Webcurios 31/05/13

In less solipsistic news, we learned that London is really quite odd sometimes, that apparently this is considered to be a job in 2013 (I am so overqualified), that people do this on the subway in New York, that romance is finally dead and that the internet killed it, that we finally have the cross-dressing superhero we’ve been calling for, and that The Guardian’s now beyond parody…AND A LOT MORE BESIDES. Gird your loins, loosen your limbs, regulate your breathing and RELAX as we submerge ourselves into the blood-warm infoliquid that is this week’s Web Curios…

Image by Mark Kilner

STUFF FOR PEOPLE WHO MIGHT LIKE TO REFER TO THEMSELVES AS ‘MEDIA PROFESSIONALS’ (A PLEASINGLY SMALL SELECTION):

FACEBOOK

• Facebook and Misogynistic Content: So I’m sure you already know about this, what with it having been MAINSTREAM NEWS and all over the past week or so. Facebook are making appeasing noises at people, promising to do more to eliminate ‘hate speech’ from the site. Obviously this is A Good Thing – but can we all just be clear that it wasn’t popular protest which led to this, but instead the threat advertisers made to withdraw their spend? Will be interesting to see the extent to which this works and how it’s implemented – at the very least, watching people try and define the slightly grey and fuzzy boundaries of what constitutes hate speech will be interesting. Also, is this some sort of a mini-watershed in terms of the unregulated internet? Oh, I don’t know. 
• Facebook Offers Verified Pages: Erm, that. Taking a leaf out of Twitter’s book, and pandering to the desire of brands and celebrities to be defined as a SOMETHING by the faceless internet behemoth du jour. It’s unclear as yet what perks beyond a smug feeling of validation this will give to Pages; and of course if you’d like a TICK then be prepared to shell out on ads (just like Twitter). Here’s a fun game – try and work out what Facebook can sell next! The options, terrifyingly, are near-infinite.
• Facebook Music Data Visualisation: Oh look, here’s a thing! This is actually a rather nice idea, taking information about what people are listening to on Facebook over time. Currently US-only (although I don’t think there’s any reason why this couldn’t be extended elsewhere), and the ability to watch the spread of a track’s popularity over a geographical area is oddly compelling; you can imagine how artists and labels could use this to target promotions, etc, geographically (in a weird, unpleasant future). 
• Target Adverts by Recency of Activity: This should have been in last week’s. SORRY. Anyhow, another flavour of Facebook ads is now available, allowing brands to target users based on when they last did a certain thing on the site. So, for example, if you want to target people who are technically fans of your Page but who haven’t visited it in over a year with a message which says ‘WHY DON’T YOU LOVE US ANYMORE?’, you can. Actually, someone should do that. 

A Selection of Other Things Which Have No Real Commonality Other Than That I have Chosen To Group Them Together:

