Fresh Sriracha (aka, home made ‘Rooster’) from Food52 on Vimeo.

MMMMMMM I want to have some right now. On noodles or something.

I don’t know, but it’s incredible.

I won it in a contest. It’s autographed (and doodled on) by the members of the “baroque pop” group Evelyn Evelyn – Amanda Palmer (of the Dresden Dolls, a band which I have heard of but don’t know anything about :/ )and Jason Webley, neither of whom I had heard of before… though they both seem like interesting characters. As soon as I have listened to their music, I will let you know what it sounds like. I don’t know yet because they sent me two vinyl LPs of their album, but failed to include a CD or MP3 download code… and my record player is currently in another dimension.

Anyway, the guitar is a Wildwood Artist Deluxe acoustic-electric from the company Daisy Rock. I’ll be honest, I was a bit apprehensive when I saw that the company’s mission was about making “guitars for girls” because it seemed to say that girls aren’t tough enough for “regular” guitars. However, upon pulling this baby out of her case and taking her for a spin, my opinion changed completely. One of the reasons I had been playing my other guitars less frequently was because they were pretty tough on my fingers – I have smallish hands and when I don’t play guitar constantly my fingers get out-of-shape, which can make pressing all of the strings down on a 12-string guitar more than a bit difficult.

(Yes, they doodled ALL over it.)

But the Wildwood has a very narrow neck, so my fingers can easily press down all the way across; it has a smaller body so it is more comfortable to sit down with, and the strings are very easy to press (but not too easy!). Most importantly, the sound is great and much, much better than I expected from a company with “daisy” in the name.

I’m very grateful to the giveaway organizer, VenusZine (which is also a pretty cool magazine, guitar or no guitar), the band and Daisy Rock for my beautiful new instrument.

Lesson learned: don’t judge a guitar manufacturer by its flowery logo.

(Disclaimer: this is not a product review; it’s simply me gushing about my new toy. I wasn’t asked or incentivized to write an opinion about this gorgeous guitar or the music.)

If you had a chance to watch Rip! A Remix Manifesto (you know, the movie I wrote about a couple days ago?), you will have learned a little bit about an alternative form of artist compensation – the “pay-what-you-want” model. If you didn’t watch it (and why not?!), you should know that at least a handful of popular as well as not-so-popular musical artists have seen some success with this model.

I’m not here to debate about whether or not it can actually work for everybody, since tons of other people on the internet have taken up that discussion already. Today I’m interested in whether or not the pay-what-you-want model can do for the tangible world: stuff that isn’t MP3 files or downloadable TV episodes.

I was a little amazed today to read about a Panera Bread restaurant location in St. Louis which allows people to name their own price for the food that theyget there. Yes, food is available for free at the restaurant. When you walk in the door, a greeter politely explains that it’s not a soup kitchen and that there are suggested prices listed next to menu items to give you an idea of what the food costs.

As it turns out, the people who can afford to pay a little extra for their food don’t mind doing so and do it quite frequently – enough to make up for those who actually cannot afford to pay full price and still keep the business afloat. Yes, a handful of jerks take free sandwiches even though they can pay. But for the most part folks are being honorable when they go sandwich-hunting. Panera will be donating the store’s eventual revenues to a charity, which seems like it could be one of the reasons that people are willing to be a little more generous.

So this alternative economic model has jumped the gap between the digital and physical realms, which I’ve always had a difficult time envisioning. Will it work in the long term? I have no clue (though with my imagination running rampant I’m inclined to say “probably”). But it’s sure an intriguing experiment!

Last week I was introduced to a 2008 documentary about how new culture is created by building upon old culture, and how the digital age is affecting the creation of new culture. The film is called Rip! A Remix Manifesto, and it is appropriately available for you to watch for free online (yes, legally!); if you want to donate to the creators of the film, you can buy the DVD from the official website.

The film is a great introduction to the way copyright affects creators and consumers around the world. As culture is increasingly becoming a digital phenomenon which anyone can create or have access to, it will soon be very important for all of us to understand how copyright law works and what it means to the average Joe. Creative Commons is also discussed – it’s a different kind of licensing agreement with which creators can say, “Yes, take my art/music/writing/scientific data and use it to make new culture – just give me credit too, please!”

Whether you are a BitTorrent addict, a law student, or someone who believes they’ve never committed copyright infringement in their entire life (yeah – right), you will probably learn something you didn’t know before (unless you’ve already seen the movie).

If this still sounds incredibly boring, the film is heavily interspersed with hot dance beats by Girl Talk, a guy who takes your favorite 80s and 90s songs and combines it with infectious beats to get you up off your butt and on to the dance floor (okay, perhaps just your kitchen floor).

(P.S.: You can even watch it RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW if you have 86 minutes to spare:)

There are so many different ways to animate! My favorite at the moment is known as rotoscoping (which, before anyone decides to get all technical, has several related meanings). Back in the days before computers and such, animators would sometimes trace the frames of live-action motion by hand in order to produce more realistic animated motion (for things like dancing). Now we can do the same thing by splitting video clips into their separate frames and tracing the outlines with a digital tablet – still a time-consuming process, but one that produces pretty neat effects.

One of my favorites, by bentarthur:

Here is a most amazing stop-motion in which the 2D and 3D worlds collide by BLU.

