Rube Goldberg Alarm Clock
May 6, 2007 7:54 AM   Subscribe

Finding it hard to get out of bed this morning? You might consider building your own Rube Goldberg Alarm Clock. (3:17 video)
posted by ColdChef (25 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
This is useless without a snooze button.
posted by evilelf at 8:03 AM on May 6, 2007 [2 favorites]


I don't trust anything that heavily edited, but that was unbelievably clever.

favorite bits: the chess pieces moving "by themselves" and the cell phones.
posted by shmegegge at 8:03 AM on May 6, 2007


Yes, the chess board was brilliant. See also: The Way Things Go: YouTube (4:34), Netflix (the whole enchilada, about 30:00.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 8:19 AM on May 6, 2007


Hee!
posted by dejah420 at 8:30 AM on May 6, 2007


My favorite bit was the dartboard.

Egg drop soup, anyone?

Oh, and you can't get something for nothing.
posted by lysdexic at 8:41 AM on May 6, 2007


Communists don't like it, but I do. Also, I'm betting they don't have a cat.
posted by jimmythefish at 8:48 AM on May 6, 2007


It's comforting knowning ColdChef is still around.
posted by folktrash at 8:55 AM on May 6, 2007 [1 favorite]


Ya now, if I ever got anywhere in my therapy, I would meet a woman. A fine woman. A woman of character and humor and grace. I would ask her out. We would charm and wine and dine each other. We we spend countless hours talking over pinot and galouise. Her hair could fall to her shoulders and slightly cover up her eyes. I would reach across the bistro table and brush the auburn locks aside with a smile.

Hand in hand we would discover the rest of what this town has to offer. Our hearts would wind slowly together. We could have holidays between work and still see our friends and spend time alone. The arguments would be small and quickly resolved.

The love-making would revolve between animal and intimate.

My family and her family would come together in a lovely ceremony some where on the coast. The sun would shine, a few puffy white clouds would give seabirds chance for chase and hide and seek. Our vows honest and earnest. We would be wed.

Then off to the see the world in travel and tearing the nations a new one. Sandstone arches, deserts, lush rivers. Our photos and journals would be fodder for our (hopeful) childrens' bedtime stories.

At some point our love would become ready to settle, and we would buy our first house. A cute fixer-upper, again along the coast. A small two story home that required our handiness with tool and time.

And one weekend left to my own devices, she would travel to her sister's house for breakfast, and I would put something like this together.

And she would come home and divorce my ass johnny-on-the-spot.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 9:39 AM on May 6, 2007 [14 favorites]


The chess board and dart board bits were great, I also enjoyed seeing the violin bow cases (or were they pool queue cases) popping up later on in the clip.
posted by furtive at 9:40 AM on May 6, 2007


Purely by coincidence I was listening to Bjork's latest live show streamed by NPR, which for some reason seemed the perfect soundtrack for these inventive, mad videos, especially the fiery, explosive one...
posted by twsf at 9:49 AM on May 6, 2007


Brilliant!
posted by darkstar at 10:15 AM on May 6, 2007


I'm with shmegegge, I sincerely doubt this was done on one take, it would have required multiple cameras all over that guy's house, and you don't see other people in any of the shots.

Speaking as someone who used to make a much reduced form of these things with building sets when he was 15-or-so (Construx FTW!), each and every step of the way entropy gets to rear his disfigured head and mess everything up.

The coolness of this video would be tied into the fact that no malfunction occurred during the whole run, and if we don't have that assurance, then the only real cool thing here is that someone thought it all up, set it up and recorded it, a much reduced form of awesomeness, especially in the face of so much competition these days.

It is still cool, but is it best of the web? I'm not sure.
posted by JHarris at 10:27 AM on May 6, 2007


"Sorry I'm late to work my slinky got stuck on the stair case and failed to knock over a milk jug. Mondays huh!"
posted by I Foody at 10:29 AM on May 6, 2007 [3 favorites]


Wow. You see these online occasionally, but this was much more complicated and involved than most. The chessboard with a will of its own was definitely the highlight.

All this contraption needed was more fire. And a better climax.

The spoons on the wineglasses seemed inspired by a scene in The Way Things Go (linked above) to me.
posted by painquale at 11:58 AM on May 6, 2007


There is something to be said for the purity of the single-take Rube Goldberg machine... But for me, this one has so many clever elements that it doesn't matter much to me how much it was edited or whatever.

By the way, the video in its (presumably) original state can be found at the Baynham & Tyers website, where you find that it is the sequel to another well-known Internet Rube Goldberg machine. ("Marketing Viral," eh? Well, it worked.)
posted by sappidus at 12:32 PM on May 6, 2007


Pitagora suichi!
posted by erniepan at 1:32 PM on May 6, 2007


Someone has a bunch of time on their hands.
posted by nola at 1:43 PM on May 6, 2007


Short and sweet.
posted by Soliloquy at 3:53 PM on May 6, 2007


Jesus couldn't have done that in one take.
Awesome.
posted by greytape at 5:43 PM on May 6, 2007


Genius.
posted by puddinghead at 6:10 PM on May 6, 2007


What, it doesn't make breakfast? What good is that?

My favorites were the slinky and the zip-lining figure model.
posted by donajo at 6:36 PM on May 6, 2007


I actually saw this link a few days ago, and that's how I found the others I posted. What I really liked about this one is that it struck me as something you'd do when you'd completely flipped your lid, due to the stresses of home or school or life.

I got the feeling that everything in that sequence was lying around the house already - all of the pieces were things you'd have as upper-middle class college students who've discovered credit cards, or who brought their band stuff from home.

I think the title I saw was "Home made". It ought to be "It's 10 days from graduation, and I can't get this stupid thing to compile!!"
posted by lysdexic at 8:23 PM on May 6, 2007


Related ( starts around minute mark 1:24 )
posted by nola at 5:34 AM on May 7, 2007


I'm not sure which is cooler, this video or the 666 take Honda commercial that was put together last year or so ago
posted by daHIFI at 10:05 AM on May 7, 2007


Fun!
Who's cleaning that up?
posted by petersn1 at 5:22 AM on May 8, 2007


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