So. Many. Good. Videos. Lately.

5 Second Films. Slogan? Wasting your time, but not very much.

"...and I don't / use enough / jumpcuts."

Christmas Facts with Hank and John in the same room.
Gesticulation NOW.


Bill covers the Beach Boys and sweetly serenades YouTube.

Stereoglyph

How to do it: it involves lots of eye crossing.


I'm thinking this is like the magic eye thing.

It is surprisingly easy to do.

Very much out of the loop.

How on earth did I miss this?

Why The Believer is the greatest non-glossy mag.

1. The perfect mix of intellectual exercise with snark with ridiculousness.

2. These excerpts from Jack Pendarvis' "The Fifty Greatest Things That Just Popped Into My Head":

42. Lists of fifty things in magazines - Thought provoking! Not a waste of time at all.

40. Bacon -I know a vegetarian who eats bacon. That's how good bacon is.

31. Flags of the world

22. Monocle

15. Velvet

9. Cheese - From brie to cheddar, there is no denying the wide-ranging appeal of cheese.

7. Blog - Do you want to know what someone is thinking? Simply read his or her blog!

6. Autumn - The classy name for fall.

4. Unicorn

2. A magic top hat


3. Amazing illustrators.


I don't think I need to provide any more reasons.

The week is getting better.

I will not sub for Jan again this week, even though I heard she will be out the rest of the week. Her ninth period classes are so terrible as to make up for the rest of her sweet classes.

David Sedaris tonight at Borders!

Honestly, I hate his voice....but I love me a free event!

Tomorrow: Blues Traveler at Alive at 5!

Who said Albany sucks?

Guerilla Gardening Installation Art?

Guerilla gardening has become a fairly popular concept. It is this impromptu beneficial form of trespassing that was the precursor to many community garden programs. Nearly every DIY book nowadays has instructions for making seed bombs (soil balls filled with seeds for tossing somewhere you want the seeds to grow). This, however, brings together street art with guerilla gardening, which heretofore were fairly distinct forms.

Amazing!

Marrying into a family.

This past Sunday, my cousin who lives in Utah proposed to his girlfriend in front of Robert Indiana's LOVE statue in NYC. As they were up for the weekend, his new fiancé got a chance to meet all the uncles, and I have to say I was a bit embarrassed at the racist, homophobic and crude behavior that I do normally find myself cringing at. I apologized to her for this, and her fiancé, my half Korean, stylish, polite cousin Jeffrey quipped "I don't know how they even talk to me." It is the sort of family where boys were threatened at a young age: "if you EVER call me up and tell me you're a fag, I won't EVER speak to you again!"


On a slightly pathetic, faintly self-loathing note, I was again considering what it would be like to marry into a family. That is, could I marry the only single, only brother, so that I, too, could bear that proud name? If the only single, only brother even lived within 100 miles, I could consider this further.

Digging in the dirt: Good for your Soul?

While we were shoveling compost during my community garden work party, I gave up on my shovel and began grabbing the last piles of dirt with my hands. Rich black stuff, quality compost; you know the type. Someone asked me if I wanted gloves, and as I refused, another girl working on the same task said that she had heard somewhere something about touching dirt releasing serotonin. I really wanted this to be what she said. I really wanted her to have been serious about it, but I wasn't sure. I went home and looked up to see what I could find, and sure enough: a bacteria in the soil causes your brain to produce extra serotonin. So if you're ever feeling a little down, you should really get digging in the dirt. Plant your favorite vegetable. It is totally worth the effort.

Read the article.

Changing The Way We Do...

It is no news to anyone with a computer that the way the news is made has changed radically, and the distance between people has dramatically decreased. No longer are we subject to the opressive, deaf television of yesteryear. If only Nam June Paik could see it now.

It is easier to get your message out to more people, if they care, as Ian discussed in his 2 year blogiversary. Technology is such that any old fool can make things of the same quality that was only possible for a select few in years past. The twenty minute neon-color-computer-crash-esque scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey says it all, I think. And then people who don't need to rely on such base technology do so in a way that makes them more relatable. I'm thinking about you, Andy Samberg, my love. Maybe these guys are famous, but probably not; check out this video highlighted by GirlShawn. Either way, they will be soon.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

And then there is the Craigslist Killah. A new way to be a serial killer, and a new way to report about it. I was sent the following message on Facebook. I bet some of you received it too.


Hi Emily,

My name is Nate Schweber and I'm a reporter helping out with a story for the NY Times about Philip Markoff.

I know this story has dominated the news but what we're trying to do is write the most fair, honest and accurate profile of Phil that's out there.

I wanted to ask you if you know Phil? (I spoke to a couple friends from college already, James Kehoe and Olivia Fagan). Do you think Phil is the person the media has made him out to be? Are there are any stories about him you could share?

