Song obsession of the week:

“Tin Man” by Future Islands
“Baby Says” by The Kills
“Ballad of Spider John” by Willis Alan Ramsey

Cool video/short film. Riffin on the advent of science and the spectacle of space I suppose…technology…I am guessing. Set to a click-clack drum beat steady and melodic organ laid on like thick electric jelly.

El Diablo – Applescal from Amos Mulder on Vimeo.

Mark told us about this film last night after our soccer game. Looks like a great, intense movie.

And it’s a climbing movie as a heads up…Filmed by Corey Richards, one of a three-person team comprised of Richards, Simone Moro, and Denis Urubko on their ascent of Gasherbrum II (summited February 2, 2011). Directed and well-edited by Anson Fogel. Rock and Ice says, “a winter ascent of an 8000-meter peak has never been completed in the Karakorum.”

COLD – TRAILER from Anson Fogel on Vimeo.

This short documentary brought a little joy to my lunch today. The subject of the movie is the wonderful book, The Phantom Tollbooth, and how it came about. It interviews the author, Norton Juster, and illustrator, Jules Feiffer, both together and separately, as well as many others who comment lovingly about the book. It got me excited to read this again and to get it as a belated birthday present to my nephew, who might really like it.

And this short movie is a teaser to a planned full-length documentary about the book. The Phantom Tollbooth Turns 50 project has already reached their fundraising goal on Kickstarter. I look forward to the documentary and hope the project comes to fruition. In the meantime, we have this…

My workmate alerted me to this article about an incredible piece of kinetic sculpture, a model of San Francisco constructed entirely of tooth picks. The artist’s name is Scott Weaver. The piece is entitled Rolling through the Bay. Weaver playfully narrates this short video which illustrates the sculpture in action.

It’s things like these that give me hope and fill me with optimism and wonder about humanity.

Scott Weaver’s Rolling through the Bay from The Tinkering Studio on Vimeo.