Mother! oh Mother! Merry Christmas.

Miracles do happen.

Shaffi Mather: A new way to fight corruption

Ryan Lobo: Photographing the hidden story

The 10 most innovative viral videos of 2009

Sunitha Krishnan's fight against sex slavery. Goosebumps!

The Art of Tittle Sequence

Luke Sullivan just shared this link on facebook.
Amazing find.

The Mill Creates a bespoke rig for this iPhone-shot spot

Anupam Mishra: The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting

Anupam Mishra gives amazing examples about the intelligent architecture and engineering planning done in Rajasthan - The desert area of India. The examples shown here should make the modern Municipal Corporations in India shameful.
Love his spirit. Makes me proud!

Devdutt Pattanaik: East vs. West -- the myths that mystify

A very insightful video explaining the different cultural behavior and belief of east and the west. This will help you understand when we Indians behave the way we do. Have the beliefs that we have. It also helps us understand the western culture and thinking.

(Currently embedding of the video is not allowed. Smart Ted. Will update later. Please click on the link above. You don't wanna miss.)

Apple bottom jeans! Smack smack!

I had seen this long time ago. It makes me laugh even today!

Love the title sequence

Gujarati Rap

A gujarati and english rap fusion. The video explains the journey of an Indian who has taken the flight to western shores leaving behind his family. All the students who have come abroad can relate to this.

River City (Richmond, VA)

Yeah, this is Richmond. My home in US of A.

Western Spaghetti by PES

15 Illustration Blogs You Should Know About

PAINTBALL POP ART

EveryoneForever

D&AD Presidents Lecture / Matt Pyke

Blu and David Ellis partner on a living mural

Italian street artist Blu collaborates with David Ellis on a time lapse work of art.

8-Bit

Publicity stint or a co-incedental reality?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Shah Rukh Khan Detained at Newark
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

I am going to watch this movie soon!

This promo seems mesmerizing. It is written, directed and produced by Tarsem Singh. I assume the Art Direction is just going to be fabulous. I wonder how I missed this film.

I agree pretty amazing.

Soon this should be utilized in a movie or a TV spot.

Call Center - Before Slumdog era II

Call Center - Before Sulmdog era

East comes to Times Square

In the post Sulmdog Millionaire era when the whole world has woken up to Bollywood thumkas, here is another street dance performance to lure the Americans, NRI (Non- Residential Indians) and Desis. I give a thumps up.

Photosynth

Virtually Physical

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

This facade projection project by urbanscreen transforms a two-dimensional surface into a multi-dimensional space by adding depth, time and sound.

Wow

Played long tennis for first time.

This was one of the most important days of my life in last 2 years.
I got to meet my brothers Mehul and Jigesh after about 3 years.
While I was still in India, one of them had moved to US as a permanent resident and other followed to come here and finish his MBA.

It was a perfect day, to play tennis. I had fun and discovered I was good at forehand shots. After being on court for a while, I discovered I handled my camera better than I handled the racket.

In between interviews and trying to stick to my beliefs as to where and what kind of work I wanna do, I am also trying to make most of my time while here in USA. I wish more such days are in store.

Best Summer Movie Trailers

The high line, so cool!

Delayed cherry blossom pics

I walked 7 miles in 2.5 hrs

Long weekends are times when most get out of the city and travel. This Memorial Day weekend everyone I know has traveled to Niagara Falls. Unfortunately my plans to travel and go see one of the natural wonders of world fell apart when my 2 brothers could not come to a consensus. But then the silver lining was that I am home alone. No room mates. No drama. 2 more of my friends were here in Richmond for various reasons. So we decided to go hiking at Shenandoah Valley. We took the 3 mile trail to Sherando Lake. It was great. Perfect weather. Only mistake we made was we didn't carry any food or water with us. But the small doses sugar supply from chewing gum helped us get back to our car. It felt great out in the green.














Photography: Jeenal Shah


The team: Kunal, me and Skekhar.

Favorite picks from Britan's Got Talent

Susan Boyle.
'I Dreamed a Dream' from Les Miserables.


Flawless.


Sue Son.


Jamie Pugh
'Bring Him Home' from Les Miserables.


Greg Pritchard
Nessun Dorma


Shaun Smith
'Ain't no sunshine' by Bill Withers from Just As I Am.


