Watching

Video Digest: July 21, 2006

College dynamos and corny dogs: domino apartment; human Pong; “Flatlife”; Wholpin; the UFO in New York you missed because you were sleeping

As a college student, I was prone to storing empty beer cans wherever they landed and passing out while eating frozen corny dogs. I consider myself a reformed slob now—I make my bed every morning, and I haven’t fallen asleep with a frozen corny dog in weeks. But I was truly awed by the dorm-room mess, and the dedication to ridiculous spectacle, displayed by these three Japanese kids, who take everything in their apartment and turn it into a giant domino chain. No empty beer bottles, but one spectacular section does include toast.




I appreciate it when viral videos don’t resemble something I did with my friends while nursing a giant bong. The above clip and the one below actually resemble something we would TALK about while nursing a giant bong, but then we’d all fall asleep 10 minutes into Flash Gordon clutching half-eaten corny dogs, and then where would we be? Here is a less-awesome but still-gratifying human Pong:




Speaking of wasting time, Dutch student filmmaker Jonas Geirnaert drew 9000 frames for this animated short called “Flatlife,” submitted it unfinished, on a whim, to Cannes Film Festival, and all he got was an award for Best Short of 2004. Sucker.




The current issue of Wholpin—the collection of videos from the McSweeney’s folks—has at least two entertaining shorts. Jessica Yu’s “Sour Death Balls” and “Nice Day,” a video directed by something called “Mad Injection,” are crack executions of simple concepts.

But let’s get serious for a second. While you were sleeping, a UFO appeared over New York on July 14. Don’t believe it? YouTube has the proof.




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