Back in December I was lucky enough to be in Vienna, Austria for the 10th annual incarnation of Roboexotica, the conference for cocktail robots. I shot copious amounts of video of the various booze bots in action and Boing Boing has just published a nicely edited, whirlwind tour of the mayhem from my footage.
The world watched as regime change finally came to America. I watched from the crowded & cold west front lawn of the US Capitol as Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th President. People say this is a once in a lifetime event. I think they’re right and very glad to have been there.
Another moment that many people won’t soon forget is when George Bush flew away from the Capitol on a helicopter for his final flight back to Texas, which you can see on this video I shot:
More of my photos are here.
I’m in the DC area hanging out with family through the holidays and for the upcoming historic Obama inauguration. As I was cruising through DC on a rainy Wednesday I came across stopped traffic and knew immediately that it was the Presidential motorcade. If you’ve ever spent any time in DC, you’ll know this is fairly routine. What wasn’t routine was the number of presidents that might have been in those reinforced black limos. This was right after a luncheon Bush was hosting with all the past and future living presidents. Also, Todd over at Telstar Logistics points out the motorcade Wikipedia entry that describes exactly all the vehicles that make up the Presidential motorcade, as can been in this video.
Many moons ago, I was commissioned by the fine folks over at Current TV to do a VC2 piece on RoboGames, the annual event for all things related to robot fight competitions. The piece follows the team behind Beer Bash, a “special” kind of robot, as they prepare it for competition at RoboGames. It’s airing all week in heavy rotation I’m told, so lemme know if you see it. It’s also on Current’s site and embedded below.
Merry WoWmas! This beautiful World of Warcraft machinima video was created by the peeps over at Pure Pwnage for a previous year’s yule. It’s spectacular, but you’re gonna want to mute the soundtrack right away, trust me on this. Instead, substitute Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song (embedded below) and you’ll have a much more appropriately enjoyable experience.
Brilliantly executed, with all the classic arcade games of my youth that matter. The filmmaker PES has a bunch of other delightfully twisted videos he’s made on his site. Roof Sex is one not to miss.
Came across these Commodore 64 game playthroughs on the Archive. I spent way too many hours glued to the 64 when I was kid. Here’s a few of the more memorable games I recall wasting my youth with.
M.U.L.E.
Impossible Mission
Radar Rat Race
Last weekend, San Francisco was overrun with thousands of Santas for Santacon. It ruled. I posted pix previously here. I also took a bunch of video and threw together this little montage. Music is from Jingle Punx, hope you guys don’t mind. If you like what you hear, go see their show in Oakland on Dec. 26th. Enjoy!
Last night, I stopped by Obscura Digital‘s holiday party where they were demoing some of their cool projection toys. Just inside the entrance was a life size “3-D” reflective glass video projection, similar to what you might see in Williams’ Pinball 2000 series of hybrid video pinball machines (Revenge from Mars), but writ large. Apparently this is an old technique, though still pretty cool to see on such a large scale. Next to that was a geodesic dome used as a projection screen inside. A projector was positioned on the floor in the center with a fisheye lens facing straight up. Kicking back in a lounge chair, the effect is like being in an IMAX planetarium.
Another thing that caught my eye was a cool interactive multi-touch screen. Here’s Jay giving it a whirl, checking out some of Obscura’s previous projects.
Jay interacts with the touchscreen from ekai on Vimeo.
Obscura has also done some amazing large scale projection projects on the sides of cities. Bright, multiple building projections in New York City and Dubai. The videos on their site will keep you entertained for awhile.
I’m really bummed to have missed the Blip Festival again this year. I first heard about it at SXSW last year when I saw a screening of Reformat the Plant, a documentary on the chiptunes scene and the first Blip Festival. As an 8-bit video game and computer junkie, this was what I’ve been waiting for. BBtv was there this year.