I got talking about my love for machinima today with some co-workers and thought some of my faithful blog readers might enjoy a little dose. Basically machinima is an alternative form of cinema where users use 3-D computer characters within video games to make animated movies.
The best example is here:
And here’s an explanation and highlights from a few users/creators.
Here’s a great collection of dope sneakers compiled by New York Magazine.
Right on the heels of Castro stepping down as commander in chief, President Bush calls for democracy. However, the U.S. embargo will not be lifted.
President Bush said Castro’s decision ought to spark “a democratic transition” for Cuba.
“The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy and eventually this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections,” Bush said Tuesday in Rwanda. “The United States will help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of liberty.”
Source: cnn.com via James Chutter
In a world gone mad one man is trying to bring the semicolon, a reminder to slow down and take stock, back into the public eye. It’s nice to see some discussion around getting back to basics when it comes to punctuation. Keeping up with the new wave of dodgy grammar wielded by text messaging and rapid fire Facebook messaging can be a Herculean task. Let us all pause and contemplate life and our friend the semicolon.
Semicolon sightings in the city are unusual, period, much less in exhortations drafted by committees of civil servants. In literature and journalism, not to mention in advertising, the semicolon has been largely jettisoned as a pretentious anachronism.
Americans, in particular, prefer shorter sentences without, as style books advise, that distinct division between statements that are closely related but require a separation more prolonged than a conjunction and more emphatic than a comma.
“When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life,” Kurt Vonnegut once said. “Old age is more like a semicolon.”
In terms of punctuation, semicolons signal something New Yorkers rarely do. Frank McCourt, the writer and former English teacher at Stuyvesant High School, describes the semicolon as the yellow traffic light of a “New York sentence.” In response, most New Yorkers accelerate; they don’t pause to contemplate.
Source: nytimes.com via James Chutter
If nothing else Spank Rock introduced the world to the dance move: Air Cock Thrust, also referred to as A.C.T. This move was a staple at house parties, clubs, and on public transit in winter 2006, so I’m a little ashamed that I’m only adding it now. Halfway through this video you’ll see a demo.
Here I thought Eminem was the greatest white rapper out there. Clearly Average Homeboy was way ahead of his time.
Here’s a trailer from one of my favorite directors David Gordon Green, featuring M.I.A.’s Paper Planes. After a I slammed Knocked Up I feel that I should be opened minded to this film.
Here’s some keen fashion advice from Mr.T. Yes we should all be taking advice from a large black man who wears 40 kilos of gold chains.
Sheryl Crow is just one artist that has come to terms with the fact that it’s not all about writing a radio pop hit. There is an economy out there for so many new genres of music, freeing up artists like Crow to write the music she loves.
“There’s something really fantastic about knowing I’m not going to get played at radio,” she said. “I’m not interested in making the kind of music that would compete in that genre, so it’s great. It leaves me to my own devices without the framework of a pop commercial hit.”
Source: nytimes.com via James Chutter
Here’s my music advice for the week. You must check out Viva Radio. I found it through the American Apparel website, making me reconsider my boycott of their clothes. They also have some great pictures of Obama, McCain and Hillary. sidenote: I can’t believe Bill married Hillary back then. It must have been love, because love is blinding.
