animation

If You Want To Preserve Your Power Indefinitely…

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of author, philosopher, and futurist Aldous Huxley. This fascinating, short video was made using audio from an interview by Mike Wallace on May 18, 1958 combined with the animations of Patrick Smith. In the video, Huxley foretells a future when presidential hopefuls use television to rise to power, drugs grab hold, technology takes over, and frightful dictatorships rule us all. On the day of this United State’s presidential debates and the eve of our election, this video seems particularly prescient. From Blank On Blank:

But what these people are doing, is to try to bypass the rational side of man and to appeal directly to these unconscious forces below the surfaces so that you are, in a way, making nonsense of the whole democratic procedure, which is based on conscious choice on rational ground.


Noteworthy Tumblr #8: iPhone Oil Paintings

iPhone Oil Painting 1iPhone Oil Painting 2iPhone Oil Painting 3

Since today Apple announced the iPhone 5, I think it’s an appropriate time to show you all Jonathan Keller Keller’s iPhone oil paintings. There not the type of oils paintings you might expect. First off, the paintings are temporary and captured in gif format. They’re created by using facial grease and grimy smudge marks to reflect light from his turned-off touchscreen. The results are both gross and awesome. More here.

William S Burroughs’ “Junky’s Christmas”

The Junky’s Christmas is a 1993 short claymation film directed by Nick Donkin and Melodie McDaniel. William S. Burroughs wrote the story and narrates the film; he also appears in live-action footage at the beginning and end of the film. The film was produced by Francis Ford Coppola. The music is by the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy (Michael Franti & Rono Tse).

Quimby The Mouse

A couple of weeks ago (April 23rd) my girlfriend and I went to see the live broadcast of This American Life at the United Artists Denver Pavilions. I’m a huge fan of This American Life but this show was a failure. Mostly the theater was a failure.

First off tickets prices were $20. Way too steep for anything on a movie screen. Technical difficulties abound and the entire audience missed the entire first segment of the show. Since it was a live telecast there was nothing the theater could do. Every paying customer was given a free movie voucher at the end of the show, but with a value of about $7 this was only a third of the actual ticket price paid.

What we did see was great though. And if you missed it you can download the episode online or go see the encore event on May 7th. Unfortunately I would recommend against spending your hard earned dough in this way, donate it to your local public radio instead.

One of the highlights of the live episode was this video called “Quimby The Mouse” put together by Chris Ware (with music by Andrew Bird, Animation by John Kuramoto).

Chris Ware just makes you want to kill yourself. The more you hurt from his art the better he feels – and that’s what I like about him.

I Love The Loituma Girl

Loituma Girl (also known as Leekspin) is a flash cartoon set to a gibberish section of the traditional Finnish folk song “Ievan Polkka” sung by the Finnish quartet Loituma, taken from their 1995 debut album Things of Beauty. The cartoon consists of a 4-frame animation of the Bleach anime character Orihime Inoue twirling a leek (a type of green onion, called a negi in Japan) to a 27-second loop from the song. Enjoy!

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