Beautiful Found Sounds

I get all sorts of artsy-fartsy things in my many inboxes, but this morning I stumbled upon of all things, an Icelandic composer who writes truly, hauntingly, painfully, lovely music. Olafur Arnalds has published a project online that I will be enjoying all day, and no doubt for many days to come.

The 21-year-old composer (yes, just 21) wrote and recorded a new piece every day and posted it online for anyone to download. Each of the compositions is free, and all of them are lovely.

I'm only through the first six of them. I thought at first "sure, I'll listen to them, but I doubt there will be downloading, I've got plenty of hauntingly pretty music on the ole iPod." Wrongo. So far I've downloaded every single thing I've listened to so far.

Here's what the newsletter (which I love) called VSL (Very Short List) had to say about the origin of the compisitions:

Day one’s piece, a waltz, was written for a friend named Elsa. The third composition — “Romance” — reminded Arnalds of a 19th-century opera. On day six, we heard a somber, year-old piece that Arnalds pulled off the shelf and reworked on the fly. And on the eve of the final day, the composer sent out a tweet in which he promised to end the week on a positive note. He delivered that note — a lovely duet for piano and violin — on Sunday, and it just might be our favorite of the bunch. At this rate, Arnalds can have a week of our time anytime.

Clearly-he's got more than a week of my time...and I hope yours too.

Check out the project at: Found Songs - Erased Tapes

While you're clicking around the Internets (not a typo) check out Very Short List too!

A Good Ad is Sometimes A Very Good Thing

There are times when an advertisement can surpass just being a "BUY THIS ON SALE for $24.99" shill and move into being a piece of well..art. This was forwarded to me today and it made me smile so much that I watched it more than once. So, while its doubtful that I'll ever encounter this product (its from a company in Germany) I'm awfully glad to have been introduced to Loewe's electronics. Hopefully, you will too.

Grafitti as Art: BLU

There's a lot of conversation in Atlanta these days about grafitti. Recently, a huge mural near my old house was defaced by a tag and even the local artists were raised to indignation. They wanted somebody to pay. They wanted the guy put out in public to be shunned and screamed at and taunted. I frankly didn't like the mural that much, so it didn't chuff me that much.

Graffitti is something that says "city" to me.

I might also say that this same group of riotous artists were up in arms last spring when a stretch of wall that has long been a graffitti work spot was painted matte green by residents. The artists were beside themselves with indignation when a local resident camped out in a tree and assaulted two teens who started painting on the wall in the dead of night.

Frankly, I think the whole lot of them are a bunch of nuts.

Here's an amazing short film by BLU. It proves graffitti can be art.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Her Morning Elegance

I was privileged enough to get to see a live showing of animator Nina Paley's "Sita Sings the Blues" last week and was watching it online today while doing other work (yes-multi-tasking). I was checking out her blog afterward and stumbled upon this awesome animation by Oren Lavie. The song is enchanting.

So, considering it's a yucky, rainy Monday, this should leave you with a smile.

Even a Grocery List... William S. Burroughs

Okay, first I'll say that the bulk of this post is not mine. It's snagged directly from the New Yorker. If you're going to quote, quote from the best I always say. I saw this while skimming through their blog this morning and thought it was bloody brilliant.

Yes-we're in the biggest recession since the Depression, but a book-lover and his money are still easily parted.

Now, on with the show.

"I’ve come to accept that, when an artist or a writer achieves a certain type of fame, anything he or she comes in contact with becomes extraordinarily valuable. Take, for example, the recent liquidation of Michael Jackson’s Neverland estate. Or this story about Picasso’s doodles on a napkin.

Of course, somewhere, a line must be drawn. And perhaps, for me, it’s the recent discovery that someone is trying to sell, for nearly five hundred dollars, the grocery lists of William S. Burroughs. The handwriting is guaranteed, by the seller, to be Burroughs’s, but even if that’s true, nothing in the requested inventory reveals anything interesting about him or his work. If anything, his need for items like plain buttermilk waffles, dry and wet cat food, and vodka is reassuring for any creative mind: even the wildest of writers can be mundane."

Post Script from Bookishredhead: I love that our grocery lists are so nearly identical. Mundane or not, everybody needs dry cat food and vodka on a Wednesday morning.

Happy Clouds at the Tate Modern

Okay, I'm a total cynic and this made even this cold heart smile. Happy, smiley face clouds drifting through the air near the Tate Modern on a cold winter day. Awww. Nice.

28-year-old, Artist, Stuart Semple, created round, smiley face clouds from a combination helium, soap and vegetable dye and unleashed them in the skies around London. The clouds were created by a modified "snow making" machine that is used in Hollywood. This is the first time its been used to create clouds, and the first time its been used in England.

Why did he do it? The artist said, "this was the most straight forward way I could think of to literally contribute something happy to the atmosphere."

Looks like it did. Lots of school children chased along after the wafting clouds before they were picked up by the wind and scooted out over the Thames. Overall Semple receieved a very positive response from Londoners.

Although the happy faces were short-lived – each of them lasting only around 30 minutes before dissipating – Mr Semple was pleased with his efforts.

He said: “At the moment it is a one off piece but I am thinking I could do it somewhere else – the potential is there to do it in other countries.

“I don’t see why we couldn’t spread the happy clouds around the world a bit.”

Bless his optimistic heart.

Dark is the Night- Best Valentine's Day Present Out There

I am celebrating Valentine's Day this year in a different way than usual. Okay, I'm single right now, so that has a lot to do with it, but even if I wasn't I am not really feeling pink hearts and rosebuds this year.

February 17th (okay its three days after VD but I have always liked odd numbers better anyway) Red Hot Charity, the same folks that brought us Red, Hot + Blue back in the day is releasing an awesome two-cd compilation. The list of artists is AWESOME.

Here are just a few:
Andrew Bird (just go ahead and buy it now that you know that)
My Brightest Diamond (did they create this especially for me?)
Bon Iver
Cat Power
Arcade Fire
Sufjan Stevens

Come on- even if this was it, it would be worth buying. If you want to see more about the album go to their site at: http://www.darkwasthenight.com/artists

If you need more encouragement, the money from the sale of the cd (its also available in vinyl for you hipster, old-school folks who can find needles for your players) goes to benefit HIV and AIDS research.

Here are a few tracks from the upcoming compilation. Enjoy. And buy.

Sometimes a Song is Just What's Needed

I had a crap day. I listened to this song and it brought back nice memories of two shows I saw earlier this year. Plus, Clare has a voice that makes you smile whether you want to or not. So, I'm passing it on to you.

The most rockin'ist cover song I've heard in a long time.

http://www.airmp3.net/search/-everybody_wants_to_rule_the_world/mp3/Xa4">everybody wants to rule the world songs
http://www.bresso.com/">Free mp3 download http://www.airmp3.net/">free music download