Click image to redirect to the video. Image from kandle design.
Friday, October 31, 2008
"Orange" advert
What a charming advert for a British phone company (I think). I like their use of stop motion animation with 2D silhouettes. Nice single shot camera work. Must have taken a lot of organizing and planning.
Click image to redirect to the video. Image from kandle design.
Click image to redirect to the video. Image from kandle design.
10 things I learned from my visit to New England
1. Shooting photos through a tinted minivan window is almost like using a polarizing filter. Almost.
2. I like photographing pumpkins.
3. Some folks like to get high while they get warm.
4. This place has the better cookies according to my authorities.
5. I preferred their blueberry pie.
6. Jesus, is the foliage gorgeous!
7. We don't seem to have these cute berry baskets at the markets in L.A.
8. I enjoyed 4 out of the 6 beers at the Red Hook brewery.
8a. Blonde ale is refreshing.
8b. Hefeweizen had lots of nutrients.
9. I will never tire of looking at the ocean.
10. New England has the best seafood restaurants*
11. They're not shy with their butter.**
12. Mum and the old guy (note his hat says: Old Guys Rule, the back says: Aged To Perfection) are wonderful hosts. Actually, I already knew that so it wasn't something I learned.
13. Not specific to New England, but: Regis and Kelly sure are charming.
14. And also: That Kathy Lee sure is an asshole.
15. I am amused by the signage in Maine.
Click on this one to enlarge and read their fine print.
A few more photos on my flickr account.
* Unofficial survey conducted. Okay, not really conducted per se.
** Okay, so not really 10 things.
2. I like photographing pumpkins.
3. Some folks like to get high while they get warm.
4. This place has the better cookies according to my authorities.
5. I preferred their blueberry pie.
6. Jesus, is the foliage gorgeous!
7. We don't seem to have these cute berry baskets at the markets in L.A.
8. I enjoyed 4 out of the 6 beers at the Red Hook brewery.
8a. Blonde ale is refreshing.
8b. Hefeweizen had lots of nutrients.
9. I will never tire of looking at the ocean.
10. New England has the best seafood restaurants*
11. They're not shy with their butter.**
12. Mum and the old guy (note his hat says: Old Guys Rule, the back says: Aged To Perfection) are wonderful hosts. Actually, I already knew that so it wasn't something I learned.
13. Not specific to New England, but: Regis and Kelly sure are charming.
14. And also: That Kathy Lee sure is an asshole.
15. I am amused by the signage in Maine.
Click on this one to enlarge and read their fine print.
A few more photos on my flickr account.
* Unofficial survey conducted. Okay, not really conducted per se.
** Okay, so not really 10 things.
If I was spending money on myself these days, I would buy this
It's a little wooden whale.
Love the illustrated bits. Made by Ben Floeter in his etsy shop Suddenly It's Real.
Also appreciatin' the overall cleverness of this:
It's a little chalkboard (the sleeve is painted with chalkboard paint) shaped like an arm. Love the little red string on the finer, and the graphic styling of the hand and of course the chalk holder atop. Also available at Suddenly It's Real.
Love the illustrated bits. Made by Ben Floeter in his etsy shop Suddenly It's Real.
Also appreciatin' the overall cleverness of this:
It's a little chalkboard (the sleeve is painted with chalkboard paint) shaped like an arm. Love the little red string on the finer, and the graphic styling of the hand and of course the chalk holder atop. Also available at Suddenly It's Real.
note to self: Haruki Marakami
Look up Haruki Marakami's books and read a few. He got the following mention on PRI's The World:
Haruki Marakami is one of the most widely read novelists in the world. Novels like "Norwegian Wood" and "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" have sold millions of copies. And they're translated from the original Japanese into nearly 40 languages. Here in the US, Murakami's rare public appearances are greeted with great excitement and reverence. The World's Patrick Cox has this report on the people who read and follow Haruki Murakami.
Murakami receives the 2006 Franz Kafka Prize
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
smaller living
I just read an interesting article in the New York Times about upper middle class families choosing to stay in smaller living spaces in metropolitan areas as opposed to moving to the suburbs for bigger houses and yard space.
Apparently, there is about a 30% increase in the past few years of folks staying in the cities even though their incomes (and family size) increase. I think this is fantastic.
Smaller living has been a hot topic around here. Partly because we'd like to live in a city (me indefinitely, though m is a little concerned about the safety issue for when we have kids) and take advantage of all it has to offer. And if you're going to live in a big city like New York or San Francisco, chances are the more affordable options are going to be cozy at best.
But even outside of the cost of rent, there are other factors to consider. Smaller means lower utility bills. It takes up less energy to heat or cool your home if it's small. Smaller means you have be a little more thoughtful about what you bring into your home so that you can avoid clutter. We like how this forces us to consume less materials (some of us are better at this than others) so that our home is a place where we live and not just a storage space for all our stuff. Smaller means that there is less square footage to clean up. This one's a biggie for me as I sometimes struggle to stay on top of household cleaning in our 650 square foot one-bedroom apartment. I don't want to spend any more time cleaning something bigger.
There are times when our snug home does feel a little crowded (laundry day for example, when we've got half our wardrobe out on hangers and drying racks waiting for everything to be folded and put away). And I sometimes get a little covetous for a studio space to set up my screens and tools for screenprinting and woodworking. But at the end of the day, I'm still convinced that smaller is better for how we want to live. Though it can be challenging to convince others (who have our best interests at heart) of this. On those days, I'll have to remember to pull out that article when my in-laws wonder why I've shoved our children into a closet instead of moving out to a multi-bedroom place in the burbs.
