Photo Credit: Kai Mudiwa

Raheem Jarbo better known as Random or Random Beats or Mega Ran is an American underground rapper and record producer. He started making up rhymes when he was 16 years old, and got into producing a few years later. He released his debut album The Call in 2006, and is made a big hit with his album Mega Ran, a tribute to Mega Man (soon after we used his track in my film Second Skin!). This album made Random one of the superstars in Nerdcore. Now he’s come back to us with a new tantalizing offering of nerd beats and rhymes. This time he’s teamed up with K-Murdock to make it all happen. P10 asked him 10 and got some answers for you.

1. How was Mega Ran born? When did you say: “Wait a minute, it’s time I rapped over video game music”
Yeah, actually….I had gotten to a stage of my life where I was unhappy with the music I was making… I needed a break, so I stopped making music and started playing games. It was like the moment when Ace Ventura’s dog laid on the picture of Ray Finkle. aha!! Video games and rap! That’s it! And Mega Ran was born.

2. How do you choose which video games make the cut? What is it about Little Nemo? What memories do these games spark? How do you bring in that nostalgia to your lyrics?

I always choose the games that 1) had standout music and 2) were important to my childhood in some way. The memories connected to this music are so numerous… In general, it takes me back to a time of total innocence.. When life was so simple.

3. You become unstuck from time and have the opportunity to change one event in history. Where do you go and what do you change?

I don’t think I’d change anything, because our history is who we are. Without it, we’re nothing. I think that’s the social studies teacher in me…. Plus Doc Brown always warned Marty that if you alter the past it will drastically affect the future… I’m a huge fan of the Back to the Future series, haha.

4. How long did it take to record Forever Famicom? How was it collaborating with K-Murdock on this project?

was about a 3 year process from inception to completion, but I had other obligations and projects that took up most of that time. Kyle and I met online years ago and chatted about making this project, but it took about 9 months of solid writing and recording. It was my first time recording a whole project without actually being in the room with the engineer– it was a cool experience, and I’d love to do it again.

5. Thematically what should people take away from Forever Famicom?

That 8 bit will never die! These themes are the new classics.  I want people to recognize and respect the 8 bit and 16 bit tunes, and tho appreciate the work that went into creating a new work out of them. I hope that when people play it, they’re taken back to their youth, and the games they enjoyed.

6. You get $200,000 dollars to work on a concept album? What do you do? Where do you go?

I’d go to London and record a live album with the Philharmonic orchestra.

7. Who are your role models?

My mom, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley and Mozart. In life, Martin Luther King, Ghandi… and Spider-Man.

8. What song or album are you listening to right now that I should be listening to?

I really love the new Sage Francis single, “The Best of Times.” it’s like he told my life’s story with that one.

9. Is there a bridge between in-game music and hip-hop that you’re trying to make? How are you paving the way for nerdcore?

I don’t know– I mean, I just want to do something fun, something different. I want what every artist wants: to make a difference in a new way. Nerdcore, and hip-hop on a whole, has existed before me, and hopefully will after, but I hope when I’m gone someone will recognize that I somewhat made a mark in some weird way.

10. What’s next? Are you touring this summer?

I’ll be touring all summer, from east to south to the west. Check out megaran.com/shows for more details.
Forever Famicom will release in Japan in the Fall, hopefully I’ll be over there for some promotional stuff; then it’s back to school!

LISTEN TO SOME OF HIS TRACKS ON YOUTUBE.

BUY THE ALBUM HERE!

There is something so satisfying about seeing aging juggernaut Microsoft fail on its feet so badly. Introducing and ending the Kin – In just 48 short days we have seen an abysmal product (marketed heavily on top 40 radio around the nation) that you may or may not have heard of go from being the latest effort in Microsoft’s restart to being its next massive disappointment. This company is having difficulty tying it’s own shoes when it wakes up in the morning! I can only imagine how disheartening it is to be so behind the curve while still throwing millions if not billions of dollars at the same problems year after year.

Guess what Microsoft: You are your own worst enemy. You’re scared of the market and making things that are built for people nobody. Why are you doing this? My best guess is you have incredibly smart people that are being given carte blanche on projects, and they’re finding the system that governs production and testing is incredibly outdated. It’s time to give up all that stored up pride all you unhappy Vice Presidents’ and get back to brass tacks.

I hope the success of an operating system (Windows 7) that isn’t completely backwards hasn’t made you too happy. Google is coming for you ~ and Apple beware. You’re not going to hold on to that #1 throne for too long.

So if you’re into discontinued products that have barely any use (and no cross platform appeal) then buy a brand new Kin at the Verizon store. I’m sure you’ll be as disappointed as they are at Microsoft. Dang guys, get your act together! Somebody might start taking notice… oh right… too late. Verizon slashed the prices of the phones to $50 from $200 for the higher-end model and to $30 from $150 for a stripped-down version. Verizon still claims they’re taking Kin seriously… although it seems like this device is having a fire sale. Watch for them to pop up at local dollar stores, Tru Value, and the Family Dollar.

Special thanks to I Can Has Cheezburger for the appropriate photo to describe what Microsoft needs right now.

Also, just to get the record straight, I have no big love for any of the major companies in the tech game. They’re just products and as those go I think Google has stepped up their OS game a lot with the Android. Now if they could stop randomly introducing weird things like Google Wave or Buzz to the market we would be square.

Werner Herzog is probably one of the most beloved/hated documentary filmmakers of our time. Right up there with Michael Moore. His musings are at once obtrusive, insightful, redundant, and interesting to watch.

For an incredibly callous approach to a film watch “Grizzly Man”. The video above exemplifies what it’s like to see the world like him. Also, he randomly got shot in the leg a few months back while being interviewed.

So it looks like the machines are going to win at another tried and true American game, Jeopardy. IBM just recently finished a computer called “Watson”, and it’s taking aim at all the trivia crazed population thus making humans obsolete in yet another category (oh the humanity). First the steam powered hammer. Then Kasparov loses to Deep Blue (also IBM’s invention). Finally, Watson will take out Trebek (at least all his contestants). I guess the only thing we’ll be watching in the future will be CPU vs CPU. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane though.

Steam Powered Hammer, 1840s

John Henry is an American folk hero, notable for having raced against a steam powered hammer and won, only to die in victory with his hammer in his hand. He has been the subject of numerous songs, stories, plays, and novels. He had a 20 pound hammer that he thought was light, was 6 feet tall, and weighed about 200 pounds. – Wikipedia

Deep Blue, 1997

In May 1997, an updated version of Deep Blue defeated Kasparov 3½–2½ in a highly publicised six-game match. The match was even after five games but Kasparov was crushed in Game 6. This was the first time a computer had ever defeated a world champion in match play. – Wikipedia

Watson, 2010

This is the quintessential sort of clue you hear on the TV game show “Jeopardy!” It’s witty (the clue’s category is “Postcards From the Edge”), demands a large store of trivia and requires contestants to make confident, split-second decisions… Nobody ever tackled “Jeopardy!” because experts assumed that even for the latest artificial intelligence, the game was simply too hard: the clues are too puzzling and allusive, and the breadth of trivia is too wide. With Watson, I.B.M. claims it has cracked the problem — and aims to prove as much on national TV. – NY Times

There are a few surprises in the fight for the Gulf of Mexico. One is that Kevin Costner is not only a humanitarian, but he has a plan on how to save us from the worst oil spill of all time. He teamed up with his brother after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, bought up a patented process from the Department of energy, hired scientists, and got to work. He invested 20 million dollars in the business, and developed something that cleans 210,000 gallons of oil-polluted water per day. Currently BP has bought 30 of these devices, and should be deploying them soon. Unbelievably there is no technology created by big oil to handle this kind of disaster except fish nets and long plastic devices that skim the surface.

Are your bucket loads of money 2 ply BP? Couldn’t you spend at least $50 million a year on developing new technologies such as this one? Gross negligence the live camera footage of the broken pipe is just appalling.

