Website: Davey Dance

now this. THIS. is brilliant.


Davey Dance-BLOG. A project started while traveling Europe during Spring 2007. Armed only with an ipod and a Canon PowerShot, Davey picks a location and a pop song. Then Davey records an improvised dance.

Keep in mind, he's listening to the music on his ipod as he dances. So everyone walking around him doesn't hear a thing. Lucky he's a good dancer!!

The best ones are here:

Germany
New York City @ Christmas (my favorite)
The subway
Brooklyn Bridge
Florence
Pisa

And this was his first one (using Tom Waits at the Vatican)

Video: The Rainbow Chasers

The Rainbow Chasers from Erin Wallace on Vimeo.

Song: I Feel It All, by Feist

Is this going to be Feist's thing?

As in, will her music videos consistantly involve her dancing around like a 6-year old in front of highly complex choreography (by people, fireballs, or otherwise) all orchestrated to fit into one single take?

If it is, that's so very cool by me. I'm just a little bummed because that was MY plan for rock stardom. [pause. glance into the camera with a shrug.] Well, you know what they say. If you have an idea and you don't grab on it, it's someone else's for the taking.

PLAY: Video for Feist's new song, "I Feel It All".

And I forgive her.

Art: Private

Art: Hands

News: Dr. Phil

Typo! Typo in the New York Times!! And I found it!

Should it have been: Do you like your therapist?
Or, should it have been: Do you lie to your therapist?
Is the word like spelled wrong, or is the word to inserted by mistake?

Good questions. But I'm sorry, our time is up for today.

Book: Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story

This book was beautiful.

I've been looking for a good opportunity to foray into the graphic novel genre. I didn't want to choose something "just because" it had pictures. And in the past, graphic novels haven't really done it for me. They should. Know me, and you'd know they should. But they just haven't.

Maybe it's because, and I'm just pontificating here, the story lines are somewhat unemotional. Correct me if I'm wrong, but tons of these (let's abbreviate here) G.N.'s are written by men, with these hard-to-grasp, somewhat unemotional concepts. They're more like adventures. Or something. It's like, it takes so long to get to the meat of the story, and there's always so much in-between stuff happening. And it makes it hard for me to concentrate. And sometimes, I'm not sure what I should be concentrating on. The story? The pictures? It's not the type of book I really know how to read. Because the thing is, I really like words, and I really like pictures. Separately. But together? It's like listening to an amazing singer singing with an amazing guitarist, at the same time, each at the same volume. It's hard to know what to focus on. Well, anyway. That's been my experience. Mostly, I haven't liked the stories.

But I was in the neighborhood bookstore, waiting for something to grab me. This book was misplaced, left out on a shelf, not quite fitting in with anything else. It should have been with the Valentine's Day book display up front, but I guess people don't really consider AIDS stories a romantic gesture.

But really, this is a love story. A total package love story. It's about a young man, who meets a young woman, and they're both pretty awesome people. And she has a kid. And she is divorced. And she is HIV positive. And so is her little boy.

So, what's a man to do?

This is their love story (and a true story!) and it's just beautiful, and mesmerizing, and sensitive, and vulnerable. Yes, the story is vulnerable. Always on the verge of falling into tears, or self-defeating, or missing out on it's own chance for happiness.

But it doesn't. And that's not giving anything away. The book is called A Positive Love Story, which of course, is really what caught my eye. How can something so sad be so utterly uplifting?

Also, I found it warmly inspiring, artistically.



[The author is Frederik Peeters, and is considered one of Europe's up and coming illustrators. Blue Pills was previously published in Europe, where it won the Premios La Carcel de Papel in Spain and the Polish Jury Prize at Angouleme. It has sold over 20,000 copies in its original French edition, and now Houghton Mifflin is publishing it in the United States. -- source]

Art: Words

Video: Leo's Song

Leo's Song from impactist on Vimeo.

Art: Flower

“A person asked a rabbi why the truth was written on our hearts, he said so that when our heart breaks, the truth can fall in … since there is no more fertile a place than inside a broken heart.”

Art: Colors

"A ship in the harbor is safe.

But that is not what ships were made for."

Art: Colors

"Sometimes I wish a million things were different.

But then I wish those million things, weren't things I wished for."

