Fabulist!

How Doth The Little Busy Bee

Charissa — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:42:06 PDT

Artist Hilary Berseth collaborates with honeybees to create intricate sculptures made of beeswax and honey. He builds a template for the shape he wants, places it inside the hive in the Spring, and waits. (And waits.) The outcome is often different than he expects, as the bees riff on his guidelines and add their own input into the process. But that's how you arrive at a truly delicious partnership, right?

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News You Can Muse

Charissa — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:08:47 PDT

For a few weeks I've been trying to think of the best way to share all the little tidbits of music news I find throughout the week. So I'mma try this, and see how it works: It's like the mp3 roundup, but different, because there's...well, no mp3s.

The history of San Francisco's Beatles House. Combining two of my great loves: The Beatles and murals.

Zoë Keating, Imogen Heap, Richard Branson, Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Josh Groban and more join forces for LIVE 4 Pakistan, a live fundraising event to benefit the victims of the 2010 flood in Pakistan. Hosted by Ze Frank, begins at 11 EST on August 31 (that's today, people!). Tune in here.

New t-shirt designed by Andrew Bird for the Yellow Bird Project, based on his "run-in with a peacock outside of his barn, while on his way out for a bike ride." Proceeds will benefit Pegasus Special Riders, Inc. and it's a pretty goddamn awesome shirt.

Jonathan Coulton, Wil Wheaton, John Hodgman and more are involved in JoCo Cruise Crazy, a cruise event departing from Ft. Lauderdale, FL on January 2, 2011 for which you can still buy tickets. I find this utterly weird and incredible.

Tegan and Sara interview Hayley Williams from Paramore. Apparently they are bffs.

(Photo is Jane Weems of The Maggots, who painted the Beatles House in 1974. Source.)

Things You Think

Charissa — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:26:15 PDT

Nick Hornby, Ben Folds and Pomplamoose join forces to set my internal monologue to music.

(Seriously, please tell me I'm not the only one who self-flagellates with Facts and Trivia?)

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The Power of Music

Charissa — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:14:56 PDT

A WWII veteran recounts his experience with the power of music during the war. Anything on the Internet that makes me cry, I've resolved to share with you. So here you go.

(Thanks, Dianna!)

Far Away Land of Dreams

Charissa — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:09:02 PDT

A Finnish tango sung in Elvish. (I wasn't aware that Quenya, the language created for the Elves by J.R.R. Tolkien, was partially influenced by Finnish. The more you know!) This tango, minus the Elvish, is the national tango of Finland, and the annual tango festival in Finland called the Tangomarkkinat is the oldest tango festival in the world.

I am utterly fascinated by this since I've been taking tango lessons with my sweetie lately, and I think I may have found our music for the showcase in October. I'm hoping the novelty of the Elvish tango distracts from our outlandishly bad dancing.

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Stay Awake. Stay Puft.

Charissa — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:21:06 PDT

Stay Puft Caffeinated Marshmallows contain 100mg of caffeine each and come in a squishy, reusable box. I say get these, some Water Joe, some Penguin Mints, and whatever other improbably caffeinated foodstuffs you can find and try to break some records!

(Records possibly broken include but are not limited to: Most days awake, most caffeine ingested at one sitting, and most ill-conceived plan ever devised to break some records.)

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Tickle Me Pink

Charissa — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:50:58 PDT

Sometimes truth is more beautiful than fiction, and the bald facts more appealing than all the poetry in the world. Which is perhaps why these crayon labels featuring the name of the actual chemical used to give each crayon its special shade appeal to me even more than Crayola's standard color names. (Though I'll admit, "Inchworm" and "Mauvelous" are pretty evocative, too.)

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Aquarium On Ice

Charissa — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:36:16 PDT

Kori no Suizokukan is a frozen aquarium located in Kesennuma, Japan, designed as an attraction to help tourists escape the summer heat. In addition to the several hundred aquatic specimens, there are action figures, bottles of sake, flowers, and more locked in ice for your perusal.

