Waking Life – Torrent -2001- Richard Linklater – Rotoscope

More of Waking Life…More of Richard Linklater’s Finest…

Waking Life (torrent) is a digitally rotoscoped and animated film, directed by Richard Linklater and made in 2001. The entire film was shot using digital video and then a team of artists using computers drew stylized lines and colors over each frame.

“Waking Life follows the dream(s) of one man and his attempt to find and discern the absolute difference between waking life and the dreamworld. While trying to figure out a way to wake up, he runs into many people on his way; some of which offer one sentence asides on life, others delving deeply into existential questions and life’s mysteries. We become the main character. It becomes our dream and our questions being asked and answered. Can we control our dreams? What are they telling us about life? About death? About ourselves and where we come from and where we are going? The film does not answer all these for us. Instead, it inspires us to ask the questions and find the answers ourselves” (IMDB).

Watch the trailer below:

Awesome Robot Dancer Dancing to I Turn My Camera On by Spoon

The robot Keepon (developed by Hideki Kozima and programmed by Marek Michalowski) dancing to the song “I Turn My Camera On” by the band Spoon.

” We are currently developing and studying dance-oriented nonverbal play with between children and the robot Keepon, designed and built by Hideki Kozima. Keepon is a small creature-like robot developed to perform emotional and attentional interaction with children. It has four degrees of freedom, a soft rubber skin, two cameras in its eyes, and a microphone in its nose.”

Museumr – Fun Flickr Tool Puts Photos Into Museum Backdrops

This flickr hack is awesome.  Put in the url of an image and it pastes the picture into a giant frame  hanging in a museum with people oogling your work.

Imeem.com – Seems pretty damn awesome so far

imeem is an online community where artists, fans & friends can promote their content, share their tastes, and discover new blogs, photos, music and video. Here are some of the things you can do on imeem:

Discover Enjoy the latest videos, music, photos, or blogs posted by your friends “Pulse” gives you a real-time look at the latest activity on imeem Stay up-to-date with your personal network of fans and friends with “What’s New” notifications Get in-depth stats for all your content and track their popularity Interact Tag, comment, rate, and share any of your friends’ cool (or embarrassing) content Create or join groups for your favorite band, event, topic, and more! Start discussions with other imeem users and make new friends Share Embed your media on other pages (such as your blog, Bebo, etc.) Recommend stuff to your friends or add it to your “Favorites” list Easily add media to your Del.icio.us, WordPress, Blogger, or Typepad account (to name a few)

Want to know more?

The Barenaked Ladies – Youtublebrities Perform in Latest Music Video

This has been going around but I’m posting it anyway because it is too good to pass up.

Why is it that TBL is so hip to the times?

Alexander Overwijk – World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion

Most people have heard the story of the painter Giotto, who, when asked by the King of Naples for proof of his ability, drew a perfect circle as a fitting token of his artistic skill.

In the video below Alexander Overwijk, a World Freehand Circle Drawing Champion draws a perfect freehand circle 1m in diameter in less than a second.

Turn Free Hand Sketches In Space Into Physical 3D Objects

  FRONT members have developed a method to materialize free hand sketches. 

Pen strokes made in the air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files; these are then materialized through Rapid Prototyping into real pieces of furniture.

The Sketch Furniture project in Japan is made in collaboration with Barry Friedman Ltd. Tokyo Wonder Site Aoyama and Crescent.

You can see the technology in following a video:

(via)

Halloween Recipes for Fingers and Brains!

“Finger” Cookies
makes ~ 5 dozen
Yield: 5 dozen

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole blanched almonds
raspberry jelly

In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Stir dry ingredients together, then add to wet and stir thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll a scant tablespoon full (I used a 1 oz. cookie scoop) of dough into a thin log shape about 4″ long for each cookie. Squeeze clost to center and close to one end to create knuckle shapes. Press almond firmly into the end of the cookie for nail. Using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle. You want them a bit thin and gangly looking, since they’ll puff a little when you bake them.

Place on lightly greased baking sheets (or use silicone sheets or parchment); bake in 325F oven for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, melt jelly over low heat in a small saucepan.

Carefully lift almond off of each finger, spoon a tiny amount of jelly onto nail bed and press almond back in place so the jelly oozes out from underneath. You can also make slashes in the finger and fill them with “blood.

You can also form toes – just make the cookies shorter and a bit wider and only add one joint instead of two. No almonds for these, just indent where the nailbed should be and add a bit of melted jelly to highlight once they are baked.

Here’s the recipe for brains….BRAINS!

This recipe was inspired by the one Alton Brown did a few years back. I liked the idea but wasn’t thrilled with the recipe, so I came up with my own. By the way, I would suggest getting this mold – it looks a lot more lifelike.

Panna Cotta (brain style) with Pomegranite Sauce

1 cup milk
5 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
4 cups heavy cream
1 cup + 1 Tb sugar, divided
pinch salt
2 Tablespoons vanilla
8 oz. pomegranite juice
1/4 cup cornstarch

Place milk in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over the top. Stir and let sit for about five minutes so the gelatin can rehydrate a bit.

Combine cream and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and salt. Add the gelatin mixture and stir again until combined. Pour into (brain) mold, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight or until mixture is completely set.

To unmold, gently tilt mold so sides of the panna cotta pull away a bit, then place on platter or plate. You can also dip the bottom of the mold into warm water to help in unmolding.

(For non-brain occasions, pour into small custard cups, ramekins, or a large bowl)

For the pomegranite sauce, I just got a small bottle of Pom Wonderful, added three heaping spoonfuls of sugar so it wasn’t so tart, mixed in about 1/4 cup cornstarch, whisked like crazy, then brought it all to a boil in a small saucepan while stirring. The consistancy is rather disgusting, but that’s the whole point!

This looks especially creepy set out on a really nice platter. Also quite effective on a carving board with a large chef’s knife plunged into the center .

(link)