Why I love my job...

Yes, this was me on billable time today.

A half-day shoot for a viral video we're making for the excellent non-profit Quest Outreach. Who also have a very nice website if I do say so myself... designed, coded and loaded in like 4 days, thanks to Karyo's crack team of web nerds and insomniacs (aka me and Smoot).

Obviously I will post the vid once it's edited next week, but for now... some stills. Good times.


How does my job rule so hard? Let me count the ways...


Hi new friend! Wanna eat me?


Hey baby... you wanna keep the doctor away?


Fall's favourite treat in glorious flight.

Obakemonorama!

You could get lost in this website for hours. The Obakemono Project comes from Japan, and is a catalog-in-progress of the strange creatures/spirits that populate Japan's tradition of folk monsters, one of the richest collections of craziness there is. If you've seen the brilliant Miyazaki film Spirited Away, you've seen a few of them in action.

In Japanese, O is a prefix denoting respect, and bakemono literally means a changed thing - something perverted and altered and moved beyond its natural state - a monster,' the website says. Here are three of the over 80 collected on the site:

Tsukumo-gami
In the animistic tradition of Shintō all living and natural things are born or hatched or sprouted or formed with souls, and even an artificial object can obtain a spirit of its own under the right conditions. While some special objects such as swords are created animate, most instruments and utensils must live, be used, and accrue virtue for a hundred years in order to obtain a soul. Once this happens, if they have not been treated well, these objects can become vengeful bakemono. Called tsukumo-gami, these haunted utensils can partially take on the forms of monstrous humans, animals, and combinations thereof, and storm about the countryside tormenting people.

Neko-mata
In some places when an old cat becomes a bake-neko, its tail is said to split in two, then it is called a neko-mata or "forked cat". Like most bake-neko, neko-mata are unusually large cats, reportedly a meter and a half long minus the bifurcated tail, and often walk about comfortably on their hind feet. They are said to dance and manipulate the dead like puppets, and are associated with strange fires and other unexplainable occurances. Sometimes the tails of kittens were cut off as a precaution, as it was thought that if its tail couldn't fork, a cat could not become a bakemono.

Bake-zori
In a house where footwear is treated improperly, this old zōri sandal comes to life at night and emerges from the storeroom where it has been discarded. As it runs through the house, it can be heard chanting, "kararin, kororin, kankororin! Eyes three, Eyes three and teeth two!" Perhaps it says this in honor of its kin the geta sandal, which does indeed make such sounds and does have three eyes (the holes drilled for its straps) and two teeth (the wooden platforms on its base).

I wish I could find the name of the artist who did the illustrations for the site. They don't name him/her, but do point to another really cool Bakemono artist - Shigeru Mizuki [or go here for a page in English].

Seeing Red

The GDC list passed around a link today to a cool and worthy project. As commercial an industry as graphic design/advertising is, there is such a strong culture of social awareness. It's pretty great to see.

So Seeing Red is a poster exhibition (online) coming out of Hawaii, where some designers contacted international colleagues, and asked them to create posters with political/social messages. Each designer also chose a charity, to which they send 100% of the profit from poster sales.

Title: No Truth
Artist: Chris Thomas, Honolulu HI
Poster detail:“Nee waarheid is a literal translation from Afrikaans meaning 'No truth.'”
“The Catholic Church preaches abstinence as the only form of safe sex. When abstinence fails, African citizens don't live to regret their mistakes. Help to preserve life: spread the truth about using condoms to prevent HIV.”
Charity: The Rockefeller University: DirectEffect
Artist's Statement: “If men did not stray, if women had rights, if AIDS did not kill, perhaps the church's strict ban on condom use would be morally defensible. But none of these conditions apply in Africa today. As a consequence, the cost of the church's inflexibility may mean not only untold human suffering, but the loss of millions of innocent lives.” - Marcella Alsan, 2006

Title: Mukluks
Artist: Roland Adams , Anchorage AK
Charity: PAMYUA
Artist's Statement: “Over the years Alaska native dancing have been reduced by the lack of a generation passing their knowledge to the next generation. Story telling through dance was performed by the beats of drums and stomping mukluks. The elders are dying and the knowledge of our culture and heritage goes with them. Through a local organization, youth are being taught about the history of their ancestors.”

Title: Revenge for Murder - Murder for Revenge
Artist: Pegge Hopper, Honolulu HI
Charity: Planned Parenthood of Hawaii
Artist's Statement:“The U.S. must participate in the World Crimes Court. Establishing a global justice system is the next great evolutionary step for mankind.”

All in all - very intelligent and persuasive work. Would you expect any less from designers? Here's the concept statement from the site:

In graphic design, our influence is in color, space, form, and font; it is the power to encourage or discourage, attract or repel, incite or restrain human beings in their emotional, mental, and spiritual endeavors. We are, in effect, the traffic directors of society.

In April, over a cup of coffee in China Town, three designers mulled over this charge.

The title, Seeing Red, refers to the artists' unrest with contemporary issues as well as the common visual theme of the show: red and black. More than a venue or even a dialogue, Seeing Red is also a fundraiser, as all profits from poster sales benefit a charity of the designer's choice.

