Friday, December 12, 2008

Video | "Guillotine" by Phobia & Jubei

Yes, I haven't posted in a million years. New Years resolution #1? Blog more!

Moving on ...

Many of you know that when I win the lottery, I'll use the money to start up the greatest two TV channels, one focused on every amazing TV show that's ever run, from Star Search to Out of this World to Peep Show (just ... Jenne TV ... no concept here, people, other than stuff I like) and the second to bring back a version of the Box to American channels. It was the highlight of living in Amsterdam, and when I catch shows like "The Bridge" running on late night cable here in NY, it just reminds me of how great music videos can be. Growing up, you'd turn on MTV and see all kinds of videos from electronic to hip hop to rock, and I find it saddening that these days, music is so pigeonholed and separated. I was reminded of this recently while stumbling upon some amazing clips from Detroit's "The New Dance Show" that remind us of a time when "dance" music was the stuff falling out of disco that emcompassed everything from breaks to techno to synth-y funk. So below, there's a video from "The New Dance Show" that just brings joy into my heart, and below that, the kind of video that should just be on TV, even late night, amidst all sorts of other music from small bands, big bands, pop bands, deejays, etc.



Thursday, October 02, 2008

Amsterdam, the Remix



My recent trip back to Amsterdam gave me the opportunity to catch up with our former neighbour/landlord Alex. It seems he's been quite busy since we shared a staircase. His big beat/electronica/trance alter-ego Geonaute has launched a summer of gigging at electronica festivals, including a trip into Iberian trivia-answer Portugal.

There's a good sampling of his stuff to get you in the mood for the coming weekend's festivities and, if you're in London in the coming weeks, you might even be able to take in an upcoming gig.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Moving Images | Pleix Films



A friend sent me a link to this very cool video from French deejay Vitalic called "Birds", made by the very cool people at Pleix Films who've been responsible for some awesome work over years by the likes of Groove Armada and Basement Jaxx. When I finally start my TV channel, this is the kind of programming you'll find.

Graphic Design | Alex Trochut


It's been a while since I've posted here and I have a backlog of a variety of artists and such to write up little blurbs for, but this illustrator's work just caught my eye at a portfolio review just held at work and it got me so excited I had to share. Alex Trochut is a freelance graphic designer from Barcelona -- he's done a variety of commercial projects, including cover art for a recent Rolling Stones album cover, and his work is so fun, inventive, and gorgeous that it makes me want to squeal with delight. Thankfully, he has posters for sale on his site so I might invest.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Blogs | I Believe in Advertising, Adliterate

I've been really enjoying these two ad blogs recently. I Believe in Advertising showcases some of the most cutting-edge work from around the world, sort of like what having a subscription Archive might be like, without a hefty pricetag (or any pricetag). Adliterate on the other hand specialises in commentary on branding in our big, wide, world o' capitalism with thoughtful insights on a range of topics from internal agency dynamics to creative issues.

Blog | A Strange Form of Life

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I've been enjoying this collection of collages on A Strange Form of Life, which has led me to explore some really amazing collage artists. One of my favourites is Sean Mackaoui whose piece "Musa sin rumbo" is above, and also pasted on the outside of my cube.

Design, Illlustration | Candykiller

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Love these bright, bold designs and illustrations from Candykiller, all circus-and-comic-inspired pieces that lean towards the weird, the eclectic, and the totally deranged.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Internet | Media | Link-hopping

Ah, unemployment. It suits me well. I have been able to while away many an hour since I arrived in Australia by playing the internet equivalent of word association.

To wit: I was listening to a recent episode of the Pandora podcasts, this particular episode involving the construction of a song from acoustic demo to multi-tracked final cut. In the podcast, they mention one of the millions of early electronic keyboard-type devices from the '70's called an Orchestron.

As a footnote to the Orchestron post on Wiki, I noticed a reference to Swiss duo AK-Momo. Lacking a website, and having a band name more reminiscent of a professional ice hockey club, I had to turn to the repository of all things media to find more about them and this Orchestron thingamabob. This video (and the vocalist's more interesting than average My Space site) was the fruit of my labours:

Monday, June 23, 2008

Media | Internet | Mood Ring for the 21st Century



Getty, stock image and audio provider to the world, has devised quite the new multimedia project at Moodstream. Billing itself as a source of inspiration, Moodstream polls you on your current or desired mood using a 5-parameter scale (or gives you the option of choosing one of the very Urban Yoga-esque presets) and then streams images and audio clips to match the mood.

Long has Getty been touting the power of imagery to impact people (as extolled in their Change Me initiative). With Moodstream they have gone an obvious step further and started championing steaming multimedia for it's powers of influence. While the presence of "moodboards" (think storyboards for the emo set) are consistent with the stated purposed of inspiring creatives who have hit a roadblock and need a kick-start, I can't help but think this would make a great background for a multi-media wine tasting party at my place (if they would only increase the duration of the audio clips to nightclub length and add some cross-fading).

Next Thursday, anyone?

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Photo, Quote

Photo for the day, then I promise, no more star pictures unless they're really compelling.

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"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
Ecclesiastes 3:11

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Blog | Allen AKA at 12ozPROPHET

Really, really enjoying Allen AKA's blog at 12ozPROPHET, which I was led to today from a link on
PSFK
sharing some observations of drip graffiti in fashion trends. At his blog, I found awesome Nikes galore, beautiful black & white nudes (that ever-so-slightly hover towards porn, without losing their artiness), snowboarding pics, hommage to a classic Italian deli, a paella cook-out in Barcelona, and documentation of Terry Richardson's campaign of Kermit for Surpreme. In other words, the life I wish I was living. Go there immediately and soak up the goodness.

The end.

Music | Rockers International

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photo by Yuri Shibuya

Seeing the above photo of Rockers International in Jamaica prompted me to do a little Googling, where I found a site with tons of excellent reggae mixes I can't tell if it's affiliated with the original label or is just a fansite, but excellent mixes nonetheless.

Photography | Yuri Shibuya

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Oh, how I love the Internet. I was checking in with the sites and blogs I visit frequently, and was led from PSFK to 12ozPROPHET, dedicated to all sorts of amazing graffiti/street artists and designers, where I then discoverded the works of Yuri Shibuya. He's a Japanese photographer who has done some really fantastic work capturing the streets of New York City (with a particular emphasis on the streets and the skateboarders who roam them) as well as many other fascinating people and places worldwide. Some couple more I like, below.

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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Illustration | Eric Lister

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Yes, I'm biased, because I went to college with Eric, but it's long overdue to give him a proper shout-out. Check out his awesome drawings at Ink for Brains or just go read his blog where lots of new sketches and such are on view.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Culture | Site | "See My Grill"

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Yay! It's a "hot or not" for grills.

Illustration | Serge Seidlitz

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I absolutely love the illustration of Serge Seidlitz. In looking over the vast array of drawings on his site, it's obvious many an ad agency and company does as well. Go there and enjoy lots and lots and lots of fun, detailed, quirky eye candy.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Website | Astronomy | Picture of the Day

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I've been enjoying NASA's Picture of the Day site, where there's a lovely, compelling photo of our heavens posted along with some information and description. Looking at pictures of the sky always reminds me of one of my favourite poems, "Te deshojé como una rosa" by Juan Ramón Jiménez.

Te dehojé, como una rosa,
para verte tu alma,
y no la vi.

Mas todo en torno
--horizontes de tierras y de mares--,
todo, hasta el infinito,
se colmó de una esencia
inmensa y viva


(I took off petal after petal, as if you were a rose,
in order to see your soul,
and I didn't see it.

However, everything around-
horizons of fields and oceans-
everything, even what was infinite,
was filled with a perfume,
immense and living.)

Friday, May 16, 2008

Advertising | 1950s - 1970s Set

This fabulous set of 1950s - 1970s advertisements (posters, magazine ads, booklets, etc.) on Flickr is both fascinating and inspiring. Some of the ads are dated from a social perspective, but the design and much of the writing remains timeless and iconic.

