sarah's blog

Yes I shared this on Facebook already and yes, I am sharing it again. Because if you like Death Cab for Cutie or want to see “The FIRST LIVE, SCRIPTED, ONE-TAKE MUSIC VIDEO SHOOT. EVER.” you should check this out. And then check out the making of video if you’re nerdy about it like we were.

I’d also like to say I have a huge music video crush on the bassist solely because of his awesome walk. If I played the bass that is how I would do it.

Pre-order the album CODES and KEYS

Charity:water is doing it again this year, their forth annual September Campaign, a tradition since their founder first gave up his birthday four years ago. This year they are doing a live well drill at 4:30pm EST, the first of their committed efforts for the Bayaka people of the Central African Republic.

I’m still raising money for my birthday, I’ve got 23 days left and we’ve raised $131 of my $280 goal. I’d love to see our goal reached, but in the mean time, check out this video about the well that will be drilled in a matter of hours, and the people whose lives it will change.

charity: water 2010 September Campaign: Clean Water for the Bayaka from charity: water on Vimeo.

If you’d like to donate to something like this, you can give through my birthday campaign here. 100% of our donations will go towards a well, very likely drilled for the Bayaka people of C.A.R.

Watch the live drill at 4:30pm EST

Decided to go looking for a video to post for Canada Day today and came across this one. It is the old sign-off from CBC TV (you can tell the date by the hats and glasses on many of the people near the end!). I vaguely remember some of the shots so it might have been on the air when I was a kid.

There were lots of funny videos and scenes from movies but watching this one made me feel like a little kid living in Saskatchewan again so it just seemed right.

Happy Canada Day.

John shared this video with me on Google Reader and I thought it was worth blogging. It’s a time lapse video of the Winter Olympic set up, rehearsal, opening ceremonies, victory ceremonies and closing ceremonies in BC Place Stadium. It is incredible to see how many times they practiced, opened and closed, set up and tore down. What a four months that must have been.

Look for the light griding that appears on the floors and screening occasionally, that is the planning of all the graphic design and effects we saw. The dates and events are in the bottom left corner so you can follow what is going on.

I was amazed at how they had to take down and set up the victory ceremonies over and over every day because they were rehearsing the closing ceremonies at the same time. And bless their hearts, look how many times those cauldron arms went up and down without a hitch before the big night!

I have been saying I want to see this documentary since I first read about it I don’t know where. After seeing this trailer I am DYING to see it. The documentary maker observed four babies in four different cultures through their first year of life, never getting involved, only recording their lives as though animals in the wild.

As my mother said, babies are the same everywhere, they all speak the same language.

The film’s official site

Today was Worldwide Water Day. In honor of this day I wanted to share with you the newest campaign of Charity: Water, appropriately called Unshaken.

The people of Haiti need long-term infrastructure and in the rural areas where people have fled from the cities they need clean water. Watch the newest video explaining (more…)

While I gather my thoughts post-Olympics and decide how I am possibly going to sum up the experience in a blog post, let’s start with this. I recommend fast forwarding to 1:00 and just being patient so you can get used to what the water sounds like before the city explodes.

I’ll be back.

I only have one more day to reach the goal I set before Christmas, of raising $500 for clean water in developing countries. It’s not much in comparison with the $80,000-something someone recently raised. But it’s big to me, and to each person who gave.

It’s big to the 25 people who by this time next year will take a drink of water that will nourish their bodies and not make them sick.

If you’ve got 20 bucks, or 10 or 50, put it towards changing life for the people of the Central African Republic, and many other communities who have been through so much.

Donate to my campaign here and watch my favorite new video from charity: water. So good.

charity: water promo featuring “Time Bomb” by Beck from charity: water on Vimeo.

There’s a new album out by an artist I love, Matisyahu. If you’ve never heard of him he’s “an American Hasidic Jewish reggae superstar” who writes songs about his passion for his faith and for God. Yep.

He sings from the Psalms a lot, or (and I might get the spelling wrong so blame Wikipedia) Tehillim‎, תְהִלִּים, or “praises”. I like to imagine that if King David was born today his songs might have sounded like this. Don’t say no right away, just think about it.

This is what Matisyahu says about King David at once of his concerts before he sang the Tehillim, Refuge. (more…)

Check out this video John showed me. It’s a music video someone made using a ton of people and their webcams. Watch the whole thing, it just gets amazing, I don’t know how they coordinated it all.