Movie. Watch. A Video Montage of 2011′s Black Cinema and Other Stuff

Ok, so I’m shakin’ and movin’ right now. I’ve got a week until school starts again and there’s this video editing gig I’ve been putting off because I’m trying to get through Skyrim, Catherine, Uncharted 3, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood — yeah, I’m behind — and Little Big Planet 2. I’m holed up in the coffee shop today, I just got through some bills and I have a window to talk to you for a bit. So, here’s what I got:

Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Is amazing! It may not be might favorite game this year but it is the best. Skyrim is this year’s best example of what video games can do that other entertainment mediums can’t. It’s an amalgamation of literature, interactive storytelling, radio, and film. I’ve read quite a few articles comparing Dark Souls to Skyrim and I have yet to be convinced the DS is anywhere near as good. I’m not buying the better use of story telling through subtlety that Rick Stanton discussed in Eurogamer. Back that up with some data, man. I can appreciate the combat in DS that Leigh Alexander preferred to see in Skyrim but I’m still not convinced that it’s better. Honestly, I’m not sure that Dark Souls was significantly better than Demon Souls. As we’ve seen with Portal 2, Batman: Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed 2, etc. the sequel is your statement game. Did Dark Souls really make a statement? I want to spend some more time with DS and Skyrim but I look forward to exploring this a little more in the future.

Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception

Developer Naughty Dog does such an incredible job of taking real estate from their previous games and somehow making them better. If you’ve played the previous two games you’ll notice how familiar parts of the boat scene in UC3 looks a lot like the end of UC1, for example, but they added just enough tweaks (uh, movable cover?) to make it better. I agree with most that the pacing in UC2 was just a tad better than Deception. But, I think the issue with people having an issue with Drake being a nice guy in cut scenes then a maniac when the gameplay kicks in needs to forgive themselves for watching seven seasons of Jack Bauer, four sequels of Die Hard, and a death count between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade that would have certainly got Indiana Jones fired from his teaching job at the university. Blasphemers! Nolan North and Nathan Drake is awesome.

Prometheus

I love the trailer but I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high. Filmmakers from my childhood have been a major disappointment in their old age. Speilberg gives us a war movie about a horse in World War 1 after Tintin and Indiana Jones 4 (Yuck!). Scorcese actually did direct Hugo (Word?). And, of course, let’s not forget good ‘ol George Lucas and his unbelievably terrible Star Wars prequels.

People keep talking about Prometheus being a prequel to Alien but am I the only one that read the interview with director Ridley Scott where he said that was the original idea and that Prometheus in… something else?

And, Finally: A Montage of 2011′s Black Films

I loved Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest, The Black Power Mixtape, V. 1, Columbiana and Attack the Block was brilliant. Viva Riva! is in the Netflix queue and I can’t wait to catch Shame after this article. If you recognize any of these other movies let me know but it looked like a pretty good year.

Note: props to Shadow and Act for putting this together.

Moore’s Law Makes Me Feel Good About Tomorrows Films

I read over 10 blogs per day on subjects ranging from technology, video games, education and film. The other day I went over to site Racialicious — my new crack, by the way — and I made one of the top 10 discoveries of the year.

I’m a pretty legitimate sci-fi/fantasy fan. I don’t geek out like some of my friends do. I’m more partial to a good yarn about. I’m a big story fiend, and the sci-fi/fantasy genre has a way of taking small ideas and making them profoundly big and majestic.

But, over the years I have yearned to see some movies that have a little something different to say. Simply put, most good television or big budget movie is centered on a white cast, protagonist, world and/or mythology. I still enjoy watching them, sure, but it would be nice to see an Asian superhero, a black cyborg or a Mexican-female savior of a post-apocalyptic world. I’m messing around a bit, but the point I’m trying to make is the country — let alone the world — is filed with people who are not white and male and I just want to watch movies about them from time to time.

