Ventriloquism is often seen as cheesy, campy and outdated because people always relate it to dummy acts like Jeff Dunham, but the art of ventriloquism goes far beyond a mere puppet show.
And truly gifted ventriloquists are capable of doing some amazing things with their voices, like swapping voices with another ventriloquist as demonstrated by Rudi Rok and his friend Sari Alto in this fun video.
There ain't no overdubbing or audio tricks involved folks, just pure ventriloquistic vocal magic!
Directors use lighting and color to set the emotional tone of their film, changing these things up during the film to emphasize the way certain scenes should make the audience feel.
Usage of these elements is most effective when they're hardly noticed by the audience at all, so viewers feel the tension, dread or laughter welling up within them without really knowing why.
This episode of 4 Minute Film School by Aputure shows what a difference these elements make to the mood of a film, and how lighting and color are used differently according to genre.
You may not be able to fly in an actual quidditch game, but rolling on skates at full speed can still feel pretty magical and give you that wind-in-the-face feeling like flying. And that's why having a Harry Potter night at a roller rink makes complese and utter sense.
This particular event took place at LA's Moonlight Rollerway, which has theme nights pretty frequently.
Miami Vice launched the career of Don Johnson while simultaneously destroying the career of Philip Michael Thomas, but did you know the hippest of all 80s crime shows also introduced the world to Jimmy Smits, Benicio Del Toro and Ben Stiller?
Jimmy Smits appeared on the first episode of Miami Vice as Crockett's first partner Eddie Rivera, in Jimmy's first on screen appearance.
Miami Vice was also Benicio Del Toro's first stop in a storied career when, at age 20, he appeared on the show as "Pito, an ex-con-turned-thespian with a local theater group, Mi Vida Loca."
For Ben Stiller Miami Vice was only his third appearance on TV, and yet he was already developing the kooky fast talking persona he's known for today when he appeared as Fast Eddie Felcher on episode 2 of season 4.
Miami Vice was also a major starting point for tough guy actor Dennis Farina, who worked as a consultant for exec. producer Michael Mann after 18 years with the Chicago Police Department.
Mann liked Dennis so much he not only cast him as recurring character Albert Lombard on Miami Vice- he cast Dennis as the lead in Crime Story, one of the best historical crime shows ever made.
Lastly we have Liam Neeson, who was already a bit of a veteran when he appeared on the first episode of Miami Vice's third season as a former IRA hitman who woos detective Gina Calabrese (Saundra Santiago).
Liam used his appearance on the show in 1986 to launch his film career in Hollywood, and he would play a similar character a year later in the film A Prayer For The Dying.
If you were a kid in the 80s, you almost certainly watched cartoons and some of those cartoons have some seriously amazing theme songs. Collider ranked an impressive 45 cartoon shows from the 80s and there are some unforgetably great songs on the list -particularly the Duck Tales theme song, which I'm sure many would agree should have the #1 rather than the #2 spot.
Many of the theme songs I expected seemed to be lacking (including Captain Planet and Tailspin), but I realized only afterwards that they were actually all released in the 90s.
Some dogs see the world as a great big canine roleplaying game full of human NPCs to feed them and scoop their poop, multiplayer trips to the junkyard to gain XP by eating gross stuff, and the occasional leashed "escort quest".
Illustrator Anna-Maria Jung created this cute comic strip to show us how dogs play through the game of life, and it has inspired me to buy my dog more Worthless Costume DLC...which he's not going to be very happy about.
The characters on Adventure Time are purposely drawn in a completely unrealistic style to suit the strange and silly tone of the show- and because they would look totally creepy if drawn to look realistic.
In fact, most of the characters on the show would probably look quite horrifying in real life and give kids nightmares, especially Simon the Ice King and that sourpuss the Earl of Lemongrab.
This transformation has not only caused the characters to lose their cartoony appeal- it has taken them from the Land of Ooo and transported them straight to Westeros!
Barbie has come so far over the last few decades as both a (plastic) woman and a role model that she's ready to stop striving and see what life is like as a trophy wife.
She's tired of having to work all the time, sick of hiding all her guns, booze and drugs for the sake of the kiddies, and now she's ready to get baked and take a bite out of that trophy wife life.
