VicRoads ads

I do like these new VicRoads ads.

Athiest Bus epic win?

I hope this is real. If so, the Athiest Bus Campaign just went super-epic-awesome.

Latest on Tanks A Lot

My latest submission to Tanks A Lot - the Lornedromat, in Lorne, Victoria.

Naughty logos

Literally within seconds of each other, I came across these two logos. Design win!

Multi-bird roast

I don't eat meat. Haven't since 1998. But that doesn't mean I don't respect those people who try to live sustainably through omnivorous lifestyles. Eating every last scrap of an animal is a much better practice than our usual 'eat the chicken breast fillet and pulp the rest into processed meat slices' mentality.

Then there's the other extreme - the over zealous meatetarians who relish the idea of killing and devouring as many animals as possible. I've ranted about this before, but I just thought I'd point this one out. I was watching one of my favourite shows - River Cottage - and realised that Hugh's recipe for the pumpkin and chilli savoury cake might be on his website. I haven't found it yet, but I did find this:

The River Cottage Multibird Roast

You need a whole free range turkey (not a monster, 10-12 kilos is about right) and a whole goose (6-7kg). And then a selection of 8-10 smaller birds, all plucked and drawn (ie oven ready).

You don’t need all eight birds to be different – you could use, say, three pheasants and five pigeons. So choose from the following:
farmed duck
mallard
guinea fowl
chicken
pheasant
partridge
pigeon
woodcock.

For the stuffing, you need 1 kilo of fatty sausagemeat, 250g streaky bacon, 100g breadcrumbs, fresh sage, brandy, port and red wine. You can also add chestnuts and/or apples.

I remember watching this episode (you can download the video from his site). It was super gross and the height of gluttony. I think I'll make a multi-tofurkey-roast tonight.

Vampire therapy

Sookie Stackhouse is obviously setting up shop in the youth beauty business in Preston.

License plate win

Best license plate ever!

We saw this on the M1 freeway yesterday. You can't really make it out clearly due to the impressive awesomeness of the iPhone camera, but the license plate reads 'KTHXBI'

True, to be accurate it should read 'KTHXBAI' but don't be too picky - it's still awesome to see it in Australia!

For those of you who have no idea what this means, learn your interwebs and check out here and here.

Giant Comedy Ticket Giveaway

Festival has kicked off and we’re celebrating with the biggest Melbourne International Comedy Festival ticket giveaway you’re likely to find anywhere. Here’s where you’ll find your key to winning tickets to over 75 shows. To enter, all you need to do is email win@anewleaf.com.au and tell us which tickets you’d like and on which date. You can enter for as many shows as you like! Entry will automatically join you to our e-list, where we will periodically keep you up to date with MICF news and reviews. You may unsubscribe from this list at any time.

For the full list of tickets available, check out The Pun here.

I hate Easter even more now

The egg has a wig.
The egg. Has. A fucking wig.

NASA movie posters

For years now, the geeks at NASA have designed and produced individual badges and patches for each mission, for the astronauts and staff to stitch on to their uniforms. Now, they've also made available the fake movie posters they produced for each mission.

I like. There's obviously someone buried in the communications team at NASA who has some hidden talent with the old PhotoShop.

Death Cantaloupe

Now witness the power of this fully armed and operational watermelon!

via BuzzFeed

Avery Dave love

Here's an equation of my own.

(Avery + Dave) x Domo hats / Boredom + PhotoShop = this picture

Tabling sci-fi

This is brilliant. The periodical table of sci-fi tv and film.

I particularly like the equations that dictate what happens when you combine sci-fi elements, eg: 3 x E.T. + 8 x Matrix Revolutions + Lost in Space + Exo Squad = Avatar.

TAC ads 20 year anniversary montage

Road trauma porn, anyone?

These TAC ads still get to me. They're so graphic, but also so emotionally loaded.

Job well done, TAC. You had ten years practice before I got behind the wheel, and it worked. I'm still alive.

I love this flyer

Best situational advertising ever. I love it.

via Ffffound!

Doctor Who goes online first

The new Doctor will premiere in Australia on ABC iView, the first time the ABC have ever aired any show online before broadcasting it on television.

It's a smart move from our ever-increasing tech-savvy national broadcaster. Who watches Doctor Who? Geeks. Who uses iView? Geeks and public servants.

The new episode, complete with that guy from Party Animals playing the doctor, is available on iView from midnight April 16th. (Or on BBC's iPlayer from April 2nd, if you're smart and know how to use UK proxy servers to bypass the country restrictions).

Frenchy IKEA campaign

Nice advertising campaign - IKEA have decorated four Metro stations in Paris, allowing commuters to relax on their sofas and directly trial the merchandise.

