Dark Was The Night

What album would you direct people to that represents perfectly your ideal music? Not your favorite song, or artist... I think that is an impossible question to answer for most people. But what's the style that you are into.

I found mine yesterday thanks to my buddy Scott of Surly Birds acclaim. He heard just a snippet of the the compilation album Dark Was the Night and was on a mission to get it to me. He had a feeling that I would geek out about it, and I have to tell you that he was absolutely right. I am in his music sharing debt for at least a year.

I had read about this album back in February on a few blogs, and seen it on iTunes as well. I even downloaded a few tracks from it randomly, with out knowing their original source. But I passed it up, didn't pursue it. I missed out on some amazing music on account of it. Til' now.

Check out the artists featured on this two disc compilation:
Andrew Bird
Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons)
Arcade Fire
Beach House
Beirut
Blonde Redhead
Bon Iver
The Books
Buck 65
David Byrne
Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues
The Decemberists
Aaron Dessner + Bryce Dessner
Devastations
Dirty Projectors
Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene)
Feist
Ben Gibbard (Deathcab for Cutie)
Grizzly Bear
Iron & Wine
Jose Gonzalez
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Kronos Quartet
Stuart Murdoch (Belle & Sebastian)
My Brightest Diamond
My Morning Jacket
The National
The New Pornographers
Conor Oberst
Riceboy Sleeps
Serengeti
Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio)
Spoon
Sufjan Stevens
Gillian Welch
Yeasayer
Yo La Tengo

If that list doesn't mean anything to you, I'm sorry. You are missing out on some tremendous musical forces dominating the ears of the world for the past few years, and the years to come.

These some 31 tracks are a part of an ongoing project from Red Hot, who describe themselves this way:

The Red Hot Organization is the leading international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.

Since 1989, Red Hot has produced fourteen groundbreaking albums, related television programs and media events incorporating the talents of leading performers, visual artists, producers and directors to raise funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS.

To date, these efforts have donated nearly 7 million dollars for AIDS relief around the world.

So, in essence this auditory bliss of a project is some of the best artists of today and tomorrow performing everything from original music to covers and remixes in order to raise awareness about and money to fight the AIDS virus.

This isn't your standard charity song project. We're not talking Springstein, Wonder and Jackson in a recording boothe here. These are amazing songs with powerful writing, playing and arrangement. Awesome original music written by the performers or amazing covers of underground classics.

Many of these tracks also offer unexpected but obvious musical pairings I haven't heard before, but hope the colaboration continues. For example, check out the song Train Song featuring Feist and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab and Postal Service fame.

Check out these songs, but please, consider buying this amazing album which goes to support a really good cause and other musical projects hopefully just as good or better than this one.














So next time you ask me what kind of music I am into, I will direct you immediately to this album. Hopefully you will like this enough to do the same when you are asked.

Thanks Scotty.David

Honda Insight

I've been toying around with getting a new car. Mine is on the brink of needing a lot of repairs, I feel. Plus I have lost 70 MPG over the last year. I take MPGs very seriously these days, especially after the gas prices of last summer.

I think I might want the 2010 Honda Insight. What do you think?:





Check out this commerical/project that these people (I think from Vimeo) are doing for the Honda Insight. They are using car headlights to make a LEDstyle movie. It's pretty amazing, though I'm not so sure its very "Green". Regardless, if this cool execution puts 100,000 more Hybrids on the road, then the end will justify the means of wasting gas.


Honda Insight - Let It Shine from Honda on Vimeo.

You can see a making of here:


Honda Insight - The Making of "Let it Shine” from Honda on Vimeo.

I saw these on Google Reader, which pulled it from Gizmodo.

Google Reader is worth checking out if you haven't done so. It is a blog and friend aggregator. Keeping not only your favorite blogs and news sites updated in one centralized location, but also letting your friends see what your reading and you what they're reading. It aids in video, article and music sharing. Plus, the site offers recommendations as to other sites and blogs that you might be interested in due to the blogs that you are following or writing.

Pretty cool.

Let me know if I should get this car, or if you think I should get something else. Smart BRABUS, anyone?

This Guy is CRAP!

Have we seen this?



