July 1, 2008
The Web Site Is Hilarious
I wasn't going to post this... but I think it's screamingly funny. So you're getting it.
It is most definitely NOT safe for work. So find someplace you can listen and watch without getting fired.
It comes to us from the seriously messed-up fine folks at the aptly-named The Web Site Is Down, so now you know who to blame for snorting milk out your nose and shorting out your wireless keyboard when you saw Sales Guy's desktop.
Posted by reparent at 6:25 PM | Comments (0)
November 8, 2007
Random Thoughts (so tired... must... blog)
Okay, it's the end of week 1 of NaBloPoMo, and I'm exhausted. Which means you're gonna get some random stuff to ponder, puzzle over, and 'preciate. (Hey, I'm tired here. Cut me some slack on the alliteration.)
First up is this Second Life machinima video about some college kids preparing for a time-travel party:
The song comes from a new musical being written, previewed, and re-written by Heidi Heilig and Mike Pettry called, appropriately enough, The Time Travelers Convention. Check out the web page for the musical because you can listen to some of the songs from the musical. It seems really cute. I hope they can make it work. I also hope they'll let other theater groups put on productions of it when it's in a more finalized form. (Check out the musical's blog for reports on what's being tweaked.)
Next, is a related video. Well, okay, it's about time travel, too. But that's really the only connection. I don't need to justify myself to you. (Especially not when we're talking about shirtless guys and Terminator satires.)
Moving on... Busted Tees has a great t-shirt. Mostly, it's great because I was just talking with The Spouse about fantasy football. I explained to him that it's like Dungeons & Dragons for sports geeks.
Which, of course, brings me to my next video clip. This one from Family Guy:
But on a more serious note, BoingBoing Gadgets alerts us to this automotive endeavor -- Fisker Automotive has designed the car below to operate as a plug-in hybrid. "The first vehicles will be delivered at the end of 2009 with a starting price of $80,000." Click through to read more. I want one.
Dean Dad weighs in on the crap that our car companies are churning out these days. It's a great read, but I especially like his conclusion: "Confidential to the Ford Motor Company: Seriously, are you guys even trying anymore?" If more car companies created pieces of art like the Fisker (though a lower price point would be lovely), the US automotive industry wouldn't be in the state it's in now. I mean, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the appeal of a tag line / company motto like the one on the Fisker home page: "Fisker Automotive presents Eco-Chic. A new category of automobiles that make sense. Lead the Future with Quantum Drive, a plug-in hybrid featuring premium styling, performance and green technology." Design a freaking car that looks like the Bat-Mobile, performs like an Audi, and sips gas like a Prius. I just don't get it. It's like the auto industry wants to die. Grrrr...
And with that pithy note, I leave you this evening. I need to eat and get some sleep.
A domani**.
* Yes, I know I'm conflating paladins (which class Avatar Of Goodness Tom Brady would, of course, choose) with mages (who fire magic missiles but are pretty darn fragile). Get over it. Did I mention I'm tired?
** That's Eye-talian for "See ya tomorrow."
Posted by reparent at 6:42 PM | Comments (1)
August 30, 2007
Emily Post Would Agree
Josh Marshall, apropos of the recent unpleasantnesses with Republican Representative Bob Allen of Florida and Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, points our attention to Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Frank Cerabino, who notes that their recent mishaps "serve as a cautionary tale on the importance of guy bathroom etiquette for the rest of us."
True, true. And to help alleviate any further problems, I offer the following machinima, "Male Restroom Etiquette," made with the always-expressive Sims 2 game. Enjoy.
Posted by reparent at 9:02 AM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2007
Machinima Music Madness!
The Ataris recently concluded a contest at Machinima.com that asked the machinima-making-masses to create music videos for three of their songs ("Not Capable of Love," "The Cheyenne Line," and "Connections Are More Dangerous Than Lies") using the World of Warcraft game engine. It's a promo for the new Ataris disc, Welcome the Night, but to facilitate the promo, the band had to give away these three tracks. Since these three songs are, presumably, the tracks slated to be released as singles, that's an odd strategy. (You can still download the three tracks for free here.)
