Video: The Crocodile showroom redone

I was somehow lucky enough to accompany a writer on a pre-opening private tour of Seattle music venue The Crocodile earlier this week.

In one sentence: everything is different from what you remember of the old place.

Here's a 360 video of the showroom two days prior to first door open.


You can see the new showroom for yourself tonight and Friday, when local bands take the stage for what The Croc is calling soundchecks. These two nights are opportunity for the club's operations staff to fire up all engines for the first time and learn the kinks and quirks of the new place, prior to the first ticketed performance this weekend. The soundchecks tonight and Friday are completely free. You should go.

Read more about the tour and get some inside scoop in Chris Burlingame's article The Crocodile Sneak Peak. A few more photos from our tour are over on my Flickr.

The Crocodile is a new venue located at the old, long-storied Crocodile Cafe location in Belltown. (One such story goes like this: Eddie Vedder had his own personal key for the alley door so he could come and go whenever he wanted.) But this venue is not simply The Crocodile Cafe, reopened. It is The Crocodile, with a completely redone interior, top-of-the-line equipment and an operating philosophy which places quality over quantity. You will not see The Croc booking shows every night of the week, just to be open. If a good lineup can't be had, the club will be closed. (ala Showbox vs. Chop Suey vs. the old Crocodile Cafe.) I like this approach: it helps the performance-going public to distinguish between a good show and just a show. If The Croc books it, the club believes it will be good, and it is not just a date-filler on the club calendar.

The Crocodile folks we met were to-a-one friendly, approachable, open, fun, and really good people. I'm confident The Crocodile will soon enough have their own stories and be creating new memories for music lovers throughout the Puget Sound region.

Video: If I Made a Commercial for Trader Joe's

Who doesn't love Trader Joe's? This is a funny fan ad created by Carl's Fine Films, who describes this as an "unauthorized commercial for Trader Joe's shot on my Palm Treo before I accidentally ran over it with my car." The song perfect represents the TJ vibe.



There's a Trader Joe's three blocks from where I live. My favorite TJ things: good cheap wine, Parrano cheese for half the price of regular stores, feta cheese, organic marinara sauce, black bean dip, flattened bananas, choco-covered graham bites. I have more but I'll stop now.

Make the story happen

In the dichotomous choice of cat or dog, I am dog. All the way. Not that I hate cats, I'm just mostly indifferent. (Just like a cat.) Yet, even I like this amusing video, Kittens Inspired by Kittens:



Yes, cat funny (LOL). But the video also perfectly captures what kidlets under 5 have in abundance: energy, creativity, and the ability to see the simply obvious. It's been 15 years since living with a 5-year old, so I forget the magic of a young child learning and shaping their world.

It reminds me to take time to think simply, to see the obvious, and to make the story happen.

(via LeeLeFever)

p.s. Please don't send me links to other "cute kid" videos. I can only tolerate one every three to six months. If you ignore my request, you'll get links to movies of my dog and of my vacations. The links will be disguised so well as to be irresistable. Be cool. Thank you.

Video: Stephen Colbert remixes himself

His own Remix Challenge results in Stephen Colbert remixing himself into a video with glowsticks and laser lights.

Stephen did not -- not -- want you to take his interview with Lawrence Lessig and remix it with a pumping k-hole groove. But you did it anyway. Stephen says, " I don't know what makes me angrier, here, the copyright infringement or the fact that those beats were so jaw-droppin', ear-poppin' fresh. "

So what's a guy like Stephen to do in response? He made his own, of course. Hahahahaha! Check it out: he busts out some hilarious dance moves.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Stephen's Remix Challenge

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Coraline: movie trailer v.2

Neil Gaiman says, "It's the first Coraline trailer I've liked ." This new trailer is much creepier than the earlier one. Love it!!

Related: I learned a new word today thanks to SlightlyNorth. His self-portait should be avoided by all koumpounophobes.

Coraline opens in theaters on February 6th.