This guy hates your business card, rolladexes and probably puppies.

But he can get a crowd, damn it!

Here's my business card. It's on a 110lb paper stock with an aqueous coating. It's terrible for the environment, but feels like silk. 1.5"x3.5" of raw business contact identification. Stolze Priniting here in St. Louis made these happen:



I like it, but I bet it gets lost in a rolladex. Damn.

Wisdom from Andrew Zuckerman

I have been seeing this book, Wisdom, around for a while. On design sites, in bookstores and on Amazon.com. However, I didn't know there was a film associated with it. I saw this trailer for the film thanks to this really cool blog Changethethought.com.


Wisdom - Introduction from SLNSW on Vimeo.

Aside from the superb design, layout and art direction of the book and portraits, the film adds another level to this historical chronicle of figures over the age of 65 speaking about their lives, what they have learned and their perception of the wisdom that is supposed to come with age. Actually hearing the voices associated with the face and the story is tremendously impactful.

Look at this line-up of great figures of our time:
Chuck Close
Clint Eastwood
Nelson Mandela
Bill Withers
Jane Goodall
Dave Brubeck
Ted Kennedy
Buzz Aldren
And like 40 more more amazing people...

Everything about this is really smart and beautiful. Just the concept of all theses figures speaking about their experiences, and their take on a similar subject is a conversation for the ages.

Wisdom is directed by photographic master Andrew Zuckerman. He specializes in that super high contrast, high resolution, HDR style of photography, where every detail of a photo is present and beautiful. Take a look at some of his photos from his last project Creature:







The great thing about this is that the 60 minute film comes Free with the book Wisdom. You can buy it here. It's like $30, which is not bad for what would be a perfect coffee table book, but also I can't think of a better gift for someone who is either approaching that 65 age, or just starting out their adult lives.

Check out this book and film, and if you don't find inspiration from the photos, people or stories you might need a hug.

Bruno

Sacha Baron Cohen as Bruno. 'Nough said.



This long anticipated and hyped movie is the last of the staple characters from The Ali G Show that has yet to be outed (so to speak). If the show is any kind of bench mark, the movie will be hilarious, disturbing... and eye opening as to how homophobic most people are.

Check out the trailer, if you are over 17 years of age of course.

Sony vs. Tango Juice

So the other day I posted a Sony Bravia commercial that is probably my favorite pointless commercial of all time.

Here it is again, along with the rest of the campaign:





(This is all stop motion, no CGI, by the way)



I know, I know. It's the brilliant color and beautiful images that the TV has. I'm already second guessing the initial intent of this post, which is that this Bravia spot is really just an amazing execution affixed to a product or brand. However, this was a related video to the original, that I saw yesterday:



Now... I think I'm prepared to propose that this commercial for Tango Juice is actually a better, more brand specific commercial. Plus, I like how they piggybacked on another successful spot to effectively push their product.

I am arguing with myself, so I know someone out there disagrees with me. Comment. Let me know your thoughts.

Also, really quick. I want to give a shout out to the song featured in the bouncy ball Bravia commercial. That's Jose Gonzales covering the song Heartbeats by The Knife. His awesome voice takes that song to an amazing level, but I really want to speak a bit about the The Knife version. Listen to this song.

Heartbeats - The Knife (mp3)

This song came out in 2003, and I know, in my "in denial" state of how old I am, 2003 doesn't feel like all that long ago. But when you think back to what was out at the time, this song is super progressive... in a throwback sort of way (It came out the same year as Stacy's Mom by Fountains of Wayne, Loose Yourself by Eminem and pretty much witnessed the rise of Jack Johnson).

This song was on the front line of the current hipster scene, and and has lead the way for some questionably awesome repercussions including but not limited to really tight pants, funky design, re-synthing America and apparently scrunchies and everything else at American Apparel.


You don't believe this song is influential or relevant? Check out this track off the mixtape Sky High by Mr. Hipster himself Kanye West:

High Heartbeats - Kanye West (mp3)

Hope you like.

JCVD

So next time I make it out to a DVD rental place or a Red Box that is carrying this I'm gonna get it.