Our attempt is to create more than a dialogue. We are attempting to create a tangible method of bettering the world.

Holy Crap! It's Baby Ken!

So cool... making little people and stuff!







This is Ken and Jermaine's new baby - a beautiful little boy born on Sunday morning at 1am. If you've had a baby or something, the fact that he was 7lbs 1oz, and delivered in 5 hours... will mean more to you than it does to me.

Now everyone always hopes for the usual stuff when children are born. The typical 'successful, happy, good job, nice family' dreams for this little guy's future. I'd like to wish some different things on this tiny man, which, you know, people just don't think about at this stage.

So here's hoping this dude:

1. Rarely has bad breath.
2. Has natural rythym, and is never accused of 'flailing around' when he hits a dance floor.
3. Gets an amazing homeroom teacher in grade 5, who treats all students equally on principle but privately likes him the best.
4. Has a disarming smile.
5. Has an extremely short 'awkward phase' during puberty, mainly occuring over the summer between grades 8 and 9 so he enters high school as 'hot new guy'.

Surrealist short films are the new... I got nothing.

So you've all seen the Honda hate something; change something campaign, which features a cool little animated spot promoting change in the form of diesel engines. A good cause - a good spot.


Who doesn't love a 'hate is good' anthem?

And now another really cool social marketing campaign - this one for Colorado State Tobacco Education & Prevention, and created by Cactus in collaboration with Biscuit, Final Cut, Company 3 & R!OT, Lime and Beacon Street Studios.

Check it out - they've created a tiny little town called C-Ville which promotes personal choice and education around smoking. Really well executed interactive website. Screencaps below:








Final Cut's Carlos Arias explains the approach saying,

Kids are so sophisticated these days so we don't need to make the message obvious. This is a new way of communicating with youth -- by not spoon-feeding them. Through great visuals and interesting stories, we were able to build up the intrigue. These PSAs had an interesting, short film style - like a throwback to 80s movies or branding commercials with sing-a-longs. They're just zany!

The old story-telling versus message-selling question. It's not really new, and not really about kids though, is it? Since the late 80's we've been seeing ads that don't put the product/message front and centre - remember this Guess Ad from 1987?

The question I would ask in doing a project like this is whether the message stays intact. With product placement so common in film/television, do we still register the BMW in the cool short film?

What I'm interested in here is how to conceptually expand the scope of a marketing/ad campaign while respecting both the audience and the brand/product on display.

I go back to the things I consider critical in interactive/viral/new media: authenticity; content; experience. If you can deliver on those criteria, you're probably doing pretty well.

Corporate Behemoths are the new Surrealists...

Seriously though - these ads are completely amazing. Especially the Nike one. It's a three part series - with a microsite in NikeLab, so if you like that, you should definitely check out the other two - all done with the same ethereal, surrealist, playful kind of vibe. From their kit:

From the chaotic aftermath of a galactic impact an order emerges unlike any other. An explosion of new forms never seen before. Suddenly, all combinations are possible. Animals fuse with other animals. Plants fuse with minerals. Beings and objects fuse with earlier ancestors of themselves. This is the Rise of the Hybrids.

The Air Max 90, Air Max 95, Air Max 97 and Woven Air Footscape shoes converge with the latest development in Max Air technology - Air Max 360 - to create a series of legendary products that offer Nike's smoothest, most durable ride ever. No foam. No midsole. Just NIKE AIR. Occuring ONE TIME ONLY!

Not being a sneaker pimp, I'm not totally sure what that last paragraph means... but damn this ad is pretty.


From 'One Time Only - the Rise of the Hybrids'.

This next one you've probably seen - Coke's Happiness Factory ad - by Wieden + Kennedy and Psyop. Still worth a repeat view regardless...

Right it's a happiness factory... except for the rampant snowman genocide.

When linking around on this story, I found a blog for shoe nerds. I'm not one... but damn these Asian Nikes are cool:

Awesome Kids Website

Okay - last post and then must sleep. Am building web designs all day tomorrow. Down girl! Rrrrrruff!

But I was just randomly meandering around the world of cool new media schools, like the Banff New Media Institute and I found this next site. It's pretty damn cool -

It's pretty cool - basically a site built by kids to tell their stories. I didn't link to the front page above, but rather to a really cool section wherein they animate and tell stories themselves. Check 'em out - very cool. These are some of the images from a couple of stories. Then they're built to be fully interactive - and built well, I might add - and the kids narrate.


Once there was a little dragon who lived in a volcano in the land of [something... my French has gotten really bad]. His name was little heart. He was very kind, and could even read and write.


From an interactive model of the solar system - complete with little creatures inhabiting each planet [not shown here]

Is it a bit too Mark Chapman...

... to suggest that R. Kelly is sending me personal messages through photo and video appearances in comedy shows and other media?

Hmmmm, yeah... I guess it is. Well then, I'm out of explanations:



Right? Becuase I was totally going to make out and have butt sex to r&b jams in a random gastown bar on Wednesday! How weird is that?!?*

*Trying to make the truth sound like a sarcastic comment.

