A Special Version Of The Oscars Unintentional Musicals Clip & More.

If you managed to sit through this year's Oscars, aka The Academy Awards, without falling asleep or switching the channel to watch Hoarders, you might have noticed a few funny little segment about the year's Unintentional Musicals.



The clip was an auto-tuned version of scenes from Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1, Toy Story 3 , Twilight Eclipse, and The Social Network created by the Gregory Brothers who've made a name for themselves auto-tuning the news. These are the same guys who brought you the hilarious and catchy Bed Intruder Song.



The following 2:00 clip is from the Gregory Brothers' own site and is a special version that includes The King's Speech and does not include The Social Network. It must be for some sort of legal reason that this is a different cut than what aired [that version has been removed from youtube but at the time of this post could be found here on Popeater.]




The Oscar's Opening Montage


And in case you didn't catch last night's broadcast, here's the opening montage in which hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway, along with the brilliant Alec Baldwin and a cameo by Morgan Freeman, were digitally inserted into the ten films nominated for Best Picture:



And finally, an abridged version - a 6:00 minute clip of the shows' best moments:


See photos of the winners, videos of the speeches and more at Oscar.com

Inside Jon Stewart's Book, Earth: A Visitor's Guide To The Human Race.

Jon Stewart's newest book hit the stores yesterday. Earth (The Book): A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race is his highly anticipated follow-up to mega-hit America (The Book) Teacher's Edition: A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction



The man behind the best-selling America (The Book), Emmy-winning, Oscar-hosting, Daily Show-anchoring Jon Stewart asks: Where do we come from? Who created us? Why are we here? Questions that have puzzled us since the dawn of time. But when it became apparent to Jon Stewart and the writers of The Daily Show that the world was about to end, they embarked on a massive mission to write a book that summed up the human race: What we looked like; what we accomplished; our achievements in society, government, religion, science and culture -- all bound in a 256 page book with lots of color photos, graphs and charts.



With eye catching page designs by Pentagram, this definitive guide to our species is filled with Jon's trademark sense of humor. Nothing is sacred and everything is hilarious. From captions under images to the appendices, the book is filled with wit, sarcasm and style. Here's a look at many of the spreads, crops and images (not in actual order) from this fun and fabulous new trendy tome.

"New Rich" & "Indulgences" : Two Different Collections, One Message

Two Different Groups of Artists Mock Consumers' Obsession With Luxury
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A collection by Big-game for +41


Above; Elric Petit, Augustin Scott de Martinville and Grégoire Jeanmonod met at ECAL, in Lausanne. Respectively Belgian, French and Swiss, they developed a common approach and soon they formed a close team and in 2004, Big Game was born.

After the success of their first collection “HERITAGE IN PROGRESS” in 2005, Big-game came back with a new collection presented at the Köln imm fair in 2006.

Once again, the members of Big-game surprise us by creating a series of jewels for +41, a young Swiss fashion brand with a stellar reputation amongst the connoisseurs.

In their latest collection, Big-game questions the meaning of accessories and offers new alternatives to jewelry. This series of objects entitled “NEW RICH” results from the confrontation between mass products and luxury.

NEW RICH (as described by the artists)- Mass products meet luxury

When gold replaces plastic, democratic and functional objects become exclusive in a subtle way.
“We’ve picked standard, universal products, and replaced a part of each object by an equivalent in gold”, explains Elric Petit. “We love the shrewd blend between the down-to-earth functionalism of mass-products and the ultimate precious material: gold”

The scenography of Big-game’s exhibition in Köln reflects this ambiguity as it is inspired by black-market peddlers. The black suitcase that serves as a display stand for the objects is regularly carried around the fair grounds to meet visitors.

“Why buy a luxury lighter when you can have a deluxe BIC lighter?” asks Grégoire Jeanmonod. "Pimp your Bic pen, Apple headphones, Bic lighter, Swatch watch, brummagem jewellery and drawing pins with the “New Rich” collection!"



The Swatch has democratized watches as it offered a reliable and affordable alternative to luxurious timepieces. Here, Big-game substitutes a simple loop on the wristband by a golden version, making the object exclusive.



The BIC ball-point pen is an icon of democratic design. “We love the cap” explains Augustin Scott de Martinville, “it’s such a strong recognition factor”. Big-game’s version of the pen has a golden cap and – as it emerges from the pocket of its owner – becomes a jewel mocking luxury pen.



Over the last few years, the white Apple headphones have become an archetype. Here, Big-game replaces the plastic component holding together the two earphones by a golden one. This part thus becomes a pendant.



A plastic piece of jewellery can have some true qualities but will always suffer from a mediocre image. With the golden price tag, it suddenly becomes a truly valuable object!



Playing with the tradition of lighters being luxury objects, Big-game exchanges the BIC lighter’s plastic push-button with a golden one. This well thought mass-product becomes exclusive while staying functional.



Using push pins is the simplest way to fix something on the wall. Why choose a complicated solution in the name of luxury? A golden push pin will do!

contact@big-game.ch

Switzerland:
Big-game
11, Rue du Nord
CH-1004 Lausanne
Suisse
+41 76 492 89 27

Belgium:
Big-game
1, Rue d’Andenne
B-1060 Bruxelles
Belgique
+32 478 37 82 09


Now, Big Game is not the only creative minds to marry luxury with mass marketing. When it comes to creating products that mock consumerism and society's obsession with wealth and luxury it's hard to top Tobias Wong and Ken Courtney (aka Ju$t Another Rich Kid).



Tobias Wong and Ju$t another Rich Kid had created similar items based on a similar philosophy.
They call their collection "Indulgences"

Tobias Wong with fellow designer Ken Courtney, of Ju$t Another Rich Kid fame, also combined well-recognized symbols of mass consumption with qualities associated with wealth, luxury, and excess.



The duo took McDonald's classic coffee stirrer as well as the Playboy Bunny Swizzle Stick, both of the '70s — and notoriously used as drug paraphernalia — and cast them in gold, drawing attention befitting to their lesser known use.

Below are their Coke Spoon 1 and Coke Spoon 03, gold examples of everyday items also recognized as drug paraphenalia.




Other products include a Murdered Skull Pendant with diamond teeth, and capsules of gold flakes that when ingested turn excrement into gold.





Tobias Wong and Ju$t Another Rich Kid's products (coke spoon, swizzle sticks, murdered skull pendant and pills) are actually available for purchase at the following places, just click on the name to go:

Matter NY
Moss
Citizen:Citizen

Despite mocking the consumer, there's irony in the fact that people shell out a couple hundred bucks for these pieces of 'art', further illustrating the philosophy behind them.