Kodachrome Nights

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October 27, 2005

�les p�tits chiens� (clip + �making of�)

This guy at ignatub.com is a genius. Check out this latest video, called "les p'tits chiens":

http://ignatub.crao.net/wp-content/medias/Chiens_sor3.mov

Claymation is so cool, and it blows me away that people can do this in their home now with a laptop and a digital camera. I was in Scotland when a fire destroyed many of the original sets and characters from Wallace and Grommit, and you could tell how much people loved those shows by the press coverage. It was all over the newspapers, generally as a main headline. I can't wait to get deeper into this Ignatus (Jerome Rousseaux) guy's site.

Thanks to Alexander Bailey of Radio Khartoum from the indiepop list for the tip.

[I had to un-embed this thing b/c it was taking a long time to load- I replaced it with the URL 11.27.05]

Posted by Mark C McKnight at 5:35 PM

Wal-Mart Movie

Wal-Mart is Evil

Posted by Mark C McKnight at 1:57 PM

Let there be light, and therefore, colour

(Photo above from Bravia)

Fallon of London just released a new TV spot for Sony's new Bravia brand of televisions. The spot shows a couple hundred thousand bouncy balls careening down a San Francisco street. It's really a great idea, and pefectly executed. Fallon has even set up a Web site with a short behind-the-scenes movie and some desktop wallpapers.

Occasionally advertising dollars do go toward something close to art. I hope Jos� Gonz�lez, who's song "Heartbeats" sets the tone for the advert, worked out a deal where he can use the song as a music video.

Fallon has a pretty quirky portfolio of television spots. They are the agency behind Citi's identity theft commercials, which I've always thought were hilarious. They also did the Holliday Inn Express commercial where Alex Trebec is talking to a contestant who is about to go into seventh grade. The spot ends with Trebec saying, "No shi-" when the screen cuts and the Holliday Inn pitch starts. That one's funny because it's so much like the celebrity Jeopardy skits from SNL.

The creativity of this ad reminds me of BMW's short films and comics, which they have apparently pulled the plug on. Anyone know where the find the videos online?

The Bravia site is located here.

Thanks to Adland's Ad-Rag for actually naming the musician; I couldn't find it anywhere on the Bravia site except in passing on the behind the scenes video.

Also covered on BrandRepublic's Creative Bulletin.

There's a cool Flickr stream here with photos from the shoot.

Posted by Mark C McKnight at 1:08 PM

October 23, 2005

Dumpster Diving

Found a crazy Web site today... This is a discussion board for people who go dumpster diving for fun:

This one guy here found the car from this photo and recovered it and converted it to electric:

Posted by Mark C McKnight at 5:05 PM

October 15, 2005

New Orleans and Sustainable Development

Okay I lied about not blogging for a few days. Just came across a piece of news from the Urban Land Institute (link to the right). The ULI will have some involvement with the stupidly-named "Bring New Orleans Back Commission," which should ensure that all the beurocratic nonsense will at least have some positive direction. Whether they follow the reccomendations of the ULI will be another question entirely.

In addition to the advisory panel, ULI is working with its members to develop the Ten Principles for Temporary Communities to help New Orleans and other communities faced with the dilemma of creating temporary homes for its displaced residents. These principles will be based on experiences of other communities that have dealt with natural disasters and other events that have necessitated the creation of temporary housing.

Although I don't suggest it, you can read the full article here.

God save New Orleans from the Big Box lobbies, which are more powerful and have much more money than any of the locally-owned small businesses displaced by Katrina. At this time politicians need to look deep within themselves and consider what makes New Orleans unique. There has been much talk lately on public radio and in print about this very question, and one of the most compelling answers revolves around density and its role in creating community.

New Orleans, almost uniquely in the South, is a walkable city. The majority of inner-city residents can (whether they do or not is another question) walk to a corner store, a restaurant or two, and a family member's residence. At the very least, they can walk to a bus or trolley stop. Many of the city's poorest residents have never even owned an automobile, and I have to say they are richer for it.

While many New Orleans residents ended up dying due to their inability to leave the city, I do not follow the argument that "these people died because they were too poor to own cars." What about Manhattan? How many of the people who live on the island and do not own cars can be considered poor? How many of them make some multiple of the median wage in New Orleans?

The problem is not the lack of automobiles but rather the region's dependence on the automobile itself. The availability of cheap oil has led to the suburbanization of the city and the entire Gulf coast. Instead of building regional rail, effective mass transit within the city, and denser developments, too many Southern cities paved their lands with roads, car parks, and superhighways. All very effective if you ignore the cost to the environment and the community.

Because the region has developed in this way, the citizens of New Orleans who did not own cars were denied any efficient regional mass transportation. They had no better options. Where was Amtrak, by the way? I'm not the first to ask this question. See this article in The Nation. Even if everyone in the city had a car, the evacuation would have claimed a few lives. Look at what happened when millions of people evacuated just a week or so later in Texas. It's simply inefficient, unsustainable, and irresponsible to rely on the automobile as it exists today for transportation.

