week of 03/23/2008

Cupcake Cutthroats: muffin-shaped electric art cars gone wild.



Boing Boing tv presents CUPCAKE CUTTHROATS, a cakesploitation epic exploring the dark side of electric art-cars shaped like baked goods. These homemade vehicles are crafted by Silicon Valley nerds (including one engineer from Tesla Motors) and Burning Man enthusiasts in a Berkeley, California, warehouse. In today's episode, Xeni joins the marauding muffineers for a 15-mph thrillride down mean, sugar-sprinkled streets.

CBS News almost blew our cover! The muffineers say, "We dedicate our efforts in memory of Keith Taft." A full list of cupcake art car bakers designers and drivers, after the jump.

Continue reading Cupcake Cutthroats: muffin-shaped electric art cars gone wild..

Animation by Michael Mouris - "Fight Fight," and "Blingee IRL"



Today on Boing Boing tv, a double shot of animation from Michael Mouris, whose work you may recall from the epic Diddy/Bjork conversational gif.

First up, the classic "Fight Fight," a Mortal Kombat spoof in which the director performs the role of both vanquisher and vanquished. Next, an all-new exclusive for BBtv -- "Blingee IRL," in which all is pimped out and glamtabulous.

Filk: folk music for science fiction fans.



Science fiction and folk music had a baby, and its name is filk. This little-known DIY music subculture involves songs composed and performed by sci-fi and fantasy fans, and revolves around fandom themes. Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni visits the Consonance Filk Convention in the Bay Area, and learns that it is possible to combine vampires, computer virii, LOLcats, Battlestar Galactica, Tolkien slashfic, string theory, and World of Warcraft characters in a single Klingon lyric sung to the tune of "Kum Ba Ya."

Update: Special thanks to Brooke Lunderville, "the Banjo Goddess of British Columbia," whose smiling face you see above in the opening sequence for this episode.

Leslie Hall: ceWEBrity, gem sweater diva, jammer of jams.



DON'T BLAME ME, BLAME MY BOOTY. Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni visits the bedazzled world of "internet ce-WEB-rity" Leslie Hall, whose gem sweaters are as sparkly as her jams are funky. We speak with the Iowa-based star of stage, YouTube, and craft marts, and experience a live performance by Leslie and the LY's.

Vlog (Mark) - Socialbomb, a real-world reputation game.



Today on Boing Boing tv, a vlog from Mark about Socialbomb, a real-world tech game that explores social circles and ways to measure interpersonal reputation.
The current version is designed to accommodate 30 players. Each player is awarded points for being near players with higher reputations, and penalized for being near players with lower reputations. Bonuses and penalties are applied according to overall social promiscuity and status. The player with the worst reputation score is the 'Socialbomb.' Their score will have the most negative impact on a social circle.
Shot on location at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference.

Farewell, My Subaru



Farewell My Subaru is a new book from Doug Fine, environmental journalist and NPR contributor, documenting an experiment in green living (in which, we might add, the author does not abandon his laptop, or the internet). Snip from the summary:
[He] vows to grow as much of his own food as he can, use only the sun to power his ‘Net surfing and sub-woofer, and consume little to no fossil fuel for an entire year — never mind that he’d never raised so much as a chicken or a bean. Or that he had no mechanical or electrician skills. Or that coyotes and mountain lions would like to treat his Funky Butte Ranch like a buffet line.
Today on Boing Boing tv, a short film to give you a taste of that experience, directed by Jason Ensler.
week of 03/23/2008