This is my kind of installation art: 60 pianos, all over New York City available for the public to play 9am–10pm each day. Make some beautiful music together, NYC.
Prom Night Fist Fight Lives Tumblrly Ever After
Allow me to tell you a little story…
Once upon a time, in a Chattanooga far, far away, a boy bought a domain because he saw a phrase in a dream that brought some measure of delight to his literary soul. Eventually the boy’s computer died in a fiery crash and with it went his swashbuckled copy of Corel Draw, his first app love/hate, the only vector graphics program he had ever known. Thus he began to wage war with that Adobian beast Illustrator, with the aforementioned domain serving as a battlefield. All manner of color, typography and wit was spilled in 200+ illustrative fist fights. And then he migrated the war over to Tumblr, to make it easier for you to follow along or RSS or favorite stuff. And everyone lived happily ever after. The end*.
So yeah, Prom Night Fist Fight is back. Here are a few personal favorites to hopefully whet your appetite: Hear!, Purple Explosion, Minimum Minded Meme, Dour Words for Cowards, Glory & Grace, The Art o’ Fist Fighting, Sum of Parts, this one, this one, Antoinette, Prog Rock, La Dolce Vita, Psalm 8, Thor!, Word, Booty, Speak Up, Mmm. Vector., this one, and Music to My Ears.
*OR IS IT?
Inventive Nike Music Shoe Commercial
99% of advertising is just plain bad. But man, when they get it right, THEY GET IT RIGHT. Kudos to Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo for making me smile and think better of Nike than I already do (which is tough—their design culture is incredible, and the advertising choices are typically top notch).
Stephen Katz’s Pizzicato Cello Technique
It’s borderline criminal that this only has ~5000 views. More obscenely awesome cello work here.
From 30,000 feet, creating looks like art. From ground level, it’s a to-do list. —Ben Arment
I’m a big fan of Chicago photographer Paul Octavious and his creations, but this latest one The Cloud Collector in his Puffin Clouds series on Flickr? Wonderful. Just wonderful. If you like it, you should buy it. Your walls are lonely. Esperanza Spalding – Tell Him
You should probably listen to Esperanza Spalding more than you do.
It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to. —Jean-Luc Godard
A very happy Monday, from the Montage Blankenships to you! (These are inspired by Kevin Meredith’s awesome portrait montages on Flickr.)
I’ve been getting the itch to do some creative projects that have little or nothing to do with the computer/internet, and Zach Klein’s cheeseboard from milled driftwood has pushed me over the edge. I want a table saw for Christmas.
Clever idea and execution for this video of the Justice remix of Kravitz’s Let Love Rule. (But annoying disabling the embed code, Lenny.)
Taking Rotoscoping to The Next level
Every once in awhile, you see something and go “huh, haven’t seen that before.” Amazing concept and execution! Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. from Chris Cairns.
Creative One-Take Video for Metric’s Gimme Sympathy
I’m a sucker for a good one-take video, especially when it accompanies a catchy pop tune. Semi-related philosophical question: is it a behind the scenes when it’s technically only one scene?
Quote, “You know how there are those teachers of creative writing who can’t necessarily write but can teach? Well, [Ricky Jay] can actually do everything.” — Steve Martin, excerpted from this absolutely fascinating New Yorker profile of magician/actor/cons and frauds consultant Ricky Jay
Rick Astley + Nine Inch Nails = The Hand That Gives You Up
Bobby McFerrin and Crowd Participation
Bobby McFerrin uses the pentatonic scale and audience participation to highlight how our brains expect and anticipate logical progressions. Also, I love him and how joyful he is when he sings.
One of these days, I’m going to make it to the San Diego ComicCon to take in all the nerd absurdity. In the meantime, it’s nice to have friends like Lee Gilmore who take copious amounts of photos of people in crazy costumes. I mean seriously, it doesn’t get much better than Leisure Suit Boba Fett.
Photographer friend extraordinaire Jeremy Cowart has switched up his website content to better fit, well, who he is. Nice change of pace, and I’m loving the categories he’s using to organize the site now. Oh, and the photos are, of course, amazing.
Beautiful Flamenco Guitar from Vicente Amigo
Good Monday morning, internet. Let’s start your workday off right, with a wonderful live version of Vicente Amigo‘s Tres Notas Para Decir Te Quiero. If you like, I’d suggest watching more videos of Vicente or picking up the album Ciudad de Las Ideas.