With very small audiences interested in this sort of thing and historically big budgets and/or small distribution options getting these films done would be impossible. But, with the decreasing cost of film production equipment and easy distribution channels like Vimeo, Blip.tv and YouTube, apparently there’s this new boom of cool web series that I have since become hooked on.

You can check the article with a, sort of, Top 10 list of cool web series here. I’m pretty excited about them.

The Blogaboutech Mixtape, v. 2

At times when it comes to the Danger Brain blog I have nothing at all to talk about (and other times I’m ridiculously busy which is why I’ve been missing for so long) so, in an attempt to keep the words moving the Blogaboutech Mixtape is just that: a  ”mixtape” of today’s more interesting tech news. Yeah, sure it deviates a bit from what I usually write about but hey, I’m trying something new.

Locks that “Talk”

This is the coolest device that I’ve ever seen. Did you know that you can buy home locks that you can open and close remotely? I know the guy who owns a co-op work spot called Citizen Space in San Francisco. I saw this dude open and close his front door locks with his iPhone 4. I geek out over those things, but considering that I was in the company of a grown ass man I had to try really hard to evoke the same sense of boredom I did in 2000 when I was hanging out on a topless beach in Sydney, Australia. Yeah, well this is how we roll….where I come from.

But, that wasn’t the coolest part of the Kwikset locks. Do you have a problem with stalkers? Do you live in East Oakland? Did you forget how many ex-girlfriends you’ve given a copy of your keys? Have you watched Silence of the Lambs far too many times? If so, you’re going to love this nifty other feature. You can program the locks to email you when anytime they unlock! Now, that is cool.

YouTube’s $100 Million Star Power

This is happening on the under somewhat, but YouTube (which is actually Google) is paying close to 100 million buckaroonies to clients such as Shaq, Ashton Kutcher and The Onion to come up with original programming on their site.

This means two things:

One, with similar developments going on with Hulu Plus and Netflix and the rise of these really cool Internet Televisions (I. Want. One.) cable as we know it today is going to look very different in the next few years. Two, the Onion produced buddy cop television show starrting Kutcher and Shaquille O’Neal will be the 2012 Armageddon that the Mayans warned us about.

Fashion of the Future?

You bet it is. Those green, brown and/or beige fatigues are so last year. Camo firm, HyperStealth has designed a new type of camouflage (seen here) that is sitting on the precipice of blowing the f*** up. Apparently, computer simulations have shown that this pattern works for both indoor and outdoor environments.

“This is the unconventional pattern in field trials… The perceived depth within the pattern throws off the ambient and focal vision from noticing the target.”

Now, that is what they’re telling global military’s and private security firms like Blackwater and such. But, they have an entirely different division that is currently pitching it to the likes of the Gap and Urban Outfitters. Here’s what they had to say:

“Shirts adorned with this pattern are great for urban hipster clubs and also the modern day gang-banger’s who must blend in with their backgrounds since high gas prices have all but erased the once famous drive by’s. Once these shirts hit stores we expect the new name to be Pop. Stop and Freeze.”

The rumor is that we’ll see these clothes on store racks as soon as Spring 2012. Start saving… or, running?

How to Fight Useless Emails from your Parents

Have you ever received those really awful emails from your parents? You know the emails I’m talking about. Usually it’s a fwd of a fwd that will somehow give you luck, money or both if you fwd it to someone else. Or, it’s a clever quote that is either waaaay too long for the time you have or just cheesy as all HELL.

These emails are the digital equivalent of the those fluffy, white cards that you find in Walgreens with the odd looking Georgia Okeefe design on the front and/or a poem by a long dead and boring poet. Or, it’s from a poet that you actually like but feature some of their worst work. These emails are the digital equivalent of telling you grandmother how stressed out you are over your inabilty to understand the math portion of the GRE and she responds every time with, “you should go to church.”

In the world of endless email inboxes that feature yet another thing you have to do or someone’s attempt at covering their ass by saying, “hey didn’t you get my email,” these contributions from your parents are like the Anarchists that hit Whole Foods on during the big Oakland strike last month: I know you’re trying to help but stop, man. Stop.

