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Saturday, March 14, 2009

Shark!!

Since I'm not much of a fashion-head, don't expect me to know how new or old something is. If I see something that catches my eye, I'm gonna post it simply because everyone's always lookin for somethin hot to wear. Today I bring you the Freestyle classic 80s Shark watches:

They were quite popular back in the 80s, and as with all forms of fashion, they have a recycling rate of 20 years so its about time for these watches to get back in the game. These watches are straight fire to me, especially the Red/White combo because I've got some Supras of the same colorway that I'm trying to find something to match up with. But anyways, for all you colorful, fresh dressin people out there, scoop one or two of these watches up; they're a great accessory to any colorful outfit.

Check out the entire lineup HERE

Prey Alone

Alright, as promised, I'm posting my favorite short action film of all time, 'Prey Alone'. To get an idea of how it was made, here's a snippet of info from jonny3d.com, the website of Jonothan Ridge, the man who did a majority of the special effects for the film: "This 15 minute feature was shot entirely green screen and was written and directed by Steven St. Leger and James Mather. The only things that are real are the actors and a few set props. Everything else is entirely 3D. It took 3 months to animate, render and composite and cost € 80,000 euro to make." This movie is packed with action from beginning to end, so just stay seated, crank up your volume, and enjoy!

[[Watch in full screen for the best experience]]
--Also, the 'J' in the middle of the video stands for joost, the site where the video is hosted. Since the movie is 15 minutes long, buffering may take a few moments, but just wait, its worth it.--

<a href="http://www.joost.com/02800bx/t/Prey-Alone">Prey Alone</a>

Friday, March 13, 2009

Ted Chung

Whew, I just can't stop, can I? lol, here's TWO more short films for today. (I've just got too many favorites! But I'll share more some other time.) First is "On Time", a short I just discovered about 1 minute ago while I was looking through Ted Chung's previous work. Its a brilliant short, just brilliant. The second film is "A Thousand Words", also amazing. Both of these were directed by Ted Chung, who's quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. Watch em both, they're worth the time. Also, watch out tomorrow, as I'm going to try and post a short action film that I came across a year or two ago. Best action short ever. But for now, here are the two shorts, both directed by Ted Chung:
[[Watch in full screen, they're better that way]]

On Time


A Thousand Words

Passing By

While I'm on the subject, I might as well mention "Passing By", by Adam Pitel. This is another stop-motion project I came across on vimeo. This one is comprised of photography of true life. It tells a story, but in a really abstract way. I just love it because its what I consider to be a great blend of sight and sound because the song used in the video goes perfectly with the imagery. I've done a project similar to this before, but it was much shorter, and definitely didn't take 4 months to make like Adam's video. Check out his vimeo profile HERE, and enjoy the short flim below:



and by the way, the song is "This Time Tomorrow", by the The Kinks

Sweet Dreams

Now if you're wondering what this blog is exactly about, I'm not sure I can 100% explain it to you lol. I call this blog 43rd Wonder because the stuff I talk about isn't in the category of the 7 wonders of the world...its more like the 43rd, but nonetheless its still interesting. Today I'm choosing to post a short film that I came across on vimeo called "Sweet Dreams". Its a stop-motion animation that was created by Kirsten Lepore over a period of 78 days for her thesis. This is one of my favorite stop-motion shorts, and to top that, Kirsten also uploaded a '30 Days of Shooting' video that chronicles her progress over several days--its pretty entertaining lol. Be sure to swing by vimeo and let Kirsten know how you feel about her short, CLICK HERE to swing by her vimeo profile


"Sweet Dreams"


"30 Days of Shooting v.2"

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Ryan Leslie Pt. 1

As a music producer, I'm always striving to better my craft. I've been working on music for around 4 years now and I've heard some of the best music from the best producers, but one thing is usually lacking when I listen to most of them: Consistency. When I came across Ryan Leslie I found in him a producer that could create hit after hit after hit. I still listen to his music as if it were for the first time. Now, I'm sure everyone has an artist's music that they feel the same way about, and for me, that's Ryan Leslie. But his music isn't the only thing that really amazes me, its his dedication to his fans. He's one of the most open people I've ever come across. He stays connected with his fans, meets up with em, calls em, all that stuff. That's hard to find nowadays because to chill with most artists you'd need to win a corny 'Spend a Day With blah blah blah' contest. But enough about that, I wanna talk about the main reason why I support Ryan Leslie with such vigor: his studio session videos. Often when producers make videos of their studio sessions they only have a small amount of the good stuff they make (or they have a lot, but their music sucks.), but in the case of R-Les, since all his stuff sounds golden to me, every video is a lesson learned. He shows a large portion of his process, and those videos are pretty valuable to me because they've helped me work on my own process. I keep most of the studio videos on my phone because I like to watch em from time to time while I'm chillin. But anyways, as a producer, I have a lot of respect for an artist/producer that can connect with their fans while providing valuable information to help them out as well.

Here's a video of a studio session where he's working on a song called 'I Know What You Like' by Joy Leslie:



I've still got more to say about Ryan Leslie lol, but that'll come later. Just think of it as a progressing story as I continue to learn from him. And don't forget to cop his self-titled album, its in stores and on iTunes right now.

Sound Bite


For the 4.2 people out there who wanna know what's flowin into my ears when I'm rockin with my iPod, this is one of the many crews I jam to constantly:
Yea, yea, yea I know, you're prolly like, WTF, but trust me when I say that this band is one of the BEST out there right now. This crew is known as 'Does It Offend You, Yeah?'. If any of you have seen the trailer for the new Fast and the Furious movie (Looks Awesome), then you've heard one of their songs in there. Here's the trailer just in case you haven't:


Now that you've heard that I'm sure you might have an idea of what they sound like, but you really shouldn't try to categorize what styles they do, because their current album 'You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into' is packed with more variety than anything your ears have ever heard. If you even slightly appreciate music then there's definitely something in this album for you to love, so just go and get this album so your head has a reason to nod, aiight?

Oh, and here's a vid of them performing a live version of 'Weird Science' from their current album

Monday, March 9, 2009

Day One

Aiight, so I'm starting this blog so that I can share random stuff with whoever feels like stopping by and readin/watchin, soooo...stay tuned, theres stuff on the way!