The Procrastination Station

Sky Series Selected Works 2011 | Eric Cahan

2012-01-16T07:35:00.000-08:00

Loving these. So simple and mesmerising.

Sky Series Selected Works 2011 | Eric Cahan

Dreams of a Life - new Film4 feature.

2011-12-15T06:54:00.000-08:00

This looks incredible. The very moving story of Joyce Vincent, a 38 year old woman who died in a North London bedsit but wasn't discovered for 3 years.

Check out the website and take part in the interactive experience at http://dreamsofalife.com/

Parallel parking the New York way

2011-12-11T06:02:00.000-08:00

I'd have said it's bit tight, myself.

Attack of the Space Waffles

2011-12-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

This week, popular French street artist, Invader (who appears in Bansky's Oscar nominated Exit Through the Gift Shop) opens 'Attack of the Space Waffles' at The Outsiders Gallery (Greek Street, Soho).

The exhibition features a selection of his iconic street art and mini mosaics, inspired by the cult 70s arcade game, plus some awesome souvenirs to buy –including a range of stickers dispensed through a unique vending machine, created by the artist himself.

And if that wasn't reason enough to get yourself down there. Check this out.

Hot Space Invader Waffles are served throughout the day!

You can even pick up a vacuum packed one (as shown above) to wrap up for your nan this Christmas. Ah.

The exhibition runs from the 2nd to the 24th December. More details here

Ever seen someone play a Wacom tablet like a guitar?

2011-11-27T11:43:00.001-08:00

Over the last 15 years digital artist, Android Jones has been creating and building digital art for feature films and video games. As well as well as creating large-scale interactive installations at events like Boom and Burning Man. We went to see him talk at the Apple Store last Thursday, and were pretty blown away. His work can be seen at the Hoxton Gallery this week until Thursday, well worth checking out.

Tooting Holiday 2011

2011-11-24T04:00:00.001-08:00

A cost cutting holiday idea for these lean times.

Beautiful stop-motion-film using Streetview

2011-11-23T08:11:00.000-08:00

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

The story of a desk toy that wants to escape the office and explore the world through Google Streetview. Gorgeously filmed, but I'd have given it a better title myself. 'Address is Approximate' doesn't really work in our opinion.

Pepper Spray Cop Tumblr

2011-11-22T05:44:00.001-08:00

Superb blog doing the rounds at the minute. See it here: Pepper Spray Cop

Interview with Charlie Brooker on his new series, 'Black Mirror'

2011-11-15T16:26:00.000-08:00

Click here for the link to the video

This what you call an agency self promo video

2011-11-15T16:12:00.001-08:00

Lovely drop of animation

2011-11-15T06:21:00.000-08:00

BLU - DOINNOTHIN' FT. UGOD (PRODUCED BY FLYING LOTUS) from david m. helman on Vimeo.

Animated by Ruff Mercy

Stewart Lee on 'content culture'

2011-11-06T16:31:00.001-08:00

Quite an unpopular point of view these days (as you can see from the number of views), but one that we think has a lot of validity.

I'll have my pop video, multiple choice please.

2011-11-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

Israeli, singer, songwriter and entrepreneur, Yoni Bloch creates a brilliant interactive video for American Artist, Andy Grammer. The song sucks, but the video is brilliantly done and won this year's MTV Most Innovative music Video award.

Watch it here

and find out more about Yoni's work at interlude.fm

Have yourself a satirical Xmas

2011-11-04T05:08:00.000-07:00

Funnier than your average Christmas cards, from Private Eye

See them all here

2011-10-31T05:45:00.000-07:00

Deliciously Dark
Love the illustration and you could have so much fun with that line.

Our two favourite TV spots right now

2011-10-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

Space Junk Food

2011-08-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

Domino's Pizza on the moon.

Whether you see this as the culmination of every dystopian film or novel you've ever read or a great idea, you can say this about it. It's refreshingly brave and encouraging to see a client with some big balls.

Great brands start with stories.

2011-04-04T05:24:00.000-07:00

I love the new stuff for lastminute.com

The campaign line, 'Stories start here' is intelligent, potent and tempting. Spontaneity is LastMinute's point of difference, and spontaneity creates great stories. It's that simple- the product's point of difference and the advertising story are truly consistent. The music grates a little, but it's beautifully shot and got me thinking about more obscure holiday destinations.

More brands that have their marketing 'Baked-in' come courtesy of Bogusky & Windsor

Explosively hypnotic.

