Radio Stories
The Macabre VR experience Angelenos are dying to try:
While Virtual Reality has been "the next big thing" for a while now, not everyone is trying to crack the gamer market. In fact, one company has launched a new VR experience that veers towards the more spiritual side, simulating a so-called near-death experience (NDE). The Frame contributor Collin Friesen tried it out and lived to tell about it:
Museums want you to photobomb their art:
If you’ve been to a museum lately, you may have noticed a rule change. No, you still can’t touch the exhibits, but the rule against taking pictures of the art has largely gone by the wayside. We sent non-millennial contributor Collin Friesen to find out why these sometimes-stoic intuitions have lightened up on social media. Here's his report
Are robot underpants the next big fitness craze?
If you’ve ever seen a late-night infomercial for some new fitness program, or a product that’ll give you six-pack abs in six weeks, or even driven past a parking lot where people are pulling tires and heaving weighted balls at each other, you may have asked yourself: who the heck comes up with this stuff? There's a convention for that — it was last week in Los Angeles. I went to look for the next big thing in the world of sweating on purpose.
What I learned being a middle school counselor zombie for a video game
Every other week, we bring you the science podcast for kids and curious adults, Brains On. But, a week before Halloween, there's no On, it's just Brains... because last Friday, Off-Ramp contributor Collin Friesen was a zombie extra.
Artist Alan Wolfson's exquisite miniature towns
Some artists go big. Think Kent Twitchell’s huge mural of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra by the Harbor Freeway. Others shrink the world into something you can fit in a briefcase — that's L.A. artist Alan Wolfson.
Nerdstrong Gym: Where pop culture geeks get in shape
You’d be excused for thinking the 10 sweaty and grunting people lobbing weighted balls at each other in the parking lot of a North Hollywood strip mall are members of Cross Fit or some other local gym.
But listen to the instructor — not a word about blasting your abs or feeling the burn or glutting your core. He’s talking about Cyclops, one of the characters from the X-Men comics, as the members use barbells to do dead lifts and back-squats.
“Cyclops didn’t give up, his girl liked that other dude, which was nuts….”
Whole Foods — watching live standup comedy next to the kale
It seems standup comedy is back. Maybe not to the extent it was in the '90s where every bar, bowling alley and coffee shop was suddenly getting into the game, but for established comics and those wanting to take their shot, these days you can see if you have what it takes almost anywhere. That includes at the Whole Foods market in Pasadena.
So, you want to buy a film festival?
If you're a film fan, especially a fan of festivals, you're in luck: over the next month, eight different festivals will screen movies in Southern California. In North America, there will be more than 7,000 film festivals this year alone. That works out to 20 or so, each and every day.
Fantasy movie leagues are a betting haven for film buffs
If you're a film fan, especially a fan of festivals, you're in luck: over the next month, eight different festivals will screen movies in Southern California. In North America, there will be more than 7,000 film festivals this year alone. That works out to 20 or so, each and every day.
FIFA's self-serving movie, 'United Passions,' fails to draw fans
If you don't think that FIFA needed to make a movie about its history...well, you're definitely not alone. But the organization indeed financed "United Passions," a film that looks at how the beleaguered international soccer juggernaut known as FIFA came to be.
To hear more stories by Collin Friesen CLICK HERE