fun

Cut&Paste Global Championship

Posted by _tango! on October 16, 2009
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, experience, fun, information, music. Leave a Comment

C&Pimage2
If your in NYC  October 16th, go to the first-ever Cut&Paste Global Championship which I’ve attended a few times, the non global ones that is! It’s basically a live freestyle wacom design battle, with beats and treats, while raving at some mad skills in 2d, 3d, and motion!


“2009 GLOBAL CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT
This year’s Cut&Paste Digital Design Tournament has made its way through 16 cities and 256 competitors from February – June 2009.

It now culminates in a battle of the best, champions vs. champions, with the final 2009 tournament event: the first-ever Cut&Paste Global Championship.

Showcasing the talents of 48 competition winners in 2D, 3D, and motion design, from the North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific regions , the championship event will take place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Friday, October 16, 2009.

The Global Championship will present the same three competition formats that Digital Design Tournament 2009 has featured throughout the cities on its global tour: 2D, 3D, and motion design. The Global Championship will be putting sixteen competitors onstage for all three competitions. These competitors, forty-eight in all, represent the winning designers from every city on the 2009 Cut&Paste tour. Arriving with at least one successful competition under their belts, the city champions will take the stage again to quickly create designs against the ticking pressure of the clock and under the watchful eyes of the crowd. And this time, the pride of their countries and hometowns, along with their personal reputations, will be on the line.

When:
Friday, October 16th, 2009
Doors open: 7:00pm EST
Show starts: 8:00pm EST

Where:
Hammerstein Ballroom @ Manhattan Center Studios
311 W. 34th Street
New York, NY 10001

Who:
48 Competitors from 3 Competitions and 16 cities. To take a look at their portfolios and winning work from each city, check out the following links:
2D, 3D, and motion design .”

2D, 3D, and motion design

Designing Obama

Posted by _tango! on October 11, 2009
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, information, inspiration. Leave a Comment


“The Obama presidential campaign was innovative. For the first time in American politics, a candidate used art and design to bring together the American people—capturing their voices in a visual way.

The Design Director of the Obama campaign, Scott Thomas, has collaborated with artists and designers to create Designing Obama, a chronicle of the art from the historic campaign. Get the inside story on how design was used by the campaign, and scope out the pieces, created unofficially, by grassroots supporters.”

This book will only happen enough donations are received by November 4th. They are 2/3rds they way there, so if you you’d like to buy the book ($50) or donate a smaller amount for a pdf of it ($10) visit their site now.

designing-obama.com
(thanks paul)

Gadgetoff 2009: Boom!

Posted by _tango! on October 7, 2009
Posted in: art, conference, design, entertainment, experience, food, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, me, misc, style, tech, thoughts, wacky. 3 comments

gadgetoff.2009_deka.arm2

gadgetoff.2009_mondo.spider2

Gadgetoff 2009 unleashed an intense series of kabooms,  zaps, chomps, and kerplurks rattling 400 attendees on the beautiful 83 acre Staten Island grounds September 25th while slinging Lenovo laptops with a trebuchet,  cooking hot dogs with Telsa Coil Towers, riding jet fueled 5g merry-go-rounds, writing code drunk for autonomous cars legally, and thrashing a series of incredible lectures and demos throughout the day! Welcome to the Gadgetoff 2009 Experience: Boom!

Robots rumbled in every corner ranging from dancing tai chi robots to tiny micro toy hex bugs that jittered their way into everyone’s pockets. The gigantic mechanical Mondo Spider chomped it’s way through the lunch gardens while on lookers enjoyed delicious alcohol infused sorbet.  Dean Kamen of DEKA brought his breathtaking and ingeniously engineered “luke” arm (video) and toy inventor Brian Walker tinkered with large crossbows and rockets made to launch humans 20 miles across the air! Invisible inks, toys, gadgets, art, fire, illusions, magic, and disruptive ideas scorched the island while participants roamed in excitement and curiosity!

Just as I experienced last time, Gadgetoff invited the coolest hand’s on creatives to celebrate the Smart and Useless for an unforgetful day in disruptive goodness!

My adventure brief after the jump! (lots of pictures and videos)

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Pancake Picking Robot! (with beats)

Posted by _tango! on October 1, 2009
Posted in: entertainment, food, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, me, thoughts, wacky. Leave a Comment


I’m quite familiar with the manufacturing world, but I’ve never seen a smart robot arm made for picking up pancakes for stacking! (FLexpicker). Seriously this robotic arm is quite impressive.  Let’s yank this arm out and use it as a poker dealer,  street trash picker, or something like a burger flipper! Keep the idea flowing with fast smart automated robots, just like the fun Robocoaster!

video
via boingboing

Weekend Links

Posted by _tango! on August 22, 2009
Posted in: art, design, entertainment, fun, green, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, style, tech, thoughts, wacky, weekendlinks. Leave a Comment


Thought: Whoever taught us wine taste better in a glass container over  plastic, paper, or styrofoam container? Did we learn, or just observe and accept the norm?  Do we drive our own opinions, or just accept the norm?

Weird: San Paolo subway Fat seats.
Tech: ThisWasExpensive.com Info Viz chart, domain price vs visits.
Architecture: Wooden House
Trick: How to fix a car dent, with hair dryer and can of air video.
InfoViz: How different groups spend their day

TEDx YouTube Channel

Posted by _tango! on August 20, 2009
Posted in: art, brand, conference, design, entertainment, experience, food, fun, green, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, me, misc, music, style, tech, TED, thoughts. 1 comment


The TED conference has transformed dramatically over the years thanks to the launching of TEDtalks which I’ve posted on several times. This past year, TED launched another brilliant event called TEDx which allows individuals to host their own local unofficial TED like events. Since March 2009 several events have taken place around the world. How awesome!

A few weeks back, I attended the TEDxBoston event which I wanted to post about, but had no videos to share. As of today, TEDx videos from around the world can be viewed and shared on the TEDx YouTube Channel as well as play lists from each location like TEDxBoston. I’ll post the TEDxBoston videos after the jump, and make sure to watch the last video with our favorite Ben Zanders conducting the Youth Orchestra of Americas.

TEDx YouTube Channel

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Apple Store as Your Office

Posted by _tango! on August 18, 2009
Posted in: brand, design, entertainment, experience, fun, ideas, information, inspiration, music, tech, thoughts, wacky. 1 comment


Awesome. If you can’t afford it go use it at the Apple store!  Computers, Programs, the Internet, Cameras, etc!  Nicholi created several Youtube Videos and probably all his graphics using equipment inside the store on 5th NYC. Nothing like a young entrepreneur figuring out how to get things done, now getting him spots on TV shows. Watch the video above… I love the public’s reaction in the background.

“This little dude Nicholi has shot dozens of lip sync videos at the 5th Avenue Apple Store. And why not? Plenty of desktops. Free wi-fi. Solid tech support.

These are the same reasons model and self-marketer Isobella Jade wrote her entire memoir in the SoHo Apple Store. (Sound uncomfortable? Consider that Hemingway also wrote while standing up.)”

via boingboing

Weekend Links: SF

Posted by _tango! on August 13, 2009
Posted in: art, brand, design, entertainment, experience, fun, information, inspiration, materials, me, misc, style, tech, weekendlinks. Leave a Comment


I’m off to San Francisco for a Weekend Wedding, so I’m posting my weekend links a bit early. If ya’ll have any must see, eat, go to events in SF this week, please let me know.

– Travel: Jetblue offers a all you can fly month pass, Sept 8-October 8 ) for $599! hmm, I do need a break, perhaps each weekend!
– Graphics: Incredible digital flowers by Macoto Murayama! very cool, I want the larger images!
– Fashion: Socks are fun, go get happy socks at happysocks.com
– Tech: Nerdy cool web2 pillows! haha, I want I want!
– Fun: Colored bubbles! yah, colored I said…and no stains! its magic!

James Reynolds: Far Foods

Posted by _tango! on August 11, 2009
Posted in: art, brand, design, experience, food, fun, green, ideas, information, inspiration, materials, me, tech, thoughts. 6 comments


Far Foods by Designer James Reynolds

“Alternative packaging for supermarket produce, highlighting the distances that some foods travel from and the resultant carbon dioxide released during the journey. The receipt features a boarding card style tear-off strip.”

Awesome! I’ve always wondered when food labels would change my buying decisions.  Some receipts tell you how much to tip , but none have been more eco-educational than this concept.  Forget calorie counting, lets count carbon miles from food transportation. I’d definitely buy something for a bit more, knowing it used less carbon miles than another product. Think how the word Organic or Local has become such a  buzz… hopefully one day, the carbon food miles will do the same =)

via swissmiss

Bobby McFerrin Crowd Sources the Pentatonic Scale

Posted by _tango! on August 11, 2009
Posted in: art, conference, entertainment, fun, ideas, inspiration, music, thoughts. Leave a Comment

Awesome! Music is a universal language for sure!

“Bobby McFerrin, a master in the possibilities of the human vocal chords, recently demonstrated the common understanding of the pentatonic scale at this year’s World Science Festival.  The playful and simple demonstration uses audience participation to recreate the scale even when it goes beyond the given instructions.”

via psfk(rest of article)

Video above or here.