The Download Munkey : Download This, Download That :)

Oleg Volk, an art director and photographer from Nashville, Tennessee has an impressive online photo gallery of over 5000 photos with a substantial number comprising high resolution photos of firearms. I especially like those photos with the actual firearms captured against a clean white background since I’m an avid collector of high resolution firearm photos.

My favourite firearm gallery is definitely the one featuring Advanced Armament Corp’s (AAC) sound suppressors. This gallery is the first time I’ve seen suppressors attached to light machineguns like M249 SAWs and M60s and medium machineguns such as M240s. Wonder how a light machinegun fitted with a sound suppressor would sound like when fired on full auto … UPDATE (23 Apr 2008) : Oleg has very kindly sent me a email saying that a suppressed LMG sounds like a small diesel when firing in full auto. Thanks Oleg!

© Oleg Volk

The AR10/AR15/M16 gallery is another firm favourite

© Oleg Volk

There’s quite a few interesting photos in the main Weapons photo gallery if you take the time to browse throught the 11 pages of photos in there

Of course Oleg Volk’s photos aren’t all about weapons - there’s several much smaller galleries on creepy crawlies, reptiles and amphibians and other assorted themes.

© Oleg Volk

Visit Oleg Volk’s photo gallery or view specific galleries like the Weapons gallery, the AAC gallery (also check out AAC’s catalog) or the AR10/AR15/M16 gallery.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
High Resolution Photos of FN Herstal’s Firearms (P90, SCAR, M249, etc)
Dick Kramer - FN Herstal Military Art
2008 Military/LE Firearm PDF Catalogs
Bushmaster AR15/M16 Internals & Operation Flash Animation
Accesorized vz 61 ‘Skorpion’ SMG, CZ Pistols & Rifles Cutaway Diagrams

Some delightfully adorable Japanese festivities-themed wallpapers from the drumming game series Taiko no Tatsujin from Namco. I initially thought the pictures were random illustrations of traditional Japanese cultural icons until I read Danny Choo’s post about Hanami on Monday - apparently the pink flowers on the April 2008 calendar wallpaper symbolize the annual custom of admiring the cherry blossoms (sakura) that bloom from late March to early April - who says you don’t learn anything useful while collecting art or wallpapers (or reading blogs for that matter )

© Namco

Below are all the calendar wallpapers starting from the first one issued in Aug 2007. I’ll try to identify the festival or holiday represented in each with assistance from Wikipedia.

© Namco

Aug 2007 - Wasshoi Hyakuman Matsuri perhaps?

© Namco

Sep 2007 - Start of Autumn?

© Namco

Oct 2007 - Health and Sports Day - Yes, it’s a public holiday - I think it’s a great idea to implement something similiar in Singapore

© Namco

Nov 2007 - Culture Day?

© Namco

Dec 2007 - Christmas!

© Namco

Jan 2008 - Eating sticky mochi during Japanese New Year.

© Namco

Feb 2008 - End of winter? Or maybe the Sapporo Snow Festival?

© Namco

Mar 2008 - Japanese Doll Festival / Girls’ Day known as Hinamatsuri.

Hopefully, we’ll get to see the paper carp steamers that characterize Kodomo no Hi or Children’s Day for May’s wallpaper.

Below are the direct links for the Aug 2007 to Oct 2007 wallpapers since the links have been taken off the site.

Aug 2007
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Sep 2007
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Oct 2007
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Download the other wallpapers via the official Taiko no Tatsujin site.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Be Your Own One Man Band!
Domo-kun Wallpapers & Clock Widgets
Spiky Babies Deluxe Series - Cute Paper Toys
Drawn To Be Alive Wallpapers
CuteDeadThings Wallpapers

Well, breakdancing is still a form of art, no? I will be adding the occassional music and dance posts to Art Friday from today onwards, since it’s sometimes hard to find the time to write, select the artworks and obtain artists’ permission to post cool illustrations up here every week

© Elephant Eye Films

Planet B-Boy is an upcoming feature-length documentary by Elephant Eye Films on the unique dance artform known as breakdancing. I love watching breakdancing since it’s one of the most visual application of physics that I have seen

© Elephant Eye Films

Some shots from the intro trailer released a few weeks back at Apple Trailers. (direct link (4.9 MB))

© Elephant Eye Films

More shots from another trailer posted at SpikeTV displaying some mad skillz by dancers around the world - on the streets in Osaka and commuter trains of Seoul to picturesque locations in view of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the glitzy neon lights of Las Vegas.

There was another film, Stomp The Yard, released last year which featured krumping, a dance style quite similiar to breakdancing. There’s some slick dance moves in there, so watch the video on YouTube or better still download the HD trailer from Apple Trailers

Finally, here’s the the music video that started my fascination with breakdancing - Jason Nevins vs Run DMC - It’s Like That (That’s Just The Way Life Is) (Wikipedia) featuring a awesome battle (plus nifty synchronized moves) between two rival breakdancing crews which you can view at YouTube.

Visit the official site of Planet B-Boy for more information.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
How to Download Quicktime Trailers from Apple’s Movie Trailers

Wallpapers featuring imagery of fighters schooled in Muay Thai or Thai Boxing. I have always been fascinated by the ability of Muay Thai fighters to land blows on their opponents with different parts of their limbs - hands, elbows shins and knees. A similar martial arts Lethwei exists in Myanmar, but is considered more extreme and allows headbutts in its list of permitted moves.

Five of my favourites from the 60+ available.

© MuayThaiStuff.com

Direct links to the above wallpapers listed as follows:
TUF-WP001
Wallpaper 014
Wallpaper 035
Wallpaper 039
Wallpaper 051

Download these wallpapers in 800×600 or 1024×768 resolutions from MuayThaiStuff.com.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
King of Fighters Official Wallpapers
Soul of the Ultimate Nation Trailers
Lost Odyssey X06 Trailer

A couple of not-so-serious military-related stuff that I read several weeks back on other blogs.

Liberian Infantry Tactics
First one is from the Airborne Combat Engineer’s archives featuring photos taken during the Liberian civil war in 2005. I sure hope that these photos were staged for the camera because it’s pure suicide for anyone attempting these kind of tactics on an actual battlefield.

Some of the photos at the site linked by ACE are down so I have searched the .Net for an alternative source. View these photos at Free Market Fairy Tales along with a thorough tongue-in-cheek analysis of the tactics exhibited in these photos.

Dummies’ Guide to Military Hand Signals
Credit goes to www.sicarii.net for posting about this one.

Shut Up A Second

Shit, I Think He Was On Our Side

Now we know what the hand signals used by SWAT teams in movies really mean

More hand signals (42 in total) over at www.petebevin.com.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Assault Rifle Vidcasts
ACE’s WTFs
Human Security Brief 2006 photo of MEND militant
South China Sea Pirates & Other Interesting Photos