Shonzilla, a pattern-seeking animal

Some Gymkhana badassery.

The track (L’Autodrome, Linas France) and this madly modded Ford Fiesta (650HP!) has be driven by DC Shoes co-founder, Ken Block.

If you like this, you may like the Ken Block Gymkhana Two as well. Having seen these two, the first one is not that interesting anymore. ;-)

You may not be impressed but I think Carmina Burana is a good illustration how epic this mini-cannon is. Looks like something that can seriously do some damage especially when equipped with, say, a RC controlled car with a camera.

Trivia: Did you know that Carmina Burana was composed by Carl Orff in - 1937?!
I was ignorant thinking it must be at least from 19th century if not older.

Thanks to Gaza for the link!

Logorama

This is the most awesome animated short movie I’ve seen recently and you will too. It’s called Logorama and all characters in it, buildings and additional props are entirely comprised out of company logos.

The movie uses logos as metaphors to succinctly communicate a number of obvious or subliminal messages (YMMV). I don’t know about you, but I’ve always looked behind Ronald McDonald’s fake smile (well, all clowns have those) and considered him evil as much as the company he’s representing. Further on you’ll see an earthquake (financial crisis) bringing down a number of buildings (financial institutions Ronald is calling “losers”, since McDonald’s wasn’t too affected by the crisis). My take on choosing Michelin men to represent cops (one good, one bad, of course) is that it reflects pretty nicely the common perception/prejudice of cops being donut-munching fatsos. After seeing many other interesting usages of logos, you may think that the movie foresaw some events like BP Oil Spill.

The authors are a French animation collective called H5 who have also created a number of animated music spots for the likes of Röyksopp, Super Fury Animals, Alex Gopher, Massive Attack, and many more. The movie also won a bunch of highly acclaimed awards including Academy award for Best Animated Short Film (at 82nd Academy Awards 2010, the Kodak Prix at Critics’ Week at Cannes Film Festival 2009 and many more.

Authors’ commentary on the message of the movie is also worth reading: ”Logorama presents us with an over-marketed world built only from logos and real trademarks that are destroyed by a series of natural disasters (beginning with a hurricane, cyclone, tidal wave…). logotypes are used to describe an alarming universe (similar to the one that we are living in) with all the graphic signs that accompany us everyday in our lives. this over-organized universe is violently transformed by the cataclysm becoming fantastic and absurd. it shows the victory of the creative against the rational, where nature and human fantasy triumph.”

Thanks to Christopher for the link!

Write the Future

IMHO, the best Nike commercial ever!

The excitement before the World Cup grows bigger by the day.

Thanks to Miloje for the hint.

Wow! This kid, named Howard Wong, is both super talented and funny to watch.

He’s 4 years old in this video but was keeping a solid rhythm while he was 3 years old as well.

Thanks to Ida for the link.

Everything’s Amazing & Nobody’s Happy

A good reminder to be thankful for what you’ve got, courtesy of Louis C.K.

Olivier Lemieux from Cirque du Soleil has a wickedly fun routine somewhere between trampoline, wall and art.

This is what skills are about: to make it look so simple.

[via OlivierLemieux1]

There’s a kitty in every lion.

Absolute friendship between a man and 38 lions! This 34-year old South African animal behavioralist named Kevin Richardson has using his instincts and fair share of courage to tame lions and become friends with them. Some scratches are inevitable though. His magic not only works with lions, but hyenas, cheetahs and leopards too.

You can see some picture via Google Image Search.

[via Skalcute]

Damien Walters Showreel 2009

This guy, his acrobacy, flexibility and ability to keep momentum is amazing. I’m mind blown!

Thanks to Miloš for the hint.

[via damienwalters]

Jojo Mayer & Nerve - Jabon

You’re bound to be mind blown, at least the first time around.

Seeing Jojo Mayer playing drums is believing. Once upon a time (around 2000) the open-minded Jojo wanted to try playing drum’n’bass, altering loops and was pleasantly surprised with the result. I must say, I’m amazed with the result.

There’s a video explaining what he does and another one telling the story how it all started and how he manages to play like an improvising drum machine. What he did, Jojo recalls, is - reverse engineering. That’s actually a suitable term known to software developers denoting a process of reconstructing machine structures into structures understandable by a human. In this case: human - Jojo Mayer (and rarely anyone else), machine - drum machine

BTW, doesn’t the beginning of Jojo Mayer & Nerve performace remind anyone of  Roni Size tune?

Thanks to Ivan Andonov for the tip.

[via line0ut]