The UTEP Two-Step

Tim Hardaway unleashing the UTEP Two-Step in the 1993 All Star Game. This is just nasty. I remember this game, but not this move.

When you watch this clip, you have to remember this is almost 20 years ago, when the game was much more straight up and down. It was before And One mixed tapes, before street ball really started influencing the game. And yes, there are more explosive eye-popping moves going on in the game right now, but there was always something subtle and poetic about Hardaway's moves.

also, nice beat.

in camera fx 4 life

My friend Luke sent me this video for Toro Y Moi. It's a fresh, simple idea - simply shoot your video through 3D glasses. Why didn't I think of that?

I have a pair of 3D-like glasses from a Sia concert that make lights emit heart-shaped patterns. hmm

Love: Whose Songs are Dreams in the Human Mind // Toro Y Moi [Part 1 of 2] from Ray Concepcion on Vimeo.

feels like summer

What a great weekend.

+ perfect weather

+ late hangout with friends Friday night after work

+ boater's party Saturday (lots of grizzled, beer bellied old men, dijon sandwiches, and tecates in the Marina)

+ a great, six hour sail

+ How to Train Your Dragon in IMAX 3D (yes, after spending countless hours on the marketing campaign for this film, I spent my Saturday afternoon and $18 watching it. it's good!)

+ fun house party

+ another late night dancing to 70's R&B and 90's hip hop

+ perfect weather again today

+ bocci ball with friends in Santa Monica

+ Air at the Disney Music Hall

Air was great. They played a ton from Moon Safari. It's crazy, but this was my first time to the Disney Music Hall. My friend and I had seats behind the band. Staring at the back of their heads the whole time was interesting. It wasn't optimal, but it wasn't all that bad. Even though it was simply a matter of venue layout, I dreamt up a make believe statement by Air, like Miles Davis playing with this back to the audience. The major concession for me was not being able to see the visuals. They were projecting graphic textures behind the guys all night, but all we could see was the back of the screens. This did force me to focus more on the music.

Next weekend is going to be another good one. Friday is a Silver Lake Farms CSA pickup. I think it's going to be another big assortment of leafy greens, some beets and turnips, and it sounds like I'm going to get some celery this time. I hope there are more japanese cucumbers. Those were good. Maybe I'll take my sister and my nephew Bryn sailing Friday (three day weekend!). I'm going to the Dodgers' final preseason game against hometown rival Angels on Saturday. Easter get together with the family Sunday.

My friends saw Washed Out at The Echo on Friday night, but I couldn't make it because I was at work. This user-created video for their "Feel it all Around" feels kind of like my weekend.

FEEL IT ALL AROUND from Northern Lights on Vimeo.

Jonsi "Go Do"

I saw Sigur Ros at The Greek a few summers ago with Ryan. He somehow happened into front and center seats. It was a treat. This is a sample of lead singer Jonsi's new solo project.

'go do' from Jónsi on Vimeo.

Wavves "No Hope Kids"

noisy, fun.

Wavves "No Hope Kids" from Pete Ohs on Vimeo.

Happy 80th, Steve McQueen

SS10 Soundtrack

I'm on the hunt for the soundtrack to my Spring and Summer 2010. The charm of this, my favorite part of the year, is always just that much better with a pitch perfect one or two albums to pair it with. And the memories always resonate just that much more clearly when you have a soundtrack that accompanies them.

Some of my more memorable SS Soundtracks:

2001: Zero 7's Simple Things

2003: The Sea & Cake's One Bedroom

2004: John Legend's Get Lifted, Wilco's A Ghost is Born

2005: The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs and Broken Social Scene's You Forgot it in People (I was late to both parties)

2006: Ratatat's Classics and Belle & Sebastian's The Life Pursuit

2008: The Dodo's Visiter and She & Him's Volume 1

2009: Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavillion and The Xx's 2.0 and some Best Coast

I know I'll be updating that list soon.

** told ya

just got my hands on new

- caribou

- small black

- washed out

- yeasayer (new-ish)

- she & him

- mgmt

- beach house

Stay tuned.

