Media

The amazing river ice break lottery

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Back in the early 1900s, locals in Canada’s Yukon Territory placed bets on the exact moment when the river ice would melt. The stakes started as a round of drinks for the winner. Last year, the winner took home about $318,500.

Nirvana live performance, miming the instruments and mugging the vocal

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Back in 1991, Nirvana was asked to perform on England’s Top of the Pops. Problem was, they were told they had to play off a backing track (pre-recorded instrumentals) with live vocals. As you might expect, Kurt Cobain and the band did not take things as seriously as the show would have liked.

Great coffee shop horror scene

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This was done back in October, but I stumbled on it this weekend. Fantastic fake coffee shop set up to scare the heck out of the customers. So very good.

Miss Ping video demystified

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A while back, I posted this video, showing knives, ping pong paddles, pineapples and the eponymous Miss Ping, all interacting as if by magic.

I’ve watched this video a dozen times, trying to figure out how this was done. No dice. Then, along came the video below, demystifying it all. Thank you Captain Disillusion.

Top 20 most shared video ads of 2013

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These are fascinating. Here’s the most shared ad. It’s called Dove Beauty Sketches, and it’s from ad agency Ogilvy Mather.

Incredible, interactive lip-syncing Bob Dylan video project

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Not a fan of Bob Dylan? Doesn’t matter. Click the link, watch for 10 seconds, then change the channel. Don’t get what’s happening? Keep changing the channel. Incredible. I would love to see a “behind the scenes” on the making of this.

Jony Ive book looks good, just lighten up on the marketing

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I think the world of Jony Ive. When I heard that Leander Kahney was working on a book about Sir Jonathan, I got excited. But this marketing approach is over the top. Watch the video trailer below. It ends with this line:

Did we give credit to the wrong guy?

Yeesh. Big splash of cold water. The book deserves better than this.

Incredible Academy Award winning short film from 1959

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Not sure if it’s the imagery, the music, or just the rhythm of the whole piece, but this is ten minutes well spent. I love the faces of the glass-blowers as they puff out their cheeks, sometimes smoking a pipe at the same time. Lovely.

Glas won master film maker Bert Haanstra a well-deserved Academy Award® for Best Short Documentary in 1959. The film contrasts the production of hand made crystal from the Royal Leerdam Glass Factory with automated bottle making machines in the Netherlands. An industrial film with a bebop heart, its lyrical use of light and sound still looks and sounds fabulous, nearly 60 years after it was made.

New PBS Jimi Hendrix documentary

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Love the American Masters series.

Hear My Train A Comin’ traces the legendary guitarist’s remarkable journey from his hardscrabble beginnings in Seattle, through his stint as a US Army paratrooper and as an unknown sideman to R&B stars until his discovery and ultimate international stardom. With previously unseen footage of the 1968 Miami Pop Festival, home movies, and interviews with those closest to Jimi Hendrix.

Reddit thread on the scariest books

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Love lists. Always fascinating to see what other people think of as scary. To me, the scariest books are the early works of Clive Barker and almost anything by H. P. Lovecraft.

Kinect and sign-language translation

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This is amazing. This effort bridges the gap between sign languages such as ASL and spoken/written language. Watch the video. Brilliant.

Actors appearing in three trilogies

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In movie buff circles, there’s an ongoing trivia question that is getting close to an answer: “Who is the first actor to appear in three trilogies?”

There were plenty of near misses. Christopher Lee is in seven Hammer Dracula films, and three Lord of the Rings films (the Extended Cuts, anyway) but only two of three Star Wars prequels. Emilio Estevez made three Mighty Ducks movies, but the Young Guns and Stakeout franchises stalled at two. And so on.

Don’t want to spoil this. If you are interested in such minutia, read the article (I found it fascinating). Then try your hand at this question:

Who is the only actor to star (not necessarily appear) in 3 separate billion dollar franchises? Feel free to tweet me (@davemark) if you think you have it.