| The art of the gimmick: an interview with the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne Apr 16th 2012, 20:00 The Flaming Lips have never done anything small, from the "Parking Lot Experiments" of the mid-90s to this year's Record Store Day album, "The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends." Set for an April 21st release, the limited edition vinyl record features an odd cast of characters, including Bon Iver, Erykah Badu, Neon Indian, Nick Cave and Ke$ha, many of whom have lent their actual blood to the record.  "That is totally a gimmick," Wayne Coyne answers with great relish. "It's a beautiful gimmick. I think all things that we marvel over are based in gimmicks." He's on the phone for a day of back-to-back interviews, a trapping of the job that would cause lesser, more jaded men to roll their eyes and submit with dragged heels, particularly those who've been playing the game through 30 years and 13 LPs. But Coyne, much to his credit, dives into everything he does headfirst with the manner of childlike wonder that's come to be established with the vast majority of the Flaming Lips' catalog.
At the beginning of our conversation, he lets it be known that he's slightly distracted. His wife is photographing him. And he's in his underwear. He didn't bother putting anything else on, knowing that he'd be running a marathon of phone interviews all day. Maximum comfort is important. It's a hard image to erase from my mind as Coyne settles in to explain the band's decision to embrace Siri on a recent web-only track called "Now I Understand." Continue reading The art of the gimmick: an interview with the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne The art of the gimmick: an interview with the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Tupac hologram performs at Coachella, keeps all eyez on him Apr 16th 2012, 19:25  Have you been getting a kick out of Coachella's jams and arts in Indio, California? Or, did you decide to peacefully enjoy it from home via YouTube's site? Either way, you may have heard Tupac made an on-stage holographic appearance over the weekend, performing Hail Mary and 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted alongside Snoop Dogg. Tupac's hologram was made possible by AV Concepts in partnership with Dr. Dre's production company, after reportedly working on the project for a few months. The outfits used a display technology dubbed "Eyeliner" that, with the help of a custom rig and a mechanical solution, was able to shoot out a life-sized, 3D illusion of Mr. Shakur onto the Coachella platform. Don't believe us? Hit 'em up at the source below, though we feel compelled to tell you language isn't exactly for all ages. Continue reading Tupac hologram performs at Coachella, keeps all eyez on him Tupac hologram performs at Coachella, keeps all eyez on him originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  YouTube (SWAG) | Email this | Comments | | Blackmagic Cinema Camera packs 'feature film' 2.5K quality, touchscreen for $2,995 Apr 16th 2012, 18:59  While Canon, Sony and Red have already stolen the show with new camera announcements here at NAB 2012, Blackmagic Design is trying to carve out a niche for its new Cinema Camera. Priced at $2,995, where the company sees this as differing from the competition is its ability to capture film quality video on its 2.5K sensor and output it to CinemaDNG RAW, ProRes and DNxHD file formats. That camera housing can take Canon or Zeiss lenses on the front, contains a built-in SSD within and has a capacitive touchscreen display for control and metadata entry. Once you've captured the video, the included copy of DaVinci Resolve can take care of all color correction needs, while the video can be pulled from the SSD over a variety of high speed ports including BNC SDI and Thunderbolt. Check out a few in-person pics in our gallery below and more specs in the press release after the break. Continue reading Blackmagic Cinema Camera packs 'feature film' 2.5K quality, touchscreen for $2,995 Blackmagic Cinema Camera packs 'feature film' 2.5K quality, touchscreen for $2,995 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | RED Dragon 6K sensor upgrade eyes-on Apr 16th 2012, 18:34  "Obsolescence Obsolete" -- that's RED's tagline for the just-announced Dragon sensor upgrade, which is set to bring 6K resolution to EPIC and Scarlet cameras beginning later this year. The sensor module was on display at the company's NAB booth today, under a backlit case that could only have been designed to make photographing the new chip a near-impossible task. We did manage to snag a few frames of the device, which appears as a mere silhouette to the naked eye. Sensors aren't designed for us to look at, however -- they're supposed to do the looking -- so we won't get any more hung up on the presentation. Existing RED camera owners can look forward to an incredibly impressive 15+ stops of native dynamic range and up to 120 frames-per-second at resolutions up to 5K. And as we discovered earlier today, the upgrade will roll out to EPIC owners sometime in 2012 for $6,000 while Scarlet users will need to hang tight for a release date, and a price tag. That's all we've got as far as details go, so click on through the gallery below for a flashlight-enhanced peek at the Dragon. RED Dragon 6K sensor upgrade eyes-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Apr 2012 14:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | |
