(Flash video embedded above, here's a downloadable MP4.)

Today's episode of Boing Boing tv is an OFFWORLD feature -- this time, Joel and Rob visit the annual chiptunes music gathering Blip Festival 2008, better known as "blipfest."

Joel interviews several artists in this episode who create music inspired by the aural texture of old-schoold video games: Mr. Spastic, Jellica, and Nullsleep.

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Join the conversation about this episode over on Offworld.

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Previously: Blipfest 2008: Joel interviews chiptunes artist Bubblyfish.

(Special props to Beschizza for doubling as director of photography for these episodes! Holy Brother of Mario, what can't that guy do. Seriously. )

(Flash video embed above, downloadable MP4 link here)

Today on Boing Boing tv, the first in a series of gaming/gadget features with Joel Johnson from an annual celebration of 8-bit/videogame-inspired music. Joel says:

Last week found us at Blip Festival 2008, the megalocus of live chiptunes music, where Game Boys met Atari STs with Amiga visuals for four evenings of square wave fun.

We were out in Gowanus in Brooklyn at the event, at least until Rob and I got tired and had to go home and rest our widdle heads. But until then, we got to speak to several of the artists just after their sets, and the BBtv crew is taking our drunken, blurry footage and actually making something worth watching out of it.

First up: Haeyoung "Bubblyfish" Kim

Here's the comments thread over at Boing Boing Offworld.

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!

BBtv guest correspondent and blog pal Todd Lappin of Telstar Logistics takes us inside a steam-powered World War II "Liberty Ship," the SS Jeremiah O'Brien.

We marvel (!) at the cool old retro-technology that kept this behemoth boat running to and from the beaches of Normandy, and we meet the volunteer caretakers -- obsessive nerds just like us, only with white hair! -- who keep her ship-shape today. Did you know that shipyards in the San Francisco Bay Area once churned out Liberty Ships like this in 4 days or less, during the heat of the war? Watch and learn, li'l skippers.

Todd has a rockin' photoset of images from the ship, too.

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

Previously: Multi-millenial Mechanical clocks - Long Now "Mechanicrawl" pt. 1

Boing Boing tv guest correspondent Todd Lappin (R) and cameraninja Eddie Codel (L) trek to the Long Now Foundation's first-ever Mechanicrawl event, and bring back tales of early analog computing, fantastic timepieces, and impossibly eccentric mechanical things.

First, Todd speaks with the Long Now Foundation's Alexander Rose about a 10,000-year mechanical clock dreamed up by supercomputer designer Danny Hillis.

Next, we listen to a prototype chime mechanism that will ring ten bells in a different sequence each day over the next 10,000 years. Brian Eno and Danny Hillis came up with the algorithm, and a team of tinkerers crafted the contraption to tap out time on a series of Tibetan bowl gongs.

Todd has a photoset with snapshots from the Mechanicrawl adventures. See also this previous Laughing Squid post.

(Special thanks to Karen Marcelo for image shown in video still)

Today on BBtv, part 2 of Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson's interview with his hero, futurist and artist Syd Mead, on the evolution of conceptual design.

In this installment, we go inside Syd's studio in Pasadena, CA, and learn more about the creative process behind his work for movies, television, and automobile design -- both Hot Wheels and life-sized -- and how Syd feels about design in the video game industry.

Mead is a former designer for Ford Motor Company and US Steel. His designs have appeared in many movies, including Aliens, Tron, and Blade Runner.

Previously on Boing Boing tv:

Joel Johnson interviews Syd Mead: part 1.

The ghost of Judy Garland visited the recent Maker Faire tryouts in Los Angeles. Fun with old phones and newer MP3 players: "Judy Phone" by Greg MacLaurin. Special thanks to Machine Project for hosting the tryouts.

Xeni visits the home of Kinetic Steam Works, a group of retro-tech industrial artisans who "repurpose the artifacts of clockwork modernity," and bring new life to very old steam engines. In doing so, they preserve what many consider a dying form of technology. From the group's description of its work:

What we found were machines, simple and intricate, that blurred the line between art and industry, kinetic masterpieces created during an era of diabolical innovation and gleeful invention. The steam engine embodied the ideologies, desires and dreams of its era, of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, a bright and shining future where technology was built by hand. They were the aspirational finned cars and rockets of their day. Most recently, steam's fantastic has been represented by romantic industrial arts and the literary movements of retro sci-fi, steampunk, and gothic neo-Victorianism. The arch modernity of the steam driven Industrial Revolution is a powerful metaphor that explores our present and future through the nostalgic and dystopic past.

Special thanks to Josh Keppel and Mark Oltz for additional footage of these steampunk machine beauties in action.

Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson chats about chiptunes with a number of artists who performed at the most recent installment of the 8-bit music event Blipfest: Paza Rahm (pazarahm.com, from Sweden), Rugar (rugarandi.com, Sweden), Sabrepulse (myspace.com/sabrepulse, Scotland) and Akira, aka 8GB (myspace.com/8gb, Argentina).

Related BBtv episodes and vlog posts:

Dave Hill + Blip Fest + 8-bit Combat

Vlog: Joel Johnson - Blipfest / Candy Expo

BBtv correspondent and Boing Boing Gadgets editor Joel Johnson visits the 8-bit music event Blipfest, then wreaks havoc at a Candy Expo.

Today: a new installment of Boing Boing tv's 8-Bit Theater, featuring My Little Pony and the (hungry) animated head of David Bowie (classic game footage from The Dot Eaters). Then, Borna Sammak of Free art and Technology transforms the 8-bit classic game CONTRA into a melty, gooey, hallucinatory haze.

Previously on BBtv:

Super Mario 8-bit theater / David O'Reilly short

Giant Atari Joystick / 8-bit Therapy

Dave Hill + Blip Fest + 8-bit Combat

Today on Boing Boing tv -- more subversive animated genius from David O'Reilly, a 22-year-old experimental filmmaker from Ireland whose style lies somewhere between Kubrick and Kaufman and Ketamine. We've featured his work before here, and were instantly smitten with his vectorpunk vibe -- so we asked him to cook up something exclusive for BBtv. This is the result. INNOVATE OR GTFO.

Part two of today's episode: more animated awesomeness from O'Reilly, with music composed by Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood. It's for MeeBox, a net-video-themed BBc3 TV pilot featuring Adam Buxton.

It's been a little more than two months since we launched Boing Boing tv, and we've decided that producing a daily internet show just isn't enough. Meet BBtv vlogs!

OK, seriously: starting today, we'll be releasing these additional videoblog segments in addition to the every-weekday Boing Boing tv episodes. All of it will be offered in the same RSS feed. The vlogs won't be every single day all the time, but we're going to have fun with them.

What's the difference? The BBtv vlogs will be casual, conversational stuff we mostly tape ourselves, wherever we are. They'll feature Boing Boing editors talking about things, people, ideas, places, technologies we're fascinated by. They're more like video diaries, I guess? Only less emo, no ranting about your YouTube enemies, and ffs no dance contests.

So, imagine Pesco talking with one of those artists he blogs about, or Cory wandering around in Tokyo with a handheld camera pointing out cool stuff he's seeing that day, or Joel Johnson from Boing Boing Gadgets talking about about little infrared controlled helicopters or retro-tech radios -- oh hey, wait! That's the vlog episode we're publishing today, our very first.

And Joel, if you have never *seen* him speak before, is quite a funny guy. His video diary stylee is sort of like HSN meets America's Funniest Home Videos meets Slackers*.

Oh, and: check out the fresh opening animation created by BBtv editor Laura Lopez!

-- Xeni Jardin (* Thanks for the ganked line, Jolon!)

Mario and his pixellated spouse argue over mushrooms, point gains, and sexually adventurous arcade game apes in this episode of BBtv's 8-bit Theater. Then, an excerpt from WOFL 2106, an otherworldly animated short by the talented multimedia artist David O'Reilly. Look for a special cameo appearance by Brian Peppers.