new beginnings

I was quite moved by the New York City Ballet's NEW BEGINNINGS. Filmed at sunrise on September 12, 2013, on the 57th floor of 4WTC, this performance of Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain is a very beautiful tribute to NYC.


(Via swissmiss)

my super short animated film fest! v.2 - music and dance

Do you all remember my mini film fest from last July? Well, since I've just continued to come across such great short, animated gems since then, I've decided that it's high time for round two. You'd think that with the broad range of animated shorts out there that it would be difficult narrowing it down, but I've found that there are definitely films that are a cut above the rest, and which it would be a shame not to share with as many people as possible. And so, for the next three Fridays, I present to you some of my most recent favorites with a broad selection of loosely categorized, wonderful short films from around the web.

my super short animated film fest! v.2.
Week 1: music and dance



le ballet vimeo from louis thomas on Vimeo.

(Via The Design Ark)



USAWALTZ from Asami Ike on Vimeo.

(Via The Kid Should See This)


Wax Tailor feat Aloe Blacc- Time To Go from Oh Yeah Wow on Vimeo.

(Via BOOOOOOOM)


The Modern Dance from Rogier Wieland on Vimeo.

(Via Colossal)


(Via The Kid Should See This)

Designer of the Month: Andy Warhol

Celebrity is a curious thing. Some people are known for what they create - their art both characterizes and defines them. For others, its a larger-than-life personality that leads to fame, with their words and deeds exerting an almost gravitational pull upon the world. And then, there's August's Designer of the Month, Andy Warhol (1928-1987), who, with his masterfully cultivated philosophy, endless curiosity and enduring artistic career that both spanned and defined genres, held a rarer sort of esteem.

When I did my self-portrait, I left all the pimples out because you always should. Pimples are a temporary condition and they don't have anything to do with what you really look like. Always omit the blemishes - they're not part of the good picture you want.[1]

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait (Passport Photographs, one with Altered Nose), 1956. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

As The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts describes of Warhol's early years:

The youngest child of three, Andy was born Andrew Warhola on August 6, 1928 in the working-class neighborhood of Oakland, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Stricken at an early age with a rare neurological disorder, the young Andy Warhol found solace and escape in the form of popular celebrity magazines and DC comic books, imagery he would return to years later.  Predating the multiple silver wigs and deadpan demeanor of later years, Andy experimented with inventing personae during his college years. He signed greeting cards “André”, and ultimately dropped the “a” from his last name, shortly after moving to New York and following his graduation with a degree in Pictorial Design from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1949.[2]

What would Warhol have been without New York, and what would New York have been without Warhol? It's impossible to consider one without the other, particularly as Warhol's career was successful from the onset. Not only did he manage to garner top assignments as a commercial artist for a variety of high-profile clients within a year of arriving in the city, winning acclaim as a graphic artist, but he also received accolades for his department store window display designs; this impressive artistic range was a hallmark of his career.[3] Warhol turned to painting and drawing during the 1950s and quickly made a name for himself, going from newcomer, with his first solo show at the Hugo Gallery in 1952, to being included in a group show at the Museum of Modern Art only four years later.[4] His first Pop paintings, and global celebrity, soon followed.

Andy Warhol, Self-Portrait with Movie Camera, ca. 1971. Polaroid™ Polacolor Type 108, 4 1/4 x 3 3/8 in. (10.8 x 8.6 cm.). The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

As you can imagine, it would be impossible to look at the entirety of Warhol's work in just one month. Whole monographs have been written and exhibitions mounted on just his drawings of dancers, for instance. As Warhol was such a prolific artist, there's just so much to love, hate and consider, that's its difficult to distill it all down into four short weeks. Which is why, for the month of August, rather than focusing on just one aspect of Warhol's life and work, I'm going to take an overarching, if greatly abridged look at the man, the myth, and especially, the art of Andy Warhol. I hope you'll join me. 

[1]  Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B & Back Again), (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1928), 62.

[2] The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. online, "Warhol's Legacy: Andy Warhol Biography," http://www.warholfoundation.org/legacy/biography.html (accessed August 1, 2012).


[3] Ibid.


[4] Ibid. 


Special thanks this month goes to The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, a foundation created from Warhol's estate and dedicated to the advancement of the visual arts, who were kind enough to lend me the books that I used in my research. To read more about the remarkable work of this wonderful foundation, please visit www.warholfoundation.org.  

my super short animated film fest! - music and dance

my super short animated film fest!
week 3: music and dance



The Shins: The Rifle’s Spiral on Nowness.com.

(Via BOOOOOOOM)



Andrew Bird - Eyeoneye from Andrew Bird on Vimeo.

(Via Etsy)



Dubstep Dispute from Fluxel Media on Vimeo.

(Via Public School)



YA-NE-SEN a Go Go from shishi yamazaki on Vimeo.

(Via BOOOOOOOM)



Una pieza más - Marian Ruzzi y Sr. Amable from BASA estudio on Vimeo.

(Via Oh My Cavalier)

How could you possibly sit still after all that?

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Man On Fire

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Man On Fire [Official Video] from Edward Sharpe on Vimeo.

In true Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros fashion, Man On Fire is an uplifting little ditty that will make you want to get up and dance. Perfect for a Monday morning.

(Via BOOOOOOOM)

girl walk // all day

I can't believe I just saw this for the first time yesterday. Girl Walk // All Day is a music video of epic proportions, or at least, it will be once the whole project is complete. As camera man and director Jacob Krupnick explains:

We're combining the amazing talents of improvisational dancer Anne Marsen (and a supporting cast of contemporary dancers) with the epic new Girl Talk album, All Day to create an album-length music video of grand proportions. We'll be shooting the rest of the film in the spring of 2011, and plan to screen the piece starting this summer—first in NYC and then all around the world.

Damn does Anne Marsen have some skills. It's a long video, but definitely worth it to watch her pop and lock it all over the Staten Island ferry.


Girl Walk // All Day from jacob krupnick on Vimeo.

(Via got a girl crush)

Denis Darzacq

Don't these images, from Denis Darzacq's Hyper series, seem completely unreal to you? I've seen plenty of sports photography that provides this same feeling of suspended movement, but these images take this concept to a whole new level. Working with street dancers in Paris, Darzacq captured all of these poses without the help of any photographic manipulation. You can see a short documentary about the process (with English subtitles) here, or check out more of Darzacq's work on his website.

(Via Beautiful/Decay)