JCVD (Jean Claude Van Damme) is a fictional-ish biopic turn documentary about the actor's downtrodden life and career, and the extremes he is driven to in desperate times.



I am not sure how this is going to be, but my Creative Director and a trustworthy film lover David Johnson, saw it and was super impressed. Acting, directing, soundtrack and the general screenplay is apparently really good. Not just better than expected, but a genuinely decent film.

Here is a teaser scene featuring the real JCVD confronted with the reality that he wasn't even cast in a movie about himself:



I'm going to pick it up really soon, and I'll comment as to what I thought. Let me know if you have seen, want to or think I'll be wasting my hard earned $3.

Short Film for Phillips... I guess?

Check out this short film, meant to promote the Philips Cinema 21:9 LCD TV.



I saw it today on Computerlove , a tech blog.

Spots like this make me jaded as to my own profession. They are sweet for sweetness sake, but have absolutely no function or tie to the brand. This could be an ad for Sony, Magnavox or Panasonic... or even Bose, Astound Sound, Best Buy or any number of companies and products.

But, I still think it's kind of cool.

Here are some other "commercials" that fall into the same pointless, but awesome category:

Invisibles

So I might be late to this game, but my boss turned me onto this after seeing my last post.

It's on Filmwise.com and its called Invisibles.

They take still frames from movies and transform all the characters in the scene into the invisible man or woman. No head, no hands; even pets become simply a leash.

There are like 10 on a page and you are tasked at guessing them all, submitting and seeing how terrible you did.

David Johnson my Creative Director said its funny how tricky they are sometimes. I am like, "WTF, these are hard". I consider myself a movie guy, and I can not get some of these. It's frustrating, but really fun.

Get on it and tell me how you do. Here's the quiz from my birthday (some are obvious, but some are really hard:

Interesting Posters - Film the Blanks

Check out this site, Film the Blanks. I saw some of these on FFFFound.com.

They take movie poster from past and present and compartmentalize and simplify the designs.

I don't know why I love it, but I do. I think I like the fact that they take something down to its most basic elements.

Check out these examples, can you determine the movies?

Baileys’ Chocolate Bar Chocolate Ale

Baileys’ Chocolate Bar, the spot for desserts and martinis in St. Louis, has put out their own beer.

A partnership with local beer maker O'Fallon Brewery, has yielded the Baileys’ Chocolate Bar Chocolate Ale.

On their Blog, Bailey's describes it this way:

Amber Wheat Beer brewed with Natural Chocolate is perfectly balanced, finishes dry instead of cloyingly sweet, has beautiful lace, and enough effervescence to keep things interesting.

Translation, not a sweet stout, like is normally designated for chocolate brews.

I like that they are doing this. I like that Bailey's has teamed up with another local company, promoting community and craft brewing in St. Louis. But more, I like that they looked outside the box when producing this beer. A dessert like stout or porter seems like the obvious choice, but they went with a lighter bodied chocolate wheat.

I for one am glad and proud.

I'm going to go and try it as soon as I can get over to Lafayette Square.

St. Louis Originals

So we all know how I feel about local restaurants vs. chain slop houses ( See my post about The Hill ).

Well I have been a member of this St. Louis Originals rewards program for a few years now. I'll admit, I tend to opt into things, use them religiously, and have absolutely no clue how to benefit from them... so I don't. This held true for this card until yesterday.

Listen to this long, drawn out and difficult process. I had to go to the website, enter my card number... okay, that was it. And it generated an unexpected surprise. I have earned $40 in rewards. That's cash money, player.

This is how it works. If you flash your St. Louis Originals card at any of the participating restaurants, you earn a point per every dollar you spend. So to beat a dead horse, a $10 check means 10 points, and a $200 check means 200 points. For every 150 points you acquire, you earn $10 towards your purchase at any of the St. Louis Originals restaurants.

Aside from that, your membership gets you drink, appetizer and meal specials at many of the restaurants as well. Here's a good example from Bailey's Chocolate Bar – widely regarded as the best dessert spot in STL:

Come in to Baileys' Chocolate Bar on Mondays and Thursdays to receive any of our martinis at HALF PRICE with your food purchase. What better way to spend a cool spring evening in St Louis than with a delicious (half price) martini and a light snack followed by a decadent dessert!

