Sunday, October 31, 2010

Shadow Art

The existence of shadows is quite obvious. When you walk in the sun, your shadow follows you. But with the right light something that looks like a random mess can have beautiful shadows. Some artists are experts in creating such shadows. I want to share some of this amazing art with you.

By Kumi Yamashita

By Tim Noble & Sue Webster

By Kumi Yamashita

By Tim Noble & Sue Webster

By Kumi Yamashita

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Saturday, October 30, 2010

Yellow Bird Project

I am so in love with the Yellow Bird Project. Especially this coloring book! And the best of all: I found it in the mailbox today! A combination of Indie Rock, coloring and charity, does it get any better than that?

A little more information about the Yellow Bird Project:
You can think of us as a tree of creativity, with branches joining together indie musicians, charitable organizations, and t-shirts with a fashionable punch. We’re a non-profit Montreal based organization dedicated to bringing our customers the finest of quality, originality, and philanthropy. We seek out only the coolest of cool artists, collaborate with them to design awesomely awesome tee-shirts, and give all the prettiest of pretty profits to charities of the artists’ choice.




Some testimonials:

"I like coloring books. I also like charity. So as you can imagine, I definitely like this!"
- Russell Lissack of Bloc Party

"This is the greatest coloring book since coloring was invented. I've decided to have kids just so I'll have somebody to give this book to."
- Matt Berninger of The National

I love love love it!

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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Avatar = Pocahontas in Space

With the news that Avatar 2 and Avatar 3 will be produced the next years, I decided it's time to share the truth behind Avatar. Avatar is actually Pocahontas in Space. And I have prove!

Note: If you haven't seen Avatar or Pocahontas and don't want to read spoilers, please stop reading immediately.




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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Rango


Next year a brand new computer animated movie will be released. And it has been a long time since I was so curious! Of course there have been funny animated movies, but this sounds more interesting than Kung Fu Panda or Cars. This can become a classic and its name is Rango!
Rango is a pet chameleon who lives in a terrarium. He has long thought himself a hero, but then finds himself removed from his contemporary American southwest surroundings and ending up in an Old West town called Dirt, which is populated by various desert critters garbed like characters out of a spaghetti western. Rango soon becomes the town lawman, an occupation in Dirt that, judging from the tombstones in the local cemetery, doesn't allow for a very long lifespan.
Source: Wikipedia
A teaser:



Like the 'Blend in' part and the entire atmosphere. Can't wait to see this one!

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Monday, October 25, 2010

Music in the Spotlight #13

Annie Erin Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent, is an American singer-songwriter who makes some sort of alternative indie pop. I can't really describe what genre it is, but I do know that I absolutely love it. She has been compared with Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors and Beirut and it has been said that sehe is the second coming of Kate Bush. Her music is quite haunting, but at the same time extremely beautiful. She was a member of The Polyphonic Spree and she played with Sufjan Stevens. She is able to play guitar, bass and keyboard. I instantly fell in love with her second album, Actor.


Strangers from her album 'Actor'

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Note from the Universe #14

I always advocate never creating monsters when there are none, Lianne.
Primarily, of course, because there are none.

Boo,
The Universe

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Amsterdam

Last week I paid a visit to Amsterdam with the boyfriend. Amsterdam is a beautiful city, but I don't really know it that well. Of course I know the clichéd places like the Dam, but I have never visited the small streets with beautiful small shops. We went to the Haarlemmerdijk and the streets surrounding this one.

One of the highlights of the day was Papabubble, an artistic candy store. They don't just sell candy, they also make it by hand in the store. We were lucky: they were producing candy with cherry and drop taste (drop is a typical Dutch candy). Fascinating to see how they actually make candy! To see pictures of the process you should take a peek on flickr. Their stores can be found at Amsterdam, Tokyo, New York, Seoul, Lisbon and Taipei!


The rest of the day was filled with stores with vintage stuff, drawings, music albums, movies and photo cameras. If I could I would have bought every single thing. We drank great coffee from the Coffee Company, ate Falafel and had a lot of fun.

