Pizza boxes - totally re-invented.

Love this re-usable pizza box design.

The Hunt for Gollum

Holy shit! This fan flick was made on a budget of $3000, and is adapted from elements of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows the Heir of Isildur; the "greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth" as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer.

This is a totally independent production - no-one was paid, and no money is being made from the film. Looks awesome as well! Licensing under creative commons would have made it perfect. Ahh well...

Kill! Meat! Kill!

As if I needed another reason to feel self righteous about my vegetarianism.

Quick! Panic!

Worried about Swine Flu? YOU SHOULD BE - the media says you should! But now you can track it - live, thanks to the good people at Google.

The Georgia Guidestones

Woah. This is awesome.

Built in 1980, the Georgia Guidestones are a mystery—nobody knows exactly who commissioned it or why.

The rocks are each 16 feet tall, with four of them weighing more than 20 tons apiece. Together they support a 25,000-pound capstone. On these massive stones are inscribed words of wisdom for any post-apocalyptic society trying to rebuild civilisation.

The inscriptions, written in Babylonian Cuneiform (north), Classical Greek (east), Sanskrit (south), and Egyptian Hieroglyphs (west), and English, state:

1. MAINTAIN HUMANITY UNDER 500,000,000 IN PERPETUAL BALANCE WITH NATURE
2. GUIDE REPRODUCTION WISELY — IMPROVING FITNESS AND DIVERSITY
3. UNITE HUMANITY WITH A LIVING NEW LANGUAGE
4. RULE PASSION — FAITH — TRADITION AND ALL THINGS WITH TEMPERED REASON
5. PROTECT PEOPLE AND NATIONS WITH FAIR LAWS AND JUST COURTS
6. LET ALL NATIONS RULE INTERNALLY RESOLVING EXTERNAL DISPUTESIN A WORLD COURT
7. AVOID PETTY LAWS AND USELESS OFFICIALS
8. BALANCE PERSONAL RIGHTS WITH SOCIAL DUTIES.
9. PRIZE TRUTH — BEAUTY — LOVE — SEEKING HARMONY WITH THE INFINITE
10. BE NOT A CANCER ON THE EARTH — LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE — LEAVE ROOM FOR NATURE
    

Below this is written: "Let these be guidestones to an age of reason"

Full article in Wired

Sleeping in is good for productivity

My work habits have so been validated. Belgian scientists prove that night owls are more productive than early risers.

After 10 hours of being awake, the early birds showed reduced activity in brain areas linked to attention, compared to the night owls. They also felt sleepier and tended to perform more slowly on the task.

The scientists said that alertness depended on a combination of a person's natural circadian rhythm - internal clock that tells us when to sleep - and actual fatigue due to being kept awake, known as "sleep pressure".

I do the majority of my good work after 5pm. Absolutely nothing fires off before 10am, and if it does it's so forced. Now, on the basis of this research, I hereby officially change my work hours to be 3pm to 11pm.

Review: Alexis Dubus – A Bl**ody Brief History Of Swearing

First things first - this is not your typical stand-up show. Don’t be upset - that’s a good thing. Alexis Dubus is here to give you all an in-depth, well researched lecture on the history of swearing. It’s educational, informative, sometimes unbelievable and overall entertaining.

Strangely enough, given the title, this show is about bad words. Lots of them. There is ample warning if you are somewhat offended by naughtiness, and the audience participation element of yelling out your favourite curse word should be enough to send any meek participants into bright red mode (I was part of a ‘fuck’ audience, which reverberated around Trades Hall as it was bellowed by the full house).

Alexis manages to tread the line between informational overload and casual conversation with grace and ease, all the time swearing like a gutter monkey. It’s magnificent. He educates on the history of the potty mouth from ancient times through to the modern day, interspersed with stories and anecdotes from his own journey, all the while building to a very clear conclusion – that the art of language is fascinating, regardless of the words you use.

This show is actually quite light on the gags, and it’s a refreshing change. The traditional cymbal-roll jokes that Alexis has opted to avoid are instead replaced by his wit, charisma and enthusiasm for the subject. It doesn’t matter that every second line doesn’t have a punchline – he is obviously entertained by the process of teaching you about the magic of swearing, and it certainly rubs off.

I have never before learned so much while laughing out loud.

