Last week Jason and I were catching up over the phone. Discussing upcoming projects, aspirations, recent roadblocks, cities, traveling, work and life with a healthy dose of examination and contemplation. He mentioned 180° South being a very appropriate film for the subject matter. Katie and I watched it this past weekend.

The only thing I’ll say about it, one of my favorite pieces, and the film itself is gold and a must watch, was the line about process, from Yvon. Something to this effect:

IF YOU COMPROMISE THE PROCESS, YOU’RE AN ASSHOLE GOING IN, AND AN ASSHOLE COMING OUT.

Here’s to now.

How the world really works, as opposed to how we were told it worked. The LA Times has a great article about the documentary, which opened late last year: Apocalypse now: ‘Collapse’ and the end of the world as we know it.

In the future, will we be able to control the weather? Do we already?

Owning The Weather: We’ve always wanted to control the weather. Now we may have to. OWNING THE WEATHER is a film about weather modification and climate engineering. The desire to modify the weather has been around forever; but with the threat of catastrophic climate change, water wars, and intensifying hurricanes, a new breed of weather control called “geoengineering” has emerged.

A really great documentary. Illuminating and a bit unnerving. In the face of runaway climate change, the need to keep Earth happy for humans may very well lead to some highly unusual solutions. And consequences.

Owning the Weather trailer from prewarcinema on Vimeo.

A whole bunch of people came together in Omaha on Saturday night to say these unjust, anti-immigrant laws are UNACCEPTABLE. And we rocked. Loud. To our immigrant communities, to our Latino brothers and sisters, we stand with you in solidarity.

The Concert for Equality featured Desaparecidos, Cursive, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Bright Eyes, Lullaby For The Working Class, FATHR^, The Envy Corps, David Dondero, The So-So Sailors, Conchance, Simon Joyner, Flowers Forever, Vago and a final Hootenanny at the end of the night. All proceeds went to the ACLU Nebraska’s effort to repeal Fremont’s Anti-Immigration Law.

We’re trashing the planet. We’re trashing each other. And we’re not even having fun. So, let’s turn this spaceship planet earth around. Presented by the Story of Stuff Project and Free Range Studios.

Revealing the true state. Shining a light. Via TED.

Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create the world’s largest user-generated feature film: a documentary, shot in a single day, by you. On July 24, you have 24 hours to capture a glimpse of your life on camera. The most compelling and distinctive footage will be edited into an experimental documentary film, executive produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald.

Is your life compelling? Or how about footage of your life? Hmm…

The world's first Street Art disaster movie

Exit Through the Gift Shop, enter the world of Street Art. From its temporary place in the real world to the endless online sharing of this “legal gray area,” the film is about the art, of course. But also the intellectual mind-twisting that takes place when confronted with the idea behind the visual. Itself a piece of art, prank, celebrity, commentary, confrontation, the film is part “we pulled one over on you,” part honest account of the way things are when you’re a Street Artist. Maybe.

View the trailer here:

More Banksy here:

Banksy in Palestine. Photo via Revista-Amauta.org

The National. The Take-Away Shows.

The Image of the Tank Man

On June 5, 1989, one day after the Chinese army’s deadly crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, a single, unarmed young man stood his ground before a column of tanks on the Avenue of Eternal Peace. Captured on film and video by Western journalists, this extraordinary confrontation became an icon of the struggle for freedom around the world.

FRONTLINE on China. Originally aired in 2006. Looks at one of the most powerful images in history and how the country transformed economically in light speed since Tiananmen Square. (Not so much politically.) On one side there is the modern, wealthy and urban; on the other, the rural, poor and disenfranchised.

http://www.good.is/post/can-animation-help-stop-climate-change/

This marks the inaugural post of what will be referred to as the “um… internet explosion” section of our Match Factory blog. It’s a trail of breadcrumbs really, when the lackadaisical wanderings around your tried and trusted places on the Internet suddenly turn into something mind-altering. It’s truly a magic feeling and I hope everyone knows what I’m talking about. It’s what makes the Internet such a joy, as it goes from “waste of time” to “conscious altering” in a matter of moments. Enjoy.

Can animation help stop climate change? A network of artists and film-makers thinks so. And 30 minutes later, I’m convinced they just might do it.

BEGIN HERE:

http://www.good.is/post/can-animation-help-stop-climate-change/

–>

http://coalitionofthewilling.org.uk/

–>

http://www.knife-party.net/#

–>

http://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/

–>

http://loyalkaspar.com/bbwd/

http://coalitionofthewilling.org.uk/

http://www.knife-party.net/#

Knife Party Selected Work

http://philosophyforchange.wordpress.com/

http://loyalkaspar.com/bbwd/

And there you have it.

2010 TED Prize Wish: “I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.”

Watch his talk at TED.com: Sharing powerful stories from his anti-obesity project in Huntington, W. Va., TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food.

Quite a TED performance. Personal. Political. Passionate. If we’re going to make lasting changes in our society, we HAVE TO directly challenge “conventional wisdom” and those powerful interests who want to keep things exactly as they are. Some of what comes out of a challenge like that is going to be uncomfortable. It’s going to come with ridicule. Probably some ruthless assaults from the “free-marketeers.” But to fix our ills, we’ve got to hit ‘em head on.

I enjoyed this video by El-P from Pitchfork’s Surveillance series (from last year’s ATP). Nice to see a little keytar action these days.

UPDATE: Strange coincidence that the day I post this video I also see rumors of El-P’s label, Definitive Jux, possibly going out of business. Let’s hope its not true.

I don’t know what it is about time lapse videos, but I dig ‘em. The one above “Another Cloud Reel” by Ben Wiggins was shot, for the most part, around San Francisco. If you can get past the music it is a pretty amazing piece of video. Since I live here, I find this of particular interest. The part at 3:34 with the airplanes landing at SFO really trips me out. I found this video on the Illusion360 site, where if you search for “time lapse” you find a bunch of pretty good stuff.