Of course, I’ve always been blown away by those with the patience for claymation, like the masterful David Daniels whose work you’ve probably seen but never recognized. Here is a montage of his vast repertoire of animations (though I’ll be honest, I think it’s a little creepy):

If you’re still interested, here is a great blog called Pencil Test Depot where animators share their preliminary animation processes.

I’m excited about the prospect of using animation to bring imaginary worlds to life that wouldn’t be easy to do by myself using a combination of live action footage and special effects… (Digitally) drawn animation is relatively inexpensive and so versatile. I have a few experiments going right now which will take a few months. Hopefully the results will be worth the effort!

Don’t watch this if you haven’t seen both of these movies! Fair warning.

(via Gizmodo)

Also: a race car driving game with all the realism of, well, reality! It would make an incredible summer project, don’t you think?

RACER DEMO 0.1 – video game mashup from sputnic on Vimeo.

My boyfriend had never been to a drive-in but was easily convinced to go with me by the bargain price, the fact that you usually get to see TWO movies for that price, and the idea of sitting comfortably in your own car, eating whatever food you want to bring. You control how loud and obnoxious the sound is because it comes through your car radio. You can make fun of the movie all you want without disturbing other moviegoers. It’s all around the best way to go to the movies!

We’ve been twice so far. The first night they played The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Despicable Me. I didn’t expect either of them to be terribly good but just went for the experience. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was average live-action Disney fare, but had enough supernatural action-packedness and visual effects to keep me entertained all the way to the end (7.5/10).

Despicable Me, which I had never had any intention of seeing because the title had me pretty tuned out (why would I want to watch something about someone who is conceited and despicable?), was a surprisingly hilarious and heartwarming adventure! I’m a sucker for a happy ending and laughs that never end (9/10).

The next week the movies were Salt and Dinner for Schmucks. The former, a spy film filled with unexpected twists, made me feel like strapping on a pair of infrared goggles and sneaking around in secret ducts… infiltrating things and the like. I never managed to get used to seeing Angelina Jolie as a blonde (8/10). Dinner for Schmucks was disappointing; Steve Carrell played a good idiot but not one that was terribly funny. The story dragged on and by the end the only bit that I found neat were the detailed taxidermy mouse dioramas (6/10).

image: LA Times

(For some info on the makers of all of those dioramas, click on the picture.)

I dunno what will be playing at the drive-in next week but I can’t wait to find out!

There isn’t much information on her website but the image gallery pretty much speaks for itself in my opinion.

Next is a well-produced video of a curious project which was started by, well, a multinational paint company. The director is Adam Berg and all of what you are seeing is really real (really-really, Shrek?). A group went to four different cities around the world and brought some color to otherwise drab walls (and sometimes drab situations):

Though one might say that a multinational company could do more powerful things with its money, this is pretty neat!

Of course, being a fan of beautiful music that is just barely obscure enough to not have mainstream radio airplay in the U.S., I fell in love with the clip’s soundtrack – a song by the lead singer of Icelandic band Sigur Rós (who are currently on hiatus), Jónsi. He is embarking on a solo career for a little bit… Here is the song (with just a slideshow in the background):

(The official video is here but the record company does not allow me to embed it on my blog. Honestly I didn’t think it was too marvelous of a clip but you can decide for yourself, of course.)

The first is a pen-and-ink drawing for drawing class (what else?). It was the first only time during the class where we had the opportunity to select our own subject matter, so needless to say I enjoyed the process a lot more than I have with previous “projects” in that class…

Whenever I put a piece of work on the wall next to all of the other students’ work, I notice that what I have done is about half as dark as what my neighbors have done. I suppose that doesn’t matter so much, it’s okay to have a light touch with some things, but I am a bit uncomfortable/confused about it. Is it a product of being afraid to mess it up unreversibly? (Is that even a word?) I like things light, just like they are.

The second thing is a mini-installation in a secluded (and by secluded I mean “in the basement”) little critique space in the art department building. We were all required to make a collection during the quarter. Lots of people collected receipts. Out of our class of about twenty, four of them did projects with collected receipts! They were all very different from one another, though, and it was interesting to see the same somewhat obscure medium used in four totally different ways.

All quarter, I’ve been collecting images of “graffiti” in the women’s restrooms around campus, especially in the library. I wanted to do something really unusual, something almost taboo. It was kinda awkward at first to be darting in and out of bathroom stalls, camera in hand, hoping girls didn’t give me funny looks… When I told my boyfriend about the project, he thought I would see lots of dirty jokes and, well, potty humor when I went looking. He was a little surprised (not me) when I showed him the pictures – turns out the walls of the ladies’ rooms are a favorite space for anonymously venting your frustrations with life, the universe, and everything.

So I put the photographs on the critique space wall, and lined them up as they might be on the wall of the bathroom stall. A couple of industrial toilet roll holders acted as a huge clue to the origin of the graffiti and brought the bathroom space to the viewer in a place where you wouldn’t expect it to be at all. My favorite picture (and what I decided to title this… thing):

I wanted to have an actual restroom partition in the critique space. But I was unable to find one on such short notice. It would have been cool but I think this worked out too. The class seemed pretty positive about the piece, and they really liked the toilet paper holders – I guess it’s because they (like me) had never seen them out of their original context before. Maybe.

I’ve never done anything like this before and I know there’s tons of room to improve… but it was pretty fun.