A few weeks ago, I received a DVD screener of their latest film, Glitch in the Grid. I recently posted my 15-word review to Filmometer.com, but I want to expand on my thoughts here.

Glitch in the Grid

Glitch in the Grid by Eric Leiser is a film about three artists—starring the filmmakers—trying to find themselves and understand the next phases of their lives. Acting quality was the main weakness of Imagination, but it is fairly solid in this film. It is apparent that these guys are basically playing themselves, which certainly lends believability to the endeavor and gives the film a documentary flavor.

However, as with any creation inherently about yourself, avoiding self-indulgence remains a challenge. By the end, this film is mired in heavy-handed religious imagery and a general lack of structure. I had wished for the film to illustrate a beautiful, spiritual transformation that would complement the charming animation—and I think it wanted to be such a work of art, but it is weighed down and muddied by a specific, contrived form of spiritual understanding.

The film progresses from an exploratory, open, allegorical animation of the struggles of modern life to what seems like a very narrow, Christian perspective of the infinite forms spirituality can take. I had been hoping for a more inclusive expression of how adults might stay in touch with their inner children and find both personal renewal and spiritual meaning. But the characters seem to believe that rejecting “our fast food society” in favor of accepting Jesus Christ as our personal savior is the only path to happiness and inner peace. Clearly, there are countless ways to leave “the grid” and rediscover childlike wonder and lighthearted humanity. I started to lose interest during the last third of the film because of the degree to which the filmmakers indulge their own personal beliefs and delusions, and aimlessly complain about being marginalized by modern society.

During the first half, I had been interested in, and excited by, the possibilities for cathartic human transformation the film seems to weave—especially as it is being deepened by magical animations of the natural environment. But I was disappointed that the conclusion—despite being one of hope and renewal—feels contrived, vain and strongly tied to conventional Christianity. This film could have held much more meaning for me if the profound power of faith supposedly being illustrated remained more allegorical, if they hadn’t unnecessarily (probably unintentionally) alienated those who might subscribe to a different form of spirituality.

I feel it is a sign of mature filmmakers (and, more broadly, human beings) to be able to move beyond their own worldviews and dogmas and reach for allegories that stretch across and illuminate all of humanity, regardless of their personal mythologies. I don’t feel these guys are quite there yet (are any of us?), but they’re trying hard—and I admire their passion and creativity, despite feeling alienated as a viewer. I also admire their desire to work on their own terms, outside of the Hollywood studio system.

Lastly, as I brought up in my review of Imagination, I selfishly wish Eric Leiser would more fully focus his filmmaking in the realm of stop-motion animation, along the lines of Jan Svankmajer or the Brothers Quay or Michel Gondry, because I feel his unique animation style is an obvious strength of both films and I would love to see more of it.

Thanks to the Leiser Brothers for the opportunity to watch their film. I look forward to their next project, as they continue to grow as people and artists. Theatrical screenings of Glitch in the Grid are coming soon to New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland and more. You can watch the Glitch in the Grid trailer at albinofawn.com.

Attention Oregonians: On Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 7 pm, there will be a Glitch in the Grid screening in Portland at the Hollywood Theatre.

But you can still follow @iancavalier on Twitter or Flickr or 8tracks or Yelp or blah blah social media blah whatever.

(The hiatus monkey is courtesy of Squidsicle.)

Below is a large dump of random, interesting and useful links I had been storing for future posts or for future personal reference. Most of them were collected this spring. I may or may not have tweeted some of these in the past. Just flushing them out of my system now.

Web development & graphic design

• Less Framework: An adaptive CSS grid system
• HTML5 Reset Stylesheet
• CSS3 Generator
• WhatTheFont! font identifier from MyFonts
• Open Source Templates
• 15 Useful CSS3 and HTML5 Templates and Frameworks (April 2010)
• IE 5-8 CSS3 pseudo-class selector emulation: ie-css3.js (January 2010)
• 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less (February 2010)
• How to Code up a Web Design from PSD to HTML (February 2010)
• 50 Inspiring Examples of Minimalism in Web Design (June 2009) and a university (Loyola University Chicago) that actually has a nice, uncluttered website
• 30 Beautifully Textured Web Designs (February 2009)
• Making a website iPhone-friendly using CSS (June 2009)
• 20+ Websites Optimized For The iPhone (January 2008)