• Slowmo YouTube Videos Automatically: You can now turn any video you upload to YouTube into a slowmo version. Which is a nice thing in theory, but in practice will lead to a whole load of brands making interminably tedious shorts which they attempt to ART UP by making them reeeaaaaalllllly slooooooooooow. I reckon food brands will be the first ones to really, really overuse this – O LOOK IT’S A CREME EGG CRACKING IN SLOWMO OMG AMAZE *stab stab stab*
• Look! It’s The First Trailer for ‘Pornography’ On Glass!: Totally SFW, but utterly creepy; raises the horrendous question of whether EVERYONE you are speaking to in the future is only half-listening to you and instead devoting the remainder of their attention to watching people in various states of undress rubbing mucous membranes with each other. Basically in the future we will all only be able to devote at most 40% of our attention to anything at all, due to the ruinous amount of hardcore we’ll all be able to consume, in secret, 24/7, beamed direct to our eyeballs. There’s a gag here about Google Glass turning you blind, but it’s not funny.
• Google, Big Data and TV Advertising: Interesting thinkpiece exploring what Google could do with all the data at its disposal to ‘disrupt’ (hate that word) TV advertising and TAKE OVER THE WORLD (more). Basically what it’s all about is a greater degree of data-driven contextual advertising, targeting you with sales-messages in between episodes of whatever mind-draining crap it is that you choose to watch. Everything you search for will be used to serve you EVEN MORE advertising. GREAT! 
• Buzzfeed Partners With CNN: I’m sort of amazed that more people aren’t squawking about Buzzfeed’s seemingly inexorable (but quiet and stealthy) ascent to the top table of ‘news’ media, and the inevitably deleterious effect that this is going to have on the quality of what is often-laughably called ‘reporting’ in the 21st Century. This deal is all about Buzzfeed producing videos for CNN which are designed to be ‘shareable’ – or, if you want to put it another way, designed for people with an IQ in double-figures to gawp at in slack-jawed, like-clicking amazement. You want to watch ‘7 Reasons Why Genocide is Bad – IN KITTENS!’? I hope you die. 
• Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends: Mary Meeker is a bit of a hero to a lot of people who work in advermarketingpr, what with her annual gift of helpful statistics packaged in an authoritative-seeming slide presentation. This year’s set of data is upon us, and as ever it’s a combination of the interesting, insightful and soul-shatteringly banal. If you want a bunch of peer-ratified numbers with which to justify your campaign, though, you need look no further. Oh, FYI, I was saying the ‘sound’ thing 18 months ago – and yet here I am sitting in my pants in my kitchen, writing a blog to literally TENS of webmongs, whilst Mary is an internationally respected expert in her field. WHY, GOD, WHY??? If you’re interested in this sort of stuff (the stats, not my own professional failure), you could do worse than watch her presentation here.
• Hyperbolic Adidas Video: I saw this on Twitter, being touted as THE FUTURE OF ONLINE VIDEO, and I got almost sort-of excited (in a very low-key way). Imagine my disappointment when I saw that it was just A N Other branded video but with the addition of embedded in-vid links to external sites. I mean, really, no wonder Nike is winning.
• Ford Branded Content: Whoever it was first started that whole ‘content marketing’ bandwagon, I do not thank you. Thanks to you, we now have stuff like this – Ford spending God-knows-how-much to badge a regular live online broadcast from Sports Illustrated. WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS??? Either it’s going to be the online equivalent of brand sponsoring TV shows, with an ‘amusing’ ident to open and close the show, or it’s going to be a hideous mismash of poorly executed brand-focused links designed to ‘place the brand at the heart of the viewer’s sporting experience’. Either way, will it make anyone buy more car? Oh I don’t know, leave us alone. 
• Korean Flying Online Shops: That’s a really crap description, for which apologies. Once again via Robven comes this rather nice execution from Korea, encouraging people to buy stuff through online shops via the medium of floating, roaming wifi signals. That doesn’t really make any sense, I realise, but take a look at the video and let PROPER STORYTELLERS explain it to you. It’s smart. 
• The Book That Made Me: This is a really nice project by Waterstones, inviting people to discuss books which had an impact on their lives. No more, no less – just a lovely use of digital to enable people to have conversations about stuff they care about, in a loose, brand-affiliated sort of way. To be honest, if this were anything other than books I would probably hate it, but I’m a snob like that. Sorry. 
• Free Storyboard Illustrations: Need to sell a creative idea to people who won’t understand anything unless you’ve drawn them a pretty picture? This may be a useful resource, in that case.
• The 90s R&B Guide To SEO: I’ll be honest with you, this might be the worst advice in the world – but it’s all delivered via the medium of 90s music, and it ticks a massive nostalgia box, so in it goes. If you ever had your own dance to ‘Two Can Play At That Game’ by Bobby Brown that you used to perform at Cairo’s nightclub in Swindon when you were 14 (oh, what, only me and my mate Phil?) then this will make you very happy. 

Image by Manuel Alvarez Bravo

WHY NOT LISTEN TO SOLID STEEL’S ‘AUDIO DOCUMENTARY’ TO CELEBRATE THE 25th ANNIVERSARY OF DE LA SOUL’S 3FT HIGH AND RISING? GO ON!

AN ASSORTMENT OF ‘INTERESTING’ MISCELLANIA, PT.1:

• Beauty Recovery Room: South Korea is one of the plastic surgery capitals of the world (along with Venezuela, fact fans). This is a photoseries capturing images of women post-surgery (not in a creepy way), and is both an arresting collection and a really compelling argument for not wanting to ever go under the knife (until I get fat, at which point I am totally having liposuction). 
• The Fast FT: An interesting move from the Finanical Times, who’ve created this version of their site which takes a Twitter-style approach to the moving news agenda, with live breaking stories updating in short-but-expandable form. It’s really nicely done, and a clever service – now can everyone else in news launch a similar service, and can we aggregate all the feeds onto one page? Thanks, everyone!
• The Disney ‘Magic Band’: Another week, another bit of wearable tech. This week it’s Disney’s turn, announcing the MAGIC BAND which will, apparently, track your progress around Disney parks, allowing you to sign into rides, buy food, etc, with contactless stuff. And, apparently, they will also somehow alert the staff at Disney resorts as to what your kids are called, allowing Mickey and his permagrinning chums to address your LITTLE ONES by name. Er, hang on, what? How? Anyway, this is all very weird and future, but becomes sort of interesting if you extend it a bit and imagine the way in which this can be applied across Disney’s entertainment propertiies; expanded benefits at Disney resorts for people who, say, have played a certain number of Disney XBox games, or who’ve sat through Finding Nemo more than 30 times with their children without killing either themselves or their offspring. Welcome to a future in which brand loyalty can TRULY be rewarded. Isn’t it nice? Eh? Oh. 
• Recovering The Classics: A wonderful project which seeks to crowdsource new, original cover art for out-of-copyright ebooks which are no longer owned by publishers. There’s some great design in there, whether or not you’re of a literary bent. 
• Bicycle Wheel LED Display Art Thingy: This is very cool indeed, or at least it will be when the Kickstarter gets its funding. Using the same tech which you can see on these high-tech pois, this will let people display LED art on the moving wheels of bikes. There’s all sorts of very cool performance things which could be done with this, leaving aside the inevitable advertising applications.
• Someone In Brazil Made A Judo Font: No idea why, though. 
• Chrome Rollit: Another in the long line of clever, technically astounding Chrome experiments – this time a game that seamlessly crosses from your computer to mobile and back again. Have a play (if you can – you obviously need an Android phone) and marvel at how well-made this is. Kind of like the same sort of concept behind the Wii-U, except something that people might actually one day use. 
• The Mood Recognition Lamp: SO CLEVER! Using a combination of face recognition technology and an IKEA lamp, this piece of design/art takes a standard light fitting from the ubiquitous Swedish retailer and couples it with a camera to make a piece of furniture which responds to how happy/sad you are. Smile, and the light becomes more pink; frown, and shades of blue dominate. Obviously this is incredibly simple, but I can’t help but see it as a first step on the road towards the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation and lifts which make small talk with you and react to your moods. God, that sounds ghastly now I come to think of it. 
• Twitter Exquisite Corpse: Twexquisite corpse! AHAHAHA. Ahem, sorry. This is taking place as of tomorrow, as part of the London Literary Festival, and is a nice experiment in online storytelling and interactive narrative. Taking the base premise of exquisite corpse (‘consequences’ to the uninitiated) – or at least a variation on it – this will see Twitter users given a daily starting point for a story which they can then take wherever they want – these daily collaborative stories are then massaged into coherence by a team of professional writers and  placed on Storify. There’s a nice combination of the crowdsourced and structured here; will be interesting to see what the output looks like.
• Vertigo Pictures of Hong Kong: Remarkable photographs, gazing up at the sky through the urban jungle of Hong Kong. You will get a small crick in your neck looking at these, but it will be worth it – vertigo-inducing and very cool.
• The New Rijksmuseum Website: This got a lot of love online this week, and rightly so. It’s not so much that it does anything spectacular, but rather that it doe everything it needs to do so damn well. Clean navigation, great visuals, the opportunity to create a personalised museum experience online…it ticks all the boxes. Not flashy or showy, just really, really good. 
• Dual Purpose Jewellery: Have you ever wanted to buy a ring which also doubles as a masturbatory aid? OH GOOD! Now, I’m obviously not a woman (OBVIOUSLY) but I must confess to being a little confused by these. I mean, really?
• Most Shared Pictures on Weibo: A clever website scraping Weibo for the most-shared posts containing images over the past 24h. An interesting look at what is occupying the minds of the Chinese people at any given time (or, at least, the stuff that they can share online without fear of reprisal), although obviously my lack of even a passing understanding of Madarin or Cantonese means that I have no context whatsoever for any of the stuff on there. I am particularly puzzled as to why, at the time of writing, a picture of Margaret Thatcher is the 99th most shared picture of the day. Anyone?
• My Privacy: Federico is a New Yorker. Like many of us, he has realised that there is an awful lot of his personal data on the web, which other people are making an awful lot of money from. Federico has therefore decided to try and monetise his own data – you can buy all of it directly from him. Information about where he’s been, the websites he’s visited, everything you can quantify – all available. He’s compiled all of this into a truly lovely series of web projects – go ad check them out, they really are beautifully crafted (it may not surprise you to learn that Federico lives in Brooklyn). 
• What’s My Startup Pitch: Have a startup? Need a pitch? This may help.
• The Abandoned Sanatorium: Absolutely the creepiest set of photographs you are likely to see today, these are of an abandoned TB sanatorium outside Berlin. Hitler was once treated there, apparently – in any case, it’s the greatest setting for a videogame I’ve seen in ages. Oh, and here’s a whole other set – again, creepily impressive with some rather nice effects applied. 
• The Giant Kinder Egg Birthday Surprise: This is what happens when you attempt to make your girlfriend a giant Kinder Surprise for her birthday, but don’t really have the adequate skills or equipment.
• Nike Ballet Shoes: I was sceptical as to whether these were a real thing, but I’m assured that they are – really gorgeous design from Nike, although I’m in no position to judge their quality when it comes to performing a perfectly-executed pas-de-deux (as obviously I perform all my ballet barefoot like a purist). 

