Jay at Arthur Magazine pointed out a sweet muck-racking documentary film called The Coconut Revolution that you can watch free in its entirety here. Here are the first few minutes of the film:

This is an incredible modern-day story of a native people’s victory over Western globalization. Sick of seeing their environment ruined and their people exploited by the Panguna Mine, the Pacific island of Bougainville rose up against the giant mining corporation, Rio Tinto Zinc. The newly formed Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) began fighting with bows and arrows and sticks and stones against a heavily armed adversary. In an attempt to put down the rebellion the Papua New Guinean Army swiftly established a gunboat blockade around the island, backed by Australian Military personnel and equipment. With no shipments allowed in or out of the island, the People of Bougainville learned to become self-dependent and self-sustained.

A short skateboard video from Salazar Productions featuring, Bradley Sheppard, Alien, Nate Lacoste, Chris Connolly, Nate Roline, Stacy Gabriel, Desmond Hoostie, Mike Klinkhamer, and Rob Rickaby

Directed By Liam Mitchell
Shot By Nathan Drillot and Liam Mitchell

(via Briefly Noted)

Reminds me that ski season is coming up – something I never forget even though I’m stuck in the city these days! Boy, I hope to get out and do some deep powder this winter. But, don’t worry, Ma, I won’t get into this sort of mess. I hope.

(via NewTeeVee)

(via sarahspy)

I just got an email letting me know that my music video for The War on Drugs was accepted into the 17th Curtas Vila do Conde International Film Festival in Portugal! I’m excited to actually have a film IN a film festival instead of just projecting film all the time. Wish I could attend…

Be sure to check out our friends Ravens and Vultures who were kind enough to lend us their excellent music for our soundtrack.

No comment needed for this one. Just, wow.

(Hat tip, NewTeeVee Station!)

You might recall that last month I whipped together a lil’ video in order to apply for the Fiesta Movement – an innovative marketing effort by Ford that gave 100 entertaining and influential bloggers a new car to drive around for 6 months and share their thoughts and adventures with the world. Well, lucky for me, I got chosen – one of 4000+ applicants.

I spent a fantastic couple days up in New York City getting some information and training on the program. It does not suck to spend 24 hours with a group of people who are equally, if not more nerdy than me about blogging, Twitter and the Internet arts (shout out to my new friends Seth, Alexis, John, Sarah, Grace, Jody, Jill, Joe, Bliss, Eric and Alex). Here’s the first clip I just uploaded – an introduction to the car and a rainy training day at the racetrack.

There’s a bit more to it than simple videos and witty car quips. The best part of this is that Audrey and I are already planning some road trip adventures for this summer and we’ll be extra sure to make you some entertaining videos while we’re on the road.

Audrey and I have been meaning to watch Buena Vista Social Club… and voila! Here it is:

A couple weeks ago, my buddy Julia invited me to make a video for the Fiesta Movement program she was helping put together. I was a bit reticent at first, being the busy fella that I am. But after she told me that they’d hook me up with the totally sweet 2011 Ford Fiesta for 6 months in exchange for sending me on little adventures that’d I’d twitter and vlog about, I came around to the idea. Fun!

Today I found myself with an empty Sunday afternoon I thought, “what the hell?” So here it is, in all it’s nerdy glory. I know I’m rather shameless y’all. Please forgive in advance.

I’m so excited about this film! When you live in Philadelphia, Zagar’s work creeps into your consciousness with this odd iconic ubiquity. So strange, and yet so beautiful and literally found in every nook and cranny of this city. The film was made by Jeremiah’s son, so it’s sure to be an intimate family portrait which tend to be some of my favorite kind of films.

Synopsis:
Over the past four decades, Isaiah Zagar has covered more than 50,000 square feet of Philadelphia with stunning mosaic murals. In A Dream is a documentary feature film that chronicles his work and his tumultuous relationship with his wife, Julia. It follows the Zagars as their marriage implodes and a harrowing new chapter in their life unfolds.

I can’t believe I missed the theatrical showing of this film last April, but now it’s coming out on DVD(?) and I plan on seeing it asap. Maybe it’s time for a documentary film house party! Who’s in?

[UPDATE: Luckily, I was wrong about that date - it's actually going to be in the Ritz at the Bourse starting April 17, 2009! Yes! Let's all go! Who's in?]

This is pretty amazing work from Flickr user Ettubrute.

On my night time flight back to SF from Amsterdam, I noticed that the lights from cities were making the clouds glow. Really spectacular and ethereal – it was really seeing the impact of urban environments from a different perspective. Each glow or squiggle represents one town or city!

Luckily the flight was half empty, so I was able to set up a impromptu mound made up of my bags, pillows, and blankets for my camera to sit on.

We were around the midwest at the beginning of the clip, and there were fewer cities once we hit the rockies. the bridge at the end is the san mateo bridge.

Technique: 1600iso; beginning – 1 (30sec) exposure / 45secs, end – 1 (4sec) exposure / 10 secs; total elapsed time: around 3 hours?

Music: Bloc Party – Signs

Snowboarding at Solitude in Utah from Mark Schoneveld on Vimeo.

Oh, and… ICE BEARD!

[via Joshua's blog]

My friend Tim and I were talking the other day about artists we knew of who struggled and overcame major mental challenges to create fresh and amazing creations. I brought up Daniel Johnston. He brought up Wesley Willis. I had never heard of him, but I’m so glad I know his work now. Wow!

I’ve been reading a lot about the upcoming release of the new camera set-ups from RED on Stu Maschwitz’ always excellent ProLost blog. I must say, this thing is one heck of a drool-inducing machine. What I’ve been waiting for is a camera that shoots still frames in the same way a Bolex 16mm camera might – at 24 frames a second, continuously. The Nikon D90 is pretty awesome as one of the first DSLRs to shoot in HD, but what I really want is a digital film-like solution. It looks like this is the might be one.