Friday Funny: Stop Motion Amazement

by Erik Olsen on

Fans of Gumby and Mr. Bill (am I dating myself?) know what humor can be wrought from the deliberate and painstaking art of stop-motion photography. While there have been low-budget experimenters with this genre for many, many years, only recently, with the advent of programs like Boinx, has the ability to do stop motion cheaply and easily been so widespread.

And so we are seeing an explosion of creativity…some good and some bad…all over the place. In particular, if you do a search for stop motion on places like You Tube, you get a gazillion hits. And one of the vids I found recently along these lines that I found mind-blowingly impressive, was this one about…well, it’s not really ABOUT anything. But it is funny. And long. And quite well done.

A Brokedown Melody

by Erik Olsen on

I don’t know how many of you out there are Jack Johnson fans; I suspect some of the surfers among us are. But I have to say that I love his music. I really do. At one point his cheery, bestubbled mug was everywhere. He was to surfing magazines what Lance Armstrong is to Outdoors/fitness magazines. And when anything becomes that popular, the hauteur sets in, and folks like me snootily reject the offerings of anything or anybody with such widespread appeal. And so it goes.

But as I say, Jack Johnson, for some reason, tends to be different. Even though some say his music all sounds the same, I still have an odd addiction to it. And I am also rather intrigued by Johnson’s efforts as a filmmaker, which is really the crux of this post. Even though it looks like it was produced a few years ago, I only recently stumbled upon this DVD of a film called A Brokedown Meoldy (also the title of a Johnson song) that Johnson worked on with such surfing luminaries as Kelly Slater, Tom Curren, Gerry Lopez, Rob Machado, and others. Of course, Johnson, an accomplished surfer himself, is featured too. The group, or various iterations among the list, find the best surf spots around the world including Jamaica, Indonesia, Tahiti, Hawaii, Mexico and South America. And yes, the film is sound tracked with music by Johnson. I mean, duh.

Anyhoodle, it sounds like a great film, and I rather enjoyed the clips available here.

4 Generations: A Water Buffalo in China

by Justin Glow on

Last month, blogger Philip Greenspun wondered aloud on the morality of charitable organization Heifer International’s questionable “Helping Hooves” program, designed to give an Asian farmer a much needed water buffalo for a $250 donation. A good idea perhaps, but upon reading the fine print, Philip found out that no actual water buffalo is delivered to an Asian farmer. Instead, “the money simply gets dumped into the common fund at the charity.”

Enter Robert Thompson, a musician living in China who, after reading Philip’s blog post, set out to purchase an actual water buffalo (in financial collaboration with Philip and Craig MacFarlane) and give it to a real farming family in need. Robert — video camera in hand — recorded the process of searching out a young water buffalo, finding a family, and delivering the animal. What follows is a beautiful 7 minute video of the entire process, from conception to delivery.

What a great story.

Click on the image below to view the video in a new window:

[via Kottke]

Norwegian Cologne Ad

by Erik Olsen on

It doesen’t matter if you’re a man or a woman…no wait, it helps if you’re a man. Um, a heterosexual man…to enjoy this video from Norway. Filmed like a scene out of Lord of the Rings, this is the kind of ad, that when it comes on screen in pubs, department stores and storefronts in a place, everything male stops and watches. I’m not sure how they pulled off some of the shots. I had to watch it six or seven or nineteen times just to try and count all the, um bodies, but suffice to say it is as fine a piece of commercial work as I’ve seen in a while.

Gadling Podcast: Mike Marriner of Roadtrip Nation

by Erik Olsen on

What do you do for a living? Do you have the job you love or did you join a career for financial expedience? Perhaps you chose your job as a result of family pressure? The big questions is: do you do what you love? Did you take the time to think about it? (OK, that was two questions).

No matter. The point is that we sometimes rush into big life decisions without the kind of careful consideration that would help us be more happy. This exact thought was on the mind of Mike Marriner and his friends when they graduated from college, and rather than make a rash decision about what to do next, they did the sensible thing: Road Trip.

In this new podcast I talk with Mike about how he took the road trip that changed his life and that led to the creation of Roadtrip Nation, a massive national roadtrip program that seeks to get young people to think before they leap into the great, slimy, deep, cold, creature-infested pond of life (or the warm, bubbly, Swedish-model-filled jacuzzi of life in you happen to be Hugh Hefner). As Mike explains, Roadtrip Nation exploded from a cross-country Winnebago ramble into a full fledged national program with TV shows and books attached. It is very cool and very inspirational and, well, why don’t you just go ahead and listen.

Oh, by the way, we are also on itunes, so feel free to subscribe for your ipod.

And if you’re interested in any of our other previous podcasts besides those mentioned above, here is a quick list

-Diver and explorer John Chatterton
-Undersea explorer Fabien Cousteau and, most recently Josh Davis, author of The Underdog.
– James O’Reilly, Executive Editor of Traveler’s Tale
– Lonely Planet’s Don George
– Eric Stiller, kayaker and the author of Keep Australia on Your Left
– Jim Benning, co-editor of the online travel site Worldhum
– Dean LaTourrette and Kristine Enea, travel authors
– Cafe Reggio