Friday, 23 July 2010

Sprismatic Blog has been on Summer Break


A little bit of summer














This garland is from a collection by Lisa Piercy and as it made me feel instantly as though I was on holiday with my feet in cooling sand, I thought it was a perfect image to look at after the summer. 
This and other mood enhancing garlands can be seen on Lisa's news page and are titled land of serendipity





Friday, 16 July 2010

Sometimes the Shit leads to Awesome

This morning, artist Philip Dennis introduced me to Blu's latest film Big Bang Big Boom. The animation has stayed in my head ever since and when that happens I want to share but the subject matter didn't appear to fit the recent "All things bright and wonderful" tone of the Sprismatic Blog.
However it's concept blew me away. I've blown back now, still muttering "How many hours must that have taken?" and decided it fits more criteria for this blog than I'd realised.
Spoiler Alert: Watch the film before you read on.


BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

The current tag for Sprismatic is Sometimes the Shit Leads to Awesome. People destroying each other and blowing up the planet is shit but inspired an awesome interpretation.
Sprismatic aims to inspire, entertain, encourage and simplify. The only box Big Bang Big Boom didn't tick for me was obvious optimism but given an hour or two I could probably turn that one round too. It's all about the way we see things.

Sunday, 11 July 2010

Profile of a Twitter User

Ciaran Duffy at NGO News explains this whole Twitter thing so well. I can't do the infographic justice in the space available on here so please click this link and click the image on the NGO page to read it. It's a special world for sure.













But where's the one for a lot of the people I follow? Lets create a Schnort. We follow them because ... they make us laugh.

Tuesday, 6 July 2010

From Running in Mud to Synchronicity

Don't you just love coincidences?
I suspect I get more excited than some because they make me quite buzzy and full of wow! but I've noticed people shrug and move on. It's these little-things-made-big that send me off to sleep at night with a contented sigh.
The down side (and here's the sods law rub) is I start to miss the buzz if I haven't noticed a coincidence recently. It's that old "to have light, there must be dark" thing and people who don't get too excited about such things, don't miss them so much.
I decided long ago to make the most of the highs and put up with the lows inbetween. But then a high for me can be bumping into someone I had been thinking about recently. It doesn't have to be an adrenaline fuelled event.
There was no synchronicity in my efforts to get to Glastonbury Festival* this year. Trying to arrange a ticket was like running in mud. But I've since had a coincidence which made me smile so this is a high:

Act I. Scene One:  You may have picked up somewhere along the way that I am currently operating on the Deadmau5 frequency. A recent Deadmau5 gig in Brixton jumped straight into one of my best top 5 gigs ever. Right now, he's the man and I'm not tired of playing his albums on continuous loop yet.


Act 1. Scene Two:  I started following @phstephenson on Twitter, at the recommendation of comedian @shappikhorsandi, because she makes me laugh and she said he makes her laugh. And he makes me laugh too. A lot.
Among all the informative tweets, a little daft something flashes up from @phstephenson and makes me snort too loudly. Here's two examples so you can see if you share my idea of a GSOH
Last night:
"Another great nights sleep ahead, with a woman whose hobbies include semaphore, break dancing, and conducting an invisible orchestra ... " (bit of background you may have missed - he adores his multi-hobbied wife)
and then a few minutes later, just as he's preparing to turn off the laptop, he shares a last thought:
"I want to make a TV programme, for all the poor bastards who are the 101st best ever in the world at something..."
He makes me smile while I'm supposed to be trying to make sense of research notes with too many thought provoking facts per para.












Act 1. Scene Three:  I checked @phstephenson's website link and he isn't playing at a comedy club near you tonight, but you may be wearing something his company, October Textiles, helped produce.
The Coincidence: First thing I noticed on October's Home page?





Deadmau5. Well, the bamboo fabric t-shirt I bought at "one of my top five gigs ever!".
I'm not a tour t-shirt kind of a girl normally but for me Hannah Morrison's design is different. 
It's also soft and obviously I have no problem advertising Deadmau5. 
So there's a connection between one of my current favourite tweeters and my current musical obsession. 
Fun coincidence (otherwise referred to as Isn't it a Small World?)


Meanwhile there's a synchronisation sub-plot building up for Act II which involves Ibiza and Deadmau5 and is starting to ripple. 
 *If you read my Glastonbury posting you will know I just couldn't get there this year, not for the want of trying, and eventually decided it wasn't meant to be.
My creed: "If it feels like you are running in mud look for another route. If all routes are muddy consider that you weren't meant to head in that direction and try another goal".
Plans to visit Ibiza seem to be working very differently. So I've decided to be excited by the possibility this is leading to a "meant to be".

Saturday, 3 July 2010

Share a Secret

Seducing emotional intimacy through film. Designing Lives' blog introduced me to two videos I've gone back to a few times this week. The first, Raoul Paulet's Crashing into Love, I linked to from Sprismatic's Facebook page and the second I'd like to share here.


Your Secret from Jean-Sebastien Monzani on Vimeo.
Jean-Sebastien Monzani's idea for Your Secret is so simple it made me want to rush off and learn how to make something similar. As this reaction is the essence of inspiration, I hope it has the same effect on at least one of you.
Or maybe you have a special someone you would like to share this video with. Simply beautiful.

Thursday, 1 July 2010

Art in a Coffee Cup

Pretty dustings of cocoa powder aren't new. The chains have been using templates to brand their cappuccinos for a while now but a barista at an independant coffee shop has the opportunity to be creative.
This work of art is by a Brighton artist who works in a town centre venue inbetween gigs.





















While her boss does a good line in hemp-leaf sprinkles, this awesome lady creates seascapes. I hope my photograph manages to give you enough detail to see the dark scattering as the beach; the waves crashing above and the water spraying into drops at the top?
Sometimes I think they're too good to drink, but I'm an addict so of course I do.
Oh and it tasted delicious too.