CARIBOU - Odessa from Caribou on Vimeo.

Four Ways to Mix Fonts

I read a great article in NYT a few months ago about font designers Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones (the guys who brought us Obama's Gotham font), and their efforts in the brave and challenging new world of designing fonts for digital media. For example, because of lower screen resolution, they do things like chisel out little notches where lines intersect and make enclosed white spaces in characters bigger to make the font more legible. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff.

Hoefler and Frere-Jones recently posted a four step guide to mixing fonts.

[I wonder what fonts were used in those 20 copies of the Affordable Health Care for America Act.]

Genius Little Record Player

What a fun marketing idea. An audio engineering company sent these 45s out to a bunch of creative directors around the country. Coupled with the needle that comes in the package, the corrugated cardboard sleeves double as an amplifier (and triples as a the platter). You play the record by spinning it with a pencil.

via gizmodo

Les Americains revisited

Robert Frank's Les Americains was on display at MOCA last summer, each photo from his monumental book laid out in the order he painstakingly decided on, paired on the walls as the pages were in the book. It was a real treat. I went twice.

Inspired by Frank, English photographer Jacob Perlmutter set off on his own American journey last summer. Like Frank, he traveled for three months. Perlmutter’s 88 Dayscaptures the spirit of the voyage and the people he encountered.

Perlmutter draws influence from a range of street photographers, but primarily works from a desire to dig beneath the coating of popular culture, to get to the essence of his subject. In the end of his American trip, he’d amassed 2,500 photos. These differed, he says, from the preconceived ideas he arrived with.

88 Days will be shown at The Orange Dot from April 19 to May 14, 2010, located at 54 Tavistock Place, Bloomsbury, London. Complimenting the exhibition, The Orange Dot will also offer a special edition 60-page 88 Days book.

I hope the exhibit finds its way to LA.

via curated mag

Acoustic Listening Devices

Acoustic listening devices developed for the Dutch army as part of air defense systems research between World Wars 1 and 2.

If the health bill does get overturned, maybe we should bring these back as a cheap alternative to hearing aids for those who need them?

via but does it float

Greenberg

I saw Greenberg Friday night with friends. It was fantastic.

I find the new, calm, wise Ben Stiller very much likable. Stiller The Grey.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Ben Stiller from Between Two Ferns

Steady as She Goes, Plastiki

These guys built a catamaran completely out of PET bottles. The 60-foot hull is made of 12,500 plastic bottles (the number of plastic bottles tossed away in the US every 8.3 seconds). They're simply strapped together, not melted down and molded. Crazy.

They just cast off yesterday from San Francisco for a journey across the Pacific, through the disgusting and saddening Great Pacific Garbage Patch, in an effort to raise awareness about the finger print we're leaving.

I wish I could have hitched a ride as their filmmaker.

The New Yorker

2 or 3 Things I Know

Sunday Cook-Off

I couldn't sneak out of work for my inaugural CSA pickup on Friday, so Ryan was nice enough to go for me. Walking into my kitchen Friday night, I found that my share was inspiring, and kind of overwhelming, to be honest. Farmer Tara hooked it up. The question was how to cook it all so it wouldn't go bad before I could eat it.

Who better to look to for help than your mom, right? I asked mine if she'd be interested in spending her Sunday afternoon cooking this amazing collection of veggies with me. And that we did.

Her first order of business was to resuscitate the two day old and rapidly wilting leafy greens. I'm not going to lie, I was amazed by the result. She snipped off the bottoms of all the greens, dropped them in a sink full of water, and by the time we were ready to start chopping, every leaf had perked up even more than when I first saw them Friday night.

We made three dishes.

1. Frittata - based on Slake Farms' recipe from a couple weeks ago. Eggs, mustard greens, broccoli raab (rapini), red onion, garlic, grated Manchego and Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper.

2. Stew - we (and by 'we' i mean 'she') winged it on this one and the next. Cubed red and golden beets and turnips, cauliflower, green garlic, tempeh marinated in Brags and salt & pepper, turmeric, water.

