I am a remix junky, there is nothing that tickles my fancy more
than being able to call out a reference or sample that’s been re-contextualized
and re-packaged for public consumption. Some people truly make an art form out
of it, surpassing the inspiration and flipping it on its head for something altogether
unique and exciting.
Kirby Ferguson celebrates the remix as much as I do and has
made his well-known series “Everything is a Remix” available for the first time
ever as one long play video. Although some
of this content has been around for 5 years now, everything has been given a
polish and new transitions to make it all work even better in celebration of
the series anniversary.
Grab some popcorn and a drink, get comfortable and enjoy the
40 minute clip, it might even surprise some
and change your outlook on what makes something original and why we are attracted
to the things that we are in the first place.
After teasing at such a project several weeks back we now have the director’s cut of Childish Gambino’s
24-minute short film titled “Clapping For The Wrong Reasons” The short features
Donald himself, Chance The Rapper,
Flying Lotus, Trinidad Jame$, and several other Gambino collaborators and
friends . The film falls someplace in-between truth and fiction it would seem
with parts functioning as a preview of sorts to new Gambino music while other
moments seem to focus on scripted narrative about life, relationships, dreams
and more. Things get pretty strange during the last third when Gambino pulls a
tooth out of his nostril in a scene that wouldn't be out of place in a horror
film. Weird stuff but well worth the watch if you are a fan and another
interesting chapter from Glover’s creative repertoire.
Kahlil Joseph and
Flying Lotus have once again teamed up to give a new beautifully shot short abstract
film entitled Wildcat. According to Nowness, the film explores the "little-known African-American
rodeo subculture," in Grayson, Oklahoma with Lotus handeling the score.
“Joseph, who is part of the Los Angeles-based What Matters Most film collective, visited
the annual August rodeo in the sparsely populated Oklahoma town of Grayson
(previously Wildcat), an event that attracts African-American bull riders,
barrel racers and cowgirls from all over the Midwest and southern USA. He set
out to celebrate the origins of the rodeo by paying respect to the spirit of
Aunt Janet, a member of the family who founded the event, passed away last year
and is embodied as the young girl in the film. “Black people are light years
more advanced than the ideas and images that circulate would have you believe.
The spaces we control and exist are my ground zero for filming, at least so
far, and there are opportunities for me to tap into the energy,” says Joseph.
“So an all-black town with an all-black rodeo in the American heartland was a
kind of vortex or portal through which I could actually show this.”
What we got here is an older yet still fantastic documentary
on Cuba’s struggling and often challenging skateboard scene.
While most skaters don’t have to deal with these kinds of
absurd set backs, Cubans must pursue their passion under strict embargos that
make even obtaining a board a challenge.
In the 16-minute film you hear downright heartbreaking stories of
skaters sometimes waiting up to five months to get a new deck, often resulting
in makeshift repairs of damaged gear to make due. While competitions in Cuba
don’t offer the dream of a pro-sponsorship or world wide travel (something that
is pretty much unobtainable in their situation) the promises of a new deck
alone is motivation enough, and pretty much their only legitimate source of
obtaining one. Yet despite the major handicap the local scene has produced
some talent and Cuba’s skaters remain optimistic and a happy people making the
best of what they have been given, inspiring stuff to say the least.
Check out the by Phil Brown directed piece below and If you would like to help
the Cuban skaters, there’s a shop in Germany who has set up a fund called Subvertcubaproject.org.
You may recall a post we did a year ago about a Kickstarter
campaign that made me do a double take.“Obey the Giant,” a 25-minute, lightly
fictionalized film by RISD student Julian Marshall on the origin story of Shepard Fairey and
his Obey campaign. Giving it some authenticity the project had the street art
great's official seal of approval as well.
You can now view the film in its entirety below, and my
opinion on it is still that of “this is so strange.” I will say it is well shot
and at 20 minutes won’t take much effort or commitment so grab some popcorn and
click play.
Freestyle street skater Kilian Martinand filmmaker Brett Novak have once again teamed up to create a short film by the name of “Internal
Departure,” the latest in their series of collaborations showcasing both their
talents. For the shoot Kilian and Brett were invited to work in Austria where
they were given free rein to skate an entire art gallery filled with Kay Walkowiak’s work. As always there are lots of whimsical tricks by Martin set to
some stunning and dramatic camera work by Novak.