The contest is over now, and here are the three winners:
First Place: "Frame of Mind" by Sedrin
Second Place: "Connections Are More Dangerous Than Lies" by Baron Soosdon
Third Place: "Connections Are More Dangerious Than Lies" by Dead Workers Party
I'd also like to draw your attention to one of the finalists that didn't make the top 3: Selserene's "To The Fairest"
You can compare Selserene's video with the official (i.e., featuring the band) Ataris video for "Not Capable of Love" at the iTunes Store. (Double-click on the song title to watch a 30-second preview.) I like the Blood Elf version better, I think.
Finally, for something not-completely different, the Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain have been confirmed to perform live at Blizzard's annual BlizzCon this year. Here you can sample the heavy metal goodness of "I Am Murloc!" (Warning: this video contains death-metal power chords, thrusting orc hips, and brief superhero-themed homophobic content.)
Anyway, what I'm most interested in with these machinima are the ways they depend (or not) on knowledge of the game for viewers/listeners to enjoy them. (And what should we call the consumers of music video? Listeners? Viewers? Multi-modal-mu-vid-mavens?) Sedrin's "Frame of Mind," for instance, is a critique of the tendency toward excess in the Achiever play-style (mentioned in yesterday's post, and then ably copped-to by Coeurlion in the comments). It's easy in WoW to get caught up in the race to level 70, and in the race to get the most elite weapons and armor. Sedrin shows us his avatar's Buddhist coming-out party, renouncing worldly goods and rediscovering friendship and that the world has color. If you've never yelled at someone for ninjaing loot, or been yelled at yourself for an innocent (we hope) mistake looting, does this video mean anything at all to you? Can it?
Baron Soosdon's video, on the other hand, seems like a pretty straightforward tale of lost love and zombie invasions. However, if you're a WoW player, you might have noticed the cross-faction romances of our main characters (Blood Elves are Horde, the Draenei are Alliance) -- a big no-no. And if you're a lore-junkie, you might have noticed the allusion to Horde Warchief Thrall and Alliance Mega-Mage Jaina Proudmoore, whose own forbidden love has been the subject of long speculation. Obviously, this isn't crucial knowledge needed to make sense of the video, but it does set up a clear dichotomy between what we might call naive and experienced readings of the video.
The Dead Workers Party video also makes use of in-jokes and references, such as the absurdity of playing World of Warcraft on an Atari 2600, itself an in-joke reference to the band's name, The Ataris. The video's concluding in-joke pokes fun at the difficulty in knowing who or what is on the other side of the often attractive avatars on screen.
And the L70ETC song, "I Am Murloc!" may be catchy if you're into that sort of thing, but if you've ever played WoW, it's an instant classic. Murlocs are irritating, little, deadly fish-people who swarm up to you and then make you into their own special fish-food du jour. Horde and Alliance both have quests that require navigating through Murloc-infested areas, and killing many, many Murlocs. Every WoW player knows the sinking feeling of doom when you're trying to get just one Murloc to attack and end up hearing the Murloc sound: "Aaaaaughibbrgubugbugrguburgle!" coming from 3-8 others, all heading your way with murder in their unblinking eyes. Can this song/video have the same impact on non-Wow-ers?
I don't have a conclusion to this ramble. That's usually a good sign that there is (or should be) a paper hiding three or four so-whats down the road. We'll see.
Until then, rock on!
Posted by reparent at 11:05 AM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2007
Machinima Strikes Back!
Here's this week's machinima goodness: a music video to those upbeat kids, Breaking Benjamin, and their song, "So Cold." Keep smilin' guys!
The video was made by Paul Marino using Half-Life 2, and features a lot of footage from the game. (In fact, if you haven't finished the game yet, there may be a few spoilers in here for you!) I think it's a fascinating mix of the game's narrative with the tone and lyrics of the song.
But wait, there's more! Here's a special bonus sorta-machinima clip for your edification and enjoyment!
GayGamer's FruitBrute clues us in to the latest sorta-machinima video by Monty Oum: Haloid:
It's "sorta-machinima" because Oum takes two iconic video game characters, Master Chief from the Halo series and Samus Aran from the Metroid series, and has them duke it out in the grand tradition of "Who Would Win: Batman or Superman" contests. In this match-up, fortunately, the fight takes an unexpected turn. However, because he's combining franchises, he can't use the games' engines to create the video. He animates it himself. Thus, it's like machinima, but this isn't machinima.