3. Sauté. we sauteed a hodgepodge of kohlrabi bulb and leaves, green onion, arugula, chiccoria, adolescent romaine, tempeh marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil, and cilantro.

Every year that goes by, I am more and more appreciative of growing up with a nutritionist as a mother. She can throw a bunch of vitamin- and nutrient-packed one- or two-ingredient foods into a pan and end up with a really tasty, complex, satisfying dish. I like to think that some of that has rubbed off on me.

Here's us. Yes, that's a french flag apron I'm wearing. Deep in conversation with my dad about either replacing the windows in their house or high school volleyball. The veggies pictured make up maybe 1/3 of the share. Silverlake Farms CSA is awesome.

yes.

03.21.10

219 :212

it's about time. it's not perfect, but it's a big step in the right direction.

I Don't Care if I Never Get Back

Spring is almost here, and I just got excited about the thought of going to Dodgers games this season. Dodgers Stadium, the third oldest ballpark in the states now, teems with history, charm, and memories for me.

• day games (the sun, sweat, tees and less, growing shadows, warming tones. it's just a great day at the park)
• night games (the smell of fresh cut grass on a crisp cool night, jackets, big banks of stadium lights. no place better place to spend an LA summer evening)
• vin scully on the radio
• nancy bea on the organ
• the peanut guy in the aisles
• ice cold beer in my hand

We have an old family tradition at Chavez Ravine called The Flynn Sprint. My dad would take my two brothers and me [then Terence and me when Patrick moved away to college, then just a friend and me when Terence moved away to college] to catch a couple Dodger games every season. He'd get free tickets to The Club Level from work. My dad has always been determined to avoid traffic whenever possible, and Dodger games were no exception.

We'd get to the stadium before the first pitch of course, and he'd place his 1970 Chevy Malibu (that he still drives) in a strategic position - right by the exit gate - the furthest possible spot from the stadium, leaving a sea of empty parking spaces for us to cross on our way to the park. And then... there was the hallowed Flynn Sprint. No matter if the game was a nail biter or a blowout, we'd stay and watch all the way through the last out. In a town of fans who show up in the third inning and leave in the seventh, I appreciate this and I'm adamant about it myself, but this really defeated our other efforts to beat the crowd. Anyways, when there was one out in the last half inning, we'd get out of our seats and start this weird sideways shimmy towards the doors, watching the game intently, but also keeping an eye out for vendors, cement posts, and other fans who were making a b-line to the exit. Two outs, a couple strikes.. By this time, we'd be right at the doors. Then, boom, when the final strike was tossed or the last runner was thrown out, we'd make a mad dash for the Malibu, which was oh, so many strides away for my nine year old legs. And I swear to god, my dad was faster than Carl Lewis for the duration of each one of The Flynn Sprints. It took everything in me to keep up with him and my big brothers. We'd get to the car, huffing and puffing, laughing and smiling, pile into the back seat, turn on Vin Scully's post game wrap up, and edge into the already endless line of cars impatiently waiting to get out.

Gerhard Richter's Daily Routine

He sticks to a strict routine, waking at 6:15 every morning. He makes breakfast for his family, takes Ella to school at 7:20 and is in the studio by 8. At 1 o'clock, he crosses the garden from the studio back to the house. The grass in the garden is uncut. Richter proudly points this out, to show that even it is a matter of his choosing, not by chance. At 1 o'clock, he eats lunch in the dining room, alone. A housekeeper lays out the same meal for him each day: yogurt, tomatoes, bread, olive oil and chamomile tea.

After lunch, Richter returns to his studio to work into the evening. ''I have always been structured,'' he explains. ''What has changed is the proportions. Now it is eight hours of paperwork and one of painting.'' He claims to waste time -- on the house, the garden -- although this is hard to believe. ''I go to the studio every day, but I don't paint every day. I love playing with my architectural models. I love making plans. I could spend my life arranging things. Weeks go by, and I don't paint until finally I can't stand it any longer. I get fed up. I almost don't want to talk about it, because I don't want to become self-conscious about it, but perhaps I create these little crises as a kind of a secret strategy to push myself. It is a danger to wait around for an idea to occur to you. You have to find the idea.'' As he talks, I notice a single drop of paint on the floor beneath one of his abstract pictures, the only thing out of place in the studio.

