Sometimes I just don’t understand music videos. Rather, oftentimes I don’t understand music videos. This affliction is so consistent that I’ve almost entirely given up trying to understand them. Instead, I watch them, enjoy them, and move on.

Usually.

What throws me off is when a band passes up a cooler video in favor of… Another one. I’m not entirely sure about the chronology of these videos, but it seems that the band Grizzly Bear has done just that.

Grizzly Bear’s song “Two Weeks” is kind of their hit. It’s an awesome song, it’s catchy, it’s the whole deal. The band knows it’s their big song, too, because they made a video for it, and let’s face it: bands don’t make videos for b-sides. Here’s the official one:

Like usual for music videos, it’s cool, I guess. I don’t get it entirely, and it gets a little boring at the end, but hey, it’s not my video, right?

Artist Gabe Askew, however, has an alternative (as found courtesy of Mr. West):

I can’t say I understand this one, either, but look at it! Whereas the official video makes do with a bit of CGI over some fairly static camerawork, Askew’s version is a craft-masterpiece. I don’t have to reiterate my love affair with cardboard and papercraft, and this obviously wins points there, but the creative drive behind it is almost overwhelming. Both videos crescendo in a similar fashion, but Askew’s completely swept me away, while the official video merely interested me.

Maybe I’m too picky, but maybe the band should have considered other options. Considering how cool their album artwork is, I think it would have fit right in with their style. Maybe next time.

I should really offer Grizzly Bear-themed mashups today… OK, sold.

This first track even incorporates “Two Weeks!” Lil’ Wayne is an interesting addition, however.

This second track has the same idea, but it uses Dead Prez. I have to say that I like this vocal track better.

The final track uses Grizzly Bear’s song “Knife” instead, against Ghostface Killa.

As promised, I’m sharing the source of the header photo for my last post. I found this artist via Kanye’s blog, and couldn’t help but pass it along. I’m not entirely sure what she uses to make her pieces, but they’re all brilliant.

The artist’s name is Meredith Dittmar, and she has a portfolio of her work here. I particularly like her dioramas, like this one:

Particularly, I like how she uses the balance of vivid colors with the greyscale backgrounds. If I had the money, I would definitely buy one of these things to hang wherever I go.

In my US Experience class last week, my teacher (an art professor) gave us a big speech about how Americans don’t buy and hang original art. If anything, we’ll have a poster or a print, but never the original thing. I mentally protested, as we have quite a bit of original art hanging in my parents’ homes, but half of that is either my mothers work or my own. So maybe he has a point. Regardless, buying  original art has made it onto my list of things to do, when I’m rich.

Since I shared a whole album of mashups the other day, I’m going to leave you with this video, courtesy of A-Trak. If you haven’t heard of him, I’ll share something that I love dearly that he’s worked on, soon. That’s a bad sentence, I know. Anyway, here’s the video:

Enjoy!

The school year has resumed, so I’ve decided to resume the blog, as well. I thought about restarting this with some kind of look back into what I’ve been up to in the months that I’ve been away from this, but I decided that’s stupid. I do, after all, try to keep myself out of this process as much as possible. However, I can sum it up in a couple of words:

I was in the woods.

Good? Good. To start things off, I have a couple of stop-motion videos (found through Boingboing, of course) to restore the aesthetic that I like to explore:

I’m not going to write too much right now, since I have a job interview tomorrow morning, but a post wouldn’t be the same without mashups. I shared Super Mash Bros.’ first album last year, but they’ve come out with a new one in the meantime, All About the Scrillions. This album became the soundtrack to the second half of my summer, and I dare say I could have done worse. Check it out.

Here’s one of the tracks.

Here’s another one.

And here’s the link to the album download.

PS– Curious about the header photo? Check back tomorrow to find out what it’s all about!

My direction in college (like most people, I find) has never pointed in the same direction for any great length of time. It’s still pointed in the same general direction (journalism), but all the little stuff usually shuffles around.

Recently, I decided to become a ceramics minor. I really love wheel-throwing, and I feel like I’m pretty good at it. And I’ve been crazy about handbuilding stuff ever since I saw the Claudel-Rodin exhibit at the DIA several years ago. I even thought about doing my AP Art portfolio with 3D work, though I wisely realized that 2D design was a better idea at the time.

Anyway, the volume of production that I’m working at right now makes it pretty easy to justify giving stuff away, but eventually I may try to sell some of the stuff. How? TEH INTERNETZ, OF COURSE!