Image by Sayaka Maruyama

AN ASSORTMENT OF ‘INTERESTING’ MISCELLANIA, PT.2:

• Who Wore It Better: Depending on your point of view, this is either ‘an ongoing visual research project presenting associations and common practices in contemporary art’, or a really interesting look at the massive degree of plagiarism inherent in the art world. Quite incredible at points. 
• The Social Radio: Have you ever wanted to have your tweets read back to you by a disembodied robotic voice, while tinny muzak plays in the background? No, of course you haven’t. And yet, now you can thanks to this bafflingly-pointless-yet-endearing little web project. What would make this better would be the ability to select voices – I personally would like to have Beyonce’s tweets, for example, read to me in the style of the lead singer of Napalm Death. 
• Glitched Google Maps: A collection of Google Maps images which are glitched so as to show contradictory seasons within the same frame. Someone really should do an exhibition collating all the examples of accidental art created by Google (OR IS IT ACCIDENTAL??? Jesus, it’s so hard to tell. Maybe it’s all just one big conceptual art project, like some sort of infinitely wealthy, all-knowing Gilbert & George).
• One Mexican Town’s Fight Against The Cartels: A great series of pictures depicting the Mexican town of Cherán, which a few years ago threw out its council and police and opted to stand up to the drug cartels independently. An astonishingly ballsy thing to do, well-documented in this great piece of photojournalism in Wired.
• You Think Your Favourite Bar Is ‘Cool’?: It really isn’t. This is something SO hipster that there isn’t even a name for it yet. The most secret bar you will ever see, from NYC. This will doubtless be replicated in Deptford within the year, except our version will have more dead pigeons and will almost certainly be accompanied by a bloody pop-up chicken shack because those are the RULES in 2013 London. 
• Matches With Faces Drawn On Them: I’m sure that if you’re Japanese this makes some sort of sense, but I’m baffled. Someone appears to have made a whole website featuring images of books of matches with tiny faces. THIS IS SOMEONE’S LIFE, RIGHT HERE.
• The Perfect Present For Your Loved One: Have you ever wanted to suprise your partner with a gift which speaks to the unique romantic bond you share, and which acknowledges the coruscating passion you have for each other? Have you considered putting pen to paper and writing your very own piece of erotica dedicated to them, but are unsure where to start? HELP IS AT HAND! This is a remarkable service which will, for a nominal fee, produce one of a series of cookie-cutter ‘erotic’ novels featuring the names of you and your significant other. There are so many things wrong with this, not least the fact that a cursory explanation of the site suggests that you’re not even getting proper bongo for your money – at best there will be a few heaving bosoms and perhaps a desultory reference to ‘his firmness’. Disappointing, but almost certainly comedy gold for the right couple (you’re out there somewhere). 
• A Pinterest Board Collating Crap Quotes People Post on Pinterest: Erm, that. If you have any stupid and annoying colleagues who are fans of the meaningless, inspirational aphorism, this will keep them happy and distracted for hours while you fetch the waterproofs and the flensing knife. 
• Beautiful Pictures From The Upper Nile: A blog collecting pictures from an aid worker’s trip to the Upper Nile. Some gorgeous photography.
•  La Petite Melancholie: A blog collecting pictures of vintage (and not-so-vintage) nudes and other assorted ephemera. NSFW, but, y’know, it’s ART. Tell them that as you’re escorted from the building.
• #なぜ描いたかわからないイラスト晒: So this is a Japanese hashtag trend, apparently. The characters to the left apparently mean something like ‘Stuff I drew for no reason that I can adequately explain’ – searching for this throws up some baffling examples of Japanese doodling, some of which is really impressive and others of which make you want to go and have a bit of a lie down as you contemplate the mysteries of the inscrutable orient (not a euphemism). 
• I Haven’t Been Fully Honest With You: What would you do if some random famous person on the internet suggested that you text this to your significant other and then not respond, whatever they do / say, for an hour? You’d do it, of course, and hang the consequences! The responses are occasionally funny, but you do wonder at what sort of people will do things just because the internet told them to. These people, amongst others. 