Replaceface has released a series of prints of popular celebrities
posing as dapper soldiers that are pretty darn fun. The series takes George Dawe portrait’s and incorporates
celebrities into the paintings using photoshop. The designs come on matte
white, 100% cotton rag, and have a 1" border for framing. Sizes range from
Mini (8" x 9"; $24.95) to X-Large (28" x 32"; $55.95). The
portraits are also available as stretched canvases, iPhone/iPod cases and
skins, and throw pillows and include such people as Bill Murray, David Bowie,
Bruce Lee, The Rock, Brad Pitt, Frank Zappa and many more. Purchase them HERE.
The Twilight franchise has somehow managed to round up quality
talent for their soundtracks and with the final installment due out this holiday
season we get yet another first rate line up of artists providing tunes for the
popular film franchise. Check out some highlights from the likes of Passion Pit, Feist,
and St. Vincent.
Dirty Projectors’ frontman David Longstreth puts on his
takes writing and directing hats in the band’s latest creative project, a short
film entitled Hi Custodian. The piece has been in the works for quite some time
so it’s great to finally see a finished product. Longstreth describes the themes of the film as
being “made out of a dream” and it of course features tunes from the Dirty
Projectors, including alternative mixes and unreleased jams from the Swing Lo Magellan sessions. The whole thing clocks in at about 20 minutes and
is pretty out there but nothing unexpected to those who follow the band, check
it out below…..
Written & Directed by David Longstreth
All Music by David Longstreth
Performed by Dirty Projectors
For years Lloyd Kaufman, a filmmaker, has funded and helped
low budget directors create movies under his Troma brand. Troma has released a
ton of films over the years from the cult classics like The Toxic Avenger and
Class Of Nuke’em High to Trey Parker and Matt Stone‘s musical, Cannibal.
This weekend Lloyd unleashed over 150 of their movies on YouTube for absolutely
free! They even posted some vintage, films from the 1930s that they own the
rights to, like the Bela Lugosi classic White Zombie. You can enjoy it all
HERE.
Well here is a little treat, Powell Peralta has decided to
give away their 1987 film The Search For Animal Chin as a fee download! At the time the film was the benchmark for
what skate films should be acting as one of the first skateboarding films
to have a "plot".
The Bones Brigade travels around California,
Nevada,
and Hawaii to
different skate spots in search of a wisened old man, Won Ton
"Animal" Chin. The movie is of the old-school nomadic,
skate-everything-in-your-path genre with interludes of stopping to rip-up a big
ramp, pool or kicker. After much searching and skateboarding, they locate a
large ramp in the desert. They also find a Chinese character on the inside of
the ramp's spine. They conclude that in searching for Mr. Chin, they may have
found his spirit.”
Staring Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, Lance
Mountain and Tommy Guerrero. Download it HERE in exchange for your email
address.
Skateboarder Magazine’s Senior Photographer Jonathan Mehring
got together with the globetrotting filmer Patrik Wallner to plan and film a
skateboarding trip to Vietnam. The ambitious trip was especially difficult on
old school motorbikes, the only method of transport used while there. But as
they say, the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward, which is probably why the
likes of Jerry Hsu, Keegan Sauder, Joey Pepper, Javier Mendizibal and Michael
"Michi" Mackrodt were game to accompany them on this journey down
nearly the entire length of Vietnam despite some of their limited past
experience's with doing so." The trip didn’t produce a whole lot of skating but The lush
surroundings that make up Vietnam are the real treat in this very well shot
twenty plus minute film.
Before puppeteer pioneer Jim Henson brought joy to the entertainment
world with his world famous Muppets there was Jim Henson the ad man. We all got bills to pay and sometimes those
checks come from advertisers. Jim Henson’s early works of the 60’s and 70’s included commercials and short sales films for the
likes of Wilkins Coffee, IBM, AT&T, La
Choy and PakNit Fabrics to name but a few. The revenue gathered during the
time helped Jim and his future wife, Jane, grow their own vision, kick-starting
a prolific career and leading to several puppet proto-types that would one day
be some of the most recognizable characters in pop culture. Henson didn’t necessarily
express a personal preference for any of these companies but used the time to develop
and perfect his artistic vision, often throwing in some light hearted cynicism as a wink to the adult audience. For this week’s Throwback Thursday we share some of
those early ads and instructional videos that I personally first enjoyed at the
Museum of Moving Image’s recent retrospective of Henson’s work. For those that
couldn’t make the trip out to NY at the time let this be your window. Oh yeah
and Fuck Chick-fil-A.
