The Chandler ‘micro-factory’ builds the Rally Fighter, an off-road/street legal bad ass piece of machinery, because Arizona has lots of great off-roading spots. But other factories are being built in cities that require a different kind of vehicle.  Instead of buying next years’ popular model from some big auto maker in Detroit, you purchase from a local motor company that designs vehicles made specifically for your region.

As part of the Shell GameChanger DRIVEN Design Competitions they are collaboratively submitting designs of relevant and innovative vehicles for energy needs.  For Amsterdam they are developing a motorized/pedal bicycle made of bamboo, a helicopter for Sao Paulo and a hybrid electric street vehicle designed for the streets of Boston.

In the Local Motors conference area they have a white board with a list of the types of vehicles they design and it reads: Land Sea and Air vehicles. They don’t know it yet but last week I added the word ‘space’ to their list.

So, I may get my feet wet with some car body designs or graphic skins to start but I’d really like to take some of my space vehicle models and experiment with the community to find solutions for space travel, planet exploration, satellite recovery/replacement and more.

Photos of Rally Fighters Custom Skins

A Car Story: The Rally FIghter Takes Flight (11 Episodes)

SWU has been featured in documentaries, news features and conferences around the world for its unique appeal. In 2010 they won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media.

ENJOY!

I stand in line with my four, count ‘em, 4 quarts of chocolate chunky frozen goodness and ten dollar bills.  The line’s moving quickly but all I can think about is pouring bacon crumbles over this stuff.  My turn at the register comes and the cashier quickly works up my total, which looks like it’s going to be over 25 bucks, then he swipes my “club card” and the final total is … $15.85.

The cashier pulls out his store circular and checks.  Sure enough, that’s the deal-eo!  But there’s a limit on two quarts per purchase.  There’s always a catch.  Okay, fine.  I just really need some chocolate.  He takes two of the quarts and removes them from the total.  And from my bags.  But I need to check which ones I’m allowed to purchase because one of the four isn’t as chocolately as the others and sure enough, it’s in my bag already and needs to be swapped asap.  The bacon to chocolate ratio is very important.

Suddenly, a manager pops up out of nowhere and overrides the action, then he’s gone.  Bam, these guys are fast, but I actually want one of the flavors he’s taken out and I tell the cashier while I attempt to swap it with one in my bag.

He abruptly says, “May I have your club card again sir!”

I try to tell him about my swap idea while fumbling through my wallet and pockets looking for the precious club card that grants these $1.99 chocolate wishes, then he realizes that he still has my club card and swipes it for me.  Now I can see he’s barely paying attention and certainly unaware of my choco-baco dilemma.  So I try to explain again, “I’d prefer one of these flavors over the one already in the bag.”

“That’ll be $3.98, sir.”

Damn!  Why is he battering me like this?  I hand him the four bucks and try to explain my preference in flavor once again.

ZIP! ZIP! DING! … Ca-Ching!  Lickity-Split!  My dollar bills go into the till, the change dispenser spits out my two pennies and the cashier hands me my receipt and says, ”May I have your club card again sir!”

Okay, now I’m thinking, WTF?!  Does he know how to work this frakkin thing or what?  This guy is about to drive me completely bacos!  I’m usually soft spoken and tend to mumble but now it’s clear there’s some hearing impairment or selective judgement at work here.  I mean, this guy is going so fast and he’s not even looking at me.

So just as calmly as before, I repeat myself,  ”I’d really prefer one of these flavors instead, please.”

Then at last!!  He reaches for the other quart.  He grabs it.  BEEP!  Then the other one.  BEEP!  The second pair of quarts go into my bag.

“That’ll be $3.98, sir.”

So, finally, I’m like, “Oh, I see what you did there!”

So now I’m chuckling, and I say, “I’m sorry, I thought you weren’t listening to me and it turns out you heard me just fine”.

THANKS MAN!

When the story got to about 50 pages we started gathering regularly in his studio to record an audio version (ala Firesign Theater / Frank Zappa).  Out of that came some of the wackiest stuff I have ever heard.  It was also the most challenging audio project I have ever worked on because it was nothing like editing real music!  It was chaos.

Tune In to Radio BlahBlah

So now there’s an external link on the Three Word Story Wikipedia page featuring the www.blahblah.com 3WS as the longest story of its kind now that it has more than 10,000 entries!

Plus, who else has audio recordings of something so weird?

Watch these two great videos to have your mind blown.

Understanding The Fourth Dimension

Then the radio became the transmitter of the free mans voice, until it was taken over by powerful corporations and federal bureaucracy.

The television, a modern media channel owned by corporations that sell you the news they want you see.
Then suddenly, something so huge and free emerges that brings liberation to the whole world as a true democratic beacon…the internet. And if that isn’t enough, the internet takes over the radio and the newspapers and clearly, the television is quickly becoming the internet.

Unless we let the corporations get control of the internet and turn it back into the TV and the remote control that corporations want of your lives.

KILL YOUR TELEVISION

Stop watching TV.
Stop buying CD’s and DVD’s
Stop listening to the radio and reading newspapers

Start using torrents and the pirates bay
Start downloading and streaming your music and video entertainment
Start tuning in to independent channels

The TRUTH is out there!

AND IT’S FREE!!!

Also see: Blender’s Orange Project from 2006

Elephants Dream

Since seeing the first movie I have been learning to use Blender, which is nothing like any other 3D program I have ever used.  The interface takes some getting used to but once I unleashed the power of this unique software I realized that I want ALL of my programs to work this way.

Simulating the popular Roland TR-909 and TB-303 with additional effects using pedals and rumored upcoming MIDI support.

All I’m desperately needing here is a multi-touch surface.
Are you with me?

I’ve dabbled with the Processing Visualization Language for a couple of years but it will be nice to see this picked up by more programmers and used where people can experience it as a part of their daily internet experience.

The concept of using ‘particle physics’ (if I may) as a design element has always been attractive to artists and web developers but to deliver it in a lightweight and unobtrusive manner has always posed a challenge.  Using Flash and ActionScript has solved this problem before and now with this development in an open environment we can begin to see these enhancements delivered more frequently and to a larger audience.

I cant wait to see what happens next.