And last but not least is something that I can't quite wrap my head around. St. Louis Originals offers gift certificates for all the restaurants on their list. That part I understand. However, they offer them at discounted rates. So a $50 gift certificate only costs $35. A $25 gift card will only set you back $17.50.

What!?!

That is by far the coolest offer I have ever heard. I don't know how long they will have this offer, or if there is some legal copy I am missing, but you can check it out for yourself here.



I am pumped, and excited that I have another excuse to go to these great culinary establishments and splurge.

Another round, "Hell yeah!"

Dessert, "Why not!"

Truffles, "What the hell is a truffle? Who cares?"

Here are the list of establishments that St. Louis Originals lists as their members ( I'll !!! my faves):

Baileys' Chocolate Bar !!!
Bryan Young Catering Plus
Cafe Provencal
Companion
Cravings Rest. & Bakery
Dierdorf & Harts
Duff's
Eau
Eleven Eleven Mississippi !!!
Harry's Restaurant & Bar
Harvest
Herbie's
LoRusso's Cucina
Massa's
Mike Shannon's
Monarch
Ricardo's Italian Cafe
Riddle's Penultimate Cafe !!!
Rooster !!!
Schlafly Tap Room/Bottleworks !!!
Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream
Soda Fountain Square
Square One Brewery & Distillery !!!
SqWires Restaurant and Market
Sunset 44 Bistro
Tenderloin Room
Terrene
The Delmar Restaurant & Lounge
The Gardens at Malmaison
The Scottish Arms
The Shaved Duck
Three Monkeys
Trattoria Marcella
Vin de Set !!!
Vito's Sicilian Pizzeria & Ristorante
Wapango
Wild Horse Grill

Bon Appetit!

Easter Day Owl Massacre

So, I know my writing fell off over the Holiday, but I promise to get back in the swing of things this week.

To start it off I want to let everyone know about a tragedy that I bore witness to over this holy-day weekend.

We had what could be referred to as a reunion this weekend of sorts of most my best friends. The old high school buddies and budettes convened at our typical watering hole Erato Wine Bar in Edwardsville, IL. We drank, we laughed and there was a lot of man hugging. About 2AM the bar was shutting down, I acted as DD for my buddy Dustin, and we took off to get him home. About 400 yards down Glen Carbon Rd. our headlights illuminated something. Things. But what were they, we swerved and drove by to fast to really see?

After dropping Dustin off we came back by to see what they were. Three dead animals scattered across the road. Raccoons, Opossums, Cats?

Neh!

Three dead Owls were laying there. In the middle of the road.

Aside from a zoo or bird sanctuary, I don't think I have ever seen three owls in one place at the same time. Let alone dead.

It opened up a lot of questions. "How" is the big one, but each answer I could think of lead to a "Why" or "Who" (No pun intended)?

I don't know what happened, and I probably never will. But, it was just impactful to see these majestic and elusive birds in that state.

So in that spirit, I compiled a list of the top 10 songs that an Owl should die to. You know that scene in the movie when the owls are falling in slow motion, these are what should be playing.

Owl Massacre Playlist

R.I.P.

Bird Dropping #2

The Surly Birds has quickly climbed high on my list of daily blogs to check.

These guys, ok one of them is my college roommate Scott, are consistently hilarious. It's almost a Seinfeldian blog about nothing, but at its core is a blog about everything. The Surly Birds make casual observations about not so casual topics, and find ways to make them interesting, funny and concise all at the same time.

My top posts thus far are:

Inclined Plane: The Worst of the Simple Machines

Just Throw It Away

People love to condescend about VCRs

Check out this blog, and enjoy their second viral video installment featuring Let Her Go by Hootie and the Blowfish. I think?

I'm digging the Photoshohop challenges...

Sorry to dwell on this subject in the last week, but this is fun for me.

Plus I get to link my photos back to my blog which is nice.

Threadless T-shirts is doing a photoshop challenge where they want one of their many awesome shirt designs incorporated into a historical photo.

Check it out here.

Here's mine.



Here's another.

The Whitest Boy Alive

I think you should check out the latest effort by The Whitest Boy Alive and Erlend Øye. The band's second album is called Rules and I think it is great.

