Things I Think Are Kinda Cool

This action packed stop-motion video is made up of dozens of images of skateboarders cut out of various magazines.  This ain’t your mother’s scrapbooking:

-via Neatorama

When Scott Wade’s car gets dirty, he doesn’t race off to an overpriced carwash.  Using only his fingers and a few brushes, he designs elaborate artworks on dusty car windows – the results are stunning.

-Dirty Car Art via Digg

We’ve seen Blu’s work here before…he’s known for impressive large-scale animations that often take weeks to complete.  His incredible new video is called “Big Bang Big Boom”, which he describes as “an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life…and how it could probably end.”

-via Metafilter

If you’ve “surfed the Internet” before, you’ve no doubt seen a video of a someone who’s taken a picture of themselves every day for a year and then edits the photos into a sappy montage set to life-affirming “American Beauty”-style xylophone music.  Maybe it’s the improved music, maybe it’s the way his hair has a life of its own…but this time-lapse video puts the others to shame.  This guy took a photo of himself every day for 8 years.  I haven’t worked on any project for more than 6 continuous months, let alone 8 YEARS, so if anything, he deserves an award for that.  It also confirms that every guy has tried sporting a mustache at least once in his life, with 95% of us realizing after a few days that we look like massive idiots.

Living My Life Faster – 8 years of JK’s Daily Photo Project from JK Keller on Vimeo.

-From Geek.com via @9swords

Music videos are having a sort of creative renaissance lately, and I’m starting to remember why I used to love them so much way back in yesteryear.  First came OK Go’s Rube Goldberg-esque video for “This Too Shall Pass”…then Lady Gaga & Beyonce made incarceration look hot in “Telephone”.  Next up, it’s a much more understated but equally impressive video from Diane Birch called “Valentino”.  The video is one continuous take, and it took two weeks of intense rehearsals to perfect it.  Enjoy:

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Take a look at this behind-the-scenes split screen video to see exactly how precise and detail-oriented Diane and her band needed to be to pull this off:

-via Buzzfeed

Most writers and artists start with a blank page and then fill it up with their creations.  But Austin Kleon does things his own way…in reverse.  He takes pages from newspapers and then blacks out the words that get in the way of what he wants to say.  The resulting poems are unique and often profound – they’re part of his brand new book released today, Newspaper Blackout. Here are some of my favorites:  (Who said newspapers are dead?)

“A House in Texas”

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“All You Can Do”

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“A Household Name”

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“His Beard”

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“The Twist”

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“The Pursuit of Landscaping”

Here’s a quick time-lapse video of Austin creating one of his poems:

Austin also oversees a Tumblr blog where he gives tips and advice on making Newspaper Blackout poems.  The blog also features some of the best pieces submitted by regular Joes.  If you have the urge to get creative with a black marker and a newspaper, head on over to the blog and share your poems with the world.

-Buy Newspaper Blackout on Amazon

All that blind teenager Jordan Verner wanted to do was complete “Zelda: Orcarina of Time” on Nintendo 64…but he thought this was virtually impossible for someone who wasn’t able to see.  That was until three guys read about him on the internet and created an elaborate 100,000 keystroke script for him…all Jordan needed to do was follow the script exactly and he would finally get his wish.  Check out this unbelievably positive (and geeky!) story:

-via Neatorama

I’ve been a huge fan of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for as long as I can remember…the trippy visuals, maniacally insane characters, and twisted logic left a mark on my impressionable brain (and might have made me slightly crazy). But this superfan takes her “Alice”-obsession to a whole other level…wow. (Understandably, she decided not to include the famous phrase, “Eat Me”…)

-Designed by Holly Azzara / via Walyou

SIDENOTE: I’m cautiously optimistic about the upcoming Tim Burton “reboot”. As much as I appreciate Burton’s wild aesthetic, I thought his version of “Willy Wonka” (another childhood favorite of mine) was a total buzzkill. What do you think?