lovehatethings

Breathtaking.

I'm continuously amazed at how technology has brought us closer to reality in allowing one person trekking around to capture shots like this. While you can certainly watch the embed here on the blog, if it's not giving you the full HD experience, I'd recommend going to the Vimeo source page and clicking full screen.

Makes me want to drive a lot slower and out of reach the next time I cross Canada. Commendable job with scenery that is oft-shot, but rarely so beautifully.

I'm certainly not an aficionado of electronica. I kind of like most of it, but it rarely blows me away. This much is true in the soundtrack to inter // states video by Woob. The video however, is something to behold. Absolutely beautiful. I almost want to mashup some old Philip Glass below it and chant Koyaanisqatsi. A beautiful job by Samuel Cockedey. Check it out in HD fullscreen: awesome!

Blu from www.blublu.org has done some incredible time lapse/real world animations over the past few years. I remember watching That's Incredible when I was a kid and seeing the epic domino runs thinking about how much time it must have taken. Then I saw some of the videos for OK Go and thought the same thing. For me, Blu takes it to an entirely new level.

Kudos to the execution of an amazing Combo.

An absolutely elegant and beautiful selection from nfb.ca. This is like a gentle version of something one might have seen in Koyanisqaatsi series a couple of decades ago. Best part is, you don't have to be Canadian to appreciate the simplicity and juxtaposition of images and sound.

"This film depicts 24 hours in the life of an imagined city – a composite that draws on all Canadian cities. This imaginary day unfolds through the course of four seasons and reveals the nature of places and the people that make them so vibrant. The images in the film slowly come together with deft, impressionistic touches. Adopting the rhythm of someone strolling through the city, they intermingle and reply to each other – evoking a different story for each viewer." - nfb.ca

I've been a fan of the band Phish for well over a decade. They're a band whose popularity was the end result of social media even before the phrase became de rigeur. By allowing free recording of their shows and never repeating setlists, BBS news would spread every night of songs played, and within 24 hours, entire shows for free download would appear on FTP sites. The Phish newsgroups sometimes had 1000 posts a day and people used the web to arrange cassette and eventually CD trading vines.

After hundreds of shows and over 25 years, the band still has not lost its sense of humor or its ability to gravitate to an internet crowd. That they appreciate the need to advertise an upcoming tour on the web is, I suppose, expected. That they can find a way to do it that makes me smile and glad that I've already got tickets is a bonus.

Here's to a band that is willing to put money out for a fan base that is committed and will follow the band wherever they go. A band that's never had a song on the charts or a music video of note.

I applaud the effort. I love the cheekiness. I know that as long as a quarter-century old band can continue to be this creative, they will keep drawing new fans to shows. And isn't that a big part of what social and new media are all about?

I just love that a simple premise can be expressed in a short time frame with such elegance. Give this short animated film under a minute and it will make you smile a little inside... which may hurt... if you have scar tissue... or no soul.