Category: cool things!

These things are cool!

“Brazilian Cups” on some kind of glass keyboard – “Mystery Guitar Man”

(waves hands around, brushes dust off)

Man, you go away for a week and the website gets all manner of cobwebs on it!

Back from vacation, but didn’t have a lot of Internet ‘splorin’ time, but I did come across this nice little music video by a prominent YouTuber named Joe Penna, who goes by the handle “Mystery Guitar Man“. I first saw Penna some years ago, before his YouTube “fame”, he did a fun stop-motion/video song where he “played” a song by glomming together short clips of himself playing one note at a time. It was a lot of fun, and he’s done a whole lot of other songs like that, as well as other types of music videos using creative digital video effects.

This one song isn’t so much that kind of music, but it is interesting in the type of instrument he uses. He tied together a keyboard with various lengths of sticks at the end, which hit glasses with a certain amount of water in each in order to make a note. Kind of like the people who play glasses by rubbing the rim, except this is more staccato. It works really well, for the song “Brazilian Cups.” The music only lasts for the first half of the video, though.

Enjoy!

Science is AWESOME!

Here’s a neat demonstration of vibration, frequency, standing waves and a whole lot of cool images, using nothing but salt, sound, a board, and an audio generator! I prefer this version with the music, but there’s a link on the page to the version with just the tones at the frequencies used.

Enjoy!

Lady Gaga, Japanese style!

Two years ago, Lady Gaga helped out the people of Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake, and in recognition a pair of musicians, part of a Japanese group “Team Kozan,” created this music video, a cover of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” using the traditional musical instruments of shakuhachi (flute) and koto (strings). They also got a pair of dancers to perform some of her dance moves in kimono, eventually joined by the shakuhachi player. Of course there’s other modern instruments accompanying them, but the combination is pretty good, and very catchy. I doubt that I’ll bother with the original, but this one is definitely worth the watch and listen.

Enjoy!

Burritos… In… SPAAAAACE!

I won’t make any jokes about “the flying burrito, brother” (too late!) but this was a pretty interesting video by the “Mythbusters” guys, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, and Canada’s coolest astronaut, Chris Hadfield, with help from chef Traci Des Jardin. The plan was to come up with something good to eat made with the ingredients available on the ISS. Chef Des Jardin figures out a way of making a beef burrito using the steak, tortillas, and beans that Commander Hadfield had access to. It’s neat to see how things work on Earth and how different the same things work without gravity, and how cruel it can be to watch people eat fresh fruit that you only get once every few months if you’re lucky!

Enjoy!

Remember…

On this Memorial Day, remember the fallen, the ones who gave everything for us, and remember the ones who have served and who are serving now, at home and far away.

Thank you!

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base of flagpole with inscription "Americans came to liberate"

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David Lee Roth, hitman?

Well, yeah, he was a “hit, man” back in the 80’s as part of Van Halen, but he’s been in Japan filming a supposed “trailer” for a supposed Japanese yakuza (gangster) film. He’s gotten older (as have we all) and more craggy, almost alien in this trailer. Which I guess is appropriate, since Japanese consider everyone else “aliens” (gaijin). If this is going to be a real movie, which I doubt, it could be pretty good, especially if it’s actually more of a spoof. I mean, an American hitman taking out yakuza in a Japanese bath house, while quoting “Sailor Moon”? And taking the bath he paid for afterwards? Way over the top! And no on-screen violence, either, which is a welcome change.

While it lasts, here’s the “trailer”.

Enjoy!

Nerdtour 2012 quickie: Enoshima Girls

Be grateful you can’t hear me singing this! And I only did one verse so you can be even more thankful!

Enoshima Girls
(sung to the tune of “California Girls” by the Beach Boys)

Well Tokyo girls are hip, I really dig those styles they wear,
And Osaka girls with the way they talk, they knock me out when I’m back there.
The Tohoku farmer’s daughters really make you feel all right,
And Hokkaido girls with they way they kiss they keep their boyfriends warm at night.

I wish they all could be Enoshima
I wish they all could be Enoshima
I wish they all could be Enoshima girls!

Sun, sand, surf and cute girls, the Beach Boys would have loved Enoshima! =^_^=

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Assassin’s Creed 3 and parkour – whoa!

Okay, disclaimer: I know next to nothing about the Assassin’s Creed series of games, other than that number 3 is supposedly set in the British Colonies around the time of the American Revolution, and the character doesn’t like the British. So, this video might be even more interesting to you gamers who know about it, and you may or may not be as impressed as I am by the athletic ability of the guy, Ronnie Shalvis, who performs the parkour moves in this video. He does quite a few flashy and most likely unnecessary moves, but daggone they’re amazing nonetheless! The cinematography is fantastic, and the scenery is breathtakingly beautiful.

I will let you all judge the skill of the performer, and how “Assassin’s Creed”-worthy the video is. It impressed the heck out of me.