© A24 (via YouTube)
Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, the film is a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action adventure about an exhausted Chinese American woman who can’t seem to finish her taxes.
I have no context on this movie beyond its description, but once again A24 got me hooked with an amazingly crafted trailer, this time for Everything Everywhere All At Once.
This interpretation of the idea of a “multiverse” looks really charming, I would love to watch it unfold on the big screen.
Related: Why movie theaters aren’t dead yet (a video-essay on YouTube from Vox)
The Internet has been monetised by social media, by big tech, by search engines. Fuck, it’s been monetised by pretty much everyone. The whole concept of netizens and a community around the web, from the late 90s and early 00s, have been lost to the sands of time.
As made clear before, I think the world wide web –or at least social media, which unfortunately replaces the real web for way too many people now– is in a bad state this day and age. Or, to put it in the flowery language of Kev Quirk; The Web Is Fucked.
Don’t worry, there’s some positivity within his “manifesto”, too.
In the unlikely case, that you missed the current furor;
The Facebook Files and the insights shared by Frances Haugen made it clear once again how ruth- and wreckless –at best naive– Facebook (now Meta) operates and how well researched the negative ramifications of the social network internally really are.
Probably a good occasion to bring up Mike Monteiro’s talks from 2013 respectively 2018 again, addressing us, the people within the industry: ‘How Designers Destroyed the World’ (vimeo.com/68470326) and ‘How to Build an Atomic Bomb’ (vimeo.com/268704084).
© ANTI / Fleet Foxes (via YouTube)
me by myself on the longest night of the year… honoring the loneliness of 2020 with a nylon string and some songs new and old.
In December 2020 on the winter solstice —just a few days after New York declared a state of emergency because of COVID-19 and forced a wide lockdown, Robin Pecknold performed acoustic arrangements of “some songs new and old” from various albums of his band Fleet Foxes as well as a Nina Simone cover (‘In The Morning’) and a traditional tune (‘Silver Dagger’) at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The recording of the live stream finally got a proper digital release –on Spotify for example– with physical formats to follow in Spring 2022.
A Very Lonely Solstice is a haunting depiction of the isolation a lot of us experienced in one way or another throughout the last two years and another beautiful cultural-historic document of our time. Furthermore, it’s the perfect score for dark winter days and a wonderful alternative to the more traditional –and often cheesy– Christmas time songs.
When you create a difference in someone’s life, you not only impact their life, you impact everyone influenced by them throughout their entire lifetime.
No act is ever too small.
One by one,
this is how to make an ocean rise.
But one of the next most powerful things he created for himself is the view that Everything is a Practice.
Man, what a ridiculously valuable way to frame our lives!
Every difficulty that comes up is simply something to practice with.
Every frustration with another person is a practice ground, and the other person becomes your teacher. Bow to them with gratitude!
This idea goes hand in hand with the concept of the so-called “Don’t Know Mind” from Korean Zen, as well as the previously mentioned Japanese philosophical ideas and concepts I admire so much.
On that note:
Currently, I’m learning about simple Zen habits by reading the wonderful book The Practice of Not Thinking by former monk Ryunosuke Koike, a little book well worth reading (and thinking about).
© The Howl & The Hum / Kobalt (via YouTube)
Hostages (Live Alternate Version) is probably one of my favourite songs this year, Human Contact is very likely one of my favourite albums this year –the studio version I missed in 2020 as well as the current live version– and The Howl & The Hum is most definitely my favourite band discovered this year. I might have a little crush on those lads.
the process® is the practice. the artifacts are just the side effects.
© Jan van IJken (via YouTube)
Jan van IJken filmed the plankton through his microscopes, revealing the beauty and delicate structures of the minute organisms in the finest detail. The film is without any voice-over or explanation.
A sequence from Planktonium, a short by filmmaker and photographer Jan van IJken. The ~15-minute documentary is showing the microscopic base of the oceanic food chain –and thus the foundation of life on this wonderful planet– in a new light with astonishing imagery. Go buy (or rent) the whole film, if you like the short clip.
Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.
© Phoebe Bridgers / Dead Oceans (via YouTube)
I keep coming back to this one. And to this nice little moment, when Bo Burnham was in the audience, experiencing how much his song touched everyone —something he wasn’t able to due to COVID when he published his stand-up. Guess it might be time to watch it once again.
Curious people become smart by accident.
Their curiosity simply pushes them into various rabbit holes.
Guided by a childish desire to understand why something is the way it is, they end up exploring webs full of strange to them, initially, things.
The relentless desire to explore the world we live in. To understand why people behave the way they do. To investigate what caused something to work makes them read articles, books, even old newspapers and look for solutions outside their field of work.
This essay on Why Curiosity Is Better Than Being Smart? sent me down the rabbit hole that is the website of Ivaylo Durmonski. A huge collection of long-form essays and book summaries “for avid readers and thinkers alike”. Bookmarked.
durmonski.com/life-advice/curiosity-is-better-than-being-smart/
© Nippon Design Center
© Nippon Design Center
Experience Japan Pictograms are a novel set of visual symbols developed for people of all cultures and ages to enhance their tourism experience in Japan. These uniquely simple and easy-to-understand pictograms are designed under the key concept of “second encounter with Japan” to invite visitors to explore and enjoy Japan a little deeper than before.
The studio of renowned graphic designer Kenya Hara, the Nippon Design Center, has released a free set with more than 250 pictograms primarily intended for the tourism sector in Japan. Even though the collection naturally has multiple rather specific icons, there’re some nice basic and universally applicable ones among them, too. Definitely worth a glance.
© Tavo Studio (via Vimeo)
Where is your OASIS?
There is always a space between art and design, and that’s the spot where everyone
wants to be.
Oasis is a manifiesto in favor of the search for the balance between design and art.
Where is the border between client´s requests and your aspirations?In short, it is a difficult balance to achieve.