Mat Honan has a great op-ed on the email side of our parents’ amusing transition into the 21st century with tips on how to handle it that include:

* Setting clear guidelines.
* Teaching them email etiquette.
* And, I would add labeling your parents as SPAM but that is me.

Honan gives more detailed advice. It’s a nice perspective to have and reminds me of not only my own ignorance to some of the computer programs I’m getting use to but also my desire to learn more, to stay curious and excited about new tech so I won’t inundate my children one day with useless attempts at trying to be trendy.

Chrome is the New Silver

It is December and apparently Google Chrome has passed up Firefox as the second most used web browser which makes me incredibly ashamed of myself. Y’see, I use Safari. No one informed me when I bought my Macbook Pro a year ago that browsers had become as trendy as phones which are now like shoes.

The teasing that I get for using the default Macbook browser reminds me of the elevated noses I experienced from the Pro Wing and Stadia shoes I use to wear in middle school. At the time, I never cared about looking cool or fashionable. I just wanted a nice pair of shoes to get me through the day. Of course, after all of the snide playground heckles I had to upgrade to Reeboks. Well, those aren’t that much of an upgrade but you get the point, right?

It’s bad enough that I’m starting to get self conscious about my Samsung Instinct. Sure, it isn’t as cool as the iPhone or the Android. OK, It isn’t even close, but, hey it get’s the job done. And, that is how I feel about my clunky little Safari. Sure, it drops on me often and occasionally I can’t watch any videos on it. So, what! Safari is like that old shirt we all have. Or, maybe it’s a pair of pants. Sure, it isn’t your best looking article of clothing. It isn’t going to win you any cool points when you’re wearing it. But, dammit when you have important things to do you need to feel comfortable. You need easily accessible pockets. You need to NOT be thinking about your weight. You need to feel like you’re wearing a part of yourself.

That, is my Safari. It is my old B.U.M. sports bag that I take with me to vacations in Mexico. Providence. Atlanta. It is the ripped up boxers from Hanes that I like to wear on warm days because they’re far more comfortable than the brand new pair I bought from Banana Republic. Safari is my ripped up sweat shirt or my dingy old baseball cap.

So, screw you browser snobs.

I like Safari.

What the HELL is a Magazine? No, really…

This won’t really surprise anyone, but it is amazing to watch. There’s a YouTube video making its rounds that show a 1 year old’s bewilderment over a magazine that doesn’t seem to function like an iPad. In the video the child comically acts as if the magazine is broken because it doesn’t respond when she touches it. Written in the description is this great line:

“For my 1 year old daughter a magazine is an iPad that does not work.”

Again, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. Even in my Art classes there isn’t too many books for us to purchase. Most of our readings are Wikipedia posts and YouTube videos. But, it is amazing to see this. It points to the development of a — sort of —  new literacy. Consider our academic upbringing. To prepare for college I had to learn how to read properly. I had to learn how to take notes, highlight passages, speed read when necessary, etc. All of those necessary skills one needs to have in order to be successful in a class.

It’s a really cool, bizarre and scary thought to consider what this will look like in twenty years. What skills will be necessary for this 1 year old’s generation? Will there be more emphasis on the need to understand user interfaces and operating systems? Perhaps, it’ll be important for them to know which are the best and most convenient applications to use for a given task, similar to the way a carpenter needs to know which are the best tools to use to build a dog house vs. some new kitchen cabinets?

On another note, keep a look out for more videos of the 1 year old as she touches a television screen, her fathers head and the iron while trying to understand why the world is just so 1982.

New App Gives the New York Times a Needed Facelift

Well this is interesting, timely even. If you’re a New York Times reader you might have a serious bee in your bonnet over how much information there is on their web page. Seriously, check it out here.

Bad, ain’t it?

