I’m have a soft spot for Brit Hop. There’s something about that The Streets-esque brit-boy sound that’s intriguing to me – it’s never totally on the beat but it’s as if the amount of syllables carries it through no matter what. Or maybe it’s just the accent. Or maybe it’s both.
Just Jack has a bit more of a electro pop vibe going on (try walking to work to “Glory Days” – it’s guaranteed happy). In his new video for “Embers”, the first track of his upcoming album “All Night Cinema”, director Chris Boyle creates a small scale model-filled, textbook-annotated history of the world. Plus, it involves dinosaurs. They make everything awesome…
Via Motionographer
The only thing better than 8-bit goodness, is 8-bit goodness with added violence and still shots of red meat. “Buck and Judy”, directed by C Spencer Yeh, is gloriously, viciously random. Fruits are weapons. Fruits are zeppelins. Fruits are everywhere. Thank god there are bands like Deerhoof out there that aren’t afraid to be unabashedly fucked up and make videos about it.
Via OffWorld
I’m a lot in love with this. The vid for “Man Overboard” has a really dreamy, surreal quality and a look that I wasn’t totally expecting. Populous has an easy, synth-shoegaze sound like one of my fave groups ever, The Postal Service (who, by the way, need to release another album – it’s been four years already…) and Stuart O’Keeffe’s animation is so unassuming it catches you almost off-guard. There’s something about the emotions of toys that cuts right to the quick. I think it’s the juxtaposition of their complex feelings with their seemingly uncomplicated, happy exteriours.
Thanks to Alice for the tip.
Hey everybody. Some of you have noticed the new tab at the top of the blog, but today I’m officially kicking off a side project: Small Great Love.
Next week I’ll be going to South Africa, with 9 other people from Virgin companies around the world, on a “Wake Up Trip” created by Virgin Unite – Virgin’s global charity. We’ll be heading to Newington – a village about 6 hours drive northeast of Johannesburg – where we’ll spend a week building a crèche (the South African term that’s similar to “kindergarten”) for the local families. Their current crèche is run down and, even worse, the 5 and 6-year old kids are forced to cross an active railroad track to get to it. We’re going to not only be building on the safe side of the tracks, but we’re also going totally environmentally friendly: VOC-free paint, recycled materials, eco-friendly learning toys, a play set made from recycled tires, a vegetable garden, rain-water collectors, and way more.
Starting today, I’ll be chronicling the trip on Small Great Love. The name arose from a quote by Mother Teresa, that “we can do no great things, only small things with great love.” This idea means a lot to me; it speaks to the power we all have to do small things that are unspeakably meaningful. If we look at the world as a whole, our problems easily seem insurmountable. But with acts of small great love any person, any where, can make a difference in the life of someone else. To me, that’s such a beautiful, life-affirming thing.
If you’re into it, please check out Small Great Love. Follow it so that I can show you the trip. And if you want, you can also donate online to the crèche directly through Virgin Unite. The more cash we can raise, the more support we can give the kids at the school. Thanks y’all.
I could watch this every day for the rest of my life and never get bored of it. That’s how magnificent this is. It’s like a visual poem for the Earth – aquatic and terrestrial and celestial and airborne and unspeakably beautiful.
Magically bombastic and serene at the same time, Mathieu Gérard’s thesis film from Arts et Technologies de l’Image is an exquisite imagining, wordless and free, of the reclamation of man-made things by the very elements we’ve abused to create our urban world. The equally incredible soundtrack is composed by Mathieu Alvado and performed by the Star Pop Orchestra at Le Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.
Via Motionographer
It’s way easier to fall in love in Europe. Don’t ask why… it just is.
Created by splicing together over 4500 separate photographs from a Canon EOS 30D, film-maker, photographer, and web designer Daniele Napolitano tells the lovely (and dialogue-free) story of two people who meet and find “an extraordinary chemistry made of knowing glances and small gestures fills the few instants that separate them both from the sunrise.”
I discovered Austin-based acoustic classical/experimental quintet Balmorhea from a post at Josh Spear and have been listening to their latest album, “All Is Wild, All Is Silent”, non-stop for the last week. They manage to make even my morning streetcar ride to work somehow feel emotionally windswept and epic.
I have a fetish for string instruments. For me, there’s something hypnotic and almost transformative about watching someone play the cello. Mixing all manners of strings – violin, cello, guitar, banjo, double bass – with piano and more, they create a universe of sound. It feels heavy yet it breathes, it’s enveloping yet it soars. It all heaves with a feeling of abandon and stillness, like the end of a very long journey.
As if N.A.S.A.’s killer collaborations weren’t enough, they’re backing it enough with equally interesting vids. “Gifted” features Kanye West, Santogold, and Lykke Li (I know, I lost it when I first read that combo…). Although this new video, directed by Three Legged Legs, isn’t, for me, quite as kick ass as N.A.S.A.’s last vid for “Way Down”, this is still well-realized and way more creative than most videos out there…
