Dear Photograph

Hi all,

Here is an interesting Tumblr I came across. it called Dear Photograph, I always thought it would be cool to do this, lo and behold the internet beat me to it;

-bjk
Senr Tumblr Advisr

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Pottermore: more of what exactly?

By now you've probably heard about Pottermore, JK Rowling's latest project. It was shrouded in mystery and steeped in anticipation and now that we know what it is, we still don't really know what it is.

According to the site: "Pottermore is a free website that builds an exciting online experience around the reading of the Harry Potter books."

According to JK herself:



But what does all the mean? Here's what we know:
-The site goes public in the fall, for now you can submit your e-mail address and wait
-UNLESS you get selected to be in the preview stage this summer
-Pottermore will have the only way to get official digital e-books and audio books of Harry Potter
-The books will release one at a time, will gaps between them
-Some content will be user generated, hopefully more stuff like the awesome curling paper in the above video
-Rowling will use the site to share more secrets of Harry Potter, like Dumbledore being gay, etc.

I submitted my e-mail address. You probably should too. And if anyone gets in the site this summer, TELL US!

There's also a twitter account that is spewing updates. Apparently the first three chapters are going into preview tomorrow. And on July 31st, aka Harry's birthday, they're will be an opportunity to win early access.

Also JK Rowling is the most powerful person in the world that she can get people jazzed up about three chapters from a book that came out 14 years ago.

-av
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Another SHARK!

The shark in this video gets air while leaping at a surfer. The shark misses.


Also, check out this other amazing video of someone being way to close to a shark. 

-jv
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Arnie's Hometown

When I left for my year abroad in Austria back in September, Johnny V. asked me to visit Arnold Schwarzenegger's hometown and take pictures for him. It got cold real fast back in the fall, so I decided to wait until the spring to have nice weather and enjoy the countryside more. I drove out Friday with two friends and it was awesome. There was Arnie love all over the little town, it was too cute. Now don't get me wrong, the national opinion of Arnie has really shifted since he became a proponent of the Death Penalty some years ago (even changing the name of a Stadium in Graz that had formerly been named in his honor...). The recent tabloid coverage of his personal life also makes the people here just groan and exclaim that they "don't want him baaaaack". But, his hometown was sweet and proud in a very simple way, which I think is the right way to be, since let's get serious here, we may all laugh about Arnie now, but he's still the man. and the terminator.

I put a bit of footage we shot of our visit into a video (rough cut) to show Johnny a preview of the awesome place our favorite Austrian body builder/actor/governor came from. There's about...13 more minutes of footage to enjoy once I get home!

-lab
 p.s. Johnny, I took a lot of photos too

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Get Bent

This artist Terry Border takes inanimate objects and makes them come to life with wire. His blog is called Bent Objects. Its hysterical usually, and amazing always.

This one is my fave. Zombie Peanuts...are you laughing? I'm laughing.

fp


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Final, MOST EPIC Harry Potter 7.2 Trailer

This has been online for about a week, but I just rewatched it and got serious chills. I had to put on a sweater, literally. I have a love/hate relationship with a lot of the Potter movies (both castings of DUMBLEDORE for example), but the first part of the 7th movie was amazing. I feel pretty sure that this last film is going to be EPIC. I mean... it's the Battle of Hogwarts. Nuf said.
-id

p.s. okay one nitpick: why is Harry tackling Voldy and diving into a crater with him?

Maria Aragon: YouTube sensation for actually being good.

There's a little girl at the end of an HTC commercial who sings two lines of a song that gets stuck in my head every time. I tried finding the song and found the original, which is "Wavin' Flag" by K'naan, and not really what I wanted. Eventually I found the video i was looking for, Maria Aragon.

I guess I'm a little tardy for this party. In February, her cover of Born This Way, went viral. Within a month, she was joining Lady Gaga on stage to duet on the song. Mother Monster is a little choked up about it too, she's so nice.

Anywho, here's the original video I looked for. The last three minutes is her talking, so don't watch it, but she's pretty good for a ten year old, and her version of the song is way sweeter than K'naan's in my humble opinion.



In other internet sensation news, Katy Perry's video for Last Friday Night is terrific and features too many cameos to even talk about, except I will say Hanson makes an appearance as the house band, which makes it a pretty sweet party.

-av

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The Pergamon Museum

I've been living in Vienna for almost 10 months now and I feel like I've spent more time in museums than I ever thought possible. This is a museum that I had never heard of before just a few weeks ago, but is one of the coolest museums I've ever been in and would emphatically encourage anyone to go to if they are visiting Berlin.

The Pergamon Museum is a collection of enormous ancient structures that the Germans literally took apart, brought to Berlin, and assembled in this museum piece by piece. They not only took (I think of it more as...well... stealing, really) the Pergamon Altar, after which the museum is named, but also the door from a fortress entrance gate, and an entire marketplace front. It's unbelievable. I'm also always amazed to see the beautiful structures that were created long before our plethora of fine building tools and techniques.

