The 31ª Mostra Internacional de Cinema (31st São Paulo International Film Festival) started yesterday, and as it has been happening in the last eight years, I will spend the next two week watching films everyday as if there was no tomorrow. However, before it started, I was already busy writing about it and watching films all the days of the week, since the beginning of October on Cinematógrafo, my Portuguese language blog about cinema.

In other words: I won't blog here until the beginning of November, because in between the 5 or 6 films per day I sleep. Yes, it stupid way to spend time, sleeping, but I do that sometimes. And impressively, I will stay away from my (and any other) computer. That's the effect of this time of year on me: I discover there is life beyond the Internet. Until then explore the archives, visit the links, go read a book or go to the cinema.

I hope that all of you have a great time with Halloween or any other parties, events and, of course, films. If you want to find me, go to Cinematógrafo and maybe try the translator on the top, if you don't speak Portuguese.

See you in November!

Posted by Bibi at 10:54 AM in Blogging, Cinema, Events, São Paulo | Comments (5) ||

The photographer John Wimberley makes fabulous black and white pictures of nature, landscapes and figurative photos.

John Wimberley's photographs are populated by an abundance of pictorial elements: clouds, rocks, ravens, stones, mists, trees, grains of sand, feet; and it's extraordinary how he repeatedly gets these elements to work in his photographs. Sand grains line up perfectly to mirror ripples of light in the clouds above. A cloud in one corner of a photograph echoes the form of a tree branch in the corner opposite. Clouds in another photograph compliantly rise from the rooftop vent of a shepherd's wagon. And, where it would be rare for a raven to be seen sitting on a rock, there are two ravens in that photograph.

Posted by Bibi at 01:33 AM in Nature, Photography, Photography | Comments (4) ||

Little People - a tiny street art project. Pictures of tiny plastic man in the streets of London and surroundings, and installations by Slinkachu. Take a look also on his set of pictures to Nuart event at the Rogaland kunstmuseum in Stavanger, Norway.

Related posts:
Kita Usagi
Mini-Miam
Adalberto Abbate
Plastic Fantastic

Posted by Bibi at 01:12 AM in Photography, Photography | Comments (2) ||

The Bristol based illustrator Ben Newman makes cheerful illustrations, which he describes as "radically fuzzy felt bauhaus-folk illustration". His childhood was heavily influenced by superheroes, the Beano and rope swings. By the way, from 15th September to October 14th 2007 happens his Debut Solo exhibition of prints at Soma Gallery, in Bristol.

Posted by Bibi at 12:47 AM in Illustration ||

The site e-お弁当作っちゃいました (e-obento) documents the beautiful daily bento and other lovely food creations of a Japanese mother. Each has a brief story and a list of ingredients. Some of them have grades for nutrition, design, speed and saving. All in Japanese, but the translator helps a little if you want to try any of them. (via Make)

Previous Bento posts:
Bento Yum
Cooking Cute
Cute bento boxes
The Meaning of Food
Bento Windows & Bento Art

Posted by Bibi at 12:04 AM in Food, Food | Comments (1) ||

The Canadian agency Leo Burnett Toronto created a series of very cute ads for the Toronto Human Society, which slogan is "adopt a new life". The campaign goal, as you can guess, is motivate and increase the number of adoptions.

According to the site of THS is an independent not-for-profit organization, which mission is To promote the humane care and protection of all animals and to prevent cruelty and suffering. Just in case you think about adopt a pet (and I may say adopt, don't buy), they have many animals to adoption, from dogs and cats, to reptiles and birds. You can also help making a donation.

More ads of "adopt a new life" campaign:

Posted by Bibi at 11:35 PM in Animals, Media ||

Tips for conference bloggers is a six-page illustrated guidebook made by Ethan Zuckerman and Bruno Giussani, veterans in conferences. It's availbale in two PDF versions, 6 pages or 3 pages booklet format, and anyone can freely download and use (it's under a Creative Commons license). (via TEDBlog)

Posted by Bibi at 07:52 PM in Blogging ||

The list of Batman films I watched doesn't include the 1966 Batman. The film directed by Leslie H. Martinson was filmed at the end of the first season of 1960's Batman TV series. The LiveJournal page film_stills: Batman: The Movie has several high resolution images from the film, that apparently had the same "quality" of the TV series. Even if you was a fan you have to agree with me that the costumes aren't the high point of the series. Julie Newmar was, but she wasn't in the film. (via Bedazzled)

Related posts:
Detective Comics
Comic Book Bondage Cover
The History of the Batmobile

Posted by Bibi at 07:36 PM in Cinema, Vintage | Comments (2) ||

L'âme Seule (The lonely soul) is a touching animation created by three talented students from EESA (Ecole Européenne Supérieure d'Animation): Cédric Berthier, Jean-Sébastien Leroux et Maximilien Royo. The short-film (4min) tells the story of a lonely character and the discover of what is missing in its life. The making-of shows part of the process of this a stop-motion animation and the creation of the characters with plasticine. The music was composed by SoH-So, who also made the site.

The same trio made a second animation: Petits Pois / Carottes (Pea/Carrots), which has a blog making of d'un film de fin d'études, with notes about the process of creation. The short 3D film is about a young larva, impatient to become a fly, and a group of bully flies (don't ask me, watch it) fighting for a single pea in a dirty kitchen. Excluding my natural disgust for flies, it's brilliant animation. (via Koreus)

Posted by Bibi at 06:27 PM in Animation, Video | Comments (2) ||

The perfect kitty for geeks allergic to cat hair: Computer Cat Wall Clock.

He is made out of mostly recycled computer parts, ranging from recycled hard drive platters and floppy disks, to memory ears and a wire tail.

He also uses one of the finest quartz clock motors to keep accurate time.

The charming clock cat can go to your home, if you live in the United States, for $24.99 plus mail. That means no kitty for me. (via GeekAlerts)

Related posts:
Top 20 Strangest Gadgets and Accessories
Flip Clock

Posted by Bibi at 05:16 PM in Cats, Gadgets, Geek | Comments (2) ||

Möbius transformations revealed is a neat a short video by Douglas Arnold and Jonathan Rogness, and it's shared under a creative commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license. It depicts the beauty of Möbius transformations and shows how moving to a higher dimension reveals their essential unity.

The video was a winner in the 2007 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. The video (bellow) it's also available on the site to download in high resolution (130 MB). It was built primarily using POV-Ray and Mathematica, and the soundtrack (from Schumann's Kinderscenen, Op. 15, I) is performed by Donald Betts and distributed by Musopen.

Posted by Bibi at 04:55 PM in Science, Science, Video ||

60's & 70's Asian Pop Record Covers Photo Gallery with tons of covers uploaded by David Greenfield. This gallery contains scans of my ever-growing collection of rare 60's and 70's Asian pop singles. I mainly collect Singaporean titles, but I also have records from Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Thailand. Even with the cultural differences, many of those covers remind me French Yé-yé albums from 1960's.

More collections of album covers: Album Cover Art Collection of Links.

Posted by Bibi at 03:59 PM in Music, Vintage ||