Natalie Okri
'No one' by Alicia Keys.


Aiden Davis
Dances on 'Apple bottom jeans' by Flo Rida ft T-Pain

Diversity (click here to see the video)

There are more wonderful acts on this show. But the ones above are what I recall most from this season.
The results for the finals are out. And quite frankly out of the total 8 semifinalists, only Susan Boyle and Diversity made the cut for me. I am glad that was what Britan and the judges thought too. With others I thought their first audition performance was the best.


Susan Boyle.
'Memory' from Cats.


Diversity

Get your own iphone!

I followed Julian's account on YouTube and found these short films/ads on iphone. check it out.

Vocalised Emotions

I am trying.






I have.



Difficult.



True.



Fuck yeah!




I do, I do.





Yeah.

source: ffffound.com

Virtual Tours

I want to travel all around the globe in my gifted life time. I have already seen Mumbai because I was raised in this city. I have been to New York couple of times. I had to go there. It is the hub, there are 10s and 100s of people around you all the time. This city reminds me of Mumbai makes me feel at home. I get nervous if I am the only one walking down the street.

I want to visit London, Paris, Sydney, Amsterdam and all the big cities. But before I earn enough or have any kind of opportunity to visit these cities, pixelcase.com is giving us an opportunity to have a virtual tour of some of the famous cities in the world.

Check out the bird's eye view of New York city. And a tour of some places in London.

Is this a fact or a promise?

source: ffffound.com

In my 59th amazing week at school

Yay! I made it. Just one more week to go. But the craziness continues in life.
Njoy this video for now.

BHARATIYAM - Rejoicing the spirit of India in USA

2 weeks ago, we had our cultural event organized by TIRANGA at VCU. The theme was traditional Indain folk dance or music. It was a tough call for me to make a commitment for this event. Our Goggle presentation at Brandcenter was postponed by a week. So it was exactly 2 days after this event. I wanted to be good at it. But then again performing at Bharatiyam was kinda my last chance as a student. I wanted to dance. Badly.

I think for situations like this, Brandcenter had a Cultural Exploration class. Kelly once said - we should always do something we like on our weekends. Never give up on your hobbies when you get into the real world. Let culture influence your communication rather than advertising done in past. All the conversations from the Cultural Exploration class I took last semester suddenly started making itself heard in my head.
They were telling me to do it! This was the test, do I succumb to work pressure or do I try to juggle between the two? This was my last attempt as a student to perform without any pressure of being judged. This was my last chance to perform in front of my community. But then if I do commit, am I being unfair towards my other team members? Will I be fair towards my commitment to Goggle assignment?
This was the white noise in my head.

My zest to perform conquered over the worries. I made a commitment of devoting 2hrs a day to practice. We would practice from 10 -12 p.m. This wasn't easy. Since we were not professionals, dance practice for the first 5 days took a toll on us physically. However, we were determined. We arranged for cloths and some jewelery from Indians staying in Richmond whom we don't even know. They willingly agreed to share their belongings to help us out with the event. I arranged some jewelery which was absolutely necessary for the dance from India (I call this insourcing). Woof!

Despite work, exams, submissions and, quizzes we performed.
Check it out.



(I am playing the role of female in brownish sari on the right side of the screen in the video.)

This made me happy. It took the pressure out of my life for the next 2 weeks.
There was something I could talk about to my friends at Brandcenter that I did on a weekend. I was able to allow my culture to influence me again.
I plan to stay loyal to this commitment.

Kelly, thank you so much for taking that class.

Now, back to work till I dance to an opportunity that knocks again.

NOTHING

Concept: Alrik Koudenburg
Design: Joost van Bleiswijk
Photographer: Joachim Baan

Just amazing interior design concept for an Ad agency. Office made out of cardboard.
The idea of Nothing - as an agency manifests itself into office space. No screw, No glue. Only cardboard. The best part is we can draw on any surface we wish to.

I would wanna work there!

Just amazing!

I bit of humor with Typography

VCU vs UCLA, cannot believe VCU lost

If there was any sport I got passionate about in USA, it was basketball. If there was any team I am a big fan of, it was VCU mens basketball team. They are pretty good. And Eric Maynor is a star. In the last game they played at home court, we had bruised our hands cheering, banging the acrylic sheet kept to cover the seats.