Art: Pattern

Art: Connected

Art: Doodle

A doodle is usually something you draw without thinking or planning. It just sort of happens. People always say, "I don't know what to draw," but no one really says, "I don't know what to doodle." There's a routine to it, for most of us. Maybe you always draw boxes. Maybe it's eyes. Maybe its letters of the alphabet. Mostly the doodle happens when you're thinking about other things, or talking on the phone, or waiting for a file to download. Your hand reaches for a pen and paper and the next thing you know, images start to appear. And sometimes you look down and exclaim, "Oh my goodness, what did I just draw?"

Favorite things

LETTERS: Cable company

Dear 877-blahblahblah-something something something Optimum cable,

I know you're probably just psyched I spelled your name right (and P.S. I didn't). Optimum? Optimal? Optic fcking nerves blowing up in my head? STOP THAT COMMERCIAL RIGHT NOW.

Lucky for me I know how to write a proper business letter, so that I can scribe this one to you now and make it effective.

At the risk of humiliating myself and my forefathers (and mothers), you need to know something irregardless. When your commercial comes on the air, I TURN THE TV OFF. Yeah, I don't even "mute" it and divert my attention otherwise. I don't raise the volume on the new hot song playing on my computer. I don't change the channel to see what Rachael Ray wants me to cook in 5 minutes or less. NO. I have to turn it off. I'm in the middle of watching a pointless youtube flick, and I literally stand up, walk allllllll the way across the room, and shut the TV off, just so I do not have to listen to your commercial for the a thousand billionth time. And yes, that's a real number.

I don't want to hear all that crap about how TV is bad for me, blahblahblah. I know it is. Why else would I watch it? But if I'm going to be properly inundated with product endorsements and propaganda that I pretend to believe I think I agree with, then at LEAST make it a good commercial! Your song (or jingle or whatever) is worse than a Mariah Carey ballad at Christmas. It's worse than some 6 year old kid who wants to be famous and belts it out for guest judge Sharon Osbourne. Your commercial is so bad it makes my cat bark. Your commercial is so bad it makes me think Vanna White is my hero.

Ever read a book called The Tipping Point? Yes? No? Yes? The point, my FRIEND(z), is not to make your audience tip over in their chair because they think they are going to go insane if they hear your commercial one more time during a Tyra B. rerun. Girl, I am trying to learn how to strike it fierce, and you are ruining my runway walk practice time.

So. In conclusion. Stop airing that commercial. So that I can return to being the passive, complacent television watching viewer that I've always been.

Gracias.
And good night.

Language: portmanteau

portmanteau

a word that fuses two or more words or word parts to give a combined or loaded meaning.

examples:

• spork
• guesstimate
• wikipedia
• ginormous

News: RIP = Rodent In Peace

Check it:
http://mysesame.blogspot.com/

Life: Hopes for the new year

Things I would like to see happen (to u and me) in 2008:

1. I don't want to put cashiers out of business, but I really, I mean really, love those self-checkout machines at the A&P. I also like it when there's a guy (or gal) standing at that little podium overseeing all the self-checkers, just watching over us, you know? like, angels or something. It makes me feel better. Like, if I run a box of Tam Tams over the laser beam and the bar code doesn't generate a price check, I know that all I have to do is look over my shoulder and my "angel" will run over and say something like, "step aside ma'am" and I will. And then they press some button or something, and everything works out in the end, and they say something like, "go ahead," and so I do. My wish for 2008 is that you will always have an angel behind you letting you know when it is safe to go ahead.

2. I would like to receive more self-address stickers in the mail from animal rescue league conservation forest children in peril organization companies. how do they know that exact moment when I run out of last year's cute kitten collection?

3. I would like to see youtube take off.

4. I would like to see certain people come back together: Brad and Jen. Donald and Carolyn. Heidi and Lauren. Angela and Jordan. Brit and Lynn.

5. I would like to learn how to play an F.

6. And sixthly, my wish for you is that you finally learn how to take your photos off your cell phone. Or even better, learn how to use the real camera you own. Yes. You. YOU.

7. I'm done. No, wait, wait! There's more!

8. I want to invent a hugely monumental e-business that makes me e-millions in a matter of e-months. And the only office supplies I want to have are a pile of purple post-its, 2 Ziploc bags, 1 change of clothes, a sharpie, 3 expo markers, and a dream.

9. Front row tickets to A CHORUS LINE. [check]

10. I can feel it. This is going to be our year. OUR YEAR, BABY! [for Prozac].