Conan Sabotages Rock Band

Here's a clip from Conan while he was sitting around the office during the writer's strike:

Yes, Racing is a Noisy Hobby Too

Today was the 92nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Scott Dixon won the race after leading 115 out of 200 laps with the #9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Car to become the first New Zealander to win the Indy 500. As I was watching Dixon take his helmet after pulling into Victory Circle, I noticed him pull out in-the-ear monitors and throw them on the ground. Obviously the camera's fixed on Dixon, but I noticed the the monitors had a couple of cords and someone in the crew immediately picked them up off the ground. I did some digging and found out on the IRL website that the monitors not only give the driver the crew radio, but also include the Delphi Earpiece Sensor System. This system has a series of 3 accelerometers that gather vertical, lateral and longitudinal G-forces on the driver's head on the moment of impact. The earpiece sends the data to the car's 'black box.' Some pretty nice earpieces: Attenuate (some: racing is LOUD) noise, communication headset, and head impact data all in one.
UPDATE 6/4/08: Found out the earmold/headphone provider for the IRL headsets is Sensaphonics. The headphones are e-Racer 500's.











Also, in the mood of racing I found these:

That's right, they're ear plugs that look like spark plugs. The company Just Plugs' mission is to develop, manufacture, and sell high quality ornamental hearing protection. Check out their MySpace page, as it shows pics of how they look in the ears. Talk about ornamental, they look like the bolts coming out of Frankenstein's monster! They apparently have a 30 dB noise reduction rating, but no frequency attenuation information is listed on the site.

Breaking News in the World of Plastic Instruments

Since music and rhythm games have exploded in America primarily due to the success of several releases of Guitar Hero, the game Rock Band upped the ante by adding guitars, drum pads, and a microphone together to make the ultimate party game. Now Activision has announced the newest release in the Guitar Hero franchise: Guitar Hero World Tour. Not only will World Tour include a more realistic drum pad, but also a microphone. Those who've played both Rock Band and Guitar Hero know that the Guitar Hero axes are definitely a better build. Players will also be able to create their own music as well as complete online in a battle of the bands. Not to be outdone, Konami (developer of Karaoke Revolution) has announced Rock Revolution, which is the same concept - more plastic guitars, drums, microphone. This is madness, I cannot even imagine how many compatibility issues there are going to be! Plus, if the demand is so huge for this type of game, why don't kids start playing real instruments? I'm a huge fan of Guitar Hero, don't get me wrong, but this is overkill.

Here's the premiere video of Guitar Hero World Tour:


All this madness of plastic instruments reminds me of the hilarious South Park episode Guitar Queer-O. Here's a clip:


Think that was funny?

Watch the whole episode of Guitar Queer-O

See any episode of South Park at SouthParkStudios.com

Indy Wins Bid for 2012 SuperBowl!!!!

After all the hard work the last 2 years to get the Super Bowl to the cold-weather city of Indianapolis, Jim Irsay has finally gotten the biggest game in football to the Circle City. League officials and team owners voted today in Atlanta, and picked Indy over Phoenix and Houston. Now the Colts have extra incentive to try to keep competitive the next few years! The concepts for the city look crazy - it's gonna shut down the whole downtown Indy, let's not hope it's hosting an AFC Champion New England Patriots.
Presentation video shown, featuring Dennis Hopper:


Press conference video

Legos. Why'd It Have to Be Legos!

So Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comes out this week. I'm not the biggest archaelogy geek, but this film does have me excited. In the spirit of the release of the fourth installment of the franchise, here's a video of a bunch of guys who make a giant boulder out of Legos and try to reenact the memorable scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. They butcher trying the soundtrack, so I figured I'd add a little bit of help:

Although.....the boulder seems to move a bit like a Katamari, so maybe this music works better:

Versatility in Furniture

So this gamer from Australia came up w/ this awesome idea to combine a coffee table, a storage truck and a NES controller together into one cool piece of furniture. Now, the large NES controller is not a new concept, as G4 did this earlier and on a larger scale. His blog shows the whole process of the build.

More Star Wars to Satisfy Another Year's Worth of Geekdom

Mark your calendars for August 15, 'cause that's the day more Star Wars comes out in theaters. Some of you may say "More Star Wars? Didn't they finish that already? Didn't Anakin already become Darth Vader?" These are all true. A quite successful animated mini series called The Clone Wars was released on Cartoon Network between Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith. If you haven't seen it, and you're a Star Wars fan, you must watch it! I think the series is better than all 6 hours of the entire prequel trilogy (Episodes I - III). Anyways, on the heels of the success of that mini series and also the completion of the prequel trilogy, George Lucas has started developing Star Wars television series. One of them is a CG animated series on the more of the Clone Wars. The film releasing on August 15 is a compilation of the first 3 episodes of the show. The success of the 1st Clone Wars series, I believe, came from the fact that it was full of massive battles, was devoid of all the boring dialogue from the prequels, and Lucas did not have a n active hand in the story or the development. This new series is Lucas heavy in influence and I'm not sure if we're going to get the same magic we got before. I'm still excited about seeing more Star Wars in theaters though! Below is the theatrical trailer that released, as well as the original sneak peek of the series. Again, if you haven't seen the original Clone Wars series, give it a shot! I've got pics of what the DVD's look like under the trailers. If you Netflix, click the pics to add them to your queue.

