Europe

Well I promised a bit of a summary of my trip to Europe. So here goes a summary...

So, last summer I spent about a month in the U.K. and France and had a bunch of educational/fun/crazy/ adventures. From spending weeks with my good buddy interning at a design firm in London, to getting stranded, literally, in Paris, to insane late night runs through Scotland, it was an amazing time.

I'll have a post for each place but until then, here's a song that will always remind me of late night designing and moscow mules with my friend Josh in London.

Trip

Well, my trip is coming to a close. Been over in Europe a few weeks now. Didn't go exactly as I had planned, but that's kind of the fun right? Plus, some amazing things happened that wouldn't have if my "plans" worked (back in London, stories to follow).

Anyway, Sooooo much inspiration the last few days. Just got back back from NewDesigners, a fantastic exhibition showcasing the best designers from the top art/design schools here in the U.K. It was really inspiring (and sometimes intimidating) to see how good these kids were. At the end of the day though, got super excited & inspired to better myself as a designer, go home and illustrate again, and started a great project with my buddy Josh. Design is so good, seriously.

Ok so if you haven't listened yet, go check out that tune by Benjamin Francis Leftwich. A fantastic tune from the young, 21 year old Brit. Excited to see where he goes. 


Ok long typing, next post will be a bit more pictures and stories from my trip. Hope all's well with er'one.


Cheers.

Leaving

Hey guys, so I apologize early if I don't post often for the next month or so. Leaving in about 3 hours for London (and from there who knows!). These past few months have been a bit crazy, working, interning, graduating college, looking for a full time job, new roommates, etc. Buuuuut, I decided that this is the perfect time for me to take some time for myself and travel.  Luckily everything fell together quite nicely.

Although this blog is in no way a travel blog, and even though I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post while I'm gone, I look forward to gaining more knowledge and experience in art, music, and film (and hopefully pass some of my discoveries on to you guys).

I hope you guys are having a fantastic summer and hopefully I'll return soon with new stories and experiences. See ya soon!

Sarah Elizabeth Blais

Sometimes you need a muse.

Sarah Blais' work is pretty sweet. She's def got a cool style and is worth checking out. Enjoy!

FOLLOW UP - got the EMA vinyl for Past Life Martyred Saints  the other day and I must say it's even better than I thought it would be. 2011's first must listen for sure. Get hooked. Here's another taste of this fantastic album. Moody 90's at it's finest.

uploaded by AwkwardSound

EMA

So I was just listening to the new My Morning Jacket album (which is fantastic) on NPR and I stumbled across the music of Erica M. Anderson, EMA. Formerly of the Gowns, Anderson is killing it under her new alias. "The Grey Ship" was my first introduction to EMA and I'm hooked. 7 minutes of just fantastic. Her new album Past Life Martyred Saints was released on May 10th and just reached the peak of my must haves. A must listen and as the folks over at NPR say, "enjoy your 7 minutes of catharsis."
-The Grey Ship

Damn, the transition at 3 min is epic.
Enjoy this tune. I'm off to buy the EMA record. Keep you updated.

Shit Robot

Shit Robot - Losing My Patience from DFA Records on Vimeo.

Shit Robot is pretty awesome. If you haven't heard of him before, Shit Robot consists of Marcus Lambkin, an Irish electro-house producer. While living in NY in the early aughts (2000's) Robot befriended James Murphy (later of LCD Soundsystem) and had a DJ partnership with him for a time.

In '04 Robot moved to Germany and started producing his own music and released his debut album From the Cradle to the Rave last September (2010). The album features James Murphy as well as Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip and is recommended. Perfect to listen to on a rainy spring day.

You can stream the album for free here. Enjoy!

Dana Tanamachi

Dana Tanamachi makes some really cool stuff.


Tanamachi is graphic designer & custom chalk letterer who has been living and working in Brooklyn, NY since 2008. Tanamachi has worked for SpotCo designing posters for Broadway shows and currently  works for Louise Fili Ltd, a NYC Graphic Design Studio specializing in logo, package, restaurant, and book design. 


When not at work, Tanamachi has developed an amazing skill in chalk lettering. She has created a unique style that really draws the eye. Her stylized typography is really fantastic. Check out some more of her chalk renderings below and def check out her site here. And if you're in NY and know a hip place that could utilize her talents, def send her a message.

Peaks

Ok so I realize that this is not news for many fans, but Twin Peaks is an amazing show. If you haven't watched it or heard of it it's a mystery/thriller/soap opera(sorta) created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. Twin peaks only ran two seasons from 1990-1991 and is a fantastically quirky gem of a TV series. I highly recommend.

A good friend of mine and I started it on his recommendation but we were unable to finish it before he had the chance to move to British Columbia. Well after a period of not watching I found it on Netflix and decided to go for it, and I must say it's even better than I remembered. If you love Lynch films; Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Wild at Heart, etc; or really, if you like fun, you'll love it. Ok all ya Netflixers that haven't watched this yet, get to it.

Makes you just want some coffee doesn't it?

Title Art

This is A Brief History of Title Design from Ian Albinson. This video is an amazing compilation of title art from some of the most influential designers of the last century. If you're either a film nut or a design geek (luckily I'm both), I'm pretty sure you're gonna love it.

