This is exactly why Apple should release a programming interface for the iphone to third party developers. Why wouldn't you want people like Johnny Lee innovating on your hardware for free? But then again Apple is not dumb. They must have considered this option. I wonder why they didn't opt for it.

One simple equation that leads to endless beauty. Probably the holy grail of computer graphics. Too bad people haven't been able to create an equally interesting mapping from a fractal to audio.

This is why I love VideoSift. The stuff this community finds its just so....
Thanks theaceofclubz.

Beautiful animation set to some beautiful music. The background score is Sibelius’ “Sad Walz.” Reminds me of another animated short that used the same score:
http://www.kewego.com/channel/iLyROoaftYIh.html

I agree with twiddles' interpretation. The animation seems to depict the mental breakdown of a person over a period of time. The blackouts seem to mark the end of an episode with each episode getting progressively worse. During an episode the person seems to be trying to self soothe by creating a stronger persona (tidy monster) who claims to be able to fix the mess created by his fractured mind.

Some of this work seems to be inspired by the oscar-winning animation 'Ryan' which dealt with a similar subject matter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39glDm6Of04
Ryan became famous for the use of multi-perspective, non-linear projection to create a visceral reaction in the viewer. The animators of Tidy Monster might also be using a similar technique.
Techniques used in Ryan:
http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~kaleigh/publications/perspective_talk.pdf

Doc_M here is my take on the death of the conquistador. (spoilers head).

The beauty of this movie is that it allows for multiple interpretations of the entire time line and not just the ending.

One interpretation is that the movie is told using non-linear story telling. The non-linear interpretation leads to the following time line:
The protagonist loves his wife (in the year 2000). She dies while writing a book about Spain set in the 1500s. The protagonist's medical research leads to life extension technology. He prolongs his life for 500 years until the technology to travel through space becomes available. In a romantic gesture he casts his wife's remains (the tree) and himself into the nebula.

The second interpretation of the movie, which I feel more comfortable with, is that the scenes in the movie occur on a linear time line set in the year 2000 (i.e., There is no space travel). The scenes in the bubble are a visualization of the protagonist's inner space. We see this inner space every time the protagonist withdraws into himself. The scenes involving Spain are a visualization of the chapters in the book. They are shown every time someone writes into the book. In beginning the wife is doing the writing, and towards the end the protagonist is writing the final chapter as per his dead wife's wishes. The final scene shows the protagonist coming to terms his wife's death; the blooming tree is a visual depiction of his mind having an epiphany and the conquistador's death shows how the protagonist ended the book (accepting death as the spring of new life). Finally, once he has made peace with his wife's death he is able to fulfill her last wish - planting a tree over her grave.

Obviously Aronofsky wanted to make the movie consistent with the first interpretation. That is why the movie has the whole subplot involving the life-extending medical research. It is also the time line suggested by the movie's trailer. But I also think he consciously wanted the movie to be consistent with the second interpretation and this is not just me reading way too much into the story. The metaphor of 'mind as deep-space' is common in many mystic philosophies. You might have heard the term 'psychonaut' to describe people who engage in deep meditation or those who consume hallucinogens. Also, some of the scenes in the bubble show transitions of the protagonist withdrawing into his mind: example, consider the scene where he lies down with his wife on the hospital bed; the very next scene begins in the bubble and you can see the ghost image of the hospital bed and his wife slowly fading away as he is drawn into his mind.

For this and many others reason I love the Fountain.

In reply to this comment by Doc_M:
I think I've got this film figured out, but I still don't understand the death of the conquistador. If you get it, help me out here.

Doc_M here is my take on the death of the conquistador. (spoilers head).

The beauty of this movie is that it allows for multiple interpretations of the entire time line and not just the ending.

One interpretation is that the movie is told using non-linear story telling. The non-linear interpretation leads to the following time line:
The protagonist loves his wife (in the year 2000). She dies while writing a book about Spain set in the 1500s. The protagonist's medical research leads to life extension technology. He prolongs his life for 500 years until the technology to travel through space becomes available. In a romantic gesture he casts his wife's remains (the tree) and himself into the nebula.

