Sigur Rós- Gobbledigook

The video really gives you an understanding of what Ryan McGingley's photography is all about. Being openly free as an individual and not giving a fuck about what society deems as the norm. It's great how they delivered a video that goes hand in hand with the single and believe it or not is actually the spitting image of what I thought about when first hearing the song...running wild & naked through a Norwegian forest.

Viesta Bag

I stumbled across this flickr belonging to a young artist living in NY. What I found so fascinating about her was that she created a product totally based on 'true inspirational value'.. naming it the 'Viesta' Bag. The fact that she recognized the true meaning behind her design after it was made shows that it holds a unique characteristic. Demonstrating how good design just makes sense to human logic. Therefore, the finished product's driven idea (original, having never been done before) is realized as a being something natural to the human mind. The description below explains how organically the idea came together.

"When I walk down the street, I usually see a lot of garbage. It sometimes is furniture, clothes, and toys, which are useful and sometimes even seem brand new! Why do we have so much to waste? Do all these usable things have to go into the trashcans?
I looked at my closet, and there were so many clothes, that I do not wear anymore. I thought of throwing them away, but I could not. They were a kind of journal for me. When I looked at my clothes, I remember my experience I had, while I was wearing them. Therefore, I decided to make something new from what I had.
I had a vest from my art teacher, who gave it to me because he had two of the same. He did not wear one of them, so he gave it to me. He thought I would wear it so it would be used. However, I did not have many chances to wear it. I also had wool threads, which were left over from my art class project. I imagined these two could be combined to make a bag out of the vest. I sew them together. Now, the bag totally looks like a folded vest, which has a humor. In this way, the vest was reborn as something that I could use again a different form.
When I was making it, my concern was not seriously thinking about the environment. I just wanted to not throw my clothes out and not lose my memories. It simply became giving the idea about helping the environment. I believe helping making better environment is not something that we have to study long time before we practice. It is not difficult. How to make the planet greener would be by changing small things that does not require too much effort in our daily life. It would be recycling just like my bag, using double side paper, unplugging appliances when they are not used, or using rechargeable batteries. I hope everyone tries little by little for healthier planet."




+greem

NowNow│ Won

I recently discovered an interesting photography oriented gallery based out of Melbourne, AU called NOWNOW. Their whole philosophy is to expose photographers that specifically show "the way we live" as humans, looking throughout their archives it has inevitably as they put it become 'kaleidoscopic'. Giving us a an alternate view of what we know therefore, at some degree giving us a new way of looking at life's more simple details.

NOWNOW also gives the poor souls (like myself) who can't make it out to the physical space a very complete website that more than likely serves as an organic extension to the gallery itself, the well designed site gives me an idea of the kind of mood i'd get going to the real gallery. Very Minimal and inspiring. The blog and articles featured on their website are pretty much all you can ask for when it comes to the nature of topics and content..good interviews, randoms, and some of the things happening within the gallery/

NOWNOW doesn't stop with the site but the gallery is also behind a free (at stockiest) quarterly magazine called WON. I like the little note editor Chris Barton wrote regarding the launch of the first issue...

We would like to acknowledge the amorphous origins of this publication and thank the many hands and minds that have shaped it along the way. Indeed, there has never been one particular start point or epiphany to shine in our memories but there has always been the feeling that, with the right intentions, things will eventually come together.




-WON is currently in its second issue of release.


NOWNOW

nownow gallery

A Style in Retrospect

Dustin Hoffman in Straw Dogs. A nice slim shirt, high watered denim or chino, long socks, nice eyewear, and a pair of beat vulcanized trainers. I love it and feel that it's a style in the course of making a comeback. Take note.

Thieves Like Us- Headlong Into Night

I like the editing in this one.

Romanian New Wave?

Romania. A country most Americans probably couldn't point out on a map but have heard of plenty of times was at the center of attention in Cannes last winter, where critics wanted to proclaim that a different kind of revolution arose in Romanian society. One of cultural importance and not political anarchy. The founding fathers of this 'movement' modestly see it otherwise, feeling that the films they are creating are far from being comparable to what happened in French cinema back in the late 50s and 60s.

Nonetheless, the term 'new wave' has many different faces and the interesting push happening in Romanian cinema has no exception. Their case is very unique and vey fresh having grown out of the struggles of living in a confusing state run by Nicolae Ceauşescu and his Partidul Comunist Român. Those hard times, experienced first hand by the directors being highlighted mind you, has given them the most original and raw material to show the rest of the world...a life primarily dictated by paranoia and secrets. Two films that really stand out to me are Cristian Mungiu's 'Four Months, Three Weeks & Two Days' and Radu Muntean's 'The Paper Will Be Blue'. Both of which feature similar qualities that gave critics even more of an impression that Romanian cinema is currently in a unique state. Although I haven't seen either film, I would love to note some of the qualities I've picked up on after researching the new Romanian lineup.


ROMANIAN 'New Wave' and its unique character:

◦ Harsh yet natural feelings between characters

◦ Despite its real world drama can also be very entertaining and funny

◦ Point of view or Handheld camera style

◦ Most films take place in a single night or day

+ What I find to be the most important detail within Romanian film is that it can be harsh but very funny all at once. This quality is hard to pull off, yet they seem to do so naturally. I feel this is possible due to the fact that each film has some sort of historical 'first hand' factor. The stories that are being told in these movies are not based off of events that happened 50 or 60 years ago but only a couple of decades from the current and are still seen by historians as contemporary events.

The directors close relationship to the movies has contributed not only to the similarities in production value but also to the raw and harsh realness each one brings to the audience, putting you in the forefront of a Communist run Romanian society.


The Paper Will Be Blue

Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days

NYTimes Feature



*note the amount of care that was put into the design of the films' posters & identity.

Sara A. Tremblay

I find Sara A. Tremblay and her photography to be very special. Everything about her reminds me of old Maurice Sendak illustrations and a Canadian children's TV series I enjoyed as a child called Little Bear. Very warm, inviting, although mysterious all at once. Look her up whenever you make your next trip up to Montréal, Canada.



Sara│Flickr

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