Variations on Bones and Leaves and Videos

His name is Bones; Bob Bones and this is an old photo of his:

That was taken with my then-still-functioning-Samsung Note II and processed with Pixlr-o-Matic, a precursor to Pixlr. 

I wanted to do a quick post to let readers know I’m still alive (amazing, ain’t it?) while I work on a longer post on my spare time.

I actually started with this photo . . . 

Those were some early efforts of mine using apps specifically designed to play with phone photos. It was my first exposure to apps that can quickly change the look and feel of a photo. 

The year was 2013 . . . and now, six years later, I can do stuff like this using MirrorLab. 

Sure, it looks interesting but I wanted something more dramatic and strange . . . something like this:

I can also resort to Paper Artist and get stuff like this . . . 

. . . or this . . . 

I think Bob is partial to this variation . . . 

Me? I wanted something weirder so  . . . back to MirrorLab

How about a vertical mirror?

. . . or, maybe, a quad mirror . . . 

But, by far, the strangest might be this spiral and spherical mirror . . . 

That looks to me a bit like the lead character in Despicable Me. 

Anyway, I want to also share a few videos that captured my attention . . . 

For instance, this short from Pixlr. 

It follows my favorite formula for story-telling; short, emotional, and with a nice ending. The only thing I might have done differently is to have a pack of wolves rip the man limb from limb. I suppose you can’t have everything. 

Two Steps From Hell consistently come up with music that captures my attention.

I might have shared this next one before but I want to share it again . . . 

Many of the visuals used as backdrops for the song are from games, often unrelated to the music itself.

Of course, Two Steps from Hell aren’t the only composers out there . . . 

I listen to a lot of epic music when I want to let my mind wander as I work on something. 

I also listen to other music and, as I mentioned before, I often get music from shows or series or movies I happen to come across. 

One such show is an understated but funny series, Detectorists. The theme song for the show led me to this singer/composer . . . 

. . . and some of his other songs . . .

I tend to pick and choose as opposed to like everything by one artist. 

Some of Flynn’s songs are — to my ears — repetitive. At least, music-wise. The lyrics are what people listen to but I tend to listen more to the sound of the voice than the actual words so many songs sound too similar for me to differentiate between them. 

I also look for videos that uplift and those are both a combination of the music and the action within the video. This next one is fun to watch (I’m speaking for myself) especially since at the 1:11 mark I recognized the location as South Point on the Big Island.

I also go in search of songs I hear and recognize from 30+ years ago. I had the title to this next song wrong because I always heard “and the reason is” when Elvis actually says “and Marie’s the name“.  

Don’t ask me why; it’s just what I hear . . . and still hear even though I now know the lyrics. Also, don’t give me grief for the dancing girls. I envy people who can shuffle dance (or whatever that’s called).

For balance, here’s a guy dancing . . . 

I can hear it now . . . 

“Pfft! That ain’t dancing! Why, back in my days they could dance proper!”

Well, anyone saying that hasn’t checked out the evolution of dance . . . the music might have changed, but many moves — including elements of shuffle dancing — are carried from the 20s and onward.

Perhaps, anyone complaining about modern dancing should take a page from this guy’s book of life . . .

By the way, that’s not an image I had of China and Chinese people but I can now look for and find Chinese people dancing . . . and the dancing looks familiar. Perhaps, at least when it comes to dancing, we’re not so different from each other.

By the way . . . I think I get the meaning of the song’s lyrics even as I believe the translation is slightly off. 

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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