2011-02-28T09:04:00.000-08:00

Who'd have thought exploding things could be so blissful.

Orelha Negra - M.I.R.I.A.M. X Vhils aka Alexandre Farto from Vhils on Vimeo.

Benefiting from bad

2011-02-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

Everybody remembers bad ads. It’s human nature to remember bad things. A car crash or a disturbing photograph stays seared in your memory for ages afterwards, and in fact the more you try to erase it, the stronger it gets. It’s the same with crap advertising.

A inane little ditty, repeating the brand name over and over, contrived delight and celebrities sending themselves up in the most predictable ways. They’re all lodged in the old grey matter.

But here’s the thing in these modern times of the empowered masses, all of us ironic mischief makers love a bit of crap. It’s banter fuel. We share it with our mates. We make birthday cards out of it, Photoshop our mum’s faces on it or make YouTube remixes.

This is what happened to Envirophone’s notorious Wonga ad, below, but
Ingeniously, Envirophone have embraced the power of co-creation, embraced the YouTube reactions and actually made a pretty funny mash up them selves.

YouTube mash-ups

Envirophone 2011 Ad

I've lost it, but I know where it is. Or the curious case of my squash racket

2011-01-23T18:34:00.000-08:00

This is the first installment of my 30 minute project. Here goes.

I once had a squash racket. And if you think that's the worst opening to any kind of written article, let alone a blog post then: a) you're right and b) you're likely to miss the point of this story. Indeed, if you are looking for a point, or in fact any kind of analogous meaning to what I'm about to say, you may be disappointed. That's not to say that a broader meaning won't come out of it at a later date, but for now it's just a story.

So why don't I reign in the existential shit and tell the fucker? You might ask. Well I will, but there's no need to be rude.

My mate at an old workplace of mine has got my squash racket. It's wedged between two books in his office with the handle sticking out. And he hangs his coat on it. There's a coat hook in his office, but he hangs it on my squash racket. Now I could ask him to give it back, but he has some rather particular behaviours, rituals you might call them. In fact you might say he has OCD. So, here's the thing. Do I state a principle and say I want my squash racket back, or do I consider the fact that I never actually play squash and that removing it might cause unnecessary stress and mental unease.

Well as you you've probably worked out from the title of this post, I'm going to leave it, but the whole quandary was interesting to me. I've lost something physical, but it is not physically lost. It's lost in quite an abstract way. Now in trying to figure out some kind of philosophical bent to this story, it's come to my attention that the issue behind this observation is not philosophical. It is in fact an issue of language and semantics. Dictionary.com defines up to eight different meanings for the adjective 'lost'. But the ones that are relevant here are:

1: no longer to be found: E.g. lost articles.
2: no longer possessed or retained: E.g. lost friends.

So maybe there is a deeper point to this story. An interesting story may not necessarily raise a particularly interesting question. But does it have to? I think the reason I blogged so little last year is that I was trying to find things to post, which contained both these facets.

Anyway 30 minutes is up, so It's time to end this silliness. See you on the next post.

Market research? Go to the Cinema.

2010-04-07T02:24:00.000-07:00

I've never written a cinema ad, but I'd like to.

It occurred to me the other day that you can gauge the most accurate responses from people, while sitting in the dark of a full cinema. The lights are out, people are sat in groups of friends or couples, it's just them their little social circle and the screen.

It's the closest thing (without getting arrested) to watching a complete stranger on their sofa watching TV in a natural environment. Unlike a focus group, the people have gathered there to watch a film, not ads. They are proper people, not the kind of people who will give you an opinion, just because they have a deep seated need to be influential or part of something that their everyday lives don't afford.

They are the people that say "that's funny" "that's shit" "that looks pretty cool" and these are the only opinions an ad man needs. It's the way normal people judge advertising. Within 30 seconds the hackneyed, the punny, the trite, contrived and cringworthy can be torn apart. And similarly the funny and ingenious can make the place ripple with laughter.

And while we are talking about reactions in the cinema, here's something that is likely to cause a few. The long awaited release of Chris Morris's new film, Four Lions. Can't wait for this. Aficionado's of Morris will know that no one carries of controversy with as much genius as this man does.

Check out the trailer and interview with Morris below.

Sculpture of an album.

2010-01-11T03:42:00.000-08:00

Ever wanted to stand inside some music? Partizan director Saam Farahmand, pushes the boundaries of what music videos can offer by creating a 3D physical interpretation of the brilliant first album from The XX. The result is as simple and hypnotic as the sound itself. There are just 3 speakers with integrated screens and lights based in a triangle formation in a dark room. Each pod represents a band member and their corresponding instrument, so stand in the middle and you hear the album as you would on your iPod, but move around and you can single out each of the delicate individual melodies and beats that come together to make the whole so satisfying. Worth checking out this week at The Vinyl Factory, just below Phonica records on Poland street.

When an agency loses all touch with the world

2009-12-15T03:55:00.000-08:00

Getting high on your own supply is dangerous. It does nothing to dispel the myth that people who work in advertising agencies, wake up every morning with a hard-on over their sheer existence. Also. terrible song, awful, awful song. What were they thinking.

They should have filmed the committee meeting that signed this idea off. That would be an entertaining video.

post powered logo

2009-09-14T03:18:00.000-07:00

onedotzero adventures in motion festival trailer 2009 from onedotzero on Vimeo.

The new trailer for One Dot Zero's Adventures in Motion 2009 event, is made up of a constant stream of blog, Twitter and website posts. It was designed by Wieden & Kennedy for the ODZ Adventures in Motion showcase at the BFI.

I popped down yesterday to see 'extended play' a collection of short graphic films from digital auteurs around the world. If you can find it online somewhere, Jonas Odell's 'Lies' and David Ochs 'Who's Hungry' are well worth a look.

Also worth checking out is the upcoming One Dot Zero collaboration with the V&A museum. Decode: digital design sensations starts on December the 8th and will show the latest developments in digital and interactive design, from small screen based graphics to large-scale installations. Find out more here

2009-08-25T05:55:00.000-07:00

Can't wait for this, favourite director, favourite actor and one of my favourite bands. What more could you want.

"15 years ago a roadie named Donk seemed to have it all. Now his life is shit. So he decides to take UK rapper Scorz-ay-zee with him on a road trip that he hopes will change their lives forever.”

New Shane Meadows out soon, him and his co-deviser, the brilliant Paddy Considine, look like they’re going to let us in on the private joke of Le Donk (Considine) who has cropped up half formed in some past films. A faux-rockumentary improvised in 5 days with a mini-budget and it features the Arctic Monkeys. Yes".

itsnicethat.com

Keyisms will become the new Brentisms

2009-06-04T09:40:00.000-07:00

Fans of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe and more recently Newswipe will already be familiar with Tim Key, a peoples poet reciting verses on everything from the credit crunch to Deal or No Deal.

I went to see his Edinburgh warm-up show at the Hen and Chickens pub in Highbury last night, where I was treated to more great verse delivered with faux ineptitude, that will probably seep into everyday banter like Brentisms.

Read more of his poems here
www.timkey.co.uk

2009-04-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

Saw Erol Alkan last night at the Land of the Kings in Dalston. Massive queue for the bogs. Saw some guy pissing in the sink, which doesn't even seem inappropriate anymore. On an unrelated note, here is my favourite Derek and Clive skit.

Springtime and Paris.

2009-02-14T15:49:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've had a good rant, but my spleen is all choked up with the dense fug of Paris Hilton's new TV show, Paris Hilton's British Best Friend. Each week we see her set tasks to test the bestfriending qualities of a gaggle of vacuous dickheads. Tasks more befitting of someone on her payroll than someone she would call a friend. I found it pretty laughable, in the last episode I saw, as a debate arose over whether contestants are just in it for the money. For a brief moment I felt sorry for Paris-maybe all she knows in the way of friends are hangers-on, eager to please and get their hands on her readies. I didn't feel sorry for very long though. I just remembered her MTV show the Simple Life, where she delights in showing how charmingly incompetent she is at doing the things most people have to do to pay their rent.

She continues her sneering brand of wit in British Best Friend, by smirking TTYN to the unsuccessful candidates at the end of each episode. This acronym, it's revealed, stands for 'talk to you never', a promise she'd do well to stick to and extend to me when I'm looking for something to watch on a Sunday evening.

2009-02-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

Flooded McDonald's from Superflex on Vimeo.

A little project by Superflex, a danish art collective who demonstrate their subversive visions through destruction mainly. This show, at the South London Gallery, is called flooded McDonalds and pretty much does what it says. The artist uses the image of rising water as a metaphor for the destructive nature of the global corporation. It's either that or an elaborate protest to how much ice they put in the Coke.

2009-01-09T04:40:00.000-08:00

Cassette boy's been at it again, Mucky Nigella.

Obama had it going on

2008-12-23T11:40:00.000-08:00

In 1980, when Obama was a freshman at Occidental College in Los Angeles, he was approached by an aspiring photographer named Lisa Jack, who asked him if he would be willing to pose for some black and white photographs that she could use in her portfolio. I love these photo's. I think you'll agree he was one stylish mother.

Tis the season two of Flight of the Conchords (I know, I know)

2008-12-16T10:38:00.000-08:00

Antipodean comedy came into it's own this year with our first taste of Summer Heights High and Flight of the Conchords. I hear Rab C Nesbit is returning for a Christmas special, but it won't be anywhere near as special as the new season of Flight of the Conchords, The new season premieres on 17th December on FunnyorDie.com

Radiohead do it again.

2008-12-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

Radiohead, put another tentpeg in the ground to hold on to their place as the most innovative band in the world. Watch their 2008 Japan tour and choose between 12 different camera angles throughout the show. Needs a fast connection speed to get the full effect

2008-12-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

Great stuff from London based artist, Slinkachu. I just picked up his Little People in the City book in HMV, I might give it to someone for Christmas or I might just keep it myself. Such a quandry. Foreword by Will Self no less (and yes the picture behind my blog title is his)

Check out more of his stuff

collected berks

2008-12-10T10:33:00.000-08:00

I read that a member of staff at Walmart got trampled to death the other day on the opening morning of their winter sale. Madness. That'll be down to the cr... Don't say it. I'm sick of hearing about it. In the 30's they called it the great depression.

Anne Karpf's, article in the Guardian, takes a look at some of the euphemisms politicians have used over the years to sugarcoat serious problems for the public. Presumably to stop them trampling each other to death over the last energy saving bulbs in Walmart.

read it here

2008-12-10T04:57:00.000-08:00

Philosophy on creativity from Kanye West in a recent interview in Fader magazine.

"Society has put up so many boundries, so many limitations on what's right and what's wrong that it's almost impossible to get a pure thought out. It's like a little boy looking at colours, and no one told him what colours are good, before somebody tells you you shouldn't like pink because that's for girls. Everyone's born confident, and everything's taken away from you."

Could you imagine 50 cent uttering something so profound?

Check out his blog in my blog lists

2008-12-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

This is a government poll of the most disliked terms in business speak. They really are truly horrible. so I thought I'd be good to invent some new ones for people to use. Please add your own. I'll start the ball rolling (that's one right there) with:

"Let's think outside the box" change to "Let's take a piss in the sink"

2008-11-23T07:31:00.000-08:00

I sent my last post to the London Paper and got letter of the day. They edited it though, and did I get anything for it? Nope, not even a M&S voucher

2008-11-20T09:54:00.000-08:00

I chuckled at the recent news that John Sargent quit Strictly Come Dancing because there was a real chance he could win. He described this eventuality as "a joke", which I thought was quite sweet and indicative of a lovely old notion that popularity or admiration should be gained through talent or achievement. He's wrong, of course. John was popular because he was bad, and when it comes to celebs we basically want to see them at their worst, putting bugs down their pants, going for a wee in the middle of a campsite or doing something equally humiliating.

This is why I can't get on with celebrity talent shows. When real people acheive fame and stardom on a talent show there's a hearty rags to riches fairytale thing going on, but let's face it with celebrities we're more interested in the riches to rags. It's pretty goulish, but we want to see them all awkward and vulnerable to be reminded they're just like us really.
With Strictly geared towards the gloss rather than the grit, I like to think that viewers voted for John to sabotage the talent element. Remoulding it so it was less 'strictly come dancing' and more 'come see the man who could be your favourite uncle awkwardly bumble around a dance floor.' I know which I'd prefer watch.

2008-06-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

First of the new indiana jones film is disappointing. And not just because it's another 80's icon, being shamelessly pounded for every last dollar, until it loses any nostalgia it once had (although that clearly is a bone of contention). It's more because it's aimed at kids. If they are going to ressurect a classic film from the childhood of people who are now adults,make it relevant to us now as adults. Maybe with some kind of a dig at a political regime or a more complicated character study. Bollocks to passing it on to the next generation like a token of cinematic wisdom.Today's kids have got Pirates of the Caribbean, they don't want our hand me downs. Indie belongs to the children of the 80's.