Albinson's video compilation comes from his website artofthetitle.com. It's an amazing site collecting new and old title art into one convenient place. Convenient and awesome enough to possibly steal much of your free time. I highly recommend it. If you love art, film, and design; and if you found yourself watching the ending credits of Blue Valentine or or the opening of Se7en thinking, "I'd love to have been a part of that," this site is for you. So enjoy, and let me know whatcha think.

Russ Chimes

Check out this video for Russ Chimes by Saman Keshavarz. It's pretty awesome.

So I'm loving the way that trend now to make music videos is to mix narrative and a unique film style in order to garner buzz. It's just much more entertaining and effective than having a couple kids dancing around quirky places and mouthing the music. This in no way is something completely new, but is completely awesome.

Keshavarz has done some awesome stuff and you def check out his stuff. This short film (slash music vide) is the final portion of a trilogy but I sorta loved watching it first. It was really entertaining to piece together the story as I watched and so I wanted to present it that way here. He's also done a music video for !!! as well as some work for Canon. Def a dude worth checking out if you liked the video. Enjoy kids.

Das Racist

What to do tomorrow (Saturday) night in Buffalo?

Go see Das Racist. 

I know a lot of you remember This Song from last year; an awesomely repetitive/memorable tune with this possibly intentional (or unintentional?) comment on contemporary American consumerist culture. Ok that sounds lofty and maybe they were just having fun, but I think they knew what they were doing. Either way, it polarized listeners with it's style but in my opinion, was awesome. Since then they've released two mix-tapes; Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. They even let ya download the entire mix-tapes for free right off their website, so there's no excuse not to check em out if ya haven't.

These Brooklyn-ites have a unique style of flow while combining their signature mix of comical and serious content. Their new stuff is pretty solid and def worth checking out. And if you're around BLO this weekend looking for something to do, def head out to Soundlab (110 Pearl Street, Buffalo NY 14202) and check out this show. It's gonna be awesome.

Oh and listen to this tune on the drive down.
-Hahahaha jk

Beach

Dirty Beaches is fantastic.

You have got to check out this tune

-Lord Knows Best

Dirty Beaches is made up of Alex Zhang Hungtai and a bunch of eerie sounds and awesome vocals. He's surfy, Springsteen-y, spookie, and Presley-y. I'm sure you could add a few more comparisons but what's the point? All that matters is that it's damn fantastic.

When I listen to him I tend to think of that post-fight scene from a Tarentino movie where the camera is slowly panning over a room with broken lamps, tables, clocks, etc. with the surf crashing in the background. Weird right? Ha maybe I watch too many movies, but despite that (or perhaps because of), I know you'll enjoy.

Anyway, If you like what you hear his new album Badlands is getting released on March 29th. Till then enjoy some of his tunes.

-Sweet 17

-The Singer (Johnny Cash Cover)

Fall Again

I love the fall.

Things are just beautiful and awesome. It's my final semester of classes, I got my show opening coming up, and all I wanna do is go off to the woods and walk around. So, I took a day off from school, and worked a short project into a little day trip. Got to take some fun pictures and got to just spend some time away from everything. Little sick of looking at a computer to be honest.

Anyway, didn't turn out exactly how I wanted as I sorta ran outa time. But it's all good, check it out:

Beauty

It's been a while but i found this, and it needed to be shared. This is beautiful.
I cannot wait until I am done with school and perhaps I will go this direction. Agencies need film too.

autumn by the lake from Bart van der Gaag on Vimeo.

Bear

Seriously, Film is one of the most amazing things in life.
So is Vimeo.
Check out this animation (make it full screen, it's awesome).

Between Bears from Eran Hilleli on Vimeo.
What an awesome animation. So peaceful, interesting, and clever.

yesssss

'All the kids have always known that the emperor wears no clothes… but they bow down to him anyway, ‘cause it’s better than bein’ alone.'

The Arcade Fire are my heroes.

The new album (released Aug 8th) is fanfantastic. This is a band I fell in love with when Funeral came out, and was surprised but really pleased with Neon Bible. Bands often choose to remain stagnant but this is once again not the case with the fire. They choose to move forward with their artistic inspiration and insight and created another wonderful piece of work that gets better with each listen. Not only are their sounds so pleasing but their lyrical compositions don't fail to inspire (as seen above from my favorite song of their album, so far, "Ready to Start").

Each of you should check out some of my fav tunes below and then you should prolly go out and buy the album or go see them live many times.

-Month of May

-Ready to Start

This is home

This is my home town.

Love it here.

Back

Back in action.

Saw music, saw Chicago. Wanted to start blog'n again. Miss ya, blog.

Food

Friends

Chicago

Awesome time. Missed music. And going new places. I could def see myself living in Chicago someday. Ok, so listen to music from the fest, reaaaaaady, GO.

Surfer Blood

-Swim

LCD Soundsystem

-I Can Change

Vid of Titus from Pfork

WWF

So I've posted this all over facebook and tons of people's walls, but I think it's cool enough for people to check out on my blog too. Love this video, you need to watch. So do it :)

Space Monkey from Leo Burnett on Vimeo.

For art, for beauty, for earth.

I made a movie!

So this is an environment that I created for an Illustration 2 class at school. Took foreeeeeeever and it's pretty simple, but it's awesome at the same time haha. Hope you enjoy this little clip.