Posts tagged gifs
The evolution of animated gifs: Podcamp Toronto 2013
Feb 26th
My shortbangs bring all the boys to the yard, and they’re like “Did you cut your own bangs with dirty kitchen shears or something?”
Dang right, I cut my own bangs with dirty kitchen shears or something — I could teach you, but I’d rather just talk about animated gifs because I’m not very good at cutting my own hair.
And that was Saturday. Wake up, butcher bangs, go to present at a conference. I ain’t even mad.
That there is the description for the “Evolution of the animated gif” talk I gave at Podcamp Toronto 2013 on Saturday Here are my slides, but be forewarned that animated gifs don’t appear on SlideShare. Or Prezi. Or Sliderocket. Or anything I’ve been able to find in the cloud. I had to run the entire thing from my MBP! KEEP UP, SOFTWARE.
This was my fourth year attending the annual “unconference” at Ryerson’s Rogers Communications Centre, and while many things have changed since 2009, nothing brightens up a dreary February day like getting together with some old like-minded friends. I always have a great time at Podcamp.
Asking Picard about Star Trek guys with the things on their foreheads
Last year, I gave a presentation on internet memes, which feels pretty trite already after only one year. It was funny though. There were lots of people and they laughed.
I feel as though this year’s presentation was less hilarious, more informative. I spoke about the history of the animated gif as both a file format and a unit of culture; its ups and downs throughout the 90s and 2000s (oughties? god, I hate writing about that decade) as well as its contemporary use in news and entertainment media, business, art, fashion and online communities.
There were cinemagraphs and lenticulars and FASHGIF and even Myspace glitter graphics.
If I’d have given myself more time to prepare, I’d have built my own physical gif for the occasion. Maybe.
This 6 and a half minute long video from PBS (who is absolutely KILLING IT online lately, no joke — one of the best web content producers in the game right now) will sum up most of what I said in my presentation and then some in a far more entertaining way than clicking through my slides.
The website for twohundredfiftysixcolors (a “16mm film that traces the arc of increased complexity and pointed use of the animated gif”) has some great, more academic resources too.
And if you’d just like to see how the presentation and my morning went in real time, Here’s a wee Tweet / Vine / GIF dump for y’all.
BONUS for me; some guy said I looked like Sailor Moon in that outfit. I’m not even going to try and misconstrue that as creepy (Not a Cosplay kind of convention, yo) because of how flattered I was. Moon… Prism… BEDTIME.
Grammy Lulz and FASHUNSTUFF + Barklemore’s “Pet Shop”
Feb 12th
Hoy litens,
Yeah, I ball. But this post isn’t about me breaking the NFL’s Super Bowl party display thingies (Sahrry Commish! And I’m also sorry for my point of reference to you being a post on The Cut about how you sat next to Anna Wintour at Kimberly Ovitz’s show the other day.)
BEY-sically, I didn’t get time to finish the Weekend Wrap party post I had been working on last Monday (Maple-Rosemary donuts at the opening of 2ndFloorEvents! Diplo and the wasted masses at a Bud Light Platinum Party! SUPERBOWLSTUFF! Other Stuff! voila.) and I just really liked that photo… predominantly because I know what happened directly after it was taken (SMASH! Again, sorry Commish. Great party!)
From Bud Light Platinum's Toronto launch party, to which I wore a toque -- AND WHAT?!
ANYHOO, what I actually wanted to blog about this fiiiine Monday evening (but should have last night if I really wanted it to mean ANYTHING to ANYBODY who isn’t myself in the future since every major web outlet is full-staffed during major events now for instant gif coverage a la 2013): Grammy lulz.
PIMP CANE PRINCE is not even funny, just awesome. That “no puffy genital” wardrobe advisory that nobody followed anyway was pretty funny too, but alas, that was pre-Grammy.
In no particular (but semi-chronological at times) order, here are ten of the funniest things that happened at the 55th annual Grammy Awards last night, as remembered by my brain:
1. When Tyler the creator duckface photobombed Frank Ocean’s mom, deuces up. His Tweets throughout the night were hilarious too, if you’ve got the stomach for Tyler. Thank goodness I do 
2. Jay-Z yelling “You’re Welcome!” after Lena Dunham’s boyfriend’s friend thanked him for something, drinking from his Illuminati chalice like a boss the entire time. Gotta love Jay.
