RADAR is a series produced by WBPLabs -- a division of the WorkBook Project. The series is a timely, insiders view into the cutting edge of storytelling and creativity, and the attendant tools, tech, models and community.
Eliza Skinner (RADAR ep 2 – I Eat Pandas) returns to the world of Internet videos with this short about a couple going through an angry breakup just as their friends arrive for an Oscars party. Hijinks ensue, guests are weirded out, and movie puns are thrown around—and for some reason movie puns are so much funnier when shouted in a fit of rage. Movie nerds will either cringe or chortle. Or both. Either way, Eliza is quite hilarious as a pissed off ex-girlfriend.
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Morningbell – Lovefool
Before I watched this video, I thought the title was just a coincidence—surely they weren’t covering that classic 90s radio mainstay? But that’s exactly what Morningbell (RADAR ep 33 – Unnatural History) did. And they did it gloriously. They stayed true to the original while giving it a bit of their own odd flair. And the breakfast-tastic video definitely ups the weirdness factor. You know, for those of you who like your 90s nostalgia with a side of scrambled eggs.
Download the mp3 for free HERE
Morningbell’s website
Morningbell’s MySpace
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Sophie Blackall – The Crows of Pearblossom
Sophie Blackall has to be one of our busiest contributors. When she’s not creating beautiful blog posts about her father’s adventures or the Missed Connections of complete strangers, she’s creating amazing illustrations for children’s books. Her latest work is the illustrations for The Crows of Pearblossom, a short story originally written in 1944 by the legendary British author Aldous Huxley. Her vivid artwork gives a modern and whimsical flair to the classic tale.
Have you ever wanted to see Internet memes live on stage? As it turns out, the Gregory Brothers (RADAR ep 27 – Auto Tune the News) are among the many YouTube musicians performing as part of the DigiTour—and they’re playing New York on May 1. Go see the show, and then spend the rest of May with musical current events stuck in your head.
Sunday, May 1 · 7:00 pm
Gramercy Theatre
127 East 23rd Street
New York, NY 10010
$18 EVENT INFO
Slam Theatre week 1
SLAM Theatre (RADAR ep 6) is back this spring with another round of their fast-paced playwright and actor competition. It will be going on for the next four weeks, but Sunday is the first round of eliminations for this series, and you don’t want to miss the beginning.
Sunday April 24 · 7:00 – 12:00 am
Sunday, May 1 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm
The Tank NYC
354 West 45th Street
New York, NY
$5 suggested donation EVENT INFO
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@LukeGWilliams
Luke Williams is a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business who specializes in disruptive innovation—a constant stream of unexpected changes and challenges to the old status quo. And in this world where “recession” is the word on everyone’s mind, new, disruptive ideas are more important than ever. While his blog (and book), DISRUPT may have been written with businesses in mind, the ideas he gives in his posts are surprisingly applicable to anyone.
RADAR NYC 6.18.10 WATCH
Effin Science on G4 – Marc Horowitz
Last time we checked in with Marc Horowitz, he was shedding light on his idiosyncratic Google Maps… read more
Diana Eng’s profile (RADAR ep 31 – Fairytale Fashion) just keeps rising and rising in the fashion world. And now she’s released her first line to the public—a collection of Smart Scarves, and they each showcase what she does best: combine hip fashion with science geekery. Using inspiration from things like Fibonacci numbers and the biometric Miura Ori structure, she’s once again created beauty from brains. Who says geeks can’t be fashionable?
The Gregory Brothers and Charlie Sheen – “Winning”
In the lightning fast world of Internet memes, no one can seize on a cultural phenomenon quite like our friends at Auto-Tune the News (RADAR ep 27). And in terms of satirizing potential, Charlie Sheen’s spectacular crash and burn is a gold mine. So it was only inevitable that the Gregory Brothers would take on the task. The above video does not disappoint. Even if you’ve been following the news and are suffering from Sheen overload, this could be the Sheen video to end all Sheen videos.