Like this ad from Volkswagon ...

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... I don't think its correct to use Native American stereotypes when selling cars anymore (thus the dated part of the ad) but overall the ad is striking and compelling. If I could write copy a fraction as 0s succinct, elegant, fluid and sharp as what's on this ad, I'd be a happy copywriter.

And this ad, from the Italian Art Directors' Club ...

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... is not just visually a treat, but understandable to anyone, regardless of their mother tongue.

I think very often advertising creatives lose sight of the main task at hand -- communication. Deciding what needs to be said, and saying it -- through words, pictures or both -- as simply, singularly and memorably as possible.

These are old ads, but will you remember them? I will.

Blog | Ace Jet 170

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I've really been enjoying design blog Ace Jet 170, especially for its devotion to found type and graphic images, all nicely collected in sets that showcase a the fine craftsmanship of these various disciplines, in all their slightly vintage glory. Such as this collection of stamps, shown above.

Blog | Ice Cream People

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Yay, an entire blog dedicated to the arts and crafts of ice cream people. Like this yummy sculpture by Jenny Harada.

Art/Graffiti | Cans Festival London

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Forget where I saw this link originally, but the graffiti art lovers amongst you will appreciate this excellent Flickr set of images taken at the Cans Festival in London back in April.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Site | FFFFOUND!

I must finally reference FFFFOUND!, which has become my must-visit site of the hour (practically). Users click images that they like, anywhere on the web, and you can see similar images in groupings. It's awesome!

Photography | Rui Palha

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I don't know much about photographer Rui Palha, except that via a little Internet sleuthing, I learned he is an amateur photographer based in Lisbon. His photo sets on Flickr are really incredible and worth exploring, particularly this one of street portraits.

Typography | Craig Oldham

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This "nudist" typeface, with its "dirty bits" pixellated, made me instantly really happy. It's very simple, true, and even the kind of thing that makes you go, "Gee, that's kind of obvious, but really not so obvious than anyone ever did it before, so maybe that makes it just a little bit genius?" The rest of the work on Mr Oldham's site is equally as provocative in its simplicity, such as Adidas goal post tape.

Design/Advertising | Petronio Associates

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Petronio Associates are a design, branding, and advertising shop out of France that do absolutely beautiful work for an array of high-end fashion clients such as Prada and Chloé. Originally I think I followed a link from a site featuring their current posters for Chloé featuring -- surprise -- Chloé Sevigny, which are really cool on their own. But then as I explored the rest of their site, I was impressed by their work that is so much loftier, artsy, and inspirational than most advertising dreg that clutters our lives. How wonderful would it be to create work that truly straddles the divide between art and commerce?

Friday, April 04, 2008

Graphics | Dreamers Ink Aesthetics™

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Forget where I found this originally, but I've been loving the gorgeous visual motion graphics from Dreamers Ink Aesthetics™. Of course my eye is drawn (ha) to the wonderful use of colour and balance of classic and nouveau elements, but check out their awesome logos, too.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Media | Internet | Human Calendar



Pretty novel, and makes a great widget, the Human Calendar is pretty much the internet at it's purest: quirky, innovative, and "why didn't I think of that"-ish. The more you think about the thought that went into developing something so subtle, the more impressive it gets.

Same goes for this video:

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

New Blogs

Two new blogs have captured my attention lately. The first blog, swissmiss, is from a Swiss designer based in NYC, who posts frequently on a range of graphic curiosities. The second is a friend-of-a-friend, someone I've heard nothing but praise and accolades from the mutual friend, but have never met. Her blog, Conversations on all Continents, is gorgeously written and inspiring -- plus it's nice to read something that gives you reason to stop and savour the language and think, rather than just being filled with fluff meant to be skimmed in a millisecond.

Design/Decor | Sleepyheads

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I think these were discovered by a friend on Daily Candy. Either way, these quirky drawings (and pillows culled from them) honour the daydreamers amongst us with. Fun!

