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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
*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!
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.”
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!
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:
Always inspiring to see old chum Chris Milk and creative collaborator Kanye West pushing the boundaries as they get geeky with a computer enhanced photoshoot for the “ultimate” cover of Complex due out April 7th. (didjaknow: Milk is equally accomplished as a photographer as he is a filmmaker)
Click cover below to see video on Complex
Also check out the computer generated stills from the Complex gallery by clicking the image below. And you can read the Kanye interview and cover story here.
Remember when I declared the mashup “officialy” dead with that lame Jay-Z/Radiohead album? Yeah, well maybe I spoke to soon ’cause a fellow champion named Adrian Champion just resurrected music’s Frankenstein monster with his White Stripes vs. just about every hip-hop great from the 90’s re-imagining called Stars and Stripes and is a (free) must download along with it’s instrumental version!
Highlights from the 13 track album include:
Sooo…um, yeah…as I was saying, the Mashup is dead, long live the Mashup!
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