Personal anecdote time: I posted a Missed Connection once. I was at a Sleigh Bells concert and met a girl with awesome hair, kind of like the singer La Roux (I have weird taste, don’t ask). And while I never heard back on the ad, I did end up randomly running into her on a dating site. But there is something about missed connections—each one’s a tiny love story with mystery, humor, and artistic potential. In this interview, Sophie Blackall (RADAR ep 16 – Missed Connections) talks for a bit with NPR about some of her experiences with her Craigslist-based artwork.
Many people, including a lot of our contributors, will be spending the next week in the Lone Star State for Austin’s South by Southwest Festival. But for those of us who can’t make it out, our own music supervisor JC Scruggs helped put together a show at Brooklyn’s Knitting Factory. Mother Mother is an amazing Canadian indie rock band with some awesomely catchy and crazy songs that should get you dancing wildly this Friday night. And make sure to get there early for opening acts Elijah Bonfire (ex-Stars of Track and Field) and Bajzel, a one-man Polish act who Newsweek calls the Polish Beck, “only better.”
Friday March 11 · Doors @ 8:00/Show @ 8:30 pm
Knitting Factory
361 Metropolitan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
$10.00 – $12.00 EVENT INFO
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@natazilla
A few years ago, Natasha Allegri drew a journal comic on Livejournal that I followed pretty religiously. She discontinued it after a while, and kind of disappeared for a few years, only to return pretty recently as an artist on the show Adventure Time, of all places. Now she has a Tumblr, where her original artwork and comics have returned to the Internet once again, and it’s all come full circle. Expect to see some gorgeous portraits, cute cartoony drawings, and more hilarious journal comics.
Transmedia Talk #9 – Matthew Toner on AreYouAwake.tv Welcome to Transmedia Talk a new podcast covering all things story. Transmedia Talk is co-hosted by Nick Braccia and Robert Pratten and looks to shed light on the topic of transmedia storytelling with commentary, interviews and tips on how storytelling is moving into the 21st century.
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NB: If you’d like to give us feedback, recommend yourself… read more
New Breed LA: The Integrity of Story [vid] For the community of working-class filmmakers at New Breed a constantly evolving creative process of telling our stories is the one thing we can count on in these changing times. Embarking on journeys through deeper methods of collaboration & engaging with fans across various platforms is certainly exciting – but one thing is for certain, the creative needs to be… read more
t.minus: zero I’m not sure that tonight I will get much sleep – at around 4 in the morning I’ll be heading to the Detroit airport with several bags of equipement and one under-packed suitcase of clothes. In the air I plan on reading over the film’s script again and look for holes in the storyboards and shot-list. I’m excited. I’m nervous.… read more
Hidden Oras began as a live drawing project within various music clubs in Japan before moving to NYC. Shantell Martin an artist and VeeJay armed with her projector, and trusty digital drawing tablet, turns members of the audience into living art. When an audience member steps up against the projector wall Shantell creates a unique and original drawing that engulfs them. Fusing technology and art at every turn, Hidden Oras is just the first step of many towards the next wave of Live Art.
CREATED by Lance Weiler & Alex Johnson
DIRECTOR Josh Cramer
DP Doug Emmett
EDITOR Jawad Metni
SERIES PRODUCER Josh Cramer
SEGMENT PRODUCER Janine Saunders
TITLE SEQUENCE Jordan Gray
POST PRODUCTION House of Trim
ADDITIONAL MUSIC by:
Roger O’Donnell “Endlessly”
Runaway “The Poltergeist”
Taigaa “This Is Called Lonely Brass”
DIY DAYS NYC – Ted Hope [vid] Ted Hope, co-founder of This is that & Good Machine, has produced close to sixty films, including three Sundance Grand Prize winners and the first… read more
It’s Time to Play: Is It Transmedia? Outside panels, much of my SXSW experience revolved around discussing the definition of the word ‘transmedia’ with creators and industry observers. This question seems to… read more
The Brian Eno-approved Eclectic Method (RADAR 003 – Eclectic Method) have to be one of the more innovative acts out there right now. Yeah, they’re mashup artists, but the guys do more than simply juxtapose Notorious B.I.G. with Elton John, they add live video editing/sampling to the mix. Picture YouTube getting drunk and hooking up with Girl Talk and you’d come close to describing them. The group is amazing to see live and is currently on tour, but in case they’re not coming to a town near you, check out their latest video featuring R2D2 and a few of your other favorite robots.
