Harlem and On: The Story of Idaho Bob: November 2008

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Advent Calendars: Nothing Tastes Like This

It's December 1st so it's time to find the window with a 1 on it and choke down your 1st of 24 awful "chocolates." Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about? *cough heathen* Well, we're talking about advent calendars dummy.......

Some history from Wiki:

The origins of the Advent calendar come from German Lutherans who, at least as early as the beginning of the 19th century, would count down the 24 days of Advent physically. Often this meant simply drawing a chalk line on the door each day, beginning on December 1. Some families had more elaborate means of marking the days, such as lighting a new candle or hanging a little religious picture on the wall each day.

The first known Advent calendar was handmade in 1851. According to the Austrian (NÖ) Landesmuseum, the first printed Advent calendar was produced in in 1902 or 1903.

Ok, so there's some facts about its history, but we all know advent calendars for one thing: HORRIBLE CHOCOLATE. I'm not sure how they do it but advent calendars are the only thing filled with candy you don't enjoy eating. I like finding the little numbers and opening the doors and even guessing what shape the chocolate is in from the blobbular thing you see when the door opens, but I HATE the chocolate.

Nothing tastes like this flavor and if I was given it with a blindfold I would certainly not guess chocolate. It tastes like a vegan pine cone. Is the point to be a punishment every day? To make up for bad behavior throughout the year and appease Santa? Of course, you could buy one from Godiva but it's just doesn't seem right without some sort of religious slant on the whole thing.

If you have never had an advent calendar I suggest you buy them in bulk to make up for lost years and experience these totally unique chocolatish brown blobs shaped like Christmas stereotypes.

-Idaho Bob-

P.S. Thank you Grandma we love getting our yearly advent calendar and we love you!

Body Count: 2 (Black Friday)

This is so horrible it boggles the mind. In an economic slump, when we should be saving up and not spending, people go so bananas over a sale they end up killing a worker and an unborn child.

Follow this link to see more madness that happened in Walmarts on black Friday.

-Idaho Bob-

Saturday, November 29, 2008

YouTube Translation BETA

You may have noticed some new changes to YouTube recently that are in response to viewers switching over to sites like Vimeo who have true HD and just look so much better. 1st, all of sudden the viewer is 16:9, which is awesome as people shooting HD no longer have to downrez to SD before outputting and it makes the "watch in high quality" so much better.

But, way more important than the 16:9 is the CC (closed captioning) options now available. Take the most recent presidential weekly address pictured below

I took CCs in Spanish and translated them into Japanese, had someone check it and it's pretty close. It's not perfect but you can see where this is going, universal translation without software. It's an interesting time where we know certain technologies we will have in the future (not the flying cars moon houses of the 40's and 50's futurists) and we just have to wait for the technology to improve. I can't wait for the future!

-Idaho Bob-

New Ways to Advertise

New York is a dog eat dog world as far as advertising goes, and there is no space that is sacred that can't be sold as ad space. Here are some examples.

This wall advert in the subway wants you to plug in your headphones to listen to it thank you for plugging in your headphones and then blasts Christina A at you.

Going through the subway used to just be all boring metal, now, the turnstile, steps, walls, and even entire train interiors are plastered with ads. The Grand Central to Time Square 7 train is all decked out as a giant liquor ad at the moment.

-Idaho Bob-

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Why you should NEVER go to the Macy's Day Parade Pre-Show

I put my camera on my head (6/12lbs, my head still hurts) and set it to take 1 frame a second and see how long it would take to get from 79th and Columbus,down to 2 blocks, across 77th to Central Park West, up to 81st, and then back to 81st and Columbus. Watch to find out!

-Idaho Bob-

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Magic of Make-up, Photography and a Good Model

You'd never guess, but this girl is 10 years old with a really good make-up artist and photgrapger. Check out her transformation in 10 year steps at Miss at la Playa.

-Idaho Bob-

FOX kills Sat Morning Cartoons

"After terminating a deal with 4Kids, an independent producer of children’s programming, the Fox network closed down its Saturday morning block of cartoons on Monday, and became the first major broadcast network to agree to sell a part of its schedule to producers of infomercials."

-Idaho Bob-

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Globaile'

So, this is what I'm filming tomorrow:

GLOBAILE LAUNCH PARTY

-Idaho Bob-

Friday, November 21, 2008

Every Once In a While

Every once in a while something happens to remind you that life is really fragile. Take this for instance:

Yea, that was a fuckin' meteor. A meteor! You remember that period where asteroids were the hot thing in Hollywood and everyone HAD to have a asteroid movie. Right after that came everyone needing an animation about bugs. Anyway, there is also this:

It's not a funny shot angle, the wheel is bent because he hit a car crossing an avenue. He decided to gun it through a red because there didn't seem to be any cars, but there was, and if he had been a few seconds earlier he'd be dead instead of just really shook up. I wish I had a picture of my friend Shawn's scar who was kick starting a finiky vespa when it shot off and the kickstand tore through his leg, just missing tendons, bones, and other things that could have crippled him for life. We forget that just walking down the street is a hazard and we're in a country without land mines or roadside bombs. We forget that we could die at any moment or be horribly maimed, and we forget to look at what we have and appreciate it.

But, like the meteor we get lucky and we hit the car not the other way around and it reminds us that we are weak creatures living in a world of extreme hazards we just blow through everyday until something reminds us. Luckily my friend's bike and the meteor that didn't hit Canada was just a reminder.

-Idaho Bob-

BaDaBupBuBa, I'm Stacking It!

-Idaho Bob-

I OFFICIALLY Endorse Myself

Coincidentally, IDAHO BOB is the ONLY blog OFFICIALLY endorsed by Bob Geile, the creator of IDAHO BOB!

-Idaho Bob-

Out of Context

"I'm going to make the worlds largest motorcycle and ride it into space."

-LE-

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Newsflash: American Internet Providers "Suck"

-Idaho Bob-

Everything You Know is Wrong

EXTRA EXTRA: Vitamins actually mostly worthless.

READ ABOUT IT

-Idaho Bob-

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Put Your Face on Various Children's Cartoons

Want a semi-involved quick laugh?

-Idaho Bob-

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Everyone Should Subscribe

Everyone who is interested in seeing what the President Elect and his team are doing now, and throughout his four years in office should subscribe to the office's YouTube channel. Take a step back and think about how AMAZING this is. The White House has a YouTube, is embracing technology fully and making a lot of their goings on transparent and open to the public. Smell like change?

Obama Campaign YouTube Channel

-Idaho Bob-

P.S. I heard Obama is the first President Elect with a laptop, but I need a solid source on that.

No Comment

-Idaho Bob-

Monday, November 17, 2008

No Comment

-Idaho Bob-

BAD NYC Cab Driver

You hear a lot of things about how carazy NYC cab drivers are, but I have one to add. I was coming home from JFK (was in Toronto with RocketBoom) and the cabbie was constantly hitting the breaks on the highway back into Manhattan. I though "what a safe driver, the roads are a bit wet." He just kept tapping his breaks over and over again about every 30 to 45 seconds but I just played it off. However, I started to get worried when I noticed the pattern that he tapped the breaks suddenly whenever people passed the cab, and there were plenty passing. Maybe he was a new driver, finally got his own cab and driving cautiously perhaps, who knows.

Nothing seemed too bad until we got over the bridge into Manhattan and stopped at the first light. It turns green, no movement. A few honks and we're off, but now I'm suspicious. So I slide over to watch in the rear view and at the next light (which was past our turn as he missed it, Lexington Ave., not like he missed a side street, he missed the whole avenue). As soon as we stop, he nods off, classic eyes shut slowly and chin drifts to chest; he's out. Light turns green, nothing. No one was behind us so I took out my phone, flipped it open, then snapped it loudly shut. He pops up and keeps going looking confused at where he was and I helped steer him back on course. The next light he nodded off again (SNAP goes the phone) and he tried to turn down a one way street. I hollered at him not to as a cop gave us the "Bleep Bleep." Luckily, he turned back, missed the cop car, and I got to my block.

I got out, got my stuff, paid the man, he said "thank you," I said "thank you," he said "I said thank you," as if I hadn't heard or asked what he had said. He got away without giving the receipt, which I needed as the cab was generously on RocketBoom. As I walked to the door it all clicked, the breaking was him asleep on the highway being startled by the sound of passing cars. How many cabbies are out there putting in insane hours all through the night just to keep the city going? They are like the blood cells of the city running around feeding the beast, no time to sleep.

-Idaho Bob-