entertainment

Weekend Links

Posted by _tango! on November 26, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, food, fun, information, inspiration, me, style, tech, thoughts, weekendlinks. Leave a Comment
weekend links

What an exhausting fun filled thanksgiving week/end! I was out in the Vegas area with family and friends pounding out hours of non-stop eating, mahjong, wii-ing, casino visits, shows, shopping, and many goofy hours with my many cousins in arcades (punch the duck game above) and everything else. Good times!

I’ve only returned to find out that a parking ticket I appealed 3 months ago got declined for no reason. I had pictures etc supporting the wrongful ticket, yet they will only let me dispute it in court, meaning take a day off from work, or pay the crummy $50. I really don’t understand why they don’t fix their system. Sure this system makes people pay more tickets, but when a wrongful ticket is given, the only choice is to pay rather than take a day off.

Design Note: Making money can be a sign of a great business, but sneaky tricks will lower the brand trust and the longevity in a business. Users come first in my world… always! Don’t you love those brands that just fix things without asking questions, then hate the ones that do ask!
Now for the links:
– Pancaking a truck video!
– Amazon.com launches “kindle”, their e-book/ink reader.
– Cool Torn graffiti work by Alexandre Farto
– Creative IKEA ads… I wonder if these layouts would be good?
– Swims: Rubber slip-on booties for your nice shoes.
– Popcorn Fork!
– Cool origami folds using bills!
– What hundreds of thin paint layers look like stacked!
– An Interview with Jim Gromen on the rebirth of MadBalls!
– Another Eco Friendly Powerstrip!
– Google Android (G-phone) emerges!

TED 2008 Prize winners announced!

Posted by _tango! on November 21, 2007
Posted in: entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration. Leave a Comment

The 2008 TED prize winners have just been announced. As usual they are stunning individuals with global minds and big ideas! Check out the winner through the TED video above or here. I can’t wait to hear their dream announcements in March.

TED 2008 winners:
– Neil Turok: physics
– Dave Eggers: writer and activist
– Karen Armstrong: religion

Pop!Tech 2007 Recap

Posted by _tango! on November 13, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, me, Poptech, style, tech, thoughts. 1 comment
Poptech 2007 Camden Maine Jonathan Harris Dan Gilbert, Carl Honere

I’ve returned from the mind-numbing inspiring PopTech Conference still a bit jittery from the collective curious minds at this year’s awesome gathering. This year’s theme “The Human Impact” was way more than I expected covering everything from politics, waste, medicine, minds, communities, art, science, music, and everything else in between. The speakers filled the opera house with passion, greatness, huge questions, and ideas that sparked the hundreds attending and thousands watching online.

PopTech also launched a new extension to their conference called the “Pop!Tech Accelerator” facilitating world changing projects starting off with “Masiluleke“which is a groundbreaking software tool for HIV/AIDS patients throughout Africa. The idea of “Accelerator” is to leverage the community of PopTech attendees with their network to create world changing projects.

As usual, I’ll point my fingers to ninja blogger Ethan Zukerman who sat in the dungeon simulcast room next to me zipping his feisty fingers onto his furious laptop for the complete detailed recap, but I’™ll post more on my experience, a bit on the speakers, lots of pictures, and my journey up to beautiful Camden Maine. I’m not sure when all the footage will be archived and available for viewing, but they’ll eventually appear on their PopCasts Streams which I’d suggest catching up to.

My recap after the jump, otherwise, Poptech 2008, a definite must go to!

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Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind

Posted by _tango! on November 11, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, information, inspiration, me, thoughts. Leave a Comment

Here’s another great TEDtalk by Vilayanur Ramachandran on the brain, phantom limbs, synestesia, and how vision plays a critical role in all our minds.

“In a wide-ranging talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with imposters.”

Many friends ask me why am I so scientific about design, or why do I dissect every element possible before concluding to a final design direction (interaction, experience, and industrial design). Usually I just say there is no other choice, but such videos as the above explain it all. There is reason for everything and that’s the exciting part. I can stop and say I just like a design, but to figure out why someone likes, hates, or experiences a design differently is the good stuff. Everyone has a different experience growing up hence in my world there is no such thing as an exact definition but only dynamic definitions. This goes for words, colors, emotions, scents, ideas, cultures, objects, people, etc.

Anyways, I won’t dive into this argument too long because there is no wrong or right… just an opinion. I’ll admit I wasn’t always like this, but I’ll list a few videos over the years that have that made me dive deeper into the “design thinking” world. Hearing from non-designers is key in our future. We are a hybrid society of designers. If you inspire only from designers, you’ll just become the same… so diversify and become the hybrid that we all are.

Seth Godin (video)(gel video)- Marketing, Purple Cow, Marketers are Liars.
Malcolm Gladwell (video)- Sociology, Blink, Tipping point
Steven Levitt (video)- Economics, Freakonomics
Steven Pinker (video)- Psychologist
Dan Gilbert (video)- Psychologist, Stumbling Happiness
Juan Enriquez (video)- Economics
Barry Schwartz (video)- Psychologist, Paradox of Choice
Erin Mckean (video)- Lexicographer
William McDonough (video) – Architect/sustainability, Cradle to Cradle
Al Gore (video)- Climate Crisis
Hans Rosling (video)(blog)- International Health
Chris Anderson (video)- The Long Tail
Chris Jordan– (video)(treehugger post) Photography/Consumerism

So many to name, but this is a good list to start some disrupting.

Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law

Posted by _tango! on November 9, 2007
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, ideas, information, inspiration, me, tech, thoughts. Leave a Comment

One of the most inspirational lectures from TED2007 is finally out for sharing!!! Stanford Professor Larry Lessig give his take on digital copyright and how laws are strangling creativity. (his books here)

“Larry Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, whooping and whistling, following this elegant presentation of “three stories and an argument.” The Net’s most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the “ASCAP cartel” to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you’ve ever seen.”

Afterwards, watch some of my favorites from TED2006 here.

Flying Human: Base jumping craziness!

Posted by _tango! on November 9, 2007
Posted in: entertainment, inspiration, thoughts, wacky. 6 comments

I posted this insane base jumping video previously but now have some food for thought for it. In the video, the base jumper mentions how they first tried to get as far away from walls as much as possible, but overtime they got bored, so now they play around, getting as close as possible to walls and roads, nearly touching the cliffs as they fall.

My point is, that sometimes in design, doing a total 360 180 from the norm can turn out better. The grass is always greener on the other side… i.e: everyone uses white so use black, everyone makes it thin so make yours thick, everyone adds features and you subtract features, everyone makes them organic looking so make yours industrial, etc. Happy disrupting!

Aarrow Advertising

Posted by _tango! on November 6, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, inspiration, style, wacky. 3 comments

Check this out. Some students get summer jobs holding up signs on street corners, they get bored, so they start competing against each other, flipping their signs like bartenders with bottles or pizza dough spinners. They start up their own advertising company, their acrobatic signage goes viral , and now they have a multi million dollar company with sign spinners across the country! via The Big Idea

Seriously, you can freshen up any dead business and make millions… very cool!
Watch the video above, their website, story, or other videos.

Fuerzabruta in New York City

Posted by _tango! on November 1, 2007
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, inspiration, music, style, thoughts, wacky. Leave a Comment
Fuerzabruta show

Woa! People crashing through dry walls, flying boxes, and debris while gliding through slimmers of water above you on a transparent surface, stomping furiously through rooms, pumping their arms and feet to music, under, over, and on all sides of you! Very cool! Check out their video above, hit up their website, and go get tickets for their brief NYC visit!

“Att: New Yorkers. Get your credit cards ready, and book your standing space at ‘Fuerzabruta’, one of the most unique shows you’ll ever see. ‘Fuerzabrutaâ’ is a celebration of pure physicality, where performers move seamlessly between three stages – ground , air and underwater – to a thumping score that’ll make you feel as if you’re in an experimental Paris nightclub. Sexy, exhilarating and breath-taking to say the least. “There are people who see the show that dance and stomp and get caught up in the physical parts, while some just watch with their mouths hanging open” says co-creator Diqui James. The audience is obliged to stand during the performance, but really, you’d be giving the same amount of standing ovations anyway. Fuerzabruta is on at the Daryl Roth Theatre until February 17. Tickets are $70 but a limited quantity of $25 rush tickets are made available at the box office 2 hours before show time (cash only)” via coolhunter

More pictures via Flickr
Youtube Videos.
www.fuerzabrutalondon.co.uk
NYC tickets at Daryl Roth Theater.

Airtight Interactive: TiltViewer

Posted by _tango! on October 26, 2007
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, ideas, inspiration, style, tech. Leave a Comment
airtight interactive simple viewere tilt viewer

Airtight Interactive bring to us Tilt Viewer, a new way to browse Flickr photos in a 3D space (instructions here). Also check out their other product SimpleViewer which I use for my photos (has not been updated lately).

I’m all for cool interfaces, but sometimes fun interfaces overwhelm the users experience being too complex and taking too much time hence not getting the user adoption needed. The thing I really like about Airtight Interactive is that they put just enough freshness into their products without over doing. Keep it rocking!

Gadgetoff 2007 Recap

Posted by _tango! on October 17, 2007
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, experience, food, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, me, misc, tech, thoughts, wacky. 4 comments
rocket bike jet bike gadgetoff 2007

Woa, bang, boom, yikes, aha! That about sums up my experience at Gadgetoff 2007. What a mind torching adventure with a surplus of surprises, ear wrenching explosions, curious minds, and a safari into a wonderful world of gadgets we all love to geek about! Everything from flame throwing bbq’s, rocket bikes, robotics on wheels, and hybrid cars roamed every corner while gaming devices, weird toys, numbing food items, interactive screens, musical instruments, and hot air balloons filled up the rest of this landscape of greatness with people from all ages and disciplines.

Gadgetoff’s spontaneous flow of events kept you on your feet, jumping from boats, to buildings, into a rustic railroad house, and a cool science museum while somehow getting us all to sit calmly in an auditorium for several intellectually stimulating lectures. We were a geek fest storming the town in fashion with electronics in every pocket, Segways leading the crowd, and individuals rifling with excitement on anything cool and usually out of the ordinary.

I’ll post a few pictures on my adventure after the jump with notes, otherwise, hit up Gadgetoff.com, their blog, or a bunch of their YouTube Videos thanks to Michael (co-founder)

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