Links and write-ups about beautiful things from around the web!
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Anaglyph YouTube Experiments
Hmm, a Google employee is using some of his 20% time to add 3D viewing options to YouTube. Not in a fully working state at this point, but it’s a cool idea. The more people out there wearing anaglyph glasses the better, if you ask me.
(Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rustybrick/ / CC BY-NC 2.0)
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STUDIO for Creative Inquiry on Vimeo
Videos from the recent ART && CODE Symposium, featuring presentations by the folks behind Scratch, Processing, Max/MSP/Jitter, and other fun + education-leaning graphics tools.
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ANSI Art Generator from Drastic
Rad, there’s an online ANSI art generator! Relive the glory days of BBSes and dodgy w4r3z nfo files right in your browser. I remember wasting a lot of time back in junior high making colorful DOS menus using ansi.sys and batch files. Better than launching Windows 3.1!
Check it out, make some art: ansi.drastic.net (The drawing program seems to be broken for me under Firefox 3.5.1, but your mileage may vary)
(Via Waxy)
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Mad Dog McGree via YouTube Annotations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdDmLh9tDZU&feature=player_embedded
A great use of YouTube’s annotations feature in this funny game review / history. If you were an arcade rat circa 1991 you’ll get it. Think fast!
(Via GameSetWatch)
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LEGO NXT Sequencer
A fun LEGO Mindstorms NXT sequencer project from Damien Key of Domabotics. I like the simplicity of this design (and the whirring of the LEGO motor adds something to the sound, almost like the scratchiness of vinyl).
(Via)
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8-bit Animal Collective
Animal Collective’s “My Girls” in 8-bit form. Somehow this works pretty well as a pixellated chiptune song.
(Via)
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Its Weird to See How Generic the Times Were in
It’s weird to see how generic the times were in 1990: way more acid wash denim and pastel colors, but otherwise the clothing wouldn’t look too out of place at the mall today. The storefronts and water displays still have their decidedly 1980s look, though. ‘90 and ’91 were the formative years when I spent a lot of time at the mall during the summer, bothering the folks at Babbages (they had an Amiga set up to play Lemmings and LucasFilm Games demos!) and whatever comics / gaming stores were around back then, or wasting quarters at Tilt. PS: Terminator 2’s mall sequence was probably filmed not too far from one of these scenes, around the same time.
(Via)
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Hi-Res Scans of Walt Kelly’s “Pogo in Pandemonium” Comics
Some kind guy named Thom Buchanan has created a blog where he’s posting high-res scans of the daily and Sunday strips of Walt Kelly’s Pogo from the 1966 “Pogo in Pandemonia” storyline (one of the lesser-known and stranger bits from the comic, it’s set in a Lost World type locale instead of the usual Okefenokee swamp). Excellent. Now where’s that Fantagraphics set?
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Id Been Wondering What Those Thinly Etched or
I’d been wondering what those thinly-etched or embossed porcelain “hidden images” found on antique plates and teacups were called: lithophanes. Artists would carve molds for them using warm wax over a glass plate, with a mirror to reflect light from a window underneath so they could get a preview of their work. A translucent bas relief, with the subtle grisaille quality of a lithograph.
I came across the name after seeing a blog entry on Finkbuilt about using his CNC router robot to computer-carve some psuedo-lithophanes. Is there anything that CNC and/or laser etching can’t do?
A video of his machine carving:
(Photo above via the Wikimedia Commons)
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From pathos to bathos
The Three Stooges attempted pathos in Cash and Carry (1937). The Stooges arrive at their home, a dilapidated shack in the city dump, only to find a little boy they don’t know doing his homework at the kitchen table. The Stooges do not react with great sentiment to this child. Larry pipes up, “Come on, beat it.” But, then, they realize that the boy is wearing a leg brace and needs the support of a crutch to stand and walk. The boy tells the Stooges that his mom and dad are gone and he’s being raised by his big sister. Moe, normally gruff and scowling, smiles sympathetically and softens his voice. He has never acted more tenderly to another individual. But the other two Stooges do not show much concern. […] Seconds after meeting the crippled orphan boy, Curly accidentally hits Moe in the head with a pipe and it’s back to their usual comedy business. A pathos comedy was, in the end, no more significant to the Stooges than a haunted house comedy.
From Why You Want to Bring Me Down?, a great comparison of the use (and perhaps more often, misuse) of pathos in comedies, from Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd to Adam Sandler and Robin Williams.
