Right-Half Chow

Photography: Olivo Barberi

Quite an interesting take: Olivo photographs real waterfalls from great heights and tries to make them look like miniature model landscapes. Isn't that what we all try to do everyday: turn the world into something easily comprehensible and malleable?

Using a large-format camera that allows him to play with the layers of focus in a picture, Barbieri turns real scenes into spaces that seem impossible. But despite their unreal feel, all of his images have been created by carefully controlling the optical techniques of his camera and haven't been digitally altered or distorted after shooting.

More Orangina Pin-Ups

I came across the print campaign that follows in the wake of the spot, very nice but I'm not convinced by the plants...

Washing up in style

It's kind of weird that we only get restyled versions of every appliance we already like to use: Apple gave the computer an acceptable living room face, now that cooking is back in you get all kinds of gadgets that are functional as well as pleasing to the eye, televisions get less bulky and more decorative as the seconds tick by...

But apart from the Dyson (their recent cooperation with Issey Miyake looks like one of Barbarella's weapons) I couldn't really think of any household 'duty' that was redesigned to become something beautiful. Practical and less time consuming: no problem... but you still need to do it. Which seems kind of odd. I for one would place my washing/dryer combination a lot more central if it looked like this (more pics over at Gizmodo)...

Orangina does a 'Furry'

I never quite got the attraction of furries, but they're very nicely portrayed in this new Orangina spot. It does feel a lot like a "Happiness Factory - Hate Something  hybrid" though:

Marvel Comics Online

I'm a bit of a comic fan and I had been looking at Marvel's Essentials collection for a long time, they are essentially black and white collections of the early comics series like The Avengers, Fantastic Four,...

But they don't really have a convenient format and without the colours they're not really attractive.
So I was pretty glad to find these collections on DVD, now if they can only put them up on the co.uk site they would save me tons of import taxes.

And then I read the following news item... which I think is a great initiative but there is something about owning the collections that appeals to me. And I can imagine them filtering out all the great ads that you come across while reading them. Eat your heart out Dove:

Found on YouTube pt 1

I just went through my YouTube account checking up on favorites. The 'favorite' button is more of a 'must remember sometime' button in my book and today was 'sometime'...

First off: Jeff Milligan using 4 turntables and the mixer like a sequencer, hyperkinetic stuff.

Justice performing 'live' on the Jimmy Kimmel show, a good song and, while not as realistic as the BBC Radio 2 spot, pretty funny in it's own right:

This fantastic little film from the YouTube contest called The Scritch-Scratch of Busy Little Hands:

For the grand finale: this nugget depicts Jim Henson's cure for computer induced frustration and incomprehensible techno-babble:

Triumph explained

It kind of reminds me of the Skoda ad from a while back (yes, the pastry one) but this is just far better (probably cheaper too). They've got just the right tone of humor for me and while they don't really add anything new, you can't help leaving with the feeling that this is one hell of a motorbike...

Before the Happiness Factory

Could this be where some of the inspiration came from?

Look mom, it's raining cigarettes and the statue of liberty enjoys them too! As  the description of the YouTube film states: that must be because cigarettes equal freedom baby!

And even though I quit more than 2 years ago, I tend to agree with the fact that the tobacco ban is becoming a lousy symbol for a mediocre 'common ground' culture. I still think it's worrisome that we are throwing away natural respect for each other in exchange for an outright ban, it's as if we have become incapable of living together without a strict manual. I know I tend to come back on this point regularly, but I still think this was a lot nicer and more appealing than current tactics:

Daft Widget

I'm not sure if widgets merit an entire conference of their own, but some allow me to have a bit of music on the blog and I don't really object to doing a bit of promotion for the new Daft Punk album. In fact, some of the songs on preview reminded me how good they can be live.

Hema Product Site

It's Honda's Cog but online, and nothing to do with cars whatsoever...

Hema (a Dutch chain) displays it's products in a very entertaining way on the following site:

Thanks Dieter.