Cold War

I love the unfettered, personal nature of this:

Pigs on the Wing

Part 1 If you didn’t care what happened to me, And I didn’t care for you, We would zig zag our way through the boredom and pain Occasionally glancing up through the rain. Wondering which of the buggars to blame And watching for pigs on the wing. Part 2 You know that I care what…

Swim Until You Can’t See Land

We salute at the threshold of the North Sea in my mind And a nod to the boredom that drove me here to face the tide and swim (Whoaaaa) I swim (Whoaaa) oh swim (Whoaaa) Dip the toe in the ocean. Oh how it hardens and it numbs. And the rest of me is a…

Behind the Scenes: WIND

Behind the scenes with the Exploratorium, A Curious Summer and Tinkering Unlimited as they prepare to work with young learners to harness wind’s invisible power through discovering where it comes from and how to predict its behavior while studying aerodynamics and lift. Through tinkering with wind-powered machines and vehicles, such as a paragliding wing, turbines…

Flight

Since forever, I’ve been hooked on flight. In planes big or small, balloons, anything that flies, goes fast and is otherwise in direct opposition to the side of me that believes strongly in being safe by observing best practices at all times. I once lived in Juneau, Alaska and used to watch paragliders from my…

Not the Dentist!

From a selection of 29 individual storyboards, we drew two scenes randomly and made a short screenplay from them. Then, using resources immediately available to us, we made this short film in one day on location @ Tinkering School in Montara, California:

Tinkering School: Day 8

Go cart design, assembly and testing by the inimitable Team Tinker with snippets of boat model design and other moments of singular, whimsical tinkering mastery. Thanks to Moby for his song, Porcelain.

Down to the River

As I mentioned earlier, last weekend I went down to the river with a bunch of gear to help Dan Huiting shoot a music video featuring Charlie Parr for City of Music and the video is premiering this coming Monday on the site. See more stills from the shoot and read the article in City…

Charlie Parr

I had the distinct pleasure of spending this morning down by the Mississippi River with Charlie Parr, shooting a video for City of Music with Dan Huiting, Chris Cloud, Dave Hannigan and the rest of the MPLS.tv crew. He’s such a good spirit and talented musician. Amidst such a perfect backdrop for his sound, the…

dialectic

This one Bergey and I made together:

the steelpan gets a new coat of paint

Steelpans may be the friendliest instrument of all – unless you can think of one that’s any friendlier…? This particular steelpan is not full-sized but still has an incredible sound. It’s tuned diatonically and is a magnet to even the slightly curious. Something about it makes it less intimidating than it is friendly. It’s not…

fate and the wall

A wall is accidentally knocked over leading to a discussion about the roles of choice and fate across cultures.click here to watch on mobile device

conforming 24p

Even though the 5Dmkii has the capability to capture at 24p natively, it’s still a cool effect to capture @ 30p and conform to 24p: click here for html5 version

Maria Montessori

In 1896, Maria Montessori gave a lecture at the Educational Congress in Torino about the training of the disabled. The Italian Minister of Education was in attendance, and was impressed by her arguments sufficiently to appoint her the same year as director of the Scuola Ortofrenica, an institution devoted to the care and education of…

Arcade Fire: The Suburbs

That’s correct kids, the new album is finished and nearly in our warm, fuzzy little hands – click, drag and listen! it’s just like a real record player! weeeeeeeeee!!! A. The Suburbs AA. Month of May

The Music of Conrad Praetzel and Clothesline Revival

The best music you may not have heard of comes from the imagination and inspiration of Conrad Praetzel, an archaeologist-turned-musician living in Northern California, who makes soulful music under the moniker Clothesline Revival. Collaborating with great musical forces in the world, including Charlie Musselwhite, Sukhawat Ali Khan, Robert Powell, Rounder Records, the field recordings of…

Plastic Bag

Ramin Bahrani-written-directed-and-edited, Werner Herzog-narrated and original soundtrack by Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Rós?

Goodbye Solo

Every now and then a film moves me, lifts and tosses about my sense of the world, of knowing myself and my own culture, let alone the cultures of others and where mine fits in. Then, it sets me down gently, back in the place I was to begin with. Only then, the place looks…

Cinematography: We’ve come a long way?

We don’t have to ask why we love videos and movies, visual literacy is becoming more important as time goes on. Thinking about today’s conventions I see in contrast to the silent films of the early years of cinema, the first thing is obvious: there are a lot of talking heads. The cinematic elements that…