Le Dernier Homme, by Francois Bard

NOW WHY NOT LISTEN TO THIS MIX BY DIPLO AND IMAGINE THAT IT’S NOT REALLY MISERABLE IN THE UK EVEN THOUGH IT’S NEARLY JUNE OH GOD I WANT TO EMIGRATE

The Circus Of Tumblrs:

• You Were Here: A nice idea by creative agency Creature in the US, posting pics from a photobooth direct to this Tumblr. I sort of think that there’s a nice tourist promotion thing to be done with something like this, maybe on the banks of the Thames opposite Parliament or something. Maybe.
• Animated Albums: Album covers, animated.
• Awkward Poses: People posing, awkwardly.
• Cat Tonging: Cats being prodded (gently) with tongs. Definitely not tongues. The cats don’t seem to mind, although you do wonder whether they are simply biding their time to exact some sort of terrible revenge (of course they’re not; they’re cats, for crying out loud). 
• Bad Advice: Terrible (but in many cases strangely honest and true) responses to real letters to magazine advice columns. 
• Screenshots of Despair: A series of existentially bleak screenshots / pictures of the blankly unemotive utterances of machines. Guaranteed to  empty your soul.
• Cops & Nobbers: On the one hand, this is a one-note gag stretched to paper thinness which also makes light of some unpleasant instances of extreme police force against protesters. On the other hand, it may be puerile but it did make me laugh. 
• Local People With Their Arms Crossed: Remarkably consistent selection of photographs from local newspapers. From the same series as angry people, grumpy councillors, etc.
• Just Another IKEA Catalogue: NB THIS REALLY ISN’T SAFE FOR WORK, UNLESS YOUR EMPLOYERS HAVE A LIBERAL ATTITUDE TO WORKPLACE BONGO CONSUMPTION. I really, really wish that this was official marketing by IKEA – after all, they are Swedish and therefore obviously have no problem with pr0n. I don’t think it is, sadly. Anyway, this is a blog collecting gifs from pr0n movies in which IKEA furniture features in the background. Is there a piece of furniture in the IKEA catalogue called ‘bongo’? There should be.

LONG THINGS WHICH ARE LONG:

• Do You Ever Listen To Full Albums Any More?: A short piece on the NPR website posing the question as to whether anyone really sits down and listens to whole albums from start to finish any more. The comments, though, are where the meat is – interesting comments on how people listen to music nowadays, along with a host of recommendations of music which deserves to be listened to in a single sitting. 
• In Defence of Small Talk: Fascinating look at what it is that small talk actually means, and why we as a species sort of need it, mentally and emotionally, and what it means in terms of commonality of terminology and therefore communication. It quotes Heidegger and everything, so it must be smart.
• The Transformational Power of Spice: If you’re into food, this is brilliant. An in-depth look at spicing and cuisine, and how proper spicing can have a transformative effect on flavour. Will make you want to go and have a really, really good dinner. 
• The Final Days of ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage: This one’s probably only worth reading if you know who Randy Savage is. If you do know (Hulk Hogan! Legion of Doom! Ultimate Warrior! RIC FLAIR!!!! (OH MY GOD I HAVE JUST FOUND HIS WEBSITE IT IS AMAZING CLICK ON THIS NOW), then this will be an awesome trip down memory lane. He had a very weird life, did Savage, and this is a rally interesting look at the oddity of the wrestling scene in the US at about the point when it started getting really big. 
• The Oddly Poignant Story of 3d-Printed Sad Keanu: This is obviously really silly, but perhaps I’m feeling a bit hormonal or something as it made me feel a little bit *funny* (not in a sex way). 
• How The Internet Is Using Us All: A piece from the London Review of Books looking at the central theses of the recent books by Evgeny Morozov and Jaron Lanier. A nice, gentle introduction to a couple of texts which it really is worth reading if you have even a passing interest in internet culture (sorry, Evgeny – ‘internet’ culture. 
• Behind The Lines With The EDL: Really interesting blogpost by a woman who, attending an anti-EDL protest near Downing Street, found herself in conversation with an EDL member. She recorded the conversation and transcribed it – makes for fascinating reading, if obviously a little unsettling. 
• Twi-Fi: SORRY! This is a great little short story about a Twitter bot. Read it. 
• How Social Mobility Got Stuck: So obviously I like and agree with this because I’m a pinko liberal leftie. Nonetheless, this is an interesting-if-obviously-partial look back at the growth in income inequality in the UK since the Thatcher years, and the quiet emergence of an underclass who, whilst not on the breadline, are increasingly economically incapable of engaging with society in a manner which might be described as fulfilling.
• The Unexotic Underclass: In what almost sort-of works as a segue, this piece looks at that very section of society (from a US perspective), and asks why it is that entrepreneurs seem unwilling or incapable of focusing their innovative efforts on solving problems which apply to anyone other than reasonably privileged people (clue: MONEY!). 
• Spine-chilling Reddit Thread: Reddit users share anecdotes and reminiscences about the scariest things they have ever experienced. Don’t have nightmares (you might, though). 

