One Minute in Mexico

You guys ever been to Mexico? I had a chance to go down there a few years back, and I finally found out what the term 'earthy' means in regards to food. Traveling from Mexico City down to Oaxaca and Acapulco, I found out that the 'Mexican' food I'd been having was a farce all along. Real tacos don't have hard shells. Nachos are bullshit through and through. Tex-Mex is an unholy, yet delicious amalgam of it's own.

True Mexican food was a punch in the face, in the best way possible: Rich flavors, fresh ingredients and some of the most amazing hangover meals at some of those 4am back alley Taquerias, expertly navigated by my local friend. The Perrenial Plate created One Minute In Mexico to be a visual guide to the two weeks of eats they had traveling around Mexico, and damn does it look delicious.

What Would You Do With $25,000?

Casey Neistat is part of a rare breed on Youtube, dedicating most of his submissions to a good cause and raising light to various social issues. When he was recently approached by 20th Century Fox to create a 'follow your dreams' short film as a marketing move to raise awareness for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 

In an awesome turn of events, Casey managed to turn this opportunity into a straight charity attempt to deliver $25,000 of aid to one of the hardest hit cities in the recent Philippines typhoon, Tacloban. While the video starts off chipper enough, it all becomes sobering once we're given a glimpse to the sobering conditions the population is reduced to living in. Thanks to his efforts over 10,000 meals, equipment and medicine were provided to the local populace. If you're in a giving mood these holidays, donate to Unicef's efforts in the region.

Face-O-Mat Travels Around The World

While our interaction with machines does facilitate our day to day life and make us more efficient, machines cannot replicate a simple smile..Until now that is. A rather silly idea by Tobias Guttman called the Face-O-Mat has ultimately ended up taking him around the world since it's inception in December 2012, creating over 700 abstract portraits for participants. From Stockholkm to Dar Es Salaam, London to Tokyo and beyond, the Face-O-Mat continues it's journey to generate smiles.

You can follow the progress of Tobias' ingenious invention and it's journey over on Facebook and Tumblr. Check out the original video for the Face-O-Mat right after the break!

Turning Weapons Into Instruments - Pedro Reyes' "Disarm"

Pedro Reyes 'Disarm' project is a pretty interesting look at an artist using his ingenuity to turn weapons of destruction into those of expression. Reyes sourced his raw materials from seized cartel arms, which were later used to assemble his pretty sophisticated robotic band installation. As he put it best: It's the redemption of metal that could have taken your life or mine.

Disarm is actually the second generation of instruments built after his 2012 project Imagine, which also used remnants of the weapons that the Mexican army had collected and destroyed. This series however was made in collaboration with a team of musicians and Cocolab, and media studio in Mexico City. These new pieces can be programmed and operated via computers, making them capable of performing music concerts with compositions prepared beforehand.

Prefunerale - Celebrate Your Pre-Death

As a response to a slight tasteless, and rather strange coming of age trend that's emerged in Italy's 'Dirty south,' (I'm Italian, that's what I like to call it) director Salvo Nicolosi created a pretty hilarious jab at the 'Predicciotesimo,' a trend of making bizarre glamour reels to celebrate someone before they turn 18. Examples of this Pre-18 trend prove that it's a rather tasteless, trashy affair, so in an effort to one up this trend he decided to shoot the Prefunerale, celebrating the ultimate life event in style.

Luigi Virgillito is the proud trendsetter of this mock celebration, showing off his preparation for death in a rather dapper fashion. It's dark, hilarious and ruthless in picking apart the type of exploitative things that parents make their kids do. Kind of like Italy's equivalent of those gaudy child beauty pageants in the US.

Peruvian Prison Aerobics

Taking place in Peru's notorious Lurigancho prison, Storyhunter's documentary gives us a peek into a strange cultural phenomenon in the form of large scale prison aerobics, prevalent in some third wold country prisons. Known as 'Full Body,' in Peru, the doc follows the explosion of the program within the confines of the prison system, as well as an attempt to break a world record for the most people performing the routine. Anyone get the feeling this will be the next big thing hitting the paid advertising circuit sometime soon?