Video: Daft Punk vs Freeland - Aer OBAMA

Just in time for the Jan 20th inauguration, directing team GOLD has released a fun video of Adam Freeland's Aer OBAMA track. The video is a stop motion multimedia piece featuring alt toys designed by Dalek, Bill McMullen and Kubrick. Freeland's Aer OBAMA is a remix of Daft Punk's Aerodynamic, mashed up with other tracks plus a speak-n-spell saying "Say it...O B A M A...You are correct!" OBAMA. Correct!



Less than 7 days remain in the Bush-whack administration. Finally, finally.
I'm counting down in Mexico at the moment and will be back in Seattle in time for inauguration festivities.

Seattle Celebrates and Obama Flickrs

What happened one night in my neighborhood.



I am thrilled to learn Barack Obama has a Flickr photostream.
I love that he is so tuned in to modern communication channels.
A president for our generation.

My current fav in the Election Night set -- so candid, so unguarded:

Four quickie reviews of documentaries

I've started using the Seattle Public Library for videos. There's always a long wait for fiction - I think I'm number three-hundred-something for "Weeds." However the non-fiction section at the downtown (central) library has a decent selection sitting on the shelves. Here's four quickie reviews of videos I've borrowed in the last couple of weeks:

A Brilliant Madness - The real John Nash was not married to Jennifer Connelly. Grade: A -
Spellbound - Get to know kids who spell well and the families who support them. Grade: A
An Inconvenient Truth - An overlong lecture on global warming. Grade: B
Crazy Love - How an obessessive, possessive relationship goes off the chart. Grade: B+

You'll find the non-fiction video section in the book spiral at the Central library.

Spoken Word Advert Rocks My World

This ad is art.

Directed by Shilo, it blends spoken word artist Ainsley Burrows' magnetic performance with smoke-drift-like images to immerse the viewer in a provocative and mesmerising space of poetic substance. Powerful words, powerful images: it's a challenge to live life fully in the moment.

Only in the last few seconds do we see it is an advertisement for Guinness beer. Created for Carribean TV by Shilo, with Saatchi & Saatchi London.

Lovely.

The History Hacker: Catch the TV pilot Friday

Former Seattlite Bre Pettis, now of MAKE and Etsy fame, is the host of a new TV show on the History Channel. The History Hacker is essentially a mashup of history, science, MAKE, and TLC's Mythbusters.

"The pilot is all about Nikola Tesla and the war of the currents between Tesla and Edison. In the show I learn how to blow a neon tube, explore wireless electricity and build an AC generator from a bike. I also go to Boston to visit an MIT space lab to see how the principles that Tesla pioneered are being applied to space propulsion," Bre says. [more]

The pilot airs this Friday September 26th at 8pm (and again at midnight) on the History Channel. Set your Tivo or DVR or whatever and check it out.

DIY to the core.

Going to Le Castle Vania

Saturday is the first of a recurring monthly dance party at Chop Suey named Faded.
The inagural night brings Le Castle Vania to the northwest for a night of euro electro dirty disco punk.

You like the Ed Banger label sound? How about Boyz Noise? If so, get your lightweight night duds on and hit the Chop on Saturday. It get's hot in there and I can practically guarantee you'll be a steamy sweaty dance-happy mess by the end of the night. Read more on Le Castle Vania in this Three Imaginary Girls blog post.

Here's a video taste.

Science: First Test of World's Largest Particle Accelerator Scheduled Sept 10th

Particle accelerators are a curious paradox: Build large to study small. Big bang, dark matter. Poetic science, I love you.

The first attempt to circulate a beam in the newly built Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be made on September 10th. The LHC is the largest particle accelerator in the world (17 miles / 27 km) and is located 100 m below ground surface in Switzerland and France.

Check the CERN site for a countdown clock to the test and learn more about what they hope to discover using the LHC.

Or you can just watch this rap video from some crazy physics kids:


If this only leaves you wanting more, here's two books on physics written for folks like you and me:

Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson
A compilation of essays written by the director of the Hayden Planetarium and published in Natural History Magazine. Very approachable writing style, using pop culture references to tie fictional concepts to science facts and plausible theories.

The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
This one takes the science and math to a more challenging level, but it is still understandable and not nearly as difficult a read as Brief History of Time by Hawking. (Has anyone EVER finished that book? I call bullshit. You physicists don't count.)

