The world of Gorillaz has been brought to life in an 8-minute animated film, an homage to the aesthetic of animated features from the 1960s, the golden era of 2D animation.
“If particular visuals couldn’t be achieved in that era, then we didn’t do them. We processed our digital pencil work to mimic photocopy degradation. We scanned real paintings at high resolution and finished the details digitally. It was about capturing the tactile quality that only real materials give you.”
[…]
“In a time of AI overload, this is our love letter to craftsmanship. We’re chasing the feel of pencil on paper. Paint on board. And all the imperfections that come with it.”
-Max Taylor
And to think, we could have had a full-length Gorillaz animated film in 2023 had Netflix not cancelled it.
This ongoing saga unfolding in an unnerving plain of existence was first uploaded January 7 2022. That is all I want to know. I mean know, that is all I know 😨
A young couple enjoys a quiet evening at home, over and over again, caught in some time-loop, temporal paradox. Revitalizing the found-footage approach, TIMƎLIKE is a well told lo-fi science fiction mindbender, riddled with cryptic clues of an unstable future.
March 1993, Madeline and her boyfriend are enjoying a quiet evening at home when they are interrupted by a visit from a stranger bearing a message from Madeline’s future self:
Written & Directed by Rich Boylan / Produced by Mel Hoy / Sound by Thomas Thompson / Madeline: Eva Jonn, Chloe: Mel Hoy, Rich: Richard Boylan.
Unnerving, right? I love its aesthetic, how it was all recorded on a VHS camcorder, and the flannel shirt and NOFX cassette playing in the background were nice touches too. The short is open to interpretation and theories, what remains clear is how amazing TIMƎLIKE is at creating atmosphere and intrigue from 8 minutes of film, while Hollywood seemingly struggles to produce original ideas — All credit to Boylan and his crew. Here he elaborates about the process;
“Footage was shot, captured and edited on Adobe Premiere, then the edit was dumped back to VHS and copied from one tape to another as many times as was necessary to get that nice worn out look. I did a few run throughs where I really messed up the tracking as it copied for scenes where I wanted additional distortion.”
Richard Boylan (definitely a person to watch) is a cinematic designer for video game developer Bioware, where he’s worked on the Mass Effect series and is currently working on Mass Effect: Andromeda. He also contributed this hilarious video to the Shia LaBeouf memosphere:
I suspect TIMƎLIKE is going to go viral, if not in this universe’s current timeline, then definitely in another. And this… Because my mind just went there
Meet Klaus Kemp, master of the Victorian art of diatom arrangement. Klaus Kemp, you are my new favourite person in the world. I find this incredibly life affirming for some reason; incomprehensible geometric organisms to the naked eye I otherwise would not have known about, that are as complex in their simplicity and just as mysterious as the wonders of our expansive non-declarative universe! And aren’t diatoms just the prettiest:
Soundtrack by: Ryuichi Sakamoto “Grasshoppers” / Bernard Herrmann “Brave New World” / Cults Percussion Ensemble “Circles”.
Diatoms are single cell algae that create jewel-like glass shells around themselves. Microscopists of the Victorian era would arrange them into complex patterns, invisible to the naked eye but spectacular when viewed under magnification. The best of these arrangements are stunning technical feats that reveal the hidden grandeur of some of the smallest organisms on Earth. Klaus Kemp has devoted his entire life to understanding and perfecting diatom arrangement and he is now acknowledged as the last great practitioner of this beautiful combination of art and science. THE DIATOMIST showcases his incredible work:
These aren’t laser beam dreams, but shapes made from illuminated string! How awesome is that! (I have an urge to play ‘Tempest X’ now)
On their quest for creating classic computer effects without the computer, Dark Matters continues the analogue feel from the “Matter” video.
The new Kenton Slash Demon video, Deamon is the take on analogue wireframes in the same naive universe. An abstract space opera about loadscreens based on Strings and nails.
This is crazy and belongs in Total Recall or something, but then again, The Gorillaz have been doing this for a while so maybe my astonishment is just a lost in translation thing.
Meet Hatsune Miku, she is a 3D projection and is apparently a mega-pop-star-sensation! Check out Miku as she performs in front of a livesold out crowd:
Since the runaway success of their recent album Nights Out, Metronomy are back with their next single, A Thing For Me. Underpinned by perfectly arranged guitar chords, drum machines and general electric trickery.
This is a cool group and I really like their sound [Electro-synth-pop] Very minimalistic and effective. Here is another one of their songs I like, “Heartbreaker” which I feel I can only describe as being kindhearted:
Currently on a free Vercel server, MTVRewind is a passion project operating on the edge of capacity; a guerilla archival project built by the developer Flex (@flexasaurusrex), this fan-made “time machine” has resurrected the channel’s original spirit.
MTVRewind is a staggering database of 33,931 music videos spanning six decades (1970s–2020s), presented without the glossy sheen of modern streaming services — enjoy:
The manifesto on the splash screen is a direct indictment of the modern web:
No ads. No algorithm. No login. Just pure random discovery.
The link will send you to another blog, a new (✨secret✨) writing project. Wherever
you are in the World, remember to have fun, and take care of yourself.
Let’s make 2026 a special kind of year 💪✍️
I wrote a flash piece for a flash, pop culture journal dedicated to film, TV, music videos, celebritism, and moving image media on the things we like to watch — please check them out and follow!
In The Mood publish triannually, so watch for their themed submission windows, should you have something fun and interesting to pitch/share (Gabrielle & Sennah, thanx)
(A.I. be damned!!) I love this frenetic, kaleidoscopic video, in no small part because of Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin’s awesome music; gives me future hope, & Y2K vibes:
Director: Felix Geen / AI Artist: Max Kreis /
Camera & Lighting: Josha Eiffel / MUA: Georgia Hope
“‘Dreamcatching’ is about all the places you want to know and all the places you’ll never go,” the band said in a statement. “The video uses AI neural networks to create the landscapes and worlds we long for in the lyrics, a computer’s interpretation of our dreams.”
This man knows how to squeeze a trigger and shed a damn fine tear. Bruce Willis will be stepping away from acting for good after a recent diagnosis of aphasia — a disorder that affects the brain’s language center and a person’s ability to understand or express speech.
This tribute-music-video is to you, Bruce Willis:
“I’m Bruce Willis” performed by Jeep Cherokee.
He’d probably hate that so much lol.
The video contained clips from every single movie Bruce Willis has ever appeared in…pre 2010… None as iconic as TheFifth Element, or Die Hard, or Twelve Monkeys, or Pulp Fiction, or The Last Boy Scout, or Unbreakable, of course, and I just watched Last Man Standing for the first time with bae and it was good, thank you Walter Hill. (I’m thinking Armageddon or Sin City next)
Be proud Mr. Willis, be Yippee Ki Yaymotherfuckingprou-😢-proud 😭
Personally, I don’t think these two brothers needed to engage themselves in low blow mockery and humiliation. That being said, comedy is disarming for a reason and Chris Rock is a professional comedian. Hollyweird must be a strange and alienating place to keep it together in, but damned if that wasn’t the most passionate live televised outburst not produced on an MTV reality show. …Or was it!?! (#ratings #sponsoredbylookoverherenow)
Like Chris Rock’s professionalism and Will Smith’s West Philly passion, the world responded in memes:
🎭 