Juicy C on the Birthday Tip!

Aiiiight now. Can we talk about badass?

About someone who uses a photo this fierce for her executive bio at the design firm she started 10 years ago and has been entrepreneuring the hell out of ever since?

About someone who only liked bad 80's music when I met her, but who is so hard into hip hop now that she skools me on a regular basis and makes Missy Elliott look like Bea Arthur?

And I almost forgot the most badass thing of all - at 25, while the rest of y'all were making a mess of your lives, she was making one of the coolest people in your town or any - Kermit aka LJ aka 'won't say his real name because she protects him from internet stalkers is how good a mom she is'.


A photo set that puts me in a good mood every time I see it.

Word. A woman who can spend the day raising little men up, and the night shooting big men down... that's what I'm talkin' about.

Happy birthday girl - you bring the ruckus bigtime.

Damn baby - let a man take care of that.

So on Friday, after watching the awesome Tinkle show where David Cross and hosts were wasted drunk, Janeane Garofalo did a suprise set, MORE TRAPPED IN THE CLOSET comedy love occured, thanks to Paul F. Tompkins and the whole night ended with all performers leading a rousing chorus of the theme from Rent... so awesome... we tried to go to the Sweet Soul burlesque party.

Unfortunately, I ditched that scene because line-ups are for chumps, and after spending an hour in an alley listening to muffled beats, it was time to put the Beckstar to bed.

But I thought you'd enjoy a look at my burleque costume - complete with girlfriend. It was meant to be a lot nakeder, but that alley was cold yo! I never got a chance to strip down to tie only... but this should do it some justice. You know Beckstar likes to bring the kink whenever the situation calls for it...


Damn woman - why you be taking a photo when you know my balls is so itchy?


Damn honey. You KNOW I does the thinking for both of us. You just pretty yourself up and wait in line here for us while I sit in the car.


Damn girl, you looking finer than ever tonight. Come sit on daddy's lap and trim my false-eyelash mustache why don't you?

ANTM - Attack of the Clones

Yes, it's yet another season of the Beckstar's favourite reality show - America's Next Top Model. And yes, the sequins are falling off a bit, the formula is stretching at the seams and the host REALLY needs to tighten her weave... but it's always good times for Tyra Becks.

Not really much to say, except this photo is badass,



and this photo is, as Jay says, disturbingly amazing. Probably the coolest photo on ANTM in a long time. This is one half of CloneForce7, the team of identical twins determined to take Tyra Banks on as one combined unit of alpha-model.

Also, Brooke busted sweet rhymes her first time meeting the panel, which makes me love her longtime.


Too bad her photo was the worst thing ever...


Ah well, you win some you lose some in the fierce world of high fashion.

Jill Greenberg vs Crybabies Everywhere

So Jill Greenberg's new exhibition, End Times is amazing. Essentially she photographs children below 3, in a hysterical state of crying tantrum. She achieves this by giving, and then taking away, candy. Allegedly, sometimes she has their parents leave the room if they aren't adequately panicked. Here are a couple of shots:







So no big deal, right? The wee babes end up with the candy and parental love at the end of the shoot, and her photos are stunning and raw.

Except that some people are pretty pissed off about it. A particular gentleman - a San Francisco investment banker cum new media enthusiast and blogger, who writes under the pen name Thomas Hawk is particularly pissed about it, and wrote an angry angry article in response. As he puts it:

...what Jill Greenberg is doing makes me want to throw up. And it shouldn't be allowed. I'm torn about even posting this post because she is obviously using her art as an excuse to do something horrible and is looking for publicity and response and that's exactly what I'm giving her here. But I'm hoping that through others being made aware of what she is doing that somehow pressure might be borne to stop it from happening.

Yawn. Obviously the public has, and should have, a vested interest in protecting children from harm. And yes, these photos certainly show children in distress. It's fine that people are talking about it. But the case he, and compatriot blogger Jeremiah McNichols try to make is that these photographs are tantamount to abuse, or at the very least a detached experiment in bullying.

How they single this work out, when children are made to cry in commercials, film and television all the time, using these same methods, is beyond me. Even more, I find it amazing that this piece - depicting age-appropriate emotion in response to age-appropriate crisis, for clearly articulated artistic purposes - provokes such a strong reaction, where the completely age-innaproprate depictions of sexualized children we see constantly in the commercial world doesn't.

Besides, if we're going to start lambasting photographers for torturing children, can we start with this psychotic fucking sadist, please?

Don't You Put It In Your Mouth

Words to live by, truly:

"Always ask someone you love, before you put anything in your mouth"

This was a Canadian Public Service Announcement from 1992, of which I have vague memories. How great is it that in Canada, in 1992, one of the biggest issues facing children was imbibing foreign substances?

Beyond the Jim Henson wackiness, and catchy 'don't you stuff it in your face' hook, it's a picture of a time long-gone, a happier day, before cutting, before Emo, before Bratz dolls. A time when as long as the rubber bands were on the doorknobs of the cleaning product closet, Mr. and Mrs. Arbuckle knew that little Amy was going to be just fine. Sigh.