Roy Tanck's Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better.

Photo Stream Cloud -roytanck.com

Content

Creative Mastermind Masashi Kawamura

Masashi Kawamura is a leading light in the creative world, doing art/ads/music videos with a beautiful whimsy about them. So lets check some of his stuff out. Japanese indie punk/organic band Sour have done some amazing video collaborations with Masashi Kawamura:

Sour – Hibi no Neiro (Tone of everyday)

On YooouuuTuuube it looks even more trippy/amazing.

The alignment of the glow sticks and hearts and water droplets… wow. “This music video was shot for Sour’s ‘Hibi no Neiro’ (Tone of everyday) from their first mini album ‘Water Flavor EP’. The cast were selected from the actual Sour fan base, from many countries around the world. Each person and scene was filmed purely via webcam. ”

Sour – Hangetsu (Half moon)

Shadow hand puppets always interested me. They remind me of Halloween – child-like and creative but also dark and deceptive.

The packaging on the CD (designed by Masashi as well) could be folded into neat paper airplanes.

Sour - Rainbow Under the Overpass CD packaging

Sour - Rainbow Under the Overpass CD packaging

Sour – Omokage no saki (Beyond your memory)

Headphone wire stop motion animation. He re-purposes these everyday objects into dancing puppets on people’s shirts.

He is also one of the minds behind the Pythagora Switch TV show and fad, where people build Rube Goldberg machines and show them to the world, often singing it with the jingle of the show: “Pi-ta-gor-oh Su-i-tchi!” (”Pitagora Suitchi”). “Pitagora switch was a whole new concept for a children’s TV program for NHK devised by my colleagues and I while working at Masahiko Sato laboratory in 2002. It is still the most popular kids TV program in Japan. The 2 main ideas I created in the program are the “Pythagora Sochi”, where household objects are combined to create a Rube Goldberg-esque machine that ends with the title of the show. The other was the “Algorithm Exercise” which is a simple exercise where the body motions are made to co-ordinate with the person next to you. These 2 sections of the show soon became a fad, and are widely viewed on youtube, even by the people outside of Japan.

2 Minutes of Pythagoras Switch

18 Minutes of Pythagoras Switch

Homemade Fan Pythagora Switch Videos: One / Two / Three

Set Your Fingers Free

Who didn’t make with their hands walk around like little lilliputians as kids? An ad for HTC touchscreen phones.

Rainbow In Your Hand

optical illusion

optical illusion

rainbow book

rainbow in your hand

inside

inside

Awesome coffee table flip-book that makes an illusory rainbow float in your hands. Not available at Amazon, apparently sold out everywhere. Perfect gift for anyone and it’s sold out? Makes sense.

He has done a ton more, maybe I will go over it in another post, but you can go on and on researching all the awesomeness of Masashi Kawamura and never run out of awesome.

So I’ll simply link to his website here.

Trash Tank

Trash Tank

Tisshoes

Tisshoes

Windows Bliss

“That screen-filling photo of a green, rolling hill that greets users of Windows XP sure looks familiar.
“Palouse?” a reader asked in an e-mail to The Slice.
Nope. Not quite.
“The `Bliss’ image was actually taken outside Napa, Calif.,” said Microsoft’s Brian Peterson. “It was chosen because it illustrates the experiences Microsoft strives to provide customers (freedom, possibility, calmness, warmth, etc.).”

Windows Bliss

Windows Bliss

A Swiss artist thought it looked like a hill in Switzerland:

Mettraux Bliss after Bill Gates

"Mettraux Bliss after Bill Gates"

But it was actually, as Microsoft said, a hill in California.

Bliss, California

Bliss, California

Google Maps Streetview

via gearthhacks.com forums

Educational

Children’s songs can be pretty damn good.

Animaniacs

Animaniacs

Yakko’s World

Sing along?

Animaniacs Animator’s original Yakko’s World had Yakko with a hat from every country he mentions exploding/dancing/being worn and dancing surreally, it was his “masterpiece”. Was told by WB brass “What the fuck is this? Just have him point to the countries on a map!” The original animation found a “home as a giant wee wee pad for my dog.” Terrible.