The video is pretty darn good. The animation in the opening sequence isn't great, but Oum's sense of timing and his skills as an editor are on full display. And the fight itself is fun. I have a major quibble with his choice of music, though: when you're going to rely that heavily on Matrix-style bullet-time and superhuman fighting skills, using the music from The Matrix just feels redundant.
Also, you should read Oum's notes (scroll down to the FAQ) on making the video. They did a lot to make me feel better about Master Chief's electro-tingle, but I really wish the gender play in this video were more about the fact that girl gamers roxxor hard, and less about the straight-guy fantasy that "hot lesbians are awesome."
(X-posted on Lives Online)
Posted by reparent at 6:02 PM | Comments (1)
April 3, 2007
Machinima Makes a Comeback
This set of machinima is Second Life-centric, with a lot of information that can help you to become an uber-leet Second Lifer!
Natural Selection Studios has started a great series of "Noob Be Gone" videos intended to help you banish your noobishness.
Episode 1 shows you how to manage your in-world "camera," how to interact with objects, and a bunch of other cool hacks, tips, and techniques:
Episode 2 shows you the basics for becoming an awesome SL builder:
Have you noticed that the avatars around you can do really cool things, while you're stuck with the same, sad moves? Well, eradicate your envy with this video by Torley about creating fab gestures:
And for info on just about anything else you might want to do in SL, check out the rest of the massive cache of video tutorials created and posted by Torley.
(X-posted at Lives Online)
Posted by reparent at 4:07 PM | Comments (1)
March 9, 2007
Friday Machinima (Second Life Edition)
This week's Friday Machinima is a blast from the recent past -- it's the machinima video from the midterm exam!
And for more on Text 100, check out their web site. Or watch this (non-machinima) video from Text 100 about branding in virtual worlds:
(x-posted to Lives Online)
Posted by reparent at 6:21 PM | Comments (0)
March 3, 2007
Friday Machinima: Spartan Edition
This week's Friday Machinima picks up on the ideas we've been talking about in the CyberCultural Studies class about the tensions between only observing and actively participating in online communities.
There's been a lot written about online spaces and online games, but not much of this high-level discourse has been done inside these spaces. This Spartan Life changes that. It's a talk show that features various famous digital theorists, artists, and game designers, and it's recorded entirely within the virtual world of multiplayer online Halo. (Click this link or the image below to go to episode 1 of This Spartan Life.)
Damian Lacedaemion, DJ Octobit, and the Solid Gold Elite Dancers are your guides to some of the smartest talk around about "the finer aspects of life, music, art, sex, movies and yes, even games." And it's all dipped and fried in a golden batter of Halo goodness. Frag-tastic!
There are four episodes so far, but I'm linking you to the first one to get a better feeling for the project. The other episodes are here.
(X-posted to Lives Online)
Posted by reparent at 4:33 PM | Comments (0)
February 28, 2007
Machinima Friday (Flashback Edition)
We're a little late, but imagine with me now that we have traveled to the past. We have journeyed all the way back to the exotic yesteryear of February 23rd, in the year 2007. Spooky.
Okay. Now that we're all in the right mind-set, we can appreciate our Friday Machinima. It's non-narrative. While most machinima tell a story, or at least include characters engaged in some sort of situation, this one is environmental.
In fact, it's architectural. While game engines are great for rendering characters, they're also good at representing world-spaces.
This machinima is a fly-through of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpieces, Fallingwater (more properly known as the Edgar Kaufmann House). Located in Bear Run, Pennsylvania (that's between Mill Run and Ohiopyle, in Southwestern Pennsylvania), it's a house built on top of, and around, a waterfall. Hence the name Fallingwater.
The house is built directly on the waterfall, and there is a staircase leading down to one of the waterfall's pools from the living room. It also, famously, is built as a series of canterlevered planes, each jutting out in a different direction.
It's a beautiful house, and the time and care that went into recreating the house in the Half-Life 2 engine is incredible.
Enjoy.
