This year I wanted to learn how to weld. Just like learning to program, it helps to have a project to focus on so I found some interesting objects at scrap yards and decided to turn them into furniture.
I started with an rusted warehouse grate and some old steel bannister and made a side table. I then found an old library lamp and rewired it (complete with color-changing LED light). And when we moved into the Two Bit Circus Big Top, we found three old sections of metal fence so Dan Busby and I welded it together with angled steel legs to make a dining table. I'm picking up 300lbs in glass to cover it with tomorrow!
I'm now spending a little more time with wood and started with a simple coat rack. Now looking forward to making benches to match the dining table.
There are few things as rewarding as building with your hands!
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OK Go Rube Goldberg Music Video /
The minds (and bodies) of Syyn Labs spent the past three months building a huge, two-story Rube Goldberg machine during which a piano gets dropped and a TV is smashed with a sledge hammer. Why? It's the centerpiece for the latest music video from the band OK Go (remember... the guys who did the treadmill video). It features the song "This Too Shall Pass" and even after listening to it hundreds of times, it still sounds good!
Huge thanks to the band for this opportunity and to all the Syyn Labs and Mindshare folks that helped pull this together. Special recognition to Adam Sadowsky for orchestrating the whole thing like a pro conductor. Thanks to all the people that helped make my vision for the Legos a reality! Namely: Dylan Bushnell, Heather Knight, Liya Brook, Paul Grasshoff, Peter Svidler, Izumi Hamagaki, Wyatt Bushnell, Sam Leventer, and Mahdroo McCaleb. Hats off to the steady camera man, a major hero for his ability to capture this on film! Thanks to the magical eye of Josh Reiss for capturing photos of the whole thing too!
Updates:
- The video was covered on NY Times, CNN, Examiner, Wired, Makezine, NPR, NBC Los Angeles, BoingBoing 1st, BoingBoing 2nd, DVICE, Gizmodo 1st, Gizmodo 2nd & PerezHilton!
- It's been ranked the #5 most viral video of all time?! And Rolling Stone considers it one of the best videos of 2010
- An interesting article showing the statistics on the "viral effect" of the video is available at the Viral Blog
- A few previews from before the launch available at Rolling Stone, LA Times and AltPress
- LACMA is featuring a few components from the machine, including the Legos! There will be a concert fundraiser on March 5th, 2010. For tickets call 323 857-6010 or visit the LACMA site
- More info on the project and the release is available here
- There's now a Wikipedia article about it.
- OK Go won a webby! More info here.
- A panorama of the top floor, courtesy of Pehr Hovey, is available here (1.5MB JPG)
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UCLA Hammer Museum /
Tyler Bushnell and I spent Saturday at a party at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Westwood. We were slated to bring our Laser Maze but the fire marshall thought the particulates in the fog machine would anger the smoke detectors. We fell back to bringing the party table and 3D game. Despite the setback, I must say the attendees had a ball! There were some great other pieces onsite including a not-so-subtle twist on Rodin's Thinker. [nggallery id=20]
ArtWalk Fall '09 /
Wow! What a weekend. The Virsix showroom was alive and packed during the biannual Brewery ArtWalk. We had five of our games available and people ages 5 to 70 competing away! Players tested their cat burgling skills in the Laser Maze, avoided traffic in our foot tracking Frogger-style game, contorted their body for human Tetris, and even flew around the galaxy in a space battle. Thanks to all involved for their help putting this on, especially the guys at H2P for a marvelous job filming. [nggallery id=18]
ArtFall /
I had a blast collaborating with Eric Gradman last month on an interactive art installation named ArtFall. There's a complete description here, and a downloadable iPhone encoded video here.Update: Artfall was covered in Makezine, Hackaday, Matt Cutts blog and a French blog. ArtFall from Eric Gradman and Brent Bushnell on Vimeo.