-

The Presidents

The next President to lead the way
Well, it just might be yourself one day
Then the press’ll distort everything you say
So jump in your plane and fly away

-

Wakko’s America
Texas has Austin, then we go north, to massachusetts, Boston, and Albany, New York;
Tallahassee, Florida, and Washington, D.C., Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Nashville,
Tennessee.

-

Brainstem sung by Pinky and the Brain

Some neuroanatomy and other medical students have been known to use this song to prepare for tests!

-

Yakko’s Universe

Cuz there’s a hundred billion galaxies that stretch across the sky filled with constellations, planets moons and stars!

And still the universe extends to a place that never ends, which is maybe just inside a little jar!

And now for something completely different.

Monty Python – The Galaxy Song

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light you know
Twelve million miles a minute and that’s the fastest speed there is
So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space
Because there’s bugger all down here on Earth

Alphabeat Soup

Awesome “Heinz Alphabetti and Numberetti” soup photography by devoted Typography nut Leo Reynolds.

The quick EDIBLE fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The quick EDIBLE fox jumps over the lazy dog.

Since I mentioned the alphabet, might as well make a quick mention of this indie acoustic version of Daft Punk’s classic here. Get it over at Stereogum: Alphabeat – Digital Love (Daft Punk Cover)

—————-
Now playing: Alphabeat – Digital Love (Daft Punk Cover)
via FoxyTunes

Baby Turtle! (and a couple site changes)

Baby Turtle

I almost stepped on the poor little guy when taking a shortcut through an overgrown field on a walk

A Closer Look

Sharp Claws, but didn't cut me

Yellow Belly

Yellow Belly - At this point he peed a little

O-O

O-O

Bye bye little fella! I hope no one steps on you.

Bye bye little fella! I really hope no one steps on you. :O

Full resolution photo set on Flickr

Just added a Photo Stream Cloud from my Flickr and WP-Cumulus (which is woefully lacking larger tags because of my negligence on tagging). Both are available at the site of  Roy Tanck for any other curious WordPress users.

Also cleaned up site a little bit.

—————-
Now playing: Lykke Li – Little Bit
via FoxyTunes

Ghost of Internets Past!

A vision from the Ghost of Internets Past! An old video made years ago, back in our BattleZone days when we helped run a LAN gaming center. Tries to criticize the seriousness/tactics used by “good” players in First Person Shooters. Eh…oh well.

Everyone always says Call of Duty is a great, realistic video game, but it isn’t!
Watch as the serious players, using cover, meet with the (sadly) normal Call of Duty player who is bunnyhopping and using a machine gun.

It had a couple reposts:

Rawn14:  He’s nice enough to tell a commenter that the music is “Requiem for a Dream”.

MrDeathBringer: Got a comment saying, “hahah its amazing”, which is nice for a pretty amateur vid.

Oh well. At least we know people will reposts ANYTHING!

Even rather bad and obscure Call of Duty 1 multiplayer critiques.

Barack the Barbarian

Barack the Barbarian

Any similarities to persons either living or dead is purely coincidental.Yeah right.

In “Barack the Barbarian,” art imitates life with “Sorceress Hilaria, her demigod trickster husband Biil, Overlord Boosh and Chainknee of the Elephant Kingdom,” the synopsis says. “Who can the lone barbarian trust?” “Barack the Barbarian” also includes a sword-carrying vixen with a striking resemblance to a certain former Republican vice presidential candidate. The apparent faux Sarah Palin is drawn wearing a chain-mail bikini, complete with bookish glasses and a dead-wolf drape. - chicago tribune


Barack the Barbarian Vs Red Sarah, Fighting Queen of the North

Barack the Barbarian Vs Red Sarah, Fighting Queen of the North

Devil’s Due Publishing site says: “From a far away land rises a mighty hero. The son of peasants from two different realms, the one known only as Barack protects the people of Merika at all costs. ”

Barack the barbarian - Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli

Barack the barbarian - Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli

The premise behind it is that the books were “written” far in the future when the tale of the 2008 presidential election is warped beyond recognition into a barbaric legend. – /co/

Alternative Cover for Issue #1

Alternative Cover for Issue #1

Only one issue out at the moment! Here it is on Mediafire. If you enjoyed this romp through “Warshingtun” it please support ‘em.