Links for Mar 03, 2008

• Programmer Jason Rohrer follows up on his wildly successful 300kb game of mortality, Passage, with his newest game, Gravitation, that reflects on the struggle of fame, mania, and the creative process.

• YouTube video of Mario mashed with Half-life gaming mechanics and graphics.

• The Sundance Channel has a weeklong documentary series going over the lives and stories of famous photographers starting today. (nytimes.com)

• Apostrophe Atrophy looks at all the misuses of apostrophes in popular media and advertising. On the subject of grammar, punctuation, and the overall English language, Singapore seems to be doing a terrible job of promoting it as a secondary language. It’s okay, we suck at it too.

• A cool experiment on making decisions and the importance of choice, or the illusion of it, given to the testers. They have to choose between a three doors and each one has a different monetary reward; if they change which door they click on, though, they would get penalized a fee.

Michel Gondry at Deitch Projects

Alongside the premier of his new film, Be Kind Rewind (which, by the way, has an absolutely ingenious and clever site), Michel Gondry has set up an elaborate studio where guests can film their own 5 to 15 minute short. The New York Times covers a bit of the ideas behind his setup at the Deitch as well as questioning his intentions that they are contrasting with his actual film work:

The interactive populism on display at Deitch Projects disguises the mandarin nature of the enterprise. Mr. Gondry’s project is, in fact, a big, ambitious work of conceptual art, in the vein of what the French critic and theorist Nicolas Bourriaud has called “relational aesthetics.”…

It doesn’t add up. Mr. Gondry comes off seeming confused and conflicted — if not condescending, self-serving and intellectually slippery.

I think it’s a bit hokey but it conjures up a lot of spirit his new film embodies. The Times also has a video that walks through the gallery and gets Gondry to share his take on the whole project. If you didn’t catch the trailer when it first floated around the web, you can watch it here.

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.”