The second interpretation of the movie, which I feel more comfortable with, is that the scenes in the movie occur on a linear time line set in the year 2000 (i.e., There is no space travel). The scenes in the bubble are a visualization of the protagonist's inner space. We see this inner space every time the protagonist withdraws into himself. The scenes involving Spain are a visualization of the chapters in the book. They are shown every time someone writes into the book. In beginning the wife is doing the writing, and towards the end the protagonist is writing the final chapter as per his dead wife's wishes. The final scene shows the protagonist coming to terms his wife's death; the blooming tree is a visual depiction of his mind having an epiphany and the conquistador's death shows how the protagonist ended the book (accepting death as the spring of new life). Finally, once he has made peace with his wife's death he is able to fulfill her last wish - planting a tree over her grave.

Obviously Aronofsky wanted to make the movie consistent with the first interpretation. That is why the movie has the whole subplot involving the life-extending medical research. It is also the time line suggested by the movie's trailer. But I also think he consciously wanted the movie to be consistent with the second interpretation and this is not just me reading way too much into the story. The metaphor of 'mind as deep-space' is common in many mystic philosophies. You might have heard the term 'psychonauts' to describe people who engage in deep meditation or those who consume hallucinogens. Also, some of the scenes in the bubble show transitions of the protagonist withdrawing into his mind: example, consider the scene where he lies down with his wife on the hospital bed; the very next scene begins in the bubble and you can see the ghost image of the hospital bed and his wife slowly fading away as he is drawn into his mind.

For this and many others reason I love The Fountain.

The original video of Steve Vai's amazing performance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1VjwciFLAg

Did that kid insist its Mehico and not Mexico? Or was she just not able to pronounce the 'x'?

"Those nazi admins are so fucking sensitive!!"
Hilarious.

wow!!!

Mr Brian Bates (video vigilante) was arrested for -- - wait for it --- pimping! Here's smoking gun's scoop on Bates:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0209051bates1.html

"..was arrested yesterday for allegedly paying hookers to ensure that they serviced customers in an area where he could easily film the illicit trysts."


To begin with I don't agree with Mr Bates' tactics in general but what pissed me off further about this video was how titalated Bates seems to be on catching the 'john' in the act. If he truly found prostitution disgusting I doubt he would have engaged the 'john' in that rather salacious dialogue.

--- EDIT ---
Bates was arrested for pimping in 2005 and he is still active in this vigilante business. So it is possible that he was cleared of the charges.

Dam! the lengths people will go to entertain me

kingsblood - actually a lot of people argue that Grylls's show is really dangerous because people think they are learning valuable survival skills which is not the case. For example, in one show he drinks his own urine to avoid dehydration without distilling it. Plus 99% of what he does is probably unsafe for even experts like Grylls (e.g., climbing down a water fall, getting unnecessarily wet, etc).

There is an entire wiki dedicated to the discussion of why the show is fake and dangerous:
http://www.daughtersoftiresias.org/bearwiki/Main_Page
Some pretty damning accusations on that site; ranging from evidence that Grylls spent the night at a hotel when he was supposedly roughing it out in the wild to an expose on how the encounter with a wild bear on the show was really just the producer in a bear suit.

Though I always felt the show was clearly "fake" in the purist sense. The show is really a Jason Bourne style fantasy set in exotic locations where we get to see Grylls perform some bad ass stunts (sometimes with the help of some unacknowledged aid). Its really quite entertaining.

joedirt - It is pointless to expect any reality show to not pull a trick that will boost their ratings especially if they think they can get away with it. Have you seen the video of Fator's first AGT appearance (currently in the top 15 on VS)? The judges clearly set up Fator's Simpson Joke at the end but at the beginning of the performance they pretend to not know who he is. Which means that whole act where they pretended to dis him for being a ventriloquist and were then "suprised" by his performance was mostly likely a pretense. They must have seen his audition tapes beforehand; even talked to him before his performance to set up the simpson joke.

And why wouldn't they fake it? Their goal is to maximize ratings. Maybe all reality shows should be required to come with an explicit warning: "events in the show are more fake than they appear."

Regardless of the crap AGT pulls to boost its ratings I do think the top participants on AGT have real talent.