Christ after all the horrifying imagery I’ve been looking at, and the press statements by BP/Halliburton… it’s enough to make a grown man cry. We need something hilarious and cathartic to even believe there is a God. And just like that thank you Upright Citizens Brigade for taking these knuckleheads to the cleaners. In this sketch BP is at a board meeting where one of them spills a cup of coffee, and they all try to join forces to fix the disaster together.

Okay ~ back to why we need to do something about all this right now. We need some harrowing looks at how bad things have gotten. We’re responsible for this atrocity.

After that we need something to bring us back up. Well thank Jesus we still have Costner. At another press conference he goes hero, and tells us what he’s done and why he took matter into his own hands.

Costner takes center stage at 4:32

Coster had this to say: “It may seem an unlikely scenario that I am the one delivering this technology at this moment in time,” he said. “But from where I’m sitting, it is equally unfathomable that these machines are not already in place.”

Which leads me to a simple thesis statement I would like to present to you all: Fuck BP

I had the chance to chat with fellow filmmaker David Heilbroner about his latest picture “Stonewall Uprising”.  Its about the 1969 riots that began the Gay Rights Movement. The film premieres on June 16th at the Film Forum, and will be in theaters near you. David, of course, is incredibly excited.

“It was the Rosa Parks moment,” says one man. June 28, 1969: NYC police raid a Greenwich Village Mafia-run gay bar, The Stonewall Inn. For the first time, patrons refuse to be led into paddy wagons, setting off a 3-day riot that launches the Gay Rights Movement. Told by Stonewall patrons, Village Voice reporters and the cop who led the raid, STONEWALL UPRISING compellingly recalls the bad old days when psychoanalysts equated homosexuality with mental illness and advised aversion therapy, and even lobotomies; public service announcements warned youngsters against predatory homosexuals; and police entrapment was rampant. A treasure-trove of archival footage gives life to this all-too-recent reality, a time when Mike Wallace announced on a 1966 CBS Reports: “The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous. He is not interested in, nor capable of, a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage.” At the height of this oppression, the cops raid Stonewall, triggering nights of pandemonium with tear gas, billy clubs and a small army of tactical police. The rest is history.

- Film Forum’s synopsis of “Stonewall Uprising”

1. What got you interested in making a film about the Stonewall Uprising? Why now? What’s the importance of this subject today?

Stonewall was a story Kate and I thought had already been told which is why, when American Experience approached us about doing a Stonewall Doc we both felt nonplussed. Then, when we started to look at the huge amount of material that had never been put on film, and listened to the voices of the people who were fighting on the streets those nights back in 1969, we suddenly felt that we had a chance to make a real contribution to the historical and cultural record about the great human rights struggle.

I think the film is timely now, especially timely, because America has finally come far enough historically to look back at how deeply homophobic we were as a society and feel a true sense of horror. The film, I hope, remains an inspiration to all people who still feel oppressed, carrying a message that history often changes from the bottom up.

2. Were there moments you uncovered while researching that surprised you? Who or what was the most disturbing?

Most disturbing was the archival footage from the 50s and 60s showing the respectable likes of Mike Wallace on CBS stating with absolute certainty that “the average homosexual…is promiscuous. He is neither interested in nor capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage.” And Wallace was not alone…

3. You get 10 million dollars to work on whatever project (film or series) that suits your fancy? What subject do you attack and who do you interview?

It’s too late now, but I’d rent a boat/copter, cover the oil spill and try to get inside BP to watch CEO Tony Hayward soul searching late at night…

4. Making a movie is team work between you. How does the creative process work for you both? Does one of you edit while the other sifts through history?

Kate and I trade off in all sorts of ways. Kate usually does the first pass at an edit, then I can come in and see the bigger picture. In very general terms, she tends to be better at fine cutting and I am better at structure on a larger scale, but that generalization often falls apart. Our main motto is that we have to check our egos at the door. It’s the film that counts. And there’s no job too small that one of us won’t do it.

5. Who are your role models (fictional or real)?

I tend to admire all the really uncompromising artists, be they painters, novelists or musicians. They range from Jimi Hendrix to Vladimir Nabokov to Werner Herzog. That’s probably because in film it’s really hard not to bend to the dictates of a commissioning editor, though Kate and I do it all the time and pride ourselves on being good team players.

6. What film of yours are you most proud of and why?
Right now it’s Stonewall Uprising because we managed to blend a lot of different techniques into an aesthetically unified whole. There were deeply intimate interviews, recreations, and deep historical archival montage. We could never have pulled off this film ten years ago.

6. Have we evolved as a society much from when the original Stonewall Uprising took place? Are we getting closer to real equality?

I think every generation finds new ways to look at equality, and inequality — a lesson I have learned from being a parent of teenagers. Socially, we have evolved profoundly from the rampant, nasty homophobia of the 1960’s (gay men were hospitalized, arrested, even castrated!) but I have no illusions that there’s not a long way to go. The real goal, I think is in post-identity politics, where we get beyond grouping people into segments and demographics. But that’s probably a pipe dream.

7. You both get to co-direct a film with the documentarian of your choice? Who do you choose to work with?

Me, I’d choose Werner Herzog. I’d just be grateful to get coffee and watch him work!

8. Are you still writing novels? How do you balance the writing/directing/producing?

Novels and all other creative activities, like music, have been on the back burner for the past two years as we’ve been making three docs simultaneously. Stonewall, Diagnosis Bipolar (which aired last year on HBO) and a murder story for HBO that is still in production.

9. What song or album are you listening to right now that I should be listening to?

Carlos Lyra, Revisited Classics.

10. Best pizza in NYC?
I make my own, and my wife swears by it…

Thanks David for taking the time out to chat.

George Carlin was a character. His most notable impression in my early life was when I first saw him as Rufus in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. With the anniversary of his death on June 22nd, 2008 coming up Popten thought it was time for an homage to one of his best comedic performances ~

From Wikipedia:
The seven dirty words are seven English-language words that comedian George Carlin first listed in 1972 in his monologue “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television”. At the time, the words were considered highly inappropriate and unsuitable for broadcast on the public airwaves in the United States, whether radio or television. As such, they were avoided in scripted material, and bleep-censored in the rare cases in which they were used; broadcast standards differ in different parts of the world, then and now, although most of the words on Carlin’s original list remain taboo on American broadcast television as of 2010. The list was not an official enumeration of forbidden words, but rather was compiled by Carlin. Nonetheless, a radio broadcast featuring these words led to a Supreme Court decision that helped establish the extent to which the federal government could regulate speech on broadcast television and radio in the United States.

One of my good friends, Motion Graphics animator Anthony Kraus, chose a passage from one of his favorite routines and created some kinetic typography for the visuals.

George Carlin:
Someone was quite interested in these words. They kept referring to them: they called them bad, dirty, filthy, foul, vile, vulgar, coarse, in poor taste, unseemly, street talk, gutter talk, locker room language, barracks talk, bawdy, naughty, saucy, raunchy, rude, crude, lude, lascivious, indecent, profane, obscene, blue, off-color, risqué, suggestive, cursing, cussing, swearing… and all I could think of was: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits!

And one last bit of awesome news is this inaugurates PoptenTV on Youtube! Subscribe to the channel for new cool content coming at you in the next few weeks.

I don’t normally get on a soapbox, and I’m not going to do that now. Years ago I started feeling like something was wrong with our educational system, and for a long time I tried to pin point what it was that rubbed me the wrong way. I read a book called “Bomb the Suburbs” that led me to “No More Prisons”, and its message was that I could have been making choices about my career since I was in high school. It caught me by surprise and made me feel sheepish for believing that life could only really begin once my formal education had ended. Like everyone else I was anxious to finish school, then (like most people) on leaving I could think of nothing grander than going back, and it made me feel like our system had only made me good at being in school.

I feel the tenants our system has been built on haven’t evolved nearly as fast as we have socially, and as such are for an era that past us by decades ago. I’ll give one specific about a modern failure that continues to be a major part of our curriculum ~ memorization. Why do we need to focus so heartily on having a body of knowledge stored up in our heads when computers are much better at disseminating those facts to us? We need to be better at comprehending, evaluating, and adding to arguments. There are innumerable ways to attack this issue, and we just have to get the ball rolling so children don’t get left behind (for real this time though not like in the horrible Bush program that was made). We need to build institutions that benefit a digital era so that valuable graduates don’t come out of school with the wrong skill sets. And I think getting there starts with great conversations.

