All posts by Scott Meisner

For all you shape-shifters out there

Images, Style, , ,

Sink into the “Breathing Chair,” designed by Yu-Wing Wu.

There is a “trick” behind the design of various sizes of holes in the chair – based on professional calculation of the spatial structure, the tofu-shaped chair, coated with three layers of foamed plastic, can “automatically adjust” according to the weight and posture of the person sitting on it.

[Via Engadget; CCTV]

Flight of the Conchords releases second studio album

Download link, Images, Music, News, Television, Video, , , , , ,

Bret McKenzie & Jemaine Clement, the comedic folksy duo that comprise Flight of the Conchords, have released their second studio album with I Told You I Was Freaky.  This follows their hilariously successful first hit, their self-titled Flight of the Conchords.  Just like their first album, I Told You I Was Freaky contains all of their songs performed during the second season of the hit HBO series Flight of the Conchords.  Some stand-out, personal favorites include “Hurt Feelings,” “Sugalumps,” “Too Many Dicks (On the Dance Floor),” and “You Don’t Have to be a Prostitute.”  You can purchase the new album at Amazon or on iTunes.  While the iTunes version contains a bonus track with “Pencils in the Wind,” the hard copy version packs a poster and a songbook that features the lyrics and chords to each song.  (Read: get the hard copy version.)

If you haven’t heard of Flight of the Conchords, do yourself a BIG favor and watch the first two seasons.  Get Season 1 here and Season 2 here.  The New Zealander’s perfect blend of comedy and music takes you on fun, stupid, and sometimes trippy worthwhile ventures.  Bret and Jemaine are laugh-out-loud hilarious.  But please, don’t take my word for it.  Check out Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD.  And once you become fans of these relevant off-beat musicians, go ahead and enjoy their CDs.  It’s a riot.

Though the duo has gone on the record of saying that this is the end of the road for the Flight of the Conchord HBO series, they do leave room for a possibility.  Check out an old but good interview that took place during the production of Season 2 after the break.  Good news is that Flight of the Conchords was a “folk” music group before it was a TV series.  So even if the show does not air a third season, there is much hope for another studio album or tour.  Also, we can’t forget that a few FOTC tracks will be making their way to Rock Band soon!

[Via Wikipage]

Continue reading Flight of the Conchords releases second studio album →

Gleeks: Glee Season 1 DVD & soundtrack up for pre-sale; broadway reunion is coming

Images, Music, News, Television, , , , ,

News Graphic

It looks Glee: Season 1 will be split up into two volumes, and it makes sense.  Firstly, when the 4-disc 13-episode DVD box set was made FOX had not yet renewed the show, thereby granting it 9 additional episodes.  Second, although this might sound unfair (but, in fact, it kinda is), FOX has a ton of music rights to pay for; by shipping two volumes of DVDs and soundtracks the network can recoup its money for all the rights it had to pay for over the length of the season (and gear up for Season 2 (which has not been confirmed yet, but still)).  So, in sum: Glee Season 1: Volume 1 – Road to Sectionals DVD will pack the initial 13-episode run.  (It will also include bonus material (ie. behind-the-scenes, audition tapes, performances, etc..)  The soundtrack, Glee the music Season 1: Volume 1 will include all of the main performances debuted during the first half of the season.  Look after the break for the full 18-track listing.

There will be a full season DVD released after the entire first season airs, and purchasers of Volume 1 will receive a voucher that can be applied to that full set.  Glee will be going on a haitus during the holiday season and will return just in time to make sure it finishes in mid-May during the usual TV sweeps period.  The Volume 1 DVD and CD would make great holiday gifts, giving Gleeks and non-Gleeks the chance to watch (or re-watch) the first half of the season.  Purchase the DVD and CD on Amazon and preorder the CD on iTunes.

