Just a few things

Joaquin has a new music blog that combines mini-essays on Third Eye Blind with hand-drawn illustrations.

It turns out Kate was right all along, I've been overwashing my hair.

My new self-help mantra: Live every day like you're Busta Rhymes making his first appearance on the Arsenio Hall Show. 

If you're short on time, the best part is at 3:25 when Phife hold's Busta's mic so he can use both hands to turn his reversible Dr. Suess hat inside out while rapping.

She knows the scientific name for every type of cloud formation. She can draw a map of America with her eyes closed. She knows all of the words to A Shaker Hymn and she remembers Lil' Kim verses from 5 years ago. She laughs because babies can't make decisions for themselves and she sighs when the moon is low in the sky. She's patient. She's stubborn. She's detail-oriented. We're pretty sure she's the reincarnation of Louisa May Alcott.

She takes pictures of everything.

We shot the Great Lake Swimmers video last night in Topanga. Controlled chaos in the middle of a pitch black canyon. Giant thanks to Corban, Kari, Marc, Robbie, Flip, Schlam, Josh Forbes, all of the grips and gaffers that spent the night pushing generators and lights uphill through poison oak, and of course, Steve, who hasn't slept in days. 

I'm not one to hype my own projects, but I'm pretty sure this is going to be the Citizen Kane of Canadian folk music videos.

The Pistol Youth video landed in this week's issue of TV Guide (full page here). This is full circle, right? A TV show about old women gets co-opted by young men for the internet, which gets covered by a magazine about TV that's mostly read by old people, in a section devoted to what young people are doing on the internet. Also worth pondering, is why Jimmy Fallon has a water cooler in his office. Is his office in a hallway? Does the break room at NBC have internet access? Someone get that guy an espresso machine or something.

It's another busy week of writing, and revising, and editing, and decision making. And sometimes when I get antsy I cannonball onto city skylines.


Yup, Kate took this.

"the type to get hurt, but that's the past tense"

I've been a hermit all week- stop-motion animating, designing, and growing my moody beard. I'll get back to posting more often next week, in the meantime thanks to everyone for their nice e-mails. If I haven't gotten back to you yet, I will before Monday.  

Also, is it bad that watching little Charles Hamilton hold his own against Serius Jones was just as inspirational to me as the entire inauguration day? I've watched the video enough times to teach a grad school course on it and I still get chills watching that split second when Hamilton decides to go in for his 2nd verse. 

Not that "Buddy Holly" and "Windowlicker" aren't two of my favorite videos ever, but let's keep it real.

The Pistol Youth video has gotten a few nice reviews around the internet:
Pitchfork, Videostatic, abduzeedo, Boards, idolator, and urban outfitters were all really generous, but my favorite thing so far is this comment:

Pistol Youth - In My Eyes

This is finally ready to see the light of day! A huge thanks to David Torno for his unbelievable fx work, Bjorn who donated his design skills to the title sequence, and Brad and the band, who somehow trusted me when I pitched this.