Yasmin Ahmad (1958 – 2009)

Photo by The Open Room (Flickr)

Last night, one of  our greatest storytellers, Yasmin Ahmad passed away. I was lucky enough to have to met her at some of her talks and screenings. She was a very bright, down-to-earth, funny and artistic women.

After 50 commercials, 6 films and 11 international awards, Yasmin has done her job well uniting people of various backgrounds telling stories and touching hearts. Now God needs her more than we do. Al-Fatihah to her precious soul.

Here is one of her last commercials

Read her wonderful blogs about films and life- The Storyteller and The Storyteller, Part 2.

Reports on her passing on NST and Malaysiakini(BM).

Creative Collabo and Coolio Stop Mo

I’m sure many of you have seen the brilliant brilliant video Hibi No Neiro from the Japanese indie alternative jazz band Sour. One of most outstanding unique YouTube-webcam-style music video to date, featuring a worldwide creative collaboration of their fans having fun in front of their webcams but synchronized into a lovely video-art piece!

Hibi No Neiro

Here’s another one of their cool videos Omokage No Saki featuring headphone cables that come alive and morphs into various elements on people’s t-shirt done stop-motion style. Thinkgeek interactive shirts should do one!

Omokage No Saki

Check out Sour’s chillin’ music on their official website here.

Knowledge & Arts Tour ‘09

Young Muslim Project and The British Council have put together an awesome program for the local Muslim youths to seek understanding and value of Islam in today’s modern times. Knowledge & Arts Tour ‘09 will run from 5th till 15th July and will be divided into two sessions- ‘Arts’ on 5th – 8th, and ‘Knowledge’ sessions on 8th – 15th.

There will be seminars and workshops conducted by local and special international speakers who have good rapport among youths like Islam convert and activist Suhaib Webb from the States, UK convert and lecturer Abdul Raheem Green and graffiti artist, Mohammed Ali AKA Aerosol Arabic who’ll show us his award-winning ‘Urban Spiritual Art’. All three will inspire those who attend to embrace the empowering message of Islam in their daily lives. Non-Muslims are also welcomed.

Check out some of Suhaib Webb’s speeches here and Abdul Raheem Green’s lectures here. Watch Mohammed Ali’s feature on CNN below;

Date: 5th – 15th July 2009 (‘Arts’ 5th – 8th, ‘Knowledge’ 8th – 15th)
Location: Around KL and Selangor
Speakers: Suhaib Webb, Abdul Raheem Green, Mohammed Ali

For updates and more info on the Knowledge & Arts Tour ‘09, go to Young Muslim Project website.

NES Mouse

While ladies drool over shoes and handbags, us boys have our saliva shed over things like this!

Mouse Vomit came up with this foam model of NES Mouse using the aesthetics of a NES System’s gamepad for his school project. UBER AWESOMENESS. He has to turn this into a functional mouse and sell it! ARGH!!! In the mean time, you could make your own NES Mouse like this.

Reminds me of the World’s Largest and the World’s Smallest NES controller too! Check out other equally super cool NES gamepad mods like the Mp3 Player, DVD Player and Cellphone!

Our Children’s Saturday Morning Cartoon Will Look Like This

Award-winning German-based 24-year old Irish filmmaker and artist David O’Reilly has a new short film called Please Say Something. It mingles with the classic ‘Cat & Mouse’ cartoon tale but tells a story about their relationship of love and loss.

The animation started out as a five 25-seconds episodes last year and now is completed with 23 episodes with a duration of 10 minutes. The highspeed futuristic animated drama features a brilliant stripped down aesthetics of 3D and 2D animation with bright colors and cool soundtrack. Watch the film in full below;

PSS headlined the Future Shorts at BAFTA recently and already won the Golden Bear for best short at the 2009 Berlinale.

O’Reilly’s other work includes animation sequences for the 2005 comedy film Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the 2007 Sundance premiered Son of Rambow. He also did a cool iPhone app called iHologram that features an illusion of a 3D hologram jumping off the screen! He is currently doing the stage visuals for M.I.A. and can be seen here.

Check out more of O’reilly’s work on his official site.

(via ComputerArts)