The beautiful work of Alana Dee Haynes

NOW, FINALLY, MOVING PICTURES AND SOUNDS!:

1) We kick off with some unusually high culture (don’t worry, we’ll get back to smut and oddities shortly). Wednesday was the 100th anniversary of the premiere performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, apparently – below is a gorgeous visualisation of the piece. Whack it in fullscreen an relaaaaaaaaaaax:

2) I have just learned that ‘rapper’ in French is spelled ‘rappeur’, which made me very happy. Anyway, this man is called ‘Flynt‘ – his latest single is called ‘Mon Pote’, and I have literally no idea whatsoever what it’s about. I hope it’s nice and not about murdering people or anything. The reason it’s featured is that the video’s a wonderful selection of classic film clips into which Mr Flynt has placed himself. Slickly done – see if you can name them all (and watch it now before the inevitable copyright police clampdown):

3) As part of my continuing commitment to bringing you ODD THINGS OFF THE INTERNET, I feel sort of compelled to include this; can I add, though, that I’m not 100% sure about this one, and it just strikes me as a little gratuitous and bottom-heavy, without the wit it needs to properly stand out. The first minute, though – WEIRD. Major Lazer – Bubblebutt:

4) As I’ve been writing this I’ve started to realise that there’s quite a lot of smut in here this week. Sorry about that. Continuing the theme, though, here’s a great little video – real lesbians watching lesbian pr0n. Totally SFW (everyone is fully clothed) though the audio isn’t, and very, very funny – you may be surprised to learn that what’s peddled as lesbian pr0n is *whispers* actually just made for men! I KNOW!!!:

5) I absolutely adore this. Lipsynching and choreography and just some great face acting, along with a lovely little pop song AND OH LOOK THE SUN’S OUT! This is Holy Roller, by Thao and the Get Down Stay Down:

6) Ricky Hil is a rapper, apparently. His slurry delivery on Sarah’s Song, combined with the lyrics, is very unsettling. Erm, enjoy!:

7) Back to the summery stuff now – Lou Marco is a French musician, this is apparently his debut single which is called Don’t Care, and the video for it is pure Saul Bass. Enjoy:

8) Whether Die Antwoord are/were a band, an art project or some sort of weird hybrid of the two, they’ve certainly been one of the more visually interesting projects of the past few years. This is collaboration between them and Gary Baseman called The Buckingham Warrior – to quote them: “The Buckingham Warrior [is] a tale inspired by Gary Baseman’s father Ben Baseman who survived the holocaust, fighting the Nazi invasion in Ukraine’s birch tree forests for almost 4 years. Baseman and Director David Charles transformed his father’s harsh reality into a whimsical story of survival and hope”. So there. Watch:

9) Last, and possibly least, we have this tourettic audio/animation combo by these people (the French are dominating this week). Enjoy, have fun, and have a LOVELY weekend. You especially:

That’s it for now

See you next week. Please forward this onto as many people as your mail server can physically handle. If you’re reading this and have yet to subscribe, visit the Imperica newsletter page to do so.