. His video Shopping is Genius is an inspired narrative on how a newly sober rock star spends a day enjoying life's more mundane pleasures.
This is why I love internet video. Multimedia artist Paul Slocum accumulated footage for this Full House homage over a period of 3 years and found actors across the globe (via Craigslist) to depict the classic confrontation between Joey and DJ.
Aside from the obvious humor of a corny scene being depicted over and over again, it's really quite interesting to see just how many ways it can play out.
(via A.V. Club)
ThinkGeek is finally taking preorders for the groundbreaking Wii game Super Pii Pii Brothers, featuring a bundled Wii remote strap-on peripheral. Finally, a game that really captures the spirit of the Wii system. What do you say guys... Pii Pii party at EPIC-FU HQ?
From the product page:
According to the Japanese text on the box "Super Pii Pii Brothers promotes good bathroom skills and allows women to experience for the first time the pleasure of urinating while standing."
WARNING: Not appropriate for younger viewers!
Check out the new creation from the peeps at Aviary. It's called Dodo and it's a "new [web] tool which will allow you to age and de-age people, places and things from any browser with Flash 9 enabled." It actually looks pretty damn cool. You can sign up on their site to beta test the sucker.
I guess the pixel calibration ratio is in direct proportion to [insert clever yet something something here... I can't think straight right now...oh God help me, it's 4am and I'm still up...]
Are you guys ready for a ride? Because today just feels like it will be filled with many... but that's just a hunch.
So there's not much backstory that I can find about this DJ, so if anyone has any additional info let me know and I'll add it to the post. It's pretty impressive how this guy uses his feet as good as anyone would use their hands.
Sure there's the Macbook Air, but just look at all the stuff you can get for almost half the price. I mean really -- I'm thinking The Bureau crew is onto something here.
'Perfect Strangers' from mike ambs on Vimeo.
Our friends are brilliant -- and totally gay for each other! :) If only we were all so gay for one another, the world would be a wonderful place... especially with the Perfect Strangers theme song playing as our eternal soundtrack.
On Saturday March 29th at 8pm over 200 cities around the world will participate in earth hour - a global movement symbolizing the need to take action against global warming. World Wildlife Fund is working with city governments, power companies and large corporations to raise awareness and turn off major landmarks in each of their regions. Last year 2100 corporations and over 2 million people in Sydney, Australia joined the movement resulting in a 10% energy reduction in the city.
Whether or not you believe global warming is man-made, an hour of complete darkness might be really fun. So go ahead and unplug -- take a break. Think about how many fun things you can do in the dark! :)
http://view.break.com/468548 - Watch more free videos
There is nothing more to say than: "just watch." And... "this puppy freakin' rocks."
I wouldn't normally post television content, but this is just too damn funny to pass up. Ellen demonstrates the Hawaii chair, which apparently is supposed to work your abs as you go on about your work day. Thing is -- can you actually get any work done sitting on something like this??
If you are amongst the legion of coding noobs, you better listen up to The Poetic Prophet's (AKA The SEO Rapper) Design Code rap. :)
When you use CSS, your page will load quicker
Client satisfied like they eating on a snicker...
For those of you who loved the 1982 classic, you will probably get a kick out of this. It's funny how one of the first computer generated movies is remade here into cardboard stop motion craziness. This definitely follows my rule of: "If you're going to remake something, you better give it a twist." I think introducing cardboard into the equation is a pretty good twist.
Club Iraq from wreckandsalvage on Vimeo.
When I watched this video by the awesome Wreck and Salvage guys, so many conflicting feelings came up. Coming from a semi-military family (dad and uncles), the emotional effect of service and war definitely resonates on a deeper level. To me it's both crazy and sad. Crazy that these guys, who would normally be goofing around in a college dorm, are thrust into a world completely emotionally unequipped. Crazy that this war is happening. Sad that we're completely, irreversibly entangled. Sad that history repeats itself all too often.
What do you think?
The new video for "In The Night" by Basia Bulat is an instant pick-me-up. It features an interesting cast of characters, including furries and dancing skeletons, and that instrument she's playing is apparently called an "autoharp." Also the whole thing is shot in one long take -- no cuts. This track has "Apple ad" written all over it.
