The Interior Design Show starts tomorrow at Exhibition Place. STUDIO JOB will be there on February 6th at 3 PM as guest speakers. The pair are most famous for their Alice-In-Wonderland-esque oversized "Silverware" pieces. Their designs are so good that their website doesn't even contain any of their work. Oh snap! Visit it here.
Through the next couple weeks in New York City you'll have a chance to catch a street campaign that Sony has launched. Live mannequins will be appearing in several spots around midtown and lower Manhattan holding Sony's Vaio notebook. The models are appropriately clothed with eye-catching threads designed by six designers and are choreographed to move like mannequins. Creepy Chic!!
Here's a video of what went down in Grand Central Station:
Client: Sony Agency: 180 Los Angeles Executive Creative Director: William Gelner Creative Director: Joel Rodriguez, John Matejczyk Art Director: Lindsey Aquino Copywriter: Graham Douglas
Either you expected it, or you feared it...but DISCO is BACK! If you've been loving the sounds of Chromatics, Hercules & Love Affair or Glass Candy, be sure to check out Fan Death as they take over Sneaky Dees on Febuary 6th. They'll also be joined by Toronto's Parallels, the side project by Cam Findlay, live drummer of Crystal Castles.
I fell in love with the Shazam iPhone application the moment I downloaded it. So the Midomi website peaked my interest tremendously. Instead of listening to the recorded music, you can hum or sing a song into the microphone, have that analyzed and it will tell you the artist and song. Supposedly!
I decided to put it to the test and belted out a few in the name of science. Unfortunately for my song selection OR my lack of carrying the appropriate tune, it only was correct on 1 out of 4 songs.
Here were the songs that I sang. (Maybe humming would serve me better??) Apples in Stereo - Glow Worm TV on the Radio - Dancing Shoes Lil Mama - Lip Gloss Britney Spears - I'm not a girl, not yet a woman! (ya, I sang this..WHAT??)
The technology matches songs using recordings submitted by other users. So, in essence more mainstream selections will give you better result. But, give it a try!
I went to a great line up of electronic music happening out of a dance studio on Bloor this weekend, hosted by the great minds at Break and Enter. Frivolous was one of the headliners who really caught my ear. His live performance of Jazz-infused minimal or experimental house was something fresh I hadn't seen in awhile. He's studied classical piano and electronics and brings these two elements together in his one-man live performances. But, really what sold me was him doing the vocals through a telephone receiver. Best thing I've seen in 2009 so far!
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.
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."
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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:
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!
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:
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!
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.
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.
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!
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:
tattoo is an award winning production company crafting remarkable original music and sound.
we're sound designers, engineers, directors, producers, djs, composers, graphic artists, bloggers, photographers, podcasters, stunters and idea lovers.
the universe blessed us with discerning ears, an intuitive sensibility and tireless energy - we bless the universe back with unusually long hours and unfailing dedication to create extraordinary work.
here's a living collection of things that interest us.
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