Category: Art

  • Jing Chang Does MJ

    jing-chang-michael-jackson

    Jing Chang just posted a photo of her in MJ attire.

    Though it’s hot from the knee up, I gotta say- shoes are kind of distracting.


  • Remembering Breakthrough Music Videos

    Except for that 3-year break MTV took off the Breakthrough Music Video category, they had continued giving away the prize — which had been given to the likes of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham — until 2010, when they officially removed the category.

    So I ask again, what happened to Breakthrough Music Videos?

    As a reminder, I put together a list with all the winners.

    [iframe width=”580″ height=”326″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLE88395EDFAA954B7″ /]

    If I had been picking winners (from that past post), I chose:

    • 2006 – U2 for Window in the Skies [MV]
    • 2007 – Tom Waits for Come On Up to the House [MV]
    • 2008 – Bjork for Wanderlust [MV]

    For the other two years, you know I’m probably partial to SunnyHill [1], but I’ll go with Salyu’s Tadano Tomodachi [1] concept because it’s much more a production concept than a music video concept. For 2012, despite its serious hard-hitting concept [1], I would have to go with Graham Coxon’s What’ll It Take [MV] due to its imaginative execution using fan footage.

    So what are some of your favorite music videos?


  • The Wonders of 3D Printing

    It’s crazy how technology has developed in the past 20 years. The latest consumer craze? 3D printing, of course! It hasn’t only been featured on shows (with a special mention on The Big Bang Theory), but it’s been used in a broad variety of ways [1]. Miniatures of yourself [1], your face in chocolate [1], miniature of yourself in gummy [1], or candy [1].

    Its most striking use, because of its practicality, was how they used 3D Printing in the making of ParaNorman. Technically speaking, it was that usual “wow, why didn’t anyone else think of this before?” Printing the many faces needed to be able to animate your stop-motion movie. It gets the consistency so your animation doesn’t get blotches, and you get incredible detail (I LOVE THE LIGHT GOING THROUGH NORMAN’S EARS).

    The question that arises is- if they print the faces needed to animate, once they’ve done the movements in a CG environment. Is it stop-motion? Mixed media is more common than ever. There was a lot of special effects in ParaNorman, especially in its incredibly visual last arc, but the film is still considered stop-motion. So how much use of the computer do you need to have for it to not be stop-motion?


  • UMPH! Carmen Dell’Orefice

    I’m not much into fashion, but I ran into this documentary called About Face: The Supermodel, Then and Now, which featured (besides Isabella Rossellini and Christy Turlington) Carmen Dell’Orefice. I was immediately struck by the shape of her face, the lines that form when she’s posing.

    carmen-dell-orefice-004

    Some photo credits go to: Urko Suaya for Rouge.


  • Tattoo Artists Wanted Ad

    Smart QR code print ad.

    tattoo-artist-ad-berrge

    Advertising Agency: BÜRO, Istanbul, Turkey
    Creative Directors: Ilker Zaharya, Esra Ayas Özalp
    Art Director: Nilüfer Abaylı
    Copywriter: Ceren Orun


  • The Happy Trotting Elf!

    I’m in the mood for some Sally singing Susan, The Happy Trotting Elf~

    Though, moment starts exactly at 1:11

    I’m Susan the happy trotting elf! I trot and trot, and bounce and bounce, and smile a lot, and that’s what counts! I’m Susan the happy trotting smile a-lotting elf! I’m polite so just for clarity, when I’m cross I say “Apparently!”


  • Audrey Hepburn for Galaxy Chocolate

    galaxy-silk-chauffeur-audrey-hepburn

    A while back a GORGEOUS Dior commercial featuring Grace Kelly, Dietrich and Monroe, alongside a slinky Charlize Theron was invading my TV and doing rotations on my YouTube ads. That was one of the only commercials I didn’t mind breaking my viewing.

    Alongside with visual effects magicians, they managed to bring back classic on-screen beauties… and now, they’re latest project has been bringing back Audrey Hepburn. From the still up there, it looks PRETTY uncanny. Apparently they found the perfect Hepburn double, and did their magic twitching details to make her look IT. Sadly, we can’t watch the commercial for Galaxy Chocolate, which has only been licensed within the UK and Ireland territories.

    I guess Audrey Hepburn’s image is THAT expensive.

    You can check the info on Framestore.

    — EDIT —

    Ad has made it’s appearance on YouTube.


  • Shane Koyczan’s To This Day by Giant Ant

    Vancouver-based motion graphic studio, Giant Ant, took part in the making of an animation collaborative effort centered on the poem titled To This Day by Shane Koyczan, who was in charge of the We Are More poem used for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics [1]. To This Day focuses on the lasting impact of bullying on its victims, and though it feels heavy-handed with a +6min of running time with a narrative of negative lows in contrast to Koyczan’s climbing monologue, it’s still a project worth checking out because of…

    it’s animation.

    Giant Ant (which includes work by Jorge Canedo Estrada [1]) asked animators and motion designers to come up with 20-sec sequences to go along to Koyczan’s spoken poem, developing a wonderful mismatch of styles within its narrative.

    You can check out more of the To This Day project on:


  • Edet Soft ‘Edet Paper World’

    I want this (Dutch???) toilet paper!

    The best toilet paper commercials we ever got in Peru were of Suave, featuring Luis Miguel’s hit song, Suave [MV] — that’s the only one that ever stuck in my subconscious anyway. That one, for the song, and there was another one of a little girl who wanted to go to the washroom at a mall or something, and she was only with her father. Obviously, he couldn’t go it to the ladies room, so she went in with her father staying by the door giving directions, where he spurts “ahora limpiate tu potito.” (now clean your tushy).

    We aren’t any remotely close to having this kind of toilet paper commercial.


  • Mayday – Masquerade (Male, Female, One Body)

    I just began listening (truly listen) to Mayday’s discography pre the Born to Love days, finishing off titles/pinyin/title translations, when I ran into this song titled Masquerade (Male, Female, One Body) from their 2003 album, Time Machine (時光機). The thing is, the title of the song is Ci Xiong Tong Ti (雌雄同體), which is the term used to refer to “hermaphrodites” (which, by the way, isn’t longer a term accepted for people, who are now referred to as “intersex”). Perplexed, thinking that Google Translate was giving me a wonky translation, I checked the dictionary to double check.

    On a quick google search, I found a pretty terrific (singable) translation of the song.

    Rather than you understand me—I’d rather be a mystery
    A puzzle you just cannot solve, of what’s false and real, it’ll play at your heartstrings
    I’ll play you, or play your opposite form; partake in this game of love that you’ve borne.

    via NoStarWords @ LJ + starriheavens

    My mind was melted. I mean, it’s not VERY often you get playful duality in music, playing on gender-role conventions and completely avoiding the titillation that seethes from… well, everywhere now.

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