1000 SHARDS

Dare i say... intoxicating.

It's no secret that New York is a tourist magnet, and as in many of the world's other tourist honeypots, Noo Yawk locals are often guilty of growing impatient with visitors to their frantic metropolis. (I remember attracting a salvo of artful cursing from a cyclist on the Brooklyn Bridge when I drifted into the bike lane to take photos of downtown Manhattan – this was the moment I decided that it wasn't the day I would propose to my wife.)

Groucho Marx once said, "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."

The video below encapsulates the essence of television (and TV marketing) better than anything I've seen before. 

{First published on Anthill Magazine.}

While getting ready for work this morning I was fortunate enough to catch this shard of radio gold: ABC News Radio’s Marius Benson interviewing Imperial Tobacco Australia spokesperson Cathy Keogh about the Rudd Government’s plan to mandate plain packaging on all cigarette packets sold in Australia.

Source: ABC News Radio 29/04/2010 (mp3)

The legal line on intellectual property is one thing, but what’s with that bit about shopkeppers having their back turned for longer periods while they hunt for the right packet?

So it turns out that not all flacks for big tobacco are as smooth and assured as Nick Naylor, the silky tobacco lobbyist played by Aaron Eckhart in the 2005 movie Thank You For Smoking.

If you've ever ridden the emotional roller coaster of setting up an elaborate domino chain, imagine how exhausting it would be to spend 40 hours assembling a miniature metropolis by standing staple stacks of varying lengths on their ends. 

Kudos to UK artists Peter Root for the effort and for this great timelapse video.

Le Tour du Monde en 80 Secondes is a modern-day take on Jules Vernes' Around the World in 80 Days. Completed in just three weeks, Directors Romain Pergeaux and Alex Profit laced together hundreds of sequential photographs on a journey through the streets of London, Cairo, Mumbay, Hong Kong, Tokyo, San Francisco, New York and London again. The end result is quite captivating.

Background information, including a 'making of' video, pictures and interview, can be found on the project's website: tourdumonde80.fr.

At every Olympic Games there is at least one athlete who finishes so far behind everyone else that they end up attracting more cheers and camera time than the other competitors in the race. They try their guts out, but, alas, it's not good enough. Not even close.

The camera trains on the finish line as the other competitors cross, lingers there for several awkward seconds, then the director, who dearly wants to broadcast the winner's celebration, dutifully crosses to the athlete labouring around the final bend.

The crowd cheers. It's a stirring affirmation of the Olympic spirit, a celebration of participation over failure. There's a lump in your throat. Then your mate sitting on the couch beside you says, "What are you smiling at? You'd make this bloke look like Steve Austin!"

True enough. But how would the average man fair in a 40-yard foot race against professional NFL players? This remarkable multi-layered video reveals the startling reality.

Hat tip: Scott Handsaker

Here's another one of those dream-like tilt-shifting videos where everything looks miniature. The technique entered popular consciousness (or mine, at least) via Australian photographer Keith Loutit's wonderful tilt-shifting videos of Sydney harbour and surrounds.

I'm still not entirely sure how this effect is produced (a combination of camera movement, selective focus and a specialised tilt-shift lens), but it's certainly eye-catching. And what better way to show off the technique than by applying it to A Day in the Life of New York City, as Sam O'Hare has done.

Read the rest of this post »

Seventeen-year-old art student Jamie Bell created this stop-motion clip using biros, about 50 jotter books and 2100 pages. It took him three weeks, but it was worth it – he received full marks from his teacher. (And me.)

Tres cool.