1935 Bianchi Corsica

Enough video related posts for the moment. Let's move on to one of my personal passions: Bikes. I found this gem on My Old Bicycle. It's a 1935 Bianchi Corsica, and I just cannot stop looking at it. From its wood rims, to its beautiful chrome braze-ons with their red accents -- I just am totally perplexed by the beauty of this old machine. The manual three-speed selection and ratcheting chain tensioner are things I have just never seen before.

I really feel like modern mass production has removed detailed and inspired design from the grasp of the common man. This piece, with no detail too small -- right down to the beautiful water bottle, is a total contradiction to what most people think of when they conger up their definition of a bicycle in their minds. I think this is just one of many similar travesties brought upon us by making products that do everything for everyone.

Best Movies of All Time Map

I found this subway route style map to the "best movies of all time" on a French film blog, Vodcaster. It proves to be a rather interesting and all inclusive journey though modern cinema classics.

I really love the concept of taking something nearly all of us are familiar with, a subway or bus route map, and transforming it into a film discovery tool. Want to know what some of the best comedies of all time are? Follow the "yellow line" and see where it intersects with other routes -- in this case film genres. This map is a great and very practical use for this powerful metaphor.

In Bb 2.0

In keeping with the mashup theme introduced in my first post, I have a collaborative, improvisational composition brought to you by the ubiquitous power of YouTube.

Individual musicians all play a part of their own in B flat. Then all the videos are collected and presented tiled on this page. I would recommend going there and playing around with the wall of videos -- making your own mix as you play or pause individual musician's video submission.

I thought the overall concept, execution, and end result of this project is very innovative -- even in this day and age of transcontinental digital collaboration. It made me want to get involved with similar projects, and I just might.

Eclectic Method Tarantino Video Mashup

I came across this rather amazing video using one of my favorite social bookmarking tools, StumbleUpon. Additionally, whole host of other such film inspired mashups, including this one, can be found at Eclectic Method.

In its most reduced form, the author basically scanned the video for audio samples -- some music from one scene, a hard consonant sound from another, or maybe a gunshot -- and compiled them into a whole new video comprised of snips synced to their original video, in the way you'd expect, resulting in an effect you might not have.

I really enjoy the whole experience this provides. It's as if Girl Talk decided to make his album from only music videos. The juxtaposition of sights and sounds, as one scene transitions into another, is really inspiring to me.

The Tarantino Mixtape from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.