week of 10/28/2007

American Furry: Life, Liberty, and the Fursuit of Happiness.



Furries get no respect. Usually, when you hear about people who dress up like life-sized stuffed animals, it's in the context of an unfriendly internet joke, a sex gag on Entourage, or an insult that ends with "yiff in hell."

But Brooklyn-based filmmaker Marianne Shaneen has spent more than two years following these people around, capturing their lives in and out of their "fursonas." She's working on a documentary film called AMERICAN FURRY: Life, Liberty and the Fursuit of Happiness.

Today on Boing Boing tv, an exclusive peek at this feature in progress. Marianne provided us with access to some of her raw footage (she's accumulated 2+ years' worth!), and we selected clips, edited, added some audio, and produced the short glimpse you'll see here.

"I'm looking for an editor, a couple of animators, finishing funds, and a producer," says Shaneen -- so if you'd like to get involved, email her at info@rabbitholefilms.com.

Special thanks to Susannah Breslin for first pointing us to this project. (Music by T.bias.) -- XJ


Maker Faire tour with Mark Frauenfelder



What kind of DIY tech wonders can you find at Maker Faire? Make Magazine editor-in-chief and BBtv co-host Mark Frauenfelder traveled to Austin, TX with camcorder in hand to show us. Mark introduces us to a ticklish dinosaur robot named Pleo (above), and a guy named Craig who makes amazing garage-tech musical instruments. (XJ)

Zombie Yoga: 100 undead, doing poses in the park



The invite said "Bring a Yoga Mat - Dress Like a Zombie." When filmmaker and Boing Boing pal Jason Wishnow set out to create a trailer for Scott Kenemore's new book "The Zen of Zombie : Better Living Through the Undead" (yes, people make video trailers for books!) a vision came to his brrraiiiiinns. Why not gather 100 people in a Brooklyn park, dress them as zombies, and film them all doing yoga? There's no inner peace like undead inner peace.

So today on Boing Boing tv, in honor of Halloween, we've produced a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Jason's Zombie Yoga trailer. Watch out for flying guts when they do "downward decapitated dog" or "corpse pose." (Music by T.bias.) -- XJ

Gay Friday



Who says all the leading men in slasher flicks have to be straight? From Invisible Engine comes a new series of online snuff-comedy-webisodes called Gay Friday, and we take a pre-Halloween peek today. -- XJ

Bad Fairies



Here's what happens when you take Halloween too far. A cautionary tale provided courtesy of Danny Diamond and a crew of video guerrillas who say: "We dedicate this to the memory of Tim E Woodsman, 1972 - 2007. We miss you. -- Jason, Jolon, Glasgow, Martha, Brody, Danny & everyone who made CRAPtv possible.",p> -- XJ (Special thanks, Jolon)
week of 10/28/2007