Now that we're back from SXSW and Berlin, it's time to catch up on everything that we've been doing.
Tim Shey of Next New Networks organized a panel at SXSW that was titled, "Quit Your Day Job and Vlog."
The video is the full length of the panel, so it's about an hour. Just fyi. If you're interested in online video and know a bit about the people on the panel (or want to know), this was very interesting. I couldn't help but sit in the audience and be struck by what a special time this is for those of us working in this industry. And how open and giving almost everyone is.
Our friend Justine Ezarik, better known as iJustine, decorated a few Easter eggs this year. Lucky for us, we landed smack in the middle and got the YouTube thumbnail. I enjoy small treats. :) Happy belated Easter!
It was only a matter of time until the CoS launched their own offensive against Anonymous. Since January, the nameless group of hackers and activists have protested the church... sometimes using classic hacker techniques e.g. DNS server attacks, black faxing, and leaking confidential documents. The Anonymous Exposed website itself is really just a container for the video, which is honestly much tamer than I anticipated. This comes just days after the most recent CoS protest. I wonder how Anonymous will respond to the video?
What do you guys think about the church's claims in the video? Since the video is directed at unknowing Anonymous members, do you think it will resonate or have any effect on would-be members?
Trent Reznor of NIN posted a video to YouTube asking fans to create visuals to accompany the 36 instrumental tracks from Ghosts (we featured Ghosts on EPIC-FU a couple weeks back). The project is billed as a film festival rather than a contest and entries are being submitted via a YouTube group. As of right now, there are 99 videos posted to the group. Very cool idea, and definitely a great way to spread your music and let others participate in it creatively.
As most of you probably know, we just launched the 100th episode of EPIC-FU! In celebration, the folks at Next New Networks created a video for Steve and Zadi. Check it out!
From the Next New Networks blog:
Marc Boxser from our team shot a tribute video featuring many of us from the New York office talking about our favorite EPIC FU moments of the past 100 episodes.
Rounding out the EPIC-FU and Indy Mogul videos from the Spirit Awards, the good people from Indy Mogul shot this great video of Cate Blanchett in the press tent after winning her Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress. They also grabbed an interview with fellow New Yorker Marcus Carl Franklin. Great job, Indy Mogul'ers!
This is a few months old but I just stumbled on it. And boy oh boy I feel like I just struck gold! One of my favorite indie rock bands The New Pornographers asked fans to cover one of their songs in the style of Michael McDonald (a Yacht Rock legend) -- and post the results on YouTube. What a brilliant idea for a contest! The winning video by dancebuffet almost, almost brought me to tears.
First listen to the original:
Then watch dancebuffet's cover:
What will happen? It's like Y2K all over again. The horror!!
Check out this mashup of stop-motion animated Transformers toys with dialogue taken from the cartoon. Really cinematic use of the camera positioning!
[Via Channel Frederator Blog]
Yesterday we got a chance to hang out and talk to a lot of interesting people at the Independent Spirit Awards. Here, Juno screenwriter, Diablo Cody, answers some questions in the press room.
(Sorry about the shaky camera. The other one was in use.)
I just love this too much. An example of how even the most simple visuals can be compelling in the hands of a talented artist.
[Via Eva Olive]We had the fortunate experience of being on the red carpet for the Independent Spirit Awards this weekend thanks to the good folks at Next New Networks! Vanessa Pappas and Michelle DeForest made it an easy time for us, and we talked to a ton of celebrities and filmmakers. On this week's episode of EPIC-FU we'll bring you our take on things, but Dave Seger and Mike Ambs were there with us as the L.A. Indy Mogul correspondents and they did a great job putting together this video.
[Via Indy Mogul]Our friend Paul Dateh was in New York and went to see our friends at Rocketboom. The result? A charming casual Friday episode. :)
Here's an interesting project called Sound of Color. Five musicians, including Swizz Beatz, The Ravonettes, and YouTube star Marie Digby, were assigned colors and asked to write original songs. The tracks were then given to 5 directors who made music videos, also inspired by the colors.
All the songs are downloadable and I like the diversity of music genres represented. On the downside the project was sponsored by GAP, which makes me wonder about the clothes they're wearing and how it plays into GAP's marketing campaign. But still worth checking out.
