Magic

Let's start with another beautiful musical video. A Stop-motion film featuring Oren Lavie's "Her Morning Elegance". Made me dream!


(made by them)

Sun been down for days
A pretty flower in a vase
A slipper by the fireplace
A cello lying in its case...

Simple lyrics, very evocative, a masterpiece by itself.

So, uh, how was your week? Mine was quite full of thousand things: in the office we had an important sales meeting which ended in a great dinner, laughing until late about sales stories around the world (loved the australian versions, they more or less included all poisonous animals, haha!). Thursday a colleague asked how to extend his notebook screen to his peripheral wide screen and I completely messed up his settings (because no pc is created equal to another) and nobody knew how to go back.
Best of it; he didn't blame me, but himself and after trying 20 minutes all different combinations of settings, restarting, un-plugging and calling the technician for help, we were still in the same messy position. Frustrated he went to smoke and I went back to my office, deeply in shame for what had happened. There was a skype-message waiting for me. It happened to be an ex-colleague/friend who is a pc head. I told him about my mess and he came up with three different solutions. This was nice, but actually I didn't want to touch anyone's pc any more. Ever.
When I left office for lunch-break I saw my BOSS trying to set up my colleague's pc, which made me feel even worse. Omg, what had I done?
I went to lunch to see my BF in a shopping mall, he saw my worried face and asked "what's wrong?". I was reluctant to tell him; he understands computers even lesser than me and I didn't want to spoil the lunch with my stupid problems. But then I told him anyway. And he said: "in my office, when we connect notebooks to peripherals we do it by pressing this and that - after lunch let's see the pc-shop and I show you how." And this was more or less similar to one of my friend's three conclusions. My crazy mind was like "well: two out of four - you should give it a try!"
Back in the office I passed at my colleague's. "So, uhm, how's it going?" "Still the same!" "Well, would you mind if I try a last thing?" "Well, sure..."
Actually I was really amazed how he handled all the situation. He never blamed me or got nervous with me (I would have been in his position) and he gave me a last try, it was really nice. So, I tried the key-pressing-combination my BF had shown me and it didn't work. What a delusion. We stared in silence at the blank black screen.
"What is this key here?", I wondered.
And - magic - it worked!! I was overwhelmed with relief - he was overjoyed and we cheered like soccer players after a goal!
Lesson learned:
a) I will never touch anybody's pc any more. Never. Ever. Period.
b) Be thankful that a lot of people are much more patient than yourself.
c) Without magic this world would be a very very sad place.

Sam Spencer brings the magic to grey rainy days.



So, finally it's Friday and I cannot wait to chill out the week with beer&book.



Just another thing: I found this interview with Illustrator Frank Chimero very inspiring. He talks about tools, cheap tools. Cheap paper, cheap pens, using scissors and getting started - instead of being paralysed in front of expensive material. Made me think of the days when I made my best drawings on the back of paper-to-recycle.

Have a good Friday and a magic weekend, Belle

Is it just me or did the new year start only this tuesday?

I have never seen europe so hysterical about an american president. We had live-transmissions in television and radio. What Michelle wore, what the kids wore, what the president did&said, how he awesomely didn't get overwhelmed by the day. It was, wow. Well done, americans!


(by Maya*made)

The guardian published a book with "Messages for Obama", I hope he got a copy!



Here, and here.

So, let's go around on the other side of the globe, Australia, to Artist Emma Hack.
Apparently she has always been interested in body art and several applications and when I saw her pictures (no, let's say "work") on StyleCrave I was completely stunned: it is so, so very beautiful.



Here is the whole series, one is better than the other! More about Emma. Makes me want to get wallpapers all over my place, or at least a new painting for the wall.

Last thing I have seen on the net, which made me dream is this moss carpet.



It "is made of imputrescible foam called plastazote. Each cell welcomes a piece of moss (ball moss, Island moss, forest moss). The humidity of the bathroom and the drops flowing from the body, water the mosses. This vegetable carpet procures a great feeling to your feet." I imagine how it would feel to step out the shower and on this moss carpet and dream myself to a fairy land. I could need a ambience-cd as well. Is this too new age for you? Anyway, I have doubts the plants would survive in my bathroom. :-)

Have a good Friday and a better weekend, Belle

The Vintage feel

The new year just started with all the blow of "shiny", "go" and "fresh"; but all I see around me has a Vintage feel. Which is completely ok with me, the real world is filled with new problems, but at least free time is packed with things that are new, but feel like old friends. Obviously a genius marketing trend.

Lets start with a stop-motion film made for 4th Estate by London’s Apt Studio.


(via Crblog)

You can see all the care and love for books in this film! Such a huge work.

more about it here and here.

But I really went nostalgic over Star Trek's 10 Cheesiest Classic Creatures by Wired Magazine.



It lists the greatest alien moments of the Classic Star Trek, with the right mixture of humour and scientific seriousness. I guess my favourites are the tribbles, they were just cute (but I remember that I really felt sad for the Salt Vampire...).

In music, the vintage feel is already well used. One of my latest finds is 'Gin' - These roses. When I saw the video I thought she is far too young for this kind of music, but well - I pretend is as old as she sounds. :-)





You get the song in high quality here, for free.

For more great songs, look at the site of Cloudberry Records. The quantity of cool songs is overwhelming - and I confess that I chose (and judged) by the cover, sooner or later I will go through all of them. Now tell me, mixtapes are dead (we call them "playlists" now).

Have a good Friday and a better weekend, Belle

Happy New Year!

Yes, it's coming a little late, but, sorry, I couldn't make it earlier.
Anyway, here we are, 2009. YAY! I have still problems to write the right year. It just looks wrong. And lately I get so used to american style date writing, that I get confused with the european style date. Just to drop a question, do you remember how far away and completely strange "2009" looked in the 80ies?
When "mobile phones" were these things soldiers used in television. The only thing that went near to our current cell phones was the "communicator" that Cpt. Kirk used (that was a pretty cool prediction, wasn't it?).
When computers were still as big as a car? Or even bigger?


(via brother)

So, I was thinking to post deep thought new resolutions for the next (er, current) year, but I just got back to work and into real life and didn't have the time (for deep thoughts yes; but I couldn't translate them into pretty words). Anyway, I am sure you already read about new year resolutions on other blogs, if not; I really like these.

To finish for this Friday; I am not sure if this is new to you, but I discovered Indexed just today.



A blog by Jessica Hagy; I subscribed immediately... plain funny.

So, yet another new year's hug to you, have a good Friday and a better weekend, Belle