[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SZnQKhel5Q&fmt=18 540]

We humbly submit Exhibit A, in which street-biker-of-the-moment Danny Macaskill embraces a starring turn in the new video for Doves’ gorgeous ‘Winter Hill’…

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgTJtdn6VjM&fmt=18 540]

…and Exhibit B, in which Dinosaur Jr. is BACK, thank the God of the ’90s, and rocking and, for some reason, skating and biking in their new video (which is, I suppose, a sort of ’90s thing to do). Their stunt doubles do some cool tricks. The actual members take a few falls. The whole thing, song included, is just good for the soul.

A couple months ago, Louie came into the shop and, while we were twiddling our thumbs waiting for his iPhone to charge, struck up a convo about chiptunes.

the music! the lazers! okay, there weren’t any lazers.

He had his work cut out for him trying to school me on all things 8-bit. Luckily for him, a Gameboy says a thousand words. Louie pulled out a vintage sun-yellow 80′s model and showed me how he’d modified it to compose and play music. I may be ashamed to admit I’m this far behind the times, but let’s just say my mind was bliggity-blown.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARjcEpb7wxY 540]

Japanese chiptuners YMCK and their pixelated world o’ bloop

Yes, of course there’s a whole 8-bit, chiptunes scene that’s been thriving for quite some time. As an outsider, it’s easy to poo-poo away all that blipping and blooping as a nostalgia trip and not much more. As with anything new, 8-bit artists provoke a visceral reaction that ranges between love and hate, but the haters always come off sounding like our dorky old grandparents at their crotchety-est, griping that it’s just a bunch of noise, a poor excuse for music, etcetera, etcetera, as if they’re half a tick away from chasing those damn kids off their lawn.

On the strength of some cool projects popping up lately, however, 8-bit continues to build on its foothold in the music community. Take the following, just spawned from the mind behind waxy.org. Kind of Bloop, a chiptunes tribute to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, is now in the works. From the Kind of Bloop page on Kickstarter (another bit of waxy.org wickedness that is too cool and involved to dive into now, so just read up on it here already):

What would the pioneers of jazz sound like on a Nintendo Entertainment System? Coltrane on a C-64? Mingus on Amiga? For years, I’ve wondered what “chiptune jazz” would sound like, but there are only a tiny handful of jazz covers ever made.

To satisfy my curiosity — and commemorate the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue” – I’ve asked five brilliant chiptune musicians to collaborate and reinvent the entire album in the 8-bit sound.

Go check out the Kickstarter page for info on the artists contributing to this project which, after fulfilling its funding requirements in the first few hours, is now officially on like Donkey Kong.

The shop here is great, don’t get me wrong. But we’d have a rough time competing with this.

What you’re looking at is Ogilvy & Mather’s expanded office in Guangzhou, China. Yes, this is a corporate office building. What in the world?

O&M is an internationally-renowned advertising and branding agency based here in New York City, but with hundreds of offices located worldwide. You’re bound to recognize at least a handful of the projects they’ve put together, including this, one of my favorites: the American Express ‘My Life, My Card’ campaign.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skw-rKYsXOY

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh-4jxn7oSc

I know, reading one blog posting about another blog feels a bit like slipping into a coma, but this is no ordinary blog. It’s Spike Jonze’s blog.

Well, Spike and a couple other contributors who presumably worked with him on Where the Wild Things Are since that seems, roughly, to be the theme of the site:

In October 2009 Spike Jonze’s feature film rendition of Maurice Sendak’s classic story Where The Wild Things Are will hit movie theaters worldwide.

This place has been established to help shed some light on many of the small influences that have converged to make this massive project a reality.

Bookmark it now for daily random gems such as this, posted by Spike today: a frame-for-frame remake of the video he originally shot for the Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR4Y5N211Fo

Image credit to Itsallthewaylive.net

Sometimes you luck out with a hype show at a good venue on a warm night with solid openers and a sold-out crowd that’s somehow just the right size. And sometimes luck drops a free ticket in your lap day-of. And sometimes, just sometimes, Kid Cudi shows up, too.

Thanks to my friend Tyler for the hook-up. Wale, who’s been bringing D.C. hip-hop to new ears, dropped into Le Poisson Rouge last night and set it off with a few friends. He comes with a full band, keeps it live, acknowledges that a DJ might suffice but that he “loves the energy.” Energy’s something he’s got in spades.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTstFaMf-4E

“Doin’ what I gotta do, flyer than the rest of ‘em…” This video was directed by Chris Robinson who’s done just about every T.I. video I can remember, some real classics for Alicia Keys and this Grammy-nominated joint for Nas’ ‘One Mic.’

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9jau9BLAb4

Big names — but Wale’s right there with ‘em. Mark Ronson himself, who signed the kid back in ’07, throws Nas into the mix (along with Lupe Fiasco and Lil’ Wayne) in describing Wale’s signature delivery.

So consider it just a bonus when, in the middle of an already-rowdy set with Wale clutching (and downing) a bottle of Patron, up pops a cheerfully wastey-faced Cudi sipping from a plastic cup. Props to Wale and the crowd for giving Cudi no way out and to All the Way Live for getting this up pronto. For your review — an mp3 of Kid Cudi’s Day N Nite feat. Wale at Le Poisson Rouge.

A post by Bobby at Kitsune Noir got me thinking about some of the more commercial work done by director Chris Cunningham — namely, commercials.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykXkmVURI-w

Bobby’s post referred to one over at Dazed Digital focusing on Cunningham’s recent TV spot for Gucci’s Flora fragrance. In it, a woman exerts a mysterious, natural force over a field of 20,000 fake, white flowers to a soundtrack of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love,’ which Cunningham worked with Summer to re-record for the project in Nashville last year.

Cunningham, whose body of work includes such groundbreaking videos as Aphex Twin’s Come to Daddy and Bjork’s All is Full of Love, isn’t new to the commercial game. And, in the case of an of-the-moment director like Cunningham who often gets signed up on the strength of his name and given free rein, sometimes we all luck out and get something just a little bit bizarre.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E57FKectTKM

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nOzL8vF4_M

In the category of “Things That Are Too Awesome for Life”, this weekend I was able to fulfill my lifelong dream of participating in a grand scale, flash-mob style pillow fight. From 3:00-4:00 on Saturday, my quiet little neighborhood in the financial district exploded into a riot of pillows, feathers, dollar signs, and monopoly money – all under the hugely oversized flag at the New York Stock Exchange. Pictures after the cut – click here for flickr stream.

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