Haven’t posted anything in a while because I’ve been working on a bunch of stuff. That and raiding ICC, shh.

Anyway, lately I’ve been checking out 2MANYDJS, the dj-alter-ego of the group Soulwax. Now, I love their music, mixes and remixes, but what really caught my eye is their VJing. What is VJing? The same thing as DJing, but with visuals. One problem that a lot of DJs have today is how to make their live shows interesting. VJing gives the visual interest to complement the music, usually tied into and mixed alongside the sound tracks.

During a live performance, they are mixing music on the spot, more or less making the song as they go, similarly to a regular band performance. However, it’s not nearly as interesting. At a DJ show, you’re looking at a guy behind a sound panel, turning knobs, pressing buttons and scratching digital records. You might as well just be sitting in front of a speaker. So, the trick is making a show that stands out. Daft Punk does a great job by having trademark costumes, sets, and crazy ass lighting they use during their shows. Other less inspired groups simply use fog, lasers, dancers, and windows media player visualizers to try to keep the audiences attention.

Which brings me to 2MANYDJS. Basically, they’re now my heroes as far as visuals go. What they essentially do is take the album cover to the song you’re listening to and bring it to life! Literally. They take the art and animated it. For example: If there’s a guy on the cover, you can bet that he’s gonna dance and bob his head. Some work better than others, but they all become extremely entertaining to watch, and you sometimes forget you’re at a DJ show.

This doesn’t work simply because it gives you something to watch while listening to fat beats being laid down, but because because it plays WITH the music, instead of just something on top of the music. What I mean is that they don’t simply play a video when the song pops up. Anyone who’s listened to DJ mixes will know how the artist can hint at a song before it really starts playing. You might hear a tune or bass line or sound that is recognizable, which strikes anticipation in the listener, and drives the crowd wild. Just like with the music, the album art starts to vaguely come into view, and just as the song hits its prime, the album cover is complete and brought alive in its full glory.

Enough talking, check out the video.

Im totally going to try to make some of these myself…

This is a gem of a project. In short: Miniature Gundam Models made from legos.

I have been a fan of Gundams for most of my life. Not only did I love putting the models together, but they just looked so cool when they were finished. How can giant robots that fly through space, slice each other in half with beam swords and shoot shoulder mounted ion cannons not be the most badass thing ever? Teenage boys eat that up.

Ah, I still remember the giant $500 Dendrobium Gundam set that came in a box the size of a refrigerator. Granted, most of the model was comprised of a giant jet engine looking thing that was strapped to the back of the actual Gundam, but it was still pretty damn awesome. And then there was that other model that was as tall as a child, and had a sword and other pieces made from actual metal. That would’ve been the pinnacle of my Gundam collecting… But I digress.

This site has a pretty awesome gallery of miniature gundams made from lego parts! And they look pretty sweet, too. On some of them, they show you all the parts they used, so in theory you could make it yourself. They’re made mostly from traditional lego pieces, excepting a few guns and bits, so none of those cheesy custom made flavor pieces or whatchamacallits that you see today.

I haven’t bought either a lego or Gundam set in years, but if they sold these as kits, or at least the instructions to make them, I’d be all over it.

Side note: the word “Gundam” keeps popping up as being misspelled, “lego” pops up as misspelled because it should be the proper noun “Lego,” but somehow I correctly spelled “whatchamacallit” according to whatever dictionary wordpress uses.

Been pretty busy and haven’t been updated in a while, sorry about that to the 2 people that read this.

This is something I read a while back, but think is a great article. It talks about what first motivated James Cameron towards his film career, how he worked his way up the movie food chain, how he came up with his latest and greatest creation, Avatar, and why it may revolutionize movies. There are some other interesting tidbits about his other works, like Titanic, and the lesser known Titanic dives that inspired him.

The full article is here on Wired.com.

My thoughts exactly.

This is an awesome picture of every space mission in the past 50 years, all on one map. Totally want this as a poster.

“Each line represents a different space mission, highlighting notable missions, including those from different countries, those of historical significance, and those which have failed.”

via Flickr

via National Geographic (original)