Dallas Clayton, Author Extraordinaire.

The Greatest Writer Alive from Dallas Clayton on Vimeo.

The luckiest.

While at work today, I received an email from my boyfriend (Captain Amazing) that included a link to the video below, and said:

"This reminds me of you for a bunch of reasons. It's from the south, it's beautiful, artistic, complex and admirable. Just to name a few."

Aside from indulging in how unbelievably sweet my boyfriend is, I couldn't not seize the opportunity to share this beautiful video and project. The video is apart of a campaign to raise money for an artist's work, entitled Boxcar Fair. I've included information "about the project" and a link to the pledge page below the video - if you are so inclined to support this beautiful and poetic work of art.



ABOUT THIS PROJECT

Hello. Thank you for taking time to look at our project.

My name is Brock Scott. I am an Atlanta based artist / musician who lives for making cool things. I love using collaboration as a way to bring different artists and mediums together in creative ways. I studied sculpture in college and while there became really interested in artists who create unique kinetic systems in their work. i.e. Arthur Ganson and Theo Jansen who were artists that took the ideas of traditional mechanical engineering and adapted their own style to how we have perceived things to work. You could imagine how ecstatic I was to find that one of the most amazing kinetic sculptors I have ever seen lived just down the street! His name is Tom Haney. Tom is an artist who creates beautiful automata vignettes depicting figures performing random and often beautifully mundane actions. The delicateness of the pieces mixed with Tom’s amazing craftsmanship and ingenuity creates a window into his intricate world.

5 months ago, I approached artist Tom Haney with an idea for a unique project that was part puppet show, part kinetic sculpture, part musical performance and immortalized on film. I called it Boxcar Fair. The piece will follow a wandering explorer who stumbles upon a magical fair in the middle of a desert.

The explorer interacts with many characters along his journey including a giant anglerfish a fortuneteller an ornate elephant an enchanted mouse and a high diving dame, each of whom is more fanciful and elaborate than the last.

The video will last the duration of one song (approx. 2:30) that my band, Little Tybee, will compose and record. The entire sequence will be shot in a single take, with no cuts, panning from left to right (Similar to the platform view of the Super Mario Brothers game). The set itself would be approximately 45 feet long. The camera will be mounted on a robotic motorized dolly fixed to a rail that allows filming the entire length of the set smoothly. Tom and I are extremely motivated and itching to bring our vision to life. We have hired an amazing artist from LA named Ram Bhat to paint the backdrop for the entire 45 foot long set. Ram Bhat is a truly incredible artist and has worked on many amazing projects collaborating with Bjork, Black Eyed Peas, Greenday, Ozzy Osborn and Nintendo just to name a few. Ram has a very unique style that will compliment Tom’s figures and our musical score perfectly.

We have received amazing support from the local puppet and artist community and from the center for puppetry arts here in Atlanta. We are getting incredibly close to finishing this project but are asking for your help in raising funds to make sure this project will reach the potential we think it deserves. The money that you donate will go towards materials needed to finish the set, supplies needed to make the puppets, paying all of the artists involved in making this vision come to life and reserving a space large enough to house our ambitions. With your help, lets make something beautiful together.

Thank you.

You can follow the progress of the project here.
You can pledge a small (or large) amount to the project here.

Talk to Me?

An art exhibit entitled Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects is showing at MoMA in New York between July 24 – November 7, 2011, and it deeply pains me to be missing it. I implore any New Yorkers who stumble across this little place to take the time to stop by.



About the exhibit:

Talk to Me explores the communication between people and things. All objects contain information that goes well beyond their immediate use or appearance. In some cases, objects like cell phones and computers exist to provide us with access to complex systems and networks, behaving as gateways and interpreters. Whether openly and actively, or in subtle, subliminal ways, things talk to us, and designers help us develop and improvise the dialogue.


The exhibition focuses on objects that involve a direct interaction, such as interfaces, information systems, visualization design, and communication devices, and on projects that establish an emotional, sensual, or intellectual connection with their users. Examples range from a few iconic products of the late 1960s to several projects currently in development—including computer and machine interfaces, websites, video games, devices and tools, furniture and physical products, and extending to installations and whole environments.



The Department of Architecture and Design is documenting the process of organizing Talk to Me from its early stages through its opening in July 2011 and beyond via an online journal. The site features projects we are currently studying and some we have already selected, along with relevant references and feedback and suggestions from designers and writers. Since we always cast our nets very wide and count on suggestions and opinions from the design community, this step comes very naturally. Besides, communication is what this exhibition is all about. Visit the online journal at wp.moma.org/talk_to_me/.



Visit the exhibit site online:
http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2011/talktome/

Splitscreen: A Love Story.

Winner of the 2011 Nokia Shorts competition, directed by JW Griffiths:



Absolutely brilliant.