3. T-Swift totally pwning her teenaged ex-boyfriend in front of everybody. I don’t know much about Harry Styles, but I wanted to hate him for girl power’s sake at that very moment. TEAM TAYLOR!
4. Speaking of Taylor Swift, Bwahahaha.
5. And also, WHITE PEOPLE DANCING!
I feel like Taylor Swift is a prettier, younger, more talented, farrrr wealthier version of myself sometimes. I really do.
These two just creep me out with their plastic faces.
6. Chris Brown Trying to throw some shade at Frank Ocean by sitting during his standing ovation and GETTING YELLED AT BY ADELE! Go Adele! I totally love her now.
7. Kelly Clarkson photobombing Ellen and Portia:
8. Bruno Mars’ hat, hehehe.
9. When Carrie Underwood’s dress’ screensaver turned on halfway through her performance. Oops! Teehee!
10. Ellen and Beyonce, presenting together…. Not at all funny, again, but great.
Speaking of Justin Timberlake though, WOAH. Talk about bringing sexy back… and forth, and back, and forth…
Gifs on Gifs on Gifs, girl!
I am now very tired and ready for sleep. Sleep is important you know. Listen to Amy:
Before I go, my picks for the best dressed on the 2013 Grammy Awards red carpet include:
T-Swift, Karlie Kloss, Rihanna, Bey, Count 2 Chainz, Adele (seriously, that outfit was perfect on her), Kat Denning, Kaley Cuocuo, and really I’m just naming off TV actresses I like at this point.
Worst dressed: Florence Welch, J-Lo (Why you gotta try so hard?), Carly-Rae Jepsen, Estelle and… I’m torn on Katy Perry.
Purrhaps I’ll add pictures to illustrate tomorrow. But for now, y’all can GOOGLE THEM. It’s past my bedtime.
Lauren does her dance thing. vine.co/v/b12jVWaV6DQ
— Sean Walsh (@frikshun) February 4, 2013
P.S. This is ruffing AWESOME:
‘GIF’ is Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the year and FOOKABIRTHDAY 2012
Nov 14th
And that’s all you need to know.
Okay, that’s actually a lie.
You need to know way more about the word GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) than you likely already do if you want to GET ON MY LEVEL; unless you’re Stephanie Buck, who wrote this huge feature on the history of the file format cum cheesy Geocities page-filler cum unit of web 3.0 culture and medium of expression.
She’s up to snuff like Wikipedia Brown.
You really should read that piece.
I’m too sleepy to say much else about gifs right now other than that I completely stand behind Oxford in their decision that BOTH pronunciations of the word – hard G and soft g – are correct (said the blogger, as if her ‘standing behind’ one of the world’s most prestigious dictionaries somehow lent them more credence than they already had.)
Hard G = contemporary usage. Gif as cultural phenom.
Soft G = File format at conception. Still acceptable, but kind of old school.
Get it?
Now, please enjoy some dubstep dinosaurs, courtesy of Reed and Rader, one of my favourite internet art teams (and gif rockstars) ever.
See also: FashGif and everybody involved in the live-giffed presidential debates.
And about that birthday thing, please send all tidings of “haha, you’re a little bit closer to death now but you’re not any richer or closer to LA haha” to this guy:
Love always,
Presidential hair swap and every infomercial ever: &GIFs&GIFs&GIFs
Oct 5th
This post will probably crash your browser if you’ve got a computer that is weak and puny in the heart, so upgrade your RAM and tell that browseyatch to take her GIFs like a CHAMP.
It’s time to BINGE GIF! To do a GIF-STAND! To say “Blogtender, Line me up a row of GIFS!” and then look at them all until you PUKE!!!
Don’t look at animated gifs and drive.
So, this was me last night after writing fervently for… more hours than I care to tabulate:
Brain: Dude, you voluntarily stayed late at work to finish a post about how animated gifs are impacting the U.S. election coverage and then skipped dance, an H&M x Anna Dello Russo pre-shop, and two open-bar parties to go home and WATCH THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES?
Me: Yeah, but it’s not like I just watched it or something. I made fun of on the internet too.
