An animated version of New York City shows a timeless quality

No matter how many ways New York City is depicted in film, there is always another view that offers a surprise. Here is a link to a video by New York artist and filmmaker Jeff Scher. He writes the blog The Animated Life for the New York Times. As he says about this particular 2:06 minutes of visual artistry he created in 1975, there is a timeless quality about New York.

What Scher made more than 30-years-ago looks similar to the essence of New York City today. That’s not true about many places.

A few years ago when I was on a six-hour walking tour of Cleveland, I thought about how that city had changed since the 1960s when the Terminal Tower was the 2nd tallest building in the world. It was the world that Ralphie of A Christmas Story went to on his visit to Santa Claus. Higbees where Ralphie gazed in the window at animated wonder has long closed. Downtown Cleveland on a Saturday morning along Euclid Ave. is not a crackling place. I really love Cleveland. I really do. I’d live there if I didn’t live here. But if you did a video 30-years-ago of Cleveland, it would not look the same as today’s version–at least not if you shot it downtown. Maybe it would, if you squinted and imagined people.

Scher’s vision of New York City is a jazzy rendition of a city that no matter what happens has a constancy that one can count on year after year. Jeremy is capturing much of it in his weekly series “Undiscovered New York.” Plus, Scher’s film is a cool art piece besides.

The photo is from another one of Scher’s blogs, Reasons to Be Glad. The blog has other shots of New York City that are examples of the variety of intersting angles out there.

A few years ago when I was on a six-hour walking tour of Cleveland, I thought about how that city had changed since the 1960s when the Terminal Towers was the 2nd tallest building in the world. It was the world that Ralphie of the movie A Christmas Story went to on his visit to Santa Claus. Higbees where Ralphie gazed in the window at animated wonder has long closed. Downtown Cleveland on a Saturday morning along Euclid Ave. is not a crackling place. I really love Cleveland. I really do. I’d live there if I didn’t live here. But if you did a video 30 years ago of Cleveland, it would not look the same as today’s version–at least not if you shot it downtown.

Scher’s vision of New York City is a jazzy rendition of a city that no matter what happens has a constancy that one can count on year after year. Plus, it’s a cool art piece besides. The photo of a bus and a taxi is another Scher creation and a feature of his blog “Reasons to Be Glad”.

Gadling TAKE FIVE: April 25– May 1

During a week of swine flu travel news, and May Day, there have been other tidbits of interest. Here at Gadling, Catherine Bodry is back to blog some more. In her first post after her year hiatus she shares her #1 item she won’t leave home without when she travels.

Along with Catherine’s return, there are a number of posts to entice the thinking, sensitive traveler.

  • It’s not too late to win the copy of Step Back from the Baggage Claim. Book author Jason Barger traveled to seven airports across the U.S. to test his idea that if we could change airport behavior, we could change the world.
  • Roadmonkey, a company that mixes do-good projects with adventure travel offers experiences in Vietnam and Dar Es Salaam among other places. Kudos to Kraig for finding this gem.
  • Expats might be a more creative than most people according to a research study. The results are in this month’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Tom also includes an experiment question for you to test your creativity mettle.
  • Regardless of your guidebook preference, Brenda’s comparison of various guidebooks based on her recent Cuba travel is one way find a fit when you guidebook shop.
  • Even Mike, who’s our Sky Mall Monday funny guy, got serious and sensitive when wondering about the life of the modern day Maori’s in New Zealand. It’s a thought provoking read.

Creativity abounds if you live outside your homeland

Science says expats are more creative, so it must be true. According to research published by the American Psychological Association (five studies in all), living abroad opens minds and leads to new experiences – all of which points to creativity. The research will be published in May in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Of course, the conclusion is a tad obvious, as the people most likely to choose this lifestyle are probably open-minded and eager to accumulate new experiences. The research team made room for this fact by saying that the project’s results do not prove causation.

As quoted in Reuters, lead author William Maddux, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at European business school INSEAD, says, “This research may have something to say about the increasing impact of globalization on the world, a fact that has been hammered home by the recent financial crisis.”

In perhaps the most interesting component of this project, Kellogg Business School MBA students were presented with the “Duncker candle problem,” which tests creativity. The subject is given a candle, a pack of matches and a box of tacks, and the task is to attach the candle to a wall so that it will burn properly and not drip wax on the table or floor. Students having spent more time living abroad were more likely to come up with the solution.