WordPress themes

• WordPress Themes » Mobile Themes
• 40 WordPress-Powered Websites With Awesome Designs (April 2010)
• Using Facebook’s “Like” Button in Your Wordpress Blog (April 2010)
• 17 Really Useful Wordpress Plugins That Probably Are Essential (January 2009)

Music

• Jenny Owen Youngs – “Fuck Was I“
• Erik Hassle – “Nothing Else Matters (Metallica Cover)” and “The Thanks I Get“
• A Knife in a Gunfight – Ian Stillmunks from Des Moines, Iowa
• Synth Britannia – great BBC documentary about synth

Animals

• Orca Guardians – free documentary film
• Melanism: “More Black Penguin Sightings” and “Today’s Pic: Rare Black Penguin” (March 2010)

Games & cartoons

• Dino Run – 8-bit-style Flash game from Adult Swim
• Robot Unicorn Attack – Flash game from Adult Swim
• “Creating a Video Game’s World With Real People: Bright Falls” (April 2010)
• “After Warning, ‘South Park’ Episode Is Altered” (April 2010)
• 10 Most Ridiculous Cartoon Character Makeovers (February 2010)
• Younger and junior versions of cartoon characters

Random interest

• “Five Reasons Werner Herzog is More Badass Than Chuck Norris” (November 2009)
• 25 Bizarre Buildings in photos (February 2010)
• “The story behind sex and the city of Portland” (April 2010)
• The Babes of #Boobquake (April 2010)
• Chris Creamer’s Sports Logos and Marc’s Distinctive College Mascot Collection
• Institution Size and Brand Community (April 2010, University Business)
• Tilt-Shift and Lomography Photoshop actions (January 2009) and the Helpless video by Keith Loutit
• “Your new passport has a computer chip inside. Should you worry?” (October 2008)
• BBC – Languages – Spanish – Spanish Steps
• Glidden Paint Versus Behr Paint

I like this quote (read more at quotedump.com):

“What I try to do to maintain my sanity is alternate between artist and whore. If I was just an artist I’d be broke, and if I was just a whore I’d be sad.”
—Jonathan Lemkin, More Tales From the Script (2010)

See you back here in 2011, sometime. Maybe.

I am attending the HOW Design Conference 2010 in Denver, Colorado. Below is a quick overview of the four sessions I attended on Tuesday.

9:00 am-10:15 am – 19. Why We Brand, Why We Buy – Debbie Millman
Dive deep into the influence branding has on our everyday lives as Sterling Brands’ Debbie Millman looks at branding’s role in the products we buy and the way we live. You’ll explore the five waves of modern branding, traits that help modern brands stand out, the connection between branding and our most basic instincts, and more.

• A historical look at our relationship with brands.
• Backlash branding/consumerism movements: No Logo, AdBusters, Buy Nothing Day, etc. But even these movements have logos and marketing.
• Great Leap Forward.
• Cultural universals: language, art, music, cooking, self-decoration. Toolmaking. These universals fall into two categories: Making and Marking.
• Reuters the news service began with carrier pigeons that beat the railroad in delivery time. At the time there were no logos on anything.
• The noun brand originated in 1010 AD in the epic Anglo Saxon poem Beowulf. Mark or destroy by a physical impression. Then hot-iron branding on livestock.
• Brands as we know them originated in the late 19th century with the advent of packaged goods. The trademarks registration act went into effect on January 1, 1876; brands became legally recognized, kind of copyrighted. First registered trademark: Bass Ale.
• There are over 100 brands of nationally advertised water and contact lenses.
• 5 waves of modern brand evolution: each ushered in a new class of brands:
  • Wave 1 (1875-1920): Brands as guarantors of consistency no matter the location (meanwhile: Industrial Revolution apex; beginning of homogeny). Leaders were food brands: Campbell’s Soup, Quaker Oats, Coca-Cola. Convenience and efficiency.
  • Wave 2 (1920-1965): Brands as guarantors of quality. FDA act. Every device and label could not mislead or deceive. The consumer is legally entitled to buy brands that are honest and safe. Metaphor begins to show up in brands. Morton’s salt – humans enjoy figuring out puzzles. We feel good about ourselves when we figure it out.
  • Wave 3 (1965-1985): Brands as expressive statements. Cultural revolution: 1960s. Brands expresses a certain social cache. You expect that a brand will express a status: Levi’s, Marlboro, VW Beetle, etc. People wear brands to fit in.
  • Wave 4 (1985-2000): Brands signifying an experience. Expecting an emotional transformation: Nike, MTV. Brand zealots are first born; people who will only wear that brand.
    • Human needs: food, shelter, reproduction, survival. We have a collective tendency to organize ourselves in some kind of pack, like many animals. We feel safer and more secure in groups.
    • We use all sorts of things to signify that we belong to a group. Most pervasive pack organization of all is the family. Given the choice, a baby will choose the connection with their mother over food (attachment theory). Emotional attachment is a profound human need. Demographic change from married to single households.
    • The path to wave 5. Our brains have invented new frameworks to connect. New social networking communities. Brands and websites to create connections.
  • Wave 5 (2000 – present): limbic brands: brands as guarantors of connection.
• Lifestraw: make dirty water drinkable anywhere.
• Making and marking is simply an evolution or a trajectory of invention.

