A still from the Fringe musical episode

Image cache, Television, , ,

Ausiello Files’ snagged a still from the set of the April 29 Fringe musical episode.  In it, the characters will cover popular songs that will play out in a Walter Bishop hallucination.

Executive producer Jeff Pinkner: “We didn’t set out to do a musical.  We set out to do an episode that explored Walter’s state of mind — he’s dealing with some very upsetting news.  When we realized that the way Walter would deal with such news would be to try to anesthetize himself with copious amounts of marijuana, well, singing and dancing became a natural outcome.”  Agent Olivia Dunham embodies what Ausiello calls “a retro private-eye persona” and Pinkner goes on to tease: “It’ll be interesting to see how Walter really perceives her.”

Fringe airs Thursday nights at 9PM on FOX.

[Via EW-AusielloFiles]

Music video: Drake – “Over”

Music, Video, , ,

Here’s the music video for “Over”, the first single off Drake’s forthcoming album Thank Me Later.  It’s directed by Anthony Mandler.  This music video is starkly different from the Kanye West-directed video for “Best I Ever Had”, but that’s not necesssarily a bad thing.  No, you won’t find scantily clad, well-endowed women jumping up and down.  For most of the video Drake is in a bedroom with chaotic projected images flashing over him and the walls.  It’s enough to keep you hooked for four minutes, so check it out.  If you like the track, download it here for free.  Thank Me Later hits stores June 15.

[Via EW-MusicMix]

Pixels take over NYC in visually spectacular fashion

Design, Technology, Video, , ,

PIXELS, produced by Patrick Jean at OneMoreProd.

This video is really making the rounds all over the Internet.  And deservedly so.  In PIXELS, New York City gets taken over by 8-bit pixels that come in the form of classic retro video games like Pacman, Space Invaders, and Donkey Kong.  The amazing visual effects combined with Naïve New Beaters “L.A. trumpets” music makes PIXELS one of the coolest animated videos I’ve seen in a while.

[Via Walyou]

Droid does bra size, underwear detection, & more

Technology, Video, , , , ,

A few weeks back Motorola started a viral video campaign called  “SECRET MOTOROLA DROID UNLOCK CODES.”  In the videos a group of guys enter a series a numbers into a Motorola Droid to enable hidden features.  Some of the new videos have picked up in popularity and are actually quite entertaining.  In the video above, one of these special unlock codes turns the Droid into a bra size and underwear detector.  Look after the break for two more videos featuring the Droid as a taser and animal translator.  Man, what can’t Droid do?

[Via Android&Me; Gizmodo]

Continue reading Droid does bra size, underwear detection, & more →

A 2.5 year old uses the iPad for the first time

Technology, Video, , , , , ,

What happens when you give a two and a half year old one of the most technologically advanced gadgets to come out in quite some time?  Telstar Logistics founder Todd Lappin decided to find out for himself by conducting this fun experiment.  Here are some of his findings:

As you can see, after geeking out on my Sutro Tower homescreen, she took right to it — including figuring out how to enlarge some of her favorite iPhone-legacy apps to 2x to display full-size on the iPad screen. If you’re good at understanding kid-speak, you’ll also notice that she immediately saw its potential as a video-display device. She lamented the lack of a camera, and wondered about its potential for playing games.

On the downside, she had the same frustration as many adults, where touching the screen-edge with your thumb while holding the iPad blocks input to all home screen icons. Notice also that she was confused by the splash page for FirstWords Animals, her favorite spelling game: Because the start button looked like a graphic, rather than a conventional button, she couldn’t figure out how to start the game.

Oh, here’s one he forget to mention: She’s so freakin’ cute!

[Via LaughingSquid]

Glee club battle: Jimmy Fallon crew vs. Parks & Rec cast

Hilarity, Music, Television, Video, , , , ,

This is a must watch for Glee, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Parks & Recreation fans alike!  Last week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy introduced a new segment he calls 6-Bee.  It’s a story that follows the LNWJF crew on the road to sectionals.  Clearly Fallon & co. are big fans of Glee (who isn’t?).  In this episode, Jimmy Fallon crew (including Jimmy, staffers, and SNL’s Abby Elliot) face off against the cast of Parks & Rec and The Roots in a Glee club battle of epic proportions.  A major amount of hilarity and musical genius ensues.

Look after the break for episode 1; Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On a Prayer” is the song of choice. Continue reading Glee club battle: Jimmy Fallon crew vs. Parks & Rec cast →

Art exhibit plays around with your sense of perception

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Feeling Are Facts, designed by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and Chinese architect Ma Yansong.

