WANTED Creative Banter

While researching the work of artist Goro Fujita I came across an illustrative banter between himself and his friend, Stephan Stoelting.

Click and Scroll down for the Photoshop Battle

It made me laugh and I envied their ability to have a joke with each other using their talent.

Meanwhile I've taken time out from promoting, guiding and encouraging others to put my energy into producing something new myself.

Fujita cites Stoelting as his first and most inspiring mentor. If any of those I have mentored, helped, inspired or entertained would like to enter into a sparing of ironic words please get in touch. Meanwhile if any of my mentors read this, I'm inviting an email.

I would love to start the day dropping a figurative lump of concrete from above and anticipating someone else throwing back the final word. (And Vica Versa!)

And here's what started me off on the trail to find out more about Goro Fujita


Animation Demo Reel 2010 from Goro Fujita on Vimeo.

On The Road

During the Summer months, while I'm mostly on the road:

Twitter is updated frequently, Facebook less frequently and this blog ... not so much.

Please Like on Facebook for small bites of Sprismatic people's work and Follow on Twitter for posts about (and for) creatives including film, music, festivals, design ... and Brighton.

Possible Golden Silence here for a while . . .

Digital v. Hardcopy: This weekend Go Hard

Still from the video for Metronomy's The Look off their new album The English Riveria

The new appointment of Maria Martin-Prat as Head of Unit Services 1, Directorate General Internal Market, European Commission (copyright laws) is either going to be a Good Thing or a Bad Thing, depending on your area of involvement in the recording industry.

In the past she has wanted to make the burning of even back up copies illegal. If Ms Martin-Prat takes it to that level it would throw me onto the wrong side of the law for copying, for safety, a track I've downloaded from Beatport.

As we've lost an entire Sonic Stage library to the sudden death of a PC and 50%* of music which was only stored in iTunes after a Mac went blank, we now burn copies of every online purchase.

If Ms Martin-Prat's intention is to ban the burn-to-disc home PC ability and to make digital so precarious that we all go back to hard copies, then the repercussions are immense. I will leave it to the industry specialist reporters to work that one out for us.

Here's something she should approve of. If you are planning on downloading the Metronomy album, please don't if you can visit a local independent record store. Pop in and buy a copy. The CD is stunningly packaged, reminiscent of a souvenir Cornish Clotted Cream Fudge box. It's a joy to hold and our independents really do deserve to be supported. They aren't the bad guys in this Euro squabble.

Saturday, April 16 is Record Store Day throughout the country. Most shops will have special one off releases and vinyls on the day. If you find yourself about to three-click-purchase some music this week, stop and think whether you could pop into one or more of the 180 participating record stores on Saturday and give them your money instead. We have seven in Brighton alone. Locate your nearest Record Day Store.

* The other 50% was loaded from hardcopy purchases. We will continue to buy them whatever the EU bangs on our table - just because we love the artwork, insert stories and reading the notes and credits.

We play a lot of music from artists who haven't had record deals, who make music available to download or burn off their own copies. We love, promote and help push them towards their dreams. What of them Ms Martin-Prat? 

Summing Sprismatic Up In Tweets

There's nothing like a tweet cloud to find out where our tweet priorities are. Here is a scan of my last 200 tweets:

Sending Some Un Valentine's Day Love

I've held back on posting this because I don't buy into the whole Valentine thing*.

There's enough out there to remind the single-not-by-choice they don't have a Valentine.
Also Valentine's Day can alienate religious people who don't recognise Christian Saints.
And my final bah humbug is in defence of the people who are in perfectly fine relationships who feel they're lacking something if they don't receive a Valentine card (let alone a weekend in Paris with a bed covered in rose petals). We all know romance comes in many forms and, for me, someone protecting me is the most romantic of acts.

I'm all for us being reminded that if we actually quite like someone then February is a good month to tell/show them. We're officially in Spring (but the layers of clothes we're wearing say 'Winter') so this is a good month to snuggle up and exchange tokens of our affection.

But it doesn't have to be on February 14th and it can be something which will last as a reminder for another twelve months (unlike flowers and chocolates).

So just to be sure you're too late for ordering for Monday, I'm posting this today. The artist sends hearts all round the world and throughout the year. Love, thank goodness, IS celebrated 365 days of the year ... somewhere! Surprise the one you love with this after the 14th.
























There are two types of heart offered by Your Alchemy, I especially like the clay version and the artist is offering a limited edition in wood. Beautiful.

Meanwhile, if there is someone you really like (friend, potential lover, lover) you may like this song enough to send them the link to the video. Just don't feel you have to send it on Monday!



Happy Un-Valentine's Day to you on whatever the date is when you read this, including Monday.

Love.

* If you have sent me a card, ordered flowers or planned a romantic surprise for me for February 14th, thank you. How lovely. Please don't read this post!

Get Fit, Watch More Videos

Instead of signing up for a gym (and staying home anyway), I spent a lot of January researching skateboarding videos from my sofa. And it seems to work. After watching boarders' satisfaction when they pull off a move, I feel great*.
So this is a tribute to the guys of Brighton, Madrid and Venice Beach. Three different worlds. Three very different moods. And all of them just having so much fun.

Brighton: Harvey Saunders Warning: You may want to stick your fingers in your ears, for the opening minute ...




Madrid: by Juan Rayos (introduced to me by one of my favourite blogs It's Nice That)




California : Beginner (yeh not) Devendra Banhart



* Health note: The author of this post understands the value of a good healthy lifestyle and respects everyone who attends a gym more than once. Watching extreme sports videos is no compensation for a healthy diet and exercise. While lightening her winter mood watching other people achieve feats she is incapable of, she also decreased her calorie intake, drank lots of green tea and water. She does, however, credit the armchair skateboarding for the adrenaline rush which inspired her to walk miles and dance for hours.

Publishing Isn't Dead

Little White Lies (LWL) magazine announced today that they have sold out of their current "Black Swan" issue. This proves that publishing ain't dead, if what you print is quality.
Creative Review may have played their part in LWL's fortune, by showing the two month production process of the Black Swan issue in a two minute video.

But this isn't a one off. LWL's shelves are bare, their back issues have been snapped up too. This is good news for hard copy publishing. LWL offer a good readable web brouse but this announcement proves that hold-it-in-your-hand print touches parts the computer screen misses.

As with most good news, this won't be the end of the story for Little White Lies. Hopefully they will spend this evening celebrating in the pub and leave the "should we increase the print run" meeting for tomorrow.