I don’t remember my Othello board having this much functionality

This is genius. And fun!

(Othello game, aka Reversi, for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about.)

New Bird On The Block No. 29 to infinity and beyond

I have not yet caught the IFC original series Portlandia, but my dad sent me the link to this NPR story on it, with specific instructions to “watch the bird video”. It is a hilarious parody of how a design trend can go awry. 

My poor little birdies, I still love them, even if they are doomed to become passé.

PS – It’s snowing. Again.

Orson Welles to the principal’s office please

Rival high schools in Shoreline, WA are duking it out on YouTube with two clever “lip dub” videos, each filmed in one continuous shot, one take, and a cast of hundreds.

Shorecrest threw down the gauntlet with Outkast’s “Hey Ya”:

And Shorewood came back with Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams Come True”:

The first one is very fun and clever, but the second one is quite amazing. The lip sync is a bit off but consider that they were doing it backwards! We never did anything this cool when I was in high school…

More here.

The Orson Welles remark in the title references the opening shot in his film Touch of Evil, filmed in one continuous take (my college film professor would be amazed that I remembered this bit of cinematic lore). Scorsese also used the long tracking shot extensively in Goodfellas, and Hitchcock filmed the entire movie The Rope in ten total shots. Geez, I’m a geek.