Animation, Art, and Other Shiny Things
It’s a bit long, but I like that it features just about every one of the muppets for at least a few seconds. (OK Go, while I like them, have a few too many seconds, imho)
I think this is one of the few times one can say that it isn’t over when the fat lady sings…
You could take a lot away from this video, but at a minimum you’ll find striking animation with an excellent trance track. I Won’t Stop by Faithless, animation by Paranoid Now
Haven’t felt all that well this week and perhaps that has been inhibiting my digressioning as of late. If not, it makes a pretty handy excuse and one that I believe I’ll stick with for the moment.
Rest assured that there is a couple pretty decent ideas sitting in the draft queue, but they’re the needs-another-page types that tend to get big and there’s little I can do about it. They drive me nuts, and I can only imagine what it must mean for you, the barely esteemed reader, as you get to read what passes as the culmination of the struggle I have between the curtness of generalized brevity and a pedantic digression into the weeds.
Anyways, to tide you over I offer a trio of Joe Bonamassa videos.
I came across this gentleman a few years back and have steadily accumulated a near complete discography. This is some of the best dirty blues I’ve heard since Stevie Ray Vaughan. Technically jaw-dropping and vocally wrenching, he makes you feel the blues.
He’s coming to Seattle in December, but tickets are rather pricey as, it turns out, I’m not the only one to be a big fan of this guy. Who knew?
[Edit: it appears that this is the 100th post. woo hoo!]
Two of my favorite things, together; science humor and cats!
I, for one, welcome our Chemistry Cat overlords…
Quickmeme.com has a bunch of ’em collected for our perusing pleasure and there are generators everywhere.
And this is a perfect excuse to post a great little animation of Tom Lehrer’s The Element Song. The man was brilliant and will have a digression of his own here one of these days soon.
No, it’s not a digression. (but it is a great tune)
2CELLOS is a pair of Croatian cellists Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser who have some serious classical training under their belts. Their collaborations are primarily rock song covers, but they certainly won’t be abandoning classical music. (at least I’m fairly sure that’s what the article says. the google translation is suspect but exceedingly entertaining nevertheless)
They recently played Smooth Criminal on the Ellen DeGeneres show (which put them squarely on the US radar) and are currently on tour with Sir Elton in Europe. Their debut album is due out towards the end of July. Welcome to the Jungle will be on it as well as covers of Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana, U2, and more.
…with the vocal stylings of Joni Mitchell singing The Big Yellow Taxi. (From the documentary Crumb.)
This is actually 12 panels Mr Crumb drew in 1979 (colorized and collected into a poster in 1981).
Later he added a 3 panel epilogue to try and cover bases on the question asked in the 12th panel; “What Next?”.
(oddly enough, this is not a digression. call it more, uh, a warning shot across the bow)
I picked up the Justice album “Cross” a few years ago after hearing a snippet of the track Genesis on, of all places, NPR. Filler between stories on Morning Edition or some such. (I found Zero 7 and The Battles that way too)
Think of them as an exuberant Daft Punk (both are French duos) with emphasis on the ‘punk’ part.
When I went to put this little excursory post together it became clear right away that it just wasn’t going to be quite that easy. Generally it never is when it comes to my writing, but this just kept getting worse.
So to solve it, and embrace my inner divericator, here is a triple digression…
D.A.N.C.E. is the most known cut off the album and won Justice some awards, including best video, and it’s easy to see why. This is some of the most innovative animation I’ve seen in a long time. Watch this video with the sound off first time through.
DVNO is an excellent track and has animation that is strongly reminiscent of 1980’s animated typography.
Genesis is still, by far, my favorite track off the album; heavy techno with an edgy funk. It’s unfortunate that its the blandest of the videos I can find…
Computer animation, “traditional” animation techniques, a killer soundtrack, and some remarkable puppetry, to put it mildly. The fluidity of the tyger is truly impressive, as is the overall flow of the video as a whole.
Tyger by Guilherme Marcondes of Brazil, based on a William Blake poem
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The Ruffled Crow 