BB co-founder and Make editor in chief Mark Frauenfelder talks to robot builder Daniel O'Connell about his experiment in the uncanny valley, a tricycle-riding mini-me he calls "My Dummy." Shot at Maker Faire Bay Area 2008.
My Dummy
BB co-founder and Make editor in chief Mark Frauenfelder talks to robot builder Daniel O'Connell about his experiment in the uncanny valley, a tricycle-riding mini-me he calls "My Dummy." Shot at Maker Faire Bay Area 2008.
Continue reading My Dummy.
S.P.A.M. Theater: The Proposition
In our latest installment of Boing Boing TV's "SPAM THEATER" series, a cash proposition from a faraway land, and the secret to what girls want. Special thanks to Erik Sheppard of Voice Talent Productions for contributing -- well, voice talent!
Additional footage via archive.org: "Drug Addiction (1951)," Encyclopedia Britanica Films, Inc; "The Town and the Telephone," Murphy (Owen) Productions; "Children Obey Your Parents," Salvation Films.
Previously:
Kevin Kelly, part 2: Bicycle Haiku
Part two of Boing Boing tv's interviews with Kevin Kelly:
Years before he helped launch Wired Magazine in 1993 (hey, happy 15th birthday, Wired!), Kevin Kelly took an amazing journey. He rode his bicycle across the US in 1979, and produced an ink sketch and a haiku in a sketchbook for each day of the three month, 5,000 mile trip. Those sketches and poems were scanned and published as "Bicycle Haiku." (link to purchase on Lulu). Kelly explains:
A typical scene would be like the day I passed through Francisco, Indiana. On a page full of cow faces staring up at me, the haiku goes: "Collective silence/Like I walked into the wrong room/Every horned head turned." (...) I scanned the 151 images in the original book (which is the same size as this one) and printed this at a books-on-demand printer in 2001.Previously, in part 1 of our interview, Kelly spoke about his love of the camera, during his "nomadic photojournalist" phase in Asia. Today we hear why he gave up that camera, on this very personal quest.
Related: A 1997 episode of the radio program This American Life features a longer audio piece in which Kevin shares more of the spiritual underpinnings of "Bicycle Haiku." It's a beautiful story: Link.
Cooking Young Bamboo Shoots with Joi Ito (score by Ryuichi Sakamoto)
Boing Boing tv passes the 150th episode mark today, and we're celebrating by cooking up some delicious takenoko (竹ã®å), young bamboo shoots, with Joi Ito -- and original music by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
You may know Joi as a serial entrepreneur, a twittering globetrotter VC, a World of Warcraft junkie, or the CEO of Creative Commons, but he has a more traditional side, too.
In this video, Ito welcomes us into his back yard in Japan, where he and his partner Mizuka teach us how to hunt for and prepare this traditional seasonal delicacy from a lush bamboo forest.
The episode is accompanied by an original score composed by Grammy, Academy Award, and Golden Globe-winning composer, Ryuichi Sakamoto. The legendary electronic music pioneer is also an outspoken environmental advocate. His recent reforestation initiative, “More Trees,†supports the planting of trees around the world to help offset carbon emissions. To-date, 2 billion trees have been planted mostly through work with country governments including Turkey, Ethiopia and Mexico. Link to English-language PDF with more info on the project.
Sakamoto co-founded the seminal synthpop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra, and has scored or contributed to movie soundtracks including The Last Emperor, Merry Christmas Mister Lawrence, Babel, and the work of director Pedro Almodóvar. Boing Boing tv thanks him for generously contributing this beautiful, evocative score.
After the jump -- Joi Ito's family recipe for yummy takenoko just like mom used to make. Special thanks to the Ito family for sharing their traditions with us.
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Update 2: Here's Joi's blog post about his background with Ryuichi, and here's Joi's post from today about how this video came together.
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Continue reading Cooking Young Bamboo Shoots with Joi Ito (score by Ryuichi Sakamoto).
True History: X Equals X
Today on Boing Boing tv, TRUE HISTORY: X EQUALS X, a serial killer saga told in super 8 film and sock puppets. This early '90s classic short film from Syd Garon and Rodney Ascher, whose work individually and together we've featured on Boing Boing tv before, retells the tale of Henry Lee Lucas (1936-2001). Known as "America's most prolific serial killer," he murdered more than 600 people.
Previously on Boing Boing tv:
Update: Syd, Rodney, and others who collaborated on this film have shown up in the comments with some cool, historic details -- check it out!
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