Boing Boing TV

Combat robots, warring battleships: Xeni at Maker Faire

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:37:28 -0500

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Boing Boing tv's embedded robo-combat reporter Xeni Jardin witnesses warfare inside Robogames and Combots at Bay Area Maker Faire 2008, where robots battle until death -- or at least 'til one competitor busts a sprocket.

Next, BB-gun wielding battleships go BOOM!, with the Western Warship Combat Club. Participants painstakingly re-create historic battleships on small scale, and outfit each warboat with actual artillery. He who sinks last wins. The cameraman took a pellet or two in the pants, but the goofy safety goggles kept all eyes intact.

If you dig the robots, you may enjoy the upcoming Robogames. The world's largest robot show takes place Fri, June 13th through Sun, June 15 in San Francisco. Link to tickets.

Star Simpson's fuzzy logic, MacGyver, MIT lasers, and trippy glasses: Maker Faire with Phil Torrone

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Thu, 08 May 2008 08:27:35 -0500

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Make Magazine senior editor Phil Torrone guides us through the wonders of Maker Faire 2008 in San Mateo.

First, we learn about "fuzzy logic," soft electronic circuit components, with Star Simpson -- the 20 year old MIT student arrested for a "fake bomb" at Boston's Logan Airport in 2007 when authorities mistook her interactive LED t-shirt for a terrorist device. Her trial is scheduled for May 23, by the way, so she wasn't able to answer our questions about that ordeal just yet.

Next up, also from MIT -- Ed Baafi introduces us to the fabulous "fab lab," where complex fabrication technologies are made easy.

Then, Phil shows us affordable laser etching to personalize your iPhone or laptop.

Inventor and hacker Mitch Altman demonstrates the "brain machine," a device that stimulates your mind's eye. Mitch also invented TV-B-Gone, a sort of secret kill switch for kills television sets ("the only TV remote you need!").

And Lee Zlotoff, the creator of TV's MacGyver reveals plans for a MacGyver film project.

Joel Johnson Wilderness Internet Experience

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:15:49 -0500

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Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson recently spent a week in the woods with a backpack full of electronics, to see if he could work on the internet in the wild using only solar power and his bare hands. This video reveals to the world, for the very first time, what happened to all those bears.

Animation: Syd Garon and DJ Qbert, and Jon Burgerman's "Magic Ink"

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:07:13 -0500

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Today on Boing Boing tv, a classic animated work from Syd Garon: "SNEAK ATTACK" by DJ Q-Bert. Music video by Eric Henry and Syd Garon.

Next, an animation based on work by illustrator Jon Burgerman for his forthcoming book Pens are my Friends, produced by Jason Arber and Wyld Stallyons.

Related Boing Boing tv episodes:

Syd and Eric: music videos for Dan The Automator and Buckethead

Jack Chick, animated: "Somebody Goofed," by Syd and Rodney

Speed Racer is "poptimistic": interview with John Gaeta, part 1

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:35:47 -0500

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In today's episode of Boing Boing tv, Xeni visits with John Gaeta, the Academy Award-winning Visual Effects supervisor of the Matrix trilogy, to learn more about his digital craft in the new film Speed Racer. This latest Wachowski brothers project reinterprets the classic 1960s Japanese anime series of the same name, and opens in theaters nationwide on May 9.

Gaeta explains how he used VR "bubbles" and a mysterious team known as the "world unit" to create the film's "poptimistic photo-anime" feel. The live action Speed Racer is saturated in a candy-colored palette so rich, audiences may just leave the theater with a contact sugar high.

View interactive samples of the digital building blocks behind the movie in a related online feature in VRMAG, "Speed Racer Uncovered."

And Gaeta adds a special message for Boing Boing tv viewers, who are already well accustomed to all things digital -- "For optimal viewing experience, see Speed Racer at a digital cinema or IMAX theater." He's not kidding, with a feature like this, analog projection just doesn't do the work justice.

(Special thanks: John Gaeta; Andy and Larry Wachowski; and David Pescovitz)

TechShop: a community tinkering space

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:30:22 -0500

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Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni visits TechShop, an open-access public workshop that's kind of like a health club with heavy machinery and sparks instead of treadmills. Tinkerers, inventors, and hackers pay a membership fee, and in turn receive access to professionally-maintained gear, workshops, mentors, and a community of like-minded makers.

Currently there is only one site in Silicon Valley, and it opened in 2006. But founder Jim Newton (a lifetime maker, veteran BattleBots builder and former MythBuster) plans to open a number of locations around the US -- and eventually, the rest of the world.