Yesterday, at the Guerilla Media final class meeting, someone brought up the website Etsy as a way to buy handmade stuff. For me, it was a little bit of a “duh” moment, but there were a lot of people in the room that hadn’t heard of it, so I figured I’d share it here. If you hadn’t heard of it, don’t feel bad. I’m just a dork. Also, check it out. There’s lots of really good stuff on there, though there’s probably an equal amount of stuff that should be avoided.

Norwegian Recycling is the star of today’s music again, first with a video:

The direct-download link for the song is here. My favorite part is from 2:01- 2:30 with Akon. By far. Also, LOL to Green Day.

I’m not quite as pumped about this second track, but it’s still typically high-quality stuff.

This final track is produced out of its mind, but he does it so well!

My my my, how the time does fly when you know your project’s due by the end of the night.

Anyway, here’s the final thing. The whole culmination of this class.

It’s not a very comprehensive look at the Chicago DIY/Craft scene, I admit. But it is an intimate look into three seperate pieces of the puzzle that make it up. I may, in the future, add to it. Who knows? But for now, enjoy what we’ve created.

And since I have to be on the bus downtown to present this thing in less than half an hour, I’m afraid the music will have to wait, for tonight (sorry Rob).

I wrote a pretty long post last night, so instead of boring you with my words, I’ll just share a couple of videos that I found today.

The first is for Anchor Butter, which I’d never heard of, prior to my internet-browsing this evening. It’s a New Zealand-based free-range butter company, churning out spreads that may not be any better for you, but at least come from happy cows. Here’s a fantastic stop-motion felt advertisement they put out:

It’s cute, and the fact that it’s stop-motion-craft-y makes it a winner for me.

Speaking of cute, I recently saw a video (via Boingboing) that made me realize I live in the wrong country. Now, the USA isn’t all that bad, and it’s getting better (I hope), but check out what these policemen are doing in Denmark:

Hugs! And free helmets! Nice ones, too. I guess when the Danes embrace their two-wheeled bretheren, they really mean it. While I’m tempted to go to Denmark anyway, now I know for sure I’m not going to be wearing a helmet. Just in case.

All of tonight’s mashups will be courtesy of the Illuminoids. Click on that link. And appreciate their fantastic intro/jump page. You actually have to click, though– the “SnapShot” image when you hover over the link isn’t the one I want you to see.

The Temptations never sounded so electro-pop as they do in this first track.

I was interested to see where they went with LCD Soundsystem in this second track. Turns out, they used one of the only songs I really like on Sound of Silver. I guess I’m still not sold on the rest of the album.

This final track does a great thing: it takes the Velvet Underground and keeps Nico away from the microphone.

It’s that time of year again– Finals week!

Of course, with the screwy classes that I take, this usually means that there’s a lot more project-oriented work going on, and a lot less test-taking, compared to others. Last year, I had three studio/production classes, and the studio time almost killed me. I vowed never to let that happen again.

This year, I again have three studio/production classes, but with the added pressure of the Lisagor video project (now passed, of course). I don’t learn my lessons. I don’t have any more studio time, though– it’s all video production at this point.

I really like audio/video production. Usually I’m not a very nitpicky person, but I just can’t get enough of the little annoying things that make such production work a time-consuming mess, especially in audio, but that’s just because I’m better at that side of the puzzle. While I can edit a video well enough to present, I’m not great. I have no formal training whatsoever, and I just know there are things I could do in Final Cut to make my stuff better.

One of the things I enjoy most about audio (and audio to video) is scoring. The simple addition of music can turn a piece completely around– and therein lies the problem. The rule is that music is supposed to support the mood, not drive it. If you listen to the bare version of a piece and compare it to a scored version and the two are radically different, there’s a problem. Often, however, this is done as a cover-up for bad writing.

Poynter has a good article in its “Ethics” section about this. They even offer several videos to illustrate the difference a simple scoring decision can make:

See?

Another contributing factor to this issue is the problem of licensing. If your piece is going to be shown publically or gains significant popularity, you’re going to need ASCAP licensed music. And most people can’t afford that. Even some broadcast stations can’t afford that. Under Fair Use, you can get away with about 30 seconds of audio before the goonies from the record labels start coming after you. At that point, you’re in trouble. Shuffling though music 30 seconds at a time makes for pretty obnoxious video, though, and can run into this same mood-problem. Tricky stuff.

Of course, you can get by all of this by not using music (or writing your own), but that’s not as fun.

Speaking of music, here’s a little bit for all of you out there.

When I need to wake up after a late night, I used to blast the Fatboy Slim song in this first track, which is one of my favorites in recent memory.

Of course, either of the songs in this second track would get me up just as quickly.

I’ve never heard Marley and Eminem mashed together like they are in this final track.

PS– In eleven days, I’m going to be camping by myself at Camp Chick. That may or may not mean nothing to you.

