Herb and Dorothy

How can an 82-year-old former postal clerk and and 72-year-old librarian amass one of the most important collections of modern art around today? Looks like one part inspiration, one part dedication, and one part love (awww).

And somebody thought to make a movie about them! Thank goodness...

If anyone happens to be in or near Louisville on March 22 or March 26, go to the Speed Art Museum to see this film. It looks delightful.

Watch the trailer! Watch the trailer!

I need a bigger bed.

Despite the advanced state of digital animation and the romance of traditional animation (an animator drawing by the light of a single lamp, the pile of finished pages growing with each passing hour), I find myself increasingly partial to stop-motion projects. Stop-motion allows for plenty of artistic innovation while retaining a sense of play with the clumsy-halt-jerk of its signature movements; the slight catch between each frame lets the moment settle - it expands, and lends greater poignancy to what we are shown. A picture is worth a thousand words, and when each sweeping gesture is dissected into hundreds of photographs or frames, each incremental movement becomes a story unto itself. The story multiplies.

From the exaggerated clay-comedy in Wallace and Gromit, to the magical charm of Henry Selick's high-tech Coraline, to the unconventional grace of Israeli musician Oren Lavie's music video for "Her Morning Elegance," stop-motion animation gives me a lot to think about during my recreational criticism of pop culture topics.

Take a look:

Play me, I'm yours...

While trying to figure out today what city is halfway between Amsterdam and Sydney (to no avail...Google Maps won't let you walk or drive across oceans), I came across this art project in Sydney that placed public pianos all over the city. For most of January, these pianos were available for anyone to play or decorate. This is way better than the horses of Lexington. Maybe if they had been real horses that we could've gotten some use out of...


The idea of pianos as a public, shared, and free commodity has also been embraced by the main library in Amsterdam, where a piano in the foyer is open and available for anyone to play. The Amsterdam library is pretty wonderful in general. It was a main attraction during my excursion to the big city with friends last weekend. Click on the link above for more pictures.