There are a ton of people that have chimed in on the age old debate of what to do about our defunct system. I don’t really think there is one individual answer that’s correct ~ like saying “Mormon” is the right answer. It’s just that we have more options than we usually believe, and it’s time to start thinking outside the box… or rather poking holes in the box.

I don’t know if I’m really justified to have an opinion about education in general, but I seem to have one, so I figured it was about time I said something. My brother was a teacher at a progressive school on the upper west side, and we chatted a fair amount about the state of education in our country. Another teacher I know works with autistic children, and described at length the antiquated ways in which she is forced to make them learn. I mentored young adults at Street Wise Partners, a non-profit program for bootstrapping under served individuals into better career paths, and that was at once the best experience and saddest verification of a broken system.

I directed the video above for the Institute for Democratic Education in America. I met Dana, the founder of IDEA, at a private school on the upper west side while I was shooting a fundraising video. I’m not 100% sure it’s the right path, but I do think it’s a good path, maybe a good start rather. So below is a little information about what democratic education is straight from their website. Personally, I have found the ethos to be more valuable than what I have seen in practice thus far at schools where the follow its guidelines. However, it’s still a system in its nascent years and has a lot of room to grow. One thing I really like about it is that one size does not fit all, and its implementation in different schools can be catered to what the student population wants and needs:

IDEA envisions an educational system based on respect for human rights and values of freedom and responsibility, participation and collaboration, and equity and justice.

Founded by educators from across the country, IDEA is committed to bridging the disconnect between our democratic values and the way we educate and treat young people. This disconnect is striking, as the learning experience today is largely determined by a standardized, high-stakes, and de-personalized approach that alienates young people from learning and drives gifted teachers out of the profession.

In contrast, democratic education starts from the premise that every young person is unique, and that all young people ought to have the opportunity to live and learn in an environment that practices meaningful participation, that supports self-initiative in learning, and that is directed towards greater equality and social justice.

We created IDEA to tap into and build on the energy of people around the nation who support democratic education. We believe that only by working together strategically will we have the chance to influence the national dialogue about education advance learning that matters.

The work of IDEA is further guided by our commitment to remain humble and open in our dialogue with others, to be full of genuine regard for all people, to think big and “speak truth to power with love” (West, 1993), and to infuse our work with a spirit of humor, fun, and positivity.

Download IDEA’s Brochure (3.39MB)

So please join the conversation. Share the video with a few of your friends if you would be so kind. We need to be better prepared for our digital lives than we are now.

Some people make horrible decisions, others are just bad presidents, a few are bloodthirsty, many are extremists, a couple are warmongers, and all of these guys are a mix. Ten of our political leaders in the last 130 years have been the architects of the most horrific genocides, systematic murders, blockades, brutal wars, and policy reforms history has ever recorded.

Where to begin? Maybe an icebreaker for you next dinner party? Did you know the word “genocide” was coined in 1943 to describe when the Armenians were slaughtered haphazardly by Turkish leader Ismail Enver? Until then there was no specific word for it in our language. It makes me think about how much more cognizant we’ve become in this last century to these events. So, a quick toast between you and I to a more peaceable future where less of what follows below is allowed to happen. Sit back, but don’t relax.

10. Yakubu Gowon (1.1 million deaths)

Breakdown: 1 million civilians on the wrong side of a blockade caused by a war of secession in Nigeria and 100,000 soldiers who died in that war.

It starts as many sad stories do with precious beautiful oil. It had been found in the Niger delta where tensions were already high between the Eastern region (led by Ojukwu) and the rest of the country (governed by Yakubu). A dummy agreement was signed between them called the “Aburi Accord”, but it meant nothing to either leader. Yakubu started to put pressure on the region, and tested how much sway he had in the area versus Ojukwu. Well Ojukwu being no slouch declared secession from the rest of Nigeria and became the “Republic of Biafra”. This began a war that caused the deaths of 100,000 soldiers, and much worse, a blockade on the region which starved 1 million civilians.

9. Mengistu Haile Mariam (400,000 – 1.5 million deaths)

Breakdown: As president of Ethiopia and colonel of  “the Derg” (communist militia) Mengitsu systematically killed those against him in the “Red Terror” campaign.

Mengistu Haile Mariam is (as in still alive) a politician who presided over Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991. The way he got into power was by smothering the previous president Haile Selassie although he has denied those rumors. His biggest claim to fame is the Ethiopian Red Terror which was a campaign of repression led by the Derg (communist militia in Ethiopia).

In his introductory speech Mengitsu yelled, “Death to counterrevolutionaries! Death to the EPRP!” Then he took three bottles filled with blood and threw them to the ground.

It was an auspicious beginning to say the least. Thousands were killed and found dead on the streets in the years that followed. Much of the murdering can be attributed to the friendly neighborhood watch there known as “Kebeles”. As if killing innocents wasn’t enough they would then charge the family a tax to return the dead body to them. The tax was aptly named “the wasted bullet”! Are you serious Mengitsu? However there was an even more gruesome fate of being left on the street where wild hyenas would fight over the dead. The campaign has been described as one of the worst mass murders ever in Africa. Mengitsu is even known to have garroted people to death.

8. Kim Il Sung (1.6 million deaths)

Breakdown: Unpopular among his people Kim used the U.S. as a scapegoat and forced the country to believe in his delusion or else.

Before our very own Kim Jong-Il was his murderous father Kim Il Sung who led North Korea in a terrible direction. He fought for a command economy that allowed the government to make all decisions for the country. For various reasons the people never seemed to love the man, and so his hold on power was tenuous at best. Like most crazies he blamed somebody else, in this case the USA, and said they had spread disease throughout its population. He also pulled a Stalin, and had large-scale purges. His underlying reason was that it would scare people into believing he was telling the truth.  Kim’s purge was a little different than Stalin’s though in that there were no trials.  During his tenure prison camps sprung up all over the country to contain the ever growing masses of people against Kim Il Sung.

7. Pol Pot (1.7 million deaths)

Breakdown: Forced city folk to relocate to farms and forced them into hard labor.

Pol Pot was the leader of the communist movement in Cambodia. He attempted to “cleanse” the country and it resulted in the death of an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 million people. There was an interesting policy going around called agrarian collectivization which he put into practice in the late 1970′s. Basically it forced city folk to head out to the farms to do some labor and vice versa for farmers. As you might guess, and hindsight is 20/20, neither group was very good at their new jobs. Pol didn’t stop at enslaving his own people though. He also didn’t feed them well, gave them little medical care, and executed many of them. The net result was killing off approximately 1/5 of the Cambodian population!

6. Ismail Enver Pasha (2.5 million deaths)

Breakdown: 1,200,000 Armenians (1915) + 350,000 Greek Pontians and 480,000 Anatolian Greeks (1916-22) + 500,000 Assyrians (1915-20)

He began his career as a Turkish military officer and leader in the Young Turk revolution. Eventually he rose to power and led the Ottoman Empire in both Balkan Wars and World War I. As a war minister Enver was not very useful, and was defeated over and over. His crushing loss at the Battle of Sarikamish needed a scapegoat, and that’s when he decided to blame Armenians for the failure. That is what began what is now known as the Armenian Genocide. The word “genocide” was coined to describe this event.

Etymology from Wikipedia:
Coined in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin (1900–1959), a Polish-Jewish legal scholar, to describe what the Turkish government (ca 1915–18) perpetrated against the Armenian people, now called the Armenian Genocide. From the stem of Ancient Greek (génos), “race, kind” or Latin “tribe, clan” (-cide).

5. Hideki Tojo (5 million deaths)

Breakdown: Waged unprovoked wars against China, USA, Netherlands, and France.

Hideki Tojo was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. He assumed the position of Prime Minister and held Army Minister concurrently. As if that wasn’t enough he also held other major positions like Home Minister, Foreign Minister, Education Minister, and Commerce Minister. His major contributions to education were teaching militaristic and nationalist indoctrination. His version of homeland security was approving eugenics measures which essentially made a distinction between pure blood and mixed blood Japanese families.