Now this is a transportation post that my mother could support.

Apparently, back in Europe during WWII, gasoline was scarce. Duh. What I didn’t know, however, was how they made up for that fact. Internal combustion engines are wonderful in that they don’t much care what you put through them, just as long as they explode at the right time and don’t gum up the valves. The Europeans exploited this by using gasification generators (pictured) to run their cars on hydrogen-based syngas. The technology is carbon-neutral, time-tested, and still available today!

The chemistry is fairly simple. Woodchips (or sawdust, or peanut shells, or really any other organic compounds) are burned in an oxygen-deprived environment, which doesn’t allow the hydrogen gas to be bonded with oxygen, creating the usual H2O byproduct of combustion. The hydrogen gas is then routed to the cylinders through the car’s fuel delivery system, and voila! It runs. I should mention, however, that this wouldn’t work on a Diesel engine, since those use pressure-ignition, rather than spark.

Instructables has a wonderful rundown of how to install this in a car and make it run, with this accompanying video of the generator in action:

I believe the correct term to use here is “do want.”

Now, while this isn’t technically steam-powered, I can’t help but see this being used to create some wonderful steampunk vehicles.

What I really envision, however, is fitting one of these bad-boys onto the back of a Delorean. Flux-Capacitor or no, it would be badass. And carbon neutral, to boot.

The future is cold. Air cold.

To the music!

Whether or not Britney has a future is another story, but she sounds good in this first track.

The “Futuresounds of London” apparently decided to immediately date themselves with their name, but they’re brought into the 21st century for this second track. Not my style, though.

“The Futureheads” probably didn’t sound as good before they were mashed with 50 Cent in tonight’s final track.

This is an even less alternative project than the last video I posted. This is the video I produced (with Kristen Thometz) for SPJ (the Society of Professional Journalists). They’re giving Fran Spielman, the City Hall reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times the Lisagor Journalism Award, which is essentially an award for lifetime achievement.

It was incredible making this video, as I got to shadow Fran for a day, as well as attend a press conference with the mayor, where I signed in on the media sheet, and was filming alongside the local TV stations. My camera, as much as I like it, felt very small next to those huge broadcast-bazookas.

I also got to interview the editor-in-chief of the Sun-Times for this, as you’ll see in the video. So now he knows my name, and hopefully will be impressed with the outcome of the project.

The coolest part of this, though, is that this video will be shown publicly at the awards ceremony on Friday, downtown. It’s going to follow a piece produced by ABC7 Chicago, and the audience will include real, important people from the Chicago mass-media community. This could open doors.

Anyway, here’s the final product. Since it’s so late, I’m not going to post any music today. Hopefully this will be interesting enough.

Let me know what you think! I still have a day to make any last-minute changes.

I’ve always been a fan of Makita tools. My dad always used them when I was growing up, and still does today. I remember fondly the Christmas when he passed the old power drill on to me, complete with a leather tool belt and a set of pliers that I use to this day. It’s a wonderful tool.

I’ve never really thought of the company outside of its practicality, however. I like the trademark blue color, but as far as I’ve been concerned, Milwaukee tools still has the edge as far as cool logos go. Makita’s is nicely 60′s, but Milwaukee has an even more delightfully retro 20′s look to it.

Not content to sit in Milwaukee’s graphic-design shadow, Makita has recently created this incredible advertisement (via BoingBoing):

To emphasize their drills’ incredible precision, they drilled over 20,000 holes in a wall, creating a pointillist rendition of one of their drills. Whether or not it’s an effective demonstration of the drills’ ability (they seem to be using some a Black & Decker or something in that third thumbnail), it’s a great idea. And a cool art installation, besides!

So, if you’re in the market for a drill, I’ll give you my old spiel from my hardware-store days: If you want “made in America” street cred and legendary quality, buy Milwaukee. If you want a tool that will last a lifetime, buy Makita. If you want to go a bit cheaper, buy a DeWalt. If you’re a hopeless cheapskate, Black & Decker is on isle 2.

As a short follow-up to last night’s post, I found a more detailed explanation of the gallery opening here. The author admits to sounding a bit like an advert, but I think he’s just as smitten with the bike as I am. Harley-Davidson also created a youth-oriented blog about their Dark Custom line, here. It’s a total marketing ploy, and there’s absolutely no journalistic integrity in anything that’s on the site, but that’s a given. Besides, it’s kind of neat.

To the music!

If men with accents speaking low makes you uncomfortable, avoid this first track.

If you’re not into Rick James either, then skip this second track, too.

But everyone loves MGMT, so make sure to listen to tonight’s final track.