Blog
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We Shall See…
The art of Chris Gray.
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Quote of the Week #031
“I feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony; I know what to do, I just don’t know where to start.” – Pat Riley
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Scribble Baths
The art of David Ercolini.
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Weary Travelers
The art of Matt Sartain.
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Addicted to bolachas grátis
With about a dozen authors posting full length albums every day, this is probably one of the most amazing blogs around. If you like music. The premise is simple: these guys post an album to “try”, they accompany this with a link to buy it, and then they post an excerpt of a review from some other site (varies from album to album).
They have been posting three or four albums a day for over two years now. I counted about 1,400 albums on there, but likely more than that. I love the fact that I’ve only heard of about 5% of these artists, and the genius move to include professional reviews really gives you a feel for the album before blindly downloading (most of these are rapidshare links, and unless you pay for a premium account, you are kind of limited to one album an hour).
I can’t stop perusing these gems, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy this as well.
view bolachas grátis.
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The Bristol Engineer’s Harpoon
The art of Michael Wandermaier.
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Bad Word Pairs #027
“Bean Curd”
Someone on the internet asked the question: “What is bean curd?” Which I thought was a good question indeed.
The answer, wisegeek.com informs us: “To make bean curd, a cook curdles soy milk and presses the resulting soybean curds into molds to firm up.”
Mmm. Tasty. Bean curd is more commonly known simply as tofu. Those who know me, know my issues with tofu, and tofurkey, and soy milk, and rice dream, and vegetarian marketing in general. Bean curd, on the other hand, simply suffers from sounding as gross as its preparation.
Yuk.
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Quote of the Week #030
“There are mighty few people who think what they think they think.” –Robert Henri
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Not So Wildlife
The art of Colleen Plumb.
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Wolves, Bunnies & Glossy Tables
The art of Suzanne Walters.
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Wonderland’s Looking Glass
The art of Anna Gaskell.
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Good Quality Derelict Nostalgia
The art of Kevin Cyr.
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Addicted to the LIFE Photo Archive
Google is hosting a rare collection of mostly unpublished photos online from the Time LIFE vaults. They are intended for personal and research use only, but the sheer scope of the project is mind-blowing. This is apparently the largest photo scanning project in history. If what I’ve read is true, what you are about to witness is 10 million photographs, found in loose envelopes and tucked away in the vaults, by some of the most preeminent photojournalists of all time (Gjon Mili, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Ansel Adams).
The second most amazing thing about this project are the images themselves. (a quick tip, you can also add source:life to any normal Google image search to call on this inventory of images). With that in mind, I set out to find a nice assortment of images. These are obviously just the tip of the iceberg, but you can see what I’m getting at. It’s just, quite simply, inspiring.
I searched for “Directors at Work” and got a shot of Stanley Kubrick on the set of 2001 along with Jerome Robbins on the set of West Side Story. I searched for “Reflections” and found a shot of Neil Armstrong on the moon with the flag reflected in his visor next to a shot of Charlie Chaplin looking in the mirror in his dressing room. The scenarios go on and on, now get over there and try it for yourself!
View the LIFE Archive.
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Bad Word Pairs #026
“New Age”
Wikipedia defines New Age music as “peaceful music of various styles that is intended to help people feel good while listening.” I define it as “music your friends will make fun of you for liking, but your parents will admire you for liking.”
How do you define it? I guess the issue here is the polarizing connotation with New Age nowadays. There’s really no middle ground. You either love it or hate it. It’s kind of like World Music I guess? Though that just seems like international New Age.
Performers like Yanni get lumped in with musicians like Brian Eno, and it makes it hard to avoid contact, since I loathe one, and love the other (guess which). In any case, New Age is further proof why labels always make it harder to get underneath, to the good bits.
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Mayday Mayday, the Pacman Cometh!
Lo! Circle your calendars friends, it’s looking like May will mark the first big boxing match of 2009, when Manny Pacquiao takes on the Manchester brawler Ricky Hatton. Bob Aram says it’s a done deal, and when he says it, it hath been written.
It should make for an exciting fight, two good styles, though Hatton had better train for speed, and learn from De la Hoya’s mistakes.
Apparently both of these fighters have grand plans to retire early. Pacquiao wants to finish 2009 and then become president of the Philippines or something (ugh), while Hatton wants to beat Pacquiao and then win a rematch against Mayweather, going out at the top of his game.
The likelihood that either of them will retire when they say? Slim to none. And that would be the best thing we fans would want to see happen.
View the Proof.
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Aprés la Pluie
With evident inspiration from director Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle) comes an all together unique and amazing short film by five students from the Gobelins school of animation in France. Students, yes, you read that right. Unbelievable.
Set within a stilted village in the sky, a boy is fishing in a puddle with a banana for bait when suddenly, impossibly he gets a bite. He lands a creature far bigger than he could have imagined, and far too big to handle. What follows is a breathtaking sequence of shots, punctuated by an unexpected and abstracted ending.
I loved this film for its awe-filled imagery and simple execution. The painting isn’t half bad either, nor is the animation. Sometimes a story doesn’t require fully fleshed out characters. Sometimes the experience itself is reward enough, and this is one of those cases.
Not much is revealed regarding exactly who did what, but the team who concepted and executed this stunning short includes: Charles-André Lefebvre, Manuel Tanon-Tchi, Louis Tardivier, Sébastien Vovau and Emmanuelle Walker.
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Mudbaths, Baths and Hedges
The art of Rob Browning.
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Falling Down Holes
The art of Hubbard/Birchler.
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Quote of the Week #029
“Beware the lollipop of mediocrity; lick it once and you’ll suck forever.” – Brian Wilson
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Top 5 Cover Songs of 2008
(MOSTLY MELLOW COVERS, MIND YOU.)
5. Coldplay (Joe Satriani)
“Viva la Vida”Since the lawsuit is for plagiarism, I will go on a limb and preemptively call Viva la Vida… a cover of Joe Satriani’s 2004 song “If I Could Fly”. But only to make a joke. Hardy har. I don’t really like either song though, but it made for a good giggle, right?
4. Mark Kozelek (Low)
“Lazy”Surprise surprise. Mark Kozelek on a Liftingfaces Top 5 list. But seriously, this is a good cover, and here’s why: Who would have thought Mark Kozelek would take a song by Low and actually make it happier? Not I.
3. Adem (Aphex Twin)
“To Cure a Weakling Child / Boy/Girl Song”Aphex Twin’s original “Girl/Boy Song” is one of my favorite songs ever. So I spotted the carnivalesque plucking in Adem’s medley straight away. He managed to make this work, adding in vocals from a different Aphex Twin track. In a word: wonderblissfullness.
2. Calico Horse (Radiohead)
“Idioteque”I’m a sucker for taking up-tempo songs and dipping them in molasses (see my number 3 cover), and this is no exception. I’m not as tuned into Calico Horse as a band, but this cover jumped out at me and clung to my black designer sweater like my golden retriever’s tail hair. Ummmm, yeah, okay, moving on.
1. Yael Naim (Britney Spears)
“Toxic”This was a clear winner for me. You’ve probably heard it already, but who cares, listen again…and again and again. It goes to show that underneath the caked on foundation and fake eyelashes and silicone breasts of pop music, there are actually some good songs.
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Smilies and Metaphors
The art of Noma Bar.
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Whitewash Proxy Heroines
The art of Marc Burckhardt.
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Power Animals and Pixies
The art of Andrea Blasich.