I'm reminding myself of these things as well. I love my Benz, and it's not exactly fuel-efficient. I love the way I don't have to plan trips in advance. I love the air conditioning on full blast on a hot summer day. Hell, I usually have the A/C on with the windows down. But I have moved close enough to work that I now ride my bike. I am in the early stages of planning to purchase a home, and it will be in a dense urban environment. If Chattanooga developers will stop building all these showpiece condo developments in the half-million plus range (I know New Yorkers, that's nothing...) and start building housing for all income levels in the central city, then I will jump in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, low- to mid-income housing projects and mass transit are not economically viable in a purely free-market democracy. Anything regulated for the public good smacks of Socialism and by God we can't have that, can we? Moreover, in a country moving away from family farm ownership, rural landowners are accustomed to cashing in on their land holdings when they sell to developers of big box shopping complexes. My family just did that. It's treated as a birthright. Fortunately, that land is already under strict regulation along New Urbanist principles, so a Wal-Mart willl never replace the land my great-grandparents called home for so many decades.

Until we convince the majority in this country that land usage is not an inalienable right but rather a delicate issue that must be planned (not ZONED) as a community, through dialog, the problems made obvious by Katrina will continue and in fact proliferate. I didn't even mention the environmental question of decreased wetlands, or climate change.

In the long run, we can't afford to stay the course. Americans must come to realize the absolute necessity of denser development. It's a matter of survival, and besides it's a great way to live.

Walk somewhere today. It's good for you. Exchange one errand that you would have done by car with an expedition on foot or riding a bicycle. Meet someone on your way, if you can find anyone else walking.

Sustainable land planners of the world, Unite!

Posted by Mark C McKnight at 10:47 AM

black hawk down

My #$$#%%$$%#$%#$#%##$##@@#^&*(*&*^&^!!!!!!!!!!!!!! computer crashed, so I won't be blogging for a few days. Sorry that you'll have to miss my erudite commentaries and brilliant photography. Right.

Well, the scotland photos are on the computer, so if i'll get them back or not is up in the air right now. Talk at you folks later.

Posted by Mark C McKnight at 10:14 AM

October 13, 2005

Greenland is Not Green

I flew over Greenland the other day, and look folks it's just not green. They've been lying to us in order to get more tourists. Here's a picture:

A couple quotes from Dave Eggers' You Shall Know Our Velocity:

There was one from Mongolia to Saskatchewan. But nothing from Greenland to Rwanda. We were bent. Why wouldn't there be a flight from Greenland to Rwanda?

"Total population is 53,000."
"Ice covers eighty-five percent of the landmass."
"They're desperate for tourists. They get about 8,000 a year, but they're shooting for 60,000."

Posted by Mark C McKnight at 11:41 PM

Haggis, anyone?

Okay just got back from Scotland and the first thing I ate over there was Haggis, Nippers and Tatties. Here's the definition of haggis, from dictionary.com:

A Scottish dish consisting of a mixture of the minced heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep or calf mixed with suet, onions, oatmeal, and seasonings and boiled in the stomach of the slaughtered animal.

Okay that's just wrong. But it tastes so good.

Posted by Mark C McKnight at 2:49 PM

Galer�a Fotogr�fica del Palau de les Arts Reina Sof�a

Just in from Scotland- photos coming soon! For now, here's something I found while surfing around at lunch today:

Santiago Calatrava ha completado su Palau de les Artes Reina Sofia y aqui hay varios imagines photographcos: Seleccione aqui.

Santiago Calatrava has finished the Queen Sofia Palace of Arts in Valencia, and here are a few photographs of the building: Click here.

Posted by Mark C McKnight at 1:26 PM

October 3, 2005

More Wright, Less Wrong

Okay Joshua, here are more photos. I still have more to come. This is the beautiful house that Joshua and I went to see on Sunday. A lot of these images are way too warm but I just processed them quickly- will update, I promise. Since I'm running way short on time I haven't been able to get all the photos processed (and the light was rather awkward, so they're requiring more work than I expected [after all, i'm a self-professed night photographer, so daylight's a bit disorienting]) and so I'm going to just quote Joshua's entry on the house from his blog:

The house was commissioned by Seamour and Gerte Shavin in 1949 and the home at 334 N. Crest Road on Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga was completed in 1952. It is constructed primarily of crab orchard stone and treated Louisiana cypress wood. The Shavins, who still reside at the home, are very enthusiastic about architecture and are able to discuss the poetry and philosophy of their home passionately and knowledgeably. I believe the home is open to tour a few times a year, but if you ask them nicely they might give you a private tour.

Rock on. Rock Wright.

Here's the goods: