Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Visual Inspiration



Great, inspiring sites:

Pantonism - a side-scrolling website of art, style, fashion, design, life photos by color.

The Fancy - an upstart Pinterest-esque site of high-end architecture, product design images co-signed by Kanye.

Inspired by Me - Snowboarder Mag's Online Editor, Rad Collector contributor and professional photographer Laura Austin's "visual diary."

Instagram - for iPhoners.


"The Malice at the Palace"



A great #Longread -

by Jonathan Abrams

Game Boy Smartphone App



Photos of Coen bros' 60's-era NY folk music film


New York Magazine captured recent Coen Brothers 1960's-themed film shooting of Inside Llewyn Davis, a "movie about New York's early-sixties folk-music revival, based loosely on The Mayor of Macdougal Street: A Memoir by songwriter (and early Bob Dylan mentor) Dave Van Ronk."

The movie that is still filming and yet to have a release date stars Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake, and Carey Mulligan.





City of Samba


A mini-documentary of the Carnaval 2011 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil by directors Keith Loutit and Jarbas Agnelli.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

M83 - "Outro"



#ICouldRunMarathonsToThisMusic

Quotes of the Night


"Big ideas are usually simple ideas."

"Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating."

"I admire people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings."

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Steve Stoute on Morning Joe


The Evolution of Jeremy Lin



New York Times - "The Evolution of a Point Guard"

"The work continued, quietly and without much notice, for five weeks, until Feb. 4, when 20 months of lessons coalesced into one eye-opening performance, and then a string of them."

Actor - Gary Oldman



Nominated for Best Actor in his role in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for tomorrow night's 84th annual Academy Awards (his first nomination) GQ published yesterday, a profile of Gary Oldman that has long been delayed since 2009.


"There have been films before in which [Oldman] vanishes in plain sight—people who even noticed that he was in JFK would often note how elegantly Oliver Stone had meshed archive footage of the real Lee Harvey Oswald with the scenes in which Oldman imitated him. (There was no archive footage.)"
Notable roles:
Sid Vicious
Drexl SpiveyIvan Korshunov
Rep. Sheldon Runyon

Quote of the Day



"The biggest fear is me thinking about it too much—and that's why I'm just trying to catch the energy just like I've done before. What you all have heard before, I was not thinking, I was just going on cruise control. I was just going at it like any artist. When you look at the Wayne, when you look at the Kanye... I can tell when an artist is in the zone because they're not thinking and that's when you're at your best. So I'm just hoping, at this point, I don't let my history get in front of my future. You know what I mean?"

-Andre 3000 (when asked "Expectations for your next album couldn't be higher. What are you most afraid of?")

How to Make Origami Airplanes That Fly



by Gery Hsu

Thursday, February 23, 2012

"The art world is a world of illusion.”



Great #LongRead. The New York Times looks into an ongoing court case investigating the authenticity of Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollack, Robert Motherwell and William de Koonig paintings sold by smalltime Long Island art dealer Glafira Rosales.

"At first, Ms. Freedman said, Ms. Rosales told her only that she was handling the paintings for a friend who had homes in Mexico City and Zurich, and whose identity she had sworn to keep secret. That wasn’t surprising, Ms. Freedman said; private collectors frequently like to remain anonymous."

U.S. Interstates as a Subway Map


If you click on info and then click on the map in the new browser you can view it enlarged.

FastCompany Design - "Ingenious Infographic: U.S. Highways, Mapped Like A Subway System"


Polica

Bon Iver's Justin Vernon has declared Minneapolis-based rock/psychedelic r&b group Polica "the best band I've ever heard."

Rolling Stone - "Polica's Experimental Beginnings"

The iTunes profile of Polica's debut album, Give You the Ghost, which was released in late December 2011 refers to the band "drawing elements from Portishead, Bon Iver, Fleetwood Mac, and Eurythmics."

Nike Shoes Knit Like Socks



Nike debuted their new 2012 Olympic marathon running shoe yesterday, Nike HTM Flyknit, "made from woven yarn that makes them a “lightweight, ultra-breathable, formfitting shoe that performs like a second skin."

"The shoes were designed by longtime Nike creatives Hiroshi Fujiwara, [Creative Genius] Tinker Hatfield, and [CEO] Mark Parker. They will be available to the general public in July 2012, just before the London Olympics."


Inception Infographic



Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Quote of the Night




“It seems that every movie is a remake of something that was better when it was first released in a foreign language, as a 1960s TV show, or even as a comic book. Now you’ve got theme park rides as the source material of movies. The only things left are breakfast cereal mascots. In our lifetime, we will see Johnny Depp playing Captain Crunch.”

-Alan Moore (graphic novel author: Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell)

2012 Olympics USA Basketball Team Uniforms



Nike unveiled today the USA Basketball logo and uniforms for this Summer's 2012 Olympic games.

