I've told you about the short film 88:88 a number of times - namely because it was created by my friends Joey Ciccoline and Sean Wilson, comes accompanied with a full-on engaging soundtrack from Makeup and Vanity Set and visual assets from Version Industries. Finally, thanks to this YouTube contest you can watch the entire thing. If you like it, you can even vote for them to be considered best in show and get some prize money. Sounds like everyone wins. Go watch it.
Chicago's Sonnenzimmer has always had a knack for creating prints that pushed the boundaries of what you'd typically think of for Event Posters - embracing the abstract over the direct. If you've not browsed their archives, please do so now. If you are familiar, you can probably agree that the idea of an art book documenting their process would be pretty interesting. That's just the idea behind their Kickstarter campaign for Warp and Weft - to create a poster book that does what Sonnenzimmer does, something different.
What kind of poster book goes beyond just reproducing the artifact? This question got us geared up to envision a publication that breaks down the visuals, gets concrete with process and visual cues from art history, and also addresses, not just concept, but form! Dissecting the compositions, opening up the decision making process of how we got to the end result, perhaps this will be a way to create a real dialogue for solutions that are outside the established notions of representational art.
Long story short, some phenomenal artists that have been doing something different for a long time want to branch out into making a book. You can help create it by lending some financial support right here. They're already so close to reaching their goal and the pledge levels go as low as $1.
If you've not heard, Art.sy is a Fine Art Discovery System. Basically it allows a user to follow specific artists as well as discover new artists based on certain criteria (region of creation, technique, materials used, etc). Once you have an account you even get a personalized contact with Artsy to help you find and procure (aka purchase) fine works of art.
The pieces showcased, currently, are all represented by larger galleries and tend to stray from the little guys - so if you're looking for something along the lines of Ferris Plock or Deth P Sun, they'll be no help. If you're looking to keep up with offerings from Gregory Crewdson or Marcel Dzama, it's a very handy resource.
I've got Five Invites for it at the time of this writing, leave a comment to let me know if you want in.
I've not had the opportunity to see Moonrise Kingdomyet so I haven't really dug into this photo set for fear of spoiling / ruining whatever may lay ahead with the actual movie experience (ignorance really is bliss when going to see a film - remember?).
I've returned! Apologies on the lack of posting for the past week but if you've kept an eye on my Flickr or Instagram you've probably seen plenty of photos from Iceland and a handful from Stockholm. The trip was quite an entertaining time but I am certainly glad to be home as well. There's something to be said for Routine...
So, can someone catch me up on what I've missed in the last nine days? The Internet moves so fast I'm afraid I'll never really know what all went on! I heard about the new Macbook Pro with Retina Display, laughed heartily at this Waltrip Video and was positively perplexed at this Gaz Coombes video. What else? Catch me up.
Hey, guess what, I'm off to Iceland for the next week. I'm not even bringing my laptop so I won't be posting a dang thing. So, you better enjoy the playlist because it's all your getting while I'm away. Apologies on the hiatus but sometimes ya gotta do it.
A Brief History of Video Games - this goes along nicely with that Wreck-It Ralph trailer - see how long you can keep naming games as they pop up. I couldn't make it much past 1:20.
Vertical Video Syndrome PSA - kind of a dumb / silly / ridiculous little video about not paying attention when you shoot video. Pay attention when you shoot video.
The site Take My Money, HBO! has been causing a bit of a stir recently. Obviously inspired by The Oatmeal, the site provides a tiny Twitter utility to allow you to claim just how much you'd pay for HBO if it weren't tied to a cable subscription. Simple enough. Like a lot of Internet campaigns, it's an interesting concept but it's not going to happen. At least, not anytime soon. HBO even tweeted to this article as solid reasoning for why it wasn't going to occur. Namely:
What would happen if HBO no longer had the pay TV industry’s marketing team propping it up all the time? The results would be disastrous, and there’s no way that HBO could make up in online volume the number of subscribers it would lose from cable. Which is why, even though some users would actually pay more for access to HBO GO without all the other cable channels, you won’t see it show up as a standalone service anytime soon.
Cable TV subscriptions may be in decline but they're still doing okay and there are plenty of reasons for them to maintain the status quo. I guess the real question is, are they preparing to shoot themselves in the foot as technology inevitably springs forwards? Maybe piracy isn't a concern for them but seems like being progressive and innovative - a foreign to the TV industry - would be the wiser way to go. Right?!
Alright, if that Wreck-It Ralph trailer was a little too kid-tastic for you, how about diving into the new Quentin Tarantino teaser trailer for Django Unchained. It is exactly what you'd hope for from a Tarantino inspired Western; a stellar cast, a bloodthirsty plot and plenty of memorable dialogue quips. Now all we have to do is wait until Christmas for it to be released.
Did you see the official trailer for Wreck-It Ralph? The basics of the movie - overall plot, animation style, etc - look great.. no question about it. What blows my mind is the amount of characters from across the board of all sorts of videogames. Zangief, M. Bison, King Koopa, Clyde from Pac-Man, Dr. Robotnik, Kano and more all appear in one small shot. If all those names ring a bell for you, the trailer is definitely worth poring over to see all the surprise cameos. I can only assume Disney paid through the nose to license all these characters or they just bought out all the parent companies of their creators and increased their global reach. Whatever the story is, the movie looks perfectly entertaining.
So, yesterday, Twitter rolled out an updated logo. The little blue bird has already become synonymous with "Twitter" but they decided he needed a bit of a facelift. The new logo is intentionally geometric, slightly upturned, slimmer and has less of a hairstyle than the previous version. Like any good Internet Nerd I'm a bit baffled by why they felt the need to change the logo at all; especially to something that doesn't really strike me as an improvement but rather just a change for change sake. Weren't projects like this enough to inspire keeping the old logo? Seems like it was so well known!
Oh well, at the very least we get some good Batmanjokes out of the new look and that's alright by me.
GMaps.js - I don't recall the Google Maps API being all that difficult but gmaps.js makes it even simpler. I know there is concern with using Google Maps for projects because if it really takes off, you're going to have to start paying for the service but with tools as easy as these, it's hard to resist.
Despite the fact that Community creator Dan Harmon was ceremoniously let go from being showrunner for the foreseeable future of the series the fans of the show are as dedicated as ever. So much so that they've decided to take the videogame depicted in this episode and make it a reality. You can already download an alpha version with the most rudimentary interactions and browse the massive amounts of sprites, music and ideas being thrown about to make the full game a reality.
Remember this scene in Scott Pilgrim vs The World? Well, take that style of portrait drawing, turn it into a Tumblr and you've got Scott Pilgrim's Portraits - a fun doodle exercise from Create Stuff reimagining all sorts of historical folk or celebrities as if it were drawn straight from Bryan Lee O'Malley. I'd actually like to see this catch on as a quick meme. Anyone want to make that happen?
Maybe it's the season but I've been receiving a load of music recommendations lately that have been hitting the spot perfectly. For example, Lands and People recently released their album Pop Guilt via Analog Edition and I'm already hooked from just a few days listens. It's the kind of atmospheric, textural, artsy indie rock that can very easily fall off into a pretentious or overwrought zone if done incorrectly. Fortunately, Lands and People never breach that line and keep the album lush, engaging and highly relistenable.
Based on the information provided on their site, I've absolutely no idea what Bondsy is. However, I do know that Aaron Robbs is working there and that bodes well for them. I also know that their splash page is pretty engaging for being such a simple illustration. Oh, and the tiniest bit of research shows that they are "The Social Network of Things" and have a plan for potentially reselling your own physical goods among your trusted circle. I'm curious!
Scaling PHP Book - forthcoming insight from the makers of TwitPic on building a scalable application with PHP. I feel like this is a mentality that has really fallen by the wayside as of late in favor of Ruby, Python, etc. etc. etc. But it's nice to see that someone is still holding strong with PHP and showcasing how it can be dependable.
Tweet Images - anyone remember this site from Joe Stump that lets you easily have twitter avatars based on easy urls - not the Twitter API? Seems like they've hit some trouble. Wonder if there's a viable alternative or if the Twitter quota will keep it shut down?
Awhile back, my friend Keegan DeWitt announced that he'd no longer be releasing music under his own name but, rather, as part of a band called Wild Cub. This seemed like a dangerous move for an independent artist with a somewhat established following - wouldn't he basically be starting over? Turns out, yes, he is starting over somewhat but it gives him, and the band as a whole, the freedom to investigate creative endeavors like this video for "Wild Light," the first single off of their forthcoming album Youth. VHS quality visuals and, somewhat, awkward choregraphed dancing combined into one fine package? I'll bite. If you're into the track you can snag an mp3 of it over on their site.
I told you that Charges would be releasing their debut EP over on Bandcamp starting in June and, fortunately, they made good on that promise. So, stop wasting time and go snag EP1, your week will vastly improve because of it (assuming you like music of the rock variety).