I like the quirkiness of this campaign, but also the simplicity of a few couches and lamps on a subway platform. Even the giant billboards displaying bookcases behind are specially designed to account for the curvature of the subway walls.

I just hope French hooligans don't trash the sofas.

WANT!

Shauna Richardson makes crocheted animals.

I so want this crocheted deer head. I've always wanted a deer head, but I've got to admit it is a bit gross.

Gross beheaded deer problem = solved.

via Neatorama

Just look at this hipster-meat connection

It would seem that the era of trendy vegetarianism is over, and we are entering a world owned by hipster meat lovers.

Just the other day, I was commenting on the amount of new hipster cafes (small, boutique, cafes furnished ironically with op shop furniture, decorated ironically in 1970s kitsch paintings of horses and kittens, usually manned by an owner/chef desperate to make their mark with slightly unusual fare and decent coffee). The worrying thing, for me anyway, is the latest generation of these pioneers seem to be obsessed with rejuvenating the public's love affair with meat.

Now, I have no problem with the idea of tip to tail meat production. In fact, I applaud it. If you're going to eat an animal, you should find ways to savour the whole being and not put a single bit to waste. My favourite cooks all revolve around this principle - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Stephanie Alexander, Matthew Evans - even Jamie Oliver gets in on the act.

It's the fervour with which this new movement seems obsessed with 'reclaiming' the right to eat and love meat that scares me. Take for example a small cafe in Hight St, Northcote. There are crocheted cuts of meat hanging from the roof, old paintings of the Virgin Mary with legs of lamb painting on top and a heavily meat-centric menu. Yes, there were several non-meat options, but they centred around odd ingredients and weird combinations. It seems the standard vegetarian option couldn't possibly be designed for a simple vegetarian - it would have to be for a meat eater looking for something 'different'.

I suspect this move has not come from the clientele - it is a new generation of chefs who are interested in renewing interest in meat dishes. The New York Times has looked into this new sector that demands detailed knowledge of butchery in order to gain street cred. It's a younger generation of more culturally aware culinary experts who are eager to push aside the stereotype of the fat, blue and white striped apron-wearing butcher who sells chops to middle Australia.

If this results in a better understanding of the sustainability and ethics of meat eating, then I'll happily shut up and leave it to be. If it means people choose an ox tongue sandwich or a slow cooked sheep brain stew, that will be one more part of an animal used to the full extent, and hopefully one less animal slaughtered. However, I suspect it will do nothing of the sort. It is a difficult lesson to teach, touching on personal ethics, cultural differences, agricultural and pastoral politics, especially when you go into the finer detail of organic, free range, sustainable stocks, animal treatment, proper land-use, transport and import/export issues.

Call me paranoid if you will, but I see a battle on the horizon. I see large sections of the public who are pissed off at vegetarians telling them off for eating animals. I see people mobilising and reclaiming their right to kill and feast livestock. I see a future where people say 'screw you, hippy - I'm eating veal!'

And I don't like it.

With your powers combined...

Woah.
La Forge used to be the power of Earth!

I just found out that LeVar Burton, the actor who plays Geordi La Forge on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was also the voice of Kwame, the African kid with the power of Earth on Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

Actually it kinda makes sense now that I look at the cast list. Both shows have Whoopi Goldberg as well. Holy shit - not to mention Meg Ryan, Martin Sheen, Tim Curry, Dean Stockwell, Jeff Goldblum, Sting, Margot Kidder, Helen Hunt... I mean, I know Captain Planet was just the crazy fucked up thoughts of Ted Turner, who could easily pull these names together, but still...

Even better than that? The guy who voiced Captain Planet has one of the most awesome careers I've ever seen. What's he been in? Only the best that popular culture in the 80s and 90s had to offer: Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, 21 Jump Street, Who's the Boss, New Kids on the Block, Growing Pains, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Harry and the Hendersons, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air as well as Law & Order: SVU and The Sopranos. Awesome.

New levels of offensive

Oh. My. God. I don't even know where to begin with how offensive this ad is.

The text reads 'When was the last time you felt like the first time? Vaginal tightening gel for women above 40.'

Seriously, I'm speechless. I didn't even know this product existed.

via Ads of the World

WANT!

This doggie chew toy is awesome! Anything that makes them shut up AND look like an evil villian is an epic win in my book!

via Zoomdoggle

Lemurs always ruin a good fight

Tron is back, baby!

EPIC WANT! NOW NOW NOW!

Ahem. Sorry. Tron Legacy trailer is out.

Melbourne Floods

Hey look - our recent floods even made the international spectacle of Stupid Videos!

Robert Downey is back

YES! YES! The trailer for Ironman 2 is out!

