Came across this animated music video for Hermanos Inglesos' track "Wanderland". Nice to see creativity continues to trickle through despite the deluge of poorly-made music videos in recent years:
http://vimeo.com/13674406
This animation style totally reminds me of the animal insanity from the 2003 Jaga Jazzist video for "Animal Chin":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVIFUQV20NM
TV shows haven't changed in half a decade. If one were to tune into their favorite sitcom or drama, chances are it would be in either a 30 or 60 minute format, including commercials. Thing is, that is just too long for a TV show. Writing for TV is difficult at the best of times, and when 22 minutes (a 30 minute show minus commercials) has to be filled with jokes, most of those jokes are bound to fail. Of course there are some rare exceptions like the excellent 90's show Seinfeld, but even Seinfeld has dull moments.
Imagine for a second a world where you don't have to sit through commercials and an entire show can be pushed out in an easily-digestible, focused, and compelling format. A world where writers aren't pressured to fill 22 or 48 minutes of content, and instead they can get to the true essence of a storyline and write fewer but funnier jokes. A world where you can watch more episodes of your favorite shows in a shorter amount of time. This world exists. And it's on the Cartoon Network during their nightly block of programming under the Adult Swim label.
Adult Swim has not only pushed the envelope with it's sometimes brilliant programming (Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job is probably the best show in the last 10 years and they are continuing that tradition with their spin-off Check It Out With Dr. Steve Brule), but it has re-invented the TV show format. It airs many of its shows in an 11 minute format, uninterrupted by commercials (which air between shows). Amazing shows like Superjail benefit from this format because they are short bursts of TV goodness. They don't drag on, and there are no boring parts (there's no time).
This 11 minute format is so good, I have decided to apply it to the existing TV world. My hypothesis: that most TV shows airing today, whether a 30 minute sitcom or a 60 minute drama, can be compressed to 11 minutes and not only be just as good as the original length, but actually get BETTER. To illustrate, I went ahead and chose a random episode of Friends to use as an example, and I'd say the results speak for themselves. See below for my 11 minute cut of Friends: The One With The Cuffs.
I believe I've captured the essence of this episode by leaving in the funniest parts while ensuring the storyline is complete, without cheap editing tactics (I left the entire opening and end credits in - in fact, I've added a few special touches). I'd love feedback from the community on this one, especially Friends fans:
http://www.vimeo.com/13395211
More 11 minute cuts are on the way, and this is just the first.
Imagine for a second a world where you don't have to sit through commercials and an entire show can be pushed out in an easily-digestible, focused, and compelling format. A world where writers aren't pressured to fill 22 or 48 minutes of content, and instead they can get to the true essence of a storyline and write fewer but funnier jokes. A world where you can watch more episodes of your favorite shows in a shorter amount of time. This world exists. And it's on the Cartoon Network during their nightly block of programming under the Adult Swim label.
Adult Swim has not only pushed the envelope with it's sometimes brilliant programming (Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job is probably the best show in the last 10 years and they are continuing that tradition with their spin-off Check It Out With Dr. Steve Brule), but it has re-invented the TV show format. It airs many of its shows in an 11 minute format, uninterrupted by commercials (which air between shows). Amazing shows like Superjail benefit from this format because they are short bursts of TV goodness. They don't drag on, and there are no boring parts (there's no time).
This 11 minute format is so good, I have decided to apply it to the existing TV world. My hypothesis: that most TV shows airing today, whether a 30 minute sitcom or a 60 minute drama, can be compressed to 11 minutes and not only be just as good as the original length, but actually get BETTER. To illustrate, I went ahead and chose a random episode of Friends to use as an example, and I'd say the results speak for themselves. See below for my 11 minute cut of Friends: The One With The Cuffs.
I believe I've captured the essence of this episode by leaving in the funniest parts while ensuring the storyline is complete, without cheap editing tactics (I left the entire opening and end credits in - in fact, I've added a few special touches). I'd love feedback from the community on this one, especially Friends fans:
http://www.vimeo.com/13395211
More 11 minute cuts are on the way, and this is just the first.
Just got some nice press on one of MTV's sites for my Bang Bang Eche music video "Nikee":
Here's the entry:
The Sweet Fan-Made Video for Bang Bang Eche
You know how sometimes the scrappy fan made video is better than the official video, which the label spent thousands on? Well, some music biz guys figured this out and launched genero.tv, which hosts contests for aspiring filmmakers to submit music videos that could, in turn, become the band’s official video and land them with a $2,000 dollar paycheck. Winners are chosen democratically, via online polls.
