Leave it to Dubai to ring in 2013 right. The city’s magnificent New Year’s Eve fireworks display illuminated the world’s tallest building, the iconic Burj Khalifa skyscraper, stretching more than 2,716 feet into the city sky. Sparks flew from the base all the way to the spire of the building as the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra performed in perfect synchronicity. It’s a spectacle fit for ushering in a new year.
Video: Snowboarding Through Downtown Montreal
Snowboarding through downtown Montreal isn’t exactly a common sight, but judging from the video below maybe it should be. This wonderful short film follows snowboarder Seb Toots as he starts at the top of Mt. Royal, a park located not far from the heart of the city, and glides down its slopes right onto the streets below. Along the way he shreds fresh powder, rides handrails and jumps a variety of obstacles. I don’t exactly expect urban snowboarding to become a full-fledged sport, but it sure looks like fun.
“Seb Toots Montreal snowboarding run” from Seb Toots on Vimeo.
A Music Video Exploring The Culture And Community Of Mumbai: ‘This City’
Made popular by the cinematic hit “Slumdog Millionaire,” there’s a certain romanticism with the Indian city Mumbai. We’re drawn in by the color, culture and music.
With over 12 million inhabitants, Mumbai is the most populous city in India. The slums of the city are a backdrop to the hectic daily life that’s indicative of a large Indian city. With its infrastructure and inhabitants, it’s the perfect place to think about urban planning, which is why for 2013 the BMW Guggenheim Lab has set up shop in the city’s vibrant streets. The mobile think tank for improving urban life around the world, commissioned a song by the Indian folk-rock band Swarathma.
With snippets of daily life – complete with a group doing dance lessons – “Is Sharar” is an excellent look into the many aspects of the city. The title translates to “This City,” and the music video is not only a look into what living in Mumbai is like, but it’s also an ode to togetherness and unity.
A selection of the lyrics:
Is shahar ki saansein hum (we are the breath of the city)
Is shahar ki aankhein hum (we are the sight of the city)
Is shahar ke honto pe (on the lips of the city)
Khilkhilaati baatein hum (we are the happy conversations)
You can find the full lyrics and translation here.
Video: Rollerblading With Huskies In Brooklyn
When I first saw this video yesterday, it only had 12 views. Now that the video is up to around 1,000 views, it’s clear that people have been watching it. But 1,000 views hardly measures up to the cuteness it captured. It’s just a first-person video of someone being pulled around Bushwick, Brooklyn, while on rollerblades by two huskies. It’s adorable and will make you smile all while giving you a good little tour of industrial/hip Bushwick. After I watched this rollerblading with Huskies video, I put on my roller-skates, which I just received for Christmas, and I tried to get my dogs to pull me. When the little one kept getting in the way, I put him in his crate while I continued to try to teach my medium-sized dog to pull me around on roller-skates, through my house, no less. He cried and whimpered in jealousy so much from his crate that I gave up and wondered if I’ll ever be able to go on a public dog-skating adventure on par with this video.
Video Of The Day: Where The Water Settles
“Where the Water Settles” from The Perennial Plate on Vimeo.
I can’t get enough of the videos from The Perennial Plate and this newest video, “Where The Water Settles,” just reiterates that fact for me. The way in which Daniel Klein and Mirra Fine approach traveling is rewarding for their audience. They dive into culture based off of personal interactions and stories they hear along the way, it seems, opposed to shallow suppositions of what to do in certain areas of the world. These two clearly love the art of exploring their subjects in depth and this method can easily be observed in “Where The Water Settles,” a video that takes you through a 1300-year-old system of rice farming in China in just a few minutes.
If you’d like to submit a video for Video Of The Day, reach out to us with a link.