The Website Is Down

A series of videos about office life shot from computer screens, or in this case, a security camera.  This one is about how to deal with technical issues, the other two are about sales and IT.  Hopefully there are more to come, because so far everything has been astounding.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World is in the midst of shooting, for a 2010 release. Most of the Cloudherders are fans of the little indie comic, so we’re understandably trepidatious about how film is going to mangle our fun.

However, as previously discussed on the blog, the film is in pretty good hands: Edgar Wright, the director of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead is at the helm. He’s been posting little vids on the movie’s official site, and above is one of the most interesting.  Author Bryan Lee O’Malley has included meticulously drawn site-specific streets, stores and homes from Toronto in the comic, and this 3 minute video demonstrates how the film is shooting on location at some of those exact places. The care with which these locations are being chosen and shot makes me breathe a huge sigh of relief: maybe we can start to uncross our fingers?

We saw Metric last night at the Market Showbox. I sweated in places I didn’t know I could sweat, and the front rows were intermittently doused with water bottle spray by kind Showbox bouncers who preferred that people didn’t burst spontaneously into flame.

Emily Haines, shimmering in a gold lame tube dress, spent an hour and a half singing and playing like a woman possessed. Dancing around the stage, doin’ high kicks, the pony, a version of the robot, breaking down and jumping up, posing for the crowd, she was a glittering goddess under the hot lights, and the entire first row never stopped reaching out to her for a single touch.

The band stuck mostly to material from Fantasies, with a couple of bombshells from Old World Underground and Live It Out thrown in for good measure. They started off the set not with a bombastic rendition of a favorite, but by building a wall of sound heightening in intensity, until under the cool blue lights the crowd suddenly recognized the distorted strains of “Twilight Galaxy” and went wild. (They used a theremin! You guys! A THEREMIN!)

The last time we went to see Metric, I was able to see exactly nothing of the band, and at times, the top of Emily’s head. I spent the concert really annoyed at the hulking giants standing in front of me, who would occasionally start dancing by swinging their arms spastically back and forth. Eventually, of course, they clocked my friend, but even that didn’t stop them. When I was informed—after the concert ended—the Emily Haines had spent the entire time dancing around in nothing but a long Hendrix t-shirt, I nearly passed out. I couldn’t see any of it.

But not this time. Every band member, every expression, every chord and guitar change and dance move, I could see it all. A lot of Emily butt, and a lot of her hilarious interaction with the band. And, best of all, nobody was threatening to step on me. A+

“Warmth, Giant Black Toobs” by (Seattle artist) Susan Robb

The above video was taken on the Discovery Green in Houston. Part of an outdoor four-part summer exhibition, entitled Lighter than Air, “Toobs” was apparently first displayed in Seattle in 2007. Where was I?! This looks so neat.

The toobs are made of black polypropylene garbage bags, 50 feet tall, and filled with air. As they are warmed by the sun and moved by the wind, the tubes rise and fall, moving like hairs or organic wormy things.

“Because the air inside the ‘toobs’ is hotter than the air outside, the tubes soar, bump into each other, recoil, faint dead away and climb into the sky again,” wrote Regina Hackett back in 07 for the P-I.

Damn neat.

The trailer for the new Sherlock Holmes movie.

Given that I’ll see absolutely anything that Robert Downey Jr is in, it already has a leg up. But, adding Jude Law, pugilism and deadly hair pins just seals the deal. This looks plain fun. I can’t wait.

“Wolverine in 30 Seconds” by Shyaporn Theerakulstit.

I’m sure most everyone who reads this blog has already seen this, but…but…I absolutely need to make sure. Damn sure, because I laughed so hard at this that I both cried and nearly hyperventilated. I’m still cracking up as I write this. Maybe I’m punchy, cause it’s 1 am after work, or maybe it’s because I’ve always disliked Wolverine for this very reason.

Now I never need to see that terrible movie!

“Fel Av Del Garden” by MOVITS!

I’ll admit it: this is basically a wholesale re-post from the music site Aurgasm, which posted this video yesterday. But, the music is so uniquely fresh and its accompanying video so charming, I thought I would post it again.

Aurgasm—a collaborative music site of very high quality and taste—had this to say about MOVITS!:

Well-known in Sweden, but unheard of elsewhere, they fold together elements of 1930’s big band swing, roma swing and rhythm & blues, then drop hiphop vocals on top for some serious energetic firepower.

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Gomibako trailer is a pile of trash

I want to play!  I hope this eventually gets released in the US.  Also, I’m digging on the “Causing much mayhem dropping drama!” theme.

By Eirik Solheim

More fun time lapse videos from Vimeo, and an old favorite.