You might not recognize the name, mainly because it contains a character that I don't even think is real (its accomplish with option+shit+O), but Erlend Øye's voice is distinctively clear to fans of other indy scene greats like Röyksopp and Kings of Convenience. However the sound coming out of this album is different. I call it uniquely familiar. A departure from some of the electronica or drum machine style that has dominated much of his/their sound, yet not so far removed that you loose what happens when his soothing voice meshes with a tight beat.

However, here the beat has a funky 70's feel. A hybrid of jazzy funk with disco personality gives the album a throwback sensibility, but Øye's voice and lyrics give it a modern spin that I really dig.

Check it out.

The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules

Submissions from yesterday's Lil Wayne/Chick Flick Posting

And the winner was:

Nicely done indeed, and a quality choice for winner by Chuck Anderson. But some of the others had merit, and I liked them because they pulled from further back in Chick Flick history.

You can check them all out here.

Can they be topped, I think they can.

Send yours to me and I'll post them on the blog. Send to buzzbuzzflicker@gmail.com.

And Follow NOPATTERN on Twitter. I think these little challenges have legs, and he'll be doing a lot more in the future, and thus so will I.

Before this one he did Scottie Pippen in The Godfather.


Classic!

Lil Wayne/Chick Flick Challenge

The amazingly talented designer Chuck Anderson at NOPATTERN posted a twitter challenge on Saturday night, and it was so random that I had to partake right away.


I don't think it's what he's looking for, but here's what I came up with:



What do you want, its 1 AM?

You do one too and send it to me (buzzbuzzflicker@gmail.com), I'll upload to my blog for all to see.

Send it to Chuck too. You never know.

Also, check out his work, it's incredible. He is a god when it comes to lighting effects. He is one of my go-to guys for inspiration these days.

Art Inspires Art...

I heard a story on NPR All Things Considered yesterday and found it really interesting.

Listen Here:

Dave Brubeck, one of the most respected Jazz musicians of all time, along with his son, are taking the photos of the late great photographer Ansel Adams, and composing the music that they exude. Art inspiring art.

You know Ansel Adams, he's the godfather of the black and white landscape photo. He wasn't the first to shoot in the style, but he did it really well. He probably took that photo in that black and white poster you always see, and say, "I could have shot that, I'm not paying $250 for this." I know I do.

The truth is you probably can't, and I know I can't. Ansel had an amazing way of taking his vision, what he saw both physically and creatively, and using his camera to achieve exactly that. Plus, no photoshop, no digital "I don't like that one... DELETE," just tedious and intentional exposures and development. He was a pioneer in bringing photography away from its existence as a way to document history and taking it to the realm of a legitimate art form.

According to the story, Ansel had the chops to be a concert pianist before he was sidetrack by his photographic endeavors.

"And many of my friends would beg me not to think about photography as a career, because I apparently was a fairly good pianist. And they would say photography is not an art; the camera cannot express the human soul."
-Ansel Adams

And aside from the tremendous appreciation for the art, this is why the 88 year old Brubeck is interested in Adams and his photographs.

As I say, creative and artistic people have a tendency to derive inspiration from other art forms that they appreciate. As a graphic designer, I find that Paintings that I really like tend to have elements or roots of the graphic space in them. Movement. Direction. Simplicity. Layering. And a gridlike sensibility are all characteristics I look for, and that carry over even into my preferences of Music and Literature.

Similarly, I think that Dave Brubeck sees the same thing in Ansel Adams' Photography. Brubeck sees the pianist in Adams pouring out. I think I agree, though I'm no expert. The inspiration that Adams shoots from comes from the perspective of a pianist partial to the works of Bach and Chopin. Subtle, yet expansive. Polarizing. Suspended movement.

Do you see it:


Anyway the Brubeck composition is entitled Ansel Adams: America and it premiered last night in Stockton, California. Not far from where Adams grew up. It sounds amazing, and if you can go by Brubecks track record it definately will be.

Here is some Dave Brubeck music to carry you through your day:

Take Five - DAVE BRUBECK

And here are some of the most popular and my favorites of Ansel Adams: