Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Neat-o Toys: All Season Sled

Now that winter is fleeing, we are thinking back to all the good sledding days we didn’t take full advantage of.  How come there aren’t more night sledding runs in New York City anyway?

We haven’t solved the problem of needing to sled in darkness, but at least someone else had solved the problem of sledding in the summer. The Slicer by Ice Meister is definitely something to live in our bowl of tricks.  If we could start that summer camp, we’d put six on the shelf and have weekly races down Wipe-out Lane!  Winner gets to jump in the mud pool.

Here’s what the inventors had to say:
For snow sledding, the SLICER works like any normal sled that is placed on a slope that is covered with snow or ice. But to slide down grass covered slopes, just the opposite is done: instead of putting the SLICERTM on the snow or ice, ice is put on the bottom of the SLICERTM!

Inside the SLICER’s hollow, double-walled construction are two patent pending (in USA, Canada, and Europe) Icers that can be removed (from within the inside of the sled) and then used to freeze and form thin ice blocks that can then be easily attached to the bottom of the SLICER. When outdoor temperatures are above freezing, the melting ice provides for a very slippery surface, providing winter sledding fun in the summer!

The SLICER does not take a back seat to other sleds, either, when used in the winter on snow. Its smooth contoured shape and low profile runners enable it to work well on packed snow as well as deep powder. Owing to its double-walled, unibody design, the SLICER is able to absorb bumps while cushioning riders weighing up to 200 lbs. And its rugged polyethylene plastic design makes it less than the cost of many snow-only sleds.

Thanks Cool Hunting!
Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Silly Kid Tricks: Shake Those Eyebrows!

Commercial Alert!  Commercial Alert!  We interrupt our highly educational regular programming to bring you a blatant attempt to take some money from jar.  But we had to.  These kids had something to teach us.  Not much to say, but they sure have talent.

Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Extreme Shepherding

When we were drawing up our list of the top things to grow up to do, we had mad scientist, ice cream taster, lego designer, merry prankster, and archaeologist high on the list, but we hadn’t considered taking a bunch of sheep and few dogs out to the hillside.  Now we realize how much fun we were missing.

Categories
Truly Free Film

The Future Of Film

Sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t have the answer as to what the future of film is.  

A lot of people though do have some good ideas as what the future may hold and what it is needed, from the small step to the big picture.  I got to sit down with a nice group of very smart people while I was at SXSW and talk a bit about what I might be.  Scott Kirsner who organized the breakfast has put the whole conversation up on his blog.  The other participants are:

filmmaker Lance Weiler 
conference organizer and producer Liz Rosenthal
technologist Brian Chirls
outreach guru Caitlin Boyle
 filmmaker Brett Gaylor
producer and Filmmaker Mag editor Scott Macaulay
Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Creepy Lego MiniFigs


Who said Halloween is just for October?  Why not have a little freaky all year round?  Or at least in March?  In our bowl we revisit this Brickshelf Gallery on a regular basis.

Categories
Bowl Of Noses

Making Music: Collaboration and The Mash Up

One of the great new music art forms of recent times is the mash-up, but it is a lot harder than it first sounds.  A mash-up is essentially of what was originally two or more songs or music tracks that have been mixed together.  It is one of the many ways to make something old new again.  You could say it is the cousin of the sample, which is exactly what it sounds like: a sample of one song used in another song, say just three drum beats or one phrase from the lyrics.

We sneezed three times in excitement when this video landed in our bowl.  From what we can tell, this musician both sampled and asked different people on YouTube to provide chords and beats and then he mixed them all together.  It’s like people of all ages from all over the world got together and jammed.  Regardless, it’s a great song that will make you want to shake your socks off!
Categories
Truly Free Film

Peter Broderick’s Distribution Bulletin

Few have done as much to articulate the new paradigm as Peter Broderick.  Step by step he’s been laying it out clearly for filmmakers to walk away from the corporate grip and make it work for themselves.  If you want to be free to tell stories on any subject in any manner, you have to change your way of thinking.  A regular dose of Peter’s wisdom helps us all keep a clear head.

My only complaint is Peter doesn’t publish his Distribution Bulletin as frequently as I would like to read it.  Luckily, a new edition just hit the internet so we can all calm down for a day or two.  This issue Peter tells us of the The Age Of Stupid and the their crowd-funding model.  Don’t miss it.