During World War II Tojo started winning battles and the public loved him for it. He really bought into the Nazi Kool-aid, and held steadfastly with Germany. When the tide turned, and he began losing, it was devastating. Eventually he went into seclusion. He was tried for war crimes and found guilty of waging wars of aggression, wars in violation of international law, and waging unprovoked war against many countries. Not to mention ordering, authorizing, and permitting inhumane treatment of Prisoners of War.

4. Leopold II of Belgium (2-15 million deaths)

Breakdown: Created a colony called the “Congo Free State”, enslaved its people, and forced them into labor plants.

Leopold II was the King of the Belgians, and believed in colonialism. He thought acquiring colonies overseas was essential to a great country and was always scheming. The problem was Belgium really didn’t care, and so Leopold went into business for himself. He started a company that seemed like it was doing good called the International African Society. A year later he used that company to travel to Congo, laid claim to a plot of land 14 times the size of Belgium, and made 14 countries agree (USA included) that he was free to rule it with his own private militia. He then forced the indigenous populations into forced labor, created a bustling rubber industry, and abused his workers grievously.

Missionary John Harris on returning from Congo said:
“I have just returned from a journey inland to the village of Insongo Mboyo. The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable.”

Estimates of the death toll range from two to fifteen million which could all have been avoided if 14 countries didn’t hand him the keys to the car!

3. Adolf Hitler (17 million deaths)

Breakdown: Concentration camps and civilians in WWII.

Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party. He was the absolute dictator of Germany from 1934 to 1945. He gained support by promoting values like German nationalism and anti-semitism. Hitler was appointed chancellor in 1933 and began the Third Reich. Hitler was power hungry as all hell, hated the shit out of Jews (and others), and wanted  hegemony in Europe. The militarization that was needed to complete such a lofty goal led to the outbreak of World War II. Nazi forces engaged in the systematic murder of as many as 17 million civilians, an estimated six million of whom were Jews, and 1.5 million Romanis.

2. Jozef Stalin (23 million deaths)

Breakdown: The great purges and Ukraine’s famine.

Jozef Stalin was the first Secretary of the Communist Party from 1922 – 1953. After Lenin’s death in 1924, he became the leader of the Soviet Union. Stalin didn’t take long in launching a new economy that screwed up food production across the country so bad it caused massive famine. Between 1922-23 it reached such catastrophic proportions everything went to shit. In Ukraine this dark period is known as Holodomor. Its widely believed that Soviet policies caused the famine there and was designed as an attack on Ukrainian nationalism. Estimates on the total number of casualties within Soviet Ukraine range from 2.6 million to 10 million! During the late 1930s Stalin launched another wonderfully titled initiative called the Great Purge (also known as the “Great Terror”). It was a paranoid campaign to kill off the people who opposed him, and his targets were often executed.

In 1939 Stalin agreed to a non-aggression pact with the Nazis. Eventually Germany violated the pact, the Soviet Union joined the allies, and they racked up 23.9 million deaths (the largest death toll in the war).

1. Mao Zedong (49-78 million deaths)

Breakdown: Policy reforms like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

Mao Zedong was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist, and communist leader who led the People’s Republic of China. Mao, while controversial, is still widely considered a savior of the nation. I did a semester abroad in China in 2001 after falling in love with its history, and was surprised in my conversations that many people thought Mao had done 70% – 80% good things. During  his first five years from 1949 – 53 he is said to have systematically killed between 4 to 6 million people by sentencing them to die or by sending them to “reform through labor” camps. He organized mass repressions, established execution quotas, and defended his actions in these early years as necessary for securing power for “The People’s Republic of China”.

His social programs the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution are two of the most ill-fated, poorly named, initiatives ever. The first was an effort to rapidly industrialize China. His focus was on making China a premier exporter of steel, and to this end he asked everybody to make  it. The problem was it got many citizens to make smelting shops in their backyards. Not only was the steel of little value, but it was made from everything lying around the house including their own cooking supplies! Without the tools to make food, no money coming in from the steel, and no money to survive ~ a lot of people starved to death. The estimates on this program alone are 20 million deaths! Think about that number. Really think about it. Then ask yourself… why would you EVER let someone back into power after such an insanely bad decision.Well, they took the reigns away from him for a short time.

In the interim Mao started the socialist education movement. He aimed the concept at young ones who would eventually wrest the power away from the older guard. By 1964 this movement was renamed the “four cleanups movement” whose goal was cleansing politics, economics, ideas, and organization of “reactionaries”. This led to the formation of the “Red Guards” who were organized to punish intellectuals and take out Mao’s political adversaries. The Cultural Revolution was now underway, and its overriding mission was to abolish: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas. Something Mao fervently believed in was that destruction and chaos could bring re-birth. So he told his followers to destroy buildings, sacred objects, talk back to ones elders, punish them, turn them in, and kill those who did not agree. By 1968 things were starting to look pretty good for Mao all over again, and so he put into place the decade long “Down to the Countryside Movement” which forced young intellectuals to move out to the country to become farmers. Sadly, the people he pushed out there were the same Red Guards who had helped him get power. Estimates of the death toll are between 40,000 – 7 million depending on who you ask.

Finally, there is the 100 flowers movement which just needs an abbreviated mention here. Mao asked people to come forth and tell him how he should govern China.  Intellectuals and liberals bit at the chance to tell him what they really thought, and were encouraged by the Communist party to do so. Then in a sudden change of heart, or an incredibly crafty mission to out his haters, the government persecuted 500,000 of them who were considered to be “dangerous thinkers”.

Mao is essentially like that girlfriend/boyfriend who keeps on taking a shit on you, but is so damn charming you hardly notice. His policies and political purges from 1949 to 1976 caused the deaths of 49 to 78 million people.

The moral of the story is ~

Let’s stop allowing evil political dictators to take office. And if we do have someone bad in office we can find better ways to get them out than murdering them, wars, and aggressive confrontations.

What if one day you woke up after the apocalypse and had to put the world back together again? Would you be able to do it?

In 2009 Substitute Materials set out to test whether they could re-create a telegraph without using modern tools. The only resource they gave themselves was whatever they could find on the ground. By using sticks, stones, and other grounded objects they could have constructed a complex telegraphic network back in the stone age!

The question Immaculate Telegraphy hypothesized is this:
Could humans at any point in history, given the right information, construct an electronic communication network? To test this hypothesis, Substitute Materials will attempt to build a functional electric battery and telegraph switch from materials found in the wilderness, using no modern tools except information from the internet. The telegraph will be a first step towards an ahistorical internet.

Below is the first of several “How to” videos. I love that the guy in the video is wearing a suit in the wilderness. Nice touch.

I always wonder what I would have been able to invent or do had it not been given to me already. Computers… probably not. Light… nope. Light a fire… probably could figure that one out. When I think about who I would want to have around me if I were to survive an apocalypse I always end up thinking: I wouldn’t have picked me. Don’t get me wrong ~ I think I’m a pretty cool guy, but I have no idea what kinds of things I could eat in the wild, nor do I cook very well, nor do have a green thumb. So even on the simplest terms I’m not super useful. Then there is building technology from scratch, and well I’m a semi-lateral thinker… Probably could be a decent philosopher.

Suffice to say that our society is interdependent, and basically everything I do is built on constructs that have been in progress since thousands of years ago.

As Ming says from his blog:
It was hundreds a years ago since there last were people around who were experts in all major fields at the same time. Today we’re a society of specialists who most of them would be helpless and useless if it weren’t for a whole bunch of other specialists. It is a fragile system. Civilization could very well collapse if it got a big enough bump.

The simplest things seem ludicrously difficult, and I’m not sure anybody at Intel could put Humpty back together again. I mean if you got some of the old boys from Sun Microsystems, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs ~ could they make computers from scratch? How about making copper? That’s what they do in the video below.

Thinking about it now: We  really should be giving people basic tutorials on restarting civilization. We should be able to, as a society, at least get back to 1880 in a as little as a decade if we lost everything. Maybe that’s too lofty of a goal, but the people who supported this project at the Eyebeam Honorary Residency seem to see the value. Found the original article that interested me in the subject here.

On Valentine’s Day weekend I was far from my girlfriend at the University of Michigan filming a 48 hour game competition. Guess who else was there? Hint: Sid Meier. The legendary game designer responsible for Civilization, Pirates!, and dozens of other games.

24 students broke off into 9 teams to compete against each other for 2 days to see who could make the best video game and be judged by the guru himself. The competitors developed concepts, lost sleep, coded up until the very end, and waited anxiously for the results. You can watch how it all went down in the video I made with Peter Brauer. When it was all said and done Zoo Escape, by Brian Ford, Billy Laurain & Tony Ghita won. I caught up with the 1st place winner of the competition for a quick Q&A.

P10: When did you make Zoo Escape? Where did the concept come from?

Tony:  It manifested from all sorts of crazy ideas that we were having fun with. Somewhere in between USSR space robots and prison breaks the idea of playing as a tiger who had to escape from a zoo evolved. 47 sleep deprived hours later we had a semi-finished game.

Billy: Zoo Escape came out of about 2 hours of sleep deprived brainstorming.  We had a lot of ideas but only a few of them were in the realm of possibility given our experience and time restraints.  We decided to go with a platformer and the idea wasn’t completely formed until about half way through the competition.

P10:  What’s the main thing you think makes your game fun?

Billy: I think what makes our game fun is the personality it has.  We made our own sound effects and artwork and gave them all a very non-serious feel, allowing people to laugh at our game and all of its oddities.

Tony: Blood splatter. And maybe some old school challenge. But mostly blood splatter.

P10: Could you tell me a little about the competition?

Tony: A theme was given at the beginning of the 48 hours, and each team had to then incorporate that into their game. The theme this year was “Restraints”, and so we have to be creative about making some game mechanic that fits in with this.

P10: What school do you go to and what are you majoring in?

Tony: I’m currently a sophomore at the University of Michigan concentrating in computer science. I’m an aspiring game developer.

P10: What sparked your game development flame?

Tony: I grew up tinkering with computers and playing video games, and loving both. I guess I really locked onto game development when I realized that it was possible to merge the two as a legitimate career.

Billy: Strangely enough, it was listening to the podcasts for Bungie game studios that made me think this might be the career for me.  That and all the endless hours I spent making ‘movies’ with my friends in Halo 2.

P10: How do you think indies and small teams are impacting the game industry?

Billy: Right now indie game companies are having their largest impact on the game industry ever, for many reasons.  Distribution has finally been made seamless by services like xbox live and steam, and some of today’s best games are either 100% independent or started off as independent projects.  There will always be a need for small team games with a more personal feel, and the big budget games that appeal to the masses.

Tony: The smaller games are a reaction to the huge AAA games. Indie games can offer gameplay that no AAA title would dare attempt, while smaller games offer less of gaming experience to those that aren’t looking for some 20+ hour involvement. They serve to balance the industry’s “ying” and “yang”.

P10: How did you get involved in Wolverine Soft (the gaming club on campus)?

Tony: I got involved last fall. By chance, I made it to one of the first meetings where everyone pitches a game idea they’d like to develop. From there, everyone gravitates towards the idea that they’d like to work on. While working on a horror/survival game two of the programmers on the team and I banded together to give this year’s 48 Hour Game Development contest a shot.

Billy: I’ve been somewhat involved in Wolverine Soft for a year and a half now, but this is the first year I have been on an actual game team. Our team met while working on another Wolverine Soft project but ever since the 48-hour competition we’ve been focusing on this game.

P10: What was used to make the game and what tools aided in development?

Tony: We programmed the game in C# using Microsoft’s XNA framework. The artwork was sketched onto paper using a #2 pencil, scanned, and traced over using InkScape, an open source vector art program.

Billy: GIMP and Inkscape are all free programs and work fairly well for game development.  We were also lucky enough to accidentally discover a sound booth downstairs to record some professional sound effects for the game.

P10: How did you come up with the visual style?

Tony: The visual style is pretty crappy; the graphics were all hand drawn. If I could’ve drawn better, the visual style would’ve been much more slick. I probably should’ve learned some animation techniques before the contest. That way, some of the undesired “swagger” the characters have could’ve been avoided.

Billy: The visual style was more of a result of our shortcomings as artists than anything else, but we all agreed to use a ‘cartoony’ feel, with thick black lines outlining our characters.  I think this gave people the ability to freely laugh with the game as they played it, instead of trying to take it seriously.

P10: What’s the best part of winning something like this?

Tony: The best part of the competition was having Sid Meier play a game that I made. I’ve played his games growing up, so its pretty cool to have it go the other way. The best part of winning the competition is getting validation that you can take something, put in a load of work while having a lot of fun, and come away with something that people enjoy.

P10: What prizes did you claim?

Tony: Billy and I won some Farmville t-shirts for having stayed up the longest out of anyone else on the first day. I picked up Mass Effect 2 as the prize for winning the competition.

Who are your game designer heroes/role models?

Tony: All the old boys; Shigeru Miyamoto, Will Wright, and Sid Meier of course. I also admire Peter Molyneux’s ability to communicate his vision and passion for his games.

Billy: Obviously Sid Meier has had a huge influence on me since he has taken the time to come and teach us the ins and outs of game development for two years in a row. Right now I think Gearbox Software is doing great things, but my real role models are the guys from Rooster Teeth.  Although they aren’t game designers, they have played a huge role in all the game related things I’ve done.

What was the most important lesson you learned during development of this game?

Tony: Have fun, laugh, and work hard.

Billy: The most important thing I learned was to set firm deadlines for different parts of the game.  Once we went over a deadline and started tacking things on, other parts of development had to be cut to meet the overall deadline.

P10: What’s the name of the team?

Tony: FORT AWESOME.

Billy: During the competition we called ourselves “Fort Awesome” because we literally made a fort in the back of the classroom to develop our games in. We have since changed our name to “Evil Lair Games” for all future projects.

P10: Are you all going to make more games together?

Tony: It’s highly likely, Brian and Billy are good guys. I’m constantly coming up with new idea’s that I’d love to play. I’d like to get a couple of them done over the summer.

Billy: Me and Tony are currently working on the finishing touches for Zoo Escape and hopefully it will be released to Xbox Live Indie Game Marketplace very soon, so make sure to check it out! We have alreadystarted the beginning steps of planning for a summer game for Evil Lair Games, but more on that later.

1. To watch the video of how it all happened click here.

2. To download Zoo Escape click here.

On Valentine’s Day this year I was far from my girlfriend at the University of Michigan, with fellow Poptenner Peter Brauer, filming legendary game designer, Sid Meier, build a game from scratch in 48 hours. It was at once enlightening and inspiring to learn about his process. Now it’s here for everyone to bask in Sid’s beneficence.

He is one of the most acclaimed game designers of all time having created everything from Civilization I through IV, Pirates!, Railroad Tycoon, and dozens of other titles. Most recently he was the keynote speech at the Gamer Developer’s Conference in San Francisco where he discussed gamer psychology. Always a true believer in the idea that games will one day rule the world, Sid Meier wants to inspire a new generation of game designers. Namely the ones from his alma mater at Michigan which he returns to create a video game in 48 hours, and judge the entries for the “7th Annual Wolverine Soft 48hr Game Design Contest”. His son Ryan Meier, (at the time but no longer) president of the organization, co-hosts the event.

Sid first used a computer in Michigan when all there was were punch cards, print-outs, and one mistake cost hours of time. On that IBM mainframe he designed the first tic-tac-toe game, was chastised for using it to make games, and was nearly kicked out. The horrors!  After college Sid met Ace pilot Bill Stealey, challenged him to a game of “Red Baron” (a flight simulator), and beat him hands down. When Bill asked how Sid could win when he was the ace Sid replied, “I could see the algorithm the computer was using”. Bill responded, “Maybe we should start a game company” and so MicroProse was born in 1982.

