Competition: Win MMA Invasion Tickets & Vitamin Water

First we told you about the JHB Mixed Martial Arts Invasion over here. Then we showed you how to throw one down and pack a real punch over here. Now it’s time to give you and your friends the opportunity to see it for yourselves, for free! Read on boys and girls…

What can I win?

iDale is giving away two great prizes in the coming week:

1. Two VIP tickets to the MMA Invasion event in JHB (valued at R600)
   Plus a case of Vitamin Water!
2. Four normal tickets to the MMA Invasion event in JHB (valued at R400)
   Plus a case of Vitamin Water!

“How do I enter” you ask?

Easy! Simply send an email to giveaways@idale.co.za with the following information in it:

• Name
• Surname
• Cell Number
• Email Address

Terms & Conditions

The draw is open to anyone, but bear in mind that you will need to get to and from the event which is help in JHB, South Africa. The draw is only for tickets and nothing else. The winners will be selected randomly 24 hours before the event. Winners will be notified by email and phone.

Hand Crafted Foosball Coffee Table

This $600 foosball coffee table has a poplar frame, hand-carved handles and a tempered glass top:

If you’re a football fan of note, it may find its way into your lounge? For me, it goes perfectly in the games room or den of say, this awesome house.

USB Decks for the Future DJ

Right, this little baby lets you mix and scratch you computers (Mac or PC’s) existing music library! All you have to do it load up some software and you’re ready to go…

You can mix tracks with the crossfader, scratch, EQ, and even control the pitch (speed) of your songs. Sweet! Get it here.

Dexters Bloody Coasters

We all know Dexter – the TV show about the serial killer that works as a forensic blood splatter analyst. So how about these coasters?

They’re made to look like blood samples on microscope slides that ol’ Dexter keeps in a wooden box on the show. Neat!

RIP Lester William Polsfuss

Lester William Polsfuss, known as Les Paul (June 9, 1915 – August 13, 2009) was a musician and inventor who pioneered the development of the solid-body electric guitar – making the sound of rock and roll possible!

Les Paul is also credited with inventing or discovering many recording innovations including overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing effects, and multitrack recording.

His innovative talents extended into his playing style, including licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques and timing, which set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many of the guitarists of the present day.

Gibson Guitar Corporation designed a guitar incorporating Paul’s suggestions in the early fifties and presented it to him to try. He was impressed enough to sign a contract for what became the “Les Paul” model, originally only in a “gold top” version, and agreed never to be seen playing in public, or be photographed, with anything other than a Gibson guitar.

What’s fascinating it that his influence has gone as far as affecting the look and feel of the guitar in the popular video game Guitar Hero – a name that is quite fitting for Les Paul himself! Read more about the man on his web site.

Weird Al Tells Tear-Yanking Jackson Story

Weird Al Yankovic, the legendary pop music parodist, has written a touching remembrance for Rolling Stone about the passing of Michael Jackson.

Yankovic, who parodied both Beat It (Eat It) and Bad (Fat), reveals on the magazine’s website that Michael was a gracious man who didn’t mind being poked fun of and was an avid fan of Weird Al’s movie UHF.

Writes Yankovic:

The first time around I pursued Michael Jackson about a song parody, it was a shot in the dark. We’re talking about the most popular and famous person in the known universe, and here I was, this goofy comedy songwriter. He not only returned our phone calls, but he approved it. He thought it was a funny idea. Then when we did the second parody, “Fat,” he was nice enough to let us use his subway set for the video, so he’s always been very supportive.

The first time I met him in person was long after I had gotten permission to do “Eat It” back in 1984. There’s a contract somewhere that has his signature next to mine, proving that we are the co-writers of “Eat It,” which is surrealistic in and of itself. The first time I actually ran into him was backstage at one of his concerts, this was maybe four years later, when Even Worse came out with my second parody, “Fat.” I went backstage, and he was seeing a lot of people, but I brought along a gold record of Even Worse to present to him, and he was very gracious and thanked me for it and said some nice things. After the fact, I thought, “That’s probably the last thing Michael Jackson needs, another gold record for his storage locker.” Seeing him in person was amazing, it was otherworldly. He was and continues to be so iconic, it’s hard to even conceive of him as a human being. He always was bigger than life.