The Market Door from Milatus from 120 A.D

The Babalonian Ishtar Gate

What's also a perk: since the ancient structures are so huge, there's not many things to have to check out in this museum. This is great, because museums are exhausting.

peace.

-lab

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#SummerJams

Technically this one was a late-spring-jam (April).

But it hasn't gotten much airplay, though it's been critically well-received, so there's a chance you missed TV on the Radio's latest album Nine Types of Light.

You should check it out:



Is that Hootie and the Blowfish!? Not even close.  More like a black Beck.  And Nigerian-born, Pennsylvania-raised, NYU-grad Tunde Adebimpe's lyrics are the tits:



It's electro-soul with some funky-ass horns for good measure.  I've been listening to this album like crazy recently: there's a ton of emotion in the songs, intelligent (and occasionally scathing) lyrics, and great beats.  There is even a dubstep-esque track on Nine Types of Light ($9.99 on iTunes), if you're into that sort of thing.  If you like what you hear, TV on the Radio's previous albums are also worth checking out (especially Dear Science).

Also, they released music videos for every song on the album.  That's pretty cool.

I'm going to try to see them at the Hollywood Bowl later this summer, and you can catch them in Boston, at the Bank of America Pavilion on September 6, with Broken Social Scene.

Sadly, their bassist Gerard Smith died of lung cancer 9 days after this album was released.  RIP.

Hope the summer's treating you all well.  More music still to come...

-DMc, West Coast Correspondent

80s Scientology Tape

This video is about showing how awesome Scientology thinks it is. In the middle John Travolta shows up to cut some cake then there's some black and white time with L. Ron and a song to bring it home.



Also, Anyone who wants to read the Game of Thrones series on Wikipedia  and then talk with me about it because I just did that and it was awesome should really do that.

-jv
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Balloon Tyrannosaurus Rex

This is incredible.

-jv
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Berlin Wall Art

I was in Berlin a few weeks ago and had a whicked great time. There's some seriously good wall art in that city--both on a section of the Berlin Wall itself that was turned into the "East Side Gallery" as well as sick graffiti. The first three pics are from the East Side Gallery, where various artists were given sections of the wall.

the famous Brezhnev-Honecker "Brotherly kiss". 

doves...with the Brandenburg Gate

"No-man's land"

"Detour to the Japanese Sektor"

This last picture is of a massive graffiti project right next to the Spree, the river in Berlin. I met up with a friend from a summer program on my free Saturday afternoon and she brought me here, it's real close to the East Side Gallery. Across the river are a couple of big business buildings with a lot of white collar jobs (actually, her boyfriend works for one of them) and the graffiti artists decided to use these walls to send the message that those jobs are enslave you with their materialistic bribes and promises. The message kinda backfired though...apparently the businesses just think it's really cool artwork and brag about being across the river from it....The other funny story is that just a week before I was in Berlin, an old bomb from World War II was found in the river directly between this graffiti and the office buildings and they had to have an emergency team deactivate it. Crazy stuff.

-lab

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Colbert Paul Revere's Ride

I feel that the Colbert Report has been hit or miss for a while but this clip is a gem. Watch the entire 6 minutes.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/388583/june-06-2011/paul-revere-s-famous-ride

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

-KZ

I Won't Be Seeing Green Lantern

I like Ryan Reynolds. I think he is very funny in Waiting and Van Wilder. And I thought he was really cool in his tough sarcastic way in Blade: Trinity and Wolverine, and I think that the Deadpool movie will be really cool.

I do not think that Green Lantern looks good. I wanted it to, I wish it did, it does not. This morning I was looking for a new preview something that would show me anything to push me over the top to wanting to see it, because I was close, I like Ryan Reynolds.

Instead I found this trailer that makes the damn thing look even worse.



I'm sure Ryan Reynolds next movie will be great, Green Lantern looks pretty awful though.


-jv

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How gritty can you get?

One Month.

-AM

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The Book of Mormon: Do you believe now?

This is not exactly news, I admit that. But the day after being awarded 7 Tonys, for the music, book, design, direction, acting and overall awesomeness of this show, seems as good a time as any to start taking this show seriously.

I'll admit, I've seen less than a handful of South Park episodes. It was on way too late at night when it started, so by the time I could have watched it, I'd missed so much I just never got started. But I was intrigued to find out that South Park creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker had written musical. Then a musical called "the Book of Mormon" and I was pretty much sold on the spot.

Mormons are almost as crazy to me as scientologists, but much more forthcoming with all the wacky beliefs, which makes them infinitely more interesting to me. So I've supported this musical at a concept level but have not actually taken action to see how it all turn out, other than skimming reviews.