For you, Internet: Condescending Romney -> yfrog.com/mmnhnrdj #2012debate #debate #romney
— Lauren O’Nizzle (@laurenonizzle) October 4, 2012
Brain: Why?
Me: FOR THE LULZ, OKAY? Gahd.
Brain: Who are you?
Me: I dunno, Who are YOU?
Brain: I’m you.
Me: No, I’m me. I’m so much more me than you are.
Brain: What?
Me: SHUP.
Thanks, internet, for all of the hyper-engaging and irrevent real-time humour that accidentally turned me into someone who kind of knows what’s going on in American politics right now… ish.
Last weekend, I told a group of aspiring bloggers how important it is to be innovative and entertaining but still consistent with your tone and theme — To give readers something they can expect and that they’ll want to come back for.
It’s hard to do that when you write a blog about your life though, because people are constantly evolving. Especially in their 20s, jeesh.
I don’t know if I’ll ever find a focus for this blog. Hey, I’m not very focused. I do promise you this though, dear readers;
1. I won’t ever stop posting pictures of my own face on my blog because, like many women my age, my self worth is based upon my appearance and I really like attention (here’s a picture of Brock and I taken by Becca at Dudebox‘s party on Friday.)
2. I will never, ever stop loving things that are hilarious.
Jeff Wysaski’s “every infomercial ever” video hit the web last week inaboutsandaround the same time that this wicked stream of awkward infomercial GIFs on imgur got picked up by the blogs.
I don’t know if the video spawned the gifs, if the gifs spawned the video, or if one just brought searches for the other to light.
It’s like the age-old quandry “which came first; the chicken or the egg?” It’s a problem that I don’t really give a frick about solving because there’s no way of knowing, chickens are cute, eggs are delicious and that’s all that really matters.
Here are some of my favourite infomercial gifs of life. I hope you enjoy my narrative:
Good night, moons of my life, suns in my sky, Tom Hardy pictures of my desktop background…
Baby got app: STRAIGHT THUG’s gangsta gifs
Jun 10th
Y’all know, if you follow me on Twitter, that I’ve got a love-on for iPhoneography — particularly of the app-mediated, filter-enhanced variety. That said, I’ve always kind of felt that Instagram, Hipstamatic and tools of their ilk were missing something…
When I discovered Straight Thug in the app store, I immediated realized what that something was: a Doo rag. (And also, bouncing low-lows, pimp chalices, vicious dogs, sparkling grills, teardrop tattoos, chains… Ya know, rapper stuff.)
“Straight Thug celebrates the ridiculousness of 90s Hip Hop album art by allowing you to thug out your photos into an animated GIF Hip Hop album cover,” reads the App’s description. “Thug out your photo with a variety of static and animated accessories from lens flares to the hottest rides. Drop in your album title and generate the photo as an animated GIF. Share the platinum GIF with your homies!”
AND I SHALL!
Hehehe.
You can find more user-submitted Straight Thug images on the app’s official Tumblr blog or on straightthug.me. Better yet? MAKE YOUR OWN.
Straight Thug is available for iphone 3Gs, 4, & 4s. Ninety-nine cents well spent, my friends.
Bed time. Weekend has been cray so far, but like a good girl who wants to NOT be sick and exhausted for NXNE, I stayed in this evening to rest, watch basketball and Tweet about NBA hipster fashion.
How was YOUR Saturday night?
Tracks and Gifs and Eat More Cake
Jan 27th
Yo.
It’s 2:23AM and I just finished work for the day. Yesterday, it was even later. That’s just the way it goes when you work multiple jobs, especially when your 9-5 is at an advertising agency and your gigs are in the entertainment industry. Creative jobs are inherently life-encompassing. Just the way I like it
I’ve been buried in work work this week, plus there are no less than 5 trillion conferences and cool things going on this week. Advertising Week Canada, what little I could pop by for, was lovely. So many smart people. This weekend is IDS and Come Up to My Room and so many other things. *sigh*
I’m exhausted, and yet I still feel compelled to blog. I actually feel ancy leaving this page stagnant for more than 2 days and WHY THE FRICK are you underlining “ancy” right now, WordPress? That’s a word right? I don’t care to Google it right now.