A still from Mike Amin's fan video for Bang Bang Eche's "Nikee" Photo Credit: YouTube
Recently, our favorite Australian dudes — Bang Bang Eche — got the Genero treatment for their track, “Nikee.” The winner was Mike Amin, who describedhis inspiration this way:
This video for Bang Bang Eche’s Nikee is a 2D rendering of kick-a$$ New Zealand rock. The black and white theme is a nod to the punk rock feel of the music, but with a low-fi technology edge reminiscent of 80s-era raster text (thanks to the synth). Both aliased and anti-aliased text combine and transform into living characters on-screen. Japanese emoticons also play a big role, as they are more expressive than the ones we’re used to in the west. Heavy influences include Shynola, Tim & Eric, Nintendo, and the greatest music video director of all time, Michel Gondry.
Let's face it, Oasis is a seminal band of the 90's. They influenced a great deal of music during that decade, and continue to do so today. But when Oasis started, there was plenty of finger pointing (directed at the band), due to similarities between Oasis tracks and tunes that came before it.
Below is a comparative list of songs that Oasis has borrowed elements from. These are a few examples but not an exhaustive list by any means - I should also note that Oasis has been sued for most or all of these, so I'm not trying to unravel a major scam or anything - I'm simply posting in one convenient spot. On to the fun...
The first, most obvious example of Oasis taking a direct cue from the past: "Shakermaker" uses the basic melody from the old Coca Cola song, "I'd Like To Teach The World to Sing". You'll hear it right away...
Coke:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mOEU87SBTU
Oasis - Shakermaker (check the 0:31 mark):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUoVQ-kB7DQ
Another, very obvious one - "Cigarettes & Alcohol" taking the riff from T.Rex's "Bang a Gong (Get it on)" AND Humble Pie's version of "C'mon Everybody". I'm not going to get into how this also sounds a little like the Coke song. Again, you'll hear it in the first few seconds.
T.Rex - Get it on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVEhDrJzM8E
Humble Pie - C'mon Everybody:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKh2TBDu9L4
Oasis - Cigarettes & Alcohol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaeLKhRnkhQ
Here's yet another very obvious example - "Whatever" basically copying Neil Innes' "How Sweet To Be An Idiot".
Neil Innes - How Sweet To Be An Idiot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ9EWcaS7II
Oasis - Whatever:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tuPBrSl9Nw
How about more? Before it was officially released, (What's the Story) Morning Glory originally had a song called "Step Out" on it. Someone cried foul and noticed "Step Out" sounded like Stevie Wonder's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)". Take a listen and you'll hear that not only Oasis switch the horns for guitar, but compare Uptight (Everything's Alright) at 0:25 to Step Out at 0:55.
Stevie Wonder = Uptight (Everything's Alright):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDbyOLzEyfk
Oasis - Step Out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N98CFHq3KbA
A side note to the above - Stevie Wonder's song also sounds like the chorus of Green Day's coincidentally named "Uptight" (really? coincidental?). Take a listen at 1:16:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Vz52GyyWc
This one is most interesting and a little more subtle I think - Oasis' pivotal track "Live Forever" taking the melody from the Roling Stones' "Shine a Light". Listen to the Shine a Light chorus when Mick Jagger sings "may the good lord shine a light on you" at 1:05 and put it up against the Oasis line "Maybe I don’t really want to know" at 0:12.
Rolling Stones - (check 1:05):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPbozLRU3so
Oasis - Live Forever (check 0:12):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_2mWhfOhGU
And perhaps an appropriate note to close this post: I recently read that Noel Ghallager complained about Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" ripping off Oasis' "Wonderwall". His awesome quote:
"[Green Day] should have the decency to wait until I am dead [before stealing my songs]... I, at least, pay the people I steal from that courtesy.”
For those interested, this is perhaps another example of the decline of Green Day, which I did a lengthy post about here. With that, here is the comparison...
Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWNRUVMboq4
Oasis - Wonderwall:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc
UPDATE - APRIL 21 2010:
My dear friend Dorothy pointed me to this Travis track for Writing to Reach You, and you'll know why after listening to the opening (and subsequent) chords:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeCcuH-EsuM
Interesting thing about this song is that not only does Travis use the chords from Oasis' Wonderwall, but they call out Wonderwall in the song! Great job. Looks like other artists haven't been oblivious to the fact that Oasis liberally borrows from others.
And bringing it all together, this video mashing-up Wonderwall, Boulevard of Broken Dreams AND Writing to Reach You:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES2NGj_fYjs
Thanks Dorothy!
Most video game fans like myself rely on Metacritic to help establish whether a released video game is actually good or not. As I was looking at the latest score for Assassin's Creed II, I got to thinking: "I wonder what the average of the average is for the entire PS3 game collection on Metacritic?" I.e. if we tabulated all the PS3 games on Metacritic and averaged out the Metacritic score of each, what would it be?
I took this idea a little further and broke it out for all the major video game consoles, and compared them. I gathered all the info directly from Metacritic.com (they have full lists of their games and scores), and popped it into Excel. I omitted 2005 because the PS3 and Wii did not have Metacritic numbers posted those years (pre system-release). The results were interesting...
First up, let's look at the the average scores by platform, by year, with the highest scores by platform highlighted in orange.
2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
PS3 | 71 | 71.9 | 70 | 71.7 |
360 | 70 | 67 | 66 | 69 |
PSP | 67 | 64 | 67 | 68 |
DS | 62 | 62 | 63 | 67 |
Wii | 63 | 60 | 61 | 65 |
As one can see in the table above, PS3 saw its highest average score back in 2007 and Xbox 360 was even further back in 2006! The PS3 score in 2009 so far (the numbers are only up to November 17, 2009) is only 0.2 points away from 2007, so if they were rounded up, the 2009 score would be the same as 2007, at 72. The PSP, DS and Wii all saw 2009 as being the best year for their respective software, but they trail the 360 and PS3. The delta between the 2009 PS3 and Wii scores is almost 7 points, which may not be surprising considering the different audiences the platforms are geared toward (PS3 is for hardcore gamers and Wii is family-targeted). Here is the graph of the above data:
Now let's check out the average of the averaged averages... i.e. the average of the scores shown above from 2006 to 2009:
Total Average, 2006-2009 | |
|---|---|
PS3 | 71 |
360 | 68 |
PSP | 67 |
DS | 63 |
Wii | 62 |
What the above means is that from 2006-2009, PS3 has the highest-scoring games around - a perhaps a marginal 3 points above 360 but a full 9 points above the Wii. Here's the same data, in handy graph form:
Does this mean PS3 has the best games? Maybe, or maybe not. Differences like the target market I mentioned earlier are a factor to consider. For example, a professional game reviewer may disagree with say, my aunt, on whether a particular title is "good" or not, and the different systems speak to different people. A safe assertion to make is that technically PS3 has the highest-quality core-gamer titles out, but a 3 point difference between PS3 and 360 over 4 year period may not be enough of a difference to really say which system has better games. Additionally, I've maintained that PS3 and 360 appeal to slightly different audiences.
On a personal note, there are stellar games on ALL of the above systems, so it's hard to go wrong (although I am partial to my PS3).
An interesting commercial caught my attention when it aired on SpikeTV last night - it was a Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job-esque infomercial promoting a supposed new product from Budweiser call Bud Light Speaker Box. The product is purportedly a case of Bud Light (or "two-four", as my Canadian brethren would say) with a built-in speaker that you can plug your MP3 player into.
After it aired I went to YouTube to find the ad, but it didn't come up. Thinking there must be some mistake, I Googled it. No luck there either. All I found was one silent video of a rotating case:
Strange. Why would the ad not have been posted? I started scratching my head about this and did some digging. It soon dawned on me that something suspicious was going on with this product... mainly, that it didn't seem to actually exist. My Google results brought up tons of results, mainly of what appeared to be blog posts about the product. Thing is, I took a closer look at these blogs and I'm fairly certain they were set up by a marketing agency to hype the product. Examples:
ttp://momentumoffailure.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/hot-off-the-wire-the-bud-light-speaker-box/
Pic here, for when they no doubt remove the site once the campaign is done:
This "blog" has no other content on it besides filler... but VERY easy to miss if someone just pops in to look. Another example:
http://gizmosgadgetsnews.info/sports/bud-light-speaker-box-tailgate-approved
Pic here:
Gizmo and Gadget? Come on guys... but admittedly, pretty slick. I love the generic posts on the front page about the Honda Accord, Blackberry Storm and The Sims - all basically Wikipedia copy and pastes.
There are countless other fake posts about this thing - entire blogs set up just to promote this product, but written as if it was coming from independent bloggers. My favorite:
http://gourmetretailer.firstlightera.com/EN/Microsites/1/AnheuserBusch/BudLightSpeakerBox.htm
Pic here:
This is what APPEARS at first glance to be an online store selling the product, but as you can see, it says "Sponsored by Anheuser Busch" at the top. If you dig on the "Gourmet Direct" site you see it's all just AB product info. And no order link, which is most telling.
So at this point, I'm fairly convinced this reeks of shenanigans. I decide to download the "Product Sheet" offered on the Gourmet Direct page, and I get a Powerpoint deck with two slides in it, talking about the product. I decide to do some meta-digging... I wanna know who created this and I quickly find out by checking the document creator info. Turns out it was a gentleman named Greg Litwicki, from Shaw Company. A quick trip through Google lead me to this page:
http://www.shaw-company.com
Not surprising to find out that Shaw is Anheuser-Busch's advertising/marketing company (one of them at least). Please keep in mind that all this proves is Shaw created the Powerpoint deck for AB - but it certainly seems to suggest that this is a larger marketing initiative cooked up by Shaw.
I must say, this is a very well-executed campaign, as it is certainly not obvious. My hat is off to Shaw Company, if they are the ones to have come up with this... The real question is, will the Bud Light Speaker Box ever actually come out? Perhaps this is all pre-marketing to build hype around the product for football season. More likely: the product doesn't actually exist and this is simply to generate buzz for Bud Light. Interesting concept - promote a product that doesn't exist, get people into the store, and they pick up a case of Bud Light anyway. Nice.
Request for Shaw or AB: Please post the commercial on YouTube. I need it to fulfill my original goal: demonstrate the incredible influence of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job on mainstream media. Thanks. Appreciate it.
After it aired I went to YouTube to find the ad, but it didn't come up. Thinking there must be some mistake, I Googled it. No luck there either. All I found was one silent video of a rotating case:
Strange. Why would the ad not have been posted? I started scratching my head about this and did some digging. It soon dawned on me that something suspicious was going on with this product... mainly, that it didn't seem to actually exist. My Google results brought up tons of results, mainly of what appeared to be blog posts about the product. Thing is, I took a closer look at these blogs and I'm fairly certain they were set up by a marketing agency to hype the product. Examples:
ttp://momentumoffailure.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/hot-off-the-wire-the-bud-light-speaker-box/
Pic here, for when they no doubt remove the site once the campaign is done:
This "blog" has no other content on it besides filler... but VERY easy to miss if someone just pops in to look. Another example:
http://gizmosgadgetsnews.info/sports/bud-light-speaker-box-tailgate-approved
Pic here:
Gizmo and Gadget? Come on guys... but admittedly, pretty slick. I love the generic posts on the front page about the Honda Accord, Blackberry Storm and The Sims - all basically Wikipedia copy and pastes.
There are countless other fake posts about this thing - entire blogs set up just to promote this product, but written as if it was coming from independent bloggers. My favorite:
http://gourmetretailer.firstlightera.com/EN/Microsites/1/AnheuserBusch/BudLightSpeakerBox.htm
Pic here:
This is what APPEARS at first glance to be an online store selling the product, but as you can see, it says "Sponsored by Anheuser Busch" at the top. If you dig on the "Gourmet Direct" site you see it's all just AB product info. And no order link, which is most telling.
So at this point, I'm fairly convinced this reeks of shenanigans. I decide to download the "Product Sheet" offered on the Gourmet Direct page, and I get a Powerpoint deck with two slides in it, talking about the product. I decide to do some meta-digging... I wanna know who created this and I quickly find out by checking the document creator info. Turns out it was a gentleman named Greg Litwicki, from Shaw Company. A quick trip through Google lead me to this page:
http://www.shaw-company.com
Not surprising to find out that Shaw is Anheuser-Busch's advertising/marketing company (one of them at least). Please keep in mind that all this proves is Shaw created the Powerpoint deck for AB - but it certainly seems to suggest that this is a larger marketing initiative cooked up by Shaw.
I must say, this is a very well-executed campaign, as it is certainly not obvious. My hat is off to Shaw Company, if they are the ones to have come up with this... The real question is, will the Bud Light Speaker Box ever actually come out? Perhaps this is all pre-marketing to build hype around the product for football season. More likely: the product doesn't actually exist and this is simply to generate buzz for Bud Light. Interesting concept - promote a product that doesn't exist, get people into the store, and they pick up a case of Bud Light anyway. Nice.
Request for Shaw or AB: Please post the commercial on YouTube. I need it to fulfill my original goal: demonstrate the incredible influence of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job on mainstream media. Thanks. Appreciate it.