Our second meeting was a TV show taping. He was performing “Black or White,” and I remember Slash was onstage and I talked to [Michael] briefly afterwards. He told me he would play my movie, UHF, for his friends at Neverland Ranch, and he was very soft-spoken, very quiet, but always very friendly to me.

I considered parodying “Black or White” around that time. Michael wasn’t quite so into it, because he thought “Black or White” was more of a message song, and he didn’t feel as comfortable with a parody of that one, which I completely understood, and in a way, he did me a huge favor, because I was already getting pegged as the guy who did Michael Jackson parodies, and because he wasn’t so into it, I decided to go with Nirvana, which wound up revitalizing my career. I don?t know what kind of career I would have today if it hadn’t been for Michael Jackson. In a very real sense, he jump-started my career. “Eat It” basically changed me from an unknown into a guy that got recognized at Burger King.

Excellent!

Bang Bang! Shaun Duvet Aims Higher and Higher

Based in Cape Town running Anything Goes (his advertising agency), Shaun Duvet, has chosen to push all boundaries in 2009! For those of you that don’t know, Duvet is also the main man behind the Bang Bang Club as well as a prominent DJ/Producer.

Despite looking very serious above, he’s an energetic and fun chap who started playing music 13 years ago and has been lucky enough to work with the likes of Ministry of Sound, Pacha, Global Underground, Hed Kandi, The Playboy Mansion, Buddha Bar as well as a heap of other international artists.

Head over to www.shaunduvet.com to find out more about the man, his track releases and view his live gig calendar too.

Audi Plays Different Tune with Auto-Inspired Piano

Cars and pianos are more similar than we would initially think: they both have pedals, hood-ish mechanisms, they make noise, and someone has to control them. Perhaps these are some of the reasons that urged the Audi Design Team to collaborate with piano maker Bosendorfer to construct this grand piano, commissioned to celebrate Audi’s centennial:

Here is their philosophy:

Generous surface areas ensure formal clarity; there are no decorative applications, the edges and lines are sharply drawn, the joints logically positioned. All these are important aspects of the Audi design.

And coincidentally, none are important aspects of piano design. The piano-brushed aluminum pedals, hood-like stand, wraparound body and all will be debuted at the July 16th Audi Forum in Ingolstadt, Germany, and is priced at around $140,000 (about R1.2m).

Have you seen the Racing Red Kitchen Inspired by Ferrari?

Revealed: Lean Forward at 45 Degrees Like Michael Jackson Did

Patent number 5255452, filed in 1992, shows how Michael Jackson and his dancers could lean at 45-degree angles during live performances of the song “Smooth Criminal”.

1. A system for engaging shoes with a hitch mans to permit a person standing on a stage surface to lean forwardly beyond his or her center of gravity, comprising:

at least one shoe having a heel with a first engagement means, said first engagement means comprising a recess formed in a heel of said shoe covered with a heel slot plane located at a bottom region of said heel, said heel slot plate having a slot formed therein with a relatively wide opening at a leading edge of said heel and a narrower terminal end rearward of said leading edge, said recess being larger in size above said terminal end of said slot than is said terminal end of said slot; and a second engagement means, detachably engageable with said first engagement means, comprising a hitch member having an enlarged head portion connected by a narrower shank portion to a means for raising and lowering said head of said hitch member above and substantially level with or below said stage surface, said head portion being larger in size than said terminal end of said slot and said shank portion being narrower than said terminal end of said slot, wherein said hitch member can be moved through apertures in said stage surface between a projecting position raised above said stage surface and a retracted position at or below the stage surface, and when said head portion of said hitch member is raised above said stage surface, said first engagement means can be detachably engaged with said projecting hitch member, thereby allowing a person wearing the shoes to lean forwardly with his or her normal center of gravity beyond a front region of said shoes, and maintain said forward lean.

You can see them perform the move in the below video; watch the guy on the right, as he has trouble disengaging his loafers after the move:

Play Godfather Godfather Anywhere, Anytime

I love the Godfather movies so much I could watch all of them in a row at any given point in time. So naturally I found this awesome Godfather toy designed by Michael Lau from MINDstyle:

Some may think “cute” but this bad ass is far from that! Now go watch the Godfather if you haven’t!