10:45 am-Noon – 22. How to Sell Your Ideas to Bosses, Clients and Other Decision-Makers REPEAT – Sam Harrison
It’s not enough to have a great idea, if you can’t also sell that idea to your boss or a group of clients. Join Sam Harrison as he shares his time-tested methods for connecting with decision-makers, putting together winning pitches and sharpening your presentation skills.

• This is not rocket science, this is rapport science. Develop a relationship with your decision makers and know them. A pitch is a story. And behind the story is energy.
• “If they birthed it, they can’t kill it.” – when decision makers are involved, they begin to take ownership of the idea. It becomes their idea too.
• What does the decision maker see when s/he looks at our ideas? What are their needs and wants? What is their life outside of business. The more you know about them, the more you can connect your ideas to their life and interests.
• Buyer Bench: Are they unaware/aware of the concept you’re trying to present? Do they understand/accept? Are they ready to buy? Do they need education first before you make your pitch? Ask open-ended questions to get a feel for where they stand and what they’re thinking? Ask “how come” questions like an uninhibited kid.
• The last question to ask before you leave a room is: What else should I be asking here? What did I forget to ask? And really listen.
• Know your decision maker’s business. What’s important to them? What do they read?
• Every presentation is a performance and a story. This comes with expectations from your audience. Be yourself, but be the best version of yourself. Have confidence and poise. Know the room, because it’s one less thing for you mind to have to go through. Practice your presentation until you know it so well that it sounds spontaneous. Never give handouts because they’re distracting, but do give comprehensive leave-behinds for people to take with them and sell their bosses with.
• Five big secrets/tips, adapted from Winston Churchill:
  1. Have one theme (one big idea) and have it locked in your mind. What’s the payoff of the idea? What do you want to have happen? Be able to pitch it in two or three lines, because it will help you focus and give you confidence. A pitch is a story and a story has a beginning, a middle and an end and flows sequentially or linearly.
  2. Have a strong start. Get management in the moment by starting a pitch in one of six ways: tell a story, ask a question, cite a fact, use a quote, tie it into objectives, straight talk. Do not open with, “You’re going to LOVE this idea!”
  3. Use simple language. Not simple-minded, but concise. A decision-maker will never wish that you talked longer. Three R’s: Reduce, Round, Relate (to something else). Show charts in a fun, appealing, artistic way if you have to use them. Avoid bullet points! Don’t make them read your slide. Have a few takeaway/money lines/zingers that are memorable.
  4. Paint pictures. With your words and your supporting images. Does this plant images in your decision-maker’s mind? Example: MLK’s I Have a Dream speech. Help clients visualize your ideas as reality. Use personal stories. Make sure you have some emotion, some human qualities to your pitches.
  5. Add drama. Every pitch is a story and every story has drama/anticipation. Use appropriate drama. Appropriate drama works if: (1) DM appreciates drama, (2) Know DM’s wants and needs, (3) You have credibility
• “First show them what they want. Then show them what you want them to have.” – Paul Arden
• We’ve got another one that builds on your objectives and ideas.
• Once you’ve sold something, shut up and get out of the room. Don’t buy it back.
• Presentations are all about energy and energy is all matter and all matter is energy. If you people to understand you, get to understand them. If you want people to be nervous, be nervous around them. If you’re confident and passionate, you’re going somewhere.
• Selling is a transfer of enthusiasm. Passion is not the quantity of emotion, but the quality/quantity of commitment.
• If you have an idea, possess and own it both.

