Alien Attack




Alien Attack 4

Originally uploaded by otherthings.

On the road the other day I saw something black leap up at my car. When I got out of the car, I saw no sign of it at first. It wasn’t until later that I discovered it was clinging to the underside of the chassis. By the time I pried it loose, it had coated the exhaust system with a foul-smelling symbiotic alien goo.

I didn’t get any on me, and so far I haven’t yet found myself sporting an emo haircut or black outfit, or breaking out into spontaneous dance numbers. But watch out.

Drive your Bike to Work Day!

It’s Bike Month!

You’ve got a bike, right?

The purple Schwinn mountain bike you were were going to ride every day. The one you crammed into the back of your car when you drove out west from Minnesota, now collecting dust in your garage.

Well, it’s Bike Month, and it’s time your bike got the fresh air and exercise it deserves.

That’s right, Drive Your Bike to Work Day is almost here! On Monday, May 14th, hoist that bike onto the roof of your car and drive it to work!

And watch out for low-clearance garages. Don’t let this happen to you:

abstract sculpture with bicycles

Props to Kathryn for coming up with this great idea. Hee hee! :-)

STEREO’s first images

NASA has finally started releasing photos and video from their STEREO satellites– a pair of satellites that orbit our Sun slightly ahead of and behind the Earth, giving us a binocular 3D view of the star’s surface.

The only problem with NASA’s press site is that they only provide red-cyan anaglyph images, which can only be appreciated with colored 3D glasses. I didn’t have a pair handy, so I split the red and cyan layers into this crosseyed stereo view. Enjoy!

(previously)

Pixelator

pixelator.jpg

More billboard remixing by Jason Eppink: The Pixelator. I love the tongue-in-cheek description of the project. It’s like an inside-out version of “The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal”:

Pixelator is an unauthorized on-going video art performance collaboration with the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, Clear Channel Communications, and its selected artists.

Previously

(via Wooster Collective)

Spin removal

Politicians spin. It’s a fact of life. But nobody spins quite like the Bush administration. I’ve gotten used to the feeling that whenever I hear Bush or one of his cronies speak, I’m going to hear nothing but lies and manipulative language. I’ve listened to George “Don’t Think of an Elephant” Lakoff, and dug his ideas. I’ve heard Frank “Words that Work” Luntz speak on the radio, and wanted to spit in his face. I feel like I understand what spin is, and can tell when I’m hearing it. My spin-dar is pretty sensitive at this point.

It’s one thing to know you’re hearing spin. Knowing how to counter it is a whole different story. A fellow named Jeffrey Feldman has written a terrific article that unpacks those adjectives, so to speak. It’s an incisive analysis of Bush’s recent press conference about the US Attorney firing scandal. Feldman identifies the five deliberately misleading buzzwords that were the real purpose of the press conference, and provides accurate alternatives for journalists to use when covering the story. The attorneys didn’t resign, they were fired. Gonzales didn’t give an incomplete explanation, he lied.

This analysis is timely. We need one of these for every statement this administration makes. And mainstream media need to start showing a bit more skepticism towards the choice of words they get fed in these press conferences. Do not repeat his words, folks!

Bush Used Press Conference to Force PR Buzzwords into the Debate

Chris Ware animates!

ware.jpg

Yay! One of my favorite artists from the comics world has started animating! You probably know Chris Ware from such works as The Acme Novelty Library, Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, or Quimby the Mouse (one of my personal favorite storylines). Now he’s taken his signature storytelling style into the moving picture box for the TV adaptation of “This American Life”, with predictably excellent results. I can’t think of a better match between form and content.

(via BoingBoing.)

Update: See also this earlier collaboration between Chris Ware and Ira Glass: Lost Buildings. (Thanks to Nancy for the link!)

Purple and Brown

Our pals at Aardman are up to their old tricks again! They’ve launched this series of bite-sized claymation shorts called Purple and Brown. Before I say anything about it, just watch some of them! Here’s one:

These shorts are everything I love about animation: they’re short, simple, funny, clever, and brilliantly animated. But there’s something more going on here. Something really subversive…

Continue reading Purple and Brown

Cassidy Curtis's splendid display of colorful things.