How To: Spy Sunglasses!
Who doesn't want a pair of spy sunglasses?!? I know I always have! See, I grew up with a private investigator for a dad, who had an arsenal of spy gear handy. Never fun when you're a teenager. But now, with this DIY instructional, I can create my own spy sunglasses for under $40. Watch out, I may be watching you! heh. ;)
The guys over at Barely Political do it again. Oh John, you prankster. I don't blame Hillary for looking grossed out. :)
Props go out to Michael Stevens for mixing this one up.
Sometimes not having a loved-one on Valentine's day isn't the worst thing in the world, especially if the person you're dating hails from Psychoville. So for your listening (and viewing) pleasure, here are our top 10 songs to remind you that sometimes being alone and a little sad is far better than being together and totally creeped out... or dead.
I mean, what would you think if someone dedicated one of these songs to you after a few first dates?
Our friend Brian Lerner had introduced us to the guys in The Honorary Title some time back. We listened to their album Anything Else but the Truth and knew we had to interview them for the show. That was a year ago. Since then, they've been rising to the top, releasing a new album (Scream and Light Up the Sky), playing to sold out audiences, and now making appearances on television shows like One Tree Hill. The lead singer, Jarrod Gorbel, also made a guest appearance on our most recent New Year's episode.
There's a behind the scenes preview of the OTH appearance that aired tonight on Justin.tv.
What a crazy ride. Congrats guys! Can't wait to see and hear what comes next!
Jedi Ginsu Knife Commercial
If you're not that handy in the kitchen, perhaps the Jedi Ginsu knife can help. Just keep in mind, the fact that you own a Jedi Ginsu knife, does not now, or will ever make you a Jedi.
Remember to watch your fingers.
I saw this trailer and got pretty excited. An official selection of the 2008 SXSW film festival, Second Skin takes a look at the people and lives of those who inhabit Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games like World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Second Life.
Second Skin introduces us to couples who have fallen in love without meeting, disabled players who have found new purpose, addicts, Chinese gold-farming sweatshop workers, wealthy online entrepreneurs and legendary guild leaders - all living in a world that doesn't quite exist.
Sounds pretty damn awesome. Can't wait to see it.
Remember that inspirational "Yes We Can" music video we posted a few days ago? Well, now John McCain has his own.
OMG. This is brilliant. How did we miss it!?! :)
The Teenagers video for Starlett Johansson was a runner-up for this week's spotlight video. For me its equally amusing as it is catchy. This YouTube comment pretty much sums it up:
"It's a wet dream translated into music with a creepy deep voice." -Wheelsgr
On EPIC-FU the other week we spotlighted Aesop Rock's awesome jam, "None Shall Pass." In this "making of" video, Aesop talks about the meaning of the imagery in the video. The artist who created the pieces in the video is Jeremy Fish, a really talented San Francisco-based artist who created the artwork for the album. For fans of the song and the video this is great stuff.
Barackula the musical will be making its online debut this month. It's Michael Jackson's Thriller meets Jesus Christ Superstar meets... vampires. What more can one ask for?
The fictional story tells of a young Obama fighting off the forces of darkness at Harvard Law. Obama (played by Justin Sherman) must convince the secret vampire society that opposing political philosophies can co-exist or else he gets swallowed by the dark side.
Doesn't matter who I'm voting for, I'm sold just on the dancing vampires.
I went through a range of emotions watching this. From huh, to WTF, to wanting to dance along, to complete terror. It's strangely addicting and for some reason I couldn't turn it off.
Explore the music video for Arcade Fire's Black Mirror at rorrimkcalb.com while deconstructing its tracks while you listen. Press the numbers shown underneath the video to enable/disable the tracks. A very haunting experience.
One of our viewers, Jimsin, sent us a link to this awesomely bizarre music video. It's by a band called The Native Hipsters, and it's the creepy off-beatness that makes it great.
Jimsin says:
...they recorded their first (and only) single in their bedroom back in 1980 and it got played by John Peel and made it to number 5 in the indie charts & they had to stamp all 5000 copies of the single by hand using a rubber stamp.
Thanks Jimsin!
Rick twittered this a while back, and it's the funniest LOLcat animation ever. :)