333-333-333 We Present A SPECIAL PRESENTATION 333-333-333

January 22, 2007 6:36 PM

333-333-333 YOU WILL SEE SUCH PRETTY THINGS (via) 333-333-333
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me (50 comments total)

l33t.
posted by doublesix at 6:39 PM on January 22, 2007

cr33py
posted by subaruwrx at 6:47 PM on January 22, 2007

Beware the Fish.
posted by infinitewindow at 6:47 PM on January 22, 2007

Creepy, thanks.
posted by interrobang at 6:48 PM on January 22, 2007

HIRES FILES PLZ. MST XPRMNT W/ HEAD. WOMB. THX.
posted by loquacious at 6:48 PM on January 22, 2007

If you're going to go through the trouble to hack broadcast television, why not actually put something interesting on?
posted by ScotchLynx at 6:57 PM on January 22, 2007

It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle shrouded in mystery.

I am *so* blogging this.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:58 PM on January 22, 2007

That's not even a proper telephone number.
posted by DragonBoy at 6:59 PM on January 22, 2007

If you're going to go through the trouble to hack broadcast television, why not actually put something interesting on?

Considering that he interrupted a Dr. Who broadcast, I'm of the opinion that he did.
posted by Leather McWhip at 7:02 PM on January 22, 2007

The original Japanese version was way more scary.
posted by The Straightener at 7:03 PM on January 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

speaking of broadcast hijack?
Damn Interesting had an article about this a couple of week ago. The video reminds me the creepy video footage in Kyoshi Kurosawa's Kairo.
posted by denpo at 7:09 PM on January 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Are we going to die now?
posted by craniac at 7:11 PM on January 22, 2007

Oh great. Now I have seven days to live. Thanks.
posted by miss lynnster at 7:12 PM on January 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Meh. Since we've become so desensitized, The Videodrome Signal will be broadcast during something bland and innocuous like the American Idol finale.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:27 PM on January 22, 2007

Samarra!
And there isn't even eny Naomi Watts. Pfui!
posted by nj_subgenius at 7:32 PM on January 22, 2007

Wyoming is sooo weird. Creepiest state by far.
posted by milarepa at 7:36 PM on January 22, 2007

From the description of the video:

In this clip, the frequency being played is somewhere between 17 and 19 hz. This range of frequency, when played for long periods of time, causes the eyes to subtly vibrate, sometimes inducing visual hallucinations.

Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight.
posted by Brak at 7:53 PM on January 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

From the description of the video:

In this clip, the frequency being played is somewhere between 17 and 19 hz. This range of frequency, when played for long periods of time, causes the eyes to subtly vibrate, sometimes inducing visual hallucinations.

Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight.
posted by Brak

Too bad those frequencies don't come through the Google video player. But don't let that stop you from having an enjoyable evening of hallucinations.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:55 PM on January 22, 2007

The Videodrome Signal will be broadcast during something bland and innocuous like the American Idol finale

heh, I just watched that last night (netflix is awesome for catching up on all those R-rated classics I couldn't/didn't go to as a youngster).

-- spoiler --
Anyhoo, part of the premise was that the violence opened the cortex up for the programming. . .
-- spoiler --
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 8:00 PM on January 22, 2007

You know, posting the same link 3 times doesn't take away that "single-link WTF post" stigma.
posted by clevershark at 8:01 PM on January 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

That's what I was thinkin'. And the only other link doesn't give much info.
posted by Brittanie at 8:03 PM on January 22, 2007

Actually, thanks most of all for the via-- I probably haven't seen The Adventures of Mark Twain in a couple of decades, but that sequence had me absolutely awestruck as a rugrat. Still creepy and beautiful.

It's also the film that introduced me to the word "superfluous", for what it's worth.
posted by phooky at 8:15 PM on January 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Japanese Seizure Robots, anyone? (the robots start about 1 minute in).
posted by mosk at 8:16 PM on January 22, 2007

Long Live the New Flesh
posted by brundlefly at 8:20 PM on January 22, 2007

phooky, that was some seriously weird shit. I've never come across the show, but it looks pretty interesting. I hope it wasn't a kids show! Creepy and beautiful indeed.
posted by ashbury at 8:38 PM on January 22, 2007

Burhanistan: Too bad those frequencies [between 17 and 19 hz] don't come through the Google video player.

Those frequencies don't come through the average dinky TV speaker, either. This seems awfully hokey. When was this supposed to have aired?
posted by Western Infidels at 8:50 PM on January 22, 2007

Long Live the New Flesh
posted by brundlefly

Nice backhand!
posted by WolfDaddy at 8:58 PM on January 22, 2007

I cannot find *anything* on Google about this. Max Headroom comes up with a LOT more, and is corroborated.

