Grape Frogg illustration

Mark Khaisman tape art

These are made with shipping tape.

N.A.S.A.: Tom Waits & Kool Keith – “Spacious Thoughts”

This is so sick.

Directed & produced by Flourescent Hill. Animation by Mark Lomond, Johanne Ste-Marie and Jacques Khouri.

hey look

Man I love K-os

Apparently this album still hasn’t been released in the US yet, which is strange because I’m pretty sure it’s been available in Canada (and the internet) for the better part of a year. Anyway, K-os continues to be one of my favorite artists and this video is pretty nice.

Emily Wells

I still don’t believe this place can exist

“Much has been said about the state of Dubai since its lightning speed of development almost ground to a halt, thanks to the global financial crisis. What, everyone is wondering, will come of Brand Dubai? 

The Cool Hunter Platinum team has visited Dubai regularly over the last few years and on our most recent trip we asked ourselves the same question. Aside from the fact that Dubai was (and still is) trying to cram 100 years of development into less than two decades – the making of Dubai marks one of the most audacious and epic branding exercises undertaken in modern times. The task, to transform a Middle Eastern port into an ultra-modern global financial, business and cultural centre, has been attacked with gusto, to say the least, funded by incredibly deep local pockets. Like a new brand of soft drink, the marketers approached Dubai like a product and brought it to life.

The seemingly unending supply of money sparked an unspoken competition between developers and business leaders to create the most ostentatious – biggest, tallest, widest et al – of absolutely anything, not least the ’super’ buildings, created by international star-architects, all vying for ‘icon’ status. More than anything, this was the cornerstone of Brand Dubai. Which worked quite well for a while. And then the world changed. The bubble burst and everything that Dubai stood for – overt displays of wealth and conspicuous consumption fell dramatically out of vogue.  

So where to now? We wondered, looking around at all of the unfinished skyscrapers on a recent trip. 

Like a soft drink brand that has misjudged its market, Dubai needs a ‘re-brand’ to reposition itself – that much is certain. The world doesn’t like the flavor or texture of Dubai anymore, so R&D needs to go back to the drawing board. 

Snapping at its heels are other centres in the region, such as Qatar, which appears to have learned from Dubai’s mistakes. It too has dizzyingly deep pockets but appears to be taking the path of relative restraint. Which, in a world still reeling from the GFC, is totally on-brand right now”. - Laura Demasi

In the Mood For Love

If you are into cinematography and stylistic elements in films then you will like this. The fashion and design circa ’60s Hong Kong are pretty sick too.

A Christmas Carol

Disney’s A Christmas Carol stays very true to the original, adding in modern technology for a more exciting visual experience. I would’ve been hiding under the seat with my shirt over my eyes if I saw this as a kid, but now I think it’s cool. The one big mistake we made was seeing it in 3D. In my experience the animation is already top of the line technology, so anytime you have to put the glasses on to see “3D” it will fail miserably (unless of course you are in DisneyLand/World). The background had a constant metallic glare that looked awful and kept making me go cross-eyed to the point where I was covering one eye to avoid the “3D” effect altogether. But on a positive note, those glasses are pretty dope. I like the frames and you can see people sneak up on you in the reflection like James Bond.

EyeWriter

This is so incredible. I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose all control of everything but your eyes, but man he must feel so relieved to have this technology available. It’s like Stephen Hawking meets Edgar Friendly style graffiti!