Convicted of kidnapping, Alejandro Nuñez del Arco brings together more than one thousand inmates to practice Full Body aerobics in the courtyard of one of Peru’s most notorious prisons. With armed guards peering from above, Nuñez del Arco attempts to break the world record for the most people simultaneously performing the exercise, whether inside a jail or not.

Ten Things We Love About Italy

Created by the foodie oriented folks at the Perrenial Plate, 10 Things We Love About Italy is a dangerously appetite building, high energy tour featuring ten staples of the Italian diet and it's many different variations and applications. In order, the whirlwind tour covers pasta, pizza, espresso, olive oil, truffles, wine, parmesan (Aka Parmiggiano Reggiano), balsamic vinegars, gelato and prosciutto! Brace yourselves for some machine gun style editing in this quick, gastronomical tour of a beautiful country.

Pathfinder - Iceland

Created by Andrew Walker during his 17 day trip to Iceland, Pathfinder is a chronicle of striking imagery witnessed in the month of June, which has some of the longest days of the year in the region. Covering around 4,000 miles while exploring the island during that period in an SUV, this journey allowed him to witness amazing landscapes ranging from beautiful to outlandish and nightmarish. Most shocking was his choice of music, opting to go with the brash Immigrant Song from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo instead of the typically chill, minimal soundtracks that accompany these types of visual travel logs.

One Minute Memories

Created by Australian artist Luke Saunders an an in-between project, meaning after work hours, weekends and after many cups of coffee, One Minute Memories is a personal piece inspired by Luke's most vivid, abstracted visual memories of traveling through the diverse archipelago of Indonesia. The project ultimately allowed him to experiment with new mediums and animation techniques, as well as providing him with a much needed creative boost.

In Luke's own words: 'As every working creative knows all too well, dealing with clients and the rigmarole of full time studio work can dampen your spirits from time to time. I travelled to South East Asia earlier this year, and inspired by the sights, sounds and noises of Indonesia, promised to myself that I would create a piece dedicated to my travels there.'

Fragments Of China

Ever have those memories about a trip, visual fragments representing the most memorable moments of an experience that never quite leave you when you reminisce? Thomas Blanchard's Fragments Of China is a visualization of just that, his most beautiful moments during his trip to China, moments that evoked emotions in both himself and his subjects. As he best put it in regards to his intention with this short film: 'With this film, I wanted to convey the nostalgia I feel now. China is really a very beautiful country.'

Give Three-Piece A Chance

This is the type of thing I'd expect to see from a flash mob group like Improv Anywhere, but this rather tongue in cheek protest had a definite significance to it. The group, clad in some truly awesome looking multi piece suits set out to protest the opening of an Abercrombie and Fitch on Savile Row, a street best known for housing some truly talented custom tailors, a trade that the group believes is under threat.

I can definitely appreciate people trying to preserve an iconic street from being overrun by purveyors of overpriced crap, especially with their classy approach to protesting. Another interesting fact is that the actual building that A&C is planning to move into is the famous No.3 Savile Row, home of Apple Records. If you know a thing or two about the Beatles, they gave their final performance on the rooftop of that building back in 1969. Lets hope that these guys can win (As they put it) their 'war on vulgarity.'

Holi By Variable

Holi is a Hindu festival held in mainly Indic countries, also referred to as the 'Festival of Colors,' which is a celebration of a new season, good harvests and fertile land. People celebrate this even by throwing colorful scented powders, perfumes and other bright materials at each other. The vibrant nature of the festival symbolizes the departure of winter and the colors typically associated with the season.

Variable and the post production house The Mill collaborated to capture the essence of this festival using a borrowed Phantom Flex. The folks at Variable left a small note as to why they created this, stating that, 'The fast paced lifestyles of our generation result in many not taking the necessary step back to soak in the existing world around us. Our goal with this film is to help viewers further appreciate and take notice of the beauty in life & culture that lies within our world.'

Metalheads By Jörg Brüggemann

Jorg Bruggerman set out on a worldwide journey to capture the more international aspects of the heavy metal phenomenon, tapping into scenes as far away as Egypt to see how the music brought people together. Using nothing but an analog camera as an exercise which he explains and justifies in the video, he captured portraits of people from the metal fandom around the world over the course of three years for a recently released book, 'Metalheads: The Global Brotherhood.'

