Raghava KK, a world renown cartoonist/ contemporary artist, gave a talk at the recent TED Conference in February. Most known for this larger than life paintings that were done by his hands and his feet, Raghava gives an intimate glimpse into his 5 poignant and substantial marks in his artistic career that went hand-in-hand with his life’s experiences.

Death of Strangers

Flame (Painted with hands and feet!)

Yen

If You…

It’s an endearing talk, different from other TED speakers, because of his nervous giggles and boyish charm. He conquered so much by the age of 18, and continued that momentum well into adulthood and his artwork is representative of that.

If you are in the mood to listen to a great story and possibly be inspired, this is a video you definitely need to watch.

All photos via Raghava KK

Photo via Ithaca Times Art Blog

On March 1st, OK Go released its RGM video for the single, “This Too Shall Pass” off their newest album Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. Known for their outrageous, low-cost, and highly innovate viral music videos, OK Go, surprised us yet again with their collaboration with Synn Labs. The video was shot in a two story Echo Park warehouse and was directed by James Frost. One of the most elaborate and complex Rube Goldberg machines I’ve ever seen…(Didn’t know it had an official name and its own wiki page!)

What an amazing feat.

Even better! There will be an official launch party for OK Go THIS FRIDAY @ LACMA! Tickets are only $20 and can be purchased here.

Another reason we love our loyal fans. EikenhoutNL from the Netherlands, we wish we know more about you, but it’s people like you who make our lives so much happier! Thank you for making this super cute YouTube ad!

We hope he reads this post so we can track him down and send him some proper Poketo love.

Maybe a Poketo Youtube video competition should be in the works….

We’ve been listening to a lot of “Little Dragon” in the studio lately. Yukimi Nagano’s voice, slightly withered, and her soulful falsettos is hauntingly beautiful.

While “Indie” is a total understatement, and would not do their music any justice, they also kind of float in between soul, dance, rock, and reggae. It doesn’t really matter, I’m really just using this blog post as an excuse to show the band’s talent.

Fortune

Twice

I’ve really been digging their older stuff, when it was more soul and r&b inspired:

Constant Surprises

Can’t wait to see them at Coachella!!!

Not too many people can say that they’ve published multiple books, given inspirational lectures on reading and writing, and are considered humanitarians by the ripe age of 11. Meet Adora Svitak, the 11-year old prodigy writer, who was first discovered for her exceptional writing talent at age 6.

It was interesting to see her speak about her thoughts on former President Bush, as well as President Obama. Smart kid.

Here’s a poem titled, “The Philosopher” that she wrote:

The Philosopher

In his candlelit chamber…
The philosopher works…
Day and night…
Without a rest.

And so his work is credited…
Like the philosopher dreamed it would be…
And, his work done, he fell into the
Endless Slumber…
Which he well deserves.

Amazing.

I was so happy to hear that Spike Jonze teamed up with yet another company, Absolut, to create a 30-minute robot love story that was featured at Sundance 2010. Titled, I’m Here, the short film–or really really long advertisement, doesn’t feature any blatant plugs of the vodka, but like any other ad that’s out there, it’s suggestive. The movie’s trailer seems pretty cute. But when you get down to it, it’s an advertisement for alcohol, and tells us that by consuming Abolut, we too can have “out-of-the-ordinary” experiences.

True that.

Remember this hilarious IKEA commercial he did back in the day?

And my favorite, the mini music vid he did for Lakai. Pretty much the only thing I’ve seen out there that’s made me so moved by the actual sport of skateboarding. So beautiful.

Love that “Lone Ranger” touch he does at the end as the skateboarder rides into the sunset.

While going through my twitter feeds(@poketo), I saw a tweet from Slate Magazine that said “Surprisingly entertaining animated video about a Scottish sweater company” so I clicked on the link.

It was an animation by the famed Scottish artist, David Shrigley commissioned by a company called Pringle of Scotland. Frankly, I didn’t know anything about this company before seeing the video but I soon found out a lot and I’ll tell you why and how shortly.

The drawing by David Shrigley is so fun and charming, the animation, and music, perfect. The tone of the narration is so funny and light. I laughed out loud multiple times during the animation.

After the watching the video, I needed to find out more about the company, Pringle of Scotland. It wasn’t a simple sweater company as the video hilariously portrayed. It was a really high-end fashion label from Scotland. Their site features a section called ” Ad Film” where you can see Ryan McGinley’s film featuring the artiest of actresses of all, Tilda Swinton. It’s actually a really beautiful film. It brought back memories from 2 years ago when we went to Glasgow to launch the Poketo Glasgow Series.

How smart is their marketing? Commissioning David Shrigley to do a funny and quirky animation in time for the Milan Fashion show is so unexpected. I really admire their vision and confidence in their brand to know that they can produce, on one hand a total avant-garde poetry of a film with Tilda Swinton, and on the other an antithesis to what they’re really about, almost a satirical portrayal of the snootiness of the fashion brand that they are. They are so confident in their brand that they can just have fun with it.

Oh and their clothes… ABSOLUTELY BREATHTAKING!
Next time I’m at Barneys or Neiman Marcus, I’m so dropping major dough on one of those beautiful coats…
uhm…j/k

Love this video of flip book illustrating Parkour. Imagine how long it took for Marcus Troy to put this together. Awesome! Watch it and enjoy!

parkour motion reel from saggyarmpit on Vimeo.