We love art fusion; stopmotion + history + music = good times. Ok, so the history may be a little “light”, but hey, points for the effort. And the stopmotion is clever. The song used is “Thick as Thieves” by Kalle Mattson, who also, along with artist Kevin Parry, put together this cool little video.

For more on the artists.

If only life could be like a Wes Anderson film. A world where feckless, often aristocratic, souls lead lives of whimsy, accompanied by the latest in obscure mid-century French or Spanish guitar soundtracks. Don’t get us wrong, we’re actually, ok marginally, sincere here. The Life Aquatic aside, we find Anderson’s fantastical immersion into the near-surreal and heavily stylized caricature of reality to be, well, fairly compelling. He’s the sort of director that can make even prep school look cool.

Which brings us to The Orient Express and their campaign to draw us to exotic, luxurious destinations. Frankly, we were unaware there was still such a thing as The Orient Express, let alone that they booked travel and accommodation around the globe. Perhaps that explains why they’ve gone to the trouble of creating these artsy promo pieces. Their promotional spots, produced by Chandelier Creative, combine just the right amount of whimsy (60s VW bug at a 5 star resort, kind of whimsy), with the sort of stylized filming that says, “we’re hip”. Their short films follow a fictional well-to-do family as they adventure across continents, by train, boat and, well probably some other modes too.

Maybe it’s the not-too-subtle sepia filter, or that one of the characters is called “Max”, we’re not sure exactly, but their short films sure make us think, “life could be like a Wes Anderson film if I booked a trip with Orient Express”. Sigh. We kind of want to go.

Watch:

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Love it or hate it, the DeLorean is an icon of 1980s culture, probably most famous for its appearance in the Back to the Future trilogy. With gull-wing doors, a polished stainless steel body, and a low-slung futuristic design (fit for a time-machine…) the DeLorean looked, to many, like a car way ahead of its time. And DeLorean Motor Company is betting, that time is now.

It only took twenty-five or so years for technology to catch up to the DeLorean of Marty McFly’s world. Granted, his ran on plutonium (and was later modified to run on garbage), and also traveled through time, but it was essentially an electric vehicle. Or something. Anyway, by 2013, DeLorean will be producing an all-electric version of the classic model. Why bother, you ask? Well, granted the 80’s version was generally considered kind of cheesy looking, and over-priced, and something of an under-performer. But it’s still a Delorean. And in the words of Doc Brown, “The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?” Well said, Doc Brown, well said.

The electric model is expected to have 260 horsepower, with a range of 100+ miles, and go from 0-60 in 4.9 seconds (we’re still waiting for the 88mph test run – ahem). Oh, the price tag for this shiny, stainless steel beauty? A paltry $90,000.

Rumor has it a flying version will be in production by 2015.

For more information, go to delorean.com

We dug up this classic 1981 DeLorean commercial.

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“Skwerl”

For those who grew up in the 1980s, and there are tens of millions of you, you might remember it as a decade not only of rampant out-of-control spending and excess, but also of out-of-control ideas of the future. After all, it was the decade that ushered in the idea of flying cars (thanks Bladerunner and Back to the Future II), jet packs (thanks…our imagination) and self-lacing Nike’s (wait, we actually have those). Suffice it to say, the future (or what we like to call, ‘now’), isn’t really living up to our 1980s expectations. But hang on a second; the future isn’t all that disappointing. Here are five Google News headlines that, if you could read them in the 1980s, would probably blow your mind.

Scientists find missing link between ape and man

Dear 1980s, we did it. We finally found, without a shadow of a doubt, the missing link between ape and man. This momentous discovery has ended, once and for all, any logical arguments against evolution. Indeed, Creationists have bowed to the rule of science and we now live in a harmonious utopia. Things have never been better. Sigh.

P.S. Oh, in case you’re wondering, 1980s, this argument may sound ridiculous to you in your time, but rest assured, it’s shaped the course of our political and social discourse for the better part of the last decade.

Astronomers find ‘super-earth’ that could potentially support life

Dear 1980s, in the next decade, shoulder pads and hair mousse will make way for flannel and goatees. Sorry. Also, in what’s certain to result in the largest, collective “Well, duh” in human history, astronomers will discover the first extra solar planet. Sometime around 1994, we think. The ensuing decade will see them refine their advanced planet-finding-technology (sorry 1980s, their techniques are secret and can’t tell you how they do it) which will lead to the discovery of literally hundreds and hundreds of planets, some of them ‘super-earths’. Yeah, we know. Awesome.

Watching out for falling stars, with a smartphone in hand

Dear 1980s, we know the term ‘smartphone’ sounds silly, but we had to come up with a name to distinguish our awesome, future mobile phones from your lame 80s phones. Sorry. You see, in 2011, everyone will walk around with hand-held computers, or ‘smartphones’. They’re like your car-phones, but a hundred times lighter and a thousand times more awesome. These hand-held portable computers connect to something called the Internet, or ‘web’, which is a global computer network that, well, just think of it as magic. This “web” also contains the collective knowledge and experience of almost everyone and everything on Earth. With the use of smartphones, we’re essentially just one click away from information on just about anything that has ever existed. But mostly we use them to ‘Like’ things.

Invisibility cloak hides objects with mirage-like effect

The future will see us more concerned with privacy than jet packs. Call it irony, that our constant connection to the magical “web” has left us feeling a little exposed. Oh well.

Spaceship factory opens in California desert

Dear 1980s, the year 2011 will see the divide between the perversely wealthy and everyone else grow so vast, so obscene, that not only is the middle class a laughable fictional concept, but the mega-rich have nothing left to spend their money on other than spaceships. So, they’re building spaceship factories in the California desert. That’s right, rich people vacation in space now. How do you like them apples?

So the next time you’re whining about your jetpacks and hover-boards, remember this: spaceship factories!

Scroll down below to see a time-lapse video of Yamaoka creating one of his portraits on his iPod Touch.

Here is a time-lapse video of Seikou Yamaoka creating one of his portraits using an iPod Touch.