Like Leaves and Pages...

 Books suspended above an entrance to the Istanbul modern art museum by Hanif Shoaei via thisiscolossal.com

The Joy Of Books

"Books are a hard-bound drug with no danger of an overdose. I am the happy victim of books."  

 - Karl Lagerfeld -

Anagram Bookshop in Prague (now closed) - promotional images from Kaspen

The writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads...

- Dr. Seuss -

Beautiful photographs by Cara Barer

I love library porn even more than I love cabin porn.

I found Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal through 

Bookstore Guide - An amateur guide to bookshopping throughout Europe.

Ok, you NEED to click this link and see the library in 360' which is just the coolest thing EVER! Scroll down a bit and use the cursor to look around.

And this is Ireland's Trinity College Library:

Lucille Moroni's book sculptures

Exploded Books by Betsy Jayne

I'd like to thank Scott for sending this to me: 

It started suddenly. Without warning.

Last spring, Julie Johnstone, a librarian at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh, was wandering through a reading room when she saw, sitting alone on a random table, a little tree.  It was made of twisted paper and was mounted on a book.

It looked like this was a one-off, a beautiful and delicate piece of art created by a fan of the Poetry Library. Until, in late June, the National Library of Scotland found themselves the recipient of a similar piece.

Read the INCREDIBLE whole story HERE. The artist remains unknown.

Using old books, Su Blackwell creates beautiful landscapes.

And this photograph is by Angélica Vis.

Read more about amazing art HERE at thisiscolossal.com which has become my FAVORITE website and I can't stop exploring it. It is IMMENSELY inspirational.

Craziness

Thank you Kyle for this awesome vid:

Plaintain Sandwich

Today I went to the grocery store and stocked up on fruits and veggies and nuts.

 See that thing that looks like a banana? It's NOT a banana, it's a plantain.

I cut it up into long slices and fried it in a pan.

And I had some pork and fried that up too.

Then I added some spicy hot mango chutney and made plantain sandwiches.

Spicy sweet tropical piggy bites?

They are nameless thus far (maybe you can think of something good) and they are truly tasty!

They remind me of being in tropical places where all I ate was mango and papaya and melon...

and played in the sand, and made friends, and drank nasty gross mamajuana...

MAN do I ever need a vacation. 

 The last one I had was the Pool Party in Dominican.

I miss that week. It was fun. 

I was surrounded by awesome positive crazy mo' fo's!!!

Derek Heisler and Joey Camacho started

Studio Coalition, based out of Calgary. 

Check out their SUPER HOT vid from their photoshoots in the Dominican!!
Three cheers for all of our girls too! xxoo

I would just like to take this moment to say (looking up, with one hand on my chest)

"Canadians are SO TALENTED..." and so sexy!! 

Dominican Republic Teaser Video from Studio Coalition on Vimeo.

www.Facebook.com/studiocoalition and www.twitter.com/studiocoalition

Back to work for me. Have a great evening guys!

Love, Andy

Peaceful Day

There are some days when we experience more turmoil in our hearts than others.

No matter how positive I try to be, I am not immune to sadness and off-days.

Today is such a day.

I've already journaled about how I feel and why, so it's out of me now, and I'm just trying to find 

and absorb peaceful things, peaceful thoughts, and I'll share them.

This beautiful song really reflects my mind state:

Mr. Little Jeans - Rescue Song (RAC Remix)

photos by Sandra Juto

Hello Sandwich posted a Youtube video of the 5:00 bell that one hears at the end of the day. 

There are different chimes in different areas of Tokyo:

I had someone ask me why I havn't posted anything about the devastation in Japan.

And it's because I want to avoid posting videos of water flooding people's homes, 

and shots of roads, cars, and buildings being swept away like debris in a river.

I want to express healing thoughts towards Japan's recovery, and if possible post up videos or report about communities healing and coming together to overcome this hardship.

Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow, again.

(photo source)

I'm finding it difficult to find anything that is expressing this sentiment, so please, if anyone has anything to share that expresses strength and defiance against the disaster, 

please send it to me because I'd like to blog it.

andymcparrot@gmail.com

I FOUND SOMETHING! A blog called Dear Plastic - check it out! YAY
"Earth Hour Tokyo"

Anyone who know me knows that I love Japan. 

It inspires me.

I've studied Japan extensively on my own, 

and I have a deep respect for it's multifaceted and brilliant culture.

I even tried to learn to speak Japanese, but it's hard to do when you have no one to practice with.

For your Friday pleasure here are some awesome videos from Japan:

Only in Japan would you find dancing ramen.

One of the best pizza commercials ever! Try to learn the dance!

And one more. A commercial about tea!

A Japanese Rube Goldberg machine. The video clip in this link is AMAZING -

 http://andymcparrotland.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-heart-rube-goldberg.html

DOMOKUN -

http://andymcparrotland.blogspot.com/2010/07/do-mo-kun.html

I've been preoccupied

Me = Busy Bee

SO

I will provide some Food For Thought before running out of the house again.

Feel free to comment. I'd like to hear your thoughts!

3D Animation OMG

Dark Side of the Lens

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

More of the AWESOME

My internet is a jerk. 

This post has to be super fast because I don't know how long I have before it shuts off again.

What IS awesomesauce?

ATTENTION:

we have taken awesome, made sauce out of it, and now we have AWESOMESAUCE!!!

Yes, awesomesauce exists. But what is it exactly? 

Check out this stuff and you'll get the gist:

When you wish for a castle, is it made of cardboard? 

This cardboard castle was made by Ann Wood as a window display for Johnson's in New York City.

Do you get there with the help of your trusty bicycle horse? 

This was made by Eungi Kim from Korea. He calls it "Horsey".

And here is a vid called "Game Over" made by PES, who really and truly IS the king of the stop-motion animation realm.

It is, of course, awesomesauce:

If you have things that are "awesomesauce", send them to me at andymcparrot@gmail.com

Break It Down

This is a really outside-the-box music video! 

It was created as a school project by Tomas Nilsson from Sweden. 

I've been to Sweden. It's really nice there!

His task was to re-interpret the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, so he animated it. 

What an awesome job. I bet his class loved it.

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by Destiny

Here's more diagram type art.

"Wooly Mammoth" and "Sabre Tooth Tiger" by Lumadessa. They are part of the "Extinct Collection"

Word of the day: MESMERIZING

The word "Mesmerize" means to spellbind, or enthrall.  

Franz Anton Mesmer was a German physician and astrologist, who's ideas about animal magnetism led to the development of hypnosis. Mesmer's name is the root of the word!

This weekend was crazy busy and I had no time to post anything! So, to make up for it, I'm posting one of my favorite animations ever. 

It is MESMERIZING.

It was made entirely on a whiteboard:

Minilogue - Hitchhikers Choice

Deep Sea Adventures

Andy and Mario went to the Shedd Aquarium to look for undersea life.

There were so many different types of creatures there, not only fish and dolphins and whales, but ALL kinds of aquatic life.

Little tree frog came out to say "Hello!"

Cute little turtle. 

Cute swimming turtle.

AND THEN:

Then check out THIS turtle! He never moves, and he has a fleshy part in his mouth that wiggles like a worm, and twhen a fish comes along, SNAP! he eats it. He was super creepy.

A grouchy Rock Lobster peering out from his perch.

Under the sea, Under the sea!

 

We got no troubles
Life is the bubbles
Under the sea

Darling, it's better down where it's wetter, take it from me!

WHOAH!!

One of the most awesome things I've seen....

ENVISION : Step into the sensory box from SUPERBIEN on Vimeo.

REJECTED

If you have not seen this animated clip, you need to. That is, if you are to understand the weird things I say like "Tuesday's coming, did you bring your coat?" and then my friend says "I live in a giant bucket!".

Also, since I am at Lollapalooza today, I don't have time to make a nice big post about pickles or butterflies or whatever, so enjoy your Friday, where ever in the world you may be!

I Heart Rube Goldberg

This clip is from a Japanese show called "Pythagoras Switch" (Pythagora Suichi is what they sing at the end of each segment).  I've had it on my list of "favorites" for a long time, and it keeps getting blocked on copyright grounds by NHK.   "Boooooooo!!!" I say.  But someone always reloads it and I can find it again.  Here it is, just for you:

Pythagoras Switch

 

Rube Goldberg was a political cartoonist during the 40's and 50's. "Goldberg is best known for a series of popular cartoons he created depicting complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways – now known as Rube Goldberg machines". - wikipedia

And here, my friends, is one of the most awesome music vidoes ever. Just watch it.

Lost Things

"Lost Things" - Written & Directed by Angela Kohler and Ithyle Griffiths

image source unknown

Engagement pictures found on greenweddingshoes.com

image found on tumblr

Engagement pictures found on greenweddingshoes.com

image found on tumblr