David Rappoccio has reimagined the NFL as English, with one suspects not complete seriousness, and provided logos:
It’s pretty much monocles all the way down.
amusements
Archived Posts from this Category
January 28, 2013
Can you tell an entire epic fantasy in 9 minutes? It turns out, yes, you can.
This is a student film directed by Mikkel Mainz and Kenneth Ladekjaer, from the Animation Workshop in Denmark, but it’s really amazing. It’s hard to get comedy going plus actual character arcs and impressive epic-fantasy visuals, but they did it.
November 25, 2012
The early 1940s Superman cartoons from Dave Fleischer are kind of legendary among animation fans, and now they’re all online. Here’s the first one:
It’s really well animated, especially the action sequences such as the mad scientist’s lair getting destroyed. This is why I find modern action cartoons unwatchable– the cheap animation ruins them, makes them seem cheap and static.
Lois was apparently based on journalist Nellie Bly, but where Nellie was able to literally circumnavigate the globe by herself, Lois can’t so much as get a sentence out before the mad scientist abducts her. But she has a ringside seat for Superman’s escapades, so I guess it’s a modus operandi that worked for her.
The electric death ray seems to give Superman a pretty good fight; it’s amusing that he resorts to punching it into submission. (It seems like it would have been a little more efficient to take the few seconds it would have required to fly alongside it to its source rather than rely on blocking it.)
Also amusing: Clark Kent muses “This is a job for Superman” right there in the office, just before disappearing into a closet to change. Also, doesn’t it bother his editor that he’s assigned a story along with Lois, and apparently does nothing on it? (Or maybe he writes all those “Identity of Superman still unknown” side articles that accompany the main story?)
November 5, 2012
I created a video playlist on YouTube– let’s see if I can embed it. Here’s a link in case you want to watch it there instead.
These are all videos where I liked both the music and the video. About half of them are from jwz’s mixtapes. Sorry for the ads, that’s Google’s fault. I’ve plugged a few of these before.
Some miscellaneous comments…
- Megan Washington has her own video for Clementine, but I prefer this one by Keith Loutit. Tilt-shift baffles me: it shouldn’t work but it does. If you look at an actual miniature, you don’t get that out-of-focus effect. Plus, this one actually tells a story!
- The Limousines’ The Future is brilliant, and (very) darkly comic. Plus it features a cameo by the zombie-fighting kids.
- There’s dozens more Usavich shorts by now. They’re addictive. The rabbits’ names are Pūchin and Kirenenko.
- A lot of Gorillaz videos are pretty interesting, though the music doesn’t always fit as well as here.
- OK, the Saints Row 3 cap (it’s not mine) hardly counts as a video. But it does showcase the really charming duet of What I Got as well asRebecca Sanabria’s mixture of cute and awesome.
- Janelle Monae can sure rock a tuxedo. Or probably anything else she wants to. Daphne Shum (from Rat Vs Possum, in the silver leotard) is also cute as a button. More cute than a button, really– what a lousy idiom that is.
- All of Cyriak’s videos are jaw-droppingly creative and surreal.
- If only OKGo’s music was as inventive as their videos I would have included one.
- It kind of bugs me that the video for Girls Like You has nothing to do with the lyrics. And yet it’s a great video.
October 17, 2012
If you found this place in a video game you’d say “That’s pretty, but it sure doesn’t look realistic.”
Time to mow the lawn again?
This is the island of Elliðaey off Iceland. It’s uninhabited– the house is used for puffin hunting.
It seems like a great place to weather the zombie apocalypse.
August 8, 2012
A hat tip to Legion at the ZBB, who pointed out this lovely French animation feature, Le Roi et l’Oiseau, by Paul Grimault, working with Jacques Prévert. The video has English captions for those who neglected to learn French.
I love full animation, and there’s a lot of good stuff going on here. It’s the sort of animation John K. would approve of: the storytelling is visual, not based on the written word and a bunch of celebrity cameos. The movement is fluid, the characters are well designed (the king is a great creation– funny and yet completely villainous), and there are some very clever bits: the paintings coming to life; the machines used by the king (I especially liked his elevator, his trapdoors, and the fish-hovercraft used by the police).
There’s an interesting story behind the film as well. Grimault went over budget and was removed from the project; it was hastily finished and released in 1952, under the title La bergère et le ramoneur (The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep). Grimault was never satisfied with this, and in 1967 he managed to buy the rights to the film. He then found financing and remade the film as he wanted it– keeping about 2/3 of the original film, but adding 45 minutes of new animation. He also replaced the original music with a new score by Wojciech Kilar, and had all the voices redone.
August 1, 2012
So, here’s the Internet:
It’s purty!
This map contains 350,000 sites, including zompist.com, which is a tiny dot northeast of that big cyan blob in the center, which is Facebook. (The bigger blob to its southwest is Google; Youtube is to the right.) The circles are sized according to traffic, and coded by country– cyan is US, yellow is China, dark blue is Germany, a purpler blue is France, purple is Japan, and so on. The two-dimensional location roughly represents connectivity: more links between sites move them closer together.
