Gorillaz - Demon Days live

For those of you unfortunate enough not to be familiar with Gorillaz, it's an experimental art and music project that was created in 1998 by Blur frontman Damon Albarn (one of my personal heroes) and comic book artist artist Jamie Hewlett. The project as a whole consists of actual music written and recorded by Albarn and an ever-evolving cast of guest artists and studio musicians, and a virtual band consisting of four animated humanoid cartoon characters who live in a fictional world brought to life by Hewlett through album art, internet sketches, comic shorts, and a brilliant interactive website. Despite the avant-garde nature of the project, the band has released three full studio albums to enormous amounts of commercial success and critical acclaim.

Their second studio album "Demon Days", released in 2005, went five times platinum in the UK, double platinum in the United States, earned five Grammy Award nominations in 2006, and won one of them in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category. In the beginning of November that same year, there was a sold-out Gorillaz festival at the Manchester Opera House featuring one of the band's first ever live performances. They did the ENTIRE "Demon Days" album. The event was filmed by an EMI film crew for a DVD release simply called "Demon Days Live". I exaggerate not when I say that the concert is an absolute masterpiece. The band performed flawlessly, dimly lit and artistically silhouetted against screens in the interest of the project's nature and further shrouding the night in a sort of magic. The displays of art, projections, and cinematic direction are top class, and the entire DVD as a whole is just completely beautiful. It's all on YouTube in divided segments, though I highly recommend getting the real thing so you can enjoy watching it through uninterrupted.

Here is a particularly breath-taking piece of the night. Gorillaz performing "Don't Get Lost in Heaven" and "Demon Days", the two back-to-back closing tracks of the album and, in my opinion, one of the best CD-closing pieces I've ever heard. Damon Albarn is the English-sounding silhouette playing the piano and singing.

 If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

Shadow Art

Shadow art is a new and unique form of sculptural art where 3D objects (usually common items such as blocks, cans, sticks, garbage, wire hangers, or twisted metal) are arranged and specifically lit from one direction to cast a 2D shadow image on a surface. Here is a collection of breathtaking pieces from brilliant contemporary artists Kumi Yamashita, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Shigeo Fukuda, and Larry Kagan. 

I've included a few of my favorites below:

 If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

Team iLuminate and Rocky Mountain Silhouettes

I'm not much for the talent-seeking television show phase the world is going through at the moment, but every once in a while they turn out some really stunning stuff that needs to reach millions and millions of other eyes. A friend suggested I check out two acts in particular from the most recent season of America's Got Talent. I did, I was amazed, and here they are. Two very different displays of extraordinary vision and artistic inventiveness, and a real testament to the endless visual possibilities that still remain to be found in combining movement with technology. 

First, The Rocky Mountain Silhouettes, who have molded a breath-taking concept that uses shadow dancing and body placement to create images that outline a story. The idea for the performance was the result of the collaborative efforts of the team from Five Currents led by Scott Givens and the Artistic Director of the Rocky Mountain School of Dance, Lynne Waggoner-Patton. All of this was created as a means to showcase the talented youth of Denver. When you're watching this skillful performance, it's easy to forget how young the performers behind the projection screen are! Makes it even more amazing. Here's their first appearance on AGT:

Next we have Team iLuminate, pioneers of a dazzling new hybrid performance that fuses top notch contemporary dance (electronica/hip hop) with the "world's first wearable, wireless lighting system." They toy with perception and points of focus to create mind-bending illusions and completely unpredictable routines. Trust me... you have to see this to believe it:

Am I surprised that neither of these acts won the competition? No (which is a testament to my lack of faith in these kinds of shows). Am I completely mortified that they didn't win? You bet. But they've now been exposed to the world, and for that I am thankful.

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

Lemieux Pilon 4D Art

This is one of those wonderful days where I get to share something absolutely jaw-dropping with you. Not that I don't consider everything on this blog to be incredible, but every now and then somebody will show me a video so mind blowing that I'll forget how to breathe until it's over. And then I'll drop everything I was doing and post it here.