John Todd, who you'll meet in this episode, wrote this article about the membership-based machine and fabrication shop in a recent edition of Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools zine. Snip:

I've been a member since before TechShop really even started, back when it was just some guys passing out flyers trying to gauge interest. For $100 a month, members can use any tool in the shop on which they've received training. MUCH cheaper than buying your own gear. The list of equipment is pretty extensive, too, and new items are arriving frequently (like a new hot-wire foam cutter).

John shares an additional note with BBtv about the company's business model:

TechShop is unusual in the way it's funded - community members are the financial backers. To date, TechShop has been funded by taking loans from members and repaying them at a nominal rate. Typically backers contribute $25k and up, and are then paid back over several years. There is an "A" round being raised now to fund the nationwide expansion, and the first funding source again is going to be the community instead of focusing on traditional VC sources. It's an unusual way to keep members excited about what they do at TechShop, and to keep them focused on making the whole experience better. Jim Newton (CEO) and Mark Hatch (COO) are looking for additional interested people who want to become members and funders - contact TechShop for details.

In part two of today's episode, we take a joyride in a three-wheeled electric car.

Tokyology

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Thu, 01 May 2008 11:13:29 -0500

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Today on Boing Boing tv, a sneak peek inside TOKYOLOGY, a new documentary exploring contemporary Japanese pop-culture hosted by Carrie Ann Inaba. Oh, what adventures await: sneak behind the scenes at a Japanese Rock TV show that pretends it's shot in Los Angeles, cruise Harajuku, go clubbing with goth girls in Shinjuku, shop for shoes with Lolitas, experience the madness of the Tokyo Anime Fair, visit a video game company, browse the streets of Akihabara, and meet anime creator Yoshitoshi Abe.

DVDs are available in retail stores and online, tokyology.tv has details. (Special thanks to Tokyology co-producers Felix and Julian Mack of Nightjar.)

Jack Chick, animated: "Somebody Goofed," by Syd and Rodney

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:03:11 -0500

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A redemption tale by the prolific religious comic book artist Jack Chick is born again through animation, in a classic short film by Syd Garon and Rodney Ascher.

Chick, born in 1924, is the most published comic book author in the world. Over decades, his publishing company has released some 500 million fundamentalist evangelical "Chick tracts" warning of the eternal consequences of a life lived without salvation.

One of these cautionary cartoon gospels, "Somebody Goofed," attracted the attention of animator-directors Syd and Rodney a decade ago -- and they transformed it into the mixed media pastiche Boing Boing tv presents to you, dear viewer, today.

This 8 minute film debuted at the DFILM Digital Film Festival in San Francisco on November 7, 1997. DFILM founder Bart Cheever tells Boing Boing tv:

We showed it all over the world. No other film came close to provoking the kind of intense, gut-level reaction that we saw with Goofed -- people really loved it or really, really hated it. Religious people called it blasphemous and threatened to organize boycotts of our shows. Anti-religious people called it religious propaganda and wrote angry letters to theater owners where we screened the festival.
To me, Goofed was the Birth of a Nation of After Effects films, and was really the aesthetic blueprint for much of what you see on TV today. So many people have copied their cool 2D photo-animations, and their style is used so heavily today on VH1, E, MTV, and so on -- it's easy to forget how groundbreaking the film was. No one had ever really done anything like it before.
I loved the way Goofed is this rich moving collage of newsprint religious tracts, album covers (can you spot Paul's Boutique?), clips from 70's gangster films, cigarette ads from old magazines etc. To me, Goofed represented a whole new way of collaging various forms of media.

UPDATE: We reached out to the filmmakers for some thoughts on this amazing piece of work, 10 years after its creation -- Rodney Ascher tells us...

Making Somebody Goofed was 50% art experiment and 50% self-designed AfterEffects tutorial. It was the first digitally animated project for both of us (I think...). It took at least 6 months to make the thing, maybe close to a year. I was running a Powermac 7500 (Syd's always had a model 1 or 2 levels faster than mine so he was probably behind the wheel of an 8500) and we got a gasp during a Q and A when we explained that rendering some of the QuickTimes took more than a day or two and transporting the uncompressed files demanded about 12 Jaz cartridges!
It was designed to be something of a Rorschach test: we followed the original comic as rigorously as we could, resisted any temptation to change things around (for pacing, content, whatever) and allowed the audience to interpret however they liked. During its premiere at DFilm, the audience was mostly quiet and thoughtful but at a screening at the SFMoMA it played pretty much as a spoof with a lot of appreciative laughter. On the other hand, when it was shown at a screening for the Television Commercial Industry, the awkward, confused, slightly hostile silence was deafening. Happily enough, we've gotten very nice responses from both Chick Publications and The Suicide Girls.