But, all those sea creatures staring out at you with lifeless eyes...the whole experience seems rather chilling, no?

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Furry Words

Charissa — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:21:54 PDT

A message board. Covered in synthetic fur. That you write on with your fingers. For 110 Euros. I just...I just needed you to know that this exists.

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Pa Pa Power!

Charissa — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:00:08 PDT

Dead Man's Bones (Zach Shields and Ryan Gosling) perform their song "Pa Pa Power" along with the Silverlake Conservatory Children's Choir at a nursing home/retirement community. Along the way we get to meet some of the fascinating people who live there, as well as develop a more deep and nuanced appreciation for side ponytails and Ryan Gosling's sweater choices.

As a bonus? The song is good. (Don't make the mistake I did -- the first time I listened, I didn't realize my headphones were only halfway plugged in and I was all "this sucks!" But it doesn't. It's awesome, and well worth the dance party at the end.)

Silent Time of Earth

Charissa — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 06:10:23 PDT

Video for the song "Silent Time of Earth" by Candy Claws. The video's art is from a 1944 Russian animation called The Stolen Sun, which the band re-edited to fit their vision. According to them,
"Our song is about the billions of years while the earth was coming to life, before humans appeared. Apparently, these are the special kinds of antics performed by the animals before they had to behave for us."
Special kinds of antics include, but are not limited to: Epic bear vs. crocodile battles, happy frog dances, seesawing hedgehogs, and adorable bear cubs playing hide and seek. I knew all the animals were keeping a secret from me! No wonder my cat wants to get outside all the time.

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Marionettes on the Move

Charissa — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:46:58 PDT

Portland Cello Project - 'Denmark' from Two Penguins Productions on Vimeo.

A marionette prawn dreams of adventure to the beguiling hum of cello strings. At least I'm pretty sure it's a prawn. How can I admire a fictional creature so much when I'm not even certain what species its supposed to be?

This is slower paced video that is absolutely gorgeous in its detail -- almost every frame looks like a still photograph, meticulously designed with intricate little touches throughout. And the Portland Cello Project never disappoints -- the music is understated and lovely and a natural accompaniment to quiet plans for exploring points unknown.

Rosie And Me

Charissa — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:22:01 PDT

The video and the song for "Bonfires" by Rosie and Me go perfectly together. The entire experience is end-of-summer upbeat fun while the band goes on a picnic that inspires me to aim for even better picnics in my own future. I have been doing it wrong -- not enough colored smoke, not enough paper cutouts of animals, not enough dancing, and certainly not enough tambourine shaking. Rosie and Me have it all figured out. Maybe they'll invite me on a picnic someday?

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Take a Picture, It'll Last Longer

Charissa — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:01:04 PDT

Talking to some friends on Twitter the other day, I realized that there's quite an assortment of color photos and film that has been showing up lately on the internets, making me rethink my (until now) solid conviction that the world before 1939 was actually experienced in shades of black and white. So I wanted to post a little summing up of all the ones I know of, because even if you've seen a few of these, maybe you haven't seen all of them, and maybe you've got some to show me yourself in the comments. Win-win!

First is the video above, a Kodak Kodachrome test featuring some silent actresses from 1922. This one is especially special to me, because I'm a silent film buff, and yes, I keep a silent film Tumblr.

Along those lines, some color photographs of Charlie Chaplin from 1917. Here, here, here and here.

Russia in color a century ago, here.

Color photos from the Great Depression and WWII here.

Color photos from around the world, pre-1929, here.

Gorgeous color film of London from 1927 here.

Early color photo of France in the 1870s here.

Got any others? Give 'em to me.

Flight of Fancy

Charissa — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 03:22:20 PDT

Artist Yuliya Kyrpo, a secondary school student in England, constructed this dress out of one thousand paper cranes made from free Metro newspapers. I'm pretty sure I've heard that if you accomplish such an astounding undertaking, you're granted free flights via paper crane for life, so I hope Yuliya chooses some incredible destinations. She's earned it.

Oh, and the dress is now on display at the London Science Museum.

More photos at the link.

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