Sunshine : The Modern Mad Men

I absolutely loved this slice of life documentary by Doug Nichols, taking a look at the world of exotic fast food marketing through the eyes of a freelance American ad producer. In fifteen minutes it gave us an intimate, well rounded look at the frustrations, cynicism and optimism of an artist conflicted by a job that pays the bills but ultimately clashes with his innermost beliefs.

Its a fascinating, and very true look at how most artists ultimately come to a crossroads at one point or the other during their career. One that either leads them to pursuing their own self expression and style, or pursuing a route of financial stability at the expense of their identity. Which direction would you choose?

Where Do We Land?

This fun minidoc by Converse follows a group of international skaters heading to the beautiful region of Mongolia to film an exotic skating video featuring local talent. The one thing they weren't expecting: Aggressive, rock throwing locals, chill skateboard loving cops, and the stunning beauty of the Gobi desert. The same group is currently working on a feature on the Thai skateboarding scene called "Chaiyo," coming out in February. Check out the trailer below.


"Chaiyo" (Trailer) Preduce Skateboards Thailand from Patrik Wallner on Vimeo.

An Intimate Look At Syria: Pre-Revolution

A minaret looms over Damascus.

With the advent of 2012, I'd like to share a little story about my background. Despite being born in Italy, and being currently situated in Austin, I kind of had a bit of a strange upbringing..Growing up traveling from place to place depending on where my parents' work took them. However, around the mid nineties my parents decided to settle down in the capital of Syria, Damascus and start their own business as contractors for foreign interests. As a result I spent quite a few years as an expatriate in an  Arabic country, and had enough time to pick up the language, gain a few friends and really grow to love the place.

This year marks the very first time in years I haven't been able to go back to visit my folks due to the unfortunate turmoil that has enveloped the country, and it's not easy sitting back and watching the downward spiral unfold. In a way I kind of feel like I'm losing a place that I called home for quite a few years, which has been a very uncomfortable issue to deal with. My heart goes out to the Syrian people in their struggle. The purpose of this post is to shed a little light on the rarely seen side of these middle eastern countries and everyday life prior to recent events. These photos were gathered in late 2010/early 2011 prior to the uprising. Check out over 200 photos after the break.

6/15 Update:
My family has been forced to leave Syria, and the future is uncertain at this point. We're scattered across the globe and it seems like the future of the place I once loved is set to spiral into civil war. At least I have these memories.

Portrait Of A Sword Maker

A very cool, 4 minute look at the art of Katana crafting from the perspective of one of the 30 masters currently doing it for a living. Its awesome to see what this craft means to them on a personal level, and their emphasis on tradition. The fact that this man spent 40 years trying to master creating just one sword is pretty awe inspiring.

Kanamara Matsuri(かなまら祭り): The Fertility Festival (NSFW)

I recently heard about the Kanamara Matsuri festival (aka Steel Phallus) during an interesting conversation at a bar..And decided to kind of look into it. Despite thinking that someone was simply messing with me, turns out that this Shinto fertility festival is anything but fiction. The festival is held in Kawasaki, Japan on the first Sunday of each April, and centers around phallic imagery. The shrine is intended as a place to help boost fertility, maintain harmony in relationships and help business.

Fun fact: Turns out that one of the items at the shrine (An iron phallus) was supposedly created by a blacksmith to break the teeth of a sharp toothed demon who hid inside a girls privates...That's right, the legend of the vagina dentata originated in Japan, and probably inspired the 2007 movie called 'Teeth' about a girl with some seriously messed up junk.

Control By Spoek Mathambo

SPOEK MATHAMBO - CONTROL from spoek mathambo on Vimeo.

A seriously cool music video by the South African artist known as Spoek Mathambo. Aside from having an incredibly unique musical style that draws heavily from his roots, the music video shines a light on a rarely seen side of the South African population. Beautiful stuff.

Mexican Pointy Boots

It's amazing what happens when Mexican Tribal music is translated into the world of fashion! The phenomena of the Mexican pointy boots has to be seen to be believed. Just be wary, some mildly NWS content towards the end of this mini documentary.

At first glance it seemed this was a mockumentary, but since it was broadcast byVBSTV: a network started by Vice Magazine, it's credibility holds up. VBSTV has correspondents all over the world, showcasing the most interesting international subcultures, sports, music, and events.