Behold... the work of master multimedia artists Michael Limieux and Victor Pilon, collectively known as Lemieux Pilon 4D Art. You know how when you hear about new methods and software and pieces of technology and you think to yourself "wow, I wonder what this will make possible." This is the beginning of the answer to that query, and I have a feeling that it's just the tip of the iceburg. This is the rare kind of visual stuff that makes you literally question what's possible in live theatre and whether anything isn't.

Below, I will share with you a video of excerpts from their live show La Belle et la Bête. If this doesn't knock the wind out of you, nothing will.

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

"Somewhere" by Big Ideas Productions

So clearly, I took a hiatus from doing this blog while I finished out the semester. School's done, so we can have some fun again  :)

It isn't immediately clear who or what Big Ideas Productions is. He/she/they are a gifted video and animation artist who posts YouTube videos under the user name Pygyn, and I'm going to share with you my favorite piece from their lot. It's called "Somewhere". A beautiful and, to my knowledge, original song set to a touching and imaginative animated visual journey. Check it out below, and if you like what you see, you can find more of their work on their YouTube channel.

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

Chunky Move

I was introduced to the works of Australian contemporary dance company Chunky Move in a New Media and Performance class at school yesterday. Holy... dear... sweet... Jesus. The stuff that these guys do is breath-taking. Aside from brilliant, meaningful choreography, the company's work is rich with the integration of cutting age technology that is used to intensify the impact of each piece to the fullest possible degree. If you're at all interested in dance, movement, performance art, theatre, computer software, the abstract, theatrical lighting or sound, or just seeing things that are frieking beautiful, put aside a a few minutes and WATCH THIS STUFF.

I'm going to post here the first video we watched in class. The one that made me look up the rest of their work immediately when I got home. It's highlight footage from a piece called Mortal Engine, which the company's website describes as the following:

"Mortal Engine is a dance-video-music-laser performance using movement and sound responsive projections to portray an ever-shifting, shimmering world in which the limits of the human body are an illusion. Crackling light and staining shadows represent the most perfect or sinister of souls. Kinetic energy fluidly metamorphoses from the human figure into light image, into sound and back again. Choreography is focused on movement of unformed beings in an unfamiliar landscape searching to connect and evolve in a constant state of becoming. Veering between moments of exquisite cosmological perfection and grotesque evolutionary accidents of existence, we are driven forward by the reality of permanent change."

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

Jimmy Quartuccio's choreography clips

For you dancer types out there (not me)... or for those of you who just like to watch works in progress as they're put together (definitely me).

My buddy Jimmy Quartuccio has been shooting a bunch of clips of dancers working with unfinished pieces of his choreography at different stages of the learning period. Great stuff. Very lyrical, uninhibited sort of style with loads of physical expression. He's put it all up for display on his Youtube channel.

Here's a sample... beautiful track in this one. I'll have to find out what that is.

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

Terje Sorgjerd - The Aurora (Northern Lights documentation video)

Terje Sorgjerd, a Norwegian photographer, took roughly 22,000 shots of one of Mother Nature's greatest works of art and turned it into a stunning two-minute video called The Aurora. The video chronicles the movement of the Northern Lights in and around Norway's Kirkenes and Pas National Park on the border of Russia. Of all the breath-taking mysteries on our planet, this has always been one of my favorites. It's so hard to believe that it's real. Check it out:

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

Dante Bucci and the Hang Drum

A relatively new invention, the Hang drum (pronounced “hung”) is a melodic, inverted steel percussion instrument born in Bern, Switzerland, circa 2000. The Hang looks like a steel drum crossed with a UFO, and has its own distinctive voice that draws comparisons to steel pans, harps, and even synthesizers. Each drum sings its own harmony, with a root in the center and a scale arrayed around the circumference. When used right, it's probably one of the coolest sounds I've ever heard.

Dante Bucci is a fixture in the Philly indie music scene and one of the most-recognized Hang players in the world, thanks to a constantly-expanding list of subscribers and over six million combined views on his YouTube channel. His style is a unique, beautiful blend of world music and melodic indie rock. Listen to one of his tunes below and learn more about his instrument and his work here.

