In this impressive, high quality production, trials bike champion Danny MacAskill recreates a young boy's obstacle course made of toys. You can find behind-the-scenes information about this perfectly staged video at the link.
Content warning: there's some foul language at the end of the video. At least, I think there is. It's hard for me to understand the woman's accent.
Our old friend Brian Kidd, better known as the Unipiper, caught the Game of Thrones bug! In this video, he's a fire-breathing dragon playing the show's theme song while riding his unicycle. Well, could you do that? -Thanks, Brian!
See also: more Unipiper performances.
Luc Bergeron (Zapatou) has another expertly-edited video compilation of people (and a few animals) doing amazing things. He used 187 YouTube videos, with the title of each at the bottom of the screen, in case you see one that makes you want to go back and see the whole thing. -via Viral Viral Videos
The star who went viral after the Bonnaroo Music Festival wasn't any of the headliners -it was the woman who danced along with them. Holly Maniatty is a sign language interpreter, a professional who works all kinds of concerts. Rap shows are a special challenge as the words fly fast and are often freestyle, wandering far from the recorded version. Maniatty holds her own interpreting on the fly, but she also does plenty of research beforehand. She talked about her first rap show, for the Beastie Boys in 2009.
To prepare for the show, Maniatty says she logged more than 100 hours of research on the Beastie Boys, memorizing their lyrics and watching past shows. Her prep work also includes researching dialectal signs to ensure accuracy and authenticity. An Atlanta rapper will use different slang than a Queens one, and ASL speakers from different regions also use different signs, so knowing how a word like guns and brother are signed in a given region is crucial for authenticity.
Signing a rap show requires more than just literal translation. Maniatty has to describe events, interpret context, and tell a story. Often, she is speaking two languages simultaneously, one with her hands and one with her mouth, as she’ll sometimes rap along with the artists as well. When a rapper recently described a run-in with Tupac, Maniatty rapped along while making the sign for hologram, so deaf fans would know the reference was to Tupac’s holographic cameo at Coachella, not some figment of the rapper's imagination.
Read more about Maniatty's work at Slate. Link -via Metafilter
Volcano photographer Marc Szeglat assures us that this man running up a visibly flowing stream of lava at Mount Etna "was very experienced and knew what he was doing." How do you get experienced at this skill? What kind of learning curve is involved?
One across: Cruciverbalist that combines magic and crosswords. Ten letters. Give up? The answer is DAVIDKWONG.
David Kwong, as you can see in this mind-blowing video clip above, has a unique niche in the world of magic. He's probably the only guy that can combine making crossword puzzles and presdigitation. Even Will Shortz is impressed!
My repertoire of bike tricks from my misspent youth was limited to popping a wheelie and then falling flat on my butt. So please excuse me while I pick my jaw up from the floor after watching these incredible bike tricks by Tim Knoll.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
High jump mattress? What's that? THIS IS KENYA where high school ninjas jump over a bar set taller than a man's height like it was just a small hop.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
In 2010, doctors diagnosed Jen with a rare type of bone cancer. As part of her thankfully successful recovery, part of Jen's pelvis was surgically removed. Now she can bend her left leg much farther than ever before. In this video, she asks TV show host Ellen DeGeneres to let her show off this ability on television.
-via Yababoon
When aspiring rapper Baba Brinkman went to Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, he decided to mix a little rap into his studies in Medieval and Renaissance English Lit. In fact, he recreated Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in rap for his Master's thesis, thus making him the only peer-reviewed rapper in the world.
After graduating in 2003, Brinkman began his career as a rap troubadour and achieved great success with this clip above, The Rap Guide to Evolution.
View more of Brinkman's work over at this neat post by 'xim Sauriol over at Geeks Are Sexy: Link
If you find jogging on the treadmill boring, try this instead: treadmill dancing! Was he inspired by OK GO's Treadmill Dancing?
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Holykaw and Pleated Jean
Meet Maedir Eugster, a 58-year-old "balance master" of Rigolo Swiss Nouveau Cirque who can balance anything - and by anything, we mean a feather and 15 palm frond spines on top of one another until they become a giant kinetic sculpture unlike anything you've seen before.
View BALANCE, as directed by Tobias Hutzler: Hit play or go to Link [Vimeo] - via Co.DESIGN
Photo: Russell Cheyne
Daredevil cyclist Adam Flint, who once bungee jumped on a bike, rode down the wall of the Lawers Dam on Lochan na Lairige in Scotland. Now that's a "dam" neat trick! Photographer Russell Cheyne snapped this fantastic photo, which you can see over at The Guardian: Link
Skill. And a very sharp knife. And someone mentioned the advantage of a great cutting board. A whole watermelon is chopped and ready for salad in 20 seconds flat. (via Viral Viral Videos)
