Dodgy misogynistic lyrics, proprietary software—but still absolutely fascinating. Via MetaFilter I found this YouTube video on how to make The Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up” using Ableton Live:
Given this, I start to think that the key lyrics are actually “change my pitch up”.
I’d never heard of this before until randomly coming across a Gizmodo post on it. I’m curious about how much postprocessing they did to make it more palatable, but regardless I like the result. Our solar system is into organic dark ambient, apparently.
So now straightforward hugs are wrong? I can’t tell if this is parody. An insistence on “side hugs” to avoid any possibility of contact between crotches is pretty insane. In particular, it seems so obvious that such a restriction could only be necessary for people who are completely obsessed with sexual (and/or sexualized) contact, and that its adoption or promulgation is more indicative of serious problems than a hug could possibly be.
[more...]
I wasn’t previously familiar with Stewart Lee before, but I found this clip (via Lenin’s Tomb) right on the mark:
Via my friends Jeff and Gordon, a short animated clip that’s just too good not to share:
I’m not sure why, but this Rémi Gaillard video strikes me as hilarious:
He has a couple of other ball-striking videos, as well as a whole lot of other videos, including live-action Pac-Man.
Jelena Janković was the number one female tennis player in the world at the start of the year, but has fallen rapidly since (like her compatriot Ana Ivanović ). Janković is now number six, while Ivanović is number twelve… but Janković seems a tad more desperate, as rumor has it that she’s considering a coaching switch to the guy behind this video:
I don’t think that can be a good sign.
I saw this Robot Chicken clip on a mailing list I’m on recently, and I just can’t resist posting it:
Direct link: Le Wrath di Khan
(And no, I haven’t seen the new Star Trek movie yet.)
My friend Stephen posted this to Facebook earlier today, and it’s just too good not to share:
I don’t know much about bike trials, but there’s no way the stuff in that video is anything but amazing.
The following video, put out by some bunch calling themselves “The National Organization for Marriage” (a name that really makes no sense given their aims, as they appear to be trying to prevent a lot of people from getting married), is an awful and misleading hodgepodge of fearmongering and bullshit, combined with plerny of earnest faux-martyrdom. I love how they convince themselves that not being allowed to practice bigotry in the public sphere is an infringement on their religious freedom—and maybe it is, but then so are the laws that get in the way of religious practices of human sacrifice.
Anyway, that’s all pretty obvious… what I can’t quite get over is how, in this video attempting to unite the forces of anti-gay prejudice, they end by touting “a rainbow coalition of people of every creed and color coming together in love”. I swear the the rider “to protect marriage” is spoken faster and more quietly than the rest. It’s both funny (in a wrong way) and appalling because it’s always appalling to see bigots attempting to appropriate the language and symbols of tolerance. I have to say, though, that as appalling as the message is, these jokers strike me as mostly laughable.
Despite the light-hearted tone, I found this rather creepy to watch; difficult not to anthropomorphize the coil and the way it really seemed to be trying to reach the person in the cage.
Make sure it’s this one:
I wonder if this game was created just to garner attention on blogs, because, well, with a name like Stalin vs. Martians it seems impossible not to mention it. I do have qualms about the treatment of Stalin, given his responsibility for horrific atrocities, but the trailer seems to make him look pretty ridiculous in some ways. (The developers address this issue in their FAQ.)
I like Hexstatic, and I love Super Street Fighter II Turbo, but I can’t decide whether this promo vid Hexstatic did for Street Fighter IV is retro-ish fun or just terrible phone-it-in paid work:
I know that the Songsmith thing has been extensively covered, but this one is different, and interesting, and depressingly informative:
I haven’t encountered ze frank for a while, but came across this via Lifehacker, and it made me think I should really have his site among my feeds.
This was featured on BoingBoing recently, but I like it enough to put it up here anyway.
It’s a video for “Driving This Road Until Death Sets You Free”, by Zombie-Zombie; the video is a reinterpretation of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Both are excellent, and prompted me to buy the album (A Land for Renegades) and a DVD of the John Carpenter classic. (I’ve never seen the other films in Carpenter’s Apocalypse Trilogy, Prince of Darkness and In the Mouth of Madness, and should probably do so.)
I think that the music for this video would also work extremely well with the Metallica video I posted recently.
I always thought bike couriers were crazy, but this vid of a race in New York in 2004 makes it quite clear:
The freakiest bit to watch, for me, was at 3:31. It’s not so bad given that the white car to the left has just passed the point-of-view cyclist and so must know they’re there, but the prospect of their moving a lane to the right to avoid the bus is rather disconcerting.
Some things I just don’t get. I understand why Samuel Wurzelbacher got his initial fifteen minutes of fame, but I have a lot of difficulty comprehending how he still gets media coverage to spout inanities like this:
Regardless of the answer, I’m not sure that this product is for you. It’s from a major technology company, which makes it scarier. I’m not convinced that either the product or the ad are real, actually. Maybe that’s part of the genius of it.
Because I didn’t think it would be fair to inflict it on others without watching it myself, I forced myself to get through it (it took three tries) and I think enduring that might be worse than being RickRolled.
This one is apparently from 1977 or 1978, and I find it quite amazing that it was made in the Soviet Union at that time:
The second you’ve probably seen already (it’s the new Metallica video), but if you haven’t I think it’s definitely worth watching even if you’re not a Metallica fan (I’m not sure that I am, at this point, but the video is quite interesting):
Because they are glorious:
I still can’t believe the shot at 6:55 in the first one.
Some time ago I posted one of the classic clips from Roger Federer’s return game, his unbelievable retrieval of a dunk slam by Andy Roddick. That post is on my still-yet-to-be-revived old site, so I can’t link to it, but in any case YouTube now has a clip of that entire return game by Federer, who blows Roddick off the court not just in that point but in all four. As far as I can tell, Roddick is leading 15-0 when the clip begins, and from there on it’s a ludicrous display of tennis from Federer: