The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

YouTube Video: “A Fly on the Wall at Artomatic”
|| 6/15/2009 || 4:36 pm || Comments Off on YouTube Video: “A Fly on the Wall at Artomatic” || ||

On Saturday June 13th, 2009, I attended the Artomatic “Meet The Artist Night.” As an experiment, I decided to place my digital camera on my exhibit wall. This time-lapse video documents what it would be like to be a fly on the wall at my Artomatic 2009 exhibit.

About midway through the video, I remove the camera from the wall and a friend takes a photo of me with a couple friends and then I place the camera back on the wall for the remainder of the filming.

Music used in the video is Azul (Gianma’s Drum and Bass Remix) by Natalia Clavier from her El Arbol EP (2008).

You can also view a somewhat better quality version of the video on Facebook.

YouTube video of the early years of Disco in the Washington / Baltimore area from 1976
|| 6/1/2009 || 2:41 pm || Comments Off on YouTube video of the early years of Disco in the Washington / Baltimore area from 1976 || ||

This video was created by Tom D’Antoni in 1976 for Maryland Public Broadcasting‘s show “The Critic’s Place” on the Disco phenomenon when it was happening. It shows some of the nightclubs that existed in Washington, DC and Baltimore during the early years of Disco. I really enjoyed how Tom highlighted the social differences that existed between DC and Baltimore 30 years ago and how they, in some ways, still exist today. I am really curious about where the clubs that were featured in the video were located. At about 4 minutes in he mentions 20th & L streets and that area is now all office buildings. I gotta wonder if there are any nightclubs in the locations shown in the video that still exist today?

A big thanks goes to Dori Hadar, who posted this on Facebook, and is the person we can collectively thank for helping to discover Mingering Mike. You can purchase his insightful book about Mingering Mike on Amazon.

Note: while the YouTube video’s title says “Disco 1975 (74?),” upon a thorough reading of the comments posted on YouTube, audiophiles were able to accurately place the video at 1976.

UPDATE – 2/28/2011 – The Sagittarius, shown at the opening and again at around the 2 minute mark, was located inside of the Fraser Mansion and is currently the national affairs office of the Church of Scientology. -via DCist.

[Update] The Architectural Athan Drum & Bass Mashup via YouTube Doubler is now transcribed
|| 4/19/2009 || 10:36 am || Comments Off on [Update] The Architectural Athan Drum & Bass Mashup via YouTube Doubler is now transcribed || ||

Click image to view the mashup on YouTube Doubler

Just under one year ago I created an interesting mashup using Brian Kane’s YouTube Doubler. Dubbed “the Athan Drum & Bass Mashup” (and since then I’ve added “architectural” to the title), the mashup features a slideshow of Islamic architecture on the left side and a stationary camera focused on a Drum & Bass DJ’s turntables on the right. Last night I revisited the original entry and discovered that whomever had uploaded the slideshow decided to transcribe the Athan using YouTube’s annotation feature. Now you can actually read the English translation of the morning call to prayer sung in Arabic.

#update – This iteration also automatically rewinds!

Related Interactive Entries:

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YouTube videos of the “Do-Re-Me” dance in Antwerp’s Central Station
|| 3/26/2009 || 2:50 pm || 1 Comment Rendered || ||

Last month I created a Facebook group called Washington Metropolitan Area Residents For A 24 Hour Metro. Each week or so I’ve been sending members of the group different subway related YouTube videos- ranging from Improv Everywhere’s Subway Art Gallery Opening to Toronto’s subway dance party. Last night I came across another iteration of the faux-flash-mob-that-decides-to-dance-in-a-train-station-meme and decided to share it with the group. It features 200 well-choreographed dancers getting down to a remix of Julie Andrews singing Do-Re-Me from the musical The Sound of Music in Antwerp’s Central Station. Similar to the efforts behind the T-Mobile video, I believe the motivation behind this video is related to the promotion of the Belgian theatrical version of “Looking for Maria” or “Op zoek naar Maria,” which is based on the Sound of Music.

Below is the behind the scenes video and two different perspectives of the dance:

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“A Haircut One Year In The Making” – A time-lapse YouTube video of my long-awaited haircut
|| 3/25/2009 || 12:27 pm || Comments Off on “A Haircut One Year In The Making” – A time-lapse YouTube video of my long-awaited haircut || ||

After growing my hair out for the last year, I decided to film the long-awaited haircut in my living room using my digital camera’s time-lapse recording function. While the haircut was taking place a couple of my housemates come home and watch the haircut unaware that there was a camera recording in the background.

The video gratuitously starts out with a couple photos I took of myself from July of 2008 until March of 2009 then transitions to the footage my Canon SD750 recorded using the one frame per second time-lapse feature. I would have included more photos from June of 2008 to March of 2008, but I couldn’t find any photos on my hard drive.

Anyways, I doubt I’ll grow my hair out like this again for awhile, but honestly, I enjoyed having it.
Up next: the sideburns!