Instead, I’m going to post the lyrics to a song I’ve been raving over for the past couple of weeks. “Music Box” by Eat More Cake is a super cathartic listen if you’re a melodramatic recovering Communication theory buff turned psuedo corporate whore. The band is from England and that’s pretty much the only thing I know about Eat More Cake, other than that I love them.
I’m going to break up the lyrics with some animated GIFS I have chilling out on my desktop right now, just so you know. I just listened to this while writing the top part of this post so, if it sounds surly… you can give it some kisses
I AM THE FEMALE WEEZY!
Aged eighteen you used to daydream, steer clear of the mainstream, however loud they’d scream.
Told yourself you’d never do what they do, always remain true.
Thought you’d change the world, but the world changed you.
And you didn’t even notice it happening, but here you are, legs spread, coated in Vaseline.
Man, I’m not surprised you’re sore, you’re nothing more than a corporate whore.
I wonder how much they bought you for?
Climb the ladder, live the dream, get a job and a routine, be a cog in a machine…
at last your heart’s grown as mean and cold as the shareholders’
You sold us out, and for what? Are you having fun?
I’m just getting f*cked cos I can’t think of anything better to spend my money on.
We’ve come a long way haven’t we?
Oh apparently so, look at all the clever things we’ve done!
But what’s the point? Seems to me we’re just making sh*t for the sake of it, supply and demand.
You buy, head hurts from all the adverts you can’t escape, however hard you try.
But so what? Just as long as you earn more,
you don’t give a fuck what you do, who you work for, or what you produce.
Well whatever helps you sleep at night, but God’s honest truth, “I’m just doing my job” is not an excuse.
So don’t you dare tell me to grow up, I know what you mean, you mean give up, let go of your dream.
Well f*ck you and the guns you never stuck to.
Thanks for helping make a world with no one left to look up to.
Go ahead give your life to making the rich richer, pay attention to the details, forget about the big picture…
But brace yourself one day it’s gonna hit you,
you can’t take your money with you.
And on that day,
the music box will open and this is what will play.
It’s embarrassing, but this is what happens when you murder heroes and idolize average men.
Strange, I though we were taught to be honest, now for some reason we talk complete bollocks.
You told yourself you were gonna make every second count, check it out, not exactly keeping your promise.
Eat, sleep, watch TV, go to the pub and spend 35 hours a week in the office.
And your job is so amazingly dull that your brain has melted and escaped from your skull.
I see that vacant look on your face, well a culture based on war and waste can be an awfully boring place.
But a flickering screen is all it takes, ooh, a celebrity falls from grace, wow, a sitcom that ain’t funny.
Oh I forgot, the aim is not to entertain it’s to make money.
I’d like to make a toast to becoming the thing you hate the most.
Cheers, here’s to being bitter and twisted, to constantly taking the piss and making jokes!
To never doing what you want to do cos you’re scared of other people making fun of you,
to blatantly wasting your time, to knowing people starve every day and pretending that everything’s basically fine.
“Yeah, but it’s not my fault,” I hear you crying, “perpetuating a system you didn’t design isn’t a crime,”
no, but in a system that’s all about profit, there will always be war if it lines someone’s pocket.
And while you’re doing nothing to stop it, you’re actually giving your endorsement, so what you do is important.
One day you’re gonna realise you can’t just ignore it, cos if you don’t oppose it, you support it.
And on that day,
the music box will open and this is what will play…
Here are a few more of the jillionty-nine songs and music videos in my rotation this week. Some old, some new. All conducive to a good creative flow:
The Knife – Heartbeats:
LudaChrist – The Legend of Curtis:
Sleigh Bells – Comeback Kid (ALEXIS KRAUSS AS A BLONDE, YESSS!):
Gotye – Somebody that I used to know (shut up, I know it’s trendy. I don’t even care. It’s a great track.)
Big Sean – Dance (A$$):
+ Ed Sheeran & Yelawolf, You Don’t Know
Lastly, HERE’S MY FACE.
Am I famous yet?
Dash out, Pumpkin Pi and Palindrome Day…
Nov 2nd
First off, Christmas has come to Starbucks and Tim Hortons will start serving espresso in less than two weeks.
And now you know what’s up in the world of Canada’s two largest crack houses coffee chains.
I am joyful for the joy tea, but sad for all of the sad jack-o-lanterns I saw chilling on door steps during my lunch-break walk today. I saw lots of Halloween decorations in the alley waiting to go to garbage land too. I also this (which is not sad at all):
Come out and playyyyyyy!