If you really like what you hear, you can buy his album (MP3 Download) for super cheap at the link below:

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

Virtual Choir

Inspired by a lone YouTube video of a young girl singing one of his pieces, popular classical composer/conductor Eric Whitacre put together an entire Virtual Choir project. The way it works is, Whitacre creates a guide video of himself conducting and posts it online. He then encourages folks from all over the world to record themselves individually singing along to it and post the video on YouTube. All of the individual videos are eventually edited together by producer Scott Haines into one massive virtual choir, and the end result is breath-taking. See for yourself:

(Whitacre's virtual choir performing a stirring rendition of "Lux Aurumque".)

Beginning as a self-described "simple experiment in social media", this video features 185 individuals from over 15 countries worldwide. People separated by oceans, who will never meet face to face, singing alone. But also together. You can find some more really interesting information about the creation process of this video here.

The choir has a new video premiering on April 7th, which received a staggering 2051 responses from 58 countries. 

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

BTN Studio

It has come to my attention that a good deal of the folks who read this blog happen to be singers and/or musicians. Check this out.

BTN Studio in Colonia, NJ. There isn't much on the MySpace because... well, who uses MySpace anymore, right? The studio is still fairly new but believe me, this place is legit. It's run by my good friend Joe Rivetti. In addition to being a great musician and producer, the guy knows his stuff. Certified in Pro Tools, top notch knowledge of software and equipment, and actually getting better with each project I've seen him take on.

So, to summarize - REALLY REALLY good quality recordings, at the affordable price of an up-and-coming studio still getting its feet off the ground. Jump on this. And if you aren't interested in recording now, then bookmark this page for later. I feel like it crosses everyone's mind at some point. Even if you don't write your own stuff... do a cover. Bring a karaoke track, sing over it. I think that recording in a studio is something everyone should experience at least once. It's just too much fun.

If you need a quality reference, this is the studio where I recorded the vocals on my own album. You can hear the results on my purevolume page. And that was way back during the summer, he tells me he's even upgraded a lot of his stuff since then.

If you're interested, message Joe at Btnproductionsnj@gmail.com or Matchfit2@aol.com for rates or more information. Even if you're not sure you want to go through with it... couldn't hurt just to check what it'd cost you, right?

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

The Wilderness Downtown

Canadian indie rock band The Arcade Fire released their third studio album in August 2010. Maybe you've heard of it. It's called The Suburbs and it won Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammy Awards. Huge, huge deal for indie musicians and fans everywhere. The album deals with themes of nostalgia and the memory of a childhood home, and its music does a great job of stirring the emotions that the band wanted it to stir. Sixteen tracks of touching, insightful, and fearless rock music.

In November of 2010, the band released a website that hosted an interactive music video for their song "We Used to Wait". The film and website, called The Wilderness Downtown, was created by director Chris Milk using the programming language HTML5 and integrating it with Google Maps. Upon visiting the website, users type in their childhood address. A beautiful custom-generated music video is then created featuring images of their childhood home and neighborhood and the use of multiple, choreographed screens that move in time with the music.

The band really succeeded in making something special here. The majority of folks who have watched this film describe it as an aesthetic "experience", sharing the feelings of nostalgia that the band hoped to stir with the music on the album. What an incredible job of using technology and out-of-the-box creativity to support the purpose of the music.

But don't take my word for it, try it for yourself! I must warn that this is a processor-intensive website and some computers may have a difficult time running it. It also requires that you view it using Google Chrome as your browser. On that note... if you aren't already using Chrome, this is a good excuse to start. Because seriously, it blows Firefox and Explorer out of the water.

If for any reason you can't get the website to work for you, here's a great YouTube video of the film taken by someone who entered the name of a small town in Paris. It's not quite the full experience if it isn't your own town, but it's still a beautiful video to watch either way and the use of multiple screens is super cool.

If you're interested, you can read a bit more info about the video's features here.

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

Handmade Bottle Cap Necklaces

It goes without saying that I consider everything I share on this blog to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen, and more than worth your time to check out. As someone who personally has never had a taste for homemade crafts, I knew the inevitable day would arrive when someone else who's really good at it would show me their stuff and it would strike me as so beautiful and so creative that it would immediately cause me to reevaluate my opinion of the entire hobby. The day has come, and I'm proud to say it was the work of one of my dearest friends in the world that did the trick. I am pleased to share with you today...