Another highlight and the actual goal of our trip was attending a television show, De Wereld Draait Door. This show is a combination of news, information and amusement. It was very interesting to attend a live show and see what you don't see on television.


After that Ajax was playing a soccer match for the Champions League, the European cup. Ajax is the soccer club of Amsterdam, so we went to a little cafe and watched the game there. Great atmosphere and a perfect ending of the day!


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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Timelapse Montage

A lot of time and patience and a haunting soundtrack. Those are the ingredients of this amazing video. The parts with the sunlight are mesmerizing!



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Friday, October 22, 2010

Vintage Internet Ads

What if facebook, twitter and youtube would have existed years ago? That's a question the employers of an advertisement agency must have asked themselves. They designed vintage-like ads for the internet. At first sight they look exactly like vintage ads.





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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Luis Beltrán

Luis Beltrán takes you on a surreal trip through a unknown land, showing you snaps that make you wonder what happened before and will happen the next moment. I don't know anything about this photographer, but I do know his work is mesmerizing! Make sure you take a peek at his website!






Found via My Modern Met

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Hurt

This song is haunting and absolutely beautiful at the same time. Weired combination, but it does the trick. Johnny Cash is definitely an artist worth listening to!

A little more information about this song:
This poignant performance of Nine Inch Nail's, "Hurt" is almost haunting, as it was recorded just prior to Cash's untimely death. Whether or not a Johnny Cash fan, this performance is powerful and deep with emotion. Produced by Rick Rubin, The Man Comes Around is the fourth and final Grammy Award-winning album Cash and Rubin have collaborated on.



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Monday, October 18, 2010

Game Over

Warning: before watching this video, turn your volume down. Otherwise the bleeps might drive you crazy!



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Sunday, October 17, 2010

PostSecret

PostSecret is an art project. People write/craft their secrets anonymously on a postcard and send it to Frank Warren. He selects some postcards and features them on the site. I think it can be some sort of relief to people to be able to anonymously share something they can't tell anyone. It's quite interesting to see what kind of secrets people have, some sort of guilty pleasure.

Some examples of this week:




Would you dare to send in your biggest secret?

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Saturday, October 16, 2010

Walk Across America

This. Is. Awesome! One of the best video's I have seen in a while!


Featuring 'Home' from Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Behind the scenes:


Featuring 'Down River' from The Temper Trap

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Friday, October 15, 2010

Paul Lung Pen

I'm not always into artsy stuff. There's some art that I just don't get. And I don't just mean get in the sense of understanding, but also why some art is popular and praised. A good example is the most expensive painting ever: No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock. I'm sorry, but I don't understand what's so great about this painting.

No.5, 1948 (Jackson Pollock)

But this is not the subject of this blog post. I want to show you work of an artist that I do appreciate. Take a good look at the next picture.

Do you see anything special about this picture? For a better view, click here. This is not just an ordinary picture, it's a pencil drawing. Can you imagine being able to draw that beautiful? Some other examples of the work from Paul Lung Pen:



Now that's what I like to call art! This artist just amazes me. If you like to see more work from Paul Lung Pen, I recommend his deviantART page.

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Thursday, October 14, 2010

My Sister's Keeper

Image found via Google


Kate and Anna have a strong bound. Kate is the older sister, but she’s completely dependent of her little sister Anna. When Kate is a young girl her parents find out she has leukemia, a sort of cancer. No one in the family can donate white blood cells or organs to her. Her parents decide they want to have a baby with modified genes, so they can use that baby as a donorbaby. That donorbaby is Anna. This situation gets out of control when Anna decides to sue her parents, because she wants to be medically emancipated. This means that she wants to decide whether or not she wants to donate organs to her sister in stead of letting her parents make that decision.

I watched this movie yesterday and it has made a huge impression on me. A heavy story which caused me to cry from the beginning until the end. A beautiful movie about what happens to a family when one of the children has cancer. There’s no such thing as a normal life in that kind of a situation. I keep on making recommendations, but this movie is definitely a must-see! And get a box of tissues if you are going to watch it!

P.S. I've heard the book tells a quite different story, so I'm really curious what the book is like! Anyone who has read the book?

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