Notable is the four players chosen for the photo: Kobe, LeBron, Deron Williams and Kevin Durant. Back on February 1, Bill Simmons broke down the best 20 plot lines of this shortened season, the 20th being...


20. What's been the most entertaining under-the-radar subplot of the 2011-12 season?

Even if it's another topic that needs to be blown out into its own column, let's quickly address the shadow of the 2012 Olympics and the three sub-questions it has spawned:

• Which 12 players are getting picked?
• Which five players are starting?
• Why are we pretending this doesn't matter to every NBA star when it clearly does?

Edvard Munch - "The Scream"



Sotheby's announced today that on May 2nd they will be auctioning off the only one of four Munch "Scream" paintings still privately owned. (the other three are displayed in Norwegian museums).


"Officials there estimate it could bring more than $80 million."

"For the kinds of bidders who are behind the auction market’s current high prices — extremely rich collectors who gravitate toward blue-chip artists and recognizable images — “The Scream” will likely seem an irresistible trophy."

Japanese Starbucks by Kengo Kuma


Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has created what Hypebeast is calling "probably the world’s most idiosyncratic Starbucks Coffee Shop" that just opened in Fukuoka, Japan.

"Utilizing 6cm square blocks that intersect obliquely, it was his aim to try to mimic branches in a forest so that the Starbucks seemed like it was nestling in the trees."


Red Bull Media House



Austrian energy drink company Red Bull's content creation offshoot, Red Bull Media House, was included in Fast Company's March list of "the World's 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2012."


Red Bull has been investing throughout its 25-year history in adventure/extreme sports that the brand has felt exemplify the product. The company, much like several other leading consumer brands, has focused the last few years on instead of making :30 or :60 commercials to rather create lightly-branded, high-quality content that consumers would seek out for entertainment.


One great example is "The Art of Flight" (trailer above) movie that debuted online back in September that follows professional snowboarder Travis Rice and friends helicoptoring and riding around the world. The movie is sold for $7.99-$9.99 on iTunes and is one of many reasons Red Bull is predicting that the company's Media House will soon be making a profit.

Seen at Madison Square Garden

The following people have been seen watching #Linsanity at the last two home New York Knicks games:


Facebook founder and $17.5 billion-dollar-rich Mark Zuckerberg giving Jeremy Lin-Harvard-jersey-wearing movie director Spike Lee a high five.


Jay-Z and Spike Lee hanging out on court at half time.





Best Art Direction - Harry Potter


As part of an ongoing leading-up-to-the-Oscars series, Vanity Fair has profiled three-time Oscar winner Stuart Craig who served as the production designer for Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows Part 2 (a.k.a. Harry Potter 7 Part 2) and is nominated for Best Art Direction.

Read the story to learn about "how he turned a roll of paper, some dollhouse furniture, and a set of paints into Gringotts, Diagon Alley, and the Room of Requirement."

Vanity Fair - "From Sketch to Still: From Marbling Gringotts to Painting Diagon Alley, How Harry Potter’s Art Direction Earned Its Oscar Nod"

Sunday, February 19, 2012

60 Minutes - Endangered Exotic Animals Hunted in Texas


Can hunting African animals like the one that is said to have inspired the Unicorn myth, the Scimitar Horned Oryx, in Texas save/conserve the species?

Friday, February 17, 2012

NBA Slam Dunk Contest



The NBA announced today the 4 contestants for this year's Sprite Slam Dunk Contest.

Paul George, Inidiana Pacers
Derrick Williams, Minnesota Timberwolves
Iman Shumpert, New York Knicks
Chase Budinger, Houston Rockets

There will only be one round this year with the winner being chosen by fan vote through Twitter.

Quote of the Night



"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."

-Dorothy Parker

Kraft's MilkBite Mel



Droga5, the creative agency responsible for the Puma Hardchorus (Irish guys singing Savage Garden), the Mark Ecko spray painting of Air Force One stunt and the Cannes Lion winning Bing/Decoded campaign, has worked with Kraft to introduce Milkbites and it's new brand spokesperson/character featured in both videos.

Droga5 worked with Jim Henson's Creatue Shop to create the puppet, Mel.

AdAge - "How Kraft Created a Product From Scratch"
AdWeek - "Ad of the Day: Kraft MilkBite Bars"

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

R.I.P. Whitney Houston

"[Whitney Houston's] biggest hit gave the stage to “I,” a first person that is so easily recognized that if you even mumble “and I” with some kind of melody, whoever’s standing there will assume it’s “I Will Always Love You.” Originally written and recorded by Dolly Parton, “I Will Always Love You” was momentarily ceded to Linda Ronstadt, but Houston owns it now. The song broke through a dozen different ceilings because of the first person chorus, but just start with the first forty-five seconds, which is Houston singing without any accompaniment. She states the first verse, moving carefully through her own filters, not even hinting at how bright the lights can get. The second verse casually drops in some heavier flashes and then the second chorus comes out as if Houston is no longer any kind of regretful—she is using her magnanimous nature to flatten whoever’s chosen someone over her."
New Yorker - "Whitney Houston's Invincible Voice"
by Sasha Frere-Jones

Mirror Art Installation


Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich has created "a giant mirror reflects a full scale house model, which gallery visitor can climb on" that is currently on display in Paris.

