Atgeld Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois.

A couple of London-based AC/DC fans, Phil Clandilion and Steve Milbourne, have created what they call, “the world’s first music video in Excel format.”

They decided on this unusual format because they wanted the video to penetrate even the most Draconian corporate firewalls. After all, who can’t receive an Excel spreadsheet?

“Basically, it’s come about because we recognized that a lot of people have fairly restrictive internet and security policies at work,” Clandillon told Wired.com. “What we really liked was that we could actually subvert the corporate firewalls by including AC/DC’s music in an Excel spreadsheet, because that’s allowed through every corporate firewall there is.”

Sadly, for Mac users, it only works on a PC. As far as using an element of the ubiquitous Microsoft Office suite to create something interesting, I am reminded of some cool work David Byrne did a few years ago using Powerpoint as his medium.

Here’s a YouTube video that gives you an idea of what the Excel spreadsheet looks like when it’s rockin’ three chords.

[Via Wired Listening Post]

The iPhone seemed to be everywhere at this fall’s fashion week shows. And now iconic brand Ralph Lauren is offering a free iPhone app, which offers access to fashion week clips, behind-the-scenes content, a lookbook and a store locator.

One of the other notable features is a short film, “Portraits of a Collection,” which offers a glimpse at Ralph Lauren’s work and art.

The app doesn’t allow users to purchase clothing as they can by using a mobile phone’s Web browser and it won’t allow you to read the QR codes appearing in Ralph Lauren ads. But the app goes beyond merely purchasing Ralph Lauren items. It’s more about bringing the Ralph Lauren lifestyle to the mobile universe and getting users to interact with relevant content.

SAVANNAH–The 11th annual Savannah Film Festival kicked off over the weekend and I had the opportunity to attend and take in the award winning opening night film–Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. In my opinion, and a quick scan of reviews tells me I am not alone in my thinking, Rourke gives one of the best performances of his quarter century, up and down, Hollywood career, playing an aging, past his prime, pro-wrestler named Randy “The Ram” Robinson.

Ram is, in his own bad opinion of himself, “a washed up piece of meat,” who is still eking out a rather paltry existence participating in low rent wrestling matches in American Legion halls with a rogues gallery of beefy wrestler’s half his age, who all look up to Ram, due to his past triumphs in the ring. Tomei also gives a moving, and solidly layered performance - in a role that could have been quite one dimensional - as a single mom who also ekes out her own meager living as an exotic dancer, though she is also finding it harder and harder to get by in her chosen profession.

This past year, The Wrestler was the talk of the Venice Film Festival where it won the coveted Golden Lion. It also made big waves at the Toronto and New York Film Festivals. Rourke’s “comeback” performance as Ram has easily put him on the short list of potential nominees come awards season.

For over a decade, the Savannah Film Festival has brought to Savannah a wide assortment of top notch films (many of the films shown over the years would go on to be nominated for and win Oscars and other major awards). The festival taps the resources of many behind-the-scenes industry professionals, entertainment journalists and an assortment of Hollywood celebrities - some legendary and some B-list - who all come to Georgia’s beautiful and historic low country to mingle with the students, faculty and staff of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD, which is responsible for putting on the festival), and film loving Savannahians of all ages.

One of the main elements that separates the Savannah Film Festival from other film festivals is the festival’s laid back Savannah vibe. All the films are shown on two screens, right around the corner from each other at two stately old movie palaces. Plus, for film lovers, there is the access to the imported talent. Many of the filmmakers and other assorted industry invitees are able to easily meet and connect on a more personal level with young film students and film buffs in a way that is unheard of at larger, more flashy, velvet rope styled festivals, either at screenings, local bars, restaurants and the popular after-parties held each night.

While the evenings belong to the more traditional Hollywood-style films, the days are full of screenings of really cool indie features and shorts submitted by filmmakers (and film students) from around the world. I’ve personally seen some really great films at these morning and afternoon showings over the years that I would have never had the chance to see anywhere else.

Aside from the wide variety of docs, shorts, student entries, animated and indie films, the other main films playing at the festival this year include Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut Synechdoche, New York, Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky,  Philippe Claudel’s I’ve Loved You So Long starring Kristin Scott-Thomas and Mark Herman’s The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.

The Savannah Film Festival runs through November 1st.

Television has traditionally been considered a mostly passive medium, where a viewer tunes in for one-way messaging and entertainment. But that role is changing. It’s becoming a place where people can interact and even use familiar social networking tools.

Analysts say social networking has the potential to play a key role in shaping what people watch and do on the biggest screen in their homes. They say that eventually could pay off — perhaps in terms of subscription revenue or advertising — for the companies involved in these mostly nascent ventures, as efforts to marry the Internet and the TV gain traction.

“The TV set is evolving and content itself is evolving,” says Michael Gartenberg, an analyst in the research division of Darien, Conn.-based Jupitermedia Corp. Understanding what friends are watching or doing on their TV screens “has to have a tremendous amount of value,” he says.

Gamers have already embraced this kind of technology with Xbox Live, which allows users to make friends, chat and of course compete with one another. Sony, a competitor, has plans to offer social networking tools to Playstation 3 owners. Clearly, the ability to turn a non-social technology into a virtual community is enticing.

