I’ve been a fan of The Flaming Lips since Hear It Is came out in 1986. Skin Yard was a band barely in its infancy, and suddenly here comes this out there, neo-psychedelic band out of Oklahoma of all places obscure. Their live show then was nothing like their show as it’s evolved over the last fifteen years, but the music was undeniable and we had the great fortune and delight to be able to open for them on more than one occasion. The thing that struck me then and struck me again this last year when I got to interview Wayne (Coyne) for RocknRollDating, was the fact that Wayne may indeed be the sweetest and most genuine front-man you’ll ever meet in rock. He was as gracious and seemingly without ego in 2009 as he was in the late ’80s. As a result I remain a fan of both the man as well as the music.

Fast forward to last week when Gizmodo posted the most awesome gallery of pics from Wayne’s newly remodeled mid-century palais, a feast to the eyes, and a spectacular showpiece from the remarkable Fitzsimmons architectural firm. The design sensibility seems to draw from the same playful and adventurous nature of the Lips’ music, and is truly unique and unlike anything that I’ve seen before. I had to share and I invite you to take a look as well:

The Gyrofocus Fireplace

A Living Room or Something Like It.

Looking from the Other Side

The Patio – LOVE the Rock Inlay

The Space Bathroom

Design-Milk has a few extra pictures as well.

Yonder from Emilia on Vimeo.

My friend Al introduced me to a friend on his on Facebook (Scott) and so I did the obligatory digging around which led me to his blog, Destroy Your Computer. There I found an exquisite and inspiring piece on animation from a woman in Germany named Emelia Forstreuter. She uses Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Cinema 4D and Flash to create some of the most inspired work I’ve seen in a very long time. I am stunned, hope you are too. Fullscreen it!

This was an amazing piece that I discovered while still working @ Creative Asylum overseeing the development and launch of the Peer Squared Project. While this is not a new find, it’s a piece of work that warrants a rediscovery as it’s still one of the more amazing projects I’ve seen in recent years.

Brambilla’s work, entitled “Civilization,” is a continuous HD video collage, “taking hundreds of stock footage, movie footage and original clips and combining them to create a moving landscape depicting the ascension from hell to heaven” (500 clips in all) as an installation inside of an elevator in New York’s Standard Hotel.

The Video moves up and down depending on the direction of the elevator car, and passes through hell, lower purgatory, middle purgatory, upper purgatory, heaven and upper heaven/lower hell (which is where the video collage ultimately loops to create the continuum).

The total size of the piece is in itself daunting: 1920 x 7500 pixels played back on a 42″ plasma screen.

To view the entire piece, read the details of the project along with an interview with Brambilla, please CLICK HERE: it’s well worth the time. You’re welcome!