Where The Wild Things Are
Can't talk. All I can say is HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY SHIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Hammer: Open Projector Night
Being the center of the entertainment industry is a rather dubious distinction in my opinion, but some Angelinos actually think this factoid should one to be proud of. I would certainly be in that group if A) I actually lived in Los Angeles proper and B) if there was more attention paid to screenings at the DGA instead of the Coffee Bean across the street when Paris or LiLo happen to come by. All bitterness aside, the Hammer Museum does have a rather clever and egalitarian event looming on the horizon. Their Open Projector Night is an event wherein people sign up to screen their short films while the crowd decides how much of it to play. The only way to determine this, however, is to weigh the cheers and the boos and hope your short isn't the one to cause a riot because some type nerds protest against your use of Cooper Black or Wingdings on the opening titles. The screening is on April 9th, if you plan on showing your work, make sure it was locally made and that you bring a thick skin and some brass balls.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Kutiman Mixes YouTube
Everyone that has ever tried to make it big through user-generated content, all the mash-up dudes, the trailer edits, etc just got owned. Kutiman came out of nowhere an launched his THRU YOU website today, featuring songs he made by sampling audio and video from YouTube clips to make new arrangements. And you thought datamoshing was cool.
Dead Man's Bones
I'm a card carrying member of the cult of Gosling so take everything with a grain of salt, but what is up with Ryan Gosling being the most awesome dude of my generation? Seriously, dude went from being the slow white cornerback in Remember the Titans to the actor that made me believe he had feelings for a love doll and that someone can not only endure Rachel McAdams, but actually build a house for the bitch with their bare hands. It almost pains me to say that he has a band whose album is coming out soon and they're actually good. Between him being the Bo Jackson of culture while I can't walk and light a cigarette at the same time and LeBron on the road to being Scrooge McDuck by bending space/time while still being younger than me, I'd have to say that I've been really unproductive. Hopefully Dead Man's Bones' album will wash away some of the pain when it comes out. Knowing Gosling, he'll probably make it an album of the year contender just to push me over the edge.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Self-Promotion: The FADER #60
The new Spring Style issue of The FADER should be out in newsstands soon and it's a good one. Natasha Khan AKA Bat For Lashes shares cover duties with Beirut, the latter photographed with his cat and the former showing off that she's a free spirit by being all sorts of nekkid (sorry kids, no nips). This issue also marks a personal milestone for me, as it contains my first published writing assignment in the NWSPRNT section. Pick it up and I'll sign it if you want. Or you can just save it and use it as a ticket to ride shotty on whatever sports car I decide to buy when I'm making twenty grand a day making television commercials. Real talk.
Datamoshing: Ye and Chairlift.
The internet has been going apeshit about "datamoshing" since the Chairlift video dropped and even more so with Kanye following suit in less than a week, so it seems almost appropriate that the best way for me to even blog about the damn thing is to get all meta and quote my own Twitter post:
Over two videos in just as many weeks, datamoshing got big and got played. Seems like Ye really reduces the shelf life of non-music shit.
The awkwardly named technique is essentially forced digital compression artifacting and has been around for a few years. The two videos just happen to be attached to two of last year's biggest alt-music acts, which can account for the exaggerated cyber response.
As for my take, I'm not one to hate on dudes for taking avant garde techniques and applying them to commercial work as that's practically been my bread and butter. I do, however, dislike how the effect was pretty much an arbitrary stylistic choice on both videos (Ye's obviously the one that succeeds in using it and overusing it in one fell swoop). To be honest, I'm not sure what song, commercial concept, or narrative could even justify the technique's intentional use, but I'm pretty sure these two songs aren't the ones to do so. And if you want to know, I actually like Chairlift's video more than the Kanye one, despite me being on dude's nuts and him taking the technique to its logical end.
You can watch the videos and read a little more about datamoshing after the jump.
KANYE WEST "Welcome To Heartbreak" Directed by Nabil from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.
Chairlift - "Evident Utensil" Music Video from Data Mosher on Vimeo.
Additional Reading:
A short rundown on the history of datamoshing.
motionographer.com: A more in-depth article about the making of Kanye's video.
Read more...
Friday, February 20, 2009
Flying Lotus: "Infinitum"
I caught FlyLo and the rest of the Brainfeeder crew a couple of months ago and I remember dudes talking about how this was the future. I don't disagree, but this new clip adds the argument that dude has his hand on the past and present as well-or maybe his chest like that Donnie Darko dude. Daniel Garcia directed this nice and surreal clip. Oh yeah, the track is nice, too.
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