are MORE proof that God loves us and just wants us to be happy.

And all together now…1…2…3…AWWWWWWW!

A shadowpuppet animation to Elvis Presley´s “King Creole.” Does it get much better than that? No sir it does not. It certainly does not.

Elvis Presley- King Creole from BillCanoni on Vimeo.

The numbing sameness in “Waiting for the End of the World” is downright palpable. You, like Petr, find yourself waiting for something…anything at all…to happen. But does it?

[Hint take it full screen for better watching.]

Waiting for the End of the World from Lee Deaville on Vimeo.

Lee Deaville is an independent filmmaker and all around creative type.

panoptiCONS is the brainchild of two street artists from the Netherlands. Thomas voor t’Hekke and Bas van Oerle are collectively know as “Helden.” And panoptiCONS is a series of get-under-your-skin installations of CCTV-headed birds placed around the city of Utrecht.

They camera-birds are an unsettling reminder of how we’ve become numb to the fact that we’re being watched on CCTV cameras all the time. We are being observed and recorded…tracked…as we go about our daily lives and few of us stop to even think about it at all anymore. The cameras have become part of our cities hardscape and go virtually unnoticed.

But these birds you notice. They remind you to feel at least a little bit uncomfortable and perhaps even a bit outraged. References to Big Brother are all to easy to make…a bit lazy even. This bit of street art takes it to a whole new level.

panoptICONS Utrecht 2010 from Helden on Vimeo.

I have a few habits that some may define as just slightly compulsive. Okay…okay… they are compulsive. I’ll admit it. (But there are worse compulsions to have. ) One of those habits is to collect electronic copies of random vintage ads that strike my fancy. Sometimes it’s the colors and the overall design that inspire me. At other times it’s the content and copy that tickle my noggin.

I think advertising tells us a lot about ourselves. Each ad is a sort of idealized snapshot of a certain moment in time. Our desires and dreams encapsulated into a shiny hope-filled package.

I suppose ads from our past can be seen in a negative light, with not a little bit of sadness. But I think they can also be seen as hopeful and as the projection of our best and what we believe we can achieve. I think the truth…as it usually does..lies somewhere in between.

Below are just a couple of my favorite vintage ads for state-of-the-art office electronics that I’ve collected. Great colors and inspiring style.

Check out that National  accounting machine. That woman is brave. That thing is crazy intimidating looking.

And I love the name of the glorified calculator…the Figurematic. And at just eight pounds it’s portable!

and wants us to to be happy.

I think not. After I stumbled across this little guy I took a quick spin around the web, but couldn’t find any info on him. I’m supposing that most octopus start out this small.

But even without any details that’s one adorable baby cephalopod. When he gets just a tad bigger he might like hanging out with this guy who also tipped the cuteness scale way past center.

These amazing frozen-in-motion photos are from a series called “Attempts to Fly” by talent?-he’s-got-it-in spades photographer Conan Thai.

I immediately felt some connection to them, but I wasn’t sure why. I soon realized that it’s because they remind me of the “flying” dreams I’ve had off an on for pretty much as long as I can remember. Except in my dreams it’s more like big bounding leaps with feathery landings…only to leap again. So I suppose they are more like leaping dreams.

I always enjoy those dreams. I feel so free in them.

Try not to laugh. I dare ya