Apparently, there is about a 30% increase in the past few years of folks staying in the cities even though their incomes (and family size) increase. I think this is fantastic.
Smaller living has been a hot topic around here. Partly because we'd like to live in a city (me indefinitely, though m is a little concerned about the safety issue for when we have kids) and take advantage of all it has to offer. And if you're going to live in a big city like New York or San Francisco, chances are the more affordable options are going to be cozy at best.
But even outside of the cost of rent, there are other factors to consider. Smaller means lower utility bills. It takes up less energy to heat or cool your home if it's small. Smaller means you have be a little more thoughtful about what you bring into your home so that you can avoid clutter. We like how this forces us to consume less materials (some of us are better at this than others) so that our home is a place where we live and not just a storage space for all our stuff. Smaller means that there is less square footage to clean up. This one's a biggie for me as I sometimes struggle to stay on top of household cleaning in our 650 square foot one-bedroom apartment. I don't want to spend any more time cleaning something bigger.
There are times when our snug home does feel a little crowded (laundry day for example, when we've got half our wardrobe out on hangers and drying racks waiting for everything to be folded and put away). And I sometimes get a little covetous for a studio space to set up my screens and tools for screenprinting and woodworking. But at the end of the day, I'm still convinced that smaller is better for how we want to live. Though it can be challenging to convince others (who have our best interests at heart) of this. On those days, I'll have to remember to pull out that article when my in-laws wonder why I've shoved our children into a closet instead of moving out to a multi-bedroom place in the burbs.
Friday, October 10, 2008
random thought: hipsters at npr
I appreciate how hip npr's sound designers are (designers? engineers?). I just heard an amusing story about exploding pumpkins on a New England pumpkin farm. And the outtro was the opening bars to The Smashing Pumpkins' Today. They are always doing clever little things like this with their music. Bravo, npr, bravo.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
movie recommendation: Frozen River
M and I saw a really good movie over the weekend. I guess it's on limited release in NY and LA for now. But if you happen to notice that it's playing at a theatre near you, I strongly recommend that you go and see this.
Frozen River is a drama about a single mom struggling to make her next mortgage payment before her rent to own mobile home gets taken from her. She lives in upstate New York in a little town that borders a Mohawk reservation/Canada. She ends up getting involved in a human smuggling operation that leads her to make a difficult decision with surprising and hopeful results.
It was very well written with spare dialogue that was nonetheless impactful. The movie starts off a bit slow (that could have just been me as I was sort of not feeling well when we entered the theatre) but the characters and story engage you and keep your attention to the very end. Melissa Leo, the actress who portrayed the main character was terrific. She was every bit the tired, put-upon, at the end of her ropes single mom scrambling to make ends meet, overlooking her oldest son's earnest efforts to fill the role of man of the house, snapping at him instead because of mundane mistakes that he made (like burning popcorn). I've never seen her before and I'm inclined to believe that part of this film's believability was in casting unknown faces to grace the screen. Even the slightly stilted performances in the supporting roles (as portrayed by Misty Upham and Charlie McDermott) lended to the credibility of this slice of life tale.
First time writer/director Courtney Hunt did a fine job of conveying the drudgery and squalor of the lower economic class in a struggling border town. Her shots were cold. You could feel it sitting in the movie theatre watching the actors trudge across the snow, or driving through the slush. I have just a minor criticism of her framing as I thought she got too close for some of the close-up shots which was sort of distracting because they didn't feel like they needed to be shot so close. And I really appreciated how she incorporated native indian characters as part of the story without going down the usual trite path of dreamcatcher-type kitsch.
It's not a happy/feel-good movie that the whole family can enjoy. It's certainly dreary, there's a bit of tension sprinkled judiciously throughout, but I think the characters are totally relatable and the ending leaves you with a sense of hope that really warms the spirit.
cerulean
It feels like a bad bad joke to be posting photos of wool socks and a flannel throw given the current LA temperatures.
But aren't these pretty?? I am in love with that blue.
And that wool throw is actually some cotton flannel that I intend to make into a dress (because one day it will be chilly enough around here for me to wear a flannel dress). I never thought I would want to own or wear a flannel dress. But there have been some suggestive photos flying around the internet that made me change my mind.
But aren't these pretty?? I am in love with that blue.
And that wool throw is actually some cotton flannel that I intend to make into a dress (because one day it will be chilly enough around here for me to wear a flannel dress). I never thought I would want to own or wear a flannel dress. But there have been some suggestive photos flying around the internet that made me change my mind.
Energia Video
Here is a short but excellent video about energy consumption.
Click on image to be redirected to the site with the animation.
I don't speak Portuguese, but could grasp the message in this charming video by Buraco de Bala. It features original illustration style done up as an animation (on a white board?? Shazam. Look out UPS!) with a simple score. It's pleasingly designed/animated. My favorite part (hard to pick) was the type treatment of the title at the beginning.
Click on image to be redirected to the site with the animation.
I don't speak Portuguese, but could grasp the message in this charming video by Buraco de Bala. It features original illustration style done up as an animation (on a white board?? Shazam. Look out UPS!) with a simple score. It's pleasingly designed/animated. My favorite part (hard to pick) was the type treatment of the title at the beginning.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
I want this shirt
Photo by Tony Luong seen on Print Brigade designed by Chris Piascik.
Now, I was intrigued by the original incarnation of it. But it really is quite fetching in green.
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