this is such a great commercial.

i had to post it.

thoughts and concentration sent careening through the guardrail and off into some unintended distance…trying to get some work done, I got shuffled to this in my iTunes.

i’ve gotten flack in the past about how much I adore these two girls -their experimentation with music has been a simple syrup for me since their first album. in any case, i listened to this (new)oldy and thought i’d post it.

which led me to watch this: cocorosie, vashti bunyan, antony, devendra banhart….

in other words, all Eternal Children.

(watch for Bianca’s mouth-trumpet -on par with Andrew Bird’s puckered whistles)

p.s: cocorosie, bisounours

i was looking around motionographer this morning (a must if you haven’t checked it out), and found this in the pile of a bunch of similar looking videos. it made me laugh.

on a similar note, i just recently watched Helvetica the other night. as “designy-geeky” as it is, I thought it was done extremely well (i.e. not a niche-market doc) and am still wondering why it didn’t win more awards. look for it and check it out. it will reintroduce you to every word you thought you knew…make you feel like a kid again.

I’m in the midst of working on a project with a friend of mine. In the process, I’ve been having to go through historical audio files. One evening I was taken away with the thickness of it all and threw this together.

It’s amazing sometimes what can be found in your country’s attic.

music: múm (of course)

Download

awhile back, when I first started experimenting with this stuff, I downloaded a reading of Tobias Wolff. then tried to put something together. it was inexperienced and my first piece, but nonetheless I sent it off to my friend in Seattle and asked him to score it. after he had a few cocktails last night, this is what came of it. he’s a great friend and (obviously) an extremely talented being.

thanks Wayne. i would love to keep this going.

ps. the Wolff piece is actually called Bullet in the Brain. it’s incredibly beautiful and worth checking out.

…a plane.

1 It is the reflection of a basic reality.

2 It masks and perverts a basic reality.

3 It masks the absence of a basic reality.

4 It bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum.

-Baudrillard

Download

around mid-February I started making some short animations with a combination of After Effects/Final Cut and Illustrator files. I’m slowly teaching myself how it all works. I’ve been able to see where it can go and what I’ll be able to do with it as projects evolve (and I get a better grasp of it all).

In the meantime, I’ll be posting parts of them here and there -more to just keep a digital journal of my learning process. To see how far I’ve come, where I’m going…

I am hopeful it will be similar to my 6th grade journal.

note: Music by the ever-beautiful Múm

Grazie a mi amici… Sabato notte, belli amici fa squisito pizza -di un ricetta Sardegna!  Il ragazza che ha portato il ricetta dice <…questa ricetta dall’antichitá.>

Una bella notte. Con belli amici.

WARNING: A BIT OF A SPOILER

This is the first weekend in SLC that Chicago 10 was released. I’ve been waiting to see this film for numerous reasons (e.g. addressing Social Change, historical documentary, fun w/animation). Basically, it has everything that I want to see and want to do for the rest of my days.

The film definitely puts you in a sobering place -after all, this moment captured was a recent 40 years ago. In the wake (backlash?) of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, we watch Chicago lock itself down and become militarily taut -something that echoes of apartheid and fascism.

Morgen blatantly puts the film together with an antagonism towards the “powers that be” (and rightly so). The courtroom scene is unbelievable (note: the disgusting treatment of Bobby Seale), the nightly raids of the park are horrific, and watching unarmed civilians get bludgeoned should send shivers through anyone with a pulse.

However, there were moments I wondered what really happens within a random, uncontrolled mass of people. In the beginning, they (we) unify for a cause, though we’ve seen numerous people achieve their goal through different means. In the film, the majority follow the example of Ginsberg and Hoffman- through peace and non-violent protests. But likewise, we’ve seen moments where the citizens/activists become reactionary and erupt. In the midst of thousands of non-violent protesters -it takes only a few that incite something unintended by the rest. These situations become so volatile it seems as if they could crack at any point and allow everyone to fall through.

This is what Morgan (using the found footage captured in Chicago) paints more than anything. Continuous moments that teeter between what could happen, what is about to happen, and what does happen.

If you’ve seen The Kid Stays In The Picture, you’ll know the beautiful marriage between motion graphics/animation and documentary -and the work of Brett Morgen. Take time out next Sunday afternoon and see this one as well. You won’t regret it.