Feeling My Age

This morning Child A had another surprise for me at the breakfast table – this sketch of San Francisco, which turned out to be one of many on display at bryanetch.blogspot.com. As usual when A. shows me stuff from the internet, Etch A Sketch art is a widespread phenomenon that I had no idea even existed.

The whole family debated whether this astonishing image could possibly have been done without cheating. Surely, the artist must have used Photoshop or some kind of stylus on an adapted version of the toy? And how come there were no videos on the blog showing these works being created ?

It turns out the main difficulty in filming this kind of work lies in carrying out timelapse photography over such a long period – we’re told this San Francisco drawing took 18 months, after all. All doubt was finally dispelled by the YouTube clip below – showing an even more complicated image being achieved (by a different artist) in two days flat:

It’s amazing. But also one of those activities like Synchronised Swimming – where you marvel at the skill involved, yet wonder why anybody in their right mind would bother even trying.

What could be worse than burglars breaking into your apartment? An infestation of drummers perhaps… Music for one apartment and six drummers uploaded by tventin to Vimeo.

Brilliant BMX kids filming each others’ stunts - found by randomly browsing for videos from Saffron Walden on YouTube. Full props to the featured riders Pete Beer, Jamie Stamp, Ollie Sandles, Toby Martin and Alex Stot but this looks vid looks particularly good because of Ollie’s sharp editing. Noticed the footage was uploaded in 2008 and idly wondered whether Mr Sandles was still riding and filming three years on. Sure enough he has a portfolio of 37 clips on Vimeo - the latest of which is posted below. We may shake our heads in despair at sodcasting, cyberbullying and cheerful flouting of copyright among today’s digital natives. But the physical prowess of Ollie and his BMX  friends - and their effortless ability to capture, digitise and display it online - deploys levels of acrobatic skill and visual creativity that my own generation (growing up in that same North East corner of Essex) never dreamed of. Fair play to em… Pool Session from Ollie Sandles on Vimeo.