JOYENGINE: cause sharing is cool

This short film makes you feel the sand on your feet and water in your face…ah, who doesn’t need a little beach time?

EDEN from Sean Mullens on Vimeo.

Main Entry: Eden
Pronunciation: \ˈē-dən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin, from Hebrew ʽĒdhen
Date: before 12th century
Definition: Paradise, a place of pristine or abundant natural beauty

Nobody Beats the Drum is new to me.. and needless to say they’ve left a stand-still, jaw-dropped impression on me forever with their video for Grindin’. The whole thing is made from more than 4000 still frames and animated together to give us the piece you see below. I would have to say it’s probably the most complicated way to make a video, especially one that relies so much on the audio sync up, but the finished bit is simply outstanding. Snap shot gentlemen! You can take a listen to the full album, Beats Work, on iTunes.

Monday nights are always a tough night to host events, but Denver creatives came through and represented our city well for the “We Live in Public” release party on March 01, 2010. The night saw some technical difficulties, but in the end I think the screening did it’s job. It got people thinking and talking about what’s happening to our society as we increasingly embrace the internet. Our crowd consisted of advertising/marketing representatives, designers, filmmakers, writers/bloggers, architects, musicians, and various other influencers who have the ability to affect others… Hopefully all of you who attended are telling others to see this film. It’s important for people to make themselves aware of the pitfalls associated with living in public.

I would like to thank the following folks for the help in making the evening possible. Futuristic Films team, especially Monique Weiring and Richie Kendall. Director Ondi Timoner, for making such a thought provoking film. I first met her in 2002 while working at Radar Communications. I  remember her telling about the two these two films she was working on for a long time.  The first was “Dig,” and the other was “We Live in Public.” Both won grand jury prizes at Sundance. Proud to call her a friend. If you haven’t seen Dig, hustle on over to Hulu, as it’s one of the most popular downloads there. You won’t be disappointed, its a great rock n’ roll film…

Thanks also go out Open Media Foundation for hosting the event. If you aren’t aware of what they do stop by or visit them on the Web. Anyone who’s an independent film maker in Denver should know about this valuable resource. Jason Stoval, DOM board member, did a great job hosting our, brief, Q&A session with the other cities.

A big shout out also goes out to my friend Steve Nilsen (Lifestyle Marketing Manager at Pabst Blue Ribbon) for donating the libations for the after party. Mega hug goes out to DJ Ginger Perry for setting the mood with tunes. I know you were tired girl from other gigs over the weekend, so thank you again for making it out. Also to our VJ’s (Doug and Alie) and live painters (Kamla and Audrey.

Last, but not least, THANK YOU to all my friends who made it. There were a lot of you there and it meant a lot to see you there! It never ceases to amaze me how deep my network runs with solid peeps!

The Segmentus Clock is Art Lebedev Studio’s solution to a digital clock with hands.

Do you love Jamie Hewlett? Do you like gun battles, animation, muscle cars, Mos Def, Bobby Womack, Damon Albarn, and Bruce Willis? Me too. That’s why I love this new Gorillaz video.

The Font Game is an excellent typographic iPhone / iP0d game from I Love Typography.

Drop City, south eastern Colorado (6km) North of Trinidad ≈ 1966

My partners and I often purchase the Denver Voice from street vendors in downtown Boulder. The Voice is a newsprint publication sold for a suggested donation of $1.00.  It’s aim is to facilitate a dialogue that addresses “the roots of homelessness by telling stories of people whose lives are impacted by poverty and homelessness and to offer economic, educational, and empowerment opportunities for the impoverished community.”  If I’m correct the seller, typically homeless, keeps $0.75 of the transaction and the remaining $0.25 goes back to the paper.  The Voice is wonderfully designed, exceptionally well laid out and features award-winning writing and reporting.  This February’s cover particularly caught my eye.  It was the balance of color, geometry, and nature that drew me in – the artwork of Clark Richert.

Quasi Kepler by Clark Richert

Thanks to the Voice, the writing of Denver multi-media maker, Travis Egedy, and a couple of mornings of deep interweb-recon I’m now very familiar with the work and ideas of Richert, the history of Drop City (a Southern Colorado artist community known as the first rural “hippie commune”), and the work and ideas of a great number of affiliate artists and truly forward-seeing thinkers.  I’m actually wondering how I had not yet heard of Clark and his exploits.  For the last 40+ years he’s been working as an artist, scientist, philospher, and professor – currently at the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design (RMCAD).  Richert is an innovator to say the least.

Drop City Complex under construction

Richert’s work dates back to the early sixties when he and filmmaker, Gene Bernofsky met at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.  Together they collaborated on a body of conceptual artwork  they referred to as “droppings” (works dropped from a loft onto the street below) that became the founding works behind a movement later known as Drop Art and led to the eventual creation of Drop City.

Pythagorean Tree by Drop City Artists- 1967

Today, Clark is the head of the painting program at RMCAD, where a retrospective of his work is currently being held at the Philip J. Steele Gallery.  Aritistically, he is represented by Denver’s, Rule Gallery and is rumored to be looking into the creation of yet another sustainably-minded creative person community. Read Egedy’s complete article for the Denver voice here.

Great reuse of old skatedecks by artist Haroshi for his latest show Harvest. He does a brilliant job holding onto something of sentimental value by giving it new life — via Juxtapoz

If you aren’t school girl gitty over the iPad yet, maybe this case will help push you over the edge. Hard Graft® makes some amazing products out of 100% wool felt and vegetable tanned leather ranging from pen holders to laptop bags. Unfortunately for us Americans, Hard Graft® is over in Australia – so we get shafted on currency conversion and shipping. Still worth it? 100%.