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