Leslie Hall: Dear Diary

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:26:17 -0500

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The gem sweater bedazzlements and lyrical besnazzlements of "internet ceWEBrity" Leslie Hall have graced Boing Boing tv before -- but in today's episode, Ms. Hall submits an exclusive tour diary for BBtv viewers, a veritable world exclusive. "With these shoulderpads I have the strength to destroy, villages, homes, and crops," she warns. Her ladyfire is mighty, as all ye who gaze upon this video shall witness.

Ms. Hall was among the internet personalities who participated in the recent ROFLcon gathering in Cambridge, Mass. Her presence there among fellow internet memesters is documented in this Wired gallery, and in a photo set from Scott Beale of Laughing Squid. See also his short video of the Tron Guy talking about geek women. Which brings us back to the 26-year-old Ms. Hall, straight outta Iowa, believed by her many followers to be the fiercest gold-lame-wrapped geek woman on the planet.

The "best of" BBtv animation

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:12:34 -0500

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Today on Boing Boing tv, a look at some of the talented animators from around the world whose work has been featured on our show.

NYC Comic Con geek-gasm

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:14:43 -0500

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Boing Boing tv visits New York Comic Con, the largest comics convention on the Eastern seaboard, and we find games, geeks, and graphic novels galore. Our guide through the event's board game realms is Dr. Gregory Wilson, author and fantasy fiction professor at St. John's University of New York, who teaches us little-known tools for game quality evaluation. "You can tell this one is awesome because of the weight of the box -- it's probably about 15 pounds," he says as we pass one title. "This one takes two hours just to set up! Clear evidence that it, too, is awesome."

Part two of today's episode is a little alternate reality game of our own design -- we like to call it "Count the Cosplayer."

BONUS AWESOMENESS: In related news, Paddy Johnson of Art Fag City blog says: "I set up a small online quiz asking people to label unidentified visitors as either art fair or comic-con attendees. There are a few surprises in there, which keeps it interesting."

Graffiti Research Lab, the movie

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:26:22 -0500

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Grab your LED throwies and your laser tagging units, comrades, and join the revolution. Today on Boing Boing tv, a sneak peek at a new documentary film on the subversive public art collective known as Graffiti Research Lab, who develop and distribute "open source technologies for urban communication." The voices you'll hear in today's episode -- GRL founders James Powderly and Evan Roth.

From their statement, redacted by the "U.S. Dept. of Homeland Graffiti"...

From their origins in ~~the~~ trash ~~room of a non-profit in Manhattan~~ to their emergence as ~~the~~ instigators ~~of an international art movement,~~ Graffiti Research Lab: The Complete First Season documents the adventures of an architect and an engineer who quit their ~~day~~ jobs to develop high-tech tools for the art underground. The film follows the GRL and their network of graffiti artist collaborators (and commercial imitators) across four continents as they write on skyscrapers with lasers, mock ~~advertisers with homemade tools, get in trouble with~~ The Department of Homeland Security and make activism fun again. Primarily using video footage from point-and-shoot digital cameras (“The Pocket School”) and found-content on the web, the movie’s visual style draws as much from the art of the power point presentation and viral media as conventional documentary cinema.
Narrated by GRL co-founders, Roth and Powderly, The Complete First Season makes a humorous ~~and insightful~~ argument for ~~free speech in public, open source in pop culture, the hacker spirit in~~ graffiti and not ~~asking for permission in general.~~ The film ~~was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008.~~ Available 24/7 on The Pirate Bay.

Part two of today's episode documents GRL's hijinks at Maker Faire 2007. That event's 2008 edition is coming up next week.

GRL was mistakenly credited with the Boston Mooninite LED Terror Freakout; while their work no doubt inspired the street marketing team responsible for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force debacle, Powderly told Boing Boing the day it happened that GRL was not involved.

Link to more info about the DVD and where you can download a torrent -- or, see it at the premiere, May 4, at New York's MOMA.

Krach der Roboter, the circuit bending noise-bot

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:26:27 -0500

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At the 2008 Bent Festival for experimental electronic music, Xeni encounters Krach der Roboter ("Noise Robot"), who brings a message of peace, crackers, and chaotic tonal algorithms for all mankind.

