Songs for Sunday: Mike Edel

My latest favorite find: Mike Edel, who is apparently quite well-known in his current home city of Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). His debut album, The Last of our Mountains, came out last year and included this lovely song:

We trekked to the harvest on the prairies looking for ocean skies and fields to make a film about the search for youth, the loss of it and a need for something outside of us. It took 5 good friends, a van, dog, gun, mirror and many wheat fields until we looked no further and wheeled ourselves back to the Coast. The direction was a collaborative effort of Jordan Clarke (commongood.tv), Kasey Lum (http://cargocollective.com/kaseylum) and Mike Edel with the help of the long haired fellow (Josh Bauer), the girl (Julia De Courcy) and Zip (the dog).

On a somewhat unrelated note, here are a few of my favorite comics pertaining to Canada by the wonderful Kate Beaton (this one is the best)

Happy Friday!

Giselle's Apartment, via Miss Moss, photography by Jordi Hulsman

It's finally the weekend! The weather promises to be quite lovely this weekend, but I will unfortunately be stuck indoors for most of the next few days buckling down on my thesis. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is in a week? Time has been flying so fast. 

The amazing apartment of a 100-year-old artist

If Dickens had Spotify

I need to make these drinks

Bookish Girls

The Saturn Five Rocket, explained very, very simply

A free holiday dessert cookbook

Lovely earrings

Energy, in photos

Useless (but amusing) websites

A life-changing sock drawer

Have a wonderful weekend!

Short Film: Champagne Capitalist

I love this cute short film about an intrepid and imaginative little girl and a splendid horse race. I too was a horse-crazy little girl with a very active imagination and fond memories of watching horse races with my grandfather. However, given the lack of champagne-filled dinner parties at our house, most of our childhood races took place on our big, sloping driveway with a handful of HotWheels cars. (My trusty all-metal miniature Mustang usually won.) What sorts of memories do you have from childhood?

Tiring of her parents' boring dinner parties, a young girl comes up with a surprising scheme to make this one work for her.
Film by Faye Planer and Tristan Martin; DOP - Guy Gotto; Composer and Sound Designer - Sami El-Enany
Sound Mastering - Joseph Munday; Piano - Sami El-Enany; Violin - Caragh Campbell ; Cello - Rosalind Asprey
Executive Producer - Marta Sala Font; Animation Assistants - Patrick Burley and Daniel Levin; Production Assistant - Jonathan Levin
Winning Girl - Eve Reekie; Losing Boy - Joshua Matengu; Losing Girl - Leila Biggs ; Host - Duncan Reekie; Hostess - Colette Reekie ; Guest 1 - Nina Planer ; Guest 2 - Adrian Matengu ; Guest 3 - Andy Parks ; Guest 4 - Anna Orford
Funded by the Ex-Animo Online Film Fund Scheme as part of the Roundhouse’s Creative Programme for 11-25’s.

Inspired: Anna Aden

Anna Aden's photography is highly evocative and beautifully composed. A carefully-paced hand, a sweeping vista, a pause before a moment's breath-- the best photographs induce a sort of stillness, a curiosity, and a sense of near intrusion upon an intimate moment. These photographs from Aden's series, Autumn Fields, do just that. 

Anna Aden is a photographer based in Umea, Sweden. Her work has been featured in a number of publication. To see more of her wonderful photography, click here.

P.S. Check out her facebook page for more loveliness

At home in autumn

These lovely flowers graced my table last week, for a few fleeting days. With the cold, windy nights, and the crisp, biting mornings, the brief showers of rain, the few leaves turned gold, and the bright oranges and golds of squash and blossoms on my table, autumn seems all around. 

I think the moment at which I realize that autumn is truly here is that midnight waking in the frigid cold of a window left open, when the blankets piled up and the sweaters piled on are not enough a barrier between oneself and the icy air surrounding.

One slams the window shut and with fumbling fingers and bleary eyes, grasps for the switch on the small square box that marks the departure from the season of warmth and one's grand venture into this coming frost, the annual passage from summer towards winter.

And on this night, and from this night forth, the heater is on.

In my home, this night was Saturday. From now on, my friends, this is fall!

all photos by Kara Haberstock, all rights reserved

Songs for Sunday: Laura Marling

Laura Marling always reminds me of winter. And with the temperatures dipping low and the wind blowing cold, today seems like just the day to curl up with a blanket and remember that winter is coming. 