My deadline is Sunday. If you could please get back to me before then I'd greatly appreciate it. I can promise to take down only the information you're comfortable giving out.

Phone, e-mail or Facebook works great. Thank you.

Nate
917-478-4984
nateschweber@gmail.com

Do you think that doing your reporting research this way makes it less credible? If someone Facebooks you a quote, do you trust it?

Oh, and I'm still mourning the death of a loved one.


.....and resenting the rebound.

Did you know that snails have faces?

Richard McGuire

I first experienced (that I am aware of) Richard McGuire's work in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, a literary journal of the comic persuasion. I really with I could share with you the comic of McGuire's included in #13, as it is brilliant. His clean, stylized narratives only contain type in order to describe sound. His use of scale adds dimension, as well as visual interest and movement.

His website is pretty skeletal, so perhaps you should try to get your hands on a copy of this 2004 journal, which at this point is owned by the library and is selling from $4 on Amazon. That it was edited by Chris Ware will come as a surprise to no one.

Richard McGuire also works in animation. Never before have I felt so inspired.


Peur du Noir from Richard McGuire on Vimeo.

"Do *you* have any crystals?"

Whilst subbing today I got into a conversation with a rather heavy-set and socially awkward boy. The conversation began with the boy complimenting my ring. What kind of stone is it? he asks. I told him that it was sea glass, and he began to describe to me all of the crystals that he owns. He held his hand about shoulder height. "And one this big..."

I asked him if he just liked collecting them, knowing that this wasn't the case. He told me that crystals have a spiritual significance to him.

I asked him if he had ever heard of Devendra Banhart. He said he thought so. I told him about the crystal budget.

Not surprisingly, this boy is big into fantasy, 'dragons and all that.' He told me that he is currently in the process of writing ten books. He told me that his mother got him into all of it, that she is also a writer, but she likes fantasy that includes vampires. This apparently is too much for him. When asked about Twilight (which I have not seen the end of), he made a disgusted face, told me that he had seen it, and that his mother watches it "forty times a day."

Totally possible.

This boy tells me that he bakes bread, crochets, works on cars....he goes on and on about all of the things I could wish a person would do.

I should mention that he asked me what I do for a pastime, and I told him I like to make things.

This whole exchange was starting to have the awkward-first-date vibe, you know, the date I would totally go on with an unattractive socially awkward boy 7 years my junior. Then came the clincher.
He started telling me about all of the things he has learned from his mother, skills mostly. Then, he started mentioning the activities he does with his father, skills he learns from his father. It was starting to seem that he had great respect for the man. He started rattling off the hats that his father wears: "...yea, he's a plumber, a mechanic, an all around handyman, an adulterer..."

I beg your pardon?


In other news, I accidentally shot a roll of slide film. This isn't really a big deal, but it freaked out the CVS photolab attendant after the film was processed. Until this point, neither he nor I realized that the film wasn't standard C-41. Woops.

While I was waiting for this to happen, I sat in a chair near the doorway reading a book. I believe these chairs are for people waiting for their prescriptions. A man in his late fifties with a hard face, no eyebrows, and a winter (hobo?) hat came in, hit me on the knee and said (in a thick accent): "I hope you no read dirty books!"
I beg your pardon?
"I hope you no read dirty books, I say"

I screwed my face up into the best disgusted look I could muster. He started stammering about being "only kidding."

So I did what any self respecting person would do. I scolded him as though he were a middle school student who honestly didn't know any better.

...."That's really inappropriate. You don't even know me. You should not joke with strangers that way."

Kids always love to say that they are kidding when they get in trouble for something that they do. You can't be retroactively kidding. It doesn't work that way.

Also not possible: to be kidding about a physical action.


Don't you wish you had an extra $150 dollars lying around? I know I do.

Comic Con: Worth $3?

I'm not sure.

The Rain in Spain

What do you get when you place 5 beautiful talented musical people in one band?

Amazingness. At least, I think so. The Rain in Spain played their second show last night at the Muddy Cup in Albany. This debuted two new members, which includes two new vocalists, a beautiful compliment to Caroline's beautiful voice.
I could tell you all my favorite musicians that The Rain in Spain sounds like, but why don't I just let you listen for yourself?


I apologize for the poor sound quality.

Thao Nguyen!!

No, not that Thao that lives in Albany. The one who has a band! Check it out!

As I often do, I think I like her better solo.

And it inspired me, so I called up my friend to ask him again if we can have a band. (He always says yes).

So anyhow, she is beautiful, talented, and amazing, and her voice is a little like Frances's. I guess I have a type.

Accent Archive

Watching Terrible Chick Flicks
Leads me to Googling Zooey Deschanel
Who apparently last bookmarked this website.



Wow!

Hop Along Queen Ansleis

Have you heard her?

she plays with a full band now, but this solo set with some old songs was a special new years treat.