Excellent looking 2015

The gist of Project Loop's 50/50 fundraiser is to raise the money to build a skatepark and a community center for the youth of Taylor, TX. Have no interest in helping out the kids of a town you have no connection to? Fair enough, at least give the massive auction a thorough browsing because there are decks being offered by the likes of Matt Groening, Jon Contino, Sasha Barr and Andy Vastagh... to name but a sliver of the talent involved.

Good causes with great art. Done and done.

I've been seeing a link making the rounds of "A Fox Loose in the National Portrait Gallery" - supposedly a wild fox who found it's way into the gallery and was caught on the security footage. The reality behind the link is that it's an project from Belgian artist Francis Alys. To be fair, the piece is exactly as the headline reads - a fox running loose in the national portrait gallery. The only difference between potentially viral link and the art project is that the fox was meant to be there.

You can watch a summary of the piece here or the entire 20 minute capture here. It makes for some phenomenal screengrabs.

They may be simple but these Prize Pins are surprisingly awesome. I wouldn't think a vintage style metal pins would grab my attention this much but I'm kind of smitten. I love loads of offerings from the main collection - Black Tooth, Do Not Disturb, Applause, Panther.. all right up my alley.

Beyond that, they also have design collaborations that are equally great. The Jean Andre collection is, unsurprisingly, sold out but there are plenty from the Tim Lahan collection to procure.

This is a lot of words for something so simple but each one is deserving of plenty more. via Golden Fiddle.

Nice read from Hashtag Labs on Digital Film Distribution... namely, Is your film right for it? The article hits on a lot of familiar notes - particularly if you've been paying attention - but there's some quotes from both Adam Klaff (BD at VHX) and Giles Copp (co-founder of (v)ersion industries).

another in the series of great looking kids apps from Tinybop

some rather great mixes available here. Don't miss em.

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of heading upstate a little bit and vising the Dia:Beacon art gallery. It's actually an old Nabisco factory that's been painstakingly renovated into an art space for large art installations. The building is one of the first (if not the first) to renovate an old industrial space for contemporary art and they did a helluva job. The rooms are gorgeous. Some of the art certainly dives into that realm of contemporary where you're not quite sure what you're seeing - is this art? Is this a blank canvas? Is everything art? You know, those sort of pretentious questions that turn a lot of people off. Despite that, there are installations from the likes of Richard Serra, Dan Flavin or Michael Heizer that you just aren't going to see in a regular sized room.

Long story short, if you're the type that likes to take day trips while visiting NYC - this is a properly recommended one.

If you have not seen it yet, please do yourself a favor and watch Michel Gondry's Mood Indigo. It has all the aspects that you expect from a Gondry movie - plenty of in-camera tricks and forced perspective - but also has an emotional depth that he only manages to capture every so often. I'd go as far as to say the movie is emotionally intense but that's far better than being fluff. You can snag it here and curl up with it over the Thanksgiving break.

The past few days I've been familiarizing myself with the works of Jerk Face - an NYC street artist known for co-opting classic cartoon characters into huge murals. The depictions of the characters are pretty spot on but the mild alterations he applies gives them a chaotic and strange vibe - in the best of ways. He just opened a show at Bottleneck Gallery and I'm going to do my best to stop by but his Instagram and website is more than enough to occupy the eyes for some time.

Over the weekend my fine friends at Upright T-Rex Music introduced me to the Gimmick! Soundtrack - an NES game I've never heard of. Chiptune and 8-bit music is offputting to a lot of people but this particular soundtrack is not as aggressive or abrasive as you'd typically think. Try out the song Sophia for a proper taste of the easy breezy ways.

more pls. thx.

Listen, I know there's a playlist of videos here that is just begging for your enjoyment and distraction but have you been paying attention to the changes over at Giphy? They launched Giphy TV and now I'll basically never get anything done ever again. But I digress...

• The story behind TwoDots - adorable animation to give TwoDots some context. And the music is by Upright T-Rex... nailed it.
• AS1 Paul Robertson - always good to see Mr. Robertson's work out in the world. I often think about Kings of Power.
• Cat "Licks" the Sound of Tape - that title does this video perfect justice.
• Red: A Kubrick Supercut - I enjoy just about any Kubrick supercut but one themed around Kubrick's use of color is just that much more enjoyable.
• The Last Starfighter Modern Trailer - a recut of the 80's classic trailer. Who wants to start taking bets how long it will be until this remake is actually put into production?
• Jerry Reed - Lightning Rod 1977 - been playing this song quite a bit this week. The studio version is a bit different but no less impressive.
• POULICROC - spotted this on the Vimeo Staffpicks.. I can not even begin to explain why I enjoy it but I absolutely do.

Don't forget to watch that Mount Sharp video and have a damn fine weekend.

By now, you are undoubtedly well aware of the works of Jon Contino. His empire of brands - Contino Brand, CXXVI, Past Lives - all manage to be compelling and different in their own right. And, somehow, beyond creating all those things he's also a ridiculous craftsman with lettering, illustration and layout.

So, that's the broad primer but the real nitty gritty is his recent official site relaunch. He shares a whole lot of new work and process pieces to go along with each. Be sure to check out his major campaign for The Book of Life, his end titling for Boardwalk Empire and his restaurant branding for Home of the Brave.

Rattling on about his aesthetic and his ability to execute it so well is old news. Just dive into it.

I will admit, when I first encountered Sway FM's Universal Media Keys extension I was skeptical. My pessimism got the best of me and I assumed it was buggy as my previous experiences with keyboard remapping have rarely been pleasant. Fortunately, as usual, I was wrong. The software does just what it claims - allows you to use your built-in keyboard audio controls for playback of all sorts of web destinations - primary Soundcloud, Mixcloud and Bandcamp for me.

Maybe I'm getting a little too niche here but as an avid OSX / Chrome user, I really appreciate the ability to not have to find whatever tab is making noise and quickly try to mute it. Get it.

i wish more record stores teased their new arrivals like this

that siamese has got quite a trot

awesome followup on Sharky's post using real numbers.

now part of the Google family. Need to play with this.

awesome mix of instrumental tracks for a proper food coma