I dare you to watch this video without even a single smile. Stanley Bell makes some interestingly nice family videos. This one has the Neil Cowley Trio's Degree in Intuition as soundtrack.

At a time when Neil Cowley Trio releases its third full length album, Radio Silence, I managed to get hold (FINALLY) of their first two. I knew some of the songs, from here and there. But I'm just blown away after listening to them non-stop. You can always get them through Amazon.co.uk - the trio is British so it's a lot cheaper through the uk based sites. Don't bother searching for them in Portugal. Since Fnac holds the monopoly of on-site music commerce - after Valentim de Carvalho closed its doors, the only option left is Jo-Jo's Music (CDGO). But if they don't have it on the shelves (the store is near Cedofeita) just order from the internet...

This Trio came to my knoledge when I went to a double venue inserted in Le Festival Jazz à Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris last year - some footage of THAT concert here. I went to see Andre Manoukian who played the first half. Afterwards came Neil Cowley Trio. During the presentation the host let me know that Cowley had previously worked in the keyboards of Zero7 and The Brand New Heavies. But the true surprise came afterwards. The guy kicked, jumped in his bench, banged his head and played with his eyes shut. The drummer Evan Jenkins just banged away with beats I could listen to on their own. All topped with bassist Richard Sadler shifting swiftly between bass styles.

The following on is from the latest album and it's called Box Lily:

There, Jazz you can bang your head to.

Some more videos:
Making of Radio Silence
His Nibs on Later with Jools Holland
Degree In Intution at Jazz Sous Les Pommiers via Mezzo
How Do We Catch Up on The View

Rollerblade session in Ermesinde on Flickr.

I was going through my walpapers (I get tired of them too fast) and found an image of my old Windows desktop on my old Acer. It was kind of nice:

Clara Sverner toca Saudade de Marcelo Camelo.

Ai, ai
Vai ver é só você
Ai, ai
Vai ver é só você querer
Distante, imaginar
Caberia a quem dizer:
"Amor, eu vivo tão sozinho de saudade"

Depois de falar de Rodrigo Amarante e dos Little Joy, falo agora de outro dos membros dos Los Hermanos (passo a redundância). Marcelo Camelo é compositor, cantor, guitarrista, violonista e poeta brasileiro. É conhecido como vocalista e guitarrista da banda de rock alternativo Los Hermanos. Actualmente. lançou-se numa carreira a solo. 'Sou', o seu primeiro álbum foi lançado em 2008.
Cheguei a este  artista por vias tortuosas ao fazer uma procura por Saudade, depois de ouvir a música com tal nome do projecto Orelha Negra. Não sei porquê.

Marcelo Camelo - Saudade ao vivo - Vídeo

Marcelo Camelo - Saudade (versão do álbum)

Este é o teaser Supernatural realizado por Manuel Pureza e Carlos Afonso (aka Bondage). O vídeo tem como banda sonora a versão do Saudade dos Orelha Negra assim como o início do A Cura do mesmo projecto. É um teaser para o vídeo do A Cura, também realizado por "estes senhores".


Adenda: A versão ao vivo da Saudade, interpretada e orquestrada por Marcelo Camelo e com mais qualidade está no myspace (link acima.


P.S. Já agora vejam este vídeo no qual Bondage e "Pedro Abrunhosa" apresentam a Orelha Negra, assim como o primeiro teaser Futurama.

Mais um superpost.

So you need a typeface is an alternative way on how to choose fonts (or just be inspired) for a specific project, not just by browsing through the pages of FontBook. The list is (very loosely) based on the top 50 of the "Die 100 besten schriften".

by Julian Hansen

 

A oposição betão armado vs. país "verde verdinho", que este filme propõe, é demagógica.

[…]

E chegamos, por aqui, a um dos impasses deste documentário escorreito em termos técnicos: submeter sempre a representação do real a uma agenda política pouco clarificada, puxando, por um lado, pela vertente da defesa ecológica e, por outro, pelo conservadorismo "antiturístico" (e anti-desenvolvimentista) das populações, mais interessadas no quotidiano imediato.

