Uncategorized

I’ve abandoned my child!

/ Jared / Leave a comment

I’m not sure who is responsible for the video below (Tomfoolery Pictures, I suppose?) or who is currently popularizing it on the internet (I was introduced to it by a tweet from Slate), but it has absolutely made my day.

Genius. I’m not sure I would actually want to play the game if it were real; I’ve never been a fan of side-scolling platformers that require precision jumping. But it certainly makes me want to go watch the movie again. It also reminds me of this sort of stupid but still hilarious SNL sketch that is just delightfully evocative of late-2007.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/10232/saturday-night-live-milkshakes

You stay classy, San Diego.

/ Jared / Leave a comment

I’d like to think that I’m over viral videos of local news mishaps, that I’m above being amused by them and laughing at the foibles of small(ish) town anchors.  But that would be a lie, because I love watching them.  Imagine my delight at this recent post on Deadspin that features a Rube Goldbergian series of gaffes that build hilariously in the first minute of the newscast and climax with a camera that is doing its best to make sure the reporter is not in frame.  It’s like it’s the first day on the job for every single person in San Diego’s “10 News Communication Center.”

Update: And the video has been removed.  I’ll see if I can find it elsewhere.

Update: Found it!  Thanks for the redirect, Best Week Ever!

Update: It’s gone again.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

 

[Video via Deadspin]

[Also via every other site on the internet.  I don’t claim to be original.]

Derrick Rose: Where Mumbling Happens

/ Jared / Leave a comment

I love Derrick Rose.  He’s the most charismatic guy who actually has absolutely no charisma ever.  Watch him in this commercial and tell me if he’s humble and shy or just sleepy.

And here’s an interview with him right after he got picked first overall in the NBA draft by his hometown team.  You’d be freaking out in his shoes, right?  He must be the most laid-back guy on Earth.

I guess maybe he’s consciously saving his energy for the court.  I’m perfectly willing to sacrifice an interesting interview for plays like this.

FIFA Through the Years

/ Jared / Leave a comment

If you have ten minutes to kill and have spent any time over the years with EA Sports’ FIFA video game series, this post over at Deadspin includes the following video which you’ll probably find fascinating.  (If you’ve never played FIFA and don’t care about the evolution of video games, absolutely do not watch it, it would probably be ten of the most boring minutes of your life.)

I remember pretty much all of these games, but the mid-Aught years of ’04, ’05, and ’06 in particular bring back very visceral memories for me.  This game has taken countless hours of my life, and somehow I remain completely terrible at it.  I can barely execute a successful cross.

For a more wide-ranging trip through the history of video games, I also stumbled across this nicely succinct video, which hits quite of few of the highlights from 1972 to 2007. (I originally typed “1792 to 2007,” which, I guess, is equally true, if a bit misleading.)

There are a few in there I don’t recognize, but I’m surprised by how many of these I’ve played, particularly once it gets to 1992.  Earthworm Jim!  Remember Earthworm Jim?!

[First video via Deadspin]

Explaining the Future to the Past

/ Jared / Leave a comment
Benjamin Franklin

Image via Wikipedia

Do you ever think about how people from the past would react to present day technology or culture?  I do.  I think about this ALL THE TIME.  I once spent an entire car ride from Chicago to Champaign, Illinois pretending to introduce musicians from different eras.  Yes, I realize how dorky that sounds.  Think about it, though: “Django Reinhardt, have you heard the latest track from Mr. Kanye West?  Allow me to introduce the two of you.”

It’s even crazier with technology.  Can you imagine Benjamin Franklin being dropped into the middle of my living room as I’m playing NBA 2K11 on my Xbox 360?  Literally nothing in that situation would make sense to him, including the game of basketball.  I suspect he would just instantly go insane.

Well, apparently I’m not the only one fascinated by this sort of thing, as evidenced by this flowchart from Fast Company magazine that describes the likely outcomes of attempting to explain the Internet to a 19th Century British street urchin.  It’s funny enough to be worth a click.