"Why do humans love robots so much?" Xeni asks. "Actually, people love animals, babies, and robots," Krach replied. "But animals make turds and babies cry, while robots do none of those things."

Includes gratuitous references to the spectacularly crappy 1979 movie "Starcrash," starring David Hasselhoff and Christopher Plummer. Special thanks to Make, which sponsored the event, and to Andreas Stoiber and Johannes Grenzfurthner of monochrom.

MORE circuit bending video goodness: filmmaker John Fox attended the 2007 Bent Festival in Los Angeles, and shot this fun mini-documentary about the instruments, the technology, and the participants: Video Link.

S.P.A.M. Theater, Vol. III: "Love Song of Kseniya"

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 01:28:17 -0500

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Boing Boing tv presents a new installment of "Spam Theater," in which we bring to dramatic life actual, unadulterated spam emails we've received -- word for word, exactly what plopped in our in-box.

Today, a classic Romance Scam enticement from the fictional spamtress "Kseniya," written in mad heroine prose worthy of a Tennessee Williams play. Voiced by Xeni Jardin, who received the message.

In part two of today's episode, '80s electrobeats and word salad merge as one.

Full text of the email from "Kseniya" after the jump, along with photo and video credits.

Snapshots from Boing Boing tv shoots

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:37:38 -0500

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I just organized a bunch of snapshots from past Boing Boing tv shoots into a Flickr set. Link to photoset. Most of them I snapped and uploaded from my iPhone inbetween whatever we were shooting for the show, but the one above is kinda special. Here's the story, and the related episodes. -- Xeni Jardin

Syd and Eric: music videos for Dan The Automator and Buckethead

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:19:27 -0500

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Today on Boing Boing tv, a pair of classic works from the animation and filmmaking duo Syd & Eric (Syd Garon and Eric Henry).

Together, they are probably best known for the animated hip-hop classic DJ Qbert's Wave Twisters -- and Garon directed the opening animation sequence that appears in each and every BBtv episode.

First up in today's show, "Bear Witness III, Ego Trippin'" an animated music video for Dan the Automator. The video includes work from illustrators Lucasz Ataman, Aaron Piland Joshua Ellingson. Co-director Eric Henry describes the video as "[A] four-part study in hubris. Each section explores a different 'ego trip'— military, cosmetic, scientific, and engineering/industrial — and takes it to its logical conclusion. Pride cometh before the fall."

Part two of today's BBtv is an animated video for Buckethead, the eccentric metal guitarist who wears a bucket on his head. For his song "Spokes for the Wheels of Torment," Syd & Eric brought the hellish Rennaisance paintings of Hieronymus Bosch to life. Sinners are plucked apart by demon birds; unrepentant souls are tortured, sliced, and diced, in an epic headbanger's nightmare.

Best of BBtv - Campfire At Will

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:52:41 -0500

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Wrapping up our week-long retrospective of the most crowd-pleezin' episodes in Boing Boing tv's first 6 months of existence, we revisit an episode in which...

Vienna-based art-pranksters monochrom teach us how to "hack the urban context" with campfires, sausages, beer, and an elderly Austrian gentleman who speaks LOL. In the second segment of today's episode, someone constructs a campfire, complete with beer bottles and half-cooked links, right in the middle of the Vienna airport. American kids, don't try this at home unless you want a one-way to Camp X-Ray.

Schnitzel and subversive smores FTW!

Best of BBtv - Cell Phone Deep Fry

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:25:34 -0500

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On the final day of Boing Boing tv's week-long "best of" retrospective, celebrating our first six months of mutant internetelevision...

No one ever envisioned this kind of hands free roaming... Today on BBtv, we explore the age old question of which cell phone brand is the most compatible with your stomach. This phone fricassee takes place at Machine Project, host of the Fry-B-Que social. So, turn your gullet on vibrate, and sharpen your bluetooth. It's time to taste test some telecommunications.

See also this related episode:
* Meat Cloning at Machine Project.

Best of BBtv - Food Fight

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:40:07 -0500

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Continuing in Boing Boing tv's week-long "best of" retrospective, a pair of surreal shorts about food and drink, from filmmaker Stefan Nadelman.

First, "Food Fight," a stop-animation piece that provides an abridged history of war, told through the foods of the countries in conflict (Ed.: the original work has been edited for time, and captions have been added to assist the history-impaired). Next, "My Dog Impersonating Orson Welles," in which a pooch clutches a bottle of champagne, and attempts to form sentences.