Now on to the next bit of news.  Lea Michele’s (Rachel’s) Spring Awakening co-star Jonathan Groff will be joining the cast of Glee in the near future.  According to EW, he will be featured in “five or six episodes” and will play the lead male singer of Vocal Adrenaline, our Glee club’s arch-nemisis and biggest competition.  Glee’s co-creator Ryan Murphy calls him a “miva” (or “a male diva”).  I’m not really a spoiler type but I’ll give you this: EW also claims that Groff “will also serve as a potential love interest for Michele’s Rachel.”

[Via TVShowsonDVD; TV.popcrunch; EW]

Continue reading Gleeks: Glee Season 1 DVD & soundtrack up for pre-sale; broadway reunion is coming →

Microsoft unabashedly rips on Apple’s App Store

Hilarity, Technology, Video, , , ,

Some of my favorities include The Sun Dial (“Oh, what time you got?” “Ah Chip, it’s 3:15.” “3:15, just like that. That’s great.”  “Oh, actually, it’s 5:30.”), The Germophobe (“so people can shake hands without actually touching”), and lastly, “the phone that shocked you every third ring.”

Gizmodo makes a good point.  As humorous as this is, I don’t really see Microsoft’s point here.  It is true, Apple’s App Store does contain tons of stupid and unnessary apps and their process of allowing (and dis-allowing) apps into the store is wacky.  But, taken as a whole, the App Store has proven extremely successful.  Paid apps are bringing in a lot of revenue and an open market gives well-known and lesser-known developers much opportunity to shine.  This is a funny poke at Apple, sure.  But what have you proven, Microsoft?

[Via Gizmodo]

Halo Waypoint launches November 5, let the games begin

Images, News, Technology, , , , ,

As we have known for quite some time now, Halo Waypoint (HW) is going to be the one-stop destination for all things Halo on Xbox Live.  According to IGN, HW “seeks to bring together the entire Halo universe in one place and provide a sort of string that ties each game together.  Included will be an assortment of screenshots and videos — some official and some fan-made – a career system that links the achievements for all Halo games together, and the latest in Halo news.”

HW creative director Jason Pace on the acheivement system and how it differentiates from Xbox Live acheivements: “The career milestones are a little different from achievements.  As you earn new [Halo] achievements… you will level up your career milestone.  There will be 40 milestones, or levels, available at launch.  With 3950 possible achievement points to unlock through three Halo titles on Xbox 360, there are plenty of ways to reach that level cap.  It will take about 60% of the total achievement points unlocked to reach the highest milestone, a percentage that was chosen with care.”

Though HW’s focal point will be on the Xbox 360 console, Pace goes on to say that there are plans to bring aspects of it onto the web so players can view and share their achievements and other Halo-related material outside of the console realm.  “We are working on a feature right now where we’ll allow users to upload cool stuff through Xbox.com/halo.  Right now we are going to partner with Bungie on Bungie.net and we’ll do “Best of” community submissions.  And that will generally be chosen by our community manager and then featured in weekly spotlight areas for community content on Waypoint on the Xbox.”

Pace summerizes the impact HW will have with Halo fans worldwide: “We’re definitely looking at expanding career mode and really making you feel like your entire Halo gaming history is encapsulated in a meaningful way and your identity expands across all of the Halo experiences you play.”

Halo Waypoint launches on November 5 on Xbox 360.  It will initially be free for Xbox Live Silver and Gold users; on November 26 the service will only function for paying Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

[Via IGN]

Super nerd builds biggest Lego Mario

Images, , , , ,

Dirk VH (I guess that’s what he goes by) is a part-time Lego sculpter who has created the biggest structure of Nintendo’s mascot.  His 40,000 piece Lego Mario stands at six feet tall and weighs 110 pounds.  It took over 16 days to build.

What is super cool about this is that Mr. VH is auctioning this masterpiece on eBay and all of the money will go to the Ronald McDonald foundation in Netherlands.  It is up for auction right now for 2.650,00, or roughly $3,700.  Happy bidding.

[Via Gizmodo; Brothers-Brick]