Starfleet Mark IX Science Tricorder Open

Image by David July via Flickr

While you’re reading that I’ll be over here thinking about how, in a lot of ways, my iPod Touch is more technologically impressive than the 24th Century tricorders from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Again, yes, I realize how dorky that sounds.

The future, everybody!

TRON: Legacy and Daft Punk

/ Jared / 1 Comment
The closing scene from Daft Punk's performance...

Image via Wikipedia

OK, I’ve never seen the original TRON, and I have no idea if TRON: Legacy is going to be any good.   I suspect I might get tired of the non-stop blue and gray.  That said, I’m probably going to see it, for one main reason: Daft Punk.  Whoever thought of the idea of having them not only do the soundtrack, but cameo in the film is the biggest genius since the person who scored the first two trailers for The Social Network to the choral version of Radiohead’s “Creep” and “Power” by Kanye West.

Mad Men Recaps

/ Jared / Leave a comment

 

Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm in Mad Men) of ...

Image via Wikipedia

Guys, I should tell you, having way too much free time is generally not that great.  But sometimes it’s the best, like on Mondays after Mad Men when I get to sit around and read episode recaps online all day long!  I love Mad Men recaps almost as much as I love Mad Men, which is tons.  I don’t even care what’s happening, I just like watching the awesome characters walking around in their crisp 60s aesthetic saying snappy things and eyeballing each other.  It’s why the “Next Week On” promos at the end of each episode are hilariously vague and reveal absolutely no details about any upcoming plotlines; they don’t have to!  This show is like visual crack.  I could watch the opening scene about beans in an endless loop.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been reading today:

Hilarious superimposed word bubble fun over at Videogum.

The New York Times dipping its old, gray toe into the pool of television blogging.

Alan Sepinwall’s review is slightly less speculative, and therefore perhaps more useful in tying everything together.

New York magazine’s recap could use a few images or videos or something to break up the text, in my opinion.

Finally, this long, exhaustive, and rewarding number over at Defamer.

3-D Television and Gaming

/ Jared / Leave a comment
Paper glasses for viewing Anaglyphs.

Image via Wikipedia

I’m pretty excited about 3-D television. 3-D television! In your living room! And soon we won’t even need to wear the ridiculous glasses! Why are people not on board with this?  Everyone seems so ambivalent.  My wife seems sort of repulsed by the idea of owning a 3-D television, and she tried one, at Harrod’s in London, and thought it was great.  I don’t get it.

Until this post in the NYTimes ArtsBeat blog, though, I hadn’t given much thought to 3-D gaming.  I mean, I was fully aware of the upcoming Nintendo 3DS, but I’m not much of a handheld gamer.  I have no reason to play a mobile device, seeing as I rarely leave my apartment.

If you still think this 3-D thing is a gimmick, though, go read the post.  Author Seth Schiesel got to watch (although not play, unfortunately) a bit of Call of Duty: Black Ops in 3-D.  He says, amongst other things, “I simply have never had an entertainment experience quite like it. In its way it was one of the most impressive 20-minute demonstrations I have seen.”  And, “I immediately felt as if I would be missing something important playing it, or any other game, in the old 2-D fashion.”  The future: we’re getting there!

Inception Re-imagined

/ Jared / Leave a comment

Inception was my favorite movie of the summer.  I mean, that’s not saying a lot; I’m pretty sure it was the only movie I saw in the theater.  But I really liked it, and was confused by a lot of the backlash that came after the initial critical raves.  Slow and boring?  Not the movie I was watching.

That said, this person might have improved upon it.  I would absolutely watch this version in its full length.

I love people who take the time to do something like that.  It’s why I love the internet.  You know why else I love the internet?  Inception cat.

Outstanding.  That’ll do, cat.

All right, now I need to go watch Star Wars because this reedited trailer for A New Hope featuring the Inception music is so great.  Screw “The Imperial March.”

[First video via io9]