Vans + DQM

Excited for this collaboration coming to SoHo in September. The Vans DQM General will be located at 93 Grand Street. Hope it's not an over-hyped, overpriced bust!

Source: Hypebeast

My New Favorite Video...

12 Million+ views and I'm just now seeing this? How did I miss this? Amazing. Enjoy!

Warby Parker

I love what Warby Parker is doing in the world of fashionable eyewear. If you need (or like) glasses and don't want to break the bank, you should check these guys out. Their business model is also super innovative – they'll send you up to five pair of frames to check out before you make your purchase decision.

As an added bonus one of their male eyewear models happens to be my co-worker Richard, aka DJ Treats (Lookin' good, Treats!).

The Village: Tilt Shift

I will never get sick of watching tilt shift videos. This technique is so wild – I love it.

My question is this: with full HD video on pretty much every Digital SLR these days, does the tilt shift technique only work with still photos? Is stop motion the best (or only) way to capture the look?

I have no idea... Still don't understand how messing with your lens like that can magically miniaturize the world and everything in it. Incredible.

The Village from Pedro Sousa | visuals on Vimeo.

Splitscreen: A Love Story

Great concept and even better execution. Love the attention to detail. Especially knowing this whole thing was shot on the Nokia N8 mobile phone. Impressive!

Thanks to little sister Kylie for the heads up!

Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo.

The Twins

Props to these young gentlemen! Only 12-years-old. Oh to be young again...

via Hypebeast

The Twins from skatefairy on Vimeo.

San Francisco

This is the beautiful work of Kevin Dart. I haven't found an artist whose style I admire this much since Matte Stephens. The mid-century retro-modern style is too much! I have no real reason to buy a San Francisco piece of art, but I just might for only $30! How about a New York City piece, Kevin?

Grown Ocean Cover

I promise I'll get off my Fleet Foxes kick after this post – I ran across this cover on YouTube several weeks back and meant to post it. Impressive interpretation of the song! Not bad at all. Seems like a lot of musical talent floating around on this.

Blue Ridge Mountains

June came & went. Summer is here and it's been awhile since I blogged.

I've been on (another) Blue Ridge Mountains kick ever since the Fleet Foxes show back in May – found this live version from the show I attended at the United Palace Theater. I must have re-fallen in love with this song at the show. Quality is a bit suspect and the harmonies aren't quite as sharp as they were in-person, but you get the idea. It's a thing of beauty.

Fleet Foxes at the United Palace

The first show of the 2011 New York City Egan Family Summer Concert Series kicked off last night with Fleet Foxes at the United Palace Theater up on 175th and Broadway. Simply put, my expectations were absolutely exceeded.

It's refreshing how a band can make such intricate, complicated music and vocals sound so pure and simple. They have found the secret. And I can tell you they kill it live.

I've been eagerly awaiting a live show from these guys for almost three years now. Ironically enough my two favorites from the "Fleet Foxes" album were not the best songs of the night in my opinion. Mid-way through the set they played the anthemic "White Winter Hymnal" which lead directly into "Ragged Wood" for an amazing back-to-back combo. However, "Blue Ridge Mountains," Robin's solo rendition of "Oliver James" and "Your Protector" stole the show in my opinion. "Mykonos" off of Sun Giant was incredible as well. I'm still letting the new album grow on me but early favorites are "Grown Ocean," "Helplessness Blues," "Montezuma," "Battery Kinzie" and "The Shrine / An Argument."

**Bonus** As I was reading the review of last night's show on Brooklyn Vegan I found the back of my head in one of the photos!




All images from Brooklyn Vegan

Dear 16-Year-Old Me

I thought this was an especially poignant & powerful PSA (or whatever they're called in Canada). Count me in for the SPF 30 this summer!

Human Flight

I have always wanted to go skydiving. Perhaps more so now than ever, thanks to this gem:

Experience Human Flight from Betty Wants In on Vimeo.

Perfect Symmetry

The idea of symmetry is very compelling, especially after watching this well-executed video done for NPR by RadioLab & Everynone. Inspiring. The Sufjan Stevens track doesn't hurt the overall aesthetic of the video either...

Less Is More

In the wee small hours of the morning when I'm supposed to be asleep, I'm usually catching up on the 40+ tabs I seem to always have open on my browser consisting of articles, videos & wikipedia entries I didn't get around to reading that day. In the case of last night, I got around to watching some Local Native covers on YouTube. Probably because Kelsey's little brother Cole mentioned his band (TRIBES) covers the song "Wide Eyes" by Local Natives. Anyway, there is a wide array of talent out there on YouTube and I applaud aspiring artists for at least attempting to express themselves (which is half the battle), though many YouTube covers definitely leave something to be desired, to put it mildly.

In my zoned out 1am viewing last night I stumbled upon the following cover. I really appreciate this guy's simple, honest approach to doing his version of this song. It isn't much, but that's what I really liked about it. I would like to think that if I were to sit down and cover this song, I would take a similar approach. The octave jump at the end was a welcome surprise, too. Whomever you are, Lee Francis, I applaud you. Keep it up.

Grown Ocean

These guys are doing it right. They know their brand and they're killing it. Makes me want to deck out in flannel and go back to 1977.

Fleet Foxes - Grown Ocean from Fleet Foxes on Vimeo.

WESC Denim

WESC may not be know for its denim per se, but they at least put together a cool video on how they make their jeans.

The Making of WeSC Denim from WeSC on Vimeo.