I mean, it’s the Times so they have great content and fantastic articles. I get it. But, there are entirely too many links in their design and its all in these tiny Times and Calibiri fonts. I’m not even sure where the fold ends on that behemoth of a site. Perhaps, you just want to go to good ‘ol NYT, find an article and read it. Makes sense to me. Well, it also makes sense to developer, Michael Donohoe who just made an app called Ochs which is exclusive — and free.99 — for Google Chrome.

The Ochs app increases the type, cleans up the clutter adding more white space, and my personal favorite: it limits NYT’s proclivity towards multiple page articles that you have to click over and over and over. It’s available now over at the Chrome Web Store.

Robot HR 3035 is Coming to Attack Your Cell Phone

I have two phones, a cell phone service and I have a cell phone. Guess which phone rings the most? Yep, the land line despite the fact that I never use it and none of my friends have that number. I couldn’t even tell you what it is. So, why does that phone ring so much? I mean, who the HELL could be calling me numerous times per day? Robot callers. Those damn robots callers! And, if the Mobile Information Call Act of 2011 is passed by a Congress that loves corporate business, Robot HR 3035 will find you where ever you go.

Robot callers are basically phone calls from God-knows-which company to sell you something, or they could be from a bill collectors or something. We’ve all experienced them and we hate it. We hate it when someone, whether it’s a robot or a real person, calls a number that we did not knowingly give them and tries to sell us shit, bug us or otherwise wastes our precious time.

Apparently, the cleverly worded Bill finds a way to get around the laws that currently restricts them from calling your cell phone. Prepare to be horrified!

First, since an automatic dialing system is illegal the bill redefines what that is. Their argument? They don’t use automatic dialing systems anymore. Dialing is old technology (sneaky bastards). The new technology will allow them to ‘target’ specific callers. But, how in the name of star 69 can it be legal for them to target you, huh?

The second strategy from HR 3035 states that your phone number is your consent. Can you believe this load of crap? Consider how many times you sign up for something and you are required to give them a phone number. Well, if this bill passes it will be legal for them to call that number for any reason they want, for as frequent as they want and in any way they choose to (consider text messaging) because you gave up your phone number. As far as they’re concerned, if you didn’t want them to call you you wouldn’t have left you phone number.

And, the last most witty strategy that Robot Bill HR 3035 is using to strip you of your cell phone privacy is they promise not to call you to deliberately sell you anything. That’s good news, right? Wrong. What this means is the dogs we call bill collectors will have their leashes completely removed. As for everyone else they will most likely change the way they call you. For example, since your purchasing habits clearly show that you like shopping at the Gap they will call or text you from time to time to inform you that the latest V neck sweaters and matching art-less t shirts are available at your nearest store.

We love our smart phones. We love the many things we can do on them and more importantly, the way they are private extensions of our self. It hurts almost when we break a phone or someone steals it. The endless applications and customizable options of today’s smart phones attaches us to them unlike the old rotary phones or pagers even.

A cell phone is your club house. An Android phone is someone’s country club. An iPhone, your studio apartment. Today’s phones are your haven of privacy. But, prepare people, for the HR 3035 Robot callers are coming!

All kidding aside, if you’re just as pissed about this as me click here. It’s a petition. Easy and quick to fill out.

The Blogaboutech Mixtape, v. 1

At times when it comes to the Danger Brain blog I have nothing at all to talk about (and other times I’m ridiculously busy which is why I’ve been missing for so long) so, in an attempt to keep the words moving the Blogaboutech Mixtape is just that: a  ”mixtape” of today’s more interesting tech news. Yeah, sure it deviates a bit from what I usually write about but hey, I’m trying something new.

Is Digital Money the New Way to Buy Drugs

Joe Brown of Gizmodo asked that question. Apparently, he knows a guy (who knows a guy) that bought some weed with a square account. According to Brown:

“As long as you don’t put some idiotic note on your account like “drugs,” virtual currency would be a really easy way for drug dealers to take one very dangerous aspect of trafficking out of the equation—as long as they took some precautions.”

