adso

Another season gone and another devastatingly intriguing ending.
Why must i love these three so much?
And why are they making an American version?
Did they look at the retelling of The Office and think it'd be a good idea?
I don't really understand the point of remaking already great shows. I was looking at a list of American tv shows remade for the UK and most them are rubbish to begin with, whilst the UK remakes are of some brilliant shows that should never have been touched:

The Young Person's Guide To Becoming A Rock Star
Queer As Folk (i've seen the American version and it's pretty appalling)
As If
Fawlty Towers (that's sacrilegious)
Outnumbered
even This Life

I don't get it.
An easy fix however, ignoring their existence.
I sound like i hate American tv, which couldn't be further from the truth. I'm wholly engrossed in Mad Men right now and got lost for at least a few months in Battlestar Galactica last Summer.
If asked to list my favourite shows, the percentage of American creations would tip the balance considerably.
I just don't like what happens to shows, that basically have 'We're British' stamped on their asses, when their shipped over to anywhere but here.

On a less curmudgeonly note, i finally watched UP today.
Totally worth the wait. Equal favourite with Finding Nemo, for sure.

out of a forest

A few days ago i wasn't feeling so happy and to cheer me up my sister bought me a Malteser Bunny.
I don't really like chocolate but i do like almost everything animal shaped.
I ate its ears first. So it didn't suffer, obviously.
Ever since then, bunnies have hopped their way into my days.
Firstly with the discovery of Design Curiosities resident bunny, Eames.
He makes me want a rabbit all of my own. I fear my Misty would have something to say about it, however.
She always looks like pure, unadulterated evil when i take photographs of her!
She's really quite beautiful and lovely in person.

My third encounter with the long-eared, hoppity creatures was in the form of Bette Midler in a rabbit suit. Yes, i was watching Beaches.

And fourth and finally - as far as i know - was whilst having an afternoon wander through Vimeo today and discovering this ridiculously lovely stop-motion film by Tobias Gundorff Boesen.

Out Of A Forest from Tobias Gundorff Boesen on Vimeo.

Scored by one of my favourite bands, The National and finished with an unexpected, strangely heart-warming twist.
I'd never want to be an animator but i sure do love watching what they make.

apricot

APRICOT, short film by Ben Briand (sponsored by his incredible actors and crew) from Moonwalk Films on Vimeo.

Our senses are wonderful things. They can deliver us back to the most private and momentous of times.
A beautiful short film for Nespresso by Ben Briand, to illustrate just that.

Vimeo is teeming with talent. I think a few days will be spent exploring for hidden wonders like this.

nuit blanche

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

The aforementioned Dom, brought this spectacular short film to my attention.
I like shorts. I like finding them in the extras on dvds. I like watching them late at night.
I especially like when they have a score that swells and fits perfectly with the actions and emotions of the story.
So, for me, this is pretty much perfect.
The effects and film noir style are just a bonus.

for dom

'In January 2002 an unexplained burst of light equal in brightness to 600,000 suns issued from a star in the constellation Monoceros. The event produced a series of "light echoes," as radiance from the flare-up ricocheted off surrounding clouds of dust. By last year the echoes were fading around the cool red star responsible for the bizarre spectacle.'

This is blu-tacked to my wall.
I think i nabbed the article from one of my Dad's New Scientists, i'm not sure. I try not to spend too much time reading NS, it usually finds some way to terrify me.
Hiccups. All i'll say.
I like space though, so there was no way i wasn't stealing it.
If i could find it, i would be painting my ceiling with galaxy paint.
I saw it being used on a decorating program a good few years ago and had a little fit of glee. I don't know if it's the same stuff exactly, perhaps why i haven't painted everything in sight with it.
How lovely would it be to fall asleep to an indoor galaxy every night though.