Sweet Sixteen

God Bless Jimmerica. Go Cougars.

Scenes From The Suburbs

Arcade Fire continues their post-Grammy parade with a new short film directed by good ol' Spike Jonze. Looks wacky.

I shouldn't be surprised at the vitriol flying around the blogosphere toward Arcade Fire ever since their big "Album of the Year" win, but I'm still on the bandwagon. In 2006 "Funeral" literally evolved my taste in music perhaps more so than any other album within the last five years. That sounds pretty extreme... and it probably is, but it's easily one of my favorite albums of all time. Regardless, apparently "Scenes From The Suburbs" is airing this week at SXSW.

Check out the trailer here:

via stereogum

It's Jimmer Time

This is terribly cheesy, I'm aware of that. But I just wouldn't be a true fan if I didn't spread the love. Here's a shout out to #32, the player of the year. March Madness = Jimmer Time. Don't break my heart this year, Cougars; we need at least two tourney wins. At least!

Teach me how to Jimmer:

Check out Jimmer POY

It Would Be Awesome If I Could Do This:

Pink Ponies

The ad industry is so quirky. This is a perfect satirical look at an advertising case study. And it even includes the all mighty social media. Well played.

You've Already Seen This

But it's worth seeing again:



I want iPad 2 exclusively for its amazing cover – ridiculous.

Paris At Night

I thoroughly enjoyed this stop motion expose of the beautiful city of Paris "composed completely of photographs" (per the artist, Luke Shepard). Amazingly well-executed. I found it very unique that it shows the "darker" side of Paris, as this was literally shot at night.

Le Flâneur (music by The XX) from Luke Shepard on Vimeo.

To that point, and not to play art critic here, but as much as I love "Intro" by the XX, I think either "Stars" or "Night Time" could have potentially worked even better with these images, as this project is showcasing Paris primarily after hours. The energy and build of Intro is incredible, don't get me wrong. I was just surprised to see that track paired with these images. There's such a raw and quiet and almost creepy quality with the XX's sound, I think another song maybe could have worked better (Even "Heart Skipped A Beat" or "Islands"). Just throwing it out there...

Inspiration from Google Docs

Impressive display of creativity and use of Google Docs. Hope it was worth the 3+ days they spent on this!

The Alphabet

The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.

Can't Get Enough...

...Local Natives. I did some more digging and found their first appearance on the Take Away Show. I'm such a sucker for their harmonies – they have it down! And for the record, Wide Eyes is my favorite track off the album. I realize I'm borderline obsessed here; my wife just referred to me as a "groupie." This is good stuff here:

Local Natives / A take Away Show @ Route du Rock Hiver 2010 from Watch Your Steps on Vimeo.

Islands: For the Mrs.

The xx are easily one of my favorite bands over the past couple of years. Somehow I totally missed this video – very interesting concept. Truthfully, it makes me sort of dizzy. But I like that it's different, and love the song, and Kelsey loved the choreography. I don't know the first thing about dance, but I think the choreography is amazing as well.

Take Away Show: Local Natives

French music blog La Blogotheque does a really cool video series called Take Away Show where they film bands playing live in obscure places/settings. It's usually more of an acoustic performance, due to the setting & circumstances (the first episode I experienced was "1901" by Phoenix with the Eiffel Tower as a back drop). As a big fan of Local Natives, I immediately wanted to share this.

In this episode of the Take Away Show, Local Natives play "Who Knows Who Cares" while walking through the Palais Royal in Paris. The intertwining harmonies are downright inspiring in that setting. And done live? That much more impressive. Thanks to Pitchfork for the pointer.

Local Natives | Who Knows Who Cares | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Helplessness Blues

Looks like this is turning into a sort of music blog... I'll just roll with it. Fleet Foxes just announced a new album and concert dates. You'd better believe my tickets are purchased for the NYC show (which I just read they added a second date – get your tickets while you can!). I've been anxious to see these gentlemen live for the past two/three years, and am thrilled they're touring again. They're first single, "Helplessness Blues" is available for free download on their website.

On a related note, Brooklyn Vegan included this amazing cover of "White Winter Hymnal" by Oh Land in their latest Fleet Foxes coverage. Oh Land is new to me; Apparently they're Danish - not too hard to tell by her naturally beautiful Scandanavian features. Fun cover to say the least.

Before It's Too Late: Favorite Music 2010

I get that I'm at least a month late with posting this list, but for my own sake I wanted to document my audio favorites from 2010 – another successful year for music.

Favorite Bands of 2010 (as judged by the amount of listens in my iTunes library)
*Note: For all the hater hipsters, I understand that some of these groups could technically have been in 2009, but for me, the discovery really came in 2010. So don't bother calling me out on it–I'm doing the best I can to keep up!

10. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti "Before Today"


9. Deerhunter "Halcyon Digest"


8. Best Coast "Crazy For You"


7. Tokyo Police Club "Champ"


6. Sufjan Stevens "The Age of Adz"


5. Ra Ra Riot "The Orchard"


4. Beach House "Teen Dream"


3. Two Door Cinema Club "Tourist History"


2. Arcade Fire "The Suburbs"


1. Local Natives "Gorilla Manor"

Honorable Mentions: (in no particular order) LCD Soundsystem, Yeasayer, The Morning Benders, Glasser, Band of Horses, Animal Collective, Phoenix, Passion Pit, The National, Mumford & Sons, Caribou, Jónsi, Phantogram, Surfer Blood, Tame Impala, Toro Y Moi