confabulation nation

St. Vincent’s video for “Laughing With A Mouth Full Of Blood” with the hilarious Thunderant (aka Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein).

Greg and I spend half of our lunch break everyday basically saying these things.

by Mel Stringer

“Box Fort”

(source)

Barbara Kruger (fellow SVA alum)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - “Skeleton”

Hauntingly beautiful.

From artist Niami’s flickr: “A short project that adapted part of William Burrough’s Naked Lunch. Produced in a space of two nights. 2007.”

Check out the rest of the series and other incredible drawings, paintings and comics.

You’re welcome.

Les Soirees de Poche over at La Blogotheque is just killing it — elegantly shot, casual, intimate performances by Beirut (above), Vampire Weekend, Kings of Convenience, Bowerbirds, St. Vincent and Andrew Bird, The Walkmen, Bon Iver and more. A definite must watch.

A man lives inside an empty water tower atop a building in Midtown. No one knows how long he’s been there or why, if the tower is no longer in use, it hasn’t been torn down. But there it is and there he stays, communing only with the mangy pigeons and other birds brave enough to mix it up with a stinky, half-crazed man who resides in an urban silo. He gets his one daily meal from St. Bart’s on 51^st by lashing scores of his feathered friends together with an ancient, fraying rope and floating down to the side door of the old church, where he silently takes his place in line with the rest of the bums, addicts, immigrants and casualties of the economy. And no one notices because no one wants to. But if they did, they would be amazed at his gentle familiarity with the flea-bitten flyers – how they become tame at his touch, acquiesce to be tethered together like so many helium balloons, the excess line wound tight around his one good hand, and how they always drop him slowly, like a drifting feather, in the same spot at 5:35 pm. To show his appreciation he releases them immediately, knowing full well he can find others for the return trip. But they stay by his side, hoping for a half of a day old bagel to share between them before they shoulder his weight for the more difficult ascension. And he so often delivers. They are the only ones that will care for him, so he likes to return the favor. And that’s how it should be, because no one notices the unlonely man with mouldering clothes and a bad arm who lives in a rusting water tower in the clouds of Park Avenue because nobody wants to.

Pssst…The End, part of a project with PSST Pass It On, is a vibrantly colored, 2D and stop motion animation replete with a vomiting puppet short that’s a delight for the eyes.

(source)

A video for film lovers…

Facts About Projection by Temujin Doran, a projectionist in Islington in London, provides a charming glimpse into a dying art form.

(source)

First leak from Have One On Me, Joanna Newsom’s new album coming out February 23rd, titled “Good Intentions Paving Company”.

It all ended as quickly as it had begun. Big fat flakes, almost perverse in their scope, in their desire to blanket the earth, were completely erased. No debris on the sidewalks, just a drab steel gray sky that pleaded with the city’s denizens to ruin their day. And Jon let it because that morning he realized he didn’t love the turtle, never has. At one time he thought he could learn to love it, he created a list of its positive attributes (that wasn’t entirely truthful) and tried to believe it, but it was no use. He and the turtle were at an impasse — one of them had to go. So Stacey chose the turtle, and Jon chose to jump off the Empire State Building right after his morning mochaccino. He hit a terrace on the way down and his foot — sock, shoe and all — landed on 33rd Street while the remainder laid to rest on 5th Avenue.

My dear Jesse, creator of the soon-to-be worldwide animated phenomenon, Nature Boy, has been entertaining me for several weeks with  “11 Days With James Spader” (the name really says it all). I think it’s high time you check it out.