Social Media Model - Kate Upton


Last night on David Letterman, 19-year-old Kate Upton debuted her cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Having found fame through a YouTube video of her "doing the dougie" at a Los Angeles Clippers game and with more than 170,000 Twitter followers the New York Times has written a feature breaking down how Upton has ascended to potential supermodel status.

“For a long time, fashion has been going to celebrities,” she said. “Celebrities are on the magazine covers, and nobody wanted models. But why not have a model celebrity? Why not a girl who comes with her own following? Social media brings a personality to models. That’s how consumers today decide what to buy.”

Chipotle Ad


Chipotle Mexican Grill aired its first national televised ad during the Grammys Sunday night, "Back to the Start," featuring Willie Nelson performing an acoustic version of Coldplay's "The Scientist."

At 2:20, it's considerably longer than the average :15, :30 or :60 commercial.

Jack Nicholson - Lakers Courtside Ticketholder


I don't know what sparked the occasion, but over the weekend the Los Angeles Times posted a slideshow of some of the more memorable moments of longtime (at least 30 years+) Los Angeles Laker courtside ticket holder actor Jack Nicholson.


Semirelated,
The New York Times posted a feature a couple weeks ago on a recent documentary that analyzes the meaning of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (that starred Nicholson).


“Room 237,” the first full-length documentary by the director Rodney Ascher, examines several of the most intriguing of these theories. It’s really about the Holocaust, one interviewee says, and Mr. Kubrick’s inability to address the horrors of the Final Solution on film. No, it’s about a different genocide, that of American Indians, another says, pointing to all the tribal-theme items adorning the Overlook Hotel’s walls. A third claims it’s really Kubrick’s veiled confession that he helped NASA fake the Apollo Moon landings."

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Paint Color Identifier

Sherwin Williams paint company has created a website, LetsChipIt.com, that will identify five of the company's more than 1,500 paint colors that most exactly match any image that you insert a URL link for.

Daft Punk - "Da Funk"


French duo Daft Punk's 1996 music video for "Da Funk" directed by Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Where the Wild Things Are).

Game of Thrones Season 2 - Trailer


Season 2 premieres on HBO Sunday, April 1.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

John Jeremiah Sullivan - "My Debt to Ireland"

John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of essay compilation Pulphead, has written another piece for the New York Times set for this Sunday's Magazine. This story, in his roots and travels to Ireland.

"Ben and I worked pretty much every night — it was the price we paid for being allowed to have jobs at all on the cheesy, nonenforceable visas we bought from a company in the States. We met up late and walked home, stopping at pubs along the way, putting a little punctuation mark on the night, before it was time to head into the hills. Cork city is surrounded by them. From up high you can see that it’s nestled at the bottom of a green bowl. Our apartment was on one of the highest hills, a mile’s walk up a steepening incline. The muscles in my legs were obscene by the time we moved. I looked like one of those guys in a documentary who climbs cliff faces to go after birds’ eggs."

Kavinsky - "Road Game"



French artist Kavinsky has just released "Road Games" as a first single/teaser for his next album which we're lead to believe is coming out sometime early this year.

If you don't recognize his name you might recognize his song Nightcall from the opening scene of Drive.

Lamborghini Aventador Print Ads




"The Truth Hurts" campaign was done by the Philipp und Keuntje GmbH advertising agency in Hamburg, Germany.

The Bourne Legacy - Trailer


This is the fourth Bourne film and the first to be adapted from a book not written by the creator, Robert Ludlom (book written in '04, Ludlum passed away in '01).

The film stars Jeremy Renner (of The Hurt Locker, M:I4 fame), as a new character much like Jason Bourne, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton. The Bourne Legacy is scheduled to be released August 3, 2012.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Instagram

(photo taken on Houston St in New York, NY two nights ago)


Instagram: "Take a picture. Make it better. Share it instantly. That's all it does, but it does it very well. The app applies photo-filters that add a veneer of fake nostalgia to the present day, with Land Camera and Kodachrome hues. Then, if you want, you can post it on your social network of choice.

You can think of it like a visual Twitter, or a quicker Flickr."


"It has racked up more than 15 million users, who have uploaded some 500 million photos. The service has pulled in $7.5 million in investments, including money from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. It's already available in ten different languages, and, having already scored a hit stateside, is piling on users in China, Brazil, and throughout Europe. All this without having a Web interface. All this while only being available on the iPhone."


"[Instagram] wants to be Facebook big. It wants to become the indispensable visual strorytelling medium. It wants to be an entertainment platform, where people can come and consume. And getting there means getting on every platform, in every country."