2:00 pm-3:15 pm – 30. Developing Personal Style – Eleanor Grosch
It can be tough to keep track of your personal style—but doing so will make you a happier, more creative person. Eleanor Grosch will explain how she’s built her entire career around her personal style, and show you how to simplify your message and find a style that suits your strengths.

• Her style: simple animals. Other people work this way. What do I bring to the style? There’s a thin line between inspiration and imitation.
• See: Gigposters.com. Charley Harper, mid-century modern designer. Alexander Gerard. Paul Rand. Etsy. Grainedit.com. ohjoy.blogspot.com
• What is personal style?
  • Visual elements: color, line, form, size, shading, etc. There is a limit to the elements; it’s how you combine them!
  • A mix of what you like and who you are.
  • Where did you start? Her: Miro, Celtic knotwork (abstracted and stylized animals), The Dark Ages (didn’t like Renaissance art), Habitat skateboard art (Alien Workshop skateboards too), animals, line vs. texture.
  • What did you like?
• The Gigposters Era:
  • Examples: Methane Studios, The Heads of State, Jason Munn
  • Distilling a message down to the basics
  • Which ones draw you in?
• Take something people are familiar with and do something unexpected with it.
  • Who’s work do you admire? Pay attention to what you love.
• Her website: Just Eleanor

3:45 pm-5:00 pm – 32. Three. Word. Taglines. (And Other Horrible Branding Practices) – Tate Linden
Join veteran brander Tate Linden as he debunks numerous traditional branding myths. You’ll learn why choosing what instinctively sounds or looks good is usually the wrong path, why consensus is irrelevant, and how even the most experienced branders abide by rules destined to make projects fail—and what you can do to improve your odds of success.

• Three. Word. Taglines. And other horrid branding practices that are holding you back.
• Stop the Suck
• Act I: The Written Rules
  • “I deliver crappy work because that’s what the clients tell me they want.” Challenge it and you can add value.
  • My opinion, though interesting, is entirely irrelevant.
  • When you don’t rock the boat, you don’t learn what matters. We learn something when you reach. When you have a brand that hasn’t been tested and fought over, you don’t know what’s going to happen when you get it into the wild.
  • Instinct is a new connection between dots that already exist, not the creation of new dots.
  • Instinct […] is largely memory in disguise – Robert B. via @cameronmoll
• Act II: The Unwritten Rules
  • Clients think they know, but they don’t know. We have to educate everybody. Clients get comfortable rather than effective.
  • The FAINTS System – helps a client understand what makes a strong brand
    1. Fidelity – depending on the deliverable, fidelity means that it fits you and should be exclusively you
    2. Availability – check Google and check culturally
    3. Intangibles – the artsy stuff; one of the least important aspects of your brand; how does it look on the page, how does it make me feel (the soft stuff); what sounds good; it feels right for your marketplace
    4. Need – the one thing you need, not just for the overall brand, but would make you fail if it misses (all clients complain about this)
    5. Tangibles – words, spelling, do I actually know what that is, length of tagline and name, etc.
    6. Strategy – differentiation in the marketplace; the Marketing Well, how many things can we do with this that matter
  • Poking brands with sticks, igniting brands
  • See Art & Copy movie.
  • Decider’s remorse – after you make a decision about your brand.
  • Tell clients where the process is going to be hard and they will respect you for it. Don’t hide the ugly parts of the process. Make going off the rails part of the process.
  • “I can live with that” and “If no one objects…” means you failed. That means no one cares about your brand. This is the sound of settling.
  • Consensus is the enemy of great brands. Only agree on where you need to reach, but not the process by which you get there.
  • The opposite of a brand that you love it not a brand that you hate, it’s a brand that you know about but don’t care.
• Act III: The Suck
  • Acronyms: If you’re going to the effort of hiding your identity, I’ll give you the satisfaction of no one being able to find it. Acronyms do not work.
  • We need to know who the real decider is and get access to them; the people who actually know what is going on.
    1. Beauty is Easy (and has become a commodity).
    2. Meaning is Hard.
    3. Adding Value is Harder.
  • You can’t sell it without 2 and 3. Beautiful/cool goes out of style.
  • “It’s not your talent that’s holding your back. It’s your ability to influence my decisions.”
  • No one has ever won an award with a three-word tagline. They’re forgettable. (They’re only internally meaningful.) They’re shortcuts. They’re conceited. (Why should I care? I have no reason to be invested in that.) (A three-word tagline is an excellent reminder to everyone internally as to why we’re here.)
  • These work:
    • Just do it. – Nike
    • Faith. Works. Wonders. – Catholic Charities
• Find Tate on Twitter: @Thingnamer and @Stokefire

