Photos in motion

Monday, January 7th, 2008

Here are a couple of examples of a very neat little program called Sqirlz, which makes water-related animations out of photos. In the first example, of Villa Sonsbeek in Arnhem, I tried to capture the slow swell of a breeze-blown lake. I’d give it 5/10.

In the second example, more appropriate for this time of […]

Joggin’ in de sand in a Babylon land

Monday, March 27th, 2006

At the recent Commonwealth Games, Jamaica chalked up a remarkable score by winning every single sprint event!
It was all the more impressive given the small size of the population (2.7 million). So how come there are so many fast runners?
Well, if you also look at Jamaica’s ranking in the murder per capita table, you might […]

Dr Z

Tuesday, March 21st, 2006

I imagine many people have a mental list of books they would like to read but never get around to doing so. Top of my list was Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago. Somehow, each time I entered a book store or started browsing on Amazon, my mind would go blank and I would quickly be distracted by […]

Quiet night of quiet stars

Friday, February 24th, 2006

Dusk.
The tilers have flung their final obscenity down at the labourers below, carried the tools back to their boss and climbed into the back of the dusty pickup. The labourers in turn insult each other’s manhood, dust themselves off and head down the hill to the less leafy suburbs of Kingston. Some have cannibalized mountain […]

Bruno Bozzetto - Champion animator

Saturday, November 27th, 2004

This is Bozzetto’s hilarious take on how the Italians differ from the rest of Europe. I particularly like the cafe scene where you hear how many ways you can order your coffee. They know no shame in being fussy - on the contrary, it’s a sign of fine culture and good taste.
Un cappucco scuro senza […]