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Playlist: Bounty Hunter's Hikaru Iwanaga, Walken A to Z, Google Transit
Posted: September 29th, 2008, 12:00am EDT
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: What do the Sex Pistols and Cap'n Crunch have in common? Both were inspirations for Hikaru Iwanaga, the mastermind behind seminal Japanese fashion and toy juggernaut Bounty Hunter. This low-budget documentary, recently re-released on DVD (the first run sold out quickly), highlights Iwanaga and Frank Kozik — the droog who created Ludwig Van (left) — to explore the interplay of American pop culture, punk rock, and Japanese designer toys.: The human body is an organic machine, and there's no one better to explain how it works than David Macaulay, the author and artist behind the best-selling book The Way Things Work. Now Macaulay illustrates our insides down to the cellular level — the heart as power plant, the liver as manufacturing facility. His clear, amusing depictions are aimed at kids, which makes even this most complex system easy for anyone to understand at a gut level. (David, particle physics next, please.): If you already have the More Cowbell iPhone app, you'll love this encyclopedia. If you don't know what "more cowbell" refers to, you need it. Inside is everything we ever wanted to know about the actor whose accidental second life as a twisted YouTube hero (search "walken impersonations" ) has turned him into a high-haired cultural meme — the new Lebowski.: Keep your wallet fat and yourself thin by walking and taking public transit. Thanks to Google engineers who used their "20 percent time" to pore over bus, subway, and train schedules from 70 metro areas, Google Maps now offers step-by-step instructions for not driving from point A to point B.: The battle of the fake bands erupts with the dueling releases of Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2. Both let four players drum, strum, and sing to more than 85 tracks. Want to scream the new track from GN'R? Buy Rock Band 2. Rather perform "Purple Haze"? Guitar Hero. Each game has nifty new functions: World Tour lets you create your own instrumentals; Rock Band 2 has a drum training mode (and an optional $300 controller from Ion that converts into a real kit). Bonus: The instruments from the original Rock Band work with both titles.: This 1/9-scale model of Ferrari's iconic Formula One racer is made out of everyone's favorite building blocks — nearly 1,000 of them. The 20-inch-long stallion is not the fastest build, but from the functional steering and removable front spoiler to the authentic branding, it's the perfect nexus of gearhead obsession and toy nerddom.:...
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