“Feeling Are Facts” is an art exhibition located at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.  Eliasson and Yansong created a disorienting environment inside an art gallery using artifically produced colored fog, a lowering ceiling, and a sloping floor.  Walking through this exhibit must be challenging and exciting as it forces you to question and reinvent new modes of perception.

[Via DesignBoom; Gizmodo]

The ‘Drawing Hands’ paradox

Education, Image cache, photography, , ,

Drawing Hands by Ben Gavette.  1948.  Lithograph.

I stumbled upon this image while studying the concept of autopoesis which literally means “auto (self)-creation” and revolves around the notions of structure and function.  Drawing Hands is a complex and intriguing illustration that centers itself on autopoeisis and begs the questions, which hand is the illustration and which hand is doing the illustrating?  Quite the paradox, eh?  American thinker Douglas Hofstadter called this a “strange loop” which arises when, by moving up or down through a hierarchical system, one finds oneself back where one started.  Boom.  Did I just blow your mind?

[Info. via Wiki]

Lost case mod is detailed to fandom perfection

Design, Images, Technology, , ,

A bunch of Brazillian Losties have gone ahead and created this awesome Lost mod case.  The amount of detail is tremendous, really.  The PC case is octagonal shaped, a la the Dharma Initiative logo; it has a green and is decorated in a jungle theme; it’s got the 1977 Dharma Initiative team photo stored inside, along with plastic tubes and other instricases; and there’s even a video screen on the outside that plays loops of Dr. Marvin Candle/Pierre Chang’s Dharma orientation films.  The only thing that’s missing is the requirement to type in The Numbers every 108 minutes to save the world from destruction by an electromagnetic force.  Take a closer look at this beauty in the gallery below.

[Via Gizmodo; Flickr]

Ferris Bueller’s Ferrari up for auction

Cars, News, , , ,

So remember in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when Cam accidently pushed the car out his father’s enclosed glass garage and destroyed it?  Well, that didn’t really happen.  See (above)?  It’s fine.  It was all movie magic.  On April 19 the same Ferrari 250GT Spyder California will go up for auction at Bonhams Collectors’ Motor Cars and Automobilia.  Besides being an awesome collectors item from a classic American film, what also makes this car special is that “only around one hundred genuine 250GT Spyder California’s were created by Ferrari between 1958 and 1963.”  It’s rare.  So rare in fact that director John Hughes and Paramount had to commission this special replica model.  In other words, the buyer won’t be getting one of the original 250GT Spyder California’s…but it’s looks just like it and it was used in the movie!  The car is “ready to drive” and estimated to go for £30,000-£40,000 (or about $46,000-$61,400).  Happy bidding.

[Via Bonhams; Gizmodo]

Twitter aquires Atebits, Tweetie becomes ‘Twitter for iPhone’, free

News, Technology, , , , , , ,

Since its inception Twitter (the company) ran its website at www.twitter.com and left Twitter applications for desktop and mobile clients to third party developers.  On Friday Twitter announced a significant change in its overall game plan.  Twitter is no longer taking a backseat to developers when it comes to running Twitter in applications outside the main Twitter website.  Twitter has aquired Atebits, the company behind one of the most popular Twitter clients for Mac desktops and iPhones, Tweetie.  Loren Brichter, the man behind Atebits, is part of the deal and will become a vital member of Twitter, helping the company retool the app for the iPhone, other mobile devices, and eventually the iPad.  Twitter’s reasoning behind the move: “People are looking for an app from Twitter, and they’re not finding one. So, they get confused and give up. It’s important that we optimize for user benefit and create an awesome experience.”  Tweetie will be renamed Twitter for iPhone and its price tag will fall from $2.99 to free.  A release date was not disclosed.

So what do we think about this?  It’s great!  Now there’s going to be an “official” Twitter app that all iPhone (and other mobile device) users can download and share similar experiences with.  If you’re new to Twitter, this will likely be the go-to app.  If you’ve been part of the community for some time, third party Twitter apps aren’t going anywhere, so dipping your toe into different user experiences will always be an option.  What this merger of sorts does is give Twitter a major boost against naysayers who believe Twitter is a fragmented service with too many varying apps for it.  Now the company can say there’s a streamlined Twitter experience waiting for those who want to take that route.  It’s a win-win for all of us.

[Via Twitter]