Tag: Videos

292 pictures

[flv width=”320″ height=”240″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/sdb01.flv[/flv]

I’ve been saving the picture in the banner each time I visit Steven’s place. Here’s what I’ve collected so far. The music is Raymond Scott’s “Celebration on the Planet Mars,” performed by the Metropole Orchestra with the Beau Hunks.

(This is probably not the final version. The software I intended to use decided that it doesn’t like my machine after all, so I had to struggle with a less-capable application with limited output options. I’m not entirely happy with the results.)

Counting down to the count down

I had planned to spend some time this evening rambling on about anime endings, but I’m dead tired. Instead, here are a couple of honorable mentions, plus an extra. The countdown begins tomorrow.

While it was introducing the characters, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was fine absurd humor. Later episodes were hit and miss, with misses predominating. (Macademi Wasshoi seems to be following a similar pattern.) The ending is pleasantly nightmarish.

[flv width=”704″ height=”396″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/szs ending.flv[/flv]

The first few episode of Tweeny Witches left me cold, though I may give the series a second chance when I have time. The ending, with broomstick surfing, flying jalopy and Strauss, embodies all the fun that was missing from the show.

[flv width=”704″ height=”396″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/TweenyWitches.flv[/flv]

If this had been the actual ending for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, it would have been number one on my list. The real ending, which is pretty good as anime endings go, is nevertheless frustrating to watch: I want to see all the steps.

[flv width=”704″ height=”396″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/HareHareYukai.flv[/flv]

You can see the videos at their full width at my video page.

Towering sponge

Here’s the most bizarre video I’ve seen recently. (Patience is required; it takes forever to load.)

There are more sponges and other three-dimensional fractals here, here and here.

Addendum: For sheer trippiness, nothing beats the Mandelbrot set. Here’s the classic fractal video, “Nothing but Zooms,” presented in four parts. Unfortunately, the image quality is low, even for YouTube.

Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four

Here are some more videos of varying degrees of gimmickiness featuring the ultimate paisley.

This one
That one
This other one

What’s the Mandelbrot set? Let Jonathan Coulton explain. (N.B.: naughty words.)

Just testing, part 2

Below the fold is the same brief video as in the previous post, this time as an flv file. In the past, I’ve used ffmpegX to generate flv files. It works, but it’s a pain to use. It often takes several tries to convert a Quicktime file to flv, and even then the video and sound are apt to drift out of sync. (See my video weblog for examples.) I was wondered if it was possible to skip the formatting headaches and embed Quicktime files in posts, but that presents a different set of problems. I recently found a couple of WordPress plugins that take care of the messy stuff, which I tested in yesterday’s post. They work, but it turns out that at least two of my readers, and probably quite a few more, refuse to install Quicktime on their computers. So embedding a Quicktime file is not an ideal solution.

This morning I looked for alternatives to ffmpegX and found a few. Some of them look dandy. Unfortunately, either the price tags have three digits to the left of the decimal point, or the system requirements are beyond the capabilities of my geriatric Mac. I did find one possibility, On2 Flix, the cheapest version of which is almost affordable at $39. I downloaded the demo, and it worked right the first time. You can see the results below the fold.

Continue reading “Just testing, part 2”

No dogs allowed at the flea circus

Here’s a curiosity: a Japanese dub of a Tex Avery cartoon. You don’t need to understand the dialogue to enjoy it.

(Via the comments at Cartoon Brew.)

*****

I’ve been feeling less than wonderful recently, and after a day on the computer at work, I don’t really want to spend the evening staring at another computer monitor. I’ll be back eventually with comments on Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and PetoPeto-san (the latter features music by Masaki Kurihara of Kuricorder fame) and more pointless lists.

Oldternative tunes and more

The crowds were smaller than usual at Winfield, and the camping and campground picking were off-site this year, but the music as as good as ever. I’ve got a bunch of pictures and some field recordings to survey and edit. Until then, here are some videos of this year’s discoveries, The Wiyos ((This actually was their second year at Winfield, but I missed them last time.)) and Doug Smith.

Miscellany

The inhabitants of the moon never see an earthrise or earthset. However, spacecraft orbiting the moon, e.g., the Kaguya, do. Here is the earth rising and setting, as recorded in HD. (Via Aziz.)

*****

Speed Racer is probably worth skipping (though I might listen to Racer X). If you’re looking for an exciting race story, I recommend instead the Kuricorder Quartet’s take on “Highway Star”:

Here’s the quartet again with some tunes you might recognize.

*****

Understatement of the week:

Something tells me the commenter hasn’t met all that many nuns.

*****

Give peas a chance:

(Via Blackadder.)