(YouTube link)
He-Man and his friends (and enemies) from the 80s cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe sing "What's Up?" by the 90s band 4 Non Blondes. It's an outstanding mashup. But I was a bit disappointed not to see Ram-Man -- he had a great singing voice.
Beekeepers normally use their colonies to make honey, beeswax, pollen and to provide starter hives to their fellow apairists, but beekeeper Bioni Samp does something unusual with his bees- he records their noises and makes synth music.
Samp uses recordings taken from the hives to create minimal synth music he feels represents the life pulse of the bees:
He records and analyzes the frequencies of his bees, such as the soothing “songs” queen bees chirp to their hives, and uses them in his compositions. He wields a hive frame “scanner” to pick up electromagnetic smog and sticks electrodes in his homegrown honey to reap its rich, viscous sound.
Samp’s gear is part function, part symbolic. For example, one of his setups has three oscillators, representing the hierarchy of a hive: one for the workers, one for the drones, one for the queen. Some of his other bizarre, original instrument creations include the Electronic Beesmoker, BeeVerb, BFX, and the Binaural Beeframe.
Bioni Samp creates experimental hive music to raise awareness about colony collapse disorder, and he feels his telling people about the bee plague in this way is better than being preachy:
“If I went around with a Greenpeace badge on and started shouting about deforestation, people quickly tire of that, it doesn't really connect with people,” Samp says over video chat. “So I worked around the idea of presenting something that's got an underlying ecological message, but it's put over in a way which interest geeks and people interested in electronic music and computing.”
His art and sound installations have travelled across the globe, performing at environmentally-conscious festivals and art galleries as far flung as Slovakia, Poland, Canada, Austria, and others.
Read The Beekeeper Who Makes Synth Music With His Bee Colonies here
Back in 1983 computers were new and exciting technology that few people had in their homes and even fewer knew how to actually use, so not knowing how to use a computer in the 80s was forgivable.
Cut to the early 21st century, when a show called Computer Show appeared on the internet looking like it was made in the 80s, with a host who seems to be stuck in the 80s discussing modern computing.
Computer Show was created by the fine folks at Sandwich Video, so you know it's a quality product, and even though the show's host doesn't know much about computers he really wants to learn.
He's especially excited about a community site called Reddit, or more specifically the parts of Reddit full of color photos of people without pants.
Computer Show is a show for comedy enthusiasts, computer enthusiasts, or any combination of the two, but if you don't own a funnybone or a computer then it's probably not the show for you...and how are you reading this right now?!
-Via Dangerous Minds
It's good to have an artistic arsenal stocked with a wide range of genres, styles and color palettes when working as a concept artist, because you never know what the client is looking for so versatility is the key to success.
Which means Russian illustrator Sergey Svistunov is going to be a very successful artist, because he's so versatile it's scary!
Sergey's digital paintings are all over the place, from action packed sci-fi scenes to cartoony comedy plates full of personality, but my favorites are the far out fantasy pieces because the vibrant palettes take my breath away.
See more Fantasy And Funny Paintings By The Illustrator Sergey Svistunov here
Furries are one of the most misunderstood and maligned groups in the world of geekdom, and even though people should know better than to think of Furries as mere sexual fetishists the stigma remains.
So, in an effort to demystify the world of the Furries, Cracked's Mark Hill attended Fur-Eh in Edmonton, Alberta, one of the largest Furry conventions in the world, and he made some interesting discoveries.
Mark discovered Furries are fans of anthropomorphic animal-themed visual media, and even though there are lots of people rockin' their amazing looking fursuits at Fur-Eh there were plenty of plain clothed fans too, because not all Furries are cosplayers.
He also found out that the Furry community goes off during Cons like Fur-Eh because they have very few chances to hang with their fellow Furries during the year so they make those Cons count by partying all night long.
See 5 Things I Learned Attending A Furry Convention at Cracked (NSFW language)
The young wizards who study magic at Hogwarts learn a great many things, but Muggles 101 is an elective that few students care to take so they know very little about Muggle stuff.
However, the wizards who have dabbled in the ways of the Muggles have been known to enjoy booze, corn cob pipes, poker and Pokemon video games, not necessarily in that order.
And, according to this Good Bear Comics strip, they don't know how to game responsibly so Muggles should never game with a wizard.
-Via Geeks Are Sexy
For some people love at first sight is nothing but an illusion, for others it's pure physical attraction, but for the advertising salaryman in this animated short the apple of his eye represents a warmth and freedom his life is missing.
He sits inside his billboard watching her work away in her garden, but not in a creepy way but rather in a hopeful way, hoping to someday break free of his advertising duties and speak to her in person.
But the life of a billboard advertiser is a lonely one, and when you literally live at work you don't have a lot of time to date...
Love In The Time Of Advertising is a sweet 3D animated short created by David Bokser and Matt Berenty of Wolf & Crow Studio, with an unique rom-com style storyline sung by the narrator.
Christopher Walken has one of the most distinctive faces and voices in Hollywood, and his signature speaking style makes him stand out in every role he plays.
So if Christopher Walken opened a coffee shop people would pour in just to hear him take their orders and see his famous face behind the bar making coffee drinks for jittery customers.
But then he'd start to lose customers by running the shop the Walken way, aka badgering people about the lingo they use to order a cup of joe and being too tough to take crap from customers.