This little, slightly rambled post is dedicated to my dearest friend Dom.
For he likes space and that's pretty neat.

wave II

I wish this James Jean print was cheaper.
It's so lovely.
Perhaps some wealthy citizen will deliver it to my door.
I can but dream.

david bowie - golden years

golden years

Yeasayer. Not a band i fell in love with instantly, but for some reason listened to their debut album, All Hour Cymbals, on repeat for days.
It turned out to be one of my most loved albums.
I really like when that happens.
So, today i downloaded a track from their sophomore album, 'Odd Blood'. It was the free single of the week on iTunes.
Stellar choice, Mister Apple.
After the guttural, tribal sounds of their previous release, i really wasn't expecting what blasted out of my speakers.

yeasayer - O.N.E

There are so many influences going on here and i love them all.
From Depeche Mode to Animal Collective, Talking Heads to FrankMusik, 80s dance like Adamski & Seal, and even a little Bowie thrown in for good measure.
But all the while remaining very much, Yeasayer.
I know a lot of people who get pissed off when bands change their style like this, and to a degree i can understand because it can really suck sometimes - cue obligatory Coldplay reference. But i like it, it's dull when bands stand still. It becomes stagnant and boring. Yes, it can go horribly wrong but sometimes it goes the way of Yeasayer.
Oh so listenable.
Everything about O.N.E just kills me, so excuse me while i listen to it obsessively and hunt down the copy of Odd Blood that i know is lurking in my house somewhere!

life is good, when you're full of blood

charis-isidore-jury-louis

I find myself more and more drawn to photographs that possess the traces of human presence, rather than the humans themselves.
They contain a sort of lingering emotional residue, as if part of someone's life has just happened and what's left in the image is the ghost of it.
I find them strangely comforting.
In some ways they remind me of a process in mono-printing, where after you have printed your image, you reprint it on a sheet of newsprint to take away any excess ink and as a result are left with a 'ghost' print.
They always turned out to be my favourite of the two images.

the real tuesday weld - blood sugar love

susanna and the magical orchestra - believer

ps. Dear eldest sibling, can you see it now?

sibyl

The Princess and the Warrior

If you get the chance, watch this.

arcadia

Pakayla Biehn

phantogram

Ólafur Arnalds - Ljósið (Official Music Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.

I hope synaesthesia is just like this, i really do.

jetsetter musicletter

Channel 4 keeps taunting me with Season 5, it starts tomorrow on Living.
I won't see it until April, when the dvds are released.
Why must Living steal things just when hell breaks loose?
[cue colourful and plentiful cursing]

Until then, i'll be watching:
Why do shows like this get cancelled and One Tree Hill bleats onto its 7th season?
It's Mandy Patinkin being a grim reaper for crying out loud.He's the stuff of legends.
Many a table in Blair High will forever possess his infamous Princess Bride speech because of my love for him.
It seems to be an unspoken ritual for people to scrawl this speech places, i found one in a lecture theatre in Dundee Uni and another on the back of a bus seat.
I now want a Princess Bride t shirt and this little hand crafted beauty:
Found here.

erik hassle - hurtful

snowden's jig

'La ninha del acantilado' by Marcos Rey 'Amalgam' by Dirk Dzimirsky

A painting and a drawing.

Who wouldn't want to be at this level.

Photorealism is all very impressive and i often find myself slack-jawed at the sight of these inconceivably perfect works of art but i need a bit more, a bit of depth, intrigue, meaning and i find that in these talented artists' work.
While Marcos Rey's work has an obvious impact of sex, life, human interaction and fragility, Dirk Dzimirsky's pieces take a while to settle into your system. On first impact they are picture-perfect portraits of unknowns but after a while, because of their muted tone, they become silenced souls, lost creatures. His sickeningly accurate muses' eyes bore into you in a desperate and uncomfortable way, as if asking you, 'why?'.
Marcos Rey, while easier to process, still makes my head spin. For me his work is about fragments, capturing moments that come and go every millisecond of the day but get lost or unseen because they just aren't stimulating enough to make us pause for thought. I like that he takes those moments, he pays attention to them and produces them perfectly so that just maybe you'll sit up and take notice and see just how bloody beautiful things can be.

These guys really are at the top of their game and god love them for it, because even though they make my little artistic heart sink because i'm nowhere near as good, they're something to aspire to and i need all of the aspirations i can get right now.

Currently falling for the Carolina Chocolate Drops:

alma

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

Rodrigo Blaas