Just Say No-No

James Blagden created this animated short about Doc Ellis' no-hitter (June 12, 1970) using audio from a Weekend America interview that aired on March 29, 2008. Doc describes himself as being "high as a Georgia pine" during the game, under the influence of LSD. In the wake of Major League Baseball's steroid scandal, it's almost encouraging to hear a story about a guy accomplishing one of baseball's rarest achievements while he was hallucinating.

Lifeline

Animator and storyboard artist Andres Salaff won the Bronze Medal last month at the Student Academy Awards for his short film, Lifeline.

If you're interested in seeing more of Andres' animations, he has a handful of other videos available on his Vimeo account.

The Goon

Eric Powell's The Goon is apparently getting the silver screen treatment with David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac) producing and the voice talents of Clancy Brown (Highlander, The Shawshank Redemption, Carnivale) and Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Sideways, Cold Souls).

Apparently this zombie comic adaptation is still looking for a studio. It shouldn't be looking for long, but I'm hoping it won't slide into obscurity like The Amazing Screw-On Head (which also bears the voice of Giamatti). If The Goon can find an audience, perhaps we'll begin to see a wider variety of cult comics hit theaters, too.

Motivation

According to Dan Pink, money just complicates things. All we really want in life is autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

RSA "Animates" play like a perfect storm of Common Craft (In Plain English) and TED talks. I'm hooked.

May The Fourth Be With You

Merry Unofficial Star Wars Day!



A long time ago, before Star Wars according to a three year old, before Star Wars retold by someone who hasn't seen it, there was Evan Mather. I first saw Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars and Godzilla Versus Disco Lando during my freshman year of college... ten years ago now. While they might seem unremarkable in the YouTube storm of action-figure opuses, nobody makes better use of Meco.

When Video Games Attack

If you've ever played a video game made in the 80s, Patrick Jean is your new hero. Jean directed Pixels for the French visual effects company, One More Production.

Ridley Scott Hearts Unicorns

Philips has commissioned a series of short films, Parallel Lines, to air on April 8th at their website. The kicker? The films all use the same unifying theme, and since the filmmakers are all from Ridley Scott Associates, that theme has something to do with unicorns.

Anyway, you can read more about the individual shorts and their creators over at /Film.

*UPDATE*

My favorite short, "The Gift":

Zumbakamera

Behold! I have experienced the strangest animation on the internet. Jossie Malis ( aka Zumbakamera) has not only given us The Fantastic World of Fantástico Morales, but also Bendito Machine and Memento Mori.

And! If you enjoyed all of that, I encourage to peruse the bizarre world of artist Tim Molloy.

Codehunters

Codehunters looks like the Gorillaz got crossed with Final Fantasy VII characters and shat out into Borderlands.

Keep It Covered

Things people love: sex, cartoons, and not getting diseases. Unless you're the Pope; I hear he loves diseases.

Keep on Shining

In some ways, Kevin McCullough's Electropolis reminds me of Mark Osborne's More, but it's clearly the more optimistic of the two. I believe the message is the same in both, however... stay true to yourself and what you love. Don't take the road less traveled just 'cause Robert Frost said so; make up your own damn mind.



P.S. Thanks to aithnea for the shout-out on reddit.

Go Team Venture! Again!

Venture Bros. Season 4 is "scheduled to premiere" on October 18. In the meantime, check out Jackson Publick's LiveJournal and Doc Hammer's deviantART.

Amazing 3D Animation

When I came across "Eole" on Vimeo, I was floored. Other than Galactic Mail, I'd never seen any 3d animation of this quality floating around on the internet. After poking around the Eole website links, I began to realize that all of the other short films they were recommending belonged to alumni of Supinfocom, an animation university in France (and now India). I later discovered that Asterokid (Douglas Lassance), one of the creators of Galactic Mail, also helped to create Sigg Jones as a final project for his degree from... you guessed it... Supinfocom. It's a small world of animation after all.

Mixed Signals: Creation vs. Evolution

Opposite Day! Creation as technobabble and Evolution as melodramatic sermon... it's not just a brilliant switcharoo, it's also remarkably well done. You can watch them side by side on Vimeo.

Off-topic (but not if you're Pat Robertson):
So you've probably heard about Ida by now, but did you know it's also an impending hurricane? Do you think the World Meteological Organization and The Paleontological Society have a secret rivalry over names? You know, like the Anchorman news team street fight.

Mustaches bristling! Barometer slings launching projectiles into a crowd of prehistoric graverobbers! Picks and chisels bringing down the front lines of the weather soothsayers! Ida-the-hurricane-of-dead-lemurs!

Anyway, that's how I want to imagine it. We now return to your regularly scheduled program...

The Rocketeer Express

One of my favorite videos on Vimeo. But whaddabout DHL, yo?

Credit Crisis Explained

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
― Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

History of the Internet