Red Rabbit

This is a very creative animation with a sweet story line. And it has a large rabbit in it. Of course I love it.

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A man lives alone in a small apartment. The little contact he had with other people has dropped to zero since the rabbit appeared. Every attempt to get the rabbit out of his apartment has failed and since he is not sure whether or not pets are allowed in the building, he does not let anybody enter his apartment.

Yeah - That's why I eat chocolate

Powerline Flyers

I have always loved the image of birds on power lines. Something about the combination of nature making use of an ugly human-kind creation is

one of life's beautifully mundane moments.

This video created by Wes Johnson is oh so lovely. **sigh**

Rushmore in the Company of Thieves

A band after my own heart.

The talented The Company of Thieves has created a catchy song titled "Oscar Wilde", but what makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside is the video for it. They have recreated scenes from Wes Anderson's movie Rushmore, which just happens to be my all time favourite movie. Check it out and feel the love.

Mastocytosis

geek aesthetic is proud to announce that they will be working on the design and development of the new Mastocytosis Society of Canada website. We are happy to help get awareness and information out to the world about this rare, but growing disease.

Mastocytosis ("mass-toe-sigh-toe-sis") is the abnormal growth of mast cells in the body (usually the skin). Mast cells are part of the immune system. The most common form of mastocytosis is when mast cells accumulate on the skin, causing reddish brown spots or bumps. In rare cases, mastocytosis can affect other parts of the body, such as the stomach, the intestines and the bone marrow.

Human Surveillance Machine

Rob Spence, a Toronto documentary filmmaker, is developing a prosthetic eye with an embedded video camera. This camera replaces his missing eye, which was removed after being damaged in a childhood shotgun accident.


He hopes to secretly record people for a film on the rise of global surveillance.

The documentary is called Eye Borg.

Happy 175th Birthday Toronto!

Toronto in 1856,
north up York St. to Osgoode Hall

Check out a wonderful blog about the history and now of Toronto.
(And thanks for the links!)

A great flickr set of Toronto then & now's.

A nice flickr pool of photos around Toronto.

Heritage Toronto.

Mini-knits, circus tumbler and a space dog

Coraline is a stop-motion animated picture directed by Henry Selick, (Nightmare before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach). The story is based on Neil Gaiman’s popular book. The 3d movie is astounding. Nothing in this movie was overlooked. I wouldn't even know where to begin to describe the experience - you'll have to go see it.

Of course, I have been "geeking-out" on all the making-ofs...

One amazing thing I discovered was the world of tiny knits created by Althea Crome at "Bug-Knits" in Bloomington, Indiana. Using sewing needles as knitting needles, the smallest sweater ever knit for a motion picture was Coraline's star-studded piece. Watch the mini-doc.

Have fun exploring their website. You'll find video interviews, giveaways, things to make (including a pattern for a life-size version of Coraline's star sweater). A fun read is Bobinsky the Tumbler's blog.

What I also find interesting is that the name of the production company involved with Coraline is Laika. This is also the name of the first acknowledged living creature (an abandoned Moscow dog) to have orbited space.

Addiction Warning

There's an itty bitty flash game on the internet called Bubble Spinner. What you think will be be simple: aiming for bubble bursts on a rotating playing field - but it will drive you mad. Do not play this game. I repeat, do not play this game, as you will become addicted. It will get you under it's spell with hypnotic music, "boops" and "swooshes".




Hours of your life will be forever lost.

You've been warned.

Enjoy!

Photography Love

Get a daily dose of beautiful imagery from Toronto-based photographer Sam Javanrouh.

He's got a great eye.

Hello, little miracle

Oldest word and whistling orangutans

University of Reading scientists have discovered that "I , we, who" and the numbers "1, 2" and "3" are amongst the oldest words, not only in English, but across all Indo-European languages. And surprisingly, the ones heading to extinction? "dirty, squeeze, bad, because, guts, push (verb), smell (verb), stab, stick (noun), turn (verb) and wipe"

Bonnie, a 30 year old orangutan, had taught herself to whistle after imitating a caretaker. She has shown her roommate Indah how to whistle too. Scientists say her ability has implications on the evolution of speech. Learn more at the Great Ape Trust.

6 degrees of separation-#1

One thing I love about the world wide web is the "6 degrees of separation" path it leads me down. I google something, come across something else, follow that, find another interest, all the while commenting to myself, "I like that!...Oh I love that!...Oh that is a great song!...I wonder what happened to that!"

Yes, every thought in my brain ends with an exclamation mark!

TODAY'S 6 DEGREES OF SEPARATION JOURNEY:

CRAFTZINE
A blog dedicated to crafty ideas. There are some ridiculously ugly items you can find free patterns for, but there is also some beautiful handmade ideas. I discovered arigumi (knitted japanese stuffed animals) here and have since got a best friend making me wonderfully cute creatures (she has the talent - I, just the appreciation for)

PANTALINE- Provisioners of America's Finest Plural Clothing
From Craftzine, I linked to a ridiculously funny site about "Plural Clothing". I want to order the "couch dress".

MCSWEENEY'S
The Pantalaine website that gave me such a laugh, was created by the one and only McSweeney's. The literary journal was started in 1998, edited by Dave Eggers, publishes some of the world's most talented writers. And not only is the writing drool-worthy, so is the design of the the McSweeney's magazine. **sigh true love** . Also some great stuff in the McSweeney's Store.

DAVE EGGERS
Editor of the brilliant McSweeney's, as well as author of one of my favourite books "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". AHWOSG: focuses on the author's struggle to raise his younger brother in San Francisco following the sudden deaths of their parents. The book is a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.

"THE BALLAD OF TIMOTHY MCSWEENEY"
A song done by They Might be Giants". I love this band since they created one of my all time favourite happy songs: "Birdhouse in your Soul"

BIRDHOUSES
I have numerous bird houses in our little city backyard (ok, 13 right now). I love birds and I love this modern bird house at Make Blog (which is a sub-set of the Craftzine blog)

List Mania

I am always making lists. I love trivia. Therefore I love List Universe. List Universe is a site updated daily, full of top ten lists, covering every kind of subject matter from UFO hoaxes to 10 amazing paintings on feathers. Started by Jamie Frater in 2007, another fan of lists and trivia. The comments are pretty hilarious (and there's a list for that too!)

Flying 100 years ago

I have a slight fear of flying, partly due to not understanding how (for example - a Boeing 747-400 that weighs about 393,000 pounds), can even get off the ground. As many times as I read about how an airplane "works", the technology still baffles me enough to cause a fear of the unknown. But I have an appreciation of the history of air flight and am amazed that it's been only about 100 years that humankind started getting off the ground. Wow.

"I believe that it will be possible in a very few years for a person to take his dinner in New York at seven or eight o'clock in the evening and eat his breakfast in Ireland or England the following morning."
- ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, 1896

Former Canadian astronaut Bjarni Tryggvason declared "mission accomplished" after successfully taking off a modern version of the famed Silver Dart airplane.

The Silver Dart (named for its silvery-coloured wings) was a ground-breaking, skin and bones aircraft, that first flew 100 years ago on Feb. 23, 1909. First flown in Baddeck, N.S., led by famed inventor Alexander Graham Bell, the crew was anxious to fly or fail, but either way making Canadian history.

The Wright Brothers had launched the era of controlled, powered flight in late 1903 at Kitty Hawk, N.C.