Mood Altering?

I came across the Moodstream website that might be useful for the ol' writers block. Let the site know what sort of mood you want to be inspired by and it chooses music and visuals from Getty Images that will help with a bit of inspiration.

Ready? Stream. Create.

Stand in someone else's shoes...

Buck 65 is auctioning off his basketball shoes on eBay for seemingly no rhyme or reason.

Wicked and weird.

The bidding stops tomorrow [January 31st 2009]. Even if you don't bid on the shoes, it's all worth reading the item description. Hilarious stuff.

Bid on Buck's shoes here!

Eat your [jelly] fish

Ooooooooarrrrrrrrrrghhaaaaaaahhhhh!!!

Perhaps the most frightening thing about this image [apart from the fact that it's real and wasn't created by the art department who worked on Alien vs. Predator] is that this jellyfish - known as the Turritopsis Nutricula - is completely and utterly immortal.

Says The Telegraph, "The Turritopsis Nutricula is able to revert back to a juvenile form once it mates after becoming sexually mature."

Oh. And,

According to Dr Maria Miglietta's interview with the Telegraph: "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion."

Yep.

Couldn't we be taken over by something more cute?


Read The Telegraph article here.

Hilarious: Born Ruffians

Picture this: You're playing the final song of your set to an insanely wild crowd in London, UK. Swarms of sweaty kids surround you on stage. You get ready to sing the last verse as the crowd goes off. BUT WAIT!! Drunk hipster girl #1 would like to take part in the vocals.

MOMENT RUINED!!!!! The look on Luke's face is absolutely priceless.

(skip ahead to 1:25 if you're antsy)

When I look into your eyes I see the future

I present to you the Lemur Input Device by JazzMutant. My knowledge of this equipment is limited. But my iPhone is a touch screen and I still can't wrap my mind around that. Justice and Daft Punk use these customizable multi-touch pads to control their synthesizers. And the minds of youth on the dancefloor.

Music: Evil Nine

Hailing from Brighton, England, this electro duo is bringing back Michael Jackson's Thriller to the new generation. Well, at least the zombies.



They'll be munching on brains at The Social in Toronto this Thursday, Jan 29th. Check them out on myspace: www.myspace.com/evilnine

inkSPIRATION: M::R::I Lightpainting

Here's a bit of light painting to bring you through the weekend. These great photos are created using long exposures on the camera. The same technique used in the video I posted yesterday. Okayyyy, say it with me now...Obsessive!

Check out some more examples at the M::R::I Lightpainting website.

No explanation needed

This is an orgasm for your eyes and ears.
You're welcome. Now go have a smoke.

Golden Dawn by South Central

Directed by: Steve Glashier
Artist: South Central

Eye-Pod

Ever been looking at the lamp in your living room and wishing it could transform into a speaker?
No?
Oh.

Then this blog isn't for you.




Castiglione Morelli Design along with Tommaso Ceschi won an honorable mention in the Sound Innovation Competition for their bulb sound kit. Unscrew the bulb, pick your favorite tunes on your iPod and listen in bliss as they transmit across your living room.

We want.

For more on the bulb sound kit, click here.
For more on the Sound Innovation Competition, click here.

Talent Alert: Talia Shipman

I had the opportunity a couple weeks back to attend the opening of Talia Shipman's latest showing of her work titled "EXODUS: The Ten Plagues". She has taken a dark look at the story of the 10 Plagues from the Old Testament and presented it through a series of photos relating it to OUR disgusting society. With twins as models!

She is now showing at Angell Gallery from January 9th - February 14th. Be sure to check it out before it's too late.

For more on Talia's work check her website. www.taliashipman.com

Good Music: Yeasayer

Yeasayer come from Brooklyn. (I swear there is something in the water!) They picked up a load of new fans when they toured with experimental rockers MGMT and Man Man last year.

I've been listening to the track "2080" on high rotation over the last week. It's just I have a soft spot for harmonies. Then, throw in a kid's choir and I am SOLD. In reality, anything to mask the ridiculous sound of my voice singing along is good in my books. You should hear me on roadtrips!

You can download the single which features "2080" and "Sunrise" from their website

Find more here:
http://www.yeasayer.net/
Yeasayer at MySpace

Fly awayyyyy...

Every year the town of Pingsi (just ouside of Taipei) celebrate the Heavenly Lantern Festival by releasing these paper lanterns into the night sky.

My grade 7 class actually tried to re-create this event. Except we did it in our gymnasium with lanterns made of tissue paper. Let's just say, a lesson was learned.

Muse - Friday, January 16th

TODAY IS FRIDAY, JANUARY 16th 2009.
WELCOME TO SHOWCASE!





Okay, okay, so it's winter and you're cold and Toronto's lights have gone out and this all seems like a evil Narnian Snow Queen joke to publish a water conservation blog in the middle of January, but eco battles seem to be only fought in the summer months where heat and electricity are pretty much deemed unnecessary because, "the sun like, provides it all man."

Here's just a gentle reminder of campaigns who have contributed to reversing the flow. We wish you warmth & inspiration...