However, I don't know if the inclusion of Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson can make up for having to watch a movie starring Mickey Rourke...

Refreshingly honest movie posters

Just in time for Oscar season comes College Humour's Honest Movie Posters.

The force is sparkly with this one

'Damnit - how am I going to decorate the house for my Star Wars themed disco party!?'

Nazi supercar font

One thing I learned today: the font used by Apple on their laptops was first developed for Volkswagen in 1979.

via Coudal Partners

Hitchcock's cameos

Hehehe cool. This guy has collected almost all of Alfred Hitchcock's famous cameos into one continuous clip. I only recognised those from the later films.

via Neatorama

Happy International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day to everyone!

International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.

I am proud and glad that I have so many strong, successful women in my life - inspiring me, pushing me on and generally doing good in a world that would frankly suck without them.

Not least of which my darling wife Lefa, who is an amazing women who can do so much in the face of such adversity. I salute you Lefa, and will always teach Avery to do the same.

I've always excelled when working under a female boss - from my years working at 7-11 under the pseudo-grandmother German/South African direction of Karen, the amazing talents of Loz and Mel deep in the horrors of kickboxing magazines or the ever-incredible female Senators of the Australian Greens - workplaces for me always seem to work better when there is a woman at the helm.

I say a thank you to all the other women I love and respect. Thank you Mum, Grandma, Katie, Sophia, Rach, Christine, Sarah, Prue, Leanne, Alison X, Giz, Jo, Alison H, Bridget, Clare, Holly, Ebony, Emma, Dee, Flick, Mel C, Liz, Loz, Mel H, Meg, Mansha and every other woman who has done good to my life thus far.

WANT!

Lucy Collin has been crocheting a wonderful series of Star Wars Mini Amigurumi.

via Laughing Squid

Parent's rooms

We were out at Doncaster Shoppingtown the other day, and the little guy needed a change. I toddled off to the toilets, expecting the usual plastic folding change table stuffed into the disabled toilet, or heaven forbid a small baby change room. Instead I find a gigantic parent's room dedicated to all the bodily needs of an under-2yr old.

We're talking eight baby change contours on a bench, with taps, roll-out paper covers and nappy disposal chutes. Microwave ovens, child play equipment and beanbags, all leading to private curtained booths for breastfeeding. The whole place is bigger than a normal toilet, and is actually designed to help everyone from dads to grandparents struggling with three kids.

Obviously I'm a bit biased in that I have a current immediate need for this room, but I'm also very impressed that it exists at all. Of course, from a marketing perspective it makes perfect sense - make mums and families comfortable and they'll keep coming back and spending.

It's still nice to see something done thoughtfully and properly for young families in public places.

VW sees film differently

Hehehe. Why didn't this ad ever air in Australia?

via YesButNoButYes

Bloodsuckers and beardface

From the writer who brought you Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, comes the true story of the United States' 16th President - Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Awwwwww yeah.

Avatontas

Man, I've really been going nuts with the video clips lately. But there's just so many good ones at the moment.

Like this Avatar/Pocahontas mash-up. If you haven't seen it already, check out the script rewrite that shows just how original James Cameron's epic really is.

Dr Seuss in the house, y'all!

Not bad... not bad.

From Half Day Today comes this rap video to commemorate Dr Seuss' 106th birthday.

Roger Ebert gets his voice back!

Awesome.

Roger Ebert lost his voice after several surgeries - not awesome.

A Scottish company have recreated his voice using the thousands of hours of DVD commentary he has produced over the years - AWESOME.

Also, if you haven't read the Esquire piece about him, do it NOW.

via BuzzFeed

Mag Nation Underwear Giveaway

This is kinda cool - walk into any mag nation store in just your underwear on a Monday during March and they will give you for FREE any magazine, book or stationery item of your choice up to the value of $50.

There are some conditions, but they're entirely reasonable. I quite like the idea, except that it is quite sexist - I'm sure there will be plenty of men who will waltz in wearing their boxers, but any women who strip for the freebie will have to go through the charade of being oggled and wolf whistled by every guy within three blocks. Have you seen the clientele of Mag Nations' comic book section? You really don't want those guys anywhere near a half naked girl... the consequences aren't pretty.

Now we just have to wait for the Herald Scum to pick up on this and run it on page 3 under the headline 'Tits for Mags' or 'C*cks for Comix'.

via LifeHacker Australia

OK Go Rube Goldberg

EPIC Rube Goldberg machine from OK Go's latest music video.

From their start in exercise walker choreography, they've come a long way...

via BB

Quarantine Rap

Christian Van Vuuren was diagnosed with TB and has spent the last 55 days quarantined to a single hospital room. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he made this amazing rap video. Stick with it - the guy's got talent, and a good sense of humour.