Chop Cup
When I was a kid I went through a phase where I was obsessed with Harry Houdini, I read books, I bought handcuffs, I tried to learn card tricks all to no avail. While I don’t spend too much time anymore learning how to guess your card magic still holds a special place in my heart. This video is the best kind of magic: lighting, musical, typographical, but in the end what... Read More
Skimboarding nimrod
Oh what a way to start a Monday!! This eliminated my winter funk for a full five minutes. LOVE the end, the last 10 seconds sound like the apocalypse. Thanks Skull4brains! Read More
Dancing cast members
Originally I was going to talk about two of my favorite martial arts films because, well, they’re just too good not to talk about. Then I realized both films involve serious cast-wide dance sequences in them. What are the chances!? Clearly I am the culprit here, there can not be many of these out there. I’ve loved both of these for years, and for your moment of appropriate... Read More
Story of a Collection
Someone in a room somewhere made a very, very good decision around the Steven Alan line. Some creative director or team of designers realized that the world is starved for good storytelling. They also realized that there is a certain backlash to blatant advertising techniques that fueled our disposable culture in the last century. How then would someone tell the story of a still... Read More
Wes Anderson Acceptance Speech
When The National Board of Review awarded Wes Anderson a Special Filmmaking Achievement earlier this month he gave his thanks in the same manner that his latest film The Fantastic Mr. Fox was created. The results are, well, fantastic. Read More
Water Brains in China
I was exposed to this short animated film late last year and have watched it ten times or so to try and understand the meaning in some sort of relevant way, beyond the gorgeous animation. The film comes from Guangzhou, China, depicting children studying under the rigorous draconian task masters that consume the work of the children; their brain steam, of course. Do not be fooled... Read More
Espresso
A beautiful video featuring one of Intelligentsia Coffee’s (I can only assume) fantastic barista’s explaining why espresso is such a beautiful and delicate art. With so much good coffee in Portland it’s easy to take for granted the skill involved in creating a finely crafted latte, and this video was a great reminder of the amount of skill that goes into creating... Read More
Sundance underdog
Showing at Sundance Film Festival as we speak, I’m pulling hard for this film, Nuummioq. First of all it’s fun to say. More importantly this is the first feature film to come out of Greenland. These guys have been working so hard to find funding since 2008, literally hitting the streets at Cannes asking for sponsorship. Additionally the filmmakers have released large... Read More
The Mirror, 1975
Following Clifton Burt’s recommendation to poke around The Auteurs I uncovered this dusty old Russian film, The Mirror. This is one of those films you sink into, totally get lost in, and days after watching still can’t find your way out. I suppose that sounds creepy. It does make you think at any moment an axe murderer is going to elegantly slay the entire cast. Perhaps... Read More