Fixing A Watch In Space

Folk Princes of Bel-Air

Jimmy Fallon, pretending to be Neil Young, covering the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. But wait, Jimmy Fallon! Kay Pettigrew did it first.

Heartilation by Andrew Jackson Jihad

Here's Andrew Jackson Jihad (or as the first commenter describes it, a folk-punk Gordan Freeman) playing a song from their new album while riding a railcar.

Renee Fleming and Lou Reed

"Perfect Day" performed by Renée Fleming and Lou Reed, with back-up from the Prague Philharmonic. The songs okay, but Lou Reed looks so supremely bored with the whole thing.

LED Dress

24,000 LEDs in all. I sure do loves me some wearable tech.

The ‘Galaxy Dress’ claims to be the largest wearable display in the world and it will be the centerpiece of an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

“We used the smallest full-color LEDs, flat like paper, and measuring only 2 by 2 mm,” say designers Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz in an e-mail. “The circuits are extra-thin, flexible and hand-embroidered on a layer of silk in a way that gives it stretch so the LED fabric can move like normal fabric with lightness and fluidity.” The duo run an interactive clothing company called CuteCircuit.

To diffuse the LED light, the dress has four layers of silk chiffon and a pleated silk organza crinoline skirt. The extra-thin electronics allow the dress to follow the body shape closely like normal fabric.

Instead of having one large and heavy battery, the dress is designed to run on many tiny iPod batteries hiding in the crinoline, says Rosella. “They are not visible or uncomfortable,” she says.

With the batteries, the Galaxy Dress wearer can walk around — all lit up — for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

The areas without LEDs are decorated with more than 4,000 hand-applied Swarovski crystals that range in color from clear to bright pink. “The dress looks good even when it is switched off,” say the designers.

Mark Growden covers Leonard Cohen

I've posted Mark Growden before, but here's him and his quartet doing the song I'm Your Man.

Chinese Daydream Believer Cover

I know nothing about this clip, other than that its (probably) Chinese, and that WIlliam Gibson posted it on his twitter.

Old Footage of Cacophony Society

As a result of recently entering the world of the gainfully employed, I haven't had as much time to blog as I'd like. To make it up to all you fine folks, here's some footage circa 1990 of the famous Cacophony Society in a news story. Watch to the end to see them light the first Burning Man to ever ignite in Black Rock City.

DailyKos Makes Tom Tancredo Angry

Today on the Ed Show, former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo walked off the set of the MSNBC program after Mark Moulitas (founder of the famous liberal blog DailyKos) made fun of his draft deferments during Vietnam.

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitas defended health care reform, pointing out that the military uses government-run health care. Tancredo said veterans complained about their health care and would much rather have a private choice.

"Tom, I'm a veteran. Okay?" Moulitas responded. "I did not get a deferment because I was too depressed to fight a war I supported in Vietnam. I'm a veteran. They want a more effective V.A. ..."

"You're not going to do that. You're not going to try to insult me that way and then pretend like we're just going on and talk about that. You either apologize ..." When Moulitas did not apologize, Tancredo simply took out his earpiece and walked away.

As a Republican student activist, Tancredo spoke out in favor of the Vietnam War but did not serve.

Watch it below.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/tom-tancredo-walks-off-ms_n_349150.html&cp

Galapagos Rap

Normally I am in no way amused by self-made rap videos, but in this song by Standford sophomores on vacation in the Galapagos, the rhymes are fresh and the science quite accurate.

Jason Webley In An Aeroplane Over The Sea

I promise this is the last Jason Webley video I'll post here. Here's him covering Neutral Milk Hotel during a show at Bottom of the Hill. I was there in person, but the video was done by someone much closer to the front.

In Which I Am Sad And Miss the Bay Area

Philip Bloom composed this hi-def video of the people of San Francisco. Check it out.

Jet Set Junta

The best part is the tambourine-playing girl.

London 1903

This is an old video of London streets from 1903. I love the Kodak ads on the horse-drawn double decker buses.

San Francisco 1958

Here's some home footage of San Francisco in 1958. Follow the link for videos of Disneyland from the same era.

Sony Unveils 3D Display

The cylindrical display case is 27 cm tall with a base of 13 cm in diameter, and features a 96 by 128-pixel resolution that looks better than might be expected.

I love the future. Sony just unveiled this new 3D display. Obviously, the sense of depth is extremely limited in the video, but its still extremely cool. Via BoingBoing.

Wrist-Mounted Flamethrowers

Creative Halloween costume idea, or crime-fighting super weapon? You be the judge.

Italian Motorbike Display

Fantastic film of Italian police riders putting on a motorbike display in the 50s. (viaBoingBoing).

Microsoft Surface + D&D = Super Rad

Totally badass proof of concept video for a D&D application of the Microsoft Surface. From Penny-Arcade.com:

-A while ago we went out to speak at the ETC in Pittsburgh. After our talk we got to walk around the campus and talk to all the different teams. You can go back and read Tycho's post about our trip. One of the groups we saw was working on developing applications for the Microsoft Surface. The stuff they were doing was for some kind of defense contractor though and so it was all essentially top secret. They did have a Surface in their room though and I actually sat down and played with it for a bit. After I was done doodling I started sketching out a game grid and we all got to talking about how you might be able to use this tech to play D&D. I drew out some rough ideas and Tycho and I gave them a wish list of things we'd want to see it do. Stuff like selecting spells from a menu around your figure and animates effects for attacks and auras.

After we got home we received a mail from them saying they liked the idea so much they wanted to make it their next project. That was months ago and they've just now released their first proof of concept video. Obviously it's still super early but in my opinion it's got a ton of potential.

Words fail me. Check out Wired for more.

Amanda Palmer & Friends

Amanda Palmer performs "Marry Me" by St. Vincent (from the record "Marry Me") with Reggie Watts (beatboxing), and other featured friends and performers including Sxip Shirey, Jason Webley, Meow Meow, Una Mimnagh, and Jonas Woolverton...

Recorded live in Boston, MA at Sxip's Hour of Charm
September 15th, 2007