Shinya Kimura by Adam Richards | Doing What You Love

My friend Thomas  (@tvelvet) tweeted this video today, titled Shinya Kimura by Adam Richards:

 

I love the simplicity of the whole piece. It’s a short 3 min piece that illustrates a man’s love and passion for motorcycles and how significant it is to him. There are some great shots in this mini documentary and very inspiring overall.

The video also reminds me of another blog that I keep up with called Grain & Gram. Every so often, they feature a gentleman with a unique occupation or craft. I really liked the one about Blair Sligar, a woodworker from Orlando, FL. Besides featuring awesome projects, the interview and videos also gives you a glimpse of someone else’s life that is so different from your own.

Logorama – Pulp Fiction for Brands

The world around us is dominated by products, companies and brands both figuratively and literally. Logorama, created by French animation collective H5, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain, takes this idea one step further by building a world solely constructed by brands. This short opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won a 2010 academy award under the category of animated short.

A brand is the identity of a product, service, or company. There’s  a fantastic website that I love browsing called Brand Tags. Brand Tags is a collective experiment in brand perception. The site works by flashing a brand image at the viewer and the viewer writes the first word or phrase they think of when they see the image. These tags generate a word cloud for each individual brand. In my opinion, the top words/phrases are usually pretty indicative of what the majority of people think of a brand. For instance, the most common words that are tagged of Abercrombie & Fitch are moose, clothes, preppy and gay. Apple, is most frequently tagged as apple, mac, cool, and ipod. McDonald’s on the other hand is perceived as fat, fries, food, and big (haha).  It only takes one image to trigger a bunch of words, thoughts and emotions;  it’s fascinating and powerful. This is why companies spend so much time building brand equity.

I love the personalities that the creators have attached to the brands in this short. Ronald McDonald is most definitely the best pick for the bad guy (clown, scary hair = evil) and Big Boy can totally pass as the annoying young perv. Never thought that the Michelin man would be speaking in ebonics, so unexpected and hilarious. I’m surprised it took me this long to discover the video…did it not go viral?

Edit: 1.5 million views according to Vimeo. Not that many considering how many views Justin Bieber has for any one of his music videos. Also, it is sad that I’m using Justin Bieber’s MV views as a benchmark…

Violin Hip-Hop

Not too many people know this, but I am a classically trained pianist. I have a love-hate relationship with the piano. When my older sister started playing the piano before I did, I got so jealous of watching her play that I bugged my mom to let me start taking lessons too. Only after I started taking lessons did I realize practicing was part of the process of being able to play. I went through phases when I would really love playing and then get really lazy. Needless to say, I am no professional pianist. Yet, I stuck with it throughout high school and college (even minoring in college). So thankful that I never quit playing and continue to play to this day.

Just a cool piece of violin hip-hop. I always love the marriage of different musical genres. Feeling happy and musical on this Friday night.

The Deep – PES

Pixels by Patrick Jean

A must watch for all the video-game nerds out there!  Pure brilliance.

The LXD: Elliot’s Shoes w/ Harry Shum Jr.

Harry Shum Jr. caught my eye when he first appeared on Glee.  He didn’t have a large or memorable role but there are just so few Asian American actors on TV that he just stood out.  The entertainment industry is a difficult industry to succeed in, especially since the roles for Asians to play are limited (there’s the wise Kong-fu master and the nerdy guy as stereotypes go).  Thus, it’s always nice to see an Asian actor or actress make it big.  It was fantastic that the producers of Glee write in a larger role in the second season.  Shum is no longer relegated to being the back-up dancer.

Besides being a phenomenal dancer, I believe that Shum still has some equally captivating acting skills we have yet to see.

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers or LXD is a web series that follows the character developments from two rival dance groups, the heroes (LXD) and villans (The alliance of the dark).  Characters tend to be ordinary people who each discover their extraordinary powers in a unique fashion (dancing).  The series showcases some amazing choreography, definitely worth checking out if you are into dancing.  I haven’t watch the complete series but you don’t need to watch every episode to appreciate the creativity of each segment.  I thought Harry Shum Jr.’s performance in Elliot’s Shoes was fantastic.  In the episode, he discovers a pair of magic shoes that seems to have a mind of its own.  Initially, the shoes seemed to have taken over his body when he put them on but eventually Elliot gains consciousness and control and becomes one with his shoes.  His facial expressions and gestures really convey the idea that the his shoes and not his mind are controlling his body movements.  Totally worth the 7 mins to watch his performance:

Jackson Pollock

I think I must have missed this website somehow.  Jackson Pollock.org is apparently one of the most famous works of internet art, made by Miltos Manetas in 2003.  You can make your own abstract art with your mouse!