Mostly, I am sad for the little pi pumpkin I made the other day because he’s no longer relevant enough to serve as my main bitch paperweight.
Then again, neither is exercise Barbie and she’s been chilling on my desk since last November. Maybe I’ll keep them both around a little bit longer. It’s far too early for a “holiday” tree.
Secondlyyyy, look at today’s date:
Thats right, homies – IT’S ANOTHER PALINDROME DAY! One of only 12 this century. Go hang a salami; I’m a lasagna hog.
According to mathletes, Nov. 2, 2011 is a particularly special palindrome date because it’s divisible by the cube of the middle prime of the three consecutive primes or something.
Aziz Inan is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Portland and he will now blow your mind with numbers.
My favourite palindrome is still the name of everybody’s favourite spicy little feline. No, not Mexican Nyan Cat…
They showed a photo of Tacocat on a local news station here in Toronto the other morning during a roundup of pet halloween costumes.
The hosts were raving over how funny the photo was, completely oblivious to the fact that they’d been trolled. I was feeling mighty hip for knowing what was up…
“Psh, Taco Cat is SO 5 years ago…” I scoffed to Willy, who stared back blankly for a few seconds before before walking away. It was then that I realized I’m not very cool for knowing this.
Derf.net has 460 more palindromes here if you’re into that kind of stuff (I’m into that kind of stuff).
Moving along.
I promised myself that I wouldn’t comment on Kim Kardashian’s divorce, but this is a goooooood bit. Greg Leuch‘s “Dash Out” browser plugin allows you to “white-out the over-produced reality of the Kardashians” while you surf:
If you’re getting tired of seeing big-butt-brunette-Barbie’s face all over the blogs, download Dash Out here. Brilliant! I fall deeper in love with these F.A.T. Labs people all the time. Such fun things they do.
Speaking of fun, I built up a list of Halloween links and content that I didn’t get a chance to roll out before Nov. 1st, so here’s a wee linkfarm:
Sweet costume uses 2 ipads to create a gaping stomach hole
Some French childrens’ witch makes soup with stuff found between her legs
Party Rock Halloween Light Show (so cool)
For the sake of completion, let’s say that Day 10 was a set of ghostie fingernails that I’m 10% finished applying.
Day 11 was the pile of photos I dumped in my last post, and Day 12 was GOING to be a round up of my favourite TV specials but then I saw Splitsider’s list of all 66 Treehouse Of Horror segments, ranked worst to first, and how the heck can I even try to compete with that?
Go read that instead. It’s good.
The “Costume For my Kitty” didn’t really work out either. Willy was going to be a carrot (orange cat with a green tail) but I bought non-toxic, pet-safe, hippy dippy hair GEL that washes out instead of real dye. It was not a good look.
Don’t worry about Willy – he was cool with it and, as promised, the green rinsed right out. My white bathroom mats did not emerge unscathed, however. Lesson learned. Don’t colour the cat.
Off now I must go to MTV for a shoot, and then I’ll be rolling along for some fun on Queen West. You’ll see
Love always…
Occupy the Internet: GIF army WANTS YOU!
Oct 15th
They’re filling the streets of Toronto right now. Angry people, peaceful people, passionate people, confused people, bored people, Guy Fawkes-looking people, politically active pooches…
image via torontoist.com
As usual, our local media is just killing it in terms of real-time coverage right now. Top notch stuff, seriously. It’s getting hard to close my laptop…
image via ctv.ca
Hater.
I’m not out there today because a) I’ve got too many other things to do today b) I’m still sick (fook this wish-washy weather!) and c) I’m not really clear as to why Toronto’s being “occupied”. More importantly, I don’t think a lot of the people who are participating know either.
I mean, I get it – corporate greed sucks and life is getting less and less affordable for those of us (those 99% of us) who aren’t on the right side of capitalism. I support the Occupy Wall Street movement, but St. James Park isn’t Wall Street. Heck, Bay Street isn’t even Wall Street.
