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Inspired by Marco Brambilla’s video masterpiece Civilization (mentioned last year here and can be seen at the NYC Standard), hip hop’s resident artiste Kanye West decided to commission the genius video artist to power up his latest music video for “Power“. Oh excuse me, my bad, according to Kanye, “It’s not a video…it’s a painting!!!”

“Power” Single available now on iTunes.

Also…watch Brambilla’s process behind the scenes below and read details from the New York Times Vulture blog here.

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It seems as though the always crass, clever and comedic South Park has never been better as creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone lead Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman to tonight’s 200th show. From the episode “Medicinal Fried Chicken” two weeks ago (the town’s KFC is replaced by a medical marijuana dispensary leading to Stan’s dad giving himself testicular cancer and Cartman to a Scarface-like fried chicken habit) to last week’s episode “You Have 0 Friends” (Stan gets sucked into the Tron-centric world of Facebook, literally), the timely and scathing satire of South Park has far surpassed the likes of other adult oriented animated shows like Family Guy (random acts of unsophisticated comedy) and my beloved The Simpsons (sometimes solid but best days are behind them).

Tonight the gang get their just due as every celebrity the show has ever (hilariously) offended, from Tom Cruise to Kanye West to Mickey Mouse, exact their revenge on the town of South Park. Wednesday, April 14th at 10pm on Comedy Central.

Also…check out Boing Boing’s exclusive interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone here.

• Clip from “Medicinal Fried Chicken”

• Clip from “You Have 0 Friends”

• Teaser for South Park’s 200th espisode, “Our Day Has Come”

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The age old riddle “what did the five fingers say to the face?” is finally answered with this “candid” behind the scenes look at Spike Jonze giving Kanye West some direction on the set of their short film collabo, We Were Once A Fairytale. Somewhere Taylor Swift is giggling like a teenage girl.

Behind the Scenes With Kanye from We Love You So on Vimeo.

See the short in it’s entirety here: Kanye Does Kanye Directed by Spike Jonze.

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Our N.A.S.A. homeboys Squeak E. Clean (Sam Speigel) and DJ Zegon (Zé Gonzalez) have teamed up with Indaba music to give the musically inclined a chance to be included on the official remix album of N.A.S.A.’s critically acclaimed debut, The Spirit of Apollo (get it on iTunes now!). On the Indaba website contestants can take their own creative liberties by downloading the albums’ instrumental stems as well as the solo vocals featuring Kanye West, David Byrne, Chuck D, RZA, The Cool Kids, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Tom Waits, KRS-One, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Lykke Li, Santigold, George Clinton, Scarface, and M.I.A. among others. And in addition to being included on the remix album, the grand prize winner will also receive $1000 cash money for their work! Click here or read on below for entry and contest details.

Contest rules from Indaba music:

Remix the Gods of music. N.A.S.A., which stands for North America and South America, is an international collaboration between music aficionados Squeak E. Clean, DJ Zegon and their friends, family, and musical heroes. The Spirit of Apollo tastefully combines the sounds of Brazillian funk with soul, reggae, indie rock, old school hip hop and more, and includes superstar collaborations with some of the world’s best musicians.

Join this unbelievable all-star collaboration and land a spot on N.A.S.A.’s upcoming remix album! Download the acapellas and instrumentals from the entire album, including those from superstars like Kanye West and David Byrne. Mash ‘em up, remix, and record to create the hottest new N.A.S.A. track! You can submit up to 10 mixes for consideration by the judges!

Submissions are due by October 27, 2009 at 5:00 PM EDT

Voting starts October 27, 2009 at 5:00 PM EDT

Trailer I cut for the upcoming N.A.S.A. film documenting the albums creation

And in other N.A.S.A. related news:

• N.A.S.A. Touchdowns at the El Rey
• N.A.S.A. asks “Wachadoin?”

• A Date with the Date Farmers, Logan and N.A.S.A.

• THIS WEEKEND: N.A.S.A. vs. Japan, Milk Photography, 1000 Days, The Red Balloon Scores, To Catch a Dazed and Confused Thief

• Get Lifted With “Gifted” from N.A.S.A.

• More Music Videos From the World of N.A.S.A.

• UPDATE: N.A.S.A. Takes Off

• N.A.S.A. Cover Coverage

• N.A.S.A. Trailer Now Clear to Launch

• Wachadoin? A Victory Lap

• N.A.S.A. Launches “Money”

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The Spike Jonze directed short film We Were Once a Fairytale premieres today following the release of his other film over the weekend (congratulations to the #1 film in the country!) The 11 minute short is an exercise in life imitating art as the story follows a drunken night out with Kanye West being Kanye West: obnoxious and egotistical, sincere and heartfelt, and always misunderstood and misrepresented, for better or worse.

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The father and mother Fluxers known as Jonathan and Meg Wells continue to spread the messages of creative filmmakers as their Flux Screening Series delivers yet another stellar line up tonight at the Hammer. Featuring the Los Angeles premiere of Logorama, a spectacular animated action movie created entirely with corporate logos from renowned French design studio H5, the evenings’ program also includes new work from Spike Jonze, Jonathan Glazer, Chris Cairns, Shynola and much more.