Trophy Wife Barbie is a raunchy and ridiculous conceptual photo series by South African artist Annelies Hofmeyr, aka WIT MYT, who started shooting the series on the day of her divorce:
Her first photograph featured Barbie clutching Ken’s decapitated head with the caption “Yay! My divorce went through today!” underneath. She posts her pictures on her Instagram page. Hofmeyr uses Barbie to make satirical and politically-charged comment about gender and everyday sexism. As Hofmeyr has said:
She has been judged by her appearance and now that her situation has changed (and she’s no longer a wife) she needs to find her identity outside of her label.
Nightcrawler is one of the X-Men, who has the ability to teleport himself just about anywhere. He's also a cat, who likes teleporting of the fun of it, in this video from Kaipotainment (previously at Neatorama).
The moral of the story is: lets hope cats never acquire the mutant powers of the X-Men. They'll just use them for their own selfish purposes. -Thanks, Kaipo!
Studio Ghibli films are great looking, with brilliant stories and amazing characters, but there's one element both newbies and diehard fans enjoy without paying them any mind- the amazing sound effects.
Sound director Koji Kasamatsu is the man behind the sounds in Studio Ghibli films, and believe it or not he creates most of the sound effects with his mouth or body.
Here's sound effect master Koji brewing a pot of coffee with his mouth to promote Japanese coffee brand WONDA:
Like Picasso's Cubism? How about geeky movies and TV shows? Well, if you like those things and tattoos, you're going to really love the amazing tattoo designs of Mike Boyd.
Boyd operates out of The Circle Tattoo Shop in London and his clients go out of their way to seek him out for his unique style.
Our social media profiles say a lot about us to the online world, and they're often the initial point of contact for people we meet in the virtual world well before we ever meet them in person.
If you're drinking or smoking pot in every picture we assume you're a wastoid, if the pics are taken all over the world people assume you're a traveler, and if you have nothing but selfies we assume you're vain.
So what do we assume if your profile pic shows you casting spells with all six of your arms? We assume you're an amateur Photoshopper, and that you have quite an imagination!
People in America rarely Photoshop their profile pics because we're afraid our network will make fun of us, but in Russia a profile pic isn't finished until it has been thoroughly 'shopped.
Because how is anybody supposed to know you're a real catch unless you make it clear with your profile pic?
They can save your life, crush your soul, make you a fortune, or even leave you penniless. Here are 10 reasons why video games have more real-world power than you think.
1. They Can Make You a Better Surgeon
The next time you go under the knife, make sure to vet your surgeon's video game skills first. In 2007, researchers at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City reported that people who played video games for at least three hours a week made better surgeons. In a series of hands-on tests that mimicked laparoscopic surgery, gamers made 37 percent fewer errors and were 27 percent faster than non-players. Among the 33 surgeons who participated, skill and experience at video games were better predictors of test performance than years of training or even the number of surgeries they'd previously performed.
The study's results confirmed what Dr. James Rosser, Beth Israel's chief of minimally invasive surgery, had long suspected. A lifelong gamer, Rosser noticed that his non-gaming peers didn't have the same fine motor control with their hands that he did. Now that there's proof to back his theory, Rosser and his colleagues have a good excuse for keeping multiple video game systems close to the operating room and playing them in their downtime. After all, a surgeon's got to stay sharp!
2. They Can Marry You
Men have loved video games for a long time, but we know of only one man who has proven his love with a commitment ceremony.
Superheroes are pretty darn powerful, but even then, it's pretty hard to imagine anyone taking down a dragon in a one-on-one fight, even if that person was a mutant with superhuman powers. That's why this series by Lynton Levengood is so awesome -it just kind of makes sense in a weird way.
Of course, not all of them work as perfect matchups. Iron Man may be able to fly and shoot electricity out of his hands, but it's unlikely that any dragon would have the scientific skills to build such powers for themselves.
Being able to print out eye pleasing hunks of plastic in our own home is cool, but printing out 3D gadgets with mechanical functions that work straight out of the printer- that seems too cool to be true!
As this platform jack that comes out of the printer fully assembled and functional proves the future of 3D printing is the perfect blend of form and function- and fun!
This SD Card Mountain is a great example of form, function and fun in one, and once people see this clever little thingie on your desk they'll be begging you to print one out for them.
And you can finish making your desk look worthy of your co-worker's jealousy by printing out one of these clever Out Of Office desk signs, which is sure to make them all flip out!