Continue to HOW Design 2010 in review: Part three »

Sunday, June 6, 2010

6:30 pm-7:45 pm – Opening Keynote – 1. Design Inspiration – Andy Stefanovich
Andy Stefanovich, a nationally recognized innovative thinker, kicks off the Conference with a jolt of inspiration sure to get your creativity flowing. He’ll help you rethink your design approach with tips on using inspiration to fuel innovation and show you why it’s important to constantly seek new and different creative outlets. You’ll learn how to open yourself up to the power of possibilities and relentlessly pursue change, all for the betterment of your inner creative genius.

Monday, June 7, 2010

9:00 am-10:15 am – 2. Inspiration: You Are What You Keep – Gail Anderson
You don’t have to pull inspiration from thin air—just take a look at all the stuff around you. Gail Anderson, former art director at Rolling Stone, will walk you through her piles of odds and ends and explain how many of those things, including her childhood keepsakes, later inspired and influenced her work.

• Love of illustration came from this book: The Magic Castle by Stella Farris
• The Children’s Bible – fantastic illustrations (The Temptation in the Wilderness devil)
• Great line drawings: Harriet the Spy and It’s Like This, Cat

10:45 am-Noon – 6. Creating Five-Alarm Concepts – Von Glitschka
Good design starts with a good concept. Fortunately for you, Von Glitschka has developed systematic methods to help you start concepting. He’ll show you how to cultivate concepts and derive context, map the processes of idea generation, and successfully ignite your creativity. [Slides - PDF]

• Design batting average – “a hit is a hit”
• Load the chamber (AKA your head) – take in information from outside the design industry
• Designers need to be great thinkers; many are too visually orientated, as if what the creation looks like is more important than what it does.
• Marketing vs. Design – a common industry balance.  Marketing people are serial design killers, who like to “play designer.”
• Designers’ ultimate goal isn’t a visual one, but an effectual one.
• “Marketing without Design is lifeless, and Design with Marketing is mute.”
• “No idea is as dangerous as the only idea you have.”
• Collecting knowledge/ideas/inspiration (“matchsticks”) through reading, travel, culture, people … everywhere. Gather as many matches as you can … the more conceptual triggers you will have loaded into your chamber.
• “Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
• Great design is fed by the culture that supports it. Idea generation from books, comics, magazines, blogs…. A designer’s mind should be ever-expanding. Inspiration and new ideas sometimes only happen when you leave your comfort zone. “Be a Bedouin” – take notes of cues in your travels and collect them and implement them into your own work. Harvest your inspiration. Harvest through: thoughts, visuals, words.
• Conceptual ignition – play with matches. Isolate and associate the concepts.
• “How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else.” – R. Buckminster Fuller
• Embrace the rabbit trails. What environment facilitates your thinking? When does your “idea engine” kick in?
• Word associations:
  • (run the risk of being too literal). Use figurative words and phrases and well as literal words and phrases.
  • mind mapping
  • forced random relationships
  • Venn diagrams: isolate before/during/after phases of word/product
• “A concept is stronger than a fact.” – Charlotte P. Gillman
• Design, for better or worse, has now become a commodity. Examples: Brandstack, CrowdSpring, 99 Designs. Also: LogoWords by HP. You will be competing with these people. Differentiate yourself with ideas.
• “All art is exploitation.” – Sherman Alexie