Sukle Advertising + Design's campaign for Denver Water in 2006 still has all the blogs buzzin like a crazy foo. With the slogan "Use Only What You Need", the campaign encouraged Denver city folk to re-think the amounts of water they use versus need. Sukle worked on both extremes for the campaign; one by transforming regular mediums of advertising by using as little space and supplies necessary [i.e. the quarter bench, above], and the other by showing just how much we consume through quantity defined installations, like How Much Water Is Wasted By A Running Toilet in 3 Months?
Oh wait, this much:






We have to applaud the City of Toronto for taking on a similar note with their Drowning in Plastic Campaign. These posters were put up at bus and streetcar shelters across the city in late 2008 and still remain. We're still hoping for Sukle to come fill a shelter with bottles, but until then, try and get a hold of Channel 4's Human Footprint. The program originally ran in April 2007 and National Geographic went on to buy the rights for an American version of the same title. Like the Denver Water campaign, the entire program staged installations based on quantity defined statistics of how much we consume across our lifetime. Take a looksy here:



For more on Human Footprint, click here.
Denver Water images from useonlywhatyouneed.org



The WHOPPER Sacrifice Campaign is done and dusted. Facebook first disabled the application, then Burger King killed the entire campaign. :(
This only means two things - no more free burgers and back to having false friends. Hey-o!

Read the campaign's epitaph here.

Have no idea what we're talkin'? Read about the initial WHOPPER Sacrifice campaign here.


HAPPY WEEKENDING TO YOU WITH LOVE FROM TATTOO.

Muse - Wednesday, January 14th

TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14th 2009.
WELCOME TO THE NEEDLE!



Land of Talk is at The Horseshoe this Thursday.
For directions to The Horseshoe, click here.
For more on Land of Talk, click here.

Bishop Allen is at El Mocambo on Saturday night! More on the band here.
Directions to El Mocambo here.




Ainslie Henderson has forever been a favorite of mine. The better looking version of Rivers Cuomo, Henderson first jumped into the public sphere with Fame Academy in 2002 [like American Idol, but Brit-ish and they live together! Oh the scandal!]. Skip the Fame Academy stuff and listen to his passionate Ainslie-ness here.

Wanting to transport yourself to Scotland? Watch this:



Image from ainsliemusic.com



Even though it's been about eight months since Lady GaGa released Let's Dance to the North American side of the hemisphere, the femme Radio GaGa has just reached Number One in the UK Charts, a victory that the Brits are saying "came out of nowhere" [just like this quote...]
To celebrate, we give you the overplayed. Go GaGa, go!





HAPPY WEDNESDAYS TO YOU WITH LOVE FROM TATTOO.

Muse - Monday, January 12th

TODAY IS MONDAY, JANUARY 12th 2009.
WELCOME TO thINK!



Next time when you watch the clouds, leave the giraffes and bears to the kiddiewinks and try to find some letters instead*.
*Note: This works well if you live in Europe, down a windy road or in a model village.
To see all of Lisa Rienermann's Type The Sky project, click here.

Image from slanted.de



Sometimes the greatest lesson in life is to learn that things aren't really what they seem. And sometimes the greatest lesson in packaging is transforming what we think we see into something of another function entirely.

Behold The Are What They Aren'ts -

Not a Box:

Image from Lovely Package®. For full article, click here.


Or how about I Am Not a Paper Cup:

For more details, click here.


HAPPY MONDAY TO YOU WITH LOVE FROM TATTOO.

Muse - Friday, January 9th

TODAY IS FRIDAY, JANUARY 9th 2009.
WELCOME TO SHOWCASE!





Remember John from kindergarten? Neither do we! But he sure enjoys sending Hug Me requests everytime we log into Facebook.

"I just hugged you. Hug me back! ~~John"

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has developed a genius campaign for Burger King U.S.A. The WHOPPER SACRIFICE Facebook Application asks you to trade in 10 of your friends on Facebook in return for a free flame-boiled whopper.



Says Jeff Benjamin, the Exective Interative CD at CP + B to Adweek: "We thought there could be some fun there, removing some of these people who are friends [but] not necessarily best friends... it's asking the question of which love is bigger, your love for your friends or your love for the Whopper."
Read more of the Adweek article here.

To trade in John for a burger, click here.




SHARPIE + interactive e-cast billboard + multiple locations = ad crazy fun. Tell Mom you'll be late for dinner, tell John you loved your burger. The communication possibilities are endless.

Read more here.
Image from thecoolhunter.net


HAPPY BURGERS TO YOU WITH LOVE FROM TATTOO.

Muse - Wednesday, January 7th

TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7th 2009.
WELCOME TO THE NEEDLE!




If you were anywhere by a television this Christmas, no doubt the Canada Plays PSP commercial was driving you crazy with mad beat goodness. The track is "Sleepyhead", the band is Passion Pit, and great news for everyone - they're coming to Toronto!



Catch Passion Pit at The Horseshoe Tavern on Saturday, January 24th.
For further show listings and info on the band, click here.



AIDS Wolf is playing tomorrow night [January 8th] at The Boat.
If you don't go for their music, at least go for their philosophies... an excerpt from The 9 Principles of AIDS Wolf, if you will:

"1: Maintain a Daily Ritual. Music is like breathing, eating, walking, sleeping, drinking, pissing, and, with any luck, f**king. One must have something to play, create, and examine everyday; there are simply no vacations. Music must be a physical need and a mental compulsion in each moment of existence."

To read the entire 9 Principles of AIDS Wolf, click here.
For more on AIDS Wolf, click here.
For directions to The Boat, click here.

19+, $8.00


HAPPY 09 TO YOU WITH LOVE FROM TATTOO