Born Slippy (nuxx)

(source)

When the movie Trainspotting was released in 1996, the director Danny Boyle had just made his breakthrough movie Shallow Grave, both featuring Danny's then favourite actor Ewan McGregor. Danny perhaps did not expect Trainspotting to be this phenomenal, and yet it is one of Danny's best works and it remains as one of the greatest movie about young adults, growth, and Scottish underworld culture made in 1990s.

Nevertheless, the movie is not what I'm going to talk about here. What I want to talk about is the one song that made the movie even more appreciated by the audience. The song is featured near the end of the movie (NO SPOILER!), and extends to the credit roll. The song is called Born Slippy (Nuxx), written and performed by English electronic band Underworld. Here's the official music video:

1990s saw the rise of electronic music. Underworld was one of the greatest bands that helped it go further. Underworld's predecessor was an electronic rock band founded in early 1980s by Underworld's members Karl Hyde and Rick Smith. The band gained little success, and broke up in late 1980s. Then Karl Hyde and Rick Smith started a duo, which was later to be named Underworld. Karl would be the vocal and the guitarists, and Rick would be in charge of the synthesisers.

Underworld's duo

left: Rick Smith

right: Karl Hyde

According to an interview with the song writer Karl in 2006, the main inspiration behind the song was Lou Reed's New York album and Sam Shepard's Motel Chronicles. Besides these great music, the inspiration behind the energetic and almost random lyrics Karl wrote was alcohol. He admitted he got really drunk one day, and he wanted to recreate what he had seen when he was drunk. In the song, he shouted "lager" for 12 times. The song almost became a drinking anthem.

A screen-cap from the movie

The boys are enjoying alcohol.

However, the song haunted Karl for a few years. Karl was very deep into alcoholism when he wrote the song. When he heard people treated the song as some sort of "Lager Anthem", Karl immediately became worried. He clarified the meaning behind the lyrics in another interview, saying the lyrics, on the contrary came from his horrifying experiences whilst overcoming alcoholism for many years, and the song should in no way become a drinking anthem. 

Of course, not all people who enjoy this song would know the inspiration behind the lyrics and Karl's bitter history of battling with alcoholism. Nowadays people would rather see the song as a rebel to social stereotypes, and an anthem to youth and living a unconventional life. And in the end, all we need to do is dance to the song, and appreciate the good thing Underworld and Danny Boyle have brought to us!

The Flour Sack Animation

I guess every animation artist starts with the flour sack sequence. I just made mine a few days ago. I like it very much!
The story is a flour sack jumps up, and images itself having wings, but then "pfff" the wings disappear and it drops. Then it faints (no death! it is supposed to be G rated!)

Here's the clip.

How I made this animation:

First of all, draw thumbnails of actions of the flour sack. In this case, we need the flour sack squished and stretched to show the movement of jumping. We also need the actions where it stops midair. 

Then draw the thumbnails in the right position on a separate paper. We can add more actions here. This will be the basis of further drawings.

Draw the actions one by one on different pages. Add more pages to make the movement smoother! (Of course you can capture first, and then decide if you need more)

(optional) draw a background for the animation. The background can be a separate animation or static frame.

Final Step: capture the animation using a capture station, and export the movie!

My prism

Here is my re-imagination of the prism. I am a big fan of the Silent Hill game series, and I really like the monsters in the game, especially the iconic Pyramid Head. I thought perhaps I could elaborate something artistic on this dangerous monster.
Well, the result doesn't make it any cuter :(

(original artwork)

Photos of the day

Here are a couple of photos I took around my school.

I don't know what kind of flower it is, but I'd like to appreciate Nature's use of complimentary colours here.

who says a fly can't look good? ;)

Tangled review

source

Frozen was the first disney movie I have seen in years. It was purely amazing. The story was very unconventional compared to other disney movies about princesses. So after that, I decided to watch the movie before Frozen, because many of my friends had recommended it to me. And it was no disappointment.
The story of Tangled is just another princess and "prince" story (except this time, it is not a prince). An innocent girl finds her true love, who is literally the first man she has seen ever. Sounds a little boring, doesn't it? What makes the magic works is, first of all, the princess is no typical princess. The princess, Rapunzel is a brave and adventurous young girl. She can take care of herself with a frying pan. Not one of those princesses, huh?
Since the princess is so distinct, the prince is quite different as well. Eugene, a.k.a. Flynn Rider is actually no prince. He is a burglar. And unlike the original fairy tale by Brothers Grimm, Eugene runs into Rapunzel by sneaking into the tower, when he is being chased by the royal guards. He is initially shown to the audience as quite a flirty and witty young man, but as the story proceeds, Eugene is shown to be caring and trustworthy. And, of course, how can a disney prince be called prince charming without a white horse? The white horse, Maximus is a proud royal horse, and he is not Eugene's ride in the beginning, and quite the contrary, Maximus is hunting down Eugene. Maximus eventually makes peace with Eugene, and becomes Eugene's sidekick.
The 3d animation is also breathtaking, especially considering the quality of the hair of Rapunzel. At last, the story is about a girl with extremely long hair. If this animation fails, the movie fails.

Rating: 8 out of 10
Will I recommend: Yes!

The Prism

Last Year, 2013, saw the 40th anniversary of the Pink Floyd's legendary album, The Dark Side of the Moon. The iconic album cover design by visual artist and band's friend Storm Thorgerson is forever remembered as one of the greatest album cover designs in history.
The prism and rainbow have now become the symbol of the band. It is simple yet impressive and meaningful. It is the visual representation of the subtle meaning behind the album's title, the dark side of the moon. It is about mental illness and lunacy. (based on Storm Thorgerson's interview in Classic Albums: Pink Floyd - the making of "The Dark Side of The Moon")
Now, let's take a look at contemporary visual artists' re-imaginations of this iconic design.

The 40th Anniversary Poster

These are my favourites:

The Pyramid, probably the most famous triangular-shaped building in the world.

The prism design takes on Yayoi Kusama's style.

(link)

A very interesting combination of pills and M&M

Who says the Pink Floyd can't be romantic?

The most yummy one

A tribute to the psychedelic era

Andy Worhol's Mao

We all may have seen Andy Worhol's Marilyn Monroe. His Mao is no less famous, but was he being political when he was creating this masterpiece, as we know Andy Worhol was not very political oriented artist.

Interior Design Practice: modern loft

This is my design of a modern loft using google app Planner 5d

The idea is to keep the design and colour palette as simple as possible, as personally I do not like redundant lines and shapes. The floor is inspired by North American heritage loft.