2:00 pm-3:15 pm – 13. Good vs. Great Design: A Reprise – Cameron Moll
In this update on last year’s popular session, Cameron Moll will help you discern the difference between good and great design. You’ll get practical techniques for tipping the scales of greatness in your favor, discover why a problem-focused approach is so important and explore examples of good vs. great design from all forms of creativity. [Slides - PDF]

• Commercials: Cullman Liquidation and Sussex Safer Roads: Always wear your seat belt
• Best book he’s read in his design career: How Designers Think
• Design jobs: AuthenticJobs.com
• CSS Mastery – ROMA website example
• Colosseo – Rome coliseum created with type
• Two kinds of stress: Distress (negative) and Eustress (positive stresses/challenges that expand your abilities)
• Influence vs. inspiration

3:45 pm-5:00 pm – 17. Curiously Curious: Seeing Art in Everything – Ken Carbone
Using pages from his personal journals as illustration, Ken Carbone will show you how he draws ideas from art, design, science, architecture, film, technology, music and life. He’ll explain that inspiration is everywhere, every minute of every day, and show you that exploring the outside (read: non-design) world will make you a better designer.

• Examples of inspiration: Casa Malapart – on an Italian island, featured in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film Contempt
• Nanoguitar – first song played: “Stairway to Heaven”
• Thelonius Monk – master of knowing what not to play (not too dense; to make the work stronger)
• Tara Donovan’s plastic cup art: “To see the potential is something so banal is unbelievably wonderful.”
• William Kentridge – master draftsman/animated films/charcoal filmmaker
• What makes a great client?
  1. Courage
  2. Collaboration (not being a “Vendor”)
  3. Commitment (money, time, resources)
  4. Cash!
• Thousand Words company brought these movies to market: A Scanner Darkly, Pi, Requiem for a Dream. Then Thousand Words created Aether Apparel (a hybrid of Patagonia/Prada) – higher priced sporting goods.
• Fast Company articles:
  • “Penalty! Unnecessarily Blandness! Redesigning the Worst NFL Helmet Graphics“
  • “Rebranding the License Plate: 4 Designers Clean Up Graphic Road Kill“
• The unknown is what drives him, learning to embrace what he doesn’t know, and wanting to learn new things.
• His sketchbook: “I’m having a conversation with that particular artist. It’s private.”
• The velocity of life is something he has no interest in. He’s going deeper, taking time to focus of things that are deeply meaningful. You have to write slower with a fountain pen. The journal slows him down and he appreciates life more deeply now. He’d be perfectly fine with just the art that exists in the world right now, if nothing else was ever created. Because that would make him go back and take another look, appreciate the art that does exist more deeply. Nothing is more important to him than his team’s/staff’s level of intellectual curiosity/capacity, not even their portfolios. Intellectual capacity has to match or exceed their creative capacity.
• His book: The Virtuoso: Face to Face With 40 Extraordinary Talents.

Continue to HOW Design 2010 in review: Part two »

(That reminds me: Feeling nostalgic for the days of cassette tapes? Watch the award-winning short film Mixtape by Luke Snellin. I love the moment where the kid exits his house and the Heart song kicks in. Brilliant.)

This month I evaluated various free online services for streaming music and creating social playlists. I was looking for a simple, legal way to share and discover music through online mixes. Most sites I looked at were recommendation-based radio (like Pandora and Last.fm), which was not what I wanted.

(If you want to do your own research on mixtape sites, these two articles are good starting points for further exploration: “8 Best Ways to Share ‘Mix Tapes’” (October 26, 2009) and “Social Music: Top 5 Sites to Build a Playlist” (February 9, 2009). Also see: Quarkbase.)

Anyway, after all that searching, my favorite service for creating and sharing personal mixes is 8tracks. And this weekend I got a chance to upload some MP3s to my new 8tracks account. I created three mixes of 12 songs each. The track listings are below. Most songs were released in 2008 or 2009.

What I wrote in my 8tracks profile is true: “Music is how I remember time.” Have a listen.

12 Memories: Autumn 2009
Twelve tracks including music by Camera Obscura, The Twilight Sad and Zola Jesus. Some songs I’ve been listening to since the weather turned.

