In this new weekly column, filmmaker Danish Aslam will be your purveyor of the finest quality random facts, useless trivia and other esoterica from the world wide web. He lives mostly behind a keyboard and may or may not be a wizened old green man who speaks in grammatically incorrect aphorisms. You can find more on his home page http://pictually.me/dontpanic

Superhero Posters

Does one ever outgrow superhero posters? Not if people like Marcus keep creating stuff. One of the better pages on Etsy.com, he sells his posters under the moniker of 'Poster Inspired'. Not much needs to be said, the Joker speaks for himself. As does Batman. There's some non-movie stuff on here as well, but it's not quite the same.

 Hyper-real Pencil Sketches

Scottish artist Paul Cadden makes pencil sketches. And if I hadn't told you this, you would probably never have guessed from the images that await you beyond the link. The motto on his website is ‘intensify the normal’ and when you see his work, you'll understand what he means. Photorealism takes on a whole new meaning here.

40 Powerful Photographs

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of articles/forwards that have generic lines like this as their heading. But I went against my instincts on this one and I'm glad I did. This is a great collection of some iconic images over the years put together by the good folks over at BuzzFeed. So at the risk of this post becoming almost exclusively about images of some sort or the other, here's one more.

Google Image Search

Racial stereotyping much? Typing 'European', 'American' and 'African' into Google's Image Search produces a certain kind of result. ‘Asian'? A whole different one. Check it out for yourself.

Child Abuse

Speaking of things that make you go WTF, it doesn't get more scary than this video of a kid singing a song in church with the following lyrics:

"I know the Bible’s right, somebody’s wrong

I know the Bible’s right, somebody’s wrong

Aint no homos going to make it to heaven"

And the response from the other, adult members of the church? A standing ovation. Words fail me.

Evolution. It's Real.

Contrary to what the Church (and most other religions, for that matter) would have you believe, homosexuality is not a sin. And evolution is not a myth. In this interesting article from the good folks over at Mental Floss, five symptoms of the human race constantly evolving are listed out. And being able to drink milk is one of them.

Paper-craft Stop Motion

Stop motion videos always look beautifully easy and yet are fiendishly difficult to pull off. Especially when they're of a scale pulled off by Vincent Pianina and Lorenzo Papace. This exquisite work of art must have taken ages to shoot, but it's worth it. Made for a song called Østersøen by the French band Odland (of which Papace is a part), the transitions between scenes alone are worth the price of admission. Enjoy.

PS: The original link to the video is on Vimeo, which I can't open right now (and you may not be able to either) because in their infinite wisdom, the powers-that-be have done a Dhoble and deemed it the fount of all evil on this planet by banning it from all Indian ISPs. No matter what it remains one of the premier platforms for independent artists to showcase their work (like this one).

There are Vasant Dhobles everywhere.

Banksy In Real Life

I'm going to start with the assumption that everybody knows who Banksy is. No? Do yourself a favor and get one of the best documentaries of 2010: Exit Through The Gift Shop. And then read the rest of this post.

So, for the initiates, LA based photographer Nick Stern has made a project called 'You Are Not Banksy' where he recreates famous Banksy pieces using real-life models. Worth a look.

PS: Does anybody know who's put up the first and only Banksy work I've seen in India, at 7-Bungalows, Andheri, no less! It's the 'Sorry! The Lifestyle You Ordered Is Currently Out Of Stock' piece that came up sometime last year in London. Whoever it is, props to you.

Neil Gaiman's Commencement Speech: Make Good Art

Neil Gaiman is, next to Terry Practhett, one of the most fertile imaginations to grace us lesser mortals with his presence. And the students of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia were lucky enough to witness his magic in the flesh as he delivered the keynote address on the 12th of May while receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts. He spoke about stuff that he didn't know when he was starting out and he wished he did, and it's probably the best advice that a person considering a career in the arts could hope for. An excerpt:

"The one thing you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and dance and build and play and dance and live as only you can. The moment that you feel that just possibly you are walking down the street naked…that's the moment you may be starting to get it right."

PS: Australian illustrator Gavin Than has turned a part of the speech into a comic. Equally nice.

The Revenge of the Turtles

And finally, for all the pop-culture geeks out there, one last image to smile at. Adios!

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