In 1996 he founded Firaxis Games along with veteran designer and gaming executive Jeff Briggs. Sid was honored with an induction into the Computer Museum of America’s Hall of Fame in 2002, and he was the second person ever to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Science’s “Hall of Fame” for Lifetime Achievement in 1999. Recognized around the world as the “Father of Computer Gaming,” Sid has been honored with virtually every award in the industry.  He is often recognized by industry experts as one of the industry’s “Game Gods.”

1. To download the finished games click here.
2. To read an interview with the winners of the contest click here.

Our prayers have finally been answered (Everyone who is part of the “I’m with CoCo” fan page)  because it looks like Conan is slated to start a new late night talk show. Thank goodness. A few months without him was a few too many.

From the NY Times:
In a move that qualifies as a shocker, Conan O’Brien has made a deal to return to television in a new late-night show on cable—not network—television.

The former “Tonight Show” host has agreed to start up a new show on TBS, the comedy-oriented cable channel in the Turner network lineup. The new show will start in November and play at 11 p.m. weeknights, teamed with that network’s other late-night show, hosted by George Lopez. That show, now at 11, will slide to midnight.

In a release accompanying the announcement Mr. O’Brien said: “In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable.  My plan is working perfectly.”

James Nguyen, the writer and director of the unexpected cult hit Birdemic: Shock and Terror could very well be the real thing, or is he? 43 years old, a hobbyist director, working full time in silicon valley at tech start up PixLogic, and self-proclaimed master of his own genre: Romantic Thriller. Is Mr. Nguyen our generation’s Ed Wood whose “Plan 9 From Outer Space” became legendary for its defects?

I caught up with James after his New York premiere, “It was more than I expected, and I was mentioned on the front page of the New York Times” Mr. Nguyen said. “The majority of audience was laughing with the movie despite its imperfections – they loved the movie.”

For those who don’t know Birdemic is the cult hit craze hitting theaters all across the nation. The plot goes something like this: A platoon of eagles and vultures attack the residence of a small town. No one knows what caused them to attack, but two young lovers manage to fight back.  Will they survive the Birdemic?

The story goes James never received a formal education in film, and instead graduated from the Hitchockian school of cinema. Which is to say that from a young age he liked watching Vertigo, North by Northwest, Rear Window, and Dial M for Murder. 10 years ago someone wanted to use his location for a movie shoot, he allowed it, and a crew from Hollywood showed up on his doorstep.

James found his calling from that watershed moment, and soon after invented his first romantic thriller, Julie & Jack (Seriously click on the link and watch the trailer). It was released in 2001 by Echelon Entertainment, and went silently into the night. James said of the sudden career shift, “I never picked up a camera until I was 30. I got into film by accident and it just evolved”. His next foray in 2005 with Replica didn’t quite hit the mark either.

Mr. Nguyen finally struck gold when Birdemic was discovered in 2009 at the Sundance Film Festival where he hosted late night screenings after the movie was rejected from the festival itself. He drove around that week in a truck with the word “Bidemic” emblazoned on its side, a giant eagle in the back, and loudspeakers fixed to the top. Was he desperate or did he know what he was doing the whole time? Either way, the film became a sensation on the midnight movie circuit, and just recently premiered this week in NYC.

For all the hub bub around the flick James hasn’t let it get to his head, “Until you get the multimillion dollar movie stick to your day job. The industry is unstable and you never know what it’s going to do. I’ve got a $1 million budget for my next film but that isn’t enough, the director’s fee is only $52k. What I would need to quit PixLogic.com would be a Hollywood studio 3 picture deal where I can demand $5 to $10 million – until then it’s not enough. Some people like to bowl as a hobby… I like to make indie movies on the weekend.”

This being his third feature film in the romantic thriller category James is no stranger to horror, “I’m not interested in just romance ~ chick flicks. There needs to be mystery and suspense. A romantic thriller is 90 minutes or longer, has a romance between its protagonists, and deception between one or both of them”. Hitchcock’s Vertigo is the quintessential example, although Alfred never made claim to the categorization himself. Mr. Nguyen says, “Hitchcock is the creator, the master of suspense. He is the 1st master and I am the 2nd.  I probably know more or as much as most movie critics about Vertigo, even the scholars. In 2008 I went to a symposium in Stanford for its 50th anniversary, and all the critics were at the fancy university. I knew more about the movie than they did – at least as much or more. Historically and so on.”

At the moment Nguyen is in pre-production for a documentary about Hitchcock that discusses two vital questions: Is Vertigo his best movie? Is Vertigo a romantic thriller?

Personally, I have to believe there is some rhyme or reason taking place somewhere underneath it all. Whether it’s accidental or incidental remains to be understood.

1. ABC news did some of the most silly reporting on the film and bordered on rude.
2. The New York times destined him for the hallowed halls of B-movie greatness.
3. Viceland ran a serious interview with notes of suspicion

Nguyen says of all the interviews, “It comes with the territory. It’s all good because this was my first time on national television station and the news. I’m prepared for whatever question is coming.There is genuine storytelling to my film and people feel it.”

Moviehead pictures, PixLogic, everything has some bizarrely janky quality, and yet there is an alluring mystery surrounding Mr. Nguyen’s bizarre rise to notoriety. We’ve met him in person. We’ve seen the videos. He’s met and hung out with people he only dreamed of. James is someone who fell into the limelight perhaps not by accident, and whether it seems like it or not, it’s well deserved. Here is to a charmingly off kilter man whom made me think about Hitchcock again a decade after film school.

(Special thanks to Scott Schachter for linking Popten up with Severin Films.)

Micah White is an independent activist and contributor to Adbusters. Awhile back he wrote up an article about Second Skin, and just recently he sent me his newest campaign against advertising. As someone with a vendetta against media myself (even though I’m part of the machine) I fell in love with his video about thought pollution.

After you’re done watching the film check out his official website where you can complete missions and reach a maslovian sort of self-actualization/separation from the incessant barrage of mainstream media.

Mission 1: Join with the other 86,000+ culture jammers who are committed to ending corporate-rule. Together we will become a global political and cultural force to be reckoned with.

Mission 2: The average North American now spends upwards of eight hours using a screen and many of those hours are spent on the Internet. Thus, the Internet has become one of the main ways that we are exposed to toxic visual pollution. In this mission, you will clean your mental environment by installing Adblock Plus.

Mission 3: It is a sad, but well-known truth, that contemporary culture is funded almost entirely by advertisers whose money not only encourages over-consumption but silences alternative voices. If you are a fan of Micah’s work then join the Fan Brigade. Learn ways to take an active role in the struggle against consumerism.

Mission 4: Commit Facebook Suicide. Facebook is a scary, commercial dead-zone that’s killing our real-world relationships. Micah is concerned about what Facebook will do with the information it’s collecting about him. Facebook’s vice-president of product marketing and operations explained that while companies like Google are concerned with “demand fulfillment” – helping a consumer find the product they want – Facebook is cornering the market in “demand generation” – subtly encouraging individuals to consume products and services they’d otherwise not care for.

Mission 5: To finish this mission, you’ll need the courage to act against corporate communication. Step One: Get Inspired Step Two: Act! Step Three: Complete the mission by sending a picture of your blackspotted advertisement to mission5@junkthought.org. We will reply with your secret code.

I met Ethan when he decided to write up an article about Second Skin for the Independent Film Festival of Boston. Ever the gracious reporter he did a fantastic review, and told me all about his then nascent project called “Escape Artists”. It was a book that would have elements about virtual worlds, geeks, gamers, and all sorts of nerd culture. 1/2 travel diary and 1/2 pop culture investigation eventually the concept became the book “Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks”.

After playing Dungeons & Dragons religiously in the 1970s and 1980s, Ethan Gilsdorf went on to become a poet, teacher, critic and journalist. In the U.S. and in Paris, he’s worked as a freelance correspondent, guidebook writer, and film, book and restaurant reviewer. He publishes travel, arts, and pop culture stories regularly in the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Christian Science Monitor, and has been published in dozen of other magazines and newspapers worldwide, including National Geographic Traveler, Psychology Today, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Australia Financial Review, USA Today and the Washington Post. He is a book and film critic for the Boston Globe, his blog “Geek Pride” is seen regularly on PsychologyToday.com, and he also blogs for Boston.com’s Globetrotting, Tor.com and TheOneRing.net.

