to be a beekeeper

my brother showed this one to me.
& I liked it a lot!



exams practically over. relaxing week of sitting in my office getting paid to do...hardly anything. then, CHRISTMAS!

boy + balloon

I am feeling tired but happy because netflix has granted me an early christmas wish: they finally added the watch-instantly feature for mac users!

Now excuse me while I crawl into bed with my happy little macbook propped up on my knees and watch this gem of a short film. no time or motivation to type any more tonight.

adieu.

Take Away Shows

I have become a master at multi-tasking and can now successfully and (almost) as productively scan books at work while watching videos on youtube!
So this morning I made a wonderful discovery. That Beirut video I posted the other day is just one in a series of just as amazing videos featuring just as amazing artists!
They are called Take Away Shows orrrr Concerts a Emporter and a new one is posted every week by the same Paris-based film team.

www.blogotheque.net/takeawayshows

I really like how simple they are. Raw. Just one-take of the artists performing the song. At the same time they always include visually interesting settings and camera work. and similar pacing (with endings that trail off after the song and occasional footage of the band or artist bantering amongst one another and setting up.)

Maybe I'm late in the game on this one, but if you haven't done so already--check it out.

A few favorites so far:
Arcade Fire (Neon Bible in an elevator!)
Stephen Malkmus (We Can't Help You---roof/dance classes below!)
Beirut (obviously)
Animal Collective

I actually haven't watched too many yet, though.

Flood Part One

flying turtles. :)

I'm feeling a little worn out. The short days and long nights make me sleepy and unproductive. All I ever want to do is curl up in a blanket and talk or read or watch movies. But I do have ideas for things I want to write about on here. Hopefully I will get to a few of them this week.

I was planning on just ignoring this topic altogether...but after the 10th straight morning of showing up to work and having my co-workers blast the Twilight audio books around the office and talk incessantly about the movie I am feeling a little bit of repressed angst.
This summer I decided to see what all the fuss was about and I read 1 and 1/2 of the books before calling it quits. I have a lot of thoughts on why I think it is just a ridiculous and poorly written series. and maybe I will expand on those sometime.
But today I was just pondering on the reasons that I can't even find some sort of frivolous indulgence in them. (because I CAN find frivolous indulgence in mindless teen literature--believe me! the most embarrassing example being that time in high school I spent 2 weeks reading all of The Princess Diaries books.)
It hit me today that besides the fact that I feel like the writing itself is bad and the characters and plot are shallow--I don't even identify with any of the things that are held up in the book as these greatly coveted ideals.
There is such a strong emphasis on physical beauty, money, style and power. All of these values are sharply embodied by Edward and the other vampires.
and...honestly I have never wanted a dangerous and controlling boyfriend, who is like sooooo hott and sparkly and could crush me in his cold iron grasp and has expensive race cars and a lot of money.
meh...just a thought.

Oldies but Goodies

beautiful zach condon/beirut video that makes me smile:


a cozy little book with cozy little nooks:


another icelandic gem. Kristen shared her with me. I think this mini-documentary is beautiful and inspiring:


I love how she pronounces "olof" like a softer "olive" and not at all like an ugly Count Olof.

p.s. it is my goal to post every day this week even if it is very little writing and mostly sharing.