"Sophia" is taken from Laura's album "A Creature I Don't Know"  
Virgin Records / Ribbon Music, produced by Ethan Johns..

Laura performs What He Wrote from her second album I Speak Because I Can. First broadcast 23rd November on Live From Abbey Road (Series 4 Episode 7 ). Check HD stream for best audio.

"Goodbye England" Laura Marling live at Crossing Border Festival 2011

Happy Friday!

Fall is Here by Bree Madden

It's finally the weekend! As of right now I'm currently stuck at UA's Student Research Showcase trying to figure out when I can make a break for some coffee. The first four hours of the showcase were fun (well, as fun as research presentations get), but come the last three hours and this place is a ghost town. So I've had plenty of time to dig up some links for you...

I'm making this for breakfast on Sunday

Lovely homes in Paris and Amsterdam

Would you forage for food?

A typewriter for your Ipad

I love this hanging terrarium

Crowd-sourcing cancer and art

How lovely is this watercolor dress?

A business card stamp

I still love NY

This tote bag is so much fun

Explaining the disaster utopia

Have a wonderful weekend! Do you have any fun plans for the three day weekend?

Short Films: After the Storm

The election excitement has garnered most of the media attention as of lately, but much relief and recovery work is still to be done in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. These short films, shot by New Yorkers who rode out last week's storm, capture the impacts of Sandy on the city and lives of those in it.

To help with relief efforts, please consider donating to the American Red Cross or to Occupy Sandy, a branch of Occupy Wall Street that has been very effective in providing quick and effective relief. 

By Casey Neistat https://www.facebook.com/cneistat
do not try this.



Seeing lower Manhattan without power was a surreal experience. This is traditionally a city that never sleeps. One in which the lights are always on. One that is always bustling with people. When the lights went out it was wholly different. This piece is meant to capture and relay the feeling of what it was like to walk around the darkened streets of lower Manhattan.
See all of Jared's photos here: http://www.jaredlevy.me/gallery/hurricane-sandy-lower-manhattan/
Stills / Voice: Jared Levy http://jaredlevy.me
Timelapse / Music: Michael Marantz http://michaelmarantz.com
Creative Direction: Jason Oppliger http://jasonoppliger.com
Produced by Already Alive http://alreadyalive.com
Original Music by Michael Marantz: http://soundcloud.com/michaelmarantz/nyc-dark

Our friend Michelle lives in Rockaway Beach, New York. We didn't hear from her until 3 days after Hurricane Sandy, when she left us the following voicemail. The damage in the Rockaways is extensive and under-reported. The Rockaways need our help.
To Help:
http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/rockaways/
rockawayhelp.com
http://www.redcross.org/hurricane-sandy
A Film by Alex Braverman and Poppy de Villeneuve
Produced By: everyone and company www.everyoneandcompany.com
Music: Soft Circle
Special Thanks: Heather D'Angelo, Michelle Cortez, Hisham Bharoocha, and the people of the Rockaways

PS: Shop for Hurricane Sandy! This registry is actually a list of needed supplies made by Occupy Sandy volunteers on Amazon- buy them and they can be shipped directly to Occupy Sandy's staging area for distribution to people who need them. 

In Photos: All Souls Procession

Nate and I attended Tucson's All Souls Procession this last Sunday night. Begun in 1990 as a performative art piece by Tucson artist Susan Johnson in remembrance of her father, the Tucson All Souls procession has become an annual event attracting nearly 35,000 participants to come, walk, and remember those who have gone before. Inspired by the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertas, the All Souls Procession is meant to be a ritual that allows public mourning, reflection, and celebration of death, a universal human experience. These photos were taken at Tucson's 2012 All Souls Procession.

A parade of color

Of all ages

Of all cultures

Of all talents

Of causes

Of music

And of ghosts in the night

all images belong to Kara Haberstock, all rights reserved

Inspired Election Edition: Michael Mergen

Today is Election Day (Go Vote!), and Slate's Behold photography blog featured some of these photographs from Michael Mergen's piece called Vote. Mergen, while covering Election Day from 2008-2010, captured these images of unusual polling places  around the U.S. He writes on his site:

"Vote investigates the spaces where the ideals of our political system meet the mundane realities of participatory democracy. The photographs consider the collision of private and public, consumer and citizen, and the incongruity between the functionality of the spaces and that of the voting booths."

