Jesse Zanzinger

Can you believe this short video involves only water, oil, a glass and a canon 5D with a zoom lens. It's like an awesome digital lava lamp. No surprise its got over 100,000 views on Vimeo.

British politics is so demure

Just bumbling around the Internet when I happened across this distressing picture. How did I miss this?


I'd rather watch that awful video of Gordon Brown singing nursery rhymes to confused children like a giant gorilla in a playground a hundred times over than ever have this gun totin' psycho messing around in government. Why did McCain choose Palin?

BANG

Everyday I walk past a bus shelter with this poster for the new Marc Jacobs fragrance (shot by Juergen Teller, I believe) and it only occurred to me recently how utterly repulsive and ineffective I find it as a piece of advertising.
Firstly, Jacobs' move from utter geek to creepy Italian model in about 5 years annoys me. I used to like him for being the quiet chubby wallflower who rejected the blatant sex appeal of his fashion colleagues. Lookin' fine for 47 though, even if he does sport a spongebob tattoo.
Secondly, the image reminds me of the overly greasy, cheap and clichéd campaigns that have been around ever since Steve Meisel thought he'd shoot soft porn for Calvin Klein and got away with it.
Lastly, and I have done no conclusive research here but, does this kind of advertising actually appeal to the heterosexual male?
Why is it so hard to come up with new ideas? I suppose the success of this campaign may be in the fact that every time I see the poster I can't help staring at it, even if it fails to be appealing.
Also, Tom Ford for Gucci anyone?

Civil Unrest

I have to say I was a little surprised that the inflation of University fees to a bank fucking £9,000 did actually happen today. Certainly ain't Keynesian economics. Labour's 'every dumb kid should get a chance at further education' sure lasted what, 8 years? I'm also gonna jump right in there and point out the probability a new educational hierarchy - polytechnics now reach the range of 'just affordable' while Russel group universities will be able to charge crazy amounts of money to posh kids.  

I think, as a student, I am probably completely justified in hating the government at the moment. To be honest I'm not totally in disagreement with the student finance reforms, it's more that they have taken the opportunity to portray us once again as a blundering bunch of mindless fire-starting delinquents.

What I'm listening to, right now

Mert & Marcus for Vogue Nippon

Raquel Zimmermann for Vogue Nippon, July 2009

Very refreshing. I'm in to minimalism. And cubic haircuts. Together they just make the most fabulous combination.

I've always thought that by the time I'm thirty I'll only be wearing black and white, a sort of clean-cut declaration of Japanese minimalism and sobriety against the LSD infused colouration of style - but that's when rainbow tie-die returns, in about 17 years time. I envisage a very confused version of the future.

Letter to Form brief

 

A few of my squares from our Letter to Form brief.

Harry Kaufmann

If you only do one thing today, I suggest you check out Harry Kaufmann's Photostream on flickr. He takes the most amazingly lit, moody photographs of Shanghai, no digital manipulation involved, just pure masterful imagery. The images are all taken from the outside of the greatest city in China and show the surprising juxtaposition between the derelict outskirts and the apparently unattainable shiny new. Makes you feel proper bad about developing China too. Just one of those things you stumble across and then wonder why the rest of the world isn't ranting about it too, instead of discussing Gillian McKeith's next big fail.