NCAA East region opening match between VCU and UCLA was a big deal here at VCU.
Our regular brain storming session shifted from Brandcenter to Chilli's because of the College Basketball season. All the guys had their brackets set. Tristan, Charles and Tony were the leads. But after Iowa lost, Tony slipped down. We were at the table with beer and chips courtesy Tristan.

Mark Fenske passes by and stops have a small chat. We talk about the project we were doing. Then, we talk about basketball. And he is like do you follow? I answered I have planned to watch it tonight. VCU will create and upset. He is like do you know The New York Times has carried out an article about VCU, and hands over the sports section of the newspaper. Indeed, the paper was raving about VCU and Eric Maynor. He is the star. We end our meeting.

I head home to cook food and get ready to watch game scheduled at 9.40 with my friend Aditya. When call comes that I had to be present at my dance practice, a prior commitment. I was so angry at myself that I am going to miss the game and the euphoria. I indeed missed it.

When I came back, I find Aditya all drunk, angry and heart broken. VCU had lost. And again by one point. Dam. I was angry, heartbroken and not drunk. That made it more difficult.

I just finished watching highlights of the game, it was a good game. I just wish the last shot was not missed. Eric has made us win so many games in the final second. I wish this was one of them.

But still it was a great game. I look forward to the next game that VCU mens basketball team plays at home court here in Richmond.

Cool SPIN

This week Mark Fenske gave us a quiz where we had to answer what field we might be engaged in if not advertising. I had tourism as my answer. Simple reason, I haven't traveled much but I want to see the history, progression, beliefs, fashion, customs, traditions and much more of the world that we reside in. There is so much similarity in the difference that we share.

We had to pair up with the copywriters sitting next to us. He had movies as an alternate career choice. We our choices and came to consensus of making documentaries. Documentaries that no one must have done before. We are still brainstorming about it.

But this video, a short film makes me think may be short films should be slashed with documentaries.

For now enjoy this.

Baal Dan benefit concert.

On it's third anniversary, Baal Dan is organizing a benefit concert. In just 3 years, Baal Dan has provided aid to over 3,000 children in need in India. See if you can make it to Lakewood Bar and Grill on April 8th, 2009 at a happy hour featuring live music by bands Shoot Low Sheriff, a Western Country Swing Band, and Lovie.
Join Facebook Group here.

Baal Dan helps street children in India. Dollar at a time. I got introduced to Tanya Pinto, Founder of Baal Dan during my internship at The Richards Group. An amazing person blessed with amazing parents.

Check the video to see the story of Baal Dan covered by NBC.


Tanya had organized a similar fund raiser last year in summer since she had plans to visit India in few months. Many interns including myself had helped Tanya on this event. The owners of Blue Mesa Grill Restaurant, downtown Dallas were generous to provide space and organize a small cocktail party. The fund raiser helped generate awareness and donations for Baal Dan. The biggest turnout was from The Richards Group employees.

I wish my dad was so clear in explaining what is crisis of credit

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

This is a thesis project done by student named Jonathan at Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California. As Jonathan says that the goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. He uses new media to make sense of a increasingly complex world.
An simplification of the fuck up with the economy in USA. It also reminds me, why my dad is against loans from bank.

Crystal.

Bored? Try this.

Leo, my fellow Art Director at VCU brandcenter had this link posted as his status message on gmail. I tried it. And it reminded me I should get back to sketching. Haven't done it in months.

Yes, I am rich too.

How rich are you? >> I'm loaded. It's official. I'm the 2,646,598,709 richest person on earth!

One of the great examples of less means more. Content equivalent to the time a normal user would spend on a website. Conceptually very straight forward and to the point. It made me happy. I buy the thought they are selling.

P.S. I had entered just $ 1000 as my annual income.

Lets do something we normally do.

Mumbai video of series titled 'Safe trip home' to promote Dido's new album. 5 directors from across the world were asked to make a video each, the common theme being HOME...This video was done by Sidsikand. This video captures the essence of traveling in Mumbai Taxi. A lot of interesting acts, conversations, sleep, dreaming takes place in the back seat of a taxi only seen by the driver through the rear view mirror.

I wish I don't have to clean my laptop screen solution

This TV Spot pretty much reflects the mindset and behaviour of an Average Indian, in India or anywhere else in world.

GE

Incredible India