Outside of the gaming world, the trend is also catching on. A free download from Boxee allows you to check out various types of content and befriend other users, who will be able see what you’re watching. And if you connect to a TV screen, it’s possible to use your remote control to recommend content to others.

[Via the Wall Street Journal]

Check out these inventors busy hacking car culture. Detroit might do well to hire some of these gents.

Buddhist monks of the Sisaket province of Thailand constructed a temple made entirely of recycled beer bottles.

The monks built the Wat Pa Maha Kaew temple using around one million beer bottles. The beer of choice? The green colored Heineken bottles and the brown bottled Chang Beer. The temple not only looks beautiful but also showcases the benefits of recycling.

The automobile industry is forever evolving. One primary goal in modern car manufacturing is making cars environmentally friendly; one company that’s out to revolutionize this concept is Motor Development International.

MDI has successfully put air-powered automobiles into production, starting with the AirPod. The Airpod is a small three-seat car that runs solely off of compressed air. Licensing was made by Tata Motors, India’s largest automobile manufacturer.

The AirPods will be available in India and Europe in 2009 and will hopefully be released in the U.S. by 2010.

You’d expect cutting-edge technology like this to drain your bank account but on the contrary, the AirPod is expected to sell for a mere 3,500 EUR (4,405 USD) upon release. A full tank of air will set you back about $2 and that two dollar tank of air will get you about 125 miles down the road before you need to fill up again. The air car engineers project that the vehicle will reach a top speed of 75 mph.

Bizarre Foods’ host Andrew Zimmern always says, “If it looks good, eat it.” A follow up to that line might now be, “And if it makes you sick, take Pepto.”

The fearless host is teaming up with Pepto-Bismol to endorse its Cherry Pepto product. The endorsement seems like a no-brainer given some of the things he’s eaten on his show. But the brand is taking things a step further with a series of online Taste Adventure Guides, which focus on culinary delights in various U.S. regions and cities, in addition to offering recipes along the way.

The content tie-in allows Zimmern to encourage travelers, even those who don’t have his stomach of steel, to be adventurous with new foods and to always be covered by having Pepto along, just in case.

In the future, historians will look back at 2008 and see more than just an election year. They will see it as the tipping point, that moment when people went to their computers more and more for the type of video content that previously they could have only seen on TV.

The recent election themed skits on Saturday Night Live (SNL) are the perfect example of this. As reported by David Bauder of the Associated Press, “Only one third of the people who have seen at least one of the skits watched it first on SNL…more people have checked them out online or, to a lesser extent, watched later on a digital video recorder or through video on demand.” NBC estimates that in the week following the first of comedian Tina Fey’s return to SNL as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate, over 13 million streams were tracked by NBC and there is no telling how many viewers saw these skits via other online video formats.

Content providers are finally getting the picture and letting content roam free where it can build a buzz, grab the attention of more viewers and attract more advertisers. In this perfect storm of current events meets intense audience interest meets the latest technology, a whole new content propagation model is being formed, tested and perfected.

“NBC perfected its ‘widget’ technology only a few months ago, allowing video of its material to be captured across the Internet while retaining a tie to the network’s website.” Now, previously guarded content can essentially sprout its metaphorical wings, fly off in a million directions across the Web and still retain verifiable and valuable contact with the mother ship.

“I don’t know if we would have seen this sort of viral activity a year ago, if people didn’t think of their computer as a place to turn to for video entertainment,” says Amanda Welsh, head of research for Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI). IMMI has spent the last year monitoring three-screen viewing—TV, Internet and Mobile.

NBC places the SNL clips online moments after they air “Live in New York.” This means a viewer in California can now see the skits before the show airs on the West Coast. While the SNL election skits have hauled in more eyeballs than anyone at NBC or SNL could have imagined, it is clear that this viral cross-pollination of content across platforms is where future viewing—online and offline—is heading. The word amongst creators and providers is spreading as fast as an SNL viral video. Welsh points out, “The more platforms you make available to consumers, the more consumers you capture.”

The election will soon be over and the SNL skits will definitely be regarded as media milestones of a new media age, but the era of instantly-viral content delivery is now firing on all pistons as more and more people go first to the Web to download or stream their favorite TV shows, funny videos, news, movies and music offerings.

“Over the next few years, the growing popularity of viewing TV shows online is going to have a huge impact on the way brands and advertisers communicate with viewers,” says Shari Morwood, Executive Vice President of Technology, Telecommunications and Media at TNS, a marketing information and trend watching company whose remarks on this subject were quoted on a blog at NewTeeVee.com. “If advertisers can effectively leverage the online video platform, we should see much more interactivity and emotional connection between brands and the online TV viewing audience.”

As people’s attention spans grows ever shorter and the time they have to devote to watching anything gets even tighter, smart content creators, providers and advertisers will continue to gravitate to the Web and away from the more outdated models of delivery.

These days, people want the content they desire when they want it. They want to access content on their schedules, Consumers are now more at ease than ever in the media world and are now in the driver’s seat. The winners will be those who are quick to embrace this fast evolving new media model and who are not afraid to break the constricting shackles of antiquated ideas when it comes to content creation and proliferation.