Michel Michel

Amoeba Music sits down with director and creative sensationalist, Michel Gondry, as he discusses his band, visual effects, and more.

Some things only get better.

100 from Justin Baez on Vimeo.

All you need is love.

The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is the largest public art program in the United States.

Learn more about Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program here: http://muralarts.org/

Don't worry, you'll get it.

Made for me.

A Story : Last year, my dearest friend in the world (Amanda Rogers, a musician from upstate New York) was on tour for her most recent record, and was coming through Los Angeles on the West Coast leg. (It may help to note : Amanda and her boyfriend, Mike, lived with me for a few months while she was recording said album the previous year. While here, they met my closest friends, who naturally welcomed the two into our group with open arms. How could they not? Amanda and Mike are the cat's pajamas, and the absolute sweetest vegan, tree-loving hippies you could ever meet. ) It goes without saying that we all went to every show she played while in the city. For a group of people with a lot of issues (we're like family - love and hate, all ecompassing), we can surprisingly pull our shit together when it comes to supporting one of each other.

AN ASIDE : It's a funny story how Amanda and I know each other, actually. Ready for it? We have the same ex-boyfriend. Yep. Of course, he's long gone, but the best gift he ever gave me was introducing me to her. Amanda is probably the closest thing I'll ever have to a soulmate. She gets me, I get her, we're different and yet, I think we're exactly the same. We don't get to see each other often considering that we live on opposite coasts. So far, we've somehow worked it out to visiting about twice a year. We don't talk on the phone (we both abhor it) and we don't get the chance to email much, either. (Though lately, she's been way better about it than I have.) When we do catch each other, we mostly just fill each other in on the what-nots of the past week, month, whatever. But, when we get the chance to see each other it's like no time has passed. Some relationships I like to think of as a favorite sweater. It's comfy, it makes you feel good in and out, it fits you just right and you wouldn't trade it for the world. Amanda is my fuzzy red cardigan.: ASIDE END.

Back to where I was intending to go with this : During one of Amanda's shows in Los Angeles, she played a song that I had never heard before, but instantly seemed to recognize. After the show was over, she came up to me and said that she should have warned me, but that song was about me. It's interesting, because it's not really a happy song, but it's not really a sad song, either. But it definitely is a song that reminds me of how well she knows me and I couldn't ask for anything more.

I wasn't recording that night, so I don't have my own video to show. However, our friend Ryan managed to capture it live at a show a few days after they left Los Angeles to head back east.

Amanda Rogers, The Taming of the Lonely One :

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

This is precisely the kind of thing that brings me to tears. It's hard to focus on things that make us unhappy, when beauty like this exists on our precious planet.

A beautiful video made of the world's 2nd largest aquarium by Jon Rawlinson.



Go to the link directly to view a full screen version. Definitely worth the click.

Calamus Gladio Fortior.

I read a lot, mostly non-fiction. Every once and a while, I come across a written page (or series of) that forever changes my course; I equate it with those tiny intersections on the palm's life line. I picked this book up recently and the instant I started skimming the pages, I was affected by the relevance that it held with my own current personal battles.

In Russia circa 1882, Tolstoy's memoir discussing his struggles between belief in nothing vs. faith in something; a journey to understand the meaning of life, was subject of such controversy that it led to his eventual ex-communication from the Catholic church. What I have found is nothing less than a letter of recognition of sorts, a piece I feel has been written specifically for my guts to devour, my brains to absorb; one that defines my own internal conflicts, and couldn't hold more relevancy some 100 years after it was written.

- C.

Noesis and Noema.

A few months ago, I went to a concert at the Getty Museum to see one of my favorite pianists, Dustin O'Halloran, (second, if only, to Philip Glass) play (for lack of a better term.) Experiencing his talent in person surpassed my wildest expectations; every hair on my body stood like a soldier at attention, my eyes half-full of tears for nothing short of two hours straight. It shouldn't have surprised me to find other artistic geniuses in the audience, as his music is one of the greatest creative catalysts I've discovered to date.

Upon exiting, my guest and I stepped into the elevator heading down to the parking garage with none other than David Lynch, who was also there to see Mr. O'Halloran's astonishing performance. We made small talk about trying to remember where exactly we parked ("I think it was this floor?"), and ironically, his lackadaisical disposition somewhat reminded me of my own father. His unobtrusiveness and the casual nature of the encounter almost led me to forget that I was standing in the presence of one of our generation's most visionary minds. Without care or thought to whether one likes (or dislikes) Lynch's work, it is undeniable that the way in which he processes and communicates information offers a highly unique and unparalleled perspective. He transforms ordinary artistic mediums to a level of unprecedented ingenuity. (Feel free to insert your own "un"-something adjectives where deemed necessary.) Lynch's work has pushed my consciousness into both areas of extreme discomfort and paralyzing realization. Often times, I don't particularly care for the pictures he paints in my mind's eye, as he single-handedly has demolished the walls of my comfort zone on numerous occasions, but I've come to believe that is precisely what is the difference between art that is and art that is effective.