First published in The Pun

Review: Tale of the Golden Lease

Utter the words ‘university’ and ‘comedy’ in the same sentence and you’ll usually elicit a long groan from me. As much as I understand the need for students to start somewhere and trial their material, I really don’t need to be subjected to painful performances limited to re-enactments of South Park or Monty Python. But this festival, Tale of the Golden Lease has blown all my preconceptions away with a magnificent performance, and ultimately restored my faith in the art of comedy, theatre and performance.

Vachel Spirason, Joel Tito, Pat Miller, Tim McDonald and Nick Russell from the Monash Law Revue Gold Alumni tell a pan-dimensional story of religion, history and silliness that is truly astonishing. Tale of the Golden Lease shows that regardless of budget, it is pure talent that will entertain, and these boys have it in spades.

This is an incredibly tight performance that overcomes every hurdle thrown at it. With a large number of scene changes, actors playing multiple characters and minimal props, the magical illusion of a continued story is never lost. The audience is continually spellbound by the antics of these rather manic, energetic and overwhelmingly entertaining performers. Lightening-quick scene changes ensure that boredom never sets in, and what they obviously lack in funding for props (the golden lease, holding the deed to earth’s future, is a phonebook badly wrapped in gold foil), they make up for in confidence and ability.

I really stuggle to find anything wrong with this performance – very few scripted jokes fell flat – with the exception of an inevitable law joke that went straight over my non-legal head. Combining very strong acting talents with no shred of shame enables these boys to keep the fourth wall of the theatre incredibly solid.

It is hard to avoid the feeling that, watching this performance, you are witnessing the birth of a new generation of comedic actors. Like the D-Generation or The Chaser, intelligent, informed talent has to start somewhere, and I predict we’ll be seeing much more of this crew in the future. Please, someone give them a TV show! If these five boys can produce a show so entertaining with little more than some devil horns, an oversized latte, black cloth and their awesomely tatty golden lease, just imagine what they could rise to.

First published in The Pun

Swedish Chef

I suddenly felt the urge to watch a lot of clips of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets, then I thought 'other people should ALSO be watching lots of clips of the Swedish Chef from the Muppets.

New host for Rocketboom

Rocketboom has a new host. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is she Australian?

Mutha Fuckin Snakes!

Wow. I hope I never have to deal with any monkey fightin' snakes on no Monday to Friday plane!

Jasper Morello

I remember watching The Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello when it first came out (I think I saw it at MIFF), and being blown away by the beauty and simplicity of the design. It's a great predecessor to the currently overused steampunk style.

Amazingly composed NYC shots

Danish photographer Peter Funch stakes New York City street corners out for two weeks at a time, taking pictures of passersby from the very same spot. He then uses Photoshop to composite the results into single images. The result is amazing - images that are very real, yet with a certain surreal element.

via BoingBoing

JPG bad...

It's always hard to explain some of the more technical aspects of graphic design, particularly those relating to digital work. The idea that one filetype could have benefits over another is one concept that always seems to be overlooked. Case in point - the use of JPG files for digital photographs. JPG is a lossy file format - each time you save it, you lose a bit of data. Doesn't seem like that would really be a problem to normal operations - take photo, save to computer, view. But when you're talking about any kind of work on that file, JPG is utterly useless.



Generation Loss shows the process of re-saving the same JPG 600 times in a row. Sure, 600 is a lot of saves - but on some projects I think I might have at least hit the 200 mark.

KIDS - DON'T USE JPG!

via forgetomori

Totally looks like

My latest submission to TotallyLooksLike

Review: Mark Watson – All The Thoughts I’ve Had Since I Was Born

Mark Watson is over-excited, manic, disorganised and quite good at his job.

All The Thoughts I’ve Had Since I Was Born is stand-up, plain and simple, and will appeal to all those punters who come to the festival for an experience that will excite, confuse and amuse them without stepping over any standard comfort levels. An impromptu start to the show with Watson appearing from within the audience should entertain those with a passion for pantomime, while Watson’s predictable audience banter feels more at home in a kids’ variety show, albeit with much filthier material.

It is very easy to be drawn into Watson’s somewhat bumbling, chaotic style. His stories and anecdotes shoot off into complete random tangents, each one getting him more excited than the last. His self-deprecating, self-reflexive and somewhat self-indulgent brain goes a million miles a minute, and gives you the impression of watching a monkey with ADHD undergoing electro-shock therapy.

Watson talks. A lot. In the few times he pauses for breath, a sigh of relief can be heard from the overwhelmed audience as their brains catch up with his manic speed. His delivery is spot-on every time, and his constant commentary on life is very sporadic, somewhat autistic but overall entertaining.

Watson delivers a performance that most people will like – it’s not theatrical, experimental, musical or overtly offensive. His over-the-top manic disposition will make most audiences feel they have really taken part in a ‘crazy’ show. Unfortunately, this comes at the detriment of any cohesiveness to his show, and you’ll most likely come away unable to remember a damn thing he has said. I’m sure it was funny, I do remember laughing, but what on earth about?

First published on The Pun

WANT! (for my time machine)

This print has how-to information on all of the low-hanging fruit of our modern age. Go back in time with this as a guide and you'll invent heavier-than-air flight! YOU'LL discover penicillin. YOU'LL be the first to isolate aluminium. Did you know aluminium used to be more valuable than gold? YOU'RE GONNA BE RICH.

SPECIAL BONUS FEATURE: this poster also doubles as an "holy cow if this shirt somehow got sent back in time EVERYTHING WOULD BE CHANGED" item. This one garment - YOUR POSTER - can/definitely will/might have already change(d) the entire course of human history. Hang it up with pride!

Did we mention it also comes on a shirt?

So Quiet on the Canine Front

World War One re-enacted by dogs. Totally.

Review: Mathew Kenneally on the Post Hope Express

Mathew Kenneally wants to talk to you about the culture of the post-hope buzz. The world after the excitement of Obama’s victory, after Kevin07’s popularity. The world where the stark reality of climate change, alcopops and the global financial crisis threaten to take all the fun out of life. But rather than lament on these rather depressing topics, this talented comic launches on them with a passion that turns it all around and has you chuckling for more.

There are times when Kenneally’s material does require a certain amount of political, news and cultural knowledge, which could leave some audience members scratching their heads. But that’s not to say his whole show is above their heads – through his relaxed attitude and everyday references, he manages to make the most complicated of issues seem like a casual conversation in a bar. Kenneally’s heightened self-awareness really allows his sometimes bumbling nature to shine, allowing quick self-deprecating remarks to be off the cuff and responsive to his performance.

I must admit, though, I found Kenneally’s show all the more entertaining for a purely coincidental reason. His half an hour devoted to poking fun at the Greens (and party leader Bob Brown) was made all the more amusing when, after the show, I introduced myself: ‘Hey Matt, nice show – I’m here to review you for The Pun. I also work for Bob Brown.’ I’ve never seen someone so worried they had offended a public figure before. So Matt, don’t stress – I think Bob would agree with me that your delivery, material and political knowledge is top-notch.

Quick-witted, intelligent and informed, Kenneally has a very likeable (if somewhat nervous) stage presence that will appeal to everyone who hates the Herald Sun.

First published in The Pun

WANT!

Best. Ad. Ever.

Need a car? Pissed off that you can't see a Cuban gynaecologist at the same time? Your problems are solved.

OH MY FUCKING GOD!

The DeLorean from Back to the Future is IN MELBOURNE!!!!!

Apparently it's in the foyer of the RACV Club.

Thank you random guy on Twitter for this information!

I am so spending this entire week there. Staring at it. Stroking it when no-one is looking. Possibly stealing it, and driving off into the sunset.

The PunCast

Thanks to the talents of Matt Smith, The Pun now has a podcast. He'll be in and around the festival, interviewing comics, punters and generally getting a feel for the festival.

You can subscribe here, or view (and listen) to them online here.

Google Ads Fail

Snatch Wars

Ain't nothing funnier than the idea of Darth Vader as a foul-mouthed Pom - Snatch Wars.

Via BuzzFeed

Cantina hands solo

Uhmm.... wait, what?

Priates VS Ninjas

Pirates. Ninjas. The age old battle continues for who is more awesome. Now, you can play out this eternal war with the breezes in your own home.

The Pirates VS Ninjas mobile.

Awesomes.

via Neatorama

Best G-20 protester EVER

Government help fail

Go Government! Need more information on workplace relations? Ask the Internet.
Dicks.

IFAW - droppin elephants like it's hot

Awesome ad for International Fund for Animal Welfare