Category: Video

This is what happens when you film the police in Sweden

Having just returned from a month in Göteborg, I can attest that the place really is this laid back.

Chick Habit

Just a little yé-yé to tide you over until I can actually write something. I got back from (beautiful, glorious) Florida Monday evening and promptly took over for my wonderful editor at the paper, who is taking his own much-needed vacation, Tuesday morning. I am busy beyond belief and I am actually between trips — Sunday we are leaving again for nearly a month in Sweden. I am excited! I get to see the Malm whale again!

Fire and hailstones

I’ve been obsessed with watching weather videos on Youtube lately. Metafilter is partly to blame, as is The Awl, but the real culprit is El Nino*, which is responsible for the worst winter Houston had in the past 30 years and also the fact that we’re probably gonna have one helluva hurrican’ season.

I also had this thing, when I was a kid, where I felt a kind of strong kinship to any object or event that I could remotely relate to my own personal history. For example, I loved to read stories about The Pilgrims’ Mayflower because my birthday was in May, and in some way felt that made me connected to it. It’s weird, I know. I have also always been fascinated by the eruption of Mt. St. Helens — it happened two days after I was born. I even have a Mt. St. Helens “emerald”, as the true emerald is the birthstone for May.

Best comment in the hailstorm thread: Our planet is fucking awesome.

*Which in Spanish means “the Nino”.

Piano with Wind and Trains

Trailer: Piano with Wind and Trains from Andrew Laker on Vimeo.

I just found out my friend Butch, whom I’ve written about before, has had his first feature-length doc, PIano with Wind and Trains, accepted to the Chagrin Falls International Documentary Film Festival.

Butch and I met while working at a small suburban newspaper — he was a photojournalist and I was in my first real job as a reporter. We had the most evil of editors, but fun coworkers who made the job tolerable and a margin of creative freedom. Later Butch found a job that would let him experiment with video, though he still does a lot of photography work too.

I am excited about this film fest not just because I am credited in the doc as a creative consultant but also because it’s a friggin’ good movie, a heartwarming story, and because I am proud of my friend.

Category 5

Rick Mitchell + Jeff Corwin = Hank Schyma, my new crush. We bonded over tornadoes at the Art Car Ball.

This one makes me miss Oklahoma.

Minsk meets Cub meets Vespa

In the middle of watching the Top Gear: Vietnam Special. But don’t read the link like I did, because spoilers abound.

The entire episode is available on Youtube.

What is tiki?

It was CLH who turned me on to the Polynesia Pop craze, but it fits in perfectly with my love of all things Midcentury. Most people don’t understand the Hawaiian shirts, cocktail culture and exotica music. The DVD of Tiki looks like a good primer to explain how Polynesia went from culture to kitsch in the 1930s and ’40s.

At Hukilau 2010 in June (our annual pilgrimage to Florida) I’ll be volunteering at the door for the world premier of this documentary. There’s a sneak peek below. At around 9:34 you can see brief footage of CLH and I sailing on the Tikki Beach at Hukilau 2004, the “Hurricane Hukilau”. There’s also footage of many of the places we visited during our month in French Polynesia, including the tallest tiki in the world.

What is Tiki // The DVD OF TIKI from Van Hagen on Vimeo.

Eight arms to hold you

Octopi are so clever. I love them.

She’s a hurricane in all kind of weather

I am sick of winter and sick of school, and although both are almost over all I can do is dream of our annual pilgrimage to Florida where I plan to do nothing more than lay under a beach umbrella every day with a book NOT required for my degree.

Going to iFest this weekend. I’ve actually never been (I know, shameful) so I’m going now and I’m gonna write about it for work. The theme this year is the Caribbean, so Chris Gray and I wrote our weekly HSSS on music inspired by the archipelago. Calypso, ska, exotica.

In the story I obsess about Tacita Dean, the very best Beach Boys song and how I only came to learn in my 20s that Buster Poindexter was David Johansen.

You already know how I feel about Julie Andrews, but Petula Clark is awesome. Read about her controversial duet with Belafonte here.

Lousiana Man

Been on a Cajun/zydeco kick this past week, thanks in no small part to my boss at the paper, who suggested we write about it. I had always known EastTex had a strong zydeco history but even with my French minor I was dumb to the fact that zydeco = les haricots. Language always fascinates me.

« Previous PageNext Page »