Bear Creek Apartments
Ninja August 20th, 2008
Check out comic artist duo, Hope Larsen & Bryan Lee O’Malley’s latest web freebie, Bear Creek Apartments. You can read it here.
Interstellar Travel Impossible?
Penguin August 19th, 2008
I love scifi and this “news” comes as a real wet blanket.
The major problem is that propulsion — shooting mass backwards to go forwards — requires large amounts of both time and fuel. For instance, using the best rocket engines Earth currently has to offer, it would take 50,000 years to travel the 4.3 light years to Alpha Centauri, our solar system’s nearest neighbor. Even the most theoretically efficient type of propulsion, an imaginary engine powered by antimatter, would still require decades to reach Alpha Centauri, according to Robert Frisbee, group leader in the Advanced Propulsion Technology Group within NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
- Wired
Luckily for us writers, most people don’t know that much about space or how difficult it is. But it also goes to show how important “magic” is, such as “hyperspace” (Star Wars), “FTL” (Battlestar Galactica), “Gates” (Stargate, Babylon 5), and of course “warp” (Star Trek).
Most of them take the right approach by not getting into the technicalities of these systems. They just assume that they “just work” and thus, we assume it too. And it’s a good thing too, otherwise, there would be a lot of boring scifi out there.
-Penguin
Related postsDutch Osborne’s photogram alphabet print
Ninja August 19th, 2008
I was browsing through Spring (a charming gallery/store in Brooklyn), when this photogram print caught my eye.
Rhode Island School of Design grad, Dutch Osborne, offers up this delightful, found object alphabet poster. This unusual alphabet poster was the AIGA winner for typographic design in 2005.
Composed of found, recycled, and reused objects, this new typeface is captured through the photographic process known as the photogram. Each letter is created by capturing the shadow of an object. There is no distortion of scale between the image that is captures and the object from which it was cast. As each object has a unique shape the signature of the shadow is often a surprise. As a collection these signatures have begun to define a new typography and an attitude towards reused and appropriation. While some images are familiar to adults, other present themselves to children. The purpose of this piece is to foster a dialogue of discovery and exchange.
For $60, you can order a 28 x 40 in. poster directly from the designer. Just email your request to orders@dutchosborne.com
Or if you prefer, you can get a smaller, 27 x 38 in. photo print from Spring for $68.00. Click here to purchase.
Related postsVideo: Dali’s Destino
Penguin August 19th, 2008
This weekend, Ninja and I went to the MoMA to see the Dali: Film and Art exhibit. We had the opportunity to see one of the shorts he had done for Disney (of all places). It was originally supposed to be included in Fantasia, but it was deemed too risque for the film.
Finally, in 2003, some Disney animators resurrected the short and put Destino together. If you can’t make it to the MoMA, you’ll be able to see it on Oct 3. Unfortunately, you’ll have to catch Beverly Hills Chihuahua as it’s attached to it. I would recommend watching Destino and then going home to watch Spellbound the Hitchcock film which features 3 dream sequences as painted by Dali.
-Penguin
Related postsPriscilla Ahn’s Dream
Ninja August 18th, 2008
I was listening to Priscilla Ahn’s Dream today (yay for shuffle mode). Childlike reflections with a touch of hope for the future, Dream has a folksy, enchanting melody that makes me smile whenever I hear it. Much thanks to Penguin for introducing me to Priscilla’s music.
Even though I wasn’t listening to Dream at the time, I think this song really captures how I felt when I was drawing Daydream Believer
This quote from Ms. Ahn also made me smile (because I’ve been there before):
I think I had 2 nervous breakdowns in the past week. Not bad breakdowns though—the fun kind, that last like 5 minutes. You know the kind—the ones where you think you’re having a heart attack, and you feel utterly alone and lost, and then the tears start coming and they don’t stop—but then you spot something random, like the vacuum cleaner in the corner, and you wonder where that extension piece for the hose went because you always put it back in the little clip when you’re done using it—did your boyfriend use it and forget to put it back?—why do I always blame him right away?—oh wait, I think I used it as a cane when I was dancing around pretending to be the Planter’s peanut, and then I find it on the floor in the middle of my office; and now I’ve stopped crying, I wipe away my tears, and move on, feeling a little lighter. So, something fun like that!
– Priscilla Ahn
Related links
+ Priscilla Ahn’s blog
+ Learn Dream’s guitar chords
Dowloading link via Carry You Away
+ Priscilla Ahn’s Dream mp3
Purchasing link ($9.99)
+ Priscilla Ahn’s A Good Day album
Radioactive Pork Dumpling
Ninja August 18th, 2008
My friend Nancy just got a ridiculously cute, glow-in-the-dark, vinyl Radioactive Pork Dumpling toy. These Shawnimals dumplings are in a limited edition of 200 and sold exclusively through My Plastic Heart.
front
back
with the lights off
Wee stickers are very friendly pork and veggie packed dumplings happiest in groups, swimming in a variety of delicious sauces, or hanging out with their chubby pals in steam filled take-out boxes. Wee stickers often take a dip in the following: soy sauce, spicy chili oil, ginger sesame sauce, water (when boiled), sweet and sour sauce, broth.
Purchasing link
+ Get your Radioactive Pork Dumpling for $29.99
The Acorn
Ninja August 18th, 2008
I’m chasing away a case of the Mondays with The Acorn.
Ottawa-based band, The Acorn, is Rolf Klausener, Jeff Debutte, Keiko Devaux, T.Jeffrey Malecki, and Howie Tsui. The Acorn’s latest album, Glory Hope Mountain, is based on the life of Rolf’s mother, Gloria Esperanza Montoya. Ohbijou, The Wooden Stars, Flecton Big Sky, and Fiftymen are some of the guest artists featured on the album.
Take a listen to their Cyndi Lauper cover, Good Enough, here.
Purchasing link
Related posts
Short: A Short Love Story in Stop Motion
Penguin August 18th, 2008
A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION.
Here’s a link to the making of.
Carlos shot the film with a Nikon D70s and Sony HVR V1, captured with a Blackmagic Intensity Card, and edited using Adobe Photoshop, After effects CS3, Final Cut and iStop Motion on an Mac Pro from Apple. Many of the organic textures such as particles, drops, autumn leaves, etc, were carefully filmed over a green background in uncompressed full HD at 1920 x 1080.
A fantastic and beautiful short.
-Penguin
Related postsRST: Back on Track
Penguin August 18th, 2008
After a few delays, we’re finally going to start shooting Red String Theory today. I’ve been itching to make stuff. Even though I won’t be directing, it’ll be nice to put something together.
It should be a quick shoot. 15 pages over 2 days.
-Penguin
Related postsShort: Fantasmagorie, First Animated Film of All Time
Penguin August 18th, 2008
Cohl made “Fantasmagorie” from February to May or June 1908. This is considered the first fully animated film ever made. It was made up of 700 drawings, each of which was double-exposed, leading to a running time of almost two minutes. Despite the short running time, the piece was packed with material devised in a “stream of consciousness” style. It borrowed from Blackton in using a “chalk-line effect” (filming black lines on white paper, then reversing the negative to make it look like white chalk on a black chalkboard), having the main character drawn by the artist’s hand on camera, and the main characters of a clown and a gentleman (this taken from Blackton’s “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces”). The film, in all of its wild transformations, is a direct tribute to the by-then forgotten Incoherent movement. The title is a reference to the “fantasmograph”, a mid-Nineteenth Century variant of the magic lantern that projected ghostly images that floated across the walls.
It’s an amazing little piece of history. It’s nice to see how far we’ve come and yet how things don’t change that much. Here’s to another 100 years of animation.
-Penguin
Related posts