Lynch's current project, "Dark Night of the Soul" (a visual/auditory exhibit in which he has paired with musicians Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse) has moved to Miami for the next month. If you are lucky enough to experience this project first hand, then for better or worse, if nothing else, I have faith that it will leave you altered, thus truly succeeding in it's purpose.www.dnots.com

From the Dark Night of the Soul website :
Dark Night of the Soul is a full-length album and illustrated book, combining the talents of Danger Mouse, David Lynch and celebrated rock recluse Sparklehorse. In addition to the hardcover book, the album includes vocals from the Flaming Lips, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Frank Black of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega and many others. The exhibition consists of over 50 original photographs by David Lynch which are displayed alongside the accompanying soundtrack by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse.

- C.

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense."

Undeniably, the greatest mind of all time, Albert Einstein, was quoted in saying, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

Since I was a little girl, Alice was the only Disney (and later when introduced to Lewis Carroll, literary) character I ever felt a deep connection with. She was not like the other girls; not a queen, never a princess, not a damsel in distress, nor a leader of the minions. Alice was different; she was a clever day-dreamer who self-seekingly created her own world, filled with whimsical oddities and curious anomalies, simply to escape the mundane existence of the physical world. Simply, an ordinary girl with an extraordinary imagination. Her eccentric reality gave validation to my own mental departure from all things certain. Alice gave me the freedom to indulge in my own curiosities, and taught me how to explore the unfamiliar, how to question the rational and how to dream the unimaginable.

With yet another remake of this moralistic tale arriving soon, I have no doubt that Tim Burton's version will help to inspire others in visualizing and actualizing their own "nonsensical" realities.

- C.

Watch the teaser-trailer here :

Thuis. Casa. Accueil. Heim. Domov. Inicio. Home.

If you've never seen the documentary released in 2007 by Sigur Rós, the time has come to right your wrong.

Excerpt from the Heima website :

Heima : An introduction

Last year, in the endless magic hour of the Icelandic summer, Sigur Rós played a series of concerts around their homeland. Combining both the biggest and smallest shows of their career, the entire tour was filmed, and now provides a unique insight into one of the world’s shyest and least understood bands captured live in their natural habitat.

The culmination of more than a year spent promoting their hugely successful ‘Takk…’ album around the world, the Icelandic tour was free to all-comers and went largely unannounced. Playing in deserted fish factories, outsider art follies, far-flung community halls, sylvan fields, darkened caves and the hoofprint of Odin’s horse, Sleipnir*, the band reached an entirely new spectrum of the Icelandic population; young and old, ardent and merely quizzical, entirely by word-of-mouth.

The question of the way Sigur Rós’s music relates to, and is influenced by, their environment has been reduced to a journalistic cliché about glacial majesty and fire and ice, but there is no doubt that the band are inextricably linked to the land in which they were forged. And the decision to film this first-ever Sigur Rós film in Iceland was, in the end, ineluctable.

Shot using a largely Icelandic crew (to minimise Eurovision-style scenic-wonder overload), ‘Heima’ - which means both “at home” and “homeland” - is an attempt to make a film every bit as big, beautiful and unfettered as a Sigur Rós album. As such it was always going to be something of a grand folie, but one, which taking in no fewer than 15 locations around Iceland (including the country’s largest ever concert at the band’s Reykjavik homecoming), is never less than epic in its ambition.

Material from all four of the band’s albums is featured, including many rare and notable moments. Among these are a heart-stopping rendition of the previously unreleased ‘Gitardjamm’, filmed inside a derelict herring oil tank in the far West Fjords; a windblown, one-mic recording of ‘Vaka’, shot at a dam protest camp subsequently drowned by rising water; and first time acoustic versions of such rare live beauties as ‘Staralfur’, ‘Agaetis Byrjun’ and ‘Von’.

Points of view.

Recently, I came across this article about the importance of setting goals...

http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/349963/setting_goals_and_having_dreams_makes.html

Aaaand...I've decided to follow the lead of comedian Demetri Martin (skip to 5:53 in the following video)...



...by setting up my very own personal point system. Currently trying to decipher what exactly I want to include in my goals, whether on a daily, weekly, life-long basis. This should be an interesting challenge to undertake, especially when being fully committed to following what really lies at the center of it all, what the true purpose of evaluating and achieving goals really is. Imagine what kind of changes would come about in this world if we all were to take just a little bit of time to physically assess (on paper) the true achievements we desire to make every day. For one, I have no doubt that Earth would be filled with a lot more positive and focused energy. For now, I'll focus on doing my own tiny part to be ultimately integrated into the better, bigger picture.