From Juxtapoz:

“They say the average American is exposed to thousands of corporate logos every day. If that’s the case, then the new film Logorama directed by H5 has tons of content, as the animated action movie has been created entirely with corporate logos.

David Fincher does a cameo voice as the Pringles man/logo. The LA premiere will debut tomorrow night, Tuesday, September 15, 2009 from 7-11pm as part of the FLUX Screening Series at the Hammer Museum.

The surreal Spike Jonze short film We Were Once A Fairytale that he made with Kanye West will also be shown as well as Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. directed by Chris Cairns; Grizzly Bear “While You Wait For The Others” directed by Sean Pecknold; Dead Weather “Treat Me Like Your Mother” directed by Jonathan Glazer; Coldplay “Strawberry Swing” directed by Shynola; and Dix (ten) directed by BIF.”

Visit Flux.net for more information.

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N.A.S.A. music blasts off in Japan, Milk photos in San Diego, 1000 Days in LA, The Red Balloon gets scored live silently, and the cemetery screenings end the weekend on a high note:

• The space and time travelling N.A.S.A. team of Squeak E. Clean (Sam Speigel) and DJ Zegon continue their “Spirit of the Apollo” Tour ‘09 as they take their collaborative antics to Japan for a five show campaign starting tonight in Sendai.

• Old chumpchampion chum and award winning music video director (Gnarls Barkley, U2, Kanye West), Chris Milk opens his first photo show at the W Hotel in San Diego this Saturday. Featured will be the computer enhanced cover photos of Kanye Chris recently shot for Complex magazine.

• Scion Installation L.A. opens the group show featuring eight emerging artists with 1000 Days in celebration of the the upcoming 1000th feature for DailyServing.com.

• The Cinefamily at the (not-so) Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax hosts a screening of the children’s classic The Red Balloon with an accompanying live score by AsDSSka (Aska Matsumiya and David Scott Stone) and Lucky Dragons shown with a bonus live sing-along with the L.A. Ladies’ Choir.

*Bonus bonus: There will also be a record release party and screening of AsDSSka’s music video for “Hold On” directed by Spike Jonze and Crystal Moselle at Family!

• And finally, Cinespia and the Hollywood Forever Cemetery keep the summer outdoorsiness going with screenings of Hitchcock’s thriller To Catch a Thief on Saturday and closing out Sunday on a high note with Linklater’s comedy Dazed and Confused.

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Last year we created the Make Something!! workshop series through a partnership between our film Beautiful Losers and Nike Sportswear where artists and filmmakers from the film taught classes to high school kids in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Miami on the D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) aspects of art-making. The results were as inspiring as they were rewarding (Check out video and pics from the classes we taught, and my editing workshop too). The initiative, created by Aaron Rose and teacher Stefani Relles, was such a success that Nike has continued to keep the programs going across the country. And now what was once supposed to be on the hush hush is now made public as Kanye West has joined in on the educating of today’s youth and tomorrow’s artists.

From Mr. West via The Wooster Collective:

“I believe every child is born an artist. That ability to express ourselves freely is inherent in every child, whether it’s through singing, dancing, drawing or playing. Somehow as we get older society and culture dampen that spiritmaking us self conscious about expression. I believe Programs like Make Something!! help to keep this creative spirit alive as well as show kids that being an artist is a viable career path. As public funding for schools and artsprograms continue to be cut, programs like Make Something!! are critical to breeding future generations of artists who can contribute to the greater cultural fabric that keeps America forward thinking and progressive.”

Click here to read the entire interview with much more from A. Rose including why Make Something!! is for you especially if you hate school.

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Master painter/sculptor/Kanye West inspirer, Takashi Murakami continues his collaborations with Louis Vuitton with the Multicolor Spring Pallete collection. And to commemorate their latest pairing, Murakami has released the trailer for his animated short film entitled Superflat First Love. Premiering April 28th, 2009, Superflat First Love is the follow up to the Superflat Monogram project Murakami created with LV back in 2003. For now you can feast your eyes on the 15 second trailer which doesn’t say too much yet. But like all Murakami’s work, animated or otherwise, be prepared for something bold and beautiful.

More Murakami from his legendary show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles :

And just for kicks, here’s Murakami’s Inochi, (my favorite robo-alien-horny Japanese kid) :

And don’t forget about Kaikai & KiKi!

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The other day the web almost imploded when the trailer for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are was released. Now Spike’s younger brother Sam (Squeak E. Clean of N.A.S.A.) continues the owning of the internets with his latest contribution, “Gifted” featuring Kanye West, Santigold, and Lykke Li. Just like the four other tracks released from their debut album The Spirit of Apollo, they’ve released an accompanying music video. This time around it features the animations of Three Legged Legs and is once again guided by the ever steady Syd Garon.

And here’s Sam talking about how he and Ze managed to bring all the talent together to create the year’s most collaborative album:

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