Best of BBtv - Gabe and Max answer Bing Boing readers.

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:59:33 -0500

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Continuing in Boing Boing tv's "best of" our first 6 months, as chosen by you, our viewers, we revisit the dulcet tones of....

Gabe and Max, who have taught so many of us how to achieve the dream lives of our dreams using the internet. Today they answer questions from the Bing Bong audience. Then, aliens discover Mark Frauenfelder's book, "Rule the Web."

Best of BBtv - David Meets Artist Tim Biskup

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:44:38 -0500

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Continuing in our week-long look back at the first 6 months of Boing Boing tv, we revisit an episode in which...

BBtv co-editor David Pescovitz takes a trip into the alternate reality of pop surrealist artist Tim Biskup. And it's definitely a trip. Then, sculptor Chris Yates demonstrates how he makes a Diesel Sweeties wooden Red Robot from start to finish, slightly faster than normal.

Best of BBtv - Giant Atari Joystick, and 8-Bit Therapy

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:52:33 -0500

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Continuing in this week's "Best of BBtv" retrospective, after a whopping 6 months of existence, we revisit a popular episode in which...

Mark checks out a 15-times-larger-than-life Atari joystick replica by Jason Torchinsky, on display at Felt Club XL. Then, 8-bit help for those suffering from projectile dysfunction disorder.

If you're in LA this Thursday, Machine Project is hosting an event where you can check out this cool creation for yourself!

Best of BBtv - Lego Millennium Falcon Time-Lapse

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:48:07 -0500

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Continuing in our week-long retrospective of viewer favorites on Boing Boing tv (we're a big honkin' six monfs old now!), a look back at this epic Lego time-lapse from Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson:

Here are several evenings of my life condensed into 3:38 of time lapse footage as I assemble the "Ultimate Collectors Millennium Falcon" LEGO set, the largest yet sold, with over five thousand individual elements.
My thanks to Matt Goodell for cutting me a great deal on this set. It was even better than new, since he even sorted out all the pieces for me. Thanks also to Judson "Cicada" Cowan for letting me use the track "Earth's Assault on the Enemy A.I.," one of my favorite tracks of 2007. Finally, thanks to Brian Lam and Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo who had the idea first but were kind enough to give me permission to run my version before theirs to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Thanks, everyone!
I captured one frame out of every 150. It's a great set; much more fun to put together than the giant Star Destroyer. Far fewer repetitive sections. Now the ultimate question: keep it on my shelf to scare potential dates, sell it, or press its parts into service to build more ships of my own design?
(Don't miss: My snazzy sweatpants with the hole in the knee, then my realization that I have a hole in the knee after, like, a day of filming.)

Best of BBtv - Dude totally flips out at E3

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:52:26 -0500

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This week marks 6 months since Boing Boing tv was inserted into earth's atmosphere by alien insurgents. To celebrate, we're looking back at the "best of BBtv" as chosen by you, our viewers. Today we revisit a pre-dotcom-crash edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, through the eyes of the one human on earth capable of matching E3's hyperkinetic chaos with ample frenzy of his own.

In this BBtv episode, "comedy terrorist" Tim E. Woodsman high-kicks, dry-humps and generally freaks the hell out all over the LA Convention Center. Press access rules changed forever after this incident. E3 isn't huge and awesome anymore, either, so there's not much left to bum rush anyway.
This episode was cut from rediscovered footage produced for a CrapTV internet-boom-era TV pilot. Danny Diamond provided us with access to his footage vault (we pulled Bad Fairies from the same source), and BBtv's editors reassembled this short spazzfest for your nostalgic pleasure.
The crew of video guerrillas who made this happen this back in the day say: "We dedicate this to the memory of Tim E Woodsman, 1972 - 2007. We miss you. -- Jason, Jolon, Glasgow, Martha, Brody, Danny, Push, Tony, and everyone who made CRAPtv possible."

(Special thanks, Jolon Bankey, and happy birthday!!! Music: includes a clip from Klubbheads).

Best of BBtv - Mauvais Role

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:29:41 -0500

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Continuing in our week-long review of popular BBtv episodes (while the crew takes some well-deserved time off!), we revisit Mauvais Rôle ("Bad Role"), a short animated film about a computer game character who gets fed up with playing the same lame villain roles all the time -- and takes matters into his own (clawed) hands.