“The Paperwork Explosion,” Jim Henson’s weirdly sinister IBM
ad from 1967
In the 1960s, IBM tapped Jim Henson and composer Raymond
Scott to create"The
Paperwork Explosion," a four-minute advertisement for the MT/ST
word-processing machine. The commercial was jarring brew of jargon and flashing
images seemingly custom-made for an office-drone dystopia.
Cookie Monster’s debut -IBM Training Video from 1967. At the time, the greenish monster's name was actually Arnold
the Munching Monster.
A Set of Wilkins Coffee Commercials Made by Jim Henson back
in the 1950's when setting explosions and hitting Muppets was acceptable.
AT&T’s crappy service won’t put a smile on your face but maybe this video from 1963 will. According to AT&T, Henson made the video for a seminar being given to business owners on what was then a groundbreaking topic — data communications.
Delbert the La Choy Dragon appeared in television commercials for La Choy chow mein from 1965 to 1967. In some commercials he was teamed with Mert, a meek, bespectacled Muppet spokesman.
Swiss creative team Ramon & Pedro have produced the
short film, ‘Le Miroir’. It tells the story of a man, as time passes from
childhood to senior citizen participating in a very relatable daily routine.
Clever stuff.
Last year to kick off their tour, folkie-rock band Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros played 5-nights at the Old Vic Tunnels in London. They filled those 5 nights with as explosive a visual and auditory treat as they could with performance art, psychedelic light shows and film screenings (Holy Mountain, Renegade, etc..), experimental dance and of course music. It was pitched as a "360 degrees experience" with this happening in different rooms and on every turn. A wild, wild West in the middle of London. Looked cool to me. As expected all 5-nights sold out.
The folks at the Old Vic Tunnels created a short 10-min documentary capturing the behind-the-scenes of this event.
Icelandic band Sigur Ros created a project they call The Valtari Mystery Film Experiment in which they gave 10 filmmakers the same modest budget and asked them to come up with whatever they wanted. Films are released on their website every 2 weeks and so far 3 have been completed.
"We never meant our music to come with a pre-programmed emotional response. We don’t want to tell anyone how to feel and what to take from it. With the films, we have literally no idea what the directors are going to come back with. none of them know what the others are doing, so hopefully it could be interesting."
The latest video that came out last week was directed by Alma Har'el, entitled "Fjögur píanó" and features Shia Labeouf's penis... eh, I mean ... Shia Labeouf. It is actually an interesting video but the penis is what seems to have caught everyones attention. The video is emo and modern dance-ish but shot very well. Its hard to fault a video for being over the top emotional when the band and music in question is so successful at evoking emotion. I look forward to the rest of the releases.... with penises or no.
Check out their website to see the previous 2 films and to learn more about the project.
Erlend Lavik, the
Norwegian academic, posted a 36-minute video essay called "Style in The
Wire," which carefully and thoroughly analyzes the various visual
techniques used by the show's directors over the course of its five seasons.
As Lavik notes, the visual style of The Wire is much less
discussed than its multifaceted narrative, its wide range of complicated
characters, and its social critique. But he makes a compelling case that the
look of The Wire also contributes to the show's power, and that the series'
directors established a visual approach that suited the show's aims.
Not just for film geeks, there are some interesting points made in the video and anyone with an interest in story telling, The Wire, Film techniques and more will find this enjoyable.
Here's a Kickstarter campaign that made me do a double take.
“Obey the Giant,” is a 25-minute, lightly fictionalized film by RISD student Julian Marshall that
acts as an origin story for the artist known worldwide for his Obey campaign. The
project has the street art great's official seal of approval as well, Shepard
gave Julian the rights to make a dramatic film on the beginnings of the whole
OBEY GIANT phenomenon. The film is at a state where Kickstarter is being
used to generate the remaining funds needed to complete the film. To
learn more about the project and contribute to its funding, click HERE which
includes some rewards for donations from a DVD edition of the film to signed
Shepard Fairey works (donated by the artist himself) and pieces of the set,
including the fake Cianci billboard. Watch the video below to get preview of the project.
Contemporary artist Kostas Seremetis has released a new collection of extremely limited edition screen prints. In this series, Seremetis has paired some of cinema’s greatest icons with a respective comic book alter-ego. Each 11 x 16 inch print is limited to only 25 pieces, and can be purchased directly from the Kostas Seremetis online shop. Kostas rarely releases screen prints so if you are a fan of his work in any capacity this is your chance to add his unique brand of humor to your collection.
