Paul Mawhinney lives in Pittsburgh, PA and has amassed the largest record collection in the world. The Archive is a short documentary about Mawhinney’s passion, and is both awe-inspiring and sad in equal measure. People come in here once in a while and they ask for a song, and my eyes light up. I feel like I’m part of the…
Metropolis II is fantastic city, created by artist Chris Burden. It boasts 18 roadways, which are travelled upon by 1,100 cars. Along with his chief engineer, Zak Cook, the project took the two of them four years to build. My favorite moment is at 4:36, when the camera pulls back and shows the piece in its entirety. That sound you’re…
Not sure if it’s the music or the slow motion, or a little of both… but I find this video calming and a little mesmerizing. Created by Marc Newson for Ikepod, these pieces look incredibly lush. I have no practical use for either the 10 or 60 minute hourglasses, but I’d still like one. Much like the Kiva Ford video,…
Between September and November, the male Peacock spider performs a fascinating courtship ritual using its incredibly colorful abdomen. In addition to waving his legs, the male Peacock spider will also expand a pair of colorful flaps that are reminiscent of its namesake (3:02). I’m normally ok around spiders. They freak me about as much as the next person, but whenever…
Kiva Ford is a scientific glass-maker by day, and an artistic glass-maker by night. And since he’s also able to juggle flaming sticks (he used to be a professional juggler), he’s pretty much awesome all day long. The objects are beautifully made, and the whole mini-doc is beautifully shot. If you’d like to learn more about Ford and his work,…
Who knew free flight duration aeronautics was so beautiful and captivating? The creations look like they have wings of gossamer, and it’s mind-bending to me that some of these airplanes will fly in the air for over 30 minutes. Great trailer, and I am very much looking forward to tracking down this documentary when it comes out. [via Ektopia]
Rocky grew up with his mother working at a snack bar in a bowling alley. As he got older, he realized he was pretty good at bowling. From there, he began trying to make his way through his skills at bowling: earning a living without actually earning a living.
Recently, I discovered an Animal Planet series on Netflix called River Monsters. And I have to say… I love it. The best way to describe this show is: Nature Porn. It’s what you would get if you tried to make a NATURE documentary into an episode of COPS. It’s over the top at times, but that’s part of the charm….
This is a very serene (and very shot) documentary about motorcycle maker Shinya Kimura. Lots of nice camera angles and edits/cuts. It’s amazing that something this short can give such insight into a person’s life and passion. [via BoingBoing]
Good lord, this looks amazing! I found out about the BBC series Human Planet through this fantastic post on MetaFilter. The overview video above is pretty good, but the MeFi link has tons of individual clips. In particular, there’s a scene that captures one day of the year where the Dogon people of Mali fish in a sacred lake. Thousands…
Interested in joining? It’s easy: In order to become a member of the Original Scraper Bike Team, you must: Be a resident of Oakland, CA. Be at least 7 y/o or older. Retain A 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA), Create your own Scraper Bike…(It Has To Be Amazing, Or Else You Can’t Ride). [via BoingBoing] Related:Critical Mass Bikers, Logan SquareJosh…
My friends Dan and Aaron are the co-curators of an exhibit currently at Intuit Gallery, entitled Almost There: A Portrait of Peter Anton. Dan and Aaron have been working on this project for over four years, and in that time they’ve collected a great deal of video footage. They’re also working on a documentary focusing on Anton’s life… and are…
I was able to score tickets to the premiere of LaPorte, Indiana – a documentary inspired by the book of the same name. It all started about eight years ago, when Jason Bitner happened in to B&J’s American Cafe in LaPorte, Indiana. At the time, he was going through town on his way to a demolition derby. He happened in…
Over the weekend, I happened to be watching PBS and caught a pretty amazing documentary about Walking with Dinosaurs, a BBC series that first aired about 10 years ago. The six-part documentary used a lot of computer generated graphics, combined with animatronics. The series was intended to be like the movie Jurassic Park, but presented as a nature documentary… and…
I Am is a video by Steven Nicholas Smith, where random people in Philadelphia are asked to complete this sentence: “I am _____.” As you can expect, he interacts with a ton of people, and gets a ton of varied responses to the prompt. In a few instances, Smith explores individual stories a little deeper… and focuses on a select…