Fantastic Lurking

One of the greatest things about the whole Whiskerino community is that there is a lot of potential for exposure to new and great artists. For example, the work of Bill McRight came into my awareness thanks to Benjamin; who has been doing a running series of his own personal (great) art collection.

Long story short, the work of Bill McRight is new to me but I'm loving diving through the portfolio and seeing all the bizarre creature creations. The line style makes it feel like a historic print unearthed from some terrifying time long forgotten.

(via yewknee.com)

2009 Sales

I hate posting about Christmas things before Thanksgiving has even passed but these two sales are too good to be missed.

If you are unfamiliar with the work of Frank Chimero I will be surprised. You've seen the States illustrations at the very least. Long story short, he has a shop, it has some great prints and tees and they are all on sale for $10. My Associate Cornelius is having a $10 sale of their own - on every single print they've got available!

(via yewknee.com)

Future Sailors

Just in time for the impending holidays, The Mighty Boosh have released a brand new tour DVD entitled Future Sailors. This is the second in a, hopefully ongoing, series of documentation of their live stage show. You can watch the trailer to get an idea of whats in store but personally I think you'll be spoiling some good surprises. I don't think the DVD is Region 1 friendly but there are ways around that. Whatever needs to be done to see this, you should partake.

(via yewknee.com)

News for Flash Nerds

The GPU Accelerated Flash 10.1 Test shows a pretty hefty increase in performance when it comes to video. This is good news for any Flash developer that has dealt with the heartache of getting optimum playback and seriously fantastic news for anyone that uses the web and watches video (aka everyone).

(via yewknee.com)

The Selvedge Yard

Nostalgia for a time you never personally experienced can be a real pain. The slew of images / photo essays from The Selvedge Yard seem to do just that. It paints a picture of a time gone by where custom vans were legitimately amazing, Andre the Giant was awesome and had no posse, Grey Gardens had nothing to do with Drew Barrymore, Playboy somehow seemed classy and on and on and on. It's sorta like Shorpy but without Depression era imagery dragging you down.. All Cool, All the Time.

(via yewknee.com)

Attention Span Film Fest

The second annual Attention Span Film Festival is right around the corner but there's still time to put together a submission if you're intrigued by it. Every video in the festival is 30 seconds or less so you've got loads of time to put something together by the due date of November 30th. Get to it!

(via yewknee.com)

I Love You Large Hadron Collider

The Big Picture has posted a bunch of photos of the recently reactivated Large Hadron Collider and they never cease to inspire awe in me. The magnitude of that thing mixed with the intense intricacy of each working part is just baffling. Sure it might undo the world and can be taken down with a baguette but nothings perfect.. I accept the flaws of the Large Hadron Collider and welcome it fully into my life.

(via yewknee.com)

HotRats

I'm a huge fan of Supergrass and was overly pleased to read that Gaz Coombes and Dan Goffey have teamed up with Nigel Godrich to form The HotRats; an endeavor dedicated to recording covers of "their favourite tracks." I highly suggest partaking:

• Damaged Goods - Gang of Four
• Can't Stand It - Velvet Underground
• Drive My Car - The Beatles

More on their official site.

(via yewknee.com)

No big deal

This story amused me to no end because of its brevity. Apparently The Little App Factory got a cease and desist from Apple insisting that they change the name of their iPodRip software to exclude the term "iPod." The head of the App Factory sent a long letter to Steve Jobs explaining why they should be able to keep the name of their app as is. Why they chose to write the head of the company instead of the people that actually handle appeals is beyond me but Mr. Jobs actually wrote back:

Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

Hilarious.

(via yewknee.com)

Netflix + IFC

If you haven't been paying attention lately you may have missed the fact that Netflix is teaming up with an inordinate number of partners to get their streaming content delivered to your screen of choice. WIRED ran a great article about them not too long ago regarding their tactics and I suggest you read it. Part of their impending empire is partnering with others for worthwhile content; the latest of which is their announcement of a partnership with IFC. You can, supposedly, get any film from the IFC Festival Direct program or their On Demand offerings right into your streaming queue starting immediately. I was a bit bummed that there wasn't a special page on Netflix's site dedicated to these offerings but, in theory, they are there if you search them out.

