Chryler Turbo Encabulator

What I fear many of my students experience during  my lectures.

Funny: The Process

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Rube Goldberg Music Video (This too shall pass/OkGo)

Here's a music video set to a fantastically elaborate Rube Goldberg setup. I've watched the video so many times now, that I felt compelled to go buy the mp3.

Way to market to 50+ year old geeks!

Household Rube Goldberg Machine

Been a while since I posted any new Rube Goldberg type machines. Found this one via Neatorama.

Rube Goldberg - Contraption - LE best
by e-boueur

Funny: Nolan Cheese Commercial

I know I'm sick....but this commercial makes me cringe and laugh every time.

Funny: Intel ad...Ajay Bhatt

valentines song

Little ditty from the Flight of the Conchords called Business Time. 

Funny: Beauty without Brains

What Teachers Make

Feeling a little down about the district budget cuts we are looking at for next year.  I think we are going to see a
some teachers let go.  That's always a hard thing.

This piece always makes me feel better about my career choices and I need a little cheering up.

[via TED Blog]

[Image captured from the video]

Make Great Minds

Great website sponsored by Make called Elements of Humanity. They went out and interviewed prominent people in science and technology about what they find interesting. The resulting videos are fascinating.

The one embedded is an interview with Rebecca Moore who manages the Google Outreach Program.

[Image captured from Elements of Humanity: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/quick_and_easy_pumpkin_cutter.html]

Filming a Fight Scene

Staging a punch in video came up in my media class the other day.  I was trying to explain how a punch is faked in film and that most fight scenes are blocked out and practiced like a dance routine.  We pulled out the camera and filmed a few punches and they all discovered that it was a little harder than they imagined.  I remembered a YouTube video that demoed how a scene was blocked out in the movie Serenity.

I brought these two clips in the next day.
First the stunt group working it all out. (Main stunt woman is Bridget Riley)



Second, watch the actual scene from the movie with Summer Glau.

[Image: "Punch:Day2"; http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaparral/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

funny: How to cope with Death

Funny: Ode to Forgetfulness

One last bit of foolishness...

Ira Glass on Storytelling

The other media production teacher and I often talk about how our kids technical abilities are ahead of their storytelling skills. We can teach them to set up a shot, improve their sound and edit what they shoot. We haven't been as successful at teaching them to tell a story.

Often our best storytellers are our best writers. The students who have done well in Creative Writing or their English classes. These typically are not the kids attracted to our program though.

I've been putting some thought into this and doing a little reading and web surfing on the topic. Came across these videos on YouTube of Ira Glass, This American Life, talking about storytelling as it relates to video and radio. He has some good information here.

Storytelling #1: Two Building Blocks of a good story.



Storytelling #2: Finding a Good Story is time consuming.



Storytelling #3: It takes time to get good at your craft.



Storytelling #4: The pitfalls for beginners




[Image captured from This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/About_Staff.aspx]

Zombie Make-Up

Quick easy tutorial on how to create a Zombie using liquid latex, toilet paper and some makeup (about $20 worth of materials). They say you can substitute white glue for the liquid latex if you are in a hurry or can't find the latex.

Halloween Math Lecture

Wonder if I could pull this off?



[via Neatorama]

Space Wolf

Check out this Graham Annable's other animations at his YouTube channel.




[via Miss Cellania]

Funny: Turbo Heather

Funny: Duetto Buffo di Due Gatti

Never heard of this duet until I saw it on Miss Cellania recently. I went on a search to find out more about this arrangement and found many YouTube videos. This first one is the one that got me started.



Wikipedia had this to say about the duet: "While the piece is typically attributed to Gioachino Rossini, it was not actually written by him, but is instead a compilation written in 1825 that draws from parts of his 1816 opera, Otello. The compiler was likely the English composer Robert Lucas de Pearsall, who for this purpose used the pseudonym "G. Berthold"

Two young ladies performing the same piece.



Another from the BBC:



Looked for the banjo version of this but couldn't find one. May just have to work up an arrangement.

Amazing Jumbo Elephant Landing

An International Fund for Animal Welfare public affair's ad. Not sure if it made the point it was going for, but I've watched it multiple times now and shared it with friends. So, maybe it is successful at getting folks attention.






[Image captured from "Amazing Jumbo Elephant Landing": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm8FJ8la2VU]