What a great football – I totally want it:
http://www.brosmind.com/projects/50
Terrific origami fish made from money:
http://www.booooooom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/booooooom_580_02.jpg
Phenomenal concert posters:
http://wellmedicated.com/inspiration/50-amazing-gig-posters-sure-to-inspire/
Of course, the Thriller dance (which starts at 8:30 on this video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtyJbIOZjS8
Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” hand gestures (the good bit starts at 1:38):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cYWfq–Nw
OK Go’s “Here It Goes Again”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI
And Beyonce’s “Single Ladies – Put A Ring On It”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mVEGfH4s5g
I was just doing work for, you know, work, and I had to find a map of the world that shows the continents clearly. So I typed in “world map” into Google and found what I was looking for (thank you Google). I also found this map from 450 B.C. of the world according to Herodotus.
This isn’t a regional map, people. This is the WHOLE WORLD. Look at Europe. It’s just a sort of, “Yeah, Europe, it’s *vague hand gesture* up there… somewhere.” It totally reminded me of that famous New Yorker cover of how New Yorkers see the world.
So, from 450 B.C. to 2009 A.D. = nothing has changed.
I was watching Best Week Ever a while back, and they had a clip of the “sing country songs” American Idol episode, where FallOutBoy Wannabe slash Unknown Sexual Orientation Guy sang “Ring of Fire”, but he sang it with an Indian twist. I’m sorry to say this, but it was kind of awesome. So I looked it up on YouTube, and indeedy, it is pretty cool, especially for Merkin Idol, which is not exactly cutting-edge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-NULFMky4s
And to keep my hard-earned street cred, here is a Ukrainian band covering “Hot ‘n’ Cold” by Katy Perry. With an accordion.
So I’ve returned and I’m going through my plethora of spam. My spam is apparently now less concerned with porn and Cialis and more concerned with letting me in on some little-known proverbs, bless their little spammy hearts.
1. It is a good horse that never stumbles. As welcome as water in one’s shoes. True coral needs no painter’s brush. http://concooord34.blog.com/ A fox is not taken twice in the same snare. Delays are dangerous. They must hunger in winter that will not work in summer.
2. Every bean has its black. Respect yourself, or no one else will respect you. If you throw mud enough, some of it will stick. http://crazybiik.wordpress.com An open door may tempt a saint. Better late than never. If you dance you must pay the fiddler.
3. Money begets money. What is done cannot be undone. Dog does not eat dog. http://crazybiik.wordpress.com It is enough to make a cat laugh. Between the cup and the lip a morsel may slip. Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
Hmmm, intriguing.
Part 1.
For my holiday present, Snorth made me a present she knew I would absolutely love. It is a cross-stitch of a two-toed sloth. Yes, yes it is. In this picture I also included the softie sheep she made me. Take it all in, people.
Part 2.
Remember how I had lolcats all over my wall? Remember that? New lolcats have been coming out since then, and I just added them in. My lolcats are crawling around the wall, yo. They’re like the blob in the movie The Blob, slowly encroaching into my sleeping space until I choke to death on cuteness and misspellings.
Part 3.
Dude, this is freakin’ awesome:
Alright already, I joined Facebook. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? Gawd.
My octopus bag ripped a bit from me jamming pointy-sided heavy objects into it everyday for a year (it’s understandable, the ripping) so I painted myself a new bag. I really didn’t have any idea what to paint on it, but I did like this flourish from a book on ornamental design I recently picked up from Amazon (or The Money Pit, as it is to me). I printed the flourish and then cut it out as a stencil (which was incredibly difficult, thanks for asking) and then painted it in white on my bag. And then I stared on and off at the bag for three hours, wondering what to do next. I put in the rust accents and the sparkly purple dots. Then more pondering for more hours. I decided I needed a monster holding up the flourish (naturally) so I freehand-painted the blue monster. Went off and watched TV for a while. Painted the glitter and red dots on feet. Stared. Painted eyes. Eyes turned out sucky. Gently picked paint on eyes off with an X-acto knife (KIDS: Don’t try this at home. I have many years of practice wielding the X knife, you’ll shred the bag if you don’t do it right). Redid eyes. Put grassy spots under monster’s feet for depth. Was pleased with results. So, including staring and pondering time, this purse took me longer than any other I have ever worked on. I like it, though.
I also recently painted a pair of shoes, which I need to photograph. I’ll get right on that.
My favorite moments of this video are 1:07 and 2:15. I need this shape-shifting anime owl in my life right now.
It’s a cover for Publicis’ annual thing that they send out with a review of the year’s activities (businesses won, people hired, awards, etc.) Publicis seems to like a great deal of ornament and layers with drop shadows nowadays, so I’m pretty pleased with what I came up with. It’s so lush and detailed. Definitely in keeping with their look. Hooray for me.
It’s like a Christmas present and when you unwrap it, you get… well, you get information and facts about our company, which isn’t on most people’s lists, but whatever, it’s still a good-looking cover. The insides were really cool too, but I don’t want to post any pictures of them here. I don’t think any of the information was sensitive, but I’d rather play it safe. Don’t wanna dooce myself.
Everyone’s talking about this new MTV site that supposedly has all the videos they’ve aired, ever. Which, I am sad to say, is untrue. So I’ve made a short list of some of my favorite videos that I want to share here. There will probably be several posts like this, because I always feel like I’m forgetting something, and I probably am. But we’ll start with these.
Gnarls Barkley “Crazy”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w
Does this really need an explanation? It’s a Rorschach test using light and dark to carve the artist’s faces out of the ink. And bugs and spiders. And a skull. That too. Gorgeous video. I actually sat down in awe when I saw it the first time.
Kanye West “The Good Life”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su_zrW9WBVk
I wish I had worked on this video. I would have loved – LOVED – to do the animation. Also, so considerate for the deaf. Pretty much everything that is said is spelled out. Kanye is thinking of the aurally challenged, how sweet. He’s not the self-centered meanie-head everyone says he is.
Coldplay “The Scientist”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Kd7IGPyeg
I don’t much care one way or the other about Coldplay’s music, but to have to learn your own lyrics backwards, wow, that must be hard. I like the video because it reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Memento. Very clean and emotional and stark.
