Video roundup, part 1
It's been a while since I've posted a collection of videos, and the links keep rolling in. So here's a whole bunch of them. Sorry so many; I tried breaking them up into categories to reduce the overwhelmingness, and I split the total set in half (I'll post part 2 tomorrow).
Parodies:
- Preview of C for Cookie, the V for Vendetta remake for the kindergarten set.
- Jack Black/Sarah Michelle Gellar LotR parody, apparently done for the MTV Movie Awards, and apparently featured on one of the LotR DVDs. Warning: the word "penis" and related concepts figure prominently.
Joss Whedon-related:
- Joss Whedon's speech as an honoree at an Equality Now event, about the question reporters often ask him: "Why do you write these strong women characters?" Worth watching all the way through. (The first two minutes are Meryl Streep talking about Whedon's mother; that part is interesting too, but if you're short on time you can skip ahead to Whedon's arrival onstage.)
- Geek Week interviews some guy dressed up as Joss Whedon at Wizard World LA 2006. This is the full 15-minute episode of Geek Week (not just the excerpt that was posted elsewhere); the first half features a running joke in which Jack, one of the three interviewers, tries to find Joss Whedon to interview him but keeps failing. By halfway through, Jack has discovered (after a long time standing in line) that Joss Whedon isn't actually present at the con. So start watching around 8:39 (when Jack's producer confronts him about Whedon's absence) and continue through to 14:10. (For those who wondered, it's very clear in the full version that Geek Week was in on the joke.)
Technology, machines, and Microsoft-bashing:
- John Hodgman of the Daily Show explains Net Neutrality. (You can also view this at Comedy Central, but I had trouble viewing that version on a Mac.) This segment is much funnier if you've watched a few of the recent Apple anti-PC ads.
- Interactive artwork called "The Table", by Raffaello D'Andrea and Canadian artist Max Dean. It's a robot table, designed as an art installation, that fixates on a particular person among a group of visitors and follows that person around. It's controlled by a computer, and its sensing is done by a camera in the ceiling. See also self-reassembling robotic chair.
- A bunch of brief segments from Pythagoras Switch ("pitagora suicchi," which is what the katakana characters say at the end of each segment), a Japanese kids' show featuring tiny Rube Goldberg-like devices. A total of about 13 minutes. If you want to see the other kinds of things they have on the show, you can watch Algorithm March! with Ninja, or a complete (?) 15-minute episode.
- If Microsoft redesigned the iPod packaging. (I think I read somewhere that this was actually created in-house by Microsoft designers as a what-not-to-do, but I can't find the reference for that.)
- New Microsoft technology lets you punish a Microsoft developer. (Watch for the name of the guy who shows up at 2:37.)
- Bush Pilot documentary; blatantly partisan and anti-Bush, but pretty funny and nicely done.
- Multi-input touch screen demo. (Despite what various people have said, this isn't Apple-related.)
Video games:
- Human Space Invaders.
- Super Mario Brothers live at Gordon College in Wenham, MA.
Misc:
- Stone golem costume. (Very brief.)