[ from here ]

...and then he does this

...and this

no big deal.

I can't get enough of Richter's overpainted photographs right now.

I find it interesting that every procrastinator wants to not be one. Theories abound on getting unstuck. But I know that I'm going to be stressed out as April 14th comes rushing up, even though it's been coming for a year.

Eight Natural Handstands

If I were in Sydney, I'd be at this gallery. Doing a handstand.

There is only right with this exhibit.

Robert Kinmont, from 8 natural handstands, 1969-2009, a portfolio of 8 silver gelatin prints

Robert Kinmont, Kenzee Patterson, Charlie Sofo, Ronnie Van Hout @ Darren Knight Gallery

via ready for the house

I'm In!

At long last, my name has made it above the fold for Silver Lake Farm's CSA. Because I'm working a lot right now and I don't want my veggies going bad, I'm starting with the half share (two boxes a month). My first pickup is this Friday.

One great part of Silver Lake Farm's CSA is that they have an accompanying blog that suggests a couple ways to prepare the current harvest. Don't know what to do with a box full of nettles? Me neither. How about nettles soup, nettles gnocchi, or nettles pesto? yes plz.

Ioos and Leifer

I somehow managed to go five months without making it to The Annenberg for the Ioos and Leifer sports photography show. It ends in an hour and a half, and I'm not going to make it. bah.

sword of the sun

A campaign I've been working on ends soon, so it's been a crazy (but fun) last few weeks.

Crazy like getting home at 10:45 from work and getting ready for bed, only to have to head back for an emergency edit. Crazy like working through every lunch and dinner for weeks. Fun like constant creative challenges and hourly deadlines. Fun like collaborating with über talented folks on a great film.

My carrot the whole time has been a Saturday out on the sailboat. The forecast was for clear blue skies, 70-ish, and 10-12 knots. read: perfect. I wanted a long day out - sail in the morning, barbeque, put our jackets on and head back out for another sail at sunset. It turned out that our friend's boat wasn't available, and our regular crew wasn't either.

But I had to go out. So I splurged and rented a little Catalina-22 from Bluewater and invited Seth, Charles, and trusty and capable crew member Ryan. I've never gone out with Seth and Charles, and it turns out it was Seth's first time on a sailboat. It was a perfect day out. Just perfect. There's nothing like the feeling you get when you hoist the main, hoist the jib, cut the engine, and hear nothing but your sails snap full of wind.

I sit at home, listening my new Leonard Cohen record, sipping on a Kirin (we had sushi at Sugarfish post sail), getting ready to head out with some friends, and I understand and appreciate how good I have it.

Art sent me this short story by one of my favorite writers, Italo Calvino, last month. "The Sword of the Sun" from Calvino's Mr. Palomar relates the observations of a crusty, charming man who takes a swim in the ocean every sunset. This story says what I feel out on the water. Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to read the five pages.

I took a bunch of pictures for a little timelapse video. Forthcoming. I bet you can't wait.

i need a scanner

Compassion Deficiency

The real US healthcare issue is a compassion deficiency.

The fact that many of us do not feel any urgency to revamp a system that leaves millions of our sick without care is appalling.

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot

I bought a bird feeder two nights ago at Target. Does being excited to hang it up this weekend and have birds outside my front window make me an old lady?

French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot furnished an aviary with twig and seed covered guitars, and invited some finches over to play. The result is ridiculously cool.



If, hypothetically, more than three of my LA friends read this blog, I'd say "if you're in London, go check this out!!" At least you guys can watch the video.

via and a half.

LEGO Graffiti

I love this.

It reminds me of another favorite, Invader. I've been tempted for a while to chisel out a handful of inch x inch tiles in my shower and have a space invader float in.

via and a half, via dispatch work.

