week of 08/10/2008

Monochrom: Bye Bye (a short film)



A short film by monochrom about a man who dies, is reborn, and sprouts gills. Created by Harald Homolka List, Johannes Grenzfurthner, Evelyn Fürlinger (link to monochrom site for this film, here are other short films from them in German).

Previous work from monochrom on Boing Boing tv:

* Monochrom: Economic Recession Wisdom from Sock Puppets.
* Monochrom's "Kiki, Bubu, and the Self"
* Nazi Petting Zoo
* Fisch Interview
* Orwell's 1984 deconstructed by puppets
* Monochrom's Marxist sock puppets
* Monochrom: MyFaceSpace, the musical
* Monochrom: Campfire at Will
* Monochrom: Falco Stairs
* Monochrom: Bar code artist Scott Blake / Falco stencil memorial
* Human USB Hack / Very Simple Motor
* Mark's Curie Engine / Monochrom's love song for Lessig

BBtv: Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero, works out.



Klaus Pierre, a French/German actor-waiter-whatever, aspires against all odds to become America's next great action hero. In today's episode, he heads to the hills above Hollywood, where scrub brush and aspiring starlets bask in the sun, to work out with a really mean personal trainer. Warning: episode contains cucumber masks masques and pushups.

Previous Klaus Pierre episodes on BBtv:

HOWTO: guerrilla t-shirt silkscreening with "5t311a"



BBtv guest teen haxxor correspondent 5t311a teaches us how to do guerilla t-shirt silkscreening, as described in Cory Doctorow's novel Little Brother, and as detailed in a recent series of Instructables posts. (Thanks, Charis Tobias!)

WWII Retro-tech: USS Pampanito sub with Todd Lappin



Boing Boing tv's retro-tech correspondent Todd Lappin of Telstar Logistics submerges us in WWII history on the supersized submarine USS Pampanito.

This Balao-class ship was built in 1943, and today one of her younger volunteer caretakers schools us on all the gadgets, gizmos, and old-school technology that kept this baby cruising to Pearl Harbor and back.

Did you know that subs like this couldn't submerge for more than 24 hours back then, because they'd run out of battery life? Think of it like this, Gen-Y-ers, that's like when your iPhone 3G slides into "red" mode, because you've been twittering too much. Only with people inside. And big guns to shoot bad guys.

Pampanito trivia: she's named after this little fishie, prized as a seafood delicacy. Wait, a sushi ingredient? Doesn't sound like a great idea for a WWII military ship!

Shot for BBtv by Eddie Codel, during the Long Now Foundation's Mechanicrawl.

Previously on BBtv:

* Multi-millenial Mechanical clocks (Long Now Mechanicrawl pt. 1)
* WWII Boatpunk: Aboard the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, with Todd Lappin (pt. 2)

PS: extra-special thanks to Scott Beale of Laughing Squid for hooking BBtv up with Eddie Codel!

Russell Porter with human beatbox Beardyman (music)



Boing Boing tv's UK-based music correspondent Russell Porter interviews -- and coaxes an epic street performance from -- Beardyman, the human beatbox from Brighton. This dude is a totally unassuming normal guy who can flip a switch in his brain to make crazy perfect funky human beatbox sounds come out of his mouth. The ladies dig it, as you'll see around 08:13, when he lets loose on the mic with a flock of blonde birds surrounding him.

I blogged about Beardyman in 2007 when this crazy cooking video hit the 'tubes.


If you're in the mood for still more of him doing his thing, below is a popular YouTube video in which Beardyman shows up at some stuffy academic conference, and poses as a lecturer before breaking out into beats.

week of 08/10/2008