Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Image dump 5

Here's your weekly installment of weird stuff from all over ye olde internete. Enjoy:













p.s. Apologies for not posting more frequently this week, I've been crazy busy. I'll make it up to you all next week, I promise..

Monday, February 23, 2009

Photos from My Name Is Robot

Sorry for the lack of posting recently, I've just been busy with a bunch of things. So here, as promised (on my Twitter account) are some photos from the night itself. There are more on my Flickr photostream as well:






Overall the night was a total success. The crowd was huge, and it was great to see such a wide range of people come out to support a local art show. It certainly encourages more events such as these in the future. My favourite robot in the show was the Chester French robot with the big glasses that you can see in the third photo.

So well done to all the artists, photographers, designers, and supporters involved in making the whole thing such a successful and vibrant event. Let's hope we see more of these events in the future.

What did you guys think of the exhibition? Leave a comment below if you want..

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Paul Smith lomo camera

Some of you will be familiar with the joys of lomography. Some of you will be familiar with the Al Bastakiya Art Fair. This means that some of you will be very happy to hear that there will be a 'lomo wall' set up during the art fair. The art fair runs from March 15 - 22, and should be a great event with many different attractions.

If you're not into lomography, or just need a new lomo camera, check this out:


My friends all know that I'm a bit of a gear-head, so this Paul Smith lomo camera went straight to the top of my 'must-have' list. Unfortunately, the online store says they're all sold out, but perhaps they've still got one or two at the Dubai Mall outlet..

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tonight's the night



The time has come people. Tonight sees the launch of the My Name Is Robot exhibition at the Jam Jar Gallery in Al Quoz. There's a map to the location here. It should be a pretty huge night. Judging from the Facebook event page, there could be over 350 people there. So come along, and you just might bump into your favourite blogger...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Welcome to Heartbreak video

So I just saw the video for Kanye West's 'Welcome to Heartbreak' over on Hypebeast, and I had to post it up for you guys. Don't adjust your set, just enjoy:


KANYE WEST "Welcome To Heartbreak" Directed by Nabil from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

I think it's a stunning bit of work. Just to take that visual noise that everyone has seen on their computer at one time or another and to use it to such great effect is amazing. The director is a guy called Nabil Elderkin, and you can find more of his work here. I've been sending this to everyone I know. Such a cool video. Nice track too. Apparently this won't be the next single though. Hope you all liked it as much as I did..

Image dump 4

Here's your weekly installment of interesting stuff from all over the place. Enjoy:












Monday, February 16, 2009

In praise of Dan Meth

Just saw this, and had to post it:


I think it's genius. You can see more of Dan's stuff on his website. He's also the guy that is responsible for this animation called "Internet People" from a year or so ago. I'll definitely be checking back for more of his stuff in the future..

Sunday, February 15, 2009

New Simpsons Intro

So what do we all think of this?



I'm a bit disappointed, but then again, I think The Simpsons has gone downhill in recent years. There's a blog called Eye On Springfield that celebrates the times when The Simpsons was great, by taking frames and quotes from memorable episodes, such as:


"Freshen ya drink, Govenah?" I still say that to my friends from time to time.

Any thoughts on the new Simpsons intro? Leave them in the comments if you want..

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Great Wave versions

In my image dump last week I posted this re-interpretation of Hokusai's Great Wave Off Kanagawa (click for a larger version):


Here's the original:


A reader called Ben emailed me this version of the artwork:


This next one was done by the ridiculously-talented pair Kozyndan, and keeps up the great work they've been doing that incorporates rabbits:


And this last one was done on a much larger scale, in a Japanese rice paddy field:


That this amazing image has inspired so many re-interpretations and re-imaginings is really quite incredible. The image itself is quite small in real life apparently, but the effect it has had on illustration and art is immeasurable.

Anyone else know of some other cool versions of the Great Wave? Leave a comment if you do...

UPDATE: Found some more:



I'll probably keep posting more versions as I find them, so keep checking back...

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Inglorious Basterds Trailer



The first teaser trailer for Quentin Tarantino's new WWII flick 'Inglorious Basterds' has just been released on the internet.

Check it out here.

My first thoughts are that it looks pretty cool, but I hope the whole thing doesn't turn out to be too cheesy or campy. From what I hear, it's going to be pretty violent, so they obviously couldn't show much in the trailer. Read more about the project here.

Apparently the tentative release date is the 1st of August, so we've all got a while to wait..

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Car-tastrophe

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote about the amount of cars being abandoned at Dubai's airport? I was reading the newspaper on the weekend, and according to Lieutenant-General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Chief of Dubai Police, only 11 cars have been abandoned in the past year. You can find the article here.

Then today I saw this post on Boing Boing that says there have been around 2500 cars left near Terminal 3.

So, who do we believe? 11 abandoned cars vs. 2500+ abandoned cars. I personally think that the Chief of Police is kidding himself if he thinks that only 11 cars have been abandoned, but at the same time, I'd be surprised if the figure was as high as 2500.

Then again, perhaps I'm in a state of denial about the seriousness of the financial situation the world has found itself in. This post about a $550 billion shift of money in the American financial markets scared the living daylights out of me, with this quote from Rep. Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania really putting things into perspective:
"...The Treasury opened its window to help. They pumped a hundred and five billion dollars into the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts, and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic and there. And that's what actually happened. If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o'clock that afternoon, five-and-a-half trillion dollars would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our political system and our economic systems as we know it."

I really had no idea that we had come that close to financial disaster. I never realised that financial depressions could be so, well, depressing.

So to lighten the mood a bit, here's a video of Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street edited to make it look like they're rapping. Hopefully this puts a smile on your face:


The robots are coming...

It's getting closer guys. This looks like being a really great event, and judging from the calibre of artists participating, the work should be excellent.


Find out more about the event, and read some bios of some of the artists here. If nothing else, it's a good chance to get your face in the pages of Ahlan or something, if you're into that sort of thing...

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Super sundial

Just saw this interesting little piece over on The Daily Grail. Apparently a researcher from New Zealand was visiting the Pantheon in Rome, when he discovered that the entire building could be used as a giant sundial.


According to this article in the New Scientist,
"...the Pantheon may have been more than just a temple. During the six months of winter, the light of the noon sun traces a path across the inside of the domed roof. During summer, with the sun higher in the sky, the shaft shines onto the lower walls and floor. At the two equinoxes, in March and September, the sunlight coming in through the hole strikes the junction between the roof and wall, above the Pantheon's grand northern doorway. A grille above the door allows a sliver of light through to the front courtyard - the only moment in the year that it sees sunlight if its main doors are closed."


While it might seem a little far-fetched that an entire temple was oriented so that a single part of it was illuminated at noon on one day of the year, it's still pretty cool. Plus it reminds me of this, from Indiana Jones:


Damn that was an awesome movie.

Image Dump 3

I'm going to make this a weekly feature here on The Sandman Files, so here's this week's image dump: