love.

blue-oo-oo

animaniacs mania

Animaniacs was a fantastic animated TV show back in the 90s. I remember watching it after school on the "What's Up, Doc?" show - such a great variety of characters fielding the entertainment, headed by the troublesome trio Yakko, Wakko and Dot.

In a bout of nostalgia I discovered these superb videos whilst scouring YouTube for classic snippets of Animaniacs. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Yakko and the countries of the world:

An amusing cover of the original:

Wakko and the 50 states of America:

Yakko, Wakko and Dot sing a song about Magellan:

Dot sings the Macarena:



Slappy and Skippy enjoying a concert... but whose?

haunting and precious.

don't stop!

hehe.

crazy (:

It's hard to dislike Blogotheque videos... I love the casual settings and the style of filming and editing. They really make me miss playing music with friends. A jamming session is much needed (birthday present, anybody?)!

I like this video because it's so ridiculous that they're carrying a synthesizer through the streets, in Istanbul of all places too.

great song, great video

This is the music video for "Rabbit Song" by the Aussie group Boy and Bear.

And I have to say it is awesome! Even better because it was filmed in Sydney CBD.



Thanks to my friend Pete for the link

Ben Harper - Skin Thin

This is a great, great song, and now there's an equally wonderful music video to accompany it.

Watching and listening to the song made me realise how long it's been since I've had a proper listen to the music of Ben Harper, and it reminded of why I fell in love with his sound in the first place. Definitely one to watch on full-screen with the volume cranked up.

Let the calm resonate in your room...



Notes from the Ben Harper subscription email (11 May 2010):
Friend and filmmaker Daniel Stessen was so inspired by the track "Skin Thin" off Ben Harper & Relentless7's latest album, White Lies for Dark Times, that he decided to make a mini film to tell a story of this moving song. The film was shot mainly in Fulton, NY, about an hour north of his hometown of Syracuse.

Filming the piece was a unique adventure in itself. Stessen describes the places they shot as "the type of places where you have to have three beers with anyone for them to trust you." He arrived blindly to each location with only the story in mind, shaking hands and making new friends along the way, and crafting the film with what was available - only staging the actions. The lead character was based on Stessen's best friend, who lives and works in the places shown in the film. The female lead was discovered working behind the counter at a pizza shop where the director had lunch just before filming began.

MOVITS! - Fel Del Av Gården

For the record, they're singing/rapping in Swedish.

The little dance number at around 2:50 is unreal. I lurrrrve this style of music and dance!



Thanks to my Melbournian mate Nathan for sharing this

Ian Worrel

Another great find, thanks to the crew at Drawn! (original post here)

Second Wind from Ian Worrel on Vimeo.

In fact, I was so enamoured with the concept and design of the above video that I had to run a search on Ian Worrel to see if he had any other videos. Thankfully there was one other! Also an enjoyable watch. I like the concept and I especially like the giant character who is eating all the fruits..

Icarus & the Tree Herder from Ian Worrel on Vimeo.

i'm gonna make your toes curl tonight...

Discovered thanks to a post from Drawn!

a bit of magic

Out Of A Forest from Tobias Gundorff Boesen on Vimeo.

I always have a soft spot for a good stop-motion animation. I've just discovered this one but it's an immediate favourite. The characters are well designed and visually very lovable, and the music and the story put me in a reflective mood.

---
Thanks to the Drawn! blog for the original post: http://drawn.ca/2010/02/16/out-of-a-forest/

dreams

Music moves me in a way that is hard to describe. Sometimes it relaxes me, or it makes me want to dance, sing or jump around. I usually can't concentrate on anything else when I'm listening to music that really grabs my soul; other times, I use it to block out the distractions around me.

Some songs help me believe that my dreams will become a reality one day.

As I was listening to the song in the video above, I relaxed, I let go of the stress and the tensions that have been consuming my mind lately, and all I could do was picture the future, and how I would dearly like it to be.

More than anything, I'd like to travel the world. If I had the time, the money and the superhuman ability to achieve it, I would visit every single town in every single country to help me understand humanity, to discover the similarities and the differences between people all over the world, and to discover what it is in life that is truly worth cherishing.

artful and amazing

I don't know about you, but when I read others' blogs I generally can't be bothered to click on links that take me to other websites unless I already know who/what the link is about and am therefore interested, or I've seen a picture or screenshot that makes me interested in the content. So it's a bit ironic that I'm about to just post a link and recommend that you check it out.

http://drawn.ca/2009/06/16/todd-schorr-american-surreal/

Drawn.ca is another of the blogs that I've very recently started following (Google Reader has changed my life and increased my subscriptions/random site-visiting dramatically), and the link above contains a string of YouTube videos (5, to be precise) about an American artist named Todd Schorr.

I've never heard of him until now, but I have to say that watching these short 2-min videos and seeing his artworks was eye-opening. I'm fairly picky when it comes to types of artworks I do or don't like, and although I don't think Schorr's artworks are 'pretty', they are definitely mind-bogglingly skilled and detailed and educational (to a degree).

Based on the videos I watched, he mixes American pop history references and his own personal childhood favourites/experiences to come up with ideas for his artworks.

This is a piece from his website (www.toddschorr.com):

"A Date With Mr. Big Bad"

"otter" this world...

Amongst other animals,

I love OTTERS.

I saw this video on a blog that I follow (http://cuteotters.com). I think it's super cute - the random otter zipping by in the background is funny too!



Awww :)

yearning for freedom

So I randomly decided to search for Donny Hathaway on Facebook so I could become a fan, and then I decided to try YouTube for live footage of the man in performance, but I came across a musician who performs a cover of Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free".

Post-blog edit: YouTube video has since been deleted :(

A bit more research on the fellow indicates that Raul Midon was born blind. There is a Stevie Wonder-esque feel to him in the video, and Midon certainly has a great soul sound in his voice, so I'm definitely going to have a listen to his original material when I get a chance.

And from that, I found this. The first big wail in this video literally gave me chills. What a beautiful voice. (Oddly enough it was earlier today that I was thinking about A.Keys in the shower and how I hadn't listened to her music in a while because I'd 'grown tired' of her).



You definitely need to get your hands on a copy of the recording by Donny Hathaway, so you can appreciate the original in all its retro glory.

simply amazing

Words can't describe how beautiful this sounds to me.

how funny!

Last night, while I was waiting for a friend to pick me up on the way to a 21st, I was watching the Eurovision song contest.

#06, Norway really caught my eyes and ears.

The song was quite catchy in melody and lyrical content, and I couldn't stop tapping my foot in time with the music. I probably only saw 3 or 4 songs but this was my definite favourite.

And just then, I discovered that Norway had won the competition! How fantastic!

I don't normally watch Eurovision, but this year's stage in Russia looked pretty good, and I'm going to try and source an mp3 for this song. :)

Update: Found the mp3, yay! But the Eurovision clips are fun to watch.

Gold.

Watch Eye of the Tiger Kids on CollegeHumor