Six Feet Under Series

Alan Ball, the director of Six Feet Under, once said "Beauty is in the strangest places. A piece of garbage floating in the wind. And that beauty exists in America. It exists everywhere. You have to develop an eye for it and be able to see it."

I wonder if he would enjoy this blog?

Likely one of the best TV shows I've ever seen, Six Feet Under is a beautiful 5 season drama. I just spent the last few days watching it from episode one to end. And now, emotionally drained, and a bit depressed and lonely, I thought I'd post it in this archive of beautiful things.

The series, for those who haven't heard, is about a family and their funeral home business. Unsurprisingly the series deals with death in every possible facet the writers can think up. They pull the characters through a web of depressing situations, most of which are caused by the characters inability to communicate with their family and friends.

A melodramatic daughter, a gay mortician, an aimless son, and a stifled mother make up the main cast. The acting is believable, and the characters are both loved and hated by the audience on any given episode.

I love this show. But now after finishing, I may need to see a shrink.
Truly beautiful.
Two thumbs up.

Here is the final 6 minutes of the last episode, which by my standards is the most complete and appropriate series finale I've seen... but i recommend watching the entire series before this. And I also recommend having some tissue at hand, and a phone by your side to call your loved ones.

Flash Animated Creep

More praise for Radiohead, but this time I'm more focused on the animation itself in this video. Radiohead makes good music. That's pretty obvious. But these flash animators have really done something wonderful with this acoustic version of Creep. Being a flash animator myself, I empathize with the pains of putting something like this together. I also empathize with the character in this video, having spent the last few weeks in an office.

If you've used flash, you'll appreciate the title and credits sequence. Click here to play the official version, or watch below for the video only. Enjoy!

Optical Illusion

A pause from the dark and dramatic, I thought I should put something lighthearted on the blog of beauty. Here is a clip I came across called "optical illusion". It's short. It's cute. It's stop motion!
I think it's beautifully cute and slightly clever. You can't help but smile a little.



And here is a real optical illusion. Not as funny. Just a cool trick on the eyes. Stare at the dot in the center and then wait. I guarantee the second image is black and white. I find all optical illusions quite beautiful, and I'll probably make a large post of illusions sometime in the near future.

The Night Sky

I recently stumbled upon this inverted version of Google Earth. It's called wikisky (although I thought I read that as whiskey.) If you like constellations or astronomy, this is a beautiful site to check out.

I know absolutely nothing about stars and constellations, etc. But they sure are pretty.

I also like this site because I live in an extremely well-lit city. And I can't remember the last time I saw the night sky.

Easter Egg

Found this artist in a National Geographic article while searching for Easter Egg designs. I'm trying to explain to my Japanese students why we celebrate Easter in America, and that it's not exclusively religious. Never-the-less, this is a beautiful Easter egg, created by Franc Grom, who designs and sells eggs such as this one.

According to National Geographic, Easter eggs were first decorated in the 13th century when the church forbade eating eggs during the week before Easter... and something had to be done with eggs laid during that time. So why not paint them?

...And poke holes in them.

Judo in Slow Motion

Generally I find most things in slow motion are beautified by about 450 percent. Judo is no exception. Although this video is a little cheesy, the Judo Player's technique is flawless. And of course, my current "in Japan" living situation has led me to fall in love with this beautiful sport.

Drum Machine Animation

Here are two Drum Machine Animations that I find especially appealing. The first is an amazing 3d animation using a myriad of different percussive instruments. It's made by the group called Animusic who have a few dozen instrumentals available on Google Video and You Tube.

They use a program called Midimotion, which according to Animusic's web site is "is analytical, note-based, and involves a pre-process (as opposed to being reactive, sound-based, and real-time)."



The second animation is of a different genre entirely. This is "Drum Machine" created by Tokyo Plastic, and award winning Flash animation company. It plays off the traditional Taiko culture, and if you've seen Taiko performances before, you'll appreciate this piece much more. To view a better quality version of this animation, go to their web site Tokyo Plastic.

Bio Art in a Petri Dish

Although many bacterium are quite scary, these little petri-canvases are most appealing to the eye. You probably still should avoid contact with these little lifeforms, but if you take a look up close, I hope you'll see its beauty.

These little examples are created by Eshel Ben-Jacob of the Tel Aviv University. He is currently professor of physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy. And this is what he does with his free time:







You can find more from his web site here.

Spray Paint Art

I first became a fan of spray paint art when I watched a demonstration during a Palm Springs street fair. Spray paint art has slowly become more popular over the years, but it still remains a relatively uncommon method of painting.

Often spray paint artists will spray spacescapes and landscapes, always a bit spectacular and imaginative, and watching someone create art this way is as beautiful as the artwork itself. There are surprising methods used to make shooting stars, planets, and water like reflections. In this case, you really have to see it to understand.

These images are from my favorite Spray Painter, Darpan Gambaccini of Italy, and his paintings are without a doubt, beautiful.

You can view more here.

Harrowdown Hill

A long time Radiohead fan, this new solo song by lead singer Thom Yorke caught my attention. Had I not read the background information about this song, I may not have been so inspired to place it in this blog. But I find the feel of this music, the corresponding video, and most importantly the lyrics to be exceptional.

You can find the lyrics, chords, and background info here.

The summary from that site is:

"This song is about David Kelly, a former weapon inspector in Iraq at the time Saddam Hussein was still in charge and who truly knew about the situation concerning weapons of mass destruction – the government's official justification for invading Iraq. His evidence questioned the entire situation as it proved that there of course wasn't any
threat at all. This evidence pulled him through a massive storm of attention
from the medias and put him under an unbearable pressure from his own government
as he now had to stand against his own country all by himself. This unbearable
pressure forced him to take the ultimate consequence. (Some conspiracies say
that he was murdered, but no matter what the government truly knew that this
might be the result of the weight on his shoulders!) The 17th of July Kelly's
body was found in the woods of Harrowdown Hill. He had overdosed himself with
medicine and cut his left wrist with a knife had owned since his youth."

Thom Yorke has said this song is the "angriest" song he's ever written. That passion indeed makes this song beautiful.

Bubblewrap Building

The unofficial name is "Water Cube", a futuristic Olympic pool.

These pictures are of the new indoor pool in Beijing, China, being built specifically for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Swimmers such as Michael Phelps and US teammates have praised the architecture after having recently visited the construction site. If the final product appears anything like the artist renderings shown here, I would consider this certainly one beautiful building.

Drawing Everyone

I Made Pictures of Making a Picture of Everyone Who Might Be Looking At These Pictures of Everyone on Vimeo

This first post inspired me to create this blog in the first place. I found this short video quite beautiful. It's not particularly advanced film-making, but what interested me was how much this video affected many of it's viewers...

"I got tears and chills ! Thank you for this moment !"
"This is beautiful. I love your style. It's really organic."
"One of, it not THE most beautiful clip on vimeo."

People began interacting with the work by declaring which image represented them,
and adding themselves to the cast of the video.

"I found myself at :43, right side, so I'm adding myself to the cast."

Whether the artist, Alexander Itin, planned on such interactivity or not, I find this a beautiful aspect to this work.

It is quite an inspiring piece of work, with appropriate music, and although it is highly amateur in quality, that seems to be masked by the intriguing idea of trying to draw everyone who may be watching him try to draw everyone.