an interesting little article i found today which has some strikingly similar tone to my outpour from last night..
Category: interesting links
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mmmm…. human bacon
it appears a newly designed robotic gastronomist has taken the first steps toward the human/machine armageddon. used to help taste/test foods in a non-destructive manner, one reporter thought it clever to try stumping the little ‘bot by inserting his hand into the “mouth”, and was identified as bacon. at least we don’t all taste like chicken!
i spent the weekend of august 4 in chicago, along with the rest of my friends/staff at gonintendo, specifically to attend the video games live concert, an interactive orchestral event devoted to the appreciation of video game music. while we were invited by one of the event founders, it seems the invitation was mostly to lend assistance to the production than to enjoy the show itself. luckily part of it for us included backstage access, vip badges, and also a night of hanging out with some other vgl staffers and game composers.
the premise of video games live is to give the audience an interactive concert, or at least one with more entertainment value than your average symphony. the show includes a large video display which runs footage of the game whose music is being played.. and the staging includes a variety of fancy, whirling lights that dance off the translucent haze no doubt generated by the panting mouths of the enraptured audience below. but the catch is that the orchestra plays in sychrony with the video footage, and the lights reflect both the rhythm and colour-mood of the display. all the elements play together and upon one another in brilliant moments sprinkled throughout the performance.
the show itself ran about two hours, and included music & video ranging from bleeping space invaders to footage of nintendo’s vaunted and as-yet-unreleased legend of zelda: twilight princess. while some of the programmed lighting forced the spotlights framing the giant screen to drown the picture behind, it wasn’t as distracting as you’d think not being able to see the video would be. as for the interactive bits, a few lucky audience members got to take place in on-stage contests of skill in effort to win various prizes. unfortunately, not everyone won, but i’m sure the thrill of being on stage was as valuable a takeaway as any prize package.
i’ve heard mixed reviews over the performance of other local orchestras peforming the VGL repertoire, but chicago’s was top notch all the way; not an off-note the whole night. in fact, some of the pieces were so well done, it rivalled the production values of the original studio-recorded tracks. not to geek out too much, but with jack wall conducting the theme/medley of myst (some of which he also composed), i was delighted to tears; the orchestra and chorale were really that good. if you have a chance to check out a VGL show in your area, i highly recommend it.
for some photos of the VGL-related parts of the trip… visit the gonintendo flickr page.
the onion has an hilarious article about one of the largest cultural phenomena of recent year: wikipedia. one of the ideas behind wiki is that the collective knowledge of the world will outweigh comparable resource in terms of quantity, quality, accuracy, etc. unfortunately, adding the internet also adds a lot of mischief… and in the case of wikipedia, many articles wind up with some level of vandalism at some point. that’s where the onion enters to poke decent fun.
america celebrates 750 years of independence!
so what of the ‘new’? the video isn’t ready yet (some preview clips here though), but i have over a dozen images taken from day one of my new g35 sport coupe. it is quite honestly the most beautiful, amazing vehicle…ever. these photos are also beautiful, but clearly don’t do it justice. some of them are wallpaper quality, so feel free to use them as such. enjoy!
thought of the day: you are what you eat? well if someone eats something good, and then you eat them, what are you? good by transitive properties (if a = b and b = c, then a = c), or bad by societal standards?
this was pretty clever…. anyone who remembers space invaders (and i can’t think of anyone–even your average senior citizen–who doesn’t or shouldn’t) can enjoy the combination of simple pixel animation and stop-motion animation. add in the human factor, a sloping movie theatre with plenty of chairs, and you have yourself a buster of an entertaining film.
and if that won you over….how about a few minutes of pong?
listening to:
Dangerous
Michael Jackson
so how many of you were aware i’m looking to part with my beloved z car (in my profile pics) in the next few months? well i was going to sell it to a friend just after my birthday and likely swing toward the infiniti g35 sport coupe, the sister (or older brother, depending on how you look at it) vehicle to the z. that is, until this morning… i discovered something else. take a peek, but grab and toss on a diaper first:
the infiniti (g35) coupe concept, shown at the 2006 detroit auto show last month. it’s expected chance of being produced is supposedly 100%, and the press release mentions it as the next release, pointing to a 2007 model, released late-summer/early fall. i can’t wait.. what do you all think?
listening to:
The Eminem Show
Eminem