Photo of the Day: Delicate Fingers Sensually Handling Shoes

Photography by:  Joseph O. Holmes, NYC

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Lucien: Meditation on a Life’s Peaceful End

There’s a feeling I get
when I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.

Lucien is a 2-minute animated short film created three young French filmmakers, Nathalie Corcessin, Djamel Meslem, and Pierre-Julien Vandenburie. Lucien is  a 2D film made in beautifully executed colors that’s a meditation on the peaceful ending of one old man’s life.  Guided by the man’s watchful, caring cat, old Lucien climbs a ladder high into the clouds, attaches himself to a glittering star and then peacefully glides off into heavenly eternity.  Ah, what a superior being, the cat.  Even their religious myths are by far much better (and believable) than those of men.

Lucien: Meditation on a Life’s Peaceful End

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Big Pussy: There’s Just Like No Good Words….

Big Pussy is a hilarious 8-min. short film written and directed by filmmaker Todd Strauss-Schulson, who’s been dubbed a younger version of Woody Allen.  The South By Southwest Film Festival asked Todd to premiere his new short Big Pussy in 2009, and the film was subsequently selected to screen at the world famous Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal and at the NYC Downtown Short Film Fest.  In the film,  a young, but very neurotic nice-guy struggles to build enough confidence to tell the girl he loves that her vagina has an…odor.  But how on earth will he be able to tell her something that he can’t manage to find the words to say?

The answer to the poor young fellow’s “vagina as nemesis” dilemma suddenly appears as a very funny, surprising twist of fate at the very conclusion of the film. Now, despite any concerns that viewers might have about watching this film, Director Todd Strauss-Schulson is quick to reassure everyone that his short film, Big Pussy, is “Very classy, I swear.  My mom likes it!” So without any further silly ado, here it is for your viewing, ahem, pleasure!!

Big Pussy: There’s Just Like No Good Words….

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Elegant Nostalgia and Utter Loneliness: All Hail to Taxi Cabs!

Photography by:  Joseph O. Holmes

Are you talkin’ to me?
Well, I’m the only one here.
–Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver”

All Hail to Taxi Cabs! is a superb collection of beautiful photographs taken of taxi cabs from all around the world.  From our own perspective of experiences as passengers riding in the cabs cruising around our towns and cities, many of the photographs of the taxis presented here are both old and rare, and can elicit both feelings of nostalgic reminiscence and memories from earlier times in our lives.

But these remarkable photographs draw upon yet another perspective, that of the often isolated taxicab driver.  “Are you talkin’ to me?  Well, I’m the only one here,” said Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver.  It is this last line, “Well, I’m the only one here,” that has seldom ever gotten quoted.  Yet, it stands as perhaps the truest line in the film.  In a sense, taxi drivers throughout the world represent people with a desperate need to make some kind of contact somehow, to share or mimic the effortless social interactions they see all around them, but in which they can’t or don’t really participate.  This feeling of utter loneliness is at the center of the film Taxi Driver.  We have all felt as alone as Travis.  Fortunately, most of us are better at dealing with it.

Elegant Nostalgia and Utter Loneliness: All Hail to Taxi Cabs!

(Please Click Image to View Slide Show)

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The Tadpole Who Wanted to Become a Pig by Eating a Pearl

The Tadpole Who Wanted to Become a Pig by Eating a Pearl is a 2-min. animated short film by Jun Seo Hahm. The film is part of the 2009 Twenty120 collection of officially selected short films, each of which centers on the common theme of In the Age of Opulence. The characters in Hahm’s film have a strong 3D aesthetic, but the film is actually hand-drawn digital vectorized 2D animation. Jun Seo Hahm’s highly eccentric little film defies any kind of easy interpretation, although it seems to echo a twist on the old Biblical admonishment against “casting pearls before swine,” a warning that things should not be put in front of people who either can’t or don’t appreciate their value. The film provides a bittersweet visual statement about the frustrations of living in an age of over-indulgent opulence, which seems to be a perfect combination of the whimsical and cute, but also very sadly disturbing.

The Tadpole Who Wanted to Become a Pig by Eating a Pearl

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Nude Skydive: Topless Women Plummeting Faster Than the Economy!

Nude Skydive is a very funny 2 1/2-min. commercial spot directed by Peter Harton for a Danish discount retail company.  The topless women are plummeting faster than the prices at Danish web discount retailer Fleggaard in this humorously racy web film!  While topless skydiving certainly sounds like it’s interesting enough, I’ve actually posted this because I just love it when a golf or tennis match gets unexpectedly interrupted!

Nude Skydive: Topless Women Plummeting Faster Than the Economy!

(Best Viewed in Full-Screen Mode)

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Lest We Forget: Freedom Comes at Great Cost

Don’t blame the devil
for the evils of man.

Lest We Forget is a 5-min. short film directed by Brandon McCormick and produced by Whitestone Motion Pictures. Set in a time of mortal combat during the Civil War, the film serves as a reminder that nobody lives in vain, and that sometimes someone even manages not to die in vain, even though every victim of every war is an unforgivable sin. Stand fast therefore in the liberty that has made us free, and let us not be entangled again with the yokes of bondage.

Lest We Forget: Freedom Comes at Great Cost

(Best Viewed Here in HD Full-Screen)

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