Before we release our Season 3 episode showcasing a song by Caleb Burhans, we wanted to give you guys a heads up on the music he’s been making. Sounding like a more classically minded Owen Pallett, Burhans is a violinist whose resume is too long to list here, having collaborated with everyone from Aphex Twin to The Hold Steady. Listen to his tunes, look for the upcoming RADAR episode from Season 3, and keep an eye on him. Burhans is one talented dude.
Next Door Neighbor is a webcomic series we’ve featured before (RADAR 001 – Next Door Neighbor) and it’s still worth more than a few curious clicks from your mouse, if only to read about some ridiculous neighbors as told by comic’s best writers and artists. While Josh Neufeld has contributed art to the project – check out his charming “Beekeeper” story – he’s more notably the brains and brushstrokes behind the critically acclaimed A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. Part journalistic Op-ed, part comic book documentary, A.D. tells the story of post-Katrina New Orleans through the eyes of real people who survived the storm and its aftermath. If you’re a fan of creative non-fiction, curious about what it meant to live in N.O. after Katrina, or even dig David Simon’s Treme, then Neufeld’s book is a must read. You can find it in print or in its original webcomic form.
The Brooklyn International Film Festival is about shedding light on independent filmmakers, while at the same time showcasing Brooklyn as a first class center of cinema. This year’s 13th Annual BiFF is no exception. Featuring one hundred films from twenty-four countries (whoa), the festival has a little something for everyone. This year’s theme is Stunt. What does that mean exactly? Well, the festival “intends to take a snapshot at some of the hottest issues affecting our times while emphasizing weight and gravity of being on a critical collision path with history.” Think of it as acknowledging your own independent butterfly effect on the world around you, both locally and globally. Things kick off this Friday and run until June 13th. Their website is chock full of useful goodies, everything from ticketing to the film schedule.
If you’re not already following friend of RADAR Jah Furry (aka Jeff Newelt), you need to be doing so ASAP. Not only has he curated a few RADAR episodes himself, but his Twitter feed is essential following for anyone interested in comic books, music, or cool events around the city. He is also the Comics Editor of SMITH, Heeb, and Royal Flush magazines, and is Harvey Pekar’s (American Splendor) editor on Pekar’s webcomics series THE PEKAR PROJECT. It’s also worth noting that Jah Furry has a wicked reggae baritone that he busts out from time to time – a must see.
RADAR NYC 10.22.10 WATCH
Dancing Hands Pa Pamericano
This is an odd, fun and strangely hypnotic video that features a couple using only their hands to do an elaborate dance to a Latin-inspired electropop song. Could it just be the next amazing and elaborate dance video to go viral and make its rounds on all the big trendy Internet sites? Maybe. Is it… read more
RADAR NYC 4.16.10 WATCH
LaPorte, Indiana
Jason Bitner (RADAR 003 – Cassettes from my Ex) has a new film / book project called LaPorte, Indiana. Born from a chance discovery of over 18,000 studio portraits – a time capsule of personal milestones captured over the course of three decades by local photographer Frank Pease – LaPorte, Indiana is a candid look at a… read more
TCIBR podcast – Brian Clark of GMD studios This edition of TCIBR is brought to you by IndieFlix – Brian Clark joins us for a discussion about filmmaking, audiences, breaking the rules and the value of going DIY. Founder of GMD studios and co-founder of indieWire, Brian has been at the forefront of the independent film scene for well over a decade. GMD studios has created digital… read more
