Product shoot for Self Edge

I got a chance to grab some product over the past few weeks and finally found the time to sneak into the studio for a bit of work. Sneak peek at some of the new releases from Self Edge after the jump.

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Links for Feb 29, 2008

• Since I’ve been growing my hair out for a year, I should have figured the new shit would be not washing your hair. I might reconsider, though, considering how cracked out this woman looks after not washing her hair for eleven years.

• So there’s a reason why we have leap years. Ignoring the Gregorian calendar system, the Chinese are throwing in an extra leap month. That’s a helluva lot of extra time.

• They’re running out of ways to compare the two candidates: Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC? I will admit, though, Hillary’s is much more sterile and boxy then Obama’s site, which has a bit more openness and web 2.0 flavor to it. A good choice of font by Obama’s campaign as well; it strikes a similar chord to his slogan.

• A new trailer for Iron Man is out, and damn does it look good.

• Gizmodo reviews Apple’s new external hdd and wireless router, Time Capsule.

• The New York Times report on the ‘Venus and Serena Williams’ of golf, Ginger and Robbi Howard. His father says, “My philosophy, which my kids understand, is that they play the best of the best so they’ll know who they are. Earn what you get. It’s O.K. to be on TV and all, but you have to prove your worth, too.”

Links for Feb 28, 2008

• The New York Times has a small slideshow on MOMA’s newest gallery Design and the Elastic Mind.

• Desiree Palmen has an extensive body of camouflage photography, integrating a seamless transition into background details with a painted body suit. It reminds me a bit of the aberration one would expect from an invisibility suit.

• Google is now offering free lifetime phone numbers and voicemail for the homeless in San Francisco. While it’s not the free city-wide wifi that I’ve been looking for, it’s another step along the way. Sandy told me recently that MUNI and BART just got wifi capabilities too. It’s come a long way.

Secret shoppers and the dirty things they eat

Wired recently published an article on secret shoppers and their underground network of workers for Consumer Reports. It’s short but quite insightful for those who’ve been curious as to how secret shopping and product review works. One thing I never really considered was the ’secret’ part of secret shopping. I suppose you’re really not supposed to let anyone know your agenda.

But Jon’s favorite story by far is the ice cream. With pints stacked on the floor and an angry stocker looming overhead, Jon had to say something. “So I go into my Rain Man routine,” he says. “Count the vanilla, count the vanilla, gotta count the vanilla.’ Eventually, the stocker just gives up and walks away. And I get my ice cream.”

What’s more impressive is Consumer Reports’ rigorous testing for all appliances and products in their specialized laboratories. Don’t even think about taste testing; preparing for it is serious fucking business.

In the case of the ice cream, the pints are handed off to the magazine’s sensory group. They’ll be just as scrupulous in the testing as Jon was in the buying. “We put things in our mouths that you wouldn’t normally put in your mouth,” says group manager Maxine Siegel. “We’ll use a penny to get a baseline for a metallic taste, Crisco for that fatty mouthfeel, cornstarch mix for a chalky texture. We’ll chew on birthday candles to get a sense of wax.”

Speaking of pennies, if I was a taste tester for Consumer Reports, I would not, under any circumstances, put a penny in my mouth. Pennies are absolutely filthy and have been to many unmentionable places. They are the bottom of the barrel. Don’t trust me? Trust this guy in this UCB video. Not that I would have touched that penny anyway…

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Hideo Kojima’s final installment of his epic franchise, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, is due out June 12, 2008. I’ve been waiting forever for this game; ever since the original Playstation series, with it’s nagging interface issues and limit-pushing espionage gameplay for it’s time, I’ve been addicted to this stealth-heavy action game that requires more than just a trigger happy finger. Largely focused on inner government workings and diluted conspiracy theories, Kojima wraps you around his finger as he immerses your hero, Solid Snake, and his FOXHOUND team in a myriad of sordid history of experimental genome projects during the Gulf War, and nuclear war machines aptly named “Metal Gears”.

And the kicker is… it’s being bundled with a Playstation 3 80GB with a new DualShock 3 controller as well… for $499.

Oh. Fuck. Yes. You know what I’ll be doing later this Summer… (playing MGS4 while locked in my parent’s house, only leaving intermittently for Mission Street burritos or chicken katsu at Hawaiian Drive-inn.)

I dug up some of the more recent and newest English gameplay demos of the game from a recent E4 convention. It’s stock full of new gameplay mechanics while integrating the same systems MGS fans know and love. The refinement in the flow of natural movements from player-controlled action to automated attack animation is seamless and believable. I can only be sad that it’s going to conclude the series I have been following since it’s 3-d inception on the first Playstation.

Watch the videos after the jump.

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Pale red Katrina

I was trying to play with noir-esque tones against the splash of a highly vibrant color in the studio last week, but it didn’t turn out the way I had envisioned. I retooled it quickly and managed to come up with something fairly reminiscent of the imagery in my mind. Thanks so much for sitting in for an hour Katrina; I can’t believe you actually made it down to the studio in a reasonable amount of time.

Click to enlarge…

Concept USB Digital Camera

We have here what seems to be a future concept of the World’s smallest USB Digital Camera by Korean designer Sungwoo Park. Imagine a tiny USB camera with no viewfinder, no LCD screen, no buttons except one. Completely stripped down to its bare functions, this mini USB Digital Camera combines the feeling of not knowing how your shots turned out ala analog film with the ease of USB transfer.

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The Mae Shi - HLLLYH

The L.A. based group, The Mae Shi, has a shit ton of work out from previous years, but I can’t find anything but a few bare songs of their most recent release HLLLYH. I think they used to play bar mitzvahs and shit; the songs off their recent release are pretty dope.

mp3: the mae shi - run to your grave

mp3: the mae shi - i get (almost) anything i want

mp3: the mae shi - lamb & lion

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