Yes, I realise that summer is nearly here and snowboarding is the last thing on most of your minds but I found this interesting clip over on Paul’s blog, and it has more to do with passion than anything else. From the videos I’d seen of Scotty Wittlake, he always seemed like one of those people that was doing something he would do even if he wasn’t paid to do it  (prime example at the 1:00 min mark). Well that is literally the case now – he has chosen to walk away from all of his sponsors to ride purely for the love of it.

VIDEO REMOVED BY YOUTUBE.

I guess what it comes down to is you either want your job and your passion to be one and the same, or you want them to stay entirely separate. I think people are usually the latter for a couple reasons. It is too hard to make a living pursuing their passion, or the very act of making a living off of it ruins it. I guess this video justifies that fear. So on the one hand, it’s inspiring that he left his sponsors but on the other hand it’s really discouraging! So who out there is doing what they love for a living and still loving it? How are you doing it? I want to know…

Okay ladies and gentlemen, to celebrate the launch of the new site we have our very first project! The concept is simple. Take a photo of the sunset. That’s it! There is a submission form at the end of this post. I will gather up submissions and create a gallery of your submitted work. Be sure to include your name, email, and website so other visitors can see who made what! MORE…

So how many of your listen to podcasts? I am like 99 years late on this whole podcast thing but my sister got me listening to Rick Gervais’ Podcast and it’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time – I actually laughed out loud, by myself. It is the type of humour that you can’t explain to someone else. It’s like trying to re-tell a Mitch Hedberg joke! Anyone know what I’m talking about?

The show is essentially Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (creators of the The Office) making fun of their friend Karl. Karl is actually what makes the show hilarious. I am convinced that, although he appears like an idiot, he is actually the brains behind the whole show. I was going to try and write out a couple of the parts that actually made me laugh out loud but like I said it just doesn’t work like that.

I’ve uploaded an mp3 of The Best of The Ricky Gervais Show. Try to listen to this and get some work done – It just won’t happen. PS – My favourite part is the CB radio part, hahah oh man.. MORE…

Improv Everywhere is a constant source of inspiration for me. They are the guys organizing huge collaborative happenings in public spaces (mostly NY). You probably saw them “frozen” in Grand Central Station. Their latest project is not their most successful work to date (largely due to the rain) but I am amazed and inspired by the sheer number of people excited to come together for the sake of creating something (even in the rain).

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Are there any fans of Canadian hip hop out there? I dug up a little treat for you. If you don’t already know, allow me to introduce Red1, Misfit (and Dj Kemo) aka Rascalz. They released an album in 1997 called Cash Crop that every hip hop fan (at least in Vancouver) should have played to death – but a few years before that they released another album, Really Livin. This album is what I like about hip hop.

I was listening to a mix of hip hop songs from 1993 by Dj Ayres and I realised not many people talk about or are familiar with what was coming out of Canada around this time. Rascalz had a very distinct sound (thanks to Kemo) right out the gate and it’s a shame that no one else really ran with it or the pacific northwest could have had a really specific sound identified with it. Nowadays we have some really great hip hop acts like K-os and K’naan to be excited about, but these guys paved the way. MORE…

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to support Brave Art at the Ayden Gallery on Friday! Great turnout – the place was packed ! Tunes supplied by Rico and Dana! What more could you ask for? Oh yea booze – there was a slight hitch in the drinks department when the license was revoked but everyone seemed to stick around anyways. Here’s some random flicks from the night thanks to my pal, Rob.

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As I was going through my old Youtube favourites, I found this short film from 1996 by Vincent Bal called The Bloody Olive. This has to be up there for greatest short films of all time. A genius concept, perfectly executed, and great acting to boot. Give it a chance, if you watch this and you hate it you are even more stupid than you look.

PS – The only movie with more twists than this is the John Travolta classic, Basic. I dare you to go rent that film. The ending is “incredible”.

PPS – If anyone actually goes and rents Basic and can prove it somehow (with a photo of themselves watching it perhaps) I will give them a t-shirt.

Dan Mumford is a freelance illustrator/designer/screenprinter based out of London. He mainly uses pencils, pens, a tablet, and photoshop to create his work and coincidently that’s exactly how I make my work… oh yes, there’s one small difference – his illustrations are AWESOME.

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