Gabriella Cuzzola's line of Bottle Cap Necklaces.

Why bottle caps? Perhaps just because we're in college, and because they're everywhere all the time. Perhaps not meant to be taken as anything more than that. But I love the idea of taking bottle caps and everything they symbolize... drinking, addictions, vices, unpredictability, danger... and recycling them into art. Art you can wear around your neck, that you'll carry with you at all times. Just like a vice, but beautiful and with a completely different purpose. Chew on that. And it's not just a great idea, it's also masterfully executed.

Here are a few samples from the collection:

(My personal favorite... but I tend to love clocks and things that are clock-related.)

I can't believe this idea in general hasn't already gotten more popular than it is. So cool. But remember, these are all being handmade by just one marvelously talented person, so order yours today while they're still in supply!

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line.

Inside Out: A Global Art Project

Can art change the world?

It seems only fitting that I was turned onto this project by one of the most artistically influential people in my own life.

After winning the coveted 2011 TED Prize, JR (a French street artist) made his TED Prize Wish: to use art to turn the world inside out. In the video below, you can hear him give a moving and hilariously entertaining speech about what he does, why he does it, and his stance on one of art's most profound questions. Fan-freaking-tastic story. I strongly recommend checking it out if you have a small chunk of free time.

He concludes by announcing the launch of Inside Out - A Global Art Project. It defines itself as "a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images will be made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators for them to exhibit in their own communities. People can participate as an individual or in a group; posters can be placed anywhere, from a solitary image in an office window to a wall of portraits on an abandoned building or a full stadium. These exhibitions will be documented, archived and viewable virtually."


Worth a serious look for anybody with something to say.

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line. 

Coldplay - Strawberry Swing

Not that these guys need any publicity. This just happens to be one of the coolest music videos I've ever seen. Beautiful enough song to begin with, combined with brilliantly stylized chalk art, a good story, and a superhero version of Chris Martin. How can you go wrong? (Note - this is worth expanding the video player to full screen. It's the button with the four outfacing arrows in the bottom right corner.)

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line. 

Amazingly Creative Drawing vs. Photography

Our first submission is a PERFECT example of why I started this blog. This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen (which is something I'd love to say with every submission I get haha). It's an entry in The Wondrous: Weird Stuff Directory called "Amazingly Creative Drawing vs. Photography".

As the title might suggest, the project is a creative and imaginative fusion of hand-made sketches with real life photography. Incredible talent and vision. Enjoy!

Here are a few of my personal favorites from the bunch...

If you or someone you know would like to share creative work, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line. 

Purpose of This Blog

A revelation! This blog now has a purpose.

This will be a community for people like myself who want their own creative works to reach a larger audience. I'll be looking for new, out-of-the-box things to share with you guys on a regular basis. Original art, music, writing, multimedia, videos, websites, or even just ideas. Anything cool we can find.

If you or someone you know would like me to share your stuff, send an email to gscale88@comcast.net with "PWYP" in the subject line. And remember... the more people who know about this blog, the bigger audience your work will reach! So pleaseee spread the word.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Sonic the Hedgeblog

...is what I almost named this blog. But the more I read up about blogs, their purposes, and the significance of their titles, the more I began to fear that people would expect this one to be about video games. And while I would LOVE to be able to blog about video games, the simple fact is that I don't know enough about them to consistently write anything interesting or valuable on the subject. Maybe someday I'll be better versed and come up with an even better pun.

This will instead be a blog dedicated to my own creative ventures, of which I promise you there will be plenty. Everything from original music to mashups to stories and plays. I'll share my solo efforts, collaborations with other people, and even some other folks' ideas that I think are great but personally have nothing to do with, because the things that inspire me may do the same for you.

Please take a minute to follow me in the "followers" box on the right side of the page. And tell your friends! The more people I know are reading, the more likely I am to keep on this. And I'd really like to keep on it. It's been a while since I've done any public writing... I'd almost forgotten how much fun it is.