I’ve been wanting to see Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World for some time and finally got a chance to see it tonight. After seeing Fitzcarraldo and The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans (which is so incredibly bad that it’s certainly some sort of elaborate joke he’s playing) in rapid succession, I was excited to check out his take on the Documentary format. Based on the trailer I was somewhat looking forward to the imagery in Encounters — I was expecting the majority of the film to be shot underwater like Wild Blue Yonder but was pleasantly surprised to find it was more about what was going on up top. The people, landscapes, buildings, and machines around McMurdo Station make for some beautiful shots. As Herzog narrates in the film “..on this planet, McMurdo comes closest to what a future space settlement would look like.” We even get treated to some vintage celluloid from a 1970’s-era expedition. Definitely a must-see.
Do yourself a favor and watch this video right now. It’s filled to the brim with absolutely breathtaking shots — so many that I can’t believe they were taken all by the same team. The Planet Earth folks need to hire this guy RIGHT away. Honestly I’m speechless. This is an amazing piece of film. An amazing piece of art. Congratulations to Mickey Smith and Allan Wilson for making such a brilliant piece. And all for Relentless Energy — who knew.
I should also mention that I love this video because I LOVE the ocean. I am terrified by the sea, but I love it. Of course I like the way it looks, but I also am constantly taken by its incomprehensible size and power. I am not a surfer (you should have seen me try in New Zealand), but I have always felt the same connection to the sea that I often hear the surfer describe. I like to sit in it, lay there, do nothing. My favorite thing in the world is getting tossed, turned and pummeled by waves — salt water filling my head every which way — then rolling up on shore and lying in the sun where the sea meets the sand.
I think Onra and Dam Funk have a little brother and his name is Oriol. I really love this feel, the cover actually says it all. Planet-Mu has really stepped up their signing artist game, congrats guys, I hope to hear more.
We all could fall in love with Baths, he seems like someone that would be nice to you every time you met him but thats not why I share his music, I share it because I listen to it over and over like this new song Nordic Laurel.
Teen Daze killed this Japandroids cover, i’m into the mashing of a roaring lead synth over a slow flat beat, its like if Washed Out collabed on a song with Women.
You may remember Paul Tebbott from this post a while back. I recently checked back in on his portfolio and was glad to see some beautiful new work up. He seems to have refined his style a bit, these compositions seem a little more restrained than the earlier stuff, if only a little. I really like what I’m seeing, his use of color is excellent. But I must admit, I kind miss type treatments like this. I’d like to see the bottom three mocked up with some type included.
Until now I had no idea that a laser could cause damage to a DSLR, but apparently it’s possible. In the video you can see the laser beam across the sensor of a Canon EOS 5D Mark II leaving a burn. It would be a big shame for it to happen to any of you so I just wanted to make you aware if you weren’t already.
“Lasers emit concentrated beams of light, which can heat up sensitive surfaces (like the eye’s retina) and cause damage. Camera sensors are susceptible to damage, similar to the human eye.
For large scale shows, such as on a televised concert, laser show producers work with clients to avoid TV camera locations and video projectors (ILDA Members, see this page for details). However, it is not possible for laser show producers to be responsible for all cameras and camcorders which might be at a show.
Therefore, if you attend a show as an audience member, you should take reasonable precautions not to let a laser beam directly enter your camera lens.”
If this isn’t convincing enough, here is another video.
I am about as big a fan of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s work as exists on this planet. So it was a very, very pleasant surprise to see that [adult swim] (the network that features one of Tim and Eric’s greatest works: the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! show) was running a bump featuring Cloud Generator and a shout for the Past is Prologue digital reissue after the show. If anyone from [as] is reading this, thank you!
adult swim has run some other bumps in the past featuring Tycho tracks, you can check them out here. Was cool to find all of those, I had only seen one and didn’t know the rest existed.
I’m still wrapping my head around how cool those videos were that Jakub posted yesterday. In a similar (but stylistically divergent) vein, these clips by Russian artist Maxim Zhestkov are stunning. He’s got a few videos on his Vimeo page, the rest you have the see on his site. If you click the thumbnails above, they will link to their corrosponding video. They all remind me of the Minus the Bear “Planet of Ice” album cover, if everything went completely crazy.
Above our some screenshots from the Syntaks videos that i’ve posted below, beautiful visuals that i’m sure many of you will be happy to see. Syntaks is Jakob Skott from Denmark who collaborates with Anna Cecilia, the music hints at calm instrumentals by Cocteau Twins and all the way to the more melodic work by William Basinski.
Wow I don’t have the guts to put out what Tune-Yards does but i’d love to try and make this kind of music, raw and loopy with plenty of passion behind every note played.
Pictureplane and Teengirl Fantasy seem to be both on the same boat, sounds like re-edits of pop songs but with additional melody and lo-fi backing. Teengirl Fantasy has hints of what seems to be Throw Some D’s by Rich Boy(great song by the way) accompanied with a lullaby like melody and calmed noise while Pictureplane takes the classic Seven Wonders by Fleetwood Mac and give it a harsh crunchy swing backing beat, its a pretty nice edit, I wouldn’t of gave it its own name though I would of just called it an edit, still a great listen.
