Europe

Dear Europe, Vote.

If you think the political turmoil and change has only been happening in America and the UK, you would be mistaken. A number of European countries have major elections this year, and the Nationalist, Take Your Country Back ideology is gaining traction.

Brooklyn based director, designer, and illustrator Erica Gorochow created a collaborative video about the upcoming European elections and how lessons gleaned from Brexit and Trump, might relate. The piece was made by artists who call the US and the UK home and is narrated in English. Turn on closed captions for French, Dutch and German and Italian if English isn’t your mother tongue. The animated short was produced with a crew of 23 US and UK artists and delivers a message to European voters ahead of the upcoming elections on “how lessons gleaned from Brexit and Trump, might relate.”

It’s a really nice animated short with a nice look and a solid message. The complete list of everyone that worked on this is listed below the video itself. It just goes to show you how many people can take to produce quality work.

DIRECTOR
Erica Gorochow

ARTISTS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
Alexandra Lund
Allen Laseter
Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits
Pablo Lozano
Johnny Kelly (Design)
Terra Henderson
Kyle Strope
Ege Soyuer
Nick Petley
Joe Donaldson
Jay Quercia
Brian Gossett (Design)
Louis Wesolowsky (Animation)
Freddy Arenas
Thea Glad
Lana Simanenkova
Yukai Du
Miguel Jiron
Bee Grandinetti
Damien Correll (Design)
Adam Grabowski (Animation)
Robin Davey

MUSIC + SOUND DESIGN
Upright T-Rex Music

SCRIPT
Erica Gorochow

ENGLISH VO
KK Apple
Jordan Craig
GERMAN
Saskia Keultjes (VO)
DUTCH
Wouter Boon (VO)
Martin Pyper
FRENCH
Julie Saunders (VO)
Adrien Joulie

The New Promised Land.

I spent a portion of my Good Friday reading the news, and catching up on the circus known as the Republican party campaign for 2016. All of it makes my head hurt and just gets me enraged. Especially when I read more of the ignorant hate speech Trump and Cruz spew out. I also spent some time reading about the growing refugee crisis in Europe, which made me decide to post the three animations posted below from Mira Ruldo. These videos were made by Ruldo for a Univision web documentary that tells the story of 5 young Syrian refugees who risked it all for a chance to start over.

The work is really solid, the stories are compelling, as well as the website which gives an in-depth look at what is going on, and why there is a mass exodus from Syria. If you think you know what is going on because someone trying to get elected, reelected, hold on to power, or a TV or Radio pundit told you in a 30 second sound bite you probably don’t. Visit the site, watch the videos, get informed. Take action.

I don’t care what political side you are on. Put yourself in the refugees shoes and then ask yourself what would you want the rest of humanity to do for you.

36 Cities, 21 Countries, 90 Nights.

I love traveling to Europe. I’ve been a number of times, and would go back in a heart beat given the opportunity. I was supposed to go to Italy earlier this year, but with the move and a couple of other things that trip has been postponed. The video below, by Luke Shepard is a tribute to some of Europe’s greatest architecture. The time lapse footage was shot in 36 cities across 21 countries over the course of 3 months. It really is a pretty stunning piece of work. The shots almost have a 3D quality to them, which is a testament to Shepard’s talents as a photographer.

DTWO Long Boards from Slovenia.

Slovenia isn’t the first place that comes to mind when the word “Skateboard” is mentioned. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a skateboard scene there, it just isn’t at the top of my list of skateboard havens. Now, with that said, check out this line os long boards from Slovenian maker DTWO.

These longboards are beautifully crafted from Slovenian Beech wood that grows on the sunny side of the alps. The boards feature progressive shapes inspired by surfboards with each board having a specific style of ride. The boards are carefully crafted with second dimension in mind and inspired by the beautiful Slovenian country side, deep valleys, urban madness and low lying coastal trails.