Archive for the 'Film on Fusion View' Category

We were having lunch with my pal Michael Spencer over the weekend and he was telling us about the educational workshops he runs in Japan to bring music into the lives of school kids. Here is a video of Mike doing his thing, bringing together the cultures of Europe and Japan in one concert. I’m particularly intrigued by how he used Skype for some of his workshops to bring the music of Spain to the Japanese kids!

There’s nothing like cute furry animals to make an online video go viral… These little guys make me feel sleepy and ready to curl up in my bath towel, too!

The short film is by Lucy Cooke, “Writer, filmmaker, blogger and frog lover”, whose mission is “Educating people about the amphibian extinction crisis and promoting the conservation of species and habitats that are otherwise ignored.”

I found this via The Guardian, which has a feature on viral videos and the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival.

This Dutch graffitti artist is taking the street art to a whole new level, using lasers.

The good news for the owner of the building is that they won’t have to spend thousands to remove the graffitti….!

Inspired by the musical based on life of Doris Day that we went to see a while back, I had a hankering to see her Calamity Jane again. Thanks to Youtube, there’s a treasure trove of clips.

This is one of my favourite set pieces from the film:

As a kid I was a tomboy and there were very few films or books at the time where the heroine wasn’t some limp lettuce of a girly girl, always in need of rescue by some energetic, self-determined and heroic guy. In Calamity Jane, I was astonished and hypnotised by this feisty tomboy portrayed by a major Hollywood star in a big cast-of-thousands musical, in a storyline where she’s the heroine who saves the day and gets her man and is the at the very heart of the community of Deadwood. It was a story that told me that, regardless of what other people around me wanted me to be or how they wanted me to dress - a sweet, demure girly in frilly frocks - I could succeed being just who I was : an outspoken tomboy in jeans and sneakers!

Many leisure activities in the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, seem to be to take place in shopping malls and large mixed use towers and complexes these days. With their air-conditioned spaciousness, these places are an ideal getaway from the sticky tropical heat. People meet their friends for coffee or meals, hang out and watch events at a central forum area, go to the movies, go shopping of course and stroll along taking in the sights and sounds. The KL Tower is one of these havens from the hot equatorial sun - and it is also the setting for a vertical marathon: every year, runners take part in a “towerthon”, racing from the grounds of the tower and up the stairs to the top!

Here is a video of the event by one of the community of Malaysian “fitbloggers”, going by the moniker RunWitMe:

You can read more details in his race report of the event.

I’m not sure that I’d last the course - the temptation to nip through one of the fire doors towards the lift and take that to the top instead would be too great…

Here in the UK, we just watched the London Marathon live on broadcast TV yesterday but if you want to watch marathons from other countries or less mainstream sports such as triathlons, it’s much more difficult, if not impossible.

I’ve just discovered* a website where you can watch coverage of sports that don’t usually make it onto terrestrial TV in your area - Universal Sports. Needless to say, it’s American but it seems to cover sports across the world (eg Rotterdam Marathon and Cycling in the Basque Country). You also have to download Microsoft Silverlight but that’s free and takes a couple of minutes.

I’ve just been watching the NYC Half Marathon 2010 to inspire me with my running. I’m up to 6 miles when I do my long run at the weekend and when I think that a Half is just over twice the loop that I do for that run, it doesn’t seem so bad. I reckon I should be able to build my distance to 13+ miles in a little while if that’s just going round that route a second time…

It’s not just wathcing the running that has been inspiring. It’s great to enjoy the scenery as the runners make their way through Central Park and then along the streets of New York. The top competitors are from all over the world, with runners from Africa with among the top athletes - there’s a truly global feel to the sport even while the setting is so local and specific to one city. And marathons are also one of the few sporting events where ordinary people can compete alongside world famous professionals. You may not be right up there in the front with the TV cameras circling around you but you’re testing yourself on the same course under the same conditions as world class runners - and no doubt some ordinary runners have suddenly burst into the forefront through this race to qualify for the Olympics or to become professionals themselves. It’s this “open to all” aspect that I love.

Click on the pic below to go to the Univesal Sports video for the NYC Half 2010.

*Thanks to Dana at the Three Apples Tall podcast who mentioned the site on one of her episodes.

Photo: from the Universal Sports NYC Half Marathon 2010 webpage, with thanks

This is a spectacular view of the powerful forces of nature that we’re up against this week:

Make sure someone doesn’t steal it then…

The other day, while I was running in the park, I saw a guy running along with what looked like black feet while his legs were gleaming pale and white. When I looked closer, he was wearing a pair of thin, delicate shoes with toes! I’d heard about these Vibram Five Fingers shoes but never seen them so it was interesting to watch him run along in a somewhat balletic fashion - the purpose of these shoes is to encourage you to run as if barefoot, which is apparently better for your feet and legs.

Here is a video of what a “barefooter” might be able to do with Five Fingers on his feet:

It’s a marketing video for the brand, but what the heck, it’s amazing to watch such graceful athleticism.

It’s also been interesting finding out what ordinary runners think about these funky shoes. Here are some reviews from bloggers:

Justin Owings - My Bare Feet

Barefoot Jason - Vibram Five Fingers KSO Review

Krisandro - My Experience of Running in Vibram Five Fingers

I’m curious to try them…

For every person who loves Twitter and other forms of social media, there are those who don’t see the point of it. Why should I be interested in what some blogger or twitterer had for breakfast, those people would say. Who needs to know moment by moment what someone is up to?

Well, here’s one Twitterer that’s out of this world - literally - and whose updates might be worth getting moment by moment. Soichi Noguchi is an astronaut at the International Space Station and he is sending pics and videos to Twitter and Youtube of the view from outer space. You may not need to know what he had for breakfast but I’m rather glad that he’s sharing the view from his office…

The Youtube video above shows the flyover of Madagascar.

You can follow his Twitter stream at http://twitter.com/astro_Soichi and see his Twitpics at http://twitpic.com/photos/Astro_Soichi.

For my previous blog post on other astronauts who have been tweeting, see Tweet me to the Moon.

Photo: thanks to the NASA website