Hit or Miss has been sampled by everyone and their mother. I first ran across this song somewhere in my crate digging days and that turned me on to Odetta, which opened me up to a whole world of folk music, which eventually collided with Bob Dylan. As with most people in their 30s, I grew up on a steady diet of Dylan. Blissfully unaware to what he was actually doing and saying, it was all mostly over my head. As I re-experienced Dylan in my adult years, I heard him for the first time and began seeking out his sources and inspirations. Odetta is one of these inspirations. In the cannon of folk/blues music, she’s a heavy. Check out Odetta’s brief segment from the Bob Dylan biopic No Direction Home (amazing film – a must see).
Ok, politics time is almost over. In less than two weeks we can all go back to ignoring our government, right?1 But for now we need to stay focused.
I don’t usually like posting videos too often, especially two videos in one post. But these two make compelling twin arguments. The thesis: changing the script from Yes, We Can! to Yes, We Did!
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Relatedly: I sent in my absentee ballot, this past week, for the state of New York. I voted! woo-hoo.
I was surfing the interwebs this morning and I happened upon Jamie’s posts about the making of a sick-ass low-budge surf video she and Jay worked on as a part of Alex Kopps’ one-day DIY Filmmaking class “Movie Making for the Broke”. Here’s the video in big quicktime glory.
The trailer for Riding The Wave, a surf culture documentary directed/created by Art Center grad Christopher Cutri:
Surfing, with its historic and contemporary roots in Hawaii, has become a world wide marketing magnet. How has surfing, an activity traditionally associated with a counter culture ethos, exploded into a multinational billions dollar industry with cultural influence almost beyond measure? Surf clothing and other paraphernalia have blanketed the cultural landscape in this country and around the world. With commentaries from Steve Pezman of the Surfers Journal, Bob Mcknight, CEO of Quiksilver, Paul Naude, President of Billabong, Dave Parmenter, Mickey Munoz and many others, we discover the tensions surrounding this movement and its affect on the sport.
I especially dug the part where TK Brimer goes into the clothing store and points out the $48 boardshorts. Hilarious, sad and true
Jim Moriarty, CEO of Surfrider Foundation, has a new semi-annual videocast series called 5′10″1. The concept is to talk about 5 concepts in 10 minutes. Quick, simple and dialed in. The videocast format is a brilliant way for Jim to quickly update the masses on Surfrider’s focus and goals. Delivery of transparent information in a very quick and easy manner is the key here.
It’s great to see that Surfrider truly “gets” the power of the internets. I’m definitely inspired by Jim’s eloquence, focus and conceptual creativity2.
I never get tired of watching Kalle Carranza do his thing. Kalle is Mexico’s most famous surfer and famously laid-back and humble. Part of the Reef team, Kalle travels and surfs. I spotted him on Facebook, where he’s slowly dropping crumbs on his travels through Thailand, Cambodia, Loas, Vietnam and now he’s in China.
VBS.TV has turned its sights towards Mexico in a month long programming tribute, accompany the Mexican language version of Vice:
Having spread our seed across the whole of the English Commonwealth and the continent of Europe (the good parts at least), this month Vice and VBS turn our sites southward for the launch of Vice Mexico. This is just the first baby-step in our planned conquest of Latin America in its entirety, but it is still a doozy of a start.
For the next four weeks, all the programming on VBS is if not Made In Mexico, at least Made By Mexicans. Or in some cases With Mexicans. There will be new Mexican episodes of Practice Space with the likes of Los Dynamite, Maria Daniela, Silverio, Jessy Bulbo, and Hong Kong Blood Opera; fresh editions of Art Talk! with Miguel Calderon, Yoshua Okon, and other luminaries of Mexico City’s incredible punk-art scene; and features on our favorite facets of Mexico’s insane-ass culture like the murder-tabloid industry (la Nota Roja) and their retirement home for aging sex workers (yes, they really have one of those).
And as a final treat in the pinata, we followed Richard Kern down to the capital for a special Mexico City installment of Shot By Kern. Be on the lookout for that, and be sure to check out the inaugural Mexican Issue of the magazine over on Viceland.com.
Most of the series seems to focus on the mex/us border towns and Mexico City, no rural coast stuff going on, I guess it doesn’t mesh with Vice’s urban hipster aesthetic. But lots of good content, so go check it out.
Mondays are always better with Feist and the muppets of Sesame Street. If this video doesn’t bring a smile to your face, you got entirely too much coal in your stocking when you were a kid. give yerself a big hug and a lollipop quickfast.
Lately, I’ve been dreaming about the surfing on display in this sequence, so smooth, I find myself stalking M.Caro’s Stubbie page on his Mandala site. The video gets played over and over in an infinite loop. In my mind’s eye I surf like this hombre, or at least I attempt to. Watch the video, then watch it again, paying extra attention to this guy’s footwork, it’s hypnotizing. Is that the flex fin giving him all that subtle carving movement (in the second shot) as he moves far on to the shoulder and then cuts back?
The War in Iraq costs $720 Million a day.
That’s $500,000 a minute.
That’s $8333 a second.
“I think people are becoming more aware of these guns or butter questions,” said Gary Gillespie, “But when you talk about $720 million a day, even people who work on this issue are shocked by the number and shocked by what could have been done with that money. War has no return — you’re not producing a product.”
Great piece, combines clear narrative and simple/effective motion graphics.
I posted about Isaiah Seret’s Hitler is Alive in Burma spot (starring Ellen Page) a few days ago, from the Burma Can’t Wait campaign. Now check out another spot of his entitled Voices (do yourself a favor and go watch it on YouTube and click on the High Quality version, unfortunately there’s no hard-link to the HQ). This spot goes completely in the opposite direction of the Hitler piece. I love it.
The music is by Vetiver – “You May Be Blue (Neighbors Remix)”
– I did the type cards on this one. nothing fancy. minimal, to the point.
Hi, my name is Ed. I’m a graphic designer who lived in L.A. I quit my job, sold my car, rented out my house and moved to Mexico. Along the way, I learned how to surf and fell in love. This blog is my story. In these pages I write about and photograph my daily experience. I also post about things I find interesting: art, design, photography, music, tech, etc...