Photo credit: Installation of the world's largest silicon tracking detector. (Michael Hoch, © CERN)

Video: Electing a U.S. President in Plain English

In the time it takes to microwave a bag of popcorn you can get a refresher on popular vs electoral votes for president. Here's another great vid from Seattle-based Common Craft, the folks who can explain things to your grandmother jargon-free and in microwave popcorn time.
Pop!

The World is Just Awesome

Have you seen this 60 sec video advert for Discovery Channel yet?

"It never gets old, does it?"
"Nope."
"It kinda wants to make you break into song..."
"Yep."




Boom de ah Dah!

Love it.

Rubber Ducky Regatta (reggae) tonight

Bring your rubber ducky to Cal Anderson Park tonight by 7pm and join the Rubber Duck Regatta in the fountain. The wizard-of-fun Corprew (organizer of the eclipse sing-along on Teletubby Hill in February) is at it again, pulling together free and silly and fun sh*t in the neighborhood park/third place.
The rules:
1. Ducks get put into the fountain.
2. Ducks float downstream through all the rocks and bricks.
3. Eventually a duck reaches the end.

Get in the mood: sing and dance in a giant tub along with me and Ernie and all our Sesame Street friends. C'mon, you know you wanna.
"Duck, rubber duck, duck, rubber duck, duck..."

Where the hell is Matt? Dancing around the world!

Enjoy this cheerful little bit of goodness. I want to do this!


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.


Hat tip to Lee, a world traveler himself (and eater of unusual regional specialties).

Hillary Channels Tracy Flick

This is funny stuff! Here's a short vid comparing Hillary Clinton to Tracy Flick.
I loved Reese Witherspoon in the movie Election as the uber-focused Tracy Flick, who was running for student body president of her high school.
Can't say I love Hillary Clinton though.

Honeybee worries: A new Haagen-Dazs advert

The honeybee population in North America is diminishing at an alarming rate and Haagen-Dazs ice cream wants to do something about it. They're executing a multi-faceted plan: donating funds from sales of the Honey Bee-labelled ice cream flavors, operating an informative and friendly website (Help the Honeybees), and running adverts.


Their latest ad, "Opera," is mesmerizing. This 30-second spot plays a snippet of opera music (natch) as we follow a CGA bee on its quest to pollinate.





Explore the Help the Honeybees site to learn more and create your own bee character to email or download.

Adam Freeland & Amnesty International Advert

The amazing producer Adam Freeland has composed the music for the new Amnesty International advert which is campaigning against human rights abuses in the name of 'War On Terror.'

(If the video is slow to load on my page, go here instead.)



Watch the film and then "unsubscribe" yourself from these practices on the Unsubscribe website.

"Unsubscribe is a movement of people united against human rights abuses in the ‘war on terror.’ Thousands of unsubscribers have now joined up. The threat of terrorism is real, but trampling over human rights and abandoning our values is not the answer. From Guantanamo Bay, Rendition, Torture and Waterboarding – we unsubscribe."

Well played, Adam.

Adam's new EP Hate is out on his Marine Parade label. Also, be sure to check out his latest essential mix mp3 for a rad 2-hour mix which blows out anything else on your player right now.

more leaping play-doh bunnies

Remember the cool Bravia commercial with the play-doh bunnies? And the ensuing minor dustup regarding Fallon's commercial being curiously similar to artwork by Kozyndan?

Well, those bunnies are still going at it...like...er...rabbits. (Sorry.) A new Easter-themed spot from Mainframe for Virgin Media's Challenge TV gives a cheeky hat tip to the original commercial.

Exhibit 1: Challenge TV Ad (2008)
The Challenge TV ad is currently available only on Mainframe's site; select Our Work then Challenge TV Bunnies Promo Play Movie.

(p.s. bunnies are being bunnies behind the litter can!)

Exhibit 2: Sony Bravia Ad (2007)

Exhibit 3: Kozyndan Panoramic (2002)

Speaking of Kozyndan, I just ordered a couple of t-shirts from their site. I so like their sh*t.