Last night the Broadway community made it official, Book of Mormon is a great concept and a great show. Here's a performance by Tony nominated newcomer Andrew Rannells, that showcases the Mormon craziness and just plain great musicality of those South Park guys.



That song is awesome. So let's take action: listen to the soundtrack (1.99 for the whole thing!), read the synopsis, maybe even go see it (yeah right, not after the Tonys shoot the prices up), but let's become true believers in the Book of Mormon, the musical.
For a full write up of the Tony Awards, check this out.


-av
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Talking Funny

Hello everyone, earlier today I stumbld upon a tumblr that I thought was killr. its called awesome people hanging out together, and its exactly what it sounds like. Here are some of my favorites;

 Mr. T and Nancy Reagan

Coronel Sanders and Alice Cooper

While scrolling though APHOT I also came across an HBO special called Talking Funny, starring Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ricky Gervais, and Louis C.K. all in the same room talking comedy. They discuss each others styles and approaches to comedy, they also share stories about first starting out, failures and successes, its very interesting stuff. The best part is you can watch the whole thing on youtube, here is the first one;

and here are the links to part 2, 3, and 4. 

-bjk

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Stairs To The Attic

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Short Film: STAIRS TO THE ATTIC

My senior friend Mark spent the last five weeks of his high school career taking 8,000 still shots and compiling them together to make this music video. Enjoy.


jb

Great video

Sorority Pillow Fight! from ulteriorproductions.com on Vimeo.


Michelle Rodriguez stars in this about a friendly pillow fight.

- sf


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#SummerJams

The summer is upon us!

Time to get a fresh play-list going for road-trips, barbeques, and beach days.  Luckily, there have been some great records released lately, so there’s plenty of fun new music to set the mood for all sorts of summer shenanigans.

If you’ve heard Foster the People, the new hot band out of the LA rock scene, it was most likely their hit single Pumped up Kicks.  It’s all over the radio on the West Coast, and is the title track to their EP:



They're sound is synth-based pop-rock, like a slightly more mellow MGMT or Passion Pit.  Great dance-jams for sure:



They just released their first full-length album, Torches, less than 2 weeks ago ($9.99 on iTunes), and played Jimmy Kimmel Live.  They were at South by Southwest and Coachella this spring and will be at Lollapalooza and Outside Lands later this summer.  I've got them on regular rotation in my car right now; the whole album is upbeat and fun and very well-produced.

And they are playing in Boston, June 16, at the WFNX Clam Bake at House of Blues, with Cold War Kids and The Naked and Famous.  Definitely worth checking out.

--Disclaimer: I am about to sound like a total Hipster-- I saw them for free at one of my favorite venues the night before they released their EP. They totally rocked: great stage presence and dance vibe. Two weeks later they were on the radio and selling out all of their LA shows. --End Hipster tangent--

I’ve got a few more new albums on my iPod right now, so I’ll post another recommendation soon.  For now, enjoy Foster the People!

-DMc, West Coast Correspondent

Fast Food Mascots Party Hard

The title pretty much says it all.




 - sf
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Do NOT buy these sunglasses.

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Knockarounds. Great looking sunglasses that are so cheap and durable you don’t mind “knocking them around”

I was at the bar with my friend last night and I tossed her sun glasses aside. I picked them up and apologized. She said not to worry about it “they’re knockArounds”. I wasn’t sure if she was talking about the brand or if she just had some cool lingo that I wasn’t hip to yet... I gave an understanding  nod of my head to say; yes I'm cool AND I know what you’re talking about.

This morning Google solves all my problems. I find http://www.knockaround.com/index.php and the huge selection of awesome sunglasses. They have the premium edition, which are those cool “frog skin” type of sunglasses with the frosted shades in a BUNCH of different colors.

WHAT THE H!?!? – They are only 14 bucks! FUCK ME!? – 7 bucks for the originals (not as cool). You gutta pick up a pair of these sunglasses! Before the hipsters get wind of it and you cant be seen in public with them on*. 

 But Wait you CANT buy them. Because im buying an entire bucket of the bastards. http://www.knockaround.com/item.php?item_id=293&category_id=22 – that’s right. You can get every single one their sunglasses in a big OL’ bucket.

*I’d like to reference the case of White Sunglasses V. Giant Simoin Guys. SUMMER 2009

-ED

Say hello to the food plate

Time to say goodbye to one more thing you learned in kindergarten. The once mighty Food Pyramid now resides on the Island of Discarded Facts, on the same street as Pluto the planet.

Nostalgia aside, the new model makes a lot more sense and puts the information much more clearly.

See for yourself:

The website also has interactive tools and stuff, but nothing that sweet.

av

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Pic of the Day

A girl I work with teaches Bikram Yoga where you do yoga in super heated rooms. I was looking up how you become an instructor. Long story short- this guy is involved.

jillicious

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