On this one-page site you can donate funds to help out Sunday’s family, purchase the “FAITHFUL” special-edition art print by Jeff Rogers, and connect with others who knew him by “liking” “Friends of Sunday” Facebook fan page.

- friendsofsunday.com

TUCH- Minimalist Leather Satchel, $275

This is a raw leather satchel. It’s beautifully simple, and a good way to keep from carrying too much stuff with you. Over-all it’s a bit pricy, but it will age nicely and has a pretty timeless design.

QWSTION- Office Herringbone, $166.67

I’m a sucker for herringbone. This bag is super protect, and versatile. It’s a virtual transformer, it’s part backpack, part messenger bag, and part briefcase. And it can be yours a pretty reasonable price.

Booq- Boa Nerve L, $149.95

I know it’s black, just like my current Timbuk2 bag, but it’s some much more. This thing is fully-equipped with everything thing to keep your mobile office organized and protected. There are a ton of pockets and it comes with it’s own laptop sleeve.

Boconi- Hendrix Large Mailbag Messenger Bag, $268

Modern and practical, made of luxurious leather. I liked this bag for its’ clean lines and nifty plaid interior lining, though it does seem a bit high-maintenance when it comes to leather care. And for the price tag, of alost $300, I didn’t want to always have to worry about it getting wet.

Moop- The Messenger in Gray Waxed Canvas, $187

This waxed canvas bag is hand-made in Pittsburg by a nice lady named Wendy, or at least that’s what I like to think. According to the website it’s “Built from durable and luxurious waxed canvas and lined in water resistant cordura. Waxed canvas is naturally water repellent and ages like leather.” It’s simple interior is unfettered by compartments and leaves you with plenty of room to carry your 17″ MBP a couple of books, note book, and some pens. I was sold by it’s simplicity and elegance and ordered mine in gray (with blue interior) this week.

As long as I can remember I have loved movies and film. Really, all aspects of cinema from making it, to experiencing it. Recently I’ve found myself leaning heavily on the later. I’ve become purely a consumer of this media, and wondering how I’ve lost my way. I’ve alluded to this problem before, that I can easily excuse myself from these types of projects because of my lack of pro-grade video equipment. Boo.

The dream: is to have a couple prosumer HD cameras, portable audio recorders, MacPro with 8 gigs for ram, and a crew of at least 3 other people. The reality: is I have a Flip Mino HD, an audio recorder , an almost 4 year-old MacBook Pro, and the occasional help from my wife. Clearly, not the same thing, but I see hope out there. I’ve discovered as-of-late just how many people are doing amazing things using a pretty minimal equipment set-up. (I know, I know, “it’s not the equipment that makes the film maker but the talent”), but it’s easy to forget sometimes.

I seem to have fallen in to an all-to-common trap of giving up or making excuses because it’s the path of least resistance. “But my Flip Mino only shoots 720 x 480!” (I say, while adjusting my imaginary glasses that have just slipped down my nose). I think it was me that once said, “I want to live my life as a reality show.” Maybe it’s not quite on mark with all this, but there’s something to that. I mean I turned my marriage proposal to my wife into a film, and I think that may have been the last really film project that I did. This whole post feels a bit like a Catholic confession.

“It’s been almost a year since my last production.”

Okay, well here’s to belated New Year’s resolutions. This year, I’m going to become a producer of media not just a consumer. Someone want to hold me accountable on this one?

Recently I heard an interview on my local NPR station KERA with musician and author Ted Gioa who wrote a book called “The Birth (and death) of Cool“. He talked about trends in culture and the public’s mindset over the past few decades and how there has been a shift recently. A shift from what was generally seen as cool and desirable in the 1980′s and 1990′s to something different today. Something less about trying to live up to some unattainable goal or status and more about exuding a since of uniqueness and personal style. Gioa spoke about the shift in marketing, and how the new generation of adults (Gen Y) will respond better to reality than to fantasy, and it really gave to cause to think about myself.

I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Jazz (with a capital ‘J’), in so many ways Jazz especially certain figures in the Jazz world exemplify what I think we all would say is cool. Miles Davis, I think is the most obvious example of this; having coined the term himself “Birth of Cool” in his 1949 Capitol Records release by the same title. There is no question that the man is cool, he set trends in music, fashion and verbage, and on numerous occasions caused me to wish I was him. Cool. I was a child of 1980′s and I remember the Nike ads featuring a “cool” shirtless Bo Jackson and the ones with Spike Lee and Michael Jordan dressed in garish Nike active wear. Their coolness sold shoes and I was sold on them just as millions of other Americans were. Even further back the fantasy and mystery of super heros created an idea or a person for people to look up to. Back them, celebrities were all beyond attractive and all had a perfect image that they portrayed to their fans. People at least wanted to believe that they were that way; something to be admired.

It seems that now, we live in the the age of the the cynical and ironic. Are you a hipster? Nerdy chic? Metrosexual? Do you wear “cool” eighties fashions and listen to Justice, or do you wear horned-rim glasses and think that Greenday are posers, or do you wear skinny ties and wish you were Donald Draper? Clothes are being dug out of the closest, musical tracks out of the archive and trends out of textbooks. Outwardly the influences of the past are everywhere, I would argue that we are in the midst of a Renaissance.

Is cool dead? I don’t know. It seems to me though, that it may be taking on a whole new meaning. I’ve read that some think the hipster sub-culture and for that matter, popular culture in general is the be-all-end-all “movement”. In that, after it reaches it’s climax (in approximately 2012 by my estimation) the world will literally implode due to the amount irony, apathy and pollution from fossil fuel burned by all the cargo ships from China bring merchandise to every Urban Outfitters in America. Okay, may be a bit of an exaggeration, but needless to say, it is fascinating how culture is changing. I’m still not completely sure where I stand on the issue but until I do I’ll sit here in my Terminator shades, drinking a martini, and listening to music from a band that you’ve probably never heard of.

Thinking about it; in this economy and really any other economy the constant problem of most creatives is finding enough money to do what it is that we really love to do. I have for a long time now had a passion for making films, and do so when ever I can mooch one off of a friend for a day or two. For quite some time now I’ve been meaning to get to a point where I could drop a few thousand on a new HD camera , putting off creative hopes and dreams until the day I have one. But in this economy…

Anyway, I stumbled on this video by director and film maker Matt Wolf, who’s work I really love and respect. It’s called ‘Boca’ and features a great song by Mr. Owen Pallet Final Fantasy and The Arcade Fire. He shot the entire thing on a camera phone! The Nokia N95 (insert Flight of the Concords joke here). I found it quite amazing, inspiring and as a really kick in the ass. Something that I used to to do a lot but have gotten away from that I’m a bona fide “creative professional” is to find new and creative ways to find solutions for the projects that I want to do. I rember gurry-rigging a small, live PA mixer with a couple of cheap pre-amps and recording the first Streets of Simon Lee EP, and being really proud of ourselves for figuring it out. Or the time that in the early days of Kite Flying Society (Now El Salvador Pictures/ Benberry Media) Shooting our first production “The Run“(circa 2001) on my dad’s old VHS camcorder and somehow figuring out how to get it into the computer to edit it.

Well, the point is, that “In This Economy” I’ve decided that I’m going to come up with more new ways to do the projects that I want to do. “Creativity is born out nothing” or something like that I think I just misquoted someone important.

]]> http://ivebenthinking.com/benblogging/inspiration/2009/04/in-this-economy/feed/ 0 http://ivebenthinking.com/benblogging/video/2008/10/crazy-but-true/ http://ivebenthinking.com/benblogging/video/2008/10/crazy-but-true/#comments Thu, 23 Oct 2008 07:08:03 +0000 Ben Hernandez http://ivebenthinking.com/?p=307

A short film by Hillman Curtis (” Sagmeister 08″) a short film about designer Stefan Sagmeister. In so many ways I found this piece to be inspirational and worth sharing.

Enjoy.