Thanks to Kohn’s post referencing director Spike Jonze’s video for Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You,’ here are a couple oldies but goodies that are uniquely Jonze.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oob5uobmcy8

Back in 2005, The Gap, in an effort to respond to branding problems that have been well documented commissioned Jonze to direct a TV spot announcing Gap store renovations. Ultimately, Gap execs decided not to run it beyond a few test markets. What do you think? Their loss?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsQXQGaasUg&NR=1

Here’s another quick one, a spot Jonze put together for Ikea in 2002. It sits somewhere between cute and brilliant — distinctly Spike’s niche. There’s not much more to be said that Rob Walker of the New York Times Magazine doesn’t address in his ad wrap-up for Slate. Word to the wise — watch first, read second.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyH0qTF9CjY

And from 2003, the classic: Yeah Right! for Girl Skateboards. Ever wanted to see Owen Wilson take on a rail? Seeing is believing…right?

So the other day our good friends from Switched reported on a flash mob “silent rave” that shut down London train station. The initiative was a recreation based on an UK T-Mobile commercial (see below) which showed a supposed flash mob randomly dancing in unison in Liverpool Station. See the making of, and you will understand what we mean.

So our question was then, who started this type of half-guerrilla, half-randomness, completely choreographed dance session in public? Our research points to Fatboy Slim. Slim’s famous 1999 music video Praise You (see above), winner of 1999 MTV Music Video Awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, and Best Choreography, was truly an underground classic from the 90′s that probably inspired many more random flash-mobness to come.

Fleet Foxes – Mykonos

You can’t keep a great concept down. Here’s another behind-the-scenes look, this time on the lower-budget tip.

Fleet Foxes recently debuted their video for Mykonos, directed and produced by the singer’s brother, Sean Pecknold. This is a far cry from some of the work Pecknold’s done for Fleet Foxes in the past, having shot the band as a rustic throwback to the days of The Byrds or CSNY for their song ‘He Doesn’t Know Why.’

Fleet Foxes – He Doesn’t Know Why

This time Pecknold, who works under the name Grandchildren, and his small team of artists/animators utilized paper cutouts, stop-motion photography and a glass pane technique to make magic happen. Via Pitchfork, here’s how:

A couple days ago, The L.A. Times gave us an intimate look at the studio trickery behind The Curious Case of Benjamin Button through the eyes of Steve Preeg, animation supervisor over at Digital Domain. Preeg, who has performed groundbreaking work on projects as varied as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Final Fantasy, lays out the process in detail. Pay close attention and you’ll begin to understand just how much heart and pathos is necessary in the tech-driven work pumped out through their computers.

For a more visual representation, the Times article points us to Benjaminbuttonfx.com, where you can watch an eye-opening video of Brad’s transformation just as Preeg describes it.

Valentine’s Day is around the corner, and with the economy in a record-setting slump, it’s easy to see how the second-most highly commercialized holiday of the year can be even more daunting than usual. But fear not – resident girl Tam is here to help with advice and activities, bringing you the GEDDEM Guide to Valentine’s Day, in order to make sure that you and your lady have the best V-day ever.

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This year’s New York Comic Con was absolutely fantastic, and GEDDEM was right there in the center of the action. For three days we saw awesome toys, crazy cosplayers, got some choice autographs, went to phenomenal panels, and took tons of photos, now available to entertain your eyes on GEDDEM’s new Flickr page. Click the text link or image below to check out this year’s photo haul.

As even mid-level mainstays like Domino have begun folding, it’s an act of courage right now to launch a new publication. Annie here at the shop turned us on to this one: Boho, from the same people behind the smart and stylish science-culture magazine Seed, is a fashion rag for the new hippie sect. And here’s the kicker: Boho goes a long way towards walking the talk as the first fashion publication to be printed on 100% recycled paper, shipped in recycled packaging and printed with recycled inks. A fashion non-glossy? It’s a risk right now, as enviro-minded marketing isn’t the sure sell it once was, but that says everything about Boho’s devotion to the ideal.

Understandably, you’ve probably felt a mixture of skepticism and apathy whenever the word “green” has come up in the last year. This is due in part to the type of generational attitude shift the late David Foster Wallace put perfectly into words as part of his now-legendary coverage of John McCain’s 2000 campaign for Rolling Stone in order to explain why we, young people in America, even against our better judgment, simply stopped caring:

“The science of sales and marketing was still in its drooling infancy in 1961 when Kennedy was saying “Ask not…” The young people he inspired had not been skillfully marketed to all their lives. They knew nothing of Spin. They were not totally, terribly familiar with salesmen.”

Even though we know we should care and even when we want to trust, we’ve simply been green’ed-out. That’s when everything else needs to kick in and, in the case of Boho, the content and the look are on the mark. Yes, it’s tough to tell the genuine ones from the pretenders even when we can summon enough earnestness to care, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck — well, let’s just say we’ve got high hopes for this one.