Christopher Walken's Coffee Shop from Leah Dubuc on Vimeo.
This sketchy animated short was created by filmmaker Leah Dubuc using completely improvised dialogue from the Famous Lost Works podcast.
-Via Laughing Squid
Watching videos in the age of dial-up was a real pain, when it could take an hour to watch a five minute video, and yet despite this lag Jason Windsor's freaky animated short End Of Ze World went viral in 2003. (NSFW language)
End Of Ze World was (arguably) the first viral video, and definitely helped start the viral video craze, but Jason never wanted to make a sequel to his totally terrifying film, and then 2017 happened...
“No one likes a sequel that’s not as good as the original. :)” Windsor told Gizmodo in an email. “But watching 2017 unfold made me want to make something. Maybe it’s just a way to deal with my own fear and anger and frustration.”
END OF ZE WORLD...PROBABLY FOR REAL THIS TIME is a darkly comedic update of the original film, and it not only shows how chaotic the world has become in the last fifteen years but also how much Jason's animation skills have improved.
And despite all the madness Jason remains optimistic about our future:
“I’m certainly still hopeful we can avoid doing something silly like blowing ourselves up, or not listening to scientists when they’re like, ‘No seriously, s#%t’s effed, and we need to stop this,’” Windsor said. “But there’s also action to be taken right away to avoid that stuff.”
-Via Gizmodo
The more futuristic a spaceship looks the harder it is to identify which real life object inspired the design, but at their core all sci-fi spaceship designs are based on something from the real world.
Most concept artists conceal their inspiration by adding detail until the ship looks too complex for our minds to pick apart, but San Francisco-based freelance artist Eric Geusz doesn't care about hiding the truth.
He's just having fun drawing ships based on stuff he finds lying around his house so he doesn't care who knows where the inspiration for his ship designs comes from.
And his willingness to share this part of his artistic process may open up new worlds for budding artists looking to draw unique and interesting vehicles.
-Via Laughing Squid
Humanity has dreamed of exploring the cosmos for centuries, but once we realized those dreams were still centuries away we created devices like the Voyager probe to bring the citizens of the cosmos to us.
As far as we know these devices never succeeded in bringing extraterrestrial life to Earth, but we have no idea how many beings, planets or spacecraft those satellites came in contact with over the years.
Nor do we have a clue what the world will look like when these probes return to Earth hundreds of years after being launched into space...
Voyager is a fun and fantastic looking animated short written and directed by Loïc Magar and Roman Veiga that imagines what the world might look like if the Voyager space probe ever returns to Earth. Two words- not pretty.
Post-apocalyptic themes abound in the world of fan art, which makes it hard to find artists who present an original view of the world after the fall of human civilization.
But when an artist with a fresh artistic vision comes along and presents us with a new look at that grim near future world it's instantly obvious the artist is showing us the apocalypse like we've never seen it before.
Digital artist Rostislav Zagornov is one of those visionary artists with an eye on the dark future, and he creates cool concept art showing glimpses of a post-apocalyptic world that feels familiar yet fresh, an odd and broken world that is unmistakably our own.
The geek entertainment blog io9 is celebrating its tenth anniversary in many ways, but the one you're most interested in is its list of The 100 Most Important Pop Culture Moments of the Last 10 Years. The list is split into five parts, and the top twenty is finally here. It covers movies, TV, video games, comics, and the fandoms they spawned. Star Wars takes four (and a half) of the spots, but there's plenty of other events to remember. Here's a sample.
19) Deadpool proves not all superhero movies have to be the sameAs superhero fare has dominated the Hollywood ecosystem, one of the biggest criticisms of the genre has been its reliance on the same formula. Deadpool didn’t give a damn about any of that. We didn’t see Wade Wilson struggle to accept the changes that happened to his body or grapple with the right thing to do with his powers. The Merc with a Mouth loves being a randy, potty-mouthed engine of destruction and, in turn, audiences loved the unpredictable meta-aware romp that Ryan Reynolds, Tim Miller, and crew delivered in 2016. It felt like a movie that did whatever the hell it wanted and that R-rated energy propelled Deadpool to become one of the biggest superhero successes of all time.
Read and relive all these turning points at io9.
The Ark of the Covenant sure is purrrty, but anyone who has seen Raiders Of The Lost Ark (meaning everyone) knows you're not supposed to open that sucker up unless you're looking to get a really, really deep tan.
But if a maker of YouTube unboxing videos got their hands on the Ark I guarantee it would play out exactly like this Gone Into Rapture comic, to be quickly followed by two remixes and ten really dumb reaction videos. Kids these days, what with the YouTubing and the unboxing and the reacting, phooey!
-Via Geeks Are Sexy
Bathtubs aren't made to move because most bathers don't want to be slipping and sliding around the bathroom as they try to relax in the tub, but tubs do make surprisingly good vehicles once wheels are attached.
And if comedies and cartoons like Wacky Racers have taught us anything it's that a tub on wheels looks really funny as it rolls down the road, but as it turns out a flying bathtub looks even funnier as it soars through the sky!
Inventors Philipp and Johannes Mickenbecker of The Real Life Guys felt they needed a new and more interesting form of transportation, because going grocery shopping in a car is so 2012.
So they created a 120-horsepower 'Flying Bathtub' drone and soared to the bakery in style, wowing all the non-bathers in the parking lot.
-Via DesignTAXI