Welcome Ethan, we’re proud to have you join our ranks and blog for Popten. Also join Ethan, Victor, Sean Stalzer (Guildmaster of the Syndicate), and myself later this month at PAX East (March 26-28th) for a panel called “MMO gamer behavior 101″. We’ll be talking about why people love WoW and other MMOs. What exactly is it about these games that explains their massive appeal? And how do individual player and guilds behave online, and why might their behavior differ online versus the real world?

Alluda Majaka aka Alluda Mazaaka…! made in 1995 could very well be the best action film you’ve never heard of. Arguably one of the most artistically driven jaw dropping creations I’ve ever seen. It also involves an incredible amount of horse torture, and the filmmakers wanted to let us know they definitely hurt people, animals, and cars to make this piece. So watch the wonder, and read about this fantastic film from Telugu.

IMDb says
This movie has gained fame in recent years because of the scene where the horse slides under a truck.

Lies ~ This movie has more unbelievable scenes to offer. Such as this Tractor Fight. Yup, I said it. TRACTOR FIGHT.

OR how about the best punch cinema has ever offered, ever.

The movie was directed by E.V.V. Satyanarayana at a time when Chiranjeevi (the protagonist) was going through a lean phase (like John Travolta before Pulp Fiction). By lean I actually mean lean, and not low on work. He’s usually much fatter than he was here. The film gave the fledgling Tollywood megastar a much needed megahit, the movie’s raunchy dialogue ensured it a tumultuous battle with Indian censors, who condemned it for being “superfluously laden with double entendres” (like Sex in the City). Although there were other movies with worse dialogue Alluda Majaka drew critics attention since Chiranjeevi had a following among family audiences.

Silky Johnson from This is Why it Sucks described Alluda as this
This 1995 movie stars Chiranjeevi (who is apparently the Indian equivalent of Chuck Norris) as Mr. Toyota, a man wrongly accused of some type of crime who is forced to go on the lam as a fugitive. That is about all I was able to find out about the plot, and I have to admit that is nothing mind-blowing as far as originality is concerned. But who cares about a lame back story when you have intense action scenes that make The Bourne Identity look like Ghandi. And just to ease your mind, the creators of the movie wanted to let everyone know that many extras, stuntmen, and horses were harmed in the making of this film.

Finally a little background on Telugu culture for those interested from Wikipedia.
Telugu (natively telugu, sometimes also anglicized as Telegu) is a Dravidian language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is the official language of Andhra Pradesh, one of the largest states of India. It is also one of the twenty-two scheduled languages of the Republic of India and was conferred the status of a Classical language by the Government of India.

Want to see the whole thing? Here is a link to the rapidshare files.

http://ineedfile.com/download/14142008-alluda-mazaka-500mb-xvid-by-bumblebee-autobots-avi-001

We just saw a horse slide and tractor fight. Let’s all bow our heads a moment in reverence for the work.

Thanks Andy Belford for the find.

Popten has been host to some great posts by incredibly talented authors, and until today that was the only way to consume our media. It’s a historic day though ~ today we’re launching a brand new way to experience our talented artists. Popten Art or rather art.popten.net is a completely new section of the magazine where you can check out new painters/inkers/draw-ers/et al.

The kind of art our curators are serving you isn’t the usual faire either. Most of the people on our wall (virtually and in the new LIC gallery) are people whose big works are being represented by galleries, but here in Long Island City you can catch some of their more intimate work. Drawings, paintings, bits of this and that, culled together to represent their newest direction, their best concepts, and a new way to see their hidden sketches/successes. You can see the work online or stop by our gallery anytime. We’re having an opening during Armory week, and you’re invited.

Biggest kudos go to Chris Baily, Peter Brauer, and Jason Griffin for conceptualizing and creating this new destination. They’ll be curating the space, and getting new artists you may or may not have heard of in front of your eyes. If you love something and want to make it your own, just click on it and buy it. All the pieces are $100, are one of a kind, and ten times their worth (if you ask us). So check it out, grow with us, and enjoy Popten as much as we do. Below is a photo of the artist’s names represented on the wall.

Finally, a little recap for those who don’t know the ethos behind us. We’re an online magazine of working artists, mavens, politicians, filmmakers, mostly based in New York City. We live and die by the pop culture we soak in, and subscribe to the idea that our opinions are better because we make things too. Right or wrong we create and we critique. Hear us roar, see us yell, and take away what you will.

Matt Ellsworth and I met while making Second Skin, a documentary I directed on virtual worlds. He’s one of the boys from Indiana who loves to game. Our conversations over the years have led to a few things, one of them was finding a common love for Johnnie Walker Black Label, and the second was a penchant for postulating about the future. From being obsessed with science fiction, black holes, and the internet to caring too much about Carl Sagan and Kurzweil. We’ve been desperately trying to look around the corner at what our next gen tech will look like. We handed this concept back and forth over the last few months each of us writing a little bit here and there. While we understand the overall difficulty with predicting a realistic future (even in one sector of technology) we’re excited to unleash a theory on the world.

The goal is surgically implanted data interfaces using nanotechnology. This would allow wired and/or wireless access to data networks similar to the Internet through direct sensory input by either stimulating appropriate receptors (i.e. optic, auditory nerves) or through links with the associates areas of the brain. The technology would likely begin as a series of external accessories such as viewing glasses and headphones; these would essentially be “souped-up” versions of their modern counterparts. Integration and acceptance of these kinds of devices has already begun, primarily in the areas of electronic gaming, scientific research, and military training (i.e. “virtual reality” helmets and tactile feedback gloves). The advances in our technology in some cases have been developed to help those with serious injuries or disabilities.

Applications for this hardware will be created and extend its uses from simple tasks to much more involved ones. For example, an interactive google map, coupled with a satellite GPS system, and a set of on board sensors in your car will allow you to drive it remotely to any destination. Simultaneously, you could be chatting with 1 or more of your friend’s wirelessly, and playing a video game tournament with yet others. In fact, I think the ability to multi-task in the future is going to create a real divide between older generations and newer ones. What follows is a test of brain to brain communication through a computer interface. The result is what one might consider elementary telepathy.

The current step in the evolution towards implanted interfaces is the trend towards multifunction smartphones and low-cost personal media players and netbooks. The next iteration will be focused on enhancing the mobile web browsing experience in an augmented reality. Picture Facebook or Twitter feeds implanted on real life through clear screens that help disseminate information faster. A handheld device in a few years will most likely be paper thin, translucent may look something like this, but with an interactive screen with multiple ways to guide its behavior.

It will provide extra interactivity with the existing World Wide Web and content designers will begin to customize their designs to better take advantage of its capabilities (as they already have with the iPhone); these capabilities will almost certainly be combined with other functions, such as a phone or music player, rather than the device serving as a dedicated Internet browsing device or the aforementioned personal media player. A single hardware manufacturer will likely dominate the field in the beginning, with the lure of licensing fees and governmental regulation quickly bringing in new competitors. As more manufacturers produce the devices and they reach a larger portion of the populace they will supplant the mobile phone as the must-have portable electronic device. As the complexity and prevalence of these devices increases, so too will the demand for services taking advantage of its capabilities. Existing telecom providers, especially current cellular phone companies, will continue increasing wireless data access speeds to meed the growing demand. As of right now we even have conducted tests on monkeys who can us BCI devices.

The progressive advancements of technology make it difficult to anticipate the new forms of what a cellular phone may look like in just a few years, but I posit that its evolution could be in glasses. At CES this year Vuzix displayed a 2d/3d augmented reality experience that lacked incredible programs, but pointed to a very tactile virtual/real space. Certainly some sort of video overlay much closer to  our eyes in the form of glasses or contact lenses will become normal. These devices will pick up signals from ‘the cloud’, and receive their electricity wirelessly. These waves and how they bounce off of each other will also track distance between one responder and another. Our hands could have receiver devices in the form of a ring or gloves that would allow for any surface to become an interactive space. The lens and its connection to one’s hands could create difficulties in full awareness in both spaces although toggling between one world and the other would be as simple as saying a word or a specific motion. Much like braces, in the future, we could have a ring around a molar that would allow for uttered words to become commands.