Painful Moment in Sports at Indy Speedway

After finally winning her first race last month at the Japan Indy 300 and becoming the 1st woman to win and Indy car race, Andretti Green IRL driver Danica Patrick hit a crew member today while practicing for the 2008 Indy 500. The crew member suffered a concussion and got nicked up a bit. The footage looks quite painful.

SIFF '08 Schedule is OUT!!!!

That's right folks, the Seattle International Film Festival '08 Schedule has finally been released! For those of my friends here in Seattle, keep this blog post linked as I'll try and keep it updated w/ film links of interest that we may be interested in. Click the banner above to check out the SIFF website. Also, comment away on your thoughts for films. I've linked each film w/ the SIFF description. Some of them have trailers you can see. If they don't I'll try to find one. I know we can't see them all :(, but we can at least enjoy watching a few! If you know my film tastes, then you'll probably notice a lot of these films are documentaries. After briefly browsing the selection of films available, here are some that seem interesting:

UPDATED 5/11/08(MORE FILMS OF MUTUAL INTEREST ADDED)

Ben X - Belgian film about a bullied teen w/ Asperger's syndrome who visualizes his school rivals as video game opponents. [TRAILER]

Dust - This German doc is about dust..oooooh fun. No, it really does seem like quite an engaging film and especially since I'm not the most organized person in the world.

The Fall - A little girl meets a man in a hospital who tells her an epic tale about 5 men who fight an evil general. Directed by Tarsem Singh, who did The Cell - very similar visual style.

The Home Song Stories - Chinese nightclub singer marries an Australian sailor and brings her family with her to Melbourne. [TRAILER]

Let the Right One In - Swedish film fantasy-romance-horror about a misfit 12 yr old who befriends a girl who ends up being a vampire. [TRAILER]

American Teen - This doc about high schoolers from Warsaw, IN, got high praise from Sundance and will most likely be a prominent entry at this year's festival. [TRAILER]

Some Assembly Required - Documentary about middle school kids preparing for the annual Toy Challenge.[TRAILER]

Nocturna - Animated film from Spain (English dubbed) about a kid afraid of the dark. I would like to see an animated flick this time around, I regret missing Paprika last year as it's a great film. [TRAILER]

Sukiyaki Western Django - campy East meets West overstylized Japanese Western meant to be a cult homage to several genres. I know this has been done many times before, but it looks entertaining.[TRAILER]

Stranded: I've Come From a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains - French doc in Spanish about the rugby team that crashed in the Andes. [TRAILER]

King of Ping Pong - Swedish film about a 16 yr old who tries to better his younger brother w/ ping pong.

PVC-1 - This Columbian film is shot in one continuous 85 min. take and is based on a true story about a Columbian woman who has a bomb made of PVC pipe wrapped around her head.[TRAILER]

The Wrecking Crew - Doc about the studio musicians that made the Beach Boys, Sinatra, The Mama's and the Papas memorable, sounds like Standing in the Shadows of Motown.

Good Food - A local look at organic farms in the state of Washington.

Baghead - A dark comedy about a some people who go off to the woods to write a screen play and get attacked by a guy w/ a bag on his head. I know, it sounds strange - it's directed by Jay and Mark Duplass(Puffy Chair). [TRAILER]

Man on Wire - UK doc about French acrobat Philippe Petit who tightrope walks across famous landmarks.

Hey Rick, it's your cousin Marvin....Marvin Astley. You know that mediocre generic sound you've been looking for, well listen to this!

Ever been Rick Rolled? I know I have. It seems like it's been quite the epidemic over the world wide web - so much so that even the BBC has had a report on it. They make viral video outbreaks seem like a worldwide disaster:



The title for the blog, in case you were wondering, comes from a Family Guy episode.

Colts' Draft Picks in the Books

The 2008 NFL Draft is in the books, and I'm excited to see how the Colts' rookies will perform this season. Bill Polian is definitely a smart president, so I definitely trust his judgement. Since the Colts traded away this year's first round pick for tackle Tony Ugoh after the surprising retirement of Tarik Glenn, the first pick for 2008 went in the second round at #59 to center Mike Pollak from Arizona State. He'll hopefully be able to bolster the O-Line after the departure of guard Jake Scott, who I was never a big fan of. Philip Wheeler, the linebacker out of Georgia Tech, was the 93rd selection in the 3rd round. He looks like another small speed kind of guy the Colts like at linebacker, let's hope he stays healthy! Another draft pick of note was definitely Mike Hart, the running back from Michigan in the 6th round at pick #202. If he makes it through the preseason, Hart may be able to provide some much needed round support for Addai, maybe 10 touches a game. I'm a strong believer that if the Colts keep more of their plays on the ground that they are a more successful team.
Draft info on Pollak:

Scouting video for Wheeler:

A Wolverine's fan video for Hart:

Colts #1 in ESPN Fan Satisfaction Rankings

I haven't been blogging as lately as I usually do, so I've got to compensate this weekend for the lack of entries! Anyways, last week ESPN released their results for their fan satisfaction ratings. The rankings were based upon how successful the team is, how affordable games are, the stadium experience, and how other players and coaches rank the team. The Colts were not only ranked #1 in the NFL, but also of all the 4 major sports leagues. The lowest category for the Colts was stadium experience, but obviously that will change when the upcoming season starts. Just because your team has been successful of late did not guarantee a high ranking - the Boston Red Sox were quite low due to the affordability factor. You can check out where your favorite team ranks for 2008 or the last 6 years here.