This got me to thinking…not about drugs, mind you, but what if the homeless used this kind of payment method? Imagine if, instead of using the Street Smart newspapers to get a buck from people, you passed out cards with your account and people could transfer money to it and the same seamless way that one can use PayPal to buy Farmville items?

Yeah, laugh now! You’ll see.

More People to be Put out of Work in These Troubling Times

Software engineer, Ricky Robinett has launched a brand new site that is certain to put an alarming number of single women out of work. It’s called Fakegirlfriend.co. Popular amongst both single and married men, Robinett’s site allows men to have strategic and timely text messages sent to their phone with out having to court anyone for it.

Need to look good in front of the homies? Have a meeting that you desperately want to get out of? Getting these done is as easy as a few taps on your iPhone. As a matter of fact, Fakegirlfriend.co, which you can also program to call you, joins a series of other new sites that collectively make it much easier for male commitment-phobes to continue through life in relative comfort.

So, what about the girls? Are they going to get a similar service? If this isn’t funny enough, when asked about the possibility of a Fakeboyfriend.co, Rickett wasn’t sure. Apparently, the domain name is taken.

Introducing the Kindle Fire

Priced at $199.00, Amazon announced (awhile back) the brand new Kindle Fire. The tech world went ablaze after Wednesday’s press conference in New York. With many analysts believing that the new tablet will bite into a tremendous chunk of Apples market share reporters asked them to comment. The makers of the newly announced iPad 2 had this to say: “Um, yeah. We have more money than the American government.”And, yes they did provide that link over there.

Life is a Phone

In William Gibson’s latest novel, Zero History, he has this great line where he talks about how the idle time that we spend on our cell phone in social settings have replaced cigarettes. Think about it. If a person is sitting outside waiting for someone to pick them up they might fire up their Android phone instead of a stick of Camel Lights. Trying to look cool at the bar by yourself? Pull out your iPhone and pretend like you’re doing something.

This brief little description stuck with me mainly because I see myself doing it all the time. But, I bring it up here because it was exactly the type of thing I was thinking about when I read this post.

In a brief commentary on comedian Louis C.K.’s annoyance with smart phones, Gizmodo blogger Michael Zhao has this fantastic line.

Nowadays when something interesting happens, people get so wrapped up in proving they were there, they neglect to experience the actual moment… Is a life that’s distillable to a 3.5-inch retina display a life truly worth living?

It’s such a simple but poignant statement. The quick answer, one would expect, is that life is certainly worth living with out the 3.5 inch display, however you can’t deny that smartphones are creating a significant cultural shift in the way we experience life. They are far more than devices that we use to call other people. As a matter of fact, we probably spend more time using them then we do actually talking to someone.

During the Occupy Oakland March there were hundreds of people using their phones to aid their experience. Smartphones, in retrospect, seemed like an augmentation that people used to:

•  Capture the moment.
• Share it with people who are there and not there.
• Speak with people who are there and not there.
• And, to ensure that they were able to maximize their experience using numerous phone features to help navigate through the march (accessing Mapquest, for example, or the BART schedule to plan the exodus back home).

All of this happened en masse and simultaneously creating a phalanx of augmented, connected and similar experiences. It sounds like a beautiful idea, and the march was a great experience, but in leau of C.K.’s comments, I wonder what we may have missed at that protest.

Further, I wonder what we miss in life as we attempt to squeeze everything into a 3.5 inch display. Are our senses (hear, smell, touch, taste and see) being gradually replaced by an augmented and arguably different set of senses (connectivity, capture, and a layered form of communication that involves text, video, pictures and to a lesser degree, voice)? If so, what does this mean for our future? Are we becoming better humans or less than human?

At the end of the clip of Louis C.K.’s rant he jokes that one day Jesus will show up and everyone will be caught up in experiencing it through their phones; taking pictures, texting, tweeting and posting to their friends or YouTube. They will be so caught up with their phones that the value of the experience of standing before Christ and listening to him without any tech support…will irritate the heck out of him.