Metafilter is barely visible if you click on the map to enlarge. Go straight north from Google till you reach a blue-purple circle; that’s google.ca. Metafilter is a cyan dot at about 1:00 from there.
May 8, 2012
Back in the late ’60s, the Russians made their own Winnie the Pooh cartoons. They’re pretty good! Here’s one with subtitles in case your Russian is rusty.
Though the story is about the same, they made an interesting and I think quite successful major change: they bagged Christopher Robin. This removes a lot of the twee elements of Milne, and more importantly removes a character who looks down on Pooh. Pooh is somehow funnier and easier to take when he’s the smartest character onstage. Plus I like the voice acting for Pooh, not overly childish.
This is another argument for not letting media corporations keep characters under copyright hostage forever. We don’t miss what we don’t see, and so we’re not aware of what we miss out on with long copyrights– stuff like these Russian cartoons.
May 6, 2012
This is a cute minimalist animated short, from Lilian Hardouineau. It has all the camera angles and action, it just doesn’t bother with texturing.
With one cavil. There are several points during the race through the city where the Evil Car is ahead. The white car should’ve braked hard and gone down a side street.
March 29, 2012
Though scammers are despicable, there’s something fascinating about a good scam. Or a bad scam that nonetheless often works. So I was interested, when we were looking for apartments in the last few weeks, to twice run into the Craigslist Apartment Scam.
My wife found a juicy-sounding apartment and asked if it was available. We got this reply:
Thanks for your swift response regarding my property,the house is currently vacant and it is available for move in. The rent fee is $900 per month and the security deposit is $700,Utilities like washer,dryer,gas,electricity,Dishwasher,Electric Stove, Fridge are included in the rental fee and pets are allowed,i am a Construction engineer and i am currently out of the Country to Head a construction project in West Africa and my stay here will be for 5 years so i would love a Long term lease. I want you to drive by the property and view the exterior and i assure you that you will love it,as soon as you have done that get back to me ASAP so we can proceed further. Address of the house: [**] N Marion Street #1, Oak Park IL 60302 RENTALS APPLICATION FIRST NAME:__________________ MIDDLE NAME: _________________ LAST NAME: __________________ PROFESSION: ________________ HOME PHONE (____) __________ (CELL)PHONE (____) __________ (WORK)PHONE (____) __________ KIDS _____ (YES/NO), HOW MANY ________ PRESENT ADDRESS: _____________________ CITY: _______________ STATE: ______________ ZIP CODE: ____________ HOW LONG DO YOU INTEND STAYING? ____________ WHEN DO YOU INTEND MOVING IN? ______________ HOW SOON CAN YOU HAVE THE DEPOSIT PAYMENT SENT TO ME___________________________ HOW SOON DO YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THE KEYS AND DOCUMENTS OF THE HOUSE___________________________ Await your response with the filled Rental Application form. You can also reach me at [**] or [**] Thanks [**]
The fascinating thing is that though the scam is obvious, it’s only subtly outrageous. The address is real, and Googling it, I find that it actually was offered for rental recently— but at a price of $1650. (The story deepens: I also found another scam listing of the exact same unit, for $1150— this time including such incredible amenities as a sauna AND jacuzzi which are not present in the real listing.)
(You can count the scam signals yourself, but I’ll point out a minor but very telling one for an Oak Park resident: the ad mentions generous utilities but not parking. Ads for non-scam housing here always mention the parking situation.)
Another ad yielded the exact same e-mail, while yet another elicited a similar one but the same damn address. (The original ads didn’t list the location.) I’ll just quote the sob story part:
Thanks for your email. The house is still available. I decided to rent the house because we are going to spend more time here in West Africa, about 4 years... Let me start by introducing myself.I must confess that I am very very new in this landlord business. However, My name is [**]. I own the house located at ([**] N Marion Street #1, Oak Park IL 60302). Due to my job as a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church International, I am presently serving as Area Financial Executive (AFE) with the United Methodist Church in Lagos, West Africa.I am responsible for receiving distribution of funds for various UMC projects in West Africa , and all related works with other mission personnel. my current home is in the vineyard of the Lord in BENIN West Africa.I spent less time in the States so I could not get a hold on any Realtor to handle this rent issue, although it was when I knew how long we are going to stay in Africa that I decided to rent out the house. However, the initial plan was to sale out the House. which I tried, but sometimes the agents inflates the prize and it takes longer to sell. because of this reason and more we need a responsible person (With good credit) that can take very good care of it as we are not after the money , but want it to be clean and for you to take it as if it were yours.
Wow, you gotta trust a church person, right?
Sadly, this scammer has given in to the temptation to overwrite, and the result is a story that’s far less believable. The Construction engineer who was out of the Country I could almost buy, but not the poor woman who owns a house but is unable to find someone who can sell it.
If anyone is not quite grasping how the scam works, the clue is in the hints about quickly sending a security deposit. We didn’t respond to these so we don’t know how Mr. or Mrs. [**] proceed further, but the idea is that they get you to send the security deposit, and then disappear. I don’t know someone agrees to send money for an apartment they haven’t actually been inside, but if only one in a hundred people are that dumb, they’re in business. (Public service announcement: If you are that dumb, don’t do that.)