(via yewknee.com)

Friday Videos - Nov 20th, 2009

Pretty tame this week folks but be sure to check the bonus offerings for some non-Youtube goodies. Here's the playlist...

• Auto-Tune the Ads - seems like these guys are quickly moving past their prime and trying to embrace something new. At first I thought this was a bit disappointing but after watching the original ads I think what they've done is pretty amusing. Now how long until they actually get paid to do this?
• What If House Party Were An Action Movie? - the trailer works surprisingly well as a drama/action movie.. I think it's all about the music.
• Cat vs Cop - this is America's Funniest Home Video style humor but seeing a cat climb on top of an officers head is undeniably amusing. Bonus: the cops name is Keith Urban.
• Face Off With a Deadly Predator - National Geographic photographer gets adopted by enormous, terrifying, leopard seal. It offers him penguins, presumably out of pity.
• Jookabox - You Cried Me - Janet introduced me to these guys the other day and I've been pouring over the album. This video is a nice introduction to them and an excellent compliment to the song. Also, ghost eating a hot dog - try not to like that.
• Charlotte Gainsbourg - Heaven Can Wait - from the forthcoming IRM album this video consists of an endless number of absurd vignettes. Skateboard on some hamburgers? Got it. Spongebob being tackled by a cop? Done. Pancake Astronaut? Yep. Charlotte Gainsbourg doing her makeup wit a demon in the bathtub? Easy. And the songs pretty great too.

Bonus:

• Beard Bird Cage - Yes, I have seen this. No, I don't believe it's legit.. but it is a funny concept.
• Pop-up Book of Phobias - possible Christmas present for your kids. jk.
• Streaming Gradient by Jen Stark - nice to see some animation implemented with the style of Jen Stark
• Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No - great animation capturing the tale of Dock Ellis and his no hitter, while on LSD.

Have a great weekend.

(via yewknee.com)

Clients From Hell

I will never tire of sites that focus on the absurdity of clients and their out-of-left-field requests. Never. With that in mind, Clients From Hell is right up my alley and provides an endless amount of entertainment. I think you'll agree.

(via yewknee.com)

Bio-Diversity

These clever leaves are the work of Christoph Niemann and, for better or worse, are humor of the cleanest and purest sense. You can send these along to your grandparents and all will enjoy a hearty chuckle.. but sometimes you need some good clean fun art to cleanse the palette.

(via yewknee.com)

Gabriel Jeffrey

Madrid clued me in to photographer Gabriel Jeffrey and while I've been enjoying the photographic works I think I'm equally enjoying (if not more) the tactic of presentation of the images. The site design is such that if your browser is bigger than the image, it expands to fill the area.. and if it's smaller, it crops the image. Something about that implementation strikes me as a brilliant way to immerse the user into your works. Highly approved. Oh, and the photographs themselves may be a tad bit NSFW (at least the Nylon Magazine set) but nothing too racy. The Lifestyle and Moving Images sets are not to be missed.

(via yewknee.com)

Death of the Blog Post

Smashing Magazine has a great article on The Death of the Blog Post and subsequent rise of the "Blogazine." Basically they point out a rising trend in a handful of sites that create an entirely new look for each entry they post - embracing a more Magazine style mentality for their thoughts rather than a templated blog post. On the whole, I would like to see more of this but it requires a great deal more writing to make it work effectively and I don't foresee most bloggers diving into long form eloquence anytime soon.

It should also be noted that the article is, far and away, the nicest looking article in the entirety of Smashing Magazine - which tends to have great content but goes for the mundane* style blog format.

* yewknee.com embraces this format as well

(via yewknee.com)