His quest leads him to new and increasingly more ridiculous casting calls, each one weirder than the last. And they lead him somewhere he never thought he'd end up...
Mauvais Rôle was produced by a team of students at ESRA Sup' Infograph, in France. Authors: Alan Barbier, Camille Campion, Dorian Février, Frédéric Fourier, Frédéric Lafay, Min Ma, Jean Francois Macé, Emmanuel Repérant, Jérémie Rosseau and Olivier Sicot. Full credits here, and the project's website is here.

Best of BBtv - American Furry

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:48:24 -0500

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Boing Boing tv is 6 months and almost 150 episodes old -- not unlike, say, a prolific baby. To celebrate, we're taking the week off and revisiting some of the "best of BBtv," as determined by you, our viewers. First up -- "American Furry: Life, Liberty, and the Fursuit of Happiness..."

Furries get no respect. Usually, when you hear about people who dress up like life-sized stuffed animals, it's in the context of an unfriendly internet joke, a sex gag on Entourage, or an insult that ends with "yiff in hell."
But Brooklyn-based filmmaker Marianne Shaneen has spent more than two years following these people around, capturing their lives in and out of their "fursonas." She's working on a documentary film called AMERICAN FURRY: Life, Liberty and the Fursuit of Happiness.
Today on Boing Boing tv, an exclusive peek at this feature in progress. Marianne provided us with access to some of her raw footage (she's accumulated 2+ years' worth!), and we selected clips, edited, added some audio, and produced the short glimpse you'll see here.
"I'm looking for an editor, a couple of animators, finishing funds, and a producer," says Shaneen -- so if you'd like to get involved, email her at info@rabbitholefilms.com.
Special thanks to Susannah Breslin for first pointing us to this project. (Music by T.bias.)

Avatar Machine - Marc Owens' wearable simulator of virtual worlds.

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:49:11 -0500

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Avatar Machine, by designer Marc Owens, is a wearable device that simulates the experience of third-person gaming environments.
By wearing this costume and head-mounted camera with VR goggles, a user can view themselves as a sort of virtual character while moving around and interacting in the real world.
Owens created Avatar Machine to explore whether such a device would grant users "a diminished sense of social responsibility (...) and demonstrate behaviors normally reserved for the gaming environment." In other words, turn them into instant board trolls.
Owens, 26, is a design student at the Royal College of Art, and lives in East London. An earlier version of this experiment from Owens circulated around the web in 2007.
In part one of today's Boing Boing tv episode, we premiere an all-new experiment with Avatar Machine -- live beta testing conducted in 2008, in the Harajuku area of Tokyo. Here, the user (Owens) flirts with Harajuku hotties, then almost gets his ass kicked (for real!) by some Japanese gangster dudes.
In part two of today's show, Xeni speaks with Owens over a Skype video connection, live from his studio in East London.
HowStuffWorks has a step-by-step explanation of the device here. (special thanks to Susannah Breslin)

Miss Hooker 2008 Beauty Pageant

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:01:26 -0500

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Today on Boing Boing tv, a glimpse inside the "Miss Hooker 2008 Beauty Pageant," the creation of artist Natalia Fabia. Nine glamorous punk pinups compete for the title, showing off such diverse talents as egg frying, fantasy whistling, and yo-yoing. Who will win? No actual prostitutes were harmed in the filming of this episode, just metaphorical ones (as in "we all sell ourselves here in Hollywood.").

Russell Porter with The Guillotines

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:36:49 -0500

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UK-based Russell Porter chronicles alt music culture in the Porter Report with aggressive wit and offbeat charm. Today, the "professional chancer and well known layabout" joins us on Boing Boing TV for a live session by alt-blues-punk band the Guillotines (Sounds Like: "we suffer for our music and now it's your turn.") Next, some wasted chick with a double mohawk tries to hit our host up for spare change.
Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring Russell Porter. (special thanks to Jolon Bankey).

Klaus Pierre: Red Carpet Botox Dreams

Xeni Jardin, Mark Frauenfelder, Cory Doctorow, David Pescovitz — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:07:10 -0500

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Klaus Pierre, a French/German actor-waiter-whatever, aspires against all odds to become America's next great action hero. In today's episode, he faces trials involving botox injections, standup comedy rejections, and attempts to hack his way into an actual red carpet premiere in Hollywood, for great justice.
Previous Klaus Pierre episodes on BBtv:
Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero in Training in America: Pirate Musical of Epic Fail
Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero in Training in America, studies Savate
Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero in Training in America at Coffee Shop.

Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero in Training in America, studies Swordfighting

Point Break and heartbreak