1. Florence and the Machine – Dog Days Are Over
2. The Duke Spirit – This Ship Was Built to Last
3. Holopaw – Abraham Lincoln
4. Fruit Bats – When U Love Somebody
5. Ben Folds – You Don’t Know Me (Feat. Regina Spektor)
6. Meiko – Boys with Girlfriends
7. Camera Obscura – Away with Murder
8. Zola Jesus – Sink The Dynasty
9. Gina Young – The Boy on the Bus
10. Bye Bye Bicycle – Footsteps (Pt. II)
11. Noah and the Whale – The First Day of Spring
12. Twilight Sad – At the Burnside

12 Memories: Sasquatch 2009
Twelve tracks including music by Crystal Castles, The Decemberists and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Studio songs from my favorite artists that played on Saturday at Sasquatch 2009 in Washington.

1. The Decemberists – The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid (Feat. Shara Worden)
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Down Boy
3. Crystal Castles – Courtship Dating
4. Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
5. Animal Collective – Fireworks
6. DeVotchKa – Head Honcho
7. Blind Pilot – Go On, Say It
8. Doves – Kingdom of Rust
9. M. Ward – Headed for a Fall
10. Crystal Castles – Untrust Us
11. The Decemberists – The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing (Feat. Shara Worden)
12. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Runaway

(Read my blog post about last year’s Sasquatch! Music Festival.)

12 Memories: Bumbershoot 2009
Twelve tracks including music by Metric, Mirah and Say Hi. Studio songs from my favorite artists that played on Monday at Bumbershoot 2009 in Seattle.

1. Metric – Empty
2. Anomie Belle – How Can I Be Sure
3. Say Hi – Northwestern Girls
4. Mirah – The Garden
5. The Cave Singers – Dancing On Our Graves
6. Soulsavers – Revival
7. Modest Mouse – Little Motel
8. Franz Ferdinand – Die On The Floor
9. Mirah – Cold Cold Water (Electrosexual & Abberline)
10. Anomie Belle – Down
11. Say Hi – November Was White, December Was Grey
12. Metric – Help I’m Alive

(Read my blog post about last year’s Bumbershoot: Seattle’s Music & Arts Festival.)

Bumbershoot was really fun this year, except for the rain.

You might want to check out the new “Hot Chicks in Black & White Flicks!” series from Secret Sauce. Remakes include 12 Angry Men and On The Waterfront. I like the Raging Bull one best, but I was mildly amused by all of them.

Also brought to you by Secret Sauce is this live-action trailer for My Little Pony: Reign of Buttercup Sprinkles. I, for one, welcome our new pony overlords. Total worldwide pony occupation in less than six hours!

Take a look at this Quentin Tarantino Movies topic at Cracked. Note: If you haven’t seen Inglourious Basterds, you can skip over that column to avoid spoilers. I loved the “Tarantino on Pop Culture” section. Hilarious. But you should also really watch Inglourious Basterds. It’s awesome.

These are two cool music videos at Vimeo:

• “Bathtub IV” by Keith Loutit (song is “Clementine” by Megan Washington)
• “White Swan” by Sil van der Woerd

Photographer Palla has created some amazing kaleidoscopic images of Japanese cityscapes.

Funny animals and science

This BuzzFeed article isn’t that great, as I’ve seen animals looking more disappointed than these guys, but it’s cute: Extremely Disappointed Animals.

Also from BuzzFeed: Mother Nature crying in a glacier in Norway.

Very funny: Cat Showers In Sink.

Ah, good ol’ Laser Cats. How could I forget about you? Ignore the article and just watch the embedded “SNL” videos if you haven’t seen them.

This is an interesting article: “Maori legend of man-eating bird is true.” In this same vein, I watched a “Mega Beasts” episode on Discovery Channel about the so-called Terror Bird (large carnivorous flightless birds that dominated during the Cenozoic).

Here’s a little more science: “Evolutionary mutation is caused by oxygen.” A quick quote: “DNA damage by oxidation is the primary cause of mutation.” I find this stuff fascinating.

I’ll end with this fontastic graphic detailing the exact stroke differences between Arial and Helvetica (via swissmiss). Neat.