The change from physical devices to embedded or nanotechnology I believe will be steeped in good reason. The most innocent of which is the pursuit of helping those with serious injuries, trauma, debilitating diseases, or physical disabilities. This changeover will happen over the next decade, and we’ll be seeing incredible strides in the field by 2020. Having nanotechnology working within us will have two likely advantages: First, like our cells, these small bionic bodies will be capable of surviving on their own, fixing themselves, and will not need to be replaced or repaired. Second, the proximity and ability to interact with our neurons so closely with create a symbiosis with our bodies that cannot be replicated by outside interference.

Deep societal impacts and ethical issues will be gradual and mostly unnoticed until the leap to completely implanted devices is made. A world in which these effects are obvious and widespread would definitely be a lot more dramatically satisfying, but don’t seem as likely until the truly scary device comes out that switches us over to being truly immersed in both realities. It wouldn’t necessarily have to be a radical difference, either; class divisions in America today aren’t really a hot-button issue on a day to day basis, but they’re definitely real and sometimes quite dramatic in individual cases.

Much as the Internet has come to have an impact on nearly every aspect of daily life in developed nations, these data interfaces will bring a myriad of changes to the world. Many will be improvements that enrich people’s daily experiences with their world and with each other, but as with any technology, there will be darker sides to be dealt with as well. While society will be profoundly changed by this technology, it will be in subtle ways.

Overall, the speed at which we build technology and devices is exponential. In this sense market niches will divide and create new world orders (a Google for the next gen). The following are descriptions of areas of American society most impacted by data interfaces:

• Economic/class divisions
  • Existing divisions between individuals and families of varying economic standing will be thrown into sharper relief than at any previous period in history. The presence and quality of an individual’s data interface will become the single greatest determining factor in quality of life.
  • Society as a whole will see great increases in overall quality of life, but class differences will be thrown into sharper relief than ever before as those without interfaces form a disenfranchised, disadvantaged underclass.
  • We will also see a growing chasm with those who want to adopt these sorts of devices, and those who do not want such interaction.

• Education
  • Modern classrooms and lecture halls will be almost unrecognizable.
  • Primary and secondary schools will continue, for the most part, to be held in physical buildings because of the need for children to develop physically and socially, though “remote education” will achieve wide acceptance.
  • Many physical classroom materials, such as pencils, textbooks, and chalkboards, will be replaced by virtual equivalents.
  • Younger students will still have physical crafts and activities, but by junior and senior high school almost all instruction will take place through data interfaces.
  • Homework assignments and tests will be distributed and turned in through an encrypted e-mail style system, and special hardware and software will be implemented to block outside data access when necessary to help curb cheating.
  • Students from poor backgrounds, unable to afford the best interface hardware and software options
    • Federal and state aid programs will try to bridge this divide, but will be unable to meet the needs of the population
  • Most activities will not be teacher oriented but rather group task oriented.
  • Individualized focus for each student on a 1:1 level will be achieved through software/curriculum creators
  • Students will be engaged with direct learning and apprenticing through A.I. mentors.
    • They will begin contributing professional materials much earlier through this method of learning
    • Students of engineering will learn at their own pace
    • A more democratic education will allow for hyper specialization
  • A board of teachers for individual subjects will be given the ability to program better A.I. teachers.
    • A rise in the need for psychological care among our youth will lead to more integrated programs
    • Common issues such as anxiety, depression, and anger management will be part of core psychological learning courses
    • Leadership, problem solving, and self-direction will be used as guidelines for all courses
  • The margins of error will be diminished by a complete change to digital mediums
  • The results of our schooling will be an ongoing challenge with metrics being created on a day to day level.
  • Our programs will have the capacity for agile change

Business

• BCI implants will become commonplace because fellow co-workers without these interfaces will be unable to compete
• The modern businessman will have nearly nothing to lug back and forth on business trips other than a few changes of clothes.
• Cloud computing will allow for hands free use of much smaller CPU’s tucked away in a pocket.

Media

• With the change in wireless speeds it could be that we record absolutely everything from birth.
• Media will have new meaning as experience of life becomes too segmented to follow.
• Films like ‘The Truman Show’ will crop up in much different ways.
  • Already on YouTube there are groups of friends who create channels that are simply their lives working together.
• People will tune in on news media in geographical ways.
  • When a crisis is happening various people in those areas will allow live access to their channel.
    • Similar to when Iran’s twitter users were able to relay what they were seeing live during the revolution
  • Finding these ‘channels’ will be simple and your eyes will be linked to their ‘sight’.
    • The experience will be completely visceral.
    • Wars will be viewed on a very personal level.
• Pop Culture will have highly specialized curators
  • With a growing world population – the ability to focus on world occurrences will be next to impossible.
  • A canon of websites will curate the content from other sites.

Our cells will be host to nanotechnology throughout the entire human body, and essentially we’ll be one with biotechnology. The most concentrated points of contact (in so far as how psychologically we perceive the world) like our hands, eyes, mouth, nose, and face will be the most sensitive areas.

• How the technology looks
  • A person may look at the surface quite normal with little to no sign of digital attachment. In fact since most of the body would be infused the sensations of being in a real space or a digital space would be almost innate. Revolving through both places would be a matter of neurally agreeing to be accessing one place or the other, and to what degree.
  • In some cases you may want to be completely immersed. At this point it would be necessary to have a completely intuitive way to guide yourself through a virtual space while still living fully in the real space.
  • It would look like real life now in one sense, but our eyes could “see” overlays everywhere. Our hands would literally have so many nano-computers in it that any subtle gesture would be sensitively felt in our digital space. In this way our hands would act as active mice with many more data points. They would have infinite palettes at their disposal. Our hands would have an overlay right underneath them. We’d be able to see the words come up above where they were. Absolutely any surface could be a keyboard. Your eyes could immerse with others into a film. You’ll always be in complete contact with absolutely everyone you know.
• Seeing someone else in the real space will have infinitely more meaning as we grow into our digital world. Without the need to be in true human contact a certain amount of respect will be put on the ‘home visit’. Much like a business meeting today where people go to meet with others all the time.

To finish I thought it appropriate to salute the men and women at the forefront of robotics, and am most intrigued how we couple our advances in BCI with robotics in the coming years. Come 2015 I would like to have my own R2D2 that understands me better than R2 ever could get Luke.

Jackson Five – Can You Feel It

I can’t believe nobody told me about this. This could very well beat out Thriller for me… I’m serious. Here is the story verbatim from Pitchfork >>

Pre-MTV video genius Bruce Gowers hired F/X don Robert Abel to work on this clip for the Jacksons’ big comeback. CGI pioneer Abel– a key contributor to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Tron– went bananas. Apparently, the Jacksons were so into the idea of themselves as gargantuan cosmic messiahs that they agreed to let the song be nearly inaudible for long stretches of the video. [Peter Macia]

Carl Sagan – ‘A Glorious Dawn’ ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed)

Victor sent me this, and I haven’t been able to quit this song. I ended up watching the entire Cosmos series after hearing this a million times. I can’t believe that Carl Sagan’s words not only have validity today, but in some ways seem almost more acceptable now than then.

Grizzly Bear official and unofficial videos for – Two Weeks

To have one exceptional music video for your song is one thing, but to have two superb ones is just a blessing.

Ramona Falls – I Say Fever

My motion graphics guy initially apprenticed under the director of this music video. Thanks for the tip on this one Anthony!

Fleet Foxes – Mykonos

I love the simple elegance on this one, and how well thought out it is.

ELECTRIC 6 – Bodyshot

Just plain bizarre.

Chemical Brothers – Believe

I’ve seen this once or twice before, but it never fails to impress.

The Flaming Lips – Watching the Planets

Lenny Kravitz – Let Love Rule (Justice Remix)

The Postal Service – “We Will Become Silhouettes” Sub Pop Records

And of course you got to have a Postal Service song.