Hrm... Bullshit?
posted by disillusioned at 9:00 PM on January 22, 2007

Video of the damned.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 9:08 PM on January 22, 2007

What the fuck was that Mark Twain thing about, that was fucking brilliant..
posted by empath at 9:15 PM on January 22, 2007

These eyes... they vibrate? No, they do not vibrate at all!
posted by metaplectic at 9:21 PM on January 22, 2007

the edited a bit of the actual story:

It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream - a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought - a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!"
posted by empath at 9:25 PM on January 22, 2007

that the violence opened the cortex up

Leave me out of this or I'll kick your ass.
posted by cortex at 9:30 PM on January 22, 2007

I don't know if it was a psychosomatic thing, but when the file started, I immediately got a headache. My guess it was the power of suggestion, but it was still kind of an interesting thing... I wonder if the people who claimed to have these reactions were truly reacting to the frequencies or to the idea that perhaps they should be having some kind of reaction to the weirdo stuff on their television.
posted by elf_baby at 9:37 PM on January 22, 2007

There is a high-pitched tone throughout the video, but comparison with a tone generator puts it around 8kHz.

Note that the frequency of CRT scan noise is already 15.625kHz.
posted by metaplectic at 9:40 PM on January 22, 2007

17 to 19 hz is a very low pitched tone that most humans cannot hear, metaplectic.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:43 PM on January 22, 2007

Yeah, see, that's what I'm saying. I sat there and manually relooped that shit for an hour and all I got was a cramp in my finger. I need a better, longer source file.

Disgustingly pornographic amounts of cubic inches of speaker excursion and kilowatts of amplifiers pointed at my head would probably help as well, but I already know how to make my eyes go all stupid with that quantity of advanced sound reinforcement technology.

And, really, you haven't lived until you've used a small pile of 1200 watt 2x18" bass cabs as the base to your futon. (I especially recommend using an analog bassline synth. Oof.)
posted by loquacious at 10:05 PM on January 22, 2007

Mark Twain?
posted by homunculus at 10:14 PM on January 22, 2007

Captain Midnight HBO 4/26/86
Max Headroom Chicago 11/22/87 [Max Headroom interviewed by David Letterman, Terry Wogan]
posted by roboto at 11:05 PM on January 22, 2007 [1 favorite]

Binaural beat encoding, creating pulsations in the spatial field [i.e. bouncing left to right] is one way that ultra low frequencies can be sent to the brain. I'm not an expert, but I've had some success with this.

Whether or not you could send television in stereo at that time is another matter altogether.

For the really curious, i offer bwgen, a program that can allegedly change brainwave patterns.
posted by phylum sinter at 11:16 PM on January 22, 2007

creepy ladyface.
posted by bam at 11:32 PM on January 22, 2007

Oops, I misread Hz as kHz. Anyway, its still bullshit.
posted by metaplectic at 12:03 AM on January 23, 2007

roboto - did you note in the Captain Midnight link that he used transponder 23 (!!!) to disrupt the HBO signal?
posted by serazin at 12:31 AM on January 23, 2007

23!! Max seems to have noticed as well.
posted by roboto at 12:52 AM on January 23, 2007

*sneeze* damn viruses *beurk*
posted by elpapacito at 3:53 AM on January 23, 2007

Link to the Max Headroom incident mentioned in the description for this video.

I think I understand why these "hacks" are uncommon...all the precedents are incredibly stupid. Throwing Pepsi cans and "the Brown Note"? What a waste of man hours and creative opportunity.
posted by dozo at 10:11 AM on January 23, 2007

It occurs to me that the Max Headroom pirate broadcast on Nov 22 1987 interrupted an episode of Doctor Who a day before the 24th anniversary of the first Doctor who broadcast in the UK (Nov 23, 1963). Given that WGN was broadcasting the Dr.Who on a weekly basis, that episode was the closest he could get to the anniversary.

Was Max Headroom a Doctor Who fan?
posted by Pastabagel at 11:24 AM on January 23, 2007

I personally enjoyed this statement

Viewers were dumped back into the pedestrian world of Dr Who
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:17 PM on January 23, 2007

This sounds sketchy to me. Why would the specs for television audio broadcast allow for bandwidth to transmit audio below 20 Hz (the low threshold of human hearing.) Also how many people have an audio system capable of playing back at a reasonable amplitude a 17-19 Hz signal? No stock TV speaker is going to do that. Nor a standard shelf speaker. You'd need a nice subwoofer and then I would wonder why you don't have it cut of signals lower than 20Hz.
posted by MrBobaFett at 3:40 PM on January 23, 2007

If this were the promo for a new TV series, I would be a dead cert to watch the pilot.

Yes, I am easily led.
posted by Ritchie at 12:32 AM on January 25, 2007