Art | Jodie Carey

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I can't remember where I found the link to Jodie Carey's work, but I'm really enjoying her sculptures made of bones (albeit, not real bones – they're made of plaster). It reminds me of the bone ossuary of Kutna Hora that I visited back in 2001, only a little bit more uplifting given that they're forming optistic things wedding cakes. A nice contrast between a typically morbid object and sculptures that suggest things about life.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Design | Glueallfuk/Mapple, Elegalindus3, Jelsen Jargon, Liam Devowski

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It's Monday again, and I thought I'd share some of my favourite design links today that I've been discovering throughout the past week. First up is Glueallfuk (or Mapple) who I stumbled upon while idly checking out myspace pages for various deejays/bands in NY. (Yes, exciting life.) I wrote to see if he has a website and he sent me to a collection of awesome images he's done. Not sure much more about him, but really cool nonetheless.

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Next up is Elegalindus3, who I know (sort of) from ad school, and was reminded of when I excitedly showed my current art director links to the designer above. A lot of gorgeous advertising work, though I definitely enjoy the bold graphics for flyers and posters. The most up-to-date work can be found on his blog.

Another fellow ad school graduate is Jelsen Jargon, who has been doing a ton of very cool work for some big name clients, which pleases me to no end, since his stuff is definitely worth the big budgets and scope of these kinds of clients yet never loses sight of staying true to a real authenticity of great design. I'd upload a photo directly but was having trouble so you'll just have to head straight to his work to get a glimpse of the magic.

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And last but definitely not least is Liam Devowski, who I discovered a while back on Urban Outfitter's blog and who has some really nice pieces of typography, art, and illustration up on his site. Looks like he's a recent graduate of Syracuse now living in San Francisco, so hopefully there will be lots of great stuff coming from this guy in the future.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Music | Electronic | Blogs

I've been planning on writing about a lot of these different groups and sites as individual posts, but they've all been piling up so I thought I might as well just do one big music post extraordinaire and get it over with. Where to begin. For my drum & bass fix, I've been going to New Mixes and Breaks Biz for lots of excellent downloads of live sets and radio programmes. New Mixes also has a ton of great mixes for other electronic genres, including an impressive amount of house and techno. Also recommended are excellent mixes on Dogs on Acid for Total Science and Danny Byrd and these Johnnyostars mixes. More locally, there are some good sounds making the pavements of New York reverberate, my favourite probably Trouble & Bass, whose bass-heavy techno-meets-electro-meets-grimey flavours are served up raw and fun. Also they have a lovely logo, which always goes far in my design-biased eyes. Mix that Serif and Sans Serif! Also have enjoyed a party here or there with Sweatshop Labor and the music dropping from Palms Out Sounds. Just when you thought everyone was a deejay, it turns out everyone's a f****n designer, too! Since New York has always seemed like the capital of the mash-up in every sense of the world -- whether you're mashing up records or just against each other on the subway -- nothing could seem more appropriate. Mash on, deesigners. Mash on.

Update: PSFK links to an article on the rise of bassline house in the UK .

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Art | Sculpture | Jen Stark


Jen Stark makes gorgeous sculptures out of stacks of construction paper, most of which show the 'Coriolis Effect' in beautiful, vivid colour. My favourites are the peepholes which you can look into and see these rainbows sprawling out. Gorgeous illustrations as well -- detailed explosions of colour bursting all over the page, depicting scenes that allude to fantasy, other dimensions, and dreams. Or just a ton of acid. Either way, cool stuff.

via Reality Carnival

Photography | Chris Anthony

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Discovered a link to an upcoming exhibition of Chris Anthony's latest collection, I'm the Most Normal Person I Know, on Boing Boing. Gothic themes haven't usually inspired me a great deal, but I find as I get older, I'm more attracted to them than I was as a teenager (the age it seems most usual someone falls in love with gothic imagery). Anyway, upon a little web browsing, I also discovered that he's the photographer behind the gorgeous Playstation campaign from a year ago that showed various gaming icons in a state of bloodied carnage from overuse. Even though some of his work clearly uses some photoshop techniques, they seem rather intentionally sophmoric and, I think, add to the overall effect of the photographs imaginary dreamscapes.