Think you have the right answer? Test your results after the jump.

Solution to the Duncker candle problem:

  • Use the empty box of tacks as a candle holder
  • Tack the empty box to the wall
  • Light the candle

Yep, it seems so easy this way, but it can be a bear when you’re faced with the problem and have to come up with the answers on your own … especially when you’re being watched!

A Summer project to celebrate where you live

Using Matt Harding’s concept of dancing as a way to unify the world in his “Where the Hell is Matt?” videos, Jeff Hoskinson highlighted his home state, Iowa in a spoof of sorts.

He kind of looks like Matt, but he’s not Matt. Matt does appear in the video in the “Inspiration” by section. There is a handy reference guide in the YouTube description that lists everywhere featured in the video. As Hoskingson states, this was one way to have a reason to head to all the places he’s heard about since he was a kid.

If you can’t make it to EVERYWHERE in a state or a country, why not just pick your county or province? How about just your city, village or town? Pick a neat song and go for it. All you need is a camera and a person to film you. It’s doable. I’m not doing it yet–but you go for it and let me know if you’ve posted the results on YouTube. I’m enamored with the idea. Whatever you do, just keep dancing.

One thing this video does make me cognizant of is Iowa’s flooding problems. I wonder which of these sites were affected and wish the good folks in Iowa well.

Art Car Show: From the Funky to the Fabulous

Willy wrote a post about a art car parade in California this past April. I mentioned art cars in my ComFest post in June. Here’s another art car opportunity. Marilyn Terrell, a faithful Gadling reader and a person who knows quality events when she sees them, sent this our way. The 14th Annual Car Art Show and Other Wheeled is happening in Baltimore, Maryland this weekend, July 20- 22. It’s part of Artscape, the very mega and very free public arts festival held here each year.

If you’ve ever looked at dings in your car and thought, “Gee, I wish this looked better,” go to the Car Art Show for some ideas. Being an artist helps, but having the right kind of glue may be enough. An artist friend of mine acquires cars for art festivals so that attendees can turn them into mobile art pieces by a festival’s end. When my son was three I helped him glue action figures onto the hood of one of these cars. The result was kind of similar, but not exactly to what is shown in this photo posted by Ben Kallman on Flickr.

Art cars can be more complicated than that. Ben Kallman’s photo might be a closeup of the first car. There are other artists who use paint to create their masterpieces. Others weld on additions. Who says a car has to stay a car shape? The insides like this one posted by praxis88, are included in the creations. Some cars make you wonder how anyone manages to drive them. A friend of mine once had dinosaurs glued in a neat fashion to his dashboard. The first car I bought had some sort of purple fur, but I don’t think this qualifies as art. It was just weird.

The art car show’s highlight is the car caravan on Saturday at 1 pm. Cars start off at the American Visionary Museum and make their way through the festival route. Although most cars come from Maryland and Virginia, I noticed two on the list are from Florida. I wonder if the owners drive them up. That’d be a sight to see on a highway.

Here are some others from the Flickr pages that caught my eye. All, are from previous Art Car Shows at Artscape. You may see some at this weekend’s event since I think they get shown off each year.

This one, reminiscent of a Klimt painting, was also posted by praxis88. We recently sold a red Toyota Corolla with 200,000 miles on it that I had the urge to turn into an art car but was concerned we’d do all the work and it wouldn’t drive much longer.

If I had turned it into car art, I’d have liked to have done something like this one posted by praxis88 that combines paint, jewels and mirrors.

This car posted by Celeste Dawn makes me think there is no reason to ever donate to Goodwill again–or throw out anything. I recently pitched one of those kid’s tops with a handle that you pump and think perhaps I should have kept it. My car art friend could have probably used it.

Others, like this one posted by James in balto , have messages. Sort of a political speech on wheels or something. It’d be kind of neat to get a whole bunch of poetry magnets to see what people might write on a car. It could be an interactive piece that would change at each parking lot. Of course, the magnets might get stollen. That would be a bummer.

Wouldn’t it be neat to do a car that has objects from various places you’ve visited? Or do something like the creators of this one posted by Markwithnohair. Pick the place you liked the best and then pay it tribute. I’d have a hard time choosing. In case you’re inspired to do something with your no longer a beauty, here’s a link Marilyn also sent along that takes you through the steps of making an art car of your own.