These are a few of my favorites:

Precinct 10, Saugus, MA, 2009

Precinct 22020, Corona, CA, 2010

Precinct 9, Shelby Township, MI, 2010

Ward 40, Precinct 32, Philadelphia, PA, 2008

District 4-2, Murfreesboro, TN, 2010

Precinct 28080, Providence, RI, 2010

All photos belong to Michael Mergen

P.S. Go out and VOTE!

Vote!

Since tomorrow is Election Day, I want to take this opportunity to encourage you to vote. The decisions made tomorrow will affect all of our daily lives and futures, and you have the opportunity to have a say in these decisions. That being said, please also take a moment to educate yourself about the candidates and issues at stake in this election:

Project VoteSmart, a nonpartisan nonprofit voter-education organization, has excellent and easily-accessible information about all of the candidates in this election (including those running at the local level). By far, this is one of the best voting resources out there.

Vote411 also provides nonpartisan voting information at all levels. These voting guides are compiled by the League of Women Voters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan political organization that supports voter education. (Click here for LWV 2012 Arizona ballot guide)

For Arizona voters: click here for this year's ballot guide (issued by the state of Arizona). 

For Arizona voters: click here to find your polling place

For everyone: find your polling place using Google

Rock the Vote's Election Center has some helpful voting information for all 50 states

To see the candidates' stances on extreme poverty and preventable disease, click here

Finally, one of the most poignant articles about tomorrow's election I've seen, from the BBC

Please take a moment to research your options and vote in tomorrow's election. 

photo by Kara Haberstock, all rights reserved

Monday's Music: David Byrne & St. Vincent

A friend introduced me to this wonderful collaboration Saturday morning, and I've been listening to them near-constantly since then. "Who" is the first track on the fantastic album that David Byrne & St. Vincent recorded together. (Some of you may have seen them perform this track live on the Colbert Report last week.)

The first video from David Byrne & St. Vincent's collaborative album "Love This Giant", out September 10(UK)/11(US) and available for pre-order: http://bit.ly/RuaPCR 
Directed by Martin de Thurah - http://www.dethurah.dk/ 
http://lovethisgiant.com/
http://www.davidbyrne.com/
http://ilovestvincent.com/
http://www.4ad.com/


This video is pretty great, but I'd argue that they're even more impressive live-- check out their performance here.

Happy Friday!

Amy Adams for Band of Outsiders

It's the weekend and I'm almost done writing the first part of my thesis! It's been quite a productive week, and I am quite pleased. It's so nice to finally have tangible progress. I hope you have wonderful weekend plans. I will probably be hunkering down for some more work and studying (Russian oral exam next week-- Eeps!), but I hope to get out an enjoy the beautiful weather for at least a little bit. It should be a lovely weekend.

A fantastic photo shoot with Amy Adams

Haunted house-sitting

Hurricane Sandy and the aftermath, in photos

These cakes are crazy

A glass house

How great is this clock?

The island where people forget to die

Beautiful bowls

An incredible treehouse-church

Make your own hanging planter (I could use one of these for my houseplants)

Marriage can't be everything

Have a wonderful weekend!

Short Films: Pumpkin Carving

I know that Halloween has come and gone, but I couldn't resist sharing these two awesome pumpkin-carving films with you. The first tells the story of the "Maniac Pumpkin Carvers"- two crazy-talented artsy dudes who've actually made a business out of carving pumpkins. The second is a creative little stop-motion short filmed with actual pumpkins. Enjoy!

The year is 1992, and Marc Evan and Chris Soria are sitting next to each other in sixth-grade Spanish class. They don't know it yet, but these two twelve year olds are going to become best friends. They're going to construct epic haunted houses each year, petrifying parents more than peers. They're going to attend an artsy high school, study illustration at Parsons, grow up, and move to Brooklyn. They're going to freelance and bartend and, per their favorite holiday, casually carve some pumpkins for bosses and friends. And then the Yankees are going to put in a double-digit order, and Maniac Pumpkin Carvers will be born.

An animated carved Pumpkin Stop Motion I finished this week.
Animation - Auke de Vries
Music - Jelte de Vries
Pumpkins by - Taylor Vegetables Express