UPDATE: i am going to punch blogger formatting in the head. and then start laying out my posts in a third party program.

Opening Title Sequences

I just read in The New York Times that South by Southwest is going to hand out an award for "Excellence in Title Design". After my ranting and raving about awards shows a couple posts ago, this is something I can get behind.

I love a good opening title sequence. When done right, it gets you excited about the next two hours. It marinates you (that's right. marinates you.), it wraps you up in the right context, priming you for a good movie watching experience. A good opening title sequence can also stand on it's own as a great piece. Friends and I will sometimes leave the theater with the opening titles being the first thing we talk about.

Our sister company, Picture Mill, does great title sequence work. I'm sure they'll get nominated for SXSW's award sooner than later. Just one more reason for me to make the trip to Texas.

Wow, I just found out Picture Mill did the opening title sequence for Panic Room. They did it long before I joined the company. I had already posted these two youtube videos before I found out - two of my favorites:

Saul Bass' titles for North by Northwest:

Opening titles for Panic Room. an homage?

What people do with products

is often different than what they're designed for.

Peter Booth, the managing parter and director of Tin Horse, talks about "practice-based innovation." He and his team look at what consumers actually do with their products, how they handle their packaging, how they make the product fit their lifestyle, and use that insight to help shape their design.

This falls in line with a building trend I've noticed recently of releasing products in beta and letting consumers help perfect your product.

Of course, focus groups and testing has been around for a while, but design is trending to much more collaborative. The design process is opening up to beyond the studio space, and it's putting the consumer in control of what they buy.

cool.

via Selectism.

dogs. make me smile.

and in super slow motion? forget about it.

I don't have a pup yet, but one of these days, it's going to happen. Every time I drive by the Silverlake dog park (at least once a day), I rubberneck. I need to stop doing that. Once in a while, I'll even wander into the park like a real creep and play with other people's dogs.

This music video came out like six years ago, and it was on my myspace page (RIP) for ever. French filmmakers Pleix made it. Just try and watch it and not smile.

"birds" (pleix) from pleix on Vimeo.

Swiss-Miss just posted this new commercial for Pedigree. I don't think Pleix did it, but it reminded me of how much I like that video. Here's Pedigree's version.

Burying the Bar

• The Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga were two of the big winners at this year's Grammys.
• Avatar won the Golden Globe for Best Picture.
• There are now ten nominees in the Academy's Best Picture category. (yikes. they're not even pretending anymore.)
• One of them was Blind Side (!!).
• Sandra Bullock won for her role in Blind Side. That was a Lifetime Movie the courier accidentally dropped off at the AMC.
• Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize (to be clear, this is not me hating, at all. let's just be honest with ourselves. the man basically apologized for winning.)
• And now The National Enquirer is under consideration for a Pulitzer Prize. I'm not joking.

The National Enquirer. And Pulitzer Prize. In the same sentence.

Ok so, to recap, this puts

• The Black Eyed Peas and Ra Ra GaGaGaGa on par with :: Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, David Bowie, Herbie Hancock
• Sandra Bullock on the same level as :: Katharine Hepburn, Jessica Tandy, Meryl Streep, Marion Cotillard
• The National Enquirer potentially in the same discussion as :: JFK, Toni Morrison, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Cormac McCarthy

I worked 15 hours today, through the Oscars, ironically, working on the marketing for a film that I think and hope will get an Oscar nomination or two. Feature film marketing pays my mortgage and pays for this wifi connection. I love what I do. I think trailers can be moving, beautiful works of art, sometimes better than the feature itself. [not that I have contributed a 'work of art' of my own yet..] Award shows should recognize artistic excellence, not help sell units of mp3s or movie tickets or magazines. Leave that to us. If they just stuck to what they're supposed to do, the rest would take care of itself, and the shows would become relevant and respectable again.

Sidenote - I'm really happy that Hurt Locker beat out Avatar for Best Picture and the other five. However, I wonder if the fact that the majority of Academy voting members saw the films on their home televisions in 2D had any influence on their votes.