the eagleman stag.

Joy of joys! What a brilliant little film. The Eagleman Stag is a brief musing on the passage of time, sardonically narrated by a disillusioned man named Peter. Following a midlife crisis during a fishing trip with his son, Peter decides to become a biologist. I can relate.

This wonderful, gloriously strange (and highly awarded) bit of animation is the product of Mikey Please and "some strange white stuff, found in the back of a stress cushion". Enjoy a short making-of video here. Do, do watch.

www.theeaglemanstag.com

us: benga, i will never change.

Circa age seven I started a band called Us. We were just two, me and my gal pal Lucy, and we thought we were pretty darn clever, coming up with such a succinct moniker. Sadly our musical repertoire was limited to song about Hello Kitty and co., and within the month we had disbanded.

Us, the London-based design/direction studio, are doing much better. Christopher Barrett and Luke Taylor met while studying at Kingston University, and since setting up shop in 2007 (with my same clever idea of naming it after a descriptive pronoun, do I smell a psychic connection?!) they've seen a number of awards including Best New Directors at the MVA's.

Have a gawk over this latest film, a music promo for Benga featuring the track I Will Never Change. The duo had ambitions to cut vinyl into various sizes, replicating a SoundCloud style waveform - and 960 records, 30 hours of animation and lots of math later, this happened:



I'd say, job well done.

Great article on Creative Review here.

Us' website here.

john wood and paul harrison.

These guys are good. Gooder. Goodest!

Check out their show at Carroll/Fletcher Gallery, on until 30th of March. 

www.harrisonandwood.com

an american thing.

There are some things America does not do well.
But there are some things we do do well.
And when we do 'em well, we do 'em real well.

This is one of those things.




found via collect magazine.

the submarine channel: the art of pho.

I'm sorry but this is just so cool. You don't even know what you're in for. Follow this link here. 

We featured it on It's Nice That last week after the Submarine Channel sent it through - I'd never heard of them but turns out they're an absolutely brilliant studio based in Amsterdam who are all about producing seriously lovely, seriously "genre-defying" stories (they're words, but not unjustified). Watch a few. But watch this one first. It's just, so good. You will have fun - I promise.

To amp your enthusiasm up just a little bit more I'll quote the press release. If this rampant enthusiasm and shameless over use of food-related phrases doesn't batter you into submission then, well, I guess it's a lost cause.

And I quote:

"We here at Submarine Channel might be an Amsterdam based online platform that are 

all about motion graphics and visual culture but that’s not to say we don’t love all the 

senses. We get how sound and touch can create intrigue and enhance stories.

It's a pity technology has yet to allow us to transcend the scent
and taste barriers over the web, as we’ve concocted something truly
delectable with our latest project… May we introduce you to the “The Art
of Pho”, our brand new interactive motion comic based on the debut graphic
novel by award winning British illustrator Julian Handshaw.

We invite you to take a look at our serial consisting of 8 episodes
lasting 2.5 minutes each of an interactive adventure that is slippery,
sweet, sour and just a little bit spicy.

Subtle, lyrical and earthy, “The Art of Pho” motion graphic will take you
on a quirky, floating journey through Ho Chi Minh City with our main man,
Little Blue, as he masters the art of making Pho, Vietnam’s ubiquitous
hybrid noodle-soup.

Just like the marvelous meaty dish, our motion comic has a huge depth of
flavour, weaving themes like self-discovery, love, travel, identity and
friendship into the story broth.

You can start slurping away on this sumptuous tale at
artofpho.submarinechannel.com"

Yeah so it I think you get the point pretty quickly. It's about soup! Get it? Soup! Great! I lapped it up anyway. You'll see why. 


The Submarine Channel - www.submarinechannel.com

la blogothèque.

La Blogothèque est un site dont la vocation reste la même : partager la musique, la passion pour la musique.

And for all of you who are, like me, a little bit sans le francaise, this means: La Blogotheque is a site whose purpose is the same: share music, passion for music.

Can't believe its taken me so long to see this site, a collection of bespoke films created with palpable passion for la musique.  You can even get a take-away. Yes please!

www.blogotheque.net

via The Bone Warmer 

'tique vision.

Something's in the air... a haze of damp afternoon mist, the clatter of mouths chattering and feet shuffling, a musty smell of un-aired coats and the creak of drawers gone sticky from neglect. Mmm... its the din of one of London's most beautiful institutions, the antiques market: a place where, for a few hours, a stranger's wedding album can become a collectable, or a used tea set a must have Christmas gift. In another context junk, chatchkie, or bric-a-brac would be appropriate words. But for today they are annoited "vintage", and we'll jostled shoulder to shoulder for a chance to nab that tarnished silver napkin ring (it's probably french...). Not that I'm complaining. These bazaars are my Mecca, they call to me like Bilal from the minaret. 

And in that vein I'd like to segway into a couple of clips from the gamut of antique film. And because I'm in an old-fashioned mood it seems the moment for a bit of a rue followed by a touch of reminiscing. Maybe its all the silk and smoke and pianos, but I'm feelin' it. (Props to Ms Bacall by the way for her excellent use of upper-midriff).



(Bacall and Bogart in To Have and Have Not)

(Monroe in The River of No Return)

All this has got me thinking about the mystique of the antique, something which can translate to inanimate object but also to living characters as well.  What was it then, that made these lords and ladies of the screen so effortlessly watchable, so pleasantly elegant, capable of delivering lines which teeter precariously on the edge of cringe-inducing cliche? ("Here's looking at you kid".... bit creepy, eh?) 

Again, I think its all back down to this mystique of the 'tique. A diverse spectrum of figures from King Arthur to Oscar Wilde, Guinevere to Audrey Hepburn, can claim much of their appeal as derived from the attractive aura which surrounds any object belonging to a faded era. Lines become fuzzy, holes appear in memory, leaving room for romance to fill in the gaps. Anything that is not "now" has an instant capacity for chicness. 


Anyway, enjoy.

i ♥ you london.

London Bus Tour  - from moritz oberholzer.

Film maker Moritz Oberholzer shot this film on handheld 35mm while riding a double decker bus.
Just look at the colour of the light. Pallid London personified. Brill'.

[Featured Music: Loud Pipes by Ratatat]

via Some Of It Was True!