MUSIC: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra in F Major by Antonio Vivaldi
Performed by the Gardner Chamber Orchestra. Audio directed by flutist Paula Robison.
Audio courtesy of Archive.org

Artwork Note: On the wall, behind me to my left, is my map “Washington Monument Lenz”

Related YouTube Entries:

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Today at Lafayette Park: YouTube Video of the Tibetan National Uprising Day Rally and SEIU’s Employee Free Choice Act rally
|| 3/9/2009 || 11:29 pm || Comments Off on Today at Lafayette Park: YouTube Video of the Tibetan National Uprising Day Rally and SEIU’s Employee Free Choice Act rally || ||

I was woken up this morning by a friend calling from Los Angeles. He’d missed his flight and needed someone to do sound for a rally at Lafayette Park (just north of the White House). Happy that it was a beautiful day, I obliged and proceeded to go to his office to pick up the sound system. When we arrived at the park we were greeted by a decent sized demonstration that was taking place on the other side of the park in support of a Free Tibet because the following day, March 10th, is the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan Uprising. As the Tibetan National Uprising Day Rally ended and the demonstrators started to march toward the Chinese Embassy, I got out my camera and filmed this:

Afterwards we set up the stage and about an hour later the SEUI‘s rally for the Employee Free Choice Act began. I snapped a couple pictures of the masks that were created by local designer Cesar Maxit:

Masks at the SEIU Employee Free Choice Rally

Continue:

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False Positive Drug Tests Exposed [PART ONE, PART TWO, & PART THREE]
|| 3/8/2009 || 6:12 pm || Comments Off on False Positive Drug Tests Exposed [PART ONE, PART TWO, & PART THREE] || ||

PART ONE – May, 2007 – This YouTube video shows the incredible true story of the Germ and Soap Company that teamed up to fight drug charges. David Bronner President of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps shows how natural soaps test positive for the date rape drug GHB using police field kits while detergent based fake soaps always test negative.

PART TWO – March 3rd, 2009 – The Marijuana Policy Project and the Mintwood Media Collective present the findings of a new study, False Positives Equal False Justice [pdf]. Video exposes how field drug tests used by police and other government agencies give false positives on dozens of common products.

That’s a pretty expensive little science experiment:

PART THREE – NOW – Its quite amazing how many false positives these products give. You have to wonder why are they still being being used? Come on, Hershey‘s gives a false positive! That’s pretty sad.

Send letters & calls to the maker of these products:

Forensics Source
13386 International Pkwy
Jacksonville, FL, 32218
Tel: (800) 852-0300 or (904) 485-1836
Fax: (800) 588-0399 or (904) 741-5407
E-mail: Info@ForensicsSource.com

You never know, maybe the company didn’t know it was selling faulty products? I bet they would like to hear from you!

YouTube Video of Landsat Satellite Images of Las Vegas (1984-2009)
|| 3/4/2009 || 12:23 pm || Comments Off on YouTube Video of Landsat Satellite Images of Las Vegas (1984-2009) || ||

I came across this animated slideshow last week and felt it was worthy to share here. I have an old USGS book that uses earlier Landsat satellite imagery showing roughly the same thing, but this version is newer and shows more growth. What I thought was the most interesting, beyond the fact that human growth looks like cancer, is seeing Lake Mead shrink considerably over the years. When you watch the video above, look closely at the lake on the far right side to see what I’m talking about. This begs the question, as Las Vegas grows and Lake Mead shrinks, will or should the city stop growing when the water runs out? Since its a man-made reservoir, I doubt it will go dry up anytime soon, but I guess the larger issue to me is how sustainable can living in the desert really be? There is quite a bit of space in the Las Vegas area that has yet to built on, but should it be? Should there be a limit to the growth of the city so that the city become less dominated by low-density housing? If people want cookie cutter houses I can’t say much about their tastes, but I will say that there is a carrying capacity of all environments and I’m curious about when and if Las Vegas will reach that level.

Related Nevada Entries:

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Photos and a YouTube Video of the Capitol Climate Action at the Capitol Power Plant
|| 3/2/2009 || 11:49 pm || Comments Off on Photos and a YouTube Video of the Capitol Climate Action at the Capitol Power Plant || ||

Earlier today I attended the Capitol Climate Action on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Organized by Greenpeace and the Rain Forest Action Network for the Powershift09 conference, the demonstration was billed as a “mass civil disobedience” designed to shut down the Washington, DC’s biggest polluter, the Capitol Power Plant. Although I wasn’t able to stay for the entire demonstration, I was able to slice together some of the video clips I took from around 1pm to 3pm:

See the rest of the photos of the demonstration:

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The Peters Projection advocated on the West Wing television show
|| 2/20/2009 || 1:35 am || Comments Off on The Peters Projection advocated on the West Wing television show || ||

NBC’s The West Wing – Why are we changing maps?? – From season 2 – Episode 16

A fictional group called the “Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality,” pitches President Bartlet’s staff to “aggressively support” legislation mandating every public school in America teach geography using the Peters Projection map.

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Hello! Thanks for stopping by! My name is Nikolas Schiller. I am an American citizen currently living in New York City and working remotely to support structural change in Washington, DC.

This blog is my online repository of what I have created or found online since May of 2004. I've been on hiatus since 2018 but plan on contributing more content in the not so distant future.

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