A new study has ranked our fair city the most stressful place to live in the U.S. FUCK THOSE PEOPLE, they’ve got shit in their eyes and mud where the brains supposed to be!

Oh, excuse me, I’m a little tense today.

I recently posted the Photosynth tech demo from Siggraph 2008. This is the program that stitches a bunch of flat photos of the same location together to create a 3-d fly-through of that location. It even displays that fly-through over the internet.

Well, Microsoft just released a version of Photosynth to the public. You can upload photos of your home, workplace, Hellfire Club cave or I suppose your colonoscopy and it will build all that into a 3-d fly-through.

Try it out, here (will require a Windows Live ID)

If you create a Photosynth, post it to the forum. I’ve created a thread for just that purpose in the “Your Projects” section.

Here’s some video of the AWESOME POWER of Slough Feg that I took at the Double Door last Saturday during the Alehorn of Power Metal Festival.

Although I wouldn’t really call 200 metal nerds in band t-shirts a “festival,” it delivered in every way. My ears are still ringing.

Enjoy!

Part 2 and more face melting can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i18Dp5GXZZA

I took all this with my trusty Canon Powershot SD870 IS - I couldn’t be more pleased with this camera. Wish I’d pulled it out when Bible of the Devil was on as they also rocked so hard.

We live in a decidedly hipster heavy part of Chicago so I can definitely empathize with this article from the latest adbusters. Although, the author’s idea that hipster “counter-culture” means the end of Western Civilization is a decidedly self-centered and hipster notion.
From the article:

Take a stroll down the street in any major North American or European city and you’ll be sure to see a speckle of fashion-conscious twentysomethings hanging about and sporting a number of predictable stylistic trademarks: skinny jeans, cotton spandex leggings, fixed-gear bikes, vintage flannel, fake eyeglasses and a keffiyeh – initially sported by Jewish students and Western protesters to express solidarity with Palestinians, the keffiyeh has become a completely meaningless hipster cliché fashion accessory.

The American Apparel V-neck shirt, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and Parliament cigarettes are symbols and icons of working or revolutionary classes that have been appropriated by hipsterdom and drained of meaning. Ten years ago, a man wearing a plain V-neck tee and drinking a Pabst would never be accused of being a trend-follower. But in 2008, such things have become shameless clichés of a class of individuals that seek to escape their own wealth and privilege by immersing themselves in the aesthetic of the working class

Read the whole fatalistic thing here.

I was reluctant to post any Batman related posts (well, until after I see it and will be most certainly compelled to get my digital fawning into overdrive), but I came across this article on Fandango that was just too cool not to pass along. It takes you on a short tour through the different spots that were used in Chicago and tells what they converted them to for the Dark Knight. As a lifelong Chicago native it was quite a treat to read and has kept my fanboy nipples properly tweaked for tomorrow’s screening.

Batman!!

Read “Good Knight Chicago“

Please take a moment to vote for The Viking Youth Power Hour in the Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago Ballot.

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Scroll down and write “The Viking Youth Power Hour” in the ‘Best Podcast’ and ‘Best Blog’ category.

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