What if John Woo, Kevin Smith, and Wes Anderson directed political attack ads?
Hit play or watch Hollywood Director Attack Ads on YouTube.
I’m not much of a John Woo fan, but the other two were right on.
The Tattooed Banana
The The Tattooed Banana, has some clever banana art. These are a few that caught my eye. They would be perfect for cheap and creative Halloween decorations.
A Brighter Day
The Vote for Hope video was created at Ursa Minor Arts and Media in San Rafael, CA with chief animator James Curtis, using designs and direction from M.C. Yogi. It’s is an extremely well crafted video funded and supported by grassroots donations.
MC Yogi – Vote For Hope from MC YOGI on Vimeo.
Hit play or watch Vote for Hope on Vimeo.
About the video:
With the 2008 presidential election, Americans face a pivotal choice between not just two candidates, but two paradigms. We need someone who understands the complexity of our time. Someone who believes in investing in renewable energy, in education, in women’s rights, in civil rights, in healthcare for Americans. Someone who believes in dealing with global issues with diplomacy so we can restore our respect in the world. Barack Obama represents the change we need and can lead us into a brighter future.
Vote For Hope was written to encourage and inspire the hip hop generation and everyone to get involved, and contribute their time, energy, creativity, and other resources to be the change they want to see in the world. We have been inspired by the artistic and musical contributions that have been pouring out across the nation in support of Barack Obama’s campaign. Vote for Hope is our offering to this creative movement. It is our way of adding our small voice to the collective voice of millions of Americans calling for a change.
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ILoveSketch: 3D curve sketching system
ILoveSketch is a curve sketching system that makes drawing in 3D a lot more like drawing on paper. Check out the ease with which the demonstrator creates a three-dimensional air plane at the end.
ILoveSketch from Seok-Hyung Bae on Vimeo.
Hit play or watch I love sketch on Vimeo.
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How to Hook Up Your Home Theater
This hilarious Jack Kinney style Goofy short, How to Hook up your Home Theater, isn’t new — it was released in 2007, shown in theatres before National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets — but it is significant because it recaptures the spirit of Disney in the golden era of animation. It aims particularly at recapturing the Jack Kinney classics like Hockey Homicide or a Goofy Gymnastics with a modern twist.
It’s available in the iTunes Store. Search for How to Hook Up Your Home Theater. It think it sells for around $2.
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Late Bloomers
Malcolm Gladwell’s new article Late Bloomers is up at the New Yorker.
Genius, in the popular conception, is inextricably tied up with precocity—doing something truly creative, we’re inclined to think, requires the freshness and exuberance and energy of youth. Orson Welles made his masterpiece, “Citizen Kane,” at twenty-five. Herman Melville wrote a book a year through his late twenties, culminating, at age thirty-two, with “Moby-Dick.” Mozart wrote his breakthrough Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-Flat-Major at the age of twenty-one. In some creative forms, like lyric poetry, the importance of precocity has hardened into an iron law.
Are you still a genius if it’s only later in life that you do anything truly brilliant?
Gladwell discusses the article in a podcast and will be answering reader questions about it later in the week.
The Canadian Election 2008
I went to the Environment & Education Forum at the Lethbridge College yesterday evening for the “last chance to grill [my] federal election candidates”.
I was unimpressed with the fact that only three parties showed up to debate (how does the green party expect to be taken seriously, when their candidate doesn’t show up).
The NDP’s Mark Sandilands was clearly the top candidate, with his well considered responses and comprehensive knowledge of the issues.
Incumbent candidate Rick Casson on the other hand, did not fair so well. The other candidates, specifically Mark Sandilands, poignant questions had him stumbling time after time. I can’t believe the polls indicate that Casson is going to be re-elected, his campaign basically consisted of admitting that his party has made lots of mistakes and that, “that’s something we should do better at”. It’s like he’s not even trying because he knows that running in a conservative stronghold means it doesn’t matter what he says.
The Conservative Party is destroying our environment, wants to reduce funding to the arts, gives tax cuts to the rich, and they refuse to support the Kelowna Accord which was intended to improve the lives of aboriginal people.
And they don’t want to let the Canadian people know their plans, refusing to publish their platform until a week before the election. Local candidate Rick Casson told us last night, a week is plenty of time to talk about the plan, and besides, it’s basically like our previous plan anyway. He didn’t notice any changes worth mentioning. As I mentioned, tonight was THE LAST PUBLIC FORUM WITH THEM BEFORE THE ELECTION.
Why would the people of Lethbridge vote for such a callous uncaring party?
One more thing that bothers me is their desire to introduce copyright legislation that is harmful to everyday citizens making the copyright system here more like the one in the US—even though the US law is seriously out of touch. The new law would, among other things, bring into action a fine of up to $500 for copying legally purchased CD’s onto MP3 players, not to mention it would make it illegal to try and circumvent anti-copyright software, making it illegal to engage in the practise of Fair Dealing (Fair Use in the USA).
The conservatives want to remain in Afghanistan. In 2006 they made it a campaign promise to be out by 2009—I learned last night that they’re now planning to wait until at least 2012, even though the Senlis report on Canadian development in Afghanistan has stated that we are “making no headway. On the ground in Kandahar… CIDA’s efforts are non-existent.”
I could go on!
But I won’t. I’ll just hope that when Canada goes to the polls on Tuesday that we vote for the party most likely to beat out the conservatives.
The NDP Bike
Lethbridge artist and activist Andy Davies shows his support of local MP candidate Mark Sandilands with his modified bike.
Andy is a friend of mine and asked me to shoot a few photos for him.
This American Life on the Financial Crisis
If you’re confused about what caused the greatest financial crisis since the depression, let This American Life teach you in words you can understand, how the mortgage lending crisis started, with their episode The Giant Pool of Money and follow-up with their episode Another Frightening Show About the Economy in which we learn:
- How and why the credit markets froze?
- What are “credit default swaps” and how do they propagate hardship to every sector of the economy?
- Why aren’t “credit default swaps” regulated?
- What will the bailout do and is it a good thing?
If this interests you, you might also want to check out the NPR: Planet Money Podcast.
Update: Now there is a movie about all this (by Adam Davidson no less) called The Big Short. I highly recommend it.
Barack—Up Close
My cousin Amie and her husband Matt got up early this morning to attend one of Barack Obama’s rallies, this one just a few miles from their house. They got some great photos of the future president!