[…]

[As] soluções apontadas pautam-se pela demagogia de um ecologismo primário. O ataque à natureza, em nome de interesses inconfessáveis (do dinheiro, do betão e do asfalto), é bem mais complexo do que ressalta das redutoras boas intenções de "Pare, Escute e Olhe".

por Mário JorgeTorres in Cinecartaz

The Walkman - On The Water


The Walkmen - Red Moon

But the stars are cold; And the air is bright; And I see you now; You shine like the steel on my knife

Also watch:
The Walkman - The Bowery Presents: The Walkmen - In The New Year
The Walkman - The Walkmen - In The New Year (music video)
The Walkmen - Long Time Ahead of Us

Impressive work by Olga Feldman. These are called Rainbow Body. Check out her wesbsite for more ey candy goodness.
I had to post these alog with some songs from Four Tet's last album "There Is Love in You". It's amazing. Go and get it. Now!!!

Following my quest for watches, which started with my first wishlist post, I found the Nixon. Nixon is a California based accessories company "for the youth lifestyle market". Nixon began with a small line of custom built, team designed watches with focused distribution in specialty surf, skate, snow, and fashion stores, expanding into accessories and limited softgoods in 2000 like wallets, bags, hats and headphones.

They have an exquisite choice of watches including:

 THE R1G1

 THE SCORE PU - also very cool in orange

 THE VOLTA - very reminiscent of Bell&Ross'

and my favourite - THE MURF

(click on the links 'cause they come in very different colours and styles)

Noah Kalina is best known from a video on youtube in which he shot himself everyday for 2356 days or 7 years. He's a professional photographer from Brooklin, NY. I found his website while searching for Neri Oxman on google.

Neri Oxman

Rafael Viñoly

Phantogram

Others after the break:

Two films worth mentioning, out in DVD now.

24 City is a 2008 film directed and co-written by Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke. The film follows three generations of characters in Chengdu (in the 1950s, the 1970s and the present day) as a state-owned factory gives way to a modern apartment complex.

The film's narrative style is described by critics as a blend of fictional and documentary storytelling, and it consist of five authentic interviews and four fictional scenes delivered by actors (but presented in a documentary format).

MY PLAYGROUND is a documentary directed by Kaspar Astrup Schröder. It explores the way Parkour and Freerunning is changing the perception of urban space and how the spaces and buildings they are moving on are changing them.

Mainly set in Copenhagen the film follows Team JiYo as they explore the city and encounter the obstacles it presents.

HINT.FM is the collaboration site of Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg. They invent new ways for people to think and talk about data.

As technologists we ask, Can visualization help people think collectively? Can visualization move beyond numbers into the realm of words and images?

As artists we seek the joy of revelation. Can visualization tell never-before-told stories? Can it uncover truths about color, memory, and sensuality?

There are some pretty interesting projects in there. I recommend the Fleshmap series [touch, look and listen],  or Flickr Flow. But one of the most interesting ones is Many Eyes which is a free site where anyone can upload, visualize, and discuss data. It aims to "democratize" visualization, and experiment with new collaborative techniques. Basically you upload any kind of data and then select one or more of the visualization types.

Last but not least, I leave here a few examples of what you can do with Web Seer. It's an application that takes Google Sugest, leting you see what others are asking when they search the web. From the existential to the mundane, the questions form a portrait of human curiosity.
More examples here or here.

You might also like:
Top 10 Funniest Google Query Suggestion Results For ‘Architect’
Johnathan Harris

Digital Kitchen provides a making of in its site as well as the full resolution video. The studio has an impressive portfolio which includes the opening titles to House, Nip Tuck, The Ghost Wisperer, Six Feet Under and the amazing Dexter.

True Blood is an American television drama series created and produced by Alan Ball [Six Feet Under, American Beauty]. True Blood's Emmy-nominated title sequence was created by Digital Kitchen, a production studio that was also responsible for creating the title sequence of Six Feet Under and Showtime's Dexter. The sequence, which is primarily composed of portrayals of the show's Deep South setting, is played to "Bad Things" by Jace Everett.
Digital Kitchen wished to explore themes of redemption and forgiveness in the opening title sequence.

Conceptually, Digital Kitchen elected to construct the sequence around the idea of "the whore in the house of prayer" by intermingling contradictory images of sex, violence and religion and displaying them from the point of view of "a supernatural, predatory creature observing human beings from the shadows ..." Digital Kitchen also wished to explore ideas of redemption and forgiveness, and thus arranged for the sequence to progress from morning to night and to culminate in a baptism.

read more in Wikipedia