That damn Canadian government, always keeping our voices silent! YEAH! SCREW YOU HARPER! ... can I put 'activist' in my Twitter bio now? (image via torontoist)
That said, the Tweets coming out of today’s rally are hilarious – especially juxtaposed against the #LGFW hashtag. I’ve got them side-by-side in my Tweetdeck and I much prefer the spicy Occupy Tweets to the inane ass-kissing. More about THAT on Monday
One movement I can gladly get behind is FAT’s occupy the internet – predominately because it includes an army of animated gifs.
They’re filling the comment section of that blog post right now. Angry gifs, passionate gifs, sexy dancing gifs, Frodo…
I don’t think it’s related to FAT’s .gif army, but there actually is an Occupy The Internet movement against a private domain-registering company that’s seeking “its own Internet Killswitch” or something. Cool?
I prefer this:
Biggest of ups to Evan Roth for this sick army. He spoke at the intensely futuristic / amazing conference I went to yesterday and really is everything i want to be (including the top search result for “Badass Motherfucker” – seriously.) Animated gifs are hot right now, says he. Hollah.
Enlist today, smitches!
Nizzzzzzle, out. Gime time.
Dr. Lauren O’Nizzle, PhDemented.
Jun 22nd
Good evening, colleagues…
Blogeagues? Fizzers.
You may recall me griping about how much I loathe the derpitty uneducated masses, pining often for the blissful realm of academe I once was proud to call myself a part of…
You may also recall that, ya know, I’m an effing weirdo.
Thus, I have decided that should I ever go back to school for a PhD, my dissertation will have to be focused on something interesting enough to hold my attention for 4 years (or 4 minutes, to start).
Wait, what?
I started to write up a potential thesis statement, but then I remembered that some girl recently choreographed a dance to Cyriak Harris’s Cows and surfed off to watch that instead.
It didn’t get me nearly as excited as the original, but I heart this chick for even going there. I was a choreographer in high school too. We could have been friends if we weren’t both such competitive dramatic betches… but I’m getting off topic.
Don’t feel like writing an artistic statement of intent? Enter ze ARTY BOLLOCKS GENERATOR:
Here’s my favourite, after about 65 LOLworthy clicks:
“My work explores the relationship between new class identities and urban spaces.
With influences as diverse as Camus and Francis Bacon, new combinations are created from both explicit and implicit meanings.
Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by the theoretical limits of the human condition. What starts out as triumph soon becomes corroded into a hegemony of greed, leaving only a sense of chaos and the chance of a new synthesis.
As spatial phenomena become clarified through emergent and diverse practice, the viewer is left with an insight into the possibilities of our condition.”
Indeed, my friend.
It has been a long, challenging day. Bed time.
Tomorrow, a giveaway! Do you care? Does anybody even read this anymore? I haven`t checked the stats in forever. I am making some blog-related changes very very soon. Stay TOONED!
Over-giffing. No such thing.
PS – Would you rock these Lana platform boots?
Legitimately thinking about buying some… Or maybe these, these, these or these. Not these though. If I’m ever lucky enough to have Katy Perry’s job, on the other hand, glitter me up Sally.
cows and cows and cows and CYRIAK HARRIS.
Aug 4th
Don’t watch this if you’re high. Seriously. A lot of kids freaked out on me after I posted this on Facebook.
Woah…Cyriak Harris just blew your FRICKING MIND!!!
I had to wiki this dude after stumbling upon his website. His awesome, awesome website. According to interweb authoritahs, Harris is a freelance animator guy from England known for his surreal short web animations.
“Cyriak displays a surreal and often disturbing animation style with a distinct British theme. Many of his animations are based on Z-List celebrities, television shows and his hometown of Brighton.”
Remind me never to go to Brighton… issss what I would say if I were a square, like yer MAHM (ayoooooh!).
If Brighton is anything like this, I’m going RIGHT MEOW and I’ll live there forever and ever amen like a character in some unfortunate hippy’s epic neverending acid trip.
meweirdyoulongtime.
Oooh oooooh – and guess who has the best freaky animated gif section on his website like, ever? It’s totally CYRIAK.
Allow me to share a few of my favourites – because blondespaz insomniacs shouldn’t have all the fun.
(warning: if you HAVE been smoking the drugs, you should probably navigate away from the page at this point, lest you trip the fachk out and make me feel bad for ruining your happy.)
How’s that for the morning awesome?
One more. This one’s even better than cows and cows and cows.
<3