(X-posted to Lives Online)
Posted by reparent at 10:24 AM | Comments (1)
February 16, 2007
Machinima Friday: "The French Democracy"
This week's machinima comes to us via Lionhead Studio's The Movies, the same program that brought us our first machinima, "Kissing Lessons." This week we have a machinima about the race and class problems (yes, they're related) in contemporary France, "The French Democracy":
This machinima fictionally recreates actual events in France from 2005. Wikipedia has a nice summary of these events here.
Posted by reparent at 8:35 AM
February 9, 2007
Machinima Friday: "Express Your Inner Feelings" Edition
Today's Friday machinima is episode 13 from Ill Clan's "Tra5h Ta1k." This week's webisode examines the might and majesty of blogging, video blogging, and YouTube.
As you can guess, the results aren't pretty.
In completely unrelated news, I finished my narrative for my First Reappointment Evaluation. It came in at a slim, trim, 13 1/2 pages. Single spaced.
As they say on the Internets, "woot."
Posted by reparent at 10:16 AM
February 2, 2007
Machinima Fridays - Tra5h Ta1k on Second Life
Today's Machinima comes to us from Tra5h Ta1k, the talk show from the sick and twisted folks at Ill Clan.
Identity and otherness -- as well as the consequences of how we think about (and represent) ourselves and others in online spaces -- get a humorous treatment here, but they're serious issues affecting everyone who communicates with people they've never met face-to-face. Playing MMORPGs, online chat, posting to message boards, reading and commenting on blogs... who are these other people out there, and what do they really look like? What do they really act like? Does it matter? Should it matter?
What do you think?
Posted by reparent at 8:34 AM | Comments (1)
January 26, 2007
New Series: Machinima Fridays!
Today I'm starting a new series on the ole blog, Machinima Fridays. (I tried to find a way to make that alliterative, but I lack The Spouse's awesomely astonishing alliterative abilities.)
I know that other blogs have series -- Friday Random 10, Around Azeroth, Eye Candy Mondays (which is, technically, safe for work, but you might enjoy it more at home) -- but I don't like following the crowd. If those other blogs were to have Jump Off A Cliff Tuesdays, you can rest assured that, rugged individualist that I am, I wouldn't do it. I think.
No, this is something that hits nearer and dearer to my heart, and I think it'll be a regular feature around here. (At least until my Cybercultural Studies course ends, and I stop cross-posting things from here over there. And vice versa.)
Anyway, machinima is MACHIne-made aNIMAtion, in which the "machines" in question are actually game engines. That's probably not much clearer. The code that makes a PS2 game like Okami produce pretty pictures on your TV screen, or that lets your mighty mighty Night Elf Druid kick monster butt in World of Warcraft is called a game engine. It does lots and lots and lots of math and sends the results to your computer's processor and graphics card, which in turn send lots and lots of pixels to your screen. In other words, game engines usually are used to create game play.
But certain enterprising gamers realized that game engines are also (as part of their normal operation) producing what could be called movies on your monitor. And, either using the features included in the games or screen-capturing programs, those movies could be saved, edited, re-scored, and displayed outside of the game environment.
And presto-magico... machinima was born!
So, each week I'll be introducing you loyal readers (both of you), to a thought-provoking (or sometimes just funny) piece of machinima.
This week's machinima, an amusing trifle to ease us into this new feature, is inspired by the recent YouTube phenomenon LonelyGirl15, who asked "So what is the deal with kissing?" (For more on LonelyGirl15, read this.) Well, mixme1 does his/her/its best, using Lionhead Studios' The Movies game to help Bree out. Check it out.
Special Added Bonus Machinima Cultural Note:
Those wild and crazy innovators at the University of Kansas are now offering a graduate film seminar that will include machinima, apparently as both a subject of study and as something the students will produce. Though similar classes exist at other major research film programs (and Harvard, not usually known as a film mecca) and at schools of design and technology across the world, I salute the Kansas film grads who will finally gain the ability to critique films. As one of the co-teachers of the course, Stacey Fox explains, "'You can’t critique a film unless you’ve made one yourself.'" Good luck, machinimating Jayhawks!
(X-posted, in a slightly redacted manner, to Lives Online)
Posted by reparent at 6:19 PM | Comments (0)